SPENCER FELL ASLEEP ON THE LAB TABLE.

And it was a fair thing, too. She had managed to stay up until like 7 AM - about five hours after Tony Stark's surprise visit. But between her dad's silence and the hum of the laboratory lights, she lulled off to sleep.

She didn't wake up until someone was shoving her roughly with one hand while bickering occurred simultaneously.

Still half asleep, Spencer raised her head only to meet striking blue eyes.

She practically fell off of the table and had to grip the corners to steady her self, staring up, surprised at the boy in front of her. Blinking a few times, Spencer was able to make out the silver hair, the slight stubble, and, of course, those blue eyes-

"Wake up," Pietro said, pulling away from his sister's arguing. "Banner is asking for you."

"Me?" Spencer checked, her eyes still adjusting to the light in the room. Her hands relaxed from the table, her arms fell limply at her side as the boy crossed his arms over his chest, glancing behind him.

"Does Banner have a son named Spencer as well?" Pietro asked his sister with a cocky grin. She was standing to his side with an agitated expression. Her disapproval didn't stop Pietro. "Maybe he's asking for him."

"Play nice," Wanda warned as Spencer shuffled from her seat and stood up. She debated shoving Pietro away from her but figured she'd rather not assault an Avenger. She'd either end up with a lawsuit or a fired dad. She eyed Pietro again. Or a black eye.

None of the above sounded too good.

She hadn't noticed last night, but she was significantly smaller than Pietro. Like, she practically had to look up to the guy.

He noticed her attention and grinned down at her.

Spencer looked away, grasping for her backpack she'd left on the chair next to her. Her brain lagged as she tried to piece together what was going on. The last thing she remembered, she was half-awake by her dad, and it was about 5 AM, and now, the clock was reading - she squinted - 10 AM.

"Tell me," Pietro began, and Spencer turned to watch him carefully like she knew he was going to do something stupid. Which she did. He had a face that practically screamed STUPID! "Do you take after Banner's anger problems?"

Wanda's eyes grew wide like he had said something inappropriate. "Pietro!"

"What?" he played, a teasing tone on his lips as he looked back to Spencer, who was just watching the two. "I think we should know. For precaution, Wanda."

Spencer stood there for a moment, confused. Her eyes narrowed, for a second, trying to understand if she had heard him right. It wasn't until a few seconds later, that she realized the twins were waiting on an answer.

"I-I've never seen my dad angry," Spencer told them, not sure why she even had to say that.

(Did her dad have a reputation for that or something? The only time she'd ever seen him close to angry was after she put her hand on the hot cooking pan on Christmas morning.)

The twins exchanged a look that was slightly puzzled, or disbelieving.

Not wanting any more of this interaction, Spencer slung her backpack on her shoulder. "Where is he?" Spencer asked her eyes on Wanda now.

She decided she liked Wanda a lot better than Pietro.

"He's in a lab down the hall," Wanda directed, turning in the direction of the back door of the lab.

She nodded, and brushed past Pietro, and made her way to the new room, hopefully escaping the critical blue eyes of the twins.

✰✰✰

SPENCER DIDN'T KNOW WHY BRUCE MOVED LABS.

 But then again, she never really understood anything her dad did. She tried not to question it much, just pushed open the door to lab 307.

Just about everything looked the same as the other lab. There were the same monitors and amounts of tables, and the chairs were all in the same order. It was just as pristine as she remembered the other room.

There was a small difference, though- when she walked through the door, it wasn't only Bruce, or Bruce and Tony. There was someone else.

A child.

Okay, not a child per se, but he was pretty young to be in a laboratory. He was probably around fourteen, maybe fifteen if you stretch it. Spencer may be sixteen, but she still felt like a child compared to all of the people she'd met in the last 12 hours. Even the twins - they may not be adults, but they definitely weren't kids anymore.

But this kid was sitting at a lab table with a monitor on and papers splayed all around - and he was looking up and Spencer with wide brown eyes.

Bruce looked first to Peter, wondering what got his attention, and found his daughter standing at the other side of the room. He shifted in his seat and smiled up at her.

"Hey," Spencer greeted, relieved to see someone she recognized.

"Hey," Bruce greeted back as she slipped into the seat next to him, and looked back to his computer, pressing on the keyboard a few times.

Spencer glanced down at the table where Bruce had a granola bar and a cup of coffee. She didn't realize she was hungry until she saw the options.

Bruce noticed and nudged her shoulder. "Go ahead," he told her, shifting back to his work.

She reached for the coffee and snack bar without another thought. She was gonna need it if she was going to figure out why her dad was in such close companionship with the world's mightiest heroes.

But then she felt an overwhelming heat and glanced to see Peter's eyes on her again.

Bruce must've noticed too, because he was saying, "Peter," he peered over his glasses that were slipping off the bridge of his nose, "this is my daughter, Spencer."

"Oh," Peter said, like something in his brain clicked. His eyes got impossible wider. "Hi. I'm Peter." She could tell he felt stupid for double introducing himself.

Once he looked away, Spencer whispered to Bruce, "Isn't he a little young to be here?"

A slight blush appeared on Peter's cheeks - and Spencer wondered if he could hear them from all the way on the other side of the room. No, she decided. That wouldn't make sense.

Bruce glanced up at Peter, and then back down at his work. "He's Tony's intern."

Spencer nodded as if that made any sense to her - which it didn't - then shifted in her seat, trying to get comfortable. But there was something about sleeping at a lab table that makes you all kinds of sore and impatient.

After a few minutes, Spencer couldn't help but look up at Bruce and ask, "Are you almost done?"

"Well," Bruce started, in a tone that made Spencer think he was nowhere near done, "I-"

Before he could explain, a woman entered the lab.

Spencer's head snapped over to the door, where her dad's eyes were slowly following. Spencer didn't have her glasses on, but she didn't really need them to figure out that it was not the twins or Tony.

No, this visitor or resident or whatever had strikingly red hair and a grin that could kill. She was in dress slacks and a blouse and was holding a portfolio to her chest.

And her eyes were locked on Bruce.

Spencer kept her eyes on her as Peter called out, "Hi, Ms.Romanoff!"

Spencer's brain shifted into gear, and her eyes narrowed as she listed, Romanoff. Red hair. Avengers. Black Widow, Spencer realized.

"Hey, Peter," Black Widow greeted, offering him a smile, before looking over to Bruce and Spencer. "Hi, Bruce."

Bruce? The Black Widow was close enough to Spencer's dad that she called him Bruce? Tony, she could understand - the guy was a genius nerd or whatever. Totally suits her dad's interest. But a pretty lady? No, scratch that - a gorgeous woman with the ability to kill  had called her dad Bruce.

And Spencer totally didn't miss that face Black Widow was giving her dad - with the wide eyes and the playful smirk, and oh God, Spencer couldn't help her face contorting slightly as her dad went to reply.

His voice was soft, as it always was, but Spencer could detect excitement as he said, "Hi, Natasha."

The brunette looked up and her dad, and over to Natasha. She didn't miss those eyes she sent him. And she certainly didn't miss her dad's slight embarrassment.

Half of her wanted to be like "aaawww". She'd never seen - or even heard of - her dad having any interest in anyone. Sure, he was always civil with Nicole, but that was about it. Spencer could never even picture her parents together- they were such polar opposites.

So like, this kinda felt like a proud moment, you know? Like her dad was finally getting out of his comfort zone! Good for him!

The other half of Spencer wanted to gag. That was her dad. She already had a mom, and this woman was kinda young for him. And not to mention - gross!

"So you must be Spencer," Natasha said as she turned to, and Bruce was looking back down at his work all sheepish, and Spencer was resisting half an urge to puke or at least, stare at him like he was a wild animal.

Unfortunately, Natasha was still talking, "Bruce talks a lot about you," she said with a smile that looked genuine, but Spencer was convinced as anything but.

The girl eyed Natasha for a moment. She shifted in her seat, propping her chin on her fist as she let her other arm fall to the table with a thud. She looked at Natasha with a blank expression, telling, "He's never mentioned you."

Romanoff's smile didn't falter, and for some reason, that annoyed Spencer even more.

As Bruce stared down at his daughter, Natasha admitted with another, softer smile, "I'm not surprised. He hardly ever mixes his personal and professional lives."

Spencer held back a scoff. Yeah, no kidding.

Bruce looked flustered and was suddenly much more interested in the work on his screen.

Spencer took a swing of his coffee and studied Natasha more carefully. The redhead let her eyes drop over to Bruce, as she said, "I got those rooms you requested."

Spencer looked over at her dad. "Rooms?" she repeated.

As if the morning hadn't already tested him enough, Bruce looked awfully uncomfortable.

✰✰✰

"SO WE'RE STAYING HERE."

Spencer glanced around the room she and Bruce were standing in. It was nice, enough. It had a twin bed and a window and decent sunlight. And attached was a bathroom. Her bags were already here, courtesy of Tony's henchmen, or whatever. 

That guy really can do whatever he wants, she thought.

"I'm sorry." that must've been like the fifteenth time her dad had said that in the last ten hours, and honestly, it was losing its effect. "Really, Spence-" she resisted rolling her eyes as Bruce tried to reason with her, "I didn't think that this would happen."

This? Spencer couldn't help but wonder was this referring to her find out about his job and friends, or this, the room situation.

"I'll be next door," he told her, his hands holding onto themselves. "Like at the apartment," he added, pursing his lips as he looked to his daughter, gaging her reaction.

Spencer wanted to nod, except the fact that this was so different than the apartment. At least in the apartment, Spencer could have a feeling of normalcy - or act as she did. In the apartment, she could sneak around and try to figure out more about her dad who she had just recently found out was incredibly good at hiding things.

But it didn't seem like she was going to find out anything in this stark white military guest rooms.

Spencer was trying to find something to anchor her down, to help her from losing her chill - maybe she should just be excited that she was here in the first place!

(Well, except for the fact that she didn't like Natasha, Wanda thought she was stupid, and Pietro enjoyed bothering her.)

Well, at least Peter didn't seem to totally detest her.

The phone went off, and Bruce watched as his daughter fumbled around her pockets to pull out her phone.

"It's mom," she said, glancing and brushing past him, "I should take this."

As she closed the door behind her, Spencer stepped out into the hallway, bringing her phone up to her ear. "Hey, mom."

"Your dad told me what's going on," Nicole said immediately. Spencer shoved her free hand in her pocket and glanced back at the glass door she had closed. Bruce looked like he was trying to avoid looking at his daughter's conversation. "How is it?"

That had to be a trick question. Seriously - how was Spencer supposed to answer that? Oh, did you know dad works with the freaking avengers? Or that apparently he has anger issues over here? Well, it's either that or Quicksilver wants to confuse the living shit outta me-

"It's fine," Spencer replied, pulling at her ear.

Nicole could detect less than sincerity in her voice. "You can come home, sweetie, if it's too much," she consoled in that tone that was like you can, but you shouldn't.

Spencer glanced back through the door - Bruce was standing around the room, awkwardly. He picked at the pins Spencer had attached to her backpack and tried to read it.

It popped off. He scrambled to pick it back up.

"No, no," Spencer sighed into the phone. "I promised I'd give this a shot, I just - I wish he'd said something."

Nicole offered, "He didn't want to scare you."

Great. Another person on Bruce's side. Like it was totally normal for him to completely not mention his entire life's work with the Avengers or whatever.

Realizing she wasn't getting any help from her mom, Spencer said "Right. Well, I should go."

"Okay. I love you, honey. Call me back when you can."

Spencer peered back through the door. Bruce had placed the pin back on the bag and surveyed the room again. Then he squeezed his eyes shut, and took a deep breath, rubbing at his temples.

Yeah. Spencer felt the same way.