Again come the morning bonus II

'Colonel Rhodes,' JARVIS speaks up – Rhodey's never managed to persuade the A.I. to call him something more sensible – with a hint of concert in his voice. Rhodey looks up from the screen.

'Yes, J?'

'Thor is by the door, asking to be let inside.'

'Thor,' Rhodey repeats and takes a long breath. 'Thor?'

'Indeed.'

'Do you know why he's here? No scratch that, he's here for Tony, obviously – do you know what exactly he's on about?' Rhodey questions, waving at JARVIS to save the data on the screen. 'And what his deal with Tony is?'

'His deal with Nate, more likely,' JARVIS corrects him. 'He has not mentioned his plans of visiting Nate, I take it must have been a decision made on impulse. He knows Nate Rives is Iron Man and he knows Sir is dying.'

'Oh,' Rhodey breathes.

'It is apparently an Asgardian ability, to be able to tell someone's physical condition. Also, he came all the way from Australia after the last mission to comfort Sir.'

That was only yesterday, Rhodey realizes. He was a few states away on a short delegation when Tony flew out for his op and he couldn't cut it short and rush back straight after he heard what happened from JARVIS; he still feels incredibly guilty about this. But at least someone was there for Tony, damn it. He came back as soon as he could but Steve and Tony already left for Japan, so Rhodey ended up squatting in Tony's workshop.

Everything in here screams of Tony, and JARVIS understands everything, and that's the exact combination Rhodey seems to need right now.

'So, he wants to…?'

'It is my understanding that he is just distressed and concerned, and he has questions no one can answer, Colonel Rhodes. Sir seems to have that effect on people.'

'Tell me about it,' Rhodey mutters, standing up and stretching his back like a cat. 'I guess you can invite him inside, we could talk – he might be the only person on the Earth that doesn't know the connection between Tony Stark and me, right?'

'Indeed,' JARVIS agrees and when Rhodey walks into the living room, Thor is just closing the door behind himself.

'Not that I am jealous or something,' Clint says, rubbing his jaw absentmindedly, 'but we couldn't get a weekend off for our honeymoon, and Steve can take a couple of weeks off just like that, because he wants to spend some time with his boyfriend? That's so not fair.'

'Maybe you're indispensable and Captain America is not,' Phil muses, giving Clint an amused look.

'No, Phil, honestly?'

'Honestly…?'

'Tell me that doesn't worry you at all.'

Phil says nothing.

'This is astonishing,' the doctor says, staring at the images wide-eyed.

'I have never seen anything like this before, and I've been all around the world looking at all the newest inventions. The details – the accuracy – the software –'

'I know,' the man breathes in wonder. 'You can pick out any change almost as soon as it appears, and you won't miss it because of the analytic program… did you mention it's cheap, or did I imagine that?'

'Well,' the other doctor mutters, looking through a thick pile of papers on his hands, 'the machine is a prototype, damn in, a prototype! So it's not priced. I'd wager it's extremely expensive, the thing itself – but it has an internal power source. There's a brief explanation. You – it'll work even when the power's off.'

'Impossible,' a third voice cuts in and a tall woman walks into the room, tying her hair back.

'We… I was so distracted I didn't think about it,' the first man admits sheepishly, 'but I didn't ask about the power connection. And it just – doesn't seem to have any. At all. Look around.'

They all do, and indeed, the machine is just standing in the middle of the hospital's room, shining innocently and looking small in the big white space.

'Impossible,' the woman repeats, but this time it's more of a wonder than disbelief.

'A cost of one full body scan is just a quarter of the cheapest we can do in our hospitals right now,' the second man reads out from the papers with a frown. 'Who the hell is the man who designed this? Why hasn't anyone made something like this before?'

'It's that Rives guy,' the first doctor replies, walking around the machine in slow steps. 'You must have heard about him? He's designed a few neat things over the last couple of years, both by himself and with a team.'

'I think this is a note from him,' the woman points out, looking over the other doctor's shoulder; then narrows her eyes at the words. '…it will be no use for me anymore – wait, so he constructed this for his personal use? – unless I wanted to go insane with having the possibility of observing my body every second of every day, with never-ending terror. Make good use of it. What does that mean?'

'Imagine you built something like this, and had it at your hand, and it could point out all cancerous cells to you – wouldn't you be tempted to check as often as possible? Just in case?'

'I probably would,' the woman admits, and moves her eyes back to stare at the machine. 'We will make a good use of it.'

'The other document says they will start producing them commercially and selling them in a few months…'

'Few months,' the first doctor sighs. 'Can't wait.'

'Vacation?' Natasha mutters to herself, almost inaudibly, as she drives her bike. It's probably not a good idea, getting through the Australian desert this way, because there isn't anyone to catch her in case she's not – not feeling well. But all she ever does is keep challenging herself. 'Avengers don't do vacation…'

Her words melt into the murmur of the air she's cutting through at crazy speed. She's been doing recon for the last few hours and it's finally time to go back to the base and share everything she's seen with Jane and the Australian scientists.

She wanted to talk to Steve just before she left – it still feels strange how they became friends between one mission and another, even if they had being out of time in common – and he told her she's just leaving for vacation with Nate, voluntarily leaving the Avengers job for a few weeks. That is completely unlike the Steve she thought she knew.

There must be a reason to it, she thinks, ignoring the too dry air in her lungs and the sun warming her black clothes and making them cling to her sweaty body.

Steve has changed since he got together with Nate and especially since he moved out; he seems more focused, more intense in every possible way, she can't find a better word to describe it, and he seems happier and – angrier, all at the same time. There must be something going on, something more than just romance.

The answer has to be linked to Nate and Nate is someone Natasha can't solve.

'I hope you won't hurt Steve, for your own sake,' she murmurs into the helmet and rides on.

'You're just a kid,' Bruce says with a frown. Peter scowls. 'I know, you are a grown man – but barely. And you haven't told me everything, but it's not difficult to guess you've been through some rough things as kid.'

'All of us were,' Peter points out rightfully.

'I know. I just want to make sure – wait, how do you know about Iron Man's childhood? Or are you just guessing?'

'I –' Peter stumbles, trying to come up with an explanation quickly enough, he can't just say he's been observing Nate closely since he learned the man is Iron Man. He might not look like it, especially between his jokes and silly attitude, but he can be damn observant.

And the way both of them, both Nate and Iron Man, accepted the idea of the team as their one and only family, it definitely says something about their childhood and attachment issues and all that emotional stuff. Peter isn't good at putting those things into words, but he knows things.

'Never mind,' Bruce says and Peter shakes his head, wondering how long was his pause and how much Bruce could read from it. 'So you know that Nate asked me to tutor this boy from the group home he's been visiting…' Bruce starts and Peter lets him talk, following half a step behind, half-listening and half-wondering if he'll find an answer, visiting the place himself, to why someone who can be a superhero and a mad scientist in one still bothers to make an effort to play with kids.

Peter wishes he knew everything in the world.

'Director, we think Captain Roger's skills would be very useful to the mission –'

'No,' Fury replies, with the tiniest hint of tiredness in his voice.

'Director, please consider –'

'No,' Fury repeats, still not looking up. 'Captain America is out of the fucking America. On vacation. You will know when he's back and available.'

'Excuse me, Director, but – vacation?'

'If you continue to question me, Brown, I'll make sure you spend the next three years in the North Pole. We have a free cubicle,' he replies, scowling angrily, because he can't really say well I have no idea how that happened either, and I would very much like to know, too.

'Of course, Director. Sorry, sir,' the man scrambles out of the room and then the doors close, Fury puts fingers to his temples and massages them slowly. He's got too damn much on his mind to worry about those two idiots but he can't stop thinking about that. Fucking vacation, honestly.

And Hermes won't spill a thing about what's going on.

'Scout's honor,' he keeps repeating like a broken record.

Sometimes Fury dreams about taking an age-long vacation himself.

'Is he going to be fine? It can be so taxing, flying around every damn day –'

'You're a doctor yourself, don't ask me silly questions,' Levy rolls her eyes, pouring them both coffee. 'You know there is only so much we can predict.'

'He didn't ask you to lie to him, did he?'

'No –'

'Because I wouldn't be that surprised,' Doc finishes, taking the warm mug in his hands and nodding at Levy thankfully. 'It's not beyond him – or maybe it wouldn't have been beyond him some time ago. Some months ago, before all of this happened. He's changed.'

'He always seemed the same to me, and he still does.'

'Oh?'

'Maybe he's always been who he lets himself be now, but he was hiding it. You can't be just a man when your surname is Stark, I guess.'

'Still,' Doc sighs and takes a sip of the hot drink. 'So, you think…?'

'He's been feeling well recently,' Levy says, keeping her voice warm and reassuring, the way she talks to her patients and their families; Doc surely knows the trick, but he seems to fall for it willingly. 'They will be fine, don't be overprotective, it's doesn't suit you – and it's easy to get to them, if something happened. Just a few hours.'

'That could be too long,' Doc points out, perfectly aware that he should leave it, and just then his phone ping, signaling a text message. 'Good that I am there, too, in case something happened, Doctor. Sir does not know,' he reads out JARVIS' message. It doesn't surprise him at all that the A.I. has been eavesdropping.

'You see, he'll be fine,' Levy says, looking at Doc with a small smile. 'Let him be happy.'

There is an unsaid half of the sentence hanging in the air between them, but Doc ignores it and just nods at Levy.

They finish the coffee in silence.

A/N: I hope you liked the new POVs and different aspect of the 'verse, even if it's only little snippets... Let me know if you want to share, I'm always happy to hear from you!

Two more chapters of Again come the morning to go :)