Elevated

Nora was pretty choked about the Particle Splitter, but nobody else seemed bothered so she had to let it go. The day after the explosion a big white sheet went up on the inside of the ruined lab and some sort of cleanup started. She passed workers in coveralls whenever she walked down the hallway.

She and Bruce continued to fight with their numbers. One afternoon, quite out of nowhere, he said aloud, “How do you feel about working with the Hulk?”

“What are you talking about?” Nora said. She had run a calculation and gotten a garbage kind of answer that didn’t make sense. She made a frustrated noise and snatched up the eraser, “I’ve never met the Hulk.”

“Nora. I’m the Hulk.”

She paused her erasing and glanced at him, “Oh. Then it’s great. He keeps a tidy lab and doesn’t touch my desk.”

He gave her an odd kind of look, “You aren’t worried? About an-“ he fought for a word.

“Episode?” She supplied, remembering Pepper Potts’ phrasing, “Not really. I’m pretty fucking worried I’m going to get stuck on that elevator again though.” She resumed her erasing.

Bruce made a little snorting sound. They went back to their calculations. They got, predictably, more garbage types of answers.

Nora had been forced by the elevator incident to develop a new system. She could, with Luna, manage to force herself into the metal box. It was still pretty horrifying, but she could manage. So, every morning she would ride the elevator to the ninety-eighth floor, drop the dog off at Thors, and then walk eight flights of stairs to the lab. It was admittedly, not a great system. But Thor really liked the dog, and he was spending most of the time at the tower, so it seemed fine short-term.

About a week after the elevator incident, she got bad news. She had wandered into Jane’s lab to chat with her and Darcy before she went up to get Luna, and Jane told her, “Thor’s going to Asgard for a couple weeks.”

The scientist looked positively morose, and Nora understood that Thor was her boyfriend so that sucked specifically for Jane, but she was also pretty worried about how much it was going to suck for her. She didn’t think she could bring Luna to the lab, and she couldn’t make it to the lab without bringing Luna. It was a vicious kind of circle. She frowned.

The next morning, she figured she better ask Bruce.

“Hey Bruce?”

“Huh?” He was taking readings with the Coolidge Machine which kept coming out really strangely and neither of them could figure out how it had managed to calibrate for a multi-solar system.

“Can I bring my dog to work?” The man straightened, looking mystified, “I’ve been bringing her to the tower and leaving her with Thor because I can’t get on the elevator without her, but Thor’s going to Asgard apparently. I swear she’ll just lie on the floor all day and cause no problems.” She raised two fingers very seriously, “Scouts honor.”

“Sure,” Bruce answered, taking his glasses off to clean.

So, she brought Luna to work. The dog greeted Bruce when he came in, and otherwise flopped on the floor wherever Nora was working. She did have to make an extra elevator trip at lunch to walk her, but it was easier than trying to fight off panic attacks in the elevator by herself.

Nora was having a turn fighting with the Coolidge Machine, ineffectively turning dials and muttering when they didn’t fix the problem, when the door behind her whooshed open. Luna shot up from the floor and darted off to say hello, “Hey Bruce, you think Mr. Stark would buy us a new one of these? I think it’s just totally-“ she turned.

“Not Bruce,” Sam supplied helpfully. He was standing a little ways into the lab and grinning. Steve over his shoulder, looked unhappy. Nora really didn’t think he liked her.

“I can see that. Still not here about the research right? Because I still can’t tell you anything.” She abandoned the machine and started towards them, rubbing her hands on her pants. As she walked around the table she noticed- “Hey, Thor wasn’t kidding. She really loves you.”

Barnes was crouched just inside the door like he was afraid to come too far into the lab, or maybe like he’d been waylaid by the dog that was sitting between his knees. She had one paw up on his leg and was leaning against him trying to sniff his face. Barnes was petting her dutifully and glanced up at Nora. Her stomach did a weird little flop of nerves and she could feel the embarrassment of all their previous interactions creeping up her neck.

“No, we just realized you and Bucky haven’t been introduced.”

Nora looked at Sam because that seemed like a weird thing to make the trip for, especially when Captain America obviously didn’t like her. He was still smiling though, so he must have been genuine, “Uh, yeah. He did save me from my actual worst nightmare though, so that was nice.” She smiled at Bucky, “I’m Nora. Thor already introduced you to Luna, right?”

Bucky nodded, but he didn’t stand, just kept patting Luna’s neck.

Nora felt the need to say something against his quiet, “He was babysitting, but he’s back in Asgard apparently so she’s a working dog now. Sorry by the way, for crashing into you the other day. And also for being such a weirdo every time I see you in an elevator. It does not put me at my best.” He gave her an odd kind of look she didn’t really know what to make of. The barest little twitch of his mouth that could’ve been a frown or a smile but wasn’t really anything. He was still looking at her with his very blue eyes.

“Buck,” Sam announced, “Why don’t you sign Nora’s cast.”

Bucky gave Sam a look that she also couldn’t really figure out, but thought might be unhappy, “Oh yeah, it comes off on Monday and I still need your signature and Wanda’s. Clint thought I couldn’t get Natasha to sign but I saw her the other day and she was cool about it.” Bucky didn’t say anything but he did stand up very slowly and started to cross the lab. Nora surveyed the pen cup on her desk for a sharpie, didn’t find it, tried the drawer and did. Steve was looking at Bucky, and so was Sam. One of them was smiling and the other was sort-of frowning. She was still getting the sense that a misunderstanding was happening, but Bucky came to stand beside her so she held out the pen and her cast.

He took the pen in his right hand, hesitated, then put his left under her wrist to keep it steady. She noted with mild interest, that his left hand was some kind of smooth black metal, but was more interested in the cramped little signature he did, wedged between the giant ‘Tony’ and loopy ‘Steve’.

“Nice,” she said, “Thanks.” And then realized how close he was standing and how giant he was and found herself a little nervous again for no apparent reason. She stomped it down.

“-Two doctorates and you can’t calibrate a- what the fuck?” Tony had strode in with purpose, Bruce on his heels and they both stopped dead. Tony squinted between the three men already in the lab, “Why are you here?” He glanced at Luna where she was still staring lovingly up at Bucky from his feet, “What’s with the dog?”

The awful, clawed thing that had been living in his chest had shrunk. But there was something else edging its way into the empty space around it. Something he didn’t recognize and was afraid to look at.

Nora was not afraid of him.

She wasn’t afraid of him even a little.

She had been instead, confused and embarrassed. And she had apologized to him. So easily, like his feelings mattered. Had said that he saved her. He rubbed absently at his chest, still sore from where his heart had been shredded by his own fear. She let him sign her cast. Didn’t flinch when he took her arm in his metal hand.

And then Tony breezed in. Bucky scowled at the memory even as he realized he didn’t know why he was angry. Tony had started to ramble and wandered over to a board of complicated math and Nora had darted away to put herself between Tony and her work. Then they started arguing, and Bruce cut in to stop them, and Bucky was left with his hand feeling extraordinarily empty, like he was missing something.

He flexed his metal fingers absently. He couldn’t feel them, not really. But he thought suddenly they might feel cold.