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Dr. Bruce Banner had been back in his newly repaired and refurbished lab for about 20 minutes. Twenty blissful minutes of calm and silence which he spent going over the inventory lists of all his replacement equipment. There hadn’t even been an intact petri dish left after Hulk’s tussle with the Green Goblin.
Yep, twenty minutes was all she gave him before Darcy bounced in and nearly tackled him with a hug. She had missed her super fluffy, sometimes green, scientist. She felt that 20 minutes to settle in was more than generous.
Poor Dr. Banner barely managed to keep them both vertical through her somewhat over enthusiastic greeting. “Darcy? Wha... what’s wrong?” He looked around in mild panic, a tinge of green creeping into the whites of his eyes.
“I missed you!” She squealed loudly into his chest. “I had no awesome fluffy scientists to bother when Jane went crazy sauce.” She was still hugging him around the waist. And she was just beginning to think that maybe she had been hugging him for longer than was absolutely necessary, or even moderately appropriate.
Bruce sighed and looked down at the brunet head smooshed into his chest, “I was only gone for two months Darce.” He was standing stiffly with his hands safely out to the side, but the green was gone from his eyes.
Darcy snorted and finally released the poor doctor. “Two and a half months thank you very much. And it felt like forever.” She sighed and hopped up on one of his brand-spanking-new lab counters. “Do you know what uninterrupted exposure to Jane in full crazy science mode can do to a person?”
Bruce chucked at the antics of his overdramatic sometimes assistant, “Darcy, I have never known you to lack distractions. I find it hard to believe you spent the last six weeks assisting Jane uninterrupted.”
“Ok, so there may have been coffee breaks. Occasional trips out for snacks and much needed caffeine.” Darcy shrugged, “But seriously dude, I missed you.” she nudged his leg lightly with the toe of one of her shiny new bright pink chucks. They were close-toed, so they were totally work appropriate.
Bruce chuckled as he went back to inventorying the lab, “I got that impression.”
“Good. I know sometimes I can be a little too subtle...” She picked up a case of beakers and stared through the plastic wrapped glass. “Did you miss me?”
That actually got a real laugh out of Bruce. “Yes. If you have any flaw it’s subtlety.” He took the beakers out of Darcy’s hands and read the invoice label before checking something off on his clipboard.
Darcy leaned back on her hands and pouted, “You didn’t answer my question? Did you miss me while you were out in the wilds of BFE getting all zen and stuff?” She picked up and inspected a box of petri dishes before handing it to Bruce.
“Did I miss the girl who periodically invades my labs, distracts me from my work, insists I eat and occasionally brings me hot tea?” He took the box from her and smiled, “Yeah, occasionally.”
Darcy laughed and slid off the counter, “Good. And speaking of hot tea, I promised Jane caffeine, so I’m going to Kerrigan’s, you want anything?” She pulled a only slightly mangled hot pink sticky note from her bag of holding and snagged his pen out of his hand.
Bruce blinked at his suddenly empty hand and then his clipboard before he looked over at Darcy, “Actually, tea would be great. I don’t have the kitchenette stocked yet. But you don’t have to go out of your way for me Darce.”
She laughed, “It’s not out of my way. I am already going to the shop for beverages, it’s no trouble to pick something up for you too. You want tea? The usual? Rooibos something?” She held the pen poised for cafe related notes.
Bruce smiled warmly at her and nodded, “Yes please, that ginger rooibos tea. That you got me before, if they have it. But anything caffeine free would be welcome.”
Darcy jotted something down on the pink scrap, he could only guess that it was her own personal form of shorthand, because it looked like gibberish to him. “Got it. Ginger bush tea for the Doc. Be back in 20 or so.” She shoved the note back in her giant, seemingly bottomless, shoulder bag, and headed for the door.
3 hours later someone knocked against the bulletproof glass that doubled as the door of Doctor Banner’s lab. Bruce looked up from his clipboard and frowned, didn’t Darcy promise him tea at some point? Like 25 pages of inventory ago?