"Hi there," Dr. Banner said quietly, leaning against the door once he had closed it behind himself, leaving Lucy alone with him. "So, what are we going to do about this?" When Lucy didn't answer him, he added, "I didn't tell on you yet, if that's what you're worried about."
"I don't know what you mean," Lucy said, putting on a calm façade and hoping he bought it.
He smirked down at his shoes and snorted as he took off his glasses – always with the glasses; they must be a tick to keep his heart rate down – and said, "So you're one of those people."
Which meant that he wasn't about to buy into the lie she'd just told him.
She repeated again, "I don't know what you mean."
He looked at her then as he walked slowly towards the bed, watching her shrewdly as he said, "This baby inside of you… this monster you've given life to… you're in denial of it."
Lucy almost smiled at that. He really had no idea how many monsters she had inside of her… no one besides Thor knew of her Jotun genes. Though she had no intention of changing that, she was well aware that carrying this child to term might just be the death of that plan.
"And don't tell me you don't know what I mean," Dr. Banner ordered, standing by the bedside now.
So she said the second thing that had come to mind, admittance though it really was – "My child is not a monster."
"And which child is that?" he asked with another smirk. "The one you're currently carrying? Maybe Hel or Sleipnir? No… I bet you mean Fenrir."
Lucy began to shiver, though with rage or fear, she honestly couldn't tell. She nearly sprang up out of the bed as she ordered sharply, "Do not bring my children into this!"
"But isn't that what this so-called examination I'm supposed to be doing is all about?" the doctor asked, gesturing with his glasses to her midsection.
"Neither one of us knows if that's how it is," she objected.
He raised his eyebrows at her then sighed, digging the last thing she expected to see out of his pocket and dropping it onto the bed. "I bought it last week, just in case you got a grip and came looking for one in the lab. You want to know if 'that's how it is'? Go ahead."
"You're insane."
He looked her straight in the eye and asked without batting an eyelash, "And which one of us is it that tried to subjugate the planet?"
Lucy hated him right then. Really she did… but five minutes later she hated herself even more as she stared at that stupid positive sign. Forget facing Dr. Banner where he waited on the other side of that bathroom door; how in the name of all the gods was she supposed to tell Clint she was carrying his child?
But then… did she even have to? Eventually, yes, but at the moment it wasn't like they were exactly all over each other; she could go for at least a few more months without telling him if she wanted to. And gods knew she wanted to do just that; she wanted to ignore the whole problem and curl up under the covers of Clint's bed and go to sleep, waking up only when this nightmare was over – maybe only once she was back to being Loki of Asgard…
In the mean time, Dr. Bruce Banner was still waiting for her to reemerge in the bedroom and tell him the results of the test. She had never wanted to teleport somewhere else – anywhere else – so badly in all of her life.
"Loki?" Dr. Banner called out from the other side of the door. "Those results have shown up already, I know they have."
"My name is Lucy Saint!" she snapped back at him. "And if you know what's good for you, you'll leave before I open this door!"
At that, Dr. Banner opened the door himself and stuck his head in, inquiring cheekily, "Because when both of us are backed into a corner, you're always the one who wins those fights, right?"
Lucy flinched, remembering the beating the Hulk had given her during the battle of Manhattan. At the thought, her hand subconsciously went to her abdomen to protect what was currently nestled comfortably beneath her heart. If the Hulk delivered the same thrashing to her here when she was in this condition, it would most likely be the end of the life inside of her, and she wasn't sure whether she wanted that or not. It was better safe than sorry, so she shot him a heated glare and shoved past him to leave the bathroom where she had been sitting on the toilet lid.
"Go to Hel," she muttered under her breath.
"What'd you say?"
Lucy smiled tightly at him, requesting, "Please leave my apartment."
"It's not yours; it belongs to Tony who has given it to Agent Barton, and I can't."
"And just why can't you?"
"Because – for one thing – I am not about to leave you here, by yourself, after this pregnancy revelation, when you could possibly become suicidal. For another thing, we still have a couple of things to discuss."
"Like what?" Lucy asked with a temperamental sigh as she settled on the foot of the bed.
"Like do you want an ultrasound? Tony's got all sort of tech here that he has no use for, including an ultrasound machine, just because he has the money for it."
"Are you sure you want to see this child, doctor?" Lucy asked dryly. "The first time I was in something resembling this position, an eight-legged horse is what you would've seen."
"Then that depends on whether or not you want to know how many legs this kid has. Tony's gone to a press conference with Pepper at the moment, so we'd have the lab to ourselves if we can get past your Agent Barton."
"He's not my anything," Lucy snapped irritably.
Though if she had thought about it, she would've realized that wasn't true, not exactly. They were certainly something now, neither one of them was just entirely willing to label it, to try to contain it.
"He's the father of your child, isn't he?" Dr. Banner asked.
Lucy sighed, deciding that, yes, that label would suffice for now.