Hi! Made a few tweaks here and there.
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Disclaimer: I dont own Avengers or Spidey.


Chapter 18: Anomalies

It had been an odd week. Well, an odd month… No, make it an odd year.

He had gone from being a doctor in the run through poor countries to having a glassed office in the middle of Manhattan. A room with a view.

Too bad it felt more like a cage than anything else.

Yes, he had made new friends; yes, he had managed to control the other guy to some extent; yes, he was part of the Avengers. But he was still trapped. He had become a precious commodity in a paperwork war between the Army and SHIELD.

If only he could get rid of the other guy, he could get back to be just Dr. Banner… No, it was too late for that. He'd be trialed for everything the other guy did. Or he'd just continue to be another pawn for SHIELD.

A familiar knock on their shared glassed wall brought a half smile to his face followed by low sharp breaths, trying to calm himself down. How did she do it?

"I'm okay Penny, don't worry" she came into his office and checked his eyes: half of his pupils were green. He knew he was getting worse. Soon, he wouldn't be able to control it and all hell would break loose. He only hoped to be in an open field, far from people that could get hurt.

"I could help you know, if you'd let me into your secret formula thingy"

"That goes both ways Dr. Morse" his pupils were back to normal. "You've helped more than enough. You've stabilized the formula, you convinced your boyfriend to help with the rays… now it's my turn"

"Convince is a bit of a stretch. It was the only way to keep him from slaughtering Dr. Hoban"

"Stark had it coming Bruce, he's a big boy, he should know better than to try Extremis on himself"

"He did give a compelling speech about his reasons for it, but well, he's Tony, does it really surprise you?"

She gestured a no, but her mind seemed to be drifting away "Shouldn't you be getting ready for that big surgery of yours?" She looked puzzled,

"We have offices next to each other, and Hoban is not really the quiet type"

"But it's need to know basis! Fury's gonna kill me if he finds out you know"

"Well, I just know you two have a surgery scheduled, nothing else, so, no harm done there Penny" he smiled in a comforting way.

"It's not for another two hours. I'm just tired and a bit anxious, and then I have the night shift, yet again. I could work on your formula, c'mon."

Bruce kept on working on his screen ignoring her attempts of getting his attention,

"I guess it sucks being on Fury's doghouse"

"It could've been worse, trust me. He probably didn't like the whole "I told you Romanoff should stay grounded" speech in the middle of the meeting last week" Bruce chuckled remembering Fury's face.

"It was funny seeing him so mad, I didn't think he had facial expressions until that moment" Penny giggled and nodded. Bruce continued,

"Though my favorite part was when Tony googled "Clintasha" in the middle of Fury's rant and started playing the video in the screens behind him." Penny laughed wholeheartedly "Best. Debriefing. Ever. Wanna hear the funny part? I literally told Clint that very morning "Don't get caught on camera making out with Romanoff" and what does he do? He kisses her in the middle of the op to *quote* calm his partner down *unquote*. That was so careless of him, you'd think he'd know better by now. He's been doing this for ages."

Bruce sighed "It happens I guess, sometimes you can't help being reckless." She looked through the window and sighed, trying to grasp an idea. Then she looked at her friend "The thing is, it makes no sense. I know what it's like, the rush, the adrenaline, but when you're out there you had thought three different alternatives to every move you make, you don't just drop your act to calm Romanoff the frak down. There are so many things wrong with this picture"

"Maybe they're just in love doc" Steve walked into the office looking healthy and standing tall again. Bruce picked a difference in their general awkwardness and started looking away from his screen for the first time in the morning,

"No question about that, but when you're in an Op you need to leave your feelings aside. Feelings gets people killed Rogers. Or in their case, burnt for good"

"So you think they were wrong?"

"Don't you? You got hurt pretty bad, Mark had his spine compromised and until Sunday we didn't know if he was gonna make it, all because she panicked and he rushed to calm her down, leaving you both with no cover!"

"We had Stark covering us. All I'm saying is that emotions are what make us human Penn, you should know that. Haven't you ever been reckless when someone you cared for was down?" She started stuttering and looked at her phone when it rang.

She looked at it, and her expression seemed both confused and cocky when she saw who the caller was. She picked up and gestured them to go on with the talk later. "Hello stranger, didn't think you'd call at this point" She started walking to her office passing right next to Steve. "Well, I um, I have a surgery in like an hour and a half, shouldn't you be at- okay, okay, meet you at the park in 20?"

She hung up and rushed to get her purse and went to the back of her office and grabbed some medical supplies. Then she turned around and saw both of them staring at her "You didn't just see that. I'm going... out, I'm meeting-"

Steve cut her mid sentence. "Let me guess: a friend" Penny's expression went from playful to plain annoyed again.

"Yes. Need something from the street?"

"We're covered, thanks"

"Okay, bye then" she rushed out and Bruce crossed his arms over his chest "Okay, what's going on?" Steve pretended not to understand what he meant. Since he wasn't getting any response, Bruce took off his glasses slowly and came closer to him. "Will I have to get it off of you the hard way?"

Steve cleared his throat. "Nothing's going on, we're just friends. She has plenty of those." Bruce clenched his teeth and Steve sighed.

"Nothing's happening Bruce. Trust me, you'd be the first to know." Bruce put his glasses back on,

"Right." He turned his head and started working on his touch screen.


"You know, this'd be much easier if you'd just come work with us. We'd be at my office, I could disinfect this and sew you properly, not looking over my shoulder-" They were sitting next to a big tree that was concealing most of Peter's arm and how Penny was stitching him.

"I heal easy, chill out"

"You do, but you're not indestructible, you can get hurt, you can get shot, you could die Peter"

"You're starting to sound like Aunt May" she was sounding like Aunt May. She had called Penny a day after Peter told her about the job and scholarship offer. Penny wasn't sure if he knew. "Um, about your Aunt…"

"You've met, I know, she told me she called you. She liked you." Penny half smiled.

"I liked her cookies" he grabbed his backpack and took out a Ziploc bag.

"Here, knock yourself out" she sighed while stitching the last part of the deep graze on his arm. "At least let me get you a better suit Peter, please"

"What's wrong with my suit?!"

"What's- what's, okay, I can cut it with a nail clipper, that's what's wrong!" He looked at her and the tiny little stitches she was doing. "I gotta say, you're very good at that." She smiled.

"I'm very good at several things actually" He cleared his throat "You should've called me when you got this, not 2 hours after Parker" he looked mortified,

"It was messy, you weren't home, I didn't-"

"How- how do you know that?"

"I guess you don't always do a perimeter check when you get home" she laughed at his comment. "You need to stop watching spy shows." She put a gauze over the stitches and taped it. "How will I learn if I don't watch shows?!"

He zipped his hoodie up and smiled thanking her. They got up "Okay, what if I start training you, off hours."

"Really? You? But-"

"Don't let the surgeon outfit fool you kid, I was a very good operative for like, a decade"

"Is this a way to lure me into SHIELD with your coolness?"

"No, It's a way to make sure you get a better chance at a fight, not just counting on the web slingers. And to get your aunt a bit less mortified about your late outings" He sighed,

"Why should I trust you? I mean-"

"I just left my job before a very important surgery to patch you up. Sure, I could just be playing you. But I'm not Peter. I know, you have no way too know. I just want you to make an informed decision" He nodded and kept walking slowly by her, "Besides, I know you'll come around when the time's right. I'm that good" he snorted at her cocky act.

"So, what does your girlfriend think?"

"She wanted me to join the Marines, crazy huh? Her dad was a policeman, you know? Of course you know. But she doesn't like SHIELD and she definitely doesn't like you. She found all these awful things online about the agency, and I guess she doesn't want them to turn me into something I'm not."

"I wouldn't want that either"

"I know" He smiled at her and kept on walking. They were one block away from the SHIELD building when she stopped their pace "Pete, before I go..."

"Yes?"

"I don't know how you got your… gift but I'm pretty sure it wasn't in your pre-teen years, was it? You would've come up in the radar sooner"

"Not exactly, no. It was different, I-" She cleared her throat and spoke looking straight into his eyes,

"No it wasn't. You started feeling different around 12, whenever your hormones started kicking in. One day you had a nightmare and found yourself stuck to the wall. Understood?"

He frowned, "Why?"

"Because Gwen is right. Awful things happen every day and there are far worse people out there. If you were born mutant, you can't be tested upon and replicated, are we clear?" He nodded taking a deep breath.

She brushed his arm and gave him some painkillers. "One every 8 hours if you're in too much pain. Wash that carefully and get to school! Oh, and no fooling around tonight, doctor's orders"

"But it's Thursday, all the bad guys come out in Thursdays!"

"Leave something for NYPD, Parker"

He placed his skateboard on the floor and waved at her "I'll see what I can do"

She turned around and crossed down the streets towards the SHIELD building. She saw Steve coming out, laughing with Natasha holding him by his arm. She clenched her teeth when the red hair said hello to her.

"Romanoff, Rogers" she lingered one second too long looking straight at Steve's eyes and then walked away.

Natasha concealed a half smile while getting into a SHIELD car.