bruce banner, LIFELINE

the waiting.

Parker Miller hated waiting. So to pass time she played with the brick phone in her hand waiting for her annoying ringtone to ring only so she could silence it.

It had been a couple days without Bruce and she couldn't help but let her eyes drift to the vacated swivel seat he used to play around in. She pictured him smiling and biting the tip of his glasses. The surgery felt empty without one of its founders.

It was almost time to open, the sun was beaming in on where he usually sat. She used to sit there in the beginning but the Sun in her eyes always made her the slightest bit angry. Dr Banner offered to swap, and when Parker asked why he said the Sun made him happy.

"Oh Bruce." She muttered under her breath, a tendency she had inadvertently picked up from him. Bruce always talked to an empty room. She has heard him talk of everything from launch codes of rockets to his musings on the science of electric toothbrushes when he thought he was alone.

To pass even more time she methodically drunk all her water in Bruce's white mug. He had brought it to Calcutta in the hope of drinking coffee but it turns out not even Bruce is as strong willed to drink hot coffee in tropical heat. He had tried it with ice in it, but after that coffee would never taste the same again.

Parker didn't like being alone here, she impatiently jiggled her leg up and down, an action she normally reserved for waiting for medical test results. The room lacked any energy without the scientist even the familiar scent of aftershave had begun to vanish.

The thought of Bruce Banner disappearing sent Parker into absolute turmoil. She was a worrier. The only good thing about it was she was able to self-diagnosis herself.

She worried about Bruce, she worried about Calcutta and its people but most of all she worried about the world.

Heck, if the universe allowed her she would have even worried if the sun was going to rise in the morning. Even if Bruce would lovingly chuckle that he moment that happens he would worry that she was a psychic.

Now she had another worry to replace the possible threat of solar radiation;
Bruce has fallen off the edge of the world. And that worry was suddenly becoming her biggest fear, besides admitting her feelings to Bruce.

That fear was never to be thought about, never to even be considered. Never.

Then - as if the universe was providing a distraction from the thought of Dr Banner - a little girl entered the room.

Parker immediately entered doctor mode, standing up from her chair and putting all of her previous thoughts behind her. Yet as she greeted her, Parker felt empty.

She would have to give a diagnosis by herself and the worrier in her preyed on the fact she only had a nurse's training.

"Can I help you?" Parker's Bengali was somewhat limited but her flair for languages at high school meant she was the more talented one between her and Bruce.

Suddenly a memory came entered her thoughts. Her trying to teach Bruce to say, 'Talk to my friend Parker about it'. Surprisingly he caught on fairly quickly and his voice spun in the Parker's mind as she stared at the child. She pushed it away. Focus.

The little girl nodded timidly looking at Parker's battered converse trainers which unfortunately had small blood stains from an incident a couple days before. Parker sneaked a glimpse down and tried not to cringe.

"What is it?" The older lady walked over to the girl and crouched down until she was eye level with her, Parker thought she must not be older than nine. She wasn't the best with children neither was Bruce if they were being honest. Both of them never knew what to say.