THE SEARCH FOR HER MASTERS WAS STIFLING. Fury was around more often, and if he wasn't there in person, he was calling in, and it wasn't that she didn't like him, she just didn't like how blunt he was. They were very similar, but he chose to be blunt, she simply knew no other way. But he had good intentions and Arabella was always happiest whenever he was around, so she decided to hold her tongue, if only to keep the peace.
"We're chasing down leads, we had to backtrack to contacts of people who probably could pay and would be willing to pay to get rid of some of the people that you killed," Clint explained, groaning as he sprawled out along the couch, his mouth stretching out widely as he yawned.
"Okay," she replied, because there wasn't much else she could say.
"Are you okay with this?" Clint asked, raising his head, "Because we're digging pretty deep, and Bruce said you don't wanna know anything about anything, is that still true?"
"Yes, I don't want to know anything," she insisted, shifting in her seat before sighing and setting her tablet aside to look at him, "I don't want anything to do with them. I just want what I have now."
Clint nodded in understanding, licking his lips as he looked over towards Natasha and Arabella who made their way up, laptops in hand, hands a blur as they moved as quickly as they could, Natasha tossing Clint's over towards him.
"We've got some leads, I tabbed the ones you need to vet," Natasha explained, falling into the seat in the middle, Arabella next to her.
She watched as the three agents began working in tandem, their fingers flying over the keys as they worked, eyes narrowed, and it was amazing to watch as they fell into a focus she had yet to see from them except when they were in the training room or playing board games.
She looked over to find Tony, Bruce, and Steve climbing up the stairs, Steve and Bruce engrossed in conversation while Tony listened idly, making a beeline for the fridge, opening it and groaning a few moments later.
"Bruce...we're out of food..." Tony whined, turning around to look at the older man, "Help..."
"Tony, I can see food right there," Bruce scoffed, motioning behind him and Tony whined again, shaking his head, causing Steve to stifle a laugh and shake his head.
"We ran out of the yogurt," he explained, and Bruce nodded in understanding, running a hand through his hair.
"I'll go out and buy some more then. We ran out of bread and milk yesterday anyways, we might as well stock up," he hummed, already making a list in his head, allowing his gaze to turn towards the couch where she sat.
"Marnie," he called out, catching her attention, smiling when she looked up, her eyebrows raised, "You wanna come with me, we're running to the store."
Everyone reacted, all of them surprised with the offer.
"Are you sure it's a good time, Bruce, she hasn't been out yet and we still haven't found the bastards that did this to her," Steve asked, reaching out to touch his arm, and Bruce turned to look at him, shrugging.
"It would be good for her to start interacting with the outside world, all she knows is us, and it'll just be the store, I'll be with her the entire time and you know I just keep to myself, it'll be like people watching. Acclimating to a new environment instead of diving headfirst," Bruce reasoned, but then he looked over towards her shrugging, "But it's up to you, Marn."
She sat there for a few moments, mulling over the choice in her mind. She had yet to go out into the outside world and she had more than her fair share of trepidations. After all, she had yet to meet a person who didn't understand what she had been through and there was always the fear of regressing, of hurting someone else, she couldn't risk that.
But if she didn't try, she would never know. Bruce would be with her, it wasn't as if she would be alone, and if something happened he could always bring something to restrain her with. It wouldn't hurt, and they were just going to the store, and from what she had seen on the TV it wasn't too much trouble unless someone came in to rob the place.
"Okay," she said, finally, nodding towards Bruce, "I want to go."
º º º
She still wore her shorts and her sweater, but she had finally been forced into a pair of shoes which were strange to walk in after so many weeks of nothing but bare feet. Bruce wasn't dressed any more sophisticatedly than she was, his shirt rumpled and his pants in no greater of a state. But this was New York and literally no one cared, so there wasn't much to worry about.
"Come on, Marn," he whispered, tugging her along as she paused to gawk and gape at the buildings and the people all around her.
What she found hardest to deal with, however, was the noise. When she was with her masters, the compliance made it so it was easy for her to hone in on sounds she needed to find and dismiss ones that she didn't. But without the help of drugs, it was hard for her to differentiate on her own, and Bruce often had to hold her close and whisper in her ear to make sure she could understand him.
"Just focus in, it's like the way you make your eyes focus. I know it's overwhelming, but you can do it," he whispered, and she nodded, closing her eyes and taking deep breaths, mimicking his own breathing and holding onto his arm while she did.
When she opened her eyes, everything was brighter and the noise had dialed down. She looked towards him and tried to smile, giving him a shaky nod as they finished their trek towards the store, the two stepping through the automatic doors and into the cold room.
"Okay, let's grab a cart," Bruce said, walking over towards the long line, "You want to hold onto the list?"
"Yeah," she grinned, taking it from him and reading it over, the two starting at one end, planning on heading towards the other, then going around to get the frozen foods last to make sure they would last.
It was nice, the both of them just going around. Bruce told her little stories all about when he would go to the store with his mother, back when she was still alive. He'd also tell stories about when he went to the store with his cousin, how they would run around the aisles together and try to find cereal boxes that had matching ingredients.
"—when you're in college you start looking for the best deals. I've had to do it for a while whenever I had to do research, getting all those PhD's doesn't really bring in that much money, but I often did work as a doctor, helped in labs, it was all tangential I had money, just when I was first starting out," Bruce explained to her as he debated between different products, taking in both price and labels.
She nodded as she listened to him, remembering about Tony's explanation as to why someone would receive their doctorate and go to grad school. It had been made very clear to her that the average person didn't work that far to get a doctorate and those who did generally only had one, maybe two.
But Bruce had seven.
"Why do you have so many?" she asked, continuing to push the cart as they went along, "You don't need that many to get a good job, why do you have them?"
Bruce laughed, coughing uncomfortably as he dropped a few of the items inside the cart, tugging both her and the cart along, she now placing her feet up on the bottom rack, grinning as Bruce did all the work.
"Because I have no real world skills."
She frowned, tilting her head. "What does that mean?"
He sighed, laughing. "I can't operate outside of a lab. I mean, if you asked me to do research to cure the common cold, I would be right there, but if you asked me how to fix a broken fridge, forget it. People always said you'd never find me working fast food, and they'd be right, because I'd have absolutely no idea how to."
She blinked, piecing everything together. "So...in some ways, Clint is smarter than you."
"Oh definitely. And he's already very smart, just not the way everyone cares about," Bruce agreed, laughing to himself as he shook his head, "God, it's so embarrassing, I am the poster child for pathetic nerds."
"Well, you can't say that," she said, and he turned, seeming to expect some consolation and support, only for her to finish, "After all, you're not a child. You're the poster man for pathetic nerds."
"I swear—" he started, making a grab at her, and she shrieked, laughing as he chased her down an aisle, and she didn't know why she was running, he wouldn't have hurt her, and he only barely knew why he was chasing after her like some undergrad, yet there they were, making a scene in a grocery store, for nothing more than base human instinct to chase and run.
When he finally caught up to her—she let him win because she didn't want to draw too much attention to themselves, not that anyone would actually pay attention—he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her close, just hugging her, and she laughed as she held onto him.
"You're insufferable," he scoffed, the two heading back to their cart which had remained untouched, and she hummed as she continued to cling onto him, which meant shopping was all the more difficult.
By the time the two finished up, their cart was full and Bruce was making a call to Tony who barely even let him speak before telling him to charge it to the billionaire's card. When Bruce tried to argue, she could hear Tony shouting at him to stop acting like he's a burden.
"After all Bruce, you're not the one who's gonna be eating that yogurt," Tony finished, and Bruce laughed as he shook his head, charging it as he was told, ignoring the confused look the cashier gave them.
When they stepped out, bags in hand, Bruce hummed as he looked across the street. "So what do you think of the city?"
"I like it," she said, glad that the noise wasn't too loud, "But it's hard to get used to everything, but when you do, it's fine. I've never really paid much attention before, I was never allowed.
"Well, now you can," he reasoned, giving her a smile, looking around the street before pausing, "If you're still up for staying in the city a while longer...you wanna get some ice cream?"
She was surprised he even had to ask.
A few minutes later saw them sitting at the window seat in the ice cream parlor, looking out towards the people walking along the sidewalk without any care to the people around them. They were in the part of the city that hadn't been completely decimated by The Incident, but Bruce told her that it was more than likely that they would still be trying to rebuild in as far forward as 2015; Hell's Kitchen had nearly been wiped off the map entirely, not that that was where they were.
"But that wasn't your fault, if you hadn't done something, everyone would be dead," she pointed out, and Bruce nodded.
"There are just a lot of people that hate us. There are already a lot of people that hate me for a variety of reasons, but I'm glad it's not wholly connected to the good work I do as Banner, not as The Hulk," he explained, and she froze, eyes widening when she remembered what her masters had told her.
"What's wrong?" he asked, sitting up straight, his tone laced with clear concern.
"They told me that the people who wanted you dead gave me three months to complete my mission, but you're not dead yet," she said, her heart racing as she began to look around, "Bruce we have to get back."
"Hey, it's okay, it's okay," he said, gathering their things together and nodding, "I'll call Tony so he can grab us a ride, we'll just stay in here. But stay calm, Marn, there's nothing to worry about, okay? Tony amped up security, it'll be okay. They won't get to us. I promise."
She took a deep breath as she tried to believe him, nodding and offering a smile that could hardly be called a smile at all, trying to force her heart to stop racing.
Unbeknownst to them, however, there was a van parked inconspicuously on the other side of the street with someone taking pictures and memorizing every move they made, unaware of their surroundings, focused only on their target.
After all, they had a deadline to fulfill. The extra target wouldn't be any problem at all.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
I've been waiting thirty years to make the mention about how he has no real world skills and I didn't even get to be funny about it...but whatever I made the joke and I will make the joke again because what the hell, Tisha, that wasn't funny.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro