Surprisingly, two weeks went by without a hitch. Perry stayed true to her word and did not cause any trouble, while Tony was back to his chipper self, tormenting Bruce relentlessly about his 'little problem.' It was bad enough when Tony spent his days trying everything within his power to set Bruce off, but now he was offering unsolicited suggestions and advice for anger management.

"Hear me out," said Tony one afternoon as he tinkered with the data that Bruce had just entered. "I have always had good luck with a little 'afternoon delight' when I am in a bad mood. Seriously, I just call Pepper up, and boom, bad mood is gone."

Bruce rolled his eyes. This was not the first time that Tony had suggested sex, but it was the first time he had suggested it in direct relation to Bruce's mood. It was one of those rare days that the doctor did not have a good handle on his irritability. Of course it wasn't the-Other-Guy-is –going-to-make-an-appearance kind of irritability, but just general woke up on the wrong side of the bed grouchy. Gravity was working extra hard on Bruce that day and he had already dropped two cups of coffee, his phone (which broke), and had tripped over his own damn feet. Needless to say, he was not in the mood to talk to anyone, especially about sex.

"Well I am glad sex works so well for you, Tony," answered Bruce as he tapped furiously at the screen in front of him." You seem to be forgetting that I have this little issue with blowing up when my heart rate increases, and since sex wouldn't be sex without an elevated heart rate, I am a little screwed…and that was not a pun." Bitterness edged Bruce's voice. Leave it to Tony to remind him how much he was missing out on life. He tried getting intimate with Betty once after the accident, but that did not work out at all. Luckily he had stopped before 'Hulking out'.

Tony walked over to Bruce and flicked him on the forehead. "How many times do I have to tell you, it isn't your heart rate that sets you off."

Bruce rubbed the red mark on his head. "Don't do that!" he snapped. Tony snickered and wandered back over to his computer. "And quit telling me that it isn't my heart rate that sets me off."

Bruce was so tired of this argument. After the situation in Manhattan, where Bruce transformed on command and wiped out some massive Chitari whales before saving Iron Man, Tony was convinced that he had a better understanding of Bruce's condition than the doctor himself did. He had decided that it was a matter of mind over body, instead of body over mind. In some ways Bruce could see why he would think that. Over the past couple of years, Bruce had much better control over the Other Guy, suppressing him, only letting him out when he needed to. And since moving in with Tony, he had discovered that caffeine and alcohol did not have the adverse effect that he expected them to. But there were still moments when he couldn't hold back, like on the Helicarrier when he damn near killed Agent Romanoff. He tried to keep the Other Guy back, but the pain and fear overtook him.

"He's right you know," said Perry from the other side of the room, startling Bruce from his thoughts. She had been so quiet that he forgot that she was even in the room.

"Who is right?" asked Tony sweetly.

Perry scowled. "You are," she ground out. Turning to Bruce, her expression softened. "Seriously, Bruce, I don't think it is a matter of you heart rate increasing that causes you to change, but rather your heart rate increasing because you change. Does that make sense?"

"No, not really," he said, giving her the same irritated look that he had been giving Tony. They were clearly conspiring against him. "And I suppose you think I need to get laid too."

Perry's mouth dropped open and she stared at him wide-eyed. Immediately her face flushed red with embarrassment. Tony and Bruce both gaped at her surprised, mortified expression. They had never seen her with such a look, having lost her normal cool and confident demeanor.

"I-I-I just mean that you could if you wanted," she stuttered, not quite meeting Bruce's eye.

Bruce grunted, unsure of how to respond. Desperately hoping this conversation was over, he turned back to the problem he was working on. Unfortunately, Tony was not ready to let it go.

"You know, you could totally use 'I've got an enormous, green rage monster in my pants' as a pick up line."

Bruce closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, willing Tony to choke on his poor excuses for jokes.

"You have already got one girl who can't wait to get her hands on your monster," he continued, pointing over his shoulder at Perry. This time it was Bruce who blushed as a horrifyingly graphic image of Perry and the Other Guy popped into his head.

Luckily his embarrassment was short lived as Perry's shoe collided with the side of Tony's head.

Bruce was alone in the lab for the second time in the first month that Perry was there, and he was horribly lonely. He had plenty of work to do, but he couldn't seem to concentrate on any of it. He missed her. He missed her chatter, he missed her questions, he missed the way she blasted classic rock from her ipod and danced around the lab. Now it was just dead and boring, nothing but the gentle whirr of computers and the squeaking of mice to keep him awake.

He was idly scrolling through a mildly interesting article about atmospheric disturbances in Florida when Tony shuffled in. Tony Stark never arrived in his lab with nothing short of exuberance. In fact, Bruce usually found his enthusiasm to be unnerving and threatened on many occasions to lock the man out of his own lab. But this time Tony was quiet and drawn, walking in and sitting down heavily in front of his computer.

"Perry will not be in today," he said to Bruce without looking up from his screen. "She has a headache."

Bruce furrowed his brow. It seemed like she had these headaches with some frequency. She must be a migraine sufferer if they were keeping her out of the lab. Pulling up the calendar on his computer, he marked the two dates that she had missed so far. It was probably no big deal, but Bruce was in the habit of recording any recurring activity.

Perry looked down at her pitiful dinner on the table: ramen noodles. It wasn't like there was no other food available, she just didn't want to cook a big dinner to eat alone. Pepper and Tony were having "date night", Thor and Jane were out of town for some strong man contest that he had entered, and Darcy had coerced Steve into getting pizza and going to a movie. So that left Bruce, who always preferred eating alone. Glancing once more around her lonely apartment, Perry though Not tonight, Buddy.

Whipping up another pack of ramen, she loaded the bowls on a tray, tucked a bottle of wine under her arm, and headed down the hall to Bruce's apartments. Standing in front of the door, she hesitated slightly. He might be in the lab still. It wasn't uncommon for him to work long into the night.

Raising her foot to kick the door, she hesitated again. What if he didn't want to eat with her? Despite her attempts to be friendly, Bruce had remained politely distant.

Pushing the thoughts from her head, she kicked the door loudly. A few moments later, the door opened revealing a tired and disheveled Dr. Banner. His brown hair was mussed up on one side and his glasses sat crookedly on his face. His clothes were wrinkled as though he had been sitting for a long time.

"Did I wake you, Bruce?" Perry asked, laughing lightly as the doctor adjusted his glasses and smoothed his hair.

"Sorry," he said with an apologetic smile. "I was reading over some notes and must have dozed off." Glancing down at the tray in her hand, he raised an eyebrow and said," Come in."

Bruce's apartment was very similar to Perry's except it was a little more homey, more lived in. Still carrying the tray, Perry wandered the living room, admiring the décor that was decidedly Bruce's. Books were stacked everywhere, lining the shelves and littering the coffee table. Trinkets from India were scattered about the room and a worn Spiderman poster was stuck to the wall, no doubt a relic from Bruce's childhood.

"So what brings you down the hall?" he asked politely. Perry could tell that Bruce was a little uncomfortable with her unannounced visit. His polite smile had a forced quality to it and the way he clasped his hands in front of him reminded her of all the times Tony brought the whole room's attention to the doctor. Not allowing herself to be thwarted by his discomfort, she sauntered past him and set the tray on the kitchenette table.

"I'm lonely and you forget to eat, so we are having dinner," Perry said smiling widely. Bruce chuckled as he inspected the bowls. "Due to the unplanned nature of tonight's dinner, we will not be experiencing any of Perry's culinary expertise. But ramen should be sufficient, and paired with this $4.99 wine, it will be downright decadent."

Bruce shook his head and laughed, "I haven't had fine dining like this since college." Stepping behind her, he pulled two wine glasses out of the cabinet. The pair sat down and began digging into their noodles, which were getting a little soggy.

"So why did Tony introduce you as his hillbilly niece?" Bruce asked after a few mouthfuls. Clearly this question had been bothering him for some time.

Perry rolled her eyes and laughed. "Who knows with him. I suppose it started out because I am from Missouri, but the term stuck after I started working in Florida."

"How did a Stark end up in Missouri?"

"Well, Howard Stark had a brief affair before he got married to Tony's mom. He had a son named Elias Stark with a poor girl from the boot heel. Basically kept her on payroll, but had no interaction with his son. So that is how my father, a Stark, ended up down there." Perry's answer was nonchalant, making Bruce suspect that she had told this same story many times over. As the niece of an unmarried only-child, there were probably many probing reporters looking for gossip.

Bruce took a slow sip of wine. "If he had no interaction with his son, how did you and Tony get so close?"

"Well, when my father died, I was in college. Tony was considered my next of kin, so he found me. I wasn't very happy about it at first, but he really saved my life," she said quietly. She had taken on a sort of wistful look, and Bruce wonder how exactly Tony saved her.

"What happened to your father?" asked Bruce. When he saw the brief blazing look in her eyes, he quickly added, "You don't have to tell me. I shouldn't be so nosy."

Perry noticed the doctor's quick recovery and how embarrassed he looked when he realized he had been prying. She gave him a soft smile. "I don't mind telling you Bruce, but it is not a happy story. My father was a scientist too. Despite his upbringing, he managed to get into a great college and became as credentialed as any other Stark, although he had different interests. My father's trade was biotechnology and he worked his way up from chief researcher to senior vice president at Monsanto."

Bruce frowned, "Monsanto is that huge seed company, right?"

"The largest seed company in the world. Anyway, he was the top researcher and developer in the company. He lived life large and quickly took on all of the Stark family traits: wealth, narcissism, playboy lifestyle. Following in his own father's footsteps, he had a brief fling with woman from Montana. That's how I came about. But unlike his father, my dad paid her a lot of money to give up full custody to him."

"So you never knew your mother?" Bruce questioned, a mixed look of horror and pity on his face. His own father may have been an abusive asshole, but at least he had his mother there to love him.

Perry sighed and bit her lip. "No, I haven't met my mother. I tried to find her a few years ago, but she died of breast cancer when I was 8.

"Anyway, I was raised by my dad in Missouri. We lived in St. Louis most of the time, since that is where Monsanto HQ is, but we also had 600 acres in Nowhereville southern Missouri. Being a big guy in the company also meant that my father was not very popular. He did a lot of crooked business deals on the side and made a lot of enemies. I suspect he also was doing some work for some government agency too, but I never tried to find out. When I was away at my first year of college, my father had some of his crooked business partners on the farm with him. He was found in a field, three days later, shot execution style. There were no witnesses, no suspects, and no one was that interested in finding the culprit."

Perry hadn't noticed that she was getting increasingly upset with this conversation until Bruce reached out and covered her hand with his. Meeting his eye, she drew a shuddering breath and bit her lip to hold in the sob that threatened to escape. What the hell, she thought, I haven't cried over this in years.

Clearing her throat loudly, she decided to continue on with the story. "I wasn't as sad as I should have been when he died. I was never close to my father and I thought his business practices were disgusting. It wasn't until after he died that I found out about the good work he did. In some ways I was more pissed than anything because it completely ruined my goals for rebellion."

Bruce smirked. "'Ah, yes, you would have some sort of rebellion."

Perry laughed, "It is a Stark family trait. I originally had this big plan of revealing to the world just how evil GMO products are. I studied biology, biotechnology, and genetics so I could explore the negative effects genetic engineering and pesticides had and bring down Monsanto. Unfortunately, that inspiration lost its buzz for me. When I found out that my father had spent his last few years advocating pulling certain chemical pesticides off the market, and was developing a new insect resistant wheat that could be grown in low-moisture areas, I didn't have the heart to completely discredit everything he did."

"So what inspired you to move into studying the effects of radiation exposure?" Bruce asked. He hated to admit it, but it really intrigued him that someone else was interested in gamma radiation and what it could do to the body.

Perry blushed and stalled by taking a big swig of wine. Bruce leaned forward, a small smile settling on his lips.

"Um, well…there was this lecture at UCLA. A really kind and intelligent doctor did this amazing presentation about gamma radiation and the advancements he and his team had been making on using it to improve immunity and rehabilitation at a cellular level. At the Q&A, I asked him what negative side effects they had found from working so closely with the radiation. He was incredibly honest with me and explained that data concerning his research team was limited."

Bruce stared at her with wide eyes. "You went to my lecture?" Perry nodded, still too embarrassed to meet his eye.

'I remember you, well at least the question," he said, running his hand through his hair. "It haunted me for some time and I pushed for more extensive tests on how the gamma radiation exposure affected those handling it. I mean we all know what it can do, but we weren't sure if we were taking all of the right precautions. After that project ended, I started working for the General and …well, you know the rest."

It was Perry's turn to comfort the doctor. "Bruce, you couldn't have known what would happen, even if you did all of those tests. Don't ever second guess yourself. I have read all of your papers, they are brilliant."

Bruce sighed and drained the rest of his wine. "Your flattery is much more effective than Tony's."

Dinner at Bruce's became a regular ritual for the two, although Perry actually cooked proper dinners for them rather than packs of ramen. Some nights they ate, drank, and talked until neither could keep their eyes open. They talked about anything from various research and theories, to hobbies (both of them enjoyed fishing), to foreign films (Bruce had developed a love for Bollywood movies while in India). On other nights, Bruce would read quietly, usually looking over his notes, while Perry watched baseball. Being from Missouri, she was a die-hard Cardinals fan. In some ways, Bruce loved these nights because Perry was too enthralled with the game to notice that he was actually watching her over the page he was supposed to be reading.

He was slow to admit it, but he was intrigued by Perry. He recognized right away that she was beautiful, no point in denying that, and her body was definitely worth looking at. But that wasn't what drew him in. It was the fact that she was not afraid of him. Most of the Avengers were not afraid of him, but they were hesitant. Well, except for Tony, which is probably why Bruce was so quick to warm up to him. But Perry was the same way. She looked him in the eye, stayed close to him, touched him occasionally. When the Other Guy came up in conversation, she was able to talk easily about him without asking too many questions. Most of all, she wasn't afraid of provoking him. She trusted him, which probably made her as crazy as her uncle, but it made him trust her in return.

It was one of those baseball nights when Perry and Bruce had the most uncomfortable conversation about the Other Guy that he had ever had.

They had chicken stir fry for dinner, complements of Perry's kitchen, and Bruce settled in to read over some of Perry's research from Chernobyl while she watched the game. Very little reading was done that night as it was an exciting game and Perry had a hard time sitting down. Bruce chuckled softly and shook his head every time she jumped up and shouted "Walk him!" or "Come on! The bases are loaded!"

When the game was finally over, Perry flopped herself onto the couch and lolled her head back, giving Bruce a sleepy grin. "That was a good game. We are in the running for the World Series for sure. And then I am going to have Matt Holliday's baseball babies."

Bruce gave her a bewildered look. "Baseball babies? What in the world does that mean?"

Perry snickered. "It means I appreciate his talent and would like to pass those genes on to my children. Kind of like how I am going to have Mick Jagger's music babies and your science babies."

Bruce's face immediately flushed red. "I am sure there are much better choices for science babies."

Perry shook her head fiercely and leaned closer to him. "Are you kidding? You are brilliant, which is freaking hot. And you are pretty damn sexy too, which makes it even better." She knew she was being unnecessarily bold, but he needed to know. She didn't like it that he hid behind the Hulk, always using his transformations as an excuse to not get close to anyone.

Bruce's face switched to the stony expression he had when conversations reached an uncomfortable point. "I couldn't have children with anyone, no matter the reasons behind it," he said quietly.

Perry gasped. "You mean the radiation damaged…"

"No!" said Bruce loudly. Embarrassed, he flushed red again and continued in his quiet, even voice. "Sorry. Everything works fine, I think, but it would be unethical to have children." He looked miserable, and Perry's heart went out to him

"Do you think your condition could be passed on?" she asked quietly.

Bruce sighed. "I don't know. I never tried to find out. Even if I couldn't pass on the condition, what kind of father would I be?

"A great one," Perry said firmly. "Bruce, you would make a wonderful father."

Bruce snorted. "I could lose control anytime. If I killed my children-" his voice broke "- I could never forgive myself. I can't risk it."

Grabbing Bruce's hands, Perry crouched in front of him. "Look at me Bruce. You have more control of yourself than you think. You haven't had any incidents in a few years; I believe this track record will continue."

"Last year, New York…. " he mumbled.

"That was planned and justified. And he did more good than harm. And before you bring up losing it on the helicarrier, you were attacked. Nobody can blame you for that."

Bruce remained silent, closing his eyes as though he thought that if he didn't say anything this conversation would end. Perry would get the hint and never bring it up again.

But being a Stark made it impossible for Perry to let it go. "Let me find out," she said quietly, squeezing his hands.

Bruce's eyes flew open. "What?"

"Let me test your sperm. I can see if you pass on the mutation or not." There was no hint of embarrassment in her voice.

Bruce shook his head bitterly. "Maybe I don't want to know. Why find out that my kids would be normal even if I can't have them?"

"Then let me test it to satisfy my own curiosity. If you don't want to know, I won't tell you. But since you are the only surviving person to be exposed to that much gamma radiation, I wouldn't mind having that data."

Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. As much as he wanted to refuse, the scientist in him couldn't deny her that bit of data. "Fine," was all he said.

Perry threw her arms around him, pressing against him in a tight hug. Bruce awkwardly put his arms around her, settling his hands on the small of her back. "Thank you, Bruce. You are more wonderful than words."