Cardboard mattresses

[chapter 8]

The three stared in shock at the computer screen.
"Bruce what is this?" Natasha asked cautiously.
"It- umm, honestly I don't know how" Bruce replied, stuttering slightly "let me run it again".

Glancing back over his shoulder Banner gave the kid an almost sympathetic look before turning back to the screen and rerunning the programme.

Colourful dialogue, graphs and other mathematical jargon flashed up on the screen, Bruce hunched over the desk, you could almost see the cogs spinning in his brain as he worked. A few minutes later and he turned around to face Natasha and Steve "it's what I thought" he said.

"What is Bruce, explain please, you're killing us" Natasha poked at him, confusion sparking in her eyes, she hated being out of the loop.

"Her cells. They're misbehaving" Bruce explained slowly, "they should be just floating around... but they're not, it's almost like they're panicking"
Natasha looked at him, narrowing her eyes and then glancing over at Steve. "Could it be the drugs?" Steve asked
"Valid question, but no" Bruce replied "yes drugs do effect the blood but not like this" the scientist rubbed his hand on his forehead "the cells are strange ... F.R.I.D.A.Y tell Tony to get down here please".

Tony barged through the doors a few moments later "so what's up with the small druggie" he asked a small smirk on his face.
"Don't joke about that" Steve said, clearly irritated by Tony's remark.
"God Rodger's you're no fun sometimes" He replied tapping a pen on his hand and wandering over to Bruce, flipping through his notes and fiddling with the computer.

After a long and usually quiet pause tony said "what the shit"

"Language" Steve muttered and Nat gave him a fed up kind of look, raising her eyebrows at him.

"I don't understand how this has happened, but she's got some kind of mutated super soldier serum in her blood" Bruce finally confirmed, looking up at Natasha and Steve. Steve looked like he'd just been electrocuted and Natasha just kind of stood there in shock.

The team were all fully aware of how many failed attempts there had been to recreate the serum, Banner especially, so for a kid to just wander into the compound on a random Tuesday with the serum surging through her veins but no idea that it even was, was definitely a shock.

Finally Natasha spoke up "how's that possible Bruce?" She asked looking at the kid then up at Banner,
"I'm not sure, the only way we'll know for sure is to ask her when she wakes up"

"Steve you good?" Nat questioned,
"Yeah I just need to take a sec, I'm gonna find Buck" and with that he practically jogged out the room.

"I'm confused" Nat said "the serum doesn't seem to effect her at all, she wasn't very strong when I grabbed her and her wounds don't seem to heal any faster than the average person"

"I'm going to need to look into that" Bruce replied, standing up and walking over to June who lay unconscious strapped onto the table. Carefully he drew a little more blood and headed back to the work bench where him and Tony got to work experimenting with the sample.

Natasha pushed open the plain glass doors and left the med lab, she wasn't sure how to feel. The small human who'd just walked through the doors had reminded her a great deal of herself which felt very unsettling and wasn't a welcome reminder of her childhood which she repressed at all costs.

Walking into the lounge Clint was there making a sandwich, Nat grabbed a beer and flopped down on the couch.
"You okay Nat?" He asked her,
"Yeah I'm fine" she replied,
"Don't bullshit me nat"
"Clint -I"
"Mmh"
"Nevermind"

Clint walked over to the sofa and sat next to her, "Nat what's up?",
"I don't know, she feels familiar like I'm looking at a younger version of myself" nat said looking down into her lap. She never talked to anyone about anything personal but Clint was an exception, he was like a brother to her, and was one of the only people who could read her like a book, a fact which irritated her hugely at first.