Next morning Gabby woke up with pains in her shins. She just realized she didn't take any time to take the glass out and bandage up her legs. She sighed and grabbed some tweezers off her dresser keeping her pain as silent as possible as she dug the glass out. Finally she was able to get all the glass out and she didn't have a bandage, but wrapped a light scarf around her legs to hide the bleeding. Eventually she got dressed in black leggings that were a size two small, a faded red tee shirt, and tennis shoes that she squeezed her feet inside of; threw her hair into a ponytail, grabbed her bag and left to meet Natasha.
"Long time no see!" Gabby joked when she saw Nat's firey hair come up to her as Natasha gave a small smile.
"We've got something to do before we head out to the compound if that's okay with you?" Natasha asked her.
"Sure!" Gabby responded brightly just glad to not be home or in some bait shop, "Lead the way."
Natasha led Gabby to a small hair salon. Gabby's brow furrowed as she stared at Natasha waiting for an answer to her I asked question.
"You look overdue," Natasha responded as Gabby blushed slightly at the comment. She's been cutting her own hair for a while now, but she didn't think it looked that bad. Nat saw the blush and was quick to comment, "I also needed a haircut, and taking you seemed like the perfect excuse to get it done!" Gabby's eyes brightened slightly at that comment and they both walked into the salon oblivious to the man taking pictures of them from across the street.
About 30 minutes later Gabby and Natasha came out with large smiles and freshly cut hair. Gabby was laughing at one of Nat's stories about Budapest and Clint. They made the drive back to the compound where Gabby was ready to start her second day as a Stark Intern.
"Welcome back Gabberoni!" Tony welcomed Gabby as Natasha brought her to the lab.
"I'll leave you nerds to it," Natasha says as Gabby calls out, "Bye Nat! Thank you so much for the ride."
"Hey Gabby. How are you doing?" Bruce asks politely from across the room.
"Ready for day two I guess," she responded, "And how are you?"
"Doing well." Bruce answered politely.
"So what do you wanna do today Gabs?" Tony asked her while she looked around at various projects.
"I honestly have no clue where to begin," she admits, eyeing the vast amount of tools she wouldn't even know what to name, much less do with them.
"Would you like a more in depth tour of the lab?" Bruce offered, noticing her apprehension, "We could explain different tools, what we usually do, and standard procedures."
"Yeah get ya the lay of the land!" Tony chimed in hopping on the bandwagon.
"Yeah I'd appreciate that!" Gabby responded relieved. With that Tony and Bruce took her through a much more detailed tour of the main lab talking about different projects, how they work together, safety procedures, and any other question that might have come up during the tour. They also learned that Gabby had a question at any given time, then usually had two follow up questions to whatever the answer was. The tour continued for a couple hours and when asked what she'd like to do Gabby told them, "Can I watch you two work on your projects today?"
Tony was taken back by this, having no issue he told her, "Sure!" He assumes Gabby would want to dive right into whatever project she wanted, but he wasn't about to force her to do anything so soon and maybe she just needed a bit more encouragement. So he took her over to his project answering endless questions and noticing how Gabby wouldn't offer advice unless asked for it.
Eventually she went over and did the same process with Bruce's project.
"Hey!" Clint called from the doorway and Gabby's head snapped up sharply at the sudden appearance of the archer, "I thought y'all would come up for lunch, but should've known not to trust Tony to remember lunch!" He joked.
"I remember… sometimes." Bruce, Clint, and Gabby snorted at the comment.
"Are you making lunch?" Gabby asked.
"Of course I'm making lunch! Best chef in the house, and I've finally found someone to stroke my cooking ego," he joked, winking at Gabby who laughed.
"Dear god you don't need a bigger ego," Tony mumbled, "I guess you can steal my intern for lunch Birdie. We'll find some way to manage."
"I could actually use some lunch as well," Bruce added getting up from his chair and heading over to Gabby and Clint who were both near the elevator.
"Et tu Bruce?" Tony asked mockingly putting a hand over his heart in mock betrayal.
"Don't worry we'll come back," Gabby reassured him laughing and following the other two up to get some food.
"Nice haircut by the way," Clint commented as he passed out a lunch of Mac and cheese with hot dogs.
"Thanks!" Gabby replied digging into her food. Natasha came up at some point and the four of them all talked, joked, and debated the silliest topics one could think of.
"How would the celery kill you though?" Natasha asked skeptically.
"Like a giant stalk of celery crushing you," Gabby explained through her laughter.
"But a giraffe kick would be more painful!" Clint shot back, "Like a hard kick to the head."
"Celery is such a worse way to die! You're stuck there for hours suffering," Gabby responded trying to sound slightly serious, but failing miserably.
"Gotta admit celery sounds like a worse way to die," Bruce spoke up taking Gabby's side.
"Gotta agree with Gabby and Bruce here Clint," Natasha agreed.
"Ha! Suck it!" Gabby shouted at him as everyone fell silent and looked at her before bursting out laughing at the silly debate and Gabby's newfound competitiveness. They fell into a comfortable silence until the dishes were put away and Clint broke the silence.
"So you ready?"
"For what?" Gabby asked, confused.
"Yesterday I said I'd get to train you today. And it's now today so I get to show you some stuff!"
"Oh, is Tony okay with that?" She asked slightly concerned about getting in trouble when she's supposed to do something else.
"He'll survive," Clint responded nonchalantly.
"We'll be fine," Bruce reassured her after noting her hesitation.
"Okay then, lead the way!"
"I've got some stuff to do, but I'll see you guys later," Natasha told them before leaving the room. Clint and Gabby headed down to the same training room they used yesterday.
"Hey Buck," Clint called out to Bucky as they entered the training room.
"You here to get your ass kicked?" Bucky joked.
"Please, I can take you anytime, just not today. I'm gonna show Gabby how to shoot a gun."
"I'm not a big fan of guns," Gabby commented softly and Clint turned around to face her slightly seriously, "I get that, but everyone should at least know how to handle one."
"Okay," she relented, following him to the range. Bucky followed them over to formally introduce himself, "Bucky," he told him with an outstretched hand. She shook his hand, responding with, "Gabby."
"I'm in charge of keeping egos, like Clint's, in check," Bucky joked, causing Gabby to crack a smile.
"That's a lie," Clint protested, walking closer to the range and picking up a pistol, "You staying for the lesson?"
"Nah I think I was supposed to meet up with Steve and Sam for a run so I could show them up as usual."
"Okay, miss out on all the fun here."
"I'll try not to be too disappointed," Bucky commented walking towards the door, "I'll see you both at dinner. Feel free to give Clint some trouble Gabby!" He joked before leaving the room. Gabby laughed at Clint sticking his tongue out childishly. He then turned back to her with a pistol in his hand.
"I won't make you shoot today if you don't want to, but I do want to make sure you know the basics of holding and using a gun, okay?"
"Okay," Gabby hesitantly responded.
"First rule of using a gun, always assume the gun is loaded. Never shoot it to see if it's loaded, but that's common sense. Instead you can take the magazine out like this," he took the magazine to demonstrate, "the bullets will be in here. Also don't be dumb and lol down the barrel any gun. Too many dumbasses have died that way and there's no need for you to be one of them. This is the safety," Clint flicks a button on the side of the gun to show her, "On. Off. On. Always keep it on, unless you're about to shoot. Your turn," he places the gun in her hands.
Gabby takes a moment to weigh the gun in her hand. It's somehow heavier than she'd imagined. And cold. She switches it to her right hand and takes the magazine out to see the bullets lined inside. Then she stares at the safety, still on, afraid to turn it off.
"It won't shoot unless you pull the trigger," Clint reassures her.
She finally flicks the safety off then quickly back on.
"Good. You still feel okay?"
Gabby took a deep breath before answering, "Yeah. What else should I know?"
"Probably at least the mechanics of shooting. First you'll aim at the target. Second, you turn your safety off. Then you'll pull this hammer back, it's kind of like the lever that gets the bullet into place before being shot. Now when you're actually aiming there's this little bead called the sight at the end of the barrel you want this bead to line up with your target. Control your breathing, nothing is worse than losing your shot because your arm moved as you breathed. Once you're ready you pull the trigger. This pistol won't have a large kickback, but certainly enough to scare you the first time you shoot."
Gabby nodded, taking in as much information as she could before asking timidly, "Can I try shooting?"
"Absolutely," Clint responded, walking over to grab some ear protection, "No need for you to get ear damage from this."
They both put on the protection and walk closer to the target and shooting area.
"What's the first thing to do?"
"Safety on."
"Good, then?"
"Check if it's loaded," she pulled the magazine out before placing it back in.
"Nice, and?"
"Aim," she breathed deeply, holding the gun up to the target about 10 to 15 feet away.
"Good."
"Hammer back. Safety off. Control breathing," she attempted to slow down her breathing while lining up the bead at the end of the pistol to the middle of the target. Once she felt certain it was close enough she squeezed the trigger.
Bang she felt the force from the shot against her arms slightly.
"Nice job Gabby!" Clint told her giving Gabby a pat on the back as she let out a huge breath she didn't realize she was holding. She put the safety back on before setting the gun down and looking at the target now donning a bullet hole about 6 inches to the right of the center.
"One tip, breathe out completely, then squeeze the trigger. Even though we don't realize it, our bodies move with our breath, especially when standing up. When you breath out completely you can stop your breath long enough to get a nice shot in."
"That makes sense," Gabby commented.
"But great job for your first time!" He praises her.
"Bet I can do it even better!" Gabby told him more brightly, determined to hit the bullseye.
She shot a few more times, eventually getting the bullet close enough for her satisfaction on the first day.
"I think I'm good for today! But I'd love to come back and practice again sometime," Gabby told Clint.
"Absolutely, anytime," Clint replied and hesitated for a second before continuing, "Last piece of gun safety is never aim at something you aren't willing to shoot. Hopefully you'll never need to use a gun outside of here, but if you ever do, make sure you're prepared to shoot."
Gabby nodded somelnly and they both started to head back up to the lab.