*Italics - People speaking in Korean
~April 4, 2015~
In the Avengers Tower where a few of the U-GIN Research members are preparing for the cradle and the lab materials where Helen Cho walks her way towards the lab while removing her navy blue trench coat and places it on the table.
"Are all the items from the lab complete?" She asked one of her employees.
"Yes, Dr. Cho."
Helen nodded. "Good. Be ready, one of the members in Mr. Stark's team is injured. So we have to make sure everything we brought here is safe to go. Understood?" She looks at each one of her members with a calm yet strict expression.
"Yes, ma'am."
Unaware that Maria Hill appears from the entrance door of the lab, she called out to Helen. "Dr. Cho." Helen turns around to face the female commander who sharply nods at her, gesturing to the Doctor to follow her. Helen then immediately comes after her with a few of her employees following their leader from behind and follows Maria beside her.
"Is everything in the lab prepared, Dr. Cho?" Maria asked in a professional serious tone.
"Yes, everything prepared for the patient." Helen nodded.
They made their way straight towards the hangar on the topmost floor with her research group, waiting for the arrival of the Avengers until the quinjet landed in the tower perfectly in front of them as the quinjet folded itself and brought down automatically. The hatch was slowly lowered, a team of Helen's assistants rushed in as they quickly rolled Clint out on the medical table, taking him off to get Doctor Cho's treatment as Natasha followed quickly beside Clint.
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Thor walked out after Clint and Natasha, carrying the scepter inside the container as Bruce followed him from behind. Tony shuts down the quinjet's functions while Steve stowed away the medical gear when Maria Hill walks in as Thor left the aircraft, calling out Tony. "Lab's all set up, boss."
"Uh, actually he's the boss." He replied as he pointed at Steve. The blond-headed soldier gave Tony an incredulous look as the billionaire playboy continued. "I just pay for everything, and design everything, and make everyone look cooler."
Steve gave up on him, and instead turned to face Maria and asked her while walking beside her. "What's the word on Strucker?"
"NATO's got him." Maria answered firmly.
"The two enhanced?"
"Wanda and Pietro Maximoff." Maria answered as she held out a tablet she'd been holding.
Steve took the tablet from her and observe the information in it as he tapped the screen to play a short footage of two young Sokovians participating in a riot. They both had dark brown hair, although that was pretty much the only similarity. They also didn't look that much younger than himself. He can guess that they'd be in their early twenties about now as Maria continues to inform him. "Twins. Orphaned at ten when a shell collapsed their apartment building."
Steve swiped a finger across the tablet to see an image depicting on Maria's words. She explained as the two walked out of the quinjet. "Sokovia's had a rough history. It's nowhere special but it's on the way to everywhere special."
"Their abilities?" The Captain asked as they entered the Tower, and Maria replied. "He's got increased metabolism and improved thermal homeostasis. Her thing is neural electric interfacing, telekinesis, mental manipulation."
They stopped their pace before the elevator as Steve glanced at Maria with a confused look on his face. Seeing his expression, Maria rephrased for him. "He's fast and she's weird."
Steve nodded in understanding and he frowned back down at the screen. "Well, they're going to show up again." He handed the tablet over to Maria, hitting the button on the elevator as he did.
"Agreed." Maria commented.
The elevator dinged itself openly as Steve stepped inside while Maria continued to inform him. "File says they volunteered for Strucker's experiments. It's nuts."
Steve typed in the code to the floor he picked out as he replied sarcastically. "Right. What kind of monster would let a German scientist experiment on them to protect their country?" He looked at Maria, raising his brows slightly as she cocked her head slightly and replied evenly. "We're not at war, Captain."
"They are." Steve replied as the elevator doors closed on him and he continued to stare straight ahead with his face pensive thinking in deep thoughts.
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"You sure he's gonna be okay?" Natasha asked, being a bit skeptical of her best friend's healing condition as Helen looks up to face her on the side with a small smile while setting up her equipment.
"Pretending that you need this guy, really brings the team together." She stood up away from Clint while putting her arms crossed in front of her chest, observing the healing process.
"There's no possibility of deterioration." Helen explains while pressing the buttons of her machine as she continues. "The Nanomolecular functionality is instantaneous, his cells don't know they're bonding with simulacra."
"She's creating tissue." Bruce said with an impressed look.
Natasha raised an eyebrow, smiling a bit at Bruce's excitement. Helen smiles at his fascination with her work. "If you brought him to my lab, the regeneration cradle could do this in twenty minutes."
Suddenly Tony interrupted Helen's explanation of her work. "Oh, he's flat-lining. Call it. Time?" He jokingly spoke out, pretending to check on his watch.
"No, no, no. I'm going to live forever. I'm gonna be made of plastic." Clint replied lightly as Tony handed him his coffee. "Here's your beverage."
Helen smiled before correcting him. "You'll be made of you, Mr. Barton. Your own girlfriend won't be able to tell the difference."
"Well, I don't have a girlfriend." Clint countered right before he took a sip of his drink.
Helen retorted in amusement. "That I can't fix." She took her tablet and continues to observe the functions of her machine and told Tony lightly. "This is the next thing, Tony. Your clunky metal suits are going to be left in the dust."
"Well, that is exactly the plan." Tony replied in a serious tone.
The team all glanced at him with varying mixes of relief and disappointment as Tony added lightly. "And Helen, I expect to see you at the party on Saturday."
Helen raised her eyebrow and replied firmly. "Unlike you, I don't have a lot of time for parties."
Tony raised his eyebrow skeptically before grinning in amusement as Helen looks down, fidgeting her fingers on her tablet, hesitating before she asked shyly. "Will Thor be there?" Chewing her inside cheek with a feel of her blush growing on her cheeks, knowing that she has a small crush on Thor. Just a crush, nothing else. She thought.
The billionaire smirked in amusement as he spoke out. "You should know that Thor is off the market, right?"
Helen looked up from her tablet and faced him with a bit of a surprised look. "Oh I see, I didn't know."
"Yeah, you see, his girlfriend is actually an astrophysicist, Dr. Jane Foster." Tony said with a smile, seeing the female geneticist's eyes glimmered with interest.
"Really? His girlfriend, an astrophysicist?" Helen smiled with delight interest. Tony nodded in reply. He is so sure that she and Jane Foster would get along very well since these two doctors have a complete fascination for science.
"Yeah. From what I know she is studying the Einstein-Rosen Bridge, also known as a wormhole, to be exact." He explained shortly.
She nodded while smiling as she said. "Thor is lucky to have a girlfriend who is an astrophysicist." Her crush over Thor quickly disappears and instead had an admiration for the God of Thunder's Lady love.
"I know. Seriously, how does this goldilocks ever get an astrophysicist? I mean, they are absolutely one of the hardest ladies to catch." Tony flabbergasted a bit yet impressed at Thor's choice of a woman as Natasha rolled her eyes in annoyance while Clint just scoffed at Stark's comment.
Helen chuckled quietly before telling one of her assistants to make the final adjustments on Clint's healing procedure as she left the lab and passes by Tony's then went out. She walks down the stairs carefully then made her way towards the hallway while looking down on her tablet for her research work. Not noticing that someone was walking right in front of Helen, causing her to bump towards that person with her tablet to accidentally fall on the cemented floor.
"I'm so sorry!"
"It's alright." A deep male voice can be heard closely in front of her.
Helen didn't get a chance to look up at the person she bumped into as she quickly bent down to pick up her tablet and realizing that there's another one falling beside her's before she reaches her hand out to pick up the other one until another hand hovered over hers at the same time. Helen looked up to see the one and only America's Golden Boy, Captain Steve Rogers looking up at her the same as well. Their faces are almost close to each other as she stared at his ocean blue eyes for a moment, admiring the color that she had never seen before. Strangely, she felt an unfamiliar sudden spark within her skin while touching each other's hands.
'How could this man have such beautiful blue eyes?'
Her thoughts were interrupted when Steve spoke out to her as she blinked once to cut out of her trance.
"C-Captain Rogers."
"Dr. Cho." He smiled calmly.
Helen immediately picked up her tablet along with Steve's as he holds her hand a bit tightly and helps her stood up along with him before she nervously gives him back his tablet.
"I-I'm really sorry for bumping into you." She genuinely apologized while fidgeting her fingers under her tablet. "I should have watched where I was going."
Steve shook his head slightly and politely spoke. "No, please. Don't apologize. In fact, I should have also watched where I was going so I'm sorry as well."
Helen chuckled softly. "I guess we both should apologize for bumping into each other."
"Yeah." He nodded then chuckled along with her as well.
All of a sudden, there was an awkward silence between Steve and Helen for a short moment until she shyly moves away from him slowly.
She smiled politely. "Well, um, I better go. I've got some things to do." Her eyes narrowed down a bit, avoiding his calm gaze. "It was nice meeting you, Captain Rogers." She immediately turns around and walks away from him.
"Wait."
Again with that deep voice of his coming from behind her, almost made her heart race a bit. She had never felt this way before, not even once. She felt like the same shy girl she was back then in her high school days when someone approaches her. Helen slowly turns around to face him as Steve walks his way towards her.
"Yes?"
Steve scratched the side of his neck a bit timidly as he spoke. "I- um. I-I wanted to thank you for saving my life back in Seoul."
"Oh, it's no problem, Captain Rogers. I am doing what I did best to help people." She smiled at him gently.
"What you did was amazing, Doctor. Creating an advanced medical device to heal wounds that no one could build the same as you did." He stared at the Korean geneticist, praising her with no lie in his words. "You are unlike any other woman I have ever respect. You truly have a gift for healing people. I admire that."
Helen can feel her cheeks growing red when he said those genuine and kind words about her as his piercing blue eyes gaze into her in a calm and gentle manner. She didn't know much of him both in person and in history but when she looks into his eyes, she can see that Steve Rogers was not the hero and noble leader that everyone sees in him, he was kind, compassionate and a selfless young man with a heart of gold however there is also a trace of sadness and loneliness in them. She didn't want to peek into his personal life but somehow in her heart, she can't help but want to feel sympathy towards him.
She looked down shyly, trying to hide the blush on her face as she spoke. "Thank you, Captain Rogers. I appreciate your kind words. That was really…" Pressing her lips firmly before saying. "Admirable."
"You don't need to thank me, I'm saying this in all of honesty and I'm really grateful on how you healed me."
Helen nodded in acceptance. "Well for that, you're welcome, Captain."
Steve smiled at her calmly as the silence between these two grew until she hummed shortly before saying. "Guess I should be going now, I have a lot of work to do."
"It seems like it, yeah." He nodded in understanding.
"Well, it was nice seeing you again, Captain Rogers." She slightly bowed her head respectfully.
"It was nice seeing you too, Dr. Cho." He did the same as well as they both genuinely smiled before they walk pass by each other in silence and went back into their professional working selves.
While walking through the hallway reading the files on her tablet, Helen was lost in her thoughts when she thinks about the Captain. The way he looks at her made her heart beat faster than a rabbit, she really has never felt this way before unlike her small crush with Thor, it was just a shallow romantic attachment but with Steve, she felt as if there was some sort of a strange yet a pleasant connection towards him. She can't explain why, but somehow she wanted to know more about him by listening to his words rather than reading in history books or visiting in a museum but for now, she would take this slowly.
There you go, Steve and Helen finally meet again! Thank you so much for reading!
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See you soon for the next chapter ;)
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