Do Not Mourn (Be With Him)

Chapter 1

"Do you remember Betty Ross?" Thor says, out of the blue. He had taken a call in the other room, before sitting for a good ten minutes. They just sat in the kitchen of the Avengers compound, having tea, when he blurted it out. It stunned Bruce into such silence that he couldn't answer. He took deep breaths and tried to slow his heart rate.

Of course he remembered Betty. She loved him, even as the Hulk. The other guy loved her. Just like he loved... well. She had passed away. After the Abomination, as he was aptly named, poisoned Betty with his blood, she was quickly placed in cryogenic stasis.

It was no use though. As soon as she was de-thawed just enough to test if the drugs being pumped slowly into her cold lungs by aerosol gas were curing her, her heart gave out.

He was broken from his thoughts by a small sound, barely the equivalent of a whisper, but he would recognize a sniffle from uncontrolled tears anywhere by now. He turned, but Thor was facing away from him.

"Banner, would you ride with me to the hospital?" Thor asked shakily. All Bruce could do was nod, and put a hand on his much larger shoulder.

"Where's this hospital?" Bruce asked quietly. Thor sniffed again and seemed to compose himself enough to tap something on his phone, before handing it to Bruce.

"You know we're upstate. It could take an hour or two to get there." Bruce said, as gently as possible. Still, it made Thor tense.

"Then we leave at once. Come Banner." Thor said, storming down the hallway towards the elevator. Bruce just followed silently, wringing his hands in worry.

~~~~~~~

"You fell in love with Betty Ross, did you not?" Thor asked, about half way into the ride.

The divider that kept Happy from hearing was down, so Thor clearly didn't notice or didn't care who heard. Bruce was a little less ok with that, but he didn't want to seem like he felt ashamed of it. He felt guilty, of course. The Abomination had just wanted to be a hulk, and it devoured his soul. It made him wish to harm her. Guilty, not ashamed.

"I did." He said simply. He wanted to explain what that meant. How it had been a few years. That the love never goes away, but it fades, and you get used to not having it. You find something... maybe even better. Thor was silent.

"Thor, why are we going to the hospital?" Bruce asked gently. Thor looked at him, taking his gaze from the window, and Bruce almost choked on his own breath at the tears in his eyes.

"Her name is Jane Foster. I fell in love with her, despite her mortality." Thor said. He choked up, and put a hand over his mouth, and Bruce reached a tentative hand over to Thors knee. He squeezed gently, and Thor finally removed his hand and gave him a painful smile.

"After a while, she decided she couldn't live her life waiting for me to come back to Midgard every few months. So, we said we would stay in contact, and go our separate ways." Thor summed up. Bruce thought that would be the end, but he continued, seeming to just want to get it all out.

"One day she stopped talking to me. She sent me a- an email. Tony helped me discover that. It said I needed to stop trying to speak to her. She needed... space. To think. Today I got a telephone call from her. It has been a year and nine months since we last spoke. I had a strange feeling about it."

"What's wrong with her?" Bruce asked quietly.

"She says she is... dying. Of a breast cancer. She doesn't think she will live through the night. She said... she doesn't want to. It's too painful." Thor choked again, taking a shaky breath and covering his eyes with a hand. Happy sped up, with a single glance in the rear view, where he met Bruce's eyes.