Chapter 20
Bruce was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, taking in the whole scene with a slight smirk. Steve and Celia both froze for a moment before Celia dropped the towel, turning to face Bruce. Steve nonchalantly dropped the towel on the counter, trying to hide his embarrassment from being caught acting so childish.
“I slept Bruce, you were right!” Celia exclaimed, walking over and wrapping Bruce in a big hug. Steve chuckled at Bruce’s bewildered face. Most people avoided contact with Bruce, fear of the Hulk ruling their actions. Not Celia evidently. Bruce patted her arm as she released him, wide smile on her face.
“I know, I’m glad,” Bruce said, smoothing out his hug wrinkled shirt. “I was down in my lab going over the data I collected, if you’d like to hear about it?”
“Of course,” Celia answered, leading Bruce over to the stools at the counter. Steve abandoned his dishes mission to listen in on what Bruce found, leaning forward on his hands.
“I hooked you up to the EEG because I wanted to track your brain waves while you were in normal sleep and while you were healing. And to see at which point in your sleep cycle the healing was triggered. When we sleep we cycle through a few different stages of sleep, non-REM and REM. You have to go through a few stages of non-REM before you get to REM, which takes time. Your healing kicked in way before that was possible.”
“So what does that tell us?” Steve asked when Bruce paused to take a breath.
“If the healing had been triggered in REM sleep, it would happen when the brain is more active on an unconscious level, similar to when we’re awake. But the healing starts when your brain activity lowers to mostly inactive, more like the second stage of non-REM. When a person loses consciousness, they have a similar brain wave to someone in that stage. Most likely, this tells us that sleeping triggers your healing and losing consciousness will too.”
“So, say I get into a car accident and pass out. I’ll immediately wake up and heal?” Celia asked.
“That’s what the science is telling me so far. We won’t know for sure unless it happens though,” Bruce answered.
“And if I take a fatal blow, like a gunshot to the head or break my neck falling off a building, if I pass out instead of die immediately, you think I’ll heal?” Celia questioned.
“I believe so,” Bruce concurred.
“Does this mean I’ll never die naturally?”
Steve sucked in a breath, startled by the possibility of what she just said. It made sense, an illness she would happen to get should be healed as soon as she fell asleep. Her body wouldn’t let anything progress to a point where it could kill her outright. And if her body was healing it’s muscles every night, was it regenerating all of her cells too? Would she ever age? Steve could tell by the look on Celia’s face that she was going through these possibilities too.
“At this point, I don’t know. And there isn’t really a test I’m comfortable giving you to see if you are able to die,” Bruce trailed off, looking away. Steve was mentally brought back to the helicarrier, when Bruce admitted to attempting suicide to see if he could finally rid himself of the hulk. He shuddered internally, imagining Celia becoming desperate enough to try that.
“I guess it won’t do me much good to worry about that now,” Celia said quietly, running her finger along the edge of the counter. “What else did you find out?”
“I had Jarvis tracking all your vitals. Your heart rate got up to 180bpm, which is fairly high. It isn’t too uncommon in athlete’s who are training, but is a little concerning for someone in a stationary position. What I think is happening is the blood is being pumped faster through your body to get in and out of your muscles quicker, and helping to support the healing taking place. Your temperature rose a bit also, but not to anywhere too concerning,” Bruce explained.
“So it doesn’t really matter what’s happening to my body while it heals, because I’ll go back to normal when it’s over, right?”
“Basically. But I just wanted to give you all the details I could, since it’s your body.”
“Thank you, I really appreciate it. I’d rather have all the facts than have something come up and catch me off guard,” Celia said earnestly. Steve sighed a bit in relief. It wasn’t all great news, but none of it was too devastating at this point.
“So, what now?” Steve asked, needing to have a task. It was unnatural to be sitting on the sidelines while things were happening. He needed a purpose, he needed to help.
“There is one other thing…” Bruce trailed off. Steve and Celia glanced anxiously at each other. Bruce hadn’t been nervous about what they talked about so far, so this must be something more unsavory.
“What is it?” Steve asked.
“Fury has been calling for you.”
“What’s that?” Celia asked, confused.
“Not what, who,” Bruce corrected. “He’s the director of Shield.”
“Your boss’s name is Fury,” Celia stated with a snort. “Well, that’s not ominous.”
“When did he call? What did he say?” Steve asked, feeling the dread pool in the pit of his stomach. He had forgotten about more official things in the quest to solve Celia’s sleep problem. He imagined Shield was chomping at the bit to get his report on what went down in the elevator.
“He started calling a few hours ago, but I had Jarvis block all communication to your floor, so it wouldn’t wake you up.”
“How did he feel about that?”
“He wasn’t very pleased, but I explained that you needed your rest to heal and be at 100%, so he couldn’t really argue much.”
“I guess I should call him back,” Steve said reluctantly. “Although, it is kind of late. I wouldn’t want to be rude.”
“No need, he’s coming to the tower in the morning,” Bruce replied with a grimace. Steve had to stop himself from visibly spluttering. He was not expecting that answer.
“And how does Tony feel about that? He isn’t usually a fan of official Shield meetings happening in his tower,” Steve wondered aloud. He didn’t want this to be another ding for Celia in Tony’s scorecard.
“It was Tony’s idea actually,” Bruce admitted with a shrug. “He figured it would be safer to keep details in house for now, until we know who to trust.”
“And you trust this guy?” Celia asked. Neither he nor Bruce said anything for a moment, considering the question. There was the whole deal with the alien weapons that Steve was still unhappy
about. But Fury had gone to bat for them with the council. It was too complicated to have a definitive opinion of the man and the agency he ran.
“I wouldn’t say I trust him, but I believe he would try to do what’s best for the good of the people,” Steve said, less than confidently. Celia frowned, side eyeing him a little.
“Well, now that we’ve heard your bullshit Captain America answer, what do you really think, Steve?” Celia questioned, quirking her brow in a challenge. Bruce stifled a laugh, coughing behind his fist.
“I think Fury is the best option we have. Am I happy about that? No. But he’s better to have as an ally than an enemy. So I think we need to get in front of this, feel him out a little and take the lead, because Shield won’t hesitate to try to take control if we let them,” Steve stated emphatically.
“Okay,” Celia agreed, accepting his answer, “so what do we tell him?”
“We need to figure it out before Fury comes in the morning. I think we should have a team meeting. Presenting a united front will be better for us in the long run,” Steve said, hiding the unease he felt about bringing the team together to talk about this. Tony seemed to have thawed a bit toward Celia, but Steve didn’t know if he’d be able to hold in his snark for a meeting with Fury, which could thin the director’s patience. Clint and Natasha were wild cards, their loyalty divided between Shield and The Avengers, but he hoped he could count on them to side with the team, since they lived and fought together.
“Might as well get this over with,” Celia mumbled, standing up from her seat and stretching.
“Last I saw, everyone was on the common floor. That still the case Jarvis?” Bruce asked, standing and stretching also. Steve glanced back mournfully at the unwashed dishes. Just a few minutes ago all he was focused on was casual kitchen banter, now he had to go into a serious team meeting to prepare for another serious team meeting. Celia seemed to be hiding her nerves well, if she was feeling any. She had the most to lose and had to put her fate into the hands of strangers.
“It is, Dr. Banner,” Jarvis responded. “Should I inform the others of your impending arrival?”
“Yeah, thanks Jarvis,” Bruce said, walking toward the elevator. Celia started to follow, but held back when she noticed he hadn’t moved.
“The dishes can wait,” Celia joked, tilting her head toward where Bruce was waiting. Steve forced a small smile, appreciating her effort to lighten the mood, even if it didn’t work.
“I don’t know how the next 24 hours are going to go, but I’ll do my best to back whatever you want to do,” Steve said earnestly, thinking back to what he said to Bruce the night before. He never wanted to force anyone into doing anything they didn’t want to do. Steve was prepared to fight back against Shield if they overstepped any of Celia’s boundaries.
“I appreciate that. I don’t know what I want to do at this point because I don’t know what my options are. But I’m ready to get all this over with. The anticipation is always the worst,” Celia said, walking backwards toward the doorway. “Now, we don’t want to keep Tony waiting and have him turn the elevator into a microwave, do we?” Steve chuckled a little before frowning, wondering if that was possible. Knowing Tony, it was.