CH. 14

-Bruce-

"So you made up then."

"Hmm?"

The sky was beginning to cloud over, black wall clouds could be seen in the distance. Bruce's morning had been peaceful, a quiet breakfast with Natasha and then he had gone down to make tea and had chatted with Vision about temperature and how it affects ones mouth when drinking a hot beverage. Wanda had skirted around them, flashing Vision a kind smile and lowering her head when she saw Brue standing next to him. If he had been a betting man he would've taken up Maria's offer to place money on how long it would take them to get together. So far almost the whole team had taken bets, with the shortest time span being Thor's three weeks and the longest being Natasha's guess of eight months.

"You're humming." Tony looked at him accusingly. Bruce shrugged and took another sip of his now lukewarm tea.

"I hum a lot Tony, I can stop if it's bothering you." The papers before him had him chewing on the end of his pen in concentration so it surprised him to look up and find Tony close to his shoulder, a smug grin on his face.

"Yes, but never a Russian lullaby." Bruce chuckled. Tony fancied himself to be some sort of great sleuth, always finding things out about the rest of the team through dubious means. Bruce was fairly certain he had not been humming a Russian lullaby, rather Tony hadn't gotten his breakfast and when FRIDAY told him where Bruce was, on Natasha's floor, he had put two and two together. Before FRIDAY, JARVIS had been the one to tell Tony team whereabouts and he had always seemed to have some sort of discretion because Tony was never in loop as much as he was now. Bruce personally thought he was trying to compensate for being on a team with two of the world's best spies.

"You know that it takes more than asking an AI to check up on people to keep up with the likes of Clint and Nat."

"I know," Tony drank what was left of Bruce's tea and made a face. "You actually drink this stuff?"

"It's called tea, and yes I do."

Tony shuddered and moved back to the middle of the lab where he worked best. The desk that Bruce typically worked he had shoved back into a corner that was largely out of the way of any stray projectiles. He had a burn on his upper arm where that case hadn't happened but there had been some new rules added to the lab agreement since then which kept him slightly more at ease. Luckily the morning in the lab was eventful enough to keep himself distracted from stewing about this date with Natasha like he normally would. There was no way with the stench coming from whatever Tony was up to for anyone to really concentrate on anything.

-Natasha-

The ceiling had exactly 14 and 1/4th tiles. The dark wooden dresser on the wall had four knotholes that she could see. The back of the door had five chips in it from various articles being thrown at it, some had made less satisfactory dents than others. The end must be coming soon because this simply did not happen. Because Natasha Romanoff did not worry about what she was going to wear on a date, and if someone had asked her she would have told them that she wasn't, but, as evidence to the contrary, every article of clothing she owned was lying on the floor around her. In her efforts not to think about it she familiarized herself with the details of her room. Most of the time she saved the routine for after missions but her mind was behaving unnaturally and she wanted to bring is back down to earth, not living in a drama. Looking over her options again, there actually wasn't much. There was a classic little black dress, a couple pairs of dark wash jeans, some nice tops, a few skirts; varying in length, and nothing that she liked. She huffed to herself slightly, mainly frustrated that she was having this problem at all. Hundreds of men had thrown themselves at her feet over the years. Bruce wasn't that different from any of them, she'd been with scientists before, and they weren't all that complicated. Bat a few eyelashes, mention the second law of thermodynamics and they were on her leash. Natasha knew that Bruce was a typical man and wouldn't notice what she was wearing, only the skin that was showing, so for both their sakes she grabbed a navy tunic and paired it with dark jeggings. She laid it on the bed and nodded in approval before moving to pick up the mess she had created. If the night went well she fully intended to have the doctor in her bed again. It had been so long since the last reprieve from her nightmares and waking to find a warm body to settle her racing heart had helped more than she had anticipated.

As she started tossing her shoes back in the closet the sound of her phone vibrating shot a cold tingle down her spine. The phone made an irritating buzzing against the wood of the table, but it wasn't nearly as irritating as what the caller wanted.

"Romanoff," Nick's voice sounded keyed up and that was never a good beginning to their conversations. "Natasha I need you to come in." She left him with silence and studied one of the knotholes beneath the varnish in further detail. Nick sighed, not wanting to play her games. "The committee needs that report now, you can't keep stalling. Rodgers gave his three days ago what's holding you up?"

Giving one more wistful glance at the outfit on the bed and thought for a moment about all that it symbolized. Dates, dinner, small talk, easy living, taking things slow. Resigning herself to the life that she was living she knew that none of that was for her.

"I'll be there in twenty minutes." Folding the clothes gently Natasha placed them back in their drawers shutting them away along with the hope that had started to form in her chest. Swiping her flash-drive off of the counter as she left she shot Bruce a quick text: Got called in, nothing serious. Rain check?

Not expecting him to reply while he was in his science playground with Tony, Nat made her way down to the garage of the tower and not for the first time wishing someone other than Tony picked the elevator music. There were only so many times that one could listen to "I am the Walrus" before going insane. Her bike almost made up for it though. Tony had acquiesced to making it for her and the sleek vehicle fit her personality perfectly. The engine purred like a cat as she rocketed onto the streets. Her helmet had an AI constantly giving her routes to avoid stopping as was her preference.

The day was beautiful, a gorgeous skyline of New York with dark clouds haunting the horizon and the wind was cool against her throat where her leather jacket didn't cover her. When she arrived at the new SHIELD headquarters she made her way down to the administrator's level. She spotted Sharon Carter and dashed over to say good morning.

"How're things?" Sharon smiled as Natasha approached, the two had ended up talking frequently on nights where Steve and Sharon had planned a date but Steve had been called away on a mission, which happened more than Sharon really liked.

Sharon blew her hair back from her forehead, "Steve and I had a lunch date but I had to cut it short because of this stupid data chart I have to finish." Natasha knew the feeling.

"I've got a meeting with Fury, but I'll catch you for coffee sometime soon." Sharon wished her well and was excited about their coffee plans. There weren't a lot of women in their line of work and it was nice to have at least one other to chat with on occasion.

Walking into Nick's office he was bent over the desk typing quickly.

"Take a seat." Natasha took the chair in front of his desk crossing her leg over the other, bouncing her foot as she waited for Fury to finish whatever he was doing. He sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. "Okay Romanoff," she knew that she was being recorded somewhere for referencing, "Rodgers gave me his report but I must say that it wasn't particularly helpful or insightful. You showed slight reluctance when I told you this job and I hope that you have changed your mind. Otherwise things will be difficult in the near future." Fury backed up away from his desk walking around to sit on the edge, providing himself with a dominant posture over her. It was a technique that was part of her training as a child and she was fairly sure that Nick didn't even know when he did it anymore. He continued his voice lowering somewhat "Now tell me Romanoff, what is the status Bruce Banner that you have observed? Your last report stated that you would be continuing the romantic aspect to keep him off guard as you did before he disappeared, is that how you have proceeded."

"Yes I am continuing the romantic line going, he is of the type believe love and trust go hand in hand so I thought it best to keep up pretenses with him. Banner is unaware of my reports. I have most of my observations on this flash-drive." She tossed it to him and he caught it adeptly. "They are saved onto an excel document with data on his daily habits. I have been able to take his pulse under high-pressure situation and his control is coming back, not yet what it was before he left but I believe that his body is still recovering from being so out of control for so long when we found him." Fury nodded in agreement.

"That is what you're to focus on, get him back to where he was, use the lullaby or get something better." Nick was looking through the data she had on his computer. "I want to know what he can handle. Have you tried sex?"

"No." Nat was used to this line of questioning. In the Red Room there were no secrets for the Black Widows. They had never known privacy, and in Natasha's case she had never had a piece of her that hadn't been viewed as someone else's business. There were days where she wondered whether she was a human or a machine, not because of the horrors she had committed but because of the way people assumed that they had the right to know everything about her.

Fury nodded and folded his hands on top of the desk. "Doctor Banner is in danger of being taken and used by hostile forces…"

"And we need to learn to control him before anyone else can." Natasha finished. Fury was in danger of being repetitive to the point of irritation. She had heard this speech many times in the past. This was the speech that inspired her to work on the lullaby, but it was losing its inspirational qualities.

She got up to leave and Nick left her with his last reminder. "Banner can never know what you are doing Natasha. You remember how he reacted when he learned we were tracking him in Calcutta and his reaction to the container designed for him on the heli-carrier."

Natasha smiled over her shoulder at Nick, "He'll think exactly what I want him to think. And right now that is that he is forgiven and on the verge of a romantic relationship with a woman who he considers out of his league. Believe me, the last thing he is thinking about is what I'm using him for."

"And what are you using him for?" Her superiors were always surprised when she had agendas of her own, which got under her skin like nothing else.

Looking down at the floor and twisting her expression into one of slight embarrassment, she replied, the lie coming out smooth as silk, "It's nice to sleep without nightmares and I plan on taking advantage of that."

Nick laughed, "Don't get too used to it, you know how this ends." Natasha took that as her dismissal. Making her way out of the building she checked her phone to see a text from Bruce, No problem, I will see you in the morning for breakfast.

The knife that was perpetually stuck in her heart twisted as she read his words remembering when she told him that he had to cook her breakfast every morning. Just one more cover. Reaching her bike she pulled herself onto it and set the destination. She didn't need to deal with Bruce's questions on why she had returned so early so she headed to the only place where she knew no one would ask her any questions, "Take me to the farm."

-Bruce-

"I think that I should thank you." There was a flurry of papers in the air after the comment informing Bruce that Tony hadn't heard him come back in the lab from getting lunch. It wasn't a terribly uncommon occurrence, the papers, however, were not status quo. Tony preferred to work on screens or with his robot helpers than actually write things down. Bending down he only saw a few lines of equations with protactinium.

"What are you researching gamma radiation for?" Tony snatched the papers from his hands quickly and tossed them on one of the counters. It was then Bruce registered how quiet Tony was. His hair was not in its usual spikey disarray rather lying flat against his skull and his beard had not been shaved into its signature stylings either.

"You were saying thank you. And you're welcome."

"Tony what's going on?" Stark turned to face him slowly.

"FRIDAY show Doctor Banner drive 633." Immediately numbers and equations were thrown onto the screen next to him and as he read he couldn't believe his eyes.

"Tony are you sure?"

He smirked in response. "There's only one way to find out."

Bruce checked his phone to see if Natasha had texted him back but was met with the blank screen. Trying not to think about how much he wanted to talk to her, he threw himself into the work with Tony and prayed to whatever god might be listening, that it would work.

AN- I'd love to know what you think! Where I'm taking this is NOT Marvel compliant! I just had an idea and wanted to go with it. Let me know how you like it!

-Anya

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