Any Doctor Who fans out there? Wasn't the episode BRILLIANT! Squeeee. The Five(ish) Doctors was hilarious - I loved the Hobbit bits hehe. Sorry, moving on.

*I still own nothing :(*

Bruce Banner's Point of View

Bruce could still smell the blood, it had been getting stronger since Tony had come back.

He knew that none of the 'team' (he rolled his eyes at this) had thought he was being literal about smelling the crazy on Loki. But he had been and it had smelled like a sour sickness drifting from the Asgardian as he had walked by the lab. One of the things he had been sure to keep to himself during the years since he had first turned was just how much of the other guy stuck around when he was back to normal. And just what tricks he possessed when being the other guy.

It had taken months of fractured memories to piece together just what he was capable of when he turned into the monster. Strength was just the tip of the iceberg. Smell, hearing and sight had been affected also.

His sight became perfect and his sense of smell acute. He could smell, taste and hear a lie if the other guy was present enough in his mind. But out of all of this his sense of smell was the one thing that remained semi-heightened when he was back to himself. Nowhere near as high as the Hulk's but definitely higher than the average person. He often thought of it as the sense of smell a dog with a cold might possess.

His time travelling around the globe had allowed him to learn to identify all kinds of illnesses from the slight smells he could pick up and today he had been able to smell blood.

He looked over at Toni who was so busy pressing and swiping at the monitor in front of. The man had been wincing and hissing softly since his return. Bruce had even caught the other man scratching at his chest several times. This wouldn't have worried Bruce usually if it hadn't been for the fact that it was around the glowing reactor.

Bruce had nothing but the basic knowledge about the Arc Reactor – he knew it could glow them all to kingdom come several time over – but he knew that the constant scratching and wincing could not be a good thing.

Bruce found that he like the loud mouthed and at times arrogant millionaire and thought it a shame that no one actually seemed to appreciate how intelligent he actually was. The guy had invented a super suit - which could go into space if Bruce had been following some of Stark's chatter properly. He was pioneering clean energy (something that was always worthy of a pat on the back as far as Bruce was concerned). He had discovered/rediscovered/created a new element. And to top it off had been hacking into S.H.I.E.L.D since he had arrived and they had yet to trace it back to him.

Tony Stark was definitely an interesting character.

Toni Stark's Point of View

So, all in all Toni had had better days. Days that didn't involve becoming a watering pot or being a hormonal mess. Of course, in her mind her best day involved pinning a 'KICK ME' sign onto the back of Captain America's shiney new uniform upgrade and throwing him to the baddie in residence.

As she couldn't do either of those things she decided that maybe she should be grateful no one had tried to blow her up today or performed not-so-keyhole surgery on her heart – that had been a crappy day to top all crappy days. No, in the grand scheme of things today had really only been an irritation and one she could have dealt with a lot better if she was facing it with sleep and at home.

Toni had managed to drag herself back to the lab to find that Doctor Banner was the only one there – thank fully. Bruce hadn't brought up the matter of Captain America and she was glad of it and they had bother worked in a companionable silence for the rest of the shift.

Toni's eyes still felt gritty and now that her emotions were settling down again she could feel the stinging coming from around her reactor more acutely.

Toni thought of doing what she needed to do in her room but thought better of it. She would be able to find everything she needed in the med-lab and it would be far more sterile than her room. The last thing she needed was a lovely infection just because she had got a bit of dirt where it shouldn't be. So, as soon as she was finished with Bruce she made a bee-line for the infirmary.

She entered the room quietly (once she had found it – she was glad she wasn't bleeding to death or she would never have made it) and snuck by one of the staff who had her head buried in a cupboard.

She made for one of the cubicles and the nicely labelled set of plastic drawers that stood –no doubt bolted to the floor - by the wall. Toni pulled the curtain shut just enough to hide her from the view of anyone entering and began her search.

Antibacterial cream, swabs, cooling gel and non-stick (thankfully) dressings were soon spread out on the paper covered bed. She peaked her head out of the cubicle to check that the nurse was still busy in her cupboard – she was – and ducked back into the safety of the booth. Toni removed her cuffs and pulled her shirt over her head.

She hissed as the rough material brushed over her inflamed skin and her ribs ached sharply at the sudden movement. Nothing that had been damaged in the past few days was missed and the sleeves of her shirt even managed to scrape against the cut on her arm.

I want to go home.

Oh stop complaining Toni and man up! She scolded herself viciously.

Once her shirt was off and was laying inside-out on the bed she took several deep breaths as the aches – dull, sharp and everything in-between – faded entirely or to a more manageable level before plucking a pair of plastic gloves from the dispenser on the wall and wriggling her hands into them.

For the first time she glanced down at her chest.

A cold blue light shone from the reactor highlighting the inflamed and peeling skin surrounding the metal 'plug' in her chest, blood seeped lazily from places where the skin had peeled away in thicker strips.

"What a difference a day makes," she mumbled dryly under her breath.

She prodded at the puffy skin gently and she could feel the heat from the angry cracks through the gloves.

Setting her jaw and gritting her teeth against the eye-watering sting she stood over the small sink in the corner and dabbed away the blood with a damp swab. Job accomplished she binned the swab and turned back to face the bed.

She swiped the tube of gel from the bed.

Now for the difficult part.

Toni hissed in a breath between her teeth as she slowly applied the gel to the less broken and more red skin, dabbing it on and rubbing it in gently.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch," she murmured under her breath, gritting her teeth until they hurt as her eyes watered at the sharp sting.

This sucks!

While the gel did its work she searched the drawers for some medical tape and added it to collection on the bed.

"I'm going to look like a freakin' mummy by the time I get back to the tower," she grumbled into the silence, glaring menacingly at the medical supplies as thought it was their fault she was shedding her skin like a snake.

She pulled the dressings from their pouches, glanced between them and her chest, sighed, and began searching the drawers for some scissors.

When she got home she was going to design her own dressings just for times like this and she would make sure she packed them every time she left.

Another side of her mind told her that maybe she should just re-design the socket in her chest.

She told it to shut up as she had no intentions of digging around in her chest again thank you very much.

She sniped away carefully at the sheet of dressing, trying to keep as much of it intact as she could but still shape it to cover what needed to be covered.

I suppose I could just have it cover the reactor.

She picked up one of the un-snipped dressings and held it over the reactor.

Or not.

The dressings were too small and the glue would land on the damaged skin. Not good.

Toni continued with her craft project.

Then the curtains rattled.

"Tony, are you in here?"

She froze when she heard the curtains stop.

She could hear Bruce breathing behind her and she slowly turned.

Toni gaped at the wide eyed and slack jawed Bruce Banner she knew that her expression couldn't be much different.

She stole a quick glance down at herself. Nope. Nothing had changed in the last second. She was still standing in her bra, cuffless, and with the arc reactor glowing quite happily from her chest.

She looked back at the staring Gamma expert.

Oh dear.

Now if this was Pip standing in front of her she would come out with a quick comment along the lines of 'you've caught be doing worse'. Which would be true, like that time he caught her trying to switch over the arc-reactor by herself and she had started to go into cardiac arrest. Or when he found out about the reactor slowly (or not so slowly as it turned out) poisoning her.

But this wasn't Pip. This was Bruce Banner and he looked like he was going to be the one to drop dead from cardiac arrest. Either that or his eyes were going to pop out. As it stood at least the man had done one quick sweep of her body and then his eyes had returned straight to her face, she might have been forced to cause him some damage if he had stared somewhere else.

How am I supposed to explain my way out of this one?

And then she remembered she was still holding a pair of scissors and a half cut up square of dressing in each hand.

She cleared her throat and Bruce finally blinked.

"Um, if you wouldn't mind stepping out for a moment, I'll ah, I'll explain everything in a minute,"

She knew when she was busted – the arc reactor was far too genuine (funnily enough) to pass as some crazed fan-girl - and this was one of those times. If she told him now, maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't tell the rest of the team her secret.

Here's hoping.

A blush shot up Bruce's face and he splutters out apologies and agreements as he backs out of the cubicle and sharply closed the curtains.

With slightly shaking hands she quickly finished up her slicing and dicing, carefully applied the cream and stuck the dressing down, making sure none of the glue went anywhere near the inflamed skin. Three cut up dressings and several pieces of strategically placed medical tape later she was done and after tightening the bandage around her ribs a little more she but her shirt and cuffs back on and stepped out of the cubicle once again as Anthony Stark.

She found Bruce standing sentry to the side of the curtain, the blush had been replaced with a ghostly pale.

Wonderful, I've broken him.

The doctor's eyes widened at the sight of her being definitely not a her anymore and his mouth opened and closed several times.

Goodness sake, he turns into a giant green thing-crushing machine, she huffed inwardly as she funnelled her nervousness into something ore productive. Like annoyance.

"Doctor Banner," she jerked her head towards the door, "Shall we,"

Bruce nodded his head and she led the way out of the Infirmary and to her room.

This is no good.

Toni stood awkwardly in her room being scrutinised by the doctor and feeling like a bug under a microscope.

Not exactly how I planned this field trip to go, she thought, feeling more than a little annoyed. After all she hadn't even been on the hellicarrier that long and she had already been found out.

In her mind this was just another point for the 'Why Toni should never have sleepovers' list.

That's it. I am staying home from now on. I am going to end up as an eccentric old lady with computer controlled cats but so be it.

I'll have to start working on the cats as soon as I get back.

She sighed and realised she was still wearing the bracelets – which might have explained the squinting Bruce was doing – and thinking it would make things a little less awkward she pulled the off and put them on the bedside table.

She was wrong. If anything it made things even weirder.

She carefully meandered back towards the door making sure there was nothing in between it and her. Just because she liked the guy and she was in love with his brain it didn't mean she trusted being alone in a room – not a smart move Toni! – with a virtual stranger who now knew her secret. If she even got the slightest creepy vibe from him she was out the room.

"So…umm…why did you follow me?" she asked softly.

The doctor blushed and she felt a surge of guilt for her thoughts of a second ago but she brushed it off. Until she knew where she stood in this situation she was viewing him with as much suspicion as she wanted too, thank you very much.

"I-" he cleared his throat and gestured vaguely to her chest, "I could smell the blood," he explained, his eyes staying fixed on her face.

"Oh," she didn't know what she had expected to hear but that had not been it, "You can smell that?" she titled her head and did some scrutinising of her own.

He nodded.

Glad my period isn't due, she thought dryly.

"Wait…you can smell the 'crazy'…" she trailed off remembering him mumbling something to himself in the lab and he nodded slowly looking a bit bashful.

Cool trick.

"One of the left-overs from the Other Guy," he explained.

"Neat," she smiled back, trying to set him at ease now that she had succeeded in making him feel even more uncomfortable without even trying. What could she say? It was a gift.

Awkward silence fell again and Toni forced herself not to fidget.

"Are you even Tony Stark?" Banner asked, frowning at her like he was already calling the alarm and watching her being carted off to impersonator prison.

"Yes actually," she answered, stepping forward and holding out her hand for him to shake, "I'm Antoinette – Toni – Stark, glad to meet you Doctor Banner," she shook his hand with slightly more enthusiasm than was strictly necessary under the circumstances but considering how her nerves were currently in orbit he was luck she hadn't yanked his arm off.

"You are Tony Stark?" the poor guy looked like she had broken him again.

"The one and only," she smiled, letting go of his hand.

He frowned.

Here we go.

"You can't be any more than twenty," Banner pointed out, "Tony Stark has been around for a long time,"

Ok. Cliff Notes of my life here I come.

"Dad had some…issues," she explained.

If by issues you mean his little swimmers weren't winning any medals.

"And the board was pushing for him to appoint a successor," Bruce's frown deepened, "I know, very medieval. So he faked the birth of a son. One problem was that he couldn't keep his son out of the media spot light forever and eventually he had to get in some doubles and thanks to some techy-magic he made the form that is Anthony Stark," Bruce looked at the cuffs and she didn't see the point in stating that 'no actually, they are my invention as daddy dearests version caused madness and insanity with extreme use'.

"And then I came along. Howard died and I got to fill his shoes by slipping into the roll that had been made for me, quite literally,"

Bruce stared.

Toni breathed.

She had told him a ridiculously simplified version of events but he didn't need to know anymore right now.

Toni suddenly realised that Bruce was staring at her chest, or more precisely the blue glow coming from it. It was her turn to blush now.

"You were still taken hostage?" Bruce asked.

Toni winced at that. It had been a miracle she hadn't been discovered during her time in the dessert and she knew the only reason she hadn't been was because of Yinsen. He had known her secret and he had never once even considered telling their captors.

Toni nodded.

"You built that-" he pointed at her reactor, "And your suit, in a cave?"

"Um…yeah,"

Just what was he getting at?

A small smile flitted across Bruce's lips making him look like a naughty little boy for a moment and he reached out his hand.

She looked between it and his face before taking it.

He shook it.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Stark," he smiled.

She stood dumbfounded for a second before she smiled back.

"Thank you,"

Hi everyone,

I hope you all have had/are having a safe and happy weekend.

I hope you enjoyed this. I did promise someone would find out didn't I :) I really hope you aren't disappointed and that the semi-explanation Toni gave Bruce made sense - added together with other hints and stuff I think it should (but then again it DID come out of my head so maybe not...hmmm...)

Thank you once again for all of the wonderful feedback, you guys have no idea how encouraging I find it.

Next chapter - Toni might be paying Loki anther visit and then things will be back on track with the film and the fights in the lab :-)

PS - I have added another FemSherlock/James Bond completed collection if anyone is interested. I would really appreciate some feedback :) It is Five Ways Moran Got GOT! :)

Take care everyone.

Toodles.

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