A/N: Hello! Welcome to Entropy. Hopefully I'll be posting a chapter a week, we'll see what Real Life thinks about that. Hope you enjoy!
Bruce liked India. It was full of honest people minding their own business, and no one gave him a second glance. It was perfect. The only way people knew of him was when he started using his limited medical knowledge to help people. He became known as the friendly doctor. It helped that most of the people he treated didn't speak English, and he only spoke limited Hindi.
He was on his way home from treating a severe case of malaria when his attention was caught by a girl's scream. He debated investigating; it'd been over a year since his last incident and he wanted to keep his record. The girl screamed again, and with a wince he broke into a run. He turned the corner and found two men hitting a girl, trying to get her against a wall.
"Hey!" he yelled.
The two men shared a glance and bolted, leaving the girl to slump to the ground.
Bruce made his way over to the girl. "You okay?" he asked in Hindi, helping her sit up.
She replied in English, "Thank you." She had a split lip and her eye was swollen. She tried to stand up and let out a pained gasp, pressing a hand to her ribs.
"Where do you live?" Bruce asked. "I'll walk you home."
Her gaze dropped. "The girl's hostel where I lived closed down. I have no home." She tugged at her worn tunic, embarrassed.
"No parents, no family?" he pressed.
"My parents are dead and I have no siblings or other family." She looked at him defiantly. "Thank you. I will be fine."
He picked up his bag and made it two steps before he paused. He couldn't just leave her there to sleep in the street. He sighed and turned around. "Come on, kid. You can stay with me while you find a place to live." He realized how that sounded and backtracked hastily. "I mean, I'm a doctor. I want to help you, nothing else, I swear."
She gave him a crooked smile, amused by his awkwardness.
"I'm Bruce," he said, holding out a hand.
She shook his hand lightly. "Jaya."
"Nice to meet you." He helped her back to his two room house, let her use the bathroom to clean up, wrapped her bruised ribs, gave her some ice for her eye, and offered her the bed. She insisted she could sleep just fine on the low, flat couch.
"All right," he said, handing her the extra blanket. "If you need anything, I'm in here."
"Thank you." She curled up on the sofa and pulled the blanket around herself protectively, watching him curiously.
He went to bed and lay there, staring at the ceiling. He knew there was a good chance he'd wake up to find the house robbed and the girl gone, but she was just a kid. So sue him for having a heart. It's not like he had much to steal anyway. And if she was an agent of some sort instructed to bring him in, he knew there was a good chance he'd get tranq'd in his sleep and wake up in a government facility. If he did, well, bully for them. He could literally just rampage out of there. There were other third world countries to choose from.
But he woke up in the morning to the smell of food, and when he walked into the fromt room he found Jaya up and about serving breakfast. "Wow."
"Tea?" she asked, pouring a rich smelling chai into a cup.
"You didn't have to make breakfast."
"It was the least I could do."
He sat down, and found that she was a pretty good cook. "How do you know English so well?" he asked.
"My father was American," she said quietly, biting her lip.
"Oh." He changed the subject. "Do you have a job?"
"No."
"How old are you anyway?"
"Sixteen."
"You look older than that." He'd thought she was eighteen, at least.
"Good." She reached for a plate and winced.
"Easy on those ribs," he scolded lightly.
They cleaned up in easy silence, and he got ready to go out. "I'll be back at six-ish."
She handed him a naan wrap folded in brown paper. "All right."
He smiled at her and left, tucking the lunch into his bag.
AV-AV-AV
When he came back it was to an immaculate little house, the floor shining. And someone was singing a soft Hindi tune. "Jaya?" he called.
She came around the back. "Namaste, Bruce."
"How was your day?" he asked, as he put his things away. She'd even cleaned the cupboards.
"I looked for work. The spice shop down the street told me to come back when my face is healed and they would hire me."
"Well that's good."
She looked at him hesitantly. "But it will take me time to make enough to find a place to rent."
He nodded and looked around at the clean house and the simmering curry. "Well, if you keep up the house and teach me how to cook, I don't see why you can't stay here."
Her eyes filled with happy tears. "You mean it?"
"Sure. Why not?"
She threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. He stiffened, unused to the contact. It was a two-second hug, and then she drew back, embarrassed. "Thank you."
He smiled at her. "You're welcome."
AV-AV-AV
Her face healed, and Jaya got the job in the spice shop. She came home every day with little paper twists full of spices, and used them to season whatever small meals they shared for breakfast and dinner. Bruce still couldn't get used to coming home and finding fresh flowers in the house and food on the table. It was nice, and he listened tolerantly over dinner as Jaya chattered to him about her day in the shop in a mixture of Hindi and English. She helped him with his Hindi, as well, and she would take messages from clients when he was out of the house. She didn't know who he was, not really, and she treated him just like any other person, calling him 'uncle.' As the days passed, Bruce realized he was getting quite attached to the girl, as if she was the daughter he'd never be able to have. The thought made him sad, and also made him wary. It was dangerous to get attached.
One evening they were eating dinner when a boy came to the door. "Doctor, doctor," he said urgently. "Mere ma bemar hai," he said. My mother is sick.
"What's wrong with her?"
"Fever and vomiting," the boy said. "Many people sick, my brother, our neighbors."
"An outbreak of some sort," Bruce said grimly. He looked at Jaya. "Would you feel comfortable coming with me? I might need another pair of hands."
She nodded hesitantly.
Their work lasted all night as they cared for the sick, and as they worked, Bruce realized Jaya had quite a knack for soothing people. She treated the feverish people tenderly, humming well-known tunes as she bathed them with cold water and tried to get them to drink boiled water or weak teas.
One day turned into two, then three. Whatever it was, was spreading. A few people had already recovered, but they were still weak. Bruce had Jaya running all over the city to get medicine and supplies.
She had just come back with more medicine when a small girl ran up the stairs to Bruce. "Doctor!" she cried.
"Go away, child, can't you see there's sick people here?" one of the grandmas said.
"What is it?" Bruce asked, kneeling down to talk to the girl.
"Mere baba," she half sobbed, babbling in quick, anxious Hindi.
He looked up at Jaya. "What'd she say?"
"Her father's sick, fever."
"Like these?" Bruce asked, pointing to the others.
The little girl nodded and tugged at his sleeve. "Please," she begged.
He nodded. "Jaya, stay here and tend to these, a teaspoon every four hours like I told you. I'll be back soon, okay?"
"Okay."
The little girl led him to the outskirts of town, into an old house - and crawled out the back window. He sighed. "Shoulda gotten paid first," he told himself, annoyed.
"You know, for a man who's supposed to be avoiding stress, you picked a really bad spot," a woman's voice said in perfect, unaccented English.
He tensed, and then forced himself to relax. "Avoiding stress isn't the secret," he replied evenly. He shouldn't have come here. But there was no way out of it now.
"Then what is it? Yoga?" the woman asked.
"You brought me to the edge of the city," he said, analyzing. He peered out the window. "I, uh, assume this place is surrounded."
"Just you and me," she told him, managing to look completely wide-eyed and innocent.
"And your actress buddy? They start that young?" he asked, still annoyed that he hadn't managed to spot the ruse.
"I did," the secret agent replied honestly.
He raised an eyebrow. "And who are you?"
"Natasha Romanoff."
He gave her a weary look. He hadn't slept in forty eight hours and he really didn't want to turn into the Other Guy, as it was exhausting. "Are you here to kill me, Ms Romanoff? Because that's not going to work out for everyone."
"No no, of course not. I'm here on behalf of SHIELD."
He stifled a sigh. "SHIELD. How'd they find me?"
"We never lost you, Doctor. We kept our distance. But now we need you to come in."
He smirked. "What if I say no?"
She replied with a smirk of her own. "I'll persuade you."
"And what if the Other Guy says no?" he asked slowly.
"You've been over a year without an incident, I don't think you want to break that streak." She turned to grab a phone of some sort. "And I'm sure you don't want to lose your little housemaid if you have to move to another country."
He tensed for real this time. "You leave her alone," he said. "She's got nothing to do with this."
"I never said she did." She showed him a blue cube on the phone screen. "This is the Tesseract."
"What does Fury want me to do, swallow it?" he asked wryly. He probably could. He listened to her talk about gamma radiation, and raised his voice, testing her. She didn't shoot him, which was nice. "All right," he said. "You've convinced me."
"Good."
He thought about Jaya. "But we're bringing Jaya. She's half American. She gets dual citizenship and financial help, or no deal."
Natasha nodded. "I thought you'd say that. Come on doc, we've got a helicopter waiting."
There were SHIELD agents everywhere, and one of them had Jaya by the arm. She looked terrified and defiant all at once, and as soon as she saw him, she ran to his side. "Bruce, what's going on?" she asked, clinging to his arm.
He took her hand. "It's a long story, kiddo."
"Dr. Banner," Natasha called, waving him over.
Jaya frowned at him. "You're leaving?"
"You can come with me, if you want," he offered. "You could start a new life in America, go to school, college, get a good job."
She glanced at the SHIELD agents. "You work for the government?"
"Not really. I'm more of a consultant at the moment."
She stared at him, wide eyed. "Who are you?"
He sighed. "I'll tell you everything, if you come with me. If not, I've got to go."
She looked from him to the city and back again. "I have nothing left there. I'll come with you."
"Good girl. Come on."
They got in the helicopter, and Natasha smiled at the girl. "Hi. I'm Natasha."
"Jaya." She scooted closer to Bruce.
They took a helicopter to a private plane, were provided with a shower cubicle, clean clothes and a full meal. "Where are we headed?"
"The Atlantic."
Bruce nodded and looked over at Jaya. She'd eaten and was now sitting in the corner, her nose pressed to the window as she watched the plane lift off. She was wearing jeans and an embroidered tunic, her long hair neatly combed out to finish drying. She stifled a yawn, and he realized that she'd gone almost three days without sleep. He went over to her. "Jaya, we've still got a long way to go. You can sleep if you want."
She glanced over at Natasha and then back at Bruce, questioning.
"It'll be okay," he assured her. "Sleep. You've been working hard." He found a blanket in a compartment and shook it out, laying it over her. "I'll wake you when we're landing," he promised.
She nodded and closed her eyes. She was asleep in minutes, her head pillowed on her arm. Asleep, she looked just as young as she really was.
"You've got quite the parental manner," Natasha observed, as when Bruce returned to his seat across from her. "You gonna adopt her?"
Bruce shook his head. "She deserves a parent who won't run the risk of demolishing whatever city she settles down in." He turned to the papers on the table and flipped it open to reveal a picture of Captain America. "What's this?"
"Files on the rest of the team."
"Oh, there's a team now?" he asked, putting on his glasses. "Interesting."
He read most of the files, and even managed to get in an hour or two of sleep. He was shaken awake by Natasha. "We're here," she murmured.
He stretched and looked out the window. They were landing on what looked like an aircraft carrier. He got up and went over to Jaya. "We're landing," he said, carefully jostling her shoulder.
She blinked awake gradually, and looked out the window. "A ship?" she asked.
"Yes."
She put her new sneakers on and started to braid her hair. "When we land, then will you tell me what's going on?" she asked.
Bruce coughed guiltily. "Uh, yeah."
"And we'll get breakfast," Natasha assured them. "Buckle up."
They landed, and climbed out onto the busy deck of the carrier. Jaya stuck close enough to Bruce to be his shadow, as Natasha led them across the deck. "Captain Rogers," she called to a tall blond man in a leather jacket.
He turned. "Agent Romanoff. And you must be Dr. Banner."
"Captain Rogers."
"Word is you can find the cube."
"Is that the only thing you heard about me?"
"The only one I care about," Rogers replied firmly. He glanced at Jaya curiously. "Who's this?"
"My assistant," Bruce replied after a second.
"Miss," Rogers said, smiling at the girl.
She blushed and looked down.
"Gentlemen if you'll step inside," Natasha said, "It's going to get a little hard to breathe."
Suddenly giant engine turbines began to appear, causing a rush of water.
"Is this a submarine?" Rogers asked, awed.
"They want me in a pressurized metal container?" Bruce asked, astonished. This was not good.
The carrier began to rise.
"Oh no, this is much worse," Bruce said, laughing at the sheer craziness of it all. He turned to follow Natasha inside, Jaya at his heels.
They went in, and met Agent Coulson and Director Fury. "If you'll follow me, we can find you a room," Coulson told Jaya.
"Uh, no," Bruce said, firmly, "she stays with me."
"She's your assistant," Coulson said, shrugging.
Natasha led them to a lab. "We got all the toys, doc." She showed Jaya the break room that was a few doors down, and left them to it.
"So," Jaya said, returning with two cups of tea and sitting on the counter in front of Bruce's computer. "You promised you would tell me what was going on."
Bruce sighed. "Okay. Uh, oh boy." He rubbed at his forehead. "I'm not just a doctor of medicine. I'm actually an expert in gamma radiation."
"Then why were you hiding in India?" Jaya asked.
"Because an experiment went wrong."
"Someone died?" she guessed.
"No. I changed." He pulled up a picture of the Other Guy. "When I get angry, I turn into, uh, this Other Guy."
She stared at the picture for a long moment, looking back and forth from Bruce to the picture. "Did you do something bad?" she asked after a moment.
"Besides breaking Harlem?" he asked wryly. "People were after me, so I left. I went to India, and I focused on helping people."
"And then you found me."
"Yes."
She nodded slowly. "But you are still Bruce?"
"Yes. Nothing is changed. I just," he sighed. "I can't guarantee your safety here. The whole world is in danger right now, and I don't know if I can protect you."
She gave him a tiny smile and patted his arm. "You don't have to worry about me, Bruce."
"You don't mind?" he asked hesitantly.
"I wish you had told me earlier," she said, a frown wrinkling her forehead, "but I don't mind very much. You never got angry at me, not even when I dropped your blood pressure cuff, so, I trust you." She gave him a bright smile and pointed at another screen. "What are we working on?"
He smiled. This could work.