thank you for the awesome reviews everyone! sorry this chapter's a little shorter.
Chapter 6
Morrissey stood in front of the empty dresser drawer. She'd pulled it open and stared into the stainless steel bottom. She had her overnight bag open on her bed with the intent to actually unload some of her clothes. Didn't that mean she was actually accepting this life here? Could she deal with the thought that Stark Tower was going to be as much his home as it was Clint's? Or Bruce's? Was she ready to take that step?
She picked up one of her plain grey T-shirts and dropped it into the drawer. Considering it there for a while, she slid it closed without adding any more.
"An attempt at domesticity, ma'am?" JARVIS commented, unbidden.
Morrissey grinned. After the tour she'd enjoyed with Clint all day, and the lengthy explanation she'd been given about JARVIS'S E.S.P., it was almost a comfort to have the AI around. Before, she considered JARVIS to be more of a Big Brother spy op designed by Stark to keep his minions in line. Many of her opinions of Tony had changed.
"Something like that, JARVIS." she said.
"Might I make a suggestion?"
Morrissey chuckled. If she did decide to stick this out, conversations with the air were going to become more commonplace.
"Seize the day."
Better advice had never before been given to her by someone who didn't exist. Morrissey thanked him for it and dropped a few extra pairs of clothes in with the t-shirt. Some little bit of her she thought she'd left behind in the Middle East war was trying to creep back into her. For so long, the agent had worked tirelessly beneath C.O.'s she could do little more than survive under. Body beaten, spirit broken, she had become what SHIELD always needed out of its top agents; an emotionless husk, with a past and a future never set to a single outcome.
She could be anyone they wanted. From the jealous ex in the beautiful dress at a Baltimore dinner party, to the potential victim of a rape. She could be the awkward newbie with the blown cover story and a bleeding heart full of summer love, or she could be the midnight assassin who ended the life of one Mrs. Relark, former intern applicant for Stark Industries who was currently counting fish at the bottom of the Hudson Bay.
Sliding the dresser drawer closed, Morrissey contemplated just who she was today. Was this all a charade? A lie to everyone, even herself? She'd worked for weeks to get to this moment. Inside the Stark Tower at last as a guest of the Avengers, she was holding all the cards. She had to check in, give an update on her progress thus far, but it was dangerous to do that here with JARVIS everywhere. Maybe that was just an excuse, though. If she needed a secure line it was easy enough to do. For now, that could wait.
Morrissey wondered if the others were already out in the kitchen. She hadn't seen anything of Bruce since the night before. Clint reported he was at the lab catching up on work he'd ignored the day prior, so it was her intent to at least see him before the day was out.
She left the rest of her pack for now and went out to the kitchen to find something for dinner. So far, she was more acquainted with the kitchen than the actual food court. Bruce was standing at the sink, working his way through a stack of plates and pans. It appeared he had snuck into the living quarters when she was still in her room. He was just finishing a second night in a row of home cooked meals. She leaned over his shoulder and planted a kiss on the stubble of his cheek.
"How was work?" she asked.
"Not nearly as fun as spending my day out with you instead." Bruce replied, returning the kiss. "How about you? Did the Hawk behave himself today?"
She draped her arms over his shoulders and linked them in front of his chest. "I learned all the intricacies necessary to subvert an attack on the Tower that may or may not appear."
Bruce chuckled. "I guess that's great news. I know you spent a lot of time over sees, so I figured I'd go with American traditional today. How does that sound?"
"Sound nothing, I smell hot wings and that gets me excited." She replied, releasing him to snoop around in the oven. Two loaded trays of spicy chicken wings and legs were stacked inside. Behind them on the island were a few plates of toasted potato skins smothered in bacon and cheese. Her mouth watered. Climbing all those stairs today was more than enough to work her appetite.
"Morrissey here yet?" Clint asked.
The voice surprised Helen. She turned around and found him sitting on the back of the couch watching the television. The closed captions were on and scrolling across the bottom of the screen as he read through them. Tony sat beside him. They exchanged a few signs between each other, after which Clint turned around, saw her in the kitchen, and returned to his show.
"I'm working on adjusting that." Bruce said.
Helen turned to him as he indicated the pair on the couch. He extracted the wings from the oven and set them on the counter beside the potato skins. He went on to explain. "I know he doesn't like his hearing aids and they tend to bother him. Tony and I have been working hard on a replacement that is more permanent and more comfortable. That's what I was working on all day. Tony and he communicate on their own level as it is. Now that they've decided to start learning some sign language, it's impossible to keep up with them."
Bruce extracted his second tray of wings, Morrissey set out the plates, and dinner was ready to go. Tony signaled to Clint and, together, they rolled off the couch and headed to the kitchen. Before reaching the center island, the archer broke off and called down the hallway.
"Steve! Dinner's up." He called.
Just as the night before, the Avengers circled around the island and passed around the fresh made food. Morrissey felt more prepared this time around, given Clint's earlier explanation of the behavior of the tight knit group. Clint and Tony perched on the stools with their plates in front of them. Steve appeared with a wide grin.
"Holy cow, Bruce. Keep feeding us like this and we're going to get used to it." Steve said.
Bruce shrugged and blushed. There weren't many ways he knew to show a girl a good time. But love was always supposed to occur through the stomach, wasn't it? Helen grabbed her own plate, took the final stool beside Tony's arm, and dug in. Bruce stood beside her, not feeling odd in the least about standing as he ate. Regardless that they had the same thing on their plates, they still stole from each other's. Steve stood directly across from them and, for a time, the sound of content chewing was the only thing Clint's ears missed.
:(:):(:):
Bruce lay in bed, staring at the radiant face beside him. He occasionally caught his thoughts going back to Betty. Their faces were similar in a way; the slope of her nose and the glow of her eyes when she smiled, but that was where the similarities ended. Helen was helping him return to an almost normal life. A life like how he thought it should be. He had the career, the friends. He was working on the confidence, but this whirlwind romance gave Bruce something his friends never could and, at the same time, never imagined ever finding again: Romance.
She smiled in her sleep as her body rolled against his. A shiver of affection curled up his spine. He leaned over and kissed her neck, producing a sleepy giggle from her. The morning was early, not even cresting past two a.m. according to the digital clock along the wall. He should be sleeping but he hated to miss out on the little moments. He didn't take advantage of every happiness Betty and he enjoyed. He couldn't imagine making the same mistake twice. While he was trapped in his reverie, he missed her eyes sliding open. She leaned forward and returned his stolen kiss.
"Are you working on the premise that, the longer you stare, the more chance I have of not disappearing?" She asked.
"I'm just wondering how you ever decided that, moving in with a guy you just met, was a good idea." Bruce said.
"Is this you admitting to burning down my place?" She teased.
He snorted. "I will admit it was fortuitous. SHIELD didn't burn it down, did they?"
"Maybe my C.O. decided against not scrubbing me out and tried to kill me off."
Bruce's expression changed. He couldn't help his mind actually going off to consider the possibility. After all, he'd seen what SHIELD could do first hand when an agent, by the name of Ward, nearly murdered Clint just a few weeks before. It was a part of SHIELD Bruce never wanted to accept.
Morrissey seemed to understand the change in him. She leaned forward and pressed into his chest again. "I'm sorry. I don't mean it. Besides, why would SHIELD go through all that trouble for a hit team when they could just ask Barton to do it?"
Bruce groaned, sitting up.
"Oh come on, I didn't mean it. And he and I really sort of got along in a way today."
Bruce looked down his arm at her. "'Really sort of in a way'?"
She removed herself from the bed and leaned forward, lacing her body against his, their legs intimately entwined. "If Barton was ordered to kill me, I don't think he'd take the time to get to know me first."
:(:):(:):
"Tetrodotoxin." Tony announced, enlarging the molecular structure on his workspace. "That's the first drug I found. Mixed with it's a fun cocktail of zolazapam, tiletamine, and a few calcium blockers."
Across from him, Clint sat back on the high backed stool. His left foot was pitched up on the holo-table as he leaned backward. It was late, getting near to daybreak when at last Tony felt safe enough to invite the two out of their beds and into the lab. Apparently, he'd been as suspicious of the new girl as Steve and Clint were. Only Tony had taken it one step further and run a toxicity screen on some hair he'd stolen out of Bruce's head. The results should have been surprising, they were, but it didn't mean the facts did not hurt.
"What do all those meds do?" Steve asked.
"They lower heart rate. Sedate people, animals. Some of them treat arrhythmias." Tony listed.
"Do we know for sure Dr. Banner hasn't been experimenting with these himself to keep under control?" Steve posed. When Clint glanced at him, he explained further. "We know he's been under stress to solve his problem and one of the reasons he works in this lab is to find a cure. Now, I know as well as you that the Hulk's been playing nice guy lately, but that doesn't mean he is without the strength to fly off the handle any time he wants to."
"So you're saying Bruce is using drugs." Tony laid it out plainly.
"I'm saying we don't exclude the possibility just because he was able to be with a dame."
"Agent." Clint corrected, speaking for the first time since the news sank in. "We've known her for three days, that isn't enough time to make friends."
"But you've worked with her before." Steve said.
Tony grumbled, "Devil's advocate."
The soldier shrugged. "Look, you know me. I don't want us to jump to conclusions. Clint, you spent the time with her. What did you assess?"
The eyes turned to the archer. Clint looked at the readouts of the medications and the DNA catalogue of Bruce's hair. The angry green cells which normally buzzed about the genes were surprisingly sedate. Whatever combination either Bruce or Morrissey found, it was rather effective at keeping the green guy in. He knew the others were waiting for him to speak up.
"I've said, since day one, she's a risk." Clint admitted. "She checks out with SHIELD, but she checks out too good. There's the duel disciplinary marks from now and the Baltimore mission. The history in the Middle East checks out. The Field Office was a little too fast with the information, like they were waiting for me to ask for it. She has the right opinions, her personality gets on well with Bruce, but she's vulnerable. More than I would expect in a seasoned agent."
"She's new to this work, though." Steve said. "She wasn't Level Six until Baltimore."
"What I want to know," Tony reclaimed their attention, "is how long we're going to keep the fox and hound together."
Clint pushed himself out of the chair and head for the door. "I'll handle that. Give me some time first."
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