"Dr. Banner?" Lucy called out as the elevator doors slid open to reveal the sterile room to which Jarvis had directed her.
"Hi," the man replied in surprise from where he was standing at a desk on a wall of the room, abandoning his project to look towards her. "Do you need something?"
"Some company?" Lucy asked, suddenly feeling surprisingly hesitant. "I've always liked magic, and I thought that maybe since science seems so close to magic, I thought I might... watch you work?"
"Hm," Dr. Banner looked back down at his work – probably embarrassed at the attentions of a pretty lady, Lucy guessed – and said, "There won't be much to look at, but you can stick around for as long as you want to… just please don't touch anything."
"Thank you; I'll be very careful," Lucy said, going to stand at his side as she asked, "What is it that you're working on?"
"Um, an upgrade on some weapons; a new idea I had for some stronger bullets for Natasha. After the ammunition in her gun did nothing to even give the Chitauri pause, I thought maybe she could use something a little better than what SHIELD normally provides. Tony's usually better at projects like this, but since Pepper's kept him busy helping her cool down the panicking of the world after the Battle of Manhattan, I thought I'd give it a try."
Great; all the better for the assassin to eventually kill me with, Lucy thought drily, though what she said was, "Fascinating. How do they work, if you don't mind my asking?"
And so the morning went. She watched Banner intently, asking questions of him that he was glad to answer as he worked; the man seemed happy that someone was taking an interest in his work – at least someone less irritating than Tony Stark. As she watched and inquired, Lucy mentally put together the pieces of the Midgardians' science – practically rudimentary when compared to the science within magic that she was used to on Asgard – even going so far as to leave Banner seeming surprised at how much she really understood of his work.
At lunch time, the two of them ended up at Banner's level of the house, sitting at the counter with sandwiches and tea, and still talking about this or that within the realm of science.
"You know," Dr. Banner said at a break in the conversation. "No offense, so please don't take this the wrong way, but you seem a lot different that the Iowa farm girl we met Thursday night."
"So I've been told," Lucy said with a breathy chuckle. "I was overly excited to see my old friend at the time."
"Ah," Dr. Banner nodded in understanding. "Well, you seem like a very bright young woman."
Lucy smiled, answering politely, "Thank you."
"Where did you go to school at?"
"Oh… I never attended college. My mother and… father taught me at home."
"They were teachers themselves, then?"
"Not by profession, no, but brilliant all the same."
"You must have a very nice family, then," Dr. Banner said approvingly.
Lucy only smiled timidly, not nearly ready to try and come up with a convincing cover story for that admittedly rather complex area of her life. "What about you?"
"Since the other guy started coming around, I've basically been on my own. Although I guess the Avengers are starting to get themselves together as a group."
"I'd say so," Lucy agreed.
Dr. Banner smiled, "We've all kind of become like Pepper's foster children, and Tony is her eccentric boyfriend that we all live with."
"How do you explain Captain Rogers and Agent Romanoff's relationship within those parameters, then?" she asked with an ornery grin.
"Natasha's the rebellious teenage daughter, I guess, and Steve is her boyfriend, the one that Natasha's crazy father is frequently clashing with."
Lucy laughed. "Fair enough."
Her gaiety turned almost instantly to near panic when she noticed the shrewd way Dr. Banner's eyes had suddenly narrowed upon her as he asked, "And who are you, Lucy Saint?"
"An old friend of Clint's," Lucy managed, trying not to squeak as it was brought back to mind that she not only was technically in the same room with the Hulk, but that said Hulk had also done a fair amount of damage to her in Loki's form as a higher being. He could easily kill her as Lucy if he transformed into the Hulk, which was entirely probable if he found out who she really was. "Actually, speaking of Clint, I just remembered that I was supposed to meet him for lunch," she lied quickly. Just because she had lost her magical powers, that didn't mean that she had lost her "silver tongue." "You'll have to excuse me."
"Of course," Banner said, his eyes getting even darker with suspicion as he watched her spring up and get into the elevator.
When the metal doors closed off the sight of his intense stare, Lucy leaned back against the wall, breathing as heavily as if she had just encountered the green side of the doctor as she considered what had just gone on between her and the man. What in the world had clued him in? She had even tried to be careful in what she said and even how she said it! Had she mentioned some facet of science that was as of yet unfamiliar to Midgard? She didn't think so. Had she let paranoia get a hold of her for a second and simply imagined the look on Dr. Banner's face? No, she knew that wasn't it.
She didn't know how he had figured her out, but one way or another, Dr. Bruce Banner now at the very least suspected that Loki Laufeyson was living among the Avengers in their tower.
While she wasn't about to purposely do anything that even might confirm Dr. Banner's suspicions, she would, of course, have to tell Barton about the doctor's sudden epiphany the moment he got home, and wasn't that just going to be the best of fun?!