AN- Sorry it's been a while for the few of you actually reading this story, but school can be a pain when it comes to free time

3rd Person POV

Steve, Bruce, and Ash were escorted below deck into the main bridge where SHIELD agents were seen working on computers and Agent Hill was alerting Nick Fury,

"We're at lock, sir."

"Good. Let's vanish."

From the outside, the light reflection panels activated and rendered the whole Helicarrier invisible.

"Gentlemen and miss." Fury directed toward Steve, Bruce, and Ash.

As Steve was pulling out 10 dollars to give to Fury, Bruce and Ash started walking around the bridge, but were discouraged from leaving by two armed soldiers at the exit. Fury walked over to the two and told Bruce,

"Doctor, thank you for coming."

"Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh... how long are we staying?" Bruce asked nervously, keeping Ash close.

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear."

"Where are you with that?" Fury turned to another man by a computer to answer that question.

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us." Phil Coulson reported from his position by one of the computers, where Ash noticed that Natasha was looking at a photo of a man with an intense glare as she told them,

"That's still not gonna find them in time."

"You have to narrow the field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?" Bruce asked them.

"How many are there?"

"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

"Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr.Banner to his laboratory, please." Fury directed Natasha and she nodded before leading them away.

"You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys." Natasha told him as they walked off the bridge and into a hallway.

"This is your lab for now." Natasha gestured to a room that had all sorts of equipment in it.

"Thanks."

"Kid, you're gonna need to come with me to the Med Bay."

"What?" Bruce questioned.

"They need to see just how stable she is before they just let her leave."

"Oh no no no you are not experimenting on her." Bruce stood in front of Ash protectively.

"We just need to make sure that she won't," Nat mimicked an explosion with her hand before continuing, "if we just let her walk out of here."

"I'll be... OK." Ash assured Bruce somewhat hesitant as she came out from behind.

"I'll be there with her the whole time." Nat told them as Ash walked over to her and they left Bruce to work before he could argue anymore.

As they walked down the long hallway, Ash looked up at Nat and asked,

"Who was that man on the screen?"

"He's an agent who's been compromised by Loki." Nat answered stiffly.

"Who is he to you? I can tell he means something to you."

"What are you, a telepath?"

"No, my people are... were extremely intuitive." Ash looked down after she corrected herself, Nat watching her right as they entered the med bay.

The doctor was already there, dressed in a white coat with her hair up in a low ponytail as her grayish-blue eyes scanned her charts on the clipboard in her hand

"Hello... Ash, I'm Doctor Miller and I'll be your medical chief for today." She held her hand out and Ash took it cautiously, taking care not to reveal her bracelet.

"Agent Romanoff." She gave Nat a professional head shake and Nat nodded back saying,

"Newbie."

"OK says here we need to take a physical analysis, a blood sample, an MRI, and an x-ray scan." She reported perkily.

"I don't know what any of those are..." Ash informed Dr. Miller nervously.

"Just sit down on that table right there so we can check your temperature, pulse, and take some blood. It'll pinch a little bit, but you should be fine." Miller pulled on some blue gloves before rummaging through a cabinet for the needle and alcohol swab as Ash seated herself on the bed as she was told and Nat stood off to the side watching the two of them.

"So, this," She held up a small, pinching device, "will measure your heart rate and blood pressure. This, " She held up a wand looking device with a half-sphere on the end, "will take your temperature."

She put the clamp over one of Ash's fingers before placing the wand in the center of her forehead and moving it around from side to side and up and down.

Taking the clamp off, she took some notes on her clipboard, muttering things about 'abnormal heart rate' and 'running a fever' neither of which Ash knew the meaning of.

"I need you to hold out your arm for me so I can clean it." She took out a small square of a cloth that smelled weird from where Ash was sitting, making her squirm a bit. She complied as the crook of her arm was disinfected and the needle was thrust into her arm, with a little bit of difficulty, surprising them both. The needle was filled with a yellowish-orange liquid and Miller mumbled more about possible "genetic abnormalities" and "irregular densities" as she took more notes on her clipboard.

"Alright, now we need you to lie down for an MRI scan so we can see inside of you." Miller told Ash as she walked over to a smaller room within the room,

"You're also going to need to take that off and any other metal you have on you."

Miller pointed with her pen to Ash's injector bracelet and she cautiously took it off, took her pendant out of her pocket, and handed them to Nat for safekeeping before rubbing the sore spot where the injector had indented into her skin and where the needle mark had begun to disappear with a pinprick of bronze light. After that, Nat showed Ash where to go and helped her to get up onto the platform.

"Now we need you to remain still and breath when the lights tell you to. Agent Romanoff, you'll have to step outside for this."

"I'll be right outside." Nat assured Ash as she looked nervously at the machine she was about to be put into and Nat stepped out of the mini room.

"Alright, here we go." Miller informed them as the scan was started. A few minutes in, Ash started to feel uncomfortable as she felt the energy start to build up inside of her, but it remained inside of her, thankfully.

After about 9 minutes, the scan was completed and Ash sat up clutching the edge of the bed with an iron grip like back on the jet.

"You OK?" Nat came over to her, clamped the bracelet back onto her wrist, and helped her off as Ash just nodded and breathed deeply to calm herself.

On the way back to the lab, Nat handed Ash her pendant and asked,

"Who're they?"

"My mother and my little sister," Ash opened up the pendent to point to the picture of her and her family before pausing at the second photo, "I don't remember who this boy is though."

"He must be special if you have a picture of him with you." Nat smirked lightly as they got to the lab.

Bruce was still working on his algorithm when the two of them entered and Nat whispered something to him before she left.

"What happened?" Ash inquired about their private conversation.

"She was just telling me that your results should be ready to view in about two hours."

"Ok..." Ash nodded before Bruce kneeled down to her level and told her,

"You were very brave to go through that alone, but try to stay close from here on out, OK?"

"OK." Ash nodded once to show she understood before he smiled and ruffled her hair a bit making her smile too.

"Come on, I'll show you how to use some of this stuff to help me." Bruce motioned to what he was working on and Ash smiled before running over and listening as he taught her how to use a computer.

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