A/N: A bit of a shorter chapter compared to the last two, sorry. But there is some fluff-esque bits, as well as the beginnings of the new plot arc! So excited for it. :D

Thank you to everyone who's read, reviewed, followed, and/or favorited! Love y'all, you're amazing.

I don't own, nor am I affiliated with, Marvel or The Avengers. I just own Amrita and my plot for her.

Two weeks later found Amrita settling into her new home, just a stone's throw from Stark Tower. The small, two-bedroom house had been purchased using a mysterious bank account that had been opened in her name without her knowledge, which held what Bruce had told her was a sizeable sum of money. She suspected it was SHIELD's doing, seeing as she also received a package in the mail containing identification such as a birth certificate, SIN number, and other such things which she was quite certain she hadn't had before. Also, apparently SHIELD thought she looked twenty-two years old, she mused. Personally, she thought she looked a couple years older than that, but then she figured if she were planning on staying in Manhattan for more than a couple years (she wasn't sure if she wanted to yet or not—time would tell, she supposed), it was good that they low-balled her age, seeing as she wouldn't appear to grow any older, which eventually people would find suspicious. Dangerously suspicious.

Amrita had gone out and bought a load of things for her house, and for herself. She had gotten Bruce's help for most of it, but had gotten help from Tony's girlfriend, Pepper Potts, for the more singularly-feminine necessities (such as underwear—she wasn't so inconsiderate as to embarrass Bruce by asking him to go shopping for those with her). The redhead was a very down-to-earth person, which she was pleasantly surprised by. She was amazed at how such an egotistical person had managed to find such a wonderful woman, but when she saw them together, she realized that Tony knew exactly how wonderful Pepper was and could see exactly how much he felt for her. Another thing that amazed her was how much money she and Pepper had managed to spend—without even using money. She wasn't used to the conversion from rupees to dollars, but from the set-up of the stores that Pepper dragged her into, she could only guess that they were fairly upscale shops she was buying from. She wasn't sure if she wanted to know how much she'd spent in rupees; she might have a heart attack if she found out.

Amrita was busy putting away the groceries that she had bought earlier that morning. She glanced at the living room, pursing her lips. Pepper had talked her into buying a TV so that she could stay up-to-date with the world news, something that she figured she should do if she was going to be an active part of modern society, but she had no idea how to hook the damn thing up. She considered phoning Bruce (he'd finally managed to teach her how to call someone with the cell phone she'd gotten—she still couldn't text to save her life, though), but pushed the idea away, figuring she had already monopolized enough of his spare time in the past few days. She glanced at the clock, seeing that it was almost lunch time, and pulled out some ingredients to make chicken korma. Bruce and Pepper had been trying to get her to eat more American-style food, but she was so used to the food in India, and despite that she tried to keep an open mind when trying new things, she honestly preferred her usual Indian fare to anything she'd tried in Manhattan to date.

"Smells good."

Amrita jumped, whirling around and brandishing a slotted spoon, as if it could actually do any damage to an intruder. She scowled when she saw that it was just Bruce.

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," she muttered. "I thought I told you to knock."

"And I thought I told you to lock your door," Bruce shot back. "This isn't your village where people are too intimidated to provoke you, Amrita. This is New York. It's a big city, and there are people that wouldn't think twice about invading your home."

Amrita paused in her movements, swallowing thickly at the implications of his statement. He wasn't just talking about robbers. She took a deep breath and continued preparing the food to cook, speaking without looking back at him.

"Right. I'll be sure to be more careful from now on," she mumbled. "I'll get you a key cut so you can come in if I'm out."

"Amrita," he said, sighing when she didn't turn around to look at him. "Come on. You know I'm only concerned about your well-being. I know you don't like being reminded of what happened, and for good reason. But it's the ugly truth of what kind of people are out there. There are some sick minds out there, and I just want you to be safe from all that."

Amrita closed her eyes, taking a deep, steadying breath. She turned her head to look at Bruce, giving him a wan smile.

"I know. You're a good friend, Bruce," she said. "Thanks."

Bruce smiled tentatively back at her. As she turned to go back to preparing to cook, he stopped her.

"You know what, stop. Stop cooking," he said. "You keep trying to feed me whenever I come over. Honestly, if I didn't know any better I'd think you were trying to fatten me up before eating me," he joked. She gave a roll of her eyes in reply. "Let's go out. I found this nice little Chinese place the other day not too far from here. Family owned; friendly staff. Plus, it's not too busy, so you don't have to wait long for your food."

Amrita thought for a moment, but gave a nod of assent.

"Alright. You've twisted my arm," she said, scooping the garlic that she'd minced into a baggie and sticking it and the other ingredients she hadn't used yet back in the fridge. She turned back to Bruce, who offered her his arm. She froze for a moment, still not used to the idea of physical contact outside of doctor mode. Outside of her office, she was on a level playing field with everyone else, no longer in a controlled environment. She saw the smile on Bruce's face falter as he saw her hesitation. He moved to take his arm back.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have—"

"No! No," she hastily reassured him. "It's okay. It's fine," she said, placing her hand lightly in the crook of his elbow. "See?" She managed a small smile, hoping her nervousness wasn't plastered all over her face.

Bruce didn't quite seem convinced that it was fine, but he let it go, nodding.

"Alright then. Off we go," he said, leading the way to the door and waiting for her to get her shoes on. "And lock the door," he said, raising a challenging eyebrow at her.

She gave him an unimpressed look. "Yes, father," she drawled.

Bruce held a hand to his heart, giving her a wounded look.

"I'm hurt," he said. "I may not be young, but I'm not that old."

Amrita burst out laughing, feeling the tension from before disappear at his comment. She realized after a moment that he still didn't know about her regeneration, and she started laughing even harder, clutching her side as they walked down the sidewalk. She was pretty sure she was drawing stares from other pedestrians, but she didn't care as she wiped away the tears that had formed in her eyes. Bruce raised both his eyebrows at her.

"O-kay then," he said. "I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're not as young as you look, then…?"

Amrita pressed her lips together. She wasn't sure if she knew how to broach that topic with Bruce just yet. She knew she didn't want to do it in public, though, that much was for sure.

"It's rude to ask a woman her age," she chided teasingly. "However, let's say that's a discussion for another day and leave it at that. I think some light conversation would be best for now." She stared pointedly at the other people walking past them, hoping to convey her reasoning behind refusing to talk on the subject. A look of understanding passed over Bruce's face, and he nodded.

"Alright," he said, accepting the abrupt change of subject. "So… Have you been catching up with modern society?"

Amrita groaned.

"Yes. Don't remind me. I think I was happier off not knowing what a Kardashian was…"

It was Bruce's turn to laugh. "Yeah, society picks some pretty crazy stuff to dwell on."

Amrita snorted. "That's an understatement," she muttered, thinking of some of the rather disturbing things she had stumbled across while using the internet. (She still hadn't been able to find that since the first time Bruce had showed her—she'd managed to find it once by randomly pressing buttons on her 'smart phone', but hadn't tried that method since, as she had ended up bringing up stocks pages and a stop watch and a plethora of other things as well.)

"Hey, speaking of crazy stuff," he said, "how's working in a Stark-funded hospital going?"

Amrita shrugged. "Surprisingly well," she admitted. "It's only been a week, but so far they seem to run a pretty tight ship there. There's some cattiness with the female doctors, but I think that's just because I look a little young to be a doctor already, and they won't be able to find any fault with my work," she said determinedly. And they wouldn't—her superhuman healing ability enabled her to diagnose things more accurately than humans, so even if she hadn't been able to decipher the cause of the problem from what her patients relayed to her, she knew all of the right tests to order and treatments to give. She was certainly a bit old-fashioned in her treatment, mostly in that she refused to use technology unless absolutely necessary (something that the other staff members of the Stark-powered facility seemed to find amusing), but thankfully medicine was the one thing she had kept herself in the loop of even when she was living in isolation in India. It was her passion, after all.

Bruce smiled. "Well, that's good. You seem happy," he noted. "So you're enjoying life in Manhattan?"

Amrita laughed. "You ask me that almost every time you see me. Yes, I'm enjoying life in Manhattan. So far," she added teasingly. "It has only been two weeks."

Bruce nodded, humming. "You'll have to keep me posted on that, then."

She rolled her eyes, but smiled. "Uh-huh. I'll remember to let you know the next couple dozen times we get together."

Her remark elicited a laugh from the scientist, before he looked up at the building they were walking past. "Oh, hey, this is it," he said.

The little restaurant was squeezed in between a barber shop and a beauty supplies store. Looking in the window, Amrita could see there were only a handful of other people inside, but the restaurant looked neat and welcoming, with a few richly-colored tapestries decorating the walls. She smiled.

"Looks cozy."

"Glad you think so," Bruce said, pulling the door open, which set a wind chime tinkling lightly. "Milady," he joked.

Amrita felt her face heat up at both the chivalrous act and the fact that she realized she still had her hand resting on Bruce's arm. She hastily removed it, managing despite her embarrassment to dip into a curtsy and joke back, "Why thank you, kind sir," before she scuttled inside, Bruce following behind.

After they were seated and had ordered their food, they began chatting about a variety of things, including a beach trip that Tony had suggested they all go on soon. After that, their topic of conversation switched to Bruce's work with Tony, experimenting with new technology they had ideas for, and despite the fact that she didn't understand half of the terms he used, she smiled at the way his eyes lit up when he talked about his work. After a few minutes of this, he seemed to realize from how little she was contributing to the conversation that he was talking above her comprehension level, reigning his enthusiasm in.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly.

Amrita chuckled. "No, no. It's fine. I didn't want to interrupt with how excited you seemed to be about your work."

Bruce laughed. "Well, thanks for listening to me ramble. Maybe we should stick to non-science-related subjects though, or I might start talking your ear off again."

Amrita found herself touched by the consideration of the man. He truly was a gentleman, and an excellent friend. She realized she wasn't sure what she would have done if they weren't friends. Probably floundered, after finding herself thrown into modern society after years of social isolation. Bruce had given her the extra little push she'd needed to find her place here in the States. She suspected he was the one who had talked Tony into setting her up with that job interview, seeing as the man had despised her before the Chitauri invasion. (Her own fault, really, but she refused not to stand up for herself to others after what she'd gone through.)

Amrita smiled as Bruce started up a new topic of conversation, trying to keep her face from heating up as she realized what seemed now almost painfully obvious.

She liked Bruce Banner.

"Agent Hill," Nick Fury addressed the woman who approached him from behind, not having to look at her to know who it was that was approaching. "Status report."

"We've finished the analysis on the energy spike we detected when Dr. Banner and Mehrotra fell from the plane, sir," she said. "The energy spike's point of origin was identified as coming from Dr. Mehrotra."

Fury nodded, not looking phased at all. He motioned for her to continue.

Agent Hill faltered momentarily before saying, "Sir, the energy analysis was inconclusive."

Fury's one-eyed gaze finally slid over to the brunette agent.

"I'm sorry, Agent Hill. Did I hear you correctly just now?" he asked, raising his eyebrows slightly. "We have the most up-to-date technology on earth, able to identify every kind of energy known to man, capable of even identifying Asgardian energy, and you're saying…we have no clue what kind of energy was being emitted by Dr. Mehrotra?"

Agent Hill swallowed and nodded.

"Yes, sir. That's what I'm saying."

Fury's jaw clenched, and he had to refrain from grinding his teeth in annoyance.

"Get a tail on Mehrotra. I want to know just exactly what we are dealing with."

Agent Hill nodded. "Yes, sir," she said, hurrying off to do just that.