Avengers 1. Chapter 1

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I know this fanfic starts off kinda slow and dry. Bare with me. :)  
Reviews, comments, and questions are loved

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"Tony, hand me a scalpel," a tired voice ordered. The shifting of clothing and the light clanking of small metal objects were heard. "Thank you," the voice spoke.

"Is she going to make it?" another voice asked, assuming it was this 'Tony' person.

"I'm not sure, she's a wreak. I'm surprised she's even alive right now."

A sudden sharp pain on my stomach, something like a stabbing, a cutting. I could feel my face tighten and contort from the pain, but I was unable to open my eyes, unable to move, my body wouldn't listen to me, I couldn't scream out.

"Bruce! Stop!" The voice I'd assumed was Tony's yelled out. "Look at her face! She feels that!"

"What?"

I stopped feeling that cutting feeling, but the pain that was already there was still unbearable.

"Shit…" The voice said. I heard more shuffling around me. "Get the anesthetics!" he ordered, his voice had picked up from that tired one I'd originally heard.

More shuffling. A small snap.

I started to feel more pain throughout my body. It was more of the achy kind of pain, that annoying pain… But it was getting worse… It was hurting too much! I can't even describe the pain I felt!

My reflexes told me to move. I had to move, to get away, I was in danger! I tried to clench my fist, and to my own subtle surprise, it did. I could move again! I groaned out loudly, and my back arched, but that only caused more pain, making me start to scream in this hell. My eyes shot open and I was immediately blinded by a bright fluorescent light, making me shut my eyes again tightly.

"Tony, hold her down! Don't let her move!" the panicked voice said frantically. I felt a strong pair of hands on my stomach and chest, pushing me back down, flat on my back. Somehow the owner of these hands had been able to use enough force to manage it, and be gentle enough that it didn't really hurt me. After I'd been laid flat again, I'd noticed that the hands didn't leave my body, still holding me down as my body began to spasm from this pain… or maybe it was anxiety, I did have a history of panic attacks, that would often have me shaking as if in a small seizer.

"Calm down, beautiful, you're gonna be alright," Tony's voice said reassuringly.

_Beautiful…?_

"Bruce, c'mon! She's having a vagal response!" He suddenly said. I could hear his voice being directed away from me.

"Just keep her down," Bruce told him, his voice seeming to get closer. I felt something light rub against my hand and instinctively jerked it away in a startle.  
"It's alright, just an IV line," Tony said, his voice back to reassuring again.

My eyes opened slowly this time, but that damn light was still too bright. I had to fight to keep them open and to focus on the room I was in. It didn't look like a hospital at all… or at least any place I'd expect an IV or anesthetics to be held. It looked more like heaven really… or at least my version of it. Higher end technology everywhere! Holograms, robotics, huge servers off to the side… I couldn't even identify most of this stuff!

"There, she should be out in a couple seconds," Bruce's voice said from behind me.

_Out?!_ What did he mean? _Oh, anesthetics…_

My eyes drifted to the other side of me, finally seeing the man holding me down, my body still shaking. Short dark hair, kind of messy, goatee. He seemed familiar.

He'd caught my gaze and looked back at me with a blank expression. I saw someone else move out of the corner of my eye, but my vision was starting to lose focus. I maybe only lasted three seconds like that before I blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

_Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep…_

_ What the heck is that?_

_ Beep… Beep… Beep… Beep…_

My eyes fluttered open. I immediately shut them when I felt lightheaded.

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

_ What is that?! A bomb? Holy shi-_

_ BeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeepBeep _

I opened my eyes again, ignoring the dizziness and looked around frantically, pain shooting through my chest and neck, unable to move my head, a brace around my neck.

Panic.

An alarm behind my head went off, sounding like a ding of some sort. I could feel my heart thumping in my chest, racing like the last lap of the Daytona 500. My breaths rapid and shallow as everything in my being told me to get the fuck out of here. Where was I? Why was I here?

Someone was suddenly at my side, a man, glasses, short brown and slightly greyed hair, brown eyes. He'd stepped behind me and did something to stop that insufferable ding of an alarm. But those beeps where still there.

_Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep._

They'd slowed a bit from last time… Was that a heart monitor? God damn…

The man came back to my side and looked down at me blankly. I just stared back at him with what I intended to be a blank look as well. He broke the awkward silence between us after a couple seconds.

"How do you feel?" he asked, glancing back up behind me quickly.

"…" I didn't say anything. His eyes came back to me and his brows furrowed.

"Can you hear me?" he asked, concern in his voice.

Again I didn't say anything. I was trying to figure out if he was some sadistic freak or someone I could trust.

"…" He just stared at me for a moment before speaking again calmly. "Hablas en español?"

My brow hitched.

He blinked at me. "Así que puedes escuchar mi, eso es bueno," he said, a small smile coming to his face.

"…" I still refused to say something to him.

That smile turned into a slight frown. "Or maybe you just didn't understand that… Parlez-vous français?... Deutsch?... Italiano?"

I looked at him, my eyes narrowing slightly. I hesitantly opened my mouth to speak, but my voice was hoarse and dry. "Sí. Oui. Ja. Sì," I said slowly, saying 'yes' in the languages he asked if I spoke.

He blinked, then chuckled lightly. "You're multilingual. Very nice. Think you can tell me how you're feeling? How about your name?" That smile was back, and his eyes glanced back up behind me again before falling back on me.

I looked at him for a moment silently, my eyes looking around the room. Computers and machines everywhere. I just then remembered waking up earlier, in the middle of a surgery or something. Tony and Bruce. I looked back to the man. He didn't look like the one I saw before. Was this one Bruce?

His brows furrowed again from my silence. "I won't hurt you, I just need to know how you feel so I can help you. You don't even have to tell me your name."

"…" I could feel my expression soften a bit. "…I don't feel anything," I said, my voice still dry.

I saw his face flush of color instantly. "You don't feel anything?" he asked.

I tried to shake my head, only to wince from sudden pain in my neck. He reached up towards me and repositioned my head straight.

"Don't move, you've broken several bones, and somehow managed to survive a broken neck…" He trailed off and looked me in the eyes. "Please don't move," he said to me.

I wanted to nod, but that would require moving my head… I just closed my eyes for a second, as if to nod without actually nodding. He smiled again.

"My name is Bruce Banner. You can call me Bruce or Doctor Banner… Do you have any pain anywhere?"

So this was Bruce. I closed my eyes and mouthed a 'no'.

"Are you tired?"

"Mhm…" Now that I'd calmed down, being tired was hitting me.

"I'm going to give you something to help you sleep, you need to rest," he said and I heard him step away from my bed side. I think I was asleep before he even gave me anything.


	3. Chapter 3

I don't know how long it had been, or how many days had passed until I woke up next. I opened my eyes to see that man with the goatee standing off to the side, his back turned to me as he tending to something. I couldn't see what it was, it was out of my line of vision, which I didn't realize was so narrow when you can't move your head. How annoying is that…

I just watched him as he continued doing… whatever it was he was doing, for what I guess was maybe two or three minutes before I tried to speak. My mouth opened, but I couldn't talk, no words came out, just air. I even tried to groan. Of course that didn't work, only a slight hiss that I'm not sure anyone would have been able to hear besides myself.

"…"

My eyes scanned the room quickly, looking for something that would help me… but I couldn't move to anything anyway.

I heard those beeps again. The heart monitor… But didn't those things also have respiratory monitors on them? I stopped breathing on my own will, to see what would happen.

"… … …"

_Diiing!_

The man jumped suddenly and spun around with a fearful expression, looking up behind me, where I naturally assumed the monitors where. He stepped over quickly and stopped dead in his tracks when his eyes met with mine. I started breathing again.

"… Did you do that on purpose?" he asked, still looking at me, a skeptical look on his face.

I opened my mouth to try and tell him that I did, but nothing but air came out again. He must have read my lips or at least realized my dilemma because I noticed him let out a deep sigh, looking relieved. "Don't do that around Bruce… You might actually give him a heart attack. He's been pretty focused on you," he said. My brow hitched at him, and he stared at me for second. "I'm Tony, by the way. Not sure if you remember me from a week ago." My eyes widened. I'd been out for a week?! "Hey now, don't worry. Being unconscious for a week is actually pretty good considering what happened to you. You're lucky you're even alive. The fact you can even communicate after that is pretty impressive."

I felt my brows furrow in confusion. What the heck happened to me? I mouthed, "What?"

He blinked at me. "Oh," he said. Now I got to see what he was doing on the counter, as he lifted his hand, holding a syringe loosely and pointing it at me in casual way. "You don't remember what happened, do you?" I felt my brows knit in confusion and my eyes locked on the needle, noticing the small shine it reflected from the above lights. "You, little miss gorgeous, were caught right smack dab in the middle of an accident that more or less was my fault…" He trailed off, his eyes rolling, and then looking back at me. "Somehow you managed to survive an explosion of one of my bombs. Which is either a miracle, or a disaster…"

"Tony!" A sudden voice shouted, even causing me to jump a bit in a startle. My heart monitor's beeping speeding up for a few seconds before Bruce came over. He gave Tony a disapproving look.

"What? It's true. It's either a miracle that the bomb wasn't strong enough to kill her, or a disaster, considering _I_ built it for the army so they could bomb the crap out of terrorists…" Tony explained, concerned for his own technology.

"…" Bruce just looked at him. "This girl was almost _killed_ and all you're concerned about is the fact that your bomb _didn't_ kill her?"

"No…" He sighed. "I'm very concerned for her. She's in my lab, hooked up to monitor city, with all —" he seemed to have trouble finding the right word, staring back at me, his eyes looking me over quickly "—Those important looking bones broken, and stitches all over the place. Yes, I am concerned for her. However, if all my bombs and explosives are defective like that, then it becomes a disaster, because I've obviously made a mistake somewhere, and Tony Stark does not make mistakes… or at least know of them and let them continue."

Bruce sighed and shook his head, looking over to me. My eyes were on Tony, almost in disbelief. This was Tony Stark? Of Stark Enterprises? Stark Industries?... Stark Expo!? My heart rate was elevating again in my shock. And I was in his lab?... Well that would explain all the technology, but why was I here? Why wasn't I in some hospital somewhere?

I looked to Bruce, seeing him eyeing my monitor cautiously. I tried my hardest to speak now.

"Why… am I… here?... And… Stark?" I pushed myself to say, it came out as a horribly faded whisper, and I looked back over to Tony when I asked about his name. Both of them just looked at me, exchanging glances between each other before Bruce held his hand out to Tony, and he handed Bruce the syringe.

"Yes, he is Tony Stark," Bruce said softly, coming up to my side and holding the syringe in both of his hands in front of him. He was staring down at it and turning it around, inspecting it lightly before he glanced back up at me. "And you're here because you would have died in a normal hospital… Your condition would have put you in a very difficult place with ordinary hospital staff and technology. And to be honest with you, I feel guilty about this happening to you. When it came to our attention that someone had been hurt in the explosion, we had to make sure you were alright… though I can't speak in a morality way for Mr. Stark, I do speak that way for myself. You _were_ in the hospital for your injuries, but after seeing the magnitude of them, and the struggle of the physicians, I decided to move you here, where I could treat you, and Mr. Stark's advanced technology could help support you." He took a deep sigh. "I'm very sorry this happened to you. I've been doing everything I can to help you… I believe you'll make a nice recovery, though I'm not sure if you'll ever feel or function the same as you did previously." His brown eyes held a guilt and sadness to them, but they also showed determination to help me pull through this tragedy. Tony had been staring off to the side. I wasn't sure if he was just being quiet out of his own guilt for what happened, or if he just wasn't concerned.

"… Danke," I forced the hoarse whisper. Bruce blinked, and Tony looked back at me. "Danke," I repeated, looking back and forth between the two of them. I saw Bruce's lips pull into a small smile, and felt his hand grab hold of mine firmly for a moment before he let it go and stepped around behind me. Looking back over to Tony, I saw him looking me over again. I could see guilt behind his eyes, under that cool shell. I appreciated it – the guilt, even if he wasn't going to admit it. At least I knew he felt sorry for what had happened… He wasn't totally concerned about his bombs… or maybe I was just an add-on to it… Well at least I was part of it.

Something was placed in my hand and I turned my eyes to my other side, seeing Bruce wrap my hand around an emergency button. You know, those kinds they give you in the hospital in case you need something in an emergency? Little red button on this handle thing. One of those.

"Press this button if you need anything and neither one of us happen to be here at the time," he told me.

"Which is almost never," Tony added. I glanced over to see him start walking off.

"…" I looked back to Bruce, he was still looking at me.

"Someone is usually down here to keep an eye on you. It's usually me, sometimes Tony." He looked down at my hand holding the button. "But if no one is here and you wake up, or you need something, just push it, I'll be right here." He gave me another smile. I did a very slight nod to let him know I understood, and he turned towards a counter behind him. When he turned back to me I saw what he had in his hand. The syringe again.

"…" I just stared at it. He grinned seeing my cautious demeanor.

"Do you have Trypanophobia?" He asked.

"…" I looked back up at him and right back at the needle. I didn't want to let that thing out of my sight.

"If you don't want it, I won't give it to you," he said and held it with an open palm so I could see it all. "It's just morphine, two milligrams."

"…" I starred at it for another few seconds before looking back up at him. "… I don't trust morphine…" I told him, straining to say my words. But I saw him blink, then give a nod, and he held up the syringe, making sure I could see it. He then walked over to the sink and turned on the faucet. I watched as he pushed the medication out of the syringe and into the sink. He then threw the syringe into a waste bucket and turned the faucet off before glancing back at me and grinning again. I blinked.

"What do you prefer?" he asked, walking back over to my side, holding that grin, that put a sense of subtle charm on him.

"… Tylenol."

He gave a single nod, the grin disappearing, a small frown taking its place. "I'm afraid that's not strong enough for your level of pain."

"I don't feel any pain."  
"That's because I've been giving you morphine and general anesthesia."

"…" I looked away.  
"I don't want you to be in pain, but I also don't want you asleep all the time. I'd like to know how you're feeling on a daily basis so I can make sure you're getting better. The only way I'll know that is if you tell me."

"… Vicodin?"

Bruce stared at me for moment. "I can do that." He nodded, then grinned softly.


	4. Chapter 4

Three months had passed. My fractures had mostly healed. I could move my head, bend my neck, move my legs and arms. But I was still too weak to get up and walk on my own. But I was thankful for Pepper. She was Tony's assistant and girlfriend, but she helped me a lot… It was nice to have another woman around. To you know… help me with various things… like bathing.

.

"Checkmate."

Bruce blinked and looked over the board intently for a few second before seeing how he failed in the game. A smile came to his face and he sighed. "You're quite skilled at Chess," he said and started moving the pieces back to home. "Another game?" he asked, glancing up at me.

I wrinkled my nose up and leaned back against the bed, which was now propped up so I wasn't completely lying down anymore. "No… I'm bored of Chess," I said and sighed heavily, turning my head to look at him. He was smiling as he packed up the chess pieces and board, putting them back in their case.

"For someone so bored, you sure are accurate in your gameplay," he said, standing up and stepping away to put the game away.

"That's probably why I'm bored," I said quickly. My voice had come back. Not terribly low, and not annoyingly high, a nice medium toned feminine voice.

"What would you like to do now?"  
"I don't know. Did you want to run more test?"

He turned and looked at me from across the little section of Tony's lab that'd been arranged as my own little hospital room. Bruce stared at me for a second before walking back over.

"I could ask you questions again to verify that your memory is accurate," he said, standing at my side and looking at me.

I rolled my eyes. "Lenore Nicoletti, twenty-one, FEMALE—"I gave him an annoyed look "—Three-fourteen-ninety one, and today is August the twenty second of two thousand and twelve."

"…" He just looked at me.

"Want to try something else?" I asked and grinned.

He smiled at me and shook his head slowly. "Maybe you should just rest."

"UUGGHHH!" I groaned out and let my head go limp, glancing up at him. "I _hate_ being in this bed all day… Can't I just go explore Stark tower? I won't bother anyone."

"We've told you before that you aren't allowed to wander. You're a risk to our identities."

"And I've told you that everyone knows who Iron Man is, and the government knows who you are, I don't pose a threat to identities that are already known…" I argued.

"… Lenni, No," Bruce sighed.

"Please?" I gave him the classic puppy eyes, which was only enhanced in its cuteness because I was lying in a hospital bed.

He sighed and closed his eyes. Probably so he wouldn't see my pathetic cuteness and be manipulated by it. "Lenni…"

"It'd make me happy~" I chimed.

He opened his eyes and looked back at me. "…" He slowly started to nod. "Fine… but you can only stay on certain floors."

I smiled at him. "Thank you~" I chimed again and sat up carefully, pushing myself to the edge of the bed. I looked over the clothes I'd put on today. Pepper had been nice enough to go out and get me a few outfits so I wouldn't be stuck in the same clothes everyday… or worse, in one of those _fantastic_ little examination gowns… yeah, no thank you. Today I had a simple tee shirt and a pair of sweat pants, ordinary white socks. Of course I had the whole underwear deal going on, don't panic or get excited now.

Bruce had stepped over and moved the wheelchair to the side of the bed. I pushed myself off the bed slowly and onto my feet, which made my legs ache until I got myself into the chair. I let out a grunt when I finally got situated.

"Are you alright?" he asked, concerned, looking down at me.

"I'm fine, Bruce."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm fine~ Go~" I tried to jerk the chair forward. "C'mon~"

I heard him sigh and he started pushing the chair, taking me to the door.

.

Being brought up to one room, my eyes widened at the view it offered. New York's skyline, I could see Manhattan… I swear I could see all the way into Connecticut if I squinted.

"How high are we?..." I asked, grabbing hold of the chair's largest wheels and pushing myself up to the windows, looking out.

"About sixty stories up," Bruce said, standing off to the side and watching me.

"Sixty stories?!" I was disbelief. "Is that even legal?!" I asked and turned my head to look at him.

"Unfortunately."

"… I hope a fire never happens up here… The fire department is only equipped to go about seven stories."

"I imagine Tony has implemented some sort of method to fight fires into the building."

"I hope so." I leaned towards a window and looked out, trying to see straight down. "…" I pulled away from the window. "…"

"It's a bit frightening, isn't it?"

"Yeah… No one would survive that drop…" I was being pulled away from the window slowly and turned towards to the middle of the room.

"Perhaps… you shouldn't look down," Bruce suggested as he wheeled me over to a table.

"Perhaps…" I repeated, though my mind was still stuck on the mental image of me falling out of the window and plunging to the ground. My anxiety must have been noticeable. I felt Bruce's hand grip my shoulder for a second before he walked around me and over to the bar, opening the refrigerator.

"Would you like something to drink?" He asked.

"Vodka… and lots of it," I said and put my hand to my forehead, closing my eyes.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah… just… anxiety…" I thumbed over my shoulder towards the window I was just at.

"I can't give you alcohol, you're on medications."

"Root beer," I said quickly. I heard him shuffle things around before hearing the fridge shut. A glass being placed on the counter, ice clanking inside it, the fizz of the carbonated beverage as it was poured. He brought the glass over and handed it to me. I just took a giant sip of it. Bruce walked over to the couch and sat himself down on it, looking at me.

"Have you always had anxiety issues?" he asked.

I nodded and took another sip of the soda, feeling it's bubbles wash down my throat and tickle my nose. "Ever since high school."

"Really?" He leaned forward and clasped his hands together, resting his elbows on his knees.

I nodded.

"What brought that on?"

"… I don't like to talk about it…" I took a small sip of my drink, my eyes turning away from him.

"I see… Well that's alright. Were you on medication for it?"

I shook my head.

"You really should be."

"I didn't want it." I noticed that he was still looking at me and I glanced to him. He just looked at me, as if waiting for me to say something. "… What?" I asked.

"Nothing… Are you still feeling alright?" he asked.

I sighed. "Bruce… I'll let you know if I start feeling bad."

He nodded. "Good."

I jumped the next instant when the door opened suddenly and Tony walked in with another man. "No, Steve, the internet cannot teleport items across the country or to different countries," Tony sighed and stepped over to the bar before freezing in the middle of pouring himself a drink, noticing me. He glanced back and forth between Bruce and I. "…Banner, I thought we decided to keep her in the lab."

"I know, Tony," Bruce replied, looking back at him.

"Then why is she up here?" Tony asked as he finished pouring his drink and took a sip of it, turning his eyes towards me again. I looked at him.

"I was bored in that room… I'm not a fish, I need to move from room to room," I said to him, making a loose circular motion with my hand. Tony's brow raised and he took another sip. Looking over to Bruce, I saw him grinning.

"This is the girl?" The blonde haired man who walked in with Tony asked, looking back and forth between Bruce and Tony. Bruce nodded. The man looked at me, his piercing blue eyes instantly made me blush. He didn't look much older than me, but he seemed to hold that older character. I saw him start walking towards me and I straightened my back. "Hello, ma'am. My name is Steve Rogers," he introduced himself and held out his hand for a shake.

I blinked at him. _Ma'am?_ I looked up at him for a second before taking his hand in a firm shake. "I'm Lenore Nicoletti," I introduced myself. I could feel my face turning every shade of red I could think of. He smiled to me.

"Don't get too chummy Rogers, we're not keeping her. As soon as she can get around on her own, she's out of here. We can't risk her exposing us," Tony said from the bar, leaning against it and taking another sip of his drink. I just looked over to him with an annoyed stare.

"Oh?" Steve looked back to me. His smile came back as we looked at each other. "Well Miss Nicoletti, if you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask. I'll be glad to help you."

Another blush. "You can call me Lenni," I said, trying to fight off the redish hue on my cheeks.

He nodded. "I'll make sure to remember that… How are you feeling today, Lenni?"

"…" _Hot…_ "Um… Well to be honest, I'm a little achey, but that's to be expected with recently healed fractures… they aren't very strong yet."

"I'm very sorry… Would you perhaps like to sit on the sofa? I'm sure it's more comfortable than your wheelchair. If you'd like, I can help you move."

_Damn he's hot… and so polite…_ "Oh… Uh… Sure…" I turned my head to look at the rounded couch that centered the room, but what I really was trying to do was hide the fact that I was blushing again. Next thing I knew I was being wheeled over to the couch and Steve had stood by my side, between the couch and myself. He offered his hand to me. I hesitantly took it and started to stand up. I grunted from the pain about half way out of my chair, and immediately felt a strong arm on my back supporting me before another arm came under my knees and lifted me up. I blinked and looked up, seeing this gorgeous man carry me the short couple feet from the wheelchair to the sofa, setting me down in it sideways so my feet would be up.

"Is this alright, Lenni?" he asked, still supporting my back before I nodded and he stuffed a couple pillows behind me to help me stay propped up. I watched him move my wheelchair next to me, right up against the couch in case I wanted to move.

"Thank you, Steve," I said softly, looking up at him to see him smile once again at me.

"It's my pleasure," he said. "Would you like anything else?"

"No thank you. I'm fine." I blushed again… man I could blush a million times in front of this guy.

He nodded and stepped off and I glanced over to Bruce, seeing him staring at me with a slight grin on his face.

"…" I grabbed the nearest pillow that wasn't supporting me. "Oh, zitto…" I grumbled and chucked the pillow at him, pouting with denial. He'd caught it and set it down next to him, chuckling lightly.


	5. Chapter 5

"So now when you're done typing your message, you just press send, then your message is sent to who you specified," I explained, then looked up at Steve. He still looked confused as he took the small device from my hand gently.

"How long does it take for the message to be delivered?" He asked as he looked at the cell phone, inspecting it.

"It's commonly claimed as _instant_, but it can take anywhere from one to ten minutes, depending on your service provider and how good of a signal you have at the time."

"Amazing… The technology in this time is unbelievable."

"This is only a basic form of communication now-a-days. We also have video chats."

"Video chats?" He turned his head to look at me, curious to what I was talking about.

I nodded. "Mhm. I guess the easiest way to explain that to you, would be; it's like live television on both ends."

"Oh, I see now. How interesting."

"For you I suppose it is," I said and smiled to him.

"So what is this _internet mail_ I've been hearing about?" He asked.

"E-Mail. That's basically the precursor to texting. It's the same general concept, but on computers… but now even that can be done on cell phones."

"And this… _face book_?"

I chuckled. "Oh, that's for another day Steve. That could take a while for you to grasp… even my grandmother has trouble with that… Actually my parents do too…"

He nodded. "You'll tell me tomorrow?"

"… Sure," I said hesitantly. "I can try."

"Thank you, Lenni. I believe I know how this device works now."

"Practice makes perfect, Steve. Feel free to spam my phone with messages to practice."

"Spam?" He blinked and looked at me.

"Um…" I struggled to find a synonym for the modern slang. "Er… Just, feel free to send me a lot of messages."

"Oh. I will make an attempt to practice, thank you."

"You're welcome," I said and watched him flash me a small smile before walking off. I felt that hot, reddish hue come back to my cheeks. I'd just met him yesterday, but I still couldn't get over how handsome he was. I'd also found out who he was; none other than Captain America. Though knowing this, I now knew how old he really was… MUCH older than myself. Ninety four to be approximate, probably older than Bruce, Tony, and myself combined, or really close to it. But hey, he looked really good for a Ninety year old… Too good.

"Lenni!"

I jumped in my seat and turned my head in the direction of the voice that called me. Tony had walked into the conference room and came over to me, looking down at me as I sat at the table with a laptop closed in front of me. Not my laptop, one Tony had let me borrow after he took the hard drive out and put a blank one in. He failed to tell me that there wasn't an operating system on it, so I'd asked the building's AI, JARVIS, to download an open sourced operating system for me. To my surprise, JARVIS was able to just throw it on the computer without a flash drive or CD-ROM. I thought that was _very_ nifty, futuristic, even. It only took a few minutes for the operating system to be installed and for me to be set and doing my thing.

"Bruce wants to see you for something," Tony said and reached over, pulling the laptop over to him and opening it. He tapped the spacebar to wake it up.

"He does?..." I looked up to the ceiling. "Oh, Jarvis… Why didn't you tell me Bruce wanted to see me?"

"I'm sorry, Miss Nicoletti, I was not told to inform you."

I sighed and pushed myself back from the table as Tony looked at the laptop's screen. I wheeled myself past him and over towards the door. I rolled myself down the short hallway to the elevator. When the doors opened I blinked, seeing someone already inside it. I hadn't met this man before, but he gave a rather intimidating aura.

"…" I didn't say anything to him as I moved into the elevator. But I couldn't help but stare at him out of the corner of my eye. He'd kept his eyes at front, not looking at me, not seeming interested.

The elevator doors closed.

I took a deep, painful breath. My ribs where inflamed, Bruce had told me. That they were going to hurt for a while just like everything else, but it was harmless. When the elevator started to move, it gave that weightless kick that I could relate to all elevators. I hated that feeling. Felt like I was going to pass out for a second. Though I'd rather feel light headed for a second of my life than to be climbing down a million flights of stairs…

I'd felt eyes on me and turned my attention back to the man on the other side of the elevator. I just barely caught his eyes shifting away from me.

"…" _Awkward~_

I looked away from him and down at my lap, pretending to be more interested in picking at my nails. This guy just emitted negative vibes. Dangerous ones. I had a feeling I wouldn't be wanting to mess with this guy.

I glanced back at him and noticed his eyes had been back on me, and he didn't avert them this time. He just stared at me. He stood leaning back against the wall, his arms crossed, and his eyes on me…

"…" I quickly looked him over enough to satisfy my curiosity, taking note of his short dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, tall, broad figure. I looked away again and glanced up to the floor indicator above the doors.

_C'mon… go faster…_ At this point I wished Jarvis had a program to read minds…

"Lenore?"

I blinked and turned my head again, looking back at the man slowly.

"That your name?" He asked.

I nodded.

He looked at me silently for a few seconds before I felt the elevator stop. He pulled himself away from the wall and shifted his eyes on the door, waiting the second it took for them to open, then walking out. I caught sight of the room the doors opened up to. It looked like a training room. It had various targets and machines throughout it, though I couldn't see the room in all. I also saw the guy pick up a bow from table just before the doors closed and blocked my view.

"Miss Nicoletti."

I jumped, not expecting Jarvis' voice at the moment. "Son of a…" I muttered under my breath.

"My apologies, Miss Nicoletti. Were you intending to go to Doctor Banner?" The AI asked.

"Yes. That would be wonderful, Jarvis." I put my head in my hand, taking a breath.

"Very well, then, Miss Nicoletti."

I felt the elevator give its kick before it started moving down.

.

Wheeling myself into the lab, I looked around for Bruce. Jarvis had told me he was in here. It only took me a minute to find him in that little makeshift hospital room I'd been grounded to for over a month. I wheeled up to him and he glanced over at me. He finished up with writing something and smiled as he turned to face me.

"How are you feeling today?" He asked.

"About the same as yesterday," I answered.

"Do your arms hurt from using the wheelchair?"

"A little."

He stared at me for a second. "Would you like to rest for a day?"

I sighed. "Bruce… I'm fine. A little pain never hurt no one."

"…" His eyes narrowed slightly.

"… You know what I mean," I added and rolled my eyes. "I'm fine."

"Alright… You need to do some physical therapy today, if you're sure you're up for it."

"I'll try it."

He nodded.

Apparently I wasn't ready for walking yet. I'd taken the first couple steps fine but with aches, then the next one hurt worse, the next one hurt even more, and then I took that fifth step. My knee buckled, my leg felt like it bended—like my tibia actually bending. That's when I went down and Bruce caught me. Luckily it was before my knees even hit the floor, saving me from another possible couple of injuries.

"Are you alright?" Bruce asked as he picked me up.

"It hurt too much…"

"It's alright. You took four steps, that's not bad," He said as he carried me over to the bed. That dreadful bed. I wish I had a real bed…

I was laid on it and he started inspecting my legs. He pressed in one spot and I groaned from the pain. It felt like someone stabbed my leg from the inside, right into my bone.

"Sorry," he said and fixed my pant leg, pulling it back down and covering my leg back up. He moved to the next one, but that one didn't hurt as much. It still hurt, don't get me wrong, but it hurt less, I didn't really make any sort of display of pain as he did that leg.

"Would you like a brace?" he asked.

I nodded and then saw him walk off to the side, into another section of the lab. Sitting up I winced and reached to my leg, rubbing it—Which only made it worse of course, but doing it made me feel better on some level. He came back within a few moments with a brace and walked over to me. Bruce looked up at me, then to my hand rubbing my leg.

"…" He stared at me. "It bothers you…" he said, almost saddened.

I looked at him. "It's alright… Just… you know… recently broken."

He sighed and moved to my leg, pulling up my pant leg and fixing the brace to it. "Please don't over-do yourself."

"It's hard not to… I want to walk and do things like I used to."

"And I told you before; you may not be able to."  
"…" I fell silent.

"I'm very sorry, Lenni," he said quietly, pulling my pant leg down over the brace. "Let yourself heal some more and we'll try again."

I nodded.

"It's very possible you'll be able to walk again… you just did. You need to work your strength back up," he said reassuringly. "But don't push yourself too much."

"… Alright," I said, disappointed. But I knew this was better than being dead, which could have been a very true reality if Bruce hadn't have worked so hard to save me. I looked back up at him and sighed.

"You want to go back upstairs?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Alright… Actually, hold on a second." He stepped over to the counter and grabbed his stethoscope, then came over to me, putting the tool on and taking the end and reaching behind my back. I just sighed again and looked forward. I felt him lift up the back of my shirt and the cold metal against my bare back. It made me flinch slightly. I sat there for a few seconds quietly, trying to concentrate on breathing, which still hurt.

"Does your chest still hurt?" He asked.

I nodded.

"Is that why you're not taking deep breaths? They seem shallow."  
"It hurts to breath too deep… I took a deep one in the elevator and it felt like my chest was shot…"

"…" He pulled the metal from my back and reached around the front of me, pulling up the front of my shirt a bit and reaching up, placing the end of the stethoscope on my chest. I'm not sure if he meant it, but I felt him push it against me lightly, but it was enough to make me close my eyes and wince. He glanced up at me when I opened my eyes again. Looking at him, I felt a warm flush to my face before I shifted my eyes away. "Your heart rate seems a little fast… are you feeling alright?" He asked.

"… Well there's a man's hand up my shirt right now…" I said, glancing back at him out of the corner of my eye.

"…" He was silent for a second before pulling his hand away and hanging the stethoscope around his neck. "Would you like some help into your chair?" He asked, turning and walking over to the wheel chair on the other end of the room and rolling it over to my side.

"Yes, please," I said. Bruce then stepped over and lifted me off the bed, placing me back in the chair carefully. I didn't waste any time, I wheeled myself past him and to the elevator without another word to him. I wasn't mad. I was more mad at myself, and embarrassed.


	6. Chapter 6

"Not bad," Tony said. "I didn't know you could install operating systems. And linux too, very nice."

"It's nothing, easy, a monkey could do it," I told him. My legs were up on the coffee table as I sat on the couch, back in the conference room. He just looked at me and grinned.

"I like you," he said. "You're smart."

"Did you think I was stupid or something?"

"…" He was silent for a minute, looking at me. "Everyone is stupid to me."

I just stared back at him for a second hearing this. I cocked my head and leaned back into the couch. "Oh yeah?" I said. "Who's Richard Petty?" I asked him, confident that he wouldn't know who that was.

"Who?" His brows raised.

I nodded and grinned. "I thought so. See, Tony, It depends on who you're talking to, and where you're standing in this world, as to just how smart you are."

He just stared at me for a moment before I saw his eyes narrow slightly. He turned away and walked off, grabbing his drink from the bar and walking out of the room. I figured he'd gone off to google Richard Petty, that he'd probably come find me later and tell me just who that guy was, like he had known all along, being as cocky as usual. I looked back to the laptop and reached forward, pulling it back to me now that Tony was done looking at it. I only spent a couple seconds on it before I sensed someone watching me. That intimidating aura again. I froze and concentrated on the feeling. I could feel it behind me. My eyes narrowed as I felt it move towards me.

"Has anyone ever told you it's impolite… and just plain creepy to sneak up on a crippled women?" I said out loud, keeping my eyes on the laptop's screen.

"I didn't want to interrupt you being able to shut Stark up. Good job by the way," The masculine voice said. I saw him walk out from behind me, glancing at me as he sat on the couch across from me. That same guy that was on the elevator earlier. The one that went into the training room upstairs.

"Who are you?" I asked him, looking him over again, sweaty from his, what I assumed as, an intense training session. I noticed him looking me over as well and my eyes narrowed again at him.

"You can call me Hawkeye," he said.

I nodded. "Hawkeye… You must be the assassin with the arrows," I said.

He nodded.

"Well, you can call me Lenni. I'm the one in the wheelchair with no super abilities, killer training, or rich enough to create said abilities."

He chuckled. "By what I hear, you do have the ability to not die from Stark Industry bombs, though. That's got to be worth something," he said.

"Yep. Just call me Immortal," I joked and looked back to the computer screen, opening an internet browser and logging into my e-mail. I could still see Hawkeye looking at me out of my peripheral vision.

"I'm not so sure you're immortal. Incredibly lucky more suits you," he said.

"Then call me that, I really don't care as long you don't try to test my immortality," I told him, my voice starting to somewhat shake now. I couldn't hold the tough act for very long without my anxiety taking over.

"I'm not threatening you… not unless you give me reason to."

"I'm just a helpless cripple, what reason could I give?"

"You could be a spy. You could be working for someone to stay here and report back about us. Bruce can be a little too trusting…"

I looked up at him. "I'm not a spy. You work for Shield, do a background search on me. My name is Lenore Nicoletti. I just got caught in Tony's bomb's explosion. And I'm very grateful to Bruce for saving my life, and to Tony for letting me stay here until I make a decent enough recovery to leave. If you have a problem with me staying here, I'm sorry, but maybe you should take it up with them, not me," I said, taking a deep breath to calm myself. I watched him as he looked at me with a hard expression, not angry or upset, just a stare at me. He shook his head.

"I don't have a problem with you so far. In fact I'm sure you pose no threat to us, and I hope you do make a nice recovery… It's just in my nature to be distrusting."

"…" I looked away and back to the screen. "I don't find it easy to trust people either. When I first saw you in the elevator, and even now, I feel this dangerous, deadly aura coming from you." I noticed his head tilt slightly out of the corner of my eye. "… Made me think you were some serial killer or something."

He grinned. "Well, you're not entirely wrong. I am an assassin, I do kill for a living."

"I thought you were going to kill me."

"Should I?" He asked. I looked up at him silently for a few seconds.

"…" I didn't say anything.

"I'll take that as a, no," he said and pushed himself to the edge of the couch, leaning forward and continuing to stare at me. He dropped his tone to just above a whisper as he spoke. "How did you really survive that explosion? I saw the site, it was completely destroyed, how could you have survived that?"

"…" I still said nothing. I looked back to my e-mail to find it filled with nothing but junk.

"What are you hiding, Lenni?" He asked. I looked back up at him to see his eyes narrow at me.

"I'm not hiding anything…"

"I've been trained to tell when people are lying to me."

"I'm not hiding anything," I said. Of course, I was still lying. I had been hiding something, but I couldn't tell him. Granted, he might understand, him being on a team of super heroes, but I couldn't let this get out.

He stood up from the couch and stepped over to me, standing to the side of me and looking down at me. I looked away from him and the computer all together, looking down at the floor. "You're hiding something. If you're scared that I'll hurt you, I've already told you that I won't unless given a reason."

"It's not that important…"

"If it somehow keeps you alive through bombs, then I think it's very important."

"I don't want to talk about it."

He sat down next to me and I saw him look at me out of the corner of my eye. "You don't have a choice. You're making me suspicious. That gives me a reason to want to hurt you."

"It's nothing… really," I said, glancing to him, then pushing myself away from him on the couch.

"I think it's something."

"Just… stop, please."

"I don't think you understand. You're in the middle of Shield Head Quarters. If anyone finds out you're hiding something, you will be interrogated until we find out what it is. If you're some super alien bent on destroying this planet, you can bet we're going to do something about it, we've already done it once, we will do it again.

"I'm not an alien."

"Then what are you?"

"… I don't know."

"…" I looked over to him to see him staring at me with slight confusion and even more suspicion.

"I don't know what I am…" I repeated.

"Are you human?"

"I like to believe so…"

"… So you could not be?"

"Yeah…"

He looked me over again, head to toe. I guess he was trying to see if I had any flaws that a human wouldn't have. But I looked just like everyone else, at least I think I did. "… What is it you're hiding, Lenni… If you really aren't a threat, you'll tell me."

"… I can't."

"Why?"

"You'll tell the others, and they'll think I'm a freak… Bruce might even want to dissect me."

He sighed. "Why would you say that?"

"…" I looked down at my lap, looking at the wrinkles in my sweat pants. I didn't know how to really explain what it was that I was hiding… had been hiding. I'd even tried to hide it from myself over the past.

"Lenore…"

"…" I turned my head slowly to look back up at him, looking at his serious demeanor. I could still feel his aura and all its danger. I briefly looked away again, only to look back up at him. "… I can't die."


	7. Chapter 7

"What do you mean she _can't die_?!" Tony asked, nearly yelling at Hawkeye.

"Everyone can die, Clint…" Bruce said, a little more gently than Tony.

"Look, I don't know how, but that's what she told me. Ask her," Hawkeye's voice said. I had been sitting on the couch still and sighed, hearing the guys argue with each other about me. Hawkeye—Clint, had told them… told them all what I'd told him.

"She's probably just tired," Bruce said and looked over to me.

"Yeah, she's probably high on some medication Banner gave her," Tony added and leaned with his hands against the back of the couch.

"I'm not high…" I said, breaking my silence.

Bruce came towards me. "Lenni-"

"I'm not tired either!" I snapped at him, making him stop in his tracks and look at me, his brows furrowing. "I'm fine, Bruce."

"Then… why would you tell him that you can't die?" Bruce asked me, confused. He took the last few steps up to me and sat down on the couch near me. "… Do you want to die?" He asked cautiously.

"No… no, of course not… But it's the truth, I can't die," I told him. Now I was regretting I'd told Clint. Now everyone was going to question me about it.

"How can you… _not_ die? Is that even possible?" Tony looked to Bruce, "Is that really even possible?" he repeated himself, though putting more emphasis on it the second time.

Bruce just sighed and glanced to him before looking back at me. "I don't know… I suppose anything is possible really. I myself turn into a giant green monster when angry enough… But true immortality?..." He gave me a pathetic look of disbelief. "Unless you're some type of god-"

"I'm not a god… I just… I can't die. I've been in accidents before that should have killed me, and they did not. I always live somehow…" I said, my tone growing soft. I looked down at the floor again.

"Then maybe you're just lucky," Tony said. "Ever think of that?"

"… I woke up in my grave," I said and turned my head away, fighting back tears at this point.

Silence.

Bruce, Tony, and Clint went dead silent hearing that, hearing what I just said. I didn't blame them, that would shock anyone hearing that someone came out of their own grave. I took a deep breath.

"What do you mean; you woke up in your own grave?" Steve asked, taking a seat next to me and looking at me with the same confused face as the others.

I looked away and back down to the floor, tears were starting to fall from my eyes as I thought about it. Thought about waking up in my coffin, in pure darkness. I didn't know how long I'd been there, but I knew I was still alive.

I felt Steve's arm wrap around my back and waist as he pulled me into a tight hug. I lost it. I let all my tears go, into his chest. I felt his other arm wrap around me and hold me, one of his hands rubbing my back. He was trying to comfort me, but nothing in this world could make the feeling of waking up in a coffin alright, or even okay, or even not bad. It was a nightmare.

"How did you get out?..." Steve asked softly. "I thought they put caskets in cement cases in the ground."

I sniffed. "Above ground tomb…" I managed to answer through my tears. "I wasn't in, like, the wall or anything, I was just off to the side under the stained glass window..."

"Jesus…" I heard Tony mutter in disbelief.

Bruce sighed. I could hear him get up from the couch. But I still hung onto Steve, and he didn't loosen his hold on me either. "When was this?" Bruce asked. I heard his voice as if he was right behind me now.

"Two thousand and nine is when I woke up… I don't really remember when I supposedly died," I answered, pulling my head back just enough to turn it and glance up at him behind me.

"Two thousand and nine? They use embalming fluid now to help preserve the body until funerals… how could you survive that, they replace your blood with it," he said, looking more confused now.

"What if she's a mutant?" Clint asked. I looked towards him to see his arms crossed, looking right at me, standing off to the side with his arms crossed.

"A mutant... One with the ability to survive external causes of death," Bruce thought out loud.

"So, what, a healing factor? Like that Wolverine guy in the X men?" Tony asked.

"Not necessarily a healing factor," Bruce said and turned towards him and Clint. "Just the ability to avoid un-natural death… her body probably heals in a regular sense of time, but most embalming fluids only last for so long… I can only guess that they would just stall her body's ability to heal until they were absorbed through the tissues of her body… Then she would have started to heal, her body would have created new blood, and the poisons from the embalming fluid would have exited through pores after a while…" He turned back to look at me again, his brows raised. "How many times have you survived life threatening injuries?" He asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know…" I hugged Steve tighter trying to recount all my past incidences. "I survived a bungee drop that broke… I drowned in a lake once… I was shot in the chest…"

The look on Bruce's face was one of complete dumbfoundedness, shocked. "How are you alive, Lenni?..." He asked.

I started crying again. "I don't know…"

.

"Well her story checks out," Tony said, walking back into the room after leaving for a few minutes. He handed a tablet over to Bruce and pointed at the screen. "September sixteenth, two thousand and nine, New Orleans, an old family tomb was reported broken into and one of the caskets opened and with no body inside it. It's reported that the body belonged to a _Lenore Marie Nicoletti_…" Tony paraphrased the old news article and looked over to me. I was still sitting on the couch, But I'd let go of Steve a little while ago and was sitting there on my own now. I watched as Bruce read the article over carefully.

"Are there other articles like this?" Bruce asked as he scrolled back through the article. "Lenni, are there any reports of your accidents?"

"I don't know… please don't bring them up."

He glanced over to me. "... I'm sorry," he said and looked back to the tablet, looking through articles.

"What I don't get, is why no one's noticed this by now, and why you're not on display in a science museum somewhere," Tony said and looked at me. "Why aren't you being dissected someplace?"

I gave him a narrowed expression.

"Tony…" Bruce warned him.

"What? It's a valid thought!" He exclaimed.

"If she's a mutant, the last thing she needs is to be exposed…" Bruce said and looked up at him, handing the tablet back over.

"I'm not saying we turn her over. I'm just wondering how no one's realized a supposedly dead girl is up and walking around in the middle of New York City."

"…" Bruce glanced over to me.

"Would you really expect me to stay in New Orleans where someone would see me?..." I asked, looking up at Tony again. "The first thing I did was go home when I got out of that tomb, and when I got there, my family wasn't there, they'd moved away. I looked for them, but when I ran into an old friend, they freaked. They screamed like I was a ghost coming back from the dead to kill them. So I ran. I ran all the way up here so no one would see me and do that again… I didn't want the police to find me and realize that I was that girl that died that one day and now was alive… they'd turn me in to the government and they'd do test on me… Maybe even try to actually kill me… I had to run away," I said, tears coming from my eyes again. Steve walked over from the conference table and grabbed a box of tissues on his way, bringing them over to me. He handed me one and I used it to wipe my eyes and face, but it was no use, the tears kept coming.

"I understand, Lenni. And it's okay, we're not going to turn you in," Bruce said and forced a small smile to me.

"But why are you so scared to die?" Clint asked from the couch across from me. "If you can't die, why are you scared of it?"

"I don't think it's because she's scared of dying, Clint," Bruce said and looked back to me. "It's because you might wake up again in another grave, is that right? Because you may not be able to get out of that one."

I nodded.

"What would happen if you were cremated?" Clint asked, staring at me still.

"... I try not to think about that."

"That would technically be an external cause of death."

"I know..."

"She would truly die if that were to happen," Bruce spoke up. I turned my head away and looked down at the floor, holding the wet tissue in my hand tightly. Steve handed me another one before he turned away.

"What are we going to do?" he asked the others, who just looked at him for a second before they all looked back at me.

"Well we can't let her go now... What if she did _die_ out there again and was really buried alive. She'd be stuck in her grave," Bruce sighed and put his hand in his hair, rubbing his head.

"She was fine, she can leave," Tony said and took a sip of his drink. "I mean what are the chances that she'd _die_?"

"..." Bruce glanced up to him with a look that I could only describe as a 'are you an idiot?' look. "Tony... People die everyday in this city alone from crimes and accidents."

"I'm aware of that, Banner. But I'm saying, What are the chances that it'd happen _to her_?" Tony asked, looking right at him.

"I have about a one in sixteen thousand chance of being killed in New York City..." I said, looking up to Tony and letting out a sigh. "And it's not just me, that goes for everyone," I added and made a loose circular motion with my hand.

"How do you know that?" Bruce asked, his brows furrowing as he looked at me. I looked back at him.

"You just take the approximate population of the city and divide it by the approximate murder slash accident rate."

"You did that in your head?"

"I estimated really... There's about eight point three million people in this city, and the murder rate is about five hundred a day... so... about sixteen thousand."

He blinked, as if in disbelief that I could do such a calculation in my head.

"Yes yes, she can do basic math, but really, is she likely to get hit by a car or something?" Tony asked and walked over towards Bruce and I, looking at the both of us.

I looked up at him and leaned back against the couch. I tilted my head slightly and narrowed my eyes a bit at him. When he glanced back at me I spoke to him. "You really want to rely on a basic mortality rate of New York City to define my life expectancy, when three month ago I was hit _by a bomb_ that nearly obliterated Liberty Island?"

"..." He didn't say anything, but I noticed Clint grinning out of the corner of my eye. I'd managed to shut Tony up again.

Bruce stood up in front of Tony, looking at him. "We'll figure something out, until then, she still needs to heal and get her strength up. It's up to her whether she wants to stay or not anyway..."

"Having you guys around alone makes this place crowded. I don't need this place to become a charity house."

"If you don't want me to stay, I'll leave. You're right, it's crowded here, with all the four of you and like a hundred floors, and all this darn stationary technology. Yeah, I'm more of an eight point three billion people crowding me _in the street_ person." I rolled my eyes and sighed. I got the idea, Tony didn't like me hanging around in his... house... tower... work building... whatever this place was.

"It's not that I don't _want_ you to stay. It's that your lumping around on my couches and not doing anything... being all... _lumpy_," he said and gestured to me sitting there.

"Well _excuse me_ for being _blown up_," I said. Tony and I both stared at each other for a moment before Bruce stepped between us.

"Enough... Let's just worry about you healing for now, Lenni. Then we'll figure out what to do about your mutation..."

"I don't think Nick's going to let her leave now. Now that she knows who we are," Clint broke his silence, looking over at Bruce and Tony. "She knows too much now... And it's not like he can kill her."

"... Unfotunately, that might be the case," Steve said. "She might be stuck here anyway... Unless we have some sort of memory erasing device." Everyone fell silent for a second and he blinked. "... Do we have those now?"

"No..." I answered. "At least not available to the general public. I don't know what the government hides in its toy box."

"The government doesn't have mind erasing technology..." Bruce sighed and stepped off.

"Then she may have to stay with us," Steve said and opened his arms before glancing back at me. "She may even be able to help us. She seems good with modern technology. Perhaps she can work with that?"

"Hey, leave the technology department to me," Tony said as he walked back over to the bar. Steve frowned a bit. Bruce looked over to Tony and put his hands on his hips. I could tell he was thinking of something, but I couldn't tell you what it was. He glanced back over to me.

"We'll get to this when we get there. Leave her be for now," he said.


	8. Chapter 8

Leave me alone, they did. For about two weeks. I could now get up and walk around on my own, albeit slowly, but surely. Every now and then I'd have to stop, sit down and rest, my legs aching too much, but not really giving out from under me like before anymore. Sometimes I'd have to hang onto something as I walked to make sure I wouldn't fall. But I was healing. I was getting to know Clint more too. He wasn't really that bad once you got to semi-know him. He kept a lot of things to himself, which I understood with his particular jobs and history. I didn't pry. But I did get to see him train one day, that was pretty cool. He never missed a target, and I couldn't believe that he could hit targets without even looking at them. That was something else. I'd also seen Steve train in the gym. He seemed to like boxing a lot, and at one point in the past couple weeks, I saw him and Tony spare... poor Tony. But I bet you're wondering how this Fury guy reacted to me. Well, I don't know, I hadn't met him yet. He hadn't been around. Tony seemed to think he was off handling some super secret stuff with a women named Natasha, whom I'd heard from Bruce was Black Widow. This was all starting to become so surreal to me. I had met some of the world's greatest super heroes, and what more, a couple didn't seem to mind having me around. In fact Steve had told me quite a few times that he was thankful for me being around to show him how all this modern technology worked... though I couldn't really show him the advanced stuff Tony had invented... He made some pretty complex things.

But now? Now I'm standing here, in an actual laboratory of Stark Tower... one of many labs in this huge place. Bruce is next to me, working on some test results he'd run on me, trying to figure out exactly what I am. Though he'd only done this with my consent, he didn't push me to do anything. He'd told me that he didn't want me to feel trapped here, or unsafe. That if I felt uncomfortable with any of the test, that he would stop and leave it alone. I was hesitant at first, of course I would be, I'd been dreading tests since I woke up in that coffin. But I trusted Bruce enough, and to be honest, I wanted to know what the heck was up with me, too.

I remembered last week, Tony had joked around and called me a vampire one day. Saying that nothing could kill me except fire and the sun (the sun really can't kill me). It bothered me at first, being called a vampire, but I played along enough to humor him. Now it was just an old joke, pushed to the back of the mind to rot with all the other old jokes.

As I stood there watching Bruce, I heard a loud voice making its way down the hall. It started off faint, but soon I could make out what the voice was saying- er... yelling.

"Why was one of your bombs not properly contained!?" The voice boomed, I didn't recognize the voice at all.

"I told you, I don't know what happened, something went wrong in the holding unit, one of the bombs activated and shot out the wall." That one was Tony's.

"I'm getting real tired of your lazy excuses!" The other voice yelled again. "That bomb destroyed Liberty Island. The Statue of Liberty is half laying on the ocean floor!"

"I know that! I'm trying to dispose of all the bombs, I don't want them hanging around, I stopped making them a couple years ago."

"Then dispose of them!"

The voices were getting closer, my head was turned towards the door. I could hear Bruce behind me stop shuffling things around, probably looking at the door too. I'd heard him say something to me.

"That's Nick Fury... He's back."

"..." I kept watching the door. "Sounds like a hard ass..." I muttered, only to hear him chuckle lightly behind me.

The door swung open.

There stood a man, black- Oh, sorry, African American (For those of you that are politically correct...) He stood there with a black eye patch over his left eye, black long leather coat, black turtle neck, black pants, black boots, black leg strapped gun holster... My first thought was; "Alright, I get it, You're black," but I didn't say this out loud. I guess I spoke too soon about not having met him yet.

I stared back at him as he looked right at me, his eyes- eye watching me carefully. I think my mind went blank for the entire minute that we locked eyes with each other before I saw him shift his gaze behind me.

"Banner, explain," He said, having a deep tone, full of authority as he stepped in and came over to Bruce and I, standing in front of us. He didn't look back at me. I guess he was more focused on Bruce and this explanation.

"I believe Tony already told you... One of his bombs malfunctioned," Bruce said, only to be cut off quickly.

"Not that. This." He pointed at me. My eyes narrowed for a second at him.

_I'm not a "This"_, I thought.

Bruce hesitated for a moment and I turned my head to look up at him. He glanced at me for a second then looked back to the Fury guy. "Her name is Lenore. She was caught in the accident. When Tony and I found out, we wanted to make sure she was alright."

"She seems fine."

"She is now. At the time we weren't sure she'd make it."

"..." Fury stayed quiet as he listened.

"What I thought to be a miracle of a survival, has since turned into a mystery," Bruce said slowly. I was looking back and forth between the two men. I saw Fury glance at me briefly, then saw Bruce glance at me again.

"What do you mean a mystery?" Fury asked.

"She's told us that she can't die. She's told us of an instance where she actually woke up in her casket in a family tomb. We've even found a news article confirming it."

I saw Fury look right at me now, and I drew back a bit, backing against the counter. This guy put off a worse vibe than Clint did when I first met him...

I watched as Fury spoke directly to me now.

"What's your name?" He asked with a gruff voice.

"... Lenore Nicoletti," I said hesitantly.

"How did you survive that explosion?"

"... I don't know."

"You can't die?"

"... … I'm not dead yet," I said with a tone.

I saw a slight, very quick grin tug at his lips, but as soon as I noticed it, it had vanished.

"Are you a mutant?" He asked, keeping the hard tone he'd had all along.

"That's what Bruce is trying to figure out..." I answered slowly.

"And what have we found out?" he asked and looked back up to Bruce, who sighed and turned towards the test results on the counter.

"Her blood test all seem normal, however I'm trying to study her DNA, to see if there is any significant differences. But I don't specialize in DNA, it could take me a while to figure it out."

"I can send it to someone to do that and have it done quickly," Fury stated, to which Bruce and I both blinked and looked at him.

"Could you really?" I asked, shocked that it sounded like he was offering to do this.

"Yes I could. However," He looked back at me. "I can't just let you go, now that you know about SHIELD and who everyone is."

"I understand that," I said. I knew that was going to be the case. I'm a risk to everyone.

"That being said, I'll have your DNA sent to our Bioanalysts, but whatever the out come, you are going to remain here."

I nodded.

He looked to Bruce again. "Get all her lab work together and a few samples of her DNA ready." I saw Bruce's brows raise for a second before going through the papers on the counter and putting them in some certain order, stacking them off to the side, then walking off to another counter. I turned my head to look back at Fury, to thank him for the opportunity to find out what I was (and for not trying to kill me), but he was already heading out of the room.

"..." I watched for the second it took for him to disappear out the door before looking back at Bruce. He had couple empty vials in his hand and a needle while he was digging through a drawer. When he turned around and started coming way way, I let out a small whine.

.

It wasn't so bad. Really. It wasn't. I just had to lay down... with my feet up... and sip some orange juice... _Heh..._

"You should have said something before I started..." Bruce told me with a sigh.

"Yeah... well..."

He just gave me a look.

I sighed, exhaling upward to blow the bangs out of my face. Over the past three and a half months, my hair had grown out a little longer than I'd liked it to be. I usually kept it pretty short, but now it was about chin length and bugging the crap out of me. I ran a hand up my face and over the top of my head to push my bangs back, but they just fell back down into my face. I could feel a slight disappointed look come to my face.

"Are you feeling okay?" Bruce asked as he finished gathering things together for Fury to send to Shield's bioanalysts.

"Yeah..."

"Do you want more orange juice?"

"... Yeah."

I watched him put things down as he walked off to the fridge in the far corner of the room. He opened it, the audible suction noise of a refrigerator being opened echoed through this bare-walled laboratory. Bruce pulled out a carton and came back over to me, glancing at me before reaching over to the counter next to me and grabbing my empty glass, refilling it, and handing it to me. I took it carefully and watched him set the carton of orange juice on the counter and took a sip from my glass.

"Do you need any more of my blood? Or can I go on strike now?" I asked between two sips.

He grinned and turned to go back to fixing my lab work back up, and the vials of my blood into a container for transporting. "I think I got enough."

"Thank god..." I uttered under my breath and took another sip.

"Whenever you're feeling better, you can get up. Or do you want a wheel chair?" He asked and looked back at me over his shoulder.

"No, I'll be alright... Not like it'd kill me!" I exclaimed with a mock cheerful tone and raised my glass in a light 'cheers' matter.

He chuckled. "That's not entirely the point, Lenni..."

"I know. I'm just trying to distract myself."

"Why don't you go hang out somewhere else? Being in here will only keep your anxiety up. Why don't you go torment Tony?"

"Wasn't he supposed to be getting rid of bombs?..."

Bruce fell silent for a second. "... Try Steve or Clint. Maybe even Natasha."

"Eh... I don't know her yet..."

"Then go look for Steve or Clint. You need to be working on strengthening your legs and arms. Maybe they can help you," he said and turned back to his work. I just took a small inhale before swinging my feet slowly over the side of the reclined chair, sitting up carefully and getting to my feet. I felt my head rush for a second before I started moving my feet, them carrying me towards and out the door. I still had half a glass of OJ in my hand, and I took another sip as I walked down the hall, turning down various halls, taking my time with stair cases, which still took quite a bit of effort on my part.

.

I eventually found my way to Tony. I walked towards him down the hall I was already going down, and when he spotted me, I noticed his brow raise.

"You look like hell..." He said, turning to me. I stopped in front of him, taking the last sip of juice from my glass.

"I almost passed out while Bruce was taking blood."

"Ew." He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned a shoulder into the wall next to him. "You alright?"

"Yeah... Just kinda fuzzy," I said, glancing down at the glass in my hand.

"Need more?" Tony asked and pointed to the glass while keeping his arms crossed.

I shook my head.

"Want something to eat?"

I shook my head again. "I probably shouldn't just yet... Feel kinda nauseous."

He shifted himself more to the side of me. "Maybe you should lay down..."

"I don't want to."

"Alright. "

"I just need to be distracted."

"Right... You have anxiety..."

I nodded.

He looked at me silently for a few moments before nodding. "Want to help me with something?" he asked. I just looked up at him and blinked.

"Aren't you supposed to be getting rid of your bombs?"

"I have people doing that for me."

"Oh yeah? The same people who told you that bomb was safely contained?"

"No."

I blinked.

"I fired them."

I grinned and looked away, shaking my head. "For little ol' me?" I asked with a sarcastic tone.

"No. For little ol' Fury..." he said and rolled his eyes.

I gave a small laugh. "Well I have to say he's not as bad as you guys made him out to be. He didn't try to kill me, and he's going to send my DNA into some Shield specialists to see if they can figure out what I am."

"Let me guess, he's making you stay here."

"Yep."

"Thought so."

"So what are you doing?" I asked.

"_I_ am not doing anything. But I was going to go into my lab and work on the Iron Man suit."

"You don't think it's advanced enough?"

"Never."

"... Alright then. What are you trying to add to it?" I watched him tilt his head up and stare at the ceiling for a second before turning and walking down the hall. I followed after him and caught up to his side.

"It needs to be faster, more powerful. It needs to run on less power. Maybe some slight remodeling," he said as he slipped his hands into his pockets.

"Maybe you should put some solar panels on it, so it can draw some power from the sun instead of your arc reactor," I suggested.

"I've thought of that, but they wouldn't be strong enough to power the suit. And they would be useless at night. I thought of using the solar panel to charge an internal battery source, so it would have some charge at night, but then I would have to have the suit sit in the sun all day to charge it."

I gave a thoughtful frown as we walked down the hall, looking down at the floor. "... Well, what if the suit had its own arc reactor?"

"The suit can get pretty banged up. If I gave it its own arc reactor, and it got damaged, I'd be in trouble. I could plummet to the ground, fall into the ocean, or the suit could lock up and I wouldn't be able to get out."

"Yeah but the same thing applies to if the one in your chest gets damaged."

"But it's less likely for this to be damaged with the suit acting as a shield on it."

"... I suppose."

"Which is why I've decided to try and make it run on less power, instead of adding more power supplies."

"But in order for it use less power, you'd have to make it lighter, and generally weaker, and you want it stronger," I said, looking up at him as we turned down a hall and into an elevator. I watched him press a floor number and step back against the elevator wall, re-crossing his arms.

"That's my dilemma. I need to figure out a way to get everything I want out of it," he sighed. The elevator gave its kick as it started moving, making me slightly lose my balance for a second.

"I don't see how you're going to figure this out, unless you change the power supply all together.

"I can't do that..."

"Well you could... It'd just be really inconvenient."

"..." He just looked at me silently for a moment before the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened, a quick trip. Tony stepped out and I stood in the elevator until he looked back at me. "You coming?"

I blinked, but I stepped out hesitantly and into the lab that I'd come to know fairly well, though the bed I had been chained to for the better part of the last few months was now gone, along with everything that had been with it, the lab itself was still pretty much the same. I'd gotten to know why I was moved here instead of in the other lab. This lab was more equipped for the power some of the machines needed, and the other lab wasn't really equipped for anything medical either... It was more designed around Bruce's specialties, which is Nuclear Physics. Constant radiation isn't exactly good for someone in a near death state. Not that the radiation itself would kill me, but it could cause cancer, which might kill me.

I followed Tony through his lab, looking around at all the things he's invented. I didn't know what half this stuff did, but I did know whatever they did, they must do it well. I was so lost in this heaven that I didn't notice Tony had stopped walking, and I walked right into him, slamming into him and falling.

"Whoa," I heard him. I felt his hand under my arm as he caught me before I hit the floor, pulling me back up onto my feet. I looked up at him and blinked as he looked at me. "You alright?" he asked.

I blinked again and looked myself over, fixing my t-shirt. "Yeah, thanks..." I said and took a step back from him.

"I saw that look in your eye."

I looked back at him, confused, brows furrowed. I hadn't had any look in my eye.

He pointed over at one of the machines. "When you looked at that... or... well, all of this." He said and dropped his hand to his side. "How interested are you in technology anyway?" he asked.

"I was going to try and go to MIT before... You know," I told him hesitantly. "But... I can't get in now, I can't do anything really. I'm legally dead. So as soon as they see my social security number and run it through the system... I'm found out."

He blinked at me. "MIT, huh? I graduated from there," He turned and walked towards his desk.

"I know..."

Tony stopped. He turned around to look back at me, his brow cocked.

"... I uh..." I reached up and scratched my cheek with a finger. "I sorta idolized you..." I said, dropping my voice a couple volumes. I saw him blink again, then watched a grin form on his lips as he turned back to his desk.

"So what did you want to major in?" He asked as he made a hologram come up, it being his monitor for the computer system. I hadn't really seen anything else like it. I don't remember seeing it anywhere else.

"Um... Hardware repairs, I guess. I tried programming in high school, didn't really like it, but I took an intro course in computer repair. I pretty much fell in love with it... I always liked taking things apart and trying to put them together, so I guess it makes sense that I'd like that."

"And I was your idol?"

"Well, yeah..." I kind of had that awkward feeling now. "In two thousand-eight you revealed that you were Iron Man. I had taken an interest in him before then, but hearing that you created the suit, and that you wanted to stop making weapons of mass destruction, I started to idolize you for it, for your bravery and... I guess I would say you're emotional intelligence, for being able to stand up and say 'no' to being the main supplier of thousands of bombs that have probably killed millions of people..."

"..."

"... Sorry," I said, taking note of his silence.

"No, it's alright. Thank you."

I watched him silently for a moment as he moved his hands around the hologram monitor before walking over and looking at it, seeing what he was doing. I saw blueprints of the Iron Man suit, and he was pulling parts from the blueprints away and onto an entirely new hologram, enlarging the images and looking them over. I was at a loss for words. Why didn't he market this?! This could help so many people!

"Well I guess if Fury's keeping you here, I could teach you a few things. Maybe you could be my assistant or something," Tony said as he worked on the blueprints. I blinked, looking at him. He glanced over towards me for a second before looking back at the holograms.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah. You're gonna need to do something besides lump around."

I felt a chill run up my spine. A good chill. Tony Stark was actually going to teach me tech repair, _and_ I would be his assistant?! But wait... "But I thought Pepper was your assistant?..."

"She is. But she's not very tech savvy. She handles my meetings and publicity stuff. You could help me with my projects, maybe even do the smaller ones for me so I can work on bigger things."

"Oh..." That made sense, I'd gotten to know Pepper, and I knew from the start she wasn't too keen with technology, but she did have great people skills... which I noticed Tony lacked. Guess opposites really do attract.

"So how about it?"

I looked at him. I honestly could barely contain myself. I guess it'd be hard for you to know the feeling unless you've experienced it. Like if you like to paint, and had gotten offered to be a pupil of Van Gogh, you'd probably be pretty excited... despite the fact that Vincent Van Gogh is dead... Oh whatever, you get my point, I was stoked.

"... Uh, yeah. Yeah! I'd love to, thank you," I said, smiling, still pretty shocked.

He nodded. "Alright then, Lenni. Want to help me with the suit?"

"Fuck yeah!" … Oops, couldn't contain that one. I blushed and took a hand to my mouth, covering it.

He chuckled and pulled up a new hologram, his hand going about it too fast for me to really follow what he was doing. Then a part of the wall on the other end of the lab started pulling back, exposing the various suits in their own little glass displays, side by side. I'd finally got to see the suits in person, and now, I was going to help enhance the next version.


End file.

Avengers, Drama, Friendship