A repeat of the ending to Life I Funny Sometimes.


"How long Banner?"

He cringed before turning round. It was never good news when Victoria was speaking in surnames

"What do you mean?" He tentatively questioned

"You know what the fuck I mean! How long?"

Bruce sighed, he did know exactly what she meant. "Look, Natasha and I, it's not…"

"Dont you dare." Victoria growled.

"Vick…"

"How long Bruce? how long before you took everything we built together and jumped into bed with her?" Her voice was getting louder and louder, and she was visibly struggling to keep in the tears.

"We didn't…" Bruce trailed off. He wanted to reassure her, but he wasn't sure he could.

"Stop it Bruce." She interrupted again in a whisper. "It took 2 years to get you to trust me enough to be with me. And now you and that...you what, never mind. I can't right now." Her voice cracked as she finished and walked away.

Bruce finished up his work, giving her some time to cool down before leaving his lab and following her back to their rooms.

"What are you doing?" He asked, surveying the luggage and boxes she had already managed to pull out and pack.

"I'm leaving." She explained, not even glancing up as she continued to fold and pack her clothes

"Please, Victoria…" Bruce was ready to beg, watching her as she tossed a t shirt back towards her dresser. He instantly recognized it as one of his that she liked to sleep in.

"No." Victoria stated firmly "I was offered a job back in Boston a few weeks ago. I told them I needed to think about it. I really wanted to talk to you about it. But now…"

"I don't want you to go! I never meant…" Bruce frantically explained, his eyes darting around at the missing tchokies from the table tops and pictures gone off the walls.

"You never meant for this to happen?" She spat back at him. "Fuck you Bruce. I'm done. Go away and I'll be packed and out of here in a few hours."


"What are you doing here?" Victoria glared at the redhead casually sitting at her desk.

"I have a message from Dr…"

"I really don't care to hear anything he told you to tell me." Her angering buoyed her confidence and from one she was not at all intimidated by Natasha Romanov.

"Bruce called you but…"

"I didn't pick up. You have any idea why that might have happened?" She snapped back.

Natasha sighed. This was turning out to be every bit as difficult as she's expected. "I'm didn't come here to apologize to you. Bruce is a grown man and…"

"I dont want your apology! Bruce made his own choices and now he has to live that. If he thinks for one second…"

"He's gone."

"What?" Victoria asked. Her tirade brought up short.

"He left, after….after the last mission. He took a jet and he's disappeared." Natasha explained as gently as she could.

"Because of you?" Victoria demanded. The look in her eyes clearly conveying to Natasha that she deserved everything she was getting.

"Maybe, but we think it was more because of you. He couldn't…"

"I don't care" Victoria interrupted and continued to Natasha's shocked silence. "I have wasted so many tears on that man. Whenever things get too hard, off he goes. Back to Calcutta or to God knows where."

"He loves you." Natasha interjected

"No, not really. Not they way I deserve. You've delivered your message. Thank you."

"Bruce is good and deep down he wanted it to work, he's just…"

"I flatter myself that after all this time I know him better then you. Good bye, Agent Romanov."

Victoria sighed tiredly and pointed to the door as Natasha silently walked out.


The school year moved on, and Victoria found herself moving with it. She meant what she had told Natasha that day. She had wasted too much on Bruce Banner. Too many years, and definitely too many tears.

She avoided Bree Roger's phone calls, and wouldn't answer Tony above once a month. Victoria Maxwell-Stark was many things. But it turned out being able to run with superheroes wasn't one of them. So she methodically separated herself from all of them

One day in late May she walked into the science department office, and was introduced to a new hire. He asked her out to drinks, to get to know some of his coworkers better. He had an open smile and no shadows lurking in his clear blue eyes. She smiled back and accepted. No tragic pasts, no super villains waiting in the wings. Yes, he was just what she needed.

Two years later, Tony hung a new photo in his office. It took a few weeks for the relatively newly returned Dr. Banner to notice it. He had turned and walked away almost immediately. There was Victoria, his Victoria, on her wedding day. Smiling beautifully up at a man who wasn't him.


Thanks for giving this a read!