Author's Note: I still don't own Marvel.

xxxx

While defrosting some ground beef, Bruce opened some cans of beans, tomatoes and corn. He rinsed the beans in a colander before adding them to the tomatoes and corn. He took the ground beef out of the microwave and heated it in another pan. Then he chopped green pepper and onions and added them to the ground beef. After the beef was brown, he poured it into the first pot. Finally, he added spices and seasoning. "Hank, there is no Mrs. McCoy," said Bruce. "So you must cook for yourself."

"A chicken or a steak with a potato and/or a green vegetable," said Hank. "TV dinners. Eggs or cereal for breakfast. I love those frozen breakfast foods. When I get home from a late night at the lab, I can pop something in the microwave."

Bruce set the timer. "I'll get Sif."

Hank watched Bruce stir his pot once more before leaving to get Sif. Hank remembered when Bruce was a grad student then a young post-doc. The young man had such potential. Then he vanished off the radar. Bruce seemed to still have that enthusiasm that Hank lost years ago.

Storm entered the kitchen. "Beast, what's wrong?"

"I was thinking about how Bruce was before his accident," said Hank. "None of us can return to the past. Taking the edge off won't keep the Hulk from making an appearance. I'm allowing one of the brightest minds on the planet to live in a drug-induced haze, and I'm the one prescribing the drugs."

"He went off the medicine and had an incident," said Storm. "He'll need to be on medication the rest of his life unless he returns to be being the Hulk full time."

"Can he do that?" asked Hank.

"Bruce became two people when he returned to Earth," explained Storm. "I don't claim to understand the gods, but Odin most likely could restore Bruce to one integrated person if he so chose. I'm just a weather witch. What do I know?"

After getting up from his chair, Hank stirred the chili. "I wonder what's keeping Bruce?"

When he returned, Bruce was carrying Dagmar in his arms. "I needed to change her diaper. One of the great things about chili is you can eat it anytime. Of course, it tastes better after it's been cooking over a low heat for several hours, but it's eatable after you brown the meat and stir everything together." Bruce put Dagmar into her highchair then stirred the pot. "It smells good."

A second later, Sif took Dagmar out of the highchair, sat her on her lap and began to nurse her. "Bruce, she isn't even a week old."

"She can sit up with support," said Bruce.

Sif held the baby against her breast then rolled her eyes.

Storm said, "Bruce, you're stoned."

"I feel good," said Bruce. "But I'm able to teach and ride my bike. I'm taking the dosage Hank and I agreed on."

"Then we should agree on a bit lower dosage." Hank took a prescription pad out of his coat pocket and wrote a new prescription for Bruce. "Newborn babies don't go in highchairs."

Bruce turned off the stove and the timer. Then he began pouring the chili into bowls. After he gave Storm, Hank and Sif a bowl, he sat down his own bowl and began to eat.

Storm said, "You and your wife should consider going back to Asgard. You came here so she could have Dagmar delivered by caesarian. You have no reason to stay now."

"Don't you like me?" asked Bruce.

"I don't dislike you, but Dagmar would be better off on Asgard," said Storm. "You could return to being the Hulk full-time. Your house on Asgard is adapted for your size."

Without looking at Storm, Bruce continued to eat his food.

"Our house in Asgard is so far from everything," said Sif. "I like teaching battle tactics to the students and Bruce loves teaching. Bruce can just take a pill before we have sex."

"He can go over a year without having an incident," said Storm. "The incident when car fell on him made sense. I also have problems with being closed in; and being trapped and in pain, it was unavoidable, but the other incident was due to him relying on his medication. It should never had happened."

"Psychologists give people this test to fill out to see how much stress they're dealing with." Bruce put his spoon down. "Having a baby is a bunch of points on this test. Then you add all the other points that are related to having a baby and it's understandable why I lost it when Sif refused to stay in bed."

Storm said, "When other expectant fathers lose their tempers they don't change into rage monsters. I was just saying you should consider going back to Asgard."

"Misgard is my home. I was born here. If I go to Asgard and some one slips some magic apples into my food, I can leak radiation, again. I don't want to make people sick or give them cancer. I was trapped there for 3 years last time." Bruce returned to eating his lunch.

"You nearly picked the tree clean," said Sif.

"We don't know how many apples I need to eat to start leaking radiation," said Bruce. "Hank and I can adjust my medication or try a different medication."

"General Ross isn't the only person interested in the Hulk, and your daughter has half your genes," said Storm. "She will never be safe here."

"The anti-mutant people stormed this school last year," said Bruce. "So cut the crap. Dag has the x-gene - same as the other people here. I don't know why I don't appear on Celebro or why Professor X can't read my mind, but my EEG says I'm a normal human being."

Hank said, "Maybe, the MRI will give us some answers."

xxxx

After lunch, Kitty agreed to watch Dagmar, so Sif could hold Bruce's hand until the anesthesia took affect. Other than some of the areas of his brain that deal with emotion being more active than they should have been in an unconscious mind, his brain was normal. Hank had no answers for Bruce or Charles.

After Hank moved Bruce to a hospital bed to sleep off the anesthesia, Hank went upstairs to talk to Charles, but Charles was talking to his mind by the time he reached the elevator. Old friend, your brain has gross abnormalities and, yet, I can reach your mind. Your colleague's brain has no abnormalities and, yet, I can't reach him.

Bruce says he feels the Hulk in his head all the time, Hank said to Charles's mind. His hypothalamus is very active even when he's unconscious. I'm amazed he has the control he does. All I can figure is magic keeps you out; the boy is under Odin's protection. By active, sugar was being used. Not enough was known about the mind/brain connection to tell why those areas in his brain used more sugar than in a normal unconscious brain.

Hank didn't mean to call Bruce a boy, but he met Bruce when the younger man was was a graduate student. So in his mind, Hank must have still seen Bruce as a boy.

Odin's protection, Charles said to Hank's mind. I'm sorry to have wasted your time.

Hank smiled to himself. Science was never a waste of time. Hank had found Sif in the bedroom with Dag in her crib sleeping. "I was born with hand-feet." Hank wiggled his finger-like toes. "Bruce shouldn't have put a newborn into a highchair, but she did appear to be holding herself up for the short time she was in that chair."

"She was," said Sif. "Wasn't she?"

Hank continued to look at his feet. "She wasn't slumped over or falling out."

"I don't know anything about babies and less about mutant babies."

"My parents knew less," said Hank. "They had me hide my differences."

"But you're blue," said Sif.

"I wasn't blue until I was an adult. I was just a kid with a big brain and hand-feet." Hank cradled the sleeping baby in his arm while he walked with his other three limbs. "Bruce shouldn't wake up alone."

Sif yelled, "Wait up."

"I have the baby," said Hank. "You need to catch up with me."

xxxx

Author's Notes: I love Beast from X-Men: Generations. So I'm sorry if some of the characterization comes from that cartoon and not from X-Men: First Class. The hand-feet comments are from X-Men: First Class though. I don't remember Beast from X-Men: The Last Stand. Kelsey Grammer's beautiful voice was too distracting in a good way.