Similar to the approach of the one shot short films Marvel used to release on DVDs, this is just a fun little short story I wrote for the hell of it of Betty Ross trying to live a normal life and check out at the grocery store.
Betty Ross tries to distract herself from the obvious stares directed at her. Maybe I should call Dad back, Betty thinks to herself. After all, he is the only family she has left. Every father has his shortcomings ... granted not all fathers try to hunt the world's heroes like dogs. The thought scatters when one of the magazines catches her eye.
"No way." she tells herself aloud. She picks up a copy and reads the title, "The Avengers' Ex-Lovers: Where Are They Now?" and sure enough right there on the front cover, next to photos of Jane Foster and Sharon Carter, is her photo. Betty's blood boiled, but she was too flustered to do anything at the moment. Out of typical habit, she checked her fitness watch on her wrist. She used to keep track of her BPM to help make Bruce feel more normal. 8 BPM increase, she notes to herself. Betty uses a breathing technique that Bruce taught her years ago. 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..., she counts as she relaxes herself. Betty adds the magazine to her cart.
The cashier scans the magazine, and Betty's heart stops for a minute. Please don't say anything, Betty pleads to herself. There's a faint spark in the cashier's eyes, and Betty takes it as a sure indication that she's been recognized. The cashier smirks, "Cash or card, She-Hulk?" "Oh no, that's actually his cousin." Betty corrects him before the comment even sinks in.
Betty, with a grocery bag balanced on each elbow, tries to rummage through the magazine. It's not that she doesn't care what Jane Foster's up to — they actually met at a Women in STEM conference a few years back and got along pretty well. Betty desperately wants to see how much of her dignity they came for. Yeah, it's a tabloid, but tabloids still sting. She finds her page and reads:
THE INCREDIBLE HULK AND THE LESS INCREDIBLE BETTY ROSS
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Betty scoffs at the article title but freezes when she sees the picture of herself. A knot forms in her stomach. A simple walk by streetlight in the middle of the night, a private affair, became a public photoshoot. Her whole life is entertainment for the rest of the world to judge. What if someone was taking pictures of her right this moment?
Betty scans the article as it covers the usual checklist of mentions in anything about her: how she "helped a dangerous fugitive escape justice", a few crude jokes about the Hulk's big green youknowwhat, multiple insensitive comments made in the past by her father, and absolutely nothing about her. The story of her life is about the men in it. "This is bullshit," she says as she goes to throw the magazine in the almost overflowing trash can in the parking lot. She heard the faint sound of a scream of a woman a few rows down in the parking lot. Betty squints to see a young woman being held against a car by a man twice her size in the glow of the parking lot lights. Betty drops her groceries, the tabloid, and all the hold those words held on her. I'm pretty damn incredible, she tells herself.
