Living for Now

Bridget stared at her phone in silence, willing it to light up with an alert. Why isn't she moving? She hasn't left in two days... The brunette told herself to remain calm, telling herself that she may just have the flu and was staying inside to combat it, but deep down she could feel something stirring in the pit of her stomach. To say she was uneasy about the whole thing was an understatement.

“Spencer,” a voice brought her to reality and Bridget found it was Romanoff approaching her, her short, fiery locks of hair swaying with each step she took.

“Natasha,” she returned, putting away her phone to give the redhead her undivided attention.

“Rogers will be arriving in a minute and Banner's out on the deck. Would you go collect them both? We're about to take off and I think I'm needed here.”

Lie. Bridget knew that each officer here working the systems of the Helicarrier and those working on finding Loki, Selvig, and Barton were more than competent by themselves, but knowing about her close work relationship with Clint and how she wanted to be notified first should something come up, she nodded her head. “I'll be back then.”

“Thanks,” Romanoff replied softly.

After walking through a maze of metal halls, she came to the deck of the craft, staring as the final awaited Quinjet set down upon the tarmac. The plane opened up, the ramp being lowered and both Steven and Coulson filing out. While Steve was entranced by his new surroundings, Phil came up to the brunette.

“Agent Spencer,”

“Hello, Coulson,”

“Here he is.”

“Thank you. They're going to be starting a face trace so they'll need you on the bridge soon.”

He nodded, taking a few steps forward before stopping and turning to look back. “Oh, Bridget,”

Her ears perked up when she heard Coulson call her by her first name. He never did that unless he was going to bring up something personal. “Yes, Phil?”

“Would you mind bringing up my cards to him? I'd like to get them signed, but... I just don't know how to go about it.”

Bridget let out a soft laugh. “Did you talk about watching him while he was sleeping?”

His eyes darted about nervously for a second before they returned to her. “Possibly.”

“I'll talk to him about it.”

He smiled awkwardly and nodded. “Got it. Thanks.”

The brunette watched him scurry away towards the bridge and let out a soft laugh as she began to approach Steve who was still looking about in awe. Coulson was always excitable when it came to Steven, and at first he had been the same way when around herself when he came into knowledge that they were once a couple, but after working together for so long, he calmed down. She guessed meeting him while conscious for the first time may have been a bit too much for him.

As Bridget grew nearer, she couldn't help but let out the smallest of smiles, and when Steve saw her walking up to him, he let a smile of his own out as he saw one of her own was gracing her features.

“Bridget,” he greeted through a sigh.

“Rogers,” she returned. “I assume the ride over with Coulson was interesting enough. You're going to have to do me a favor. You need to sign his Captain America trading cards.”

“Trading cards?”

“They're vintage and he's very proud.” She smiled. “I was sure that he'd faint when he heard the news about finding you in the ice. Everyone was pretty surprised.”

“Were you surprised?”

“I think 'shocked' would be a better word.”

Taking a leap of faith, Steve continued on. “Were you... happy?” He inquired seriously.

Her blue eyes scanned him over, his own looking over her in return. She took a deep breath, preparing herself for what she'd say next. “No.” She started, Steve's hopeful face immediately falling. “Instead, I think I was relieved because you'd finally be coming home.”

The two stared at one another in silence, a new tension building up in the air between them, Bridget's heart pounding in her chest nervously, waiting for Steve to do or say something. Her eyes noticed a fidgeting person in the middle of the landing strip and she collected herself before walking over towards him, Steve watching her go as he felt that maybe she truly was starting to come around to him.

“Professor Banner, it's an honor to make your acquaintance.” Bridget started, extending her hand out for him to shake. The man gazed at her for a second, looking her over as if trying to see if she were trustworthy or not, before taking her hand and shaking it. “Bridget Spencer.”

Nodding his head, he gave a barely there smile. “It's nice to meet you, Ms. Spencer.”

Steve, who saw their interaction, approached immediately when he recognized the name and face of the man. “Doctor Banner,” he greeted, lending out his hand to shake like Bridget had.

Bruce took immediate notice of who Steve was and wasted no time with his greeting. “Oh, yes, hi...” he began awkwardly. “They told me you'd be coming.”

“Word is you can find the cube.”

Banner looked about, making it more than obvious about how nervous he was that people were talking about him, and looked back to face Steve. “Is that the only word on me?”

“Only word I care about,”

As the two continued on their conversation, Bridget's small earpiece began to buzz with an incoming feed. “Spencer, can you read me?”

“Yes, Coulson, go on.” She murmured as she heard his voice.

“We've started the face trace, but no luck yet. We're also getting ready to leave. You should hurry and be on your way in.”

“Got it. See you inside.”

She noticed the two were now talking with one another freely a bit away and she approached them silently. “Guys, how about we step inside now?” She suggested.

They both looked at her oddly, wondering why she'd want to go in when it was so nice out. The Helicarrier seemed to answer for her as it began to sound off an alarm, the workers on deck stopping what they were doing to gather special equipment and masks to continue their jobs for when it took off.

“Is this a submarine?” Steve questioned aloud.

“Really? They want me in a submerged, pressurized metal container?”

The machinery on the sides began to move about noisily, and the three of them approached the side of the carrier to see the propellers swallowing and churning up the water around them. As the metal blades whirled faster, they could all feel the force beginning to bring them closer to the edge. Steve wrapped an arm around Bridget's waist protectively, pulling her into him and the two of them stared at one another, Bridget not sure of what to say or do – or even if she could, in response to the sudden embrace.

“Oh no, this is much better,” Banner sarcastically announced.

Bridget pulled away from Steve and then began to head back towards the bridge, the two of them following her moments later, Bridget feeling Steve's gaze upon her all the while.

As the brunette led the pair onto the bridge, she separated from them and sat down upon a chair at the table placed in the middle of the room, watching Steve take in everything in silence. Maria announced that the Helicarrier was at level and Fury gave orders to activate the reflective panels to camouflage the ship.

Once it was set, Nick turned to greet the two newcomers. “Gentlemen,”

Steve pulled out his wallet and handed him a ten, Bridget hiding her smile by looking down at her hands. Nick looked to Steve and then Bridget, figuring that she had passed along his bet to him after all. Nonetheless, Fury continued making his way towards Banner.

“Doctor, thank you for coming,”

“Thanks for asking nicely,” he replied softly. “So, um... how long am I staying?”

“Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're free to leave.”

“Where are you with that?”

Fury looked to Phil who then began to explain the situation. “We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet – cell phones, laptops, if it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us.”

Romanoff, who was perched beside a computer screen, looked up. “It's still not going to find them in time.”

“You have to narrow your field.” Banner stated. “How many spectrometers do you have access to?”

“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, basic cluster recognition and at least we could rule out a few places.” Fury looked pleased with his plan. “Do you have somewhere for me to work?”

“Yes. Agent Romanoff, could you show Doctor Banner to his laboratory, please?”

The redhead nodded her head and walked up to him. “You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys.”



She didn't know how long she had been locked up in that room. It felt like an eternity had passed, but she knew better than that. All she knew was that more than a day had gone by. When she woke up from her unconscious state, she wanted to break down and sob like when she had lost her mom, Stephanie, but she didn't. She felt she needed to keep it together, to keep her wits about her in this situation. If she lost her stability now, she'd have nothing left later.

Lily's stomach growled with hunger. She had no recollection of being given anything to eat and her body wasn't afraid to show how angry it was for that.

Suddenly she could hear footsteps approaching the door from the hallway, her heart rate going through the roof as anxiety filled her. What was going to happen now? What were they going to do to her?

She stood up shakily when she heard the twisting of a key, the door groaning as it opened with its rusty, metal hinges.

A man entered the room, a dark tray in his hands. “Food,” he lamely grunted. It was then her eyes adjusted and saw nothing more than a cup of water and an apple.

Walking forward hesitantly, she took the tray into her grasp and the man turned around to leave. Not even before he took his second step did she raise the tray above her head and bring it down upon his with all the brute strength she could muster. He tripped forward and when he was still down, Lily kicked him in his most sensitive area, getting a groan of pain out of him. After dashing out of the room, she closed the door and locked it with the key that was still inside the hole.

She bounced about nervously in place, not sure of where to go, but decided that she'd better get moving rather than just standing around in plain sight. Sprinting towards the right, she climbed a flight of stairs and noticed a bunch of workers down below, among them was the built man who had restrained and kidnapped her.

“Where'd you find all these people?” Selvig, who now looked the part of a crazed scientist questioned.

“S.H.I.E.L.D. has no shortage of enemies, doctor.” Barton replied, soon holding up what appeared to be a tablet for him to view. “Is this the stuff you need?”

“Yeah, Iridium. It's found in meteorites, it forms anti-protons. It's very hard to get a hold of.”

“Yeah, especially if S.H.I.E.L.D. knows you need it.” Barton muttered.

Selvig smiled and gave a chuckle. “But I didn't know I needed it!” The man looked off to the side and walked forward a few steps. “The Tesseract has shown me so much. It's more than knowledge, it's truth.”

Lily finally noticed the lanky man approach them, and she shied away from railing of the catwalk, remembering how frightening he was.

“I know,” his voice, now seemingly calm, agreed. “What'd it show you, Agent Barton?”

There was that Agent thing again. It made this all seem like some crazy spy movie, but that couldn't have been right. It just couldn't. Shaking her head, she got those insane thoughts out of her mind and listened back in on their conversation.

“My next target,” Clint answered.

“Tell me what you need.”

“I need a distraction,” he began, taking out his bow from its case. “And an eyeball.”

“Hey, you!” A loud shout echoed throughout the room, drawing everyone's attention towards the man who was looking directly at Lily from the door she exited.

Shit, was all she could think of before she started to dart across the catwalk to get away. Gunshots fired and she screamed, covering her head and neck as she ran.

“CEASE FIRE!” Barton yelled. “I'll get her.”

He put down his weapon of choice and started to make a mad dash after her. Lily continued climbing flight after flight, her knees burning from the intense workout she was receiving but her mind continuously yelling at her to push it, to keep moving as more adrenaline flowed throughout her body. Her heart was racing, her breathing was short and sporadic, and her senses felt intensified.

She needed to get the hell out of there.

Not too long after, she heard the sound of someone rushing after her and she felt like she was going to have a heart attack at the thought of being caught. She could hear his breathing getting louder as he began to catch up with her.

Run, Lily, run! She urged.

Finally she reached the top and she noticed a door at the end of the dark hallway. It had to be the exit. It just had to be!

Running with everything she had left, she pushed open the door and was brought into the outside world, slamming into a brick wall with some force as she registered she was in a dark alleyway, civilians walking about further down where the road was.

She went to run to them, to request for help, but arms constricted around her, keeping her to the wall with one of Barton's hands covering her mouth, muffling her cries. “Listen, I don't want to have to hurt you,” the other hand that was holding her waist then opened up a pocketknife. “But I will if I have to. Understand?”

She slowly nodded, tears falling from her eyes as he dragged her back into their hideout. Bringing her back downstairs went by slowly as Lily dragged her feet, having to be shoved by Barton to get her moving every once in a while. When they reached the room they had once been in, the lanky man approached, his blue eyes gazing at Lily with a hard stare that made her want to curl up in a ball.

“You certainly are a pest like Agent Spencer.” He began. “I don't have time to waste upon someone of your low significance. You are just a mere pawn with very little use, though I cannot sacrifice you yet. You still have a part to play in my game.” Smirking, he walked closer to her, feeling the fear that was radiating off her like waves. “Understand this, mortal. You will obey me. If you do not, whether or not I still find you useful, I will murder you like the mewling quim you are.”

There was no room for discussion and Lily shrunk back, doing her best to get away from him. Noticing her submissive behavior caused Loki's smug look to grow. “Let us go. We have a lot of work to do.”