AN: Sorry for the wait. I don't have a set schedule anymore. I will update as soon as i can. Also, sorry this is so short. Longer chapters will be coming. Please let me know what you think by writing a review. I hope to hear from you guys. I hope everyone is having a great summer.

Stacy

Chapter 20- The Waking Nightmare

Hayden's POV

It's been four hours since communications has gone down. Four hours of being confined in this impenetrable metal and glass room without knowing if my team, my family is alive. Not only are communications down but something or someone zapped the electricity in the building. I assume the whole building because I don't believe it is located to just this room and the television, game systems, lights, and computer systems all crashed at the time of the explosion. If I don't get out of this room soon, I might lose my mind.

Bruce passed out an hour ago, so I moved my pacing towards the library area. He humored me the first couple of hours by playing various board games by a flashlight that I found in the desk. After it took me ten minutes to throw together a three letter word in scrabble, he gave up. He ended up watching me as I searched the room for an exit. What I found was a stash of weapons left behind from either Natasha or Clint and a quarter of bottle of scotch.

The bottle is empty now. I threw it against the wall fifteen minutes ago, startling Bruce. It was funny watching him fall off the couch, hit the table, and then jump up from the floor like he just popped out of a toaster. I guess I'm a little sadistic like that. Once he scanned the room and saw the disruption was me, he just laid back down and was asleep again in five minutes. I'm kind of surprised he didn't hulk out. Maybe he has better control over the other guy then he realizes.

"Jarvis?" I listen for a response but I get the same that I have from the last four hours. Silence. I never thought I would miss an A.I.'s voice before. I plopped down on the floor, dragging my legs to my chest as the metal and glass cool my back. I debated trying to go into the panic room but the wall that leads to that is covered up by the mystery junk of lockdowns protection. I've been in here so long. I don't remember which part of the wall the door is located on. For all I know, I could be sitting in front of it. If it wasn't for the watch Bruce always wears and gave to me after I kept asking him what time it was, I wouldn't even know that it is 1:43 in the morning.

Usually by now I am either in the gym exercising off a nightmare or pushing through panic attacks by swimming laps. I feel the panic clawing in my mind. Black tendrils obscure my limited vision as I hear my breathing pick up. I don't have time for this. I need to focus on how to get out of here, on how to help my team. Face it, you're trapped here. Might as well get used to it. You'll probably never get out of here. Stop it! Take deep breaths Hayden. You're pathetic. Your teams probably lying their dying. Loki is finishing them off. And you're in here, hiding like a coward. Stop. It's not true. Is it, not true? How do you know?

Positive self talk has never been my strong suit. I took off my panty hose and heels hours ago, so maybe I could do some cardio. This dress might pose a problem. Before I can start doing jumping jacks, I hear a noise that can only be described as screeching car breaks and that annoying sound a fork makes when it scratches against a dinner plate amplified at decibels that would make your ears bleed.

"Bruce!" I half whisper, yell. He just snorts, while continuing to snore and falls into a deeper sleep. My body starts vibrating in tune with the wall. Sure, he wakes up when I throw a bottle at the wall but when their's a real threat and it seems like the building is going to fall around us, he is off chasing fucking sheep. I'm so going to kill him. Grabbing a knife and gun from the stash I found earlier, I slide up next to where the sound is.

"Bruce!" Not caring about keeping my voice quiet now, I practically scream to wake him up. Not paying attention to him, I focus on the small gap that has opened in the wall. I see a shadow of someone's legs moving closer just as a deafening screech transports me back to three and a half months ago.

I've been stuck in this cell for almost a month now. A fucking cell, with a guard dog and everything. This guy who is referred to by 'the boss' is a sadistic asshole. They've been strapping me down and trying to torture SHIELD information out of me for the past thirty days. They haven't broken me yet. They don't understand that I will die before I give them anything. The last time they brought me back from my beatings, they forgot to secure me. Dumb asses. They usually hog tie me, but an alarm went off right when I was thrown in here so they just left me. Just because I have cuts on sixty percent of my body and two broken bones doesn't mean I'm not a threat. They've just pissed me off.

The sound of metal on metal breaks me out of my mental musings. One of the guard's walk in, it is the usual guy who watches me who is stacked like a linebacker and as tall as an NBA player. I can't remember his name but I think its Ron. Or was it John? Before he can fully get into my personal hell, I climb up his body so that my legs are crossed around his back and lock his neck in a hold. Within seconds of snapping his neck, I give him more of a chance then he ever gave me.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't snap your neck?" The look of shock that I could even move let alone debilitate him within seconds would have been funny if the situation wasn't so serious. His hand reaches for the gun at his side while he snarls at me.

"I will kill you, you fucking cunt."

"Wrong answer." No sooner than the last word leaves my lips, a sharp snap gives way under my hands and he falls to the floor. I look down at the only person I've ever killed and feel nothing. A grab his gun, finding his back up by his ankle, just as my cell fills up with reinforcements. Taking a deep breath, I raise the guns. Time to party.

Bruce's POV

"Bruce!" I wake up to Hayden screeching my name which prompts me to fall off the couch in the same manner I did the last time when I was woken by her. I haven't slept more than a couple hours at a time in days so being locked up in here with nothing to do kind of works for me. Just when I am standing up and rubbing out my shoulder from hitting the coffee table twice now, a piercing metal screech wakes me up faster than any cup of coffee ever could.

The noise reminds me of six months ago when Tony was drunk and roped me into another one of his gimmicks. He ended up passing out five minutes after we reached his workshop, so I was stuck on babysitting duty while trying to get some work done. The computer I was using set off an alert to let me know the test results I wanted were in. Tony thought we were getting called in and jumped off his worktable, suited up and then crashed into his Audi. That's what the sound reminds me off, the crashing not the computer beeping.

Hayden must have turned off the flashlight at some point because all I can see is darkness. I'm not afraid of the dark or anything. It's just the whole not being able to see what is in my way that pisses me off. I am about to mummy my way through the room, bruised shins included, to find Hayden when I see a hand holding a lantern crawl through the gap in the wall.

"Shit!" Turning away from the light, I close my eyes to give them a moment to adjust from staring right at a light source that I haven't been privy to for over five hours. It's probably Tony or Clint. Besides, someone bringing just a lantern to a room holding a SHIELD agent and the hulk would just be suicidal. Just as I finish that thought I hear a crash behind me and a voice that I know is Hayden's but reminds me more of Vivian. I would rather let the other guy consume me forever then admit that to her.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't snap your neck?" If I didn't think she was joking I would've laughed at the situation. Tony's standing there with a look of surprise on his face with his hands in the air like someone is pointing a gun on him as Hayden is seconds away from killing him with some sort of hold I've seen Natasha make. What the hell happened since I fell asleep?

"Um, 'cause I'm Iron man?" Tony sends me a look partly says help me and what the fuck! "Something's wrong, man." Nah, ya, think. My face mimics my thoughts as I move closer to them, trying to see if I can see Hayden's face. Just as I do, she straightens up, looking at the door and snarls.

"Wrong answer." Oh shit. Without over thinking it, I football tackle them both to the ground. Hayden just rolls back wards and then flips so she is standing again, with both fists up, ready for more action. Against whom, we don't know. Before Tony and I are fully standing I let him know my diagnosis of the situation. "She's having a flashback."

"Ya think? And here I thought it was because of my magnetic personality." Rolling his eyes, he continues. "What should I do doc?"

"Why do you think I know? I study gamma radiation and genetics, not the psyche. That's a whole other field I don't even want to touch."

After ducking a punch and jumping over an attempt to trip him, Hayden lands a punch in Tony's stomach. "Ugh, this sucks. Got any good meds on hand?"

"None that she can take."

"Her- pfft. I was thinking of myself. Ah shit, duck." Just then the coffee table came flying my way, missing me by an inch.

"Um, Tony. Do something. I can't, I mean…shit, and he'll take over if she comes at me anymore."

"Get the Spider. I need someone to knock her out. She's in the infirmary. Five floors-Fuck that hurt."

"Why won't you? That will need stitches." I glanced at the five inch gash that Hayden just cut into his arm.

"I try not to hit woman, especially ones who don't deserve it. I would go with you but someone needs to stay with her. Surprisingly, I'm the best qualified out of the two of us. Now go."

"You'll be okay?" Before I can finish, the lantern is thrown into the television, breaking both.

"Greeeeaaaat. It's like playing hide and seek at midnight, without a moon while throwing the threat of being in a horror movie. Tell her to bring another lantern. And stop worrying, I'll be fine. Do you honestly think this is my first tango with a crazy chick?"

"I can hear you! You can't hide from me. Show yourself!" I hear Tony whisper a bunch of four letter words and move from where he was talking to me before as I climb through the gap in the doorway.

Racing down the hall, I regret now more than anytime tonight I didn't bring my cell phone. The infirmary is five floors above this one and separated into a different wing on the opposite side that I am going up. I pray to a God I don't believe in that I can make it in time to find Natasha before my girlfriend kills my best friend.