Ice Princess

14

"You've got to help me. Sergeant Barnes has been stalking me." She grabbed Thor's arm when she found him in the commissary.

"What's all this Lady Melinoe?" Thor responded looking down at her.

"Bucky has been stalking me. Thanksgiving I came here to work and he followed me around. The next day as well. Then, he was watching my building last night and fought with someone who said they were there for my protection." Melinoe wasn't going to say it was Matt, she knew it was.

"Well, I'm sure there must be some kind of mistake. Barnes would never stalk someone." Thor laughed somewhat, but it was strained.

"Oh, really, what do they call it when a man follows around a woman in your culture and the woman never asked for it or wanted them to in the first place?" Thor looked like he was searching for the right word. "God, where's Sam or Bruce. Hell, I'd take Scott or Clint at this point." She caught a glimpse of Bucky as he made his way in. "Look just keep him away from me for a while until I have all this figured out." She started to run and slid over and under tables trying to avoid people. Thor tried to stop Bucky but Bucky was more agile than Thor and got away. Meanwhile Melinoe was going through her list of places any of the others could be at this time of day, knowing their personal preferences. Sam would be in the gym, Bruce his office. The gym was closer so she kept running towards it.

"Sam!" She called, but he wasn't there. Bucky grabbed Melinoe around the waist and she started fighting back.

"Look, I just want to talk to you... oh..... umph." Melinoe had resisted him and wriggled free with some advanced Krav Maga moves. "When did you learn that?" He rubbed his jaw as he followed the path she was taking. Melinoe was going to try the hangar next if Bruce wasn't in, the problem being she would have to backtrack past Bucky to get there. Please, Bruce be in your lab or at least the office. As she reached for the door handle and turned it, Bucky again grabbed her about the waist. She maneuvered herself so that his neck was between her thighs and was beating down on his shoulders, then hit the sequence to have his arm fall off. With that, she spider crawled backwards away from him into a set of legs. She looked up, it wasn't Bruce but a tall man, slightly built with green eyes. He grabbed her arm and put her behind him.

"I don't know what this is about, but she doesn't look interesting in your intentions." He had a thick Eastern European accent.

"What's going on here?" Bruce asked coming around the corner to his office.

"Dr. Banner, could we talk in your office, please?" Melinoe had gotten her breathing under control enough to sound reasonable. She touched his forearm as she said it and shifted her gaze to Bucky then back again to him. "In private."

"Yeah, Viktor, do you mind waiting a few minutes while I get this all sorted out?" Bruce told the man. Bruce ushered Melinoe into his office and shut the door. Making sure, the door was shut behind them, Melinoe sunk down into a chair. "It's Bucky, isn't it." She nodded. Then, she went into a run down of what happened.

"I really like working here. While he thinks he is protecting me, the only bad things that have happened to me is when he is around. Were you...were you all watching me before?"

"No, we weren't."

"Then, please tell me what I am doing wrong. Why is he doing this to me?"

"Melinoe, we are going to have to table this for right now. Outside is Dr. Viktor Doom. He's come to us for assistance. I'm going to need you to work with him."

"As long as you keep Bucky away from me and have him stop watching my apartment, Bruce, you know I will do it."

"We might eventually need him."

"Why do I feel like a rabbit being hunted by the fox? Can you at least make sure he stays away from my apartment?"

"I'll work on it."

"You need to do better than that. If the situation was reversed, I'd be out on my ear and you know it."

"Can you get yourself together enough to great Dr. Doom and work with him today?"

"Yes, apparently being good at that is a prerequisite for this job." Drying her eyes and squaring her shoulders, she put on her best smile and left the office.

"Are we good?"

"I'm going to have to be." She opened the door. "Hello, I'm Melinoe Witt," smoothing out her outfit then holding her hand out to shake it. "It's a pleasure to meet you..."

"Dr. Viktor Doom," instead of shaking it, he took her hand and kissed the back of it and bowed slightly. "The pleasure is mine. Dr. Banner has talked at length about your unconventional thinking and how it could help me."

"Well, if you would like to follow us into the conference room, we can discuss the preliminaries of what you wish to achieve and how to get there." She said. Bruce grabbed Bucky's arm as she lead the way.

"Not you. No more watching her apartment, PERIOD. Do you understand?"

"But...". Bucky began to defend himself.

"Do you understand?" Bruce's eyes flashed green.

"Yes."

"Good. Now, she might be able to salvage this partnership that Doom is going to propose to us. I much rather him do things under our banner where we know we can control and monitor certain aspects than for someone else and have to clean up the mess later." Bruce told him.

-------

"Dr. Doom..." she began.

"Viktor, please."

"Viktor," she sent Bruce a look. "Based on your proposal, the transversal yield multiplied by force stayed would create a product which will be high in quantity but low in quality. Have you thought of instead, trying this?" Melinoe typed the formula in and displayed it for all to see. "FRIDAY, run this simulation for five years, show product and any byproducts which will have a negative impact on the people and environment."

"Excellent, now the problem is in making it happen." Doom replied.

"I'm sure Melinoe would be able to assist you." Bruce added.

"Yes, I will for the time being." She gave Bruce a look and started gathering her things.

"Miss Witt, join me for dinner tonight. I would love for you to show me this city." Doom asked.

"Doctor." Melinoe corrected.

"Yes?" Doom inquired.

"No, I'm Dr. Melinoe Witt, not Miss. And I apologize, I cannot. I already have previous dinner plans which I can't break."

"I apologize, I was not informed you were a doctor of...". Doom tried to smooth things over.

"Many things. However, if you come back tomorrow around nine, I'm sure we can get started on the compound for you and begin real life preliminary tests." Melinoe had a bad feeling about him ever since he kissed her hand. A cold chill ran up her spine at that moment and again as he wished her goodbye. Considering the problems she was having with Bucky, she didn't want to bring up her concerns with Doom to Bruce. Bruce waited until Doom was out of earshot.

"I'll have Bucky banned from the lab until you can finish this project. He means well, he's just going overboard."