The Ultimate Fix-It Fic

12| Respectfully. Sir. *

Bruce and Natasha went back up to the room Laura and Clint put them in.

Nat sat down on the bed and patted the spot where Bruce sank down. "Please?" she asked.

Bruce sighed. "It's– I–" he grew agitated and he started over. "I saw– in the dream, I saw us. Not us two 'us', but the team. I– I killed you all." His voice shrank. "Steve died first. I'm not sure who– which one, me or the Hulk– killed him, but he was dead, and he was in my arms. The next one was Thor. Don't even know how I managed to kill him, since he's a god and all that, but his neck was broken. And then Clint. Then To–" his voice broke– "Tony. And then you." He looked up at her. "I've never been so afraid of death until I saw them. And when you– when you were the one dead in my arms... it terrified me." The scientist sought her hand, and she gave it. His eyes stared into hers, and she got a bad feeling, deep inside, her instinct telling her something was wrong, that this was going to go badly. "Don't you get scared that he'd– that I'd hurt you? When I 'get angry'?" he said quietly.

"No." Nat replied, eyebrows furrowing. "Bruce, where is this going?"

"But I'm a monster." He whispered.

Natasha let out a small breath and shook her head. "I thought we already established that I was one too." She took the hand she held, and brought it to her lips, kissing his knuckles softly. "We both have... a past. We both..." she paused, trying to word it right before giving up. "Bruce."

He glanced up at her.

"Bruce, are you– are you trying to back out of Mexico?" she asked. "I'm not going to stop you, but– I just need to know. If you still want to–"

"– I do." Bruce interrupted. "I do, Tasha, I really do. I just– I just don't want to hurt you."

Natasha nodded.

They sat in a silence for a while.

"Once, a long time ago, I dreamt I had a house," Bruce said quietly. "And I lived with this girl. The love of my life." He glanced at Nat for that.

Natasha scoffed lightly. "Betty?"

"This was before Betty," he replied. "By a long shot. When I was in middle school. I lived with the love of my life in that dream, and we had two kids and a dog. When I discovered that I couldn't– reproduce–" Bruce chuckled at himself– "It went from two kids and a dog to just a dog. And then, I met you."

"And you gave up on your love-of-your-life dream?" Nat asked dryly.

"No, actually." Bruce looked at her, and she could see his heart in her eyes, probably about to tell her something she wanted to but wasn't ready to hear. "You–"

"Food's done!" Laura's voice called fainted from downstairs, and Nat breathed a small sigh of relief.

Bruce had fallen silent when Laura spoke, so Natasha hopped up from the bed and offered him a hand. "What were you going to say, Bruce?" she asked idly.

She could feel his eyes on her as she put on her cardigan.

"It's nothing."

-

They were downstairs, sitting around the dinner table, which was too small for the amount of people Clint had brought home, so Tony and Steve volunteered to eat on the couch.

Natasha had been pleasantly surprised by Fury, who had decided to show up out of nowhere to tell Tony to stop being a wimp, apparently.

"What did he see?" Nat asked the director quietly, as everyone sat down.

Fury sighed. "Dead people." He glanced at her sidelong. "Banner?"

She gave him a knowing look. "Dead us. Specifically, me."

"You?"

Natasha relented easily. She knew she could trust Fury. "We have this... thing... going on. We're planning on retiring."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Fury asked quietly, as to not attract attention from the others. "You want to what?"

"Retire." Natasha stared him down. "What do you think is going to happen after Ultron, huh?" When Fury didn't answer, she continued. "If we end up stopping whatever he's trying to achieve with minimal damage, you know for a fact that that would be the best-case scenario. The government turns a blind eye. We're allowed to operate for what, another year? Until we cause significant damage to someone they don't want to look bad in front of. They're going to shut us down eventually, Nick. All it takes is one mistake. And if we screw this up, if we let Ultron win? We aren't coming out of this as a team. And I say we have a fair chance of losing. If me and Bruce stick around for the fallout, we're going to get arrested. Persecuted. Ross hates me and him especially, so I bet there's a cell on the Raft with our names on it already. If I'm stuck in a cell, what good am I anyway? At least if I'm out of the picture by my own will, I can still be the photographer."

Fury remained silent, and Nat felt like she won the fight. Except, if she was right, it would be horrible and many people would be dead. In that scenario.

"Like it or not, we are all very screwed."

Just then, Bruce tapped Natasha on the shoulder and she and the director sat down stonily.

The scientist, who was sitting next to her, gave her hand a reassuring brush that he was okay, that she didn't need to worry about him as much.

Lila was sitting across from Nat, legs swinging and hitting her under the table. "So, Auntie Nat, when are you and Dr. Bruce getting married?" she asked innocently.

Natasha flicked a glare at Laura. "We aren't."

"Yet." Laura added helpfully, earning herself a soft smack from her friend. "Yeah, I deserved that."

Clint looked confused. "Why are Banner and Nat getting married, honey?" he asked Lila.

"Because they love each other and they slept together!" Lila grinned.

Bruce choked on his sip of water.

"Good delivery, Mini-Barton Number 2!" Tony called from the couch.

Nat groaned internally. Of course. It just had to be Tony to teach her goddaughter things she wouldn't.

Fury chuckled. "If there's a ceremony going on, I'm an ordained minister."

"Nick." Natasha stabbed a nail into his hand. "Respectfully, again, sir, please shut up."

"No, I don't think I will," Fury said.