We Rise, Only To Fall / Steve Rogers

4

Put On The Suit

I stood in Bruce's lab, watching both him and Tony working and aiding when necessary. Bruce was using some form of scanner to investigate Loki's scepter. "The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports of the Tesseract," he told Tony and I. I walked over to the screen with all the information and studied it. 

"This is going to take weeks to process," I muttered. 

"If we bypass their mainframe and direct route to the Home Cluster we can clock this at around 600 teraflops," Tony replied from the other side of the room.

I hear Bruce chuckle. "And all I packed was a toothbrush," 

A genuine smile broke out on Tony's face, which in turn made me smile. He walked over to us, pointing at Bruce. "You know, you should come by Stark Tower sometime. Top ten floors all R&D. You'd love it, it's Candy Land." 

"He's not kidding," I added and Bruce grinned.

"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York...I kind of broke Harlem," he said. 

Tony stood next to him, twirling something in his hand. "Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension, no surprises," he said before prodding him with the electric stick in his hand, earning a yelp from Bruce.

"Tony!" I gave him a stern look as Steve walked in.

"Hey!" He called, clearly annoyed.

"Nothing?" Tony asked, looking into Bruce's eyes.

"Are you nuts?" Steve asked, walking further into the room.

"Jury's out," Tony simply said. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?"

"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve demands beside me.

Tony looks up. "Funny things are," 

"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny," Steve replied coolly. 

"I have to say I agree with Cap on this one," I gave Tony a glare.

"No offence, Doc," Steve added.

"It's all right, I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things," Bruce simply said as Tony wandered away.

"You're tip-toeing, big man," he told Bruce. "You need to strut."

"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr Stark," Steve argued. 

"Do you think I'm not?" Tony asks and we look up at him. "Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve frowned. 

"He's a spy," Tony replied quickly.

"So am I!" I retorted. "Occasionally..."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Captain, Rose, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets," he throws something in his mouth from a random packet. "It's bugging him, too," he indicated to Bruce. "Isn't it?" 

"Uh....." Bruce trailed off awkwardly. "I just want to finish my work here, and..."

"Doctor?" Steve prompted, not buying it. 

He stopped what he was doing, glanced at all of us and removed his glasses. "A warm light for all mankind. Loki's jab at Fury about the Cube," he said.

"I heard it," Steve confirmed.

"Well, I think that was meant for you," Bruce finished, pointing at Tony, who didn't reply simply held out the packet to Bruce, who took some. "Even if Barton didn't tell Loki about the tower, it was still all over the news."