"Oh c'mon, go to the beach," Nat muttered under her breath. She sat in the cockpit watching the instruments on the dashboard. After an hour of smashing through the jungle, the Hulk had settled nearly a kilometer into the interior of the island, away from the shore. He hadn't moved in twenty minutes.
If she had had her way, Nat would have waited him out rather than force herself to trudge through the jungle another time, but the vague alien threat Tony had promised loomed over her. She'd have to rough it. Again.
"Fine, be that way," she muttered, touching the jet down on the beach, as close to his location as she could. She didn't pack anything this time, just setting out into the dark rainforest in her suit.
As she walked, she filtered through what she'd say. The Hulk seemed happier here—maybe he'd be calm again. Even as the thought crossed her mind she threw it away. That cabana had been his home for months and he'd destroyed it without a second thought. He was clearly pretty pissed.
He didn't like Bruce's feelings—that much had become clear. He thought that they made Bruce weak. A pit settled in her stomach as she realized the odds—she was coming to make him leave the island he loved, and she had been at the center of Bruce's most turbulent feelings in the past few days. He wasn't going to be happy to see her.
She found him after only an hour of trekking. He was pulverizing a tree when she saw him—at least it was loud enough to cover her approach. She watched silently as he smashed it between the ground and a huge ebony tree next to him. Once it had shattered, he jumped on it, pounding the remaining shards into wood chips. When he finished, he stood there for a moment, breathing hard and looking around for his next target. No time like the present.
"Hey, big guy," Nat called out from behind him. She tried to make her voice melodic, but it cracked instead. He turned around and froze—she watched his nostrils flare as his eyes found her.
He roared loudly and charged at her.
"Shit," Nat muttered under her breath. She turned and ran around the ebony tree, pulling one of her pistols from its holster on her thigh. She disengaged the safety as she ran, holding it low to the ground. As she ran she approached a large fallen tree, rotting with age. She slid under it, twisting as she did so to face him. He jumped over the log, and as he soared above her, she fired into his feet, clearing the pistol's magazine in six quick shots. The Hulk roared as he landed and slid away from her, his momentum slow to stop. Nat re-holstered the pistol and grabbed at her bracelet, aiming and firing a taser into him at near point-blank range. He roared again and fell to the ground as she clambered out from beneath the tree, back the way they had run.
She rotated the wrist unit to another taser as she ran. Her mind was spinning, trying to think of a way out of this. The last time she had really faced off with the Hulk had been the helicarrier, and that hadn't ended well. The only reason she survived was because Thor had swung through and saved her ass. She heard the Hulk roar again as he got to his feet and set off after her.
The ebony tree he had been smashing his other tree against was tall and imposing, without any branches in the first twenty feet. Nat ran past it—she didn't have time to fire a climbing line with him so close on her heels. When she heard a crack just behind her, she fired another taser over her shoulder. He bellowed in rage and crashed to the ground, almost brushing her heels. She knew it would only buy her a precious few seconds head start.
Nat scanned the jungle as she ran, looking left and right for a good tree to climb, anything to get above him. She found one about twenty yards ahead and twisted her gauntlet to shoot her climbing line. She could hear him up and crashing through the jungle again behind her.
She fired the line as she got close and used it to walk herself up the tree. She passed the lowest branches, seeking out a thick one about twenty feet up. She let the line retract as she scrabbled up more branches, only stopping when her lungs quit on her and she was a solid forty feet off the ground. No way he'd be able to grab her at this height. She hugged the trunk as she caught her breath, her heart pounding in her chest. Her line had caught on a branch below; she shook it a few times, trying to free it.
He ran into the small clearing where the tree stood after a moment. He quieted, then looked up and saw her. He growled, leaping and smashing into the tree trunk. Nat heard a loud crack and felt the branch shift beneath her, swaying from the force of his blow. Shit. It must be rotten.
She jiggled the line again and felt it finally come loose from whatever had hooked it. She watched it snake back inside slowly. Not fast enough. The tree lurched beneath her and she clung to the trunk to keep her balance, feeling it sway, leaning further over. One more hit and she'd be a goner. She watched the line retract, just a few feet left. . .
The tree lurched again and a massive crack signaled its defeat. Nat's stomach fell out from under her as the tree gave way, toppling over. She blindly shot the climbing line into space, unable to aim as she fell with the tree. The Hulk howled, stomping towards her, but thankfully the line caught, and Nat swung over him, fast.
He swatted at her like a fly, turning on his heel to watch her swing away. The line had caught on a massive beech tree, nearly three meters wide at its base. Nat's swing was wild and uncontrolled—she was heading straight for the trunk, at speed. She crashed hard, her body making a low thud as it hit. She grunted, her left arm and side absorbing most of the impact in a jolt of blinding pain.
She was hanging from her bracelet against the trunk, her feet not touching anything. There was a branch at waist level, and she used her feet to edge herself towards it, draping herself across it at her midsection. The ribs on her left side screamed in agony as she put her weight on her stomach—she must have broken one.
Down below, the Hulk bellowed in fury—this was another tree he could do nothing against. He pounded at the wood while Nat edged herself slowly onto the branch, gritting her teeth at the pain. Thankfully, the branch was wide enough for her to sit on—she leaned against the massive trunk and took a moment to catch her breath, letting the Hulk tire himself out howling below. She could feel her ribs grind as her lungs rose and fell, sending aftershocks of pain into her with every movement.
"Ok, I think I've had enough," she called out. "Are you done too? Cause I'm beat."
The Hulk quieted below. She could hear him huffing for breath, but he didn't roar again.
"I know I'm bad news. Sorry." Nat called down. She tried to sit up, but a cloud of static entered her vision and she slumped back against the trunk instead. "We gotta go though. I don't know what to tell you. I don't want to lie."
She heard the Hulk grunt below.
"We can come back here. If you want," she offered. "I don't know if you'll believe me or not when I say that, but I mean it. You guys are stuck with each other—no getting around that. It's about time he offered you your fair share, right?"
The Hulk didn't reply. Nat needed to see his face—she had to know what she was up against. She craned her neck to look below and saw that there was another branch, maybe ten feet down, blocking her view of the Hulk. She hadn't realized how high up she was—nearly sixty feet in the air. She looked up and saw the hold the climbing line had gotten on the branch above her. It was secure.
She bit her lip and tipped herself over the edge of the branch. The air went out of her with a whoosh as the line caught her weight, her right shoulder burning as it stretched too far. The line lowered her slowly until she felt her toes touch the next branch. She slumped down again with a huff of hair, her left side on fire, her right arm useless. The black fuzz took a little longer to clear from her vision this time.
"I know he's gonna feel awful when he sees I'm hurt," Nat said, smiling to herself. "I'll have to convince him it wasn't you that did it—just my own stupidity. I know you don't like his feelings, especially when they're bad."
She craned her neck again and watched the Hulk as he spat on the ground below, curling his lip with disgust. He seemed small from so high up.
"But I don't think he's going to feel bad much anymore," she called down again.
"Liar!" the Hulk snarled.
"Liar? Me? Why do you say that?" she asked.
"Liar. Hurt Banner."
Nat bit her lip. "Yeah. I did. I have. I might still—but never on purpose." She looked down and saw the Hulks face, glowering up at her. She took a moment, trying to figure out what to say.
"Do you know what love is?" she asked.
The Hulk growled.
"I was always taught that it was weakness. That if I ever felt it, it allowed those who wanted to hurt me an opportunity to do so that they hadn't had before. And it seemed like everybody wanted to hurt me. I feel like you can relate to that."
The Hulk grunted.
"So, I wasn't very good at it. Then I met Clint—you know, the bow and arrow guy. He was one of the first people ever to not hurt me when he had the chance. And that was terrifying. I didn't understand it. If you had the chance, you took the kill shot. That's what I was always taught."
She took a deep breath, the pain clouding her vision again.
"And slowly, Clint showed me that holding that power, but not using it, not abusing it, was the best feeling of all. It's this terrifying, dizzying feeling. I don't even know how to describe it—trust."
The Hulk snorted, clearly not following her. She peered down at him.
"I want you to trust me, when I say that we'll come back here. Or go where you'd like to go, every so often. It can't be permanent—you gotta share with Banner—but it can be sometimes."
He growled, low.
"I know it's a lot to ask. But I need you to trust me. And I need to trust you too."
The Hulk snorted with disdain.
"That feeling, trust? Bruce feels it, for me. And I feel it for him. And even saying that to you now scares me, so you gotta keep it a secret, ok?" Nat laughed, suddenly teary-eyed. She couldn't tell whether it was from the pain or the intensity of her feelings.
She listened as the Hulk stood beneath her, his breathing uneven.
"I trust him. And he trusts me. And if I ever break that trust, I hope you'll be the first one to make me pay for it. In fact, I'm counting on you. So is he."
The Hulk huffed once. Nat looked down and saw his face—it was grim, but no longer enraged. He merely scowled at her.
"Sometimes you'll have to fight, but sometimes you'll get to just live. And when the fight is over, I'll need my Bruce back, and I need to trust that you'll give him to me. Think you can do that, big guy?"
Nat twisted over to look down at him, wanting to see his face again. As she did, she felt something crack in her side and her vision blacked out. She lurched, her arms wheeling, grasping for anything to keep her balance. They came up short, and she fell.
She heard the buzzing sound of the climbing line extending to its full length. She felt the painful, yanking jolt as she hit the end of the line and her shoulder popped loudly, absorbing the shock. She heard the line as it snapped, over-tasked with the events of the day and the weight of her fall. Her stomach dropped out from under her as she fell once more. Then, something warm and large caught her, grasped her gently, and lowered her to the ground.
She opened her eyes blearily to see the Hulks glowering face standing over her, his nostrils flaring.
"Trust," he harrumphed before turning away.
Nat lay there, feeling the waves of pain from her ribs and shoulder where the climbing line had caught her weight. The jungle felt eerily quiet around her, a dull roar fading in and out in her ears. She could feel her pulse in every place where she hurt, pushing sinew and muscle away to let the blood flow through.
"Nat?" she heard Bruce's voice. She tried to roll over, to stand up so she could nonchalantly reassure him that everything was ok. Pain seared down her side, however, and she slumped back, biting her lip to keep from screaming.
"Oh my god," she heard him stumble, tripping and then crawling over to her. His face appeared in her vision, frantic.
"Are you ok? What the hell happened? Nat, I am so sorry," he rushed, panicked.
"I'm fine," she whispered, afraid to breathe in too deeply and move her ribs more. "I think I just broke a rib. And before you freak, it wasn't you, it was me. I swung into a tree like a dumbass."
"Escaping me." Bruce retorted. "We need to get you to the jet."
"Help me up," she commanded.
"Nat—"
"Now."
He waited a moment, clearly considering how he might defy her, but then held out a hand. She leaned on it heavily, gritting her teeth and pulling herself up to a sitting position.
"Do you trust me?" she asked, looking Bruce in the eye.
He was distraught, the guilt and agony plain in his eyes. He hesitated before quieting and finally whispering, "yes."
"The Hulk saved me. He caught me when I fell."
Bruce didn't say anything, chewing on that.
"I offered him a deal—more time out. In exchange for battles and letting you return to me afterwards."
"Nat, you can't know—"
"You're right. I can't. I don't. But I trust. And that's what this whole thing is about Bruce—trust. You said you trusted me, right?"
"Yes," he agreed reluctantly.
"Then do."
He sat back on his heels, pursing his lips and looking off into the distance.
"If I hurt you Natasha. . ."
"I trust you."
He looked at her. She looked back, her gaze level. She could see his anxiety. But she could also see his desire to believe her. She chose to believe he would.
"Help me stand up, before I pass out like this," she instructed, holding out her hand for assistance. He helped her up and she leaned against him heavily. He went to lift her right arm over his shoulder to support her on the walk back, but she grimaced.
"What else is hurt?" he panicked.
"May have yanked this shoulder a bit falling on the climbing line. No biggie."
Bruce groaned, but swapped sides without a word, gingerly giving her ribs space yet supporting her at her shoulder as she walked next to him, only stumbling occasionally on their trek back to the jet.
"We're not going to Wisconsin now, right?" he asked as they walked.
"Of course we're going."
"Nat, you're hurt!"
"I'll stay in the jet, provide air support. You'll be needed on the ground."
"I can't believe this."
"I said the work would be hard. This is what I meant. A little bit of tape on these ribs and I'll be good as new."
"And the arm?"
"Only need one arm to fly."
Bruce grumbled but didn't say anything. Nat knew the come-down must have taken a toll on him too, but he didn't say a word, stoically supporting her on the way back. She almost blacked out twice, her legs buckling beneath her, but she didn't tell him that. She knew he'd only feel worse. Plus, she had a gloating feeling of victory in her stomach. The Hulk trusted her. And she trusted him.
Back on the jet, the diagnostic wand declared that Nat had three broken ribs, a bruised spleen, and a severely dislocated shoulder. Bruce blanched as F.R.I.D.A.Y's even voice declared each injury nonchalantly. Nat sent him to get her some clothes while the popped the shoulder back in herself, biting down on her cheek until she drew blood to keep from screaming. She had dealt with worse before—this was nothing too serious.
The jet was quick to dispense some hardcore pain killers. Nat gulped them down. She insisted they get the jet in the air and heading back towards the states before letting Bruce tend to her ribs. He protested, but allowed her to set a trajectory and enable autopilot—even with her ribs and shoulder busted, Nat was formidable.
Once they were finally flying, she walked back into the cabin and allowed him to tend to her. He let out a whoosh of air as she unzipped her suit and exposed her left side to him. She looked down and exhaled herself—she had never seen that color purple under her own skin before.
"Pretty impressive, huh?" she smiled.
"This is my worst nightmare," Bruce muttered. She could hear the horror in his voice.
"Hey, I did this one to myself. Honestly. I'm not going to argue it with you. Just believe me, ok?"
He didn't say a word, winding the tape around her midsection in silence. With the pain killers, Nat felt only a dull ache. She smiled as he wrapped to let him know she was alright. When he finished, he got up and walked away, wringing his hands. He began pacing on the other side of the planning table where they had lain just that morning. It felt like it had been much longer.
Nat stood up and sidled over to him, gently grasping his hands in hers, stopping their frantic motion. "Hey," she whispered. She looked at him and saw tears in his eyes.
"I'm sorry," he whispered, the guilt eating at his voice.
"It's ok. I'm ok. Truly."
"If I hurt you Nat. . ."
"You didn't, and you won't. Trust me?"
He nodded wordlessly. She leaned up and kissed him, winding her good arm around his neck. She felt his hands gingerly grasp her waist, afraid to hurt her.
"Then let's go save the world," she whispered into his ear, smiling.
She looked him in the eye and watched him give in. A small smile spread across his features.
"Ok," he agreed.