Good Things Do Go Bad

I didn't even get the chance to recover from the shame that washed over me as Clint breezed into the room, “Fury wants everyone in the meeting room. Says it's urgent.”

“It's always urgent,” Tony states as I follow Bruce and Clint out of the labs and towards the meeting room.
Clint falls behind from walking to with Bruce to walk next to me, “someone looks sour today.”

“I really don't want to talk about it okay? It's been a rough one,” I mutter, glaring down at the tiled floors.

“Okay, just curious. If you need to talk, you know I'm always around,” he offers.

I roll my eyes but nod my head at him regardless before walking into the meeting room and taking a seat in front of Bruce while the rest of the group sits on the opposite side. Director Fury makes his entrance immediately following Tony and from the look on his face, I can already tell that this isn't going to be very good news for anyone.

“Alright so we know that it was one of your students Kayla, that created the virus and has their hands on it as we speak. We don't know what they plan on doing, but we know who the student is and have a general idea of what she could be planning to use the serum for. Here's the problem,” he pauses and looks directly at me now, a solemn look on his face, “your sister has been kidnapped and we believe that it has to do with the virus.”

I could feel the blood draining from my face as he continued to speak, but none of it reached my ears, none of it made any sense to me and all I could picture was my younger sister's face, fresh out of college and already working at a prestigious law firm.

“Kayla! Kayla stop!”

I blink my eyes and shake my head, looking around and finally seeing the worried faces of everyone in the room. I notice a breeze and look down to see most of my clothing is nothing but smoldering ashes on the floor around me. I groan and wrap my arms around my chest, looking down at the floor as tears pool in my eyes and my shoulders start to shake as I begin to cry in frustration. A button up shirt is tossed in my lap, so I pull it on and stand up, grateful that though the material is short, it still covers enough of me that I can leave the room.

I don't notice anyone following me, but as I step into my room and turn to close the door, I notice Bruce standing outside of it, shirtless. His familiar scent assaults my senses as I take a deep breathe in and realize that it was his shirt on my nearly naked body. A blush covers my cheeks as I look up at him, “thank you Bruce.”

“It was nothing. Are you alright?” He asks, looking concerned.

I open my mouth to give him some sort of response, but all that tumbles out is another sob as tears once again start to pour down my face. Bruce inhales sharply before walking into my room and wrapping me in his arms, shutting the door behind him with a kick of his foot. I allow myself to let go, sobbing into his chest as he moves us towards the bed, sitting us down and wrapping his arms tighter around me, whispering soft, comforting words into my hair as I slowly start to calm down.

“Better?” He asks softly.

I nod my head, wiping my eyes on the sleeve of his shirt and looking up at him, a small smile on my face as I remember some of Tonys words from earlier. You're just being stubborn. Why can't you give the guy a chance? I quickly notice Bruce ever so slowly tilting his head lower towards mine, stopping just inches from my own face as if he's debating in his own head whether he should continue or not. I decide to take Tony's advice and give him a chance, tilting my face up and stopping mere centimeters from his face, letting my eyes dart from his, to his lips, and back to his eyes again. I notice the small smile on his face as he leans in the rest of the way, his soft lips connecting with mine as my eyes flutter close and our lips begin to move together.

“Oops!”

In an instant, both Bruce and myself are on opposite sides of the bed. While Bruce looks slightly amused and flustered, I know that I look embarrassed as I try to hide my blushing face behind a curtain of hair.

“That is probably why most people knock,” Tony states as he walks into the room, leaving the door open behind him to reveal a smirking Clint and an apologetic looking Natasha.

“If everyone could just leave me be for a moment to get dressed,” I mutter, shooting a glare in Tony's direction.

He chuckles as he holds his hands up and walks backwards towards the door, “does that include Bruce?”

I grit my teeth and breathe to try and reign in my growing temper, however Tony seems to catch on to the problem and grabs a hold of Bruce's arm, pulling him out of the room with him before shutting the door. I sigh as I pull out a new pair of under garments, a pair of simple blue jeans, and a white tank top, opting to try my best to keep myself as cool as possible in case of another melt-down. After I finish dressing, I make my way down to the labs, finding Tony and Bruce in a heated debate about the virus.

“We don't know for sure that it's her blood as a whole that works as an antidote Tony! What if it's something specific or unique to her DNA that her sister doesn't have? We can't risk it.”

“Okay so what do we do? Pull out every individuality and difference we can find, testing it until we find the answer? That's not realistic.”

“Or we find my sister and kill the bitch that has her,” I state, making my presence known as I walk a bit further into the room.

Tony shakes his head, obviously still irritated with the argument, and turns to the computers. Bruce however grins at me, causing me to blush as I walk up to him with a smile on my face.

“We will find her and we will stop this madness,” Bruce reassures me, gently putting a hand on my shoulder.

“Well I've been thinking on my walk down here,” I state, watching as Tony looks over his shoulder at me, “and what if it's not my blood, but something in my blood. Just like you suggested Bruce?”

“Oh great, you know this wasn't supposed to work against me,” Tony snaps, pointing between the two of us.

I laugh and shake my head, “but you're also right Tony. We don't have the kind of time necessary to sit around and analyze my blood as thoroughly as possible.”

“You're no help then, that's exactly the conclusion we just came to,” Tony grumbles.

“You two are some of the most brilliant minds on earth, and you're going to tell me that you can't figure out what would be different with my DNA that would possibly hold the key to the antidote?” I ask them, laughing as they look at each other for just a second.

“Now that was uncalled for. We would have figured it out,” Tony states, rolling his eyes and walking over to one of the lab tables.

“Oh yeah, eventually. It's nice to know my sister is in such capable hands,” I mutter, my mood souring rather quickly as I again start to let my mind drift to thoughts of my baby sister.

“OW!” I shout, jumping slightly and turning my head to glare at Tony as he smirks at me, a rather long needle in his hand and a fair amount of empty vials on the small metal table next to him.

“You looked a little bit lost, and you were smoking,” he states as an excuse.

I roll my eyes and quickly look to the side when I feel a gentle hand cover my own clammy one; Bruce smiles up at me and shrugs before bringing a computer screen down to his level, going through different formulas and equations that we would be able to work with. After a few more minutes of Tony drawing blood, against my own judgment, I find myself leaning against Bruce, my eyes and limbs growing heavy as my stomach begins to churn.

“That's enough,” Bruce states, looking briefly over at Tony, who looks down at me and nods his head.

“Why don't you go lie down for a while? Try not to get sick in the lab, ya know?” Tony suggests, smirking at me.

I flip him off and shuffle my way over to one of the desks, settling down behind it with my arm across it before dropping my head onto my arm, my eyes slowly closing. I sigh in content as I drift off into a land full of dreams and nightmares. One in particular starring a man with chocolate brown eyes and dark, messy hair.