Chapter 15

Two days later, Bruce found himself sliding into the passenger seat of Tony Stark's convertible. The Tesseract and Loki were both safely back in Asgard, and Bruce had been released from SHIELD's custody. He sank back into the leather seat and smiled as Tony pulled away from the curb.

"So, where to?" Tony asked, "I don't know about you, but I could use a vacation. I hear Bora Bora is nice this time of year."

"Sounds great," Bruce said, but he was barely listening. He had his phone in his hand, about to dial.

"Who're you calling?"

"Alice."

Before he could hit the call button, Tony snatched the phone out of his hand and chucked it out the window.

"Damn it, Tony, that was brand new…"

Tony ignored him.

"JARVIS?"

The AI answered through the car's speakers.

"Sir?"

"Access the SHIELD database and locate Bruce's girlfriend, would you?"

"She's not my…"

"Have her shipped to Stark Tower."

"Of course, sir."

Bruce stared at Tony for a minute, torn between being annoyed and impressed. Tony grinned.

"What? You didn't really think I'd just pull up all my stakes in the SHIELD mainframe, did you? Oh, I almost forgot," He reached into his pocket, "Found these in the wreckage you left behind on the helicarrier. Figured you might want to have them back."

He dropped two gold rings into Bruce's outstretched hand. Bruce stared at them, shocked. He'd been sure they were gone when he'd lost himself on the helicarrier. For Tony to have them… There was no way he'd found them by chance. Bruce closed his fingers, pressing the cool metal into his palm.

"So, about Bora Bora…" Tony said.

Three days after the Battle of New York, Agent Thompson dropped Alice off on the sidewalk in front of Stark Tower. Or rather what was left of Stark Tower. The building had taken a brutal beating. Most of the bottom floors looked alright on the outside, but Alice knew the top few floors had been completely destroyed. She didn't know why SHIELD would send her here. Tommy had only said that his orders were to deliver her safely. She was sure that the poor guy was just glad to be rid of her. She hadn't exactly made his job easy.

As Tommy drove away, Alice stared up at what remained of the building. She didn't want to be here. She wanted to see Bruce. She hadn't heard from him at all since the battle, and despite Tommy's insistence that he was fine, it made her anxious that she hadn't gotten any word from him herself. Why hadn't he called her?

She straightened her shoulders to push away the remnants of her uneasiness, and then picked her way through the glass doors of the tower. A buzzer sounded and a red light blinked, then a laser projection of a screen appeared in the air in front of her.

SCANNING… it said in blue letters, and then blinked green, APPROVED.

A robotic voice, male with a touch of British accent, echoed through the empty lobby.

"Welcome to Stark Tower, Miss Ripley. You are expected on the 37th floor. If you'll please enter the far right elevator."

A metal door in the far wall slid open. Alice hesitated, glancing around at the rubble that littered the lobby floor.

"An elevator?" she muttered, "Really?"

"I can assure you, it is perfectly safe," the robot voice said, "All safety checks have been performed and the systems are operating at optimal levels. However, if you would like to climb the three hundred and eighty-three stairs…"

"No!" Alice said, striding across the floor and sliding into the open elevator, "No, that's okay, I'm fine."

"Very good, Miss."

The door slid closed and she felt a little jolt as the elevator started moving, but the ride up was smooth. More quickly than she'd expected, the doors slid open and she stepped into a bright white hallway. On the other side of the hall was a glass wall, and through the glass she could see what looked like a lab, with the most sophisticated equipment and computers that she'd ever seen. A man in a white lab coat had his back to her, inputting figures onto one of the screens that were suspended in the air. She took another step forward and the glass wall slid apart in front of her. The man turned at the sound…

Bruce.

Their eyes met and a wide smile spread across his face. Alice felt a hurricane of emotions whirl through her. Then she was running and she threw her arms around his neck and held on as tight as she could, burying her face in his shoulder, just praying that she wouldn't cry. She had never been so happy to see another human being in her entire life.

Once the intense wave of joy and relief passed she took a step back, grabbed hold of his pretty white lab coat, and started shaking him as hard as she could.

"God damn it, Bruce Banner, what the hell?!" she screamed, her voice cracking. Oh god, she was going to cry, "Three days and you couldn't even call?!"

Bruce's face had transformed from radiantly happy to terrified in less than a second.

"Alice, I…"

"Don't you 'Alice' me!" she said, "I've been waiting three damn days, having to take SHIELD's word that you were okay, because you couldn't be bothered to pick up the damn phone! Where the hell have you been?"

Someone cleared their throat loudly behind them and Alice whirled toward the intruder.

"What?" she snapped.

The man standing in the doorway quirked an eyebrow.

"Easy, banshee lady, you're dealing with some pretty volatile type stuff there, you know."

Alice looked back at Bruce. He certainly looked a bit rattled, but Alice was having trouble caring. She had been on edge for three days, he could sweat it for a few minutes. He pushed his glasses on top of his head and straightened his coat, his hands fidgeting nervously. Alice started to feel a little guilty, but she would be damned if she was going to admit it. She whirled back on the man leaning in the doorway, but he raised a hand to stop her.

"Before you go back to wailing on our favorite anger radiation expert, let me just say that this was all my idea."

Alice narrowed her eyes.

"Who the hell are you?"

He looked genuinely surprised and a little disappointed.

"You don't recognize me?"

He turned to model his profile for her. She stared for a minute. He looked slightly familiar, but she couldn't place him.

"You might know me better in my favorite suit?" He wiggled his eyebrows, "It's red and gold and shiny…"

That was when it clicked.

"You're Tony Stark," she said, crossing her arms and glaring at him, "Of course."

She'd heard of Tony Stark, billionaire five-year-old turned superhero. She wasn't as impressed as she was sure he thought she should be.

He placed his hands on his chest and bowed low, "At your service, my lady. Please, cease your torturing of yon simple scientist, who knew not what fury he hadst brought upon himself."

"You didn't tell her?" Bruce said, a hint of frustration in his voice, though he didn't really sound surprised, "You said you had it taken care of."

"I did!" Tony said, straightening up and shoving his hands in his pockets, "I thought it would be a nice surprise. Clearly, I was mistaken."

Alice's glare at him deepened. He shrugged.

"It's rare, but it happens."

She turned her glare back to Bruce, who was now fiddling with his glasses in his hand, looking sheepish.

"I'm sorry, Alice," he said, "But I'd rather talk to you in person than on the phone. I thought you knew where I was."

She sighed and looked from Bruce to Tony and back. She was finding it very difficult to stay angry at Bruce, considering how overwhelmingly happy she was to see him, alive and well. Bruce put a hand in his pants' pocket, fishing for something.

"I think I have something that might help."

He held out his hand to her. Even without seeing the engravings inside, Alice knew that there, nestled in his palm, were her parents' wedding rings. Everything else disappeared from her mind. She closed her fingers around the rings and pressed her fist to her lips, closing her eyes and letting out a deep sigh of relief. She had no idea how Bruce had come to have them. She would ask him later. Right now, she didn't care. She'd been sure they were gone, lost to her forever, and now here they were, safe in her own hand.

But as she felt the metal pressing into her skin, she realized that in the last three days, between worrying about Bruce and herself and the world coming to an end, she hadn't missed them. She opened her palm and stared at the two rings that she had carried with her for so many years, that had anchored her to her past and her family, and had defined who she was and what she believed. And they just sat in her hand, just two pieces of metal, memories still clinging to them, but no longer holding power over her. Loki's words came floating back to her.

"You and I have so much in common… wearing the chains of our families around our necks…"

But she wasn't wearing that chain anymore. She didn't need to.

She clutched her fingers around the rings and looked up at Bruce. He was standing back warily, his eyes flicking over her face, wondering if she was still angry with him. Alice smiled. She couldn't even remember why she had been angry anymore. He was safe. She was safe. And they had a lifetime to figure out the rest.

Her smile immediately relaxed Bruce's face and he smiled back, relieved. She reached out and took his hand.

"Fine. I guess I'll let you off the hook this time. But you know, you're out of prized possessions to magically return to me, so it better not happen again."

"No," Bruce chuckled, "No, never again."

He stepped up and took her shoulders in his hands.

"If I can help it, I'm never letting you out of my sight."

Alice's heart jumped in her chest.

"I think I'd like that," she said.

Then he leaned down, and kissed her.

Behind them, Alice heard Tony say, "Finally! Now can we go to Bora Bora?"

The End… for now…

A/N: Oh Tony, always got to have the last word ;) So, I know you guys are probably going to be LIVID at me for ending the story here, but I just feel like the characters have reached a good point in their development and it just felt… I don't know, right :) But never fear! I won't be leaving Alice and Bruce for long if I can help it. I would love to write some one-shots and short stories for the two of them as the MCU timeline develops leading up to Avengers 2. I'm going to do my best to come up with a few things, so stay tuned! But for now, I hope you all enjoyed my story and feel free to give me any feedback you'd like, I'm always looking to improve! Thanks!