I am trying to stick close to the movie, however some things are going to change. It will be mostly from Claire's point of view. When it does switch I will label it. Claire is my character, the rest belong to Marvel.…
Claire POV:
"Shall we play, doctor?" Tony spoke, gesturing out the door to Bruce. I rubbed my eyes and stood up from the table.
"Are we done here?" I asked impatiently. Fury gave me a dirty look but nodded. He was starting to get on my nerves, and I on his. This was clear to me, part of me wondered why he even bothered temporarily assigning me to the Avengers team. I took this as my dismissal and left the room. My footsteps were silent in the hallway. Natasha followed first, then Steve, and finally Thor. Natasha's footsteps were light like mine. Steve's footsteps were also quiet, but not as much as mine or Tasha's. Thor's footsteps were heavy and seemed to echo off the walls.
"Are you going to the med bay?" Natasha asked me. I sighed to myself knowing if I didn't go, she would force me. I glanced back before speaking.
"Yes, and then to my room, mom," I joked, grinning to her. She rolled her blue-green eyes at me. I glanced back at her, laughing a little at the on-going joke we had together.
"If Clint isn't here to take care of you, who will?" She snapped playfully before turning off into the hallway that lead to the cafeteria. She would never admit it, but she ate constantly.
"Claire, do you mind if I walk you to the medical bay?" Steve asked shyly. I smiled softly at him.
"Sure," I replied. I paused for a moment before speaking again. "You were really great out there."
"Thanks," He blushed soft pink. He looked adorable when he blushed. No, Claire, don't think about that. "I didn't know you could do that stuff that you did out there."
"Yea," I nodded, looking down as we walked. I focused on the laces of my boots. Brown, dirty, coming untied.
"I'd still like to know what it was that you did," Steve ducked his head down some to get a better look at my face. When I didn't look up at him, he gently pulled my chin up with his hand. "Maybe you can tell me after dinner?"
"Sure," I nodded and shrugged. "I guess if I'm on the team, you need to know."
"Claire, it's not like that," Steve spoke quickly. He was backtracking. "I want you to tell me because you want me to know. Not because you think that I have to know."
I stopped in front of the doors to the med bay. I mentally yelled at myself for even thinking that Captain Steven G. Rogers was good looking. Looking up at Steve, I smiled softly and lied. "I want you to know. Guess this is my stop. Thank you for the walk, Steve."
Quickly, I ducked into the med bay before he could say anything else. I felt bad about lying to him. I did not want him to know, but he deserved to as we were going to be on the same team. He stood at the door for a moment more, mouth open like he didn't know what just happened, before waving through the glass and walking away. A nurse ordered me to sit while he ran tests and got the doctor. After having countless flashlight pens shone in my face, I was allowed to leave with an extra strength aspirin to take with dinner. The doctor found no signs of trauma (other than a few bruises), so I was able to leave with a nearly clean bill of health. I almost skipped back to my room knowing that Natasha and Steve worried for no reason. Once in my room, I pulled my clothes off; they stuck to me like a second skin. The shower was burning hot when I stepped into the spray of water. It massaged my muscles and scalded my skin. After massaging a generous amount of shampoo and conditioner into my hair, I scrubbed my face and body. With a scowl, I finished my shower and stepped out to dry myself off. The air hit me like a snowball and I quickly dressed. After dressing again, I decided to go find Dr. Banner and Tony to see if they made any headway.
When I finally made it to the lab, I found not only Bruce and Tony, but Steve as well. They looked like they were arguing and I frowned to myself. We would never be a team at this rate, not with all the bickering.
"You're tiptoeing, Big Man. You need to strut," Tony spoke. I shook my head, peeking into the room.
"Knock, knock," I spoke up. "Please don't strut, I don't think my eyes could handle it, Tony." My joke caused both Steve and Bruce to chuckle. I smiled and leaned against a counter by Steve. Tony narrowed his eyes at me, before turning back to Steve.
"Not me!" Tony exclaimed. He pointed to Bruce, "Him!"
"No offense Bruce, but I don't want to see you strut either," I admitted, leaning against a table by Steve.
"You just want to see Capsicle, don't you?" Tony teased. I opened my mouth to give him a smart ass reply, but Steve cut me off.
"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark," Steve scolded.
"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables," Tony spoke, grabbing a silver wrapped package from a table behind Bruce.
"He does have a point, Steve," I spoke, looking up at him.
"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve raised his eyebrow, looking between me and Tony.
"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets," Tony countered. I nodded a little.
"Fury wouldn't have brought me in for just a missing person, even if it is my brother. Something bigger is about to happen, I can feel it," I defended Tony. Tony popped food into his mouth before he spoke again.
"It's bugging him too, isn't it," He pointed to Bruce, talking with his mouth full. I rolled my eyes, picked up a pen and threw it at Tony.
"We aren't children, close your mouth when you talk," I scoffed. Tony stuck it tongue out at me before Bruce spoke.
"Uh… I just wanna finish my work here and…" Bruce stammered, not meeting anyone's eyes. I raised my eyebrow, glancing to Steve.
"Doctor," Steve questioned.
"'A warm light for all mankind to share', Loki's jab at Fury about the cube," Bruce spoke. He took off his glasses halfway through his sentence, rubbing them clean with his shirt. He still refused to meet anyone's eyes. A frown crept onto my lips.
"I heard it. We all heard it," Steve's eyes narrowed a little. He looked like he was trying to figure everything out. I pursued my lips in the frown and looked back to Bruce. He gestured to Tony before continuing.
"Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn't post that all over the news." Tony held the package of food out to me as Bruce spoke. Curiosity got the better of me and I glanced to see what he was eating. Shrugging, I let him roll a few dried blueberries into my palm and then looked to Bruce. Tony then held the package out to Bruce, who took some of the snack as well.
"The Stark Tower? That big ugly…building in New York?" Steve trailed off slightly as Tony gave him a stern look. I nodded a little, piecing the puzzle together.
"It's powered by Stark Reactors, self sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" Bruce continued, looking at Tony. He started to fiddle with his watch.
"That's just the prototype," Tony shrugged. He was bragging about himself, I rolled my eyes. It was a very Tony-like thing to do. "I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now."
"So why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project?" Bruce gestured to Tony again. He had a point, I rubbed my temples as my head started to pound. I just wanted to eat and go to bed. Steve looked as if he was confused and trying to put the pieces together as well. He wasn't getting as far as I was. Upon seeing my temple rubs, Steve laid a gentle hand on my shoulder. His hand was gone almost instantly as Tony and Bruce looked back to us. "I mean, What are they doing in the energy business in the first place?"
"You're right," I frowned, biting my lip. "If SHIELD wanted energy, they would go to the source, AKA Tony. Unless, they wanted to keep it a secret, which is the opposite of Tony. Then that brings up the question of why."
"I should probably look into that once my decryption program finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files," Tony shrugged casually.
"I'm sorry, did you say…?" Steve's eyes widened. I snapped my head towards Tony.
"What?" I nearly growled. Instantly, my mood shifted from putting up with Tony, to disliking him. I did not want Tony to know everything that Fury knew about me.
"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide," Tony spoke like he had just won first place at a science fair. Casually, Tony held the package of dried fruit out to Steve. "Blueberry?"
"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?" Steve spoke, his back straight. He didn't even give Tony a reply.
"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Historically not possible," Tony argued. Steve rolled his eyes and turned his head away for a moment. This was something I had seen Clint do many times before. Mostly before he lost his temper.
"I get where you're coming from, Tony, but this is not the way to do it. Some of the things Fury keeps from us…" I trailed off. I was trying to reason as I stepped between Steve and Tony. I could feel a fight coming along. Bruce was staying quiet, suddenly finding interest in the pen in his right hand and his glasses in his left hand. I contemplated the best way to end the sentence I had started. "Is for the best. Will you just trust me on this one, Tony?"
"Like you're one to talk! You and Fury butt heads at every turn. I would have assumed that you would have wanted to know all of his secrets." Tony's reply was almost funny. I felt Steve's warm hand brush against my shoulder blades.
"Why do you want to know them so badly?" I questioned, my own temperature rising. I forced myself to take a deep breath and try to stay calm.
"Why don't you want me to know them?" Tony raised his own voice to meet mine.
"I don't need you, or anyone else for that matter, to know my life story! Clint's family adopted a freak, okay? Leave it at that!" I yelled. My eyes burned with unshed tears. Steve set a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to comfort me. I sighed louder than I would have liked to and hung my head. I couldn't face any of them. It took all my willpower not to cry.
"I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if don't stay focused, he'll succeed," Steve spoke calmly, looking between me, Tony, and Bruce. Bruce made eye contact with him and nodded slightly before looking away. He was avoiding my gaze and I was avoiding everyone else's. "We have orders, we should follow them."
"Following is not really my style," Tony shrugged slightly, popping a dried blueberry into his mouth. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve frowned at him. His expression was impatient.
"Of the people in this room, which one is; A: wearing a spangly outfit, and A: not of use?" Tony said in a smart ass tone of voice. As he listed off 'A' and 'B' he counted on his fingers. I glanced up to Steve and then to Bruce as he spoke.
"Steve, Claire, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?" Bruce questioned. He leaned over the table a little, resting his palms flat on the surface.
"I'm done," I spoke, turning on my heel to leave the room. I was ready to punch Tony Stark in the face. I could hear Steve close behind me.
"Just find the cube," Steve commanded following me out the door. "Claire, wait up, please. I'd like to talk."
I slowed my steps to let him catch up. As soon as he had caught up to me, I began to walk again. Taking a deep breath, I spoke first, "What did you want to talk about?"
"Let's grab a coffee from the Mess Hall and go someplace more private to talk, okay?" He looked down at me, waiting for my reply. I nodded my head, content to walk in silence. Luckily for us, the Mess Hall was close by and, thankfully, empty. Steve grabbed two to-go cups from a stack and handed one to me. He poured himself a black coffee and held it out to me, as if he was offering it to me. With a quick shake of my head, I reached for the hot water I quickly filled mine with water and milk before slowly dunking my tea bag into it. After a sprinkle of sugar, Steve and I began to walk again.
During this walk, Steve took the lead. I followed, completely lost as he twisted down the hallways. He led us to a hallway with a single door at the end. I furrowed my brows, but followed him anyway. Without a word, he punched a few numbers into a key pad and the door slide open. Inside of the room was a love seat and two armchairs to sit in. They were huddled around a small, wooden coffee table. Two tiny shelves rested against the wall in a corner. I looked to Steve, who was watching my reaction.
"What is this place?" I asked, looking around.
"An unfinished work lounge," He answered, sitting in an armchair. I followed his suit and sat in the armchair across from him. "Fury needed the carrier faster than he thought. Some of the rooms were left half-finished."
"Oh," I dumbly answered. I stared at my to-go cup lid, not wanting to face him.
"Claire, I just want to talk, but it takes two to do that," Steve said softly. His tone of voice was calming.
"What do you want to talk about?" I looked up, meeting his eyes.