Special Needs: A Bruce and Natasha FanFic

Chapter 57: Nat Does 'Natti or It's All Relative

Summary: Bruce, Nat, and Tony have dinner. We find out how Adam and Raven's Big Adventure ended as Adam revisits the Gamma and gets some answers. Tony's awesome presentation goes over well. Adam messes up and faces the consequences. We find out that Negan guy has nothing on Pepper. If the Hummer is rockin' . . .

Notes: My eternal thanks to Autumn_Froste for her beta duties! Sorry to take so long on the update. This is a big chapter that continues the present timeline with Natasha, Bruce, and Tony in Cincinnati while Adam visits the Gamma and in flashback resolves the Adam and Raven subplot from Chapters 42-43. Sorry, I had to get a political dig in there. Enjoy!

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"No shit, a wormhole!" Tony was shaking his head as they stepped into the elevator.

"You might want to wait till we get to a more 'secure' spot before we get into a discussion, Tony," Natasha pointed out as she nodded her head toward the back corner of the elevator and the security camera near its ceiling.

Tony pulled his "pen of silence" out of his breast pocket with a flourish and handed it to Natasha. She raised an eyebrow and Tony grinned encouragingly. "Go ahead and turn it on."

"I better not regret this," she said, looking at Bruce who'd pressed the button for the second floor restaurant and slipped his arm around Natasha's shoulders.

He snorted and shook his head, "It's fine. Tony nailed it this time. What's your guess?"

Natasha studied the metal object and quickly deduced how to turn it on and engaged it with a gentle twist. She could detect a slight hum and a very high-pitched sound that modulated out of her range of hearing. "Distortion field?" she asked with her eyebrows raised.

"Very good, Ms. Romanoff, you have not lost your touch!" Tony said with delight.

"Both audio and visual?"

"You got it. Just don't block the signal," he warned.

"Range?" she asked.

"Roughly three to ten feet," Tony replied. "Enough to cover the average table of four in an average space or two in an intimate one."

"Watch it or you'll convince me to pocket this," she said with a sly smile.

"Keep that one. I brought a dozen with me," he said. "Just don't lose it."

At the floor two below theirs, the elevator stopped and all three of them held their breath as the door opened. This wasn't supposed to happen since this was a private elevator to the upper floors. A corpulent man in a pinstriped suit looked down his lumpy, spray-tanned nose at them. He was flanked by goonish bodyguards with slicked back hair and dark glasses they obviously didn't need indoors. The three men scowled as if they expected the trio in the elevator to leave or surrender the elevator to them.

"Headed down?" Bruce asked to break the tension. "Plenty of room."

"I think not," said the large man haughtily. Then his gaze settled on Natasha and his lip curled upward in a lewd sneer that went up and down her figure. She returned his inappropriate looks with a much deadlier glare of her own.

Bruce leaned in front of Natasha and pushed the door's closure button. "Suit yourself," he said neutrally. However, he made sure the lout saw his eyes glow as he straightened up. The man's lecherous sneer quickly changed to one of shock and then anger. His nearest handler grabbed the old man's shoulder and pulled him back, knocking his carroty-dyed hair askew as the door closed.