Such Sweet Nothing

“I didn’t even know this was down here.” Tony turned around to look at me.

“I had it built and kept a secret.” His Black Sabbath shirt made me feel like I was correctly dressed in my jeans and Metallica shirt.

“Yeah, tell me about it. There isn’t even a button, I had to ask JARVIS to bring me down here.” I pointed to the ceiling where I always imagined JARVIS, watching everything.

“Happy to do it Dr. Munroe.” He piped up as I allowed myself to smile.

“Bruce should be down in a moment, he was just grabbing some coffee.” I nodded as I swung my bag off of my shoulder and down onto the table in front of us. Everything was either made of concrete or metal, except for the big room directly in front of us.

“What is that made out of?” I asked gesturing to the large room.

“Combination of different types of bullet-proof and shock proof glass with a carbon fiber inlay.” I walked closer to the area and saw indeed it had traces of carbon fiber in it.

“Aw, great, a room with a view.” I spun on my heel to look at Bruce.

“I got you the biggest window I could find.” Tony said with a joking tone.

“Here, I thought you could use it. Two creams and three sugars still?” Bruce handed me a coffee cup after he set down his and Tony’s.

“Yeah and a-“

“Shot of chocolate syrup.” Bruce finished for me as I smiled mid-sentence.

“Why don’t you just drink chocolate milk?” Tony interjected as he heard my coffee order.

“Why don’t you drink a tall glass of shut the hell up?” I countered as he rolled his eyes and got back to setting up and calibrating our machines.

“Here look, happy juice. Drink it.” Bruce said pushing the cup closer to my face.

“Go help him.” I smiled as I pushed him towards Tony.

“Hey! No roughhousing in my lab.” I set my sights on Tony.

“You have no room to talk. Guess who found a blueberry in one of their petri dishes this morning.” I pointed a finger in his direction, as he looked away from me guiltily.

“I had JARVIS put you on my shit list and you aren’t allowed in there without me.” Tony snapped his head up to look at me so quickly I thought his head would fly off.

“You can’t do that, it’s my lab, and my AI!” I shrugged my shoulders.

“JARVIS and I have an understanding.”

“I’m sorry, sir but Dr. Munroe has it in her contract that she can deny anyone access to her lab if it might invalidate the work.” Bruce couldn’t control his laughter anymore as he let it go and started helping with prepping himself for testing.

“What-but- and you.” Tony Stark at a loss for words, now I have seen everything.

“That’s what happens when you don’t even bother to read my contract. Besides, I work in the 12% of the building that is Pepper’s.” He groaned and looked up at the ceiling.

“I am never going to hear the end of that one. Just one time-“ He muttered to himself for the duration of prep.

“Okay, time for some blood samples.” I rubbed my hands together as I patted the stool in front of Bruce. He began to roll up the sleeves of his button down as he sat down. I placed the medical equipment bag on the table and began to lay out what I needed to draw blood.

“You won’t turn when she sticks you, will you?” Tony asked as I made a temporary tourniquet on Bruce’s right arm and had him make a fist and squeeze.

“No, I’ve done this to myself so many times I’ve lost count.” Tony nodded once and then waved me forward to proceed. I guess he really was sticking to his promise of keeping me safe.

“There it is.” I said as a really good vein popped up. I grabbed the sterilized syringe and unwrapped it after I got the gauze and bandage ready.

“Do you need me to count down or anything?” He looked genuinely touched by my question as he stared up at me and shook his head.

“No, I can just watch you do it.” I nodded and concentrated on getting the needle into the vein.

“Hey, nice job.” He commented as the first vial soon filled with his blood.

“Thank you, thank you. I’m here all week.” I joked quietly as I replaced the full vial with an empty one. Bruce took a sip of his coffee as we waited to fill six vials.

“That should be enough, eh?” I looked at Tony who nodded at me and went back to his part of the experiment.

“Here you go.” I pulled the needle out of his arm and placed the gauze to the open wound. I wrapped the needle up and threw it in the sharps container we had on the counter. Bruce’s hand took the place of my hand as he was better able to put pressure on his own arm.

“Thanks, Doc.” I guess he was adopting Steve’s nickname for me.

“This is the part where you ask her for the lollipop.” I sighed at Tony but smiled nonetheless.

“No candy, sorry. I’ll get you the next time around.” Tony scoffed but said no more as we waited for everything to be ready to hook Bruce up and place him in his glass enclosure.

“Is he going to be mad we’re pretty much putting you into a cage?” I asked quietly from the stool I was sitting on as I began getting the vital signs machinery ready.

“Probably, if anything happens I want you to run.” Bruce’s tone turned very serious as he said those words to me.

“I’m going to get suited up, but once I come back we can get started.” Tony said as he brought over electrodes for me to place on Bruce as well as something to place on his head to measure electrical impulses.

“You’re putting your suit on?” He nodded.

“I’m doing everything I can to keep you safe.” It was now Tony’s turn to become very serious. I glanced at Bruce who now looked grim.

“Okay.” Tony walked off to another part of the underground ‘secret’ lab and left Bruce and I to finish prepping.

“Are you scared?” I knew that question had been on his mind ever since they asked me to help.

“No.” I answered truthfully.

“No?” He sounded worried.

“No I am not scared of you, or him. He saved Tony’s life and he has saved yours, so no I’m not scared of any of it.” He looked away from me and towards the wall behind me.

“You should be.” I waited until he looked at me.

“Well, I’m not.” I stated firmly as I stuck the last electrode on to Bruce’s body.

“Okay, let’s get this party started.” I turned at the sound of Tony’s metallic voice. His mask was flipped down already as Bruce stood up and got into the other part of the room.

“All right Bruce, get angry.” That’s when all hell broke loose.