Beauty and The Beast ((Bruce Banner/Hulk love))

Chapter 16 (EDITED)

**Aero's POV**

When I arrived at the door of the lab with Natasha and Thor, Steve and Fury were already inside. I moved through the room directly over to where Bruce had been standing. My focus was on him, since Loki had made it clear that releasing the hulk had been part of his plan. "Did you know about this?" Bruce looked at me motioning towards the computer screen Tony was showing Nick. I was a bit taken back by what he was insinuating that I knew about what they had been planning for the tesseract. 
“Wouldn't I have told you not to go digging if there was something I knew you guys shouldn't see?” I shot back in my own defense to Tony and Bruce. They both seemed to understand and accept my answer. If I had been in on what SHIELD had been planning with the tesseract, I would have tried to stop them from digging into. I was not on SHIELD’s side for this one. I leaned over enough so I could read what was on the screen. It was blueprints for a bullet made from the tesseract for the weapon Steve had brought in. My face twisted in confusion and turned to look at Nick. “Actually, Why didn't I know about this, Fury?” I questioned Fury bluntly, clearly unhappy about being left out. Bruce's face softened believing that I had no knowledge of the plan to make it into weapons. I looked to Natasha, who was less shocked by the information which only leads me to believe that she knew about the making of the weapons as well.  
"Maybe you should think about removing yourself from this situation, Doctor." Natasha offered in an ordering tone. I glanced back at Bruce. He hadn't seemed aggravated until Natasha made that comment. His face twisted a bit showing his annoyance. 
"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed." He said in a tone I couldn't quite place. It was somewhere between aggravation and amusement. I couldn’t do much more other than sit there and watch Natasha and Bruce as they had a glaring match.
"Loki is manipulating you." Natasha stepped forward towards where I was standing with Bruce. Bruce almost instinctively moved back away from her advances. My body tensed as well in reaction to Bruce beside me. Everyone in the room was so tense you could probably cut through the tension with a knife. 
"And what have you been doing exactly?" Bruce asked. His tone was no longer mixed with a bit of amusement. Now, That,  was a full blown challenge. I could see Thor eyeing Bruce as well. As if instinct, I stood in defense next to Bruce frowning wearily at Thor. I wanted Bruce to calm down before anything got worse and something bad happened. My body reacted before my mind could process through the plan. I grabbed Bruce's hand in mine looping our fingers together. Bruce glanced over at me when he felt my hand wrap around his. I looked up at him with silent pleading eyes. I just wanted him to calm down. 
"You didn't come here because she batted her eyelashes." Natasha bit angrily, arguing again. I was in disbelief that she had said that. Bruce looked down at our hands, then back up at me. He gave me a soft smile and I could tell that he had calmed down, significantly. 
"And I'm not leaving because you suddenly get a little twitchy." Bruce defied her. He moved towards the computer screen. His hand still locked with mine, which caused him to tug me along as well. I was secretly happy that he didn't let go of my hand, but I didn't say anything about it. "I would like to know why SHIELD is using the tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction," He gestured towards the computer screen. 
"Because of Him." Nick points an accusing finger towards Thor, who was standing near the center of the lab. My eyes shifted from Nick to Thor in confusion and curiosity. Thor had his arms crossed firmly across his chest as he frowned in Fury’s direction. He looked taken back by the accusation. 
"Me?" Thor pointed to himself in disbelief.
"Last year, earth had a visitor from another planet who had a  grudge match that leveled a small town." Fury explained what SHIELD was thinking behind using the tesseract to weapons. "We learned that not are we not alone. but we are hopelessly, hilariously outgunned." I was listening to what Fury had to say, though this still should have been information that should have been shared with the whole class. The first time Thor appeared, it was disastrous and put a lot of people in harm's way, and now Loki was threatening us again.
"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor objected to Nick. He sounded almost like he couldn't believe Nick didn't trust him. I mean, He did kind of attack Tony the first time we met him- but he was also only trying to take Loki home and we stood in his way. I understood Nick's hesitation to trust Thor, but also Thor hasn't shown any hostility to us since. 
"But you're not the only people out there... Are you?" Nick growled. “and you're not the only threat. The world is filling up with people who can't be matched. They can’t be controlled." Nick looked towards me, as if I was part of the ‘cant be controlled’ category. A low growl rumbled in my chest in anger that he would even suggest that. I had been nothing but faithful to SHIELD my entire life, and he would accuse me of being on the wrong side. I grew up in SHIELD, I trained in SHIELD, I have never once left SHIELD. Fury should know where my allegiances lie, but now I was starting to reconsider. I felt Bruce's hand tighten on mine reminding me that he was there. The comforting feeling of his hand causing me to relax a bit.  
"Like you controlled the tesseract?" Steve shot back at Nick with an angry glare. Nick turned his attention away from me towards the other men in the room. Everyone was clearly upset about being misled of why we were getting the tesseract back. 
"Your work with the tesseract is what drew Loki to it," Thor was quick to point out that messing with the force we knew nothing about was what got us into this mess in the first place. Thor wasnt being threatening, he was being real as he explained the implications of what messing with the Tesseract had caused. "It was a signal to all the realms that earth is ready for a higher form of war," Fury’s face didnt change much as he listened to what Thor had to say. Cap went to speak up about what kind of ‘higher form of war’ but was shut down quickly by Fury speaking. 
"You forced our hand," He replied calmly, clearly unbothered by the questions and accusations being thrown at him. In his eyes, SHIELD had done nothing wrong. "We had to come up with som-" Fury tried to defend himself.
"Nuclear deterrent, ‘cause that always calms everything right down." Tony piped in with his usual cocky tone. He stood not far from fury with his hands stuck down in his pockets. He seemed to be the most calm out of those in the room, though I was pretty sure it was just a front. He was clearly unhappy when he had found out what SHIELD had been doing with the Tesseract. 
"Remind me how you made your fortune, Stark." Fury commented in return. Before Tony was Iron Man, he was the number one seller of military equipment and other destructive forces. Steve jumped into the conversation throwing shade at Tony, causing the two to start arguing. My head was spinning as accusation after accusation was thrown around the room, i could barely keep up with who was angry with who. My grip on Bruce’s hand tightened a bit as I started to feel uneasy, the need to argue as well bubbled in the back of my throat. I didnt speak up though, frowning to myself as I tried to place why I would be mad. Yes, The situation was not ideal and I wished that Fury would have read me in on it, but there was no reason for me to want to argue with the others. I took a moment, closing my eyes and taking in a deep breath to calm my mind, a technique I had learned while learning to control my abilities. Once the sound of the arguing had been drowned out, a high pitched hum caught my attention. My eyes snapped open and I looked back behind me to see Loki's glowing scepter. This wasnt right, but I seemed to be the only one who noticed as everyone continued to bicker behind me. As I turned my back to examine the scepter, I let my hand slip free of Bruce's. My attention on the staff that seemed to be radiating some kind of energy. I was just about to say something to the others, when Bruce’s voice cut me off. I turned to look at him with worry and confusion. 
"What are we a team? No, No, No. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. we're..." Bruce's voice again sounded tense and angry, which worried me. He paused as if he was trying to find the word that fit what he was trying to explain. "We're a time bomb."  He stated. 
"You need to step away." Fury said in a warning tone towards Bruce. I frowned at Fury, though I knew he was only thinking of the greater good of everyone on this ship. He didn't want Bruce to lose control, but telling him to step away wasn't going to help either.  Bruce knew what was at stake and like he had said to Steve earlier, if he hadnt thought he could handle it he wouldnt have come, no matter how much I had tried to convince him.
"Why should he!" Tony piped up defending Bruce from Fury. "Let the big guy let off a little steam." Tony offered in his typical tone. He knew that Bruce couldnt really let off steam, but teaching him to be afraid of it wasnt going to do any good either. He placed his hand on Steve's shoulder. Steve gave him a death glare, shoving Tony’s hand off his shoulder. 
“You know damn well why!” Steve shot back obviously angry that Tony would suggest something to put people in danger. “Alright? Back off!” His eyes never left Tony’s. Those two were like a cat and a dog. They just werent meant to get along. 
“Oh, I’m starting to want you to make me.” Tony was sizing up the cap. 
“Yeah, Big man in a suite of armor,” Steve scoffed, walking around Tony. “Take that off, what are you?” Steve stopped walking and his tone was low and threatening. Tony didnt seem all that bothered by Steve’s intimidation act. 
“Genius, Billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.” Tony deadpanned, turning his head to meet Steve’s gaze. 
“I know plenty of men with none of that, worth ten of you.” Steve growled back. “I’ve seen the footage, the only thing you really fight for is yourself.” Steve started taking shots at Tony’s character and what kind of ‘hero’ he was. “You arent the guy to make the sacrificing play, to lay down on the wire and let the other guy crawl over you.” 
“I think I would just cut the wire,” Tony quipped back. The muscle in Steve’s jaw tensed as he turned his head. 
“Always a way out,” Steve shook his head. “You may not be a threat, but you need to stop pretending like you’re a hero.” 
“A hero?” Tony asked dumbfounded. “Like you?” He remarked, his eyes flicking up and down Steve. “You’re a laboratory experiment, Rogers.” Tony snapped, he was clearly getting more angry by the moment. “Everything special about you came out of a bottle.” Tony took a step closer to Steve never breaking eye contact with him. The two guys were chest to chest and engaged in a stare down. Not wanting them to blow up and actually start throwing hands, I decided I would step in and get them away from each other a bit.
"Guys, Guys!" I rushed over pushing them apart, leaving Bruce's side for the first time since coming into the room. They were still glaring at each other over my head, because I was too short to block their vision of each other. I stood between them with my hands firmly on their chests, not letting them move any closer to each other. "Come on, This is what Loki wants! Us Fighting." I yelled over the other noise in the room, but it didnt really seem like anyone was listening. 
"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Dr. Ban-'' Nick started to give Natasha instructions to take Bruce out of the room. My head snapped around to look at Fury. Natasha wasnt taking Bruce anywhere that I couldn't see him, Fury had lost his mind. Distracted by what was going on behind me, Steve and Tony started in on eachother again. I was having to concentrate on how much of my strength I was using to hold them apart, so I didn't send them flying. 
"Where? you rented my room!" Bruce hissed referring to the cage that held Loki. I shoved Steve back a bit, shot him a warning glare, and gave myself an opening to get between everyone else and Bruce. I had my back facing bruce, though I wasnt standing directly in front of him.  
"The cage was just in case-" Nick went to defend himself. Everyone was watching what was happening between Bruce and Nick. Steve and Tony were still glaring at each other but were no longer arguing- for the moment. 
"Just in case you needed to kill me." Bruce accused angerly. "But you can! i know, I tried.'' Just as the words left Bruce's lips I felt my heart shatter in my chest. I saw the same pained looks on Steve and Tony. This was something that they both understood in their own ways. The whole room was quiet now, watching and listening to Bruce. I turned, gently touching Bruce's hand with my own, offering it for him if he wanted to take it. He wrapped his fingers with mine, giving it a small squeeze as he looked at me with a sad expression. "I got low..." He continued. He only looked at me once. His eyes filled with pain and sorrow. "I didn't see an end... so i put a bullet in my mouth." My heart stopped for a second, and my hand subconsciously tightened on Bruce’s afraid if I loosened my grip he’d disappear. It physically hurt to hear him say such a thing, but everyone had low points in their lives they were not proud of. "But the other guy spit it out. So I moved on... I focused on helping people... I was good, Until you dragged me back into this freakshow." Bruce looked angrily at Nick instead of me. Even though it was me who convinced him to come with me. I was thankful for the Hulk for at least a moment. Without him, I might not have been here with Bruce right now. "You put everyone here at risk." Bruce looked down at me. His eyes held concern for me and everyone else on the ship. He was worried what would happen if he were to lose control. His voice started to hold more tension and it was clear he was losing control.  "Do you want to know my secret? You wanna know how i stay calm?" I could see the anger bubbling in him. His grip on my hand tightened. I noticed everyone in the room grow extremely tense. My eyes bounced to Natasha and Fury whos hands had gone to their weapons. My eyes shot back to Bruce quickly. I looked down to see Loki's scepter in Bruce's other hand. 
"Doctor... Put down the scepter." Steve spoke slowly as if not to anger him more. Bruce's eyes fell to his hand to see that he did have the scepter in his hand. I saw a shock wash over his face. He must not have even realized that he had picked it up. That cemented what I had thought earlier, all of us arguing had come from something with the scepter. Suddenly, something across the room started to go off.
"Sorry guys, looks like you don't get to see my party trick after all." Bruce quickly set down the scepter and let go of my hand. I moved it a few times allowing my knuckles to pop, I hadn't noticed how tightly we had been holding each other's hands. Everyone else followed closely behind Bruce to look at the computer that was alerting us of the location of the tesseract. Again everyone started to argue about who was going to get it, where it belonged. I made my way next to Bruce to look at the computer myself, my eyes scanned over the data for a moment before I felt Bruce tense beside me. "My god..." Bruce mumbled to himself just before an explosion rocked the helicarrier, bursting through the floor of the lab.

( Word Count : 2921)