Author's note: Let's be honest... this chapter has no real point to it. It just kinda came out of my keyboard. But even though it doesn't have much to do with the main storyline, think of it as a theater break. Enjoy!

Wow… it had been a long time since I'd done something like this. I was waiting in line at the bank. An actual, legitimate bank. Bruce had convinced me it would be a good idea to get an actual account rather than just convert the gold whenever we needed money. Which, to be honest, wasn't a bad plan. Bruce was waiting with me, and we'd been standing there for hours. Or at least it felt that way. According to Bruce's watch, it had only been five minutes. I had asked Fury to help with the situation, and he had obliged, putting my money into a special, throwaway account I could transfer into a more permanent one. Basically Fury was now my money launderer. Weird… Of course, as we were waiting in line a bunch of guys in ski masks just had to bust in holding guns. And they had to hold up the bank, complete with hostages. Just my luck, huh?

"Alright." I listened to one of the guys talking on the phone with the police force. We were all sitting on the ground, heads down. Bruce looked like he was about ready to go green. I put a hand on his arm and shook my head; I had a plan. "For every ten minutes we don't get the combination to the safe, somebody dies." Wow… these guys really were rank amateurs. "Okay, then." He said, smirking as he put down the phone. "As long as you all behave like good little hostages, I guarantee at least some of you will make it out of this alive."

"Excuse me?" I said, with my best "panicked hostage" voice.

"You got something to say?"

"I have to use the toilet." He just stared at me.

"Lady, do you know where you are?" I stared right back.

"Please? If the police find out you've been mistreating a pregnant woman…" That got him. He assigned me a body guard and walked me out the door to the bathroom. That didn't last long. Once we got to the hall, I grabbed the guy by the neck and channeled some of my energy into him, knocking him out cold. One down, I thought; four to go.

"Hey… you're that Banner guy, ain'tcha?" Uh oh… one of the guys had recognized Bruce. I guess he was pretty famous. "Yo, we should tie 'im up, make sure he doesn't go all green on us." Idiots. I peeked around the doorway; they were wrapping him up in duct tape. I could see him gritting his teeth, trying not to destroy the whole place. If he hulked up, sure the robbers would be taken care of, but so would all the hostages, and probably any building within a mile radius.

"Where's Greg with that pregnant lady?" One of the guys asked.

"You better go check on 'em." Like fish in a barrel, I swear. I hid behind the corner as the guy walked out. Better to get him away from his buddies first. He wandered through the halls, scratching his head and looking around for me for a while, and when he finally came close enough, I grabbed him from behind and put a hand over his mouth. The baby bump was not making this easier in any way, but he was weak and panicked, and easy to overpower.

"I'm going to take my hand away. If you try anything, you will die. Seem simple enough for you?" He nodded frantically and I took my hand away from his mouth, my grip still tight on his arms. "Listen up. I need an inside man. You're gonna be him. Got that?" He nodded again. "When I let you go, you're going to walk in there, and tell your boss there's a problem. I don't care what, just make it up. You're gonna send him out here, and I'll take it from there." He nodded again. "And if you decide to double-cross me, just know I can kill you in a heartbeat." I made my fingers spark menacingly, and he gulped.

"Hey, this wasn't my idea, okay?" He said. His voice sounded frightened and vulnerable, and he was breaking out into a cold sweat. I kinda felt sorry for him. "It was Rick, he's the one that came up with this. It's for his mom, y'know? She's dyin' we didn't know what else to do!" Now, I know what you're thinking; who am I, to fall for this kind of B.S? But I know a lie when I hear it, and this wasn't one. My face softened.

"Hey, I'm not gonna kill you guys or anything. But my fiance's in there, and if I don't get him out before he goes berserk, it'll be a moot point. Now get to it." I let him go, and he scurried off nervously. I just hoped he had good enough acting skills. I needed to get the leader away from Bruce before our little chat, in case it didn't go as planned. I walked over to one of the windows and peeked through the blinds. The NYPD was outside, running around trying to take care of the situation. My eyes widened as they fell on a familiar sight; tear gas. This just kept getting better and better. If they gassed the place with Bruce in here? I don't know if even I could survive that. I was on a timer now. I had to work fast.

"Yo, I don't see any blood, man. You sure?"

"Yeah, she had the kid right here. She's just around the corner." I bit my tongue to keep from snickering. They saw me as they rounded the corner. It was the guy I'd just captured, (whose name was apparently Greg) the leader, (who Greg had called Rick) and another guy who refused to remove his ski mask.

"Hey, she's still huge!" The mask said in a feminine voice. Oh… well, why not? "What's the deal, Greg?"

"What're you tryin' to pull?" Rick growled at Greg.

"Hey. Lay off him." I said.

"And who're you?"

"That doesn't matter. What matters is that there's a police squad out there ready to gas this place, and if they do, you'll have bigger problems than sore eyes."

"Yo, why should we believe you?"

"Take a look." Rick looked through the blinds.

"Dammit. Dammit to hell!" He punched the wall beside him, leaving a pretty sizeable hole.

"You said this would work, Rick!" The girl said, pulling off her ski mask to reveal short, spiky-blonde hair. "Now we're all screwed!"

"It should've worked! I didn't think there'd be a frickin' Avenger in the place!"

"Two, actually." I stood up, feeling one of the twins kick me pretty hard. Not the time. "Listen. You haven't killed anyone yet, right?" The guys all shared a look. It had been twenty minutes since their "one hostage every ten minutes" threat, and I hadn't heard any gunshots. "If you give yourself up, the judge might go easy on you. Tell them the story about your mom." Rick threw a glare at Greg, who shrugged sheepishly. "You only have a few minutes at most to decide." Rick ran his hands through his hair.

"Fine. You know what? Fine. This whole operation's already gone to hell, anyway." The three walked out with their hands up. Well, two of them, anyway; Greg had to carry the guy I'd knocked out. The police took them away, and all the hostages ran back to their families. Bruce sat still as I peeled the duct-tape off of him.

"Have fun?" He asked as I worked.

"Oh, yeah. I had a blast." He winced as I peeled a bit off his bare arm.

"What'd you do then, shock them until they gave in?"

"Nah. I just talked."

"Just… talked?"

"Yeah." The look in his eyes… I could've sworn it was admiration. I smiled as I stripped off the last bit of tape, and he stood up and took me in his arms.

"I'm so glad you're alright."

"Yeah. Me too." I pulled away when I got a call on the comm. "Fury?" I said.

"Trescott, we've gotten word of a hostage situation in your bank." Oh, now he decides to step in.

"It's alright, I took care of it." I thought a moment. "Hey, they should be bringing in the perps about now. There's someone I need you to look up, dude named Rick. See if you can get his mom some help."

"What?"

"You heard me. Catch you later." I hung up, and took Bruce by the hand. "Come on. We still need to open an account!"