Whatever It Takes [Wanda Maximoff AU]

19- Absolute Win

"Come on, I feel like I'm the only one eating here." Bruce said getting us to dig into the food.

Wanda clearly wasn't hungry, no one was. Everyone just wanted to get Bruce to come back and that was all.

Short and snappy.. to the point.

"Try some of that."

"Have some eggs."

Scott just looked at Bruce in pure confusion. "I'm so confused."

"Right, these are confusing times." Bruce chuckled.

"Right, no, no. That's not what I meant." Scott defended.

"Nah, I get it. I'm kidding." Bruce said as Scott went to defend himself again. "I know it's crazy. I'm wearing shirts now."

"Yeah. What? How? Why?" Scott said.

"Five years ago we got our asses beat." Bruce said wiping his face. "Except it was worse for me, cause I lost twice. First, Hulk lost, then Banner lost, and then we all lost."

"No one blamed you, Bruce." Natasha said to him.

"I did." Bruce said to her. "For years I've been treating the Hulk like he's some kind of disease. Something to get rid of but then I start looking at him as the cure. Eighteen months in the gamma lab. I put the brains and the brawn together, now look at me. Best of both worlds."

Some kids came up and asked Hulk for a picture which he gladly took with them. Scott tried asking for one but the kids just laughed at them, they didn't know who he was out of suit.

Wanda chuckled out of embarrassment for him.

"Did you just laugh?" Natasha asked from across the table.

Wanda looked down. "Yeah, I guess I did. I guess all this talk about a second chance is really giving me a positive outlook on things."

"Yeah, Steve told me you really messed up with him the first time." Scott said trying to ease the tension.

Wanda glared at him as did the rest of the table.

Lang really had no filter. Scott raised his hands in defeat. "Too early, I'm sorry."

"About what we were saying." Steve said to him.

"Right. The whole time travel do over? Eh, guys that's out of my area of expertise." He said being honest.

Natasha looked at him. "Well you pulled this off, I remember a time when that seemed pretty impossible too."

***
Tony came down the stairs after putting his daughter to bed and walked over to Pepper reading on the couch.

"Not that it's a competition, but she loves me three thousand." Tony said to her.

"Does she, now?" Pepper said to him.

"You were somewhere in the low six to nine hundred range." He said playing with his popsicle stick.

Pepper laughed.

"Whatcha reading?" Tony asked staring at his project across the room.

"Just a book on composting."

"What's new with composting..."

"Interesting science."

"I figured it out." Tony said cutting her off. "By the way."

"And, you know just so we're talking about the same thing." Pepper started.

"Time travel." Tony said almost like he sounded crazy saying it.

"What?" Pepper said. "Wow. That's amazing and terrifying."

"That's right." Tony said sitting down.

"We got really lucky." Pepper said putting a hand on his.

"I know."

"A lot of people didn't."

"Nope. And I can't help everybody."

Pepper looked at him. "Sorta seems like you can."

"Not if I stop." Tony started. "I can put a pin in it right now and stop."

"Tony, trying to get you to stop has been one of the few failures of my entire life."

Tony laughed. "Something tells me I should put it in a lock box and drop it to the bottom of the lake and go to bed."

Pepper looked him in the eyes. "But would you be able to rest."

***
"Okay here we go, Time Travel test number one." Hulk said to the team. "Scott, fire up the van thing."

"Breakers are set. Emergency generators on standby." Steve said walking over to the machine where Natasha was on an iPad monitoring Scott's vitals.

"Good, because if we blow the grid I don't want to lose tiny here in the nineteen fifties." Hulk said jamming a thumb at Scott putting on his helmet.

"Excuse me?" Scott asked terrified.

"He's kidding. You can't say things like that." Natasha said typing away on the iPad.

Smart Hulk looked back. "It was a bad joke."

Scott nodded and walked back to the time machine.

"You were kidding right?" Wanda whispered to Hulk.

"I have no idea. We're talking about Time Travel here. Either it's all a joke or none of it is." He turned back to Scott. "We're good. Get your helmet on."

Wanda stood next to Natasha as they prepped for their first test run.

"I really hope this works." Wanda said to Nat.

"I miss him just as much as you do, hun." Natasha said to her giving her a comforting look.

"Scott, we're gonna send you back a week let you walk around for an hour, then bring you back in ten seconds. Make sense." Hulk said.

"Perfectly not confusing." Scott said giving him a thumbs up.

"Good luck." Steve said as they pushed him through the van.

He came back shortly after as young boy.

"Uh... guys? This doesn't feel right."

"Is that Scott?" Wanda asked Natasha.

"Yes it Scott." Scott pleaded.

He was immediately sent back and came back as an old man. They did it again and he returned as baby.

"It's a baby." Steve said.

"It's Scott." Hulk defended.

"As a baby."

"He'll grow." Hulk said pressing buttons.

"Bring Scott back."

"When I say kill the power, kill the power." Smart Hulk said pressing buttons as Natasha ran over to the power switch. "And Kill it!" Hulk yelled as he hit some buttons

The power died just as Scott was brought as his normal age.

"Somebody peed my pants." Scott said frozen. "But I don't know if it was baby me or old me." He thought for a second. "Or just me me."

"Time travel." Hulk said throwing his hands in the air.

Steve shook his head at him and turned around.

"What? I see this as an absolute win."