When Fury's compassion comes out it's met with Natasha's stubborn nature. She's too embarrassed to have fainted to engage without a wall.
Romanoff has said very little, her face stoic and still lacking in color while she sips the lemonade her Boss and Mentor put on the table for his unexpected guests.
While Clint leans his hand up against the wall and explores the elevated porch for woodworking inspiration, Fury crosses his knee and sits at the table;
"Is this an emergency or did you smell the ribs I was about to put on the grill?"
Natasha scoffs, feet up on the white barrier that separates them from a four foot drop off into the yard, "It's the Center. Maria wants Bruce and I to relinquish some of our responsibility and hand it over to SHIELD. This is my mission and handing it over-... I need to hear it from you before I contemplate compliance."
Nick Fury folds his hands and tilts his head, "It's not Agent Hill, it's SHIELD."
Clint interrupts, finally settling at the table with them, "Why is SHIELD involved anyways?"
Neither of the two assassins catch the quick look of confusion across the Director's face before he goes contemplative, "Good question."
"There's a pause on all adoptions," Natasha remarks.
Fury frowns, slightly. "That was never cleared by me."
"That's what we were told."
Fury hums thoughtfully, "Where is the bomb?"
"Linda went to Oregon," Natasha bites her lip. Poor Linda will never be named apart from her unusual ability.
"And the telepath?"
"Riley hasn't been adopted."
Fury narrows his focus, "The Mikhailovs still have Brody?"
Natasha nods, "He's learning to control his laser vision without needing his glasses as much."
Nick turns toward Clint, "What does yours do?"
"Garrett?" Barton laughs, "He plays video games in my basement."
Romanoff lowers her foot from off the barrier, "Amelia's shape shifting; It feels like she's forgotten how to use it."
Clint nods, "Iris has incredible aim in the dark."
Nick's eyebrows lower, "All of the kids registered at the center belong to SHIELD, it's in every contract. They have the right to freeze adoptions if the safety of the children has been compromised."
Natasha raises her eyebrows in defiance, "Has it?"
The director is lost in his own thoughts, "Let me speak with Agent Hill. You keep doing what you're doing in the meantime,' he glares toward Romanoff, 'And what's wrong with you?"
Natasha stammers in a half honest truth, "I don't know what you mean-."
"-You fainted. It's been an hour and you're still as white as a ghost."
She looks around Fury's space and bends her knee, fully aware of his concern. It's in his eyes, a frightening look akin to an overprotective father to his daughter.
She deflects uncomfortably, ready to remove both his and Clint's eyes from off her, "Can we continue with the adoptions?"
He thinks for a moment and taps the table. Natasha reveals what she wants to reveal so he needn't pry, "Wait for my call."
Lucy and Jennifer's farewell seems abrupt. Walter's rush to get back to California is based purely on work with a promise to head back to the east coast as soon as she can.
Jennifer is far more emotional and sad to part than her daughter who sweetly blows her mother a kiss as she drives off.
Lucy crosses her arms out in defiance. They are at the front of the tower. She nearly trips her 'Uncle,' when she whips around ready to start her day with high energy.
"What's the plan for us, Uncle B?!"
Bruce inhales, cleaning his glasses and counting to ten in his head, "I need to get to the center, you will have to come with me since no one's home. I'm not leaving at the tower alone."
"Ooh! I'll get the keys. What about the other Avengers?"
"Hold on," he addresses the keypad on the knob she's trying to yank and types in his code to unlock it.
She pulls successfully, "Thanks!"
"Yep," he holds the door as she runs inside.
"Can we take one of Tony's sweet rides?"
"No," He reaches for a key on the rack of the entryway, "Are you good to go?"
"Totally! I'm so ready."
She follows him to the car and straps herself in.
He catches her staring once he makes it to the road, tongue over his inner cheek, "What?"
Lucy lifts to prop her feet up on the dashboard, untied sneaker laces falling as she sinks backward, "Well-! I have a question."
He nods, a hand under his head, "You can ask."
"Do you ever just go green for fun? Like, Halloween! Just go trick or treating AS the hulk?"
He's mortified until he remembers that this is what Lucy is accustomed to. She doesn't fear anything green and angry because she doesn't have to.
He tries to swallow the shock, "No."
"What about like, just to scare someone-."
He huffs, shifting uncomfortably, "I don't- he doesn't need a prank to scare people."
"Why."
"-He just does."
Her nose wrinkles, "Why'd you say 'he'-."
"Because he's not me."
"But he is-."
Bruce bites his tongue. It'll be a long summer if he doesn't set ground rules.
He lifts a finger to gesture, "Okay. Listen and listen carefully, please; I don't talk about him. Anything green is off limits. I get that's not how things work at your house but this is a house rule. Alright? Is that fair?"
She blinks, thoroughly confused, "...no?"
He sighs, "What do you mean 'no'?, why-."
"Because it's youuu?"
"You know what, you can have that opinion. It's fine."
"It's not an opinion,' she stubbornly lifts her shoulders, 'It's a fact."
"It's an opinion."
"It's. Not! It's who you are, people who don't embrace who they are can like- never be true to themselves-."
He pushes his head back, eyes wide for a moment as he tries to collect enough composure not to argue with a thirteen year old he doesn't know, "Okay, I get that's probably what your mom says-."
"Like! But it's true!"
"Whatever you say,' he nods toward her shoes, 'Do you mind? Natasha does the same thing. It makes me-."
"Angry?," she's proud of herself.
He's growing frustrated, "No."
Dramatically she moves one foot and then the other.
He's biting his lip before rolling his eyes, "And you could trip over your laces."
"You sound like mom," she snorts and rolls her eyes, ignoring him in true teenager mode. Lucy taps her window, "Can we get coffee?"
"I don't drink coffee and I really think you don't need that," he quietly reaches to turn on the air, adjusting the vent so that it doesn't aim directly at her face.
"Blasphemy," Lucy finds the vent and replaces it right where it was and lowers her side a few degrees more. Now her feet are on the chair when she hugs her knees, "What do you do for fun?"
He tugs his curls, "I...read."
"And?"
"Work?"
"Boring."
"It's building robots with Stark, it's not boring."
"I bet you're a gamer too…"
"Fortnite, Tuesday evening with Thor."
"Ha,' she cringes, 'oh, you're being serious."
"Is yoga just as nerdy and boring to you?"
"Meh...depends on the day," she mumbles, half agreeably.
"What about you? Your mom said you dance."
She nods, then adds, "Can you?"
"Nat does."
He bites his lip. Now her fingers are playing with the air, seemingly unable to sit still and it's absolutely triggering the physicist.
"Ooh," she finds the radio, unable to settle on a station. She'll let a song play a bit, sing along and then change it seconds before it's about to finish. 'Eye of the Tiger' lasts the longest.
He covers his mouth and takes a breath over the unsteady noise, the dirt she's left on the seat from her shoes and the constant clicking. If it's not a button she's chipping at the paint on her fingernail. Whatever he did to Jennifer way back when, this feels like a payback from hell. No one teenager is this disruptive...
His left knee is bouncing and there's a pulsing on his left temple. His OCD is beyond triggered. He needs the noise to stop and the car to be cleaned immediately. There's a voice in the back of his skull, a groan of sorts which means Hulk is picking up on his agitation.
He mumbles, trying to focus on driving, "Shut up, shut up…"
"Huh?," Lucy looks up.
Bruce pulls into his parking space as they arrive at the center.
He shuts the car and pulls the key, eager to end one of the longest rides of his life, "We're here."
"What's with the guards?"
"The what," he looks up after leaving the car, eyes narrowing over the sudden presence of SHIELD agents outside the door. He slams the driver door shut, taking out a bit of his rage on the simple hybrid vehicle.
The girl easily picks up on his tension, humming to herself half jokingly, "Something bad happening in Oz…?"
Bruce fiddles with a drive in his pocket, hoping he's not too late after thinking about Natasha's call.
He whispers to Lucy, "Stay close."
She nods, shoves her hands into her pockets and follows.
Barton won't stop looking at his friend once they return to his truck. Halfway up the road she throws her hand against the side of the chair and calls him out;
"Will you stop staring at me!"
Clint shakes his head, "Fury's right. I didn't see it, maybe because I see you everyday. But you look real pale, for being you."
She moves to check herself in his passenger seat mirror, rotating from one cheek to the other before abruptly shutting it in a huff, "Nothing is wrong! I fainted, I was dehydrated."
"You don't faint. I mean- unless you're seeing your undead ex-."
"Clint, it's 100 degrees outside and we've been driving for over an hour in a truck where the air is broken," she sighs, hitting the vent for emphasis.
He hits it after she does and it's just hard enough for the air to come on, "Fixed it. Just gotta punch it hard enough."
He nods approvingly while Natasha just shakes her head and looks out the window.
Traffic stops as they come up to the city. Her car is back at Clint's but they're both headed for the Center at this point.
Romanoff perks up as they approach, alert to the full parking lot and excessive agents around the property.
Clint takes the words out of her mouth, "What the hell."
She leans forward, eager to jump out and check on her kids.
Bruce confronts Maria the second he enters and spots the agent, with Lucy bopping along behind him.
Hill flips her tablet, "It's protocol. Routine check when SHIELD doesn't get updates when they're due. It wouldn't be a big deal if you had nothing to hide."
He scoffs, biting his inner cheek, "You know I don't trust SHIELD."
"Nevertheless, this is a SHIELD initiative and the fact that you're running it means you, now, work for us,' Maria looks down abruptly with an unhealthy fear for the man and what he could easily become if she pushes too far, 'I'm going to need a few files from you. And who's the girl?"
The girl pops the air from her cheek in a bit of boredom and introduces herself, "Lucy. And you are?"
Bruce groans, reaching for a key in his pocket, "Let's go Lucy."
"Where to."
Banner makes shifting eye contact with Maria and forces his words, "To, get some files for Hill."
The physicist's stress seems to dwindle once he gets to the lab, content to spot Izabella and her brother already inside and on high alert.
He's mumbling nervously when he spots her and shuts them inside the lab, "I'm going to download some files here and then I need you to warp them back to the tower lab."
She nods eagerly, looking up at him with her wide eyes, "What happening?"
"I don't know. I'm sure it's nothing," he settles in front of the screen and types quickly.
"You look freaked out."
He scoffs, "Yeah well. I don't like SHIELD,' he pivots to check on Lucy, sighing heavily when he sees her spinning in the chair behind them, 'Any information shared in this room, doesn't leave this room."
Lucile offers a thumbs up, crooked in her chair, "You got it. Sooo when can you start training me? How do I learn about my powers if I have any…"
Izabella looks over her shoulder, "You not know you power?"
"Youuuu not know pronouns?"
"Contractions not pronouns. And don't be mean," Bruce sighs.
" Grubyy ," Izabella laughs and Lucy stands offended.
Brody offers, matter of factly, "She said you're being rude."
Izabella shrugs, "It Russian."
"Oh, great. So you two can talk about me in Russian."
Bruce scrambles and wait patiently while the green bar on his screen loads slowly, "Grab me that vial behind you? Far right- nope, your other right. Other right, Lucy. Yeah thanks."
Natasha practically plows into the door when she arrives, a frantic mess when she spots Banner and ignores the others;
"Maria is getting impatient."
Bruce tosses her a drive without a greeting and barely any acknowledgement. She catches it and with a nod between them. Hill steps forward, already up in her space.
Natasha holds the drive, "You've had a busy day."
"Busy doing what SHIELD wants,' she snatches the small chip from Romanoff and adds it to her tablet, 'Everything is in here?"
"Check for yourself."
"I'll do it later,' she tucks her tablet, 'I'm sorry. But I'm just the messenger. Just, fill out your forms and we won't have a problem. And Steve said he'd get us some keys."
Natasha acknowledges awkwardly and waits until the agents leave before turning around to watch Izabella evaporate a second drive in a green smoke.
She remarks with approval, "Good timing. What was on Maria's?"
Bruce moves to shut down his screen, "Enough to hold them over."
Lucy is upside down again, on the spinning office chair, "Can we get food now? I'm hungry."
Natasha tilts her head, glaring at Bruce, "You didn't feed her? It's almost one o'clock."
"I did-."
Lucy whines, "Well I'm still hungry. You're all crazy if you expect me to function today without my morning white chocolate mocha latte. Hey Aunt Nat? Can I start training now? Do I get to pick my mentor? Cause I want Stark. He's more fun than Uncle B, no offense."
Banner glares, "Because I don't give you what you want?"
"Noooo."
"He has to run some tests first," Romanoff crosses her arms and leans on the doorframe, smirking contently when Riley comes walking up to the door with her own complaints.
The girl is exasperated, "My sheet said I'm with the doc today... Is this a joke?"
Natasha looks down with an eyebrow raise, "You're late."
Riley shrugs casually, "Oops. I'm here now. And bored. If we do science stuff all day, I might poke my eyes out…' Her eyes suddenly widden at Bruce's thoughts, 'Oh my God! Your nerd brain-."
"Don't," Bruce threatens
As if Hulk has somehow heard the girl, he makes his presence known through a sudden pounding in the back of Banner's head.
Natasha just smiles, "Hey Izzy, you and Brody are with me."
Banner glares back toward the redhead with a now splitting headache, "And that's not fair."
"What? Taking away your helper? You'll figure it out. You also have Kat and Michael…"
"'I see dead people' Kat? What am I supposed to- I thought Thor was-."
She narrows her focus over the whining between Bruce and Lucy, "I am starting to see a family resemblance here."
He's still holding a glare, corner of his mouth turning upwards to mimic the smirk slowly spreading over her face.
"And keep an eye out for the double A batteries," she adds.
"The what-."
Natasha tilts her head, "You know, Thor's twins? I thought that's what Tony calls them. Anyways, they need daycare for about an hour. I volunteered you...have fun!"
"Tasha...wait," Bruce moves toward the door.
She winks as they close it on him and laughs harder when Izabella whispers, "He will not survive."
"The twins aren't coming, I just wanted to see him sweat."