Natasha walks down the hallway, pondering the things Clint and her discovered a couple hours ago.
They'd examined everything they could find about Percy and anyone he had interacted with. Most things added up, when you got right down to it, but there was a few things that didn't sit right with her.
She pauses.
She turns around and walks back down the hallway, determination clear on her face.
She knocks on Percy's door.
"Hey, Percy, it's Nat. Can I come in?" She waits for about a minute before knocking again. When she gets no response she glances at the ceiling. "Jarvis, is Percy asleep?"
"No." Jarvis's voice replies.
"Is he in his room?" I'm sure he went to his room, and I didn't see him come out...
"Yes."
Nat tilts her head. "What's he doing?"
There's a pause and then Jarvis replies, "He's in the new bathtub that boss recently had installed in all your rooms."
"The huge bathtub?" Nat smiles slightly. "The one that is practically a small pool?"
"Yes."
"So he's taking a bath." Natasha taps her hands on her chin. "Can you tell him I need to talk to him once he's finished?"
There's a pause as Jarvis relays the information. His worried voice comes through the speakers about a minute later. "Percy is not responding. I tried multiple times and then looked at his heat signature more closely. He is under the water. I fear he..." Jarvis trails off.
"Open the doors, Jarvis!" Nat runs into Percy's room and into the bathroom. As she runs she says, "Jarvis, have Bruce come here with the necessary medical equipment."
"He's already on his way."
Natasha reaches the large bathtub. She reaches underwater and grabs Percy's hand. She pulls him out of the water.
He immediately punches Natasha in the face and then backs up towards the edge of the tub in a panic. He moves his wet hair out of his face and looks around, confused.
Natasha blinks, slightly shocked. She puts her hands up to her face and feels her nose. Her fingers come away with blood and she wipes it on her pant leg.
She holds her hands up in a gesture of surrender.
"Percy, it's Natasha. I don't mean any harm. Are you alright?" She asks.
Percy hesitates for a few moments and then looks around, realizing where he is. "I'm fine." He looks around the room carefully and his gaze lands on Natasha. "Ha..." his voice trails off like he almost said something he shouldn't have. "Crap, did I punch you?" He goes to stand up and then he realizes he doesn't have a shirt on. His eyes fill with panic and he sits back down in the bathtub, holding his arms over his chest.
Natasha's eyes go wide. He has more scars than Clint and I combined. And with the amount of times we got captured by the enemy and our line of profession, that's saying something. She opens her mouth to say something and then Bruce runs in.
"Is Percy-" he stops as his eyes lands on Percy who is in the bathtub, and Natasha, who is sitting on the floor with a nosebleed. "What happened?" He grabs a tissue out of his bag and hands it to Natasha who puts in on her nose.
Percy shifts uncomfortably in the bathtub. "I... I uh accidentally hit Natasha."
Bruce's eyebrows draw together and he looks at Nat. Nat shrugs. "I didn't expect him to be conscious, much less punch me."
"Why did you think I was... passed out or something anyway?"
"Jarvis said you weren't responding and when he looked at your heat signature, you were under the water. He unlocked the doors so I could make sure you were okay."
Percy nods slowly. "Well, I'm okay... could you um, get out of the bathroom so I can get dressed?"
Natasha nods. "Sure."
Bruce looks a little flustered. "Sorry about that, we'll just wait in your room."
Percy gives them a thumbs up and they leave the bathroom, shutting the door behind them.
Percy sighs and sinks back under the water. I'm going to need to be more careful not to fall asleep in the water from now on.
He stands up, sighing when he realizes he's going to have to stay wet. Then he shrugs, it's not like he doesn't like being wet.
He climbs out of the soapy water and dries himself off with a nearby towel. He pulls on some jeans and a nearby blue hoodie, one that someone from the iris cabin made him. It says, 'Everything is better blue.' He grins. He likes that hoodie. He grabs the towel and puts it over his hair. He squares his shoulders and walks out of the bathroom, holding onto the corners of the towel.
Nat and Bruce look at him when he walks out and stop their hushed conversation.
"So, what did you want to know?"
Nat steps forward. "Did you fall asleep in the tub? When you punched me you were very confused, like you didn't realize where you were or what you were doing. Exactly like someone who just woke up."
Percy bites his lip. "I was thinking. I like being in water, it's calming. I was so focused on my thoughts that I didn't realize you were there. I thought you were..." he trails off awkwardly.
Natasha raises an eyebrow. "Someone who wanted to hurt you?"
Percy nods hesitantly.
"From your time in the military?" Natasha asks bluntly.
Percy looks startled, as if he thought she was going to ask something else. "I uh... ye-yeah."
Natasha narrows her eyes. She mentally goes over the things she found in his file and online. She thinks back to the scars she saw and his reaction to her high five when they first met. Of course, now she knows the scars are from the seven months he was behind enemy lines, but some of them look much, much older than that.
"Percy. Your step-father, Gabe Ug-"
Percy flinches minutely and Natasha stops talking.
She looks at Bruce to see if he's caught on yet. Bruce looks at Natasha, a dangerous look in his eyes.
"Did he...?" Bruce turns slightly green. He struggles to contain his anger.
Natasha puts a hand on his shoulder to try to calm him down some.
It doesn't work.
Percy looks uncomfortable but he answers anyway. "My... uh... Yeah."
Nat grunts. "The name suits him, then. How bad was it?"
Percy shifts uncomfortably. "I don't really want to get into that."
"Understandable."
Percy's head shoots up, he looks like he just remembered something. His eyes look panicked. "But you can not, under any circumstances tell my mom about this!"
Bruce looks sick. "She doesn't know?"
Percy shakes his head.
Bruce bites his lip. "Percy, she deserves to know."
Percy shakes his head. "No! No, she already worries about me enough. Besides, the stress would be bad for the baby."
Natasha crosses her arms. "Fine, we won't tell her."
Bruce sharply looks over at Natasha.
"But after dinner," Natahsa continues, "we have some questions for you."
Percy taps his fingers on his leg. "Okay. When's dinner?"
Bruce checks his watch. "In about ten minutes."
Percy nods.
Bruce and Natasha stand up and leave the room.
Once they're a ways away from Percy's room, Natasha turns to Bruce. "I don't think that's everything."
Bruce raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I mean either there's someone still hurting him, or he has enemies."
"Enemies like bullies, or enemies like ours?"
"Like ours, most likely. It must be something to do with what we've been trying to find out. He had scars all over his arms and chest. I only got a quick look, but it looked like torture. That could be explained with the time he was in enemy hands, but that was a while ago. At least a year ago. Some of those were fresh."
Bruce stops walking and looks at Natasha carefully. "Are you sure?"
"I know what torture scars look like, Bruce. And from the look of it, most of the scars weren't more than a month or two old. And his step-father has been dead for a couple years now."
"You think someone knew he was Tony's nephew?"
Nat shakes her head. "No. He didn't know who any of us were and he said he didn't know he was Tony's nephew until his mom told him. And he said his mom told him yesterday."
Bruce looks thoughtful. "We need to tell Tony."
Nat nods in agreement. "Jarvis, can you replay this conversation for Tony please?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Bruce speeds up his pace. "Maybe we can ask Tony to make a stress indicator or something for after dinner, something that would tell us his stress related to the question. Then we could see if it's his new step dad that's hurting him and he's just covering for him, or something like that."
Tony pokes his head out of his lab. "Brilliant idea, Brucie." His eyes meet Nat's. "I'm not good with this stuff, it's a..." he looks down, slightly ashamed. He shakes his head. "I'll leave asking him about it up to you. But I have something you can use." He hands Bruce a black device. "This is a sensor. I borrowed the tech from Fury's lie detector chair. It has a lot of uses, but you can use it to measure stress." He hands them both ear pieces. "These will tell you the level of stress, I have Jarvis hooked up to it."
Nat smiles. "Thank you Tony."
Bryce nods. "Thanks Tony." He hugs Tony, seeing he needs a hug.
Tony grins and walks back into his lab.
Bruce grabs the back of his shirt. "No. You are eating dinner."
"Bruce I don't need-"
"Yes you do! Why does nobody in this tower take care of themselves?" He sighs. "Percy doesn't eat, you don't eat or sleep, Clint only eats junk food, Natasha... actually she takes care of herself, and so do Steve and I."
Tony points to his lab. "I have food in here."
He tries to turn around and walk back into his lab but Bruce tightens his grip on his shirt. "I know for a fact that all you have in there is coffee and a pack of blueberries. You're coming with me."
Bruce drags Tony to Percy's room. He knocks on Percy's door. "It's dinner time."
Percy groans and opens the door. "Do I have t-" he stops as he takes in the sight before him.
Bruce holding the back of Tony's shirt, Tony sighing defeatedly and Natasha videoing.
"I'm not even going to ask."
Bruce grabs Percy's wrist. "You're coming with me. Everyone is taking care of themselves today."
Percy blinks, surprised. "Okay?"
Everyone follows Bruce down to the dining room, Natasha still videoing and snickering.
She turns the video to Steve.
Steve's mouth opens and closes multiple times before he shakes his head. "Honestly I'm not even surprised anymore."
The camera pans to Clint and he shrugs. "This is why we stay on Bruce's good side."
Everyone bursts into laughter and Natasha shuts off the video.