Elevated

Nora was glad she’d made friends with Thor. Partly because he was nice, and partly because when her dog walker got sick and she asked him to watch Luna for the day, he was thrilled. She took the elevator up an extra eight floors in the morning and delivered the dog to Jane and Thor’s apartment. Jane had still been in pajamas and waved at her, but looked a little like a zombie and definitely wasn’t up for chatting.

Then she hadn’t been able to get back on the elevator, so she’d taken the stairs down eight flights. She’d lost a lot of her conditioning since the move from R&D and it made her surprisingly out of breath. She made it halfway between ninety-seven and ninety-six when she heard the door behind her open. She shot a glance over her shoulder, pretty surprised that anyone would be willing to walk the tower stairs who didn’t have crippling claustrophobia, but the door was slowly swinging shut and nobody was there.

That freaked her out a little. She got to the lab feeling twitchy and uncomfortable. Bruce was already running calculations and glanced over his shoulder at her.

“You don’t think this tower could be haunted do you?” Nora wondered aloud, tossing her coat and purse onto her chair. Bruce looked at her like she was insane, “I mean, it’s too new right?”

“Ghosts aren’t real Nora,” He asserted, taking a sip of his tea.

Nora frowned at him, “You know, I would’ve said that too a couple years ago, but a Norse God is babysitting my dog right now so my idea of real has become pretty malleable.”

“Thor’s babysitting your dog? Why?”

Nora picked up a marker and spun it. It flipped out of her hand and clattered across the floor. They both watched it go. She picked up a second marker, “My dogwalker’s sick and Thor loves dogs.”

They spent the next seven hours running calculations by hand. By four, they had calculated themselves right into a corner. They stood elbow-to-elbow looking at a massive array of calculations, which had looped back around in a strange kind of way and were trying to tell them their findings were garbage.

“Huh.” Bruce muttered.

“I think,” Nora started, “We must’ve gone wrong somewhere.”

“Maybe,” Bruce said. He set down his pen, “We can check it tomorrow.”

Nora frowned deeply, because she wanted it to be done now, but it had taken literally all day so she didn’t think that was going to happen. She wandered to pick up her purse and coat from her chair, and together they wandered out of the lab. It wasn’t the first time they went to the elevator together, but it was the first time they were going the same direction. Usually, Nora let Bruce take the first one and then hemmed and hawed before eventually getting on the next (or next, or next).

This time, Bruce got on and then looked at her expectantly. Nora hesitated, frowned, and shuffled. Bruce looked increasingly more worried. As the doors began to close, she jumped through the narrowing gap.

“Are you alright?” Bruce asked quietly. He sounded a little upset.

“Yup.” Nora muttered, “I just don’t like elevators.” He gave her a weird, confused look and she expanded, “I’m claustrophobic.”

“Nora,” Bruce said, voice full of surprise, “You ride the elevator ninety stories every day.”

“Yup,” She tried to drag in a breath and found the air stifling, “Twice a day. Sucks both ways.” The doors slid open and Bruce gave her one more concerned look as he stepped off onto his floor. “See you tomorrow,” Nora said around a mouthful of cool hallway air.

It was, luckily, only two more stories to Thor’s floor. She knocked on the door and it flew open a minute later. Thor beamed at her. Luna wiggled past his legs to press against Nora’s.

“Nora! Luna and I had a delightful day.”

“That’s cool. Thanks for watching her.” She stepped into the apartment as Thor stepped back and gestured. Luna’s leash was sitting on the kitchen island and she grabbed it and bent to clip it to her collar.

“Twice we walked to the park and played the game of fetch. Luna greatly enjoyed it. And then we enjoyed a film in the lounge. She was very taken with Bucky.”

Nora glanced at him, “Really?”

“Indeed. She did not wish to leave his side, but alas, I know you finish your work much earlier than my Jane.” He said solemnly.

“Yeah, we didn’t really finish much of anything today. I’m glad you had fun.”

“I would enjoy watching her another day if there is a call for it,” He gave her a hopeful look.

“Sure. I’m sure she appreciates playing fetch with someone who can throw a ball more than twenty feet. Jane’s got my number she can text me and I’ll bring her to work with me.”

Thor beamed. Nora bid him goodbye and got back on the elevator. It was a lot easier to ride with Luna at her feet, but she still shuffled nervously. On the ninety-sixth floor where Bruce had gotten off, the door slid open again and a redheaded woman got on. She gave Nora a cold measuring look as she did, from her ponytail to her boots. She spared an extra glance to her cast, and the dog at her feet.

“Dr. Silver,” She greeted as the doors slid shut.

Nora surveyed the woman back. She was stunning; tallish, lithe, and impeccably stylish, “Natasha, right?” The woman nodded. Nora cleared her throat. The walls of the elevator were shuffling a little bit closer and she buried a hand in Luna’s fur. She tried to breathe slowly and counted as she did it, watching the numbers tick down to the lobby. The doors slid open and Nora hurried out, taking a deep breath of lobby air. Natasha eyed her and Nora felt the need to explain, “I don’t like elevators.”

She raised a slim, perfectly styled eyebrow.

“Hey, this is weird but Clint told me there was no way you’d sign my cast, and I’d kind of like to tell him to suck it? Do you mind?”

Natasha looked at her for a moment longer, then her mouth curled up a fraction, “Alright.”

The opportunity to tell Clint to suck it came a week later, and Nora was too preoccupied to do it. It was a Thursday, and she decided to go out for lunch. She didn’t usually, because that involved riding the elevator two extra times in a day, and that was just a bit much. But, the numbers she and Bruce were running kept turning them in circles and she was starting to lose it a little, so she needed to get out of the lab. She managed to get on the elevator on her third try, rode it all the way to the lobby, and walked to the coffee shop a couple blocks away. She got a sandwich which she ate on the patio, and a coffee.

The problem occurred on the way back up to the lab. She managed to get on the elevator her first try and was pretty proud of herself. She made it to eighty-four and the door slid open. She wasn’t panicking as much as usual, but Barnes still looked pretty startled. The door started to shut.

Nora reached out and wedged a hand against it, holding it open. It was a little to be polite, and a little because she wasn’t quite ready for the door to shut yet. She tried to smile at him, but it might’ve come out a little iffy because he frowned a little more deeply at her. He stepped onto the elevator anyways. Nora took a really deep breath and let the door slide shut.

They made it four more floors and everything rattled, then stopped. The light in the elevator went red. FRIDAY started to play some sort of lockdown alert. She really thought she was okay. The extra breath of air when the doors had opened on eighty-four had been doing a lot to steady her. The instant the elevator stopped, she was no longer okay. The walls pressed against her. She tried to breathe and found she couldn’t, “Oh, nononononono,” She stepped forward and hit the elevator button for ninety, which did nothing. She hit it again, then harder, and then she started to cry.

She was marginally aware that there was someone else in the elevator, but she didn’t spare him a second thought. Her entire mind was devoted to panicking. She hit the button that usually prompted the door open, which also did nothing, and crumpled. She tucked her head between her knees. She was also dimly aware that she was having a panic attack. There was no air left in the elevator. It was all gone, and she was being slowly crushed as the roof came down on top of her.

There was a horrible crunch, and a grinding sort of noise, and for a second she thought they were about to fall to their deaths, but then there was light spilling into the elevator and it was warm and sunny. Nora looked up. Barnes had pulled the elevator door open. Most of what was on the other side was blank concrete wall, but there was a two-foot sliver at the top that was the open air of the eighty-eighth floor.

Nora lurched up, stumbled, and scraped her hands against the concrete wall. She didn’t care, she just needed out. Barnes seemed to get it. He grabbed her by the hips and lifted her easily. She would have been very impressed but the entire world had narrowed the little sliver of space as she crawled her way out the elevator gap. She made it a few feet, and rolled onto her back, throwing both hands over her face. She sobbed and dragged in huge gulps of air.

Right, she thought. People didn’t just die from small spaces. Why couldn’t she remember that? The fog of her panic leeched away a little at a time and embarrassment started to take its place. Barnes was going to think she was really nuts now. Her phone rang and she pulled it from her pocket and answered, “Hello?”

“Nora? Where are you?” Darcy sounded totally panicked too, and Nora wondered why because she was pretty sure Darcy wasn’t afraid of being locked in an elevator.

Nora dragged herself up to sit, shooting a look around the cavernous space she was in. Barnes had stalked away across the concrete floor and was sort-of pacing near a big black jet. The entire wall behind it, was open to the sky, “I don’t- the hangar I guess?”

“What? Why are you in the hangar?”

“I got stuck in the elevator.”

Darcy made an upset kind of noise, “Okay. Look, just wait there, I’ll text you.” And then she hung up.

Nora looked at her phone, bewildered. She really wished she knew what the hell was happening. She’d totally missed FRIDAY’s message because she’d been freaking out. She scrubbed the tears from her cheeks, tugged her ponytail free, and replaced it. “FRIDAY?” She tried.

The AI didn’t answer. She wondered if it was because she wasn’t supposed to be in the hangar, or if there just wasn’t a speaker nearby. She surveyed Barnes where he was pacing, “Um, Barnes?” She didn’t think it came out quite loud enough and her voice cracked horribly, but he turned a little to look at her sidelong. He was extremely tense and she was sure something awful was happening in the tower, “What did FRIDAY say was the problem?”

For a second Nora thought he wasn’t going to answer and then he said, “Event in the labs.” His voice was low and gravelly.

That was vague. Nora made an upset sort of noise. She really hoped Bruce was okay. And Jane. Darcy had said to wait, so Nora waited. She took deep breaths of fresh air and was glad she had her coat because the hangar was chilly. Barnes paced near the jet. Eventually, the elevator gave a little ding. Nora shot a look at it. It seemed to have righted itself and was open like it was waiting for her to get back on. Well, there was no fucking way that was happening, she thought. She’d definitely be walking ninety flights of stairs to the lobby after work. The door slid shut and she noticed with interest, that it was extremely bent and didn’t close properly.

The elevator dinged again, and Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson stepped out. Both men looked at her, sitting dejected and tear-streaked on the floor, and then at Barnes by the jet.

“Bucky,” Steve called, and started striding across the hangar.

Sam glanced at him, then walked over to her little patch of floor.

“Hi Sam,” Nora managed to mutter. Her voice was still rough from crying.

“Hey,” He knelt and put a hand on her back. His expression was surprisingly soft, “You okay?”

“Yep.” She wiped her sleeve across her face, “Do you know what happened with the lab?”

“Yeah. We brought back an artifact and it exploded. Put everything on lockdown.”

“Oh no. Is everyone okay? It wasn’t in Bruce’s lab right?”

“No,” He answered, surveying her with interest, “The one with the big whirligig,” He circled his finger in the air vaguely.

“Not the particle splitter, I never got to play with it.” Nora muttered morosely. She wiped at her face again, “Can I go back to the lab now?”

“Yeah, I’ll walk you.”

He helped her up and started to steer her to the elevator but she planted her feet firmly, “Can we take the stairs?”

He gave her an odd look and answered, “Sure?” Before leading her a few dozen feet along the wall and opening a door to the stairwell. “You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah,” she answered, plodding slowly up the steps with a hand on the railing, “Your friend Barnes is going to think I’m a freak.”

He stopped dead, “Why?”

Nora took two more steps, then realized he wasn’t following and stopped to look at him. He was giving her the same sort of look he had when he and Steve had cornered her in the lab. The one that said, ‘we’re misunderstanding each other’. Nora said mildly, “I keep freaking out in the elevator with him. We were just stuck on the elevator together and I had a full blown panic attack. Thank god he pried the door open, I would’ve passed out for sure.” She turned and started back up the stairs. After a second Sam’s footsteps followed.

There was a hard edge to his voice when he asked, “Why’d you freak out?”

“I’m claustrophobic. It took me like three tries to get on the elevator this morning.” She made an upset noise, “I don’t know how I’m gonna get out of the tower and go home tonight. It’ll take me hours to climb all the way down the stairs.” She paused at the door to the ninetieth floor, “Do you think Barnes would ride the elevator with me if I begged? I feel like it would help if I knew he could peel the door off like a sardine can if we got stuck again.”

Sam was giving her a weird, outraged look, and she thought maybe he didn’t understand she was joking. She decided not to let it bother her and yanked the door open. The hallway looked normal, the windows and the big vault door were the same.

The particle splitter was destroyed. In fact, the entire lab it was in was in pieces. “Oh my god,” Nora muttered, wandering down the hall, “That thing cost like eight million dollars.” Sam made a choked noise behind her. They made it to the door of the destroyed lab and Nora threw it open and strode through.

Bruce, Jane and Darcy were all there, along with Tony, Clint and Natasha. Tony was surveying the lab with mild distaste like it wouldn’t cost a small fortune to replace.

“What happened to you?” Clint asked with alarm.

“I got stuck in the goddamn elevator,” Nora answered.

Bucky listened to the low wash of Steve’s voice for a long time. At the end of it, he wasn’t really sure what had been said. He was almost numb, except for the clawing horrible thing that lived in his chest. That had swelled to twice its usual size and was shredding at his lungs. Steve clutched his shoulder and steered him to the elevator.

Bucky noticed just how badly he’d destroyed the door. The thing grew some more. No wonder she had panicked, he thought. She probably wondered what he could do to her if he could do that to the door.

Steve didn’t hit the button for ninety-seven, he hit ninety-five instead.

The lounge opened up before them and Steve gave him a shove towards the couches. Bucky felt like his legs were made of lead. It seemed to take a long time to make it there. He sat where just a few days before, he had been so comfortable with the little yellow dog on his lap, and was miserable. He put his face in his hands.

Steve sat beside him and said nothing.

The elevator dinged and Bucky flinched. The doors slid open and half the team filed out into the room. Natasha and Bruce wandered towards the kitchen, Tony went to the bar, Clint flipped dramatically over the back of the couch. Sam strode directly to the center of the rug in front of he and Steve and announced loudly, “She’s afraid of the fucking elevator.”

Bucky tried to parse the sentence and found he couldn’t. Steve beside him said, “What?”

“She’s afraid of the elevator!” He waved one hand, like that would help make his point any clearer.

Natasha slid onto a stool and said, “Bruce’s assistant?”

“Yes!” Sam crowed, gesturing towards Bruce. Bucky’s heart twisted. Very slowly, he lifted his head, and looked from Sam to Natasha, then at Bruce.

“I can’t believe she’s been riding it ninety stories every day.” The scientist muttered, pulling a mug from the cupboard and rifling through another for the tea.

“Why the fuck do you care that Banner’s assistant is afraid of the elevator?” Tony asked, surveying Sam like he was insane.

“Because,” Sam cried, “we thought she was afraid of Bucky.”

Clint shot Bucky a weird look, “You ever seen her outside an elevator?”

The weird clawing thing in his chest was gripping tighter, like it didn’t want to let him go, “The lab,” The words came out a little strangled.

“Right,” Clint said, “She mentioned that. She ran into you and forgot to say sorry because she broke her tablet.” He waved a hand towards Natasha, “I don’t think she knows enough about you to be scared, barely even knew who Nat was.”

Natasha raised an eyebrow, “She asked me to sign her cast.”

“Did you?” Clint asked with interest.

“Why the fuck would she be scared of you?” Tony asked Bucky critically, “She works with the Hulk.”

“Hey,” Bruce said mildly.

Bucky could think of reasons. He could think of hundreds of reasons. The clawing thing gripped tighter.

“She told me she doesn’t like elevators,” Bruce supplied, glancing at Bucky.

“Yeah, she’s claustrophobic.” Clint said like they were all being dumb, “She fucking tells everybody that apparently. Have you seen her,” He said very pointedly to Bucky, “Not in an elevator, and not after smashing some expensive equipment?”