Even though Bruce wasn't even "that kind of doctor" he somehow found himself supervising the recovery of SHIELD's latest alien marvel.

And he was undoubtedly alien - his lungs were over a fourth larger than they should have been, and all his other organs had been systematically rearranged and/or reduced in size to compensate, including the fact that he only had one kidney.

And one had not been removed - he simply had never had a second one.

To add to the list of Reasons Alien-Named-Murut is Definitely an Alien, his blood contained high amounts of benzene - a chemical compound that had no business in anyone's bloodstream.

But there it was, chugging along through Murut's veins seeming perfectly at home, the ill effects it should be causing to the humanoid body nonexistent.

In short, Bruce had no idea what to do with the man. Medicines were out of the question - considering Murut had what was basically poison rushing through him, there was no telling what substances might actually be toxic to him.

After three days they had risked a mild painkiller and some light sedatives, after a lot of testing done to Murut's blood, and thankfully there had been no bad reactions. Still, they were reluctant to try anything more.

A week after Steve, Tony and Natasha had dragged the alien into the med-wing, the man finally woke up properly, fairly lucid (unlike the last few times he had woken up. They'd had to manhandle him back onto his cot more than once) and actually able to have a meaningful conversation with Steve.

Of course, that had been during the two hours Bruce had run to shower and have a decent meal for the first time in that entire stretch, so he missed it. But at least Murut hadn't been alone…

Clint had returned from his own mission three hours ago, and had been sort of filled in. Now he, Bruce, Tony, Natasha and Steve stood in the hall outside of Murut's room, more or less arguing.

"Let me get this straight," Clint folded his arms. "There's an alien in there who barley a week ago had over a hundred Hydra agents eaten alive by rats?"

Tony shrugged. "Sounds about right."

Clint scowled. "And he has this flute that somehow made it happen?"

"We're still not sure how the flute works," Steve reminded. "We know he was somehow communicating with the rats through it, but Bruce has been unable to run any tests on it due that we don't want to risk taking it far from Murut's reach."

"My point exactly!" Clint tossed his hands up. "He brutally murdered a bunch of guys with that thing and you're letting him sleep with it like a teddy bear?"

"I don't like it either, Clint." Natasha cut in. "But," she sighed. "In the alien's defence, those Hydra agents apparently had him locked up for seventeen years."

"And from the looks of it," Steve added. "They spent that time torturing him."

Clint grimaced, but didn't relent. "That doesn't mean we can trust him. He's an… an alien!"

"So's Thor." Steve reminded.

"Yeah, and so's Loki." Tony said. "Look how he came out."

"Thank you, Tony!" Clint waved an arm at the billionaire, almost elbowing Natasha in the face.

Stepping out of Clint's striking range, Natasha frowned. "I suppose it's not so much us trusting him as it is him trusting us."

"Why do we care if he trusts us or not?"

"Guys!" Bruce interjected. "You all have points, okay? But now is not the time for you to bring them up!"

"Don't tell me you are siding with them." Clint complained. "I swear to god, it's like you've all gone crazy or something."

"Bruce is right," Steve decided. "We don't need to be arguing right now - Murut should wake up again soon, and we all need to have clear heads."

"Clear heads!?" Clint cried. "That alien could possibly kill us all and you wanna go in there and introduce ourselves and ask to be pals?"

"Well, technically he's already been introduced to Steve." Tony said.

"Tony," Natasha sighed. "Shut up."

"Rude!"

"Guys!" Bruce tried again, rubbing his eyes - all their shouting was giving him a headache. "We don't have time for this!"

"Make time for it!" Clint retorted. "If we are going to chat up Mr. Alien in there, I'd like to know what the hell we plan to get out of it!"

"He has a point." Natasha muttered.

"Okay, okay!" Steve said. "Just calm down, and I'll tell you - hey! I said calm down not pull your hair out!"

Tony looked to Bruce. "How long until the alien wakes up?"

Bruce pursed his lips. "About half an hour."

"Yeah…" Tony droned. "We might wanna pump some more sedatives into him. I think this is gonna take awhile."

Bruce sighed, long and heavy. "You're probably right. I'll see if I can't add another hour onto our timeline…"