ʟᴏꜱᴛ ᴄʜɪʟᴅʀᴇɴ || 𝟙

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 11

"No." She grabbed Banner's wrist as he was about to plunge the needle in the crook of her elbow. It was a bold move and the rest would have laughed at the thought of her being able to overpower Bruce, but he backed away warily, hiding the needle behind his back. 

"Hey, we kind of need to take more of your blood if we're going to figure out what's going on," Peter said gently.

Glaring at the syringe she nodded reluctantly. If there was anyone that she could at least tolerate poking at her with a dangerous object, it was him. At least she had a better chance of beating him rather than that giant of a man. One swat of his dinner-plate sized hand would send her flying, most likely with several broken bones in the process. 

"You." she pointed to Peter and back at her arm. She had been conversing in mono-syllabic words ever since her last near "kill-everyone-in-the-room" energy surge which he had managed to miraculously calm her down. When she was unnerved, she shut down instinctually folding into herself like a forget-me-not. And this was the very definition of being unnerved.

The only two people she knew and trusted were dead.

Freaky purple energy was beginning to explode out of her from nowhere.

And apparently the only person her sub-conscious would even begin to let her trust was a sixteen-year-old boy in tights.

Handing Peter the needle, Bruce shrugged, "Go nuts," he mumbled, tossing his gloves in the trashcan before exiting the lab.

"Why?" She jerked her head to the one with the metal arm and the one with Steve's shield who were flanking the exit. 

"They're here just in case you go all um, explodey on us again." he explained, gently inserting the needle into her vein as she winced.

"I'm sorry," he quickly apologized, noticing the brief flash of discomfort. "I've only done this a couple of times." 

Both of them watched in silence as the syringe quickly filled with her blood. Removing the needle, he handed her a cotton swab which she pressed firmly to her skin, observing him carefully as he squirted the sample into a plastic tube which then went into a small machine. Closing the lid, he pressed the green button on its side and it began to whirl at a frightening, ever-increasing speed.

"Here." he passed her a juice box and cookie, both of which she held awkwardly."You better get those in you, you've lost a lot of blood today."

She took one look at the food and drinks before pushing them aside.

"Well," Peter sighed turning to speak to Bucky and Sam. "I can let Bruce and FRIDAY take over the analysis, although honestly I don't know what else they're going to find from this sample that they couldn't from the other four. You guys go get some rest, we can go to Russia tomorrow. Besides, I need to  fix the mess Mysterio left for me." 

Speaking in low whispers, the duo's eyes darted worriedly back at Demetria who was still captivated by the centrifuge machine that was separating the layers of her blood, getting it ready for analysis. 

"I'll be fine. I hope." Peter reassured them. 

"If you need anything kid, holler." Sam said loudly, making sure that she heard before both of them left. 

"Sorry," she whispered, feeling Peter's gaze linger on her. She wasn't stupid. There was a reason that E.D.I.T.H was so important to Parker but she hadn't anticipated exactly how important it was. Her little stunt had probably cost him precious time which could have been used for some form of damage control.