Bobbi Morse (biology_degree) wrote in avengers_logs, @ 2019-04-23 20:46:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | -backdated, -complete, bobbi morse, bruce banner |
Who: Bobbi Morse and Bruce Banner
What: Making the doc take a break
When: Backdated to Friday 19th
Where: Stark Lab
Rating: Green for Oblivious Banner
It seemed that New York had gained some new personalities since she’d been away. Bobbi was glad to see that. According to Nick some of them had been here a few times over. That sounded fun. Maybe she was a little glad she missed all that. Let the people in charge handle all of that. Bad news about Jane’s condition. That sucked. She felt bad for her and Thor, but there was nothing she could do about it so Bobbi just stayed quiet on the issue.
What she could do was see about helping the people who could do something to help. For instance: the Science Bros. She was pretty certain neither Tony nor Banner had eaten. If she went to the lab and Tony was there, all she had to do was guilt him about his pregnant wife. Banner, on the other hand, might take some convincing to get him to take care of himself. Therefore, she brought two orders of the best pierogies money could buy from a little old Polish lady Bobbi knew of in Queens. Yum!
Sneaking into the building was easy. Getting up the billion floors to the one with the lab wasn’t much of a workout. However, getting past Tony’s security systems was a lot more difficult. She ended up waiting until the door opened then slipped in before it shut again. Man these guys were more strung out than she thought! Oh well. Once inside, she set about finding Banner then made certain she was NOT sneaking up on him. Startling a man with rage issues was not a good idea.
“Hey, doc,” she said as she approached. “Dinner time.”
***
Bruce was so focused on his work that he was barely aware anyone had entered the lab. This was important and he needed to make sure that he got it exactly right. There was no room for error.
When he did become aware of footsteps, he assumed it was Tony since he was well aware of the security in place and knew there wasn’t likely to be any danger here. If there was, it wouldn’t approach quietly, it would come crashing in. So he was startled when he heard a female voice speaking and he nearly dropped the glass slide he was holding.
“Uh, thanks?” he said, though it came out as more of a question since he did not recognize the blonde standing in front of him with a bag of food that smelled amazing and made him realize how hungry he was. When had he last eaten anyway?
***
Bobbi chuckled for the dubious gratitude. “Agent Bobbi Morse. SHIELD. But don’t let that bother you. I’m actually pretty nice.” She smiled as she lifted up one of the To Go boxes then set it on a table away from the work station he was at. She didn’t want to possibly contaminate anything he had going on, but the whole point of her visit was to make him take a break.
“Hope you like pierogies, doc, but it might affect my opinion of you if you don’t.” She grinned as she pulled a chair over for herself. Once settled, she pulled a beer and a gatorade from the bag. “I even brought tasty beverages.”
***
The introduction did nothing to alleviate Bruce’s confusion, but the food smelled amazing and his stomach rumbled so he figured he may as well take a break and eat something. He quickly put aside what he was working on and went to wash his hands thoroughly.
“I suppose I don’t need to introduce myself,” he said. She clearly knew him and he wondered exactly how. Maybe she’d met the version of him that was here previously. Or maybe it was just because of her work with SHIELD.
He joined her at the other table and reached for the gatorade. Beer wouldn’t impair his cognitive functions, but he still preferred to avoid alcohol most of the time, especially when he was working on something this critical. “Thank you,” he said, this time making it a statement instead of a question. “Did Pepper send you?”
***
“No,” she confirmed with another sound of amusement. “I know who you are. The Avengers are kind of required reading for SHIELD agents.” Was she scared of the Hulk. Fuck yeah! She wasn’t stupid! But based on the profile she read on him behaving nervous or twitchy around Bruce wasn’t nice.
“No, again.” Bobbi wasn’t surprised he took the gatorade. The beer had been for her anyway. “Did out of the kindness of my own heart, doc.” She gave him her best smile and wink.
Her expression sobered, however. “Have you guys made any progress?” Everyone was fond of Jane and the whole world was in love with Thane. That’s the ship name for Thor and Jane for the uneducated.
***
“I think we’re close,” Bruce said. No matter how many trials they ran, they wouldn’t know for sure if it was going to work until they injected Jane, which was mildly terrifying in case it backfired spectacularly, but he knew that it was a risk worth taking and better than doing nothing.
He wasn’t going to ask how she’d known he was here working and needed food. If she was one of Fury’s then she had a way of knowing things that Bruce preferred not to think about. Instead, he took a bite of one of the pierogies she’d brought and closed his eyes to savor the taste.
“These are authentic,” he said. Thanks to his extensive travels, he’d enjoyed food in many locales and often cringed at the Americanized versions of them. This is was a pleasant surprise.
***
It was good to hear they were close. Bobbi smiled. “Good. Do you have any idea how scary a worried god of thunder can be?” She wrinkled her nose as she shook her head. “I’ve seen some crazy shit in my time with SHIELD, but the occasional lightning and thunder when the sky is clear gives me the shivers.”
She put back a drink of beer as Bruce tasted the pierogies then grinned. “A few years and a universe ago I worked a job in Queens. When things went south I helped keep an old lady’s deli from getting busted up too much. I even took a bullet that grazed my ribs. When I got here I went looking and sure enough. Mama Kowalski’s Deli was still there. So...authentic pierogies to the rescue.” Another wink was tossed Bruce’s way.
***
Bruce didn’t pay much attention to the wink. He was largely oblivious when it came to women and the thought that she might be flirting never crossed his mind. “That’s some dedication to good food,” he remarked.
“How’d you end up with SHIELD?” he asked. Since she already knew all about him, he figured it made sense to ask some questions. Plus he was pretty terrible at small talk, so if he kept asking questions, he figured that she could do most of the talking.
***
“Would you believe me if I told you I joined on purpose?” Bobbi sucked juices from a fingertip….on purpose. The winks were innocent enough. They could be construed as friendly or a personality quirk. A woman sucking on a finger? That was fairly blatant.
“I was in basic and kicking butt when I caught Agent May’s eye. She pushed my acceptance then recruited me to her team.” The grin on her face gave evidence to how proud she was of her talents. “The rest is history.”
***
When Bruce noticed what she was doing, he got up and grabbed a roll of paper towels, figuring she was just trying to keep her fingers clean. “Here,” he said, holding them out to her.
“Which branch of the military were you training with?” he asked, wondering if she’d ever met Ross. Even if she hadn’t, he assumed that she knew who he was from reading his file and thanks to the Accords which he’d gotten a very bare bones explanation about after crash landing in New York.
***
She almost burst out laughing when he gave her the paper towels. It was at herself, however. Anyone else, she’d say they were calling her bluff or letting her down easy. With Bruce she was pretty sure he had no idea what was going on. “Thanks,” she said with amusement making her blue eyes sparkle.
“Oh, sorry.” She hadn’t made herself clear. Oops. “SHIELD basic training. I kinda skipped the whole military service or FBI bit because of being so damn good at multiple martial arts.” She brought a leg up then lifted it even higher with her arm. “It’s the legs. Long and flexible.”
***
“I didn’t realize that SHIELD had their own basic training,” Bruce said, though now that she’d said it, it made perfect sense.
He went back to eating his pierogies, giving her only a mild glance when she lifted her leg. “That is a good skill to have if you’re working as a government agent,” he agreed. “Which styles of martial arts have you studied?”
***
“Tai Kwon Do and Krav Maga.” She just threw that out like she was saying she could drive a stick shift. “Master levels in both. Kinda beyond belts.” The grin that was on her face was very proud, but the shine in her eyes now was all about her own danger she held inside her. “There are too many things to count in this lab that can be used as a weapon. There are three exits that aren’t the door I came through, and I’m pretty spry when I want to be.”
***
Bruce wasn’t surprised to hear that she was a high level practitioner of both martial arts, nor did her assessment of the lab’s potential weapons and exits strike him as odd. His experiences with SHIELD may not have always been the most positive, but he was aware that the agents were highly skilled and dangerous. “Sounds like they are lucky to have you,” he said. “Especially after the HYDRA thing was discovered.” He knew that had pretty much destroyed the organization and was glad to learn that it still existed here.
***
Her expression sobered at the mention of HYDRA. Everything about the SHIELD she believed in had crumbled into pieces, and not all of Fury’s forces nor all of Fury’s men could put it back together. It had been the end of an era, but she had received new orders.
Her smile returned but more serious and controlled. “The infiltration was a massive oversight and failure, but we weren’t going to let HYDRA win. SHIELD never went away. We just went underground and worked from there. The mission never stopped. Even when every government in the world wanted us behind bars or dead, we protected them. So that horseshit with the Accords?” She gave a snort as she nodded. “Yeah, I get Cap’s side of things.”
***
The Accords were something that Bruce still didn’t know a whole lot about and he figured he may as well seize on this opportunity to find out more about it from a less biased source than Tony or Steve.
“I wasn’t around when that all happened,” he said. “I’ve heard a little, but can you explain to me exactly what happened?”
He knew Ross was involved, which was enough to put him in the ‘hell no’ camp, but he was curious.
***
Bobbi huffed. She had wished she hadn’t been so underground at that time. She would have liked to have given a few people a piece of her mind. “Senator Ross got appointed too much power and it went to his head. He used damage from battles that saved lives...the world...to attempt to gain control of the Avengers. And he managed to use circumstances to gain the support of certain governments.” She shook her head. “Propaganda is a powerful weapon. Cherry pick details of an event, show them to the public and you can create a lynch mob in the span of hours. Ross knew that and put it into action.”
She took a very long drink of her beer before she continued. “The Accords turned any Avenger or operative that didn’t sign on the dotted line into vigilantes. Arrest on sight. It split the team practically down the middle. Tony and his goon squad toeing Ross’ line. Steve and his team refusing to allow themselves to become a weapon of the government.” Bobbi made an explosion noise as she spread her fingers. “Clash of the Titans.”
***
“I’m afraid to ask what Ross planned to do with the team once he had control,” Bruce said. He also couldn’t begin to fathom why Tony would have gone for that. If anything, he would have expected Steve to be Mr. Rules and Order and Tony to be the one to damn the man. “Tony mentioned that Steve, Nat, Sam, and Wanda were on the run,” he said. It was one of the bits of information he’d gotten at the Sanctum. “And I know Rhodey was with Tony. Who else was with him though?”
He couldn’t imagine any of his teammates taking Ross’s side on anything.
***
“That I don’t know.” She and Coulson’s SHIELD had been busy with their own things. They’d just kept apprised of what was happening elsewhere. Bobbi was pretty sure some of them would have been dispatched to get involved if necessary. That time hadn’t come.
“Nat started out on Tony’s side,” Bobbi said. “I’m a little fuzzy on the details, but she switched in Germany, or at least went neutral.” She wouldn’t have been surprised to learn Romanoff had been playing both sides.
“Black Panther, Vision and some kid dressed up like a spider.” Her flat expression gave away how she felt about that. “Parker, I think is his name.”
***
Bruce was a little surprised to hear that Nat had sided with Tony over Steve, but when Bobbi mentioned that she’d switched her allegiance, his thoughts immediately went to her playing the double agent. Maybe he’d ask her about it. If he stopped feeling awkward around her long enough to have a real conversation. He still wasn’t sure how he felt about everything that happened between them before he left Earth.
“I met King T’Challa,” he said. “He did not seem to have any animosity towards Steve or the rest of us.” In fact, he’d been more than willing to open the borders to his country and offer up whatever help he could in fighting off Thanos’s attack. Without him and the Wakandans, they wouldn’t have had any hope.
***
“Maybe not now,” Bobbi said before she ignored the paper towels to suck her fingers clean. “At that time his dad had been killed in an explosion that got pinned on Barnes. Good Guy Steve would never believe his friend would do that so off the grid he went.” She liked telling stories. It was fun!
“T’Challa wanted Barnes brought to justice so hence Tony’s side.” She’d finished her pierogies so pushed the carton aside. “Except it wasn’t Barnes. It was someone from Sokovia whose family was killed in the fight against Ultron.” She kept the narrative going before Bruce could let any guilt about that come up. His profile suggested he liked carrying blame.
“This guy had machinated all of this to set the Avengers against each other, but Tony and Steve specifically.” This next part blew. “Somehow he had gotten proof that the Winter Soldier had killed Tony’s parents, and he made sure Tony saw it.”
***
That bit of trivia about Steve’s friend killing the Starks was not something Bruce had heard and his eyes went wide, suddenly understanding why Tony had been reluctant to call Steve despite the impending threat of Thanos. In fact, he was amazed that the team had come together as well as they did to fight the attack in light of hearing that. Of course, it may have been different if Tony had been there.
He never had an opportunity to chat with Barnes though he was aware the man was here. Once they were done with this project, he’d have to make a point to introduce himself.
“Thank you,” he said. He definitely wouldn’t have gotten such an unbiased recounting of things from anyone who was directly involved.
***
It had taken some digging to get all of that information, but once Bobbi had gotten one bit she had to get more and more. The only person who might know more was Fury. Maybe Coulson, but Phil wasn’t here.
“Sure, doc.” Bobbi could tell Bruce was troubled. Which detail she’d given him that was weighing heavy on him she didn’t know, but she felt bad she was bringing him down. “From what I’ve seen here Rogers and Stark have buried the hatchet.”
***
“I gathered as much,” Bruce said, finishing his food and tossing away the container. “Thank you for the food and the information. I should really get back to work though.”
***
“Yeah, ok,” Bobbi said with a smile. She didn’t want to keep him away from helping Jane for too long, just long enough to recharge. As she got up from the chair she grabbed up what trash was left to take with her. “I’ll check in on you tomorrow. Make sure you refuel. If there’s anything in specific you want…” she wrote on a napkin quickly, “...here is my number.” Bobbi slid it to him then gave him one more wink. “Not just for emergencies. Call me whenever for whatever.”
As she headed back to where she came in she lifted her arm in a wave. “See ya!”