—chapter seven:
trust as far as
you can throw

"MY TRUST ISSUES
  HAVE TRUST ISSUES."

If there was anything Jackson hadn't been expecting during her time in Kolkata, it was Bruce asking her out to dinner.

    It hadn't been an actual date, necessarily (according to Bruce, anyway), but just a little celebration for being in India for eight months and changing people's lives. Which, in hindsight, had sounded a little selfish because they were there to heal and change lives—it was their job—so there wasn't really a need to applaud a fish for swimming. But it had been nice to receive a little pat on the back to show that their work hadn't been going unnoticed.

    The dinner had been nice—they had a table outside a candle sat in between them. There had been a calm breeze every now and again, cooling Jackson off from the warm weather. 

     "How'd you find this place?" Jackson had asked, intrigued, "it's nice and it's not too from us, which is a bonus. It's candlelit, which is a little. . .romantic for a non-date outing." She took a small sip of her wine afterward, smirking around her glass. "What are your intentions for the evening, Mr. Banner?"

    Bruce had let out a humorous hmph. "Can't a guy just take his friend out to a nice dinner?"

    "A guy 'taking his friend out to a nice dinner' would probably be a bar or something and not a place with a dress code." Jackson had motioned her hand over her outfit to further her point—a deep red midi dress with an almost-plunging neckline and princess sleeves (she didn't know if she'd be needing it anytime soon but she shoved it at the bottom of her suitcase just in case.)

    "But you're not just a friend, Jackson." Bruce had leaned in, his elbows resting on the table. "You're my colleague."

    Jackson hadn't realized that she was holding her breath until she saw the edges of her vision going fuzzy. She had released her aforementioned breath and let out a laugh. "Whoo, you almost threw me for loop there, Bruce. Thought that was gonna head in a different direction for a second." She had taken another sip of her drink to calm her nerves.

    Bruce had been silent for a moment, his sight suddenly finding the table interesting before mumbling, "Did you want it to head in a different direction?" His eyesight had then flicked up to meet hers.

    That time, Jackson had been thrown for an actual loop. She had racked her brain for a response and then let out one, single word:

     "Maybe."

Jackson was sat in her stolen chair in the lab reading the morning paper when Agent Coulson walked in. She set the paper aside and sat up.

    "Agent," she greeted him, "what can I do?"

    "I need you to come with me for a moment," he instructed and then walked out, not waiting for her to follow him. She scrambled to get up and immediately followed after him.

    "Word on the ship is that you were able to perfectly replicate the Super Soldier Serum," said Coulson, "that true?"

    "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure if I did," Jackson admitted sheepishly, "I haven't used any sort of radiation to activate it so I don't know if it actually worked. And besides, I didn't do it for the superpowers."

    "Oh?" Coulson's interest seemed to have piqued, "And why is that?"

    "My ibuprofen wasn't working, anymore. May I ask why you brought me here?" The two of them were standing outside a different lab, one used for running examinations on people, searching for any possible dangers running loose inside their bodies. Coulson didn't answer. Instead, he pressed his thumb to the identification pad and stepped inside.

     "I'm gonna need you to sit in this chair for me so we can begin the examination," said Coulson and a few of the workers began hooking Jackson up to a number of machines.

    "I understand that you may not trust me, Agent, but I wouldn't be here if Bruce didn't," Jackson stated, letting the examination go on because the more she cooperated, the quicker they could get all this over with. Everything seemed normal, save for the abundant amount of blue-green cells that flowed within her bloodstream. Some were dormant, others were glowing like it had a heartbeat of its own.

    "The blue-green blood cells are the ones that have been affected by the serum," Coulson explained, ignoring her statement, "the ones that are glowing are the ones that have been activated with some sort of radiation."

     "I mean, I did stand in front of a microwave but I didn't think anything would happen. The frequencies were too low."

     "Have you been surrounded by any other chemicals after concocting the serum?" Coulson questioned. "I'm a Chemistry professor. I'm in a lab almost twenty-four seven," Jackson replied.

     "Any chance you know which chemicals you've been in contact with the most?"

     "Nothing that would have been permitted on campus, I can tell you that much." Jackson let out a snort. Coulson gave her a look and all of a sudden, she felt like a child who had been reprimanded. "Sorry. But can't the computer tell you all that?"

    The two looked over at the screen that was scanning over Jackson, numbers crunching before a screen displaying the word "ERROR" popped up. "What?" Coulson mumbled, walking over to it. "That can't be it."

    "Uh, what can't be it?" asked Jackson, sitting up, but not sitting up too far so the circle patch attached to her temple could rip itself off of her head. With the way Coulson was hunched over, trying to read what was happening, Jackson was able to tell that his main emotion was perplexity. But within that, there was confusion about her in general. He didn't trust her. "Why don't you trust me?"

     Coulson straightened up and turned to her, his eyebrows creased. "Are you reading my mind?"

    "I'm reading your emotions. They roll off in waves and I'm able to feel them. Why don't you trust me?"

     "It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that you seem to be a little too curious about everything that's going on and I couldn't help but be wary about it. Even the camera feeds showed you conversing with Loki."

     "Because you're not telling us anything! How are we supposed to solve your problem if you don't give us any guidance? God, this is why I never asked for help in high school." Sure, Jackson was projecting that last bit but the situation all felt a little too familiar.

     Coulson was about to give her an explanation but she could tell that he was about to start lying so she didn't bother. Delicately pulling everything off, she slid out of the chair and went back to the lab to finish her crossword puzzle.

When she got back to the lab, Bruce and Tony were in their usual workspaces doing what they did best. Bruce was the first to look up.

     "Where ya been?" he asked, "I come back to the lab and you're gone."

     "I got sent to the principal's office," Jackson replied sarcastically, "uh, Coulson ran some tests on me and we found some. . .pretty interesting things."

    "Yeah?" Tony piped, "Like what?"

    "For one, my blood is still infested with the serum and some of it's activated, some of it's not. And B, Coulson doesn't seem to trust me. Said I was 'too curious' for all of this and he found it worrying. I mean, I know I'm not the only one who's suspicious."

    "Sure you aren't, Jackson," Bruce agreed, "but you went and talked to Loki to find some of this stuff out. Even if you got nothing out of him, it kind of. . .sends a few worrying signals."

     "Because no one else was gonna tell me anything!" Jackson threw her hands up in exasperation. "Sorry for being kept in the dark and wanting answers!" She was aware of the way she was acting and she absolutely hated it, like a child who was on the brink of throwing a temper tantrum. However, she had every right to be upset considering the circumstances (she had also come to learn that all of her upsetting emotions were the easiest to come to the forefront and the hardest to control and reign in. Even after she calmed down, she continued to sulk.)

    "Birdie, you gotta learn that some things are best when left alone." Bruce walked over to her and rested his hands on her upper arms. "Let's not poke the sleeping bear, okay?"

    "How could I not poke it when they gave me the stick in the first place? They were practically daring me to." Jackson nodded her head at the scepter, to what she was referring as "the stick". She could feel Bruce's calming energy seeping into her and she couldn't help sag her shoulders a little bit, releasing some of the tension there, but she was still upset.

    "You could always put the stick down, you know? And back away slowly."

     "Or she could poke the bear and see what happens," Tony suggested. Bruce turned to him and shook his head, laughing a little. "Don't encourage her."

    "You two are like little angels and devils sitting on my shoulders," Jackson realized, "Tony obviously being the angel, of course."

    Bruce gave her a look. She simply shrugged.

    "I'm gonna go find someone," Tony announced abruptly and then left the lab, leaving the two of them alone.

    "Can I ask you something?" Jackson asked, following Bruce back to his work station. Bruce looked up at her. "You technically did, but go ahead."

    She sighed and went on. "When you asked me if I wanted your statement to head in a different direction that night we went out to dinner, did you mean it? Or were you just playing along?" She tried her best not to read his face. That way, she could at least give him a chance to answer.

    "What brought this on?"

    "I dunno. I've just been receiving a lot of mixed signals lately and that just happened to come to mind." Jackson shrugged. "The most confusing one of them all, if I'm going to be honest."

    Bruce went over to stand in front of her and looked her in the eye. "I liked you, Jackson. I still do. I. . .wanted it to be a date but then I got nervous and my brain decided to backfire on me."

    Jackson held eye contact with him, searching. Her eyes rose in embarrassing surprise. "You're not lying."

    His shoulders slumped a little, hurt that she would think something like that. "Why would I be, Birdie?"

     "You know, you've been calling me 'Birdie' a lot these past couples of days."

     "Are you offended?"

     Jackson shook her head. "No, not at all. It's just that before, you used it so sparingly. And now, you say it every other sentence. You even called my rambling adorable. Especially in a considerably 'professional' environment, what changed? Not that I mind, I'm just. . .curious."

    Bruce let out the same humorous hmph he had let out when the two were at dinner. "You know, for someone who prides themself on being able to read people fairly easily, you're having a difficult time reading what's written across my face."

    "Well, I don't wanna read it," Jackson retorted, "I wanna hear it. That way, I can have it burned into the back of my brain forever."

    Bruce curled in his bottom lip and nodded. "When you put it that way, my reasoning for the constant nicknaming is pretty lacking."

     "What is it, then?"

     "Well, with the way you've been putting yourself in harm's way, I figured I didn't call you that nickname enough."

    Jackson couldn't help but snort. "Did you think I was gonna die? So you crammed in as many as you could before I saw my unfortunate end?"

    "Jackson." The way Bruce said her name and how it carried the same tone when he called her "Birdie" did something to Jackson. It lit a fire in the pit of her stomach, something that Kyle could never do. That was all that she needed to hear to know that something had changed.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

no tony cockblock this chapter yay lol