Chapter 14

Ruby insisted they stop by her office before they left for the airport. Stepping carefully over the debris still littering the corridor outside, she stepped through the hole where the door used to be. She stopped just inside, shocked by the destruction to the small space that she had called her own for two years. The desk was still standing, with only one leg broken, though it had been shoved against the wall so forcefully that one corner had broken through the dry wall. Had she been under it when that occurred? She couldn't remember; she had been so terrified and focused on the fight between the Hulk and the Hydra soldiers.

The white board had fallen off the wall and was laying on the top of the desk. Her computer, what was left of it, was on the floor a few feet away. Ruby swatted by it and lifted the broken case.

"We already recovered the hard drive," Bruce told her from the doorway.

Dropping the case, she stood and wiped her hands on her pants legs. "Good. I have a lot of hard work on it that I don't want to lose."

"When we get to New York, we'll get you set back up."

She nodded absently, looking around at the mess trying to avoid the dark red stain on the floor where the soldier had fallen. She only had a few personal items here, but they had sentimental value to her, and she didn't want to leave them behind. Bending down, she fished one from under the desk. It was a square coffee mug designed to look like the TARDIS from Doctor Who. Izzy had given it to her when she first came to work at the institute. Sadly, the handle had been broken by its fall.

Setting the broken mug on the corner of the desk, she lifted the white board enough to peer under it. Her trophy from the first mathematics competition she had ever entered, and consequently won, while in the 9th grade was laying on its side, undamaged. It joined the broken mug.

Ruby walked around the desk searching for the most important item: a framed photo of her and her mother taken the summer before she had become ill. She found it in a corner. The glass and frame hadn't fared well in the fight, but the picture wasn't damaged at all. She breathed a sigh of relief and pulled it free of the broken frame.

"Ruby, we need to go."

"Okay, I got everything I need."

Gathering the mug and trophy, she surveyed the room again. She had spent two years of her life in here and should have been at least sad about its destruction, but, strangely, what she felt was more like relief. She realized she had been slowly suffocating here. At least one good thing had come out of being kidnapped by Hydra. Well, maybe two good things, she thought, stealing a glance at Bruce and immediately blushing.

"Oh my god! Ruby!"

Startled, Ruby watched as her friend Izzy shoved her way past Bruce and launched herself across the room, enveloping Ruby in a tight hug.

"I was so worried about you when they told me you had been kidnapped," Izzy told her, not releasing her. "You must have been so scared."

"Ouch, Izzy. You're squeezing too hard, let me breathe," Ruby complained, the trophy and mug digging painfully into her diaphragm.

"Oh, I'm sorry," her friend stepped away and looked intently at her face. "Are you okay? Did your father pay the ransom? Why didn't you call me the second you got back? I've been frantic!"

Fury and Bruce had told her that Hydra hadn't been mentioned in any news releases. Her abduction was being broadcast as a kidnapping.

"I'm okay. They didn't hurt me. They just scared me a bit," she told Izzy. "Bruce, I mean Doctor Banner, and SHIELD gave the locals a hand since they were in the area."

"Bruce, huh?" Izzy said in a theatrical whisper and winked.

"Shut up!" Ruby hissed. "Don't embarrass me."

"How long have you been back? And don't you dare tell me days! I will kill you for not calling me and letting me know you're okay immediately."

"Well," Izzy frowned, "I've been back for a couple of days, but they had me staying in a safehouse, just in case, and wouldn't let me make any calls."

"Not even to your BFF?"

"Not even you," Ruby shook her head.

Her friend pouted, "that sucks. But what are you doing here?"

"Well, it seems that I might still be in danger. They haven't caught the guys that kidnapped me and since I saw their faces…," she let the sentence trail off.

"Oh, God, Ruby! That's awful!"

"So, they are transferring me to a SHIELD safehouse. I can't tell you where, so don't even ask. But I wanted to collect some of my stuff from here before they whisk me away."

Izzy looked down dubiously at the items Ruby was holding.

"You came back here for that? You are such a weirdo."

"I know, but I can't help it and you love me anyway."

"Absolutely!" Izzy grinned. "That's why I'm going with you."

"Really?"

"I can't leave you alone for a minute without you getting into trouble, so I'm not going to take my eyes off you again," she crossed her arms and nodded decisively.

"Oh, Fury's going to love this," Bruce moaned from the doorway.


He was right. Fury pitched a foul-mouthed fit at Ruby's announcement that Izzy would be accompanying her. She refused to go if her friend wasn't included and, short of throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her onboard, she made it clear he had no choice in the matter if he wanted her assistance. In the end, he angrily agreed and stomped away saying the pair were now Bruce's problem.

Once the jet was in the air, Ruby debated telling Izzy the truth. After all, it was going to be hard to keep her in the dark once they reached the Avengers training compound instead of a safehouse. Excusing herself for a moment, she made her way forward to where Fury was, well, furiously fuming.

Sitting across from him, she took a breath and jumped right in, "are you really that mad?"

One eye glared at her, "what do you think?"

She nodded, "I get it. I do. But will you try to look at it from my point of view? I've been kidnapped by Hydra, drugged, and chained up. I had the Hulk tear up a jet around me. I've been chased through the mountains, shot at, almost blown up by a missile. I've had to sleep in a hole in the ground with a naked man. Me, the pampered daughter of a businessman, whose idea of 'roughing it' is staying at a hotel without room service. Can you even begin to imagine how terrified I have been?"

When Fury just continued to glower at her, she went on, "despite all of that, I'm still willing to help you and try to undo the damage that's been done. Can't you cut me a break and let me have someone by my side that only cares about me and my wellbeing?"

Fury stared at her for a few uncomfortable moments before rolling his eye and sighing, "you want me to jeopardize our operation so you can have a security blanket?"

Ruby refused to back down. Where this new bravado came from, she wasn't entirely sure, but she was going to make the most of it before it fled.

"Haven't you ever had a friend that makes you feel like you can take on the world when they're around? Or have you just shot everyone that gets close to you between the eyes before they found out you have no heart?"

He blinked then burst out laughing. Of all the reactions, this was not one she expected. She sat in stunned silence until his mirth died down.

"Go back to your friend, Ms. Beaumont, before I decide to throw both of you off this jet without parachutes."

Unsure what to make of his remark, Ruby hesitated.

"Do you really want to test me?" he asked.

"No, but, um," she stumbled on her question, "what exactly can I tell her about what's going on? I mean, she isn't going to buy the story I gave her if I'm at SHIELD helping you."

"No, she isn't," he sighed again. "As of now, she is cut off from the rest of the world. We are going to get the local law officials to tell her family that she is in hiding with you for emotional support, so they don't panic. Tell her what you want."

Before he could change his mind, she scrambled out of the seat and went back to where Izzy was drinking a cocktail.


Bruce watched the two women through half-open eyes. He worried when Ruby went forward to talk to Fury and when he heard his boss laughing every hair on his body stood on end. It was never a good thing when that man laughed.

Left by herself, Izzy waved over a flight attendant and ordered something to drink. While she waited for either the drink or Ruby's return, she dug through her purse for a moment the shoved it aside with disgust. Fury had forced her to give up her cell phone before she boarded the jet and she had not been happy about it.

He wasn't sure how he felt about Izzy's presence. He had been looking forward to working with Ruby to finish the final pieces needed for the spaceship before Hydra. Now, she would have her friend with her, and their time alone together might become nonexistent. But having Izzy around seemed to make her happy, so who was he to begrudge her that?

When Ruby walked by to rejoin her friend, he couldn't help but admire the way her jeans hugged her hips and butt. His fingers twitched as he remembered it had felt in his hands. That made him think about how her lips felt and how good she tasted. He squirmed uncomfortably in his seat as another part of him responded to that memory.

Before she sat down, she glanced back at him and gave him a tentative smile. He smiled back and nodded. Then Izzy grabbed her wrist and wrested her attention away.

This was going to be a long flight.


Izzy had still not come to grips with Ruby's revelations when they landed. She was still asking questions about what had happened, and it was becoming annoying. Ruby was grateful that she had left out Bruce's nudity, their sleeping together that first night, and the kiss they shared at the cabin.

"So, they took your hard drive so you can continue what you were working on?" Izzy asked for what had to be the fourth time.

"Yes," she sighed.

"Have they told you what you'll be working on next?"

"Not yet. We still have to go over everything we found at the institute before we know where to even begin."

"Huh," Izzy grunted, "sounds like they're keeping you in the dark as long as possible. I mean, if the goal is to beat Hydra into space. It's not like knowing where they are in their efforts will change that. If they would just tell you, you could already be working on it and not wasting time."

"I don't know," she considered Izzy's argument. "They could just be playing it safe. The fewer people that know the better for security reasons."

"So now they don't trust you? After all you've been through because of them?"

"Well, it wasn't because of them," she found herself defending SHIELD. "My father is the reason I was kidnapped."

"According the them," Izzy pursed her lips. "I know your father isn't the most warm and fuzzy guy, but Hydra? Come on, Ruby. Do you really belief he is capable of something like that?"

She didn't know what to think. The agents that were guarding her at the safehouse had let her call her father and he had sounded genuinely worried about her.

Stepping off the jet, she was shocked to see that they were not at an airport. The jet had landing directly at the Avengers compound. On the news after the battle with the Titian, the compound had been reduced to rubble and the grounds surrounding it looked like a wasteland.

Now, while still bare, the grounds had been reshaped back to a semblance of normal. The open field was once again flat, trees had been replanted to replace those uprooted, and straw covered bare earth until grass began growing again. The main building, at least she assumed it was the main building since it had the Avenger symbol on it and a roundabout in front, was almost complete and looked like there was just cosmetic finishes in progress. Another building, the largest of any under construction, off to the left with another landing pad was almost complete also. Other buildings behind it, spread out around expansive grounds, were in various stages of construction, some still just skeletal frameworks.

Despite her apprehension, Ruby found herself excited by the prospect of working here. Everything would be state of the art and she would be working next to some of the greatest minds in the world. It wasn't every day that a girl from Houston got such an opportunity. She just hoped she wasn't completely out of her depth among them.

As if reading her mind, Izzy wrapped an arm around hers, "You've hit the big time, girl! I'm so excited for you. Now just don't start sabotaging yourself by doubting your abilities. You're every bit as smart as anyone here, you hear me."

Trust Izzy to always say the right thing. "That's why I brought you with me," she smiled at her friend.

"Besides, it's your birthday this weekend, remember?" Izzy added.

"Oh, crud! I completely forgot," Ruby was shocked.

"I know. Another reason you need me!"

Arm in arm the two friends followed Fury and Bruce towards the building and whatever lay beyond.