Jillian woke to the sound of rain sprinkling on the skylight of her cabin. She lay tangled in her thin sheets, but managed to roll to her stomach to keep the sunlight out of her face. A cold nose pressed into the palm of her hand and she sighed.
"Five more minutes, Murphy, please." She groaned. The nose pushed her hand more insistently now, this time accompanied by a whimper and the thudding of a tail on the carpet floor. Jillian snatched her hand up and shoved it under her chest, hoping that the dog would get the hint. Instead, just seconds later, she felt Murphy jump up on the bed and start licking her face.
"Come on, Murph!" Jillian complained, throwing the covers off of her and hauling herself out of bed. She stomped to her back door and threw it open, letting the dog run outside. She disappeared into the trees surrounding the cabin and Jillian walked back inside to make herself and the dog some breakfast. She went to check her phone beforehand, even though she knew there would be nothing new on it, only Rob and Maria had her number and they only called when something really interesting was happening. Today was different, though: when she turned the screen on, she found a voicemail from Maria.
"Hey, Jill! You'll never believe what just happened. Can't talk right now, but meet me at our usual at noon and I'll tell you all about it!" Maria's mousy voice sounded through Jillian's kitchen. She looked at the clock on her phone and switched into hyper drive. It was 11:30, and she had to eat, get dressed, and get all the way across town in half an hour.
She was almost finished scarfing down her cereal when she heard it: a roar so powerful that it shook the trees and even rattled some dishes in the cabinets. She stood there in her dining room wondering what could have made such a noise, gulping down the milk left over in the bowl, when it hit her, a single word that made her freeze where she stood: Murphy. She bolted for the back door and as soon as it was open, she was calling Murphy's name. What if that thing had hurt her? What would she do without that damn dog? Just when she began to think the worst, the little white dog pranced into view and Jillian heaved a sigh of relief. She crouched down in the grass and opened her arms, letting the small Pit Bull run to her. She hugged Murphy, and the dog rubbed against her, thumping her tail.
Since she was still a little rattled from the whole experience, Jill brought Murphy with her to the café where she was meeting Maria. She sat down with a smoothie and some water for the dog and waited. Maria, true to her nature, showed up fifteen minutes late, but immediately started gossiping about her crazy morning at the hospital.
"Okay, so first this weird guy shows up completely out of the blue," Maria slid her glasses higher up on her nose, "and he had like, no idea where he was. So I was like 'You're in Fiji' and I kid you not, he got so worked up that he jumped out the window. Out the freaking window, Jill! It was crazy! I've never been more scared in my life, no joke." Maria scratched Murphy behind her ears. This was typical of Maria; every time any weird patient shows up and goes crazy, it's all she can talk about for at least a day and a half, and every time she's "never been more scared in her life".
"So, what was the wackjob's name this time?" Jillian asked, lazily taking a sip of her smoothie. She never expected to recognize the name that Maria so casually spit out, but it was a name that she had heard many times back when she was playing lab rat at SHIELD.
"His name was Bruce. Bruce Banner."
Hello :) okay, so this chapter isn't much longer, so sorry about that, but I promise: bigger chapters soon! It's almost 1 am right now and I just finished this chapter, so I'll probably go back and embellish this one when I'm actually awake. I've been up since 5 this morning -_- Anyways, thanks for reading, I'd appreciate it if you left a review if you can, so thanks in advance! ~ Kendall :)
