I have a confession. I have committed one of the writer's deadly sins: I failed to do my research. Turns out that the whole "humans-only-use-10%-of-the-brain" thing is an urban myth. Thankfully, someone called me on it. I've made some quick corrections to the appropriate chapter, though nothing of any importance.

On that note, please pardon any other medical mistakes in this or succeeding chapters, and enjoy!

They took a quinjet and a cab. If Asa had paid a little more attention, she might've been able to ascertain the location of the headquarters by paying attention to how long it took them to get there, but she decided that it wasn't worth it. The point was that they took a private jet and a taxi and ended up at Stark Tower.

It took Asa a second to recognize it. But once she remembered that she'd seen it on T.V., it wasn't too hard to figure out. Fury didn't even wait until the cab had come to a stop before he was out and to the doors. Clint followed suit, and Asa had to scramble to keep up. Before she knew it, they were in an elevator. Asa wished there were stairs, but the ride turned out to be completely imperceptible, and unbelievably fast.

The elevator let them out into a massive, beautifully proportioned room, which at this moment was doubling as a verbal battlefield. They arrived just in time to hear someone say, "Just tell him to knock, ok?"

"Knock knock," was Fury's concession to that statement. A man that Asa recognized as the infamous Tony Stark turned to protest.

"That doesn't… Count."

Fury ignored him, and for once, lived up to his name.

"What the hell happened out there?"

Asa could only assume that there had been some kind of fight, judging by the state that several people were in. Her triage training kicked in and she assessed everyone quickly. The professional-looking redhead who was fussing over Stark she dismissed immediately. She noted Stark's black eye, but he seemed to have no trouble telling Fury that he needed to learn to knock, so he would hold for now. The couple in the corner, a man with kind dark eyes and a pretty blonde that looked no older than Asa, both showed signs of exhaustion, but had no apparent injuries. The blonde was protesting to Fury that it was all her fault. Asa hadn't really been paying attention to the conversation, so when everyone suddenly started protesting that no one was leaving, and something about a wedding, she took a hasty step back.

There great deal of shouting and Fury pointing at people, during which Asa tried to continue her assessments. She finally threw her hands up and decided to wait until things calmed slightly, as no one would stand still long enough to be assessed. Fury shifted his attention to a guy maybe a couple of years younger than Asa, sprawled out over a chair in the center of the room.

"You."

Asa had to give the guy credit; he didn't flinch or jump or even look remotely bothered. He was skinny and long-limbed, with a shock of dark hair that stuck out from his head in every direction and made Asa itch to comb it back into place. He was by far in the worst shape of the bunch, but his gaze was clear and he was sitting down. Since Asa was more than a little wary to step between Fury and his chosen scapegoat, she decided to sit tight for the moment..

"Me?" He said it so innocently that it took Asa a second to realize that he was being a smart alec. She almost grinned. Fury did not.

"Yes, you. You caused all this havoc?"

He held up his hands defensively. "Hey, she started it!" He jerked his chin toward the blonde, who looked so sweet that Asa had to tell her self sternly not to be jealous.

The last person in the room, whom Asa had almost missed because Fury was standing right between them, chimed in. He stood with perfect posture and somehow put Asa in mind of farmers and soldiers simultaneously. Thankfully, he looked pretty good, just some minor bruising and scrapes.

"She called him a bug. And he went off his rocker."

"I- I am here, you know. You can talk to me instead of about me." He said it so reasonably that Asa wasn't sure whether she wanted to smack him or hug him. Then he kept talking and she started to favor smacking. "And what does 'off his rocker' mean anyways? How old are you?"

The farmer/soldier stiffened, and Asa sensed a fight brewing.

"Son-" Yep. This was going to come to fists, and the guy in the chair at least was in no condition to be throwing out any punches. She tsked impatiently, and paced briskly to the center of the room, effectively stepping between them.

"Okay, boys, settle down." Nothing diverted grown men like being treated like children. "You-" she pointed to the farmer/soldier, "stay where you are." The beat-up one had stood when the other guy had stepped forward, and she scowled at him fiercely. "You sit down and let me see your leg." Surprised, he collapsed back into the chair.

She knelt next to him and tried to roll up the leg of his jeans, but he hissed in pain. So she pulled a pair of special scissors from the medkit she'd grabbed on the way out and started cutting it off.

"Moves fast, that one." Asa didn't spare Tony a glance, afraid that if she acknowledged him she'd blush. Most of her patients were not as attractive as this one.

"What happened?" It was a standard question, and she kept her eyes on his swollen knee as he answered.

"There, uh- there was a, um, a… There was a wall. I swear it hit me first."

She snorted in laughter.

"Well, that's what you get for calling names." She glanced up with a smile to soften the sternness of her voice and met deep-set hazel eyes. His grin was lopsided, and she forgot what she was doing for a second.

"I'll have to remember that."

"Do." It took all of her training to keep from getting flustered. She returned to the injury, pressing her fingers at various points on his knee. "Does that hurt?" He shrugged and shook his head, an extremely enthusiastic motion that resembled a figure eight. "And that? No? Good. Now, if you could just rotate your ankle for me?" Tony choked on something that he was drinking. Asa spared him a glare, then returned her attention to what she was doing. She placed her hands on his lower leg as he moved the foot, checking the flex of muscles and ligaments under the skin. "Now the other way. Great. Now, can you straighten your leg?" She shifted her hands slightly, and when he moved the leg, she nodded.

"Okay." She pulled out an ice pack, broke it, and held it to the worst of the swelling. "Hold that there. Now, the good news is that I don't think you've torn any ligaments." He nodded, and she wasn't sure if he actually understood or if he was just agreeing. "You've got some serious bruising, though, possibly down to the bone so you're going to need to stay off of that foot for a while. I'm also going to want to look at this again tomorrow, once the swelling's gone down a little, just to be sure. There's so much extra fluid right now that it's possible that I'm missing something." He made a face, and she raised her eyebrows. "Unless you'd like to come in for some scans?" He shook his head again, and it struck her just how adorable he was. She cleared her throat.

"I thought not. Keep that there, and I'll patch some of this up." She gestured toward the lacerations up his leg, arm and face. It was quick work, and they didn't speak at all while she did it. He was kind of a wuss, flinching away from the disinfectant and visibly paling when she pulled out a needle.

"You need stitches if this is going to heal. Don't be a pansy. I'll even numb it," she offered. He pulled a face.

"Nah. Just do it." She shrugged and put in the stitches. She had to hold his face still while she did it.

"So, uh, do you have a name or something?"

"Stop talking. Dr. Asalynn Liretto." She paused, head cocked, and half-smiled. "I love the Dr. part. It's new." He laughed, and she shoved him lightly. "Hold still, I said! Everyone calls me Asa, though. You?" She tied off the last stitch, and immediately had to smack his hand away.

He blinked at her in confusion.

"A name? Do you have one?" she clarified.

"Oh! Yeah! A name. Uh, yeah. Um… Parker. Peter, I mean. Well, both, actually, Peter and Parker. Peter Parker." It took him a great deal of effort to get that sentence out, and she had to bite back her giggles again. "Wow, that's um… embarrassing. Can we just… forget that I just forgot my own name?"

She bit her lip, and smiled. "Sure. But then I'll need to find out your name again."

"That's okay, I think I've got it this time. Peter Parker, pleased to meet you, Asa."

Just then, Asa heard someone talking about her.

"That is Asalynn Liretto. She's going to be this team's doctor from now on. If you all keep playing rough, we'll have to keep you in tiptop shape. And I'm instating her here at Stark Tower." It was Fury, of course.

"Wait, what?" Asa tried to protest, but the conversation moved on without her. So she just sighed and gave Peter a quick wave before she started moving around the room, patching and icing. The only one who really needed any kind of attention other than Peter was the big blonde who reminded Asa of a farmer. He introduced himself politely as Captain Steve Rogers, and Asa finally recognized as him as Captain America. She worked quickly, glad for his natural regenerative abilities; a gash that would've need ten stitches five minutes ago was now healing nicely and required nothing more than a strip of gauze.

Fury kept giving orders. "Since half of you are living here anyways, I'm declaring this the official headquarters for the Avengers."

"But you can't do that. See, this is my house-" Tony's protests were almost funny in their lack of efficiency.

"Tower."

Tony blinked, but just kept on talking. "-Whatever. And you can't just say what this place is."

Fury kept totally deadpan.

"It's headquarters."

"No-"

Fury was obviously sick of the pandering, because he pulled out a trump card.

"I thought you would want to be in control of this. What better way than to own headquarters?" Asa nearly whistled in admiration. It was probably the only argument that would have possibly worked on Tony, and he was caught off guard.

"Y-yeah- but- I mean and-" he stuttered. The redhead, whom Asa guessed was his girlfriend and personal assistant, Pepper Potts, pounced on the moment.

"We would love to have you all come and stay here."

From the second that Pepper became Tony's opponent, the battle was lost.

"What?"

"Whenever you need a home you are all free to stay." Asa wondered whom that invitation included, and about Fury's statement that she herself would be living in the tower.

"But it's not your tower."

"It's 12% my tower." This was obviously an old argument.

"You've got to be-"

"You can live in my 12%."

Natasha chimed in helpfully. "And when you get married, won't it be a 100%?"

Asa made a small "huh" of surprise. She didn't know that they were getting married.

"It's true. We are sharing all assets. So we are going to be perfectly equal." This was obviously another old argument, and Asa was impressed with how quickly Pepper had turned the conversation around. Suddenly, Tony looked like he'd been struck with the most brilliant idea ever.

"We are? Oh, that's right. We are. So, welcome to headquarters, everyone."

Fury didn't even spare Pepper a grateful glance. "Now that that's settled, Romanoff, Barton, you will be this team's handlers."

Tony, of course, had something to say about that. "Handlers?"

The dark-eyed man in the corner smiled lazily. "This should be interesting."

Asa shook her head and moved on Tony. He managed to ignore her and swat her away simultaneously, so she shrugged and moved on.

The blonde girl half-grinned. "Yeah. Yeah it should." She blinked tiredly a few times, and Asa watched her in concern, and she wasn't the only one. The dark-eyed man turned to face her better.

"Stephanie, are you alright?" She definitely looked woozy now. Asa was there in two heartbeats, and she had to smack the man's hands away so that she could feel Stephanie's forehead.

"Come on, Stephanie-"

He felt for her wrist at the same time Asa did, and she had to pull the hand away, as gently as possible.

"I'm- I'm sorry. I can't."

"Don't worry about it. Stephanie? You have to stay conscious until we can get you to bed." Asa almost opened her mouth to contradict him, but changed her mind. Stephanie was in no immediate danger: low-grade fever and slightly elevated pulse, but Asa suspected that her main problem was exhaustion. If Stephanie passed out, she could be carried to bed and more or less allowed to sleep it off. She was glad of this prognosis when Stephanie smiled sweetly, said "Alright," and promptly passed out.

So? Thoughts? Not a huge cliffhanger, I know, but the next chapter will be up quick as I can manage.

And if anyone would like to know what's been going on, you can check out TeddysTwin's story, Hope Rising. You'll love it, I promise!