Chapter Twelve~ Exercise in Trust

"Remind me why I'm awake this early?" Jessika whined. It was 4:30 in the morning. She was tired, grumpy, and in pain. Steve had come into her room just five minutes earlier and shaken her awake. Not the gentle shaking he usually did. This was army style, complete with the drill sergeant voice telling her to wake up right now. When she had thrown him a withering look from beneath her duvet, hair a rat's nest, eyes sharp, he softened up a bit.

"Because, you need to train." He said, shortly.

She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, I got that. But, why couldn't it have waited until a more reasonable hour...or day. I'm dyin' here, babe." As if to punctuate her words, a new wave of cramps hit her, making her double over with a hand on the wall in the middle of the hallway.

Steve stopped, concern coloring his features. He leaned down to wrap an arm around her shoulders. "Jarvis said you were having cellular fluxes. Tony thinks that might mean your powers are acting up. The best way to find out what you can do is to train while you're at your lowest. Your body might think you're actually dying, and start trying to heal itself, like it did when you go poisoned. Maybe there's more to them then just healing. The only way we'll know is to test them out."

"So, you think my period makes my powers stronger?"

"Tony seems to. I'm not well versed in the science side of things, so I have to rely on him and Bruce to figure things out. Can you walk?" Jess nodded, making herself straighten up through the pain and keep going. "I've never seen you like this. Is it normal for it to be this bad?"

"Not really," she admitted. "Usually, I can hide it pretty easily. But, for some reason, it's worse this month. It's like I'm being hammered all over, everything hurts." Her eyes started to droop, and she had to stop again. "Maybe Tony's right. Maybe my powers are doing something right now, think I'm dying or something and trying to fix it. You know when you heal and you start itching?" Steve nodded. "Maybe that's why it hurts so much. I've never been able to heal myself before, not until I was unconscious. Come on, let's get to the lab, I've got something to tell you guys." Jessika forced herself to continue to the large honeycomb of rooms that Tony used for research.

"Tell me what? Jess?" Steve hurried after her, not having any trouble keeping up with her groggy steps.

When they arrived at Tony's main lab, the billionaire greeted them, "Hey, there's my favorite star-spangled couple."

"Hi, Tony. Where's Bruce? I need to tell you some stuff."

"He's in the next room, he'll be here in a sec." On cue, the doctor walked in, "Ah, speak of the devil. Bruce, take it away."

"Thanks...so, what we're going to do today is just put some electrodes on you, and monitor your fluctuations for a bit. It's going to be a long day, which is why we're starting so early. We'll run a series of test, small things, nothing to draining. We just want to see the extent of your powers as far as we can in a lab setting. Unfortunately, we may not know the full extent until something happens and someone gets hurt. But, until then, we can try to harness them and help you have more control."

"That's all well and good, Banner, but Jessika said she needs to tell us something..." Steve turned towards the woman.

"Yeah, well, um...I've been having some issues with my powers. Nothing huge, but...Steve, you remember the day that I healed you? Right after, you freaked me out and I pushed you back?"

"I remember. You shouldn't have been able to, but your hand glowed green."

"Right, I didn't mean to do that. I think my body reacted like I was in danger and defended itself. And, since then...well, I've kind of been...accidently...doing it all the time."

The men stood in silence for a moment, all of them taking in what she had just said. Bruce was the first one to come back to his senses. "What do you mean by that? Doing it all the time?"

"I mean, like, I'll be washing dishes and drop something, and when I try to catch it, it glows green and stops in midair. Or the door will almost hit me in the face while taking Miguel out and it stop just before knocking me in the nose. Stuff like that. I don't mean to do it, it just kind of happens."

"Jess, why didn't you tell me?" Steve placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Because I didn't know how to deal with it. I was scared what it might mean."

Tony interjected, "Sounds to me like you're developing some kind of telekinesis. This could be a good thing. More that you could do. Jarvis, add some kind of tests for that to the list."

"Noted, sir." The ever-present AI made a small beep noise to direct their attention to a list that was projected above one of the tables.

"With that new information, we can start with something small." Bruce, picking up the wireless sticky pads, moved forward to begin placing them in various places. Without even so much as a 'by your leave', he started sticking them into her hair, even pulling her collar down to put them on her chest. Some went on her arms, a few even on her lower abdomen and back muscles, right over her cramping uterus. It wasn't until he was done and turned around to see Steve turned the opposite direction, and Jessika's bright red face, that he realized the issue. "Sorry."

"Doctor mode," Jess said, "Got it." She gave him a thumbs up and patted Steve's shoulder to let him know he could turn back around. He blushed again when he saw her shirt pulled up almost to her breasts, exposing her electrode covered belly. Jessika wasn't toned, not like any Sheild agent, and her tummy wasn't flat. There was a slight heaviness where the electrode stuck, just a smidgen of fat around her waist. But she was, by no means, overweight. Steve had never seen her without some sort of covering around her middle. When she caught him examining her, he watched as she became self-conscious and pulled her shirt down before wrapping her arms around herself.

"Jess," he murmured, moving to touch her.

"It's fine. I know I'm not fit. Pop always said I was a solid girl. I've been a little bigger my whole life." She wasn't looking at him, and that began to worry Steve.

The other two men watched the exchange without a word. Tony knew that his friend was always self-conscious about her weight, but he would have figured they had put that issue out of the way by now, seeing as they had been almost together for months. Surely, he would have seen her belly by that point.

Not one for awkward silences, Tony clapped his hands. "Let's get this show on the road, shall we?" They started by simply having her lay down on a medical cot while they ran diagnostics on her while she wasn't actively trying to use her powers. They found that, yes, her body was healing itself constantly. Bruce explained that the reason she was in so much pain was because her body was making more uterine lining than usual and it was continually sloughing off, which also explained why she was bleeding more than usual. Her blood supply was up.

"But that doesn't explain why my body is doing it? It's a natural process that my body has been doing for years, there's no reason for it to start up now."

"It may be natural, but given recent events, it's not surprising. Have you been eating normally since you were poisoned?" When she didn't answer, he nodded. "Your body is going into survival mode. It thinks something is wrong, that you're in danger. So, it's attempting to heal you. The problem is, that, since this is a natural thing for you, it's causing more harm than good right now. You need to be eating more, getting more iron in your diet, to help with the blood issue. Steve, you're in charge of that."

Steve, naturally, puffed up at the assigned duty of taking care of her. He'd been looking at her slightly disappointed for not taking care of herself. He had noticed her getting slightly gaunt in the face, but hadn't wanted to say anything. He thought it was just the stress of running a business, but now he could see it was more than that. There was the fact of running the bar by herself, but there was the fact that she was now dating a superhero, friends with multiple superheroes, was still dealing with the loss of her grandfather, and learning that she was now on someone's kill list. It was enough to cause anyone a nervous breakdown. And yet, through all of it, she'd hidden just how stressed she really was. It was enough that her body thought she was going to die from something as simple as her period, which Steve had taken the time to read about while she slept beside him on the couch. There was a lot that made him proud of women, as they were always stronger than they really seemed. Learning about what they really went through every month gave him even more pride for the fairer sex.

The next test took the two of them by surprise. Bruce picked up a sharp instrument and held it against his skin. "What are you doing?! Stop!" Jessika yelped as the knife cut into his skin.

He barely even winced when the blade cut into his flesh. "We need a test subject. Steve heals too fast as it is, so we can't really rely on him to test this, and Tony wouldn't let me cut him."

"I have an aversion to blood." Stark said, sniffing.

Jessika rolled her eyes, then looked back to the scientist. "But, don't you heal fast too? Because you have the Hulk?"

"Mildly accelerated healing, enough to keep me from dying, but not enough to heal a small cut like this in under a few hours. Go ahead." Bruce offered his now freely bleeding arm to her. Hesitantly, she took ahold of his wrist.

Anyone who didn't know him intimately, might not realize that the seemingly soft nerd that was Dr. Bruce Banner, was actually quite muscular. Not like Steve or Thor, but more toned than Tony was. Knowing exactly what this man was capable of even outside of his green form, knowing that he could potentially throw her across the room if the other guy decided he didn't like how it felt to have someone root around in his head, Jessika was understandably nervous. With that in mind, she bent her head over the cut and closed her eyes. All three men watched in wonder as her chest began to glow, watched the green light flow through her veins, down her arms and connect the two humans where their skin touched.

In that moment, as they watched the blood stop flowing, Jessika could see it with her eyes closed. She saw what Bruce saw, herself leaned over his arm, the back of his knuckles pressed to her sternum. She felt his wonder in him as he watched the cut slowly knit itself back together. Calculations ran through his brain, figuring out how it worked and how they could put it to good use. But, in the back of his head, there was another stirring. A wild, aggressive presence that put her teeth on edge. Feeling a new person there, that presence began to thrash against the restraints that the good doctor had put into place to keep the Hulk back. Split between feeling the wound closing, and feeling the harsher edge of Bruce, it was all she could do not to be sucked in. As soon as the cut was completely healed, not even a scar to betray the fact that it ever even existed, Jessika yanked herself away.

"Sick bags to the left, Miss." Jarvis's voice chirped from the speaker by her bed. But, there wasn't time for her to grab one before she heaved forward. Luckily, there was a super soldier that had better reflexes than she did and there was a trashcan under her face to catch the vomit that forced its way out. It was a violent bout, her eyes watered and her nose burned from the puke that tried to escape that way too.

The heaving continued for a few minutes, giving her time to feel the receding of the Hulk from her mind. When she finally looked up, paper towel to her face to wipe away the slobber that had dribbled onto her chin. "You ok there?" She choked out, "You look a little green around the gills."

Bruce was pacing back and forth, much like Steve had done after she had healed him. Sure enough, the skin around his collar was indeed, slowly fading from green to tan. "I'm good." He clipped out.

"Jess, look at me." Steve gently took hold of her chin and lifted it. He examined her face, then nodded. "Your nose isn't bleeding this time."

"It wasn't life threatening. Small cut, I'm fine."

"Then why did you throw up?" Tony asked.

Bruce managed to stop his pacing, "Because she poked him."

"I did not!" she said indignantly. "He felt me there, he didn't like it, that's not my fault. I tried to hurry to get out of there."

"No, you poked him. I felt it."

"Bruce, I wouldn't touch Hulk with a ten-foot pole. If I poked him, it's because he's part of you and I was attached to you for a moment."

"Either way, that was amazing. I could feel you in my head, in my arm. It was..."

"Strange?"

"Strange is a good word for it," Steve chimed in.

Tony threw his hands up, "Dammit, now I'm gonna have to do it too."

"Why?" she shook her head.

"Because science," he quipped, going for the knife.

It was a long day.