Chapter 11

The Incident: Broken

They had been back on the Helicarrier for a few days, hardly anyone had slept despite them all telling each other to. It seemed that whenever one of them agreed to go get sleep they would just find themselves lying in bed with their chest tight. Not matter what they tried they could never find a way to get any rest. Bruce had been taken to medical to deal with his injuries and blood loss not to mention to get the drugs out of his system. From what they were told he was supposed to be awake and able to see others today but it wasn't confirmed as far as they knew he could still be in critical condition. No one could find the ability to sit still outside the medical facility each just found themselves pacing, fidgeting and mainly staring at the door waiting for anything.

"He'll be okay," Steve commented from where he stood watching the door.

Clint had sat down only to stand up for the tenth time since they arrived. "Capt you didn't see what he was like down there."

"Maybe not but I have seen Bruce get back up no matter what Hulk does to his life," Steve replied.

"Clint's right Capt," Natasha commented, "this is different. I saw what they were doing down there to him. He's lucky to be alive but I don't know what his mind will be like after all of that. It might be more broken than ever. I've seen what torture like that can do to a man; I've done it to some."

"It's Bruce," Tony replied putting a hand on Natasha's shoulder, "he's our friend, if there's something still wrong we'll find a way to fix it."

"You can't just fix a human being, Tony," Natasha stated with a slight growl, "he's not one of your armors you can't just tinker around and he'll be okay. Things like that, they change who you are."

"I never said it would be easy," Tony replied simply trying not to be intimidated by the glare Natasha was shooting him, "I just said we'd find a way to fix it. We'd stand by him and do whatever we could to get him on his feet, that's all I meant."

"We still don't even know if he's stabilized yet they haven't told us anything other than maybe he'd be okay today," Clint let out a frustrated growl.

"If he's not stabilized by the end of the day then I'm breaking into the cell of the man who did this and beating him senseless," Natasha replied.

"Don't think that'll cheer me up but it's worth a try," Clint replied as he sat down yet again only for his leg to start bouncing. He couldn't get himself to sit still. "What's taking so long?"

"You cannot rush healing, friend," Thor replied out of all of them he was the most still as he leaned with his back against the wall.

"How can you be so calm about this?" Clint nearly yelled.

"Because I have faced the jade giant that lives in that man many times and he has always come back," Thor replied, "he has a warrior in him as does the mortal Banner. He will heal as he always does."

Clint stared at Thor and shook his head, "Yep, Asguardian calm down sounds the same as Captain America calm down. Both of them don't help at all."

"If the medical staff of S.H.I.E.L.D. said we can see him today then I'm certain we can trust them, they haven't let us down before," Steve replied.

"You didn't see him down there Capt," Clint yelled, "It wasn't your fault he ended up in there."

"It wasn't your fault either Clint," Natasha walked over to Clint placing her hand on his shoulder.

"Nor was it yours Natasha," Steve added, "You were following orders and went after the target so he couldn't hurt anyone."

"It wasn't worth it," Clint growled his body had tensed more than anything he wanted to punch someone as he thought about it. Really he wanted to punch himself for all of this, or have someone else punch him. He looked at the others almost wanting them to stop with their talk about how it would be okay and stop saying it wasn't his fault. He held his head in his hands for a moment then the door opened. He looked up and it felt like time slowed as he saw the S.H.I.E.L.D. medical agent walk out to look at the group. They went over to talk to Tony in a soft whisper; now and then Tony nodded at them and whispered something back. As quick as it happened the agent disappeared back into the room.

Tony turned to the group and looked at the group at first, "Bruce is awake. He's stabilized and the drugs are nearly fully out of his system. His other half can't get out yet to help speed up the healing but that might be for the best considering how he gets .They want to move him into the containment chamber later today though just for when Hulk can get out. For now though we can see how he's doing and talk to him but he wants to talk to Natasha and Clint alone first. He's refusing to talk to anyone else or do anything until it happens." Tony looked at Clint and Natasha and could tell that Clint's heart had stopped at that.

Natasha nodded at Clint and the two got up and slowly walked into the medical area, moving past the rooms and heading straight to the room Bruce was being kept in alone. They paused outside the door and gave each other a reassuring nod, both wishing that whatever would happen would just be done and over with already. Natasha opened the door and the two walked in together taking a moment to take in the condition Bruce was in. An IV in his arm, bandages and casts along his body, they could tell where they had to operate in order to deal with internal bleeding and move broken bones. Bruce adjusted himself, wincing slightly at the movement, to look at Clint and Natasha. Clint found it hard to meet Bruce's stare and he could tell that Natasha was having trouble holding it. He was used to the logical, thinking, generally good natured look of Bruce's brown eyes but this time he saw nothing but anger, hate and disappointment. Both Clint and Natasha were finding it hard to breathe in the room from the tension as they waited for someone to say something.

Natasha was the one to break the silence, "Bruce… We're sorry about what happened."

Clint nodded in agreement, "It's good to see you awake and alive. Natasha's right, we know what happened out there was our fault. We should have stayed. We know there's nothing that can make up for that mistake… Just we're sorry."

"Sorry?" Bruce replied after a moment of watching them, "Really, just sorry? After all this time you had to think about what you'd say to me the best you got was sorry, we messed up?"

"What do you expect us to say?" Clint questioned, "From what I know there's nothing we can say that'll make this right."

"You got that right," Bruce yelled in response trying to get up only to fall back onto the bed and the pillow with a groan of pain. "There is nothing, you can do to make anything right."

"Look Bruce, it was a horrid mistake," Natasha stepped in, "We're both guilty but we're a team we need to find a way to work past this, we need to make sure nothing happens again."

"Oh, we're a team now?" Bruce replied sarcastically, "oddly enough I thought that was what we were before not to mention being friends. But last time I checked teammates don't leave each other and certainly friends don't."

"We had a job to do, Fury said he was coming for you quickly," Natasha argued, "You knew if we let King get away then we'd lose him for a long time and a lot of people would have died."

"And he really needed both of you on his tail," Bruce crossed his arms over his chest looking away from them.

"You know the rules we couldn't leave each other alone against a target classified as dangerous. We were following orders," Natasha replied, "You knew the risk of coming with us, it's a risk of being an Avenger."

"I know," Bruce replied softly still looking away, "I had a lot of time to think down in that pit when they weren't ripping me apart. First week I watched the door, waiting for you to show up. All I could hold onto was the thought of that door bursting open and everyone getting there to help. Second week I started to wonder where you were, figured it must have been hard to find these guys but surely with all the resources you had you could do it. Third week started to wonder what I had done wrong. Started to think of why I went along on that trip. I started to wonder if I had said or done the wrong thing and now this was my punishment, waiting for people who wouldn't show until I learned my lesson. Fourth week I blamed myself for everything. I blamed myself for going, blamed myself for getting shot, blamed myself for getting dragged there and I even blamed myself for no one showing up. By the fifth week I wanted you two to show up so I could rip you in half for letting me endure that pain for so long. Every single day the horrible pain that filled my body, the drugs might have stopped Hulk but they weren't sedatives, I could feel everything they did. After that I just wanted to give up and die since it seemed you had given up on me."

"Bruce we came as fast as we could," Clint replied, "We hunted for clues of where you were it was pure luck we got a break as we did. We never gave up looking for you."

"Clearly," Bruce stated, "As I said, I had a long time to think about everything." He waited for a bit then looked back at Natasha and Clint, "I'm leaving the Avengers and after this I don't want to see you two ever again."

"Bruce hold on a moment," Clint was taken aback by it, completely thrown off guard by what Bruce had said he had hoped that it was just the drugs getting to the man, "you need to think about this. We just got you back."

"I thought about it when they harvested my blood and demanded information from me. They asked me to betray everyone and I nearly accepted," Bruce replied, "I've thought about it a lot."

"Come on that's not really thinking about it," Clint argued, "Just think about it here for a while. When you're back on your feet and we've put this far in the past. Once you remember being here and not that place."

"You two left me," Bruce replied, it was unclear if he had a stable mind at all anymore, "I went down and you just up and left me alone to them. You let them take me, let them do that to me. But I understand now, Hulk's too big of a risk to let out and I seem to slow your mission down so much that it's worth more to leave me behind. This isn't where I need to be, I don't need to be around people who leave me on orders. I've already arranged to be transported out of here tomorrow. I'm going far away and I don't want anyone tracking me. As I said before, I never want you to see you two again."

Natasha moved closer to Bruce thinking maybe she could use her skillset to get the man to reconsider speaking softly to him, "Bruce, please reconsider. This was a sloppy, mistake. I know it nearly cost you your life. I know how much this all hurt, I know better than anyone because I've been there. You have a right to be angry but leaving the group like this, it doesn't help. Here there are people who care about you. We can make sure sloppy mistakes don't happen again. Don't leave; let us try to make it up to you."

Bruce shook his head, "Get out. We're not a team anymore and we are not friends. If I do see you again I won't have drugs to keep my other half in and I will get angry."

"Please, just think about what we said," Natasha replied. She moved back over to Clint and put a hand on his arm to help get him to follow out. There was nothing else they could say to Bruce that wouldn't just make the situation worse. Both had a false hope that Bruce would maybe change his mind. Natasha and Clint left the room together not saying anything until they saw the others and informed them of what Bruce had said, informing the group of Bruce leaving the team and reporting in to Fury. Clint and Natasha were aware the others had all tried to talk Bruce out of it with no luck, the man had never changed his mind and he had left the next day without a word.

After that everything went south with the group, Natasha and Clint seemed almost somewhat lost taking refuge with each other and back at S.H.I.E.L.D. the group saw less and less of them. Steve had tried to talk everyone into staying and working it out without Bruce but no one seemed to listen. Tony barricaded himself in his workshop for days on end with no contact. Thor went home and was rarely seen again. All at once things just came undone for them. Bruce had gone as far off the grid as he could with only a Fury really keeping a watch on where he went and keeping Ross off his tail for a while until he was far enough out that Ross wouldn't find him.

Clint hadn't seen or spoken to Bruce again, until the door of his cell was opened.

((This was the final part of the incident as you might be able to tell.

Disclaimer: Do not own characters))