Flower - Marvel Fanfiction

Fourteen

P U R P L E  I R I S

By the time Elena was satisfied with the amount of stem cells they had extracted, she had almost fainted four times. Tony had gone down to the common room to pay for their food, leaving her alone with Bruce. She watched him carefully even though there was no point to. She couldn't see his expression to gauge how upset he was. Her shoulders sagged in relief when he finally removed the catheter from her arm.

Massaging her arm, she sighed. She stood and stretched before turning back to Bruce who had begun freezing some of the cells for later use. She frowned to herself. "Need any help?"

Bruce glanced at her. "Go get something to eat. I'll be fine."

Her stomach growled, but Elena shook her head. "No, I'll help." She grabbed a tray of cells and followed Bruce to a worktable. It was a long, complicated process, and Elena did feel a tinge of regret for not leaving for her dumplings. She wondered if Tony would have eaten without them. She certainly hoped not.

"And that's the last one," Bruce said, closing the fridge. Snapping off his gloves, he tossed them into the trash. "Come on. Now, we really need to get you something to eat."

She followed him into the elevator, rubbing her wrist. Had she read the situation wrong? Was Bruce not angry at her for overdosing? Elena pursed her lip and leaned back against the wall. She supposed the logical thing to do was to just ask, so she did.

"Doc?" she said. "Are you mad at me?"

"I'm not mad at you, but I am angry." He shrugged when Elena blinked. "I'm always angry."

"Right," she muttered.

"You shouldn't take risks like that." he said. "You never know the consequences. You got lucky this time. But what if you hadn't?"

"That doesn't matter now," Elena said. "Nothing happened."

Bruce shook his head and sighed. "You're missing the point."

The elevator came to a stop, but neither of them made a move to leave.

Elena drew her brows together. "Are you talking about the "or worse" you mentioned earlier?"

Bruce didn't answer. And when he did, he sounded weary like a soldier after years of war. "You and I both became who we are because of experiments gone wrong," he said. "The difference is that I caused my own downfall."

Elena hesitated. "How?"

"I took a risk." Bruce paused before continuing. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I tested the serum I made on myself and upped the gamma radiation. They didn't tell me what I was making, so I thought—I thought..."

"You overdosed."

"Yes."

Elena looked down. Suddenly, it made sense why Bruce had gotten so worked up. Not that he shouldn't have. Any doctor would have.

"You know Lieselotte?" she said.

"Whitehall? What does she have to do with anything?"

"I was assigned to assist a Dr. Lisa Hallman for a supposedly life-changing experiment," Elena continued. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. "You know the story. Something went wrong, and the building collapsed."

"You were the only survivor."

"Except I wasn't. There was a second. Lieselotte. She's Dr. Hallman."

Bruce straightened. "That experiment." His eyes widened. "It was a part of a scheme."

Nodding, Elena sighed. She didn't say anything, letting the realization sink in deeper. The only sound was of the two breathing. Surprisingly, the air was void of tension. Everything was on the table now. The Avengers knew everything she knew of Lieselotte. It was a relief, honestly.

She sighed in relief when Bruce didn't ask why she had hid the piece of information. He stood, composed as always. Deep in thought. She'd admired Bruce in the past for the work that he's done, but somehow, she found herself respecting him even more. He had gone through what she had but worse. Her curse at least didn't hurt anyone.

There was one thing Bruce was wrong about though. She was the reason she had the curse. She was weak, pathetic. At least Bruce had the decency to be confident when he upped the gamma radiation.

"Dr. Banner, Dr. Fan?"

Elena jumped at Jarvis' voice. She cursed to herself, shaking her head.

Bruce looked up. "Jarvis?"

"Mr. Stark has a message." Jarvis played an audio recording, and Tony's voice came through. "If you two don't get down here right now, I'm not leaving any dumplings for y'all. Just as well because Dumpling shouldn't do cannibalism."

Rolling her eyes, Elena rubbed her wrist. She nodded at Bruce, and he nodded back. He followed her out of the elevator.

They found Tony lounging on a couch with a glass of whiskey. He sighed when they approached and sat up. "Took you long enough," he muttered.

"Bored?" Elena said, piling some dumplings onto a paper plate. She smiled when she bit into one.

"Quite the opposite actually," he said, downing his whiskey. He slammed the glass on the coffee table. "I—"

Heavy rain began pouring, hitting the glass like bullets. Elena turned in surprise, and her eyes widened. More than once, she thought the windows would break.

Steve, Natasha, and Clint burst into the room. Bruce seemed to slump down in exasperation, and Tony only laughed. Elena blinked at them, setting down her plate. "What's going on?"

Lightning struck far too near for Elena's liking, and it was only then when Tony groaned.

"Tell me he didn't hit anything," he cursed.

"He?"

Thunder crashed, and a bright light filled the room. When it was gone, a new man stood in the door frame that led out onto the balcony. Elena blinked at the cells. Man was not the right word. His DNA was different.

She glanced at Steve's super soldier cells, but they didn't match either. Nor did Bruce's.

"Hey, man," Clint said. "Been awhile."

"Agent Barton," the non-man said. "Hello."

Tony stood up. "Pointbreak!" He opened his arms, laughing. "Did you come to raid my kitchen again? I'm afraid I don't have any Pop Tarts at the moment."

"Pointbreak?" Elena echoed.

"Who's the new girl?" Thor asked, plopping down next to Tony. He looked down at the coffee table and took Elena's plate.

"Thor, this is Dr. Elena Fan," Natasha said, leaning against the couch behind Elena.

"Doctor?" Thor laughed. "Banner, you have friends outside of work? Who would've thought?"

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that."

"Wait, wait, wait. Back up. You're Thor?" Elena cocked her head. "You're an Asgardian?"

Munching on one of her dumplings, Thor nodded. "That's right."

Elena sat there unmoving. She stared at him, at his cells. That explained why they were different. She couldn't believe she forgot the sixth member of the famed Avengers was a god.

Her stomach growled again. She frowned. "Well," she said. "Nice to meet you, but Asgardian or not, those are my dumplings." 

...

Here ye here ye, I present to you... 

Thor, god of thunder! 

...thunder. 

...thunder. 

Just two more chapters until things start getting even more spicy. I'm ready to get into some action. :D 

though again, i didn't actually outline this story if you remember, so i have no idea what's after the next few chapters except for the fact we're gonna get a change of scenery. yayy.