Chapter One
The airport was fairly busy. Dr. Bruce Banner was sitting in the terminal, waiting for his plane to arrive. He cautiously scanned the crowds of people, searching for SHIELD agents.
It had been nearly two weeks since he left Stark Tower. For two weeks he had been on the run. He and Ari both.
Speaking of, Arianna Martin sat down in the chair next to the scientist. "Have you seen anyone suspicious?" She asked quietly.
"No," Bruce replied. "But it wouldn't surprise me if they disguised themselves as security guards."
"You don't think they would try to pull anything on the plane, do you? They wouldn't put all those people in danger just to get to us?"
Banner took her hand, lacing his fingers with hers. The people sitting across from them shot them strange looks, but he didn't care. He had gotten over he and Ari's age difference a long time ago. "If they really wanted us back, they would have found us by now."
"How do you know?" Ari asked with pleading grey eyes.
Before Banner could answer, a voice came over the intercom. "We are now boarding Flight 773 to Mumbai."
"That's us," Banner said standing up and grabbing his backpack from off the floor. He helped Ari up and together they boarded the plane.
After their boarding passes had been scanned, they walked down the air bridge to the entrance of the plane. They had to go all the way to the back of the plane to get to their seats. The location of their seats worried Banner. Hell, being on a plane worried Banner. What if something were to go wrong? He shook the thoughts from his head.
Ari could tell that Bruce was tense. He clutching the armrests so tightly that his hands were white. They hadn't even left the terminal and he was stressed. His eyes were shut. He was trying to calm himself down.
Ari reached over and ran her hand through his dark hair. She softly hummed a gentle tune. His body instantly relaxed at her touch, at the sound of her voice. "Better?" She asked him.
Bruce opened his eyes to look at her. "How did you do that?"
"She smiled at him. "I just know you."
The flight attendants, or stewardesses if you prefer, went over the emergency procedures and then they were ready to take off. The engines roared and the plane began to speed up the runway. Bruce's body tensed again as the plane accelerated. Ari continued to comfort him.
When they were finally up in the air, Bruce started to relax; not much, but it was something. He relaxed just enough to let go of the armrests and take Ari's hand instead.
A flight attendant pushing a cart stopped by them and asked, "Can I get you two anything to drink?" She handed each of them a little packet of pretzels.
"Water, please," Bruce answered her.
"Can I have some Sprite?" Ari asked.
The flight attendent smiled and poured the requested beverages into plastic cups. She handed the cups to Bruce and Ari as they muttered their thanks.
Ari let go of Bruce's hand so she could open her small bag of pretzels. She poured some out onto her napkin and picked one up, dunking it in her Sprite before popping it in her mouth. Bruce raised an eyebrow at her. "What?" She asked.
"That's gross," he replied.
"Hey, don't knock it 'til you try it!" Ari smiled and repeated her odd gesture.
Bruce sighed as he, too, opened his bag of pretzels. He picked one out of the bag and reached over to dip it in Ari's soda. Hesitating at first, he popped it into his mouth, contemplated his opinion of the odd mixture. "That's not bad," he said at last.
"See," Ari nudged him. "I told you so."
Banner watched as one of the other passengers got up from his eat and made his way to the lavatories at the back of the plane. The smile faded from his face. "What if the SHIELD agents are pretending to be air marshals?" He whispered to Ari.
"Damn it, Bruce!" She exclaimed quietly. "Now I'm paranoid again!"
"I'm sorry. We just can't afford to let our guard down."
Ari rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. "This is going to be a long flight…"