(Make sure you actually read the final chapter since I updated this one less than an hour later, clicking the latest link brings you past it and to the Epilogue, I don't want you guys to get confused about where the final chapter went, it's there! xD)

Author's Note: Okay, it didn't take me long to decide I liked my epilogue and didn't need to make many edits. So... waiting for tomorrow wasn't necessary. I know Bruce's part in the final chapter was sort of an epilogue of it's own, but I'll still give you the official epilogue, fully equipped with the quote that this story was named for.

Epilogue; Sneak Preview for:

In Ruins

"But isn't it in ruins
that we mostly find the treasures?"

Natasha stood inside the shambles of what had formerly been Bruce's home in Bahir, India. It was sad enough to once again be on the run and once again be on her own, but she had long ago accepted that she was fated for scenarios such as this. To make matters more depressing, even though she was wearing her own torn and dirtied jeans from days prior, she was now clad in one of the scientist's long untouched and musty button-up shirts. It wasn't much, but it was something to make her less prone to the sense of foreboding that had overcome her since General Ross had begun to come after her. It felt pathetic and pitiful to cling to the remnants left behind in her heart of a man who had disappeared without a trace and without a word of goodbye nearly half a year ago.

Outwardly she had given no notion to anyone of how hollow she felt after he had left. Natasha didn't feel like she deserved to play the role of some brokenhearted fool, not when she had given him such a perfect reason to leave her behind. The impossible choices always seemed to fall to her and the choice to either run away with Bruce or force his transformation into The Hulk had been the hardest of any she had ever felt compelled to make. If they ran and the world had ended then it would have left Bruce and The Hulk to likely still be alive and unforgivably alone, and he would have hated himself. She knew when she forced that transformation that it would be the end of anything they might have become, the end of any chance for her own happy ending, an ending she wasn't allowed to have because of her own decisions. He had told her once that if she ever pushed him too far that he would still believe that what little she had to offer him emotionally was enough.

But he left after Ultron. He had never come back.

It became crystal clear after that, that what little she had to offer in an emotional sense would never truly be enough, just the way she had told him would one day happen.

She had needed to give up her heart's desire in Sokovia, give up the desire to be with Bruce for however long they may have lasted so that he could live with himself after it was all over. Ironically it was the most selfless act that she had ever managed to perform, and though it felt entirely unfair, she supposed that the worst things were done with even the best intentions. She could live with the fact he was alive and that he hated her. She accepted that would be the outcome when she kissed him and told him the basics of how she felt. Adoration had been all she was willing and able to part with at the time and it felt like so little now that she had lost him. Day after day, she had given him pieces of herself, pieces that he took with him when he left. Pieces she knew that she probably wouldn't get back and that she wasn't certain she even wanted returned to her. After all, they were pieces that Bruce himself had managed to put together in her, he deserved to keep them.

And now Natasha stood alone with those thoughts as she watched a silhouette approach the beaten down house. She had noticed the possible intruder when they were much farther away, but until now, she hadn't been sure if they actually intended to come to her rundown abode. Three days in the crumbling shack left her twitchy and prone to violent reactions, so she waited by the front door with the only weapon she had on her person, a sleek and simple combat knife that Bruce had given to her what felt like a lifetime ago. She schooled her breaths to be even and silent as she awaited the coming footsteps. It seemed clear that the person had no interest in stealth, though she didn't imagine at this point that Ross was interested in covert tactics. He was coming for her to try and get to Bruce but Ross couldn't see the flaw in his plans; he didn't know that she had completely and utterly screwed up everything in order to save Bruce from himself, in order to be able to be in a place Bruce deserved in case she hadn't ruined everything.

It seemed like forever as the person hesitated outside the door and she felt her heart begin to race. When you were strung out on no sleep and no food for seventy-two hours it became near impossible to keep calm and even more impossible to remain stoic. The door slowly swung open and she didn't hesitate as the intruder stepped inside; she grabbed a hold of them and slammed them into the wall just inside the door. Natasha's vision was unclear, bathed in red for just a moment and ready to deliver swift death, or she was, right up until she realized who it was.

She froze with the knife just a breath away from his chest. Her breathing hitched slightly as the violent tendencies of her reddened vision faded and cleared. Slowly the invader's face came more clearly into her sight and she wondered for that very moment if she was hallucinating.

"Natasha..."

For just a brief moment, she was torn, torn between kissing Bruce Banner or actually stabbing him. She chose neither option as she slowly pulled the knife back to her side and took a few steps backwards. She had gone much longer without sleep or food for him to purely be a visage of her mind and he refused to fade as instead he stepped forward and placed his hands gently on either side of her face.

Bruce's brown eyes looked full of sorrow and self-loathing and she knew because she saw much the same in the mirror when she dared to look into one. He didn't say anything, he just stared at her as though he couldn't really believe she was standing there.

"What are you doing here, Bruce?" she questioned, barely managing to keep emotion from breaking through her voice and her face.

It felt near impossible to keep up the charade, even harder when he spoke, "Don't do that...don't hide. That's not fair, Natasha."

She ignored his request and instead asked again, "What are you doing here?"

"You really thought I wouldn't come?" Bruce asked with sheer disbelief, "this is happening because of me."

She reached her hand up tentatively to his cheek and her thumb traced over his bottom lip. "So you came to play the white knight? I don't need one," she assured him, "I've done just fine on my own."

"Natasha, that's not—I'm here because I care."

She was forced to chew on her lower lip before she managed to overcome her inability to speak and when she did, her voice sounded foreign to her own ears as her rasp of a voice escaped. All the hurt and anger came flooding back as she said the words aloud while she took a few steps back from Bruce again, "I believed that once before, Bruce, when you said it would be enough." She saw the hurt in his eyes in an instant and she shook her head as she looked away, "You lied..."

"A broken heart
hides so many treasures."

END

Thanks to everyone who enjoyed the ride for 'The Gray Areas' and I hope to see you again for the next installment, 'In Ruins'.