Between Time- MCU

The lab was too clean.

Sterile white walls, clear surfaces, shelves stacked with labeled containers and devices she couldn't name. The lights overhead buzzed faintly, the kind of sound you only noticed when your thoughts were loud.

Alex stood near the center of the room, arms crossed tightly, backpack at her feet like she wasn't sure if she was staying or just... visiting.

Run or stay. That's always the choice, isn't it?

She heard a quiet beep and turned to see Bruce Banner emerging from behind a glass partition. He was wearing a worn navy cardigan and dark jeans, glasses slightly fogged from some chemical mist he'd apparently just walked through.

No lab coat. No clipboard. No judgment in his eyes.

Just Bruce.

"Morning," he greeted gently. "Thanks for not bailing."

Alex shrugged, feigning indifference. "Wasn't sure if the place would lock me in if I didn't show."

Bruce smiled faintly and walked to a nearby console, tapping something in. "No pressure today. I just want to see what you feel when the ability starts to kick in. You don't have to do anything big. Just... show me where it lives."

Alex stared at him. "What if it doesn't work?"

"Then we learn something anyway."

That was the thing about Bruce. He never made her feel like a problem. More like a puzzle, complicated, maybe, but solvable.

He gestured toward the padded floor space in the middle of the lab. "Just sit, if you're okay with that. Take a minute. There's no one else here."

Alex hesitated, then moved to sit cross-legged on the mat. The space felt too open, too vulnerable. Like there were no shadows to hide in. But Bruce kept his distance, close enough to be present, far enough to give her space.

She closed her eyes.

And breathed.

In through her nose, out through her mouth, just like Natasha had shown her. Grounding techniques. A week ago, she would've scoffed. Now, she still hated them, but they worked.

Where does it live?

Her power wasn't loud. It wasn't heat or light or energy she could see. It was more like pressure, a coiling tightness in her chest, like the air around her was just slightly... wrong. Off-tempo.

Like she was slipping one second ahead of the world.

"Talk me through it," Bruce said softly. "No one else can feel what you do, so describe it."

Alex hesitated, then opened her eyes halfway, voice low and slow. "It's like... everything starts to blur. But not around me. It's like the world's stuck in a glitch. Like a video buffering and I'm the only thing that's not lagging."

Bruce nodded, tapping notes into a tablet. "And your body?"

She flexed her fingers. "Heavier. But also... lighter. Like I'm holding onto something that's pulling me up and down at the same time."

"Do you feel like it's you causing it... or like it's something acting through you?"

Alex paused. That was a question no one had asked before.

"I think it's me," she said slowly. "But only when I stop trying to control it."

Bruce looked up at that. "So control might be the thing blocking consistency?"

"Or maybe I just suck at this." She opened her eyed and deadpanned.

"You don't," he said simply. "You just haven't had a reason to believe you could be good at it."

That landed harder than she expected.

Because it was true.

She lowered her head, pressing her palms into the mat, grounding herself again. The pressure in her chest was building now, not panic, not quite, but that strange anticipation that came right before time slipped. Right before everything stopped.

She focused.

One second. Just one.

The hum of the lab faded. The lights seemed to flicker. Not really, more like they slowed. Like sound and motion were taking a breath.

She blinked, and for half a heartbeat, everything around her was frozen.

Still. Silent.

She exhaled, and the world snapped back into place. Just like that.

Bruce didn't say anything right away. He just gave a thoughtful nod, scribbling something down.

"That was good," he said. "Measured. Controlled. You didn't push."

Alex stared at her hands.

"I used to only do that when I was scared," she said. "Or when I thought I was gonna die."

"And now?"

"I did it on purpose." A pause. "That's new."

Bruce smiled. "Then that's where we start."