Hey ya'll! Here's chapter 12, hope you like it! Also, for the record, I totally picture Christoph Waltz as Dr. Fleisher. Have you guys seen the Django Unchained trailer? Ugh, I'm dying, I Can't wait to see it! On another note, I posted a one shot featuring the Son of Coul himself, Agent Phil Coulson, go check it out, it takes place in the same universe as this story, and uh, well, there's a nice little cameo from a few of your favorite characters from this story, go see if you can notice them! I've got to say one of the things that kicks my butt into writing is Yoplait Boston creme pie yogurt. I love it, and it gives me a total sugar rush. That and diet Mountain Dew. I'm a writer, I never said I was a health freak.
Anyways, I hope you like this chapter, and I hope you check out my one shot, Heart of Gold.
Disclaimer: I do not own anyone you recognize from the Avengers, the comics or anything. My characters just coexist. But not legally speaking. Enjoy!
Brian was brought back to Virginia where he was introduced to Dr. Fleischer. "What is it you're working on?" Brian asked as he looked over a few of Fleisher's notes on the whiteboard.
"Well, we're trying to take mutant DNA and make it compatible with human DNA and perhaps even make it take over, thus altering the human and making them more... unique." he smiled. "We are also working on making it so that we would be able to control them." he explained. Brian took a long drink out of a flask, before offering it to Fleisher who shook his head. "Uh, no, no thank you." he smiled as his eyes flickered over to Norman who was watching the scruffy man with an amused look on his face.
He nodded and took another drink, staring at the white board before he walked over, pulled it down and wiped his hand over it, erasing everything. "No, no- What! You- You're mad!" Fleisher shouted. He made a move towards Brian who held the white board marker out like a sword. He pointed a finger at him before he turned to the board.
Both men stood there as Brian started to write on the white board, the marker squeaking against the board occasionally. He paused, holding a finger in the air like he was thinking momentarily, and then took another long drink from his flask, before he started writing on the board again. When he finished he propped it back up on the stand and stood back, admiring his work. "That- That's very good." Fleisher said after a moment of looking it over. He looked at Brian with a small laugh, and then back to the board.
"Fill this up." Brian said simply to Norman before he walked to a table with chemicals on it. He looked at one beaker and then sniffed it. He scoffed and looked at a few others. "And get me some real chemicals, not the kinds you find in any kids first chemistry set." he ordered. Fleisher looked at Norman who smiled.
"Why is he here?" Fleisher asked as he followed Norman to the door.
"You need the help."
"Who is he?"
"He is one of the contributing factors to the Hulk." Norman said with a grin.
"How much of a contributing factor?"
"Half." he said and Fleisher stared at him momentarily before he looked back at Brian, and then to Norman again.
"He's his-"
"His father, yes." he nodded.
"Does he know?"
"Yes he does, luckily for us there's quite a bit of hostility between father and son, thus making getting him on our side a lot easier." he nodded. "Now go, work, you may learn something." he paused and turned back to Fleisher. "Where's Leona?"
"She tracked down a blood sample from Mrs. Banner."
"A blood sample?" Norman asked in surprise.
"Yes one of her friends managed to bully her into donating blood a few days before Mr. Banner's little incident. We found out the blood had been sent to a storage facility in Los Angeles, we were quite lucky actually." Fleisher said and Norman chuckled.
"You would think she'd have been more careful."
"I like to think of it as Fate." Fleisher smiled.
"Pretty thought, from the man who wanted to cut the baby out of her for its DNA."
"Oh, I still want the child's DNA. It would have been nice to have the stem cells too..." he sighed with a shrug. "But if this is the way that things get done, then so be It." he said and looked back at Brian who was pouring a chemical into a small Petri dish.
"Well, if you'll excuse me, I've got to see a man about the fifty state initiative." Norman smiled at Fleisher who nodded and walked back to Brian who was putting the Petri dish down.
Amanda and Kayla were passed out on the couch when I went to check on them. It was close to eleven o'clock and they had fallen asleep watching Singing in the Rain. I chuckled and walked over to Kayla and picked her up. She nestled her face in my shoulder and wrapped her arms around me sleepily. I gently shook Amanda's shoulder, her eyes shot open, and she looked around quickly before realizing where she was. She sighed and got off of the couch, following me upstairs.
She went to her room across the hall from Kayla's and I opened Kayla's door, I brought her to the bed and laid her down before I took her shoes off. I got her a night time pull up and changed her into it and her pajamas, even though she was mostly potty trained at this point, they don't call them accidents for nothing. When I got her changed and under the covers I put her clothes in the hamper and turned on her nightlight, I bent over and kissed her forehead and turned around to see Bruce standing right behind me. I gasped and he chuckled.
"I thought you heard me come in." he said softly and I shook my head.
"God, next time grab my ass or something." I said and he laughed.
"I'll remember you said that." he said. I led him out of the room. I knocked on Amanda's door lightly and heard her respond. I opened the door and smiled at her.
"Good night sweetheart." I said as she pulled the blankets over her body.
"Good night Minnie." she smiled. "Good night Bruce." she said noticing him in the doorway.
"Night." he smiled at her. I slipped out of the room, flicking the light off as I did. I shut the door and was walking back to our room when Bruce took me up on what I said before and grabbed my butt. I yelped and turned around, smacking his arm. He laughed and I sighed darkly.
"Pain in the ass." I whispered and he grabbed my hips, pulling me back to him. He wrapped his arms around me, because I had been having a bad hair day I had tied it up in a loose bun, letting him kiss the nape of my neck easier. I bit my lip, holding in a groan as he kissed around to the area right behind my left ear. He let out a sigh as his phone buzzed and pulled it out of his pocket. He pretended like he was going to throw it, before he answered it.
"Yeah Tony?" he asked into the phone and listened for a minute. "Now?" he asked and then sighed. "No, no, nothing important." he said. "Alright, I'll be there." he hung up the phone.
"What are you guys working on?" I asked and he shook his head.
"I'm sorry." he said softly. "I can't tell you."
"Bruce-"
"I can't." he said. "It's not that I don't trust you, but I don't want them to have any reason to get to you." he explained, before he cupped my face lightly. He pressed his lips to mine, giving me a long, loving kiss. "I love you."
"I love you too." I said as I looked up at him, confusion evident in my eyes. "When will you be back?" I asked as he walked downstairs.
"I don't know. Tomorrow." he shrugged. He left and I stood there for a minute, biting my nails, when I finally called Dallas.
"What's going on?" he asked and I sighed.
"I don't know. I know something's going on, but Bruce won't tell me, and he doesn't know when he's coming home, Dallas, I'm stressing out." I said with a sigh.
"Okay honey, you need to calm down." he laughed. "Give me five minutes, we'll be right down." he said before hanging up. Five minutes later he and Felipe were at the door.
"Hello little sister." he said kissing me swiftly. I smiled and then kissed Dallas who held up a bottle of tequila.
"You are not getting me drunk!" I said and they laughed.
"It'll take your mind off of your husband." Dallas said and I shook my head with a smile.
"I don't want to take my mind off of him; I just want to know he's okay."
"Well let's put it this way," he said as he shut the door behind him and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "When I'm done with you, you're not going to care if he comes home tonight or not."
"What Dallas is saying," Felipe said with a small smile. "Is perhaps it would be best to have a night where your concern is not on your husband." Felipe smiled and I nodded.
"I know what he was saying." I smiled before I turned and kicked Dallas in the butt. He laughed and Felipe grinned.
"It is a beautiful night. Shall we drink on the patio?" he asked and I smiled as I nodded. We got an ice bucket, three glasses and a bottle of margarita mix, and brought it to the patio. I sat down as Felipe mixed the drinks for us, and I looked out over the city.
"I bet you never had a view like this in Nadine." Dallas said and I chuckled.
"I'll show you pictures when I get around to reinstalling Jarvis in the house." I said and he smiled.
"Tell me about it." he said.
"What do you want to know?" I asked. "Oh, thank you Felipe." I smiled.
"You are very welcome." he said. Dallas patted his lap so I picked my feet up and put them in his lap. He took a drink of his margarita and softly ran his fingers down my foot. I squirmed a little and he laughed.
"Tell me about your friends, the things you would do. Baby, you were gone for three years. That's a long time. Shit, we didn't even last three years." Dallas nodded to Felipe who was sipping his drink. He faltered slightly, and then set his drink down.
"This is true. Dallas and I face a period of darkness. But we are better." he said and I smiled.
"I'm glad to hear you're better." I said. There was a ringing at the door and I looked back at it. "Who the hell...?" I muttered.
"Oh, it's Pepper; we invited her over since your husband took her husband and took off."
"Hi!" Pepper called through the house.
"Shh!" I whispered frantically. "Kayla's asleep, and trust me, we want her to stay that way." I said and a guilty look crossed her face.
"Shit, I'm sorry." she whispered.
"It's okay." I said and let out a small sigh before I hugged her. "Do you know what those boys are up to?" I asked and she rolled her eyes.
"Please, if I ask Tony starts in on some whole genetic displacement and reinstatement tirade, and trust me that's not a speech you want to hear twice." she sighed.
"It's more than Bruce does." I sighed. "Just throw the bag on the couch." I waved my hand at it. She put her bag on the couch and I guessed Dallas invited her to stay over considering it was an overnight bag. "Come on, we're drinking." I said as I led her to the patio. I paused, getting another glass before I walked outside. I handed the glass to Felipe who instantly poured her a margarita and she sat down.
"Minnie was just telling us about her life in Pleasantville." Dallas said pointing at me.
"Why Dallas, is that a bitter undertone I hear biting into your voice?" I asked with a grin. "You have no idea how much I missed you." I sighed. "Let's see, my closest friends were a couple named Aaron and Erin, she was a catholic, but he wasn't sure, they had no kids, but loved to tell me how to raise mine, everyone was very conservative, there were no decent clothing stores, the movie theater only showed movies on the weekend, but they still ran a platter-house, and not very well, so the show was almost always out of focus, which made me nauseated, and gave Bruce headaches." I took a large drink of my margarita. "I don't want to talk about Nadine. It was nice and all, but I don't want to ever go back there." I laughed.
"Me either." a voice said from the doorway. I turned around and saw Amanda standing there.
"Honey, did we wake you up?" I asked and she shook her head.
"No, I was going to the bathroom and I heard Pepper come in." she said. "Can I join you guys?"
"Sure, grab a glass." Dallas said. She did and Felipe poured her some margarita mix.
"I am not contributing to the delinquency of a minor." he said and I scoffed.
"Diego." I said and Dallas laughed.
"Yes, but Diego was over eighteen." Felipe pointed out.
As the night wore on we soon found ourselves talking about some of the most mundane things. "What is the most embarrassing thing you've walked in on Tony doing?" Dallas asked and I laughed as did Pepper.
"I've walked in on him with other women a couple of times, usually awkward when that happened..." she shook her head as she took a drink of her third margarita.
"What?" Amanda asked and Pepper put her hand on Amanda's.
"I'm sorry honey, you don't know, before Tony and I were married, I was his personal assistant." she said.
"Well now I'm sorry." Amanda said and we laughed.
"And then after she was the assistant, it was Natasha, and then it was me." I explained.
"He sure knows how to go through assistants." she said and Pepper laughed.
"You have no idea." Pepper said with a grin. "Though, I think that when all the craziness blows over, Minnie will be number one in the assistant department again." she said and I held my margarita glass in two hands.
"You like me," I said in an astonished and tearful sounding voice. "You really like me!" we laughed and I finished off my drink before thinking. "Okay, I uh, I walked in on him once, in the Malibu house, half in the Iron Man suit, using the leg bit as an air guitar, singing along to Black Sabbath's Iron Man." I said with a nod. We laughed at that and Pepper covered her forehead with her hand.
"He still does that!" she said and I laughed.
"I have no doubts." I said with a laugh. "Most embarrassing thing you've walked in on Dallas doing." I said and Felipe laughed.
"He likes to do the teeth thing, himself, with the strips." he said pointing to his teeth as Dallas sat there grinning.
"Do those work?" I asked and Dallas nodded.
"Sure, Felipe's sister knows a guy who works at Crest, I'll get you some." he said and I nodded with a smile.
"Great, I could use it huh?" I asked and then smiled.
"Maybe one or two." Felipe nodded. "Well, Dallas, he likes to do it himself, I come home, and he's sitting in front of the mirror, holding the pillow from our bed, doing impressions from the Godfather in the mirror with those things in his mouth, and cotton in his cheeks." he said. I laughed as Dallas shrugged.
"I went through a wig phase," I said holding my hand up. "I did, I can admit it, it was fun," I cleared my throat. "So I get home one evening, and Dallas is there, no big deal, but he's there, in this god awful David Bowie looking outfit wearing this bright purple bob wig, insisting we go dancing." I said with a laugh.
"Did you?" Felipe asked and I scoffed as I nodded.
"Fuck yes we did!" I said and they laughed. "We were both interns, we needed to burn off some steam, we were worked like crazy there."
"What, because you weren't as Tony's assistant?" Pepper asked and I shook my head as Felipe handed me a new drink.
"Now, as Tony's assistant, I was, but, with him it was different, there was almost a routine to his madness." I said and she giggled.
"True." she nodded and Amanda looked up.
"Most embarrassing thing you've ever caught Minnie doing." she said and they laughed.
"You little traitor!" I said to her making her laugh.
Little did we know not twenty minutes away, Bruce and Erik were preparing to help Tony with arguably the biggest decision of his life.