Author's Note: The Avengers are owned by Marvel and Martha Jones and Mickey Smith belong to BBC.
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The next morning, Bruce got up before Tony. Since he had groceries in his apartment, he made breakfast in his apartment instead of the employee lounge. With the tea still in the lounge, Bruce took his New York City water bagel to the lounge and started his water for tea. Martha was already drinking tea and reading the news.
"How was your night?" asked Bruce. "Are you getting used to New York time?"
"I suppose," said Martha. "I slept in until 6 o'clock this morning."
Bruce looked at the clock on the microwave. "7:15. I thought it was later."
"Should we let Betty sleep?"
"I made Tony dinner and he proposed," said Bruce.
"Tom proposed after only knowing me a few days," said Martha. "Big mistake."
"You're engaged, again," said Bruce.
"I can't help myself. Mickey understands things Tom couldn't comprehend. It's a better fit. The universe is crazy and we all need someone."
"Do you love him?"
"It was love at first sight," said Martha. "Mickey isn't interested in dead aliens. It's the live ones that bother him."
"I don't know if Tony was being serious," Bruce said, making his tea. "I told him I have a bad temper. Me having a bad temper is like Katrina being a little rain."
"If he is serious, will you say yes?" asked Martha.
Bruce smiled. "I told the SHEILD agent that recruited me that I don't always get what I want. Some of the things I didn't get were friends that last longer than a few months and I don't get the house with the picket fence. I won't be getting a picket fence with Tony, but marriage wasn't in my list of possibilities."
"It's nice to be invited to the party." Martha sipped her tea and looked away from her monitor. "But do you want to go to the party with him?"
"This said from a woman engaged to two different men the same year?"
"Then I know of what I speak."
Bruce ate another bite of his bagel and sipped some tea while he thought about it. "Tony loves me. He gushed all over me when we meet. It was love at first sight for him. According to Thor and Captain American, the Hulk leaped off several buildings to catch Tony. And I had a panic attack at the thought of hurting him, if that isn't love, what is?"
Martha smiled. "You have it bad."
"Don't I know it." Bruce ate the rest of his bagel. "And you changed the screen to the news, but you were Skyping Mickey."
"I'm that apparent?"
"No one is that interested in the news." Bruce smiled then drank some more tea. "Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me. After the ATMOS situation, are you OK with Jarvis controlling the tower?"
"It gives me the willies, especially when I'm in my flat alone," said Martha. "Mickey is the computer expert, but he's across the Pond. I suppose as long as Jarvis doesn't tell me this is my final destination, I can handle it."
"The tower sits on the Earth that is going in an ellipsis around the sun and the solar system moves in the spiral arm of the Milky Way, so we are always moving," said Jarvis. "We will eventually collide with Andromeda, but that is billions of years away."
"Thank you, Jarvis," said Martha.
"We could also get sucked into the black hole in the center of the galaxy, but that is also billions of years away. The sun will nova engulfing Mercury, Venus and Earth long before then," explained Jarvis.
"Thank you, Jarvis." Martha went back to her Skyping. "I have to thank Tony for programming you so well."
"Betty has a lot of cells to examine this morning," said Bruce. "I made the slides she requested."
"We still need to learn the actual cause of death," said Martha. "And we need to keep one body intact, so we can try to reanimate it. Our work is far from over."
"I'm going to buy the fish I promised Betty," said Bruce.
"Hurry back," said Martha.
xxxx
After he put the fish in the refrigerator, Bruce joined Betty and Martha in the lab. While Betty looked at the prepared slides, Martha had Bruce help her autopsy a Chitauri. While he was sawing into the Chitauri chest, he asked Jarvis to play one of Tony's heavy metal albums and remembered all the reasons he didn't go into pathology.
What bothered him wasn't how different the Chitauri were from human; it was how similar they were. His Hippocratic oath told him to do no harm. Yet, they were here looking for ways to kill other sentient beings. Bruce supposed, if they had willingly been sent to Earth to kill them, his conscience wouldn't be bothering him so much. But they had been under mind-control like Clint and Erik. The puppet-master(s) on the ship had been responsible.
Cause of death was straight forward enough, organ failure. Heart attack. Their hearts stopped beating the same time their other organs failed. While Martha was writing her notes and, probably, chatting with Mickey on the side, she told Bruce he could go to lunch.
While grilling the salmon and streaming mixed vegetables, Bruce said, "Jarvis, ask Tony to join me in the lounge."
"Mr. Stark is away on business," said the AI.
"Ironman or Stark Industries business?" asked Bruce.
"Ironman," said the AI.
"Thank you." Bruce would save Tony's portion of lunch for later. "Tell Tony I love him."
A moment later, Jarvis said, "He said he loves you, too."
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Author's Note: I promise more sex when Tony gets home. I'm used to writing the bedroom door closed then it opened as sex scenes, so bear with me. I also want to stay within the Mature rating and not have anything triple X. I promise short awkward sex scenes. Hopefully, the awkwardness will be due the characters interacting and not due to the author being clumsy. I apologize in advance.