A/N: Wow...thank you to everyone who has followed/favorited so far, and to Xxx (Guest), gammawidow67, and DanathaKettu for the reviews! Hope you all enjoy this next installment! (There's more Bruce in this one. ;) )

Again, I don't own, nor am I affiliated with Marvel/The Avengers... surprise!

chapter three:

Amrita could not sleep that night. Her sleep pattern had been thrown extraordinarily out of whack by the flight and subsequent sleep in the plane. She had slept quite deeply, unaware of the fact that she was sleeping on the shoulder of an unfamiliar man. The thought disturbed her. Anything could have happened while she was asleep, and she would have feared the worst had there not been female agents on board the plane. Nevertheless, she was left pacing the floor of the plain room she had been assigned. Thankfully it was in one of the least populated areas of the helicarrier—she assumed Fury had noted her aversion to men and arranged her room not to be too close to any—so at least she didn't have to worry about potentially keeping people in the rooms next door up all night with her. When it was almost four in the morning, she felt her empty stomach growl, and she decided to see if she could remember where the cafeteria was from the very rushed tour she had been given and see if she could scrounge up a muffin and perhaps some chamomile tea to help her get some rest before she had to be at her clinic at eight, as per Fury's request. He had given her some newfangled technology he'd called a 'pager' that she'd never seen before and said that if there was an emergency that required her presence, it would beep and let her know. (She still had no idea how it worked, but she figured as long as she didn't press anything, she couldn't possibly break it. She had clipped it gingerly to the neckline of her sari and had resolved not to touch it since.)

Amrita stepped gingerly out of her room, looking both ways down the hall and trying to remember which way they had come from when Agent Vale had brought her to her past the cafeteria to her room. She glanced down at what she was wearing before she headed out, figuring that the plain white sleep shirt with a black sweater zipped up over it and black capris was fine to venture out in. She felt a bit weird wearing pants, since she usually wore saris, or on occasion western-styled sundresses, but it seemed an acceptable thing to wear. At least it wasn't completely skin-tight as a lot of the agents' bodysuits seemed to be. She frowned at the thought. It seemed almost indecent in her mind. Shaking her head to try and focus on finding the cafeteria, she randomly picked a direction when she couldn't recall which way they'd come and headed down the hall. She remembered there had been a right and then immediately a left turn, so she did the opposite of that at what seemed to her the right hallways. After a few minutes of walking, however, she quickly deflated when she realized she was, indeed, lost.

Sighing, she resigned herself to having to ask directions from the first person she saw. Surely in order to keep this contraption up and running in the air, there had to be at least a few people working around the clock to maintain the computers and whatnot controlling it, right?

After a few more minutes of walking, she was beginning to think she might be walking all night until morning came up, but then she began to recognize a few rooms. She had just stopped outside the door to her clinic when she realized there was someone working in the room next door, which had large glass windows set into the wall so that people could look in and see what was happening. She almost groaned in frustration when she realized who it was that was working in there. She had promised herself that she would ask the first person she saw for directions, though, and who knew how long it might be before she found someone else to ask? Sighing in defeat, Amrita stepped up to the glass and gave three sharp raps in quick succession.

The man inside jerked his head up from the equipment he was working with, and he looked genuinely surprised and confused to see her outside of his workspace. Whether that was due to the late hour, or how badly she had reacted to his presence on the plane, she couldn't be sure. Maybe a little bit of both. She was hit with a wave of guilt over her reaction. When she thought about it, he had seemed perfectly polite when they had first met. It was just her nerves getting the better of her. Perhaps she should apologize, she thought.

The curly brown-haired scientist left his station, opening the lab door next to the window. Amrita took an involuntary step back, uncomfortable with being too close to the man despite that he seemed a gentleman from what she had seen of him. Unfortunately, he seemed to notice her moving back, and she noticed a flicker of emotion cross his face before he schooled his expression once more.

"It's pretty late for people to be wandering around, let alone to a science lab," he said softly, as though if he spoke any louder he might scare her off. "You must be lost, I take it."

Amrita looked sheepish. "Um. Yeah, actually." She scratched the back of her neck, avoiding the man's gaze. "Uh…sorry, I know we met, but I forget your name."

When she risked a glance upwards, she was confused to see the surprise on the man's face. Almost as though he had expected her to know him, for some reason. She frowned at that thought. She hadn't even gone further than the village she lived outside of in the few years since she'd resurrected, how was she supposed to know anyone from the world outside of that?

"Bruce," he said after a moment of stunned silence. "Bruce Banner."

Amrita gave a breathy laugh, her nervousness pushing her to humor.

"Well, Bruce-Bruce Banner, I was wondering if you might point me in the direction of the cafeteria."

Bruce chuckled. "Just Bruce is fine. And if you give me a second, I'll come with you," he said, stepping back into the lab for a moment and hanging up his lab coat. "It'd be easier that way, seeing as it's on the exact opposite side of this flying tin can."

Amrita raised an eyebrow, falling into step beside Bruce as he walked, but keeping a fair bit of distance between them.

"I take it you're not a big fan of flying, then," she said.

"Well, the fact that we're 30,000 feet in the air should anything suddenly go wrong isn't exactly the most comforting of thoughts," he muttered, "So no, I'd say I'm not a fan."

Amrita hummed. "Personally, I like flying. It's the machinery I don't trust. I'd just as well do without."

"Flying without machinery?" Bruce said, raising an eyebrow at her. "What, you mean like in a hot air balloon?"

Amrita frowned, wracking her brain for her own meaning. She could remember that she had flown without machinery before, but as she sifted through the memories that weren't blurred past recognition, she could not find when she had done so.

"I…don't recall," she said. "I just know I've flown before. I don't recall the means…"

Bruce gave her an odd look, but let the discussion drop. There was a lull in the conversation as they both became wrapped up in their own thoughts, until Bruce seemed to perk up a bit and turned a hallway before stopping at a set of double doors.

"This is it," he said, pushing open the door and holding it for her.

Nervously, she brushed past him before skittering to put distance between them once again. She looked around the cafeteria, noting how vast the room was. There must have been enough tables to seat over a thousand people, she thought in awe. She saw that there was only one staff in sight, who nodded a greeting to the two of them and started making a fresh pot of coffee. Amrita wandered over to the display cooler that held a variety of different sandwiches, salads, and fruits, and she perked up at the sight of sliced mango, her mouth watering as she grabbed it and moved over to the counter, shyly engaging the woman who was wiping down the kitchen counters.

"Um…excuse me, how much does this cost?" she asked, hoping it didn't cost too much. She belatedly wondered if they would accept the rupees that she had, as she hadn't had a chance to exchange them for anything else.

The woman waved off her question.

"No worries, it'll just be deducted from your paycheck," she said. "Help yourself to some coffee, while you're at it."

"Oh!" Amrita exclaimed, relieved that there was one less hassle to overcome while on the helicarrier. Fury hadn't told her she would be compensated for her work. She'd rarely been compensated when she'd healed people in the village in India. "Thank you very much," she said gratefully, pouring herself a cup of the steaming liquid and pouring some cream and sugar into it. She had never quite adjusted to the bitterness of coffee; she was more a lover of sweets.

Amrita turned, carefully watching her coffee to make sure she didn't spill it and sitting down at the nearest table to partake in her snack. She took a careful sip of the steaming coffee, making sure the creamer had cooled and dulled the bitterness enough for her tastebuds, and finding it sufficient, grabbed a piece of fruit. She was just about to pop it in her mouth when Bruce sat himself down across the table from her, placing a cup of coffee down in front of him.

"Oh," she said awkwardly. "You don't have to stay with me if you don't want…I think I could find my way back from here. I can ask the kitchen staff if I need directions," she said, trying to excuse him from her presence. Not that he didn't seem like a nice enough person, but her aversion to men made her reluctant to spend more time with him than necessary, now that she had achieved her goal.

Bruce gave her a tired smile, and it was only then she realized the dark circles under his eyes. She hadn't thought that he had been pulling an all-nighter in the lab, thinking that maybe he had just gotten up super early to get a head start on the day. However, that didn't seem to be the case.

"That's okay," he said. "I could use the pick-me-up, and to be honest, I kind of wanted to ask you something."

Amrita braced for accusations about her rude behavior. She didn't feel like explaining her background, not to a stranger. A male stranger, at that.

"When you reacted badly to me on the trip here, I figured that it was just because you knew about my past, but…Fury mentioned something that made me think it was more than that," he said, folding his hands around the hot cup in front of him, leaning forward a bit over the table. Amrita instinctually leaned back to compensate for the closing of distance between them. Bruce frowned.

"Someone took advantage of you, didn't they?"

Amrita clutched at the edges of the table. She could feel her shoulders trembling, but she refused to let herself cry in front of a stranger. She ducked her head, staring resolutely at her lap. How dare he ask something so bluntly? Had he no manners? No discretion? You didn't just ask people you hardly knew if they'd been molested, no matter how isolated the conversation was.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out that way," Bruce said with a sigh. "I don't know how else to put it, though, without beating around the bush." She didn't look up, and Bruce sighed again. "Look, I just…want to know how I'm supposed to act around you. Your clinic is right next to my lab, so we're bound to cross paths at some point, and I just don't want to make you feel more uncomfortable around me than you already do, alright?"

Amrita frowned. It wasn't any of his business, but…he made a valid point. She swallowed thickly.

"Yes," she finally croaked. "I was."

It felt so strange, admitting that to someone she'd just met. But in a way, it almost felt…liberating. She had never told anyone outright before what had happened. Was this what telling people her closest-kept secret felt? She had thought it would feel shameful, letting others know what had happened; not this feeling as though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. It was…freeing.

"A man tried to rape me," she said bluntly, finally raising her eyes to meet Bruce's. "I ended up killing him."

Bruce had an odd look on his face. Sympathy, perhaps? It was something that was foreign to Amrita.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," he said. He pursed his lips. "So that's why you're so…jumpy? It's not just me?"

Amrita shook her head vehemently.

"Heavens, no! I'm sorry if you got that idea, but no. I just…am not comfortable around men, that's all."

"Ah." He nodded. "Good to know," he said, but she couldn't help but think he looked a little worried about something.

Amrita studied Bruce as he blew on his black coffee before taking a tentative sip, the corners of his eyes scrunching a bit at the heat of it. He seemed like a very understanding person. When she analyzed her feelings in regards to conversing with him like this, with only one other person within shouting distance, she felt that she didn't feel nearly as panicked as she usually would. Whether that was because of his response to the truth of her past, or merely because he had a calming presence, she wasn't entirely sure. All she knew was, she didn't feel near as uncomfortable with him as she usually would with other men. She smiled, and when Bruce looked up to see it, he raised his eyebrows at her.

"What's with the smile?" he said. "Did I get coffee on my chin?" He scrubbed at his chin with the edge of his shirt sleeve.

She laughed. "No. It's just…you're a very understanding person, Bruce," she said. "I think I could be friends with you."

Bruce frowned. "I'm actually not so sure that's a good idea," he said.

Amrita tilted her head to the side, confused. "Why not?"

Bruce shook his head, running a hand through his already messy hair.

"It's just…I've got a not-so-good past of my own, and I wouldn't want to drag you into it." He smiled wryly. "It's not your problem, and I don't want to make it yours."

Amrita took a deep breath, wondering if it were possible to transfer decades of experience and knowledge to the man within the space of a few sentences. She spoke slowly, choosing her words carefully.

"Bruce…I'm not sure how many friends you have, if any. I, myself, have none to speak of at present," she said. "But I have had many in the past, and if there's one thing that I've learned, it's that people need companionship. And part of being friends with people is the understanding that each person has their own past, however messy that may be, and that if troubles arise from that past, their friends will support them." She went back over the words in her mind, and nodded, feeling she'd explained her stance on the subject well enough. "Sometimes people just need someone else to be there for them. I don't know about you, but I could use a few friends around here. I'm not exactly happy with my services being enlisted by a secret government agency that know way more about me than they should."

Bruce's gaze dropped to his cup of coffee, and he was quiet for a long moment. Finally, he took a deep breath and spoke.

"Alright," he said softly. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

Amrita smiled brilliantly. He may have been a man, but he seemed like a good man, and she hoped that with his understanding, she would be able to gradually overcome her fear of men so that simply standing close to one would not cause her to react badly. She wondered at his reluctance to accept her friendship, and was reminded of how he, too, had been living in a less-populated area of India when SHIELD had picked him up. Her stomach growled before she could ask the question that was on the tip of her tongue, though, and she felt her cheeks grow warm as Bruce chuckled at her.

"I take it you're hungry, then," he said.

Amrita grimaced and nodded, eating a bite of her mango before speaking.

"Yes. That's why I wanted to find the cafeteria…I couldn't sleep, and then my stomach started complaining for me to feed it."

Bruce nodded, sipping at his coffee while Amrita tried not to look like a pig while scarfing down her snack. They sat in silence for the rest of the time, while Amrita finished eating and they both sipped at their coffees until they were gone. It was with a quick glance at the clock above the display cooler that Amrita realized with shock that it was past five in the morning already. She needed to perform her morning ritual before she had to head down to her clinic at eight. She turned to Bruce, feeling a little sheepish.

"Um…Bruce, I don't suppose…you'd be able to help me find my way back to my room?" she asked timidly, ducking her head as she felt her cheeks grow warm with embarrassment at her inability to remember directions.

Bruce just laughed. "Of course, do you have the number?"

Amrita dug in her pocket for the slip of paper that she'd deigned to keep on her person just in case something like this happened. She slid it across the table towards him, and he picked it up after she'd withdrawn her hand, something she was grateful he'd thought to wait for. He looked at the number, then pulled out an electronic device and typed something in on it, nodding after a second.

"Yeah, I know where it is," he said.

Amrita's shoulders slumped in relief. "Thank heavens! I don't know how long I would've ended up wandering around this place trying to find it by myself..."