Chapter 2

Bruce rubbed his eyes and struggled to pay attention to their guide. He had only himself to blame for his current situation. After he fled from Beaumont's daughter - he couldn't even think her name without picturing what her luscious breasts would look like with his hands on them or how her pink mouth would taste if he kissed her - , he had drank too much liquor too quickly, which loosened up his tongue a bit too much. In a conversation, someone had mentioned the local science and technology think tank and he had expressed too much interest in the subject.

True, the Rita Beaumont Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology was on the cutting edge of modern research in space exploration and communications, but as another post-grad gushed over Stark's legacy to the scientific community, he would rather be somewhere, anywhere, else. It didn't help that he hadn't slept well last night. Every time he closed his eyes, all he could see were clear blue eyes. Ruby Lee had haunted even his dreams and he had woken up with a raging hard on this morning. Trying to take care of the problem in the shower had been futile until he gave up and pictured her on her knees in front of him. That had done the job, but now he couldn't shake that image and his boner kept threatening to make a reappearance.

Stark would love this shit. If he were still here.

"Fuck," he muttered. It was going to be a long morning.

"Excuse me, Dr. Banner?" asked the dapper young man acting as their tour guide.

"Um, is there a bathroom nearby?"

The young man, David Bartlett, he thought, smiled at him like he was a small child, "of course. Let me show you."

"No, that's alright, just tell me where and I will find it," he replied quickly. The last thing he wanted was this guy walking him to the bathroom. "You guys continue without me. I'll catch up with you."

The looks Fury and Rhodes shot him would have wounded a normal human. Luckily, Bruce wasn't normal. Getting the directions, he hurried away from the small group. Finding the bathroom was simple, it was only around the corner, and he completed his business all too soon. Loath to hide out in the bathroom, Banner turned the opposite direction upon exiting and headed away from the tour.

Ruby turned from the equation she was working on when she heard the door behind her open and close.

"It's about time," she snapped at her visitor.

"Easy, Killer," Izzy held out a large paper cup, "I come bearing coffee."

"Oh, yes," Ruby dropped the stylus in the tray and grabbed the cup.

Izzy wrinkled her nose as Ruby sipped her drink. "I don't know how you can drink that. It's almost all cream, sugar, and caramel. There's so little coffee, it can't even be legally called coffee."

"Oh, shush," she said leaning back on her desk and closing her eyes. "I don't give you grief over that sludge you drink."

"Of course not, it's 300% coffee. This one cup is enough caffeine to make a small platoon of big men jittery for a week."

Both women took a moment to savor their morning brews in companionable silence.

Izzy broke the silence first, "was your father mad at you from bailing early last night?"

"Mad might be an understatement. I was scared he was going to have an aneurysm at one point."

"That bad?"

"Yep. And I got the lecture about needed to grow up and start taking an interest in the company because he wasn't going to be around forever. Blah, blah, blah..."

Her friend wrapped her free arm around Ruby's shoulders and gave her a quick squeeze, "Well, he's kind of right, you know."

"I know," Ruby rolled her eyes. "But that doesn't mean I have to like it. Izzy, I don't even know half of what the company does."

"Maybe it's time you learn."

"Now you sound like him," she sighed. "He still thinks this is just a phase that I will get over soon." She snorted. "I'm going to be thirty in a week, you would think I'm too old to be going through a 'phase'. She made quotation marks in the air with her fingers.

Izzy punched her in the arm, "shut your mouth. You're not old."

"Ouch, that hurt, you brat," Ruby rubbed her arm and pouted playfully.

"Whatever." Izzy walked over to the board and squinted at the formula that filled the entire bottom half of the 6X4 space. "You're working on this again? I thought you gave up on it after Roger bawled you out about wasting valuable time on it."

"Roger can go jump off a bridge," Ruby huffed and came to stand by her. "I can't seem to leave it alone. Something keeps nagging at my brain, like I'm missing something obvious."

"All I can say is it's a damn good thing your father provides the majority of the funding for this place."

"And thank you for reminding me of that."

"Sorry," Izzy gave her a sheepish smile. Then her eyes lit up, "hey, I've got something for you. I know your birthday isn't until this weekend, but you look like you could use some cheering up."

She pulled a small box out of her purse and presented it to Ruby.

Ruby took the box and opened it and teared up at its contents. "It's perfect," she breathed, holding up the necklace. It was the symbol for pi worked in white gold with a small ruby hung on a delicate chain.

"Here, turn around," Izzy took the necklace and fastened it to her neck.

Ruby turned around and hugged her friend, "thank you, so much! I love it."

Returning her hug, Izzy kissed her on the cheek, "you are more than welcome. Now, on that note, I have to get to work before Roger comes looking for me. See you for lunch?"

"Yep, same bat time."

"Same bat channel," Izzy completed the saying and dashed out the door.

Ruby smiled to herself and She picked up her phone from her desk and thumbed through it. As the beginning notes of the Violent Femmes 'Add it Up' came from the speaker on her desk, she went back to the board, picked up the stylus, and belted out the first line of the song with a big grin on her face.

Bruce turned another corner and looked down the bare corridor. He had been wandering for about fifteen minutes now and was thoroughly lost. Not that he minded. Maybe by the time he found his way back to the group, the tour would be over, and it would be time for them to leave. At least he wouldn't have to lie about being lost. As he walked, he peered at the name plates on each door. He paused in surprise in front of a door with the name Ruby L. Beaumont, Ph.D. Under the name was 'Applied Mathematics'. He could hear music through the closed door but couldn't make out what it was.

"Mathematics, huh?" he mused. He would have never guessed the beauty that had tormented him all night and most of the morning so far, had a Ph.D., much less in mathematics. Then he snorted, at how sexist that thought was. Beauty didn't have any correlation to intelligence.

This newfound knowledge added fuel to his growing curiosity about her. He was torn between knocking on the door so he could talk to her or continuing on his way rather than make a fool out of himself in front of her again.

The decision was made for him when he heard voices approaching from around the corner. He wasn't ready to get back to the tour. Grasping the doorknob, he opened the door and entered the room quickly, shutting it softly behind him.

His ears were immediately assaulted by the music playing; some punk group from the 80's that he had tried hard to forget. His eyes went to the sole occupant of the room, who was thankfully oblivious to his intrusion.

At first, he thought she was having a seizure, the way she was jerking around as she wrote on the board, but there was no way someone in the middle of a seizure could be singing. If the horribly off-key sounds coming from her could be called singing. Bruce leaned back against the door and smiled to himself. Ruby danced and sang with wild abandon. She was a sight to behold in her form-fitting jeans and tee shirt, her hair pulled back in a high ponytail that bounced with her movements.

When she started her interpretation on what could only be the Pee Wee shuffle, he couldn't contain himself any longer; he laughed out loud.

Ruby immediately spun in place, her eyes round with panic and her mouth falling open when she saw him. She snapped it close and snatched her phone off the desk, turning off the music.

"What…?" she started, then closed her eyes and swallowed. "How much of that did you see and hear?" she asked, her cheeks turning a delightful shade of pink. She refused to look him in the eyes.

"Not nearly enough," he chuckled. "Don't let me interrupt. I'm just hiding from a tour group."

"Hiding from…," she tried again, "um, what?"

"Tour group," he repeated. "Some guy, Bartlett, I think, was leading it."

"Oh, I didn't know." She looked down at her feet and frowned. He didn't think it was possible, but her blush deepened. "They don't tell me much."

Bruce looked around the cramped office. While the room wasn't exactly small, it was crammed with file cabinets and boxes. For someone who's last name was on the building, it was a pretty crappy office. Looking past her at the board, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Is that Riemann's zeta function?" He stepped around her desk to stand by the board, his eyes darting back and forth over her calculations.

Ruby lunged towards the board and double-tapped in the upper left corner of the board, standing on her tiptoes to do so. The board went blank.

"No, no, no," Bruce reached over her head and double-tapped in the same location. Instead of the problem reappearing on the board, a prompt for a security login filled the space.

"Damnit," he impatiently slapped both of his palms against the offending surface on either side of Ruby's head.