My life may have seemed like a long boring book that was taking forever to end before the day my father got the phone call that would change my life forever.

It was a pleasantly calm and uneventful Saturday morning. I slid unwillingly out of the bed after reading the clock and seeing that it was nearly noon. I could smell the bacon down stairs. I trudged slowly down the steps and turned the corner to walk into the kitchen.

The smells of pancakes and bacon hit me with a pleasing aroma. My dad was standing at the stove with his work clothes on. I ruffled my curly hair and said,"Hey, dad."

He looked back at me and smiled before turning back to the stove. "Good morning. Another late night?" He asked.

I plopped down at the table. I actually had been up all night working out some equations for a project me and my dad were working on. We were hoping to create a powerful power generator out of a couple household products. "I just wanted to work out some things for the generator. I just think we should magnify the power of the double A battery by looping the polarity of-"

He laughed and said,"Woah there. Just take a breath. We can talk about that later. You gotta give your brain some time to wake up before you start working it again." He walked over to me with a plate of 'breakfast for lunch'. He said,"Brain food." I chuckled at him and began to eat my food.

My dad was the world renowned scientist Dr. Robert Bruce Banner. He was a very calm headed guy to be honest. I don't think he has ever even raised his voice let alone get angry. He worked for a small business that produced "ideas to better tomorrow" or something like that. Even still, we were not all that well off. We moved frequently and we didn't have much but each other...ever since mom died.

I had a good life, though. I think I was fairly happy, actually.

My dad was sitting across from me at our cheap table. I looked up at my dad, whose hair was greying and eyes were looking mored tired every day. I looked back down at the food and said with food in my mouth,"You have to work today?"

I kept looking at him to see if I could tell if he was sad or not. I knew my dad was depressed. He smiled at me all the time but I know. I sometimes hear his sobs in the other room in the middle of the night or day.

He sighed and looked down,"Yea...I gotta go. Do me a favor, don't burn down the house." He smiled again and his eyes wrinkled.

I smiled back genuinely. My dad had been saying that ever since the first time he had to leave me home alone, which was when I was six years old. I joked,"I can't promise that." And that had always been my response.

He laughed and stood to his feet with one of those old people grunts as he fought through the dull pain in his knees to stand up. He ruffled my hair as he walked by and I smiled as I pushed the food around on my plate with a fork.

Then, a blaring sound came from the wall. My dad swiveled around with his face mixed with emotions as he stared at the phone on the wall. We both exchanged looks. We hadn't received a phone call from anyone since the hospital called to tell us that my mom had passed. I began to stand and go toward the phone to answer it but dad told me to sit back down with a gentle gesture of his hand.

He approached the phone slowly as if he hoped it would stop ringing before he got to it. I stared at him as his hand reached out and grabbed the phone.

He asked,"May I ask who's calling?" His hand was shaking as he held the phone to his ear.

Suddenly, his worry turned to anger in a matter of seconds. He asked with disdain in his voice,"What do you want?" He practically growled into the phone. Anger didn't seem to fit on his face to me, like his face was never made to be pulled into an angry frown.

His face then twisted into a deeper anger; rage. He gasped and shouted,"What?! You can't do that!"

I looked on in curiosity and fear. I could have sworn that I saw something flash in his eyes but he turned away from me and faced the wall as he talked. "Dad?" I wondered.

His back hunched as all his muscles and bones seemed to relax into a depressed position. He had his hand over his face and his head hung low. He said quietly,"You...you can't do this to me, Coulson. He's-...he's all I've got left."

Then it hit me like a train. They were talking about me. I asked with wide and hysterical eyes,"Dad?! Tell me what's going on, please! Talk to me!"

I was standing now. My chest was hurting. My heart was banging on my rib cage and it was a new but painful feeling.

He was crying. I could tell because his back heaved slowly as he kept his hand over his face. After a few moments he hung the phone up. I muttered,"Dad?" For the last time that afternoon.

He turned to me. His eyes were red and his face was wet. His sniffled and began yanking at his wrist watch's strap. Once he got the watch off he said to me,"Isaac, I...-I haven't been completely honest with you about a lot of things but it's too late now to try and correct all of them. I need you to take this."

He put the watch on my wrist. It was too big for me but I accepted it. Before I could ask any questions he spoke again,"It's not safe for you to be here anymore-" he began to sob again but he pulled himself together and said," there are some people who are going to take you...they are going to help you. I just need you to promise me one thing..."

I looked at him with confusion and fear in my face. I had so many questions. Was he serious? What was going on? Who was taking me? Where was I going?! And why?!

I said,"Sure?" I had uncertainty in my voice.

He said,"Promise me that you will never let your heart rate get to two hundred." He eyed the watch expectantly. He looked back at me as if he knew it was a promise that I couldn't keep.

I nodded with my brows deeply furrowed. "I promise."

He hugged me suddenly. I hugged him back and I could feel his warm tears on my shirt. "I'm sorry I'm your father...you deserve so much better." He said it so quietly that I was almost sure I wasn't supposed to hear it.

I asked him,"What's going on? Just tell me." He pulled away and said,"You'll know soon-"

He leaned toward me again and I thought he was coming in for another hug but when I felt the full extent of his weight on top of me, I realized he was unconscious. I gasped,"Dad?! Dad!" I laid him down on the ground to find a tranquilizer in his back. I yanked it out.

My heart was pounding harder now. My dad's watch was beeping out of control. A pain started to spread across my body. It felt like acid. It made me freak out even more. I gripped my back after suddenly feeling a sharp pain in it. My fingers grazed across the tranquilizer in my back. I could feel my head beginning to swim immediately.

I fell forward onto the ground and blacked out.