Elevated

When the door whooshed open in the morning twenty minutes after she’d arrived at work, Nora spun away from her board and pointed, “Not Bruce!” She was right. It was Steve, looking deeply uncomfortable. She really didn’t know why he kept coming by the lab because he never looked happy when he did.

“Hey Nora,” He sort of fidgeted.

“Bruce definitely won’t be here for another hour. Our machines are possessed again so we’re getting like, zero work done.” She waved a hand towards the Coolidge machine that Tony had once again ripped apart, and then not put together because it seemed fine.

“I’m here to see you.”

“Okay,” He looked upset and she couldn’t begin to figure out why, “What’s up?” She took a few steps to sit on the edge of a table and waved to the empty office chair a few feet away, “You wanna sit?”

“No,” He answered, but he did wander a little further into the lab to stand uncomfortably near her, instead of uncomfortably near the door, “I wanted to talk about Bucky.”

Nora squinted at him, “What about Bucky?”

“Clint said that you guys,” he seemed to fight for his words, “hang out.”

“Yeah, sometimes.” Nora wondered if Captain America was about to be weird about her spending time with his best friend because he didn’t like her.

“Clint also said that you don’t know a lot about-“ He struggled again, “Us. The Avengers, I mean. Bucky.”

Nora frowned because it sounded like Clint was talking an awful lot of shit about her, but she really wasn’t sure why it mattered or why Steve would be so upset about it. She clicked her tongue, “I did have to google Sam and Wanda.” The rest of them she had mostly known. Sort of.

Steve sucked in a wavering sort of breath, “I just- Bucky seems to like you. I think he’d be really upset if you keep hanging out and then don’t want to anymore. When you- When-“ Nora frowned a little deeper. Steve changed tracks, “There are things he did. It might change how you see him. I think it would be better if that happens sooner than later.”

“I think,” Nora said loudly, “You can get out.”

“Sorry?” He looked surprised. Nora wondered if nobody had ever kicked Captain America out of a room before.

“You must think I’m either really stupid, or really shallow. I get that you don’t like me very much, but I’m not an idiot. I read the forms I signed when I got this job. Now get the hell out.” She pointed at the door. A cold sort of fury twisted in her stomach. Steve stood frozen for half a second longer, then turned and left. Nora scowled after him.

She let herself be mad for a few more minutes and then the feeling fizzled into vague annoyance. She wasn’t very good at being angry, and she supposed he wasn’t being unreasonable. If she thought someone was going to hurt one of her friends, she would probably try to do something about it too. She just couldn’t stand when people thought she was ignorant.

So she couldn’t match an Avenger to their face before she started working on ninety. She still read the news. She also had read, very carefully, the informed consent portion of her contract when Pepper Potts had provided it. She knew all about the likelihood of her getting crushed by a Hulk, zapped by Thor’s lightning, or blown up by Wanda’s weird red whatever. She also knew three out of nine Avengers were some sort of spy/assassin combination.

Nora was just pretty sure none of them were going to try and kill her.

Except maybe Stark. He spent a lot of time in the lab screwing with her.

By the time Bruce came in she’d stopped being annoyed altogether and started to feel a little bad instead. She sat at her desk and input numbers to their databank, but mostly she thought about kicking Steve out. It really wasn’t like her, she thought, to get so angry. She wasn’t quite sure why she had. She examined the feeling critically, like it was an equation she could solve.

She supposed it was because she liked Bucky. She didn’t like the idea that Steve thought there was a magic piece of information that would make her not want to be his friend anymore. She did know what he’d been getting at. Bucky had killed people. She fidgeted with her pen. Like a lot of people. But he hadn’t really been Bucky when he did it. The swaggering, dangerous person that she’d seen in a cell phone video when she’d looked up the team wasn’t Bucky.

Bucky was quiet, and careful, and gentle. He liked maple lattes and walking her dog. He always walked on the outside of the sidewalk and held doors for her. He steered her around mailboxes and out of the way of bikers. He pried an elevator door off its track to get her out.

“Nora?”

“Huh?” She turned in her chair. Bruce was looking at her, his eyebrows furrowed together.

“Are you okay?”

Nora huffed. She let her eyes rove over the tables and across the mess that had been the Coolidge machine, “Yeah,” She let the word drag out of her slowly, “I kicked Steve out of the lab this morning and now I feel bad.”

“What? Why?”

“Well, I thought he was being a jerk,” Bruce’s eyebrows crashed together in confusion, “But I think he was trying to be nice. I should probably apologize.”

“I’m confused,” Bruce started slowly, “What did he want?”

Nora tapped her pen on the edge of the table, “To tell me the statistical likelihood that I’ll die in this tower.” Bruce looked aghast, “No, sorry. He wanted to tell me about Bucky. He thought I wouldn’t want to be friends with him anymore if I knew he’d hurt people.”

Bruce’s expression kind of shifted. Became carefully neutral, “Did you know that?”

Nora eyed him, “Did you read my contract?” Bruce shook his head, eyebrows furrowing again, “It really emphasizes the likelihood of superhuman-related injuries.” Slow, horrified understanding crawled its way across Bruce’s face, “I know he killed people Bruce.” She set her pen down on the table with a click, “But Luna likes him, and so do I.”

Nora didn’t really know how to find Steve, so she texted Sam.

Can you please tell Steve I’m sorry I kicked him out of the lab. I know he was trying to help.

He texted back: sure?

Steve and Sam were fighting.

It was weird because they didn’t fight. It was also weird because neither of them would say a word with him in the room. He knew they must be fighting about him but couldn’t figure out why they would be.

He was doing better. He was pretty sure he was, anyways.

He wasn’t really sleeping, but he wasn’t sure what could be done about that. He made it to the gym every morning. He hung out in the lounge with Thor or Clint, and managed not to watch Natasha so closely when she was in the room. He went for coffee with Nora. Sam had made fun of him, but he thought he was proud too. Sam used to have to drag him out of the tower, and now he could do it on his own.

Or, not on his own, but without Sam or Steve. That was progress, right?

He tried a latte with almond milk, and a slew of holiday drinks. He didn’t love the chestnut, but he did like the gingerbread, French toast and sugar cookie.

His arm was still a problem. He knew the team didn’t care about it. He could wear a t-shirt to the gym and feel okay. He was pretty sure Nora didn’t care either. The awful thing that lived in his chest thought she definitely did. Bucky remembered when Sam dragged him to the lab to prove that she wasn’t afraid of him. He wondered if he needed her to see his arm again to know for sure. If it would make the claws a little less sharp.

He couldn’t bring himself to show her.