"Wow," she said when he finished his story, "Your life is like a comic book."
Bruce gave a self-deprecating chuckle.
"If it was I would be saving people, not killing them."
"It sounds like you saved a lot of people from the abomination."
"After creating him and destroying half of Manhattan."
"You didn't create him," Nora told him.
"I supplied the means," he argued, "None of that would have happened if I hadn't given my blood. Hell, none of this would have happened if I hadn't turned myself into a science experiment in the first place."
"How long are you going to blame yourself for this, Bruce?" she asked, laying a hand on his arm.
"Until I die," he answered, words hard as steel.
They sat silently for a moment before Nora took her hand off his arm.
"This Betty you mentioned," she said quietly, "You were in love with her, weren't you?"
"Yes," he answered, just as softly.
"Are you still?" she pressed, pain clear in her voice.
"I don't know," he answered, "She's married and I've… changed a lot in the past few years. It's hard to tell if I love her or I just love her memories. I haven't even seen her since I left New York."
"Did you come back to America to find her?"
Bruce shook his head.
"No, something… happened, and I just wanted to come home. My mother was born in Alabama, I just wanted to be… close to her."
"Bruce," Nora said hesitantly, "If you don't want to get married because of Betty-"
"No," he said, cutting her off, "Me and Betty were over long ago, I'll never reopen that door. I know we're not together, Nora, but my life is yours now."
He had said the statement offhandedly, and was alarmed when Nora started to cry.
"Lenore!" he exclaimed, taking her into his arms, "What's wrong?"
"You've been so good to me, Bruce," she sobbed, "I'm so selfish, you shouldn't have to marry me."
"You're not selfish," he soothed, still bewildered, "Everything you said about the marriage made sense."
"I just said those things so you wouldn't leave!" she confessed, still crying, "I don't want to be by myself anymore, I don't want to be a prostitute again! You don't know what it's like, Bruce, you don't know what it's like."
Burying her face in his shoulder, she completely broke down, sobs wracking her body so hard she convulsed, tears and snot mixing on his shirt.
"Oh, Lenore," he breathed, holding her tighter, "I'm not gonna leave you, honey, I'm not gonna leave you."
Instead of calming down she cried even harder, causing Bruce to gently rock her back and forth, tears streaming down his own face.
He could hardly imagine the hell that she had been through before she came to Alabama. Her boyfriend had abused her for a year, and then she had spent another year with no one to turn to, nothing to do except sell herself. Bruce had already been an adult when he started life on the run, already had resources, she had only been a kid.
"I'm here," he told her, "I'm here."
He held her the entire time she cried, not letting go until she pulled away.
"I'm sorry, Bruce," she said, face red and blotchy, "I'm sorry about everything."
"There's nothing to be sorry for," he told her, "The marriage is a good idea, and I'm not going anywhere."
"You don't want to be married though."
"I'm terrified of what I'll do to you," he confessed, looking at his hands.
"What do you mean?" she asked nervously.
"What if I hurt you? What if I can't control myself and you wind up dead? I've killed so many people, I put Betty in the hospital, what am I going to do to you? And-" he broke off, taking a haggard breath, "I almost raped you."
"Bruce," she protested, "I wanted that, you didn't do anything wrong."
"Didn't do anything wrong?" he repeated, slightly hysterical, "I attacked you, held you down, bruised you, bit you so hard you bled."
"And I enjoyed it," she countered, "and it wasn't your fault, we've got chemicals inside of us."
"I should have been able to control myself," he argued.
"You know what I did after you left?" she asked, irritated, "I masturbated. I touched myself thinking about what you did to me and I got off on it."
Bruce let out a sound somewhere between a moan and a groan, but he still didn't look convinced.
"I've been raped," she confessed, "And what you did wasn't that."
Instantly a surge of rage welled up within him, the other guy's anger mixing with his and pounding against his skull. The now familiar feeling of possession threatened to overwhelm him. She was his, how dare someone touch her that way. She should be safe, she should be protected, he would kill whoever-
"Bruce," Nora panicked, "Bruce look at me, I'm right here, it happened a long time ago."
Her words seemed to reach him as though he was underwater, but he heard them just the same.
"Feel me," she said, putting his hands on her waist, "I'm here, I'm fine. You don't want to hurt me, do you?"
The last sentence cut sharply through his haze, reaching the Hulk. No, he didn't want to hurt her, couldn't hurt her, she had to be safe.
Coming out of his trance, he breathed deeply and tightened his hands on Nora's waist.
"Lenore," he breathed.
"I'm right here," she reassured.
His eyes refocused and he saw Nora, sitting beside him, hands over his.
Instinctively he bared his neck, and Nora climbed into his lap, resting her forehead in the crook of his shoulder.
"I'm too dangerous," he said, lips brushing against her hair.
"No, it's my fault, I shouldn't have told you-"
"No," he interrupted, "you shouldn't have to censor what you say because of my inability to control myself."
"Then I'll tell you everything. Tonight. No more surprises. Tell me when it gets to be too much, and we'll take a break, okay?"
"I might not be able to handle it."
"Then we'll stop, but it will be better for you to know, so that you're not surprised again. I've had a… very violent life."
"That makes two of us," he said with a humorless smile.
She soothed her thumb across the back of his neck before standing.
"Come on, lay down with me, it will be easier to talk if I'm not looking at you."
Bruce got up and walked over to the bed with her, lying on his back and fitting her into the curve of his arm, her head on his chest.
She took a deep breath, staring at the wall while Bruce looked at the ceiling, and then she started to speak.
She told him about how her brother used to hit her when he was angry, how he had broken her rib when she was sixteen because he shoved her too hard and she fell down the stairs.
She told him about how Vincent wouldn't take no for an answer, how he would slap her when she would talk back, how he would hold her down and rape her when she didn't want to have sex, how he nearly beat her to death when she tried to run away.
She talked about how sometimes her Johns would rape her, how she knew that she couldn't report it because she was on the run, how one man hit her in the head so hard she got a concussion, how another had held her down and burned her with cigarettes.
Bruce had to stop her a few times, and Nora had to stop even more, crying through the whole confession, but once it was finally over she felt as though the weight of an entire world had been lifted off her chest.
"So you see, Bruce," she finished, finally looking up at him, "I can't do that again, I just can't, and you could never hurt me like I've already been hurt."
He was crying too, face wet with tears, and he gathered her up in his arms and held her close, kissing her hair.
"I'm not going to leave you, Nora," he told her, "You'll never have to do that again, I'll take care of you."
At his words she broke down into sobs again, clinging to him like a lifeline.
After all their tears were spent, Bruce gave a sigh.
"My father used to beat me," he said softly, not knowing he was going to say the words until they came out of his mouth.
"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked, looking up at him in concern.
"No," he replied, "but I think I should."
He laid his head back on the pillow, staring up at the ceiling again.
"I was… four, I think, when he started to hit me. I never knew when it was going to happen, one second everything was fine and the next second…. My mom would stop him, put herself in front of me. She was... I loved her so much.
"One day she finally had enough, told me we were going to stay with her family in Alabama, said I was finally going to meet my Grandma, said I had her eyes. We packed the bags, and I was so excited to go, and then he came home, came home from work early, and he-"
Bruce broke off, his voice watery, and swallowed.
"He killed her," he said, voice breaking, "Right in front of me. She was the only good thing in my life and he just… killed her."
Nora reached up to gently wipe a tear off of his face, causing him to start.
"I'm sorry," he apologized, ""I wasn't trying to make this about myself, I shouldn't have-"
"No, Bruce," Nora interrupted, "This isn't some kind of competition. It wouldn't be fair of me to ask you to listen and to not give you the same privilege. We've got to stick together, us survivors."
"Survivors," Bruce repeated, a ghost of a smile going across his face, "I like that."
They lay there for a while, quietly, each reflecting on the circumstances that lead them to this moment, and then Bruce broke the silence.
"Let's go tomorrow, up to New York. Hector said we won't get our stuff until Wednesday."
"Are you sure?" she asked, "Sure you want to do this?"
"Yeah," he responded, gut still churning, but knowing in his heart that it was the right decision, "So long as you don't mind being Mrs Banner."
"Mrs Banner?" she asked with a smile, "Why not Mr Avellino?"
"Bruce Avellino," he repeated, "It's not the worst thing I've heard."
"Nah," she told him, "I think Nora Banner has a better ring to it."
"You don't have to change your name," he said, "I'll understand."
"I would like to," she said, and then uncertainly asked, "Would you like me to?"
"Yeah," he said with a smile, giving her a squeeze, "I would like that a lot."
He was too possessive of her, a voice in the back of his mind said, he already was more attached than he should be, and he shouldn't have ever become friends with her in the first place. She deserved so much better than him, he could never give her all the things she needed, but she smiled when she saw him. She wanted to be with him, and god help him he wanted to be with her.
Dr and Mrs Banner. The sound of it made his heart jump.
"Do you want me to call my uncle?" Nora questioned.
"No," he said with a shake of his head, "I don't like to call. Phone lines can be tapped, the advanced notice can give them enough time to go to police, they might let something slip to a friend or a neighbor, there are too many variables."
"You want to just show up?" she asked, confused.
"It's the best bet," he replied, "You know your uncle best, how do you want to play this?"
"Tomorrow's Sunday, right?"
"Yeah."
"The drive will be what, eight hours?"
"Ten. More like eleven with stops."
"So we'll get there Sunday night. He goes to a bible study on Sunday night, but he should be home by the time we get there. He lives alone, no wife, no kids, no roommate, but sometimes he has friends over, we have to make sure no one's there.
"You knock on his door, tell him your car broke down, ask to use the phone. He still has a landline, it's in the living room, you can see if anyone's with him. Then use the phone to call me, we'll pick up a burner cell on the way. If there's no one there pretend like you're calling your girlfriend, if there's someone there pretend like you're calling a tow truck.
"If someone's there you leave, if no one's there I'll come in and we'll take it from there."
Bruce smiled incredulously.
"Maybe I should have you co-author 'On the run for dummies.'"
She laughed.
"Really? I thought I sounded really hokey."
"No, it's a good plan, I like it, it's smart. It covers all our angles."
She beamed at the praise, and even though her face was still blotchy and stained with tears Bruce thought she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
"Alright," he said, reaching over to set the alarm on the bedside table, "I want to leave at seven, let's get some sleep."
"Okay," she agreed, turning off the the lamp, "Thanks for sticking by me."
"Nora," he told her sincerely, "I'm not gonna leave you until you ask me to go."
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Author's note: So sorry none of my stories have been updated in so long! My computer broke, and because it's not a common model I went through hell trying to get the part. I've been using my mom's computer for the past couple of months, but I think you'll understand I didn't want to write fanfic on it. Now I'm back, yay! Kind of a filler chapter but better than nothing