"Do you want to talk about it?"
"No."
"Talking will make it better."
"You know that it doesn't with me."
Tony sighed, getting frustrated. How the hell did Bruce stay so calm? Especially now, after what had been done to him? "Bruce, I know this stuff. I've been there. If you tell me exactly what happened, we can put his ass in jail!"
Bruce shut his eyes tightly, and Tony knew that he just didn't want to relive it. Tony understood. He understood, but didn't approve.
"You've been locked up in here for days, Bruce. You need to tell us what happened, or at least tell Fury! We saw your situation when we ran in there, it was bad! You were shaking and- and twitching, you couldn't stand on your own! But if you want those guys locked up, you have to tell us exactly what happened."
"I can't."
"Why the hell not?" Tony demanded. Bruce was silent. The other man just held his head. "Just...will you at least take a shower, or something? You're filthy!"
Water, just water, up to his waist, making him see white and forcing his limbs to convulse, making his brain nauseous and setting his bones on fire-
Tony knew at once that he had said the wrong thing. Bruce's breathing hitched and his eyes shut again, this time in a pained way. His fingers locked around the edge of the table in a death grip.
"Hey, hey," Tony regretted pushing the man, and put a hand on his shoulder. "You don't have to tell us anything, not until you're ready. But we will have a...conference...about this. We have one of them. We got one of them, at least." Bruce started to calm down, his shoulder falling back into a relaxed position.
Tony watched his friend. He looked so torn. he knew that, inside, he always was, but now he could see it, and this time it wasn't about the Other Guy. This was about facing his fears and reliving the horrible nightmare he had been forced through, or curling up in a ball and pretending it had never happened.
"You can't just force this to go away. What happened happened, and what happened was-"
"I know what happened, Tony!" Bruce boomed. He paused, telling himself to be calm. "I- I'll tell you when I'm ready. Who- exactly- do I have to tell?"
The other man shrugged. "I'm guessing that every single person in SHIELD wants to know, but I'd limit it down to to me, the other Avengers, and Fury. Maybe Pepper."
Bruce hung his head. "I'll see what I can do."
Tony clapped him on the back. "That's my Bruce! So...that's a no on the shower? Also, the doctor said no showers. Just baths."
"No, no, I'll take a shower, it's just a shower," the doctor said quickly. "Bath," came the correction.
"Fine. Bath. I'll go right now." He felt Tony eying him suspiciously as he left.
xxxxx
Bruce turned on the water, listening to the rush of it as it filled up the tub. OK, this isn't so bad. It's just water. Water can't hurt you. It is an inanimate object. Bruce took a deep breath and watched it bubble to the top.
He remembered-
No. Don't think, Bruce told himself. Thinking is bad right now. Just do.He turned the water off and winced as he made to get in. Shirt off, socks and shoes, too, pants off, watch on the sink. Bruce stopped undressing when all he was wearing was his underwear. He felt so vulnerable taking them off. And they looked like the ones he had been wearing when he-
Stop! he screamed in his mind. Pick one or the other, it doesn't matter, just stop thinking!
Bruce removed his underwear, throwing them in the trashcan. As quickly as he could, he submerged himself in the water, letting it come up to his chest. He let out a breath of air he hadn't been aware he had been holding in. He let his eyes fall closed. Water. Nothing to be afraid of.
He opened his eyes, and he was there. His arms held up above him, voices whispering of his death, wondering how much more of it he could take, and there wasn't an answer, just blinding white light and pain, pain, running through his limbs, colliding with his muscles and bones, his body collapsing in on itself and convulsing, and it hurt, it hurt, it hurt-
Bruce gasped and flung himself from the water, grabbing a towel. He stared at the water for a long time, as if daring it to make a move. It didn't. Bruce quickly dried off and dressed, leaving his hair damp so it would look like he hadn't freaked out. He had promised Tony he would try to get over this, and had told himself that he was.
So why was he so afraid of a tub of water?
Bruce shook his head. He wasn't. He was just imagining things. Nevertheless, he left the bathroom and went back to the lab. Tony didn't comment on how quick he had been.
Bruce didn't speak for the whole rest of the day.
xxxxx
When Bruce woke up in the morning, he was very surprised to find Director Fury waiting for him in the kitchen.
"Um...hi." Bruce walked up. "Do...you want some coffee...or something?"
Fury looked up from his hands. "Dr. Banner. We need to talk, and I think you know what it's about."
Bruce pursed his lips. "About what happened?" Fury just stared at him. Bruce leaned on the island, holding his head, shaking it. "No," he moaned. "Please, Tony said when I'm ready, I'm not ready!"
"Dr. Banner," Fury pushed,"this is serious. This man is not very young and injured fromyour rescue. You need to tell us what happened so we can lock him away."
Bruce looked up, suddenly very tired. "Can...can we do this later? Isn't this a team thing?" He didn't want to tell anyone about it, but if he had to, he didn't want anyone left in the dark, asking him questions and staring at him when they thought he wasn't looking, trying to piece it out.
Fury stared at him for a long time before dismissing,"7:30 pm, you're coming clean to the team and me." He left to find his way out of the maze that was Stark Tower.
Bruce bowed his head when the man was gone, anxious for 7:30 pm.
xxxxx
Tony looked up from his notes as Bruce walked in. "Hey, big guy. How's it going?" Bruce shrugged. "We have a conference tonight, 7:30 pm. Fury's orders." Tony nodded, knowing what it was about. "You look tired," he said instead.
Bruce smiled, but it was a fake smile that held no meaning; bitter. "Don't I?" Tony wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean, but dropped it.
"You knew Fury was gonna be here," Bruce said after a minute, staring down at his notebook that held many complicated equations.
"Fury likes to show up without being invited, you know that-"
"But you knew that he was here!" Bruce looked up at his friend, eyes hard. "You knew what he wanted from me!" Tony didn't answer. "Dammit, Tony, you're the one who said to take it easy, to tell them when I was ready! Now I have to make up a speech for himand Clint, and Natasha, and Steve, and Thor! And you, too, Tony. What if- what if I- I can't-"
"Bruce." Tony's clear voice cut into his rambling. "This has to be done, and it's better sooner than later. Fury told me that he- that he was bringing the guy we caught where we found you, so you could tell us what he did."
Bruce stared up at him. "He's doing what? N-no! He can't! That's going too far! He can't just force me to tell you- all six of you- what happened to me, and then bring one of the guys who did it and expect me to be fine with all of this! That's ridiculous!"
"Bruce, Bruce, look at me," Tony said, and Bruce did so. "This has to be done. OK? It just has to. There is no putting it off or saving it for a rainy day. It has to be done now, it has to. I know that it seems unfair, but this is for you. You're only going to get over this quicker if we do this now." He took his friend's shoulders in a comforting manner.
Bruce just nodded, looking as vacant as he did when they had found him.
Tony let Bruce go and they continued with their respective work. Tony brought up his suit and fiddled with the left leg, seeing if he could boost the turbulence. "Hey, Bruce, come here, see if you can help."
"Yeah?" He came over and looked at what Tony was doing. "This looks like it's not running efficiently," Tony explained. Bruce looked over it for a while before stepping forward and pointing to a spot. "It looks like rust or somethi-" he stopped when his finger touched a wire.
It wasn't harmful in any way, just a small shock. But Bruce couldn't handle it; his mind split in two and he just snapped.
He backed up quickly, tripping over a discarded piece of metal and falling to the floor, finally broken. His body trembled and he grabbed his hair, glasses askew on his nose, sweat dripping down his face. His breathing increased, hard, desperate. he shook his head over and over, moaning quietly to himself.
"Increase, Ms. Bones." "Sir?" "Do as I say, increase by one!" "Sir, the levels are nearing extreme, even for him. He won't-" "Increase the levels!" No, no, don't, I can't take it, it hurts, hurts hurts-! But these people couldn't read minds, and he felt the excruciating pain again, a wall of white spots blocking his vision. His bones were ON FIRE, and he couldn't breathe as he SCREAMED, SCREAMED, SCREAMED, wanting it all to END. His limbs convulsed, twitched ridiculously and beyond his control, his body bucking and he SCREAMED for the mercy that these people had none of-
Bruce's eyes were far away, and they turned to Tony, who wanted to start crying himself, because they were so innocent, trapped inside his own mind and horrifying memories.
"Bruce!" Tony cried. "Look at me!"
Finally, finally, Bruce's brown watery eyes locked on Tony's hard dark ones, and they stared at each other for a while before Bruce collapsed into his friend's chest and began to sob.
"It- it was so real!" Bruce's voice was muffled. Tony rubbed his back. "I know, Bruce, I know, but you're here now, with me, not there."
"I don't want to go back there! Don't let me go back!"
"Bruce, I will never let anyone take you from me again. They had no right to do what they did-"
-cold, so cold, and then too hot, and then no air and finally so much pain-
"And you can't let that consume you. So you have to do what you do to keep the Hulk from breaking loose and use that to keep yourself from going back to that. I don't know exactly what they did, but I'll know soon enough and I'm willing to wait."
"I'm sorry-"
"Don't even go there," Tony said. "You didn't do anything wrong. Don't apologize. Fury should be apologizing, that- that-" Tony found that he couldn't think of a word strong enough to describe the horrible man who had stolen Bruce away from them "-OK, I can't think of anything, but the first thing that comes out of his mouth better be 'I'm sorry!'"
Bruce lie against his friend's chest for several more minutes before saying,"Tony?"
"Yeah?"
"I think I'm ready to talk about it."
xxxxx
At 7:30 pm, sharp, Steve, Clint, Thor, and Natasha had arrived at Stark Tower. They sat at the conference table that Tony had installed and waited for nick Fury with Bruce and Tony.
"Where is he?" Tony broke the silence. "He's late!"
As if on cue, the door opened and Fury entered, pushing a man in a wheelchair. Bruce took one look at him and froze.
"I said increase the levels and turn the water temperature higher!"
He composed himself in his mind, though on the outside he was still in shock. That washim. That was the man who had composed the entire idea, the man who had locked him up and drugged him, the man who made him endure freezing temperatures in his underwear, the man who had him restrained on a metal table and took his blood, the man who suffocated him, the man who-
"Dr. Banner?" He blinked to see everyone staring at him. "Bruce," Tony murmured from beside him,"is this one of them?"
Slowly, Bruce nodded.
"Dr. Banner," Fury said, standing up straight,"this is-"
"Dr. Carlyle," Bruce interrupted. "We've, uh, met before."
Fury eyed him. Nobody interrupted Nick Fury. "Why don't you tell us about it?"
So Bruce began. He started with waking up. He was restrained on a metal table with an oxygen mask over his face and introduced.
"Dr. Banner. Nice to finally meet you. I am Dr. Carlyle. We will be performing several...tests on you. And don't try to transform. We have you drugged. You're a man of science as well, I'm sure you'll understand."
He felt a pinch in his skin for a moment and moved his eyes t see a syringe filled with his blood. "Dr. Quinn, run this to the lab for testing later on. Dr. Bones, now, please." Bruce wondered what that meant before he took a breath- and found that he couldn't. He couldn't struggle, couldn't breathe, couldn't do anything until he thought he would pass out and the air was suddenly there again and he took long, deep, breaths. "Again, Ms. Bones."
He was cold. Very cold. Bruce looked down to see that he was waist-deep in water. He couldn't touch the bottom- there didn't seem to be one. His arms were above him, chained to a metal pole. An IV was at his side, still drugged. Too drugged to transform. His teeth chattered and his body trembled. He couldn't move his legs to get out; they felt like they were filled with lead. Bruce was losing feeling in them, anyway. The edges of his lips were turned blue, he wasn't sure how much more of this he could take. Then the water started to get warm. Too warm.
"Ms. Bones, first setting." Bruce didn't know what any of this meant. He was so confused- He moaned when the first wave of electricity hit him. it was over soon, and he heard his voice again: "Second setting." The next one actually hurt. Bruce let out a cry of pain as it shocked him, though it subsided. It went on, the next setting growing more and more painful. "Next setting." "Sir?" "Do as I say, increase by one!" "Sir, the levels are nearing extreme, even for him. He won't-" "Increase the levels!"
He looked around. He had done it. That was it. They had rescued him before they had done any more damage. He felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked over to see Tony smiling at him. "Good job."
"I just wanted to cure you." Everyone looked over at Dr. Carlyle. "I just wanted to take away your burden."
Tony stood. "That isn't curing," he snarled,"that was abuse! You electrocuted him like he was a lab rat! How the fuck is that curing?" He leaned forward, looking livid, pointing to Bruce. "You see him? He is a billion times the man you'll ever wish to be! You treat him like an animal! He is more human than anyone in this fucking room!"
The old man just spat on the ground.
Bruce put a hand on Tony's arm. "Tony, don't. It's over, OK?" Tony looked at him and nodded. Fury left with Dr. Carlyle, and the other Avengers did, too, after saying goodbye to Bruce and hoping that he would get better.
As soon as they were gone, Tony pulled Bruce into a hug. "Never again," he murmured into his friend's hair. "Never again will I let this happen to you." Bruce nodded and returned the hug, loving the feeling of Tony running his fingers through his graying hair.
Tony left, then, telling Bruce to go to bed and get some rest, because he looked haggard. He just nodded and waved. He closed his eyes and didn't see any images flashing before his mind.
Bruce smiled. Maybe he wouldn't have any nightmares.
But before he went to bed, Bruce took a bath.
It was very short, but it was a start.