Reunion with brokeharlem

[labcoatgirl]

[follows this]

It was a long trip, almost six hours before she was in New York. Betty hadn't driven much in big city like this so she was grateful for the turn by turn directions of her GPS. Stark tower loomed in the center of town, the glowing sign lighting up the dark. It was still a wreck here, she had to avoid multiple construction sites, passing huge holes in the road and businesses smashed to pieces.

She parked in a lot a short distance away from the tower, who's sign was reduced to just a single A glowing overhead. Betty got out of the car and started walking, thumbing her phone as she posted on twitter, to make sure Bruce knew she was there.

@drbanner I'm here, walking towards the tower.

Comments

woot!

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

His voice breaks her concentration and Betty realizes how intently she was watching. She blushes a bit and responds by hugging to his arm. "It's ok. I'm....really glad you could help." She smiles up at him. Betty knew who he was and she wanted to know what had happened.

She touches the X in the corner to close the video so he won't be further embarrassed. Maybe she could counteract it with something embarrassing about herself. "....did you know...I picketed Stark Industries while in college?" Ages ago, during her hippie stage of life.

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

He looks immediately grateful for the subject change, though JARVIS doesn't seem to be so willing to let him out of it. The second she closes the one video, another pops up, this one on mute, unobtrusive but there, of the Hulk catching Iron Man as he fell. Bruce takes no notice of it, still not entirely willing to look at the screen, and it's likely JARVIS was counting on that. And that, hopefully, Betty will notice where Bruce doesn't. He, like Tony, doesn't seem to care much for Bruce's self-esteem issues.

"What for?" A beat. "I mean, not that I blame you, but ... "

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

She almost tries to close that window too, thinking she must have hit something wrong, but the video stops her, her hand hovering over the closing X. "...he caught him." Her voice betraying her surprise. That had to mean Bruce had more control than he thought. She has to ask, "Do you remember that?"

"There was a quick scare about the arc reactor technology becoming monopolized and not being used for anyone other than rich people. Not to mention the weapons that were being made." She shrugs with a sheepish smile. "I was slightly pro-active before you met me. I'm sure there's a picture of me tying myself to the front of the old Stark factory in protest with half a dozen other students."

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

He looks up at the screen, then higher, casting a black look at the ceiling. JARVIS remains almost merrily silent.

"I remember ... bits and pieces of it." More than he could remember before, the last time she'd asked him if he could remember anything while running around as the Hulk. It's progress, not enough, not by his standards, but it's better than nothing. "I can't remember that, though. But Tony made a big deal of rubbing my nose in it, after he was back on his feet."

He shrugs, failing to mention how Tony had thanked him, quietly, genuinely and all the while looking oddly vulnerable after he'd shown him the video before his bluster fell back into place and he'd started grumbling about having to hammer out the Godzilla hand prints someone had left all over his suit. He's not sure it's important or if it's his place to share that raw, honest moment with Betty, when Stark seems to wear his facade of not taking anything seriously as well and as proudly as he does the Iron Man armor.

"I'll have to look it up later," he says, trying to change the subject back to her again. JARVIS thankfully lets him, his work done here. "The picture, I mean."

that part about picketing is all headcanon for the mun, for lulz :3

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

"That was you though." She's almost insistent. The media always painted the Hulk as a mindless killing machine but this proved differently. "Like with the helicopter you..." Betty stops herself, realizing he might not remember that part either. That was right before he left the last time.

Missing accomplished! XD

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

"Like with the helicopter ... ?"

Judging by his tone, no, he doesn't remember. There's a vague impression of emotion attached to that particular gap in his memories -- anger, unusual if only because it's stronger, brighter than anything he remembers having felt before, and something like worry -- but nothing beyond that. Nothing solid. Just an animal sense of wanting to defend what was his. Between that and her comment about the helicopter, he imagines that Blonsky caught up with them at some point while he was trying to stop his rampage.

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

She's already started the sentence, she might as well finish it. "...when it caught on fire. After you jumped out to fight the other one, we crashed and it was going to explode..."

Betty can remember it as if it was yesterday. She lets go of his arm so she can use her hands to demonstrate. "I don't know how he knew what to do but he created a vacuum," Betty puts her hands together with a clap sound. "And it put out the fire before it could ignite the gas tank." Only a scientist would know to do that.

Only Bruce would have done that.

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

Bruce has the same thought -- only a scientist would have thought to try that -- and really, it only confirms what he's been slowly realizing the last few years. No matter how much he hates the idea, no matter how much distance he tries to put between himself and his other half by talking about him like a seperate entity or coming up with clever terminology to avoid calling him by name, he and the Hulk are one in the same. He's still not sure he likes the idea any more than he has the few other times he's entertained it.

"Tony ... is probably the only person besides you who's looked at me like anything other than a monster." That's an admission somehow, a note of agreement.

The Hulk knew how to put out the fire because he did; the Hulk had saved Tony because he'd done something no one else had bothered to in six years. He was fearless around him. He'd given him the time of day. And yeah, sure, he'd poked and prodded at him, hoping to evoke a response, but that had felt more like a game, like harmless ribbing, rather than the billionaire proving he thought of him like everyone else did, as just another experiment.

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

The admission is enough. Her smile returns, just as fond as it always is of him. She could watch a zillion videos of the Hulk and still think him the same Bruce she fell in love with.

"I hope I'll get a chance to meet him." With Bruce always mentioning Tony Stark, she was wanting to see this supposed genius billionaire for herself.

Betty turns to get her things and bring them closer to the couch. "Have you eaten yet?" She was starving, not having eaten anything but a powerbar during the whole trip. Maybe there was a pizza place near here she could call.

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

"Like I said, you probably will."

He shrugs, trying for a smile in return, and manages only once she asks if he's eaten, albeit sheepishly. "I've sort of been hanging out on what's left of the grounds since you said you were headed this way, so ... not really?"

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

"Pizza?" She offers, unpacking a few things for the night and finding a spare blanket for the couch. "Maybe Jarvis knows where to get some."

"Indeed, I do, Dr. Ross." And a list of nearby delivery pizza places pop up.

"He's very polite," Betty whispers to Bruce, as if Jarvis won't hear her if she does.

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

"To you, maybe," Bruce whispers back, the amusement still apparent in his voice somehow in spite of that. Recently, and now that JARVIS is getting just as comfortable around him as he has with the AI, the computer has started taking verbal shots at him. Nothing low, nothing serious, just the same level of snark he maintains around Tony. It's kind of refreshing.

Case in point: "It may be interesting to note that I can, in fact, hear you, sir."

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

She looks up as the ceiling reminds them their whispering has not gone unnoticed and can't help a small chuckle. "Probably silly to whisper, I guess."

Jarvis even helps with ordering it and soon, a few minutes later, pizza is being delivered to the Stark Tower. At that point, Betty has been able to figure out the bathroom shower and gotten herself cleaned up after her long car ride, putting herself in some clean clothes, a sweatshirt and pants for the night.

She's toweling her hair when the delivery boy comes and she takes the pizza off his hands, bringing to Bruce. Wherever he was at on this floor.

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

Bruce has changed, too, wearing a pair of slightly over-sized black-grey sweatpants and a white t-shirt now, where he was in a button-down and a pair of khakis before. He's sitting in a chair, the only furniture so far in what will probably be his living room, when Stark gets around to finishing the remodel, the book Betty brought back to him settled in his lap. He hasn't bothered to retrieve his glasses or liberated one of the pairs she'd packed along with the book, so he's resorted to squinting down at it, but he looks up when she comes in. He manages a small smile that borders on embarrassed.

"I'd tell you to set that down on the table ... " But there's not one. Not yet.

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

She does her best not to smile at that, but doesn't succeed. It was a little bare in here as far as furniture was concerned. "It's alright, the couch is big enough to double as a table."

Betty sits down on the white sofa, mentally telling herself that they really need to be careful with the pizza sauce so the sofa doesn't end up stained by the end of this.

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

He gets up, hesitating rather than moving to join her immediately, then turns to grab a six pack of Coke he managed to track down while she was in the shower. Soda in hand, he moves to join her finally, settling himself and their drinks down on the couch carefully, as if he's afraid of ruining the couch, too.

"They should still be cold." He hadn't thought to bring ice up. Or cups.

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

Betty's already biting into a large slice hungrily and accepts a Coke from Bruce, cracking it open away from the couch. "We probably should have picked a red couch," she says with a smile.

Now that they were in the same room once again, she wasn't sure what to ask. She had a million questions on her mind on the way here but right now, she was content to sit with him and just eat pizza. Too bad they don't have a television for watching movies...

Sorry for the pause in tags. Mini-family crisis last night. x.x

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

Bruce snags a piece of pizza for himself, looking at it as if he's half-convinced it's going to attack him for a moment before taking a bite.

"Next time," he says, after he's swallowed. Not that he expects them to have to drag another couch up here any time soon, but still. He even offers her a tiny smile to go with that statement, though it's short-lived, fading slowly as the silence falls between them. He lets it sit for awhile, comfortable, only deciding to break it once they've both gotten through a slice of pizza.

"You mentioned research?" She's heard his story. He's curious to know in more detail what she's been doing the last couple of years.

don't apologize, it's all good

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

"Oh yes...." she sets her plate on the floor, licking a spot of sauce off her lip and opening the other box in her collection of things she brought.

Inside are a few official folders and a few unofficial ones. They are sectioned into different categories, the top ones being neuro-depressants and neuro-toxins.

"I've had a little success with lab mice but I couldn't irradiate them nearly as much as I would have liked."

Thanks.

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

Brushing his hands off on his pants -- he really should have thought to bring napkins, too -- he reaches for one of the folders and flips it open. After a moment of squinting at it, he sets it aside again, long enough to retrieve one of his old pairs of glasses, and then he's back at her side, with the folder in his lap. It doesn't take him long to at least get the gist of what she was trying to do.

"You were trying to ... " Fix him. Fix the mess he'd made of himself.

y/w

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

She smiles fondly as he goes for his glasses, glad that she brought the old ones.

Betty lifts her shoulders slightly in an apologetic shrug. "I couldn't just sit and do nothing." And it had helped her too, slightly therapeutic to be thinking she might be able to help him while he was out there. "It's probably not the solution you were going for..."

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

"It doesn't help that the trigger's not what we thought it was," he says sympathetically. He knows that's not quite what she means, but it's still true. "It's a start, though."

He's suddenly glad Tony hasn't stuck his nose in yet. He'd probably try to burn Betty's notes or something equally ridiculous.

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

She sips at her coke and smiles to herself. "What was that quote....science is 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration?" Even if it was a dead end, it was another thing they knew wouldn't work.

"It was an idea. I was thinking of a plasma bath of a certain neuro depressant in a large tank...or something similar." He had been trying for something internal when he had first come to her for help. She was trying to think outside the box and go for external factors that could be influenced.

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

He wets his lips with his tongue, eyes flicking up to her for an instant before they return to her notes. "Are we planning long term? A -- a permanent fix? Or something more like what Sterns came up with? For when I ... "

He raises and lowers his eyebrows in quick succession, figuring the gesture will be enough to fill in the blank. Regardless, though, he still adds, " ... you know ... " rather lamely.

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

Sterns had been too zealous for the Hulk's invulnerability. He had thought himself playing God with science. Betty would be glad never to see him again.

"I was hoping for long term, it's not exactly a cure you could drag around with you." Was he really considering it? After he had been able to use the Hulk to help others? She quickly amends her statement, "You don't have to use it. It's not even complete."