Author's Note: I don't own any of the Marvel characters.
xxxx
The next day, Bruce got a phone call on his cellphone. The one Douglass had found in the military facility and returned to him. He could hear Betty yelling at him. "What did you do to my father?"
"Nothing," said Bruce. "He drugged me. It took me 2 days to get the stuff totally out of my system."
"My father said he went to some prep school. He couldn't remember the name and, when I told him to stop bothering you, he said, 'Bruce who?'" explained Betty. "Did you drug him?"
"No," explained Bruce. "Are you crazy?"
"I'm not the crazy one."
"Good, insult me. Did he tell you that my pregnant wife pounded the shit out of the soldiers guarding me? I suppose not since he doesn't remember me. My wife and I are expecting, so I don't really want to talk old times."
"Expecting?" asked Betty. "I thought you couldn't."
"I'm able to have sex with my wife if I take a sedative first to take the edge off. All these years of failing to find a cure and all I needed was a prescription for Xanax."
"Xanax?"
"It stops my brain from being overexcited," said Bruce. "It's the miracle drug we were looking for, but I'm told it's addictive and I can go through withdrawal if I stop taking it."
"You aren't self-prescribing?"
"No, I don't have license to practice medicine, first off, and, second off, I didn't think there were any drugs on the market that could help my condition. Then your father did shot me with a normal elephant tranquilizer dart, so it has always been a matter of dosing." Bruce didn't say that Hank McCoy was giving him the medication. They decided to try Xanax since Hank didn't like Bruce drinking to take the edge off. "There has been no incidents with major property damage and loss of life since Harlem and your Dad brought me into that disaster to fight the Abomination. It's safer for everyone if I'm left alone."
"My father said I could visit you once your medicine was adjusted, so you could be awake but unable to change into the Hulk," said Betty.
"Really, Betty?"
"Daddy wanted to question you about the she-hulk," said Betty. "And he can't question you while you're sleeping."
"I suppose not." That answered that question. Frank, the bar owner, had squealed. "Was your Daddy planning to keep me imprisoned forever?"
"He didn't say," said Betty.
"There is no she-hulk," said Bruce.
"There were eyewitness reports," said Betty. "She wasn't you in a dress."
"If there are eyewitness reports, then the government has a good idea who the she-hulk is. It was a one-time incident. The girl in question and I are taking steps, so it won't happen, again."
Betty asked, "When's the baby due?"
"April 16th," said Bruce. "Are you seeing someone?"
"I broke up with Leo. I'm not with anyone at the moment."
"Betty, I hope you have good life. Find someone who respects you more than I ever did. You need someone who will care for you and will love you. I wish you every happiness. I really do, but, please, don't call me, again."
"Bruce, I will always love you."
"And I will always love you." Bruce smiled although Betty couldn't see his smile through the phone. "And I wish to you joy and happiness. But above all this, I wish you love. Since I'm not Whitney Houston, I won't break into song."
"My father may need to be put in a nursing home, so I'm not in the mood for your jokes."
"I love my wife, but you were my first love. I would never joke about that. I'm not good at saying the romantic stuff. Dolly Parton says it better."
"When the Hulk said 'Betty' that was more romantic then flowers and candlelight."
Bruce could hear Betty's gentle sobs over the phone. "I wish I was what you needed but I'm not. I have a wife and a child on the way. Not that long ago being trapped in a military facility with you would have been Valhalla, but now I would be looking for an exit to run into my wife's awaiting arms."
"Valhalla?" asked Betty.
"I met Odin," said Bruce. "He has one eye in Asgard and the other in Valhalla. The Hulk knelt before him in his receiving hall. The All-Father has two wolves guarding him. There was this huge chandelier with a thousand candles lit, but the most beautiful thing on Asgard was my wife, Sif."
"Bruce, I also wish you love."
"I'll send you baby pictures after Dagmar is born. Good-bye, Betty." Bruce hung up his phone, saving the phone number, so he could later send her the baby pictures he promised.
After he put down the phone, he walked over to the danger room to watch Sif working out with the girls. While they were taking a water brake, Bruce went over to hug Sif. "I can't deliver our baby. You need a specialist. With my condition, I can't even be in the delivery room because it's too stressful. I'll call Hank McCoy. He'll know someone."
"I shouldn't have asked," said Sif.
"That so-called doctor said we should have aborted Dagmar," said Bruce. "Hank will make sure we have a good doctor."
Sif wrapped her sweaty body around Bruce and kissed him. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
xxxx
Hank found a doctor. She was a mutant, but she didn't want the hospital she worked at knowing. Hank and Sif scheduled the c-section with the obstetrician. Sif laughed about Hank being blue. "Our baby might be green."
Hank said, "She could be blue."
"Then we can't go back to Asgard," said Sif. "People will think she's a frost giant."
Hank frowned at her. "Do you have a problem with blue people?"
"No, you and Kurt are nice blue people," said Sif. "My husband was green when I met him."
Hank weighted her and measured the baby at the X-Men clinic under the school. She would have to go to the hospital for the c-section, but that was months away.
"Is the obstetrician blue?" asked Sif.
"No, she's dark brown like Storm," explained Hank.
xxxx
After sitting in on Bruce's morning class, Logan said, "If I can teach the younger students self-defense, I should be able to teach you enough to make you more comfortable in crowds."
"The energy burst needed to flip someone would change me into the Hulk." Bruce had studied Jiu-Jitsu for several months while in Brazil, so he knew how to block a punch and how to fall properly. "It won't work."
"You're taking Xanax now," said Logan.
"OK," said Bruce. "You, me, private lessons in the danger room."
"It will do wonders for your confidence."
In their first lesson, Logan taught Bruce some basic kicks. Then Bruce showed him what he had learned previously.
"You know the names of the moves," said Logan.
"Some," Bruce said.
"I might have studied Judo for years," said Logan. "My body knows martial arts, but my mind doesn't have the words. It is nice to know I'm not the animal Striker painted. I must have studied under a sensei, meaning I was a civilized man at one point of my life."
"You're a mensch as my therapist would say," said Bruce. "People that don't conduct training exercises for future X-Men in the snow pretend they're all civilized, but they shoot monsters on video games."
"While you kill aliens and dragons with your bare hands." Logan seemed to prefer taking the children outside to do training exercises then doing computer simulations in the danger room. Sif, who had never seen a computer before, could bring up menus and run simulations. Logan didn't seem to do cellphones either.
"The next time, Fury asks me to fight bad guys I'll ask if you can come along," Bruce teased.
"You're on." Logan flipped Bruce.
Bruce had tucked his head before rolling onto the mat. "You're suppose to bow first. That says this is a training exercise and you don't intend to kill me." Bruce felt his heart race and the Hulk wanted out, but he kept him in by calming himself.
"Your eyes didn't even get green," said Logan.
Bruce stood. "Next time, bow first."
"A person that tries to mug you won't bow first," said Logan. "You did great. How does the medication work? Can you still change into the Hulk?"
"It takes a bit more work, but, yes." Bruce didn't want Logan knowing how close they came to an incident because he wanted to have another lesson with Logan.
The next day, after school, Bruce joined Logan and the some of the students for no-powers baseball in the snow. After 3 years in Asgard, a little snow didn't bother Bruce. While waiting for his turn at bat, Bruce called Susanne to explain that Xavier had her forgot the location for the children's safety.
It was a bit harder running the bases in the snow, not that Bruce had to run far before the fly ball was caught, ending the inning. Still he was happy he hit the ball. He was also doing yoga, again. In a month, Bruce could flip Logan onto the mat.
xxxx
Author's Note: Mentioning I Will Always Love You by Dolly Parton does not make this a song fic. Also the author does not share Sif's prejudice against blue people. I love Smurfs. This story takes place in West Chester, New York where even gentiles say an occasion Yiddish word. Mensch means a good man, a person with honor.