"Shi-" Gwen started to say before she glanced at her brother who was wide awake at this point. "-Take mushrooms."
"Good cover," came a voice from the door. Bruce looked to see Tony standing there.
"You learn to do that when you live with kids," Gwen replied as she struggled to stand on her own. She bit her lip as her right leg gave out, making her lean heavily on Bruce. "Now, before this gets any farther, I believe we should all be introduced and last night should be explained to me from the beginning."
"How about breakfast first?" Natasha said, eyeing Peter and Gwen. "It'll give us time to wait for the rest of the crew to wake up."
"Rest of the crew?" Gwen echoed. She suddenly looked very nervous.
"There's just a couple more people," Bruce said as he watched her successfully stand and take a couple of tentative steps on her own. Watching her like a hawk in case she fell again. He frowned when she bent down to pick her brother up off the bed.
"I'll be fine," Gwen said, her back to him. "I've slept off most of the effects of the drug. I just needed to tell my muscles to start working again. Where's the kitchen and what's for breakfast?"
"So, you know what the drug was?" Tony asked, suddenly serious as Natasha lead the way to the kitchen.
"Not its name, no. But I know the effects. It's some kind of sedative and muscle relaxant rolled into one, I think. That's what it's always done to me."
"That stuff has been used on you before," Bruce asked, startled. Gwen neglected to answer as they walked into the kitchen.
"Now, you guys are going to sit down at the table and wait while I make breakfast," Natasha said, cutting off Gwen when she opened her mouth. "No if's, and's or but's. We brought you here to make sure that you were safe and to care for you. We expect nothing in return for this. So sit down with your brother."
With something that sounded like a cross between a sigh and a huff, Gwen sat down beside her brother, who was talking animatedly with Tony, who had just sat down at the table with a cup of coffee. After a second, Gwen's eyes widened.
"Are you Tony Stark?" she asked. "Of Stark Enterprises?"
"The one and only," Tony replied.
Gwen frowned. "I don't know whether to hit you or thank you."
Natasha covered her giggles while Bruce very quickly swallowed his coffee so he could laugh both at the comment and at the look on Tony's face.
"Don't worry, most people don't know the answer to that question," said a red haired woman, walking into the room. "Especially this early in the morning. Pepper Potts. I'm assuming that you two are Gwen and Peter?"
Gwen scowled. "Just how many people are there who know about us?" she demanded. "We try to keep a low profile for a very important reason. We've got people after us and I'm not keen on having a repeat of last night anytime soon."
"Calm down," Bruce said, the irony of the comment not lost on him. "We're not going to turn you two back onto the streets with this guy after you. There are only a few people who know you are here and we'll make sure that it stays that way. Remember what Natasha said earlier?"
"The man after us is smart and if you've run a background check on the two of us, like I think you have-" Gwen shot Tony a very dark look "-Then you'll have set off at least two of the red flags that he's got up. What did you find on us anyways?"
"That your last name is Parker and that your parents died a couple of years ago. Pretty much just enough to corroborate what your brother told us last night. I couldn't find records of your adoption or fostering in any of the federal files though," Tony replied. Pepper smacked the back of his head.
"That was for hacking into the government's files," she told him. "Something that you promised me you would refrain from doing."
"I said I wouldn't hack into Fury's files," Tony growled. "There's a difference."
As the two continued to bicker, Thor and Steve made their way into the kitchen.
"I don't know what you're making Tasha," Steve said. "But it smells wonderful."
"I agree," Thor said. "I see the magical Gwendolyn is awake."
Gwen frowned at the thunder god. "It's just Gwen," she said, "And I'm not magical."
"But of course you are," Thor replied. "How else would you have been able to produce a shield that could stand up to Mjolnir's power."
Everyone at the table stared at Thor with either a look of shock or one of confusion.
"You what?!" Bruce found that it was he who was having the outburst. "You took your hammer to that thing? Thor are you crazy?!"
"I did not, as you say, take my hammer to that thing," Thor replied. "I merely assessed her power levels through magical examination."
"Come again," Gwen said. "Did Bruce just say that he took some kind of hammer to my shield while we were sleeping?!" Her face held a mix of emotions between anger and fear.
"Yes, that's what Bruce said," Pepper replied, taking control of the conversation to keep certain parties from digging the hole they had made even deeper. "But that isn't what Thor did. Thor has magic-"
"Ok, before we go any further, I want people's names. I'm confused already," Gwen said, her tone the same as Pepper's was when she meant business.
"Natasha is the one making breakfast." It was Peter who spoke up, surprising everyone at the table. "She was the lady from last night. Tony is Iron guy that I told you about. Lab rat man is Bruce. I didn't catch everyone else's names."
"Lab Rat?" everyone at the table repeated questioningly.
"Explanations after introductions," Gwen said.
"I am Thor, god of thunder, son of Odin," Thor said. Gwen's reaction was to raise her eyebrows and then look at the rest of the table.
"Yes we are aware that he sounds like a mental case but no Asylum would take him," Tony said.
"My name is Steve Rodgers," Steve said.
"And Clint isn't here," Natasha said, "But he's the one who killed the two men who went after you last night."
"Sharp stick man," Peter chimed in.
"Arrows, Peter, they're called arrows," Gwen corrected. "Now, I'll assume you all are these Avengers people that I've heard about?"
"How could you-" Steve started.
"Not Know?" Gwen finished for him. "Me and Peter led a very sheltered life after our parents died. Now, tell me about what you guys do."
And so they told her. All about the Avengers initiative and their battles against Loki and the tesseract.
"So you guys are the people who save the world when evil comes calling," Gwen said in summary.
"Pretty much," Natasha replied. "Now, tell us about you and Peter."
Gwen eyed them, obviously trying to make up her mind on how much to tell them or even to tell at all.
"Our father was Richard Parker," she began. "He worked for Oscorp where he was head scientist. His main focus was gene splicing, particularly spiders, he loved spiders." She had what almost seemed to be a smile on her face as she remembered him. "Five years ago, give or take a few months, he brought home a specimen from the labs. It got out and bit Peter. When he grew a little bit older we found out the side effects of that bite and his powers. When Peter was two and a half, dad died."
Gwen's face clouded and her expression grew somber. "We stayed with our aunt and uncle for a month before Norman Osbourne got custody of us." Her eyes grew hard. "At first things were fine. We went to school, we played with his son, that all changed when he found out about me."
During the course of her speech, Peter had climbed into his sister's lap. Gwen held him as close as she could without suffocating him. "Peter had crawled into bed with me one night and activated my shield. When Osbourne came in the next morning to wake me up, my life became living hell. I was his little 'test subject' for a year. I hated it, being poked and prodded all the time. Never having enough sleep and wondering what round of drugs they were going to give me next to 'test' the effects of. Finally I'd had it. I broke out, took Peter with me and we've been running ever since."
Peter was sniffling by the end of it. His nose was looking red too. Gwen slid him out of her lap and onto his own chair. Then she disappeared down the hall, returning just as quickly with the bottle of children's medicine in her hand and the throw blanket from the living room thrown over her shoulder.
"Hope you don't mind," she said, wrapping her brother up and pouring out the required dosage of medicine. Her comment seemed to snap the Avengers out of whatever stupor her story had sent them into.
"He WHAT?!" Everyone winced as Bruce shouted so loud they were sure the interns on the floors below were shaking in their shoes. "He used you as a guinea pig!"
Gwen's eyes grew wide as a green tinge took on Bruce's skin and his muscles started to bulge.
"Bruce, calm down," Steve shouted.
"Gwen, Peter, why don't we go to your room and see if we can't find something else for you guys to wear?" Natasha said. Gwen merely scooped her brother into her arms at breakneck speed and Got out of the kitchen as fast as she could.
Once the kids, Pepper and Natasha were out of the way, Tony, Thor and Steve set about trying to calm down the rapidly going out of control Hulk.
"Bruce you need to calm down," Tony shouted.
"Hulk, we do not wish to contend with you in battle but if you continue on this path we will have no choice but to restrain you," Thor said, summoning Mjolnir to his hand.
It was at that moment that Clint walked into the kitchen. He took in the scene around him with an eyebrow raised. "Tony, what did you do this time?" he asked. It was well known that some of Tony's more harmful practical jokes could set off the big green beast.
"Why is it that whenever he hulks out it's always somehow my fault?" Tony asked to no one in particular. "I didn't do anything this time. We'll fill you in later damnit, now help us calm him down!"
With a roll of his eyes, Clint walked over to assist Bruce, who was slowly losing his muscles and green hue. After a couple of minutes, he was completely back to normal and the room was relatively intact, minus some of the dishes that had been on the table.
"Shit," Bruce said when he finally got control back. "Shit, shit, shit, shit."
"You know, it gets boring after a while if you just use the same word," Clint drawled.
"Shut up Barton," Bruce hissed. "I can't believe I did that. Dammit, and we were just starting to get her to trust us too."