Once again Penny found herself sat around that familiar round table with the team that she had come to know as the Avengers. She took a seat in between Tony and Steve while Thor sat awkwardly on the end by Natasha. She flashed the red head a smile when she noticed that she was studying her. Holding her hand up she made an 'ok' signal to her, Natasha smiled slightly and nodded once. Penny had to remind herself to tell her how pretty she looked when she smiled.
"Avengers, this is agent Clint Barton." He gestured to a man with short blondey coloured hair, he held his hand up and waved it slightly, "Otherwise known as 'Hawkeye'." He dropped his hand back to the table and looked to the director.
"I believe you all understand what happened aboard the helicarrier yesterday?" He questioned, yesterday? Was I really out that long? Penny nodded when she saw everyone else do that same, in reality, she had no idea what happened; all she knew was that Loki had escaped. Planning quickly she decided to ask Steve about it later, for now all she really wanted was answers.
"Can we skip ahead to the part where you tell me why the hell I'm here? I believe we almost got there last time, but there was a slight problem as I recall." She waved her hand nonchalantly, feeling the director's eye on her she let it drop lamely as she looked around to the others.
"Thank you, Miss Green. And yes, you will be glad to know, that is what we are here for." He stood up and paced, "As we discussed before, Dr John Henson has been taken hostage because of the Extremis project." Penny flinched and Tony grabbed her hand in his.
"However, as we know Dr Henson wasn't the one who developed it; Miss Green here did. So now we have a problem." He looked over Penny, she wasn't much. A small framed woman with auburn hair and big, bright green eyes; freckles sprinkled across her nose. If he had to pick a bio – technologist out of a group of people, she would be the last. She just looked too normal.
"Problem, sir?" Bruce pulled him out of his trance as he began pacing again.
"Dr Henson was captured for the Extremis virus; we believe that his captures wanted to use the virus in some way. They wanted him to recreate it for them." Penny paled; she knew what was coming before he even said it. "Only he couldn't reproduce it, it would seem that the only person, who knows how to do it, is currently holding Mr Stark's hand."
Everyone turned to her, Tony kept his gaze on the director while Penny focused on a piece of glass that had been left on the table. She could feel the Mac n Cheese turning in her stomach, threatening to make an appearance. Bruce glanced at their hands, while Steve clenched his fists. Why couldn't people just leave Dr Erksine's formula alone?
"We have a video, which was recently sent to us from the captors. I understand if you don't wish to watch it Miss Gre-"
"No, I think I need to." Her grip tightened on Tony's hand as she prepared herself to see the people who had tipped her life on its head. Fury nodded and pulled up a video on the screen at the front.
The room in the video looked dirty and blood stained. Sat at the front was a man with a bag over his head, looking to his arms and legs it was clear that he was tied to the chair; to either side two men stood holding guns. They ripped the bag off the man's face and he squinted at the light adjustment. John.
Penny gasped when she took in his appearance, he was bloodied and bruised; a large cut on his face was bleeding and looked slightly infected. The man who was holding a gun to John's head spoke first, his face had a mask over it and had been blurred.
"We have come to understand that Dr Henson didn't produce the Extremis serum. John here," He shoved the gun roughly against his head. "has informed us that it was instead his partner, Miss Penelope Green that created it."
The man on the right spoke next, "We have decided to give you fair warning, a warning that we are no longer acting alone." He looked to behind the camera as an all too familiar face walked to stand behind John.
Everyone tensed as he began to speak, "I hear the beast is quite fond of the mortal," Loki began quietly, looking directly into the camera. Penny could feel her skin crawl under his gaze and shuffled in her seat. "The Iron Man too. This virus could prove to be, useful, to say the least, in my plan. So I offer you a bargain."
He took the gun from the shortest man, "The bargain is this Penelope;" He whispered, placing the gun against the side of John's head. "Hand yourself over and make the serum, and I will let you live." He cocked the gun and Penny stood up, clutching Tony's hand for dear life.
"If you fail to hand yourself over within a week, then we will come for you. And this," He looked to John and then to the camera again. His finger moved against the trigger as a loud shot echoed through Penny's ears; the tears started falling. John's body slumped and was shoved aside as Loki walked to sit where John had sat only moments ago.
"will be your fate too." He smirked maliciously and licked his lips, "Seven days, pretty Penny. And we will come for you." He snarled and the screen faded to black.
Penny slumped in her seat and stared at the table top. How had it come to this? John had just been killed, and for what? For a project. For a paper that had his name on it when it should have been hers. She should have published it herself; she shouldn't have let John put himself forward for it. She shouldn't have –
She felt Steve place one of his large hands on her shoulder.
Thor sucked in a breath, "What are you asking us to do?" Fury turned to the Asgardian and replied with six simple words, "What are you prepared, to do?" He swept the room, all of the people in the room looked solemn.
"I made a promise to Penny," Bruce spoke, "I promised I wouldn't leave her when that time came for her to know why she was here." He fiddled with his glasses, and glanced at her "I plan to keep that promise."
Tony smiled sadly and clapped Bruce on the shoulder, "I'm with Bruce, with Iron Man and the Hulk, I doubt anyone will be getting their hands on her anytime soon." He finished with a mischievous smirk before Thor stood up.
"And a God. Lady Penelope shall not come to harm under my watch." Penny could feel a silent tear roll down her cheek as the two assassins nodded in agreement and Steve replaced his hand on her shoulder; "Penny can count on us, always can." He smiled down at the girl as she tried to smile through the tears.
Fury nodded and sat down, "Good answer gentlemen, Miss Green is now in your care." He turned to the shaken Penny, "Miss Green, you are no longer in the care of S.H.I.E.L.D. Instead you are free to-"
"She's free to be taken into the care of me," Tony interrupted, "and the other of course. You can stay at Stark tower with me and Pepper." Penny opened her mouth to argue but he held a finger up to stop her.
"No arguing, Bruce is coming too so you won't feel like a gooseberry." He looked to his other team mates, "Of course, everyone else will be coming too. Even Cap-sicle." He smirked at Steve whose brow furrowed in annoyance.
Penny nodded numbly as she tried to take it all in at once, "You're all dismissed. You'll all be updated on Loki and the Tesseract when we have more information. For now though, I want you all to be on guard. We'll be landing in about an hour, there will be a car to take you to Stark tower. I want you all to check in before the day is out. That means everyday gentlemen, okay?" Everyone stood up to leave, "Okay?" Everyone nodded and left silently, Thor and Steve took turns to hug her before they nodded and left down the hallway to pack.
Penny leant up against the wall outside the room; the cold steel made her shiver as fresh tears began to flow freely. Bruce was scratching the stubble on his chin when Tony turned to face the girl, her eyes we red and her face had crystal like tears running down her face. He quickly pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her frame; he rubbed her back gently with one hand.
She couldn't describe his smell as anything but 'Tony'. He smelt like him; and it was comforting. One hand was rubbing her back gently and she let out a strangled sob into his chest, his grip tightened on her slightly at the sound. He dipped his head to his ear and began to sooth her. "Hey shhh…"
"It's okay, nothing is going to happen to you. Okay? Nothing. We won't let it." He whispered gently, his facial hair tickled her cheek and she nodded silently against his chest. Was she putting her friends at risk? What if something were to happen to one of them while protecting her? What about the Tesseract? What would John's family be told? Surely not the truth…
Bruce stood there awkwardly as Tony consoled Penny; he shifted from foot to foot and rearranged his sleeves, rolling them up to his elbows.
"Miss Potts is calling you sir," A voice Bruce had come to know as J.A.R.V.I.S sounded from Tony's pocket. Tony quickly looked to Bruce and passed him a broken looking Penny; he held an arm out and placed it around her shoulder. Her arms snaked around his neck while she buried her head into the crook of his neck, his remaining arm came around her waist.
She felt calmer, her sobs had stopped and a few stray tears remained on her cheeks. It didn't stop the small blush creeping on her face when she realised how close her and Bruce were. He could feel his face heat up and his body felt like all his nerves had been set alight, his thumb absentmindedly stoked her lower back as he listened to Tony talk to Pepper on the phone.
"Yes Pepper I'm sure she'd love to be tortured by a day shopping with you." He groaned and continued, "No, of course I didn't mean it. Anyway, we should be there in a few hours;" Peppers voice could be heard on the other side of the phone.
"We? The team. I'll explain everything when we get there, just, make sure the rooms are ready okay?"
He grinned, "Love you too, oh and by the way…" He looked at Bruce and Penny and turned around, lowering his voice. "I got you a present."
The phone snapped shut and he turned to face his two new friends and team mates. Penny had her hands lightly resting on Bruce's pecs, her head resting on his chest; her crying seemed to have died out, for now at least anyway. Bruce's arms had rested around her waist while his cheek rested on the top of her head. Both sets of eyes were closed in peace.
Tony grabbed his phone out of his pocket and aimed it at the pair; they jumped apart when they heard the shutter of a camera. "What?" They stared at him blankly, he nodded and grinned. "Don't worry; you'll thank me one day. For now though," He looked at his phone and turned it around for them to look at. "I think you two look adorable. Or should I say adorkable? And I think I've just found myself a new background…" He winked and walked off.
"I'll meet you after packing!" He shouted over his shoulder.
Penny sucked in a deep breath and nodded to Bruce, this was the second time she had cried in front of him and to be honest, she felt kind of like a weak little girl.
"We should probably go pack…" She mumbled quietly, sniffing and wiping her eyes as she did. Bruce nodded. "Uh, yeah…" Penny smiled and pointed to his shirt, "I got your shirt all wet." She laughed slightly at how cliché it sounded, but carried on laughing anyway.
"It's okay," He smiled at her as they stared to walk down the corridor. "I've got a fair few, the other guy seems to like ruining them for me." He laughed awkwardly at the joke and messed his hair slightly with his hand.
Penny giggled and placed her hand on the door handle, "I'll meet you down there?" He nodded and smiled, "Yeah…" He smiled and walked away before turning back around and stopping in front of her again. "Are you uh, I mean are you-" He stuttered before Penny placed a hand on his forearm.
"I'll be fine, could do with a few minutes alone to be honest." He nodded and walked back off down the hallway. He heard the door to Penny's room shut and he grinned to himself, remembering how it felt to have her close to him in his arms.
He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, fishing it out he opened the new text message from Tony, 'Thought this might look good as your wallpaper for your phone. You can owe me later.' He scrolled down and clicked on the attached file.
The image of Penny wrapped in his arms appeared on his screen, their eyes were closed and a small smile graced her lips. Bruce snickered and clicked 'Set as wallpaper' quickly. He grinned and placed the phone back in his pocket, the image of him and Penny fresh in his mind.
My inbox is literally filling up with emails from you guys saying that you've subbed and favourited, so I think I owe you all a HUGE thanks. This story wouldn't be anything without you.
Poor John! Poor Penny! And what is Loki planning? I suppose I could tell you…But I won't. You'll just have to keep reading to find out! ;)
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