Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers.

Finally got myself to post this. Enjoy!

The helicarrier was winding down for the night and several agents had just started the night watch. Lex found this incredibly more preferable as she stomped up towards the private labs. At her pace it did not take long for her to arrive at the glass windows of the lab where Dr Banner was hard at work with his nose practically pressed up against the sceptre acquired from Loki.

Tony was nowhere in sight.

Lex remembered her manners and knocked on the white wash door frame. " 'scuase me Doctor."
The man glanced up from his work. A set of large goggles obscuring most of his face with a little 'o' for lips. For one of the most volatile creatures on the S.H.I.E.L.D watch list Lex had to admit he looked down right adorable.

"Hate to interrupt but you don't know where Tony is do you?"

"Um he mentioned something about 'going to see a man about a horse' or something along those lines." Banner slide the goggles up so they sat on his forehead.

Lex nodded and gave him a lazy smile.

The sceptre was propped up on one of the examination tables. At both ends there were gamma readers and at the core a set of wire were attached.

"Judging by the amount going on here you're feeding the energy readings straight into the computer." Lex observed.

Banner gave a slight chuckle, "Well in a manner yes. It's one thing detecting gamma radiation but finding the right source is a little more than punching in codes." He said, taking off the goggles and walking around the table. He was fidgeting with the straps, "Since Fury believes that this runs off the Cube comparing its readings to any unknown sources we detect should speed up the process."

Lex was impressed. "May I?" She pointed to one of the screens.

Banner didn't look to eager, "I, I, I, I'm not sure that you have the... you know ... clearance to see this information."

Lex held her hands out to the side, palms ups to show no harm intended. "It's just a quick peek Doctor."

"I guess it won't hurt." The man gave in and shrugged.

Lex glanced at a screen. "Could I see it on a larger monitor?"

"No. Ah no that's ... running another program. Sorry." He didn't look at her and picked up a clipboard to busy himself with.

"Your lab, your rules Doctor."

So that's where Tony was running J.A.R.V.I.S from and the good doctor was in on the scheme. No wonder he seemed edgy. He would not bare any of the brunt of Lex's ear chewing that that installed for her uncle. As she got to the monitor, Lex dragged files and opened them up. She leant on the bench's ledge and began reading through the information.

'Fascinating.' Her eyes darted about the screen, seeing the patterns and anomalies of the research before her. Banner tried to get back to his examination of the sceptre, but Lex could tell he was getting very little done with her in the room.

"Okay, you've got questions doc. Spill." She said, not looking up from the monitor. A particular piece of information kept cropping up and had most of her attention.

"Ah yes. Well." He placed the clipboard on the table carefully. "Name and obvious hereditary traits aside, you are in fact related to ..."

"Yes. We are related."

"Your ... father?"

Lex laughed, "Don't say that to his face, he may just punch you for calling him old." She looked over her shoulder, "Not really."

"I'm sorry."

"He's my uncle."

"Huh." Banner folded his hands under his armpits, "I didn't know he had any siblings."

"Not many people do." Lex said as she opened a file containing Selvig's notes on the Cube.

"So are you two close?"

"Oh you'll see just how close we are when he brings his sorry ass back in here." She mumbled.

"What's that?"

"Nothing. Huh. That's funny."

"What is?"

Lex swivelled the monitor so that Banner could see. "Take a look."

She ignored the fact that a gamma infused super creature was standing next to her and focused on what she found.

"What am I seeing?"

"You said that if the Cube is powering the sceptre, then the reading would roughly be the same."

"In theory yes." Banner pulled out his reading glasses for a better look.

"Well, Gamma radiation and Thermal Nuclear Physics may not be my forte as such, but based on the idea that what you're looking for are markers like this." She brought up the latest data logged in from the Cube. "Like the markers in our genetic make up. But if sceptre was running of the Cube, then these," She pointed to a set of code, then to another, "Should be similar to these. They're not. What is similar about these two sources are the base elements. These funky little codes here."

Banner flipped through the data and sent it to another unused screen, larger so that he could compare the two sets of readings. Lex stepped around the other side of the table. "The sceptre is not entirely powered by the Cube, but it may latch onto it as a fuel source if the two were close enough, or perhaps repel it like a magnet. It is made up of the same energy compounds, only not as pure concentrated as the Cube. What will probably be better is looking for the base elements, a more unique pattern would get picked up a lot quicker."

"You got all that from a few minutes reading." Banner asked, still going through the information.

"I'm a fast reader." She said and took in the sceptre, trying to see how Loki used it. "Maybe the metal acts as a conductor." She thought out loud and ran a finger along the pummel. As soon as her skin made contact with it, a sharp zap went up her arm, like an electric current. Lex pulled away and flexed her hand, the after affect spreading through her whole body and festering around the wound on her stomach.

'Shit. What the hell?'

A monitor started to go off softly and Banner was on it, his back still to Lex. "Looks like a surge." He said. "The sceptre's signal just doubled for a second there."

"Sorry, my bad. Looking, no touching." Lex brushed off the shock like it was nothing.

"That's odd. Human contact shouldn't do that." He mumbled.

Lex stared at the back of the doctor's head. "Sorry?"

"What shouldn't be doing what?" Both the agent and the doctor looked up as Tony sauntered into the room with a silver packet in his hand. "Other than Lexie being here when she's not suppose to."

Lex stood up right and folded her arms across her chest. Tony took one look at her expression and held his hands up in defeat. "Okay kiddo, I know that face. What did I do this time?"

"You know perfectly well what you did." Lex said.

"Since when is leaving one's post for a bathroom break a crime?" He poured the contents of the sliver bag into his hand, blueberries. He ate them all in one go.

"Don't shit with me Tony."

The millionaire pouted. "Sourpuss. You're as bad as Captain Spangly Pants." He went over to the monitor Banner had called off limits and punched in a code.

"Better my sour face than Fury's pissed face when he finds out you're pilfering through classified S.H.I.E.L.D documents."

Tony shot a surprised look at Lex then to Banner, who began to flounder. "I swear to God, I didn't tell..."

"Don't sweat doc. I knew before I walked through the door." Lex came around the table. "Found J.A.R.V.I.S in the security feeds."

Tony pointed at her, "Ah, that means you were also in S.H.I.E.L.D's systems. I am not the only guilty party."

"I at least know how to get and out undetected. S.H.I.E.L.D will be all over your little codes soon enough, if they haven't already. What the hell were you thinking?"

"We are merely looking for some answers Fury has conveniently left out the loop."

"There are a few things that just don't add up." Banner added in. "As an agent you must be aware that something's off here. The Captain was just in and we had this same discussion."

"Like what?" Lex unfurled her arms and placed both hands in pockets.

"Well, like how Stark was left out of the Terresact Program. If it's all about finding new means of sustainable energy wouldn't he be the one to call in?"

"Not if they don't trust him enough, which Fury doesn't. And this little stunt is just adding fuel to your pyre Tony."

"See," He stepped towards Lex, "Intelligence that fears intelligence. The game is afoot Watson." He told Banner.

"More like recklessness with a lot of money." Lex grumbled.

"Or, to make life easier," Tony sidled up next his niece, "The agent here could perhaps let us in on the good director's little secrets."

"You're barking up the wrong tree. I'm certainly not one Fury would be spilling anything to, unless for an assignment."

"What about your little snooping around their archives?"

"I wasn't snooping."

"Then what were you doing?"

Lex ran her tongue over the roof of her mouth. "Nothing bad." She lied. Like hell she was going to disclose to Tony the fact she did it just to talk to Loki. "I make it a point to keep my track record here as clean as possible. Fury already has his scruples about me."

"Oh." He offered the silver packet to Lex, "Thought you and he would be chumming it up since you turned turncoat."

Ignoring the silver packet in her face, Lex cocked an eyebrow at him, "Oh we're playing that game are we?"

"Hey no need to get defensive. I'm just saying it did sting a little when you went and joined an international intelligence front without at least giving me the heads up."

"We are not having this conversation now Tony."

"If not now then when? You stopped calling me months ago."

"I had work."

"Don't use my excuse on me."

"Ah do you want me to leave?" The forgotten scientist asked from the sidelines. Lex pushed the packet away and turned to Banner. "There's no need. I'll be on my way now."

"Off to tell your boss about my little indiscretion?" Tony asked seriously.

There was a long pause as Lex just looked at him. With a long winded sigh she said, "He won't hear it from me. Just be prepared for when he does find out."

She began to leave the lab, shoving her hands in her pockets.

"Sometimes I just don't know whose side you're on half the time kiddo." Tony called after her. She stopped at the doorframe, turning back to him slowly. "I'm my own side. And I have been for five years." She spat out. Tony's facade faltered and he dropped his gaze.

He knew what she meant.

After that she left in such a hurry that she was a blur of movement.

"Well," Banner took of his glasses and folded them carefully. "I have no idea what just happened but I'm guessing it's not the sort of thing to talk about."

"No." Tony sighed. "Shall we?" He indicated to their neglected work. Banner nodded and went back to the sceptre. Tony took a moment to compose himself. That look Lex had given him at the door, he had seen it before. The look of disappointment.

'Damn it. Sorry Katie, but I'm doing a terrible job keeping my word.'

xxxx

If there weren't other agents in the locker room Lex would have punched the metal door. Instead she just stewed on the bench, her jacket hanging off her knee.

It would have been so much easier if she could just straight up hate Tony.

She could see the strain and the genuine hurt, along with that cocksure wall he threw up all the time. It looked as if he had the same amount of conflicting thoughts about their whole relationship as she did, which made it all the more difficult. Wasn't his fault he didn't know how an uncle should act and she was so used to looking out for herself for so long. She pinched the bridge of her nose. Why is it every time they tried to be family they'd fuck it up?

'Now is not the time for weepy soap opera bull Lex.'

With that she sucked in a long breath through her teeth and stretched her arms up over her head, her spine popping back into place. Yes there was a threat of imminent alien invasion on the cards headed by a god with daddy issues. But there was still something between then and now. Loki was stuck in a cage and the army was ... somewhere on the other side of the universe.

So what were they missing?

Lex stood up and hung up her jacket in her locker. She had to wear her uniform for extraction much to her chagrin. Out of nowhere Loki's voice started playing through her head, expressing his approval of how she looked in it. As she recalled, his exact words were 'fitted very nicely'. Hard to forget how deliciously he liked to round his vowels.

"Oh hell to the no." Lex mumbled. The guy tried to kill her at one point.

She pulled off her shirt and looked down at the evidence of that. There were black dirt stains streaked across the skin but there was no trace of a wound. Lex's hand shot up and rubbed furiously at the dirt. There wasn't even any scaring. She could recover quickly but this ...

This was too fast.

How?