42A/N: Thank you for the response to the first chapter! Thank you to those who reviewed. I will try my best to send out PMs as they come along. Last but not least, thank you to those who added this story to their fave lists and story alerts.
You'll see that chapters will be much shorter as compared to From Where You Are. Leave a review!
Well I'm going to be gearing up for the Lunar New Year...it's the year of the Snake!
Bruce stood in the doorway with his glasses clipped onto his neck collar. He looked to see if Clint was there, but the stealthy sniper was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's the Hawk today?" Tony appeared behind the man.
"I don't know. I haven't seen him lately." He wearily looked down at the chart. His previous notes didn't demonstrate the progress he had hoped for.
"How is she doing?"
"Her vitals are stable right now." He jotted a few notes into the empty boxes.
"You have that look." The physics genius pointed out.
"What look?"
"You're not telling me something."
It took all his strength to keep the secret he was hiding from him. The raging monster inside of him wanted to Hulk out at the point to scare away anyone that would come close in revealing Natasha's secret including the infamous Tony Stark. "Patient confidentiality."
"Bullshit," he muttered.
"Don't you dare think about snooping. There are safeguards already in place in case you decide to do something funny. And if JARVIS gets involved, he will be out of commission for months."
"Who the hell devised that plan?"
Bruce pointed over towards the red head. "She did just in case this ever happened." His gaze went back to the Iron Man, "I'm warning you."
"You're the boss," he held up his hands in defeat and sauntered off somewhere, devising a plan to hack into the system without any incident.
Black lines crossed out each day. His gray eyes counted each box, reminding him the error of his ways and the hell he has been in. The trail had gone cold until there was one blip on the grid. Something he would've missed if he hadn't paid so close attention to the chatter. It was time for some payback.
"I need a distraction," he slammed the door to Fury's office.
"I don't think it's a wise decision, Barton." He finished signing off mission reports from Agent Hill. "You haven't been cleared by medical."
"I don't give a damn."
"Do you?" He raised an eye, wondering what the marksman was up to.
"My partner is lying in a comatose state because of me. She disobeyed me to the very end."
"I've seen the mission reports from ancillary staff. There was nothing you could've done."
"That's a lie and you know it." He grinded his teeth together.
"Go home, Barton. Get some rest. There's always tomorrow."
"She might not have tomorrow." Fury's finger loomed over the red button. One single push and security would come racing to subdue the marksman if he didn't listen. Clint took it as a sign to leave the premise. "Alright I'm going."
His deadened footsteps echoed in the empty hallway. Several agents walked past him, keeping their heads low and avoiding eye contact. He swung around the corner and entered the hangar bay. He was focused on one thing alone as he searched through the metallic containers. "Where is it?" he muttered, shoving aside the crates until his eyes found his newly ordered crossbow.
Bruce had fallen asleep in his lab again. It was becoming a bad habit he had picked up ever since he was extracted from India. He rolled his chair to the microscope and adjusted the lens before peering down onto the slide. The cells were hardly reacting. "Nope, not it." He crushed the glass against the table. The clock was ticking and he was getting closer to the deadline. Where was the magic bullet to solve everything?
He reached for another sample, applying the red droplet onto the clear surface before pipetting another chemical. He wished it would work, but he didn't dare hold his breath. For being a scientist just like Stark, there was always uncertainty. So many different permutations and outcomes. Like what Louis Pasteur once said, "Chance favors the prepared mind." Banner interjected in his own monologue with his mind as he cursed again. He chucked the glass slide clear across the table, sending it crashing to the ground.
"Focus Bruce," he muttered at himself.
~Flashback~
The door to his lab creaked. He barely noticed her slip through the door. "Can I help you with something?" He slipped his glasses to the bridge of his nose.
The Black Widow took a seat at the opposite end of the table. Her poker face was on. She slipped him a blue document. "I need you to keep this safe."
Bruce reached out to the dyed paper and pulled it apart. "This is not my summons."
"No," she shook her head. "It's for me."
"Oh," the scientist sat their with a perplex look. "I'm not following."
"I think something is wrong with me."
He leaned into his chair and was taken aback from her statement. He was trying to read her facial features.
"I don't think the serum is working." She wrapped her arms around her elbows as she leaned forward. "Something happen to me awhile back on one of my missions with Barton."
"What do you mean?"
"My wounds aren't healing as fast as before."
"You were cleared by medical."
"I know but something doesn't add up."
The doctor listened to the rest of her story. "Well I can run blood samples and see what I can do."
Natasha already had her sleeve rolled up on her left arm. "You can't let anyone know about this. Not even Stark, and more so, not even Barton."
"Patient confidentiality." He drew the liquid amber into four vials. "I'll let you know what I find out, but judging by the severity and circumstances, it's going to be a while."
"I know."
~End of Flashback~
The cells on the slide bounced into each other, as he switched the lens to the high power field. He was determined to find an answer if it meant working through the night. The balance of two lives was on the line as he searched for the elusive variable to tie the loose ends.
Orange shadows were casted on the walls. Tony pondered to himself what Natasha could possibly be hiding from him. He focused on the blaze with a furrowed brow. He hated to be out of the loop for anything. The feeling didn't sit well with him. He bided his time by sipping on a concoction he haphazardly plucked from his bar.
"JARVIS."
"Yes, sir."
"Update on Natasha Romanoff."
"Vitals are stable. An attempt for vent weaning failed this afternoon."
He rose from his seat and pitched the rest of the alcohol into the amber flames. It was time to see what Banner was holding back.
"What are you doing, sir?" The A.I. remained silent in the background, performing system scans.
"You know…breaking the rules." He swiped at the screens and examined the coding.
The A.I.'s voice stuttered. "Protocol over-ri-den. Acc-e-ss de-nied."
"Damn that Romanoff," Tony typed several codes, hoping to prevent JARVIS from becoming nonexistent. "What are you hiding?"
On his computer screen, rows of alphabet soup flashed in random fashion. If the Black Widow can hack into his system, he for sure can hack away at her mysterious code.
"Backup system fa-i-ling. Re-ver-ti-ng to al-pha source."
The playboy millionaire ignored the commands again. "What's wrong with JARVIS?"
Pepper stepped into his workstation.
"He caught a bad bug," he stated point blank.
"Something tells me you're up to something…again." She pursed her lips as she peered over her boyfriend's shoulders.
"I don't think you have any ideas to crack this," he gazed at her.
"Ummm….no."
"Can you hand me my cell phone over there?" He realized at that point he was breaking one of his longtime rituals.
"Tony, what are you really trying to do?" She passed the small device back to him, as he was multitasking on several different screens.
"I'm seeing what Natasha is hiding."
"I saw her today. Still the same like yesterday." She sighed, "And no one knows where Clint dashed off to."
Tony processed more screens until the code morphed into several patterns. "Ah ha gotcha!" The pixelated document appeared on the screen. "Oh crap," he muttered.
"What are you reading?"
"What day is it?"
"It's Tuesday."
Tony was doing the math in his head, "Shit!"
"Will you talk to me Stark?"
"We only have three days left," his voice trailed off. The magnitude of the situation was more severe than he realized.
Pepper was tired of being ignored and pushed him aside to see what the fuss was about. Her face dropped as she saw the black ink sprawled across the white paper.
Withdraw life support after thirty days.
"You better find Clint," she passed the papers back to her fiancé.
"You know I don't like to be handed things."
"Now is not the time to argue…"