The crash of the heavy metal door sliding open startled Jennifer awake. She bolted upright, flailing out with her right arm, instantly crushing two of the boxes beside her and whatever was inside them. Jennifer winced at the inadvertent destruction, at the same time thanking her lucky stars that nothing wet or sticky spilled out of them all over her.
The light that filtered in from over the top of the boxes and between the pallets told her that it was day. Exactly what day or time, was a mystery, though. She'd been stuck in this train for a long time. How was she to know that it was going to stop at every city, town and village between LA and New York?
What meagre food she'd pilfered and stuffed into her pockets before boarding was long gone and she was hungry, thirsty, tired and aching to spread out. In a word, she was cranky. And definitely not in a mood to wait around now that they'd stopped and the door had opened.
Jennifer clamoured to her feet in the tiny space and waited impatiently, rocking slightly from one foot to the other. The sound of voices accompanied the whine of an engine and the pallet three in front of her unexpectedly lifted slightly off the ground before moving away towards the door.
Great. They were unloading the car. That meant that her hiding space was going to disappear.
Jennifer had no intention of waiting around that long. Listening hard, she determined that the machine that had taken the pallet away was gone from the train. So, too, were the voices of the workers.
That was good enough for her.
Pushing boxes aside, Jennifer leapt forward, landing with her knees bent in the now cleared, open space in front of the door. Still not seeing anyone, she grinned before gathering her legs and sprinting out of the door.
Her run and leap off the edge took her sailing over five metres before she came down.
Screams and cries of surprise and fear erupted all around her.
Jennifer's head whipped backwards and forwards, her long, black hair whipping about her face.
The workers were all frozen, all staring at her and she hated it. Around her were dozens of trains, this obviously being a major station of some kind. Buildings were off to her right and at her back.
Flexing her shoulders, she felt the fabric of the coat begin to tear. Ignoring it, she bent her legs and jumped, sailing high into the air, straight over the nearest train. Landing, she took a few running steps before leaping again, this time towards the fence.
Exactly where she was wasn't a concern to Jennifer right then, only that she get away from the stares and screams. And the faster she ran, the further she was able to leap, a fact which she found exhilarating.
ooo00ooo
"Hey, Boss?"
Harry looked up and around from the cappuccino that he was making to see Brian, his chef of the day, with his head sticking out the door leading to the kitchens.
"What's up?" Harry asked, his hands continuing their choreographed dance.
"There's a call for you," Brian replied.
"Okay, I'll be there in a minute," Harry replied.
Before long, the drink was made and Harry served it with a smile. "There you go, ma'am."
With that, he ducked into the back and across to the small table. There he found the Den's cordless phone lying beside its cradle.
"Hello? This is Harry Potter," he said.
"Harry Potter? Of The Marauder's Den?" the female voice on the other end asked.
"Yes," Harry replied cautiously. "How may I help you?"
"Do you know a Doctor Bruce Banner?" the female asked.
Harry's eyebrows rose in surprise and he had a sudden suspicion of who he was talking to.
"I do; he's a friend of mine," he confirmed. "I wouldn't happen to be talking to Jennifer Walters, would I?"
There was a pause before she answered.
"Yes."
"Bruce said that he'd given you my number," Harry smiled. "Where are you? Are you in New York?"
"I'm just outside of it," Jennifer replied.
"Well, in that case, why don't you come over? I'm sure that I can find Bruce and get him here in an hour or two. Do you have my address?"
"NO! That is, yes, I have your address but no, I'm not going there. Bruce will have to come to me," Jennifer replied a stubbornness in her voice that told Harry that no amount of arguing was going to change her mind.
Harry frowned. Something was going on, something that Bruce hadn't told him about. Nevertheless, this was Bruce's cousin, his family and if that's what she wanted, who was he to argue with her?
"Fair enough. If you tell me where you are, I'll let Bruce know," Harry offered.
"No," Jennifer replied. "I ... I might not stay where I am. I'll ring back in a couple of hours and talk to Bruce then, if he's there."
"Okay, I'll have him here waiting for you," Harry assured her.
"Good. Thanks," she said before the line went dead.
Harry blinked at the handset before slowly putting it back into its cradle. There was definitely something wrong and Harry instinctively knew that he had to find Bruce fast. And then get him back to the Den.
ooo00ooo
After leaving Phoebe in charge of the Den, Harry ducked up to his apartment for a little more privacy. A quick apparition later and he was standing in the main lounge room of Avengers Tower
"Good morning, Mister Potter," Jarvis stated out of thin air, not sounding the least bit startled at Harry's unexpected entrance.
"Hi, Jarvis," Harry replied. "Where is everyone?"
"Mister Stark is in his lab; Miss Potts is currently in her office and Thor is in the weight room," Jarvis stated.
Harry paused at the missing name. "Wait. What about Clint?"
"Mister Barton has gone 'on vacation'," Jarvis reported. "Mister Stark is most vexed that Mister Barton has disconnected the GPS on his phone and disabled my ability to track him by other means."
"Well, he is a spy," Harry grinned, "it's what he does. I'll head down to Tony's lab."
Not bothering to take the stairs, Harry simply apparated to right behind Tony's desk, making sure to arrive with a loud pop.
"Gandalf! Don't do that! What if I was working on something volatile and accidently blew up half the city?" Tony cried after having screamed at Harry's arrival while ducking himself flat against the table.
"How often do you work with stuff like that?" Harry challenged.
"More often than you'd imagine, actually," Tony shot back. "So, is there a point to your visit, Sparrowhawk or did you just feel like getting a kick out of seeing how much you could scare me with your theatrics?"
"No, I have a reason. Do you know where Bruce is?" Harry asked
"Nope, but I'm sure that I could find him if needed," Tony replied. "I'm guessing there's a reason?"
"Yeah. I just had a phone call from his cousin, Jennifer, and something sounded ... off," Harry replied. "She wants to see him but it has to be him going to her and Jennifer won't say where she is until Bruce is available to go straight there."
"Hmm, sounds like we'd better find him, then," Tony said, swivelling his chair around to face his computer and letting his hands dance over it. "Assuming that the Big Guy hasn't eaten it or something, we can use the GPS in Bruce's phone to find him."
"Unlike Clint," Harry grinned, unable to keep from having a dig.
"Don't get me started on that bird-brain," Tony warned. "What if something happened and we needed him? Or he needed us?"
"Um, we'd call and ask him to turn the GPS back on? Or he'd call us?" Harry suggested.
Tony snapped his head around and glared at him. "If you're going to take his side and be all logical, I won't help you."
Harry made a show of pretending to zip his mouth, locking it and throwing away the key.
Tony snorted. "As if I believe that."
A few seconds later, Tony sat back and raised his arms in triumph.
"Got him," he crowed. "He's in LA. I can even give you the exact address, if you want it."
"No, that's okay," Harry muttered. "But LA isn't helpful. How long's it take to get from there to here?"
"Depends on your method of transport," Tony shrugged. "Commercial flight, roughly five hours. Private plane, you can knock a few minutes off that. Using the quinjet, just under three hours, but that time is moot considering you'd need to fly it there first before flying back. I could do the distance in a little over two hours in my latest suit."
"Pfft. All too slow. I can do it in seconds using a portkey. The problem being that I have to know the place I'm going to in order to create one," Harry stated.
Tony's eyes bugged out. "You want to take Bruce for a portkey ride? Are you insane? That's not a pleasant experience! You'd more than likely trigger the Big Guy to come out to thank you for it. And not in the nice way, either"
"Not if I give him a calming potion first. I think," Harry replied.
"You want to risk it? Is it really that important?" Tony asked.
"You didn't hear Jennifer on the phone," Harry said. "Something's definitely wrong and the sooner Bruce is here, the better."
"Well, it's your funeral," Tony sighed. "How do you want to do this?"
"If he's in LA, then he's close to Malibu. Can you ring him and get him to go to what's left of your old place? I'll duck home, change and portkey over there and bring him back," Harry decided.
"Can do," Tony said. "Just do me one favour? Don't portkey him back here. I really don't want to have to get the decorators in again."
ooo00ooo
"You're sure about this, Harry?" a worried Bruce asked, holding the small vial in one hand but focussed solely on the wizard in from of him.
"Absolutely," Harry replied.
"It's just that, when the ... other guy doesn't like something, he tends to make a ... mess," Bruce continued to argue.
Harry shook his head.
"You and Remus would have got on amazingly!" he muttered.
"Huh? Who?" Bruce asked.
"My honourary uncle. Doesn't matter, he died years ago," Harry waved the question away. "Look, I'm so sure that this'll work that I've set the portkey for my apartment. Do you really think I'd do that if I thought that you'd destroy it?"
"Well, if you're sure," Bruce said doubtfully.
"I am, now, drink up," Harry commanded.
Finally, Bruce did as he was told and slugged back the potion, only shuddering slightly at the taste of it. Within a few seconds, Bruce's face began to relax, the constant worry lines fading away. Harry waited two full minutes, observing his friend closely before nodding.
"Right, I think we're ready. Hold on," he said, holding out a piece of ribbon.
The instant that Bruce did so, Harry activated the portkey and the two disappeared in a swirl of multicoloured light.
They arrived in the middle of Harry's apartment hard, with Bruce tumbling away and falling over the back of the couch. When Harry hurried across and looked over in concern, it was to see Bruce on his knees holding his head.
"You okay?" Harry asked.
Bruce looked up at him and Harry was relieved to see that there was no sign of any anger or rage there whatsoever.
"Yeah. Yeah, I think so. That wasn't exactly fun, though. Let's not do that again unless we really have to," Bruce said.
"Fair enough," Harry nodded. "Come on, let's head downstairs and wait for Jennifer to call."
Bruce quickly climbed to his feet and nodded at Harry to lead the way.
ooo00ooo
The call came less than an hour later. Harry had barely said Jennifer's name when the phone was practically ripped from his hand.
"Jennifer? It's Bruce," the concerned man said, the calming potion obviously wearing off, assuming that it hadn't already done so. "Where are you? Are you alright? Uncle William and I have been so worried."
There was a pause then as Bruce listened intently to the other end of the line.
"Okay. Okay, I can do that," Bruce said. He scrambled then for a pencil and a piece of paper. "Alright, I've got it. I'm not sure exactly where that is, but I know the general area. Don't worry, I'll find it."
Again, Bruce pause as he listened to Jennifer.
"I'll be there as soon as I can," Bruce promised. "Stay safe."
As soon as the conversation was ended, Bruce ripped off the paper and stood.
"Right. I have an address. Any idea how we're getting there?" he asked anxiously.
"Our rides out in Den," Harry smiled reassuringly at him. "All we have to do is to get Happy away from the food."
ooo00ooo
"You sure this is the place?" Happy asked dubiously from where he'd turned around in the driver's seat to look at Harry and Bruce in the back.
"It looks like what Jennifer described," Bruce stated, staring out the window.
Harry leant over to take a look himself.
They were in an old, abandoned warehouse district. Most of the buildings in this area were huge and obviously in disrepair. Windows were smashed, doors were hanging off of their hinges and graffiti covered everything up to a height of about two metres. The chain-wire fences that separated the buildings was rusted red. In some places, it'd obviously been cut to provide easier access to other buildings and in some places, it'd been torn down completely.
A couple of burnt out cars were nearly obscured by the detritus of lengths of steels, chunks of concrete, dozens of rusted pieces of corrugated iron, overgrown grass and a slew of other bits and pieces that had accumulated over the years.
"You sure about this?" Happy asked. "Only, I could come with you as added security."
Bruce and Harry shared an amused look.
"Wait here, Happy. If we need you, we'll call and you can come to our rescue," Harry said.
"Yeah. Yeah, I can do that," Happy agreed.
Almost simultaneously, Bruce and Harry opened their doors and got out. As Harry rounded the car, he gestured for Bruce to go first, after all, Jennifer was his cousin and he figured that she'd feel more comfortable seeing a familiar face.
Slowly, the two picked their way through the yard, taking an almost circulating path to reach the main doors. The doors had obviously been forced open at some point, there now being a gap wide enough to walk through easily. Harry blinked, though, at the imprint of a hand in the metal.
"You sure that you haven't been here before?" he asked.
Bruce put his hand up inside the print. It was clear that whatever had made it was big, much bigger than Bruce currently was.
"I'm sure," he said. "This isn't big enough."
Harry's eyes widened slightly before he nodded.
"Right," he said, before making an 'after you' gesture.
Bruce pulled a face at him but went first without complaint.
The inside of the old warehouse was incredibly dark and gloomy. What light that did filter in, did so only through the broken panes – the ones still intact now being too gritty and grimy for anything, let alone light, to penetrate.
"Bruce? Is that you?" a voice called out of the darkness.
"Jennifer?" Bruce called back and his head, just like Harry's was moving about, trying to pinpoint exactly where the voice had originated.
"Who's that with you?" Jennifer asked.
"This is Harry. You spoke to him on the phone," Bruce said, placing a hand on Harry's shoulder.
"You trust him?" Jennifer asked.
"Of course. I wouldn't have brought him with me otherwise," Bruce assured her.
"And there's no one else here with you?" she asked.
"Only Happy, our driver, but he stayed in the car," Bruce replied.
There was a pause, then and both men waited. The sound of footfalls turned their heads in the right direction and they squinted, trying to make out Jennifer through the shadows. And then she appeared, stepping into a shaft of light out of the darkness.
Her hands, were in front of her, twisting themselves together and her head was bowed, allowing curtains of long, black hair to hide her face. If it wasn't for her size – easily seven feet tall – she appeared the very essence of the meekest person, scared and apprehensive.
Both Harry and Bruce gasped at the sight of her hands, what little of her face that they could see and her lower legs and feet. Jennifer was completely jade green.
"Jennifer?" Bruce asked, taking a step forward.
The green giantess nodded, never lifting her eyes.
And then Bruce was striding towards her, closing the distance until he was able to hug his cousin, albeit by having to reach up to do so.
"I'm so sorry," Harry heard Bruce saying over and over. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault."
Slowly, hesitantly, Jennifer's hands came up and around Bruce and tentatively hugged him back.
"This isn't your fault, Bruce," she said.
"Yes, it is," Bruce asserted, stepping back enough to be able to look up at her from a comfortable distance. "I used my blood. It's my blood that made you like this."
"Dad said that if you hadn't given me your blood that I would have died," she stated.
"Yeah, I know, you would have. But still, it made you like ... like this," Bruce said.
He stopped then and seemed to really take her in, his head cocking to the side.
"You ... you're not angry right now?" he asked in awe.
"No," she replied, shaking her head.
"How is that possible?" he wondered aloud.
"Bruce?" Harry questioned.
"You know the Hulk, Harry," Bruce said, turning to look at him. "When I'm angry, I get all big and green and ... and dumb. Jennifer, though, Jennifer's calm and she's changed. And the way she's talking, you can tell that she's fully aware of everything."
"Well, I am," a confused-sounding Jenner stated.
"Yes, but I never remember anything afterwards," Bruce stated, turning back. "I saw you at the hospital and you were recovering well, too well, in actual fact. Which would have been because of the healing factor in the blood. But you were your normal self. Do you know what caused you to change?"
Jennifer shook her head. "All I know is that I woke up to a couple of men trying to kill me and I got really angry."
Bruce and Harry shared a look.
"That'd do it," Harry commented. "But why didn't she change back after calming down?"
"I've got no idea," Bruce replied with a shake of her head. "Jennifer, I'd like you to come with me. You'll be safe. And I'm hoping that you'll let me run some tests so that I can try to find out what's happened and see if there's a way to reverse it."
"Where?" Jennifer asked cautiously. "I ... I don't want people to see me like this. The ones who have ... the ones who have were so afraid of me."
This last she finished in an anguished whisper and Bruce stepped forward to give her another reassuring hug.
"Where I'm taking you, no one's going to be scared of you or make fun of you," Bruce reassured her. "It's a safe place, a place that can deal with people of our ... unique abilities."
"Where?" Jennifer asked again.
"Avengers Tower," Bruce replied.
Jennifer seemed to search both Bruce and Harry's eyes for a long time before finally giving a small nod.
"Okay. But how are we going to get there with me like ... this?" she asked.
"What about one of those special potions of yours?" Bruce asked Harry.
Before he'd even finished the question, Harry was shaking his head.
"They're a calming draught, designed to calm people down. From what I can see, Jennifer's already calm enough. It wouldn't do anything," Harry explained.
"In that case, we'll just rely on the tinted windows of the car," Bruce said. "The Tower has underground parking, so that won't be a problem either."
"And the driver won't be a problem?" Jennifer asked.
Harry snorted. "He's the personal driver of Tony Stark. Believe me, he's probably seen a lot stranger things in the back of that car than you."
ooo00ooo
Harry sank back into the lounge chair of his apartment, rested his head back on the cushion and closed his eyes.
Today had been an incredibly long and stressful day. The phone call, finding Bruce, collecting Bruce from the other side of the country and tracking Jennifer down had really just been the start.
As promised, Happy didn't even bat an eye at Jennifer getting into the car, although they may have widened somewhat at the way the car tilted when she first got in. The drive to the Tower was mostly made in silence, as was the elevator ride up to the floor where Bruce's own room was.
As one would expect, not long after they'd arrived, Tony turned up, no doubt alerted by Jarvis. And surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, Tony never said anything that wasn't polite or courteous. Of course, that could have had something to do with a conversation that Bruce had with Tony when he first arrived. Even from across the room, the green tinge in Bruce's skin was more than evident and warning enough.
Thor turning up not long after didn't help Bruce's temperament any either. Thor greeted Jennifer warmly enough, but after understanding that she was suffering from a similar condition as that which produced the Hulk, Thor was all for taking her down to the training room and putting her through her paces to see what her enhanced physique, strength and reactions could do.
And even while Bruce was putting his foot down against that idea, Harry could have sworn that he saw a trace of interest in Jennifer's eyes.
And then had come the whirlwind that was Doctor Bruce Banner with all of those fancy letters after his name.
While Jennifer ate, Bruce began with questions. After that, it was a bevy of tests and blood and prodding and probing. Bruce even managed to badger Harry into giving over a calming draught, which, as Harry had predicted, did not have the desired result that Bruce wished for.
In the end it was Pepper of all people who put a stop to it.
She'd breezed into Bruce's lab and before anyone knew it or understood how, she'd whisked Jennifer off. The next time that Jennifer was seen, she was wearing clothes that actually fit her – a deep purple tracksuit, the jacket unzipped revealing a white shirt underneath. Pepper had commented that it was all that she was able to whip up at short notice – not that anyone asked where she got them from – and stated that they'd go shopping in the next couple of days for a full wardrobe.
Even though Bruce's tests had been put on hold for the remainder of the day, that didn't seem to stop him from hovering protectively around her. Not that Harry could blame the man – he knew what it was like to blame yourself for other people's suffering.
In the end, Harry'd escaped and come home, not even bothering to check in downstairs in the Den.
"Hey, you're home," Doreen's voice came from in front of him and Harry opened a single eye to peer at her. "This came for you earlier. By owl! I didn't think it was going to let me take it at first until I explained that you weren't home and that I didn't know when you would be back."
By the time that she'd finished, Harry'd opened his other eye and leant forward to take the envelope that she was holding out to him.
"Thanks," Harry replied, taking the envelope and instantly feeling that it was made from parchment.
Turning it over, Harry broke the seal and pulled out the parchment.
"Only two sheets," he mused, then, as he opened it and recognised the handwriting, he broke into a broad grin.
Eagerly, Harry devoured the cherished letter.
Uncle Harry,
Hi! How are you? I'm well and hope you are, too.
Things here are good but busy. The Professors are really working us hard at the moment. Not that we'd expect any different, seeing as exams are not that far away, but it'd be nice if they didn't push so hard. Ebony had to go to the hospital wing the other day with how stressed she was. Madam Pomfrey fixed her right up though with a calming draught.
Ravenclaw beat Hufflepuff in our last match of the season two hundred ten to eighty. It was a brilliant win. If Gryffindor lose their last match, we're a shoe-in for the Cup! How cool is that? Especially after the abysmal year we had last year.
I'm really hanging out to come visit. Six weeks! That's not that long now. Just these last few weeks of classes, exams, a train ride and then holidays. Gran wants me to go muggle-style on a plane but I'm arguing for a portkey (that way I get more time in New York with you). Guess we'll just have to see. But I'm sure that if you put in a word (hint hint) I'd be there that much sooner.
There's been a huge lot of interest in you and the Avengers here since you left. Everyone's been asking me about you all. I've got a whole bunch of people who want photos, even if they don't move. I've told them that I'll see, I'm not promising anything – don't want to wear out my welcome before I even get there.
Don't know if you heard, but all of those idiots that you guys caught after they took the kids hostage got sent to Azkaban. Malfoy was apparently livid that he didn't get a new magical hand but I say that he got what he deserved, especially after what you and Gran and Aunt Hermione said he was like in the last war.
I think that he wanted to sue you or challenge you to a duel or something. I'm not sure what, only that Gran had to slap him down in the Wizengamot as your proxy and he was the one who ended up paying you money for defaming your name or something. At least, that's what I think happened, Gran won't give me all the details and the piece in the Prophet was hard to understand. If you don't know already, guess you'll just have to ask Gran. And then you can tell me.
Anyway, I better get back to studying, want to show you that report card with all O's or EE's when I get there and I need to put in some serious study for that to happen, especially in History of Magic.
Can't wait to see you.
Love,
Teddy.
Harry refolded the letter and tapped his lips with it. He'd noticed a substantial deposit in his last statement from the goblins. Guess he knew why now. Perhaps one of these days he really should sit down and read the missives and reports that Andi sent him.
That day, though, was not today. He was simply too tired for that. Although he thought that he might have just enough energy to write Teddy back before he went to bed.