So, my lovely readers! First off, you guys are seriously fabulous. I keep all of your reviews and favorites and follows in a special folder in my email, and read them when I am having a bad writer day. Second, I did some serious brainstorming with Teddy'sTwin this weekend, and we've got some great stuff planned for you. Third, enjoy.

Breakfast was a noisy and delicious affair. Everyone was there, except for Peter, scattered on barstools and the counter and the back of the couch in the den. Clint amused them all by throwing napkin paper airplanes at Thor when he wasn't looking. Steph sat with Steve and chatted about someone named Beth. Pepper scolded Tony for his black eye.

Asa cocked her head.

"Here, let me take a look at that."

He stared at her like she was insane and leaned away from her, but Pepper cleared her throat and raised her eyebrows. He glared, but held still while she inspected it.

"It doesn't actually look too bad. Do you have any black tea?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Black tea. Do you have any? Or better yet, tobacco leaves?"

Tony just stared at her. Pepper interjected.

"Here, there's some black tea in this cupboard." She poked into a cabinet, then pulled out a box of Lipton's.

"Great, thanks. Kettle, kettle…"

"Here."

"Thanks." Asa filled the kettle with water and set it to boil. She loved making tea, a leftover addiction from visiting friends in England.

"Ah, what are you doing? You know, with the tea?"

Asa wanted to stick her tongue out at Tony, but she refrained. Instead, she put on her professional voice again.

"Black tea is a wonderful home remedy for bruising." The kettle started whistling, and Asa dropped a few teabags into it. "There. We'll pull them out in a few minutes, and I'll have you hold them to your eye. Do it a couple of times a day, and you'll be all shiny for the wedding."

Tony opened his mouth as if to object, then couldn't think of anything. All that came out was a "Huh."

Tending Tony reminded Asa of her other patient. She scrunched her eyebrows thoughtfully.

"Hey, JARVIS?"

"Yes, Miss Asa?"

"Is Peter up yet?" It was almost nine, she hadn't expected him to sleep this long. Even Stephanie hadn't slept this long.

"No, he is not."

"That's right, that webhead is still in my tower." Pepper and Asa both paused to give Tony the same exasperated look. "Why did we bring him back in the first place?"

Clint spoke up from the back of the couch.

"He has intell on the jet pack criminal." Asa wondered how he knew that, then remembered that Natasha, at least, would be privy to all of that kind of information.

"Speaking of which, Stark, the guy woke up yesterday." Her calm couldn't be questioned, but she still somehow managed to sound like she was goading Tony. "They've determined he's coherent enough for questioning."

"Sweet. I know what I'm doing today." Tony was on his feet before Natasha shook her head.

"The police also said that there would be no interference from Stark in this case." Asa had serious doubts about the ability of the police to stop SHIELD from getting anything they wanted. Odds were, by the end of the day, Natasha would know just as much as the police did. More, probably. But she didn't seem in a mood to tell Tony that.

"Na- no interference from St- he attacked my tower," Tony blustered. Pepper was tapping away quickly at some kind of pad, splitting her attention between that and watching Tony warily. Damage control, no doubt.

"And you're not on the police force, thus not permitted to interrogate in this case."

Tony kept blustering, no one paid him any attention. "That's ridiculous! Aren't I allowed to choose how I want to press charges or whatever? And why wasn't I informed of this earlier?"

Natasha shrugged.

"You were fighting Parker."

"Not all day-"

Here Pepper spoke up, diverting him easily.

"You were recharging your batteries last night, remember?"

Tony paused for a second. "Right. Sleep." Another pause. "Weird."

Pepper looked at him thoughtfully. "I think that was actually the first time you slept a full eight hours. Ever."

Tony waved his hand dismissively. "Waste of time."

Asa started gathering up dishes, and Clint helped by distracting Steve so that she could wash them herself. There was a brief scuffle when Steve realized what was going on, since he had strong feelings against anyone cleaning up but himself, but they finally compromised. He washed, Asa dried. He turned off the water and turned to face the room.

"I say we call a meeting to order."

If Asa expected them to all gather around the imposing conference table, she was disappointed. At best, Clint sat up a little straighter on the counter, and Pepper set her pad out in front of her, expectantly. Asa, with some difficulty, hoisted herself up to sit next to Clint.

"A meeting?" Tony said it like he'd never been to a meeting in his life, and he didn't intend to start now. Steve ignored it.

"We need to decide whether or not we trust Parker enough to include him in this investigation."

Stephanie spoke up from the other side of the island. "Aren't you guys going to make him a part of the Avengers?"

Tony, who'd been leaning against the fridge, straightened so fast he nearly fell over.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. A team member? Are you-"

"An excellent idea!" Thor interrupted. "He is a valiant figher!"

"We don't even know him," Natasha pointed out.

"He's a man of courage! He stood up to three of us without hesitation. I do not know many who would attempt such a feat. I approve of him." Thor glared around the room, defying anyone to disagree with his judgment. Pepper moved to say something calming, but Steve beat her too it. She blinked in surprise, then smiled gratefully.

"So I think we have Thor's vote."

Natasha, in the same reasonable voice, said, "Thor wouldn't have to deal with him. He doesn't even live on this planet." Asa wondered if she was really trying to work out the best course of action, or if it just amused her to watch the world burn. Steve shook his head.

"He's still a part of the team. We've got one vote for."

"For? For what? I don't think we've established what for is." It was arguments like this that made Tony look plain old petty, but Steve answered him with the same patience he'd displayed thus far.

"For Parker joining the team."

"This can't seriously be in question, can it?"

Steve turned to Tasha. "Agent Romanoff, what do you think of it?"

Tasha shrugged, arms folded under her chest. "I don't think we can trust him. He was the reason you all tore down half of New York. Again." Asa caught her surprise mirrored in Steph's face. How often did this particular group of people tear down half of New York?

Tony, of course, couldn't resist an opportunity to disagree. "I thought we established that was Angel Face's fault."

"Who is this Angel Face? I've heard them spoken of before." Asa was glad that Thor had decided to be that kid in class who asked the question everyone else was wondering. Before he got an answer, Tasha interrupted.

"Spiderman was the one who initiated the fight."

"Wait, what?" What on God's good Earth did Spiderman have to do with anything? As far as Asa knew, he'd disappeared a few years earlier, around the time that Tony became Ironman. "Why are we talking about Spiderman?"

"Didn't you read her in? Why has nobody explained this to her yet?"

Asa considered pointing out that he hadn't exactly explained it to her either, but she didn't want the conversation to get sidetracked away from her question. Stephanie took pity on her.

"Peter Parker is Spiderman."

"Oh." Oh. Peter Parker? As in, hazel eyes, long-limbed, couldn't-remember-his-own-name Peter Parker? "Good to know."

"Moving on. One for, one against. Agent Barton?"

"He's a straight shot." Tony started to make a disgusted face, but Clint wasn't finished. "But we don't know him well enough yet."

"So- I'm going to say you're on the fence?" Steve waited for Clint to nod before he moved on. "Dr. Banner?"

Bruce pulled off his glasses and squeezed his eyes shut. "He seems intelligent." The glasses went back on. "He was able to sneak around Stark Tower without immediate detection, and developed his own webbing." Bruce cocked his head, then corrected, "Per say."

"I'm counting that as a 'for'. Two for, one against-"

It was finally Tony's turn. "Two against!"

Steve nodded. "Two against, and one on the fence. Steph?"

Tony looked panicky, like his computer was dying and someone had stolen his charger. "Since when are we including the peanut gallery?"

"I think you know my vote," Steph offered.

"Three for, then. Dr. Liretto?"

Her? "Um, does my vote count?" She hadn't realized, when Stephanie was included, that she would be, too. But if she was going to be around for a while, and she got a vote… "Sure, yeah. I'm for it."

"Four for. Pepper?"

"Okay, hold up." Asa recognized Tony's last-ditch attempt to get his way. "We can't be serious."

"Why can we not?" Thor seemed genuinely confused, and Asa couldn't blame him. She was trying to figure out what made Tony so difficult, too.

"Because, in case you forgot, he basically destroyed lower Manhattan yesterday."

Bruce cleared his throat. "I think I should take the blame for that really."

Tony didn't even look at him. "None of your pity party right now. It was his fault and we all know it."

Pepper waited for Tony to pause for breath, then interrupted smoothly, "I like him."

"What?" This seemed to shock Tony more than anything else up to this point.

"He's polite, and he's sharp. You could use some manners on this team." Asa had to bite her lip to keep from laughing.

"That makes five votes for." And only two against. Tony was grasping at straws now.

"You've got to be kidding! This kid swings around like Tarzan for-"

"Before you totally blow your top , Stark, and since this all wasn't a unanimous agreement, I think we should put Parker on a probationary period." They all stopped to consider this. "That way we can get to know him before we trust our lives to him."

"I second that." Asa shot Clint a grateful glance.

"Alright." Tasha leaned back against the counter.

"It's an agreement, then." Thor seemed delighted.

"Wait, wait, wait."

Steve shook his head. "Stark, this is fair."

"How is this fair? He's a freaking teenager."

Asa thought that he looked rather older than a teenager, but held her tongue. Thankfully, Stephanie spoke for her.

"He's twenty-two."

"Explain to me again why you're defending him?"

Stephanie shrugged. "I just think he's a good kid."

Tony narrowed his eyes at her, shaking his head in disbelief. "Didn't he punch you in the face?"

Bruce looked up quickly. "Wha- what happened?" Asa was no less surprised, though she probably shouldn't have been. He just didn't seem the kind of guy to go around throwing punches.

Stephanie shook her head pleadingly. "He didn't mean to-"

"How he could he not mean to?" Asa had to admit that Tony had a point. How do you accidentally punch someone in the face? Pepper cut the argument off with slightly less than her usual tact.

"On a side note, I would like to invite you all to our wedding this weekend."

Tony jerked around. "What? You- to my wedding-"

"Our wedding." She leaned in closer to him, and added quietly. "It was the only way to get you to stop arguing."

"I would be delighted to come."

"Thank you, Thor."

"You're really inviting Goldilocks?" Tony was possibly the only person Asa knew who regularly went around abusing his guests. Goldilocks, seriously?

"And bring Jane. I'm sorry she couldn't stay yesterday."

"Thank you, Pepper. That is very kind of you."

"Excellent." She addressed the entire group. "Also, for the time being, could we try and avoid confrontation?"

"Confrontation?"

"No fighting, or investigating. Or at least, if you do, please don't include Tony. I would rather he be in one piece for the wedding photos."

"That's alright, Pepper." Bruce cut Tony off. "We've got a serum to work on."

"Oh, that's right."

JARVIS interrupted. "Miss Asa, Mr. Parker has-"

"I'm on my way." Asa was off like a shot. She didn't care for arguing at the best of times. She tripped up the stairs, then after a quick stop at her room to pick up her medkit, headed down to Peter's room.

Asa straightened her blouse subconsciously before she opened the door. The room was smaller than her own, more like Stephanie's. Peter was already up, sitting on the edge of the bed. He seemed to be trying to stand. She tsked, and was at his side in a second. She placed a firm hand on his shoulder.

"What did I tell you?"

He grinned lopsidedly up at her.

"Honestly? I don't really remember."

She was caught between amusement and offense. She decided to go with amusement, at least for the moment.

"I told you that you needed to stay off of that leg. Sit back. I need to look at that."

He obediently scooted back on the bed and laid his leg out straight. She was glad of the loose plaid pajamas he wore, as they were easy to push back. She did so, and unwrapped bandage she'd used yesterday. The knee looked much better today. So much better, in fact, that she was forced to remember that he was a superhero. The swelling was almost completely gone, and the bruising had mostly faded to a lovely yellow-red.

"Bend that for me." He did so, and she was shortly satisfied that he hadn't sustained any serious injury. "Great. Does the bandage help?" The question caught him off guard, and he shrugged and 'um'ed. She bit the side of her lip to hide her smile.

"Guess not. We'll leave it off for today, then, shall we?" He grinned sheepishly. "Now, let's take a look at those stitches."

The cuts were healing well, too. In the normal course of things, she would've still left them in another day, based on the current healing rate, but… they felt like they should come out. She chewed on her lower lip. Even with how fast the skin was closing, logic told her they shouldn't come out at least for another day.

"I'm going to clean these; they can come out tomorrow."

He blinked in surprise. "Seriously?"

She nodded, digging in her bag. "Seriously. You heal fast. Unbelievably fast," she said pointedly. He "huh"-ed noncommittally. She sighed; she felt like a secret super-hero identity was something that he should have the chance to admit to before she brought it up.

She packed up her bag briskly.

"You're all set. That knee might ache a bit. No running, jumping, climbing things, you know, the works." She trailed off, wondering if she'd been too obvious. He rolled his pajamas down and stood carefully, and she decided he hadn't noticed anything.

"Let me know." Just to make sure that macho pride didn't prevent him from actually saying anything, she continued, "Pain could be a sign that something else is wrong. If the tendons have been strained at all, we can use a little KT tape to help. Alright?"

Peter nodded reluctantly. "Yeah, okay."

She clicked her bag shut, and turned halfway to go, then hesitated. "Hey, you, uh… you never did tell me what happened yesterday."

He refused to meet her eyes and shrugged eloquently. "Got on the wrong side of the jolly green giant. He, uh, argues. Persuasively."

Asa snorted sarcastically. "Yeah. You got in a fight with him, I'm impressed that you're still alive." She watched him as subtly as possible. He shrugged again, then grinned up at her ruefully.

"Just lucky, I guess."

She swallowed down the nasty rising in her throat. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess so." She hoisted her bag over her shoulder and closed the door gently on the way out.

That afternoon, Fury sent someone to collect her for a meeting. Clint offered to come with her, but one look at Natasha's impassive face, and Asa refused. Besides, Clint was still supposed to be resting. So another cab & jet ride later, she was sitting in what she could only assume was Fury's office.

"So you see what we're dealing with." Fury watched her over steepled fingers.

Asa shrugged noncommittally. "They're a handful, sure."

"But not more than you can handle."

Asa opened her mouth, then shut it and shook her head reluctantly. "No. Not more than I can handle. Really, you just have to know how to talk to them."

Fury raised his good eyebrow, and Asa bit her lip, then admitted, "And I guess it helps if you're tiny and pretty." She would've sworn he almost smiled.

"Hm. So you'll take the job."

Asa bit her lip again. "Actually, I have a few questions first."

"I'll see what I can do." He remained totally deadpan, but she decided to take it as an invitation.

"Well, for one thing, what about my dad? Does he even know I'm alive?"

Fury answered without hesitation. "That wouldn't be a good idea. We still don't know what Liretto wanted, or how you were involved." Asa clenched her jaw against the bile rising in her stomach, then glanced down at her sweaty hands and took a deep breath.

"I think he should at least know I'm alive. You know, before he sees me patching up the Avengers on TV or something."

She glanced up at Fury, who was staring at her without blinking. There was a long, tense moment, then Fury finally nodded.

"Very well. You understand that you can't see him, or talk to him."

Asa let out the breath she'd been holding. "Yeah, yeah I get it."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, um…" Asa closed her eyes and ticked off her fingers, trying to remember everything she'd wanted to ask. "You do realize I'm not actually a fully qualified doctor yet, right? I never got to finish my internship, never mind my residency. So technically, I shouldn't be anyone's doctor."

Fury nodded again. "I've discussed it with Dr. Jones. S.H.I.E.L.D. can smooth things over with your old residency, and you can finish up under his instruction at the hospital here. Attending to the Avengers should be plenty of experience for a residency, and we can provide the appropriate approvals and paperwork." Asa thought it over. She only had three months of internship left, and Fury was right; she'd get plenty of experience with this bunch, and she'd been considering going into emergency care anyway. She nodded.

"You will also require field training."

"Wait, what?" Asa sat up ramrod straight. She was pretty sure field training translated to fighting.

"You are part of the most volatile team that this agency has ever known. You're going to need to be able to protect yourself."

"I really don't know if that's a good idea."

"It's not negotiable. Agent Romanoff will begin your training tomorrow."

Asa hesitated, then scowled in acquiescence. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to be able to take care of herself.

"Fine. So…" she hesitated, feeling awkward about her next question, then finally spat out, "how does pay work? I mean, I can't even afford to live on my own right now, never mind health insurance and stuff."

Fury pulled a folder out of his desk and thumped it down in front of her. "It's all right here. Suffice it to say, S.H.I.E.l.D. takes care of its agents. And I need all of the forms at the back completed and returned to Natasha by tomorrow. We'll be in touch about a uniform."

"Oh." Asa stared at the folder. It was thick, one of the flat-bottomed kinds. But a uniform sounded kind of promising. As long as it didn't look like Natasha's. "Okay."

Fury stood up, and Asa jumped to her feet, tripping and catching herself on the desk. Fury ignored her wobble and held out his hand. She shook it timidly.

"Welcome to S.H.I.E.L.D., Dr. Liretto."

So! What do you think? Leave me a review and let me know!