Chapter 3

And wait she did. Alice had been watching Dr. Bruce Banner come and go for over two weeks now and frankly, it was about as dangerous as watching paint dry. Nothing had happened that first night. After a few hours of writing in some kind of journal, Dr. Banner had gotten up, stretched, dug into a bag for what looked like some sort of energy bar, eaten it, and then blown out the candle and gone to bed. Alice had waited in that tree for over an hour, but that was it. Nothing happened. Finally she'd climbed down and made her way home. She had been able to fall into bed and catch a few hours of sleep before her shift at the store the next morning. She drank a lot of coffee that day.

But she had gone back the next night. And the next. After a week, it was habit. Even when she worked nights at the shop she was able to climb into that tree before the doctor was even done writing in his journal. His routine was as regular as clockwork. Come home, write in journal, dinner, go to bed. The only thing that changed was what he ate, and that barely. Sometimes it was kebobs from a street vendor, sometimes energy bars. Once, he'd come home with a styrofoam box of some sort of rice dish, so spicy Alice's eyes had watered even up in the tree. He had eaten it without so much as a flinch and she felt a great deal of respect for him that night.

But nothing dangerous ever happened. By the two week mark, Alice was starting to wonder if she'd made it all up in her head. Was she missing something? Was it something he was doing at the docks? Despite the shady business dealings she was sure held sway at his place of employment, Alice didn't really think it was dangerous. Besides, he hadn't said his job was dangerous. He'd said he was dangerous. She'd seen it in his eyes, and despite her doubts, deep in her heart she knew what she'd seen.

She was a few days into her third week as "stalker extraordinaire" when something finally changed. At first it was just a little something. She was running late. She'd worked a morning shift at the shop, but it had been a very busy day and Halim had asked her to restock the shelves before she left. It had taken the better part of an hour over her scheduled time to finish up between customers. She wasn't really worried about it. After all, Bruce ran like clockwork. He would be sitting on his stool, writing in his journal when she got there, whether she was late or not. She'd even taken the time to change clothes before she'd hurried out to the slums. The sun had set and it was dark, but she wove her way in and out of the buildings expertly.

She reached the end of the familiar street and stopped. The house was dark. No candlelight flickered through the door and windows. She glanced at her watch. It was later than she'd thought, but not late enough that Bruce would have gone to bed. She looked around her, puzzled and a little apprehensive. Where was he?

She swung up into her tree, looking around again to make sure no one saw her. If Bruce was running late (which seemed impossible), he might be coming up behind her. She had to be extra careful. She settled into the branches and looked inside the house. It was empty. Nothing looked disturbed, everything was as it should be. Except that Bruce was not there.

Alice eased back against the tree trunk and considered her options. She could leave now and try to find him, but she had no idea where to even begin. Maybe the docks? But by the time she got there he could have already made it back. And she didn't know where else he would go. She just didn't have enough information. She decided to wait. If she waited, eventually he would show up again. If he didn't… Well, she would handle that if it came to it.

She settled back, confident in her decision. After all, she had been waiting for more than two weeks. Surely she could wait just a while longer. She glanced at her watch again. The air was hot around her, like a green-scented blanket. Just a little while longer…

She was jerked out of a half doze by the sound of scuffling shoes. A shape emerged out of the shadows, the shape of man stumbling down the road. Alice sat up in the tree, fully alert now. The moon was full tonight and she could see clearly in its light that the man was Dr. Banner. She could also see that he was drunk off his ass. He stumbled against his open doorway, then lifted a paper bag to his lips and took three good swallows. He pushed himself off the frame and stumbled into the room, fumbling for the stool. He managed to pull it under himself and sit, but he wobbled for a while before he found his balance.

Alice was still sitting straight up, watching all of this with interest. After all, this was his first break from routine, it was definitely something to sit up and take note of. She had been beginning to think that the man might be a robot.

He fumbled around in the dark for a minute, but it was hard for Alice to figure out what he was fumbling for. There were patches of moonlight pouring through the door and windows of the house, but not enough for Alice to see clearly by. Whatever it was, apparently Bruce wasn't able to find it, because he stumbled to his feet, looked at the bottle in his hand, and then threw it against the far wall. It shattered with a loud crash that made Alice flinch. The force of the throw made Bruce stumble backward and sit hard on his mattress. He put his face in his hands, and then Alice heard the sobbing.

Her blood felt frozen in her veins. He was crying, huge gasping sobs that racked his whole body. She could see it from here, even in the bad lighting. What could make this man, quiet and gentle, with his routines and his journal, in the middle of nowhere, what could make him sob like that? What could have made him so broken? Her fingers gripped the branch of the tree so hard that her knuckles were white. She didn't know what to do. This wasn't interesting anymore. It was wrong. She shouldn't be watching this, shouldn't be invading on this. She prepared to slip quietly from her perch in the tree and to never come back here.

Then Bruce lifted his face, reached under the mattress, and pulled out a gun.

For a single instant, Alice froze in the branches, a knot of horror twisting her insides. Then she was out of the tree and running into the house.

"Bruce, don't!" she cried, skidding to a halt just inside the door.

He looked up in surprise, and then she saw a sort of resigned recognition.

"Oh," he said, his soft voice slurred, "It's you."

Alice didn't say anything. She couldn't take her eyes off the gun in his hand. She wasn't sure if she could keep her voice as steady as it needed to be. She could feel herself trembling and she clenched her hands into fists to keep it from showing.

Bruce looked down at the gun, turning it over in his hands absently.

"I figured you'd be long gone by now," he said, sounding confused and only slightly annoyed, "Thought you'd have given up and skipped along home." He glanced up and gave her a lopsided grin, "I imagine that tree isn't very comfortable."

Alice felt a jolt of panic. He knew. Most likely he'd known all along. But he wasn't angry. She took a deep breath to steady herself.

"No, it's not."

She kept her voice neutral and her eyes on the gun. She wanted to keep him calm. She wanted to keep herself calm. Bruce chuckled as he rubbed the butt of the gun between his hands.

"What are you even doing here?" he asked.

Alice didn't have a good answer for that, so she settled for honest.

"You said you were dangerous."

Bruce tilted his head to the side and looked like he might flop over, but he steadied himself.

"I told you I was dangerous, so… you followed me to my house?"

She could tell that his drunken mind was trying to make sense of that and it wasn't working. She didn't bother trying to explain.

"Bruce…" she said softly, gently, "What are you doing?"

He grinned and waved the gun in front of him.

"What's it look like, I'm doing?" he asked, in a good-natured tone that made Alice wince, "I'm gonna take care of the problem that is my existence. I was hoping to do it privately, but clearly," He waved the gun in her direction, "The powers that be did not care to grant me that."

"How is your existence a problem?" Alice asked, "All you do is work, eat, sleep, and write in your journal over there."

She jerked her thumb over to the small table in the corner. Bruce's eyes followed her thumb, then came back to rest on her.

"Seems to me you aren't much of a problem to anyone," she said.

"I'm not much of anything to anyone," Bruce murmured, his eyes back on the gun.

"I think Mika would disagree."

Bruce's eyes jerked back up to her. Alice's voice was a bit harsher than she'd intended, but she kept going

"Her folks too. You saved their daughter, the only thing they care about in the world."

She could seem him wavering, his drunkenness clouding his mind. The gun lowered to rest on his bent knees. But then he closed his eyes and shook his head vehemently, pressing his free hand to his temple.

"No, no you don't understand, you don't get it, I'm a monster!"

"You're a doctor!" Alice shouted, "Monsters don't save little girls, they destroy them!"

Her voice trembled at the truth of her own words and Bruce looked up at her, his eyes shining with tears. Alice allowed herself a single second to close her eyes and take a breath, to control herself again. When she opened them, Bruce was staring at his gun again. His finger was on the trigger now. Alice fought to remain calm, but the twisting in her gut made her feel faint. She could hear screaming in her head, the screams of her mother, cut short. She tried to push it away. She had to deal with this right now, in front of her.

"You don't understand," Bruce whispered, almost to himself.

Then he looked up and his face was calm. Alice felt her stomach lurch.

"Don't tell Mika."

Then he put the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

His entire body exploded. The force of it threw Alice back into the wall knocking the breath out of her. She landed in the remains of the bottle Bruce had brought home, the glass biting into her hands and arms as she pushed herself up and against the wall. A deep, angry roar filled the house and shook her down to her bones. Alice stared.

A huge man-like creature, at least three times the size of a human being, stood where Bruce had been. It's muscles rippled under deep green skin as it paced back and forth, grunting and twitching. She followed it with her eyes, but didn't dare move, hardly dared to breathe. The creature grunted and tossed its head a few times. Then it reared back and spit at the wall above her head. She heard a crack and looked up. There was a hole in the wall just a few feet above her, with cracks radiating from it.

The creature threw back its head and roared with every fiber of its being, muscles strained, great green fists clenched at its sides. It swung around and tossed the bed, flipping it end over end to smash against the wall. The table followed in the wake of the creature's rage. Wood splinters flew and Alice threw her arm over her head to protect her face. She heard the stool follow the table, and another roar split the air, loud enough to make Alice wonder if her hearing would be permanently impaired.

She raised her head again and stared at the creature. It was snorting and pacing like a caged animal. One of its huge fists pounded into the wall, leaving a large crumbling hole. The whole house shook. Alice looked up as dust floated down around her from the unsteady roofing.

So, she thought, this is how it ends. It's finally going to end.

She sighed and relaxed, closing her eyes as the creature roared again. She waited.

But nothing happened. There were no more roars, no more stomping. The house was eerily quiet. Slowly, Alice opened her eyes.

The creature was gone. Alice looked around in a panic. There was no way it could have fit through the doorway without causing some kind of damage. It was like it had simply vanished. Alice carefully rolled into a crouch on the balls of her feet, still looking for the green creature. But instead there was a man lying face down on the floor, ordinary-looking except for being entirely naked. The curly brown hair confirmed her suspicions. It was Bruce.

Alice felt her heart skip and she stumbled over to him, putting her fingers to his neck. His pulse was strong and rapid, and his breathing was normal. He was just unconscious. She sat back and saw a smear of bright red on Bruce's neck. Her pulse fluttered again until she looked down at her hands. There were deep bloody cuts on both of her palms. It was her blood on Bruce's neck, not his.

Once her initial panic had subsided, Alice sat back and considered what had just happened. Bruce looked no worse for wear, despite the fact that the last time she'd seen him, he'd had a gun in his mouth and finger on the trigger. There was no sign of a bullet wound. He looked perfectly fine. And when he had pulled that trigger… that explosion… and that thing

"You don't understand… I'm a monster!"

Bruce's words resonated in her mind. Monster… She looked down at the doctor, now perfectly normal, and she remembered that hint of something in his eyes that she'd seen at the docks, that power that had glimmered just under the surface of him. And she finally understood what he meant. She smiled and shook her head.

"Well, you weren't kidding, Doc," she said, "You are definitely dangerous."

Her hands were stinging and burning like hell. She looked down at the rest of her. Her jean shorts were covered in big splotches of blood. Shrugging, she wiped her hands on what was left of them and looked around for something she could use for bandages. She saw a duffle bag in the corner that looked like it had remained untouched. With only a little bit of self-consciousness, she dug around in the bag and came up with a clean black T-shirt with several holes in it. She used the holes to rip the thing into strips. She cleaned the bits of glass out of the cuts as best she could, spread on some antibiotic ointment she found in one of the bag pockets, then wrapped her hands tightly in her make-shift bandages. It wasn't a pretty job, but it would do for now.

She then turned to the naked Bruce still laying unconscious in the dirt. Dangerous or not, 'monster' or not, she couldn't very well leave him like this. She looked around and saw the tossed mattress in the far corner of the room. She picked her way over and righted it, dragging it to the middle of the floor where Bruce lay. She picked up the thin green blanket and gave it a shake to get most of the dirt out. Then she laid it over Bruce's still form and carefully turned him over and up onto the mattress.

As she tucked the blanket in around him, he moaned softly. Alice paused and sat back, cautious. Slowly, Bruce opened his eyes and squinted as if into a bright light. He caught sight of her, then turned away, his hand over his eyes.

"Ungh… What happened?" he rasped.

Alice hesitated.

"You passed out," she said finally, "I was just getting you settled in."

Bruce looked up and stared at her for a moment. Alice knew that he could see the truth in her eyes. It wasn't really something she could hide.

"Did I hurt anyone?" he asked, his voice level and cold.

Alice was grateful that her hands were on the floor and out of sight.

"No," she said, "No one was hurt."

He let out a sigh and closed his eyes, his head falling to the side as he slipped back into unconsciousness. Alice settled into a comfortable sitting position next to him. She just wanted to keep an eye on him, just for a little while, just to make sure…