Hours later, Lennon opened her door quietly, looking around, hoping no one would see her. She spotted Tony on the couch a few feet away, and she sighed. The billionaire looked up from his papers, taking in the sight of the girl. He smiled. "Hiya, Lennon."

She gave him a half smile in return. "Hi." She rasped. Tony noticed how she looked away or down at her feet, deliberately avoiding contact with him. Even her stance was jittery, as if having him there made her uncomfortable.

Tony said nothing, but took a sip of scotch, and cleared his throat. "Are you okay?" He asked casually.

"Where's Bruce?" Lennon's voice shook.

Although she had ignored his question, he didn't push it. After what had just happened, he wasn't going to make her talk. "He's upstairs in the lab. You can go see him if you want. I think he's waiting for you." He replied.

Lennon opened her mouth to speak, then looked back toward the room, her eyes apologetic and shameful.

Tony held up a hand before she could say anything. "Don't worry about the glass, Len. It'll be taken care of. Just go see Bruce." The billionaire smiled at the woman encouragingly.

The woman said nothing, but nodded curtly at the billionaire before slowly stumbling toward the stairs.

Tony looked after her and sighed. Although he knew not of what happened, he still felt bad.

Bruce Banner was working quietly in his lab, going through files and tinkering with equations as a doodler would. His mind wasn't into it. He was still thinking about Lennon. He wondered about what her father had said or done to her to make her upset like that. He had never seen such a rage.

"Hi, Bruce." Came Lennon's soft voice from the doorway.

Startled, Bruce jumped and banged his knee on the counter. He swore under his breath and turned around to face her.

She looked different. She had changed out of the shorts and tank top she had been wearing into her cloths from the previous night, which were now cleaned. The hand that had been bleeding was now bandaged up with gauze, though swollen. Her face had been washed, and she didn't have makeup on anymore. Seeing her face, Bruce could see just how much she covered up. She was colorless, except for her lips. Her eyes seemed to be drained. She wasn't the same girl that Bruce had enjoyed the company of few hours ago during the movie, nor the same girl from breakfast. She had lost all of the energy that she had been full of, and was utterly lifeless. The doctor didn't know what to say. He wanted the old girl back.

Lennon smiled at him gently, as if she were afraid. "Don't worry. I'm not going throw anything at you." She said, her voice humorless.

Bruce blinked. "I didn't think you would."

The girl stepped cautiously into the lab, looking around at everything in the room. "Do you mind if I'm here? I don't want to disturb you." She replied, eyeing the paperwork on the desk.

He shook his head. "Not at all. Come sit down." He said.

Lennon walked over to the stool apprehensively, and stared awkwardly at the floor. "I want to apologize for earlier. I didn't mean to freak out like I did. It's very rare that I get blackout angry anymore, but when I do, it gets pretty ugly. It was wrong and I'm sorry."

"Hey, listen, it's okay. Trust me. I've seen worse. I've done worse." The doctor joked, nudging her with his elbow.

Lennon's dead eyes lit up a bit. She hadn't expected him to forgive her so easily. After all, she had thrown a lamp at him. He could have Hulked out and killed everyone and it would have been her fault. Or, she could have hurt him. She could have hurt him badly. Yet, he forgave her. Lennon knew that he wasn't the monster that everyone treated him as. She didn't know much about him, but he was a sweet guy. Older than her, sure, but that meant nothing. He didn't treat her like she was less than because of the drugs or anything else, and she didn't think of him in any less way. You gotta stop treating yourself like you're worthless, Len. Sam's drunken slurring voice ran through her head. He had come over the night she found out her boyfriend had been cheating on her the whole time and she told him she was wasn't worth anything. You're not worthless, honey. You're wonderful. You make bad choices in men, but that's just because you don't think you're worth loving. You are. You just need to find the right guy to tell you that.

Her eyes watered, and she looked away so that Bruce wouldn't see. She wasn't healed, but being around Bruce Banner made her feel... Okay. She didn't feel like a worthless piece of shit. She didn't feel like she had to sleep with every guy that bought her a drink or smiled at her or anything. For once in a long while she felt human. She didn't feel like she was just another zombie in the world. She felt like she actually mattered to someone. She mattered to Bruce. Before she knew it, a tear rolled down her face and she quickly hid it so he wouldn't see. Instead, she smiled at him, putting all her heart in it. "Thanks, Bruce."

He returned the smile. "No need to thank me. It's the right thing to do." He paused for a moment, debating whether or not to ask her about it, but he did want to help in any way he could. "So... May I ask what happened, or is that a subject I should stay away from?"

Lennon was silent for a moment, and looked straight ahead, her eyes focused on nothing in particular. "My dad kicked me out." She told him emotionlessly.

Bruce froze. "He kicked you out?" He repeated in a disbelieving tone.

She nodded. "He decided that I didn't deserve to come home anymore since I think it's okay to just skip out on him and not call. I told him 'I'm twenty six, dad, why do you care?', and he said that he's not having a junkie in the same house. I told him that I wasn't a junkie, and I was just helping some friends out." She paused, and her eyes flashed angrily. "He told me I was lucky that he didn't put me away. He told me I was so fucked up and he didn't want me home anymore. He said he'd call the cops if I came home. The fucking asshole kicked me out of my own fucking house." Her words dripped poison. "I hate him. I hate him so fucking much, man."

"Can't you go home anyway?"

She shook her head. "Yeah, but then what? Have him send me back to the hospital?"

"Hospital?" Bruce said carefully. Although he already knew, he couldn't let her know. He wanted to hear her tell him. Hopefully she trusted him enough.

Lennon sighed heavily. "I don't really tell many people this, but I spent seven years in a psychiatric hospital." She said quietly. "My parents forced me to go."

"Why?"

"That's a long story."

"I've got time." He said, repeating what she had said to him.

Lennon looked up at him with a questioning look, then scoffed. It wasn't meant to be rude, she just couldn't believe she was telling him this. "When I was born... I was very sick. The doctors said they were getting a new drug that was used to help blood diseases like the one I had, but the testing facility in New Zealand accidentally sent them the wrong damn drug. It was one they were testing. It sure as hell cured me, but it fucked me up royally. It made my hair white." She said, running her hands through her hair. "The doctors thought I was done for, but New Zealand said that it would probably give me schizophrenia or some shit, although I knew for a fact, that's not how mental illness works, trust me, I've studied psychology, so I really don't think any of those halfwits knew what they were talking about, the fucking idiots." She sighed. "But, when I had imaginary friends as a child, because they kept me locked inside the house and I was so lonely that I didn't know what else to do, they thought I was nuts, so they kept me away. The psychiatrists kept saying 'there's nothing wrong with her, there's nothing wrong with her', but they just kept insisting there was, so I was there for seven fucking years. Finally, they sent me home. My mother left after that. She couldn't bear the sight of me..." Lennon's voice trailed off sadly, and she looked away.

Bruce's heart dropped to his stomach. Although he knew about the hospital and her mother leaving and the experimental drug, he felt terrible. He knew her father was a horrible person, but the fact that they could do something like that to an innocent child made him sick. "Lennon, I'm... I'm so sorry."

She shrugged. "Hey, what's the use of crying over spilt milk?"

Her comment struck him hard. "That's not spilt milk. That's child abuse."

Lennon scoffed. "Even so, there's nothing I can do about now. He kicked me out, I might as well just take whatever money I can and go find somewhere else to live."

"You can stay here." Bruce said immediately. "Tony wouldn't throw you out. Nor would I let him."

Lennon laughed. "I'll have to take that up with him. That's very sweet Bruce, but I doubt Stark likes me that much, darling. I did just trash his guest room, after all."

"Well, then I'll just put the fear of God in him." He joked.

With that, Lennon rolled her eyes and gave Bruce a kiss on the cheek, making him blush slightly. She pulled away, and the two locked eyes for a moment. Bruce felt his heart skip and he leaned in slowly, the world around him slowing to a stop...

Just as their lips almost connected, Lennon suddenly stopped, and pulled away. Bruce looked away and cleared his throat out of embarrassment. He knew he was blushing. He almost kissed her. He couldn't believe it. "Sorry." He said, his voice scratchy.

Lennon smiled apologetically. "Don't worry about it." She paused, looking around at the lab. "So," She started, glancing at his paperwork. "What are you working on?"

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "You really want to hear about my geeky science stuff."

She nodded. "Yes, I'd love to hear about your geeky science stuff."

With that, Bruce began explaining the works of astrophysics and everything he was working on. Although half the time, Lennon had no clue what he was talking about, she still listened intently. She thought it was adorable how excited he got about science. He was like a kid in a candy shop. The two spent the day in the lab, Lennon working as Bruce's assistant. They were the happiest they had been in a long, long time.

"Tony, what the hell are you doing?" Pepper demanded as she came into the room.

The billionaire was sitting in a chair in the lab bellow where Bruce and Lennon were, his feet up on a table, sipping casually at his glass of scotch, watching the pair on a TV screen. "I'm just checking on the kids, honey." He replied.

Pepper slapped his arm. "Tony, that's so rude! They deserve their privacy."

"Has he kissed her yet?" Clint shouted as he came in. He sat down beside Tony and looked up at the screen. "Hey, Pepper."

Pepper glared at the men. "I can't believe you two! Turn that off!" She said, reaching for the remote.

Tony grabbed it before she could get to it. "I was checking on her. I wanted to make sure she was okay. By the way, she's coming home with us. She and Banner both are."

"What? When was this decided?" Pepper demanded, although she didn't actually mind. She liked Lennon, and thought maybe Bruce would keep her a bit more grounded.

"The second Lennon's father kicked her out. Believe me, Bruce needs a study buddy." He replied. "And no, Clint, he hasn't. He hasn't even tried." He looked up at Pepper. "He almost did a few hours ago, but he hasn't since."

The redhead sighed and sat down on the other side of Tony. "Why do you care if he kisses her?"

"Because they're adorable and perfect for each other. What else do you need?" He asked confidently.

Pepper just shook her head. There was no use in arguing with a stubborn billionaire.