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Bridget Banner has a couch by the fire, a Stark Industries tablet, and a game of Bejeweled, on which she is focusing with meditative calm.

You might think she wasn't paying any attention to the room around her. You'd be wrong, but you might.

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Oh, yes, the dodging. Bridget is familiar with the dodging. She tries not to hold it against anyone, especially people like—Cap, who is so genuinely nice it's almost painful to think about.

"Yeah. That would be what worries me," she says wryly. "Thankfully, I don't rattle easily."

"You'd probably handle it better than I did," Steph admits, smile equal parts friendly and sheepish. Dr. Banner's careful calm has always been something she's admired and it might have been really useful that first day.

"That might depend," says Bridget. "I like to think he and I would both be better than that, but in the place where I keep my secret ridiculous fears there's a mental image of him joking about me waking up naked in strange places."

...Possibly she should've thought about that one a little more before she let it out of her mouth. Well, too late now.

She might be surprised. Where Steve most likely would have blushed and stammered, Steph-- well, she does blush, yes, but it's far less scandalous for a woman to talk about being naked in front of another woman.

So she laughs a little, too, soft, and not without sympathy.

And, luckily, holds her tongue enough not to immediately reply with what bothered her the most about talking to Steve.

"Honestly," she says after a moment, deciding on the lesser of two evils that had upset her, even if it's the one she's least proud of, "just the fact that there even was a Captain America who was a guy made me mad. He didn't need to do anything more than that."

"Yeah." She nods. "I get where you're coming from."

She quirks a smile.

"Did he do anything more than that? I mean, I can't exactly imagine him being rude about it. He's still, fundamentally, you."

Steph considers this for a moment, eyes narrowed and lips pressed together.

"Thank you? I think."

"Yes, I did mean that as a compliment, or at least as a positive observation."

"He's a gentleman," Steph admits after that confirmation, with the slightest uncomfortable squirm for her phrasing. Though that's really the only word she has to describe the man she met, his manners. "And he didn't seem upset, finding out about me. I can't really imagine him getting mad about anything, if not that."

"Can't say I'm surprised," says Bridget.

Steph smiles, a flicker of expression as friendly as it is automatically polite. America's Sweetheart is rather used to having her name and totally equated with polite, ladylike, demure. It's not insulting, precisely. Just presumptuous.

That smile fades a little as she wonders what it's like for Steve, if it's something he would understand.

"I like Bruce," she says after a moment, unsure. "He's a good man. We're all glad to have him on the team."

"Thanks. I think," she says, very wryly.

She could echo back Bridget's words, make a joke out of it, It's a compliment. And it is a compliment, to Bruce. But complimenting Steve doesn't mean a thing to Steph - they're different people.

She takes another drink from her water and nods to the tablet. "Are you working?"

"Nope. Playing games," she admits with a smile.

"Angry Birds?"

Steph might sound a little hopeful.

She laughs.

"No, Bejeweled. Although I do play Angry Birds."

Steph grins back, a bit shy for her excitement but not enough to abandon the topic. "It was the first thing Tony taught me to do on the tablet computer he gave me. And on the phone. Which I can't make calls on."

"I'm sure Tony considers that a success," Bridget says dryly. "Why make calls when you can play Angry Birds instead?"

"That's exactly what I tell him when he asks why I don't respond to his text messages."

"Well played, Cap. Well played."

She gives a regal little nod from her chair, better than trying to curtsy while seated. "I do my best."

"I haven't been seeing a lot of my world's Captain Rogers," she admits, "since the battle. But I'm going to tentatively conclude that I'd like her sense of humour."

Steph laughs, running a hand over her hair, fingers curling at the base of her ponytail. "There's not a lot of time for pranks on the field, but if your captain's never short-sheeted a bed, I'm disowning him."

"Duly noted. I'll have to ask."

She's also wondering whether or not to correct the pronoun. The hesitation probably shows.

It does. Which means Steph pauses, considers their conversation up to this point.

Then blinks, startled. "Oh. You said 'her.'"

"...Yes I did," Bridget agrees, quirking a wry smile. "It's a little complicated. She prefers 'she' and 'Steve', but she doesn't actually mind 'he', although heaven help you if you call her Stephanie."