Disclaimer: I own nothing of the majesty that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe or any of its awesome affiliations. Just saying.
S.H.I.E.L.D. Medical Facility, Undisclosed Location
Bruce just wanted to be left alone. He wanted to be left in peace where he could help people and not get caught up in the stress of everyday life so he could avoid turning into the other guy. Alas, with S.H.I.E.L.D. there was no such luck. They'd found him, discovered his hiding place and dragged him back into the melee. This time it was an agent by the name of Coulson who came to him on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D. but with a personal request, he said his adoptive daughter might have come into contact with gamma radiation and they needed someone to take a look at her. So they came to him, the forefront of gamma radiation research, and he didn't have the heart to say no on the off chance that she had indeed been affected. And that brought him to here, an unspecified S.H.I.E.L.D. medical facility in the middle of nowhere.
After dropping his bags off in his assigned quarters they headed straight for the lab where Coulson said Skye would be waiting for them.
Sitting on a medical bed before them was a little dark-haired girl of about six years old swinging her legs back and forth and humming to herself.
Coulson moved forward to start the introductions, "Skye - "
"I didn't do nothing!" she quickly interjected.
Coulson narrowed his eyes in question whilst Bruce tried to stifle a smile behind him.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing!"
"Then why do you sound guilty?"
"I don't sound anything. Maybe you should get your ears checked AC, you might be going deaf. I heard that's what happens when you get old." She said it with such an innocent expression on her face it was hard to tell if she was poking fun or not.
Coulson continued to stare at her suspiciously. Skye widened her eyes slightly, tilting her head up to look into his face while declaring, "I missed you lots AC. You were gone forever! I thought you were never coming back! Did you miss me?"
He smiled at her and despite being clued in to her tactics, he leaned down to kiss her forehead. "I missed you too, honey. Did you behave while I was gone?"
Skye smiled up at him winsomely and drew an imaginary halo above her head whilst declaring, "Don't I always?"
Coulson chuckled and Bruce got the feeling this was an inside joke.
This was when Skye noticed that they were not alone. She peered over Coulson's shoulder at the new face she'd never seen before, seeming to assess him.
Bruce looked into her dark eyes and for a moment it seemed as if he was looking into an abyss, teetering forward into the depths of the universe held within her brown orbs. She blinked and broke the connection. Bruce shook his head to rid himself of the unsettling sensation and looked at Coulson whose face bore an understanding expression as if this was a normal reaction upon first meeting the little girl. He was intrigued, there was definitely something else going on here besides possible gamma radiation contamination.
He was pulled from his thoughts by Skye's chirpy greeting of, "Well howdy, partner!"
Coulson sighed and added in an undertone to Bruce, "Sorry, she just watched Toy Story."
Bruce found the sharp contrasts in character confounding; from normal six year old to wise sage back to normal six year old. This was going to take some getting used to apparently.
He decided to just go with it for now and see where it led. "Hello Skye, my name's Bruce."
Her giggle cut him off. He looked at her confused before she responded in a sing-song voice with, "Fish are friends, not food!" before breaking down into peals of laughter, clutching her stomach. Bruce and Coulson looked at each other in bewilderment before shrugging, neither of them knowing what the little girl was talking about.
After Skye's giggles faded Bruce continued, "I'm a scientist. I was hoping you could help me out with some experiments today?"
Skye's face brightened. "Can we blow stuff up?" she asked excitedly.
Bruce chuckled. "Sorry, nothing quite that exciting today."
Skye pouted a little which was hard to resist.
"I did bring this pretty cool machine though that can take a scan of your body and show you a picture of your insides. Would you like to have a go at that?"
Her eyes lit up with an almost unholy glee. "Awesome," she whispered in wonder.
They set up the machine and played around with it for a while, Bruce using it at times to distract her from other tests he was running. They were reaching the end of the gamut of tests he wanted to run and were just starting to pack up when Coulson's phone rang.
He looked at the caller ID and tensed slightly. The longer he listened to whoever was on the other end of the line, the more agitated he became. Finally he ended the call with a muttered, "Affirmative. I'll be right there."
Bruce looked at him worriedly and Coulson tried to project a calm facade so as not to worry Skye. He took Bruce by the arm and led him slightly away from Skye to inform him that threats against the little girl had managed to infiltrate the building and he was going to go meet up with the other agents to head them off. Coulson looked at him imploringly, "I know you dislike violence and I support that. But these men who are coming for Skye will do more violent things to her than you can possibly imagine. I'm hoping we can stop the threat before it gets this far, but I'm asking you to please stay here with her and be her last protection."
Bruce didn't really have to think about it, not that there was much of a choice anyway. He nodded to Coulson reassuringly and told him that he'd stay here with the little girl.
The agent nodded his thanks and turned and knelt in front of Skye who was studying a picture of her brain with fascinated disgust. "Honey, I need to go stop some bad guys real quick. You stay here with Bruce and he'll keep you safe, okay?"
Skye looked up at him worriedly, "You'll come back, right AC?"
"Of course," he promised the little girl with a kiss on the forehead in goodbye.
Bruce led the girl towards the desk where he laid out some of the pictures they'd taken and some of the results of the other tests. He started to explain what some of the readings meant and during the conversation discovered that this little girl was ridiculously intelligent. When he asked her where she learned some of these things she informed him she helps 'Jemma' and 'Fitz' out in the lab sometimes. He presumed these were friends of hers, most likely scientists with S.H.I.E.L.D. He was making a note to himself to mention her advanced intellect to Coulson when they heard the shouting and gunshots close by.
He pushed Skye behind him away from the threat and into a corner in front of which he took a protective stance. He tried to keep calm and keep the other guy repressed; big breath in, big breath out, repeat…
They could hear gunshots and grunts of pain and underneath that the sound of people stomping towards the room they were trapped in. The more Skye whimpered and shook in fear, the more the other guy wanted to come out. All he could think was 'protect, protect'. Normally the other guy was triggered by anger and fuelled by rage, a bloodthirsty monster that thrived on destruction and not much else. It was a disconcerting sensation to feel any emotion from him that wasn't 'smash,' yet it seemed that something about the little girl called to the other guy. This probably scared Bruce more than anything.
The door was flung open violently and Skye squeaked in fear behind him, he was holding on to the other guy with a tenuous grip. As soon as the assailants started shooting at them his grasp on the other guy slipped and with a resounding roar he tore through.
Coulson, Hill and Fury rushed into the room followed closely by Romanoff and Barton.
They looked around the destroyed lab and saw the massacre that the Hulk had ravaged.
All the men were dead.
Said Hulk was currently standing in the corner with his back facing them.
Coulson called out frantically, "Skye! Skye, where are you?"
They heard her voice coming from the same corner of the lab that the Hulk was currently occupying and all of their faces blanched in dread.
"Hey big guy, turn around will ya so I can see AC."
Coulson fairly trembled with worry for Skye. "Honey, I want you to be really still and quiet, okay?"
The Hulk turned to face the rest of the room and there nestled in his gigantic green hand was a completely unfazed Skye. The Hulk cradled the small girl to his chest and stroked her head delicately with his ginormous finger, almost like you would a kitten. The adults all froze in panic not knowing the best way to handle this situation without causing further bloodshed. Fury approached slowly to try and get Skye out of danger but as he neared the pair the big green guy turned to him and growled menacingly. Fury quickly backed off and they all exchanged glances and hand signals trying to formulate a plan when they were interrupted by giggles coming from the corner.
They turned to look at the duo only to see Skye with her hands on the Hulk's face squishing his expression into amusing contortions. "Hey, you're really green. Did you know green's my favourite colour?"
At this point she poked her index finger into the tip of his nose and pushed it up to resemble a pig snout. She giggled before looking up his nose and informing him matter-of-factly that, "Hey mister, you gots lotsa boogers. You oughta blow your nose."
Upon hearing this Coulson looked to the heavens as if in request for guidance on how to deal with his wayward ward whilst Hill looked as if she were about to faint. Barton and Romanoff exchanged sly glances, trying not to laugh as Fury just stood there looking vexed.
"You know who you remind me of? The BFG. That stands for Big Friendly Giant, FYI. And that means For Your Information. According to May it's sassy though so you probably shouldn't say that. Unless you wanna be sassy, if you do you should definitely start there. Hey, how come your pants stayed on? You're not wearing any clothes, are you cold? Maybe that's why you got boogers -"
Coulson cut her off before she could keep going, "Honey, he doesn't talk."
"You don't talk? Why not? Don't you got nothing to say? One time I had the flu and I lost my voice and it was awful and it hurt lots but I got to eat ice-cream so that was cool. Do you like ice-cream? I know where Aunt Maria keeps her secret stash. I bet if I asked nicely and told her you was sick she'd let us have some. Wouldn't you Aunt Maria?" This last bit directed to Agent Hill who looked decidedly nonplussed. An expression reflected by the Hulk.
Romanoff suggested they try and get the Hulk to fall asleep as this should turn him back into Dr. Banner. "небо, we need to get the nice green giant to go to sleep, maybe you could stop talking for a little bit?"
Skye looked at the Hulk sympathetically, "Oh, yous tired? Why didn't you say? Sit down, sit down," she directed him. The Hulk slowly sat down in the corner but unfortunately didn't let go of Skye, instead choosing to curl up around her. She threw her arms as far around his big neck as she could, squeezing tight in a hug whilst she started to sing her favourite lullaby, "Twinkle, twinkle, little star…"
The adults in the room waited with bated breath until they saw both the green giant and the little girl start to relax into sleep, Skye's voice drifting off as she slipped into slumber.
It was such an incongruous sight and yet quite touching.
The flash of a camera jolted them out of their musings to turn and look questioningly at Clint.
"What? You really think I'm not going to document this historic moment for future blackmail purposes?"
They all looked back at the sight before them before they offhandedly shrugged in agreement.
небо = 'sky' in Russian, according to google translate. And we all know google translate is never wrong, right?
Secondary Disclaimer: I own nothing of the infallible Disney empire. Wish that it were *sigh*. Also, the BFG belongs to Roald Dahl.