Chapter 6: Father-Daughter

Tyler glared at her alarm clock as she lay on her stomach in bed. Figures she would wake up a whole hour before breakfast. Sure, she took a while to get ready, but it didn't take her that long. What happened to the fact that she was exhausted from last night? Shouldn't she be waking up an hour after breakfast? Or at most ten minutes beforehand; she didn't really want to be late after all that happened yesterday. Avoiding more embarrassment was probably key in getting off Clint's bad side.

She wasn't looking forward to eating with the agent after that whole ordeal, mostly because she honestly had no idea what she should do or say. Should she pretend like nothing happened? Should she completely ignore him? Should she confront him? Whatever she did, for some reason she knew that the tension in between them would only grow unless one of them tried to apologize… Unfortunately, she was raised by Tony Stark. There was no way in all of hell that she would be the one to do it.

With a huge sigh as she watched the minutes slowly passing by on the clock, she remained slumped in her pillow. She wasn't sure she like the fact that time was moving slow or annoyed by it because she wanted to get the first part of the day over with. Maybe it wouldn't be so hard to deal with Clint if they were just focused on training. She even contemplated staying in bed until there was no more breakfast to be served so that she didn't have to try to make conversation with anyone. However, she knew if she didn't get up someone might come to get her… Finally, she hefted herself into a sitting position and stretched. That was a good waste of fifteen minutes.

She swiveled so that her legs hung over the side of the bed and then jumped off with as much spring as she could muster. No matter what happened, she had to go out there in a good mood or she'd probably try to rip Clint's face off even if he wasn't doing anything. She walked with a bounce in her step as she grabbed her suit and made her way to the bathroom.

Once she was under a warm stream of water she closed her eyes and soaked up the heat with gratitude. She wasn't exactly sure how there seemed to be an unending supply of water that wasn't from the ocean, but she was glad that S.H.I.E.L.D. had the technology to pull it off. She wasn't sure what she would do if she didn't have the ability to shower.

When she had finally finished her shower she changed, blow dried her hair, brushed her teeth, etcetera. Afterwards she still had ten minutes and figured she might as well make good use of her time. Often when something (Tony) was really bothering her she found that it helped her to calm down when she did a handstand. So that's what she did.

She walked up to an empty part of the wall next to her bed, placed her hands on the floor, and kicked her feet over her head until they rested on the wall. She had no idea why she took up this habit but for some reason when she stood on her hands she felt like she was able to think a lot more clearly than if she just sat down on her bed or something.

There was one instance where Tony had walked in on her as she was doing this after one of his "father rants" and his reaction was something to the effect of, "Did I raise a monkey? Because I was pretty sure I had chosen a human at the adoption center…" and then he walked out. That was when she first learned that standing on your hands for long periods of time wasn't exactly socially acceptable. She had no idea why she thought it was fine in the first place but it was almost like a ritual that she just couldn't avoid. It at least gave her muscles a lot more strength than if she were eating popcorn and staring at a TV screen, which was often what Tony did after she or Pepper got mad at him. So she'd rather do this.

Once her head was clear of all the anger and frustration she had been feeling from the night before she flipped her feet back over her head and stood up. After a quick glance at the clock she decided that she might as well make her way over to the mess hall, it would be served in a mere five minutes. She took a deep breath, just in case the effects of the hand stand weren't enough, before she headed out.

The halls had already become as busy as they were yesterday when Tyler was taking the tour with Steve and she often had to sidestep agents who took no heed to the fact that they weren't the only ones on the giant airship. By the time she reached the mess hall everyone was there: Jackie, Natasha, Bruce, Steve, and unfortunately, Clint. When she walked inside the conversations they were having immediately ceased and they looked up at her. Some, well, everyone except Clint, gazed at her with sympathy that made her uneasy. Clint just stared. She had no idea what emotion was hidden behind his blank features.

Her own features hardened and she walked right past them to get her food. Steve was the first to realize that staring her down wasn't going to help anything, so he turned back to Bruce and continued their previous conversation. Jackie then turned to Natasha and once again began speaking to her. Tyler silently let out a breath she didn't know she was holding as she dished some scrambled eggs onto her plate. Why did people think staring was going to help in the first place?

Steve and Bruce were again sitting by each other, Clint positioned with a little space in between him and the doc, with Jackie and Natasha seated across from them. Tyler was glad there was room enough for her to slide into the bench next to Jackie and directly across from Steve. They were the only two people she felt didn't think of her as a complete idiot. Everyone said their greetings, sans you-know-who, and went back to their conversations. Tyler listened but didn't bother joining in, as they were all talking about things that didn't really interest her.

Bruce was busy trying to explain something called anti-electron collisions to Steve who couldn't have looked more lost if he was blindfolded, spun around a few times, and then dropped off in Antarctica. Natasha and Clint seemed to be going back and forth about the events that happened in Budapest, wherever that was, and Jackie was doing her best not to slap duct tape onto their mouths as she was encouraging them to drop the subject. From what it sounded like, Budapest was a very common topic of interest between the two.

After she was halfway through her meal, Tyler noticed that the three agents who were going to train her weren't wearing their normal getup. Steve, instead of wearing his usual jacket and jeans, wore sweat pants and a white T-shirt. Clint and Natasha had dropped the all black uniforms they had been wearing previously and had replaced them with pretty much the same thing as Steve, except Natasha wore a tank top and tights. Everyone seemed to be ready to go for a run or something but there Tyler was, dressed in the uniform she thought was necessary. How did she keep doing this whole embarrassment thing to herself?

With a sigh, Tyler stopped this thinking and ate quickly since she wasn't joining in on the conversations going on around her. She finished before everyone else and stood to deal with her dishes. Once she had placed her plate and utensils in the designated "dirty dish buckets", she turned to find Clint standing behind her with his own dishes. She held his gaze for a moment before she scooted to the side to let him through to the sink, but he didn't move. Instead, his eyes remained fixed on her and he spoke.

"Since we're the first ones done, I'll take you down to the gym to assess your self defense skills so that we have a bit of a head start on the day," he informed her. Tyler was a bit surprised that there was no ice in his voice and took a moment before she nodded in response. Clint stepped forward to put his dishes away, but stopped.

"Actually," he looked at her. "You should probably change into some workout clothes; they're a bit more comfortable and a lot easier to clean. Meet me down at the gym when you're done."

Tyler nodded again and turned on her heel. Once she was outside of the kitchen she practically ran down the hall to her room. Inside, she jumped out of her suit and quickly grabbed a pair of workout clothes. For some reason she felt the need to rush since Clint was the one who told her to change. Perhaps this whole fire-and-ice relationship they seemed to have going on would be for the better; she certainly felt more motivated to do what he asked than when other people told her to do something.

It was only a few minutes before she was in her workout clothes and had pulled her thick hair into a ponytail. She made her way to the gym with haste and arrived just as Clint asked two people in an elevated boxing ring to step aside. They didn't hesitate, and Tyler wondered just how high up on the "agent ranking scale" Clint was. Pushing that to the back of her mind, she stepped up to her trainer who was leaning with his hands on the ropes around the ring. His back was turned to her.

"That was fast," he observed without turning around. Tyler should have been taken aback by his ability to sense her when she hadn't made a sound, except he could probably tell if a fly entered the room he was in no matter how loud the atmosphere around him was.

"I figured that dragging my feet wasn't going to help us," Tyler responded. Clint nodded and stayed where he was for a moment longer before he hoisted himself into the ring and motioned for Tyler to follow. Once Tyler was inside, Clint turned to her.

"I know one good thing about you now," he said with what almost sounded to be surprise, "but don't expect me to cut you any slack. I need to know how to test you exactly. How many classes have you taken and for how long?"

Tyler bit her lip; she took the classes such a long time ago that she wasn't sure. She could make a guess, though…

"I took three or four," she estimated, "and they lasted about an hour each."

Clint raised an eyebrow, obviously not satisfied with this. Tyler knew it wasn't much, but after the first few classes Tony said that he wasn't going to bother wasting his money anymore, and she wasn't sure if he actually thought she was that horrible or he thought that the classes were stupid. In any case, she only had the small amount of experience because she couldn't take the classes when Tony didn't pay the money. If she got beat up, it was his fault.

"Well, that's not much to work on," Clint grumbled, pulling Tyler out of her thoughts. She shrugged.

"It's something, right?"

Clint walked in a small circle with his head pointed to the ceiling and took a deep breath.

"Something," he mumbled before he faced her. "Alright, we'll start simple. I'll show you a move and you try to use it on me, okay? And don't worry about hitting me, even if you went full force you wouldn't be able to do it."

Tyler refrained from rolling her eyes or making some off-hand comment and settled with a small nod toward her trainer.

Clint widened his feet and put his fists up into a battle-ready position and Tyler mirrored the stance. At least she remembered that much from her classes. When Clint saw that her fighting stance was decent he quickly snapped his right fist forward, his whole body twisting to enforce the blow so that it wasn't just his arm strength he was punching with. The second after his arm had fully extended he quickly pulled it back and assumed his original position.

That had been one of the first moves Tyler had been taught, so she easily stepped forward and delivered a hard blow in Clint's direction. The agent caught her fist and held her arm there with intense focus in his eyes.

"You're not using your whole body," he informed and pushed her left shoulder back until her upper body was tilted to the left. He then let go of her arm and adjusted her feet so that her weight was centered on her back leg, which was her right. He stood up straight and tapped her right thigh.

"Swivel with this leg," he continued, "and use your other for steady balance. Next time when you punch you need to make sure that you punch with your whole body, not just your arm." He took a step back and motioned toward himself with his hand. "Again."

Tyler nodded and with hardly a pause she struck again. Still, Clint easily caught her fist. He looked at her end position and was a little surprised to see that she had fixed every mistake she had made before. He let go of her and nodded.

"Good. Now try with your left."

The training went on like this for the rest of the morning and Tyler's progress was quick and steady. Once she was told of any mistakes she made by Clint she would fix them and Clint would have her move onto the next item on his agenda.

At one point in the early part of the training Steve and Natasha had walked in to see if they could help at all but soon realized that they would only be getting in the way. So instead of doing nothing they wandered off somewhere. They returned a while later to do their own training.

Lunch soon came and by that time Tyler was exhausted. She knew Natasha had said they would try to have more breaks than just lunch but the thought never really occurred to her until a beaming Jackie entered the gym with four sandwiches in hand.

"I'm surprised you didn't try to take at least a few five minute breathers," she said to no one in particular as she handed out the goods. Clint just rolled his eyes and dug into his sandwich while Natasha and Steve ate theirs with more reserve. Tyler looked at Jackie with a quirked eyebrow as she took the plain turkey sandwich that was handed to her. (As Jackie had told the cooks, Tyler couldn't stand vegetables or condiments on her sandwiches.)

"And I never thought I'd see you passing out sandwiches to sweaty people in a gym who you aren't trying to hook up with," Tyler countered. Jackie's mouth dropped open at this.

"I take offense to that," she said. Tyler just shrugged and took a bite of her sandwich as she sat down next to Clint at the edge of the boxing ring with her feet dangling over the side. Steve and Natasha sat on a few benches that were in the middle of an open space of floor near the door. Jackie huffed and rolled her eyes.

"Well, don't expect me to take time out of my day to give you food anymore," she warned as she turned and walked back toward the door. Tyler stuck her tongue out at her friend and didn't bother to reply. A few minutes after Jackie had walked out, Clint looked over to Tyler.

"You learn fast," he commented.

Tyler glanced at him with a little suspicion at how much he had changed his attitude toward her and waited to finish her bite before she nodded and replied with a small, "Thanks." After which she continued to stare at the floor.

"I mean, like, really fast," he continued without taking his eyes off of her. "I have never once seen anyone learn and master those moves so quickly."

Tyler didn't look up. "Your point?"

Clint shrugged and looked into his sandwich as he opened his mouth for another bite.

"I just figured that your quick learning had something to do with the video Tony showed Fury, that's all," he explained after he had swallowed.

Tyler's brow furrowed and she made eye contact with the agent, now with even more suspicion.

"What video?" she asked after a few moments of studying him.

"I thought you could tell me," he said without breaking the eye contact. Tyler nodded slowly and looked away. At least Clint wasn't lying when he said that…

"Hey, slow pokes," a voice called from the doorway of the gym. It was Natasha. "I'm going to work on the investigation," she informed before she turned and walked out. Clint hurriedly stuffed his last few bites of sandwich into his mouth and took off after Natasha. He clapped a hand on Steve's back as he passed by.

"Your turn, Cap," he said with a mouthful of food and jogged out of the gym. Steve looked after him with a few shakes of his head before he finished up the last part of his sandwich, Tyler not too far behind. When they were both done, Steve motioned toward the weights.

"Shall we?" he asked. Tyler nodded and hopped off of the ring. She walked with Steve to the weights and looked around at all of the equipment. Tony had a lot of work out supplies in his gym, but not quite this much. She didn't even know what some of the things were.

"Alright," Steve stopped in the middle of the floor and looked around to take note of any exercises he thought of that could help. "Have you done any strength training in the past?"

Tyler nodded. "I lift everyday, but not that much. I normally keep it to five or eight pounds because I haven't really needed monstrous strength in the past."

Steve nodded and quickly looked her over. "That's probably a good thing," he mused. "The way your body structure is, you'll benefit with more speed and agility than strength. Too much bulk could hinder that ability, so it's good to keep your weights light, but to do a lot of reps. Although I recommend trying tens."

Tyler watched as Steve walked over to a barbell and put a five pound weight on either side. He then walked over to another and placed several forty-five pound weights on either side. She was guessing that she was supposed to stick with the five pounders… After this Steve turned to her and motioned to the barbell she was to use.

"We'll do four reps of ten squats, but first I need to see your technique," he said. Tyler stepped forward and bent so that her shoulders were under the bar and then grabbed the bar with both hands. She lifted until she was standing straight and then moved her feet so that they were shoulder width apart. She went down into a squat and waited as Steve checked to make sure she had the correct technique.

With a nod of approval he left her to do her reps and moved to do his own. When they were both done they moved onto another set that would take much longer. After a while, Tyler became tired of the silence and turned to the Captain as she was lifting a couple of ten pound dumbbells (she decided eight pounds really wasn't enough when she couldn't feel any strain).

"So Steve," she began tentatively, "what is that investigation everyone keeps talking about?"

Steve looked over to her and stopped mid-lift. He held her stare for a moment before he focused on the wall in front of him and continued lifting.

"It's just an investigation on a couple of murders that have been taking place in New York," he informed impassively. Tyler scoffed. There was no such thing as "just a couple of murders."

"How many?" she asked. Steve glanced at her but continued to lift quietly. Unwilling to give up, Tyler made a proposition. "Alright, I'll say a number and you tell me if I'm close or not. Okay?"

Steve still didn't respond, but she continued anyway.

"Two," she guessed. No reaction. "Okay, more than that. Four?"

This time she saw a small flicker behind Steve's guarded eyes, but it wasn't large enough for Tyler to say that she was right.

"Five," she said and finally she could see a flicker of alarm. It was only there for a split second, but it was there nonetheless. "I'm right, aren't I?" she asked rhetorically. "Alright, so what's the MO?"

This time Steve stopped lifting altogether and sat up with a hard look in Tyler's direction.

"Tyler," he said with calm control that reminded Tyler of Steve's military background, "I know you're curious, as most kids are when they're your age, but this isn't something we should be discussing right now. Serial killings aren't child's play, real people have been murdered."

Despite the discipline Steve was trying to show Tyler, she smiled.

"So it's been confirmed that there's been only one killer," she stated more as a fact than a question. Steve sighed and rolled his eyes.

"You really are Tony Stark's daughter, you know that?" he asked with exasperation. Tyler shrugged.

"I try," she responded haughtily. Steve sniffed and stood.

"That concerns me," he mumbled. Suddenly, there it was. That silent comparison between father and daughter. That last statement wasn't directed toward her, it was meant for Tony. Steve had said that he and Tony didn't always get along; this only proved what Tyler already knew.

"Hey," Tyler said as she put her weights on the floor. "I get it. Figuring out who a murderer is isn't a game. I only wanted to help."

Steve looked at her and his eyes softened a little. Sure, she was a lot like Tony, but she thankfully had more self control and was a lot less irritating.

"I know," he replied quietly, "but I don't think you can help with this particular case. Maybe next time." He walked by her and placed a hand on her head before continuing on to exit.

"Hey, where are you going?" Tyler asked as she twisted around to keep her eyes on him.

"We've been lifting for a long time, too much can be more harmful than helpful," he responded without stopping. "When you're done with your reps go and find Natasha. She should be in the room I first took you to."

Tyler watched him go before turning back to her weights with a slight frown. What were assassins doing looking at murders, of all things? Weren't they the ones supposed to be doing the killing? Unless of course, these murders somehow threatened the agency…

When she was done with her last rep Tyler stood and stretched out her arms with a grimace. She had been lifting weights often recently, yes, but never for so long at a time. She normally went for about a half hour, but this time it took almost a full hour. She had the sinking feeling that in the morning she would be in a whole lot of pain so she continued to stretch to try and relieve as much of the tightness in her muscles as possible. Once she was done she made her way to the room she had first gone to with Steve.

She traveled through the halls quickly so as not to keep Natasha waiting and arrived in a little over a minute. When she walked through the automatic doors, however, she did not see who she was expecting. Instead of Natasha looking at some file, she saw two individuals she had not been introduced to yet.

One was a woman with dark hair pinned up in a pristine bun who wore a blue S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform. She stood with her feet shoulder width apart and her hands clasped firmly behind her back as she talked with a large man in a black trench coat. Tyler was quick to notice that the man had a menacing eye patch and a scowl that might scare off even Tony.

When the two noticed her presence the conversation immediately stopped and they both looked at her with scrutiny. Tyler realized they were looking for an explanation as to why she had interrupted them and she quickly tried to explain herself.

"Uh, hi," she began stupidly, "I'm sorry I was just looking for Natasha Romanoff. I didn't mean to interrupt-"

She was cut off by the woman who instinctively moved her hand to the gun she had holstered on her hip and took a step toward Tyler.

"Who are you?" she demanded. Tyler froze with both surprise and fear. She knew that this was an aircraft carrier filled with assassins and there would undoubtedly be many agents with weapons, but she was never actually threatened with one. Thankfully, the man with the eye patch- from now on to be known as One-Eye in Tyler's mind- answered for her.

"Calm down, Agent Hill," One-Eye warned, "she's a guest."

For some reason, even though he was defending Tyler, she didn't feel much comforted by his words. He seemed like the type to hate Tony and ergo would hate her even though he'd never actually met her. He also seemed like the type to hate everyone whom he couldn't be sure to put his faith in. Double hate for Tyler, yay!

The woman hesitated, but let her arm fall naturally to her side. The tension in her shoulders, however, was not relieved. Once that was settled, One-Eye turned to Tyler.

"Tyler Stark, I presume," he stated. Even though it wasn't a question Tyler felt the need to nod an affirmative. Hill's brow slightly furrowed at this and she turned to her boss.

"Stark, Sir?" she questioned. One-Eye glanced at her.

"I'll bring you up to date later," he informed. "For now, Agent Hill, this is Tyler Stark: a new recruit. Tyler, Agent Maria Hill."

Tyler smiled and waved a friendly "hi" but Maria simply gave her a stiff nod. So far she seemed like a wonderful person to be with. At least Clint didn't seem so stuck-up. After this Tyler turned back to One-Eye. Before she could ask the question that was formed in her mind, however, he continued to speak.

"I assume Agents Barton and Romanoff have filled you in on the way things work around here, so I expect you to keep your nose where it belongs and stay out of trouble. If at any time both Clint and Natasha are gone you need to stay with Steve Rogers. If he is also absent from the premises then Maria will be your guardian. Is that clear?"

Tyler's jaw set; she really didn't like how this guy thought he was so high-and-mighty. She was eighteen and legally allowed to make her own decisions in terms of what she did and where she went; she was no longer required to have a guardian. Nonetheless she nodded her understanding of the rules.

"Good," One-Eye grunted and then turned to Maria. "Hill, I leave you to it."

With that, he turned and walked out of the room with a scowl plastered to his face. Just before he exited the room he stopped and decided to relay one last thing.

"And under no circumstances are you to try anything that Mr. Stark would do."

And then, he turned and left. Tyler watched him with a glare. Tony this, Tony that. Whenwould people understand that she's not her father?

"Who was that?" she asked to no one in particular. She pretty much ignored the fact that Maria was there.

"Director Fury," Maria said bluntly, oblivious to the way Tyler impassively spoke to the air, not to Maria herself. Tyler turned to her and studied her for a moment before nodding.

"The title doesn't really have a meaning to me," she informed the agent who just stared at her. Tyler stared back and waited for the agent to elaborate.

"He's the boss," she finally said, not wanting to waste her time with a child's tactics, "Head of S.H.I.E.L.D. You'd take care to listen to him."

Tyler tilted her head to the side and quirked an eyebrow.

"Are you implying that you think I'm going to ignore him?" she questioned with a little irritation in her voice. She could predict the answer before it came out. Why must Tony give himself such a bad name around this place?

"If your last name means anything, then yes," Maria confirmed without heed to the fact that Tyler wasn't a forty-five year old billionaire who had the tendency to hack into every computer he could find. Tyler huffed; she was beginning to become really annoyed by how people were treating her when they heard her name. Maria had the worst reaction aside from "Director Fury" so she currently didn't like her. Nor did she like the Director.

Without bothering to say anything to the agent in front of her, Tyler turned on her heel and began walking out the door. As she guessed, Maria began walking after her.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"To find my other babysitters," Tyler remarked begrudgingly. That's basically what they were in Fury's eyes since he didn't understand the meaning of being eighteen and not having to be watched over like a child. She had a feeling he needed to keep an eye on Tony due to his… well, his habit of being him, but she was in no way her father. Not that it seemed to matter to anyone else.

Maria stopped and contemplated following the teen, but knew that Natasha was indeed onboard, so she didn't have to watch over her. She turned and went back to her official duties.

The first place Tyler could think of to look for Natasha was in the mess hall, so she made her way there with haste. She hoped she didn't run into Director Fury on the way, as he would probably blow his top off if he found out she wasn't with another agent. Thankfully he was nowhere to be found in the hallway Tyler traveled and she wasn't stopped. She found when she reached the dining area, however, that no one was at that point hungry. So she was back to square one. Really, where could three agents disappear to on a giant aircraft carrier that could hold hundreds of airplanes, guns, and people? Stupid question.

With a sigh, Tyler once again turned around and collided with Bruce who had just entered the kitchen with an empty mug in hand. The ceramic mug slipped from his grip and shattered as it hit the floor.

"Oh, I am so sorry!" Tyler exclaimed and immediately dropped to her knees to pick up the shards of the broken mug.

"No, i-it's alright," Bruce insisted as he, too, began cleaning up the pieces.

Tyler shook her head and continued.

"I've got it, really," she persisted. Eventually their hands met as they tried to pick up the same piece. Tyler pulled her hand back and laughed a bit awkwardly as Bruce continued to pick it up. Didn't this kind of thing happen in cheesy romance movies? Creepy. Way creepy. No offense to the doc but he was old enough to be her father; that thought was messed up. Changing thought process.

"Sorry," Tyler mumbled apologetically and stood. Bruce stood as well and smiled.

"Its fine, I just didn't anticipate that you would turn around so quickly," he reassured honestly.

Tyler smiled back before she turned to throw the pieces of the mug in the trash, Banner right behind. She was glad that there was at least one person on the ship who wasn't pushy. She rather liked the quiet scientist, even though she hadn't been able to talk with him much.

Tyler stood next to one of the tables and Banner moved away from the trashcan to stand across from her. He looked at the ground with a small smile on his face and didn't move. Tyler had no intentions of doing so either considering she really had no place to go at the current moment.

"You're lost, aren't you?" Banner finally asked. Tyler smiled and gave a short laugh.

"More like my babysitters are lost," she replied half-heartedly. "Do you happen to know where Natasha is?"

Banner shook his head, all the while keeping his head pointed to look at the floor. "No, sorry, I've been in my lab all day and they don't come around too often."

"Oh, that's fine, I was just wondering. I don't really want to be training, considering I've been doing that nonstop for the past eight hours."

Banner began to fiddle with his hands in front of him a bit before he looked up at her with what seemed like bashful puppy-dog eyes.

"Is it because of yesterday?" he asked quietly.

Innocent question, completely innocent. Kind of cutely innocent. Now Tyler was having a hard time deciding whether it was Steve or Bruce who was the teddy bear. Too hard to tell! Maybe she would stick with Steve being the teddy bear and Bruce would become the cute puppy… Wait, what the heck was she thinking? That was creepier than the romance thought from earlier. What was Tyler turning into? Some freaky old cat lady who classifies people as animals?

Tyler smiled ruefully and shook her head.

"No, it doesn't have anything to do with that," she admitted truthfully. It wasn't a lie; she really didn't feel like training anymore that day. Besides, she had already gotten the part with Clint done and over with. She didn't really have any more worries of controlling her… issues.

Banner nodded but kept a wary eye on her. Normally he wasn't good at reading people, but for some reason he didn't think she was bothered by what happened as much as she should be. He could see when people were hiding things because he himself had such a large secret to keep. What had she buried so deep in her mind that she would work herself into exhaustion just to forget about it?

Before Bruce could say anything more, the doors to the mess hall slid open.

"There you are," Natasha said to Tyler as she entered. "I was looking for you. Try not to disappear again, kay? Fury wasn't much of a happy camper when he found me."

Tyler did her best not to roll her eyes. She was pretty sure it was Natasha who had disappeared, but, hey. Who was keeping track?

Tyler gave Bruce one last smile before heading out with Natasha to work on improving her flexibility. She hadn't had much trouble with the previous training she was doing but this time she knew that it wouldn't go well. She could bend just about as much as a dried up piece of wood in a desert.

At one point while Natasha was trying to show Tyler a yoga move that was supposed to stretch the legs and lower back, she stopped and said bluntly, "You're going to take a long time to be able to touch your toes, aren't you?"

Yes, yes she was. Tyler could do plenty of physical things, but stretching and bending in weird directions was certainly not one of them. Needles to say, the last part of the training went by really slow and Tyler more than once thought she tore her muscles into several different pieces as she tried to do what Natasha said. It was a good bonding experience, though. The two of them talked and laughed as they stretched, which caused the session to last a lot longer than expected. It lasted two hours and only stopped because they realized dinner was just about to begin. They packed up and quickly made their way to the mess hall.

They grabbed their food and habitually sat in their normal grouping order. During the meal they buzzed happily about the events of the day and, thankfully, no one tried to get Tyler to say anything about last night. She even thought that Clint had completely dropped it as well due to the fact somehow they were talking to each other non stop as though they had known each other for years.

This continued to the end of the meal in which everyone took care of their dishes and went their own ways, except for Natasha and Tyler who decided they had done enough stretching. Instead, they decided to hang out in the lounge on that floor to talk. At first it was just the two girls, but then Clint and Steve walked in with nothing to do on their hands. Soon even antisocial Banner walked in. They talked for about a half hour before Jackie got wind that they weren't doing anything and showed up with a large bowl of popcorn and a small pile of movies for them to watch. She said movie watching was something they regularly did at the end of the day, and since it was Tyler's first time she should pick what movie to watch.

The five movies Jackie had brought covered a wide range of genres. There was The Pact, an incredibly scary horror film that Tyler was sure would get one of the agents to shoot the TV screen on accident, Austin Powers, a comedy that was so stupid Tyler could hardly believe her friend offered to watch it, The Wizard of Oz, which Tyler was pretty sure was only chosen because Steve was there, Fast and Furious 4, that Tyler thought was hopeless in terms of a good story line, Star Wars IV which, admittedly, Tyler would never get tired of, and Sherlock Holmes in which the main character looked, very creepily, like her father. She didn't need to think much on it…

"Star Wars," she said almost immediately. Jackie smiled knowingly and briefly wondered whether she should have even bothered asking. She slipped the movie into the DVD player and together the group watched the classic with smiles on their faces. Yes, Steve knew about Star Wars. Barely.

When the movie was over everyone could hardly contain their yawns, and Jackie had to shoo them all to bed because they still tried to hold up conversations. Tyler walked with Steve since their rooms were right next to each other and was quite proud that she wasn't being carried. She planned to keep this streak going.

After saying a tired good night to the Captain, Tyler slowly shuffled her way into bed. Just the same as the night before, she wasn't sure how exactly she did it but she was able to change into her pj's before she collapsed on her bed and hoped that the next day wouldn't come too quickly or she'd be too tired to get up. One could only hope.

Phew, that's a long chapter. Almost 7,000 words. O_o Hope you like fluff because that's pretty much what this chapter was. :P Anywho, thank y'all for reading, now if you would kindly click the review box to say that you love me. X3 Jk. Don't say that unless you mean it. But still review please! :D

-KC