Aaaaand I still own nothing :( Very sad :(
Toni's Point of View
Toni woke with a start very nearly leaping out of the bed – no wait, she wasn't on the bed, she was in the chair by the desk. Toni landed on the floor with a painful thunk and moaned, clutching at her ribs and enjoying a second or two of self-pity as she rolled about the floor.
"Oooowwwe," she groaned, clutching at where it hurt despite it not helping in the slightest and tried to breathe through the dull ball of queasiness that had formed in her stomach.
"Owe, owe, owe," she hissed, slowly uncurling and coming to rest on her back.
She stared up at the ceiling and the night before slowly came back to her.
She had seen Loki – one of the most terrifyingly terrifying things she had ever done. Well, maybe not but it deffinalty gave her the heebie-jeebies.
She had seen Fury – ok, maybe that face of had been less fun than talking to Loki.
She had come back to her room and…
Toni looked up at the desk and saw her tonEE-pad sitting on it.
Ok then, so she had come back to the room, checked in with J.A.R.V.I.S., messaged Pip and apparently fallen asleep at the desk trying to manually further the hacking. She had managed to get a bit further too.
The chime continued.
"Ugh," she rolled over and used the chair to help her crawl to her feet.
She swiped the pad screen and sighed heavily.
It wasn't even 6am!
Groping blearily for the cuffs she slid them on, activated them and stumbled stiffly to the door. Falling asleep in the chair had not helped with the aches and pains she was already suffering from.
It took several bleary eyes swipes to finally activate the door.
How much sleep had she managed to get anyway?
An all too happy S.H.I.E.L.D. employee stood in the door with an envelope held out to her and a smile splitting their face.
"From Director Fury, Mister Stark," the plucky young man announced handing her the envelope and leaving her standing half asleep, aching all over and having a heart attack in the doorway.
She returned to the desk and slumped into the chair – a bone cracked in objection somewhere – and double checked the time.
Yip there was most definitely a 5am in the time. Fury was one sick jerk!
She was sure it was Fury's idea of payback – it couldn't be a joke as she was sure the man had no sense of humour.
Toni held the envelope upside down and a key-card for access to Loki's cell slid out into her hand. A sticky-note attached.
This can change Stark.
F
So in other words, she behaved or her nice shiny card got taken away from her. That definitely got her hackles up.
Intimidation did not work on her. If it did she would have been browbeaten into working for S.H.I.E.L.D. months ago and it wouldn't be on a voluntary basis either.
She scrunched up the yellow sticky-note and tossed it into the bin.
4 hours later
Cruel and unusual torture, that's what Fury had been dabbling in when he sent his minion to her room at that ungodly time!
Toni yawned, sipped some coffee from her fourth cup of the day and flicked her finger across the screen. She wasn't actually doing anything 'alien glow stick' related, she was actually trying to find some more short cuts for J.A.R.V.I.S., Banner had taken it remarkably well when he had come into the lab half an hour earlier and seen what she was doing. A raised eyes and a "don't get caught" and he had left her alone. He hadn't stopped looking over at her station since though, a frown creasing his forehead. It was starting to make her more than a little nervous.
She took another sip of the coffee and glared at the screen for not cooperating with what she was trying to do.
"You know, that amount of caffeine is not healthy," Banner informed her, coming to stand in front of her just as she exited the screen and tossed it aside in disgust. It rotated to somewhere behind her and she focused on the scientist who was glancing between the mug (complete with S.H.I.E.L.D. logo – she was considering acquiring it (stealing it) when she left) – in her hand and her face.
She frowned slightly.
If he thinks this is unhealthy it's a good thing he wasn't here for the first two cups.
She quirked an eyebrow ad stared at the mug of green-tea that was sitting by the scientists own station.
"Better than the swill you drink, doctor," she smirked.
Banner didn't take any offence and only shook his head with a slight smile and walked back to his station picking up th bug and drinking from it. He smacked his lips together once he was done.
"Maybe you should try it,"
Toni shivered at the very thought. When the reactor had been killing her she had cut back on everything in an attempt to slow the process. Caffeine had been part of the 'everything' (along with chocolate and fruit loops) and she was not going to willingly cut it out of her daily diet again, thank you very much. At least while there was a possible alien invasion heading their way. Maybe she would consider cutting back after E.T. had been dealt with…or she was dead. Whichever one came last.
She clutched the mug protectively to her chest.
"The nasty man doesn't mean it baby," she crooned.
The scientist just chuckled, rolled his eyes and went back to work, no doubt thinking Anthony Stark was more the man-child than anyone knew.
The door chimed and Toni's day proceeded to go down the drain with impressive speed.
Little Later
Toni bit her lip and breathed deeply, fighting to control her runaway emotions.
She was tired, she was sore; she wanted to be at home, in her own lab and as far away from the S.H.I.E.L.D. issue morons as possible. But, most of all she wanted a hug. Pip was good at hugs. Toni just wanted Pip.
With Herculean effort she kept her breathing steady, forcing it in and out as she found her way back to her room. It had been a good morning in the lab with Doctor Banner bantering about the coffee and finding out that he wasn't going to turn her into Fury for her extra-curricular hacking had been a nice surprise. And then Captain Jerk Head had to stroll into the room all controlling and Jerk Headed and start snapping at her for absolutely nothing. He kept making comments about women and respect and being on the hellie carrier for work and not pleasure.
Confusion didn't begin to describe Toni's feelings on the matter.
A parting comment about Howard Stark had been her breaking point though and she had quickly left the room before doing something she would regret – like breaking the super-soldier. Sure, no one had figured out how to do it yet but that didn't mean that she couldn't give it a damn good try.
Reaching her room she locked the door, blocked any incoming signals that might open it from the outside, shed the cuffs her shoes and socks and threw herself onto the bed.
Tears leaked from her eyes as she fell asleep.
1 hour later
Toni woke up feeling groggy, achy and her eyes felt like there was half the Sahara under her eyelids.
There was a few pleasant seconds of nothingness where she couldn't even remember what had happened the week before never mind the same day. And then it all came crashing back and the lump in her chest she had also forgotten about came back with a suddenness that left her breathless.
She found her phone and called Pip.
"Toni, what the –"
The words spilled out of her mouth. Everything. About how she was tired and sore and fed-up. About how she missed him and her lab and Dummy and wanted the coffee he bought in for her because this S.H.I.E.L.D. stuff was so substandard there wasn't a number low enough to rate it. About how she had gone to see Loki and the visit from Fury and then Captain Jerk Head's Jerk Head attitude.
"Pip, I want to come home," she broke down sobbing, her voice coming out as a whine as she gave in on trying to breath and just let her emotions have a free-for-all on her voice box.
"Toni, sweetheart, breath," Pip sounded panicked and that only made her cry all the harder, the shudders hurting her chest and her ribs, which in turn made breathing harder which than led to her voice not working.
"Wanna-" she dragged a breath into her lungs and fought for control, gaining it for a split second before sobbing again.
"Toni, what's wrong, talk to me sweetheart. Are you hurting?"
She cried all the harder. Pip only called her 'sweetheart' when he was really worried about her.
"I…I" she swallowed tasting the salt in her mouth, "Wanna hug," she finally wailed, forcing the words out with the force of a bullet from a gun and gave into the tears.
"Oh sweetheart, don't cry, shhh,"
Pip crooned nonsense to her through the phone and she curled up on the bed hugging her pillow to her stinging chest.
Even as the sobs continued to rip through her throat she yelled at herself for doing this. She was not the type to fall apart, even when she was 'dying' she had held it together reasonably well and now she was balling like a baby without it's pacifier.
"Shhh…just breath Toni," Pip coached, his deep voice steady and as loving as ever.
She gained control slowly until the tear had nearly dried up to a slight sting in the corner of her eyes and her breathing was coming in hiccupping huffs.
"I-" she breathed deeply, "I'm not even being paid to deal with this crap," she sighed, heaving herself to her feet to retrieve some toilet paper from the bathroom.
She returned to the bed with a full roll and proceeded to tear some off and blow her nose in a very un-lady like and loud way.
"I'm sorry Pip," she sighed, tears still threatening to fall but she gulped them back and breathed deeply, "I don't know what came over me,"
"Shhh, don't worry about it honey," his voice sounded so warm.
He gave her a few more minutes to calm down and get herself together.
"Now how about you start from the beginning,"
So she did.
She calmly re-told him everything she had already blurted out and he listened calmly to what she was saying. That is, until she brought up the going to visit Loki part again. She had covered her bases and told him the why's but he wasn't that impressed.
Toni straightened from where she had been washing her face at the sink and reached for the towel with closed eyes as Pip blustered at the end of the line.
She glanced in the mirror.
There. The puffy cheeks and eyes were a little less puffy than they had been. Not that anyone would see anyway but she hated the itch than came to her skin after a rare fit of crying.
"Oh I don't know Pip," Toni sighed as she sat down on the edge of her bed to pull on her socks and shoes, "There's just something not right about the whole thing,"
She could just imagine Pip pinching the bridge of his nose, the way he did when she did something he would especially trying to his nerves. All in all she was surprised the poor man had any hair on his head.
"So because there is something fishy about the mind-controlling-evil-overlord-wannabe you decided to go and have a little chat with him?"
"Yes," she finished tying her shoes and stood up.
She was all set to re-face the day (shame she couldn't just stay in bed and forget all about the morning) and the cuffs were on and just waiting to be activated.
"Toni," he sighed.
Yip, there was absolutely a nose pinch in session.
"Pip please, I had to see for myself," she explained.
Yeah, because seeing for yourself really enlightened the situation Toni. Not.
"Fine, Toni. So what else have you been doing other than having little talks with lunatic aliens?"
She plopped back onto the bed and giggled as she bounced slightly her mind and heart already feeling lighter just from talking to Pip. The lump of emotion was still sitting heavily in her chest but it was shrinking with every passing second.
"I am in love with Bruce Banner's brain," she smiled, in the past day or so of working with Doctor Banner she had come to see that his brain had to be one of the most gorgeous things on the ship.
"I want to take it out for dinner and buy it nice things,"
A deep chuckle came from her phone, which was sitting on the bedside table with the speaker on.
"Sweetie, I think you will find it is usually the guy who does the buying,"
"Huh. Really? Well I am sure the sexy-smart brain won't mind being treated to dinner by a girl,"
"Toni, what are you talking about?"
She rolled back of the bed and lifted the phone, turning off the speaker she pressed it to her ear.
"Bruce Banner, Pip. His brain is amazing. And get this. He talks my language. It's wonderful,"
Bruce Banner's Point of View
Bruce lifted his head at the sound of the door swishing open to see Tony Stark enter the room and go straight to his station without any smart-remark.
Bruce did not like conflict; he avoided it as much as he could - given what triggered the other guy that was understandable though. But he did not like the way that Steve antagonised the billionaire genius. He especially didn't like the way he had been speaking to him earlier. He could tell that Tony had no idea what Steve was hinting at – although it was obvious Steve thought he knew what he was talking about – from the confused looks the genius had kept throwing the superhero.
He had watched Tony's eyes become more cloudy until a "Howard would be so disappointed" from Steve finally seemed to break the other man and he had left the room without a comment.
"What was that about?" he had asked.
"Stark knows," had been the only reply and Steve had left, leaving him alone in the lab.
Bruce kept an eye on Tony.
He could smell blood, not the old stale kind that came from being trapped under the skin – so definitely not a bruise. This was fresh, not a lot of it but enough to register.
Toni seemed so fixated on the screen in front of him that Bruce had a feeling the other man had no idea he was wincing.
He would go by Toni's room later and see if he needed any help…
Poor Toni.
Sorry if this seemed to come out of nowhere but Toni has been dealing with a lot and let's face it, sometimes it doesn't take a lot to tip you over the edge when you are feeling a bit delicate anyway.
Next chapter – someone finds out about her being a not him :) Guess who?
I am sorry for the delay in this chapter I had such a hard time trying to figure out which way to come at it and this is actually the third or fourth full chapter version of it I did. Pulling my hair out doesn't cover it.
I really hope you liked it.
Feedback is always appreciated.
Take care everyone.
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