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A few days had passed since the incident with Tony attempting to leave. The tower once again grew quiet.

Bruce had a feeling that it was just the calm before the storm. Tony seemed to have let the issue of leaving the tower drop, but that caused the scientist to worry about what the other man might be planning. Devon also had been silent about the matter. Bruce was sure she had increased security on them but compared to an actual cage he found this imprisonment to be acceptable.

Bruce was in search of Tony for some advice on the project he had been working on. After checking Stark's private lab and finding nothing, he asked the AI butler where Tony was. It turned out the man was in his office which was hardly if ever used.

When Bruce entered Tony's office, he was surprised to find the room dimly lit. Tony was standing in front of a large display showing security feed. As he neared, he recognized the room as one of the genius' high security labs. The display showed the haphazard look to the lab. It looked as though someone had ransacked the lab. If he had not known better he would have thought that the Hulk had been in the room, except that the room missed vital damage to the actual structure. He knew he had been in control since the Battle and while he knew the other guy was there, he had been quiet.

"Did someone break into the lab?" Bruce asked quietly, but his appearance had still caused Tony to wheel around in surprise.

"Well, yeah," Tony said with a shrug turning back to the video, "but she broke in weeks ago."

Bruce stared back at the other man in confusion. There was no way he could be talking about Devon. The brilliant woman could not have caused the destruction that he saw in the lab.

"I don't follow," Bruce prompted when Tony did not explain.

Tony rolled his eyes before responding, "I was curious what she was working on. Her little spybot program informed her of it."

"So she got upset that you were spying on her."

"No I couldn't even figure out what she was working on," huffed Tony. "After almost half hour of watching, she suddenly trashed her project and then my lab."

Bruce could tell there was underlying anger in the other man's voice. While he did not like that Devon was there spying on them, at least she was open and mostly honest with them. It could have been far worse if SHIELD or the Council had sent a different person to watch them.

He took a closer look at the image on the screen. There were stools upturned. Datapads strewn about, most with cracked displays. Tools were scattered across the floor. In and amongst the debris were drops and pools of deep red blood.

"Devon's injured," Bruce exclaimed. "Where is she?" Tony waved his hand near the darkened corner of the screen. It looked like there was a pile against the wall. Bruce wondered if Devon was under the pile and he said quietly, "She needs our help." He turned back to the door so that he could go down to the lab.

"Wait," Tony said as the door to the lab opened.

When the door slid open, Devon shifted ever so slightly, looking up through the hair that obstructed most of her face. She did not want to see anyone and more than that, she dreaded anyone seeing her at the moment. She knew that Tony had been checking up on her earlier but when she lost control that had been the farthest thing from her mind.

From her vantage point, she could just make out the person who had entered the lab. The tall blonde was the last person she wanted to see her like this. She had kept her distance from him to keep focused on the work at hand, but that did not change the spark of feelings she had. Unfortunately as he neared, she was not able to hold back the groan that leaked out her lips.

"Is someone here? Are you hurt?" Steve asked.

"Go away," she mumbled.

"Devon?"

The engineer lifted her head, looking up through watery eyes. "Please," she begged, hoping he would do as she asked, "leave me alone."

Instead, Steve took a couple of steps forward. When she realized he was not going to listen to her, she let out another soft groan before letting her shoulders curl in and lowered her head to her chest. Steve sat down along the same wall as her within arm's reach but still giving her space.

"What happened here?" Steve asked quietly.

Devon could not bring herself to respond. Her mind raced through those moments that had led to the disaster that she faced at this moment. The problem was that her memory was a haze of red during that time. There was just pain; emotional and physical pain blocking out all her actions.

She wanted to be alone, needed to be alone. More than that she needed to grieve and maybe that was what this outburst truly was. This had been the second time that she had lost control and let slip part of her secret. The difference was that this time the others had actually seen her strength, whereas her speed on the stairs was easily cast off as adrenaline.

Bringing her back to the moment, Steve reached a hand out to her bloodied arm. She jerked away afraid of what he would find when he touched her. His fingers just brushed against the skin where it had been broken earlier. The blood smeared away under his fingers but revealing only silky skin.

"You're not hurt," he said quizzically.

"I heal quickly," she mumbled.

"How?"

Devon turned her head away from him. It was her secret. One she had kept her entire life. She did not want to share it now or ever. For her secret to come out would end the life she had made.

"I'm interested in the answer to that too," Tony said as he marched into the devastated lab.

Devon's head snapped up to the pair standing in the doorway. Tony and Bruce were looking at her questioningly. She had not heard them approach her attention had been focused solely on Steve.

"It's a long story," she mumbled scrubbing her hands over her face allowing her to ignore the looks that the others were giving her. Despair clutched at her, as she realized that what she feared the most was going to come to pass. There was no way she could escape this fate now.

Footsteps approached and in her peripheral vision, she saw Dr. Banner gently push past Tony. For a second he stood in front of her. She could only assume that he was trying to determine if she needed medical attention. He did not say anything just watched her before squatting down and setting a steaming mug between her feet. The aroma told her that it was a cup of her favorite herbal tea a sweet blend of chamomile and peppermint. The tea would help to silence the drums that were currently pounding in her head. The doctor then got up and backed away leaning against the far wall between an upturned desk and a pile of equipment that had been on said desk.

"We have time-" Tony began.

Steve interrupted the genius' snarky comment when he squeezed her shoulder quietly saying, "You can trust us."

"Trust isn't really the issue," Devon began as she reached for the cup of tea. The mug was warm, which she relished absorbing the heat. Gazing into the honey colored liquid she frowned, sighing. "There are some secrets that should never see the light of day. I'm one of those."

Without looking up Devon knew that, her comment confused the others more. Very few knew about her secret and yet she was about ready to tell these three men. She could effectively be ending her life, as she knew it, with the next words she said. Oddly enough, when she thought about it that way, it made it easier to find the words. She had lost everything, so maybe coming back to New York and upturning her life would lead to a new life starting by letting these three know her secret.

"My mother was a scientist. She worked for," Devon frowned this was the part of her past that even she only knew a fragment of. "Well they weren't called SHIELD back then, but it was a scientific branch of the military which eventually was the beginning of SHIELD." Keeping her focus on the drink in her hands, she ignored the tensing that came from all three of the men. Little did they know, that was one of the easier things they were going to hear.

"I don't know what they were studying at the time but there was an accident in the lab. My mother had been nearly to her third trimester while carrying me. She was exposed to dangerous levels of radiation." Devon's eyes flicked up to Banner's face, the action did not go unnoticed by any of them. That one instant told them exactly what kind of radiation her mother had been dealing with.

The silence in the room was palpable. She struggled with the rest of the story, the part that actually involved her and more importantly her abnormalities.

"My mother showed no signs of radiation poisoning but as a fetus, I did. I was dying but my mother knew that some of the other things that the scientists were working on could help. One of the projects was with the super soldier serum," she said. She turned her head away to avoid their looks. They could easily misinterpret the story to think she was a monster. That was part of why she had worked so hard to keep her secret.

The men however did not speak, so in the silence she took a shaky breath.

"In secret my mother and one of her closest friends acquired the serum. They modified it to work for me and injected me with it. The serum filled in the gaps in my genetics that the radiation had caused. The other side effects hadn't been known until I was born."

"So what are these side effects?" Bruce asked when she did not continue.

Devon tried not to jerk at the question. She had expected it but at the same time, it frightened her. In so many ways, she was still just the little girl finding out she was different for the first time. She remembered her mother sitting her down and warning her that she should never tell anyone not even her father or sister.

"I would have thought it obvious from the mess. You must have seen it on the video," she said looking up to Tony. He shrugged nodding slightly. "I am strong, stronger than most, depending on who you're comparing. I heal quickly. But I have some other issues too."

"Apparently," Tony rolled his eyes looking around the room.

"The worst of it is that the gamma radiation heightens the amygdala to stimuli," she gave an understanding smile to Dr. Banner when he nodded. "It also wreaks havoc on the pituitary and hypothalamus glands. Nothing too serious, but enough to make it an issue some times."

"So," Tony frowned at her, "if you plan on working here it'd be nice to know what your trigger is."

Devon returned his frown. The genius had to know that she was staying there as long as SHIELD required it. Unless they intended to report her to the spy organization, she would continue to do her job. Part of her was certain that they would use her secret to get her out of the tower. However, what confused her was his comment about a trigger. She really did not know what he meant by that.

"You look confused," he said smirking. "Unless you don't know what your trigger is?" Coming over to her Tony squatted down, watching her closely. "We know the big guy," he said nodding his head over his shoulder in the doctor's direction, "is triggered by anger. So what's yours?"

Shuttering slightly, Devon finally understood what Stark was asking. Her eyes darted between Banner and her hands. Tony did not understand that while the doctor and her appearances were different they shared many of the same side effects of the radiation. Their "triggers" being one of them.

"Strong emotion," she said simply. "The amygdala helps to regulate strong emotions like anger, fear, lust…" Her list faded out at the last to a mumbled response. "But it's not really a trigger," she frowned as she explained. "I'm always strong, fast, and healthy. It's not something that turns on and off. I just lose control of those things some times."

"What were you working on that set you off then?" Tony asked her quickly, not giving any time for her to explain.

Devon bit her lip and looked down at the floor. Again she did not want to respond. Any response she would give would be yet another sign of weakness. At this point she was not sure that she could handle being seen as more weak than she already had been.

"What was it? Must have been something big to have caused this much of a mess."

"A memorial," she finally whispered. "I wanted to design a memorial. You all saved so many lives but there were still many lost. I wanted a way to put my grief into something productive." She hung her head just wanting this to end. "But nothing seemed adequate enough."

Before Tony could shoot another question at her or worse a snarky comment, Bruce asked, "Who else knows about you?"

Devon swallowed hard, "Besides you three, there is only one other who knows. I'd like to keep it that way, if it's all the same to you."

The three men stared at her. This secret, her secret was a big favor to ask from them. It was a big risk.

"Of course," Tony said patting her on the shoulder before he got up and left the lab.

Bruce nodded to her giving her a gentle smile before following the genius out of the lab.

That left Devon and Steve in the silence of the lab. She did not even risk looking over at the soldier. He must hate her for keeping this secret from him. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as he slowly rose to his feet. She expected him to leave as the others had. Instead, his large shoes stopped in front of her. Steve's hand reached out and took one of hers. Ever so gently, he lifted her to her feet. She kept her head down still not meeting his eyes, until he hooked a finger under her chin lifting her head up.

He smiled at her, "Your secrets safe." He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.

Shocked Devon's heart thundered in her chest as at the brief touch. Pink tinted up her cheeks before she returned his smile, holding the big hand for a moment longer. When she let go she took a step to the side around the soldier going over to one of the up turned desks. Grabbing the edge, she easily righted the furniture. When done she looked over her shoulder, to see the reaction that her action had caused.

The man smiled at her again, then went over to some of the other furniture and fixed them too. That simple acceptance proved wrong all the assumptions that Devon had made. Maybe this was not the end of her life but the beginning.

The pair continued to work in silence but for the first time she knew she had a place where she belonged.