With a groan, Carter cracked open her eyes. She was laying down in the living room of her apartment, she blinked a few times, curious about what happened. Turning her head she saw Laynie laid out next to her on their sleeper sofa.

"Good to see you're awake." Carter looked over and saw Bruce sitting in the recliner next to the couch, a small book resting in his lap.

"What happened?" Carter asked.

Bruce sighed, "Hammer planted a small bomb in the kitchen. When it exploded, you and Laynie were knocked unconscious. Luckily, the explosion wasn't so bad and it left the Tower without structural damage. But you, Laynie, Steve, and Natasha were banged up pretty bad."

"Oh, okay." Carter replied quietly.

"Tony and Clint are working on finding out how they managed to get the bomb inside, Natasha and Steve are resting, and Pepper-" he was cut off my the elevator opening, "is right there." He smiled slightly.

"Oh Carter, you're up. How are you feeling?" She asked, sitting in the one other chair in the room.

"I'm fine. Just kind of sore." She shrugged.

That was when Laynie started to stir. Her eyes fluttered open. "Ugh, why am I so sore?" Laynie shook her head and closed her eyes again. "It burnsss," she hissed jokingly, referring to the living room lights.

By then, everything outside was dark. And the windows were open again, too.

Bruce laughed gently and switched off the lamp above her. "How are you feeling?"

"Like I got blown up," she replied. Laynie pulled herself up to sitting with a grunt. "A couple times." She looked to her friend. "Are you okay?"

"About as good as you are." Carter smiled slightly.

Laynie stretched carefully. There were a few cuts and bruises on her, some of them bandaged, but nothing too bad. "Are Steve and Natasha okay?" Her eyes flew open as she remembered Tony. "Where's Tony? Did he even come back?"

Pepper put a hand on Laynie's arm. "He's fine. He's angry, but fine. He couldn't find Hammer."

She sighed. "We're under lockdown, huh?"

Bruce nodded. "You girls aren't going anywhere."

"Ah, come on." Carter whined, "Freakin' Hammer." She muttered under her breath.

Laynie laughed. "Are we at least allowed to leave the room?"

Bruce grinned. "As long as you use the buddy system."

Laynie shook her head, knowing he was joking. "I'm going to the bathroom. I'll try not to die."

The next few days passed by slowly for the girls. Mostly it was spent whining to whoever would listen to them.

"Can we please go out? Just for a little bit?" Carter asked, as Laynie stood behind giving Pepper a pleading look.

"I really don't think that's a good idea guys. We should wait until Hammer is located." Pepper answered.

"But who knows how long that will take!" Carter huffed.

"Tony's working on it. I'm sure it won't be too long now." She assured them.

Laynie sighed. "At least we're allowed to go to school. I would die without some kind of social interaction."

Pepper laughed. "You girls are so dramatic. Let's get going, lest you be late for your so important social interaction."

The three girls piled into the car, arriving at Midtown High only a few minutes later.

"I'll see you at lunch," Carter called down the hallway as the girls took their separate class routes. "

Grab James if you can!" Laynie shouted back.

A few hours later, Carter and James sat alone until halfway through lunch.

"I wonder what could be keeping Laynie," Carter mumbled, picking at her food.

"Hopefully she didn't get sent to detention or something," James added.

The two were worried for their friend. For some reason, neither of them had run into her all day.

Carter outright laughed. "There's like, no chance of that."

At that very second, her phone began ringing in her pocket.

She pulled it out and sighed. "Tony, we've talked about this. The teachers don't appreciate me talking to you during school hours. They think I'm cheating on tests."

James snorted, food almost flying out of his mouth.

"Carter there's no time for that! Where's Laynie?"

Carter frowned. "I don't know. She was supposed to meet us for lunch."

Tony cursed on the other end. "Go find her. Right now."

Carter jumped up and shouted over her shoulder for James to watch her bag.

She tore through the hallways toward Laynie's locker and frantically entered the combination for the padlock. Her backpack fell out, meaning she had been to the locker since the class before lunch. She never took her backpack to lunch.

"Tony, her backpack is here. She should be at lunch. What's-"

"No! You have to find her, Carter."

"Tony, I don't understand, what's happening?" Carter asked in a panic. "Is Laynie in trouble?"

Tony talked to someone else for a moment, then cried out in anger. "Carter, I need you to go see the principal. Right now."

"But-"

"Now Carter!" Tony snapped.

Carter was shocked, she nodded slightly before saying, "Okay, I'm going..."

"I'm going to call the police once you're in the principal's office. Steve and Bruce are coming to pick you up."

"I'm at the door," Carter said. "

Tony, where's Laynie?"

"Hammer took her," he said through gritted teeth. "He kidnapped her." And with that, the call ended.

Carter was ushered into the office by the secretary, who had gotten a call from Pepper only moments earlier. She sunk into a nearby chair, dumbstruck. Laynie... was kidnapped…

"Dear?"

"Huh?" Carter jumped at the sudden sound. She looked up and saw the secretary.

She held a water bottle in her hand, "Take this."

Carter slowly took the water bottle, "Thanks..."

The older woman smiled gently, "I'm sure everything will be just fine, dear."

"Yeah, I'm sure." Carter nodded absently.

The secretary returned to her desk after that and Carter sipped at her water here and there, still shocked at the revelation she had just received. She knew the school was employed by a shocking amount of SHIELD agents, all equipped to protect the children and keep an eye on the increasingly frequent adolescent superheroes coming out of the school. That made it even more unbelievable that Laynie had been kidnapped. She was snatched right out from under their noses.

The door swung open, and Carter's head snapped up in time to see Bruce and Steve enter the room. Steve went to speak to the secretary while Bruce came to kneel in front of Carter. "Are you alright?" Bruce asked, taking her hand in his.

Carter nodded once. "I'm okay."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded again. "Just- just worried."

Bruce squeezed her hand. "It's going to be alright. Don't worry. We'll find her."

Carter moved her gaze from her lap to Bruce. "I hope you're right."