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Chapter Eight

That night Elizabeth was unable to sleep. All she could do was think about anything and everything.

The necklace that hung around her neck when it should be hundreds of feet underwater like intended, her placement here, what was going on,  what Loki had said, how much she missed her Grandma, and that stupid scientist with the beautiful brown eyes.

Sighing, she went into the only other place she knew on this entire helicarrier; the lab. It was black, but you could still see perfectly fine. Sighing she began to push a desk, and various of other things out of the way. She dropped down to the ground in the splits and breathed as she held the pose for several moments making sure that she was stretched out. From there she got up and pushed a button on her phone and the song started.

It was the solo she took to a competition years ago, and Elizabeth still remembered every last bit of it.

Bruce watched as she stood, her upper body dangling towards her feet, and hands touching the floor, and she lifted herself up as the music started. He watched as she twisted, spun, stretched, and all of it over the area she had created for herself, to Hallelujah. And he knew nothing about dancing, but it was captivating. She was beautiful. He was also most of all shocked at how flexible she was, as ridiculous as it seemed, he had never seen someone in person able to stretch their body in such a manor.

The emotion seemed to pour off of her, face, and body, as she went through all the motions. And with that, she ended after doing a series of spins, her head stretched back, arms raised in the air, breathing heavily, a smile on her face. She looked pure in that moment, and full of bliss.

He moved towards her clapping.

"Oh my god," she jumped back, hand covering her heart melodramatically. "Bruce do not sneak up on me like that. As a doctor you should know that it is not good on the heart."

He ignored her statement, "Dancing is only your hobby?" He recalled their conversation the first day. "You're amazing."

"You think?" she grinned and sat down on a desk.

"Yeah," he nodded as he sat on the chair next to the desk.

"So why are you awake at this time of night Doctor?" she questioned as she stretched her body out across the desk, careful not to knock anything over.

"I can't sleep. What about you?"

"I guess we're in the same boat with that." The two fell into silence as they sat there. "Bruce?" she spoke softly.

"Yeah?"

"I can't get what Loki said out of my head," she admitted as she slumped back up.

He nodded his head to show that he was listening.

"I mean, I don't know how but he just knew things. He knew what I was trying to do and put a stop to it immediately. He knew about the amulet and called out how stupid I was for thinking I could control him with my powers. He called out my biggest fears. He talked about how I was desperate for attention and that no one needed me. He reminded me that I was worth nothing, and that I was pathetic." she shook her head as Bruce grabbed a hold of her hand in reassurance. "I've always been afraid of what this necklace could do, of what I could do."

"Well I think you're pretty cool, and I know that it isn't false."

She smiled at him. "What about you Doc? What's keeping you up from getting a good nights rest before spending another long and agonizing day in the lab?"

"I think about New York a lot."

"The Harlem Incident?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "I hurt people there, not just the bad guys. I've hurt people before, and-and the Other Guy is a monster, but he's part of me. I'm a monster."