"Guys, where's Bruce," Tony enters in a panic, snapping his gum with a black eye and his arm in a sling.
Natasha lowers the crossword puzzle she's working on with an eye roll, her knees crossed, "What do you mean 'Where's Bruce'?"
"I mean; Where is he? He didn't show up for work and his room is cleared out."
"What?!" Natasha's chair squeaks when she stands, shouting with her eyes on Tony.
Clint looks up only once Natasha yells, Thor from stuffing his face full of pancakes and Steve from the rest of the newspaper Natasha hasn't stolen.
"He's gone- I don't understand-."
"Did you tell him about your arm? The government calls from Ross?"
"Well yeah! Who do you think patched me up?!"
"Ross?! Who is Ross?!" Thor asks with his mouth full.
Tony waves a hand, "Bruce patched me up. I made a joke about the hulk being a wrecking ball, told him about the General's call for his arrest and NOW he's gone."
Barton scoffs, sipping his coffee, "I can't imagine why!"
Natasha scrambles to the elevator, smashing the button continuously while Tony follows her;
"What are you doing?! He's not in his room."
"I'm a spy, maybe he left a trail," she bites back and enters the elevator, Tony behind her. The door closes on Rogers and Romanoff permits it to happen.
Her fist grips almost instinctively at Tony's collar, pinning the injured engineer up against the mirrored wall, "What! The hell! Were you thinking?! Why did you tell him about the hulk and your injuries -."
Stark gasps for air, "I-he asked! I'm always honest with him!"
"He's sensitive about the hulk, you know this. He could be off in the middle of nowhere and knowing Bruce?! We won't be able to track him."
"He deserved to know the truth! Don't you think?!"
"Right. Because sixteen casualties and breaking your best friend's arm on a mission where you're not in control-..."
"-Aww! You think I'm his best friend?"
The elevator dings and Natasha exits first, comfortable in her boots and leather jacket. She heads directly for his apartment and enters a passcode.
Tony gasps, "Woah! How do you know his code? I don't even know his code-."
"It's his mother's birthday."
"Oh…huh?!"
She enters without a word and searches his trash cans first- empty. She scans his cabinets, hacking his tablet next.
Tony snickers, "His Mom's birthday too?!"
"No," she refuses to elaborate and scans for evidence of a plane ticket, for signs of a bus pass- anything that will give her a lead.
He's not a hoarder, not one for decoration or any sort of collection. She knows he has nothing in his apartment to begin with due to the occasional coffee date. His room isn't looking too far different from its usual plainness- he's always ready to run.
She prints a document he's started and never finished- some project called home she thinks will lead to something. Natasha settles on the sofa and continues skimming through his emails, locating an official and semi threatening message from General Thaddeus Ross with a link from footage of his more 'savage' explosion.
She cringes almost painfully at the recollection. And the sight of Tony's broken arm and busted eye do nothing to reassure her. She shuts the table and moves for the hallway, "He's run away. If we can catch up to him we'll have a better shot. But I need all hands on deck. When did he patch you up?"
Tony follows with a mumble, "Errr, it was like...2am? Ish? He was giving me stitches."
"How did he look?"
"What? Why? You gotta crush?! He looked good if I do say so myself-."
She glares and elaborates, hitting the elevator buttons, "Was he upset, angry, frustrated over what you shared- did you have the TV on- the news specifically."
"Angry! He definitely looked angry. His eyes were green."
"They've been green for a month."
"Excuse you!"
"I have a hunch he's been steadily losing control; give me something else."
"Wha the wha?!"
The elevator dings and she exists first once again, addressing the team;
"Bruce is gone. I need all hands on deck. We need to look for passports, frequent hiding spots, refugee camps...caves. He's missing. We need to find him because someone else is after him. If we don't find Bruce soon with an explanation for his latest explosion; we're gonna owe the government an explanation and if I have to face Ross it won't be pretty."
"That could ruin us," Steve mumbles, standing up from the table.
"Exactly. Has Bruce mentioned anything to anyone? Some hiding spot- by way of a joke or otherwise, something, anything would be helpful. He dodges with humor…"
Thor lifts two fingers, standing while he chews his pancakes, "Dr. Banner mentioned a cave in amusement. It was a silly joke to me at the time but it could be a lead. Something North...North. Oh my Odin's bath tub-."
Tony laughs, "Ha! A bath tub."
Natasha glares, "I swear, if you don't wisen up and help us find Bruce, I will break your other arm."
"It was a woman's name- Caroline! Sweet Caroline," Thor laughs proudly, reaching to chug his glass of Orange juice.
"Great. There are over 900 caves and caverns in North Carolina,' Barton mumbles, cracking his knuckles, 'Any ideas, Nat?"
"A few…But we've gotta move before he does," she utters in reply with her gears turning..
. . . . . . . . . . .
Bruce is restless with another nightmare, smashing his half green body against some rock. The second he changes he's in tears once again, thinking about tearing up his friend- Tony Stark- a new one. He sniffles, dirty hand over his face with torn pants above his waist. His eyes are red and he's tired. So very tired.
He hugs his pants against his much smaller waist post transformation, and whimpers on the verge of another explosion he doesn't want to have.
"Hey big guy."
He looks up, spotting a redhead with her hair tied up and a backpack over her shoulder.
"The sun is getting real low," she observes almost emotionlessly.
When Bruce sees her his chest collapses, unable to argue her presence right then and there. He takes a breath, His elbow breaks. After 4 nights of sleeping in rocks- cold and lonely...she appears out of thin air- of course she does.
"Go Natasha," he doesn't open a conversation, unable to start a dialogue. He likes her- loves her- too much to risk having her too close.
"Bruce," she persists.
He smashes fist against the wall and keeps his face turned away from her, "Go! Before I hurt you."
"You won't hurt me," she persists.
"I could, I'm out of control right now, please go! You need to go!" He growls and groans, holding his head borderline animalistically on the verge of tears with his hands in his hair. He sinks onto a rock.
Romanoff looks over him empathetically wanting so badly to wrap the doctor in his fragile state up into her arms. He's clearly mid transformation and unsure if he'll explode green again. She eyes a patch in front of her and settles, flinging the backpack from off her shoulder;
"The boys are scanning the area looking for you,' she sets up her communicator and starts to text, 'I'm writing Steve."
"...is Tony okay?"
"Yeah,' she mumbles, 'He's okay."
"Did the hulk rip his arm out of its socket," Bruce finally asks without turning around.
"It wasn't that bad. He said you patched it for him."
"It looked horrible. So did his eye."
"He can see just fine,' she shuts her com and shoves it into a backpack pocket, 'It's not a big deal-."
"Don't you get it?!" He yells, furious with his eyes tinting green, "I'm a monster, Natasha! I'm out of control! I had to leave! I'm going to hurt you! All of you!"
"You won't."
"I will."
"You won't," she persists and inches closer. Eventually she extends a hand, her palm up.
"Nat-."
"Indulge me."
He sighs and rotates briefly, tears in his eyes. The man extends his hand though completely unimpressed.
She quirks a smile and brushes the dirt from his fingertips and rubs her fingers along his palm, "I have these same lines. These quirky things called fingerprints that make me uniquely human...looks like you have the same thing...huh."
He rolls his eyes. She continues to trace regardless, "Look at that. All I see is distinctly human. Even your greener half has those."
"Has what."
"Lines. A fingerprint."
Bruce retracts his hand and clenches a fist, "Which were clearly left on the victims from the last battle."
She bites her lip and leans forward, in her leggings and athletic wear, suddenly grateful she doesn't have to climb a mountain, "He did. But we cleared that. I talked with Ross." He looks up, curious over what she has to offer, unaffected when she merely shrugs it off with an "It was easy."
He smirks a bit, "What did you say?"
"I said that you're Avenger. Under SHIELD's protection. That you're our responsibility...mine specifically."
Bruce drops a defensive focus and bites his tongue, rubbing at his cheek over the fact that she would stick her neck out for his sake.
She laughs a bit, "So if you want to make me out to be some crazed Mountain Climber looking for bigfoot- this is a great start."
"Why'd you do that,' he asks, dropping his hand, 'I'm a nobody. I'm not worth-."
"You're worth it to me." she answers instinctively, standing with a need to ignore any further emotion, "Now if you're done hiding, the hulk could use some training sessions."
"No! No no no! I could hurt you. I don't trust myself."
"Well I trust you,' she extends his hand, 'So stop making me look like an idiot and get up. We're going home."
"I can't. I hurt people."
"You can,' she breaks her stoic expression momentarily, 'You can because I'm here. And I'm going to help you through this. I know you've been off, I'm not stupid. Somethings wrong. We need to figure out what it is."
"Why? Why would you help me?"
She shrugs with a brief twitch and a bit of avoidance for his question, "I'm bored. It'll give me something to do. Tony just bought a shack about a mile out for us. Yeah? Said we could use it for a Hulk hideout."
"He forgives me?"
Natasha glares briefly, "Tony wants you back in the lab by 9am tomorrow."
He grabs her hand and accepts the help up, "Not gonna happen."
"That's what I told him….easy there,' she catches his shoulders watching him stifle a sniffle, 'Are you okay?"
"No. Not really. All I hear is screaming in the back of my head...and its not from movie night...crying, mourning...why do I hear people crying-why- how many-."
"Okay, alright. It's alright, hey,' she nods empathetically, 'Eyes on me, yeah? It's alright. I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. You're not alone."