So, I'm on vacation, which has made getting updates ready a little bit of a challenge. However, I come home tomorrow and so I should be back to more frequent updates soon. Of course, I also have a business trip next week and my son's 4th birthday party (Avengers themed, I might add!) to put together this weekend that could eat into that as well. Even when updates aren't up, I'm still writing though. I carry a notebook in my purse at all times, so I am always able to write.

I went back a little further than I thought I would for this one, but I really wanted to see what was going on in Tony's head during all of this and with his propensity for sticking his nose in everything, you had to have guessed he was listening in on their conversation, right?

Another little note, I've not actually read much of the Extremis arc in the comics and so when I used the Bleeding Edge armor earlier, that might have been a preemptive move based on a misreading of online info. I haven't specifically decided where this is timewise, so when I figure that out, tiny edits may be made to make it consistent. Or we can chalk the whole thing up to different universe, different rules!

Warnings for Tony internal angst and external Stark mouths

For Science!

Tony did his best to quickly hide the shock when his female counterpart shoved her tongue in Bruce's mouth. To his relief, Bruce and Toni were too focused on each other to notice. It wasn't like he had a legit claim to Bruce, though he'd certainly entertained the thoughts in the past. Most men weren't as sexually open as himself though and nothing made work more awkward than propositioning an oh too straight man. Still, it rubbed him all wrong watching them.

"Yeah, baby, what's wrong?" Stark teased, letting the jealousy he was trying to deny get the better of him. "I mean, I'm not surprised that all it took was a pair of tits for you to jump my bones, so please, continue. The show was just getting interesting."

Amused at getting her all riled up, Tony found it reassuring when her attention was focused on himself instead of Bruce, even if it was threatening and over protective. He baited and she swung right back. Though, he wondered after the fact if he was so easily baited.

Of course, Bruce had to drag her attention back, always diffusing the time bomb. For someone so convinced of his own instability, Banner sure had a knack for calming those around him.

"Well, at least I make a sexy man. Not that I'm surprised. Just saying." If he needed any convincing, her parroting his own response did the trick and for a brief moment, Tony found himself oddly aroused.

"You sure you're not my Bruce?"

Her question cued Tony, putting his arm around Bruce with a sly grin. "Like I said, I called dibs on this one."

Toni's reaction was not what he had hoped for, however. She seemed to be analyzing them and it was clear, again, she had Stark's mind. Tony was sure she could see that, for all his talk, Bruce was completely oblivious to his interest. "Like a time bomb," she muttered.

This raised his eyebrow. And what the hell was that supposed to mean? Did she think he was stupid enough to screw things up?

"So, if you're me, you've probably already got two or three ideas on how to send me back home, am I right?"

He met her with a smirk, pushing her comment aside for later. "I'll need Bruce's input before I'm ready to test them, but the theories are there."

"And my suit, have you already gathered my data from it?"

"Jarvis is working on that as we speak."

"And dinner?"

"I have to feed you too?" he asked with a laugh, trying to cover up his discomfort with her. "Next, I guess you'll be wanting a room to sleep in til we get you there? Guess it's a good thing one of us is a billionaire in this universe." He turned to Bruce, letting his arm slide off Banner's shoulders. "You think you can managed to show her the guest rooms, while I go find us food?"

Bruce nodded. "I think we still have a pizza left from last night."

Tony left the room with that smile still plastered on, but as soon as the elevator door slid shut, his face dropped. Who the hell did she think she was? He knew the answer to that. He knew that if things were reversed, he'd probably be behaving just the same. He didn't have to admit that though, not even to himself.

While he might be ashamed of it later, Tony decided that it'd be in everyone's best interest if he kept an eye on Toni and Bruce. Tapping into the security with a thought, Tony could truly see and hear anything going on in the tower. Normally, he didn't abuse this ability but his jealousy was certainly getting the better of him.

Tony pulled the leftover pizza from the fridge and took a quick look in the box before tossing the whole thing in the trash. He pulled up the website for one of his favorite nearby places and placed an order for one of those organic, veggie delight, whole wheat, gluten free, blah-blah-blah pizzas Banner enjoyed so much. I wasn't that Stark was opposed to health food; when he was dying of palladium poisoning, he ate and drank tons of antioxidant super-foods. But Bruce too it to an extreme that made Tony want to dive head first into a greasy meat-lovers pizza, a box of donuts and mixed drinks.

He'd eat it anyway. Tony credited that to a combination of proving Steve wrong about him being out of shape and the realization that some of his old suits were a little too tight for comfort. It was true, he still took any criticism from Rogers much harder than he let on. The level of hero worship his father had instilled in him from his earliest days that led him to thinking Howard cared more about his work in creating Captain America than he did his own son would likely always be an issue. However, a big part of the change in diet was because of Bruce. Not only did it make things easier during those late hours when they had been in the lab for way too long without food, but Tony relished the rare occasions when Banner cooked for them. The doctor had a way of making the healthiest, most natural food taste amazing.

While all this went on, Tony was also working out the parallel universe problem and spying on Bruce and Toni's conversation. It never ceased to impress Tony how much his multitasking improved since the Extremis. He also added a few layers to the scans he ran regularly, monitoring Doctor Banner for signs of the Hulk. Looking deeper, he did not like what he saw.

Although biology wasn't Tony's field of expertise, he could tell sexual tension from Bruce's usual discomfort around those who invaded his personal space. She had really gotten to him. It wasn't enough that she had Bruce in her own universe, she had to win over his as well? The sooner Toni could be sent back, the better.

Tony had three potential solutions fully worked out, ready for Bruce's input, when Jarvis spoke up, "Sir, the pizza has arrived."

Tony nodded. "I'll be down in a second."

While Tony rode the elevator down to retrieve dinner, he listened to Bruce and Toni discussing the other Doctor Banner. For a moment, he entertained the thought of two Bruces working together. What she had to say about the phase shift was pretty much confirmed by his math as well.

"You're just- you're so much like him, Bruce. It's hard to see you as someone else."

"You two are really close, huh?"

That broke him out of the fantasy.

"You- he is the only one who's ever really got me, you know? From the first time we met, on the Shield helicarrier, I knew we were going to be something great. After reading his file, I figured we'd create something amazing that would win us a Nobel prize or something, but once we met, I knew it went deeper than that. He made me a better woman, more responsible and more approachable. He helps me see things I normally overlook and without him, I wouldn't have been able to keep the Avengers together. We just fit each other.

"It took me a long time to convince him of that though. He was so convinced that he was a monster, too dangerous to keep company with us fragile folk. I got to him though, convinced him to embrace his other side and really strut. He says I showed him how to really live again. Of course, it didn't hurt that Hulk and I shared an understanding of what was best for you- him, even if Bruce didn't see it."

These things were all true for Tony as well, but he's never really been brave enough to speak them out loud. Then Bruce laughed, not that "oh that was ridiculous laugh" but that warm, intimate laugh he only shared with those he really trusted. Damn it, could this elevator move any slower?

"That part isn't too different here either. Tony convinced everyone, myself included, that the Hulk wasn't a monster. If it weren't for him, I would have spent the rest of my life hiding in the furthest corners of the third world possible, or worse. Tony believed in me, all of me, from the very start. It also didn't hurt that we could talk without having to dumb it down."

Bruce's words touched Tony and helped ease the panic that Toni was winning him over. "You're the one who made me better," he kept between himself and the empty space of the elevator. That Toni was so emotionally honest had given him pause, but if anyone could make a decent man (or woman in this case) out of Stark, it's be Banner.

Of course, in true Stark fashion, Toni had to ruin his sentimental moment by asking a question that implied too much but also made painfully clear that he and Bruce weren't ever going to be close enough for Tony to admit that. "So, you and he are pretty close too?"

"Well, not as close as you and the other me, I suppose."

"Uh huh."

Saving Bruce from the awkward moment and himself from anymore self inflicted rejection, Tony waltzed into the room. "I brought pizza," he announced, making as much noise as he could.

"Oh good." Bruce looked so relieved. "I'm starving!"

"You better be. I got your favorite." Tony set the pizza on the table and grabbed plates. "And I was stuck finishing the last two."

Toni took one look at the pizza and shot and smug grin at her counterpart. "He's got you eating his new age hippie food too? And he didn't even have to sleep with you to persuade you? Impressive Bruce."

Bruce returned to that delightful shade of red he'd been sporting off and on that night and countered, "I had nothing to do with it. He's just making up for all the empty calories in the booze."

Tony hated her for a moment and in an even shorter moment, realized he must be just as frustrating. Yeah, there was only room for one Stark per universe. Hiding that, he responded, "Got to make cuts somewhere if I'm going to stay in shape." Of course, Banner's defense wasn't entirely true either. His drinking had steadily decreased since Bruce moved in and lately, he hardly drank at all. Bruce never much cared from drinking and refused to himself so it was better if Stark limited himself. Yeah, Bruce was definitely making a decent man out of Tony.

He took a bite while pulling up a holoscreen with some of the work he'd done so far. Showing it to Bruce, he explained, "So I took the numbers you got from Reed and with what we got tonight, I mapped out the variances. Reed designed his device just to glance into the different universes instead of traveling between them, but it looks like it was too high powered to view the closest ones. From what I can tell, you're from the next closest universe."

Tony kept quiet about the phase shift not wanting them to know he'd been listening in. He figured the two of them would put it together just as he did, but the fact, the Skrull being able to control such a short distance as a phase shift was actually pretty impressive. That sort of precision would be hard to maintain.

He lit up one of the lines on the graph. "Here's us and-" He lit up another that nearly touched the first. "If my math is right, and it always is, this is your universe, Miss Stark."

Bruce pointed to the barely existent space between the two lines. "And this is where the Skrull put the other me."