Author's Note: Sorry another short chapter.
Their next video chat, Tony was able to attend. Tony was in the Green Room with Bruce. No yoga mat on the floor this time. "Sorry, about the last appointment," said Tony, looking into the camera. "I had fires to put out at our California office. Pepper says I should go back to drinking. She says I'm moody."
"I'm sure she's teasing," said Susanne.
"I don't know," Tony looked like his was lost in thought for a split second. "I don't think she likes me sober."
"Why do you say that?"
"She's the friend that drank around me when I ran off to another AA meeting."
Susanne said, "You told me she went to Al-Anon. She can't have it both ways."
"Did I tell you I trashed my bar? The pieces were so small that the cleaning crew could have used a Dirt Devil to pick them up."
"A Dyson?" asked Susanne.
"No, one of those mini vacuums you stick onto the wall," said Tony. "What are you? Thor? The joke isn't funny if I have to explain it. We need a new therapist. One that gets my humor."
Susanne smiled. "Now that's funny. You called 4 people before me and I hung up on you."
Bruce said, "She took me out to lunch. We're keeping her."
"It wasn't anything," said Susanne. "You paid for your own lunch."
"You saw I was upset and you went out of your way to cheer me up," said Bruce. "I hope you didn't cancel any appointments because of me."
"A few," said Susanne. "I didn't realize we would be spending over two hours at the deli. Do you always eat so much?"
"My metabolism is fucked up to put it mildly," said Bruce. "You don't see it when you look at me, but my mitochondria say I'm the Hulk 24/7. I've teased the Avengers about not being easy to kill. I would probably starve to death real fast, but I wouldn't suggest it. No one wants to see a hungry Hulk."
"And you got enough calories in India?" asked Susanne.
"The Indians use ghee on everything," said Bruce. "And you can always dip your bread into ghee for more calories. Back to our lunch date, she took me to Katz's Deli like in When Harry met Sally and I'm finishing her sandwich and she starts moaning and losing control of her body and I laugh so hard I fall out of my seat."
"He's needs to lighten up more," said Susanne. She had done a very bad Meg Ryan impersonation. Then it was a while since she saw the movie and sometimes doing a bad impersonation is better than doing a good one. However, Susanne did look like she was having an orgasm while watching Bruce eat.
"What if I broke my ass from the fall?" said Bruce. "I could have killed people."
Susanne said, "You didn't."
"Dr. Rosen, you're a dangerous women, making Dr. Banner fall on his ass in a crowded restaurant," Tony deadpanned.
"He needed a laugh," Susanne huffed.
Tony slapped Bruce on the back. "See. She doesn't get my humor."
"Well, after he got back in his seat, someone asked him if he wanted their half-eaten sandwich," said Susanne. "And Bruce says 'sure.' And the other person says 'What if I have AIDS?' Bruce says, 'I can't get AIDS.' Then less than a second later like he's correcting himself, he says, 'If you said you might have hepatitis then I might be worried. You can't get AIDS for eating a sandwich.' Then I started laughing."
Tony smiled. "Sounds like you had a great time."
Bruce said, "I can't believe people still think you can get AIDS from sharing food."
"And the Hulk is going to do public service announcements?" said Tony.
"No, but you can," said Bruce. "You're the one who had a press conference to tell people you're a superhero."
"Maybe, I will," said Tony. "It would get Pepper off my back."
"Bruce promised I could see the other guy once you were able to talk him down," said Susanne, over the computer link safe in her office. "Whenever you're game."
Bruce said, "I'm real tired after afterward, so I won't be up for talking. Good night, Susanne."
Tony backed away from Bruce. "Whatever you're ready."
Susanne adjusted her camera to get a good view of the transformation. Like the other times that Bruce was in the Green Room, he had on a tee shirt, pajama pants and no footwear. His eyes got green before anything else happened. Then it was faster than she expected. His body grew big and his face grew and morphed. His shirt stretched to its limit before ripping and falling off completely. The pajama bottoms ripped but stayed on. He was roaring, stamping the floor and looking around. Hard enough to put holes in a floor that wasn't reinforced.
He saw the monitor. "Susanne," said the Hulk's deep voice then a fist when through the screen. Broken glass rained down. The camera still held. She could see him but he now couldn't see her. He tossed one of the pillows in the room. He ripped another to pieces. Nice soft furniture that hopeful wouldn't hurt Tony must have been the reason for the oversized pillows.
Seeing that monster rip and roar, Susanne cringed. That wasn't just any monster - it was Bruce's alternate personality. His alt as she called it. The reason he was in therapy. He wanted to control that? She read about the Hulk, saw the news coverage about the alien attack on New York. However, her watching even Tony keep a respectful distance made it real.
