Chapter Text
The first thing that attracted her to him was his mind.
How Ironic.
If asked about it later in life, Betty would likely say that it was related to her own insecurities. She’d often been made to feel inadequate, growing up under the stern guidance of General Ross. She wasn’t logical enough. Her emotions bubbled up far too easily, and when she lost her composure, she lost.
Lost the debate, lost the battle, lost the war.
Her father would never have phrased it like that but she knew. Even when Ross lost his temper, he had a perfect explanation for it, could lay out all the reasons why his outburst had been justified, but she could never parse out why seemingly insignificant things would leave her a puddle of tears, or worse, a screaming mess. And if she couldn’t explain her own feelings and actions, how could she even begin to understand the world around her?
But where her father’s logic was cold, tactical, and impermeable, Bruce’s was filled with excitement and passion for discovery. He saw the inexplicable and complicated edges of science and instead of feeling frustration, he embraced them as frontiers to explore, questions to ask and discoveries to be made. Betty remembered sitting in his small lab on base and listening as he unraveled scientific concepts that, even with her degree in gamma research, had often evaded her. Perhaps there was a small part of her that hoped, if he could solve these puzzles, that he might be able to solve her as well.
She didn’t know of his own jigsawed mind.