Psych the Avengers Out

Patient Prisoner

As soon as the doors close after Barton and Jay, Fury dismisses the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and he is left alone with a glowering Steve and a pissed off Tony Stark. It baffles him that they have taken so quickly to Jay but it may to be his benefit later on if she does in fact join the team. He sincerely hopes she will because the other options aren't that great for any of them.

He opens his mouth to speak but Tony speaks first, "What's your angle with Xena?" he asks.

Nick Fury sighs and rubs his hand over his face. "Right now we need her to mitigate some problems with Warren Biochem-"

"But that's not all you're after, is it?" Steve asks harshly. Again Fury sighs. These Avengers were going to give him grey hairs if he wasn't careful.

"A mind reader has significant importance to S.H.I.E.L.D. these days," Fury says but Stark interrupts this time.

"As opposed to any other day?" He crosses his arms. "I can think of multiple times she would have come in handy when Loki was on his diva trip. In fact, I'd like her around right now so I could figure out exactly what you're thinking Director."

"We didn't know about her when Loki was on his rampage so that's why she wasn't included during recruitment. We learned about her shortly after," Fury replies.

"I'd still like her here to read your mind."

"Is Thor still here?" Fury asks, surprising the other two men with the change of topic.

"Yeah, he should be upstairs," Steve says with a frown, "But what does that have to do with-"

"Everyone on the Avengers Initiative will need to know about Jay at some point so it would be best to have Thor down here now to save me some explaining later. Barton has been informed as has Agent Romanoff. Dr. Banner has been asked to come in to examine her and will be briefed on the situation shortly," Fury says. "We figured his studies could help us understand what exactly is happening in her brain."

"So what is it?" Stark asked. "She get dumped in a vat of chemical waste as a child?"

Fury sighs. He's doing a lot of that lately. "The truth is a lot more complicated than you would believe and we don't even have all of the details ourselves yet. The files from Warren were highly encrypted and names of top executives are often listed as aliases. We haven't been able to truly get a handle on who exactly is running the company. We do know the CEO's name; that one is easier to find. But he isn't the chief of the operation. "

"Any ideas who is?" Steve asks. Fury shakes his head.

"Any files simply refer to the person in charge as Mr. Tuesday," he says. "Hardly useful."

"Tuesday?" Stark asks. He seems about to elucidate when the elevator pings open and Thor enters.

"You called for me?" Thor questions.

Fury nods. "Gentlemen, sit down. We have a lot of information to discuss."

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Jay wakes up with a groan and a headache that is throbbing smack in the middle of her forehead and radiating to the bridge of her nose, making her eyes water as she blinks them owlishly against the glare of the fluorescent lights. She decides she didn't really owe the Hawk that apology. He deserved that blow to the chin if she deserves this jackhammer pain in her head.

A small doctor is sitting next to her, mussed dark hair streaked with grey. He's peering at her over a set of ordinary glasses, green eyes alight with curiosity. She gives him a dismissive once-over and feels her side as she sits up; it's sore where the tranquilizer dart entered her. "Um, miss... maybe you should lie back down...," the doctor trails off shyly. She ignores him and props herself up against the back of the bed. Ow, her side and head.