Chapter Text
The plan had been to run again, and keep running.
The fact that SHIELD had apparently never lost track of him was a bit of an issue, but Bruce had forgotten what other plans were like, so as in all times of need, he found himself defaulting to a familiar pattern.
This lasted roughly until he found himself having coffee with Nick Fury.
Looking on the positive side, he wasn’t paying.
On the more negative side – something of a specialty – this was…not quite the opposite of getting away, but close to it.
“We already spoke to Miss Ross. She seems to think that if this will make you better, then it’s a good thing.”
Bruce looked at him sceptically. “How’d you mean ‘make me better’?” The amount of disgust, the echo of countless disappointments, was impossible to miss, even if he had bothered to hide it.
Fury didn’t answer at first. “You know what I figure, Banner? I’ve had the best at SHIELD – which, I don’t mind telling you, means they pretty much are the best – look at your case. I know you’ve looked at it, and you’re not far off the best yourself.”
“Thanks,” Bruce muttered.
“And so far, nobody – you and SHIELD both – has anything that’d fix you permanently. In my experience, once something like this happens, no matter how many times you try to fix it, it’ll just find a way of unfixing itself.”
Bruce considered the length of time between his last ‘cure’ and throwing himself out of a helicopter, praying the whole way down to the ground that it hadn’t worked. “I had noticed.”
Apparently Fury had the same incident in mind, or at least something very similar, judging by the grin that might almost have been intended as vaguely sympathetic, if you viewed it in exactly the right way. Of course, from a lot of other ways, it was terrifying. Fury was like that. “So, Dr Banner, I’m afraid I didn’t mean ‘make you better’ the way you think I did. Way I see things though, if you’re stuck with this thing, best thing is to put it to good use while you’re working on a solution. That’s where I come in.”
Bruce tried not to look interested. It wasn’t all that hard. “So instead of the army trying to capture and control me, I get a faceless agency that doesn’t answer to anybody. That’s progress.”
“Scoff all you like. Fact is, SHIELD’s willing to take you in, give you a job even, along with a team of highly professionals on hand whenever you…slip.”
Bruce didn’t try to hold back the unimpressed laugh. “You really think you can handle me?”
Fury looked aggravatingly amused. “You know, you should really look in a mirror next time you say that. Quite something coming from a quiet little guy like yourself.”
“Appearances can be deceptive.”
“Oh, believe me, Dr Banner, I’m well aware of that.” Fury made a show of considering something. “Tell you what: you give us a trial. Say, three months. In three months, if you don’t like the set-up; you don’t like what we’re doing; you figure you can do better, you just say so, and we can either re-negotiate or dump you in whatever middle-of-nowhere country you like.”
It didn’t sound bad. Certainly more up front than the army had ever been about their better deals. And three months without running did sound appealing. He might be able to get some real work done. Besides, “Do I really have a choice?”
“What do you think?” Fury looked genuinely interested.
That was more or less exactly what Bruce had figured.
“What did you have in mind?”