Brooklyn Hearts

23

"Where are you going again?" Steve asked Blaire for the third time that night.

"I'm going over to Peter's house. We're going to hang out for a while and do some science-y stuff, ok?" She was getting irritated over his mother hen stance and questions.

"And why can't he come over here tonight?"

"Because I want to spend some time getting to know Aunt May." It was the truth, but not the truth for that night. "If anything happens I'll call you or Happy to come pick me up. Can I go now?"

"Relax, Steve, she's just going over to Peter's house and he already knows if he tries anything with her he has to answer to us," Bucky said from the couch. He was watching a TV show and eating popcorn while Steve grilled Blaire.

Blaire put a hand on her forehead and let out a groan. "Oh my gosh, you guys are so embarrassing..."

"That's our job, tutz, "Bucky replied.

"Just be careful with Peter. He doesn't make the best decisions when he's trying to impress Tony," Steve said as he crossed his arms.

"Well, chasing supervillains is not on my to do list tonight. Don't worry, I'll be fine." Blaire stood on her tiptoes to give Steve a peck on the cheek on her way to the elevator. The doors closed in front of her and she sighed in relief. Phase one of her plan was almost complete. Happy was driving her to Peter's house since he wanted to see May, too. Tonight they were sneaking out to investigate at Silver East Pharmaceuticals.

"Just relax, Peter. We'll just go in, look around to find evidence and then we can leave." Blaire was trying to convince Peter to come with her to find anything suspicious.

"Are you sure about this? We could get into a lot of trouble. Mr. Stark might take away my suit again."

"Peter! Come on! I'll take all the blame and then he can kick me out. Don't worry about it. We probably won't find anything anyways." Blaire was losing her patience with Peter very quickly.

The had taken the subway to a stop a few blocks near the company. They walked on silent streets as it was already getting late. They walked to the loading dock area and were able to slip in unnoticed by anyone. Blaire had put on a white lab coat complete with a fake name badge. She still had the badge she had stolen the other day and that one was in her pocket. "Nobody thinks about the service entrances...," she muttered to herself. They walked down a few hallways and then found a bank of elevators. She and Peter walked in and she picked a high numbered floor that had been near where they were previously for their tour. Peter kept looking around and fidgeting with his hands. "Will you stop that?! Just relax. We're interns and we forgot about some pieces for a project. No one will question us."

"Ok, ok. S-Sorry."

They reached their floor and Blaire took a quick look at the fire evacuation map posted next to the elevator. "We need to go here," she pointed and whispered to him. They made it down the hallways and into the fire escape stairs and continued up to the next floor. The badge that Blaire had stolen wasn't working on the keypad to get in. She dug into her small messenger bag she had brought with her and pulled out a small device with some wires and proceeded to attach it to the keypad. "Where did you get that? Did Mr. Stark give that to you?" Peter asked.

"I'm borrowing it from Natasha."

"She let you borrow it?!" Peter asked incredulously.

"Well, ... she doesn't exactly know she let me borrow it." Peter looked at her with a scared look on his face. "We're in."

Blaire removed her device and then opened the door carefully as she looked both ways into the hallway.

They were in a lab of sorts. There was lots of glass doors, walls, and equipment lining the walkways. They could hear the faint beeping of monitors and hissing of gasses as they passed through. "This place gives me the creeps," Peter whispered.

"Is your Peter Tingle going off?" Blaire asked.

Peter scoffed and said, "No. Not yet. And it's not a Peter Tingle!"

They walked around another corner and found a door that led into a viewing theater. There were two tables set up designed to hold down a body.

"Look! Who do you suppose they put in there?" Blaire whispered. Just as she finished talking they heard some voices coming down the hall. Blaire and Peter ducked down behind the partition even though no one could see them.

"Sir, the failure rate is at 40%. We can't continue without more subjects. We simply don't have enough data."

"You will continue and don't worry about getting more test subjects. You'll have more by the end of the week. Now tell me about the girl..."

The voices trailed off and Blaire and Peter just looked at each other. "We should follow them," Blaire whispered.

"Are you crazy?! We need to leave now! Someone is going to find us and kill us!" Peter whispered back at her.

"We need to find some physical evidence to take to Steve and Bucky. We can't just go off a hunch and Peter Tingle."

Peter just made a face at her as he knew she wasn't going to back down.

They checked the hallway and ventured further into the lab. They came upon another section and Blaire put out a hand, grasping Peter's shirt to make him stop.

"Look!" And there in glass holding cells were the kids she knew from the street. She dug out her phone from her pocket and took a few pictures but you couldn't see much. "Come on, we need to get closer."

"No, we don't. You took a picture and we can give that to Steve and Mr. Stark. Come on Blaire!"

"Look, these are my people and bad things are happening to them. If anyone finds us you can leave and get help. I'm staying."

"I can't leave you here! Steve and Mr. Bucky will kill me!"

"Oh, I don't think that will be a problem. They'll have to get through me first."

Blaire's heart skipped a beat as she turned and looked behind her at the tall and imposing Adrian Cain.