"Aunt Jen, did you know my mom?"
The question caught Jennifer off guard. It wasn't something that she'd even talked with Bella about before, and she wasn't entirely sure how Bruce would want her to handle it now. The fork Jennifer had been holding clattered on her plate as she gawked back at her niece.
"Uhh..." Jennifer hesitated, looking into her niece's large, curious eyes. "If there is something specific you wanna know, better wait until your dad gets home tomorrow."
"I know dad knew her. I didn't ask something specific. I ask if you knew her." Isabelle sighed quietly.
"I- I just..." Jennifer closed her eyes tightly, trying to think of something, anything to say. "Yeah, baby doll. I knew your mama."
Isabelle's face brightened only slightly, but she looked skeptically at her aunt.
"Did you like her?"
Jennifer felt like the air had left the room. She smiled weakly.
"Yeah." She nodded, "Yeah. I uh, I loved Alice." Jennifer responded truthfully. "She was a very sweet, soft spoken young woman. She had this... presence? I guess? It was just like... being around her you couldn't be sad. She made people happy, just by being there. It was something I really think she passed on to you, kid. That's why everyone you meet just falls in love with you." She smiled and booped the end of Belle's nose with her finger.
"Really?" Isabelle ask, wide-eyed. "Daddy doesn't... he doesn't talk about her much. Papa will sometimes, but since the accident I don't see him much anymore."
Jennifer felt even more out of place and her heart ached.
Bruce's DID was not something he really preferred to talk about, at least not with Jennifer. She'd spoken to 'the other guy', as Bruce would call him, a few times when they were children. Most memorably once on a youth group camping trip her mother had insisted would be good for them, and the two of the them had gotten separated from the group and a storm caught them in the woods. He'd told her in very gruff, short words that he was there to protect her and 'Little Banner' as he had referred to Bruce, and to trust her. She simply nodded and did as he said, getting them back to the camp safely within a couple hours.
Before the accident, Jennifer didn't know of him having a name. As a young adult, she had read a few books to better understand what her older brother was going through and how to support him, and she had found that it was somewhat common for alters to not have names. Jennifer knew he had a relationship with Belle. Belle called him 'Papa', though it was not clear if that was his choice or hers. She had a remarkable sense of the difference between the two from birth.
"You miss him?" Jennifer ask quietly. "Your Papa?"
Isabelle shrugged.
"He doesn't hurt as much when he can be big. Plus now he has his own name." Isabelle replied. "I think Dad misses the way they were before..." She pushed a pile of broccoli around her plate.
"I didn't mean to change the subject on you, doll. You wanted to talk about your mama." Jennifer said, smiling gently at her niece.
"I just..." Isabelle shrugged. "I know it's my fault. So I try not to bring her up to dad. He just looks so hurt when I do. But I read a book about losing a parent young... One of dad's actually. It said I am right to have questions... I just don't wanna hurt Daddy."
"You're too smart for your own good." Jennifer replied gently. "Ask questions, baby girl. Bruce isn't going to mind- He'd hurt more to know you've been sitting on this for so long."
"I just-" She shrugged her tiny shoulders again. "I dunno. Can you tell me more?"
"Yeah. Of course. Promise me you'll talk to your dad sometime though?" Jennifer ask. She held her hand out, pinky extended.
"I promise." Belle agreed, hooking her own pinky finger on her aunts, sealing their promise.
"Alice..." Jennifer paused in thought as the two moved from the counter where they had been eating to the couch. "Alice wanted you so much. Not- Not that your daddy didn't of course... But oh, God. Alice was so excited to be your mama. She loved you from day one. She made this thing... This like... Shadow box with her sealed pregnancy test and the first ultrasound..." Jennifer smiled sadly.
"Oh." Isabelle said softly, snuggling into her aunt.
"No baby, don't be sad." Jennifer soothed the tiny girl's hair. "No... She knew. Around six months with you... Her heart started giving her issues. She knew. She and your dad talked to specialist after specialist. Some of them told her and your dad..." Jennifer paused mid-sentence.
"To abort?" Isabelle guessed, looking up.
"Y-Yeah." Jennifer gulped. "Neither of them were super fond of the idea- but holy... Alice would get so mad. So that was when your dad first stepped back from that contract he'd been working on. The one where they met. To spend all the time he could with her."
Isabelle let out a small sniffle and Pixel jumped up onto her lap and swatted at her loose curls, trying to cheer her owner up.
"He really loved her, huh?"
"Yeah. First time I ever saw him like that." Jennifer nodded, petting the kitten.
"So I took that from him." Belle croaked.
"Woah. Woah woah woah." Jennifer snapped, picking Isabelle up into her arms. "No. No no no. You are the light in that man's universe. Don't you ever doubt that. The day you were born her just sat and looked at you for hours. He was hurting, sure. We all were, but he and your mama... They knew, baby. They made the choice together- mostly Alice, but she made Bruce understand- You were all she wanted in life. So when you got here, yeah, he was broken-hearted, but he had you and he made a promise. He would just hold you... hours. Just hold you on his chest, playing in the little wispy curls you were born with. He'd read to you and talk to you..." Jennifer had started crying too. "I lived with you guys for the first six months of your life, by the way. Just to help out."
"You are who took all the pictures from when I was a baby? I remember them." Isabelle sniffled.
"I still have the films, I keep meaning to get you guys new prints. I hate you've lost them, but we can get some more." She said gently. "I'll do it ASAP, I promise."
'Banner.'
Bruce groaned in his sleep, shifting on the cot in his cell.
'Banner. Wake up.'
"No." Bruce replied aloud.
'BANNER.'
"What?!" Bruce shouted, his voice echoed back to him in the cell.
'Hulk heard the guards.' Hulk rumbled in his head. 'Thunderbolt still wants Belle.'
"We're not going to let that happen." Bruce replied. "Not us, not Tony. Not a chance."
'Keep up guard.' Hulk insisted.
"Always, buddy, always." Bruce replied, almost amused. He looked around the cell, which was darkened for the night. 'Listen, man. We need to rest, I don't want to look rough getting back to Belle, It would upset her.'
'Fine. Banner sleeps. Hulk listens.' Hulk growled again.
'Whatever you say, man.' Bruce replied inside. 'Just- don't yell at me anymore please. I thought it was time to fight.'
'Hulk wish'
'Yeah, I know you do.' Bruce laughs, the smile cross over from their mental conversation.
When Bruce drifts off, he dreams of Alice.
He's dreamt of her many, many times over the years. Sometimes, its memories. Other times, she talks to him, says things that he needs to hear, and the logical part of his brain knows these are his own thoughts and words, that Alice is gone and she isn't speak to him this way. But he wants to think it is her, that she helps him still, with their daughter, with life.
This night, it is neither. Bruce finds himself in an open field, soft wind blowing the wildflowers all around. He can see her, curled up neatly on a picnic blanket under a maple tree. She's wearing one of her most favorite sundresses, a pale yellow with cornflowers and white belt- A favorite of Bruce's as well. Pixel, Isabelle's cat, is on her lap.
It feels like he walks for hours to reach her, and she beams up at him when he makes it, holding out a hand.
"Hey boys." She greets. "How are you two getting along with our girl?"
"We let her down." Bruce confesses, and he hears the split sound of his own voice mingling with Hulk's.
"You don't." Alice smiles again, the breeze blowing her hair softly. "Belle adores you."
"I-"
"Keep her safe. You and Miss Pixel, here." Alice finishes. "I also love Uncle Tony, he's a good find."
"I miss you." Bruce feels hot tears roll down his cheeks. Alice reaches over, one hand still on Pixel. She stroke's down Bruce's unshaven jaw.
"I miss you, too." She smiles. "I love you so much, and I just... I wish you could let me go."
"Wh- What?" Bruce gasps, hurt.
"Let me go, Sweetheart. I'm always with you, with Belle. But you can't hold on all alone anymore."
"I don't understand." Bruce blurts out.
"You need to let people in. Build a life in New York. Be an Avenger, save the world." Alice beams.
"But-"
"Hush." she laughs. "Don't. I just need you to do this for me."
"I still don't understand." Bruce shakes his head, his hand holding hers tightly to his cheek.
"the Spider." Hulk answers before Alice can, and she laughs and nods.
"The beautiful Russian Spider." She agrees.
"Natasha?" Bruce questions. His eyebrow arches as he looks into the overly amused green eyes of his daughter's mother. Alice nods.
"I like her." she smiles. "And she loves our girl."
"Yeah. Yeah, she really does." Bruce nodded.
"She likes you too, though. Maybe I should say, she likes you two, too, though." She laughed. "When Ross lets you go- keep this in mind."
"Alice..." Bruce breathes, taking her hand and kissing her knuckles.
"I know." She smiles. "I'll always be with you, but you need to be happy, too."
"Please." Bruce chokes out. "I didn't- I don't-" He stops and thinks of words to say. "I love you."
"I know you do." She smiles again, shifting so that Pixel hops off her lap and runs off. "I love you, too. But you have to live. For me, for Belle... But for you, too."
"You're not coming back to visit me like this anymore, are you?" Bruce asks sadly.
"I don't know. Maybe, maybe not. But I'm still always right beside you. It will be okay." She assures him.
"No." Bruce feels the tears falling again. "Please."
"You have to." She smiles, moving closer. Bruce swears he can feel the feather-light kiss dream Alice presses into his lips. "You have to."
"Up, Banner." A voice barks, jarring him awake.
Bruce feels the wet remnants of his crying on his cheeks as he sits up on the guard's command.
"I'm up." He growls under his breath. Instinctively, he rolls up his sleeve, and they come and take more vials of blood away. A tray of food is delivered. Bruce bides his time, awaiting release, mere hours away.
His thoughts stay on the dream.
On the words playing over and over in his mind.
'The beautiful Russian spider.'
Sorry this took so long... But hey! He's going home!
Thanks for reading, be sure to follow and review- its my lifeblood lol