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

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

Bruce probably should have warned her about the state of the area around the Stark Tower -- or well, at very least reminded her, since the scope of the devestation and the subsequent reconstruction wasn't exactly being kept on the down low -- but he hadn't thought about it. Nor had he stopped to think that it might have added a little time to her trip, too excited and nervous both to consider logic, and so when she hadn't shown up after exactly five and a half hours, as promised, he'd feared the worst.

Her father had caught wind of where she was going and stopped her; he'd sent a team specialized in dealing with people like him in her place. Something had happened on the way up here and she'd been in a horrific car accident. Some threat to the world's security, something the Avengers would likely be called in to deal with, had materalized somewhere between here and home, and Betty had been at the epicenter. The list went on and on. His entire life thus far had practically been a worst case scenario, and as such and if nothing else, he had gotten very, very good at assuming the same bad luck would follow everyone he cared about.

It was a relief to get Betty's tweet, to learn that he'd just been being paranoid in this case, and he turned from where he'd been headed back into the Tower to get Tony, fumbling with his phone to type out a response.

@elizabetty I'm outside.

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

Betty's almost at the doors at that point when her phone gives her a ding that she has another tweet. She looks at it and quickly pockets the phone, pushing her way through the revolving doors and hoping this was the only entrance. It would be awful if they kept chasing each other around the tower without ever meeting, but it did seem like the kind of luck they would have after all this time.

She was getting a few butterflies herself. What if he had changed after all this time? Time could change people. Betty took a breath, walking up to the receptionist filing her nails, reminding herself that no matter which way this went, she just wanted to be sure he was alright. "Excuse me, I'm here to see Bruce Banner..."

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

"Doctor Banner went out a few hours ago," the receptionist tells her blandly, without looking up from her nails.

"Doctor Banner's right here, actually," Bruce puts in from behind them. He'd seen Betty come in and had been too stunned to call out to her -- this was really happening, she didn't look a day older than the last time he'd seen her, despite the fact that it had been at least two years, and God, it all made his heart hurt -- but he had at least had the sense to follow her as he tried to find his words.

It helped that the receptionist faltered. It helps less that he's not sure what to say now, and so he flips her a faint, idle wave, before clasping his hands in front of him to keep from fidgeting. " ... hi."

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

Her heart leaps at his voice, turning around quickly.

He looked older, time and stress had not been kind to him. But it was still him, still Bruce.

There's only a second's delay of hesitation before she's throwing her arms around him in a hug, throwing caution to the wind. "....hi."

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

He wraps his arms around her in turn, muscle memory picking up where he's still nervous, still uncertain, and pulls her close to him. It takes longer than is probably proper for him to pull away, and he smiles wanly but genuinely, the expression fond and perhaps a little shy. " ... would it be too weird if I told you I missed you?"

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

She'd never let go if he didn't end the hug. He still smelled the same, if that made any sense. Her eyes were wet as she smiled back at him fondly, cupping his face with her hands. "No, no it wouldn't."

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

"Good," he says, hands coming to rest on her upper arms to keep her close. It probably gives the impression that he's afraid of letting her go, that if he does, he'll wake up in bed, on the half-built floor Tony's been putting together for him as part of his renovations, all of this a dream. That impression isn't all that far from the truth. "I missed you."

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

She's not going anywhere soon. "I missed you too. I kept wondering where in the world you were..." It seemed like ages since she'd seen him.

And they were having this scene in front of a very nosy secretary, who was staring openly, still filing her nails. Betty gives him a tug to walk away from here, though she's not sure where to go in this tower.

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

He glances to the secretary, a small frown catching in the corners of his lips, and the moves them towards the elevator, still keeping her close. When the doors close behind them, he turns his eyes upwards briefly and offers the ceiling an almost apologetic look. "JARVIS? Eighty-second floor."

"Of course, Doctor Banner," Stark's AI responds, and immediately, the elevator springs to life, tugging them slowly upwards.

Bruce takes a moment afterwards, then wets his lips with his tongue. "I've ... kind of been traveling. After what happened with ... Harlem, I woke up in British Columbia. I stayed there for awhile, trying to get my bearings, and then I decided it was time to move on. I've been to Pakistan. Iran. Egypt."

He shrugs, declining to add any more to that list. With how extensively he's traveled, how often he's felt the need to move on, to avoid capture or incident, he's seen a lot of the world. "I was in Calcutta until recently."

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

She stays at his side, even as the elevator starts to move. Voice activated elevator? Stark did have all of the best things at his disposal. If she ever doubted Bruce working for Tony Stark, now it seemed more real than ever.

Betty nods, listening to his story. "...I kept hoping you were out there. Somewhere." That he wasn't caught or worse. Even being as resilient as the Hulk was, she still worried about him.

"I've been working part time at Culver...some research on the side." Nothing too spectacular, though she has been working on bits and pieces of the gamma research, should he ever need it someday. After her and Samson, the psychiatrist, broke up she had buried herself in her work. Her father, she didn't even take his calls anymore till they stopped coming.

"What happened to bring you back here?" He couldn't have heard of the alien invasion in New York all the way in Calcutta.

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

"It's complicated," he starts, trying to decide where to begin. Does he tell her about Loki and the Tesseract first? The fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. had been watching him for years before finally approaching him? Something else? It takes him a second or two to pick a place, and he tries to make in clear in those moments that he's not deflecting, just trying to come up with a starting point.

"There's this group called S.H.I.E.L.D.," he continues when he works it out. "They're kind of a government thing, and they'd been keeping tabs on me since my first run in with the Other Guy. Running damage control, I guess. Keeping people off my back, since they didn't think what happened last time I was in New York was really my fault."

Or maybe they did and they'd wanted to be there to put him down, if and when they needed to. He didn't know what S.H.I.E.L.D. knew or didn't know for sure, nor did he fully understand why they'd kept Ross from finding him when he'd obviously been looking, but he owed them for that much, at least. That and giving him a chance in the first place -- or a second chance, if they were counting the fact that he'd all but destroyed their helicarrier against him.

"They came to me in Calcutta because they needed my help. There was this thing -- this artifact that one of the bad guys decided he needed to get his hands on, and they needed to find it and him. They figured I was their best chance, since the artifact was giving off gamma radiation and I'm still sort of the go-to guy for that." He shrugged. "I said yes and they brought me back here.

"It was supposed to be a temporary thing."

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

Betty gives him as much time as he needs to work out an answer. This elevator ride was pretty long anyway.

She'd never heard of S.H.I.E.L.D. before but anyone who would give Bruce the ability to finally live without being paranoid about capture was alright in her book.

"Of course." There wasn't anyone better at gamma radiation. "And...it's not so temporary now?" Betty didn't want to think about him having to run off again but she wouldn't stand in his way if he needed to.

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

"I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about keeping it temporary," he says honestly, suddenly studying the floor intently. Half of him is convinced that Tony is watching this, that JARVIS told him he had a guest, and he's expecting the billionaire to ask him if he's nuts later, and the other half doesn't want to see Betty's face in response to that admission. "I hear Siberia's nice this time of year, if you're into trees and cabbage for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

"But Tony's persistent. I think if I left, he'd track me down and drag me back." He lets out a breath of a sigh, a wry smile touching his face. "He trusts me, for some reason. He wants me here and not as some sort of lab experiment. So ... "

He doesn't understand that, even after being told that the Hulk saved the other man's life, but it's ... nice. He hasn't felt like he belonged anywhere since before the experiment and he hasn't been able to look at someone who knows what he is and not see fear in their eyes since Betty. It's a welcome change. The fact that the woman herself is here now is another good reason not to make a break for the hills, too.

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

Betty was oblivious to the AI computer at the moment, looking at him even as he studied the floor. He was avoiding her again. Bruce was always afraid he was going to hurt others, especially her. But Betty felt, even when he was angry, the Hulk would never hurt her on purpose.

"That's good. Isn't it?" She puts her other hand on his arm, trying to see his eyes as the elevator doors ding open. Was it a good situation? Say the word, Bruce, and she'll give this Tony Stark a piece of her mind, she didn't care how famous he was.

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

"I don't really get it," he answers, looking up at her slowly, the thin smile still firmly in place, "but ... yeah."

A pause follows, a moment of hesitation, and then he's tugging her out of the elevator.

"It's kind of a work in progress," Bruce says as he leads her past the odd scaffolding and half-painted wall on the way to his room. The damage has mostly been repaired, no gaping holes in the walls or ceilings, left in the wake of Loki and the battle that followed him, but it's still obviously a construction site. Likely because Stark has been doing most of the work himself, not trusting sweaty workmen with putting together what's obviously going to be the Avengers' stronghold. Bruce can't say he blames him. If he were in Tony's shoes, he'd probably make it a do-it-yourself project, too, especially considering their new-found fame and how many people probably would have been throwing themselves over a chance to get a legitimate Avengers souvenir.

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

She smiles in relief as he looks up at her. Betty would like so much for Bruce to find some peace, even if it's a small corner of the world. She just hadn't expected it to come in the form of Stark tower.

"Wow," she looks around at what they've been working on. Even with the construction, it was a big place. "You've been staying here then?" It seemed like such a change from how he was living before.

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

He nods, following her gaze around the hallway idly. "It's taken some getting used to. I'm more comfortable with the shack in the woods look."

Well, not more comfortable, but it's certainly more familiar. He's been living out of shacks or tiny, filthy back rooms for the last six years, it's hard to believe that he could technically have anything he wanted, here. He's not even sure what he'd ask for, if he thought to abuse that privileged, either. Having a place he might actually be able to call home again is an almost alien concept now, and as much as he claims to have gotten used to it, he's not. He won't be for some time.

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

She squeezes his arm, holding close to him as they walk for a moment. "I'm glad." After he disappeared, she wasn't certain if he would ever be coming back again.

Or if he had another life somewhere else.

"...has it been any easier?" She's asking about the Hulk this time. Had he found a way to control his alter ego finally?

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

His stomach twists into knots at the question. He can't help it.

"A little, yeah," he answers, breathing out heavily. "I've had a couple of incidents, times where I couldn't ... "

Couldn't control himself. Like on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s helicarrier or when he was stopped crossing the border from Pakistan into India by people who meant to rob and, quite possibly, kill him. He can't bring himself to say that, though, afraid that Betty will think less of him for a couple of slips, even if logically, he knows better. She likely knows what he's not saying, anyway, so why bother?

"I've figured out a couple of tricks, though." Like realizing that it's easier to keep a handle on himself by staying in a controlled state of anger and self-loathing. "And I realized it's an adrenal trigger, not based on my heart rate, like I originally thought."

Which explains why he isn't wearing the heart rate monitor that had become a permanent part of his wardrobe anymore.

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

"It's ok," she says, trying to reassure him. She, of all people, knows how difficult it is for him.

Adrenal, well. That made it a different ballgame with trying to treat it. "I see...and no luck on finding a way to reverse it?" She'd had a few ideas but no way to test them out completely.

"I...brought some of my research on neuro-toxins and solvents. I don't know if you could use it." But it might help if he was still pursuing that line of research.

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

"I kind of gave up on it for awhile." And he looks vaguely embarrassed to have to admit to throwing in the towel, even if knows he's been doing good work since then. "I figured I was stuck with him, so I started doing other stuff. I ... kind of picked up medicine as a hobby and started trying to help people, whenever I settled down for awhile. I needed to do something to make up for all the damage I'd caused. I thought that qualified."

It helped that part of his educational background included biochemistry in addition to physics. He's not sure he would have picked up medicine as easily as he did, otherwise.

"I wouldn't say no to looking over your notes, though." Even if he's still pretty sure there is no hope for him and the best he can do is run damage control for the rest of his life.

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

Betty smiles, picturing him being a doctor in another country. It suited him in a way. Bruce was always trying to help others, even before the gamma accident.

"They're in the car." She'll get them later though. She's been in that car for long enough and there's the irrational fear that if she leaves him alone, he won't be there when she comes back.

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

"You can get them when you bring your stuff in." Betty's not the only one who's afraid that, if one of them leaves the room, they'll either magically disappear or chose not to return. "I mean, assuming you're staying ... you mentioned packing, right?"

He glances at her, half nervous, half hopeful, and then pulls away to open the door to his room as they reach it. It's simple, for the most part, just a bed and nightstand, both bolted to the floor, just in case, and a small workspace Tony insisted be included when Bruce failed to mention it, and it's painted in shades of green -- again, Stark's idea, though this time because he thought it'd be funny -- but it's very much his, somehow. Bruce has never been a man prone to extravagance, even before his accident.

[labcoatgirl.livejournal.com]

She ducks her head sheepishly. "It was hurried, but yes, I have some clothes and things." Hopefully clothes that match, she really hadn't paid too much attention.

Betty gives the green workspace a puzzled look. "...was that your idea?" It did suit him, in a way.

[brokeharlem.livejournal.com]

Bruce rolls his eyes, though there's a hint of amusement to his eyes. "Tony's, actually. I think he thought he was being funny."