Such Sweet Nothing

"Welcome back Doctor Munroe, you had us worried for a while." A man with short, black hair and blue eyes was standing over my bed as my eyes opened for the first time, in what felt like a week.

"Where-" I started but had to stop at the dry feeling in my throat. I swallowed hard and tried again.

"Where is everybody?" He smiled as he took a step back from my bed and made a note in my chart.

"Miss Potts has stepped out for coffee I believe. Mister Stark was here earlier but is seeing to your lab being rebuilt. Captain Rogers is with the Director, and Doctor Banner was here late last night and Miss Potts told him to go get some rest." He knew everyone's correct titles, which was my first clue to something weird. The second was that 'Captain Rogers' was with 'the Director'. Third, although not weird but miraculous, I how the hell they got Bruce to come see me.

"Do you work for Stark Industries?" I felt a swell of pride and became confused until I looked at the Doctor and saw him smiling.

"No. I work for S.H.I.E.L.D. and we believe that something extraordinary has come from your, what could have been, catastrophic accident." Curiosity was dawning on me as I became intrigued. At this point I was beginning to see a pattern with my emotions since the blast. They were not always my own.

"Oh?" I tried to sit up by myself, but he grabbed my arm and helped me to sit upright as he brought my bed to a more comfortable position.

"Yes, we have done a few tests and found some similarities with Doctor Banner's and Captain Roger's DNA." I felt like my eyes had sprung out of my head as I stares at him.

"Excuse me?" I was not a superhero; there was nothing extraordinary about me. I was nothing more than a doctor of science with a weird sense of humor.

"That's impossible." I finally blurted out as I felt him being amused at my reaction. This was so fucking confusing I didn't even know where to start.

"No, you surviving should have been the impossible part." I was gaping at him and trying to decipher it all when the door opened and Pepper walked in.

"You're awake." The obvious statement left her mouth in awe as she placed her hand over her mouth and I saw the tears glisten in her eyes.

"Hey Pepper." I tried my best to smile but I was hit with a wave of relief and happiness so hard I was surprised it didn't physically slap me in the face.

"Hey." She greeted as she pulled her hand away and stood on my other side, smiling.

"How are you feeling?" She was choking back her tears as best as she could as I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. I was blown away by how much clearer her emotions were to me. Worry, relief, happiness, sadness, love, confusion; it was so much to try and process my head was spinning.

"I feel fine." I let go of her hand as nicely as I could.

"Great, that's so great. We didn't think you were-" she didn't finish her sentence bad looked down at her feet.

"I'm just really happy you're okay. Please, don't ever scare me like that again." She was wiping away at her face but said the second part sternly.

"Deal." I nodded once.

"I'm going to go let the guys know you're awake, I will be right back." She hugged me tightly and practically ran out of the door.

"So, have you noticed any changes about yourself, yet?" He was looking at me expectedly.

"Yep." His pen was poised on my chart as he waited for me to continue.

"I think I'm an empath. A very, very strong empath." I answered.

"You can feel other people's emotions?" I was guessing empath was the right word, although my case was way more extreme than articles I had ever read on the subject.

"Yes. I would appreciate it if you'd stop feeling amused at my current situation." He blushed as he looked down at the file and scribbled something down furiously.

"I'm sorry, it's just I've never seen a case like this one with my own eyes." I nodded at his apology and smiled.

"It's okay. I feel like it's way overwhelming right now though." I gripped at my temples with my fingertips where a headache had started to form.

"I'll be in in a little bit to take some more blood for some more tests, but I will inform Director Fury of your condition."

"I'm sorry?" He hung my chart up at the end of the hospital bed.

"Like eye patch Fury, Avengers Fury?" He smiled a bit at the words 'eye patch'.

"Yes, he has a proposition for you so I will be back in a little while." I say back in my bed, I hadn't even noticed I was leaning forward until this moment.

"Okay." I let out weakly as he walked out in the same direction Pepper went scampering off to. Seeing as it didn't look like I was a she-Hulk I still wants sure what Fury wanted to propose to me. I didn't even know where to begin with the information about my fluke of an experiment. So now instead of just being confused by my own emotions all the time I had the ability to be confused by everyone else's emotions as well, great.