The Doctor sat at a computer as she read the screen in front of her and makes her own personal notes in one of her small blue Tardis journals. Bruce hovers, siting at his own computer, but still managing to hover over her, eyes on her.
"Bruce" she warns annoyedly as turns to him. Bruce looks away from her. He been studying her for awhile now. He sighs and pushes his chair towards her table, she sighs and looks to him. "What?" she asks him, he glances to Tony who is trying not to watch them from where he works, Bruce turns back to The Doctor. She raises an eyebrow in question at him.
" Are you really time traveler."
" Yes."
" And you are really an alien?" He questioned.
" Yes, I am. Do you have problem with that?"
" No, I'm just surprised and all. What planet you from again?"
" Gallifrey." And it's then that she turns back to her computer, Bruce moves back to his own, still processing the information, he opens a webpage on his computer and types in the planet name. About only 3,000 results come up. He clicks on a link that's a blog page by Elton Pope. It only came up as it had his word suggestion in it. Bruce a knowledge that it's not the best of references but it's a start. He scrolls down the page skimming over the words in front of him, it tells of Pope's interaction with The Doctor, who was notably was male at time, and his blonde companion and his blue box, who Pope learned was time machine /ship and was to be called the Tardis. Pope rambled on and on about with others peoples encounters. Pope then offered a link to his conserivsal book with official historical documents on the Doctor and accounts. Bruce frowns at the screen as he clicks on one of the books photo links, only to see a photo of a redheaded girl and man with red fez on. Bruce then glances to The Doctor as she works. It can't be the same Doctor. He cocks his head. Could it really? No, it was impossible. This site had to be a whole, total fake.
"Ever heard of the of blog and book by Elton Pope?" Bruce asks, The Doctor damn near almost stumbles out of her chair as she makes a noise in the back of her throat and her eyes widening at near mention of Elton. Bruce and Tony watched her her vivid, very surprised reaction.
"No" she lie terribly. "Doesn't sound familiar at all. Nope, not one bit. Nope. Is it hot in here? It's really hot in here. Gods it's really hot." she comments looking away and fanning herself and looking everywhere but at them. She never been this nervous or having difficulty lying. Not that was good thing, but, when your a Timelord, it's good skill to have.
"She does know" Tony comments in bemusement. " Oh, what's it about? Is this Elton guy some past boyfriend. Wait! Wait! No! No, is he some shameful one stand. That would be totally scandalous! Just imagine it! " Said Tony with huge grin. Bruce glances to The Doctor who just sighs and shakes her head at Tony. Bruce clicks on another link and opens up new page that summarizes his whole experience.
" The real life events of Elton Pope and Ursula Blake involving the mysterious Doctor and his blonde companion." Bruce reads aloud, The Doctor buries her head in her hands making a very pained and distressed noises. "It's starts off with...." Bruce reads as The Doctor starts rocking in her seat.
" Okay, first thing's first, my name is Elton Pope. Not to get confused with Elton John. I left school, got a job. Transport Manager, Rita Logistics, modest little haulage company. Perfectly normal life, and then it all went mad. Two years ago, I was in town, I was stocking up. You know, nothing special, all the usual stuff, when all of a sudden, Shop window dummies come to life. I survived, obviously. Twelve months later, I'm back in town. I'm up west, looking for a new suit, something nice and smart, when I hear this plane overhead. But it wasn't over yet, because then, Christmas Day. I'm in bed fast asleep, nice and cosy, quarter to eight in the morning, when all of a sudden explosions happened. And I was stuck in bed, right, 'because there's glass everywhere. And I was barefoot. I had to invent this rudimentary pulley system, just to reach my boots. And by the time I'd done that the spaceship was overhead. And that's when it all started happening. That's how I met Ursula Blake. She told me his name is The Doctor."
" Stop!" Cried The Doctor. She know where this was going and she couldn't go back down that road. Down the road that lead to Ursula accident; a path that he (she ) had walked with Rose Tyler. One of few companies that he (she) has loved. Loved so deeply. It made The Doctor feel physically sick. " No more please..."
"Wait" Tony starts. "Are is this all about you?" he asks The Doctor who lifts her head.
"I hate Elton" she grumbles. "I hate him so much right now" she stands and moves to Bruce's computer. "Look....it's complicated but yes....this is all about me... Well, the tenth version of me... my people, The Gallifrey, our Timelords, such as myself, when we're near death or badly injured, we do what called a regeneration... are bodies and personality physically change to some else while simultaneously healing us. But we keep all our memories and experiences. It's just the nature part of begging the Doctor....but please don't read anymore and look for photos. Please , I'm begging." she is quick to tell them. "Like...at all, there is nothing interesting in them and we have a sceptre to study and a cube to track...okay?" she closes the webpages. "This is not important" she glances to Bruce. "Please" she desperately whispers. She doesn't want him to know that he knew her at one point in time. It would be to painful. "Don't read anymore" they share a look, both aware of how close they are to one another, he nods swallowing the lump in his throat.
"Okay" he tells her. "I won't" she relaxes a little and nods moving back to her computer, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She hates this. She really, really, hates this.
...........................................................................................................................
The Doctor continuously scans with a gamma ray detection scanner on the sceptre for radiation, Bruce stands at her side making notes, they've been quiet since they spoke about Elton, he's curious, of course he is, but he won't go against her to read them. She sighs. She knows what he thinking. Of course, he is. He human. He's naturally a curious begging.
"When this is over" she starts. " we can talk. Well, more like you ask your curios little science questions and I'll answer them." she offers looking back up at him. "We can" he nods, she turns back to the sceptre, her hand shaking as she starts to work again. Tony looks at his monitors, shifting and solving as many algorithms and equations. Bruce looks to the tablet in his hand.
"The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process" Bruce complains.
"If we bypass their mainframe and direct a reroute to the Homer cluster, we can clock this around six hundred teraflops" Tony counters.
"And here I didn't even pack anything." The Doctor jokes. Tony smiles at her.
"You know, you should both come by Stark Towers sometime. Top ten floors, all R&D. You'd love it, it's a candy land" Tony tells them.
"Thanks, but the last time I was in New York I kinda of broke...Harlem" Bruce whispers guiltily.
"Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension. No surprises" Suddenly, Tony pokes Bruce with a miniature electrical prod.
"Ow!" Bruce complains as Steve walks in on them, pissed at Tony. Tony looks at Banner closely.
"Nothing?" he asks.
"Hey! Are you nuts?" Steve asks.
"You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? Huge bag of weed?" Tony asks.
"Is everything a joke to you?" Steve asks Tony in ridiculous tone.
"Funny things are" Tony answers.
"Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny" Steve turns to Bruce. "No offence, doctor" Steve offers kindly and sincerely.
"No, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things"
"You're tiptoeing, big man. You need to strut" Tony tells Bruce.
"And you need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark"
"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables" Tony offers, The Doctor looks between them as they argue,she sighs and pulls out her Sonic Screwdriver already planning her next move if things get out of hand.
"You think Fury's hiding something?" Steve asks.
"He's a spy. Captain, he's the spy. His secrets have secrets" Tony answers then points to Bruce and The Doctor . "It's bugging them too, isn't it?" The Doctor scruffs and rolls her eyes, while Bruce shoot Tony a annoyed look.
"Uh...I just wanna finish my work here and..." Bruce mumbles.
"'A warm light for all mankind, Loki's jab at Fury about the cube" Bruce said.
"I heard it" Steve offers. The Doctor points to Tony.
"Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn't tell him about the tower, it's post all over the news"
"The Stark Tower? That big ugly" Steve starts, Tony shoots him a look. "...building in New York?"
"It's powered by Stark Reactors, self-sustaining energy source. That building will run itself for what, a year?" The Doctor asks.
"That's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now"
"So, why didn't SHIELD bring him in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?" The Doctor asks, Bruce looks to her impressed and proud.
"I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files" Tony tells her.
"I'm sorry, did you say...?" Steve is taken back by that.
"Jarvis has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide" Tony holds out a bag of blueberries. "Blueberry?"
"Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?"
"An intelligence organization that fears intelligence? Logically, not possible" Tony argues.
"I think Loki's trying to wind us up" Steve tells them. "This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them"
"Following is not really my style" Tony comments.
"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve asks mockingly.
"Of the people in this room, which one is; A. wearing a spangly outfit, and B. not of use?" Tony argues. The Doctor steps between them, holding out her hands a little, pointing her Sonic semi threateningly at Tony and her eyes narrowed in slight glare.
"Steve" she looks up at the soldier. "Tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?" she asks as Tony calms down at her back. Steve takes in the possibility, but as an obedient soldier he's been groomed to be, shakes it off.
"Just find the cube" Steve walks out of the lab. Still torn apart by the possibility.
"That's the guy my dad never shut up about? Wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice" Tony complains.
"The guy's not wrong about Loki" The Doctor sighs as she watches the door.
" Yes, he does have the jump on us" Bruce agrees.
"What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit" Tony tells them. "It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does"
"And I'll read all about it" Bruce comments.
"Uh-huh. Or you'll be suiting up like the rest of us" Tony tells him.
" Ah, see. I don't get a suit of armor. I'm exposed, like a nerve. It's a nightmare"
"You know, I've got a cluster of shrapnel, trying every second to crawl it's way into my heart" Tony points at the mini-arc reactor in his chest. "This stops it. This little circle of light. It's part of me now, not just armor. It's a... terrible privilege"
"But you can control it"
"Because I learned how" Tony counters Bruce.
"It's different" Bruce argues.
" I have no control over mine, it has own mind and agenda. Especially, my ship, now she has sassy personality of ever seen one." The Doctor admits, they both look to her weirdly. " I have no choice over my regenerations. I can't prevent them and can't choose to stay the same or who I'll be next." she offers. " It's terrifying, painful and quite scary." she looks away. " but, It's not about me, it's about helping the people and saving time, planets and the whole universe, it's about dealing with the hand your given" Tony points to her nodding. "Accepting who you are....or fighting it...." Bruce looks to her sadly. "You have no idea what you're capable of until you try" she offers. "Fighting who you are....ends in...disaster, I should know" Bruce looks down a little. "Fighting fate" she offers self-deprecatingly. Irony. How often she's fought fate herself. Multiple times in multiple bodies. Bruce tries to read the computer screen, but Tony slides the data aside with his finger so the two can see face-to-face. He glances to The Doctor and then back to Bruce.
"Hey, I've read all about your accident" Tony offers. "That much gamma exposure should have killed you"
"So you're saying that the Hulk... the other guy... saved my life?" Bruce asks. "That's nice. It's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?" Bruce asks.
"I guess we'll find out" Tony comments.
"You might not like that"
"You just might" Tony argues, Bruce moves to The Doctor , she looks to him and shakes her head already knowing what he's going to ask her.
"I don't want to talk about my other versions accidents" she states firmly and delicately. She looks away. " It's all in the past. A past I rather not relive."
A/N; I hope you guys loved my little throw back to the tenth Doctor and one of more minor side characters.