Ok first of all I'm so sorry that I couldn't update earlier but I really had no time . I hope you enjoy this chapter!

It was already late in the morning when Ilea woke up.
Her mouth felt dry and it was hard for her to swallow.

She didn't even know when she had fallen asleep.
Maybe when at least there had been no more tears she could cry.
But it hasn't been a really restful sleep, as she felt like even in her dreams she had grieved. She actually had hoped for the feeling one always get's after crying, that maybe everything is going to be alright again, but it stayed out.

"Oh sorry, did I wake you up?" Ilea heard Bruce's voice.

She sat up and looked at the table next to the kitchen. Bruce was busy packing his bag with some things that looked like medical stuff.

"Is something wrong?" she asked and slowly stood up. The sofa wasn't as comfortable as her bed and she could already feel tensions in her arms and neck.

"Well," Bruce replied and stuffed a few more things in the bag "I'm working as a doctor for the small town Sengo that is 2 miles away from here. One of my patients has some illness I couldn't cure so far. A few minutes ago I got the message that his condition got worse."

He closed his bag and put it on one shoulder.

"I hope it's Ok if I let you alone here, I'll be back in an hour."

Ilea could feel her body tense up.

No, she couldn't be left alone with her thoughts right now. They would drown her.

"Please, can I come with you?" she asked, trying not to sound desperate.

Bruce opened his mouth to answer but then stopped as he saw her expression.
He sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"Fine, just grab yourself some breakfast and then we'll go."

The twins were back in front of Jamie's room in the medical station.

They had needed a few hours to get over the shock.
Jamie was alive.

After he suddenly came back to life yesterday, Dr. Cho had thrown them out the room as his vital signs were very weak and she had to take care of him. They had waited at least an hour before Dr. Cho did come out of the room.
"He is still very weak but he should make it. I gave him something to sleep and we'll see about everything else tomorrow."

"But how can he still be alive?!" Wanda had asked.

But Dr. Cho had just shook her head and said "Tomorrow."

The Doctor had been busy in the medical station the last two days, taking care about the other injured agents and hasn't got a wink of sleep.

But now she looked better again and the dark circles under her eyes had vanished.
Something you couldn't say about Pietro. Last night his thoughts had kept him awake. Not just the question about how Jamie had survived, but he had thought over and over about what he should tell Jamie when he woke up.
He couldn't say it.

How could he bear to tell the little boy that Ilea was dead?

At the thought of her the grief had come back, hit him like a wall. It took his breath away.

He had lost both his parents, almost lost his sister on their time in the lab and saw countless other people die on the battlefield. He even died himself. He was almost used to see men die and lose people he was close to.

But he had loved Ilea.
More than he had ever loved a girl.

His sister was something whole different and he loved her too, but on another basis.

Ilea had been the first girl he could entrust himself to. Since the first moment he saw her all he ever wanted to do was to hold her in his arms for the rest of his life.

At least he had been able to tell her how much he loved her, even though he regretted now that he didn't say it earlier.

He had even dared to think about a future together with her, but now everything seemed hopeless and his future was something Pietro didn't want to think about. She was gone. He had to accept that.

But there was something else that had kept him up. Maybe he could have been able to save her? The more he thought about it, he was sure it had been his fault. He had stood the nearest to her and could have easily reached her before she vanished.
That guilt felt like a heavy weight on his chest that made it hard for him to breathe.

"He woke up and his vital signs are great. But he doesn't have much memory of the last two days." Dr. Cho's voice snapped Pietro out of his thoughts.

She had opened the door and told them with a wave of her hand to follow her inside. The other's had wanted to visit Jamie too as they were all glad that at least he was still alive, but Dr. Cho had told them that it would be a bit too much for Jamie.

As they went into the room they saw Jamie sitting on the bed, looking like nothing bad ever happened to him.

His little face lit up as he saw them.

"Pietro! Wanda!" he called and stretched his arms out towards them.

Wanda tried to smile for him as she stepped closer to hug him tightly. But she quickly let go of him as the tears filled her eyes again. She didn't want him to see it.

Pietro sat down next to Jamie and the boy wrapped his small arms around him to hug him tightly.

"Hey Jamie." Pietro said with a smile. Jamie's world was still alright. He wished he could let him keep it for a while so at least he wouldn't have to be sad. But Pietro knew that they couldn't do that to him.

Jamie grinned at him as he always did. But his smile faded as he saw Pietro's face.

"Are you sad?" the boy asked him.

"No," he replied and ruffled through Jamie's hair. The way Ilea always did. "I'm happy you're alright."

The boy nodded and looked back at the door as if he was expecting something.
"Where is Ilea?" he asked after nothing happened.

Pietro had feared that question and even now he wasn't able to answer.

Wanda swallowed hard and sat down next to Jamie too.

It was the best if they told him now. It would be cruel to leave him believing that Ilea would come into the room every second.

"Jamie," Wanda tried to blink the tears away "I'm sorry but Ilea is... gone."

Jamie blinked at her confused.
"What do you mean with gone? Where did she go?"

The innocence in his voice broke her heart.
"Jamie, Ilea is-"

"Somewhere were we can't find her." Dr. Cho interrupted her.

The twins looked at her confused.

"Dr. Cho," Wanda told her "I think it would be the best if we tell him now that-"

But the doctor lifted her hand to interrupt her.
"I need to speak both of you for a minute."

The twins looked at each other, but then followed the doctor out the room.

"We can't lead him to believe that Ilea is still alive." Wanda said fierce as soon as they had closed the door.

"We don't know that yet." Dr. Cho replied calmly.

"What do you mean?" Pietro asked "She had told us that she can't relocate humans alive." He sounded angrier than he intended to and he felt his sisters laying a hand on his arm. He didn't want Jamie to raise false hopes.

"But Ilea was no normal human."

As Dr. Cho saw their confused gaze she sighed and rubbed her temple with one hand.
"Ok listen. I don't want to raise any false hopes too. But there is a small chance that she is still alive."

She looked through the small window in the door at Jamie's bed.
"As we could all see yesterday it seems that Jamie has developed some powers, presumably an effect of the experiment he had gone through in the laboratory. As he is still very young it probably took a long time for his body to handle the transformations and the powers didn't show until now. Yesterday I gave him something that will suppress these powers until he fully recovers.
However, those abilities are also the reason why Jamie is still alive. It seems that he is not just able to manipulate the matter, like Ilea did, but his cells are regenerating at an extreme speed, making it impossible for him to die. Not the 'immortal' way, he'll still grow up normally as that is the natural progress for a cell, but he can't die."

"And… you think that…" Wanda stammered startled "that Ilea has the same power?"

"It's possible." Dr. Cho replied "But as I said, I don't want to raise false hopes. Maybe that power was just a mutation of the experiments they did to Jamie. But if Ilea has them too, it could be possible that she can relocate herself without dying."

The short ride in the car was quiet.

Ilea knew that Bruce expected an explanation from her and she really owed him one. But she still couldn't speak about it. Not yet.
But Bruce seemed patient, something Ilea was very thankful for.

After a few minutes they stopped at a house in a small town. It looked very poor and shabby, just like the other houses.

Bruce followed her gaze.
"We're in one of the poorest parts of the state. No one here can actually afford a doctor. That's why I'm here."

Ilea nodded. By now she already knew that Bruce had a kind heart, she hadn't expected anything different.

She followed him to the doorstep and Bruce knocked.

A woman, dressed in some kind of colorful traditional dress opened the door. She was tall, a bit chubby and had light brown skin, like the most people she had seen on their ride there. She was old, her hair already showed grey streaks.

"Oh, I'm so glad you came!" she said in a deep voice. She spoke English, as it was the official language but with a heavy accent so that Ilea didn't understand her first.

"Good morning Miss Rendja." Bruce greeted her "I hope you don't mind I brought my… my assistant with me."

"No problem! Come in, come in!" she took a step aside so they'll could both get inside.

The air was heavy and not much light shone through the ground-glass windows.
The women guided them to a small room. At first Ilea couldn't see much. But them Ms. Rendja went to a window and drew the heavy curtains.

In the room was just a single bed, presumably because they couldn't afford anything else, with a young boy lying on it. Bruce stepped to his bed and Ilea followed him.

As they stood next to him he opened his eyes.

Ilea could feel a sting in her hart. The boy reminded her too much of Jamie.
He was about the same age, had the same brown locks and the same bright eyes.

Ilea couldn't bear his sight anymore and took a few steps back.

Bruce didn't recognized it and got a stethoscope out of his bag to place it on the chest of the boy who was only wearing shorts.

Only now Ilea saw that something was wrong with the boy.
He had the same skin like his mother, but his looked too pale, kinda ill. Sweat was all over his body and he barely breathed, his chest only moving minimally.

"I've never seen you before here." The woman told Ilea as they both watched Banner do his work.

"I'm…new. I, erm, had to leave and landed here." Ilea replied.

The woman nodded knowingly.
"Because you lost someone."

Surprised Ilea turned to the women.

She just smiled, her gaze still fixed on her son.

"I saw your eyes. Those are very, very sad eyes."

Ilea couldn't say anything so she just sighed.

"You know," the woman continued "I think the hardest part of losing someone is to live without them. Always trying to fill the void, the emptiness that's left inside your heart when they go."

"I couldn't say goodbye." Ilea replied dryly "Or how much I loved him. I wish I had told him that more often."

The woman now turned her gaze towards Ilea.
"You're still so very young. Let me tell you something: You are going to lose people in your life. And realize that no matter how much you loved them and told the so, it will never feel like it was enough. But it was." with those words she turned away again.

Ilea didn't know how to respond. She just stood there, trying to understand the meaning behind her words.

"How are you feeling, Thiago?" Ilea heard Bruce ask the boy.

"My chest hurts." the boy replied, so quietly that it sounded more like a whisper.

Bruce sighed and put the stethoscope down.

"What's wrong?" Ilea asked him.

"That's the problem," Bruce replied "I don't know. I first thought he had a flu, but last week he began to show different signs. It would be the best if we could get him to a hospital and scan his body, but the next one is hours away and still there would be no way they could afford it."
He looked at the boy.

"And what does that mean?" Ilea asked again, even though she knew the answer.

Bruce looked back at her and slightly shook his head.
Then he stood up. "I need to talk to Ms. Rendja, would you please stay with him for a minute?"

But before she could answer he had already left the room, together with the woman.

After a short moment of hesitation Ilea stepped to the bed again and sat down at the corner.

The boy looked at her. They both were quiet for a while.

"You look like you're sad." Thiago suddenly said, his voice just a whisper.

"I am."

The boy laid his small hand on her arm.
"That's ok. I'm sometimes sad too."

Ilea smiled at him. But his touch had set off something inside her. She could literally feel that there was something wrong with his body. It was not the first time she felt something like this. Since she had first opened her eyes after she vanished something had changed. Not just her, but the world, or at least how she sensed it. Like somebody had flipped a switch deep inside her. She could feel the atoms all around her, not in a distracting way, but more like her ability had turned into a sixth sense.

She waned to try something. Carefully Ilea moved her hand and laid it on the boy's chest. She closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to feel his body only with her ability.

After a few seconds she could feel that the problem of the boy's illness was at his heart. There was a tiny hole in it, where there shouldn't be one.

"Is something wrong Ilea?" she heard Bruce's voice, but kept her eyes closed.

She tried to close the hole, transforming the atoms so they could bind with the others. Again it was easier for her than she thought.

She opened her eyes again, just to see Bruce and Ms. Rendja standing right next to her.

Ilea stood up to make way for Bruce.
"Could you check him again? I think I found the problem and I… fixed it."

Bruce gave her a confused look, but got his stethoscope out of his bag again to place it on Thiago's chest again. The boy already took deeper breaths.

"His heart is beating normal again." Bruce said startled.

As Ilea and Bruce arrived back home it was already lunchtime.
The ride had been mostly quiet. Bruce had tried to ask her to explain what exactly she had done, but Ilea didn't want to. Her powers always got her into trouble; she couldn't risk it to tell him about them. Even if she did he'd surely not believe her.

"Do you have like, um, a special ability to heal people?" Bruce asked her as he placed his bag on the floor.

It was the first time he directly asked about an ability.

"No I don't, it's… way more complicated." she replied.

"You said the same thing yesterday."

"I did."

"You know, I could try to understand it if you would explain it to me."

But Ilea just shook her head. She knew that that wasn't fair of her. Bruce had found her and cared for her and she could at least reward him by explain everything to him. But she couldn't, not right now.

She could still see Thiago in front of her eyes. He looked so much like Jamie.
Ilea swallowed hard to suppress the upcoming tears. She wouldn't cry. Not right now and not in front of Bruce.

She heard him sigh.

"Ok, how about we eat something I'm already hungry."

Ilea nodded gratefully and sat down on the table.

"I need to say that I don't have much to offer." he said while he opened the cupboard.

"Cereals would be great." Ilea replied.

Bruce got some out of the cupboard and two bowls and placed them on the table.

While they ate Ilea realized that she didn't know much of Bruce either.
Just that he was a doctor of since and of course a normal doctor. She didn't even know his surname.

"Where do you actually come from?" Ilea asked him "You don't look like you're from here."

"I used to work in New York." he replied.

"New York? And why would you quit a job there?"

"I don't know. The work was just a bit… too stressful. Not good for my temper."

Ilea wondered what he meant with that. But something seemed common to her as he said New York. As if she knew he was from there. But there was no way she would.

"I don't even know your surname." she said.

"And I don't know yours."

"Mine is pretty lame, my parents seemed to be not very creative when they named me." she said with a faint smile "Ilea Ilinos. I. I."

"Hah, mine is B. B." he replied "Bruce Banner."

Something inside her head made 'click'.
And she couldn't understand how she didn't realize it yesterday. His hair was shorter and he was not wearing glasses but it was truly him.

It was Bruce Banner. Hulk.

That's impossible.

How on earth did she land, out of all places she could have landed in, on front of his doorstep?

"Are you alright?" Bruce asked her with a slightly irritated look.

Ilea realized that she was starring at him with still a mouthful cornflakes.
She swallowed the by now squashy flakes and shook her head.
This was all so absurd.
Yesterday she woke up in the Avenger's headquarter and the very next day she sat in front of the Hulk, in the middle of nowhere.

She couldn't help but start to laugh.

Bruce looked at her as if she was well on the best way to go insane.

"Do you believe in destiny?" Ilea asked after she gathered herself together enough to speak.

"Why do you ask?" Bruce replied frowning.

"Because you're Hulk!" Ilea said and wiped a tear out of the corner of her eye. She noticed how Bruce winced slightly at the last word.

"And yesterday I was having lunch with Captain America and the rest of the squad and right now I'm having lunch with you! Out of all the places I could have ended up I got here. This can only be destiny, can't it?"

Ilea began to laugh again, a strident, desperate laughter. But after a few seconds her eyes filled with tears and the laughter turned into sobs more and more.

Bruce quickly got her a tissue.

"I'm sorry," she managed to say after a few minutes "this is just too much. Everything is. I don't know if I can bear this anymore."
She buried her face in her hands.

"Ilea," Bruce began softly "I see you've gone through a lot lately. How about you try to explain it to me?"

Ilea blew her nose and smiled at him hopelessly.
"I don't even know where to start."

Bruce gave her an understanding smile.
"How about at the very beginning?"

Don't worry, they won't stay there. Pls don't forget to review! :)