"You're sure I can leave you here just fine?" asked Tony.

"I'll be fine," predicted Bella. "Vanko's dead, and if I do need anything, I can call Pepper or Natalie."

The man who had attacked Tony, Ivan Vanko, had been put in jail, but an explosion in his cell had killed him. Bella knew she shouldn't be glad, but she did feel relieved that he wouldn't come after them again.

"If you're sure," said Tony. "Oh, and Natalie's coming by to deal with some stuff about my birthday party. There's a folder she'll need in the drawer over there."

Bella nodded. As Tony retreated, she returned her attention to the chemicals she was mixing inside the test tubes, mentally working through equations.

"Miss Stark, Miss Rushman is at the door," said JARVIS. "She says Mr. Stark had some things she needed to deal with here."

"Okay, let her in." She eyed the chemicals. If she ran upstairs to give Natalie the folder, it would foam over before she got back and could do anything to keep it down. "And ask her to please come down here, I have something I need to give her."

Natalie appeared a few minutes later.

"There's a folder over there in the drawer for you, sorry I couldn't bring it up," she pointed toward it the drawer, "but this would have made a mess if I'd left,"

"Thank you, Miss Stark. You like chemistry?"

"I dabble a little, yes." Bella poured the green contents of a test tube into the beaker.

"Are you from England? You sound British."

"Yes." Bella was pretty sure she was, anyhow – she'd never heard anything to contradict her theory.

"Really? Where? What's it like?"

Bella's mind raced. She had spent a short time there… "Wet. Lots of rain."

"What happened? How'd you end up in Afghanistan?"

Natalie was only being curious, something Bella couldn't blame her for. But these questions were starting to make the girl uncomfortable. "That's… I'd rather not talk about it."

Natalie nodded. "Okay."

"What about you? Where are you from?"

"I grew up here, in California," she replied. "Did you have any friends back home?"

Bella nearly shook her head in response, then remembered Yinsen. She tried not to think about it, but she was still grieving his death. He was, aside from Tony, the closest thing she'd ever had to her friend. She'd never spent more than ten minutes with someone her own age. "Yes," she replied. "He died."

"I'm sorry."

Bella set the beaker on the side. Natalie retrieved the folder from the drawer.

Something felt a little off about Natalie. Bella wasn't sure what. But it was as if she was hiding something too. Hiding something makes a person better at guessing when others are doing the same.

"Do you what's happening with the government trying to confiscate Tony's suits? I can't seem to find anything out?"

"Although, after what happened in Monaco, some people have been making the case that he's too reckless to be permitted to own them, it seems to be at a bit a standstill. Neither is backing down."

Suddenly, the lights went out and the room plunged into darkness.

Bella couldn't breathe for a moment. The darkness seemed to close in on all sides, smothering. She started to gasp for air.

"Miss Stark?" said Natalie. "Are you alright?"

Bella fought to keep the panic down, but it did no good.

"Here, just a moment."

A small beam of light appeared, dimly illuminating the room.

"Are you okay?" asked Natalie.

Bella fought to act normal. "Yeah, yeah…"

"Are you afraid of the dark?"

It wasn't so much the dark she was afraid of as what had happened in the dark. She didn't remember very well – just bits and pieces. A dark cave, pitch darkness, something lurking nearby, something she couldn't see.

Bella recalled a story from many years before. "I was… in a cave once. And I got lost. It was so dark..." The cave had been below a HYDRA base. She had been trying to escape and gotten lost. But that wasn't the cave in this memory. That one was much worse.

"Ah," said Natalie.

"It was years ago. I'm fine." Bella's cheeks burned. Even Tony hadn't discovered her intense fear of the dark as of yet. "Power should be back on in a minute."

There was silence for a while.

And then the lights turned back on.

Natalie left.

Bella went back to the contents of the beaker, going over the ingredients in the mixture. She added one more chemical. "JARVIS, kill the lights."

The room went dark again. This time, a glow emitted from the beaker, dimly illuminating the area.

"That's better," she said. "Lights please."

The lights flickered back on. She started out again with a new beaker.