Who: Gwen and Daddy Dr. Banner What: Discussing Venom and boys Where: The low-rent lab When: Recently Warnings/Rating: Nope
Gwen was nervous.
She wasn't nervous like she was before seeing Peter, not that sick in your stomach kind of nervous. No, this was worried nervous. Dr. Banner's reaction to her request for information about the Venom Suit wasn't what she expected, and she was starting to think this was a much bigger deal than Flash had let on. It didn't matter, though, because that just meant her help was needed all the more.
She had already done some preliminary research based on what Flash had told her - That Venom was something that fused with the body to give weird liquid powers, but that it drove the person (the host, it sounded like a host/parasite relationship) crazy. That a suit existed that could make it only fuse for 48 hours meant- what? It meant that there must be some bond between the host and the parasite that could be disrupted at the surface, something that broke the bond? Or that kept it from fully forming? It had to be one of the two.
By the time she heard the door to the lab open, Gwen had been to the library twice, and she was sitting on her makeshift bed (a fold out bed from the local discount store tucked in the corner of the lab), one of her grandmother's knitted blankets over her shoulders and books strewn all over on host and parasite relationships. Her blonde hair was piled messily atop her head, and she had pajama pants and an MIT t-shirt on, and there was an open coke perched precariously beside her on the bed as she scrolled through science websites on her laptop.
Bruce walked in as he always did, arms full papers a bankers box under one arm, a file in his teeth and his messenger bag overstuffed and hanging off of one shoulder. A muffled “hey” around the file in his mouth and a friendly nod in Gwen’s direction when he entered the room closing the door behind him.
He made his way across the lab and settled into a chair next to where Gwen was sitting and set everything down on the ground with a loud thunk. His glasses here crooked, his hair was a mess, one of his shirt tails was untucked, but that was all standard. “You’re going to need a bit heavier reading than that,” he said with his calm, steady, and genuine nature. He dug to the bottom of the box and pulled out the file he had on Venom. It was thick, coffee stained and the edges of the folder and all the papers were curled. There wasn’t much order to it, but Bruce had it memorized backwards and forwards. “It’s alien, Miss Stacy,” was what he led off with. Because it was the one fact that hadn’t been mentioned.
"What?" Gwen asked, skipping the formalities altogether and sliding to the edge of the cot and tossing the phone she'd just had in her lap aside as she stood. She padded toward him, and she took the file he just pulled out, even as she walked past him to put on some fresh coffee. She had a test in the morning that she hadn't even looked at her study notes for yet; it was going to be a long night. "What do you mean it's alien?" she asked, as if her previous question didn't clarify things enough. She set the coffee on, and then she came back to the desk Dr. Banner usually worked and and slid up onto it, opening the file on her lap. "My friend said it gives liquid powers, and the Secret Avengers learned how to make a suit that would only keep it bonded for forty-eight hours. It has to be a parasite, right? And it has to be using my friend as a host?" she looked up for verification. "Also, why are redheaded girls perfect and amazing?"
“I mean it’s alien, from … Space,” he said with his tone trying to hide the wry smile that played at his mouth when he was starting to feel comfortable. He nodded in agreement with what she said about the powers and when she veered about the Secret Avengers he shook his head. “That wasn’t my crowd,” he answered honestly. Hell he was pretty sure it wasn’t even his universe. “What I know about Venom I know because of Spider-Man,” he continued. He wondered if Spider-Man was in the same kind of trouble again but didn’t ask outright. “It’s a Symbiote, it uses a host yes. If your friend is having those kinds of problems, we need to get him help. And soon.” And he needed Anton to research the god damned Secret Avengers. Anton Sparke was spending more of his time reading comic books than he was trying to save the world, and Bruce would feel guilty if they weren’t all trying to do the same on this side too.
"It's not Spider-Man," she assured him immediately. Not Peter, thank God, because this didn't sound good at all. "So Venom is from... not from Earth," she said, just to see how crazy she sounded when she said it. But it didn't sound so crazy, no worse than mutated spiders or lizards, and every good scientist knew that the chances of them being alone in the universe were miniscule. "That isn't so surprising. We'd have to be exceptionally vain to think we were the only ecosystem that developed to sustain life. Are you saying it's sentient, or is it just a substance from another ecosystem?" she asked, finding comfort in the science of the question. "My friend says it isn't bad yet, but that he needs the suit. It must stop the bonding process somehow, right? Or break it after a set period of time?" She smiled. "Why does everyone ignore the question about the redheaded girls?"
“Because I’m partial to brunettes myself,” he said with a soft smile. “No offense of course, but Betty’s a brunette, I tend to be biased.” He answered easily, he didn’t know what to tell her about her past or her future, or anything really. He smiled though, he liked having her around though he wasn’t quite ready to admit it. “It’s sentient,” he answered her next question. “Maybe it bonds with the suit instead,” he said after a moment. “I need to see your friend. I don’t know if I can help but I can’t just hear “make a Venom suit” and make it happen. I don’t know what went into the other one.”
"Betty?" she asked curiously, and she sighed when he said he wanted to see her friend. "He said I couldn't tell you who he was, but that I should tell you it was a matter of life and death, you know, if you asked." She sighed, and she leafed through the files, frowning more and more the further in she read. "But alright," she said without looking up, not liking what she was seeing, "I'll see if he'd be willing to meet with you." She closed the file a second later, and she regarded him with as much seriousness as a teenager could muster. "Peter said he talked to you?" she asked, and then she frowned again. "Can I vent? I need to vent, and I can't vent to my friends. They've all gone over to Team Redhead."
“My wife,” he answered with a smile and a shrug. No use in beating around the bush on that one. “Well let’s put this way. You’ve told me Secret Avengers, you’ve told me Venom suit, I can go to the other side of the door and have it figured out relatively quickly. But I don’t know what kind of time we have if you say he’s going insane. So telling me might be the best thing to do at this point. If it’s something we can do, then great, mission accomplished. But we shouldn’t risk it.”
He nodded when she said Peter had talked to him, “He told me if someone got hurt I’d be off the Christmas fruitcake list, which lets face it, I’m not on anyone’s Christmas fruitcake list so I’ll be doing my best to stay on his.” And then she wanted to vent. Good Lord a teenage girl was about vent at him. About redheaded problems. “Go ahead,” even though every fiber of his being including the Hulk and Anton were telling him to run for his life.
"Your wife?" Gwen asked, and she actually looked around the lab, as if she expected to find her there. "Where is she?" she asked a second later, when it became obvious that Mrs. Banner wasn't going to appear from some corner or shadowy place. "I promised wouldn't tell, Dr. Banner. He says he has time, and that it's not dangerous right now," she added, not really knowing how true that was. If it was anyone but Flash, she'd believe it without question, but it was Flash. "I'll ask him as soon as we're done talking," she promised.
She smiled when he mentioned Peter's teasing, and it was a lovesick smile, the kind of thing that existed only on the face of a teenager. "That sounds like him," she added, "and you're on mine too, my Christmas fruitcake list, but I don't actually like fruitcake, so can we make it something else?" She sighed then, when he told her to go ahead. "Everyone says Mary Jane is amazing. Everyone. According to Flash, Peter was in love with her when we were together, and Harry thinks she's wonderful, and Pepper Potts called me today to ask for her phone number. Do you know why? To offer her a paid internship at Stark Industries. I'm top of my class, and I couldn't get Pepper Potts to even acknowledge me when I tried to call about you, and she calls me to get Mary Jane's number?" She was all teenage pout and maybe a little bit of trembling lower lip.
“It didn’t exactly go as anticipated I’m afraid. But she’s not here regardless of that,” he answered with a shrug. Betty was another complicated subject in a long list of Bruce Banner’s complicated subjects. “I respect your desire to keep it a secret, but please let him know that I might be able to help in the short term if I can’t find a Venom suit in the longer term.”
He smiled genuinely when she said he was on her Christmas list too. “I hate fruitcake, we’ll make it a Christmas cookie list, I love cookies,” which was made clear because cookies was one thing the lab never ran out of. “Don’t worry about what everyone else says about Mary Jane, Miss Stacy. Their lives weren’t without issue either, and frankly things don’t always work out the way you think they will despite how perfect someone may seem. I’m sorry that all of this is coming down to this, but comparing yourself to another person isn’t going to make you feel any better. Believe me. I don’t know what MJ could possibly do for Pepper Potts, I think she’s familiar, Pepper doesn’t know you and didn’t take the time to get your background, if you want something better, something that might actually help your career I can find you something better. I know this isn’t all your dreams coming true being holed up in an old warehouse in New Jersey, I kind of like having you around. But if you want a better opportunity, I can get you something amazing.”
The simple answer about his wife made her frown, wondering where Mrs. Banner was, if she just wasn't here, or if something had gone wrong, maybe something with the green Hulk he was so scared of, but that she'd never seen. For something he feared so much, he seemed to have a pretty good grip on controlling it. "I'll tell him," she promised, of offering Flash the short-term solution. She paused and, smart thing that she was, she backpedaled to something he had said much earlier in the conversation, not commented on, but noted all the same. "You said Venom made you think of Peter. Does it affect him at some point?" she asked, carefully attentive and very interested in the response.
"Cookies and hot chocolate," she amended, because it made her think of her father, and she sighed when he finally addressed Mary Jane, which was more than anyone was willing to do lately. "I know, but it's the curse of the American teenager, I think, to think the entire world hinges on being liked by whoever you like. Peter broke up with me because it isn't safe to be around me, but it's safe to be around her, and Flash says Peter always liked her better." She shrugged her shoulders, as if she intended to continue on her emo-spew, but the mention of Mrs. Potts yanked her right out of it. "No. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else," she assured him emphatically. "I would turn them down anyway, even if they called right now." She pulled a phone off his desk, and she held it up to her ear. "No, Mrs. Potts, you can beg all you like, but no. I am perfectly happy with Dr. Banner, and he's the best boss a lovesick teenager could ever have. I respectfully decline," she insisted, though there was (of course) no one on the other end of the line.
“Please do, it’s important Miss Stacy,” he said seriously. The last thing any of them needed was Venom running around. At her next question he nodded, there was no reason to lie, she could find out easily enough. “Yes, and it doesn’t go well I’m afraid. The Symbiote itself held a bit of a grudge because Spidey didn’t want to live happily ever after with him. Once he figured out what it was he was able to disconnect from it. After that it merged with someone else and was hell bent on getting rid of him. But from what you’re telling me it’s found someone else?” he’d need to do a little more research on the Secret Avengers once he went back through the door. He could almost hear Anton rolling his eyes in his mind about having better things to read than more comic books. But frankly, they both knew he loved it.
Bruce smiled softly and shook his head, “You’re going to take advice from a guy called Flash?” he said sitting back a bit more comfortably in his chair. “I’m not saying that Spidey and MJ have their whole lives figured out. Even where I come from they don’t have their whole lives figured out. It doesn’t mean she’s better than you, it doesn’t mean it’s any safer for her than it was for you. But you’re dealing with two different Peter Parkers here. Maybe even more than that really. You’re from a different time and place, Peter’s from a different time and place. You and Mary Jane are two different people. She’s not better than you, I do know that much. I know that Peter doesn’t think so either, Miss Stacy. You’re just different people, who knows what will happen tomorrow or the next day. I’m pretty sure you were the last person he ever expected to see again. I’m not saying this is ideal or easy or even fun. But it’s not you. There’s nothing wrong with you.”
Bruce smiled and even chuckled a bit when she had her little conversation with the absent Pepper Potts. “I’ll see if I can get you on some kind of payroll,” he said with a grin. “If anything, and I mean if nothing else, Miss Stacy, you will have people clamoring at your door to find out what the elusive Dr. Banner is working on. You’ve got a good head on your shoulders, and you’re young, and you’re smart. And you care about people. There’s nothing wrong with that. You’ve been through some real,” he paused, “well some real shit. And it’s probably going to keep coming. That’s the nature of the lives we lead. But you’re here, you’re up and around, you’re coming to work every day even if it’s to escape an impossible situation. You’re on the right track. You haven’t run away, and believe me when I tell you that it solves nothing.”
Venom sounded worse than irradiated spiders, and worse than lizards, and she was focusing on that when he started talking about Flash and Mary Jane. "So there can be more than one?" she asked of Venom, though she already knew the answer was yes. If it was a sentient, alien symbiote then there could be millions. "How did it get here?" Because that was the question, wasn't it? Could there be more? She huffed, air blowing her blonde hair off her forehead. "No, Peter wasn't surprised, we're from the same place and the same time. We'd seen each other just days before. Oh-" Here she paused. "Are you thinking about the Peter that was here before? They said there was another Peter here before, but this isn't him. He's mine... From my timeline, I guess. We showed up mostly together. He didn't even know I'm supposed to die, not until I told him, and I tried to convince him I die crossing the road, so if we could keep that going I would appreciate it?"
"I don't need a payroll, Dr. Banner. We have a lot of money, and we have even more now that my dad- The police department had really good insurance, I guess. Not that we needed it." She shrugged, and then her eyes were watering when he went on about how she was smart and good, and it was the first time in days no one had told her Mary Jane was amazing, and she didn't even think before jumping off the desk and hugging him. "Thank you, Dr. Banner," she said, her voice muffled against the scratchy fabric of his shirt. "You're a million times better than Tony Stark."