Special thanks to Archer83, Alerix Slynn, coia, FrancyPantsFrance, Phoenix's-Assassins, Eruruu4, and the guest for reviewing!

I hope this one is up to your expectations. :D

Noelle Abbott had always been an odd child.

It wasn't that she actively tried to be, but being a child so intensely bright as herself, eccentricity seemed to course through her veins. That eccentricity did not win her any friends, either.

The small child didn't mind, though, spending most of her days playing her violin or just simply daydreaming; finding the animals hidden in the clouds.

However, as the young girl sat at her window looking at the sky, she did not wish for friends at school to play with. No, that was not what she really wanted at all. Noelle only had one wish on her mind; one that she wished for every night on the same twinkling star.

The tiny girl with shining green eyes wished for a friend from a world that was not her own; a friend that was from a world far greater than anything even she could imagine.

Little did Noelle know that, sometimes, wishes do come true.

The first time Noelle awoke, she only had a brief, hazy view of the world before the feelings of intense pain came rushing back into her body with a cold shiver. The tiny woman felt as if she'd been to hell and back.

...And possibly a UFC match along the way.

If the pain wasn't bad enough to deal with on its own, the bleached white walls and ceiling were also doing nothing to ease her already panicked mind.

To top it all off, her mouth was so dry. It felt full of cotton, and her tongue threatened to stick to the roof of her mouth. She tried to swallow, and almost gagged at the horrible feeling of the motion. The tickling in her nose was also starting to annoy her badly. So, using all of her willpower, Noelle slid her hand onto her stomach and slowly up to her nose, fearing the worst.

She ran a hand over her face and discovered what felt like a wire running into her nose. Upon touching it and tugging at it a little, she realized that it was no wire, but a tube...

A nasogastric tube.

...that she realized was running down her throat.

With her already racing mind now in complete overdrive, with panic and terror giving her a burst of adrenaline she began pulling at the tube, intent on getting it out.

It felt as if she was trying to pull her stomach up and out of her nose. She coughed and sputtered violently, making her already broken body ache more and her vision blur further.

And, of course, her actions had to set off all of the equipment attached to her. She whimpered as she continued to pull, in hysterics over the situation and intent on getting as far away as humanly possible.

Her actions were in vain, of course. She quickly found herself pinned back down to the bed by strong yet gentle hands. She couldn't focus on the face of her captor, but she could see the soft purple of their shirt clearly against the white backdrop of the room.

It couldn't be Loki, right? The God of Mischief usually wore green, even when he occasionally donned 'Midgardian' clothing.

"Shhh. It's going to be okay. I need you to calm down for me. It's going to be alright."

Where did she know that calm, warm, deep voice from? It seemed too familiar. Loki had a very smooth, cold and mysterious voice...and this was anything but. Noelle could only whimper in response, wanting the tube out and wanting to be free of the sterile prison she was in. She struggled against the arms holding her, with the urgency to get away coming back in full force.

After all, if she was here, what had happened to Loki? She had to make sure her old friend was alright. That took precedence over anything else, in her mind.

"'Elle, you have to stop! C'mon, you can't fight me!"

Did she head that right? Did they call her 'Elle'? Nobody had called her that in years.

It had to be a trick to get her to comply.

With tears rolling down her face, she began to fight against the hands holding her once more, pulling some of the wires out of her body and causing the heart monitor to flatline. Noelle quickly heard yelling by the familiar voice that she couldn't make out through the fog her mind was caught up in, followed by a hard, prolonged pinch to her wrist that had been pinned down.

The world quickly began to fade in-and-out for the small woman, with her eyelids getting heavier and her already blurry world getting even harder to see by the minute.

She had no chance of getting away.

With one final, pitiful moan of distress, Noelle Abbott's eyes rolled back into her head as she slipped into unconsciousness again.

"Just relax, 'Elle. It's for the best. Don't fight it. I'm here for you."

"Still convinced you need to go back to Kolkata so soon?" Tony crossed his arms, waiting to hear the answer.

Bruce sighed deeply, wiping his hand under his glasses. "I should, I need to, but...I can't just leave her. Not now." He squeezed the sleeping young woman's hand reassuringly.

"You know you could leave her here and come back to the tower for awhile, right Banner?" Tony paused, looking around the sterile room uncomfortably. "You've been sleeping in that chair for two days. If I were you, I'd have hulked out by now."

The doctor shot the billionaire an exasperated look and sighed. "I'm fine, Tony. She needs someone here with her. I don't want her to wake up alone and scared. You saw what happened to her."

Tony could feel that his friend was leaving quite a lot out about his relationship with the young woman, and it made the naturally inquisitive genius even more curious. His fellow scientist initially did not seem to have any attachment to anyone. If he did, why would he have hidden himself away so well in India? "This is a good hospital with great doctors. They'll take excellent care of her. S.H.I.E.L.D's not gonna let her slip out of their radar, now that she's linked to you."

Bruce frowned. "That's exactly what I'm worried about. I don't want them anywhere near her." He had every intention of keeping the agency as far away from Noelle as possible. Bruce also had no intention of stepping down as her primary doctor anytime soon, formal training be damned.

The billionaire playboy sighed, running his hand through his purposely messy hair. Bruce could be incredibly stubborn, when he wanted to be. Tony had learned that lesson well in the past week he'd known the man. "You know as well as I do that's not going to happen. Why was she even out there, anyway?"

The doctor looked down again at Noelle, features softening again. "I...I really don't know, to be honest."

"You don't think she was out there trying to get to you, do you?" Tony being Tony was, of course, going to play Twenty Questions. Bruce didn't know whether it was out of curiosity or boredom, but either way, he found himself with a slight headache coming on.

He did respond to his teammate's question, though, but not before tucking a sweaty strand of hair out of the small woman's pale face. She was still as sweet and angelic looking as he'd remembered.

God, he'd missed her. "I doubt it. She and I haven't seen each other in years. I'd be surprised if she even remembered me."

Without missing a beat, Tony responded with another question. "Ahh...that brings me to my next question. How do you know her exactly? She looks kind of young to be an old flame or something."

The doctor sighed heavily, already knowing how Tony was going to respond. "I was her professor once upon a time, at Culver University."

Tony rose an eyebrow. "You were a college professor? That definitely wasn't in the file."

Bruce nodded. "I actually liked teaching, Tony. And I used to do research there before the 'accident'." He pursed his lips at the thought, quickly changing the subject back to Noelle. "We got to be pretty close. She's...a good kid. A really good kid."

Tony grinned. "Hah! No kidding. I really never took you for the student-teacher relationship type. Scandalous..."

"Tony." Bruce didn't like where this was going. Tony was getting a little closer to the truth than the doctor would have liked to admit.

"She is very cute, though..."

"Tony!" The playboy quickly subsided with his insinuations when he received a glare from Bruce. He could have sworn that he saw a brief flash of green in the doctor's eyes. That was enough of a warning to Tony for him to back down. The billionaire threw his hands up in surrender. "Easy, big guy. Easy..." No need to send Mean Green on a rampage today.

He'd never hear the end of it from Steve if that happened.

Not that Tony actually cared what Steve thought.

Not much, anyway.

His eyes rolled in annoyance at the mere thought of the ever-disapproving Captain.

"It wasn't like that, Tony. We were essentially kindred spirits, she hung out in my office fairly often and we'd talk about...well, everything. She's incredibly bright." Bruce found himself smiling slightly as Noelle lightly curled her hand around his. "But like I said, it was a long time ago."

Tony could tell he wasn't going to get much more out of Bruce on the subject right then, so he opted to change it. He tossed the duffle bag from over his shoulder onto the spare chair with a loud thud.

Bruce turned his head away from Noelle towards Tony. "What's that for?"

Tony shrugged. "I figured you hadn't planned on coming to the tower just yet, so I had Pepper gather some supplies for you. Changes of clothes, toiletries, some granola bars, stress ball, yoga mat, the works. Everything you need to stay calm and well kept, Big Guy."

The fellow scientist actually found himself chuckling at his teammate's words. "Yeah, yeah. I get it. Thanks, Tony." He gave the Iron Man creator a tired smile.

Tony turned to leave, glad he'd at least made the doctor laugh. However, he wasn't finished.

"Hey doc?" He called to Bruce over his shoulder.

"Yeah, Tony?"

"I don't know the full story, but I'd be doing the same thing if I were in your shoes." With that, Tony gave his friend a genuine smile, and left. The doctor appreciated the sentiment, happy that he had a friend in someone like Tony.

...Even if the fellow genius could be absolutely obnoxious.

Turning back to the dark-haired woman in the bed, Bruce looked at her critically. "You're going to make it through this 'Elle. I promise."

So I finally decided to make this into a story. This will eventually tie in with my other two OC works. Weeee!

I hope you all like it. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter! Reviews mean the world to me and and let me know what you'd like to see. *Reviews also let me know if you all want to see more, and will make me update quicker*

Keep in mind I also write genderswapped!Tony fics as well as OC stories. So check those out as well, if you're bored. :D

'Till next time,
xBreeze