A/N: Argh, looks like I'm overdue again! Sorry about that… this time I just did not have time to upload. Hope you enjoy this though!
I'm sitting in the medical ward, getting attention for the various cuts and bruises that I got during the fight. They don't hurt a lot - and to be honest I've been through much, much worse - but Bruce had insisted that I get treatment. When I asked whether he was going to do it, he had refused, saying that he needed to start working as an excuse. I know that he just needs time to think. It's probably a first for him, not being able to unleash the Other Guy when he wants to. I had better go talk to him.
After convincing the nurses that I'm ok, I walk to the lab. I'm very familiar with the layout now, and could probably find rooms blindfolded. It's been a couple months since I've arrived. I knock before entering the lab. Inside, Tony and Bruce are doing various complicated things on the computer. "Hi," I say, hesitantly entering. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if this is the right time. The madman is still on the loose, and is a very real threat. That should be a first priority.
But what the heck.
"Can I talk to you for a second?" I ask to Bruce.
"Secrets already? Since when have you two become that close?" Tony asks playfully. He still leaves the room for us. As he passes me, he says, "Don't take it too hard if he says no. He's still not ready for relationships." I stick my tongue out at him and push him out the door. We are on close terms now. Once, when there was a problem at S.H.I.E.L.D. (nothing big, just the risk of some leaked identities), and I had had to crash at his house for a couple weeks. Apparently, it had the best security and his identity had no danger of being revealed. We became close then, much of it thanks to Pepper's insisting. I owe her one for that. What with the weekly outing – dinner (disguised, of course, for fear of gossip) or the occasional movie – it was hard not to become friendly. And living together always lets you know the deeper side of a person.
"Hi," I repeat to Bruce. It's a bit of a hard topic to broach. I decide to skip words and instead give him the container I've been keeping in my pocket. He fingers it curiously.
"What's this?" he finally asks.
"It's a bit of the chemical left from the smoke. I took it before those _ cleared the area. I thought... um... I thought..." I fumble for words. What exactly did I think? That this would make him feel better? Having the cause of his helplessness right in his hands? I scratch the back of my head, embarrassed. "Actually, I'll just, uh, take it back," I say, moving to retrieve it from his hands.
He pulls it a little closer to himself. "No, it's good. I appreciate it." He stares at it for a little while longer, turning it in his hands. "Thanks," he finally says, showing me a fake smile. To the untrained eye it might look genuine, but I know it's strained.
Tony comes back in. "So, what was the answer?"
I pout. "It was a no." He, in mocking comfort, puts his arm around me, which I easily duck.
Bruce laughs. "You're a bad influence, Tony, you know that?"
"If by 'bad', you mean 'good', then yes, I do." I roll my eyes at his lame comeback. "And no, Liz, I'm not losing my touch. It's called being classic."
Just then, the communicators turn on, interrupting our banter. "Fury would like to see you in the meeting room." We walk together till we reach the room, and enter one by one. The room fills slowly with only the important people.
"How's the tracking going, Banner?" Hill asks.
"Reasonably well. We'll probably get the coordinates quicker than last time."
Fury nods approvingly. "That brings me to my next point. This man has planned his course of action based on the precious attack. Our best plan of action is acting quicker and more efficiently than before. Which means no fights," he says, looking pointedly at Rogers and Tony. Rogers looks down at the table, but Tony just brushes it off and fidgets with the screen in front of him.
"Secondly," he continues, "he has possession of Loki's scepter, which means there is a high probability that he will have possession of the Tesseract as well. His potential use of it could cause massive destruction. We need to stop him before he does. Unlike last time."
"Well, it worked before too, didn't it?" Tony says.
"Only after you destroyed half of Manhattan," he retorts. With an almost imperceptible nod, he signs to Hill to take over. She does so with a pointed stare at me.
"Turner, have you ever had contact with the Tesseract?"
"Me?" I ask, surprised, almost falling off my chair. The conversation has taken a sharp turn, making me its subject. I pause for a long moment - not out of hesitation, but out of confusion. "Uh, no?" I say, drawing out the last word as an indication of my bewilderment. And, besides, the answer was pretty obvious anyways.
"The scientists have reason to believe that previous contact may have left you immune to its mind controlling effects, thus preventing you from going under its control. They believe it was the power source of your experiment."
There's a brief silence to that long explanation.
"I can easily refute that with two facts," I say. "One, the Tesseract was buried in the sea decades before I was born, and was only rediscovered way after I became like this. There was no way I could've been exposed. Two, if previous contact does make you immune, why would he have even tried it on Barton? He would've known it wouldn't work anyway."
The rest of the team nod slightly, with only Barton tensing slightly. I feel sorry whenever the 'incident', which it is so called, is mentioned. He must be reliving his nightmare right now. "There were smaller fragments of the Tesseract even when it had gone missing," Hill says. "And for your second point, he might just not have known."
"Not have known?" Bruce asks, incredulous. "Didn't you see how much he prepared?" Of course he's prepared a lot. It's not easy to get that inhibitor, whatever it is, that he used, and he seemed to be able to predict every move. But then I remember how he shook the scepter like a pen when it didn't work. Maybe he's not so knowledgeable about it after all. But I decide to keep my mouth shut.
"So you are denying the fact that you have been exposed?"
I nod my head. With that, it seems, the meeting is over, after just a few more discussions on future plans. Outside the room, I hesitate for just a moment, wondering whether to go with Rogers or back to the lab with Bruce and Tony. I really want to catch up with Rogers, but on the other hand, Romanoff and Barton seem to be going with him, and I think they are mad that I hadn't revealed my presence at S.H.I.E.L.D. earlier. They might start interrogating me. The very thought gives me chills. I decide to go to the lab and help out with what I can. Idle chitchat can follow after this has all settled down.
As soon as we enter the room, I practically collapse onto the chair. Each step I take actually makes all the bruises and sores hurt even more. Maybe, when they finally capture the man, I'll be able to punch him in the face or something for all that he's done. I smile happily at that thought and start humming. "Liz has gone crazy," Tony says. He is typing crazily onto all the computers. I skip retorting - it gets tiring after a while, no matter how fun it is - and instead peer at what he is doing. It has nothing to do with the scepter, nor the Tesseract. He's hacking into S.H.I.E.L.D.
"I don't think you should be doing that," I say. He briefly looks up at me, although he continues typing. He shrugs and continues with his work.
"I do it all the time," he replies. It looks like he does, because he easily bypasses all the various firewalls and blocks that have been places. I remember that he was the one who actually invented these for them. Cheater.
The rest of the team enter the room. "How are you feeling?" Rogers asks as soon as he comes in.
"Good, good," I say dismissively, sliding myself onto a table to make more room. Romanoff takes a glance at Tony's monitor and promptly shuts down the whole computer by pulling the plug. He immediately begins protesting.
"That's the whole data you've just erased!" he exclaims.
"No, the data is over there, with Bruce. I'm not an idiot, Tony."
He takes on a more aggressive tone. "How long are you going to blindly believe S.H.I.E.L.D.? Remember the last time they hid stuff from you?"
Rogers steps in. "Alright, break it up. We've got to work together..."
"You stay out of this," Tony says. "I'm talking to spider-lady over here."
The conversation has suddenly become quite aggressive. Their voices rise higher and higher until they start shouting at each other. I sit, bewildered, in the corner. Thor sneaks over and stands next to me. He doesn't seem very involved in this situation, which is strange, because he looks more brawn than brains, the kind to go for emotions rather than keep his calm.
"Everyone is very passionate," he says.
"Uh, I wouldn't exactly call it 'passionate'..." I say. "Looks pretty uncalled for to me." Suddenly, everything clicks. Slowly, my eyes are drawn towards the floor.
"Get out of the room!" I shout.
The floor crumples beneath us.