Chapter Text
Thursday morning, Justine found herself adjusting her coat at a constant rate. She wasn't quite sure when the last time had been that she was this nervous, but it had been quite a while. The night before, she had sent up her research to Bruce's lab via Jarvis, and the next morning, Bruce had replied.
According to him, he had mixed up the concoction that she had instructed, and had pulled some cells from his subject; the reaction was instantaneous, according to him, and he was so impressed that a new badge was issued to Justine when she stepped into the building. She was now cleared for higher levels, but would mostly keep her research right where she was. In other words: she was allowed up to help Bruce, but her job would still be something she was required to do.
So now she fiddled with her coat as the elevator lifted up, the red letters at the top showing that she had just passed the 38th floor and was heading for the 39th. She took a deep breath, her heart rate spiking as she realized what all of this meant – and quite frankly, it made her lightheaded.
"Nervous, Miss Worthington?" Jarvis' disembodied voice asked.
She giggled, a nervous habit of hers, and swallowed before speaking. "Yes, quite. I never thought I'd make it this far so soon... I kept pinching myself as I got dressed this morning." She said, looking up at the numbers – she was just passing the 42nd floor. "I just can't believe it."
"Well, you certainly have earned it." Jarvis complimented. "Although, be advised that Mr. Stark is going to be there as well, he wants to talk to you a little more now, as you will now be working in his – and this is what he calls it – candyland. He's very proud of it, and only a few researchers are allowed up there."
"So I gathered over the weekend, and from my initial interview." Justine replied. "It took a while until I was allowed up."
Jarvis seemed to chuckle. "Yes, well, Mr. Stark is quite stubborn." he answered as the elevator stopped, and the doors dinged open. "Good luck, Miss Worthington. Dr. Banner certainly needs the help."
"Thank you, Jarvis." Justine said, exiting the elevator and stepping onto the floor. The tables in front of her seemed empty, but Bruce had told her that he would be waiting for her when she arrived, so she simply decided to look for him by the desk that he had taken her to earlier.
When she made it there, however, she was greeted with quite a different sight – Tony Stark leaning against Bruce's desk, his arms crossed over his chest as he assessed her. "Well, well, I'm glad you finally made it. I thought that perhaps you had decided that candyland was a bit much for a little scientist like you." he said, his eyes going over her suit-jacket and dress pants. "Aren't you a little overdressed for a science project?"
Justine raised a blonde eyebrow at his statement, cocking her head to the side. "Perhaps." she retorted. "But as you've looked into my background, you would know that I'm someone who never dresses in less than slacks except on the weekend. Training from going to NYU I'm afraid, that and being from Greenwich tends to do that to a person. Also, I happen have a lunch date with a friend of mine later on, and we're going to a rather pricey restaurant." she answered, looking at the billionaire.
His eyebrow rose at her tone, his brown eyes seeming to have both surprise and amusement in them. A smirk played at his lips for a moment, then he suddenly started chuckling. "You're not as mousy as the first time I met you." he commented.
"Naturally," she replied. "I'm an employee of yours now. I don't have to keep my mouth shut to get the job."
"Ah, ah, I can fire you for that you know." Tony tutted, pointing the pencil in his hand in her direction. "Or I can drop you back down to the lower levels of R&D."
"Which you won't do." Bruce's voice cut in from behind Justine. She turned, smiling at him as he moved toward her with a box and cup in his hands. "Good morning, Justine."
"Good morning, Dr. Banner." she replied.
"Its my company, Bruce." Tony retorted. "I can fire her if I want."
"Not if I tell Pepper, you won't." the normally quiet doctor quipped, earning a mock-glare from his friend.
"I'm insulted that you would be so insensitive as to use my own girlfriend against me all because you want to keep Blondie here." Tony replied. "I mean, she's not even that pretty."
"That's not what you said on Monday." Bruce replied as he put down the drink and box. Justine blushed from what was just said, and looked at the equipment to distract herself from her discomfort. First Mr. Stark had insulted her, she had been defended by Bruce, only to find out that Stark thought she actually was attractive. Any woman would blush in such circumstances. "Justine, why don't you come over here and we can talk about your little serum?" Bruce offered, ignoring Tony's whining.
She did as instructed, setting down her bag on a nearby chair before taking a look at the cells which Bruce had under the microscope. Bruce stood next to her as she bent down, her hair in one hand as she held it away from her face to look into the glass. "So which cells did you apply my concoction to?" she inquired, getting straight to business.
Tony watched the scene, from afar, his eyes watching from behind a piece of holographic glass as Bruce smiled, leaning a little closer to her before he answered. "The cells that you had a look at on Sunday. Apparently your serum calmed those particular ones down quite a bit..." he said, continuing to explain just what he had done, and how had tweaked her serum ever-so-slightly to help counter the affects of the enraged cells.
Justine's head lifted from the microscope, and she turned to Bruce with a sweet smile on her own face, in both fascination at what she had created and the fact that she was working with one of the world's greatest scientists – comparable only to Professor Xavier, Dr. Richards or Dr. McCoy. "I'm glad I could help. Now I take it you didn't give your subject this serum yet?"
Bruce shook his head, his brown waves jostling ever so slightly, making Justine bite her lip to keep herself from saying or doing anything foolish. "I don't know how it will affect him completely. Besides, I thought you and I should run a few more tests before we went ahead and simply gave it to him. We don't want him blowing up or something." he replied. She laughed, a type of infectious laughter which forced Bruce to join in.
"Well, if he is who I said I thought he was a few days ago, he already has that problem." she replied, and Bruce just lifted his eyebrows as if to say 'true'. "Well, does he know about the fact that we might be able to help him?"
"He does." Bruce answered. "And needless to say, he's pretty nervous about whether we'll find something to help him. He doesn't like what the original experiment did to him, and really wants to be able to be a little more normal."
"So are you two going to keep making eyes at each other, or are you actually going to get some work done?" Tony's voice broke their eye contact.
Justine nodded slightly, hiding her blush by ducking her head once more to look into the microscope. Bruce glared at his colleague. "The whole point of her being here is for her to help out, Tony." he said. "So yes, we will get some work done... she isn't here to – as you put it – make eyes at."
"I'm just pointing out the obvious, Bruce." Tony replied. He had been watching the two of them very closely in their little dialogue, and had noted that Bruce's eyes showed a growing fascination within him for the young woman. For her, he could see that she was enamored with him in a way, though whether that was from a purely scientific point of view, or the fact that she genuinely liked his friend was another thing.
"Yes, well, why don't you go point out the flaw in your little toy there?" Bruce offered, pointing to a robot which Tony and Bruce had found out yesterday wasn't working properly. Tony huffed, moving over to the object and picking it up.
"Do you just want me to be quiet, cause I can be quiet." Tony said, not wanting to deal with the piece of metal quite yet. It was too fun watching the two scientists at work trying to solve the control issue of Bruce's hulking. Of course, Tony knew that for the girl to be able to fully help, she'd have to know the truth – or else, she'd be running up a dark alley, blind.
"Why don't you just go away, Tony?" Bruce asked, trying to shoo the inventor out of the room.
With a pout, Tony acquiesced, deciding to watch them from Jarvis' vantage point. "Fine, I'll just leave you two lovebirds to make goo-goo eyes at each other." he said, noting in the lighting that Justine blushed once again as she tried to ignore the two men. Chuckling to himself, he left, heading to another floor for observation – perhaps the living room with his rather large television and comfortable couch?
"Sorry about him." Bruce apologized to Justine when Tony was gone. "He tends to be a bit annoying."
She shook her head, lifting it to rummage through her purse. "Nah, I understand. Its alright." she said, pulling out her phone and turning it on vibrate before she turned once more to the shy doctor with a large smile. "Well, shall we work on a few other samples?" She offered.
Bruce nodded, moving her over to another desk so that she could set her things down before he took her to a room to the side which held all the sensitive material.
Meanwhile, in the private sector of Stark Tower, Tony Stark sat down on his couch, turning on the TV to monitor the two – a bowl of popcorn set next to him so he could enjoy the show.
One hour turned to two, then three, then five – before Justine knew it, her phone was buzzing on the desk beside her. Moving her gaze from the microscope in front of her, she opened her phone to see that her friend was asking her when she was going to get to the restaurant, and that she was hungry.
"Oh shit." she swore lightly, looking up at the clock. It read one o'clock, and she instantly panicked.
"What's wrong?" Bruce's voice came from beside her, instantly worried that something had happened to the sample that she had been working on.
"I was supposed to meet with a friend for lunch. I'm late." she replied, stuffing her phone back in her bag. "I'm sorry, I wasn't keeping track of the time."
Bruce's face fell, and he took his glasses off to pinch the bridge of his nose. "How long ago were you supposed to meet her?"
"Thirty-minutes ago." she answered, pulling her jacket on. "Uh... this is a really bad thing, cause I just got started on this."
"Don't worry about it, I'll put it back into the fridge and you can work on it when you get back." he replied, reaching for the slide.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, you're late. Go." he replied, already heading for the storage room. She thanked him, heading for the elevator and back down to street level, sending her friend a text that she was on her way, along with an apology.
Sorry. Lost track of time. I'm on my way now. - JW
Did you indeed? So your cute doctor is more important than me, eh? - KC
No. You know how I am when I work. - JW
Right. I'm ordering without you. What do you want? I'll get it for you. - KC
Whatever is fine. I'll be there soon. - JW
Alright but no complaining from you if you don't like it. - KC
I promise to keep my mouth shut. - JW
That'll be an accomplishment. - KC
Justine chuckled at her friend's text as she exited the elevator. KC, or Katherine Collins, was Justine's friend from Kent College, the only one who still talked to her after she had decided to split with Lyle. It was understandable, as Katherine also came from a rather prominent family in Britain, and wanted to break from the mold as much as Justine did. Being rebels together was what made them best friends, and seemed to keep their friendship alive.
As she went to leave the building and get a taxi, she found that a young woman had gotten the first one, was getting in, and she would have to wait until another one decided to stop for her. Growling lightly, she went to hail a taxi.
"Excuse me." the younger woman's voice stopped her with her hand raised up. She looked over, not sure why the woman was trying to talk to her. She'd seen her somewhere, but wasn't sure where.
"Yes?"
"Well, I noticed you seem to be in a hurry. Would you like to hitch a ride with me? I doubt you'll have any luck getting a taxi as five passed me before this one stopped." she offered. Justine only took a few minutes before she made the decision to join the brunette girl, and with a nod, she slid in next to her.
"Destination?" the cabbie asked. The brunette woman motioned for Justine to tell him first, and then gave her address but told him to go to Justine's first. "Alright, will do." He said, the car moving.
The occupants were silent for a few minutes as the vehicle moved. "Do you work at Stark Tower?" Justine asked first, knowing she'd seen this girl somewhere before.
"Yes." the girl replied. "I work in Legal."
"Do you?" Justine said. "Do you know Emma Langley?"
The girl smiled, putting her phone away and turning to Justine with a smile. "I'm Emma's assistant." she answered, stretching her hand out. "Elizabeth Donovan, call me Lizzie."
"Nice to meet you, Lizzie – Justine Worthington, Emma's cousin." Justine replied, shaking her hand. "Emma's told me about you."
"Justine? You're her cousin who just came to work for Mr. Stark last week" Lizzie asked. "I should have known."
Justine chuckled as the driver started swearing in some other language. Lizzie replied to him in the same language, and he turned only fractionally before continuing on in silence.
"Bi-lingual?" Justine inquired.
Lizzie laughed. "Multi-lingual. I speak several languages. I'm a bit of a polyglot." she said, pushing her wavy hair out of her face. "But he was just a little upset with a driver who cut in front of him. This is New York after all."
Justine just nodded. The conversation lasted a little bit longer as the driver then pulled up to the entrance of the restaurant which Justine had given the address to. Grabbing her bag, she opened the door to get out. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Lizzie. I hope I'll see you around more often now that I know you." she said.
Lizzie smiled, her brown eyes lighting up with mirth. "I hope so, Ms. Worthington. We're sure to bump into each other every once in a while. We do work in the same building." she replied as the driver shouted back to her in the same language he had used earlier. She looked over at him, replying to him as Justine left the vehicle. "So long."
"Thanks for the ride." Justine called back as she shut the door and the cabbie took off. Turning around, she went into the restaurant. After talking to the hostess, she was able to determine where Katherine was, and went up to the table to sit beside the blonde. "Sorry I'm late." she apologized once more.
"Stop apologizing. Its only been..." – she looked at her watch – "Forty-five minutes" Katherine scolded, her English accent prevalent. "I'm not going to send you to the block for being late."
"Beheadings are something of the past, I should hope not." Justine replied, opening the menu.
"Considering my field of study is the thing which would probably create a time machine, I think I could send you back to Henry VIII to get your head chopped off." Katherine retorted.
\ "No, your field of study was working for the people whose field of study was creating things like the time machine. You work for Dr. Who, you are not Dr. Who." Justine stated, looking over her menu.
"Same thing. Who do you think makes sure that Dr. Who has everything he needs?" Katherine inquired rhetorically. "I ordered you chicken marsala."
"My thanks." Justine replied, sighing. "What are you drinking?"
"Mimosa." Katherine answered. "And don't you dare scold me on my drinking so early in the day."
"Its after one." Justine said. "Its only when its before noon that I have a problem."
"Well then, I'll drink to my heart's content and you won't bother me." Katherine replied, taking a sip of her drink with a daring look in her eye.
"I won't." Justine said, motioning for the waiter to get her a drink.
Katherine Collins, age 27, was young looking for her age. Her curly blonde hair always kept short so as to be taken seriously by the males whom she worked around. She was smart, a straight-A student with a penchant for being a tomboy as a child – and by default, a girl who knew her beauty and preferred horses and studying to being a débutante. When she first met Justine she was drawn to the independent spirit which Justine had, and once they had gotten to know one another they had become great friends. So great, in fact, that Katherine had moved to America to be closer to her friend after Kent College. Although, when she came of age, her interest in men suddenly peaked, and her female side began to show – in a rather... drastic way. But that was Katherine. She was always bold.
"So, I hear I am to congratulate you on your promotion – which, by the by, you did not inform me of and I was dependent on your father for information." Katherine said as their food was delivered.
Justine shrugged. "I wasn't sure I was going to get it, I didn't want either of our hopes to go up."
"Ha!" Katherine exclaimed, cutting a piece of her steak. "Liar. You simply forgot to tell me, and are now trying to cover it up."
"Well, maybe there was a fraction of that." Justine replied sipping on her iced tea.
"Is there a reason you're not drinking something a little more potent than tea?" Katherine inquired. "Because you usually have a glass of Pinot Noir along with your chicken marsala."
"I don't want to return to work intoxicated." Justine answered, earning a sardonic look.
"Since when have you cared about being intoxicated at work?" Katherine asked. "Because I remember us back at NYU being completely hungover in Mr. Morrison's class."
"No, you were drunk. Which is probably why you're a stenographer for a group of scientists instead of working with the scientists themselves, coming up with marvels which would impress the world." Justine replied, taking a bite.
"I don't want to impress the world. Impressing myself is the only thing which humors me, and even then I'm hardly in good humor." Katherine replied. "Now, how is the adorably-shy Dr. Banner."
Justine tried not to roll her eyes. "I'm only working for him, Kate. Don't get any ideas into your head."
Katherine snorted. "Right, only working for him. That's like me saying that I only decided to work for Dr. Tate for the salary, and not because of Tuesday nights." she said.
"And what happens Tuesday nights again?" Justine inquired, knowing exactly, but never being able to pin Katherine down on an answer.
"Official business." Katherine answered vaguely, winking afterward. "Well, tell Katherine everything. What did he say today? How did he greet you? Did he smile too much? Perhaps he was a bit on the leaning side where he touched your back gently-"
"Katherine! Shut up!" Justine begged, she could feel her face heating up.
Katherine chuckled at the sight. "You truly have a crush on the doctor. You said he's, what, twenty-years your senior?"
"Fourteen. Geez, Katherine, what kind of pervert do you think I am?" Justine hissed.
"Its not perverted to be with a man twenty years your senior, its called having good taste." Katherine replied flippantly, taking a sip of her wine.
"Says who?"
"Says my mother." Katherine stated. "Men are like fine wine, Justine, they take a long time to mature."
"That's not your mother. That's 'Letters to Juliet'" Justine pointed out.
"Same damn difference. My mother quotes all the cheesiest movies, always has." Katherine replied. "Now, are you going to tell me everything?"
"Why should I?"
"Fine, be that way." Katherine replied. "Shall I complain to you about my most recent date?"
"I thought you're with Dr. Tate and his Tuesday evenings?"
Katherine shrugged. "He's not exactly a stable partner." she said, looking around for the waiter. "I'm twenty-seven, I need to start looking for someone to for him to make a decision."
Justine just shook her head at her friend's antics, and allowed her to rant about Dr. Tate and her plan to make him decide to marry her.
Bruce looked up at the clock again, wondering when Justine would return as he looked down at the most recent slides he was working on. She had been gone for an hour-and-a-half, and he was wanting to hear what she had to say on what he had found out regarding the regeneration of the newest set of cells which had burst. He looked up again, but only a minute had gone by since the last time he had looked, and with a sigh he looked back down as the elevator dinged open. He lifted his head again, sitting up straighter as Justine walked back in.
"Sorry I took so long, my friend needed to vent a little." she apologized, setting her stuff back down at the chair she had been working from.
"No need to apologize, I wasn't too worried about it. As long as you had fun, we're all good." he replied, moving out of his chair. "But hey, could you look at these slides, I worked a bit on them and made a rather interesting discovery..." he trailed off, allowing her to look at it.
"These aren't the group that we were working on earlier – these cells are different." she pointed out.
"Yeah, this is a different test subject." Bruce replied. "This one had been given a serum a few months ago which changed her body completely – like John Doe over there."
"But not in the same manner." Justine completed. "She?"
"Jane Doe?" Bruce offered, not willing to inform her that it was actually cells from Pepper Potts who Tony was asking him to help out. "Have you ever heard of the project Extremis?"
"Yeah, low profile due to a slight scandal that happened." Justine answered. "Apparently it harmed its subjects more than helped."
"Well, not exactly. It just changed their genetic structure in a different manner than it was supposed to." Bruce answered. "This subject is someone who was forced to take the Extremis. I thought we might be able to work on both her and John Doe."
Justine smiled. "I do have work to do down in my original place of work, Dr. Banner-"
"Bruce, Justine." Bruce interrupted.
"Bruce, I am not sure how much of that I can get done if I'm working on a serum for both Jane and John Doe." Justine finished.
Bruce sighed. "Well, we'll work on that." he said, putting his glasses back on. "Why don't we work on John first, and then Jane?"
"Sounds like a plan to me." she replied, heading for the storage room to get what she had been working on earlier.
Tony watched them work together long into the night, a slight bit of trust forming for the young woman. She seemed to be what Bruce needed, even in her having Jarvis order dinner for the pair of them mid-work so that they didn't starve while their minds were on their work. Tony respected her, quite honestly, and after hearing that she would be assisting Bruce in helping Pepper he was even more impressed, and was sure to set up with Jarvis for her work to be brought to her on the 45th floor.
Even so, he couldn't help but laugh at the pair as they continued to make goo-goo eyes at each other all night.