Chapter Thirteen: Bruce And Thor Return With A Warning
Two weeks after Ross showed up and Chalsea went off on him everything was starting to return to normal. Chalsea and Bucky were just spending a quiet day together to celebrate their one year together when they heard a loud noise from the backyard. So the two of them head outside to see what the noise was. Upon seeing her father and Thor walking towards them with a third person following slowly behind them. "Dad!" Chalsea shouts as she runs up to him. "Hi hummingbird. Where is everyone? We have some bad news." Bruce explains. "Everyone is inside doing their own things. Bucky and I were just having some quiet time to ourselves for our one year anniversary." Chalsea replies while they all walk inside.
As they are all walking inside Chalsea glances back over her shoulder and her eyes go wide at who is with them. "Dad, why is Loki here?" She whispers to her father. "He knows about what Thor and I have to talk about with everyone." Bruce whisper's back. "Oh my God! Thor your eye, what happened?" She asks with her voice full of concern. "Ah, turns out Loki and I have an older sister. Her name is Hela and she's The Goddess Of Death. She was banished to the underworld because she was cruel and when our father died she was able to come back. She tried to take over Asgard but stopped her. Our home was destroyed and now the people of Asgard have nowhere to go. Our sister died at the hands of Surtur the bringer of Ragnarok." Thor explains while touching the eye patch over his right eye.
They walk into the common room just as the rest of the team enter "Bruce! Thor! Welcome back. Oh Hey Bruce you wont believe this but after we tell you this you are going to be so proud." Tony exclaims excitedly. "What has made you so excited Tony?" Bruce asks him curiously. "Ross showed up two weeks ago and Chalsea tore into him good and ripped him a new one." He explains proudly. "It was beautiful, well until he tried to grab her and then Bucky grabbed him by the throat with his metal hand and choke slammed him to the floor." Pietro cuts in. "Well that sounds eventful… Wait Ross was here and he saw Chalsea?" Bruce rushes out before turning to his daughter.
"Dad, I'm fine, can't say the same thing for Ross though." She comforts her father. "What happened with Ross?" He asks turning back to the others. "Oh that we can fill you in later. But first tell us how was your trip to Asgard?" Natasha inquires. "Ah yes, that brings us to what we need to tell you." Thor comments solemnly. "What's going on and why is he here?" Steve asks, going into Captain mode. "I assure you, I come in peace. I wasn't myself four years ago." Loki speaks up from behind Bruce and Thor holding his hands up in surrender. The team all watches him carefully the whole time he is in the room with them. "Why don't we all just sit down and let them explain." Chalsea offers while trying to keep the peace. Everyone takes their seats around the room leaving Loki to stand behind Thor. The three of them begin to explain what has brought them back and Chalsea's blood runs cold at the news.
"You mean a giant purple grape is planning to wipe out half of the galaxy, with what you're calling an infinity gauntlet and the infinity stones?" Chalsea asks with a hint of hysteria in her voice. "I'm afraid so hummingbird." Bruce states in defeat. "So we just have to find these stones before he does and destroy them." Tony cuts in while trying to work out a plan. "It won't be easy and we will all have to work together. That means Loki too." Thor comments. "Before we even think about trusting him I would feel better if Wanda looked into his mind. For Chalsea's safety, he did take her in New York." Steve orders while standing his ground in his Captain America stance with his arms crossed.
"Go right ahead, as I have said before I come in peace. But I will allow her to look into my mind. Shall I sit in the middle of the room so you can keep an eye on me at all times?" Loki agrees. Steve points to the coffee table and Loki strides over to it and takes his seat as Wanda steps up behind him. Wanda places her hands on the side of Loki's head and closes her eyes and projects Loki's thoughts to the room so everyone can see. Chalsea looks away when she sees the torture he went through by hiding her face in Bucky's chest.
He holds her close until it all steps and Wanda steps back from Loki. "As you all can see I was telling the truth, and when I took Miss Banner, I knew she would find a way to alert you all to our whereabouts. You see I had control of myself for a split second and made a snap decision to take her so you could stop me and get the tesseract back, as I really didn't know where it was sent to." Loki states as he stands from the coffee table.
"Alright, now that we established we can trust you. What is the plan, how do we stop Thanos? Is his name right?" Clint asks from his perch on the back of the couch behind Natasha. "Well it's simple really, I have a list of where all the stones are currently. All we need to do is go and get them. But I should warn you about a few things. The soul stone is on Vormir and the only way to get it is to sacrifice that which you love the most. You already have the mind stone, and the time stone is in New York. I have the tesseract as well, the power stone is with the collector and so is the reality stone. All of which should be easy to get. When we have all the stones we will have to create our own gauntlet and someone will have to use it and snap their fingers to wipe out Thanos and his whole army before he finds out the stones have been taken." Loki explains.
"Alright, so who is going to Vormir to get the soul stone?" Natasha asks. "Thor and I will go and get that one as I have the ability to make clones of myself. Thor can use the clone to get the stone while I hide." Loki comments. "Ok now that we have a plan, why don't you all tell me what happened with Ross?" Bruce finally speaks up. Chalsea quickly looks up from Bucky's chest and faces her father. "Now before Tony shows you the recording because we all know he had it recorded. I would just like to say is Dad, I'm sorry for the language I used." Chalsea smiles innocently at her father. "I'm sure it wasn't anything too bad hummingbird." Bruce comforts her. She just hides her face back in Bucky's neck to hide the look on her face. Tony pulls up the security footage of the briefing room from two weeks ago and clicks play. The team all watch the video with smirks as Thor, Bruce and Loki watch in shock. The video ends with Bucky choke slamming Ross into the floor.
After the video fades to black and the TV turns off they all look at Bruce to see his reaction. "Now the nickname Sam and Clint gave you makes sense." Bruce comments quietly. "He called you a mindless beast. I wasn't going to just stand there and let him talk about you like that. It's his fault you had to leave me, and I had to live with Uncle Tony. I'm not saying I don't love Uncle Tony or that I wish I never lived with him. But I needed you and you weren't there because of him. I'm not going to apologize for the things I said to him because I don't regret it." She states fiercely.
She stands from her seat before storming from the room and out of the compound and down to the lake. "Where is Ross now?" Bruce asks as he watches his daughter throw stone into the lake. "He's been arrested and put on the Raft." Steve answers. "She hates me, my daughter hates me. I should have never left her." Bruce sighs as he hides his face in his hands. "She doesn't hate you Bruce. She could never hate you, she also doesn't blame you for leaving her. She does blame Ross however, she really hates him and if she was like you she probably would have turned green and hurt him with how furious she was." Tony comments to comfort him. Bucky stands from his seat while everyone is comforting Bruce and walks off down to the lake where he gently wraps his arms around Chalsea's waist and pulls her back against his chest.
"He thinks I hate him doesn't he?" She asks while staring off into space. "Yeah he does, but Tony and the other's are reassuring him that you don't. He knows it too, he just needs to process what happened. And when he does it will be like it never crossed his mind." Bucky mumbles against the top of her head. They stand there quietly after that as he sways them side to side slowly. She finally calms down enough to go back inside and face her father and the rest of the team. Bruce quickly stands when he notices her walking back in and rushes to her and pulls her into his arms and buries his face in her hair. "I'm sorry I yelled at you dad." She mutters against his chest.
"No hummingbird, you have nothing to be sorry for. Your right I'm not going to ask you to apologize for the things you said to Ross, because they were all true. And I have missed so many things that I will never be able to get back, but we can't change the past, we can only learn from it and move forward. This is only going to make us stronger and we will create new memories. I will be here for the rest of your life and I will never miss another moment in your life again." Bruce vows. They stay in each other's arms for quite a while and then someone decides to interrupt their moment. "Group Hug!" Sam and Clint shout before throwing themselves at the two and wrapping them up in their arms. Soon enough the whole team is in a group hug causing Chalsea to burst out in laughter. Bruce places a kiss on the top of her head as they all step out of the group hug. Chalsea moves to Bucky's side and looks up at him with a happy smile as he gently cups her jaw. He leans down slowly and places a sweet loving kiss on her lips making her sigh happily into the kiss as she wraps her arms around his waist. Everyone breaks off into their own little groups and talks quietly while Chalsea and Bucky curl up on the couch in the corner and enjoy the quiet moment to themselves before the team has to leave to stop Thanos.
