Search for the Soul Gem

Chapter Twelve

"Lucy, come on. You're hurting yourself. You have glass in your feet and in your knees, come on Luc," Banner ushered lightly as he pulled on my arm. I shook him off of me and continued to try and reassemble the pieces that were broken.

"Bruce, leave me alone. Please," I whispered, brushing his hand off my shoulder where he'd placed it again.

"Lucy," he sighed.

"If you're gonna tell me to get up, you can leave," I said quietly. Banner stopped and looked at me for a long time. I looked over at him, his hand frozen above my shoulder, "You don't understand. Go on, get out of here," I dismissed him and turned from him.

"Come on doll, you can't stay here," James said quietly from the group behind us. His voice registered but his words sent rage through me.

"You don't understand! Just get out! All of you!" I screamed as I whipped around to face the heroes behind me. Maria and James had holstered their guns and Clint had lowered his bow. As I screamed at James, he winced back; his jaw flexing as he swallowed hard. No one moved as I stared them down with the same amount of rage that I'd had when they destroyed my site in Africa, "Out!" I bellowed and pointed toward the door. They jumped back at the sudden volume in my voice. Natasha, Maria, and Clint were the first to take hesitant steps back. Natasha's face was a perfect mask of stony indifference and made it impossible for me to read her emotions. Thor and Rhodey were the next to turn and leave, then Sam. Steve hesitated before he lowered his shield and reached his hand out to grip James's shoulder. They both threw worried and pitying glances at me before turning to leave. That only made me more mad. I didn't want their pity. I didn't want their anything. I turned to glare over at Banner. He was looking over at me with a concerned look.

"I told you, catastrophic," I dismissed without another look. He paused before standing up and crunching his way across the glass again. The crunching disappeared and his foot steps soon followed the others out the door. I let out a long sigh and reached out for the pieces of the tablet again. The tears I'd been trying to keep from falling so desperately now streamed down my face. My breathing became much more erratic as I tried desperately to calm myself down. From behind me there came the light crunching of glass under shoes. I took a deep, shaky breath and swiped the tears away from my cheek with my hand.

"I thought I told you to leave!" I hissed but my voice faltered. I didn't looking back to see who it was; I assumed that it must have been Banner coming back to try and convince me to leave one more time.

"Well, you see, seeing as it is my lab," Stark trailed off quietly, his voice was halfheartedly sarcastic. He came over and rested his hand on my shoulder.

"What do you want Stark," I groaned, still staring at the ground. His other hand came down and rested atop my hand that was reaching out for another piece of the tablet. His hand wrapped around mine as he slowly pulled me up from the ground. I tried to resist his direction but I was too numb to put up much of a fight.

"Well, right now I want to get the glass out of your knees," he said softly as his hands went down to my waist. He picked me up lightly and set me down on top of one of the tables that was pushed up against the wall. When I looked down, I could see glass shards in my knees and streaks of blood running down my legs. There was also bloody foot prints from where I'd been stepping after the glass had cut my feet. I couldn't bring myself to look up at Tony. He stepped back from me and fished out a first-aid kit that was stashed under one of the tables. He set it next to me and flipped it open. Once inside, he pulled out a pair of tweezers and a ton of band-aids. He pulled up a chair and sat down right in front of me. He took one of my ankles in his hands and examined the bottom of my foot before beginning the process of digging glass out of my foot.