8. Debrief
Natasha loaded the report from the mission onto a tablet and placed the tablet on the treadmill in front of Maria Hill. Without breaking stride she began to read, while Natasha took a seat on a nearby weight bench to watch. Not that there was much to see, Maria as expert as she was at setting her features in a neutral expression. Even the exertion of running would have appeared to be only mild, if not for the sweat shimmering on her forehead and chest.
Until her pace abruptly sped up.
"I take it you got to the part where Loki's scepter wasn't in the Fridge," Natasha said.
Maria said nothing, but ran faster.
"Which means Hydra has it."
Maria's feet pounded, breath coming harder and then erratic, until her long strides carried her off the treadmill and across the mats to the punching bag.
As she watched her attack it, Natasha refrained from pointing out that she wasn't wearing gloves; God only knew she'd been in Maria's gym shoes enough times. Clearly, she hadn't adapted to working in the private sector as completely or as easily as she wanted everyone to believe-and a small part of Natasha was relieved to see it.
Maria finished pounding the bag and stepped away from it, shaking her knuckles, then bent with her hands on her knees to catch her breath. Straightening up again, she smoothed her disheveled dark hair back from her face and re-tied her ponytail, then went back to the treadmill, took a long drink from her water bottle, wiped her face and neck on a white towel.
"Sorry about that," her slightly winded voice broke the silence as she approached, tablet in hand.
"No apology necessary." Natasha started to stand, the height difference between them already significant enough when she wasn't sitting down, but Maria lowered herself onto the bench.
"It was good work, Romanoff." She offered the tablet.
Natasha took it. "And Banner."
"Everything went alright with him? I mean, obviously it did, you both got out of the Fridge with that. But…he was okay?"
Natasha considered her reply. "There was a moment when he had me a little worried, but we-"
She caught herself, struck with the sudden vivid memory of what occurred between them. Of the way her fingers curled around his wrist, not completely encircling it...Of the franticness of pulse against the pad of her thumb, like a wild animal in a cage at first, then gradually relaxing, trusting...And, of all details to recall, the softness of the hair that grew thickly over the back of his arm.
Although Maria was looking at Natasha, waiting for her to continue, it felt wrong to speak of any of this. Not an invasion of Bruce's privacy exactly; more like divulging an intimacy.
"He worked through it," she said. "He was okay. Great, in fact. Couldn't have done it without him."
"I'll go thank him myself after this." Maria drank from her water bottle again. "I assume he's in the lab?"
"Probably a safe bet. He had an idea for how to possibly track the scepter's location. He wanted to consult the research he and Stark did when we had it on the Helicarrier. Nothing that sounded like English to me."
"Did Fury ever tell you why he sent you, specifically, to recruit Banner?"
Natasha was prepared to talk with Maria about the future-of SHIELD, or the Avengers, she didn't know which-not to reminisce about the past. Now, she thought of what Bruce said when she asked him to come with her to the Fridge: You have kind of a good track record when it comes into talking me into going along with your schemes. His word choice made her bristle, even as she remembered it had been hers, too, uttered in that seductive tone that seldom failed her. I'll persuade you. But it failed her that time. Dr. Bruce Banner was no fool.
"Why me?" she asked, curious where Maria was going with this in spite of being suspicious of the abrupt change of subject. It wasn't the first time either. Although she was grateful the Fridge mission gave her something concrete to channel her mental and physical energy into, a thought nagged at the back of her mind about the timing. Had Maria used it to distract her from the questions about Agent Coulson's girlfriend? Fury would have. Or maybe Maria truly had no answers.
"When the Hulk went on his big rampage back in 2010," she began, "our agents on the ground observed he had a particular response to General Ross' daughter, Betty. He didn't hurt her. In fact the opposite was true. He protected her. On some level, he must have recognized her, or Banner was able to exert control over the Hulk."
Natasha shrugged. "Makes sense. The Big Guy fought alongside the Avengers. He saved Stark. They share a brain, even if the Hulk's is more primitive. He likes who Bruce likes."
And disliked who Bruce disliked. Thank God he'd changed his mind about her. Both of them.
She gave another shrug. "He and Betty were together."
"Not at the time. In fact she was dating someone else."
"Are you saying Fury thought maybe the Hulk just needed a woman's touch?" Natasha stood, folded her arms across her chest, tablet still clutched in one hand, fingernails boring into the rubbery case. "Beauty and the Beast?"
"It was just a hunch."
"Not a very good one. Bruce didn't trust me then. I'm not sure he trusts me very much more now."
He definitely wouldn't if he knew Fury's methods-and now Maria's-included exploiting his romantic history. After all, his first reaction to her touch had been to flinch away from her. If he'd looked at her pleadingly, it was because he was desperate. He'd looked at her that way before he transformed on the Helicarrier, too.
"You just said the two of you worked through a near-incident at the Fridge," Mary said.
"He was still himself. It wasn't exactly Hulk whispering."
"In any case, you guys made a pretty good team. Fury was right about that."
"Speaking of teams," Natasha said, "do the Avengers need to assemble to find the scepter?"
Maria pushed to her feet, stooping to gather her towel and water bottle, lips pressed together into a colorless line. "Not yet. Not without leads."
Natasha's jaw tensed, and her brows drew together. As if she hadn't spent her life finding leads?
"Like I said…" She spoke deliberately, trying to keep her cool, not to let her frustration show. "Banner's going to see if he can find any way to trace it. And there's a chance Rogers' search for Bucky Barnes might lead him to Hydra cells."
"I'll see what I can find."
"I thought your lawyers advised you to cut SHIELD ties?"
"Yeah, well...looks like I'll have to ignore it, huh?"
Maria turned and strode to the door. As she reached for the handle when Natasha called out, "Say hi to Nick for me."
"What makes you think I'm in contact with Fury?"
Natasha shrugged. "You must be, because you're starting to sound just like him."
"Fee-fi-fum-fo, I smell the curiosity of my science bro."
"I think it's fo before fum," Bruce replied, not turning from his screen to look at Tony's face on the one behind him.
"Except after c? I'd tell you about how I don't know these nursery rhymes like all the other boys and girls-"
"It's not a nursery rhyme. It's Jack and the Beanstalk."
"-because Daddy didn't spend enough time with me, but that would just put you to sleep."
Bruce pulled off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "You are never letting me off the hook for that, are you?"
"Never ever."
Tucking his glasses into his lab coat pocket, he faced the video chat screen and Tony's smirk. Going by the ivory leather upholstery behind him, was calling from his plane.
"I am giving you access to those files JARVIS tells me you're looking for," he went on, "so. There's that. JARVIS? Change the security settings on the files about Loki's scepter to include Bruce."
"Settings changed, sir. Dr. Banner, here are the files you requested."
"Thank you, JARVIS." Bruce started to return to his monitors, which now revealed a new set of folders, but glanced back at Tony's screen. "I guess you're waiting for me to remark on your benevolence."
Tony made a dismissive sound. "I'd settle for knowing why the sudden interest in the glowing pimp cane."
"Oh…just a random thought I had about the scepter's energy signature. You know me and my tangents."
"I know you and your inability to lie convincingly. We've really got to work on that, Banner."
Bruce pursed his lips against the pull of a smile. If only Tony knew just how many members of the US Air Force he'd very convincingly lied to.
"So what have you been up to? Missing me?"
"Something fierce," Bruce murmured, reaching up to select one of the new files that appeared on his screen.
"I'd say I sense sarcasm in your tone, but I know that's just how you cope with your feelings. How's it going with Little Miss Muffet?"
"Kind of reaching there with the spider reference, aren't you?" Bruce looked back again to see Tony rubbing his chin as he considered this.
"Hm. I guess that would work better for you. Along came a spider, and sat down beside her, and frightened Miss-"
"What were you just saying about nursery rhymes and your daddy issues?" Bruce said. Before Tony could retort, he went on, "To answer your question, Natasha's great. We went on an undercover mission together."
Tony shook his head. "This is worse than I feared. I knew you'd be bored without me, but I didn't think you'd go out of your mind with it, fantasizing about life as a super spy-Wait. Is that what this is? An actual fantasy fantasy?"
The next moment was dizzying-in a figurative sense, as Bruce's head spun with the thought that his mind had drifted more than once since yesterday to the delicate tickle of Natasha's fingers encircling his wrist, the stroke of her thumb over his pulse-and in a literal one, as Tony disappeared from the frame when Pepper snatched the tablet from him.
"I'd say you have to excuse him, Bruce," she said over Tony's protests in the background-If it is, that's okay, I'd be glad to know you've moved on-"but at this point, that goes pretty much without saying, doesn't it?"
Bruce nodded. "How was Portland?"
Pepper's expression was more serious than he'd expected for a question he'd meant to be innocuous. "Portland was...interesting. I need to talk to Natasha about it, actually..."
She seemed to be thinking out loud rather than to be talking to Bruce, but then her eyes snapped back to his on the screen, and she smiled. "Audrey's doing better, though. We convinced her to come to California with us-she says hi, by the way-" She moved the tablet toward the brunette seated next to her; Audrey gave a shy wave, which Bruce returned. "She's meeting with a record exec Tony knows...So, you may have new music to listen to in the lab soon."
"That's great," Bruce said. "You guys are on the way there now?"
Tony commandeered the tablet again, while Pepper and Audrey resumed their own conversation. "Yeah...Think you can hang in there without me a few more days?"
"Gee, Tony, I don't know. It's not like I ever lived on my own before."
"Clinginess," Tony said, getting up from his seat. "That's what I'm talking about."
The women's voices receded into the background as he carried the tablet to the other end of the plane, standing it on the bar while he poured himself a drink.
"This whole thing with Audrey hits pretty close to home. Pepper doesn't really want me to go back to New York just yet."
Bruce knew what Tony was saying without actually saying it.
"Totally understandable," he said, voice a little tight as he felt a twinge in his chest. "Take as long as you need. Don't worry about me. I've got enough to keep me occupied."
"Yeah, please tell me more about the spy fantasies. Actually, that reminds me." Tony paused to take a drink.
"It's always so alarming when things remind you," Bruce said, returning to his workstation. "Especially when the trigger is fantasies."
"Not fantasies, spies. That's what Pepper wants to talk to Charlotte about. Better spider reference?"
"Much."
"Thanks. Anyway, SHIELD's still up and running. Well, maybe not up. More under. Ground, that is, but. They were last seen in Portland, by our friend Audrey."
"I assume the version Pepper's going to give Natasha will have fewer plot holes," Bruce said, leaning back against the edge of his desk. Hopefully just saying her name wouldn't get Tony started again. Just in case, he moved swiftly along: "Why are you telling me all this at all?"
Tony shrugged and swallowed his drink. "Isn't that what friends do?"
"Dr. Banner," JARVIS' voice interrupted the conversation, "Maria Hill is outside and wishes to speak to you, if it's convenient."
"Wants to speak to him?" Tony pointed at Bruce. "Why? She's my employ-Oh my God. You weren't lying about going undercover, were you?"
"Send her in, JARVIS." Bruce cleared the data from his screens and shrugged out of his lab coat, remembering to retrieve his glasses from the pocket before he draped it over his chair; he wasn't going to get any more work done this afternoon, and he had a sudden craving for eggplant parmigiana. "See you later, Tony."
"Wait, can you give her a message from me?"
Bruce raised an eyebrow at the video chat screen. "What's that?"
"It's impossible to serve two masters."
Bruce snorted. "I'm pretty sure that refers to God and money, not SHIELD and Tony Stark. Although come to think of it, SHIELD does kind of play God…" The Fridge, and its contents-or lack thereof-were proof of that.
"I rest my case," said Tony, and disconnected the call.