The Pink Ghost

Nine

Gwen woke up to knocking on her door. Groaning, she opened her eyes and remembered last night. She lay in between her two best friends, on her floor, all in sleeping bags. The three stayed up for hours just talking and catching up.

Gwen noticed her hand resting in Bucky's. She fell asleep drawing circles on his palm. He must not have wanted to move, worried to wake her.

The knocking persisted.

"Go away." She groaned.

"It's 9:00. I told you to meet Bruce outside and Bucky was supposed to meet me in my lab at 8." Tony stated in annoyance.

"Come in, Tony." Gwen sat up rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

Opening the door, Tony stepped into the room, shocked at what he was looking at. The three of them spread out on her floor as if camping.

"What the hell is this?" Tony laughed.

Bucky slowly sat up and Steve was stretching. Once everyone was sitting up looking at Tony, Tony laughed again.

"You three look like a bunch of kids at a slumber party."

Looking at one another with smiles, they each shrugged.

"It's kind of what it is." Gwen smiled. "We used to do this when we were younger. I asked them to stay, I'm sorry if that's not ok."

Waving her off, "You don't need my permission to catch up with your friends, Gwen. Neither do either of you," he gestured to Bucky and Steve, "But I do need to know that when something is scheduled, you will show up, even if the three of you were hanging out all night."

"You're right, Tony," Steve stood, folding his things. "It won't happen again."

Gwen and Bucky followed suit, folding their things and stacking them on Gwen's bed.

"I'll let it slide this time, I know the three of you have a lot of things to talk about. I just really want Hydra out of that man's brain, for the safety of not just us, but him as well."

Gwen looked at Tony with wide eyes, he was showing emotions. Emotions that weren't sarcasm and annoyance.

"Don't look at me like that, Ki—" he cleared his throat, "Blondie."

Laughing, Gwen poked further, "Nice save."

"Whatever. Just get down to where you're supposed to be. Cap, mind joining him and me in the lab? I plan to poke around in his brain some more. Might be comforting to have you with him."

"Yeah, I'll be there. Just let me get cleaned up first."

Everyone disbursed Gwen's room, Bucky following Steve, leaving her to get dressed and ready for training.

----

After Gwen finished her training session with Bruce, the restless feeling she had been fighting for the past week took control. The energy flowing throughout her body needed to escape. Bruce only wanted to work on smaller things first, such as creating and holding the force field while using her powers to do something else. Most of the time she would create and hold the shield while she captured an object within a ball of energy and move it around. Small objects, of course. Bruce feared pushing Gwen too far too fast and hurting herself or someone else.

Gwen complied with Bruce's instructions and focused on what he asked her to. Today she had been standing outside in the field off to the right of the hanger and runway, she focused her energy on the helicopter sitting on the helipad.

"Gwen, don't. We aren't ready for the use of that much energy at one time."

Gwen gritted her teeth as she breathed in a deep breath. Trying to force herself to remain calm, she felt her irritation rising.