章 1522: 21
Chapter 21Summary:
Bruce is coming home.
And Tony has no idea.
Where is Jane?
Chapter Text
"So, you'll accept my resignation and take the project? You'll find people to complete what I started." Bruce knew that the changes he'd made would ensure that the project would never be completed enough to reach the human testing stage.
"I will, Dr." Ross nodded. "If you like, I have two men heading for West Point tomorrow, you can ride with them as far as New York?" He tilted his head in question. "They can drop you at one of Stark's factories."
Bruce felt Hulk brighten and take an interest in the conversation, when he heard the name 'Stark'.
'Hulk like TinMan. Hulk want see TinMan.' Came the whisper into his mind.
"A lift to New York would be helpful." Bruce gave Ross a timid smile and felt Hulk smile, too.
April 17th 2005
"Uh, Doc?" One of the two soldiers that Bruce was travelling with from Culver University to New York, asked.
"Yeah, Simon?" Bruce asked.
"Which Stark were you talking about?"
"Excuse me?" Bruce frowned slightly.
"Last night, you mentioned Tony Stark but then this morning you said Stark Industries and… well, I wanted to be certain who you meant when you were talking about Stark? Howard or Tony?"
"Oh… uh…"
"See… Howard runs Stark Industries but no-one ever calls him Doctor. Tony is Dr Stark as far as the public go but he runs Iron Technologies. So, I was just wondering… Which one you mean?"
"Tony." Bruce said. "Always Tony, I've never had anything to do with Howard." He shook his head. 'Mostly because the man had been dead for decades. So what hap-' Bruce cut himself off. 'Alternate realities. The Ancient One called them time streams. Is that what happened to us? Is contacting Tony the right thing to do?'
'Hulk want to see TinMan.' Hulk reminded Bruce.
'He might not remember us.' He warned Hulk.
'Still want to see TinMan.' Hulk grumbled.
'Then we'll go see him, buddy.' Bruce said.
"Okay." Simon said. "That's easier than trying to get in to see Howard." He held up a flip-phone and a card. "You want to call Ms Potts, or shall I?"
"Um…" Bruce hesitated and saw Simon exchange looks with the driver, who'd been introduced simply as Boyle.
"We're going to make a coffee stop in a few minutes, if you'd like a little privacy, Doc?" Simon offered.
"Yeah." Bruce nodded. "That would be good."
Five minutes later, Bruce leant against the SUV's hood and looked at the cell in his hand.
"Here goes nothing…" Bruce whispered and pressed 'send'. The line connected and buzzed before being answered.
"Good morning, welcome to Iron Tech. This is Sarah, how can I direct your call?"
"Hello, this is Bruce Banner, I'm trying to reach Ms Potts."
"Dr Bruce Banner?" Sarah asked.
"Yes, ma'am." Bruce replied.
"One moment and I'll transfer your call." The line went to tinny music for perhaps thirty seconds.
A very familiar voice filled Bruce's ear. "Br- … Dr Banner?"
Was Bruce hearing things or did Pepper start to say his first name, before using his title?
"Ms Potts." He smiled as he said her name, Pepper was such a nice lady. "I'll come straight to the point. Some time ago Dr Stark contacted me and offered me a position with his company, however I was deep in research of my own, at the time, and wasn't very receptive of his approach. Yesterday, my research came to a tipping point and the project is no longer one that I can be involved with. I was wondering if Dr Stark's offer was still available?"
"Where are you?" Pepper asked.
"Right now? Medina, West Virginia."
"Do you have transport or would you like us to send a jet for you?" She asked. "Parkersburg is… how far away?"
"About twenty minutes."
"I can have a jet in the air in ten minutes."
"Why don't you have that jet meet me at… um… Morgantown? It'll take me about two hours to get there and not much longer for your plane. I'm travelling with a pair of soldiers that are on their way to West Point, so we're heading in that direction anyway."
Pepper drew in a sharp breath.
"They'll let you go?" Pepper asked sharply.
"My contract with the DoD was mutually terminated, yesterday." Bruce said. "Simon and Boyle, the pair of soldiers I'm riding with, are worrywarts, so they may want to wait until your plane arrives. Just to make sure I'm not left without a ride."
"Excellent." Pepper sighed. Was that relief, Bruce heard, or was he imaging things? "I'll send someone, not sure who yet, Tony and Bucky have taken the kids to the zoo and I'm not sure if Clint is tailing them or if he's available."
"Clint?" Bruce caught his breath.
"Clint is Head of Security for IT and our primary pilot." Pepper said. "If I can't get Clint, I'll have Andrew pilot the plane. Can I contact you on this number?"
'Okay, that's different.' Bruce thought to himself. "The cell belongs to Simon, but as he's the one who offered it to me, I would think he'd accept a call from Dr Stark." Bruce was a little unsubtle in hinting that he wanted Tony to call him.
"Oh, no, Tony's taken Peter to the zoo, for the day, they won't be back until they're kicked out. I'll keep you as surprise." Pepper laughed.
'Peter? Peter Parker?' Bruce frowned. "Does Dr Stark like surprises?" He asked, still not sure if the warmth he was hearing was truly directed at him or if it was just a side-effect of talking about Tony.
"Dr Stark hates surprises… Tony, on the other hand, loves them. You will be the best surprise, Bruce. The very best."
"…Pepper…?"
"You'll see, Bruce, you'll see." She replied. "Right, Clint's tailing the boys, so Andrew's doing the flying, he'll meet you at Morgantown airport, flight time is approximately three hours from LaGuardia."
"And drive time from Medina, is a little over two, depending on traffic."
"Oh, good, you won't have long to wait. Turn around should be less than ten minutes, depending on air traffic control. Hopefully, you should be here before Tony and Peter get home." Pepper said brightly.
"Alright…" Bruce agreed. He saw a flicker of movement off to his right and straightened up. "My drivers are back, I should let you go."
"Of course, Bruce. Tony will be so excited to see you. We all will be." She assured him and disconnected the call.
Bruce looked at the cell and shook his head in part-confusion-part-amusement.
"All alright there, Doc?" Simon asked.
"Yeah." Bruce answer, in a slightly shellshocked tone. "Yeah." He repeated, stronger. "All good."
"So, what's the deal?"
"Ms Potts is sending a plane to meet me at Morgantown."
"Yeah? That's good, right?"
"Certainly sounds like it." Bruce gave the man a smile as he handed the cell-phone back. "Thanks for the loan."
"As long as you got it sorted." Simon smiled. "Hey, why don't you go grab a coffee and something to eat and we'll get going, again. We have a plane to meet."
Bruce laughed at the young man's exuberance and nodded.
"Coffee would be good."
Boyle pulled to a halt beside the security gates to the private hangers, where Pepper had told them to go, when she'd rang back to confirm details.
"Yeah?" The guard asked, barely looking up from his book.
"Dr Bruce Banner, Simon Lucas and Michael Boyle. Iron Technologies are sending a plane for Dr Banner." Boyle answered and waited while the guard checked their details against his computer.
"Yep. Got ya. Drive around to the first carparking area and you'll be met there. Man's name is Jeff, he'll take ya the rest of the way." The guard went right back to reading his book after hitting a button to open the gate.
Boyle grunted and put the SUV in motion again. The road was heavily shaded by trees and as the trees gave way, a large aircraft hangar came into sight, along with a smaller shed. Boyle let the SUV come to a stop beside an older jeep and the three of them climbed out of the vehicle, stretching to ease tight muscles.
"One of you lads, Dr Banner?" An older man asked, emerging from the smaller shed.
"That would be me." Bruce acknowledged.
"Good stuff." The man waved. "Dunno where your plane's coming from but it's on descent, should be here in about ten minutes. You got two choices, lad. Wait here, in the fresh air and the sun or wait inside where it's not so hot but all you can smell is avgas."
Bruce grimaced, avgas gave Hulk a headache. "I'll stay out here if you don't mind. I don't get outside enough, some fresh air would probably do me some good."
"Right ya are."
The plane was white, with an Iron-Man-red tail, but what caught Bruce's eyes was the symbol on the tail. A simplified design of an arc-reactor, done in gold. The door in the fuselage opened and a familiar face poked out.
"Oi, Brucey, you coming?" Darcy Barnes yelled.
"Darcy?" Bruce gasped. "What are you doing here?"
"What's it look like I'm doing, Doc? I'm your ride."
"As long as you're not flying."
"Nah, Doc, you know Bucky won't let me. Spoilsport that he is."
"You know Darcy Barnes?" Simon asked nudging Bruce's elbow.
"Oh, uh, yeah. We both went to Culver." Bruce replied.
"Huh. Did not know that." Simon huffed. "Wow…"
"Darcy's cool." Bruce went around to the back of the SUV and waited for Boyle to open the rear, he pulled out his pack and slung it over his shoulder. "Excellent cook but miserable driver. So dangerous, you're better off walking." He held out a hand to each soldier and after shaking their hands, went on. "Thanks for the ride, guys. Good luck at West Point."
"Thanks, Doc." Simon grinned and handed over a folded slip of paper. "If you ever want an out, Doc, gimme a call, we'll spring ya." He slapped Bruce on the shoulder and climbed back in the SUV.
The two soldiers waited until Bruce approached the plane and climbed it's steps. At the tops of the steps, Bruce gave them a wave and stepped aside for Darcy to shut the hatch behind him.
"Welcome aboard, Dr Banner." A familiar but unexpected voice came from a speaker on the cabin's cockpit wall.
"Thanks, JARVIS." He replied automatically, before blinking in surprise.
"I win!" Darcy bounced on her toes, waving her arms about, excitedly.
"What?" Bruce dodged Darcy's flailing arms and dropped into a seat.
"I win." Darcy repeated. "I listened to your call to Pepper and I just knew you remembered."
"Remembered… what…?" Bruce asked slowly.
"The big purple prick." Darcy fell into her own seat and cinched her belt, gesturing to Bruce to do the same.
"Th- Thanos?" He whispered. "You remember Thanos?"
"Of course, I remember him, he took three of my scientists from me and nearly cost me, my life." Darcy snarled before huffing. "Of course, he's also responsible for bringing my husband to the US, so…?"
"I don't think he did that, I think that was more Steve than Thanos."
"God, I hope so, owing Steve is bad enough, owing Thanos is just all sorts of ewww…" Darcy grimaced. "So… Doc? Where's my Hulk?"
"Sleeping right now, he doesn't like planes."
"But he's there?"
"Yes, yesterday was the first time that Hulk came and when I woke up afterwards, we remembered everything." He tilted his head. "Up until sometime in November 2024, we went to the first anniversary of Tony and Nat's…" He still couldn't say it. "And that's the last thing I remember before waking up with a Hulk hangover and no longer being green."
"How's that working for you? For Hulk?"
"Hulk's okay with it, as long as he gets some 'out' time, soon." Bruce said. "I'm struggling a little bit. I'd really got used to us being together and now, we're separate again."
"Do you think you'll do the merge again?"
"I don't know…" Bruce said. "I don't regret it, not at all. But merging exposes us to the world again."
"And that's bad?"
"It could be, if people like Ross are involved." Bruce nodded.
"Well, let's see if we can come up with a reasonable excuse for 'creating' Hulk, sometime in the next year or two. Something seemingly not connected to the work you were doing for Ross." Darcy said.
"Sir and Mr Stark have a number of projects that might be suitable, one of which is a variant of Captain Rogers' version of the super-soldier serum, another is Sergeant Barnes' version of the serum. I would suggest talking to Sir and Mr Stark and working with them. They might be able to create something that could provide a suitable cover." JARVIS joined the conversation.
"But it has to be something that can't be replicated." Bruce said. "I won't have Ross trying to do this to other people."
"No, we can't have that." JARVIS agreed. "Sir has no appointments tomorrow, so I've sent a request to Mr Stark to join us and I believe that between the four of us we can come to a working solution."
"Tomorrow?" Bruce asked. "No, that's too soon, Ross won't accept that."
"No, not for taking action, just for planning." JARVIS corrected.
"Oh, right… Yeah, tomorrow works." Bruce nodded. "So, Darcy?"
"Yeah, Doc?"
"How did you…?"
"How did I get here?" Darcy asked and Bruce nodded. "Not a frigging clue, but I'm assuming it's something to do with Lorelei's curse…" She went on to tell Bruce about waking in 1999. Then she sat back as JARVIS explained who else had remembered and what they were planning to do to avoid Thanos snapping his fingers again.
~~~
Bucky looked at the text message from his wife.
Bring Tony straight to the team gym, when you come home.
We have a surprise for him.
He frowned and send a quick reply back.
Good surprise or bad surprise?
He pressed send before pausing and thinking, he frowned and quickly sending a second text.
No, will PEPPER think it's a good surprise?
It took only a few seconds for Darcy to answer.
Pepper is the one organising this, not me.
Bucky's frown lifted and a curious expression flitted across his face. 'Huh, that's going to be interesting.' He mused to himself as he watched Tony and Peter petting the alpacas. A sly look entered his eyes and while he had his phone out, he took a couple of candid photos of the other man and the little boy. A few seconds to look at them and smile and he texted them to Pepper and May.
Bonding time. Was what he sent with them.
The sun had set and peak hour traffic was just starting, when Tony, Peter and twins settled into the backseat of Tony's car, with Bucky at the wheel. Normally, it would be Happy but today he and May were moving Happy's possessions into the townhouse that May and Peter lived in.
Hence, Tony having Peter out later than usual.
The drive from the zoo to their small group of buildings, was only a couple of miles, which took Bucky little more than ten minutes. Pulling into the private carpark from Hall Street, Bucky eased the car down and around, into the underground carpark that Tony had insisted upon.
"So…" Bucky said as he turned the car off and turned to Peter. "Darcy tells me that Pepper has a surprise for Tony in the team gym. Shall we go and find out what it is?"
"Yeah!" Peter chirped, his grin bright and wide.
"Oh, God, what now?" Tony muttered.
"No idea." Bucky grinned. "All I know is that Darcy said, that Pepper is responsible for it." He climbed out of the car and opened a back door, unhooked the twins, quckly sliding them into a stroller before swinging Peter up onto his shoulders.
"Huh." Tony grunted, with a grimace, but he still followed Bucky as he made his way to the afore mentioned gym.
There, he saw the rest of the team sitting in the briefing area, talking to… was that…?
"Bruce?" Tony whispered.
"Tony." Bruce climbed to his feet and crossed to meet the other genius, wrapping the man in Hulk-strong arms.
~~~
Much later that night, Pepper snuggled up against Tony's side.
"You awake?" She whispered.
"Hmm…" He nodded slightly.
"I have another surprise for you…" Her smile was soft and warm.
"Oh?" He asked, wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her neck.
"Come late September, Morgan will be joining us."
Tony's head come up quickly. "Morgan? You're pregnant? Morgan? You sure it's gonna be Morgan?"
"It's a girl and I'm already craving Spanish sausage coated in chocolate and coconut… and why you ever had to tell her they were cockroaches, I just don't know." Pepper sighed.
"Please don't tell me you want candied crickets, again…" Tony moaned. "Do you know how hard it was to find them, the first time?"
"Well, at least you know where to go looking, this time." Pepper grinned.
"Well… crap…" Tony sighed before his sigh gave way to a bright and cheery grin. "We're getting our Morguna back." He laughed.
"We are." Pepper's smile was just as bright.
~~~
April 20th 2005
"Hey, dad?" Tony waited until Howard turned to face him.
"Yes, Tony?" They'd been dealing with the DoD since eleven-thirty on the Monday morning and as it was now nearly one-thirty Tuesday morning, Howard was tired and just wanted to go home to bed.
Tony's grin grew sly. "Pep's pregnant, she's due in late September, we think it's Morgan, again. You ready to be a grandpa to a mini-me?"
Howard just stared at his son, waiting for his brain to make sense of what Tony had said. When it did, his smile grew wide before rapidly falling to horror.
"Oh, God, does she take after us?"
"Smart?" Tony asked. "Oh, hell, yeah."
"Shit…" Howard groaned.
"We're screwed once she's old enough to work with the twins." Tony laughed. "It'll be great to watch from a security bunker on the other side of the world."
"Oh, God…" Howard groaned, again.
~~~
November 3rd 2005
Jane Foster opened her eyes and frowned. That ceiling didn't look like the ceiling of Erik's flat in Edinburgh.
"Erik?" She called but even after nearly a minute there was no answer.
"Darcy?" There was no answer this time, either. "That's odd… Darcy never leaves me to wake in new places, not for the first time." She pulled herself upright until she could reach the bag on the end of the bed and dug around in it until she pulled out a cell-phone. The cell her hand emerged with, was her phone but it wasn't in the battered, bumped and abused condition that she remembered. In fact, it looked brand new.
'Did Darcy get my cell refurbished and not tell me?' She wondered.
With another frown, she pressed speed-dial two and waited for Darcy to answer.
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