Innocent Bystander | T. Stark ✔️

eight ▼ a new discovery

Juliet carefully watched her mother from across the table, swirling the pasta on her plate around her fork. Being around her mom always made her tense to some degree; it was as if the woman had no filter between her brain and her mouth, that no words should be left unsaid no matter how utterly awful. Their lunch had gone well so far, but Juliet knew that she was sitting across from a time bomb.

After being away from Utah for over a month, the had nurse felt it was time to visit her mom. Before she moved to Malibu they had seen each other at least three times a week and Juliet could feel the gap. Her mother had been divorced years ago and with no other children, it was easy for her to get lonely.

"Well," her mom paused to wipe her mouth with her napkin and Juliet felt herself holding her breath. "Your new employer seems well endowed."

"There it is," she mumbled, letting her hands come up to cover her face.

"What was that, honey? You know my ears may as well just be decorations."

"Nothing, Ma."

"Anyway, he isn't bad looking either. The beard is a little ridiculous but you could look past that." Her mom waved her hand dismissively.

"Why would I need to look past it? And what's wrong with his beard?"

"You'll catch on eventually, sweetie. You're a very smart girl."

Juliet slumped back in her chair, catching the eye of the elderly couple at the table next to them. The woman seemed unable to tear her wide eyes from her mother, her fork hovering in the air halfway to her mouth.

"Ignore her," she whispered apologetically to the woman.

Juliet finished the remained of her meal as quickly as possible, anxious to get her mother out of the public eye.

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Analyzing a lethal virus seemed like a vacation after a weekend with her spastic mother.

Juliet arrived back at Tony's mansion Monday afternoon, eyelids heavy from the nap she had taken during her flight.  She quickly deposited her bag in her room before skipping down the stairs to the lab, smiling at the paintings as she passed them. A beep sounded as she punched in the code to the door.

Sliding onto her usual stool, she smiled at Tony as he lifted the safety glasses from his eyes to the top of his head. She automatically studied his beard. It suited him no matter what her judgmental mother said.

The nurse gasped as her eyes fell on a gleaming new microscope. She hurried to stand by it, running a hand along the stage. "Oh," she breathed. "We are going to have good times, my friend."

"So how was it? Did you miss me?" The engineer asked, setting down his tools.

"My mother thinks you're well endowed. So there's that."

"She would be correct," he said with a lopsided grin. "And what do you think?"

Juliet felt every muscle in her body turn to stone. A flush of heat prickled her cheeks and she knew that they were adopting a shameful shade of red.

"I don't- well, I mean, it's not-" With a huff she let her hands fall to her sides. "I don't want to talk about it."

She finished firmly, avoiding eye contact with Tony. As she positioned the microscope by her stool, she desperately tried to ignore the amused expression on his face that she could make out from the corner of her eyes.

The remaining sample of the chrysalis sat it a clear tube on the table. She needed to break it down somehow. Her eyes scanned the lab for something that would do the job, eventually landing on a hammer.

Tony jumped at the sound of the hammer crashing into the table, splintering the rock into dust and smaller fragments. With a satisfied smile she picked up the smallest piece she could find and returned to the microscope.

On top one of the thin glass microscope slides, she dropped a single bead of water in the center before adding the tiny piece of red rock. After allowing it to dry, she put the slide onto the microscope and flicked the light on.

Finding the sample through the lens was just as difficult as she remembered it being in college. She sat with her eyes to the lenses, adjusting the knobs until a blotch of red came into view. After fixing the focus, over fifty tiny viruses burst into the image. As she rakes her eyes over the microscopic organism, she noticed the many flags along its surface; flags were like markers that specified what a virus could attach to. But there was something else about it.

"Tony, come here."

The engineer came to peer through the microscope. "That's disturbing but I have no idea what I'm looking at."

"It's the virus and it doesn't look organic. I think...it's a machine. A very small machine."

Tony straightened, running a hand along his jaw. "That could narrow things down."

Settling on her stool, Juliet remembered what the extremis infected woman had said.

"It doesn't matter I fall. Hundreds more like me are coming and when they do, it won't matter how many guns you have. I will be the first of many, proof that the experiment works. There's no stopping it now."

A shiver ran down her spine. The words still haunted her when she let her thoughts wander. She wasn't sure exactly what it meant, but every words seemed to hold a crushing weight.

With renewed purpose, she turned back to the microscope, determined to stop whatever was happening.

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First, this fic won best Tony fic in the Super Fan Fiction Awards! Thank you so much to those of you who voted!

Second, I would like to dedicate this chapter to my main smol Mrs_BuckyBarnes. This book would be considerably crappier without you.

Third, this book is officially entered in the wattys (cue internal screaming) but yeah it's exciting and I appreciate all of you who show up and read every chapter it means the world to me.

Tis all (: