"Sweetheart?" Matthew gently called into their bedroom.

"Matthew! I'm so sorry. I don't want to do this to you I…"

"What are you talking about? You're not doing anything to me." He reassured her

I Just...crying about Bruce like this. Arguing with him. I know I shouldn't," Victoria stumbled out

"Victoria, do you still love him?"

Victoria started at her husband, stunned. "What! no of course not! I love you! I…"

Matthew nodded, a bit sadly. "The 1st person you really love, that never goes away. I've told you about the girl I dated in college, we almost got married. I didn't work out for us, but part of me will always love her. Just like part of you will always love Bruce, because of the things you shared with him."

"But I love you! I married you!" Victoria rushed to explain, all the while thinking that some college girlfriend couldn't compare to what she and Bruce had.

"I know," he said taking her into his arms. "You never really got the closure you needed with Bruce. You got into a big fight, and you left him. But then he disappeared for years. And the 1st time he disappeared he came back. So you were waiting for him. Then he just appears back into your life, but now it's too late."

"Matthew, I...I don't really know what to say," Victoria mumbled. She was shocked a how easily Matthew understood the situation.

"I know you better then you think, love. I know it took us so long to really get together because of him. I know getting married was hard because you felt like your were closing a door. And that's all ok."

Victoria looked at him is disbelief

"No I mean it. I knew you loved another man, but things didn't work out. So, I decided I would just make you love me more. I think I won," he finished with a chuckle.

"I think so too," she laughed, cuddling up close to him.

"Maybe you can go talk to him while you're here? Finish things up, get some closure." He suggested, his hand staring a slow creep up the front of her shirt.

"Yeah, I think I will." she agreed, turning herself to face him.

While she felt weirdly guilty about it, their lovemaking was a relief to Victoria's frazzled mind. It required no false starts, no slow downs, and no thought.


It wasn't long before Victoria and Bruce saw each other again. In the common kitchen, Victoria and Matthew were making lunch. He came up behind her and she leaned back on his chest, turning her head to smile up at him.

Bruce was taken aback by the easy intimacy they had with each other. They are married, Banner. And she could never have been this relaxed around you. She had to always double check, reassess, make sure everything was calm.

Matthew leaned down to kiss his wife, causing Bruce to stumble over the corner of a carpet and alert them to his presences.

"Afternoon, Dr Banner," Matthew greeted him, not releasing his hold of Victoria's waist.

"Matthew, Victoria" Bruce mumbled in return, averting his eyes.

Bruce looked up and caught Matthew and Victoria having some kind of silent conversation. He raised an eyebrow at her, she smiled and shrugged, then he nodded.

"Well," Matthew announced. "I'm off to see Tony before lunch. I'm sure you too have some catching up to do." He gave Bruce a hard look as he walked out. Bruce easily guessed its meaning 'Sort things out, for my wife. But remember what we talked about.'

Bruce glanced at Victoria, feeling his anxiety rise and removing his glasses and pinching his nose. He looked up in surprise at Victoria's chuckle

She smiled at his expression. " I was just remembering how cute I used to think that was."

"What was?" Bruce questioned.

"Your little tick, taking off your glasses and pinching the bridge of your nose. Its your go to whenever you start to get anxious."

The smiled at each other for a second, neither one sure where to begin. Victoria was the 1st to break the silence.

"OK, Bruce, here's the thing. I don't want to either have to avoid you or fight with you every time we speak." She started, jumping right in.

"So you want to be just friends?"

Victoria nodded. "I guess that's what I'm saying…"

"You really think we can that? Just be friends?" Bruce questioned again

"Yes...no...I'm honestly not sure. I think we can try to be civil to one another. I'm here for another week and a half. Then we'll be gone and I'll be sure to give fair warning if we come back. So you'll have enough time to...not be here. If you want." Victoria's offered.

"I'm not sure that's good enough. I'm not sure I want to be...cold acquaintances." Bruce spat out the last two words like they burned his tongue.

"Stop right there Bruce. You're heading down a dangerous path. Both of us need to move past this." Victoria warned.

"Both of us? You married someone else!" Bruce snapped

"Really? It was my fault? You cheated on me and then disappeared for years!"

"I love you!"

"And I love you too, but it's too late for that!"

Bruce stared. "You do still love me."

Victoria sighed. "Of course I do! Part of me probably always will. But love isn't always enough."

"And Matthew? He's enough?"

Bruce quietly took her hand, and Victoria looked into his eyes for a long time. The she quietly began again. "I lost my happily ever after, the day I lost you."

"I'm not much of a prince." Bruce scoffed.

Victoria gave a humorless chuckled. "You know, you need to think more of yourself. You beat yourself up about the other guy. But I'm actually grateful to him!"

"Grateful? There's a new one!"

"Yes grateful. The accident and the other guy started you on a chain of events that led you here. That lead you to me. Without him, our lives would have been a lot different. We were so happy! We could have had everything Bruce."

"And now? What can we have now?" he asked, taking a step closer.

Victoria placed her free hand on his chest, to stop him moving forward. She squeezed the hand holding hers and slowly pulled her hand away. "Now it's still too late. Nothing has changed from 5 minutes ago. I love you, but I love Matthew too and I'm married to him."

"You don't have to be, you could…."

"Leave him? Cheat on him? No Bruce, I've been so cruel to him already. He tells me I'm everything to him, and I can't tell him the same. He loves me more than I do him, and it's because so much of me is still yours." Victoria sadly admitted

"Part of me thought, while I was away, that when I came back…" Bruce trailed off.

"I'd still be waiting? And we'd work everything out? I'm afraid it won't be that simple this time, Bruce."

She smiled sadly at him. He took her hand again and leaned slowly forward and whispered. "It may not be simple, or easy, or even the right thing to do. But do I even have a chance of fixing this?"

"Oh, Bruce," Victoria whispered back. '"I'm pretty sure I'll always give you another chance."

Placing a soft kiss on her cheek, Bruce returned her sad smile before walking away.


Elsewhere, Matthew mumbled a soft thank you to JARVIS and got his suitcase out as the video feed went black.