Bruce IV: Stranded

In the middle of the semester, Bruce got a week off from work. As soon as he heard this news, Thor insisted they take a trip up to their family cabin. Bruce, having heard him rave about the cabin multiple times, enthusiastically agreed. The long car ride was a bit of a bore, but Loki proved a fascinating conversationalist. He'd even read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, so they spent a good majority of the trip discussing it, much to Thor's disappointment. He fell asleep halfway through from boredom.

When they arrived, all the passengers eagerly bounded out of the car to stretch their legs. Thor and Valkyrie headed straight for the water, Loki not far behind. Bruce took his time, taking in the majestic scenery around him. He'd already been in Norway for several weeks, but the sights never ceased to amaze him. The cabin itself was…quaint. Bruce failed to understand the décor which included a chair mounted on the wall, but none of the Odinsons would explain it to him. Mr. Odinson only winked when Bruce asked—although, given he only had one eye, it could've just been a blink.

Thor thrust a spare wetsuit and life jacket into Bruce's hands and instructed him to meet them down by the water at soon as possible. Bruce changed as quickly as he could, which wasn't very fast since he'd never put on a wetsuit before, and headed over. Loki was already a ways out on a paddleboard with Fenris, while Thor and Valkyrie stood on the end of the dock waiting for Bruce. "What do you think?" Thor asked.

"It's amazing," Bruce said. "How's the water?"

"Never very warm. But…wetsuit helps." With that, he leapt into the water. Valkyrie followed. Bruce hesitated, first kneeling down to dip a finger in. It was freezing. He doubted even a wetsuit could make it bearable. "Come on!" Thor urged. "You can't come to the cabin and not get in the water."

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Bruce assured. He sat down and dropped his feet in. That seemed like enough for now. Thor swam up to Valkyrie and directed her closer to the dock. The dog hauled herself out of the water and shook out, spraying Bruce with pellets of frigid water. But she didn't stop there. She took a few steps back and charged him, tackling Bruce into the water. He went down in a confused tangle of limbs and fur. Bruce came up spluttering and coughing, but the sound of Thor's laughter nearly drowned him out.

"You and your brother aren't so different," Bruce growled.

"I guess not."

Right on time, Loki paddled up from behind him. Apparently, he'd stowed a squirt gun in his life jacket before setting out, because he pulled it out like a gangster about to eliminate his enemy and shot Bruce in the head with a stream of water so powerful it felt like a needle. Bruce splashed him back, but mostly missed. He resigned himself to a very wet and cold week.

~0~

The temperature of the water stopped bothering him after that first day. Bruce spent every day out on the water with the Odinson brothers and Valkyrie. Fenris was older and preferred to spend his time inside by the hearth with Thor's parents. The four of them made for a rather interesting crew, but Bruce enjoyed every minute of it. This place was more peaceful, more quiet, than any he'd ever visited before.

On their last morning here, they stood in front of the shed of water sports equipment trying to decide what to do. "Thor, we should take him to the island." Loki nudged his brother's shoulder and raised his eyebrows indicatively.

"What island?" Bruce asked.

"There's an island a few kilometers from here," Loki explained. "Maybe twenty five or thirty minutes away by canoe."

"And you have a canoe?"

"Yes, we have a canoe," Thor said, as if having a canoe was as normal as having a pair of socks.

"Are your parents okay with you just canoeing kilometers away into the Norwegian Sea?"

"Of course. We do it all the time," Loki said. Bruce searched his eyes for any hint of a mischievous glint, but found none. Thor grabbed them all life jackets from the shed, including one for Valkyrie, and he and Loki lugged the canoe down to the water. "Have you ever rowed before?" Loki asked as he handed Bruce an oar.

"No."

"It's not hard," Thor assured him. He practically pushed Bruce into the middle seat of the boat while Loki nimbly maneuvered into the front. Valkyrie hopped in behind him and lifted her nose to the wind. Thor, unafraid to get his feet wet, pushed them far enough out into the water that they started floating, and hopped into the back. He told Bruce which side to paddle on, and they started for this island. Though he could see no landmasses on the horizon, Bruce trusted the brothers knew where they were going. They'd spent almost every summer of their lives out here.

"So Bruce, how are you liking Norway so far?" Loki asked. His politeness surprised Bruce, who had heard horror stories of the chaos he inflicted during his brief visit to Gravesen and during everyday life with Thor.

"It's beautiful," Bruce said. He took a moment to soak in the sights around him. The water stretched infinitely towards the horizon, and behind them the mountains rose more majestic than New York skyscrapers. Just off shore, the cabin sat nestled among other similarly homey structures. It felt more peaceful than any place he'd ever been. When they got out of the car at the cabin for the first time, the noise in his head noticeably quieted. Not many things could get it to do that.

"Wait until you see the…island," Thor said. They rowed in silence for a few minutes, and the coastline behind them gradually retreated into the distance until it was barely visible. Bruce listened to the gentle splashing of their paddles in the water and the cries of birds occasionally echoing above their heads. It was amazing. Valkyrie barked as the island came into view. It was bigger than Bruce expected, but also far more barren. Excited to have finally arrived, they picked up the pace until the front of the canoe scraped against land. Loki hopped out and offered Bruce a hand. Thor and Valkyrie stepped out last, and then together they dragged the boat further on land.

"Wow. This is so cool," Bruce said. They stood on what looked like an enormous moss-covered rock. It was large enough that he couldn't see the other side from where he stood. A small outhouse-looking structure was the only man-made object in sight besides their canoe. Valkyrie stood right by Thor's side, but she looked eager to start exploring, her front paws tip-tapping.

"Okay, Val." Thor and the dog set off around the perimeter of the island. Bruce moved to follow, then noticed Loki didn't appear to be joining them.

"You coming?" he asked.

"No. I'm going to retape this paddle." He held up the paddle he'd been using, which had tape wrapped around almost the entire handle. Bruce didn't think it was necessarily a good sign that they'd rowed so far from shore with a broken oar, but at least they still had two others. He waved bye to Loki and followed Thor.

"How often do you come out here?" he asked.

"At…least once…every summer."

Now that he'd spent a few minutes here, Bruce didn't really understand what all the hype was about. The island was nothing more than a bare rocky expanse with some patches of grass here and there. He wondered if the structure they'd seen earlier was actually an outhouse or something else. Thor didn't really like to make conversation, especially while he was also focused on something else like navigating the shore. Valkyrie trotted beside him, occasionally dipping her nose to the ground. It took them about half an hour to make a complete lap of the island. However, the only think marking their completed circuit was the outhouse thingy. The canoe was gone. And so was Loki.

Thor muttered under his breath in Norwegian. Bruce didn't need to speak the language to know it was probably a profane something. "Did your brother just maroon us on a deserted island?" Bruce asked. The realization had already ignited something inside of him and he could feel the encroaching panic like a shadowy figure gaining on him in a frantic chase.

Thor hummed. "Maybe."

"What are we gonna do?" Bruce knew he was panicking now. Loki had suggested coming out here, only to abandon them.

"Relax. Far will nuh—notice we're gone. He knows where we are."

"How long until that happens?"

Thor only shrugged. He and Valkyrie maintained their composure easily, and Bruce failed to understand how they could be so level-headed in a situation like this. He sat down right where he stood and clutched his head in his hands.

"I just...need you to…stay calm," Thor said in a voice probably intended to be reassuring.

"Calm?! I'm stranded on an island!"

"It's just an…island. I'm sure you've been on an…island…before. Long Island? Staten…Island? Those are…places."

"I think you're missing the key point here. We're stranded."

"So what? It's a new ex-per…ear…pear." Thor paused and grunted in frustration. "A new thing. That's good."

"I would've been perfectly happy to live my entire life without the novel experience of being stranded on a deserted island."

"It's not deserted! We're here." He gestured between the two of them. Valkyrie barked sharply. "And Val's here too." Thor sat down beside him, at a loss, as Bruce continued to spiral. A familiar band began to tighten around his chest. Thor's hand reached out to rest on his shoulder, but stopped just short of actual contact. Thor fumbled for words, but didn't find anything to say. Valkyrie sat and watched both of them inquisitively.

"The sun's getting…real low," Thor said.

Bruce stared at him in utter confusion. "What the heck does that mean?"

"I dunno. It sounded calming. What can I do?" he finally asked.

Bruce floundered for an answer, but he didn't know, he didn't know, and he really hated not knowing. He needed to get off this island and to safety, but he didn't see how Thor could manage that. Valkyrie's whining soon cut through the roaring in his ears and he saw her start pawing at Thor.

"Shit," the other boy muttered.

"What's wrong?" Bruce asked. He tried to snap out of it at the alarmed tone of Thor's voice, but his breathing refused to cooperate. Chest heaving, he stared at Thor and tried to decipher what was going on. Thor looked sheepish and incredibly nervous. Valkyrie kept whining and pawing at him.

"'M gonna seize," he said hesitantly.

"What? How do you know?"

"Val's…antsy. She knows."

"How soon?" Now Bruce had two reasons to panic.

"Ten? Five minutes?"

"How can you not know?"

"'S not an exact sah—science."

Bruce was only good at exact sciences. Since he came to Norway, Thor had only had occasional absence seizures. Never a big one. Back at Gravesen, he'd never been one of the people to help him through. Valkyrie stopped fussing over Thor long enough to glare at Bruce accusingly, as if insulting him for not knowing what to do to protect her person.

"Tell me what to do," he demanded. The panic in his body gradually gave way to determination.

"Protect head," Thor said first. "The ground…is too…hard." His speech was even more stilted than usual, likely a result of nerves or some sort of pre-seizure aura. Bruce didn't know how long it had been since his last big seizure, so Thor was probably almost as scared as he was.

"Bruce, I can't get a con…con…cush…cuss…ush…" He closed his mouth and exhaled forcibly through his nostrils.

"Can Valkyrie help?"

"She can…catch if…I fall. And…get…help."

"Okay. Valkyrie, get help," Bruce commanded. She yapped in his face and smacked his thigh with a paw.

"You are help," Thor reminded him.

"Right. Shit." Bruce glanced around, fumbling for something to protect Thor's head from the unforgiving ground. His gaze locked on Thor's life jacket, and he reached out to unbuckle it.

"Good 'dea," Thor said, barely finishing the thought before his eyes rolled back. Bruce raced to get the life jacket under his head as he stiffened and then began to convulse. Valkyrie lay dutifully by his side, watching. Wasn't he supposed to time it or something? Even if he did, he couldn't exactly call emergency services when it went too long. Their phones were in a waterproof box in the canoe. The canoe that Loki had taken.

"I'm going to kill that little brat," Bruce muttered under his breath. After two minutes and forty seconds, Thor's convulsions slowed and then stopped. A trickle of bloody saliva ran from the corner of his mouth—from a bitten tongue, no doubt—but the life jacket appeared to have cushioned his head well enough. Bruce sat back on his haunches and heaved a sigh of relief.

"That might be the most stressed I've ever been in my life," he said aloud. Valkyrie wasn't listening, she was busy rolling Thor onto his side and into the recovery position. Bruce immediately moved to help. When they finished, she stood beside Thor's head, circled once, and laid down in a curled up bundle. She looked at Bruce and he swore he saw her nod approvingly.

Thor remained still for a few minutes, then began shifting and grunting a bit. His first coordinated movement was to reach out and rest a hand on Valkyrie's flank. She leaned in and licked his face all over. Bruce smiled at the display of companionship between the pair.

Fifteen minutes later, Thor was sitting up and taking sips from the water bottle Bruce had been carrying during their walk around the island.

"Sorry for my brother," he grumbled.

"What did you ever do to piss him off?"

Thor only shrugged. He rested his head back on the life jacket and fell asleep. Valkyrie curled up next to him. Bruce stood up and stretched, letting the stress-induced tightness in his back and shoulders loosen up a bit. He wandered over to the shore and splashed some water on his face. They were alive. Thor was uninjured. Thanks to him. When it mattered most, Bruce got a hold of himself and protected his friend. A few years ago, he probably would have bolted or melted into a useless ball of fear instead of helping.

The sun was setting by the time their rescue arrived—which for a Norwegian summer meant it was late. Fortunately, the zipper pockets of Valkyrie's vest contained extras of Thor's meds so he still took them on time. Also fortunate was Bruce's anxious habit of wearing a watch so they actually knew when he had to take them.

"Ahoy!" Mr. Odinson called from a speedboat.

"Far!" Thor moved to stand a little too quickly and would've fallen on his ass if Valkyrie hadn't caught him.

"He seized a few hours ago," Bruce explained. He helped Thor to his feet and let him lean on him on their way to shore, Valkyrie assessing his every move.

"Did he hit his head?"

"No. Bruce helped," Thor said. Together, they boarded the boat and sat down. Valkyrie took up residence by Thor's feet. "Where's my…brother?" he asked vengefully.

"Cleaning the bathroom," Mr. Odinson said. Bruce thought the little shit deserved worse, but it wasn't his decision to make. Besides, he definitely didn't leave them there thinking Thor would seize. It was an innocent enough prank that just so happened to be executed with terrible timing. Further, Bruce learned more from that experience than he had from the Grandmaster in weeks.