A/N: Managed to get this chapter done. They're getting longer but I'm trying to get us to the big showdown in a timely fashion. Well, my version of a timely fashion anyway. LOL

Thanks for reading as always...

Chapter Forty-Nine

Bruce took a sip of his coffee and stared sightlessly out at the cityscape of New York below him. His mind was occupied by the nano-technology he and Tony had been unravelling. During one of his experiments on the mantis' metal that morning, Bruce had made a surprising discovery. The nano-technology impregnated in the metal could be applied to organic matter. He'd been running some experiments with electricity to see if he could separate the nano-bots from the metal at will. During the experiment he'd placed a half-eaten apple by the area he'd been working and gone to retrieve some of his notes. When Bruce had come back, it was to discover the apple had been completely reformed, there wasn't a trace of the bite mark to be seen.

Bruce had immediately seen the possibilities of this technology for his predicament. These nano-bots could restore organic matter and that could include his gamma radiation ravaged cells. He might well be looking at the long sort after cure for his condition and Bruce couldn't stop thinking about it. There would be a lot of work to be done of course, to better understand the technology and then figure out how to implement it properly but for the first time in a long time, Bruce had a glimmer of hope that he might at long last have a way free of the other guy. He closed his eyes and imagined what it'd be like not to have perpetual fear hanging over him, of a life that wasn't tied up in hiding a part of himself from the world. It was almost too painful to think about because if it didn't happen, then it was going to be soul-destroying.

"Well, Pepper still hasn't told me."

Tony's complaining voice came from behind him and Bruce turned around in time to see Tony throw himself down on the sofa and pout. Bruce turned to face him. "You mean about the baby?"

"Yes," said Tony unhappily.

"Assuming she only found out yesterday as well, maybe Pepper needs some time to process all of this," Bruce reasoned. He delivered a pointed look at Tony. "I'd think you'd be able to understand that."

"Yes, but she doesn't look like she's processing anything," Tony argued. "Pepper is behaving as though nothing is wrong."

"You're having a baby, Tony, there is nothing wrong."

"You know what I mean," he grumbled.

Bruce's lips tightened in mild frustration. "You know, a lot of guys would be really happy to find out that the woman they are madly in love with was pregnant with their child."

"It's not that simple," said Tony tersely.

"It is if you want it to be."

"Pepper and I, our situation is complicated," said Tony morosely. "What with the whole Iron Man thing and the Avengers and-"

"This isn't about Iron Man, the Avengers or even you and Pepper, this is just about you," interrupted Bruce. "You're frightened."

"Why wouldn't I be?" argued Tony. "What do I know about being a father?"

"What does anyone know about being a father the first time?" shot back Bruce. "It's just something you have to do your best at."

"And what if my best isn't good enough?" asked a frustrated Tony. "I mean, look at my dad, I guess he loved me but he wasn't a great father. What if I turn out just like him and my kid ends up not even being sure I love them?"

"You know what your father did with you, right?"

"Yes."

"Then just do the opposite," Bruce reasoned.

"It's not that simple," complained Tony.

"You're a genius, Tony. Look at the Iron Man suit, all the things you've designed and created, the arc reactor, hell, you even created a new element, you're brilliant. You can look at a problem and find solutions, solutions people have never even thought about. You are going to be able to work out how to be a good father."

"And if I don't?" obsessed Tony. "I'm great with science and maths and all of that kind of thing because they have absolutes and rules but this whole parenting thing, it just seems like a free for all to me. I don't know what the hell I'm doing."

"I'm kind of betting you didn't know what the hell you were doing when you put on that Iron Man suit for the first time, but that ended up okay."

Tony grimaced. "Yeah, but in the meantime I destroyed four very expensively restored cars and put an unplanned sun roof in three levels of my house. That didn't matter because they were all inanimate objects, just things that could be replaced. A baby is a whole other story."

"Do you think there is a high risk factor of you putting a sun roof in your first-born child?" asked Bruce wryly.

"I don't know!" exclaimed Tony. "That's the problem."

Bruce shook his head. "Look, don't ask me to feel sorry for you, Tony. You pretty much have it all."

Tony sighed. "I just want Pepper to tell me about the baby so we can start dealing with this problem together." Bruce gave him a disapproving look and Tony quickly changed his wording. "I mean blessing, so we can start dealing with this blessing together."

"You're taking being self-absorbed to new heights, Tony," Bruce warned him. "You might want to consider how Pepper is feeling in all of this. You don't think she's worried about her life changing as well and that she is now going to be dealing with two children."

Tony scowled. "I'm less work then an actual baby."

"You can't really believe that."

Tony shrugged. "Alright, maybe I'm not but that's just another good reason why having a baby is crazy."

"And yet here you are, crazy or not, it's happening."

Tony sunk down lower in his seat, chin on his chest. "Pepper is going to hate me out of all this, I just know it."

"If she hasn't hated you over being drawn on, blown up or the other 3458 annoying, thoughtless things you do on a daily basis, then I don't think this is going to send her screaming over the edge."

"You don't know that," said Tony fiercely. "This baby could be the end of us."

"The urge to punch you in the face is getting very strong right about now, Stark," said Bruce darkly, annoyed at Tony's selfish behaviour. "You may want to consider your next words carefully."

Tony rubbed his face and looked contrite. "Okay, I know, I know, I sound like a selfish prick and this isn't all about me but don't you see, that's the problem."

"Oh, I see," said an unimpressed Bruce.

"No," said Tony earnestly, "I mean I lay awake at nights wondering if I'm the worst thing that has even happened to Pepper because her being with me could end up getting her killed. But I can't give her up because she's the best thing that has ever happened to me. Now suddenly there is a baby in the mix and I've got two people to love and protect and I'm just so scared that if I get either wrong, I'm going to lose everything."

Bruce knew he was seeing a rare insight into the man under the mask and felt Tony's pain. "Loving people is about taking a risk, just like they take a risk on you. The ride can be scary and unpredictable but when the alternative is sitting on the side lines and watching life go by, I know which one I'd choose."

Tony gave him a considered look. "Is that how you really feel?"

"It is."

"Okay, then, if that's true, why are you in such a hurry to get rid of the other guy?"

Bruce tensed. "That's different."

"Is it? How?"

"I didn't choose the Hulk."

"I didn't choose being a father all of a sudden, but you're the one telling me to embrace it and go on the wild ride."

Bruce glared at Tony, not liking having the table turned on him but fortunately his cell phone rang before he had to formulate a reply. He glanced at the caller ID before answering. "Hi, Thor, how was your flight?"

"How much did he break on my plane?" Tony called out.

"Hardly anything," Bruce relayed.

Tony rolled his eyes. "I guess I'll take it."

"How's it going with Jane?" Bruce paused as Thor started talking rapidly. "What do you mean you haven't seen her yet? You would have landed hours ago." Thor spoke again. "I don't know, just walk up to her and say hello, that's a good place to start." Bruce glanced at his watch. "It must be night time over there now, what are you waiting for?" Bruce sighed and rubbed his forehead as Thor told him of his plans. "Yes, okay, so she's gone home for the day, I get that but you need to get this first meeting over and done with." Bruce blanched as Thor continued talking. "Okay, no, just no. I know you think climbing through her window in the middle of the night is a romantic gesture but a 6'4 guy crawling through a woman's window in the dead of night isn't so much romantic as terrifying... and illegal."

Tony was listening in on the one-sided conversation with interest. "Looks like we released the demi-god back into the wild a little too soon."

"Just go and talk to the woman," Bruce pleaded with him. "Knock on her door and say hello, the rest will come to you and whatever happens, happens." Bruce nodded as Thor thanked him for his wise counsel. "You're welcome, just don't get arrested, the Avengers don't need the bad press right now." He hung up and made an exasperated noise. "Exactly what about me says 'Agony Aunt' all of a sudden?"

Tony looked him over carefully. "I'm going to say your sideburns." He nodded. "Yup, it's definitely your sideburns, they've got Agony Aunt written all over them."

"Everyone remembers we have some more pressing problem right now, don't they?" asked Bruce a little impatiently. "No one seems to be concentrating on this Hammer problem. Steve keeps wandering off without telling anyone where he's going and so do Natasha and Clint. Thor is stalking a woman and you're having a nervous breakdown over a baby that you technically don't even know about yet. Meanwhile we're facing something really serious with Hammer."

"You think I don't know that?" asked Tony indignantly. "I was the one who wanted to just go and kick the guy's ass, but no, we all had to be good little boys and girls and wait for Uncle Fury to give us the green light."

"That doesn't mean we have to waste our time," countered Bruce. "I've been working on the nano-technology."

"So have I."

"I know, but have you discovered this?" asked Bruce triumphantly, picking up the apple.

Tony scratched at his cheek with one finger. "I hate to tell you this, B, but that's an apple and you're not the first person to discover it."

Bruce rolled his eyes. "I know what it is but look at it." He threw the apple at Tony who caught it neatly.

Tony looked at the apple. "It's still an apple," he surmised.

"I took a bite out of it earlier and then left it near the infected metal. The nan-bots transferred themselves to the apple and now look at it," said Bruce excitedly.

Tony examined the apple more carefully and then looked at him over the top of it. "Don't even think about it," said Tony without hesitation.

Bruce sent him a challenging look. "You don't know what I'm thinking."

"You're thinking that these nano-bots can repair your gamma radiated DNA strings because they repaired the apple."

Bruce's chin came up. "So, what if I am?"

Tony made a frustrated noise and held up the apple, pointing to a blemish. "Have you looked at this thing closely, B?"

Bruce frowned and put his glasses on and stepped closer to see what Tony was pointing to. There were two blemishes on the apple, side by side, one almost perfectly round and the other was larger and looked like the apple had been knocked against something straight on being packed as it almost had a perfectly straight line formation. "So?"

"This is where you took the bite out of the apple, isn't it?"

"I don't know," said Bruce in annoyance, "you can't tell now, that's the point. The nano-bots have repaired the apple."

"No," Tony corrected him seriously, "they haven't repaired, they've replicated it, from the information they already had gathered from the apple." He turned the apple around 180 degrees and showed Bruce the exact same, unique looking blemishes on the other side of the apple. "They've reproduced the imperfection because they didn't know any different." Tony's face was troubled. "You inject those things into yourself and we don't know what the hell they are going to decipher as to what should be there and what shouldn't. You realise that you're facing a very real possibility of Bruce Banner being destroyed completely and you being the Hulk all the time, right? Tell me that's occurred to you, B?"

It wasn't often Tony Stark was this serious but Bruce wasn't to be so easily put off. "Obviously there would have to be some fine tuning done with the nano-bots. If we found a delivery system that could specifically target a section of my DNA that was healthy and we wanted replicated-"

Tony stood up and square off against him. "Then you could find yourself with nano-bots replicating your DNA so you end up with twenty arms or you could just end up being one giant ass if we don't get the section of DNA just right." Tony clutched his arm. "Think about that, B, you could end up being Steve," he finished off dramatically.

"Seriously," said Steve as he stepped into the room, "you're insulting me when I'm not even in the room now?"

"Well, obviously it's more fun when you're here, but I don't like limiting myself," said Tony distractedly. "Do you mind, I'm in the middle of stopping Bruce from doing something crazy."

Steve's eyebrow arched. "How did you get that job?"

"I realise it's not my usual role in the team, but I was the only one here. Bruce wants to start experimenting on himself."

Steve looked sceptical. "Isn't that how the other guy ended up being created?"

"No," said Bruce defensively, "it was a lab accident and this is different. This nano-technology is amazing and the applications are almost limitless. There could be a cure in this technology for the Hulk."

"The Hulk isn't a disease," pointed out Tony.

"From where I'm standing he is," said Bruce sharply.

"I don't know, Bruce," said Steve hesitantly. "You know I'd never willingly side with Tony on anything-"

"What we have is special to me too, Grandpa," interjected Tony.

Steve continued on as if he hadn't spoken. "-But if these nano-bit things are making him nervous, I've got to say, that doesn't make me feel good. This is a guy who has no qualms about making roofied strawberries and feeding them to us. If Tony isn't on board with running with this, it's got to be pretty dangerous."

Bruce moved his shoulders restlessly. "I wasn't asking for a vote on this. This is my life."

"And we're in that life," threw back Tony. "We get a vote."

"That isn't how it works."

"That's how Pepper tells me it works, so if you've got a real argument against it, I'd love to hear it so I can use it on her next time," demanded Tony.

"I'm not talking about this anymore," said Bruce tersely.

"Not your most compelling argument," noted Tony. "Pepper is never going to buy that."

Steve obviously saw there was going to be no easy fix to this conversation, so he changed the subject. "Has Thor left yet?"

"Yes, he's already in Norway," replied Bruce, still thinking about the nano-technology.

Tony nodded. "He's currently lurking in Jane Foster's bushes as we speak."

Steve frowned. "Um, okay, whatever. I was wondering if we could call a meeting with the rest of the Avengers in about an hour?"

"Natasha and Clint are still out but I'm guessing they'll be back soon. What's this all about?" asked Bruce.

"I want you all to meet someone," said Steve. "Someone I've been seeing."

Tony sent him a curious look. "Are we going to be introduced to Olivia properly?"

"It's not Olivia," said Steve regretfully. "Her name is Maggie, Maggie Riley."

"You've met another woman?" asked Tony in disbelief. "Wow, way to go from zero to sixty in under three seconds, Captain Freeze." He paused. "Wait, is this Maggie in the room now? Can you see her?"

Steve cast Tony a displeased look. "Of course she isn't," he snapped. "Maggie is very real and she wants to meet the rest of the Avengers."

"And you're sure Maggie is a woman, right?" Tony quizzed him. "Because you've had a chequered history with making that call in the past, if you'll remember."

"Maggie is real and a woman and she's going to be here in an hour to speak to you all," said Steve flatly.

Bruce and Tony looked at each and then back at Steve.

"Okay," confessed Tony, "colour me intrigued."

oooOOOOooo

"And that's how I see my being able to help the Avengers and put them back on top," finished off Maggie as she presented her sales pitch to the team as they sat around the conference table while she stood at the head.

There was a brief silence and then Tony spoke. "Ms. Riley, that was a really well thought out presentation and you delivered it well, but I've got to say, the Avengers aren't looking for good PR right now."

"Everyone is looking for good PR, Mr. Stark," she returned smoothly. "That's how things get done."

"Even so," said Bruce, joining in, "there is a lot more going on than a simple popularity competition between the Avengers and the Defenders."

"This isn't about popularity, this is about tipping the balance of power in the Avenger's favour," she countered. "You all know that public perception is important and can have a big impact on how you're able to perform your jobs."

Clint shook his head. "I think what Bruce is trying to say with a lot more going on is that being around us is dangerous right now. I, for one, wouldn't be comfortable with involving civilians with this whole thing."

"Civilians?" repeated Maggie in surprise. "Are you seeing yourself as being in a war?"

"Hawkeye just means that we're trained to be in these kinds of situations and can handle ourselves," inserted Steve.

During all of the back and forth Natasha was silent, not taking her eyes off Maggie. As soon as the woman had walked into the room she recognised that Maggie was a dead ringer for Peggy Carter. Natasha had read all the files on all of the Avengers, she knew what Peggy looked like and she also knew Steve's feelings for her. What were the odds that a woman who looked exactly like a former paramour of Captain America walking into his life at such a crucial time and that it was just a coincidence? In Natasha's mind they weren't high. The whole thing didn't sit right with her.

Maggie was being graceful in defeat as the Avengers let her down gently. "Well," she sighed, "I'm really sorry to hear you all feel this way, but I do understand. If you reconsider down the line, then please give me a call." She smiled at Steve. "Captain Rogers knows how to get in contact with me."

Natasha kept her expression neutral as she watched Steve smile back at her. Maggie then said her goodbyes to the team which they returned and Steve walked her out.

Tony pursed his lips and gave his assessment of the woman. "I think I liked Olivia better, she wasn't trying to sell us anything and I enjoyed watching her trying to kill Steve."

Clint chuckled. "Was it really that bad when Olivia and Steve first met?" He and Natasha had both heard the stories.

"I've been to less brutal executions," affirmed Bruce. "But to his credit, Steve took it in his stride."

"He actually took it in his kneecaps," said Tony in amusement. "I laughed so hard I may have tinkled a little."

Clint sent Natasha an interested look. "What did you make of her, Nat?"

Natasha chose her words very carefully. "I found Maggie to be very... polished."

The team seemed to accept her assessment at face value and Natasha left it at that. An hour later though, Natasha had made her way back to the SHIELD Helicarrier, heading directly to the research room.

Agent Coulson looked up from his screen when she walked in. "Hello, Agent Romanoff," he greeted her. "Is there a problem?"

Natasha walked straight to one of the consoles and started typing in Maggie Riley's details. "I don't know," she said, starting to troll the data bases for any more information on Steve's new girlfriend, "but I'm going to find out."