Hillary paused. She hadn't thought about it before.

We should. We need to look into that.

Lizzy snickered at that. Oh, that would be hysterical.

Go for it, start doing research. I can build something for it, no problem.

Done. I'll look into it. Because now that the idea had been proposed, Hillary kind of wanted a pet snake. It would be ironic, if nothing else, and she was kind of curious as to whether or not she would be able to talk to it or not. It was something she'd always wondered about.

Lizzy grinned and went back to work. She had a few more stops to make if nothing went awry. Then she could go home for the night.

Hillary drained the tub and got out carefully, trying not to get water everywhere. Once she was pretty much dry, she made her way into the living room and draped herself over the couch. Her tail dragged on the floor, over one arm rest, and her shoulders rested against the opposite arm rest, but it was pretty comfortable regardless. Once she was settled, she picked up her laptop from the coffee table and began to research ball pythons as pets.

Lizzy came back with dinner, having picked up food from one of Hillary's favorite places in hopes of making her less pouty over shedding.

"Hey. Everything good?" she asked as she set down bags.

"It itches even worse when I'm not in the bath," Hillary complained. She flexed her tail a bit and a long split in the old skin gaped open. Vibrant, shiny scales shone underneath, but the split closed again when she relaxed.

"Maybe we should try setting up a steam shower instead," Lizzy mused. "Might be better than an actual bath." And she could do that, she totally could.

"Do it for next time," Hillary said. "So that if you somehow put the plumbing out of commission for a week, we at least won't have to worry about me shedding at the same time."

"Good call." Lizzy stretched. "There's food, I got some of your favorites, and I'm going in to the shop tomorrow so I can look at designs for steam showers and things."

Hillary shook her head a bit and settled deeper into the couch.

"Not hungry right now," she said. "Maybe later. But thanks." She knew she would have to make herself eat later; she usually didn't have an appetite when she was shedding, but going four days without eating wasn't pleasant, either.

Lizzy nodded and left it in the fridge for when she did decide to eat, instead turning the TV on to some fun, mindless show. At least the TV was well-behaved.

A few days later, Hillary was finally back at work. She'd finished shedding and was much more comfortable now that her skin fit better again, and she was downright chipper as she did her tasking during a lull at work.

Elsewhere, Bucky was making his way towards the coffee shop again. He wanted to try to get to know that girl better.

Lizzy had ended up bartering and trading for a bunch of new parts at the shop a few days before, and she was much happier as she replaced several parts of the owner's laptop. She even had all the parts necessary to turn the shower into a steam shower (and back so she could bathe too). So she was a happy camper.

About half-way to the coffee shop, Bucky's phone started blaring at him. It was a tone that was getting more and more familiar, and he cursed. The team was being called to assemble, and that meant him too. He checked the message, and then turned and hurried in the direction of the emergency, trusting the others to have grabbed his rifle for him.

Steve had been on his way to try and see if Hillary was at work when his phone went off. So e left and headed back to the tower to suit up and grab his shield. Sometimes things had the worst possible timing.

But hopefully things wouldn't be bad this time around.

Lucky for Hillary, it was extremely slow at work. She had been working on folding when she realized her hands were shaking. Almost all at once, her heart rate kicked up and her adrenalin spiked, and she could hear the sounds of a fight echoing in her head. She ended up grabbing onto the edge of the counter for support as her anxiety shot through the roof.

Lizzy experienced similar oddities. Her hands started shaking as she was putting the laptop back together, almost too badly for her to keep working. She got some tea and stumbled back to the booth she'd been working in, her heart pounding in her chest, gunshots sharp and close in her head. She swallowed convulsively, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

Hillary made some sort of excuse to the girl she was working with and disappeared into the back room. Something was happening, something she had no idea how to deal with, and she ended up sitting in the back room with her arms wrapped around herself, just trying to sort through what was going on.

Lizzy put her head down on the table, listening to the muttering and swearing in Russian, along with a few words in English. "...Left, Hawk... Nat, down..." Things like that kept coming through, and she wasn't sure what was going on.

At least, not until the owners turned on the TV to the local news, where footage was being shown of the Avengers fighting in Central Park.

Hillary had no idea what was going on at all. There was no radio at her store, nor was there a working TV, so she just sat there trying to work out what was happening. The sensations were stronger, now, and she could almost feel something heavy weighing on one arm and odd bursts of pain with no source.

Lizzy finally got up and stumbled into the bathroom when she could smell smoke and gunpowder, and she could hear more. What she could hear was very close to giving her a panic attack, though. Because while she wasn't sure which one of them she was somehow hearing, she was sure that she was hearing one of the Avengers in the middle of the battle.

Hillary was beginning to hear voices in her head, too, and she was freaking out enough that she was sitting in a corner with her hands over her ears and struggling to keep her humanoid shape. She could hear shouts and orders and more than a few sounds of pain, and she just wanted it over already.

About ten minutes later, it was over, and Lizzy could think again. Everything was quiet and normal and she sat on the floor blinking and trying not to cry or freak out. Her Extremis was in high gear, prepared for anything, even though there was no threat to her. She just sat there trying to figure out what was going on.

Hillary was in a similar state. She was curled up in the corner, copper scales rippling up along her skin and acid a sour-bitter taste flooding her mouth. She was trembling, and didn't make any move to get up at all.

Even though the fight was over, Bucky still felt anxious. It was strange, he usually didn't feel anything at all in battle; he was usually perched up high with his rifle and the cold, empty calm of the Winter Soldier typically kicked in. The lingering anxiety and trembling in his limbs was strange, and he couldn't get his pulse to calm down at all.