Bend Around the Wind by Scyllaya

Chapter 72: Never Doubt

Chapter Seventy-Two

Never doubt

Milky Way Galaxy

Sol System

Nine Realms / Planet Earth

Bruce was familiar with Thor's moods and quick temper, but he didn't consider himself to be the best to handle it. He had good control over his own temperament, but that did not make him suitable to control someone else's. He was just not all that good at it. When Thor first arrived and butted heads with Loki, the best Bruce could do was to tell him that Loki's been here for a while and caused no trouble. Then he repeated that Loki would not go anywhere. Thor was somewhat reassured by his words, because Bruce was not emotionally invested in all this like Tony was. But that was really all he did.

Right now he did not know what to do. He really just wanted to call Steve and let him handle Thor. He was good at it, he knew how to talk to him and get him to be reasonable. All Bruce could do was to be there. People tended to mind their temper a bit more around him, even Thor to a certain extent. It was a passive sort of help, but he had nothing better to offer. Really, he was not that kind of a doctor, he was not suitable for this sort of thing. He was a nuclear physicist (sometimes a medical doctor when there was need for it), not a psychiatrist. And he was pretty sure that Thor and Loki needed therapy, like lots and lots of therapy, for their mountains of issues. He had absolutely no idea how Tony intended to do this.

Now the mess with Hatchet just made things look even more complicated. He really wanted to call Steve. Sadly, he was rather certain that Tony wouldn't want that.

'Doing better?' Bruce asked. Just to fill the silence. Thor tuned to look at him solemnly. The gashes on his face were still there, although they started to heal.

'I am conflicted,' Thor said. 'My heart tells me one thing, my mind another, and the few things they do agree upon is not something I can do with good conscience.'

Bruce didn't dare guess what those things were. He didn't even know what to say to that. Fortunately, Tony got back a few moments later, saving Bruce from having to try and give some advice... again. He was good at observing or analyzing a situation as objectively as possible, but the Thor and Loki problem was an emotional minefield and he dreaded to get sucked into it.

'So, since Loki's gone for a few hours,' Tony started.

'What?' Thor turned to scowl at him.

'Relax, only for a few hours. I think a little distance will do you good at the moment,' Tony said. 'Also, I want to be able to pick your brain about all this bullshit without distractions. I wanted to stay out of this as much as possible, but that's obviously not gonna work. You have been here for less than a day and my house already looks like a disaster zone.'

'My apologies for the damage,' Thor said.

'Don't worry about it,' Tony shrugged. 'I knew this was not gonna be a cakewalk.'

When Tony got close he clapped his hands in a "let's get to work" way.

'So,' he caught Thor's gaze. 'Hatchet.'

'What about him?' Thor grumbled.

'What about him?' Tony countered. 'It's that I was this close to convincing Loki to sit down and patiently - well as patiently as he's capable - listen to your side of the story. And then you went and got into a fight with his best friend.'

Thor opened his mouth to speak, but Tony just went on, he was on a roll, Bruce could tell.

'Just because he managed to recover - miraculously may I add - from the psychotic break he suffered and all the torture he's been put through by those bastards, it doesn't mean that he's completely fine. So you can't just pull shit like this.'