Bruce Banner (notthatkindofdr) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2019-05-28 10:05:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, !log, ~2019 may, ~25 points, ~~bruce banner (notthatkindofdr), ~~natasha romanoff (blackwidow_nat) |
Who: Bruce & Natasha
What: Bruce is back from his canon update
Where: Their house
When: Tuesday morning
Warnings: spoilers for the first part of Endgame
Status: complete gdoc
It took more than a few minutes for Bruce to recognize where he was and remember the life he had here. Thanks to the Other Guy, he was actually used to waking up in strange places, usually naked, with no recollection of how he ended up there. This was different though. The Other Guy was still being stubborn and refusing to make an appearance, but they hadn’t needed him to finally take out Thanos. Unfortunately, taking him out didn’t undo the damage he’d done.
Bruce was grateful that they’d managed to bring Tony home at least. With all they’d lost, saving him was a small consolation. He had no idea what was going to happen from here, no idea if the team was going to pull together or go their separate ways.
Now that he was back in Madison Valley, he supposed it didn’t much matter. All he cared about right now was getting home to his wife and daughter. There was no way of knowing how much time had passed here while he was gone and he hoped that Natasha and Cassie were okay.
When he got to the house, he realized that he didn’t have his keys, so he had to knock and hope that one or both of his girls was home.
***
Natasha liked to think she’d been handling Bruce being gone pretty well and on the surface she was. She was keeping positive for Cassie and trying to convince herself she was right and Bruce would be back soon, it just got harder the more time passed. That little voice in the back of her head was getting louder. But they’d been gone for longer before, it was just that she didn’t like waiting.
Hearing the knock at the door she put her coffee and phone down and went to answer, when she saw Bruce on the other side she immediately launched herself at him, “Oh thank god” she whispered as she held him tightly.
***
“How long?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her.
Bruce was relieved that she was still here and that she was happy to see him. That led him to believe that not too much time had passed while he was gone. Not enough time for her to decide he wasn’t coming back and she should move on, at least.
It was weird having the memories of how awkward things were between them back home. Obviously they hadn’t had the time or inclination to work through things like they did here.
***
“Four days” she told him, though it felt longer but he was back now and that was what mattered.
Bruce should know that it would take a lot for Natasha to move on, she’d hold out hope for a very long time. She was happier with him than she could ever remember being and she wasn’t the sort to give that up easily.
“Are you alright?” she asked him, pulling back enough to look him over. She assumed he’d come from the same memories she had but it was never a guarantee.
***
Four days wasn’t too bad. “Yeah, mostly,” he said.
Bruce knew he needed to fill her in on what he experienced, but he wanted to do so comfortably, so he headed to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. “A lot happened,” he said. “I lived through all that stuff that we got memories of last year.” Those had been incredibly unpleasant.
“And about a month after that.”
***
Coffee was definitely a good idea, they had a lot to talk about. “Oh Bruce” she said softly, having the memories of it all was definitely not as bad as actually experiencing it all. She knew that.
She nodded, “I woke up with the memories like before” she told him, “But I didn’t get sent back” It still wasn’t clear why some of them left and others didn’t, it would probably be something none of them would ever know the reasoning behind. Just like being here was still an unknown.
***
Bruce turned away from the counter where he was preparing the coffee machine and frowned. “You got new memories? You know we killed Thanos?” If she knew that, then she also knew that he’d destroyed the infinity stones and left them with no way to restore the people who disappeared when he first used them.
It was a hard blow, knowing that their friends and loved ones were gone forever.
***
Natasha nodded, “Yeah, I haven’t been letting myself think about it. I guess I was hoping that wouldn’t actually be the end” She’d tried to focus on other things, mainly making sure Cassie was okay until Bruce came back. But now he was back and if that was it then that meant they truly had lost. How could they all come back from that? How could the world come back from that?
***
“I’m not sure where we could go from here,” Bruce said. “Too bad we can’t figure out how the dome works. Maybe we could send ourselves home to a point before this and somehow stop it.”
After nearly six years, no one understood the dome though and he wasn’t sure if that would even be possible. Not to mention that Thanos was a formidable opponent at any point in time. Maybe if they had backup from some of the people here in Madison, they could take him out, but that was a pipe dream.
“How’s Cassie?”
***
Natasha wasn’t sure either but they couldn’t give up, the world still needed them and they needed to stick together. She only hoped that was how they all thought. “If only we had some time travel portals, that would solve all our problems” she sighed.
If they could take all their friends with them from Madison, Natasha was sure they’d have prevailed but there was no point in if’s in this situation.
“Worried and she has that quiet rage going on. But we’ve tried to keep each other as upbeat as we could” It was good they had each other to support, it helped.
***
At least it didn’t sound like Cassie had fallen off the wagon. Bruce would feel guilty if his disappearance caused his daughter to drink again. “She’s not home, now, I take it?” he said. If she was, he assumed she would have heard them talking and make her presence known by now.
“I’m not going to text her. I’ll just wait for her to get back.”
***
Natasha shook her head, “No, she’s actually been going to school” which made Natasha proud as she could have used Bruce’s disappearance as an excuse not to and Nat probably would have let her.
It was a good idea, the more they could make it seem normal and expected that Bruce had returned the better. Who knows what was going to happen since it usually indicated something going on when one of them disappeared.
“I’m so glad you’re home” she said, moving closer to hug him again. She’d missed him a lot, their life here was something precious and she was desperately protective of it.
***
Bruce was glad to be back too. Their life here was home and he would hate to lose it. “Want to join me for a shower after a cup of coffee?” he asked. If Cassie was at school, then they had plenty of time, as long as Natasha didn’t have to run off to work.
***
“I most definitely do” Natasha told him with a smile, feeling like she was able to relax properly now that he was home. She knew they’d have to deal with what had happened back home but a rather large selfish part of her was just glad she had Bruce back where he belonged.