My Neighbor, Mr. Rogers

Chapter Thirty-Five - The One With All The Exposition

I wake up back in the medical wing. I had apparently pushed myself too far. The recall part was fine – they suspect the problem was with analyzing each of the over one thousand pictures and calculating their order. Basically, my brain overheated due to insufficient RAM and burned through a lot more of the serum than normal. That's what I got from what Doctor Reilly said, anyway. But I was falling asleep while she tried to explain, so I could be way off.

That's another side effect of the brain juice injections – every time after it 'activates', I crash pretty hard. It's especially hard today what with the pushing-myself-so-hard-my-brain-leaked thing. Yeah, I thought normal nosebleeds were gross enough... Bleck.

After Doctor Reilly, Bruce, and Tony ran all of their tests, they finally left me to sleep. I've been asleep for I don't know how long, when my door opens again. As I am grumpy to be woken and my brain feels like someone's been using it for a football, I ignore it and hope they go away. They don't. Two sets of footsteps move towards me, stopping a few feet away.

"It's like we can't let her out of our sight for a minute. Every time I turn around, she's in a hospital," Steve whispers.

"Gee, what's that like?" James asks dryly, matching Steve's whisper.

There's a pause as I imagine Steve makes a face.

"If you're going to be a couple of helicopter moms, could you hover silently?" I ask, cracking an eye to peer at them. "Or placate me with fresh pancakes and a side of bacon," I amend, sitting up as I see what they've brought me.

James gives a small grin as Steve wheels over my tray with a stack of pancakes. I'd be lying if I said my mouth wasn't watering. I take an overly large bite. Apple cinnamon. So good.

I eye the boys beside me. "You just gonna stand there and watch me eat? That's uh, a little weird." I take another bite. "But it's not gonna slow me down. These are amazing! Where did they come from?"

They pull up a couple of chairs and sit down by my bed. "Steve's better in the kitchen than he lets on," James explains.

"He certainly is." I look to Steve as I spear another bite. He's smiling crookedly and looking a little bashful at the compliment. "You should make me breakfast every day." There's an awkward pause as I freeze and James smirks knowingly at me from the other side of Steve. "Because I'm so very entitled." I clear my throat. "So, did they figure anything out about my fits of supercomputer tendencies?"

Steve nods. "It seems that when the serum is active you're able to recall anything you've seen or experienced."

I nod back. I remember saying something like that during the test.

"But," Steve continues, "after seeing the footage from SHIELD and hearing about what happened in the Hydra base, Doctors Banner and Reilly believe that it's more than just recall. They think that, while the serum is active, by instantly recognizing patterns and making connections you can predict the outcome of a situation and how to best manipulate it to a different conclusion - and the 'mostly adrenaline' injection may also be heightening your processing and reaction speed."

I blink. "They're saying I can predict the future?"

James shrugs. "Yes and no. You can predict the most logical outcome- and only while the serum is active. So, someone or something could still take you by surprise if you weren't already amped up or if they did something totally unexpected and untelegraphed." He smirks and glances to Steve. "Like, hypothetically, if Steve here were to just lean over and plant one on ya."

I choke loudly on my pancake.

There's a thump and a groan as Steve sharply elbows James while I guzzle some milk to stop my coughing.