I do not own any of the characters present. They belong to Marvel comics. This was written purely for fun. Please note that I am not a trained psychologist.

Note: PAST CHILD ABUSE/DOMESTIC ABUSE. There are mentions of a past character death in this chapter, along with minor mentions of blood. Be warned.

Tony didn't see Bruce again for another two days.

No one did.

Not long after Honey had turned back into Bruce, the physicist had woken up. Pepper hadn't needed to be asked to leave, and instead just excused herself after telling the man to let them know if he needed anything. Bruce hadn't said anything to her; he could barely look at her.

Bruce had immediately closed up on himself and wouldn't leave his room, completely ignoring JARVIS and not answering the door for anyone. The others didn't push, and neither did Tony. They just gave the man his space, hoping against hope that he'd come out of his room willingly at some point in the near future. When they asked JARVIS if he was eating and sleeping, the AI affirmed that, while he was going long stretches without food or sleep, Dr. Banner was eating meagerly and sleeping in short fits. None of them asked what he was doing, and JARVIS never told them.

Tony had been verbally accosted for what he had done. Steve had repeated most of what had been said in the hall after the incident with Monster, but with more displeasure than hostility in his voice this time around. Thor hadn't said anything about the whole situation, but his eyes continued to bespeak of all the disappointment he felt, which was worse than anything Steve could have said. Both of the SHIELD agents had threatened him with physical harm should he try to approach Bruce, let alone talk to him.

But Tony didn't try. He kept to himself as well, working himself to the bone down in the lab. He ignored everyone after their little chat and just tried to focus on his work, but he couldn't ignore Monster's sobs or Honey's quiet weeping that kept replaying in his head over and over again on an endless loop. He didn't really make any headway in repairing his suit from the recent battle, and couldn't really bring himself to care.

The blood from the incident with Monster had long ago been cleaned up and properly disposed of, thanks to JARVIS and the other bots around the lab. The broken and cracked window panes had been replaced with new glass, and a work crew had just finished up fixing the floor and would soon tackle the walls that had been marred.

JARVIS informed him of all of this, but Tony didn't care. The AI's words washed over him, as did Pepper's when she had popped into the laboratory to check on him. It was obvious that she wasn't terribly happy with him either, for what he had done to Bruce, but for whatever reason, she still checked in on him from time to time, trying to coax him out of the lab.

That was until he had locked the doors.

So it came as a real surprise to him when his music suddenly cut off and the lab doors slid open. As he turned to the entrance, he felt whatever he was about to say wither and die in his throat.

Bruce stepped in, keeping his head low. The physicist didn't say a word as he walked in stiff movements across the lab and over to his work station. Tony's eyes followed him the entire way, and the engineer struggled to find something to say. His friend looked haunted and pale and so, so tired.

A smothering silence fell over them for a long time. "…I…" Tony finally managed. Bruce paused in the middle of straightening up his station, but didn't look up. The engineer swallowed. "I didn't think I'd see you down here."

Bruce remained frozen for a moment longer before he finally looked over at Tony. Their eyes met for the briefest of seconds, and then Bruce's gaze fell to the lab table. "…Time-sensitive experiment," he offered in explanation, his voice rough and tight.

Tony nodded and continued to watch Bruce try to focus on his work. After another few minutes of silence, Tony drew a fortifying breath. "Bruce…"

The physicist immediately ducked his head and leaned forward on the lab bench. "Tony, I really don't want to talk about it," he said in a voice that tried really hard not to sound broken.

Tony swallowed the lump in his throat, or attempted to. He was quiet for another long minute in which they both didn't move.

"Bruce, I'm sorry," Tony finally said, voice soft. "I didn't…I didn't think…"

"No, you didn't," Bruce replied just as quietly. Tony stared for a long time, and when Bruce finally looked back over, he saw the tears standing in the man's eyes. The two watched each other for a long moment before the physicist heaved a shaky sigh and ran a hand over his face.

"Tony, I have always respected your privacy," Bruce said in a voice just above a whisper. "I never asked you about any of it; your father, Afghanistan, Stane, the wormhole…" He shook his head as his hand dropped back to the lab table and looked so, so hurt. "I guess it was too much to expect reciprocation, but…" His voice caught, and Bruce had to pause. He swallowed. "B-But of all the things to ask about, you chose that?"

A smothering, choking silence hung over the lab as Tony sunk lower and lower into a pit of guilt and self-loathing and as Bruce struggled to stay calm.

The physicist drew a shaky breath. "I-I have never heard the Hulk cry before," he confessed softly, and another sharp stab of guilt plunged into Tony's chest. "He's been crying since I woke up, Tony, and he's only just recently started to stop."

He looked back down at the desk, at the mess of papers and equations, and sniffled a little. By some force of will, the water in his eyes hadn't taken on the form of tears and fallen yet. He swallowed again. "The worst of it isn't even remembering him slamming her head down onto the driveway, again and again until she stopped moving." He needed to pause again to swallow once more; his hands were shaking. "It's that I had forgotten some of the night…forgotten how he had finished her off, and then turned to me."

Bruce sounded openly terrified now, like he was actually reliving the moment. Maybe he was, given the distinctly distant look in his watery eyes. "…when you called me a monster, it all came rushing back…"

Tony couldn't find his voice to correct Bruce, to tell him that he hadn't called Bruce a monster, that he would never call him something like that, but he couldn't find the will to speak.

Another shaky breath later, and Bruce continued on in a voice that just barely made it across the silent space of the lab. "…everything in that gap of time between him looking at me, until just…just kind of waking up in the back of the ambulance…i-it all came back…" Bruce's voice sounded so small, like he was actually the little boy who had experienced all of the trauma of that night. "…how my father, once he was finished beating the life out of her, beat the shit out of me." His voice started to shake. "The names he called us…everything he said…how he kicked me into her body…i-into her blood…" His voice cracked a little, and he had to pause again to compose himself, squeezing his eyes shut against the tears that wanted so desperately to fall. "…h-how I felt like I deserved it, all of it, how every word he was saying was true."

Tony couldn't speak, could barely breathe.

When Bruce finally glanced back, he looked so utterly defeated, so wounded, hurt, and betrayed. He shook his head a little. "…why would you ask me?" he asked in a tiny, broken voice.

Tony's voice was lost in a sea of guilt. He managed to hold Bruce's eyes, but he couldn't find something, anything to say. Bruce ducked his head again and closed his eyes, probably trying to not only calm down the Hulk, but to calm himself too. They stayed like that for a long time, just silent and tense.

After another few moments of silence passed, Tony took a breath. "…I don't know what I was thinking…" he finally managed to get out. He didn't know if Bruce looked his way or not, for his own eyes had moved off somewhere else, anywhere else. "…which is something I can't admit often, but…but I don't know where my head was. I just…" he paused, trying to find the words to articulate his thoughts correctly. His mouth worked for a few silent moments before he heaved a sigh and shook his head. "No. No, there's no excuse for what I did to you. I never should have pried, and I am so, so sorry I did." He struggled to swallow, and he looked down at the floor. "It was wrong and downright cruel of me to keep pushing, even after you told me not to. You didn't deserve to be put through all of this because I was curious about something. There aren't words…there is no unit of measure that would accurately tell you how sorry I am. I'm sorry I hurt you; I never intended to, and I absolutely hate that I did. I am so, so sorry, Bruce…"

Another silence washed over them, and Tony finally looked back up at Bruce. The physicist was still leaning against the lab table, but his eyes were opened and focused intently on the surface.

When Bruce didn't say anything for a long time, Tony just started to study how the man was standing. He still looked really stiff and exhausted. "…are you feeling any better? Physically, I mean," Tony asked hesitantly. He still couldn't shake the image of Monster and all of that blood out of his head, nor the howling that had been released as his body transformed.

Bruce took another moment to just remain frozen in silence.

Tony started to feel a little better about their situation when Bruce finally looked back over at him with a slightly less hurt expression and slightly clearer eyes. "I'm getting there," Bruce replied softly, and then sat down on the stool. His brown eyes roved over Tony's body. "What about you? I vaguely remember seeing you crashed into a wall or something…" He paled a little as he said that.

Tony shrugged, even as the movement strained the bruises all over his back. "Nothing I didn't have coming," he replied. He started looking more analytically at Bruce. "Getting there?" he repeated in question.

Bruce exhaled slowly and looked down at where his hands were trembling in his lap. "This transformation felt different," he admitted, and Tony immediately froze to the spot. "I mean, there's the usual aches and pains, but…but there are other things this time. It's just weird," he said, and then shrugged a little stiffly. "It's like…my fingertips and my teeth hurt more than usual, and my back is still killing me. It's just…"

As he trailed off, his eyes returned to Tony. He immediately paused and just stared at Tony's expression with deeply analytical eyes that were normally reserved for looking at an unpleasant result to an experiment. Tony had never been on the receiving end of so intense a look from the physicist before, and he tried not to squirm in his seat.

But Bruce picked up on the tiny movements of discomfort with ease. His eyes narrowed slightly. "You know something," he said, and it was not a question.

When Tony didn't answer, Bruce turned so that he was fully facing the engineer from where he was seated. He fixed him with an intense stare. "Tony," he began with forced patience, "I can't seem to remember much of what happened." His voice was so serious, and he never looked away from the man across the lab. "We were having a civil conversation, and then suddenly we were out in the hall, with you yelling at me…" He cut his eyes away and swallowed painfully, but he forced himself to look back at Tony. "I thought I had grown out of the worst of my memory problems and blackouts, but here lately, I'm beginning to question that belief. They always seem to happen around you, Tony."

There was another tense pause in the conversation as the two of them just stared at each other. Tony didn't think he would have been put into another helpless position so soon after meeting Monster, but there he was, pinned under Bruce's powerful stare and at a loss of what to do. His gaze slipped to his lap. He had no idea what to say. He couldn't scoff and shove it off on exhaustion or something, like he had done to Bruce after meeting Archives for the first time. Tony knew how much Bruce didn't like the blackouts, but how on earth was he supposed to explain?

As the silence became prolonged, Bruce's gaze lost its intensity until he was just staring openly, looking half-pleading. "Tony…" he said softly, pressing oh-so-gently for an answer, a response, anything.

Tony looked back at Bruce to see the open look on his face. He could see the fear and uncertainty in the man's eyes. It was the same look he had seen when Bruce came back after one of his personalities had receded. Bruce was a scientist—so was Tony. Like any great scientist, Bruce just wanted answers to a problem he didn't have an answer to.

And now he knew that Tony had some knowledge that would help him.

And then there was the fact that Bruce was being open with him at all, even after what had happened. Tony stared straight back at his teammate, his lab partner, his friend, and saw the worry in his eyes. There was fear in Bruce's gaze, a fear of the unknown that he couldn't study. How could he understand the gaps in his memory if he didn't have anything to analyze? Bruce was scared, and he was just looking for answers.

Who was Tony to deny him of that, to deny him of his peace of mind?

Bruce's eyebrows furrowed over troubled eyes when Tony suddenly took a deep breath and ran his hands over his face. "That's it," the engineer said. "I'm done."

The physicist didn't speak, but his question filled the air regardless.

Tony gazed back at his friend. "I'm done lying to you Bruce," he said wearily. "I can't do it anymore. I don't care what they say, but I just can't lie to you anymore."

Bruce looked both suspicious and worried now, but he hadn't left the lab yet, meaning he was willing to listen. Tony took that as a plus.

Tony knew he was on thin ice, and he wasn't even sure if he'd even be able to say what he had to say without being interrupted, but he went for it, for Bruce's sake. "You mentioned the gap of missing time between the lab and the hall?" he posed hesitantly.

Bruce was just as hesitant with his reluctant nod.

Tony nodded to himself once. He swallowed again, and then fortified himself for the plunge. "You don't remember it because I wasn't talking to you," he confessed, and then waited in anticipation.

But Bruce's skin remained his own color, and none of the man's personalities interfered. Bruce only looked confused, and when he opened his mouth to ask a question, Tony continued.

"I was talking with one of your personalities."

Silence filled the lab.

Bruce's mouth had snapped shut, and now he was just staring at Tony. The engineer watched the other man, searching his friend's face for a reaction past the eerie blankness that took over the physicist's countenance. "Bruce, you have more than just the Hulk in there."

It was like the mention of the Hulk snapped Bruce from his spell of silent staring. The physicist blinked, and then a look of skepticism started to appear on his features. "Tony…"

"No, seriously," Tony said in a rush, reaching out a hand like that would help his friend understand, "I was arguing with one of them. Bruce, you have dissociative identity disorder; you have multiple personalities." When Bruce's expression closed off even more, Tony scrambled. "I can prove it. Please, I'm not making this up. Give me a chance."

Before Bruce even had an opportunity to say anything, Tony darted out of his seat. He held up his hand in a gesture that said wait. A wave of relief went through him when Bruce only let out a long-suffering sigh and put his elbow on the table and his face in his hand. The engineer dashed out of the lab.

Tony was quick in running around the tower, gathering what he needed. He stopped by the penthouse first, and then flew through the communal living room into the kitchen, ignoring the confused and mildly startled looks from Thor and Steve. He didn't listen to their questions, but to keep either of the blonds from stopping him, he grabbed a canister of coffee. His obsession with the caffeinated beverage was no secret to the team, and he played on that. He gave them a pointed look and held up the coffee as he walked by. Steve rolled his eyes, but neither of them questioned him further.

He was gone for maybe four minutes, but he was still thankful to see Bruce still sitting there when he got back. The man in question broke from his thoughts and looked up when Tony came rushing back into the lab. The physicist looked both skeptical and worried, but he was willing to give Tony a chance.

His eyebrow quirked when Tony slapped the canister of coffee on a random surface as he rounded the table in his approach. He didn't get a chance to question it, though.

"Here," Tony said slightly breathlessly as he reached Bruce's side. He laid out a sketch from Robby that he had kept over the months. "I bet you remember this one?" He pointed to the drawing of the Iron Man suit flying through the air. It was a drawing from the first batch that the child personality had done in the tower.

Bruce turned a look on Tony from the corner of his eye, but he still reached for his reading glasses. Once he had them slipped on, he looked down at the drawing. There was a spark of recognition in his eye that gave Tony hope that this wasn't all for naught.

"Yeah," Bruce said as his eyes continued to study the sketch, "there were a few of them on the table a few months ago. Fan mail. I'm not sure whether to be surprised or not that you kept the one of you."

Tony huffed a laugh. "This fan is a little more special than all the others," he said fondly. "The artist's name is Robby, and he's one of your personalities."

A sigh escaped from the physicist and he took off his glasses. "Tony, don't throw some little kid under the bus just because you—"

"I'm not!" Tony interrupted. "I'm being honest, here!" He paused to put down the other pieces of paper he had gathered. "Here, take a look at these."

Together, they both looked at some of the other drawings Robby had done over the months, followed by the letter the Doctor had written to set up a meeting time with Archives. Bruce studied everything Tony put in front of him, but he didn't look convinced at all.

Tony scrambled to think of some other way to prove himself right. He finally grabbed one of Bruce's unused legal pads and the box of colored pencils he had nabbed from the kitchen and put them in front of Bruce.

"Write something," Tony said as he seated himself across the table. "I swear I won't get up from this seat and write any response you get."

"Tony," Bruce said, looking concerned for the engineer's state of mind as he watched the man pull up a clock on a holographic screen.

"Please," Tony beseeched.

Bruce didn't do anything for a long moment. Just when Tony was certain that his friend was about to get up and leave, Bruce heaved a sigh and grabbed his black ink pen, leaving the box of colored pencils untouched. He slipped his reading glasses back on and jotted down a single word.

Hello?

With that, Bruce put down his pen and took off his glasses. He sat back in his seat and skeptically watched the paper and Tony in alternations. The more time that passed, the more skeptical he looked.

Tony was silently pleading for the Doctor to come out, or Archives or Papa or anyone. He was starting to get worried when a full minute passed.

He heard Bruce sigh again. "Tony, this is ridiculous."

"I'm serious," Tony pushed. "I'm not lying to you, I swear. They're just…being shy or something, I don't know."

"Tony, are you listening to yourself?" Bruce asked, eyes going to the clock again. "What were we talking about that was so bad that you have to try to pin it on something as ludicrous as this? Just tell me."

"I did tell you," Tony said forcefully. "I was talking to one of your other personalities." Bruce let out another aggravated sigh, like he was ready to give up and just account this whole thing to Tony's general oddness, but Tony went on. "It's just…"

He trailed off immediately when Bruce's eyes flashed blue, and suddenly the man's body was shifting.

Tony watched in stunned silence as light blue covered Bruce's rapidly shrinking body. This transformation was completely different from the last one he had witnessed and the subsequent battle between Monster and the Hulk. This one was swift, only lasting maybe two seconds total, but at the end of those two seconds, there was a new child personality seated where Bruce had been moments ago. The clothes hung off of his shrunken form and hid away most of his blue skin, but the color of his face was a clear, light blue. Not quite the color of the sky on a summer's day, but soft.

The little boy blinked open his blue eyes, and Tony realized he was finally in the presence of Robby.