Universal Headaches - Revised

Chapter 9

As a week passed, Tony and Bruce's device grew in size and ridiculousness. She attempted to hide what electronics she could, but there were only so many crevices in her small rambler, and they had so many hours to search while she was at work.

It was hooked up to her laptop more and more often, a lack of processing power on the kindle's part, Tony claimed; but it made things inconvenient.

Not that she'd had much access to the computer since they showed up, but now it was near impossible to steal it away.

And she really, really needed to steal it back for just a few minutes.

Through grace alone, she'd managed to use her bit of savings to help cover the other half of rent for the month. But now she was in a conundrum. Between the food and disappearing electronics and the impending threat of a shopping trip for more, she needed money.

And she needed money as soon as possible.

Asking her mom for money was out of the question. She and Howard weren't poor, but they had a budget and they usually ended up investing a decent amount in Tyrese's soccer every year. That and she couldn't admit why she needed the money when her mother surely asked.

And, anyway, she was supposed to be an adult. She wasn't supposed to still need help.

The answer came in the mail that Saturday. Another credit card offer showed up in her mailbox, and this one had a card all conveniently ready to go, only activation required. Under normal circumstances she'd vowed to never have a credit card, she didn't trust herself to remember to make regular payments, but things were hardly normal. And Ben hadn't called her yet to set up a time and place to drop off those checks, so she was nearing the end of her rope.

All she needed was her computer and a minute alone in order to get the stupid card ready to go.

She managed to swipe the laptop in the evening, after Tony disconnected the device for "tune ups". In the bathroom, she sat on the floor next to the tub and pulled the envelope out of her pocket.

It was such a glossy piece of plastic. Sutton wondered if that was supposed to make it more appealing. Signing up for it felt more like a terrible, ominous choice. Only because her mind kept coming up with ways she could use the card and it felt like a dangerous train of thought to indulge in.

Her mom wouldn't approve.

Sutton made sure to go back and delete the evidence from her search history. She'd only feel worse if all the Avengers found out she was taking, to her, such drastic measures.

After all, it wasn't their fault they'd ended up in a different dimension.

It was probably Loki's.

Even in the few minutes it took to sign up for the credit card, the laptop was missed. Natasha eyed her and took the computer from her hands the second she stepped into the main room.

"What were you looking up?" Natasha asked. "Nothing with suspicious keywords? Nothing mechanical?"

"What? No." Sutton shoved the credit card into her back pocket. "Why are you asking?"

"Because," said Natasha, "you're still probably being monitored."

The keys clacked as Natasha typed and she looked up, unamused.

"Did you really try to delete your search history?"

Sutton flushed.

"Look, it wasn't anything suspicious, okay? I just had to take care of something, and I- I didn't want it clogging up the computer."