Body and Soul: The Endgame Fix

Part 3: Resurrections

Summary: We start on Monday morning of October 30, 2023, the day before Halloween. Bruce plans Natasha's memorial while visiting the wreckage at the Avengers Compound, and he thinks back to what led up to losing her.

Note: Sorry, I'm a little late getting this posted. We're still on our road trip, so McDonald's is our favorite WiFi hotspot. I'll have the collage cover up shortly. Let me know what you think!

Part 3: Resurrections

[Monday, Oct. 30, 2023]

On the thirteenth day since he'd learned Natasha was gone, Bruce stood on the spit of lakeshore high ground that was left between the crater where the Avenger's compound had stood and the partially drained lake. The salvage efforts were almost complete, and the rebuilding would start soon. It was so-called "Mischief Night" and Halloween was tomorrow, but he wasn't particularly feeling it. He looked to his left at the mist over the diminished lake and couldn't stop remembering what was gone. The dock that he'd ripped the bench from and tossed to the other shore was washed away. It was probably somewhere in the muddy pit with all the high-tech rubble from the buildings. The spot where he'd held up the pancaked concrete layers of the wrecked main building on his left shoulder while he, Rocket, and Rhodey waited those tense minutes for Scott to save the day was now under thirty feet of muddy water.

Tony's estate wouldn't be through probate for several months, but he, Pepper, Happy, and Rhodey had been meeting to rough out plans for the new and (as always) improved facility. He imagined it would be done before the legal will was read. Tony had left them a ton of ideas to go through, but they obviously had a jump on the demolition Bruce thought with a little bitterness.

The excavation and recovery effort had started immediately after the funeral, but with Scott's help, Bruce had been the one to find most of Natasha's things that were salvageable. To be honest, he was really just looking for some mementoes, something of hers to bury since they didn't have a body. The ballet toe shoes and her third favorite sidearm seemed appropriate. Old Stanislaus, the maintenance worker who'd returned to duty the day after the battle, had offered to make a box for them. Bruce had brought him the bench he'd pitched since it was one of them Nat and he liked to sit on together when he first arrived back on Earth before he moved to his place in Bridgewater about forty minutes to the north.

His rural property was a quiet place, but it had a lot of old small-town charm and was within walking distance of anything he needed day to day. He'd also wanted to be part of a community and not a hermit. Happily, he'd found a home there in Bridgewater. Bruce had initially picked it because of the extensive grounds and the lack of zoning, so he was able to add cutting-edge lab spaces into the older gutted buildings yet still keep the overall appeal of the Arts and Crafts and Victorian exteriors. After his metamorphosis, he'd redone the interiors to a larger scale to match his increased size and height. Everything was off the grid and sustainable, so he was rather proud of that. At some point, he began to think of it as his permanent home.

Tony had even worked with him on modifying his Hummer HX and switching it over to run on a modified Arc Reactor. Bruce was really glad they'd been able to talk as they worked because they'd both felt like they were trying to get over breakups of a sort, yet really feeling guilty deep down for enjoying themselves and finding some normalcy and even joy after the Decimation. Little Morgan had never known him as anyone other than big, green Uncle Bruce, so she didn't judge. Thankfully, Pepper hadn't either. She and Tony both saw that he was finally comfortable as himself. No tip-toeing. No overwhelming fear of destroying those he loved. No debilitating pain from the transformations or from holding his larger form. In many ways, Bruce was at peace. With one huge exception, he was happy, too.