AN I don't own Marvel or any of the characters! As promised, this is Bruce's chapter! I'm not a huge fan of Brutasha but I do like them platonically so that's what I wrote! Tony and Bucky to come soon!
The next time Coulson knocked on her door, he had a security key card for her. She followed him down into depths of Shield she hadn't known existed and stopped in front of a heavily armored, cement, reinforced cell. Always a good sign, of course.
"Talk to him through there." Coulson opened a slat in the metal. "Doctor, I brought someone to see you." Doctor. God help her if he was criminally insane. Inside, she could hear someone hiss in displeasure but Coulson just gestured towards the door and walked away. Natasha moved up to the slat and peered inside. It wasn't a cell, really, as much as a bonafide office. There was a cot in one corner and a small, sectioned off bathroom area beside it. Other than that, though, it was full of lab equipment and blackboards covered in writing and equations that looked far too complex to be anything average. And the doctor… He wasn't small or skinny but he certainly wasn't a threat to her even if he looked disheveled and slightly sleep-deprived.
"Why are you in this cell?" The man inside scoffed and didn't look away from his table. He had glasses, she realized, and his brown hair was just shaggy enough to look unkempt. How long had he been down here?
"I put myself in it. Please go away." But she refused. He'd put himself in a cell? On purpose? She wanted to ask if it had been an accident or if he was being sarcastic but he didn't seem like the type who would be anything but direct and blunt. So, instead, she just sat there and watched him through the slot. She watched him until the hairs on the back of his neck prickled and drove him insane enough to talk to her again.
"What do you want."
"To understand." Slowly, she got pieces. It took weeks of consciously visiting him and asking exact, specific questions to put the pieces together into anything more than just fragments. But she did it. By the end of the month, she had amassed an entire board's worth of information and connections. So, when she appeared and read the entire thing to him, complete with her own speculations and observations, she almost prayed that he would see the intelligence as a friend rather than competition.
And, he just stood there. He stared at here, disbelieving, for over ten seconds before moving back to his equipment. She thought he might ignore her-she wouldn't have been surprised-but he began to speak as he worked and she strained to listen. He was correcting her, editing her narrative. Quickly, she began scribbling every detail he said on the page. If not for her own use, than to appear studious because he seemed like the typical nerd stereotype. It took days worth of listening but, slowly, very slowly the man relayed the entire story from beginning to end and she committed it to memory.
Dr. Banner. Bruce, as she soon learned he preferred. It honestly did upset her to hear the pain he suffered because, at least on some level, she could understand the fear he lived in. The idea of having a monster, barely contained beneath your flesh. A monster that could, and would, kill without question. Without discrimination. She felt that hit just a little close to home and it gave her a bit of sympathy, even if she did her best to hide it. But Bruce, if anything, was observant. He was a scientist and he watched her with the attention and scrutiny of any handler she'd ever had. He noticed when she was upset. He noticed when she held back, when she was genuine with him, and when she hadn't been sleeping well. She had no doubt he could tell there were other men she was close to, if not know their names, but he never asked. He just observed.
She let their dynamic continue like that for weeks. Bruce was calm, quiet, and reserved compared to most Shield agents and she was more than willing to put in the time and prove to him that she could be trusted. He got used to her, slowly, and began to expect her daily visits. If she let herself analyze him, she might have even said he looked forward to seeing her. But, after two months, she knew it was time. She unlocked the door and stepped inside, closing it behind her. Coulson screamed at her and so did Bruce but she calmly walked in and sat down on the little cot.
"You don't understand! You have to get out of here!" He was panicking, but she simply regarded him with her usual calm, collected look.
"No, I understand perfectly. You could kill me in an instant but you won't." Bruce snorted bitterly and retreated to the darkest corner of the cell. But she knew from experience what his expression and his movements meant so she knew he wasn't truly angry. Just scared.
"You shouldn't have that much faith in my human side" He was bitter, laughing darkly, but she didn't correct him, she just laughed along. It caught him off guard-her goal-and made him listen.
"I don't. But I'm pretty, I have an attractive body, and I have no means of escape. To the more primitive side of you, I'm not only easy prey but I'm the perfect mate and you wouldn't hurt a biologically sound mate. That's just science, Doctor." Slowly, he emerged from the shadows and began to speak to her. She could see in his face how scared he was of losing control. It hurt, honestly, because she understood that fear so well and she knew exactly how it felt to be scared of yourself, how hard it was to escape that. It was what made her so determined to break through to him.
"You have a better chance of hurting me than he does, Banner. I may be pretty but I'm not stupid." Her use of science and logic got him to come closer, if only slightly. "I was afraid of losing control too, a while ago. I was an assassin before I came to work for Shield, the kind of lethal that has to be bred and beaten into a person. If my control wavered, I could kill hundreds of people without breaking a sweat because I was-am-smart. That twisted side of me would use any means necessary to inflict suffering, even biological weapons and bombs, whatever got the highest kill count. I even tried once. I was a monster, without any radiation to help me get there." She had his interest, she could see that plain as day. Even as shabby and sheltered as he appeared, he was listening to her with bright eyes and a kind of intelligence she loved. He was listening to her, actually listening, and considering it.
"Why aren't you afraid now?" That was the question she was waiting for. The one she'd rehearsed for, planned for, and worked this entire time just to get him to ask her. The one that would help him most.
"Because I understand the Black Widow in me. I'm not afraid of what she can do, I was afraid because I didn't understand her. You have to understand the hulk side of you, Dr. Banner, that's all. Understand his motivations and his instincts. Knowledge is the enemy of fear." A look of realization shone on Bruce's face that made her want to scream with happiness. For the first time since meeting him, he looked hopeful. It was that hope that let her get close to him, let her build a relationship on his side of the cell door, and it was that hope that strengthened her resolve to help.
He was a scientist, through and through, and so, together, they analyzed and studied him. They did experiments, they ran tests, and they wrote up reports because graphs and logical thought on paper seemed to steady Bruce. She did everything she could to steady him. She learned physics, basically, and learned alongside him through the experiments until she could understand why he suddenly got so excited or so dejected by results. By the time they ran out of things to test, he was more than comfortable being around her. She knew it was time.
"Take my hand." He did, without question, which made her chest swell with pride. "We're leaving this cell, Bruce." Before she even finished the sentence, he was protesting and trying to pull away but she refused to let him. And, rather than morph into the hulk, he just stood there in his fear and anger, completely human.
"I'm not asking, Bruce. What you understand, you can control. We're going upstairs now." He swallowed hard and hesitated but she squeezed his hand and nodded. And he followed her.
His eyes were dark with fear and his hands shook, even in hers, but he followed her. He blinked in the sudden bright light and shied away from the open door, his pulse racing against her skin, but he followed her. It made her so unbelievably happy to know that he trusted her that much. To know that all that time, all that effort, had actually helped him trust himself a little bit more. It was all the things she'd wished someone had done for her all those years ago and, when she watched his eyes flicker to her for reassurance, she was reminded how good this felt. Refusing to let him suffer the way she had.
When they stepped over that threshold, she could feel his hand threatening to break every bone in hers. But he didn't. They rode up in the elevator in silence. He was tense and afraid but he didn't shift or transform and he didn't hurt her, even if he was terrified. She showed him his quarters and stayed with him for the first night just to be sure no nightmare sparked any kind of relapse or episode but, sure enough, he woke up just as human as he'd gone to sleep. They talked a lot, still, just in his room because he was used to her and her voice. She didn't leave the room for more than five minutes until he was confident enough to be alone. Even then, she wasn't worried.
He understood the hulk, now, and she knew how much taking a scientific approach to it helped it be less intimidating. It was one thing to study, and quite another to transform into a monster. She knew that, and that was what let her trust him. Still, he clung to her for meals or outings. He was afraid of seeing anyone that might recognize him or fear him because he thought it might spark a reaction. But, slowly, that lessened.
She watched with pride when he started to move back towards the lab and his scientific pursuits. It showed her that he was truly improving because, not only did he return what he loved, but she knew those experiments had nothing to do with the hulk. It was science for the sake of science, not fear. And, slowly, she saw what she assumed was the old Bruce come out the longer he worked in the labs and the more comfortable he got with the other people there.
When she went to check up on him after he missed a lunch date, he was deep in paperwork and his eyes were alight with excitement and he just jumped at the chance to explain it all her to way too quickly but he looked happy and, for once, he wasn't afraid of turning or losing control. He was just a geek with his science experiments. She had to smile. This was Bruce-the real Bruce, before any radiation or struggle-who was just so incredibly happy to learn and share that knowledge.
They kept in touch, though Bruce was unreliable at times. It was easy for him to get wrapped up in a project, but she never took it personally and, in fact, it made her happy. If he was lost in an experiment, then he wasn't focused on his own fear. She loved it, honestly, because as much as she could help Clint and Steve they were nowhere near as changed as Bruce was. Bruce was positively reborn. And that wasn't to say he didn't need her still, from time to time, but their daily meetings went to daily texts, then weekly check ins, then the occasional update. Bruce was independent and he didn't need her comfort, he just needed someone who understood that fear. She didn't mind, though, because she knew he was happy. And the second he wasn't, he texted her. Sometimes they just got coffee, sometimes they worked in the labs or just talked, but he always had at least a little bit of that light in his eyes and she loved that more than anything.
She loved Clint and Steve, truly. But watching Bruce just flourish and grow was like taking the training wheels off a child's bike and watching them soar. Clint and Steve still had those training wheels-she doubted they would ever lose them, because they were scarred in a very different way-but it gave her a distinct sense of satisfaction to know at least one of her patients had begun to soar.
Thanks for reading! Sorry for the late update but I wanted to put more thought into this one because Bruce isn't a character I normally write. Please review! Tony and Bucky to be added soon.