Dear Daddy,

Hello, Daddy. This is Brenna, your daughter. Aunt Jen says hello. She's really nice.

How are you? I am good. I started going to school a few years ago, and I lost my two front teeth. I hope I will see you soon.

-Brenna

The letter was sent, and Brenna's hopes rose considerably as she imagined getting a letter, a response, from the father she couldn't remember. Two weeks later, a reply came.

Jennifer came in from work holding a letter, beaming. "Brenna, I think you have something!"

Brenna set down the puzzle she was working on and rushed to her aunt, taking the letter in excitement. It was from her father. A real letter from her father:

Dear Brenna,

I am mostly well, thank you. How are you?

I miss you too, sweetheart. I know Aunt Jennifer is very nice, that is why I had her take care of you. I know you are a big girl! Congratulations on losing your two front teeth. I'm doing pretty good work down here, and one day I might be up for a visit.
-Your loving father, Bruce Banner

The letter did something to Brenna. It turned her father from a vague idea, a picture on the mantel, into a real person. Someone who knew about her and cared. She re-read the last line: 'Your loving father,' and looked up at her aunt with shining eyes.

Jennifer was happy too. She had never been happy with her cousin's approach to her daughter, and though it was a small step, it was a step. She went up into the attic and came down minutes later with a little tissue box. "This is our letter box," she told Brenna. "We'll keep your dad's letters in here, okay?"

Brenna nodded silently, starting to smile.

~How many times can you look me in the eye~

Let's jump forward a few years. The communication between Brenna and Bruce has remained constant and steady, and so they became as close as possible considering the distance between southern Brazil and upstate New York. One day, after Brenna had turned twelve, Bruce announced in a letter that he was coming up to see his little girl.

The relatively small and simple sentence in the midst of the letter turned Brenna's life around, for the better. She whirled around the house, finishing her homework early every day to try to get the house 'perfect' in anticipation of her father's arrival. Questions ran through her mind like the computer programs she worked with at school. A month from the letter's arrival, the doorbell rang on one quiet Friday afternoon in October.

"I'll get it!" Brenna called, heading through the kitchen to the door. She grabbed the door handle and opened it, looking up into a face she recognized from photographs only. The door banged against the wall as Brenna's jaw dropped open.

Bruce Banner ran a hand through his slightly greying mop of black curls, so like hers. "Brenna?"

Jennifer appeared behind Brenna and put a hand over her mouth, stepping back to give the girl space.

"Dad?" Brenna asked softly.

Bruce nodded, awkwardly fiddling with a pen. "How….how are you?"

Brenna didn't answer, moving forward, uncharacteristically impulsively, and wrapped her arms around her father. Bruce froze for a minute before hugging her back, first uncertainly, loosening up rapidly. Brenna's eyes leaked tears and even Bruce, the scientist, got misty-eyed.

After the first meeting, Brenna wanted her father to know everything about her. She showed him her room, and her microscope kit, and her awards from the science fairs and listened as Bruce told her about his travels. They had a lot to catch up on, and never stopped, not even during dinner. During a pause in the lively discussion of weather differences, Brenna thought of something.

"Dad, can I come with you to South America next summer?" Brenna asked tentatively. "Just for a few months."

Bruce looked at her, setting his fork down and looking at Jennifer. Jennifer looked back with a blank face before turning back to her plate, letting her thick brown hair fall in her face, hiding her brown eyes from him. It was up to him. Bruce turned to his daughter.

"I'm afraid you can't. It's…..dangerous."

"You do it," Brenna said stubbornly.

"Yes, but I'm an adult. If something happened to you-"

"And if something happened to you, I'd have nothing!" Brenna cried unexpectedly. She lowered her gaze to her plate, staring at her pile of mashed potatoes. "I don't have Mom, remember? I don't even remember her." Brenna's bottom lip trembled a tiny bit. Bruce bit his own lip and shook his head.

"I can't take you. Maybe when you're older. I'll come back for another visit soon, okay?"

"Okay," Brenna whispered.

"I do love you," he said.

Brenna looked up. "I love you too, Dad."

The next day, he said goodbye.

Jennifer walked with him down the short driveway to the sidewalk as Brenna watched from the window. "She doesn't know, does she?"

"I don't think so. She can't know," Bruce said firmly.

"What if she…..you know," Jennifer said. "She needs her father. And I'm not Betty."

"I can't take the risk, and I can't hurt her," Bruce explained, stepping away. "Goodbye, Jen."