I tore out of Tony's arms and made my way toward the door that Tony had reappeared from. I figured there had to be a way down from there.
"Lucy! Wait!" Tony shouted after me as I took off. I made it to the door and pushed it open. The hallway I emerged into was like the one I'd taken earlier get into the party. It was short and led to an elevator. A door was set into the wall next to the elevator and I assumed it led to the stairs. Without a second thought, I hurtled through the door and down the stairs. I was already down half the flight of stairs and turning to complete the flight when the door flew open again.
"Luc-stop!" Tony yelled frantic after me.
"Doctor!" James called from somewhere behind Tony.
"Dr. Scaffer, stop!" Steve's voice joined the cacophony at the top of the stairs. I glanced up through the space between the stairs and saw the heroes following me down the stairs. There was a chorus of shouts and calls from behind me as the others tried to figure out what was happening. I rounded the last turn and found a door with the number 95 stay painted in thick, black paint. I pushed the bar in and continued running. Before the door could latch, Tony flew through it. There was no way for me to out run him on a flat surface but all I needed to do was get into the lab.
As I ran by the long windows, I could already tell there was a problem, I pushed the glass door open in a grand gesture and tore though the lab. I dodged around the long tables and chairs trying to make my way to the room where Banner and I'd been working.
"Lucy, sweetheart, stop!" Tony pleaded from behind me as I made a sharp turn around a table. I heard him skid into a chair with a slight hiss of pain. The glass doors were pushed open as the rest of the heroes entered the lab. I neared the enclosed room where all my work was left and felt the panic inside me come to a head. Suddenly, my movement was halted deliberately as two powerful arms wrapped around my waist, "Sweetheart wait, the ground is covered in glass. You'll shred your feet," he hummed in my ear as he continued to hold me tight. I kicked my feet and pulled at his arms in a futile attempt to free myself.
"Let me go! Put me down! All my work, it's ruined. Anthony Stark, you put me down!" I screamed, trying to keep from crying while looking at my destroyed work. The glass door and wall was smashed and glass littered the floor in front and inside the room. I couldn't see the extent of the damage from where I was but I could tell it was bad.
"Lucy," Tony started desperately. I managed to wrench myself from him violently and took a cautious step forward. The rest of the Avengers arrived behind me but I was too concerned about crossing the glass. My feet crossed the glass lightly, feeling the glass cut into my feet. Once the sea of glass was crossed, I fell to my knees on the ground. All the tablets that I'd found were now in pieces all over the floor. I wasn't sure which pieces went together and which didn't. I tried desperately to regain the ability to breathe as I reached out to grab a piece of the tablet.
"Lucy-" Banner's voice cracked.
"What happened," I demanded quietly without turning to face them.
"Luc-" James started.
"What happened!" I hissed, turning finally. They all stood around the shattered doorway not sure what to do. Each was armed with their own weapon: Steve had his shield, Tony's hand was sheathed in one of his Iron Man gloves, Clint's bow was poised with an arrow latched already, Thor's hammer was was gripped in his hand, and James, Natasha, and Maria all had guns cocked in this hands. They were all looking over at me with different emotions in their eyes. My eyes searched for Tony's as I waited for my answer.
"I-I don't know," Tony stuttered. I growled in annoyance as I turned from him and back to the broken pieces on the floor behind me. Tears welled up in my eyes as I looked up at the Carbon Dater that now had dents in it like someone had taken a bat to it. The jars of sand that I had been meaning to test was smashed and scattered all over the floor. The pot that I'd spent all day putting back together was in pieces on the table. The glass crunched as someone crossed it to kneel down next to me.
"Lucy, come on. You're hurting yourself. You have glass in your feet and in your knees, come on Luc," Banner ushered lightly as he pulled on my arm. I shook him off of me and continued to try and reassemble the pieces that were broken.
"Bruce, leave me alone. Please," I whispered, brushing his hand off my shoulder where he'd placed it again.
"Lucy," he sighed.
"If you're gonna tell me to get up, you can leave," I said quietly. Banner stopped and looked at me for a long time. I looked over at him, his hand frozen above my shoulder, "You don't understand. Go on, get out of here," I dismissed him and turned from him.
"Come on doll, you can't stay here," James said quietly from the group behind us. His voice registered but his words sent rage through me.
"You don't understand! Just get out! All of you!" I screamed as I whipped around to face the heroes behind me. Maria and James had holstered their guns and Clint had lowered his bow. As I screamed at James, he winced back; his jaw flexing as he swallowed hard. No one moved as I stared them down with the same amount of rage that I'd had when they destroyed my site in Africa, "Out!" I bellowed and pointed toward the door. They jumped back at the sudden volume in my voice. Natasha, Maria, and Clint were the first to take hesitant steps back. Natasha's face was a perfect mask of stony indifference and made it impossible for me to read her emotions. Thor and Rhodey were the next to turn and leave, then Sam. Steve hesitated before he lowered his shield and reached his hand out to grip James's shoulder. They both threw worried and pitying glances at me before turning to leave. That only made me more mad. I didn't want their pity. I didn't want their anything. I turned to glare over at Banner. He was looking over at me with a concerned look.
"I told you, catastrophic," I dismissed without another look. He paused before standing up and crunching his way across the glass again. The crunching disappeared and his foot steps soon followed the others out the door. I let out a long sigh and reached out for the pieces of the tablet again. The tears I'd been trying to keep from falling so desperately now streamed down my face. My breathing became much more erratic as I tried desperately to calm myself down. From behind me there came the light crunching of glass under shoes. I took a deep, shaky breath and swiped the tears away from my cheek with my hand.
"I thought I told you to leave!" I hissed but my voice faltered. I didn't looking back to see who it was; I assumed that it must have been Banner coming back to try and convince me to leave one more time.
"Well, you see, seeing as it is my lab," Stark trailed off quietly, his voice was halfheartedly sarcastic. He came over and rested his hand on my shoulder.
"What do you want Stark," I groaned, still staring at the ground. His other hand came down and rested atop my hand that was reaching out for another piece of the tablet. His hand wrapped around mine as he slowly pulled me up from the ground. I tried to resist his direction but I was too numb to put up much of a fight.
"Well, right now I want to get the glass out of your knees," he said softly as his hands went down to my waist. He picked me up lightly and set me down on top of one of the tables that was pushed up against the wall. When I looked down, I could see glass shards in my knees and streaks of blood running down my legs. There was also bloody foot prints from where I'd been stepping after the glass had cut my feet. I couldn't bring myself to look up at Tony. He stepped back from me and fished out a first-aid kit that was stashed under one of the tables. He set it next to me and flipped it open. Once inside, he pulled out a pair of tweezers and a ton of band-aids. He pulled up a chair and sat down right in front of me. He took one of my ankles in his hands and examined the bottom of my foot before beginning the process of digging glass out of my foot.
"What happened here Tony?" I asked again, this time desperate for an answer. Any answer would do but I just needed an answer. His hands hesitated for a moment before he looked up at me with eyes that were full of pain.
"I don't know. JARVIS. He should have been able to block any break-ins and notify me at once when something starts going wrong. I don't know what happened but I will find out," Tony muttered quietly. I winced as he dug into my foot, "Sorry," he breathed. He wrapped my food in clean bandages before moving on to the other one.
"Stark, what are you doing?" I asked finally looking up at him. He was concentrating entirely on what he was doing, worry etched into his face.
"Trying to get the glass out of your foot, if you would just hold still," he laughed lightly as I winced again. He wrapped this foot up as well before placing both my feet on his knees and focusing on my knees.
"No, Tony. What are you doing? Why are you being so nice to me all the sudden?" I asked. His hands paused as he looked up at me and we made eye contact for the first time in a long time. His eyes were soft as he looked up at me with more concern that I'd ever seen him have on his face.
"I guess you've grown on me," he said softly before returning to the removal of glass. After a few more winces, he finally had all the glass removed from my knees and patched them up with band-aids. He moved the chair back and grabbed a broom from the corner and started sweeping up all the shattered glass.
"What am I going to do?" I asked mostly to myself as I pulled the tub of pot sherds toward me. Looking at them made me want to cry again. All that hard work, ruined. He finished sweeping the glass into a pile and leaned the broom back against the wall. He sighed as he walked over to me and placed his hands on my waist.
"Look, I understand how upset you must be. I know I'd be pissed if someone ruined everything that I'd been working on for months," I winced and looked away from him. He placed his hand under my chin and tipped my head back up to look at him again, "but, you're smart. You will be able to get back up and continue. Who ever did this may have broken a few things," he paused and looked around the room, "Okay maybe a lot of things," I laughed and cast my eyes down as I felt the tears raising again, "but they can't take the things that you figured out from your brain. You still know all the work that was done. And even though it sucks, you can put all these things back together. Think of it as a minor set back and not completely ruined," his voice was soft and melodic and all I wanted to do was to lean against him and sleep. Maybe when I woke up, this would all just be a horrible dream. I sniffed and cleared my throat.
"You know, you're kinda smart Stark," I laughed and looked up at him, tears still falling from my eyes. A smile grew across his face as he reached over and brushed a few stray tears from my cheeks.
"I may have been told that before once or twice," he teased. I laughed and looked down at my feet again. He was standing so close to me. Almost like when we were dancing. But instead of heat radiating off of him, it was something else. Something I hadn't felt from another person in a long time. I felt peace. Happiness. Safety. He took a deep breath and his hands went to my waist again, "Come on doctor, let's get you back home. You've had a long day," Tony said as he helped me down from the table. The minute my feet hit the ground, I buckled under the pain and my own weight on my injured feet. I stumbled and gripped onto Tony to keep from collapsing to the floor. His arms tightened around me protectively as he helped keep me from falling completely to the floor. I hissed in pain as he helped me stand straight and braced my weight against him. There was a mischievous grin on his face and I knew instantly that there was a sarcastic comment coming.
"Tony, control yourself," I warned as he helped me start walking.
"Falling for me already doctor?" he smirked. I rolled my eyes as we continued walking.
"Jesus Christ Stark," I groaned. He simply laughed. His laugh was a beautiful thing that up until know, I realized I hadn't actually heard. I clenched my jaw and swallowed hard, trying to keep myself from thinking about just how beautiful he really was and focus on walking.
"What about all my work?" I asked as we left the lab and entered the hallway leading to the elevator.
"Don't worry, it'll still be here tomorrow when you get up. I'll figure out what happened with JARVIS and I can help you piece everything back together if you want," Tony offered as he pressed the call button for the elevator. My arm was over his shoulder and his arm around my waist as I leaned most of my weight on Tony, waiting for the elevator. His fingers bushed my hip as he turned to look at me, our faces dangerously close together. I forced myself to focus on talking and not the depth of his eyes as I formed my next thought.
"Y-you don't have you help me. I'm sure you have much more important things to do than jigsaw puzzle a pot back together," I laughed once.
"I want to help," was all he said before the elevator doors slid open. We stood there staring at each other for a long moment before I cleared my throat and looked down at my bare feet. Tony helped me into the elevator and pressed the button for my floor. The elevator started down and neither of us said anything for a long time.
"What about my shoes, there's still up in you're apartment," I said breaking the silence that we'd up been standing in up until this point.
"Don't worry. You can get them tomorrow," Tony said lightly as the doors slid open with a ding. He helped me down the hall and to my apartment. I yawned sleepily as I pressed my hand to the door lightly. It clicked open and Tony led me into the apartment. I yawned again and leaned against Tony again. He laughed lightly, "Alrighty, up ya go kid." Suddenly my feet left the ground and Tony's arms were under my knees and around my back. He carried me into the apartment and over to my room. He lay me down lightly on my bed and pulled the covers up over me.
"Thank you Tony, you're not as much of an ass as I thought you were," I mumbled, already half asleep. I heard him laugh lightly from the doorway.
"Well thank you sweetheart. Sleep good. I'll see you in the morning," Tony whispered as he flicked the light off and shut the door behind him. I was already asleep by the time the front door shut.