Mother Nature

The Bridge

They were both so insistent that they were happy with how their situation was that neither one of them wanted to be the first to admit that they actually wanted more.

"What if we can't reverse the mind control? What if we don't get him back?" Alexandra whispered.

"We'll get him back. He's Clint. He's come out of worse situations before. We just need to find him as quickly as possible." Natasha retorted, because only one of them was allowed to think about the worst outcome and apparently that was Alex's domain for now.

Alexandra nodded, then looked up to see that Coulson was back with Tony Stark in tow. Or Tony Stark had him in tow. Either way, but it was most likely the latter.

"It's a stabilizing agent!" He said, making Alexandra wrinkle her eyebrows in confusion, until she realized someone must've asked what the iridium was for. Stark turned back to Coulson and continued speaking in a quieter voice, as they continued walking. "All I'm saying is pick a weekend, and I'll fly you out to Portland. Keep love alive."

Alexandra rolled her eyes at Stark's antics.

He walked up to Director Fury's viewing station, pretending to be a sea captain, announcing that an agent was playing Galaga, which he was and Alexandra would deal with him later, and then asked how Fury could see all of his screens.

"He turns." Hill answered.

"They're using the iridium as a stabilizing agent so the portal doesn't close in on itself like it did at SHIELD." Alexandra explained, while Stark prodded and pressed things on Fury's monitors.

His attention was then drawn to the beautiful brunette woman in the wine red top and leather trousers, whose blue eyes sparkled with interest. The lab coat tossed over the back of her chair meant that she was most definitely a scientist, but, being the pure man-child that he was, he was not above riling her up to see if she would stand up to him, or if she was just going to get in his way by being another 'Yes, Mr. Stark' kind of lab geek.

"And who is this beautiful woman?" Tony asked.

"Agent Cosmos. She's assisting Dr Banner with finding the Tesseract." Fury announced as he approached.

Stark moved away from the Director's station after he'd planted his bug, and walked towards Agent Cosmos who had stood and was walking towards Dr Banner, figuring that they were going to be returning to the labs to finish their work.

"Why don't you let the men do all the heavy lifting, sweetheart? Don't tire yourself out." He remarked, not knowing that his joke to get a rise out of her was going to spark a lot more than just a rant on feminism in the work place.

The demi-goddess saw red. She glared at Tony, and heard Natasha's quiet chuckle, most likely earning her a few puzzled looks from everyone but Fury, Hill and Coulson. Steve, who had been watching the two women quietly conversing the entire time, was probably the most shocked when Alexandra turned her palm upwards, her eyes still locked on Stark, and fire suddenly covered her entire hand.

Tony, however, looked only mildly concerned for his life, because he was mostly fascinated. She was spontaneously creating and manipulating fire in her hand, and wasn't even burning.

"I'd be careful with what you say, Mr Stark. I don't tend to play well with others after they've insulted my intelligence. And usually, things get a little hot. And not in a way I'm sure you'd like." Alexandra smirked, as his eyes widened, unable to tear themselves away from the fireball in her hand.

"So this is one of the secrets your secrets are keeping?" Stark asked Fury.

"Agent Cosmos isn't exactly a secret, Stark. Her file was made available for you to look through when Agent Coulson gave you the information he did," Fury answered, defending himself and supporting his greatest adviser and his best agent. It was the least he could do to repay her for all the confidence she had showed in him throughout all the years. "If you'd read all the information, then you'd know that Doctor Cosmos is more than qualified to assist Banner. I'm sure Cosmos and Banner have it under control."