Forgetting all the safety protocols of a science lab, Lauren starts running and doesn't stop until she's in Troy's arms. She hugs him like she hasn't seen him in years, and in truth, she hasn't. Troy hugs her back, one of his hands getting tangled in her soft blonde hair.

Luke walks over, knowing he shouldn't run, and smiles. "Now this is something I have been waiting for a long time. Getting the old gang back together."

Lauren takes a step back to let Troy get some air. She looks between Luke and Troy and realizes how much she missed them. "It's been too long... Troy."

Troy stares at Lauren, thinking that she hasn't changed a bit. Lauren stares back and seems to get lost in his gaze. Luke clears his throat and laughs. "After you two are done staring at each other, you mind showing us what you made?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. Over here." Troy stutters and puts a hand on the back of his head. He leads the two over to a desk and pulls something out of a drawer. Lauren can't see what it is until Troy demonstrates. "This is a gun powered by light waves! Lauren, I was inspired by the way you took down those alien worms by breaking their shells and making yourself invisible. We were able to find more shards of solid light and created this!"

"Awesome, but how does it work?" Luke asks. He knows it's a gun, but doesn't see how it would function at all. Lauren is just as confused as well. The device fits snugly between Troy's index and middle fingers, and is just as long as his middle finger. He has a see-through eyepiece that hooks over his right eye because he is using his right hand to hold the gun.

"Just watch." Troy aims the gun at the wall and squeezes his fingers together as if he was pretending to use a finger gun. A bullet of light shoots out and hits the wall, creating a small dent. "This eyepiece measures how hard I need to squeeze for the bullet to penetrate the thing I'm aiming at. The gun makes no noise because it's just light waves being turned into particles that bind together to create a bullet."

"That's so cool! When do I get one?!" Luke looks closer at the device in Troy's possession and becomes eager to get his own toy.

"You don't." One of the medical scientists say coldly and glare at Luke.

Finally, Luke loses control of his temper. "Hey, just because I didn't want to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't mean you all can treat me like trash!"

"It's alright, Luke. Calm down." Troy walks up next to his best friend before turning to the medic who said that. "Don't you have some vaccines to observe?"

The medic scoffs and struts back to her station. Troy nods, knowing she is not going to be a problem anymore, and turns to his friends again. "Anyway, that's what I've been working on! What do you think about it, Lauren? You've been kind of quiet."

"Yeah, uh... I think you're really brilliant, Troy." Lauren averts her gaze to the wall to her left and nervously grabs her right hand where the glass is implanted. "But, remember L.I.G.H.T. and Shade? This was exactly what they were after, to make light a weapon."

"Oh, she's kind of right on that." Luke was so invested on what Troy made that he almost completely forgot the problems these shards of light actually caused.

Troy pauses for a couple moments, not believing what he's hearing. He thought Lauren would be happy for what he did. He just wants to impress her, and be just as great as her father was. "I thought you would be proud of me..."

"I am! You just need to understand-" Lauren cuts herself off as Troy chucks the small weapon at her. She ducks just in time and the gun breaks as it impacts the ground.

All of the doctors and scientists stop what their doing and power down their machines to watch what's going on. Troy doesn't seem to care that he's making a scene. "You got all the attention and glory when you got your powers and joined the Avengers! When I try to help, people just try to push me and my inventions away!"

Everyone watches as Troy stomps out of the lab and slams the doors behind him. Lauren doesn't know what to do. She didn't mean to hurt Troy, especially considering her feelings for him. Zoning out all of Luke's protests, Lauren runs out of the lab and through some hallways until she reaches the exit of the entire station. She sees Troy just leaving through the gate, so she jogs up so that she's right behind him.

"I'm sorry." Lauren whispers, scared that if she says her words too loudly that Troy will snap again. Troy doesn't look at Lauren, but his expression turns from angry to sorrowful.

The two walk next to each other in sadness silence. Lauren occasionally looks over at Troy but never says anything. Troy continues to stare at the sidewalk in front of him as he walks and sometimes wipes small tears from his cheeks. They make it over to a side road and they continue to walk on the sidewalk.

Lauren feels like a small high school girl as she wrings her hands over and over while looking down at Troy's hand that dangles at his side. It sounds cliché, but she really wants to hold his hand. However, she has enough common sense to understand what is and is not appropriate for the circumstances.

Knowing she has to do it eventually, Lauren takes a deep, silent breath and looks downward. She starts speaking,  "I know I don't say this enough, but I just wanted to thank you for being there for me." Troy turns his head to look at the blonde and she finishes. "When I needed someone."

"It's fine." Troy wants to say more, Lauren can tell, but his voice trails off and he looks back down at his feet.

"Look, I think what you made is truly incredible, but I thought back on what happened... with my dad and..." Lauren blinks a few times to clear her vision. "It's not like I'm accusing you of being anything like Shade, I just got jumpy."

"I know, and you're right. I'm sorry I made the device. I just wanted to be like Eric." Troy turns his head the other way so he doesn't have a chance of catching Lauren's gaze at all.

Lauren understands what Troy is feeling. She didn't know he looked up to her father this much. "You know, my mom used to tell me that I shouldn't grow up to be like her, but like myself."

"What, was your mother like the voice of reason in your family or something?" Troy finally smiles genuinely and even almost laughs.

Lauren, however, actually does let a chuckle escape her throat. "You could say that. She believed in prophecies and destiny, all that jumbo."

"No way! She was American, right?" Troy asks.

"Greek, actually." Lauren smiles and looks at Troy.

"Of course, why did I ask!?" Troy says dramatically, which makes Lauren and Troy both laugh out loud. Lauren is grateful that Troy is starting to relax a bit and everything is beginning to feel normal again.

However, that moment is immediately ruined when Troy looks at her and they make eye contact. Troy instantly looks away and sighs. "We really dug ourselves into a hole, huh?"

"Tell me about it." Lauren says in a slight sarcastic tone. "It's my fault, though. I was so focused on everything that happened when I got back, I kind of forgot what normal life was like. I should have called or something..."

"It wasn't just you. Luke and I easily could have called you, but we figured you wanted to keep your distance." Troy's feet slow down until he completely stops walking. Lauren turns to him to see him trying to smile. "I think we should start over for a second. What would you say to dinner with me?"

Lauren's smile is as bright as the moon overhead. She walks up to him and grabs his hand. "I'd say that it's about time."

Troy leads Lauren into the outskirts of Rouen where a Chinese restaurant is located. As they make their way to the restaurant, Lauren and Troy talk about the snow and cold air. Nothing about the Avengers, Chitauri, or light and sound waves come up in their conversation, which Lauren thinks is really relieving.

They come up to a Chinese restaurant and they are seated instantly. It's starting to get late, so Lauren is surprised that this place is still open. Well, she should know that the French don't even need their sleep. Her days as a pianist taught her that.

Their conversation gets even more friendly, and the two are able to be more expressive toward each other. Before their food comes out, Troy actually slides into the booth next to Lauren instead of being across from her. He's glad that he did because it feels nice being closer to Lauren.

Right when their food comes out, Troy takes his personal pair of chopsticks out from his pocket. Lauren raises an eyebrow playfully and pretends to be stern. "You seriously keep a pair of chopsticks in your pocket at all times?!"

"Of course I do!" Troy easily maneuvers the sticks so that they fit correctly into his right hand. "I don't want to be that guy who goes out with his friends to an Asian restaurant and has to use a fork because the place is out of chopsticks!"

"That is the weirdest reasoning I have ever heard." Lauren opens the packet of wooden chopsticks the waiter brought out and breaks them apart. "If you go to an Asian eating place, they'd never run out of chopsticks! That's what you're supposed to use anyway."

"Oh, quick nitpicking me. I'm sure you do strange stuff that would make people do doubletakes." Troy scoops up some chicken from his lo mein.

"Unlike you, I'm completely normal." Lauren straightens her posture and looks down at her food like a princess. She tucks her elbows into her sides and lifts up her wooden chopsticks like a proper woman.

"I bet I can find something." Troy teases and pokes Lauren's nose with one of his chopsticks. "Besides having glass in your hand."

"Oh yeah? I doubt it." Lauren says confidently while taking some of Troy's noodles from his plate.

Troy thinks for a moment, somewhat of a mischievous smile on his face, and then gets an idea. "Turn toward the counter."

"Why?" Lauren asks as she eats off a piece of a pork egg roll.

"Oh, just do it! And give me a hair tie." Troy orders. Lauren turns so that her legs dangle off the side of the booth and she gives Troy a simple black hair tie. She feels Troy starting to play with her hair as he pulls it up. She can't tell what he's doing with it until he finishes tying up herself blonde hair.

"Oh wow, Troy. You're right, this is totally weird. My hair is in a bun!" Lauren says in an extremely sarcastic voice. She feels her head and is secretly impressed with how well Troy managed to put her hair up in a neat, tight bun.

"Just wait." Troy licks off his black chopsticks and pokes them through the bottom of Lauren's bun. The sticks make an 'X' through her hair, and they actually make her bun more secure.

Lauren lightly touches the chopsticks that are protruding from her bun and looks at her reflection in the window. "You kidding? This isn't weird, this is a style. And I make it look good!"

"You're right." Troy's voice is practically a whisper. He stares right into Lauren's eyes and leans closer to her face. "You're flawless."

Lauren can almost hear her heart beating as she feels her lips press against Troy's. He hugs her closer to him as if he was scared she would slip through his fingers. Lauren wishes this moment would last an eternity. Everything is perfect; no cosmic threats shooting through portals in the sky, no mind controlling scepters, no alien worms with impenetrable shells. It's just her and Troy.

Troy's body gets really heavy against Lauren's. The blonde brings her thoughts back into reality and notices Troy isn't moving that much either. Lauren pulls away from him and pushes against his shoulders to keep him from falling on her. "Troy?"

Lauren quickly stands up and puts a hand on Troy's face. His eyes are closed and his face is pale. Lauren starts panicking, yelling his name and pulling him off the booth. She lays him on the ground, a pool of blood starting to emerge from his upper back and onto the floor. Lauren presses two fingers onto Troy's neck, but feels nothing.

"No, no, no... I can't... I can't..." Lauren continues to repeat the same thing over and over. She starts crying, but is able to focus enough to start CPR. After a couple rounds, however, Lauren completely loses any bit of calmness in her mind. "NO! TROY, PLEASE! SOMEONE HELP ME!"

Lauren looks around the restaurant as tears blur her vision and spill from her eyes. She's too frazzled and panicked to wonder why the building is completely empty. Blood continues to spill onto the ground, so Lauren takes her coat off the booth and lifts up Troy's torso so she can press it on his back. "No, you can't leave me, Troy. You can't... I-I'm so sorry!"

The blonde can hardly breathe as her sobs start to choke her up. She barely feels the searing pain take over her head as her surroundings fade out of her sight. The last thing Lauren sees is Troy's lifeless body and a pair of hands covered in black gloves catch her as she falls forward.