A/N: The plot thickens! Dun dun duhhhh! Hope you're holding on to your seats, kiddies, because in the next couple chapters there are some pretty big reveals, and drama, and action (what!?), and and and I'm too excited for this I need some sleep.
Thanks to all who've read, reviewed, followed, and favorited! Hope you enjoy the chapter!
I don't own, nor am I affiliated with, Marvel and/or The Avengers. All I own is Amrita and my plot for her. I'm not making money off of this, either...phooey.
A few days after Bruce and Amrita's lunch "date" at the Chinese restaurant, Bruce, Tony, Pepper, and Amrita had all managed to scrabble together a day where they didn't work (or rather, where Tony forced them all not to work so that he could drag them all to the beach because he really wanted to go). They took one of Tony's many fancy cars, chauffeured of course, down to his private beach and took turns changing into their swimsuits in the little tent that Tony had the chauffeur set up for them. When Pepper emerged in her blue bikini, she silently envied the woman; both for her figure, and for her confidence in wearing so little. Amrita had bought an emerald green one-piece, fifties-style swimsuit, as she felt the cut and the ruching along the stomach flattered her figure more than any of the other ones she'd tried on.
Pepper walked over to her with a smile. "Need some sunscreen?" she asked, holding out the bottle to the other woman.
Amrita shook her head. "No thanks. I don't need it. I don't burn."
Pepper raised her eyebrows, seeming to study the paleness of her skin. "Are you sure?"
Amrita smiled. "Quite sure. I've never had a sunburn in my life, and I used to live in India."
Pepper seemed surprised by that, but then her look turned contemplative.
"Does this have anything to do with why you were working with SHIELD?" she asked. Despite that she didn't know the whole story, Tony told her a lot, so she knew that Amrita had been picked up by SHIELD as their Avengers medic of sorts, and that the reason Tony had despised her before had something to do with fire. Tony refused to let the whole story leak and threatened bodily harm to anyone who might tell Pepper as he didn't want to be embarrassed in front of his girlfriend. His ego wouldn't be able to handle it.
Amrita hummed. "In a way. I can't be hurt by fire, or in this case, the sun."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey Firewall, stop trying to steal my date. You've got your own," Tony interrupted, coming up and putting his arm around Pepper's shoulder.
Amrita's face heated up at the connotation. Bruce? Her date? She certainly liked him, but she was pretty sure he didn't feel the same way. Sure, he was really nice to her, but he was just a really nice person in general.
Unfortunately, Tony noticed how red her face must have gotten, and a giant shit-eating grin threatened to take over his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but Pepper tugged his arm to get his attention, sending him a scolding look. "Tony, what did we say about talking," she said.
Tony pouted, but mumbled, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything."
Pepper smiled. "That's right. Now, why don't you come help me put on my sunscreen?" she said with a flirty smile.
Tony perked right up. "I'm your man!" he said, grabbing the sunscreen and heading over to where they'd put their towels down on the sand. Pepper gave a little laugh and followed him, not missing the grateful look Amrita sent her. Pepper gave her a wink and a smile.
'Talk to him,' she mouthed, motioning in the direction where Bruce was sitting, putting on his own sunscreen.
Amrita hesitated, biting the inside of her cheek. She felt self-conscious enough with how much skin she was showing, but she wasn't about to hang around Tony and Pepper with their embarrassingly heavy flirting right now, and despite her shyness, she wanted to be around Bruce. She liked spending time with him. It made her feel happy. Making up her mind, she grabbed her beach towel and wrapped it around her waist so her legs were covered before wandering over to where Bruce sat, plunking herself down on the sand beside him.
"Hi," she said lamely.
Bruce smiled, glancing up at her briefly as he rubbed sunscreen onto his shoulder.
"Hi."
There was a beat of silence.
"Did you know that a crab's teeth are in its stomach?"
Bruce laughed. "I see you found the internet again on your phone."
Amrita shrugged. "I figured maybe I shouldn't give up on learning how to use technology just yet, seeing as how it seems to be popping up everywhere."
Bruce grinned. "Well, now that you know how to find the internet, you'll be able to learn how to do just about anything…there are tutorials for just about anything you can think of on there," he said, reaching around his shoulder and trying to get between the shoulder blades.
Amrita watched him struggle for a second, feeling incredibly nervous at the thought she had as she glanced over at Pepper and Tony, as they rubbed lotion on each other's backs. She swallowed thickly, but then decided to throw caution to the wind, speaking before she could even think of what she was about to say.
"Here. Let me help you," she said, holding out her hand for the sunscreen bottle.
Bruce stopped in his efforts, looking at her in surprise. He knew, from how much time they'd spent together, how averse she was to touching people in general. She hadn't so much as touched him once since they had lunch at the Chinese restaurant a week ago, despite that they'd seen each other almost every day since. He smiled at her, happy she was making an effort to make human contact. He had thought that maybe he had gone too far too soon when he had offered his arm to her, that maybe she had felt coerced into touching him and had withdrawn from him a little after that, but he was relieved that she was proving him wrong. He handed her the bottle, shivering a little when she began rubbing the cold lotion onto his back, her touch light and hesitant, but growing more relaxed as she went. When she finished, she handed him back the bottle, and he could see a light blush coloring her cheeks as she pointedly looked anywhere but his face. He held back a laugh, not wanting her to think he was laughing at her expense.
"Are you heading into the water?" he asked instead, choosing a hopefully safe topic.
Amrita smiled a bit, nodding. "Yeah. It's been a while, though. I'll probably stick close to shore. I'm kind of scared if I go too far out that the tide will drag me out to sea," she said, only half joking.
Bruce shrugged. "If it did, I'd just come get you," he said, grinning. "Either that or Tony would get his chauffeur to bring out the speedboat. Or one of them, I should say."
Amrita rolled her eyes. "Honestly, how many vehicles does one man need?" she said, shaking her head at the billionaire's antics.
"With Tony?" Bruce said, raising an eyebrow. "Always at least one more."
Amrita laughed, and Bruce stood up, holding his hand out to her. She stared at it for a moment, but unlike when they'd been in the same situation on the helicarrier less than a month ago, she placed her hand in his, letting him help her up. However, she pressed her lips together when she realized she'd left the towel behind…not that she could've taken it into the water with her, anyway, but she still felt a bit exposed without it.
Bruce's adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, trying not to let his gaze linger on her long, bare legs. Her swimsuit of choice certainly accentuated everything that was positive about her figure, the sweetheart neckline accentuating her otherwise mediocre chest and the straight hem and ruching drawing the eyes to the curve of her hips. He quickly decided it was as good a time as any to cool off.
"Last one in the water has to give Tony a compliment," he said, dashing off.
Amrita squawked in protest. "Hey, no fair!" she said, running after him. They both ran straight into the water, but Amrita shrieked when the cold hit her thighs.
"Shit, that's cold!" Bruce cursed, scrambling back to the beach as Amrita did the same. "Retreat!"
Tony and Pepper were laughing their asses off at the two, causing Amrita to glare at them; mostly at Tony, though.
"Okay, and whose bright idea was it again to go to the beach at mid-morning in May?" she asked rhetorically. "Because I did not sign up for a polar bear plunge."
Tony jumped up and strode over to the two.
"Look, Rita," he said. He'd adopted the nickname after finding out that Fury had started calling her that, and that she wasn't particularly fond of the nickname. Mostly because of the latter, though. "No one forced you to come here. But you came, and you suited up," he said, motioning to her swimsuit, "so…yeah, you kinda did."
Without warning, he scooped her up, throwing her over his shoulder and running into the freezing cold water, laughing as she shrieked and hit his back, yelling to be put down.
"Listen, Rita, shut up for just a second," he muttered just loud enough for her to hear it. He sounded serious, and she went quiet. Tony Stark and serious did not normally go together in a sentence, and when he was serious, it was usually bad.
"Thank you," he said as she was no longer shrieking next to his ear. "Look, you've got a tail."
Amrita, confused, patted the butt of her swimsuit.
"No, I don't."
Tony gave a bark of laughter.
"No, not that kind of tail. I mean, someone's following you," he said. "And I've had enough paparazzi stalk me to know that it's not one of them. I think it might be a SHIELD agent, but I'm not sure. Acts like one of them, though."
Amrita's nose scrunched up in confusion. "Why would SHIELD want to follow me around? It's not like I'm doing anything out of the ordinary…"
Tony shrugged, and Amrita swatted his back as his shoulder dug into her stomach.
"Beats me, kid. Maybe they smell something stirring in the Hulk's love life and want to be in the know," he said innocently.
That brought a real wallop. Tony let out an 'oof' as Amrita resumed pounding on his back.
"That's it, Stark. Let me down so I can give you a good kick in the pants!"
"As the lady commands!" he said, tossing her into the waist-deep water. He cackled loudly and dashed back to the shore as she came up, sputtering and shrieking vengeance, wading after him and trying to splash his retreating back to no avail.
"Director Fury," Agent Hill said, approaching the man as he sorted through a file on his desk. He scooped the papers back up and placed them inside the folder, closing it before he motioned for her to approach.
"There's been another energy spike detected; same unknown components as the spike caused by Dr. Mehrotra, but on a larger scale," she said without preamble.
Fury nodded. "And the doctor?"
"Still has her tail on her. Agent Vale reported no unusual activity when the spike occurred."
Fury's eye narrowed.
"I want a recon team sent to the location of the energy spike. Tell them to take some techs with them. I want that place scoured for any evidence of what might have caused it."
Hill nodded. "Yes, sir."
Fury waved his dismissal, and the female agent strode off to fulfill her assigned task. Fury ran a hand over his face, suddenly feeling exhausted.
What in the world is happening this time?
Carl Rowman had a PhD in both astrophysics and mathematics, but staring at his findings after scanning the area his team had set up in, he could not believe the facts that were staring him straight in his face.
"Uh…Agent Hill?" he called. "I think you'll want to see this…"
The stoic agent walked over, looking over his shoulder at the screen of his laptop. She quickly scanned the findings there, then transferred her stare to him.
"Explain," she demanded.
"Um. Uh," Carl stammered, nervous at being put on the spot. "Ma'am, it appears to b-be…an interdimensional rift," he managed to get out despite her all but breathing down his neck.
The agent raised her eyebrows at the scientist, assessing whether he was lying or not. She realized that despite the nervous sweat and the way he kept chewing on his lip, he was telling what he absolutely believed to be the truth. She pursed her lips.
"How is that possible? I thought despite the math proving interdimensional rifts to be possible, they're supposed to be untraceable. Yet here we are," she said, motioning to the rest of the team that they had been sent with. "We traced it."
Carl raised his hand after she said it was untraceable, waiting for her to finish speaking. When she noticed and nodded for him to do so, he dropped his hand back to his lap, clenching it into a fist.
"What we traced, I don't think it was the rift itself."
Agent Hill bristled.
"Why do I have a feeling I'm not going to like what you're about to tell me, Dr. Rowman?" she barked.
Carl sighed.
"Because…I believe that something came through the rift."
Hill growled. "Get me Fury on the comm," she barked at another team member before fixing her glare on Rowman again. "And you, start working on a tracking algorithm. We need to find whatever it is that came through that rift."
Amrita was exhausted from all the shenanigans that had happened with their little beach party. Tony had pushed his extravagance to the extreme by getting a five-star meal delivered to the beach, furniture included, so that they could wine and dine in their bathing suits. (In other words, so he could keep checking Pepper out throughout the whole meal. It would have put her off her food if the crab hadn't been so mouth-wateringly delicious.) Bruce just rolled his eyes at the billionaire's antics. Amrita had to try her hardest to keep from looking at him, lest she turn beet red in the face. For a lab geek, he was in surprisingly good shape, and the fact that she had all but felt up his back earlier did not help her in the embarrassment department. She had already pushed her daily quota for social interaction way past its limits, and she was feeling mentally and emotionally drained from the day out. She was just about ready to recharge with a nice long nap before supper, as she stepped out of her sandals and placed her beach bag beside them, pausing to relock the door. She stepped into the living room and was just about to toss her keys on the coffee table when she nearly jumped out of her skin.
"Hey, doc," Natasha said, sitting in her rocking chair in full Black Widow attire, looking completely at home. "Good day at the beach?"
Amrita gave an exasperated sigh.
"I was informed there might be a SHIELD agent following me, but I don't think I was supposed to be aware of them; it kind of contradicts the whole 'see and don't be seen' thing stalkers have going on," she said.
"Oh, I'm not the agent that's tailing you. That's someone else," Natasha said, waving her hand dismissively. "I'm just in town running some errands, and Director Fury asked me to come and have a little chat with you about some things." She nodded at the sofa. "Have a seat."
Amrita was irked by the way the agent seemed to have taken over her home, but she took a deep breath, counting to ten in her head to calm herself down. She hadn't had any issues with the female agent in their interactions before, and she figured this was just another facet of her personality that she hadn't encountered yet. She was a professional, and she had to take charge of any situation, including one-on-one encounters with comrades (was that what they were?) like this. She perched herself on the edge of the sofa, not getting comfortable. She didn't feel as though she should get comfortable, if SHIELD was sending an agent in to interrogate her. It just felt…off.
"SHIELD knows something happened to you when you and Dr. Banner fell from the helicarrier," Natasha said, not bothering to mince words.
Amrita could feel the adrenaline kick in as she realized what Natasha was talking about, but rather than freezing up as most people would in a potentially risky situation, she relaxed, mirroring Natasha's position as she sank deeper into the couch, placing an arm on the armrest and crossing her legs.
"And how would SHIELD come to the conclusion that something happened?" Amrita asked smoothly, tilting her head to the side, honestly curious to know the answer to her question.
Natasha gave her an amused look.
"It's not a secret, doctor. Their scanners picked up an unidentifiable energy reading, a kind of energy that even the most advanced systems had never encountered before. Needless to say, they feel both curious and threatened."
Amrita raised her eyebrows.
"I don't know what to say, Natasha," she said. "What happened was…not something I recall ever happening before, nor do I believe it's something that will ever happen again." She pursed her lips. "It wasn't…dangerous, just…odd."
Natasha shifted, uncrossing her legs and sitting forward in her seat, her expression serious.
"Amrita, I need to know what happened when you fell from the helicarrier," she said. It wasn't a request; it was an order. Amrita bristled.
"Despite that I'm the one that it happened to, I'm not the one that you should ask," she said. "All I know is that…something changed. And…" she looked into the reflective surface of the coffee table, not really seeing it as her mind's eye pictured what she had seen on her descent; the multicolored wings that had engulfed her arms. "…I had wings," she finished quietly. She straightened up, pulling herself back from the memory and looking Natasha in the eye.
"You should ask Thor. He was there when it happened."
"Thor is in Asgard. We have no way of asking him," Natasha deadpanned.
Amrita shrugged.
"Not my problem," she said. "Now, would you like tea before you go and finish the rest of your errands, or…?" she trailed off.
Natasha frowned at the obvious dismissal, but stood up anyways.
"No thanks, doc," she said, heading for the door. "We'll be in touch, though. See you around." She waved over her shoulder without looking back.
Amrita glared at the door as it shut behind the redheaded agent.
"Right," she muttered to herself, feeling pissed off at the agent's—and SHIELD's—obvious distrust despite the fact that she hadn't given them any reason to be that way towards her. "Like you're not watching my every move already…"