Out Of Time

forty-eight

Y/N had been in the helicarrier's medical center for about two days before she was set free. The doctors still wanted to monitor her, but agreed to let her get back to work. They were worried about a serve head injury and didn't want to catch it too late. Y/N was very grateful for modern technology to allow them to be more thorough about everything, but she really didn't want to have all those Y/N on top of her all the time.

Especially because she had been feeling the cube. It was like the Tesseract was calling to her, but she couldn't pin point any location. She was wandering around the helicarrier, trying to figure out what was going on between her and the Tesseract, when she ran into Natasha.

"Hey Nat!" Y/N smiled.

"Y/N!" Nat pulled her into a hug. "How's your head?"

"I'm still being closely monitored," Y/N pulled out of the hug, "but it's better. Where were you headed?"

"Coulson's about to land with your brother, I was going to meet them. You want to come?"

"I'd love to." Y/N noticed a very nervous man not far behind Nat. She recognized him from some files she had seen a while back. "Is that Dr. Banner?"

Nat glanced back at the man behind her. "Yes," she turned back to Y/N. "I was tasked with retrieving him."

"Is Fury assembling everyone?"

Natasha gave her a sympathetic look. "I don't know how much you'll actually have to be around Stark-"

"That's-" Y/N shook her head. "I'm fine. I can handle Stark."

"I know," Nat gave her a soft smile. "I just don't believe you have to. Now, let's go greet your brother."

Y/N followed Nat outside onto the large deck, as Dr. Banner followed them. The quinjet landed and the men walked down the ramp, just as Y/N and the other two reached it.

"Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers," Phil introduced the two to each other.

"Ma'am," Steve greeted.

"Hi," Nat replied, before looking at Phil. "They need you on the bridge. They're starting the face-trace."

"See you there," Phil said, walking away.

"Steve," Y/N smiled. Steve quickly wrapped his arms around his sister.

"I was so worried when I read the file." Steve pulled back, keeping his hands on Y/N's arms. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"You sure? Cause head injuries-"

"Steve, I'm fine. I promise. We do need to talk though, when we can be alone."

"Of course."

Natasha, Y/N, and Steve began walking towards the railing of the helicarrier.

"It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice," Natasha stated to Steve. "I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"

"Trading cards?" Steve questioned.

"They're vintage," Y/N chuckled. "He's very proud."

The three walked closer to the railing, where Dr. Banner was nervously wandering around. It was obvious that he was trying to stay out of the way of others.

"Dr. Banner," Steve greeted, walking up to the nervous man. The two shook hands.

"Oh, yeah. Hi," Dr. Banner responded. "They told me you'd be coming."

"Word is you can find the cube."

"Is that the only word on me?"

"Only would I care about."

Bruce shook his head. "It must be strange for the both of you," he motioned around, "all of this."

"I've been awake for a few years now," Y/N shrugged. "I'm used to it."

Steve looked around. "And, well, this is actually kind of familiar."

"Gentlemen, Agent Rogers," Nat stepped up, "you might want to step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breath."

"Is this a submarine?" Steve asked.

"Really?" Bruce questioned. "They want me in a submerged, pressurized metal container?"

Y/N and Nat watch as the two men move closer to the edge as the helicarrier prepares to take flight. Steve watched in awe while Bruce smiled.

"Oh, no," Bruce said. "This is much worse."

The five soon went to the bridge, where Director Fury and Agent Coulson were. Steve looked around in awe before handing Fury ten bucks.

"Doctor," Fury went over to Bruce, holding out his hand. "Thank you for coming."

"Thanks for asking nicely," Bruce responded, reluctantly shaking Fury's hand. "So, uh.. how long am I staying?"

"Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear."

"Where are you with that?"

"We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera not the planet," Coulson answered. "Cellphones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us."

"That's still not gonna find them in time," Natasha said, looking at a photo of Clint on one of the monitors.

"You have to narrow the field," Bruce stated. "How many spectrometers do you have access to?"

"How many are there?" Fury asked.

"Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays," Bruce instructed. "I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?"

"Agent Rogers, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please." Y/N nodded. "Agent Rogers is very familiar with the Tesseract, so she will also be helping you locate it."

"I will?" Y/N questioned.

"You have a connection with the cube," Fury stated. "With you, we have a better chance at finding it."

"Wait- a connection?" Steve repeated, turning to Y/N. "You didn't tell me that you had a connection with the cube?"

"It's new information," Y/N answered. "And there was never a good time." Y/N moved towards Bruce. "You're gonna love the lab, Doc." The two began heading down the hall. "We got all the toys."