When Banner had calmed himself down to a decent level, he hooked Clint up to an IV that was pumped full of nutrients and antibiotics, before giving Eleanor a tight-lipped smile and walking off.

She watched as he went to sit on one of the benches and placed headphones over his ears, blasting classical opera music, but she quickly turned her attention back to Clint who was just lying quietly now, the area was almost numb from all of the pain.

Eleanor simply watched as Clint had his eyes closed, making sure that his breathing was staying regular. Natasha, who had been in the cockpit, turned around and saw her wife watching Clint like a hawk, which was ironic. She smiled softly and made her way over, checking that the IV was acting as it should and that there were no air bubbles or similar.

But when everything seemed to be okay she gave Eleanor's shoulder a squeeze before heading over to a very glum-looking Bruce. With his headphones on he was staring at the floor with his hand rubbing various parts of his face, clearly still not happy that the mission was a 'code-green', the coined term for when they needed the Hulk to participate.

Eleanor's attention was then divided between making sure Clint was still breathing, and keeping an eye on the interaction happening a few paces away from her. She couldn't hear what they were talking about, but Natasha's tone of voice sounded soothing, and Bruce just still looked guilty, unable to look Natasha directly in the eye half the time.

After deducing that the conversation was an innocent enough one as Bruce hadn't started giving puppy eyes, she turned her full attention back onto Clint.

She hated how she had been in a relationship with Natasha for six years and had never felt insecure about it before. But suddenly with Bruce around long-term, she felt like her mind was playing high-school games of jealousy and possessiveness. She was an almost thirty-year-old woman, she didn't want to be feeling like that especially as it wasn't just a relationship, she was married. But half the time she put her feelings down to paranoia, and she also didn't want Natasha to react badly.

"Thor, report on the Hulk", Natasha suddenly spoke loud enough for everyone on the jet to hear. Eleanor narrowed her eyes slightly at Thor curious about what he was going to say.

"The gates of Hel are filled with the screams of his victims", he pumped his fist in the air slightly and clapped his hands together triumphantly. That is clearly not the answer that Natasha was looking for, as her head whipped around to face him whilst Banner just sighed. Eleanor's eyes widened and her brows shot up at what was said. If Clint was in the moment she probably would have shared a funny look with him but he was lying there like a limp fish.

"But not the screams of the dead, of course. No, no, wounded screams. Mainly whimpering, a great deal of complaining and tales of sprained deltoids and gout", Thor tried to save himself. But at this point Banner had put his head in his hands, Natasha was shaking her head, and Steve and Eleanor were holding in laughs.

"Hey, Banner, Dr Cho is on her way in from Seoul. Is it okay if she sets up in your lab?", Tony shouted over to Bruce.

"Uh, yeah, she knows her way around".

Eleanor then watched as Tony walked over to Thor and Steve to inspect the Scepter. She wanted to stay the hell away from that thing, she didn't trust it at all. She knew that it was an irrational fear as it couldn't jump up and start mind-controlling everyone on its own, there needed to be a sadistic controller on the other end of the stick for that. However, she still couldn't bring herself to willingly stand next to it.

Her gaze eventually once again ended up on Natasha and Bruce who were still talking, though it sounded like it was coming to an end as Natasha started getting up. But not before patting his knee briefly, an innocent enough gesture on her part, comforting a friend. What made Eleanor frown was Bruce putting his hand on top of hers and seeing it linger slightly.

Yeah, that wasn't on.

Natasha smiled at Eleanor as she walked back to her, but when she noticed how her jaw was clenched she was immediately concerned. "You okay?".

The corner of Eleanor's lips tugged down slightly and her nose scrunched, "I'm fine". Her answer was blunter than it normally was when she was upset with the Romanoff-Banner dynamic, but she was tired as is and had had enough with pretending that Bruce wasn't pining after her wife.

Nat then frowned, not knowing what was going on, "Seriously, El, what's wrong?". Eleanor felt guilty because technically Natasha had done nothing wrong, but the woman was a world-class spy, Eleanor thought that she would have known when someone was letting on more than they were trying to.

"Nothing".

Once again the bluntness showed up, but this time Natasha wore more of a scowl than a frown, not knowing where the hostility was coming from. "Let's talk over there". Eleanor watched as Nat pointed to a very secluded area of the jet. She was reluctant to get up as this was the very thing that she had been avoiding for months, she loved and trusted her wife more than anything, it was that guy that was really grinding her gears.

She didn't want to fight with Natasha.

Arriving in the corner, Nat crossed her arms and stared at her wife expectedly, in all the years she had known her she hadn't really had to deal with Eleanor in this type of mood. Knowing that she wouldn't be able to get out of it, she just decided to come clean about how she was feeling and hoped that Natasha would be understanding and even come to the realisation herself. They were grown-ups they could talk about this, right?

In whispered tones so that the team couldn't hear she began, "I know that you and Banner get on well, and I don't know if you have noticed... well, to be honest, I hope you haven't noticed because then it'd be a whole other issue- anyway, he tries to discreetly flirt with you... a lot".

"What?", Nat whisper-shouted, which Eleanor wasn't expecting so she took a step back at seeing the anger on Nat's face. "That's why you're being so snappy right now?".

Eleanor frowned, she had been a bit blunt with her answers, but she wouldn't call that snappy. "Well, I-".

"No, El", Nat shook her head. "You can't do this".

Now Eleanor was very confused, she was just voicing valid concerns to her wife, and she didn't really know what she was doing wrong. "Do what?".

"The control thing. I've seen how you look at Bruce sometimes, he is a friend, I thought you would have wanted me to make friends on the team, you get along great with Tony and I don't bat an eye".

Eleanor's eyes widened, "That's because Tony doesn't give me doe eyes every time I walk into a room! And what control thing?".

"Deciding who I can and can't be friends with on the team, you can't take my choices away from me". Eleanor's face softened at the vulnerability that Natasha showed at the end of her statement. She had spent a lifetime having no choices, so Eleanor understood now that this was a sore spot.

"Look, I'm sorry but can I just explain my side? Please, I would never, ever, dream of taking your choices away, it's why I kept quiet about it for so long because that was the last thing that I wanted to do".

Natasha looked down before meeting Eleanor's eyes again, "I'll talk to you in a bit". And with that she walked off, Eleanor tried getting her attention again but failed. She huffed with frustration as she felt tears pricking her eyes, she had kept quiet for this very reason, but she hadn't expected Natasha to walk away in the middle of an argument. They didn't argue often, mostly about trivial things when it does happen, but they always make sure that it was dealt with immediately.

This was new territory in their marriage.

She decided to give Natasha the space that she needed. They still had an hour or so until reaching the tower, so she tried to make herself comfortable on one of the benches towards the front. But there was no way that she could get comfortable, the position that she had opted for after shuffling around for a bit was leaning against the wall with her legs tucked into her chest. Being in a ball gave a sense of security.

Eleanor could feel eyes on her but she didn't want to turn to find out who it was. If she had turned, she would have seen the concerned eyes of Natasha, whose heart broke ever so slightly at seeing Eleanor slowly reposition herself so that she was curled up, knowing that she only did that when she was anxious.

---

Natasha had been sat for fifteen minutes thinking everything over. She didn't believe that Eleanor was trying to control her, not really. Just her defensive walls that she had worked for years to keep down, especially around Eleanor, flew up at the accusation towards Bruce.

She was thinking over every interaction she had with the man, and the only thing that she could pinpoint was how he did go quiet when Eleanor was in the room. But she had always thought that it was from the looks that her wife gave him. Though now she wasn't so sure.

Eleanor wasn't the jealous type at all, so after mulling it all over, she knew that Eleanor's fears weren't coming from nowhere, or from a bad place. She had decided that she needed to go and talk to her wife, but before she could, Bruce sat down next to her. What would normally be a welcomed gesture had now made her body tense up.

When he asked her what was wrong she tried to deflect, saying that she was just tired, but when he had pointed out that there seemed to be a tension in the married couple she decided to question him instead. "Do you like me?", she turned to him, and he was taken aback by how blank her voice sounded.

"Uh yeah, of course I do?".

"No", she sighed, "Do you like me more than friends?". She sighed an even bigger sigh when he started tripping up on his words, and now she felt frustration bubbling up. Eleanor had been correct and she had completely pushed her away and accused her of doing something that she would never think of doing in a million years.

"Banner...", another sigh. "I'm married, you work with my wife as well, why have you been making small advances, especially in front of her?". He once again stammered, but just ended with looking defeated as his body slumped. "I need to go and talk with my wife".

Nat had no clue what to say as she approached Eleanor who was staring out of one of the windows. She didn't know how she was being so calm about the situation as a whole, if she had noticed someone flirting with Eleanor, Natasha would have flipped a lid. But that just wasn't the type of person Eleanor was, she thought to herself. She hadn't wanted to take a friend away from Natasha and be controlling, so she had suffered in silence.

"детка?", Nat started softly and sat next to Eleanor, keeping her concerned gaze on her side profile.

It took a few seconds, but after a shaky exhale from Eleanor she turned her head to face Nat's, "Hi".

"I'm sorry, I should have listened to you and not walked off, that wasn't mature of me at all".

Eleanor nodded, "I'm sorry for making you feel like you had to, and for not communicating with you sooner and that I took it out on you back there, that was stupid of me, as for Banner I must just be seeing things that aren't there".

Natasha shook her head and took ahold of Eleanor's hands and gingerly rubbed her hands over her knuckles, worried she was overstepping, but when Eleanor accepted her touch her grip tightened slightly. "You did nothing wrong. I spoke to Banner, and you were right, I'm sorry that I didn't listen and I'm even more sorry that I've been so oblivious, I was just so caught up in the fact that another person wanted to be a friend, but I guess not", she frowned.

Eleanor's face dropped at knowing that she was right and someone who was supposed to be a friend was flirting with her wife in front of her, but it also dropped because Natasha was also very obviously upset about the situation, so now she was angrier at how he had hurt Nat. "Hey, I'm so glad that you two got on so well, I'm sorry that he thought that he could get something else from it, though it was pretty stupid of him going after a married woman", she laughed slightly at the end. You gotta heal the world with comedy.

Nat was just relieved that Eleanor wasn't holding a grudge with her for getting so defensive a few minutes prior, so she chuckled at the comment as well, but more because of the feeling of a weight being lifted from her shoulders. She had been scared that she had majorly messed up. "So, we're good?", she hesitantly asked.

Eleanor spun herself to be fully facing Natasha and nodded with a big smile, "Yeah, you can't get rid of me yet, Romanoff".

"Oh nooo", Natasha joked and stopped Eleanor from slapping her arm by pulling her into a hug.

"You're lucky I love you", Eleanor grumbled with her face smushed into Natasha's shoulder.

---

When landing back in the Avengers tower, Nat and Eleanor immediately rushed Clint over, along with Bruce, to the lab. Tensions were high in all areas due to the revelations that had occurred on the jet, but also because now that Clint was fully awake again and being jostled about, he was in a lot of pain. So, the two women and Banner put whatever it was that had gone on aside in order to get Clint the treatment that he needed from Dr Cho.

Rushing into the lab, they all immediately noticed the new piece of equipment in there, along with the familiar face of Helen Cho. They had seen her a few times at gatherings and collaborations.

The machine looked odd, the base of it was practically a medical bed, but it had a metal arch going over the middle of it with a couple of metal spokes popping out of the sides. After seeing them rush in, Dr Cho moved the bed out so that they could transfer Clint onto it, and then rolled it back into place.

After prepping the area, blue light came out of one of the spokes, almost like a long laser, and started going back and forth over the wound.

Bruce walked out to find Tony, though Eleanor really couldn't find it in her to care. She stood on the left side of Clint with her arms crossed, her eyes narrowed on the wound in concentration. It was an impressive piece of technology, it was building tissue, so once the treatment was done there wouldn't be any scarring at all.

Oh, how she wished this tech existed back in her fight with The Winter Soldier. Her thoughts were broken when Bruce had re-entered the room and stood towards the back, overseeing what was happening. She held back an eye-roll and just continued looking at the machine.

On Clint's right side Natasha was also getting a good look at the tech, though she was leaning on the medical bed to get a better view of it. "Are you sure he's gonna be okay?". Eleanor looked up at her sounding concerned, was there something wrong with the machine that Eleanor hadn't spotted?

"Pretending to need this guy really brings the team together", Nat continued. There it was. Eleanor laughed as Dr Cho looked over and Clint just smiled. Natasha moved backwards and crossed her arms, subconsciously mimicking Eleanor's posture.

"There's no possibility of deterioration. The nano-molecular functionality is instantaneous. His cells don't know they're bonding with simulacra".

Bruce suddenly came and stood beside Dr Cho, "She's creating tissue". He sounded excited about the prospect of being able to do that, so Eleanor just politely nodded when she accidentally made eye contact with him. Oh, how she desperately wanted to yell 'What the hell is wrong with you?' at him after having her suspicions confirmed, but they all still had to work together, so now that Natasha knew and was going to keep her distance, she didn't want to risk causing a ruckus within the team.

"If you brought him to my lab, the Regeneration Cradle could do this in twenty minutes". Wow. That was impressive, it was crazy how far technology had gone in the space of just a few years.

"Oh, he's flat-lining. Call it. Time?", Tony came through holding some smoothies that they have after every mission to give them an energy boost and pump them full of vitamins. They didn't taste half bad either, not a beverage that Eleanor would immediately choose to drink, but definitely not one that she would pour down the sink.

Nat and Eleanor both smirked at hearing Tony join in on the jests as well. "No, no, no, I'm gonna live forever. I'm gonna be made of plastic!", Clint exclaimed before Tony handed him his smoothie.

"You'll be made of you Mr Barton. Your own girlfriend won't be able to tell the difference", Dr Cho chimed in.

"I don't have a girlfriend".

Well, Natasha and Eleanor knew that was a lie, Laura existed. And they were informed a few months previously that she was pregnant, which everyone was very excited about. They were also convinced that it was a girl and was going to name the baby after either Natasha or Eleanor, depending on what they thought she looked like at birth. The name that's kicked to the side will be the baby's middle name. It had turned into quite the competition between the two.

"That I can't fix", Dr Cho replied. "This is the next thing Tony. Your clunky metal suits are gonna be left in the dust".

"That is exactly the plan. And Helen I expect to see you at the party on Saturday". As Stark was talking Nat picked up her smoothie cup and sipped it through the straw whilst she kept eye contact with Eleanor as she walked to the other side of the room. That entire action could only be described in one word: sassy. So, Eleanor shook her head and picked up her own smoothie and followed her.

"Unlike you, I don't have a lot of time for parties... Will Thor be there?", Cho asked in a small voice. Eleanor let out a small laugh and gave her a goofy smile and a thumbs up.

"Leave the poor woman alone", Nat scolded her and yanked her away by grabbing her arm.

"What? I mean, I know I don't swing that way but he's a good choice!".