Here's the second and last part to this not-so-short story!
Chapter 2:
"Every person has truth in his heart. No
matter how complicated his circumstances,
no matter how others look at him from the
outside, and no matter how deep or shallow
the truth dwells in his heart; eventually the
truth will gush forth like a geyser."
Bruce was driving himself crazy for the next six hours before his computer sprang to life with a video call from Tony again. Even for Tony six hours was impressive for finding someone, especially for finding Natasha when she didn't want to be found. He waited with bated breath for Tony to speak but the words that came from his best friend were unexpected.
"Bruce, please tell me you have a TV in that craphut you've been calling home."
He ruffled his eyebrow before he replied, "Yeah."
"Then you better turn it on, I don't think it matters what news channel...trust me, this is bad."
He had a sinking feeling growing like a dark pit in his stomach as he leaned over and flicked the TV on. Tony wasn't wrong, it was there and it was bad.
"—taken into custody after the German military forced the Ecuadoran government to help in her detainment. The crowd behind us is not happy seeing someone they consider a world hero being arrested either."
Bruce frowned as he watched the men dragging one very determined Natasha Romanoff towards a truck. Her broken wrist was bound behind her to her good one, her mouth was taped shut, but none of that stopped her from struggling enough that it took four men to drag her.
"Bruce...that's not all," Tony told him, "not only did I hack in and figure out where they're taking her—I also found out why."
"I'm not going to like this, am I?" he murmured out as he ran his hand through his hair.
Tony was quiet as he smacked his lips open and then closed again. "It was never supposed to be used like this—this isn't what we signed the Accords for..." he finally heaved out with sadness.
"Tony, just tell me what you're talking about," he ordered his best friend.
"I hacked into the United Nations once I realized that somehow the German's got the Ecuadoran's to help them take her into custody," Tony explained, "I realized quickly enough there's only one reason why. I found this video and before I send it—don't turn green. It's bad."
Bruce waited, tapping his foot on the floor as the video Tony sent finally came through. It started playing the second he clicked on it and there was Natasha. The redhead was laid out on a metal table and he found the source of those three-inch wide bruises quickly enough. Near a dozen metal latches arched over her body to keep her in place on the table, not allowing her to move even the slightest bit.
"You're making this more difficult than it needs to be, Miss Romanoff. You signed the accords, then you broke them," a man's voice stated over the video, "you must know where we can find Captain Rogers, Barnes and all the others that helped those two since their escape from custody."
"Go to hell," and Bruce knew that response was coming. Natasha would never give up her friends' locations to help herself, especially not Clint's, whether she knew them or not.
The man chuckled though, "I don't think you understand. You signed yourself over to the United Nations under the Accords. You go where they want when they see necessary. They gave you to us and now you're nothing more than a weapon to be used how we see fit."
"Oh, I understand completely. And you can still burn in hell."
Bruce could feel the anger growing, it burned and seethed even further when he saw a man stick a probe into each side of her head. The way the redhead's body tensed but was unable to really move because of the way she was strapped down had him losing control.
"Bruce...they're taking her to a facility on an island just off the southern coast of Ecuador called Isla Verde." He saw Tony rubbing at his face and he knew the billionaire was blaming himself now. "This isn't—this isn't how the Accords were supposed to be used. Nat signed those because she saw it as a way to keep fighting to help people even if it wasn't under our own terms, because then at least we were still able to help and still doing it together until we could figure out a better way," his friend explained. "So scratch what I said about not coming there to help. I'm coming. Ross and the United Nations can kiss my ass and shove the Accords up their own."
"Tony—" he was about to try and stop him from getting involved even though he knew it was useless.
"I've got nothing to lose, Bruce. No Avengers. No Pepper. So screw it," the billionaire informed him, "I've got a plan if you're ready to listen."
Bruce knew better than to disagree, "I'm listening."
If there was one thing Bruce was now glad that Natasha had taught him, it was how to pick a pocket from even the most suspecting of victims. He'd never forget it, mostly because it was just supposed to be a joke so Natasha could play a prank on Clint.
Two and a half years ago...
"Come on, Bruce. Just imagine that smug face being turned upside down when Barton realizes you picked his pocket."
Bruce quirked an eyebrow up at her, "That seems like a really bad idea."
"Oh no, it's brilliant," Natasha insisted with an impish smile. "You're probably the last person he'd expect to even try and do something like this, hell, he'd probably suspect Cap before he suspected you."
Bruce wrinkled his brow as he stared at her. It was the most amused and playful he had ever seen the redhead and she seemed absolutely determined to do this. "I'm not entirely sure that's a compliment," he mumbled out with a sigh.
Natasha chuckled, "Of course it's a compliment, Doc. It means you're a nice guy." She sipped at an orange juice that he was positive was spiked with vodka before she spoke again, "Plus you've got that air about you where people overlook you. That's a good quality for spywork."
"I'm not a spy," he reminded her.
She shrugged, "Semantics. It could come in handy some day."
"Picking a pocket could come in handy?" he questioned as he snorted out a laugh.
She gave him one of her infamously coy looks beneath her eyelashes, "You'd be surprised the amount of illegal tricks and trades that could come in handy, even to the good guys."
Present day...
Needless to say, he'd never successfully pickpocketed Clint, although he had come damn close once. However he had gotten every other member of the team besides Natasha. He thought she was joking when she said it could come in handy one day but he was proven wrong in this very moment. He certainly never imagined that her teaching him how to pick a pocket would help him save her life.
Tony had located a scientist who worked in the Isla Verde facility that he bore a decent resemblance to and that left Bruce to get his ID badge, something that Tony seemed to find highly entertaining during their discussion of the plan. Fortunately it wasn't going to be a difficult task since the man he needed to steal the badge from was currently drunk in a bar. It took little to no effort for Bruce to walk past and swipe the badge from his jacket. He didn't even need to do some 'accidental bump and apology' as Natasha liked to call it.
Considering the scientist was working in a facility that was about to or had already been holding a world renowned spy and assassin captive, the man was rather lax about keeping his security badge close at hand. It was left clipped onto the white lab coat on the back of his chair and all Bruce had to do was walk past him and snatch it as he did so, even a child could have stolen the badge.
It was the waiting for Tony after he got the badge that was the hard part. He spent half the day worried about what they were doing to her this time, about whether or not she would even remember him when they got her out of there this time, or rather remember what little memory of him she now had of their few hours together. All he could think was that if he had just told Natasha about The Hulk, told her that she could hardly put an indestructible green monster in danger, then maybe she would have stayed rather than run away.
Or maybe he would have scared her away faster.
Twenty-four hours ago he'd been living normally, or somewhat normally anyways, and he hadn't imagined that he would get dragged back into the lives of his former friends. One happenstance encounter of seeing Natasha's face in a crowded marketplace had changed all of that and Bruce sighed as he dredged his way up the ramp into the quinjet Tony had flown over with. Now he had both Tony and Natasha back in his life instantaneously and it wasn't their presence he would complain about but rather the circumstances in which they found their way back in.
Tony was standing there when he got on board and Bruce stared at him for a moment in silence before he made the joke, "The Quinjet? The UN didn't take that when they made you guys sign your lives over to them?"
"I borrowed it."
"Stole. You stole it," Bruce corrected with a laugh.
"Appropriated."
"Hijacked."
"Reallocated," Tony insisted and Bruce gave up as he released a chuckle. "The last six months have sucked. Glad to see you again, man," the billionaire finally admitted and Bruce was more than a little surprised when the man gave him a one-armed hug.
"Me too," Bruce admitted with smile and shake of his head.
Tony released him just as quickly as he embraced him, heading back to the cockpit to take off again.
"Good to see you again, Doctor Banner."
One thing Bruce had forgotten about, Tony's AI. Bruce chuckled after he jumped a little in reaction the the voice, "You too, FRIDAY."
"I watched a few of those videos from that place on the way here," Tony mentioned, "they're trying to wipe out every last bit of the Natasha we know, leave her as a blank slate—"
"As nothing more than a weapon..." and Natasha's words echoed in his head, when she asked him if she was nothing more than a weapon.
"Exactly," Tony agreed. "I accessed a few of their files but if I kept digging they were going to notice eventually and I didn't want to give them a heads up. But if they succeed in making her a blank slate and then getting her into a state of mind where she follows their every order, then they plan to inject her with a new variation of Steve's serum."
"They want to turn her into an actual weapon..." Bruce mumbled out.
Tony nodded and hummed his agreement, "One that they can control, except I don't think it's going to work. I don't care how much they think they've wiped her memories, she's always going to have memories about what they're doing to her to wipe those memories out..."
Bruce mulled that around in his own head for a moment but he wasn't quite sure he understood.
"Everything about Steve when he got injected with that crap was heroic and self-sacrificing, that's how he turned into some buff do-gooder on steroids. But you? You tried to remake what was used on him, but what were you filled with, Bruce?" Tony questioned.
He sighed a little as he answered that, "Anger. I was always angry..."
"And so a Hulk was born."
Bruce rubbed at his face as he took the seat beside Tony. "If all she's ever known is pain and they inject her with that..." he mumbled out.
"I don't even want to imagine what sort of abomination they'll wind up turning her into," came Tony's response.
Neither did Bruce.
"Alright, it'll only take an hour to get us there," Tony informed him, "remember that once we do, you'll have to do everything from the security office. I'll stay hovering over in stealth mode, just remember to lock every door and only open the ones that lead her to where you are. If I need to take over remotely then the bells and whistles are gonna go off and you two are gonna get caught in there."
"I know," Bruce assured him, "I can handle it."
"Well you already picked a pocket so what's a little breaking and entering and breaking out to add to the list of felonies?" Tony joked.
Bruce rolled his eyes but he smiled at the quip nonetheless.
"The things you'll do for a hot redhead."
"Tony!"
"What?" the other man shrugged as he flew the jet, "been there, done that, and would honestly do it all over again. Redheads will get you every time, Brucie my boy."
He groaned but he couldn't deny that he missed the antics of his best friend even if they were highly distasteful. "You're an ass," he reminded his friend with a chuckle.
"You love me," Tony insisted.
"Somebody has to."
"Hah!" Tony huffed out the laugh in an instant, "you haven't lost your thunder with the Banner Banter. Thank God." The look on the billionaire's face told Bruce he was about to make another remark and he certainly wasn't wrong, "Is that even a relative term anymore after we've met Thor and Loki? Maybe we should just thank Thor."
Bruce snorted immediately, "You'll give that man a bigger head than he already has if you start doing that."
"Can't be bigger than mine, mine's rather inflated," Tony pointed out.
"True but the world can only handle one Tony Stark, it definitely doesn't need the Nordic version," Bruce stated with a snicker, "better stick with thanking the usual God."
Tony shrugged before he inclined his head, "Fair enough." Bruce should have known that wouldn't be the end of the conversation, though he also knew Tony was doing it so not to leave him with his own thoughts for the entire trip. "So tell me, how does your 'Science over God' thing work after you've physically pummeled two Gods yourself?" came the sudden question.
Bruce rolled his eyes, "I'm not getting into that."
"C'mon, it's a totally valid question."
"One that I'm not answering," Bruce insisted despite the fact he was laughing at Tony's seriousness over the topic.
"Seriously? You can't avoid this forever," Tony warned him, "I'll get an answer."
Bruce shook his head and smiled before he answers, "Fine. You want an answer? They're aliens, not Gods."
Tony was silent for a moment before he commented, "Huh...hadn't thought about it that way." And then it got more ridiculous, "Do you think the Other Guy can breathe in space?"
"You've got to be kidding me..." Bruce grumbled out and the irony was that the Other Guy was grumbling in the back of his head as well.
"A debate for another day," Tony decided. Thankfully it was quiet for a few moments for Bruce to gather his thoughts and the billionaire's next comment wasn't ridiculous like all his previous ones, "I've missed this."
Bruce couldn't disagree. Tony's antics were one of the few things he had missed over the last two years. The other things tended to involve Natasha who had forcibly entered the smaller moments of his life. Watching movies, reading together in silence, having tea, or in the weirder moments; her teaching him how to pick pockets. "Me too," he finally agreed.
"So uh—seeing Nat again, how was that?" Tony questioned next.
He sighed a little as he mulled that over but the truth was that he never had much of a chance to dredge up the old feelings when he'd been with Natasha. "I don't know," he admitted, "I didn't have a lot of time to think about it and then when I did I realized it didn't matter. She had no idea who I was, who she was." He stared down at the floor and shook his head slightly before he spoke again, "Suddenly being mad didn't really seem all that important in the bigger picture of things."
"Yeah, didn't seem all that important to me either when I saw her on that call," Tony agreed with a somber voice, "then it all disappeared after I watched that first video."
"You think this is what they were planning to do to all of you?" Bruce questioned, "they had Barton and some of the others locked up before Steve went and broke them out. This is what they wanted to do to all of you, isn't it?"
Tony didn't look thrilled by the thought of it but he didn't disagree either, "Probably..." The billionaire heaved out a sigh, "You know, I really thought it was the right thing to do. Pretty sure Nat did too at first which shocked the shit out of me when she agreed with me and not Captain Wonderpants." He shrugged a little. "Those two were besties, you know?" he crossed his two fingers over each other, "tight, like this."
"So they were...uh..." Bruce couldn't even quite finish that statement.
"What? No, no," Tony told him with a wave of his hand, "Bruce that woman is carrying a torch for you whether she'd admit it or not. She's probably the only woman on this planet who didn't look twice at a man who was scientifically sculpted to be perfect." Bruce eyed him with uncertainty and Tony smirked as he spoke again, "I guess green is her favorite color as opposed to red, white or blue. I mean he had three color choices and you still won that fight, good on you."
Bruce snorted and shook his head, "That's hilarious, Tony."
Tony shrugged yet again before he said the one thing that made the most sense in the world, "Bruce, that woman had no memory of anyone or anything except pain and torture yet somehow, somewhere deep down, she believed all you wanted to do was help her."
He gave a tiny and sad laugh at his friend's comment, "Apparently she didn't believe it enough."
"Or she believed it enough to not want the only good person she'd met to get hurt," Tony corrected, "what would you have done in her place?" Tony paused like he was in thought before he snapped his fingers like he had some sudden and magnificent epiphany, "Oh right, you did the exact same thing. She got hurt trying to do the lullaby and you took off so that it would never happen again."
Bruce opened his mouth to disagree but no words came out and he quickly smacked his lips shut again.
"You weren't mad at her, you were scared," Tony stated next. His friend inclined his head a little before speaking again, "Bad things are going to happen whether you're there or not, Bruce. Current situation being the case and point."
"It was less running away from a chance she'd get hurt during the lullaby and more because..." Bruce paused as he tried to think of the right words but Tony finished it for him.
"You were afraid of what she was making you feel."
Bruce certainly couldn't deny that and he didn't, "Yeah and I guess the two of those combined just sort of...exploded at the end there." And then a worse thought crossed his mind as he rubbed at his face in frustration, "And now—now she may not ever remember any of it anyways."
Tony narrowed his eyes, released a sigh, then spoke, "We'll figure out how to jog her memory after we get her the hell out of there. From what I saw in the videos and what she told you, Nat had her memories up until a few days ago and then—nothing. The only thing more dangerous than someone who's in pain and knows what's happening is someone who's in pain and is scared and confused."
"That's how she broke out..." Bruce mumbled.
"Yeah, suddenly Natasha became an unknown variable, because where the woman with her memories was clearly acting the way they expected her to act, the woman with no memories was going to act in ways they could never predict," Tony pointed out.
Bruce was almost grateful for the silence that ensued until Tony set the Quinjet down not far from the facility. The place was huge and Bruce knew this was going to be a hell of a lot more difficult than they had originally planned for.
"Here," came Tony's voice and Bruce watched his hand reach out, "ear piece. I'll stay in stealth mode until you get Natasha to you in the security office. After that I'll take over remotely to get you guys out the front door with no interruptions. That's the moment they'll know for sure they've got a security issue and that's only if they don't catch onto you earlier than that."
"I get it, I'll be careful," Bruce assured him.
"You better," Tony insisted, "if I have to go in for both of you then we're probably all going to wind up as science experiments for these assholes and I for one refuse to be saved by the perfect male specimen in red, white and blue tights."
Bruce snorted in an instant, "Fair enough." He put the ear piece into his ear before he stood up and clipped the badge to his shirt. "I'll call for you when it's time," he assured his friend as he lowered the ramp.
Tony was silent at first until Bruce was about to walk down the ramp, "Bruce?" When he looked back over at him Tony finally had on a more serious look, "Get her the hell out of there."
Thankfully it wasn't a very long walk from where Tony dropped him off to the facility. He kept his usual posture as he entered the building, the one where people didn't bother to pay him too much attention. The man at the desk took his badge, took a look at him, swiped it, then handed it back. Inside himself he was practically hyperventilating but he kept it together up until he heard the struggling. Sure enough he had to watch as two men held Natasha under her arms, who still had her hands cuffed behind her and her feet tied together, and they were forcibly dragging her down the hall with two more men behind them aiming guns at her.
There was a moment, just a small one, where Natasha struggled just a little less as she met his eyes and Bruce knew exactly what she was thinking; that he'd betrayed her, that he had never truly been helping her. There was nothing he could do about that yet and despite the thunderous noises the Other Guy was making in the back of his head, Bruce forced himself to mind his own business, to pretend like what he saw didn't bother him.
It was only a few seconds where she struggled less before she seemed to get more angry and struggle against the men who had a hold on her even more than she had been. Bruce flinched when she actually got an elbow into the nose of one because that crunch sounded absolutely painful. She managed to take down the guy holding her on the other side as well and Bruce realized her struggle and rage was because of him.
Natasha was pissed at him, she wanted to get to him and the horror that filled him in that moment was unlike any other. She wasn't going to trust him now, she thought he was the enemy. It also didn't change the fact that he was going to get her out of here. He grimaced when the other two men slammed her into the wall and her eyes were on Bruce himself again even if her captors didn't seem to notice. She seemed to notice something in his face, or in his eyes, because suddenly she looked at him and calmed slightly. The men holding her probably chalked it up to the fact they had a gun to her head but Bruce knew better. She was reading him and she had read the truth in him, that he was still helping her despite appearances. At least he hoped that was what she read from him, either that or she was trying to figure out how to get her hands on him to kill him. Regardless of that fact it was taking every fiber of his being not let the Other Guy out, Bruce kept pushing it all aside as he forced himself to look away and go into the security office.
The man inside was sipping coffee with his feet kicked up on the counter near the monitors and Bruce had to force a friendly tone to his voice, "She's scary, eh?"
"Friggin' terrifying, man...she's hot but terrifying as all hell," the guard responded with huff of a laugh. The man swiveled around in the chair and eyed him up but just like everyone else he saw nothing threatening, "Not s'pose to be in here, you know that."
"I'll clear out in a second...didn't want to be in the hall with them," Bruce assured him.
"Can't say I blame ya' there," the guard replied with a shrug, "I'll give ya' ten so they can clear her outta the halls, maybe twenty depending on how much fight she's got left in her today."
Bruce could barely manage an appreciative look but he thought he got it on his face, "Thanks, I really—I'm grateful."
He had to wait three minutes for the man to stop paying him any mind and the second that he did, Bruce slammed his head down on the counter twice and knocked him out cold. He was pretty sure the man was knocked out after the first blow but he did the second just for good measure. He had to ignore the fact he heard the Other Guy snickering in approval in his head.
Bruce locked the door to the security room and then looked to the monitors, following each one as Natasha was dragged into that very same room he had seen in the video Tony showed him. "Dammit..." he murmured out as he watched more men come into the room to lock her back down to that metal slate of a table.
It didn't hit him until just now, because Natasha had always been stronger than the average person, but it shouldn't take six men to hold down one woman who was that small. "Tony..." he finally stated.
"Yeah?"
"What if they've already done what they were trying to do to her?" he questioned his friend over the ear piece, "Six men can barely hold her down right now."
"I've seen her take down a dozen men by herself, you've seen it too. She can use her body to take two men to the ground at the same time and right now she's pissed. One angry Natasha can definitely fight six idiots off."
He supposed that was true enough. "She saw me," he told Tony, "and the way she reacted...I'm not sure she's going to trust that I'm still trying to help her now."
"She will."
Bruce really hoped he was right. He had to close his eyes as all those metal bars came from the sides of the table and arched over to lock her down onto it. She wasn't wrong, she was strapped to that table in nothing but a bra and a pathetically skimpy pair of shorts and he was praying they would leave her alone in that room soon.
He had to watch them reconnect those needles into her temples and then poke and prod at her various injuries as she struggled against the metal bars and cursed them in Russian. It was frustrating, enraging, and he was never more grateful then the moment where the men finally left the room.
The second that her room and the halls leading from her to him were clear, Bruce didn't hesitate to lock everything down. Now it was time to hope this would go over without any issues.
Natasha had been trying to decide if she still believed Bruce was the friend he made himself out to be after the men left the room. She barely had time to think it over when the bars holding her down released suddenly and without warning. She sat up in an instant and looked around the room but there was nobody in the viewing room watching, nobody looking through the door, nobody in the room with her.
If this was some sort of test then she couldn't decide what it was for. Less than a minute later the red light over the door turned green and she narrowed her eyes before turning towards one of the cameras in the corner of the room. Normally the red light on it was steady but now it was blinking in random intervals. She tilted her head to the side slightly before she understood, or at least hoped she understood.
Bruce.
She wasn't sure if she believed he was truly trying to break her out or if this was some sort of sick joke these people were playing on her but she supposed she didn't have a whole lot to lose. And if it was some sick joke then at least she wasn't locked down and she could snap the neck of whoever was dumb enough to try and get in her way.
Natasha ripped the needle probes out of her temples and tossed them aside before sliding off the table. Her leg was killing her, her abdomen was on fire and her hand felt like it just might have been broken all over again but she moved to the door nonetheless. She paused with her hand on the handle before she looked back at the camera again. Finally she pulled it open, half expecting someone to be there trying to shove her back in.
But nobody was there.
The hall was silent and she looked in every directed before she saw the red light over on door turn green. A quick look at every other room told her she didn't have much of a choice except to follow the trail of unlocked doors so she went towards that one. Again she paused at the door and looked up at the camera before she pushed it open and went through into the next hall.
Natasha quirked an eyebrow up with uncertainty when the door immediately to her left lit up green, red, then green again. She caught on that whoever was behind this, likely Bruce, was telling her to get behind that door immediately. She shoved it open and quickly shut it behind her.
Within a minute she heard two voices, the voices of two men who had just put her in that room and were likely going back there now. She saw the light above her room turn back to green and this time she knew for certain Bruce must've been behind this. That was the hint to take those two out before they realized she wasn't in her room and she didn't hesitate now.
She shoved the door open, swiped the leg out from under the man closest before she grabbed the arm of the second and launched him over her shoulder and onto his back. She chopped him in the throat with her hand and watch him struggle to breathe before she slammed his head into the floor and quickly sat down on the first man she knocked down. She locked her arm around his neck before he could get to his walkie talkie and gripped as tight as she could, letting all the pain he put her through seep into the choke hold.
He stopped struggling a minute later and she glanced at the camera and nodded her head to the door. Sure enough it lit green again and she rolled both men into the room before closing the door on their unconscious bodies. This time a light lit on a door all the way down the hall and she went to it immediately.
Natasha slipped in and out of different doors and a few more hallways before a door opened and Bruce was standing behind it.
He spoke before she even had a chance to, "Natasha...I know what you thought when you saw me before." She stayed silent despite the desperate look on his face because even though she believed he meant well it didn't stop her from taking a step back when he stepped forward. "I know you believe me, if you didn't you wouldn't be backing away...you would have attacked me the second that door opened."
"You broke in here for me?" she finally questioned, "do you have any idea what they'll do to you when they catch us?"
"I'm not worried about that," he insisted, "and we have to go—we have to go right now..."
Natasha shook her head, "They'll kill you, Bruce...or they'll do to you everything that they've done to me."
She watched as he held his hand to his ear and frowned before he looked over at the monitors. "Yeah, Tony, I heard you," he grumbled out to nobody. She didn't move away this time when he stepped directly in front of her and she looked right into his eyes when he gripped her face on either side with his hands. "They can't hurt me," came his reassuring voice, "and I would never let them keep hurting you even if they could hurt me." She opened her mouth to speak but he was already talking again before she could, "Tony's about to take over remotely to give us a clear path out, normally that would alert them that you're out but they've already figured that out."
"I don't understand why you're doing all this," Natasha admitted.
"Natasha, it doesn't matter why," he insisted, "we have to get the hell out of here right now."
Something in his voice finally broke her walls down and she nodded her head, letting him lead the way out. She still didn't trust him, not completely, but at the moment he was the only person she had met who didn't seem to want to hurt her and that had to count for something. They made it all the way to the front door of the place when Bruce came to a sudden stop with his hand on the door.
"What?" he grumbled out. The look on his face as he looked at the double doors that led to their escape and then the equally frustrated face he had on as he looked behind them in the direction they came from. "Dammit..." he growled.
"What is it?" she dared to ask.
"According to Tony, there's a good two dozen men outside that door waiting for us," Bruce informed her and she snickered because she couldn't believe she'd let him get her hopes up. "This isn't over," he told her the instant he heard her huff that laugh out.
She shook her head before she shrugged, "It really doesn't matter. I don't know why I thought I could trust you..."
Bruce pulled a face that told her whatever idea he had now, he wasn't a fan of, and she narrowed her eyes when he gripped her arms in his hands. "Natasha, you didn't trust me and we both know that but I'm asking you to right now," he told her, "I can get you out of here but we've only got about ten minutes before they break through those doors behind us too..."
She wasn't sure she believed him this time but she asked the question anyways, "How?"
"I need you to trust me when I say I won't hurt you," Bruce told her quickly. He pulled the ear bud out of his ear and handed it to her, encasing her fingertips over it before he spoke again, "Tony can talk to you through that but when I open these doors you need to stay behind me, you understand?"
"No I—what are you talking about, opening the doors, are you insane? They'll shoot you the second that you walk out," she insisted and she knew her expression was far more confused than she liked.
Bruce chuckled in an instant, "I'm counting on it."
"You want them to shoot you? Bruce, I'm not so sure that I'm worth dying over," she told him with an exasperated breath.
"I'm sure," Bruce told her without hesitation. Both her eyebrows quirked up in an instant and he just smiled, "I won't get hurt, I'm sort of...bulletproof."
"Bulletproof?" she questioned, "what does that mean?"
"I really wish I had time to explain this to you. Just put that in your ear, Tony will talk you through this while I deal with—well...everyone out there," Bruce told her. She opened her mouth to object because even she couldn't take out two dozen men at once and given the distaste she had seen on his face when he shot one man, she didn't exactly have faith in his abilities here and now. Regardless, she put the ear bud into her ear anyways when Bruce gave her one arm a gentle squeeze, "Nat, remember to stay behind me...and remember that I won't hurt you." He unbuttoned his shirt and removed it, putting it over her bare shoulders as he shrugged, "I'm not going to need that."
She watched as he turned and shoved the doors open and she didn't take her eyes off of him as he stepped through them. Sure enough there were two dozen men out there, maybe more, but Bruce kept walking forward anyways. The man was absolutely insane and she was about to try and get in front of him, hoping that maybe they wanted her alive as much as they seemed to before he ended up dying for her. Before she had a chance she froze, seeing the skin of his arms getting green—growing.
"Don't freak out."
Tony's voice came through the ear bud and she let out a breath she hadn't been aware she had been holding when all of Bruce started to turn green and get larger. The muscles of his back bulging inhumanly.
"Bruce sort of has another half inside of him, what you're about to see, we call The Hulk. Well, most people do. You've always just called him the Big Guy."
The gunfire started the second Bruce was a foot taller than he had been before and she hadn't even realized that she had been backing away until her back hit the doors that had closed behind them. Suddenly he had to be almost eight feet tall and she stared in shock as he turned to look right at her. His enlarged green face looked enraged and she could hear the frustrated breath he took before he turned back to the men shooting.
Seconds later he bowled towards them and she watched with wide eyes as men were sent careening left and right while Bruce, or whatever Bruce was now, swatted them away like they were nothing but flies. The bullets hitting him only seemed to make him angrier and she stared as he held one man by the leg and repeatedly slammed him into the ground.
When a jeep pulled up with more men with guns, that didn't stand much of a chance either. The Hulk took the body of the man he'd been using as a play toy and launched him hard enough that his already dead body went under the wheels of the jeep, the jeep flipped over and trapped all the men beneath it as The Hulk jumped a top it like it were a trampoline.
"He uh—he has a few anger management problems," Tony informed her, "but he wasn't lying, Nat. He won't hurt you."
Her eyes were focused, honed in on Bruce's angry transformed self as he gave up crushing the jeep beneath him. He was stomping his way towards her and she pressed herself harder against the door. Then he was running at her and on impulse she crouched down, covering her face as though that might protect her if he impaled her through the doors.
She only opened her eyes when she heard him connect with something, and then she realized it was actually someone. She turned her head and watched a man fly off to the side where The Hulk had smacked him to, a man who had apparently been coming up on her while she'd been too focused on watching The Hulk. This time he did reach towards her and she must have flinched because he pulled his hand back as though she had wounded him.
Natasha stared as he actually looked hurt by her reaction to him and then she stared in shock when she saw dirt and dust kick up behind him. He turned in curiosity but he didn't seem worried by whatever it was.
Suddenly the odd jet became visible and she watched as the rear hangar door opened. "Only me," Tony called out, though she supposed it was more for her benefit than the Hulk's because he didn't look ready to pounce like he had been with the soldiers before. "Well don't just sit there, get the hell in here before those idiots inside that building manage to override the rather fantastic hack I did on all their doors!" he yelled out next.
She went to get up when the sharp pain overrode all the adrenaline. She must have made a noise because The Hulk looked back over at her with some sort of mixed angry and worried face. She moved her hand to her side and felt the sticky warmth in an instant. When she looked down she saw what she already knew was there; blood and yet another bullet wound, though it was just a graze, nothing too bad. She heard Tony's vulgar commentary both out loud and in her ear when he noticed her wound as well. She supposed she must have taken a stray bullet at some point and just not noticed through all the adrenaline and shock of the moment.
Now it hurt.
Natasha watched as The Hulk stared at her bloodied hand with distaste as he reached towards her again. He almost daintily nudged her hand aside to look at it before he breathed heavily through his nose.
"C'mon Big Guy, get her in here so we can get the hell out of here!" Tony called out.
She didn't back away this time as he reached for her and she was surprised at just how gentle he actually was when he lifted her up and carried her into the hangar bay where Tony was waiting.
"Good thing I brought a Hulk-sized hatchback," Tony mumbled out.
She watched Tony close the hangar and then the Hulk set her down inside against the wall. He nudged her hand with his own twice but she couldn't for the life of her figure out what it was he wanted from her. "I don't—I don't understand what you want," she admitted to him. He huffed out a frustrated breath before he moved to the opposite wall and sat down. Something told her he was just a little miffed with her over it.
"Hey, Big Guy...don't hold it against her," Tony warned The Hulk and she felt the jet taking off, "she doesn't remember. It's not her fault."
The Hulk folded his arms with almost the same petulance of a child pouting and she stayed quiet on the opposite side of the jet, looking anywhere else but at him. She knew she must have offended him or upset him by not remembering, by not understanding what he wanted her to do.
The silence on the jet ensued for a good twenty minutes before Tony crouched down next to her, "Hey...I know that gunshot isn't even really bleeding now but I wanna clean off those weird little marks on your face."
He pointed at her temples and she shook her head, "No."
"Natasha..."
"No, I don't know you, I don't trust you," she insisted.
Tony was frowning, "Bruce trusts me..."
"I don't trust him either," she informed him as she shot him a dirty look. She heard The Hulk grunt in disapproval and she glanced over warily, "Why is he still...green?"
Tony stepped away from her and she was appreciative of that at least, "He's waiting for you."
"Waiting for me for what?" she dared to ask.
"Used to be your thing," Tony explained, "you were the only one who could change him back no matter what the situation was. I mean he'll change back himself eventually when he runs out of juice so...don't worry about it." She watched Tony head back over to the cockpit and he stopped by the Hulk and shrugged, "Sorry, buddy."
The Hulk just let out a frustrated snort.
He didn't change back for the entire four hour flight to wherever Tony had taken them and the silence that ensued during it had been uncomfortable and almost unbearable. She was staring at the ground in thought for so long that she almost jumped when she looked up and saw a giant green palm in front of her. The Hulk was sitting in front of her now and she was actually impressed by how silently he had managed to make that move from one side of the jet to the other.
"I still don't know what you want..." she told him again.
He looked a little more understanding this time and then he nudged her hand with his own before he held his hand palm out to her again.
"I'm sorry..." she murmured out in confusion.
He huffed out an annoyed breath before he nudged her hand again, then pressed both his hands together, then finally held his hand out to her again. This time she understood what he was trying to get her to do and she slowly raised her hand towards his. The flashes of imagery went through her mind the moment her fingertips touched his hand. Images of her holding her hand out to him, of him look at her as warily as she was looking at him now.
He moved his hand before she could press her palm to his completely and she stared at him in confusion when he instead flipped his hand palm up to her.
"I don't—now you're just confusing me again..." she told him with a frown.
He put his other hand palm up over the first before he removed it and nodded to her. She blinked a few times before she did the same thing he had just done, placed her hand palm up in his hand. This time the image that flitted through her mind was of him flopping his hand over onto hers. She looked up at him in awe as he pressed the index finger of his other hand at the top of her arm, slowly moving it downward.
She released the tiniest of breaths as she saw an image of her own fingertips running down his arm.
Finally both his hands encased her hand and images, or rather memories, flooded her head almost painfully. She sucked in a breath and squeezed her eyes closed as memories of Clint returned, of his family, of the Avengers...of—she opened her eyes wide in an instant and stared at the worried green face before her. He was sitting and it made it a hell of a lot easier for her to do what she wanted.
Natasha wrapped her arms around his neck, pressed her cheek against his and hugged him for the first time. "Thank you, Big Guy..." she murmured out. Those enlarged arms encircled her in return and she was never more glad to see him in her life. Slowly she felt him shrinking against her and when she opened her eyes, her arms were wrapped around Bruce rather than the Big Guy. He was breathing heavily and Natasha held onto him for several more minutes until he finally seemed to be breathing normally again.
She could have counted on the fingers of one hand the amount of people that could have broken into that facility and broken her out. Bruce and Tony didn't even rank anywhere near the top of the list of people she thought could have done it, and though she was eternally grateful, she was actually more impressed by what they accomplished. In fact it had barely even been Tony's doing and she would have believed he could do it before he ever believed that Bruce could. Bruce. Soft-spoken, self-loathing Bruce Banner had saved her from becoming a mindless slave of a weapon again when he had every right to hate her down to his very core. Although she certainly would now that he had done so for her, she wasn't sure at all if she would have done the same for him if he had broken her trust the way she had with his.
"Bruce..." she murmured out, pulling out of the embrace just slightly. When she did so he looked up at precisely the same second and suddenly they were so close, their faces accidentally, inadvertently and unexpectedly so close that their lips practically touched.
Bruce froze and she did, too. There was a hair's breadth of distance between them, a sliver of a gap. Barely anything. Nothing. Despite the shock of it, he didn't move away and neither did she. She couldn't breathe in that moment, the air locked into her chest and she couldn't think above the sudden racing of his heart, the heart that her hand was currently resting atop of. A flush of heat was rolling over her in a pleasant, exciting, enthralling wave and she could see more of him that she had never noticed before now. How the lines of his face that normally showed his age weren't there as they looked into one anothers' eyes, how despite the fact that he should hate her, he could look at her now with such adoration and caring. How depthless his eyes were, not just a simple brown but rather many shades of brown, an almost endless sea of warmth.
The end of her nose was nearly against his. The skin of his face was covered with untrimmed facial hair, a slightly growing beard that was raggedy and that her other hand was currently resting on. She had to admit, she actually found his haggard appearance more attractive than the clean cut version she had first met years ago.
Her lips inched ever closer to his. She was going to kiss him. Hell, she wanted to kiss him more than anything. Her eyes flooded with desire and she could see the same in his in that very moment. She was certain that she was going to do it. Except she didn't want to kiss him. She wanted him to kiss her this time and instead the moment lingered. She could feel the warm pulse of his shallow breaths on her lips, the fire in his eyes a tangible, powerful thing as they searched hers. There was something else in them now, though. Fear. Doubt. Vulnerability. She hesitated and uncertainty devoured her desire.
She didn't kiss him. She jerked away at the last second and that tentative moment ended harshly. She looked away, refusing to let him know that the fear and doubt in his eyes hurt her more than anything that the Germans could have done to her. The heat vanished instantaneously and she moved her back against the wall again, letting the coolness seep into the space that was now between them.
"Natasha..." he whispered her name this time but she didn't dare look at that fear and doubt, not again, not until his hand came to rest beneath her chin to gently angle her face back into looking at him. Both of those emotions were gone now and in their place was worry, worry for her if she had to hazard a guess, especially when the fingertips of his other hand brushed over the blood encrusted indentation over her left temple. "You remember, don't you?" he finally dared to ask her.
"Yeah," she admitted with the smallest nod.
The smallest sigh of relief left Bruce's lips and he rested his forehead against her own. "I don't hate you, Nat..." came the reassurance he had given her before when she'd had no memories, "I could never hate you."
Natasha huffed out a laugh that dripped with sadness and self-loathing. "I know. That's because unlike me, you're actually a good person. I would hate me," she informed him as she closed her eyes, "I do hate me."
The warmth of Bruce's mouth met hers when his lips slanted over her own. It was an instant balm to her aching soul and her own lips moved against his without hesitation. It was small, simple, and chaste. It was so unlike the urgency she had kissed him with in Sokovia, an urgency she had felt because she knew she was betraying the trust he had so mistakenly put in her, urgency because she thought she wouldn't have another opportunity to ever do it again.
"What was that for?" she finally dared to ask when their lips parted.
Bruce's chuckle was even more of a relief. "It was about two years overdue..." he explained afterwards and she couldn't help the way the corners of her lips lifted.
"Bruce...how the hell did you get in that place?" she questioned after a few seconds of silence between them.
He looked a little sheepish now as he smiled at her, "I picked a scientist's pocket and took his ID badge."
Natasha snorted out a laugh before she could contain herself. "You actually did that?" she asked in disbelief, "for me?"
"I'd do a lot of things for you," came an unexpected admittance from him. It stunned her and she gripped his face between both her hands and pressed her lips to his again just on principle alone.
A throat cleared and Natasha, along with Bruce, glanced over at Tony in response. "If you two are done nauseating me, the safe house for you both is waiting outside," he informed them.
"For us both?" she dared to ask.
"Come on," Bruce told her, standing up and reaching a hand out.
She took his hand and pushed herself up while he pulled her up. She followed behind Bruce before she stopped to look at Tony.
"When did you realize what they wanted the Accords for, Nat?" Tony asked her when she stopped to look at him.
She heaved out a sad little chuckle, "Not until it was almost too late, not until the airport." She gave the barest shrug, "Even then I wasn't sure but I was more sure of that than I was of us fighting each other to the death. I wasn't going to say anything until I knew for certain...and even if I had tried to tell you guys, I'm not sure anyone was really going to listen under the circumstances."
"And when you knew for sure they took you before you could warn any of us," Tony finished.
Natasha gave the smallest of nods, "Yeah."
"Sorry for being an ass," he offered up with a smirk.
She snickered a little at the apology. "I should have just told you back in New York before I left," she admitted her own fault in that matter. She gave the tiniest sigh before she realized something, "You're not staying?"
"With the two of you? In a safe house?" Tony questioned, "No. Hell no to be precise. The two of you have these pent up little feelings slowly worming their way out. I'm not living with that."
Bruce was chuckling and Natasha could resist the smile.
"I'll come visit when I'm in the mood for being nauseated with cuteness."
She shook her head with amusement before she leaned forward and pressed her lips to Tony's cheek, "Thanks for the rescue."
The billionaire narrowed his eyes as he made his quip, "Yeah, yeah. Get out of here, unlike Bruce there are some things I won't do for you."
Natasha smirked as Bruce gave his friend a hug before she followed the scientist out of the Quinjet. There was a tiny little villa awaiting them, the brightest green grass surrounding it in every direction with nothing else around for miles. She dared to look back at Tony at the top of the ramp, "Where the hell are we?"
"Hey, the way I see it if you can't figure it out? Neither can they!"
She chuckled as the ramp went up and she glanced back at Bruce, "You know I'm not asking you to stay with me, right? You could go with Tony, or I can go somewhere else—"
"You'll never have to ask me to stay," Bruce insisted with a small smile, "you offered to run with me two years ago. Maybe this is where we were running to..."
Natasha gave him a genuine smile this time, "Maybe it was."
There we go. Super long chapter to end the story. Honestly should have split it in half or something, haha. Oh well...too late. :) Hope you enjoyed the story!