Bruce Banner X Reader

Chapter 13

Third Person POV

Tony and the rest of the team are standing around outside y/n's room, waiting to hear something from inside. After a while, the door opens and a distraught looking Bruce slowly trudges out, his face wet with tears, his body shaking. Without saying a word, he walks down the corridor and into the lab, slamming the door behind him. Looking at the rest of the group, Tony sees the majority of them upset, y/n had only been in the tower for a few weeks and she'd made a massive impact, Nat and Wanda are comforting each other and Bucky is crying onto Steve's shoulder. Tony decides to head down to tell Fury that some people on the team won't be up for any difficult missions in the near future, it saddens him to see everyone so depressed. 

In his absence, the rest of the group start to move back to their rooms one by one, until only Bucky, Loki and Steve are left. Bucky politely asks Steve to leave which he does, he wants it to be just him and Loki.

"Can we go in there," He asks, "I want to see her." 

Loki slowly nods, and steps towards the door that Bucky's about to open.

"Wait," Loki utters, "Is this right?"

"Please, I need to see her," Bucky begs,

"Okay, I'll come in with you, but we can't mess anything up," 

Bucky quickly agrees with Loki and pushes the door open. They see y/n laying there, her ghostly skin and protruding ribs taking the attention away from the unrecognisably pale face that accommodates her cold blue lips. You can tell she's dead, but you could have probably thought that a few days ago, it's astonishing how her condition worsened so much in a short period of time, it's terrifying. Bucky rests his hand on the side of her face, her skin is cold to the touch, and it sends a shiver through him, at least she's at peace now, but he knows that himself and the others, Bruce especially, won't be for a while. Loki approaches the body from the other side, he looks pained, he looks sad, that's a first. He glances over to Bucky and nods, before they both pull the blanket over y/n's head, covering the rest of her body. 

They start to cry almost simultaneously, and both of them approach the other for comfort which ends up in a friendly hug. Neither of them are usually expressive around each other, so this feels uncomfortable, and it takes time before they actually show their emotions. When they break the hug, they stand over y/n's bed in silence for a while before Bucky leaves to find Steve, and Loki follows shortly behind. 

Nobody really does anything for an hour or two, until Tony realises he should go and check on Bruce. When he gets to the right floor, he resists the urge to go into y/n's room, he's managed to stay strong so far, he can't let his emotions overcome him. He knocks on Bruce's door, no reply, he must still be in the lab. When Tony reaches the end of the corridor, he stops for a moment before he even takes a step into the lab, there's a strong smell coming from inside and Tony recognises it immediately. The nauseating stench of cheap alcohol. He pushes the door open to find Bruce sat in the corner holding a bottle of whiskey, his eyes are bloodshot and his hands are trembling, causing the booze to shake around in the bottle as he tries to drink it. Tony immediately storms over and knocks the drink out of his hand, he knows that Bruce is struggling the most, but this isn't the right way to cope. 

Tony looks around for any water to make him drink, but his eyes turn to something else, there's a purple bottle on the countertop with an oddly coloured liquid in it. A small sticker on the lid states: 'for y/n'.

"What's that Bruce?" Tony asks hurriedly, to which Bruce replies with a grunt. "Bruce, what's in this bottle, I need to know,"

"It doesn't work, it was supposed to help her but I couldn't do it."

"Oh stop feeling sorry for yourself and get up," Tony scoffs, "We still have time and I have a plan."

Bruce jumps up from the corner and moves over to Tony, his eyes wide,

"Well, what do I do?" 

Bruce and Tony spend the next hour or so in the lab, using Bruce's special liquid and y/n's old crystals that Fury had kept, they eventually make something that resembles some kind of syrup, and when Tony gives Bruce an approving nod, they both practically run down the hall to y/n's room. Bruce hesitates slightly before opening the door and walking towards her body. He gently pulls back the blanket that Bucky and Loki covered her up with earlier and throws it across the room. He stops for a few seconds to take in her lifeless features, she's beautiful even after death. After his pause, Bruce steps back, he's letting Tony give her what he hopes is a cure, his hands are too unsteady, so instead he takes a seat on the grey armchair in the corner of y/n's room and watches Tony carefully, not taking his eyes away from what he's doing. How could he, this is y/n's life on the line. After Tony administers the cure to y/n, he takes a step back, him and Bruce silently praying to themselves. After a few minutes of silence, Tony sighs,

"I'm sorry Bruce, I think she's gone for good,"

"No, no that can't be right, it should've worked, why hasn't it worked?" Tony puts his hand on Bruce's shoulder,

"You should go to sleep, you're drunk, and tired, and neither of those things are going to bring her back," He removes his hand and walks over to the door. "Goodnight Bruce."

Bruce waits for him to leave before burying his head in his hands. Why hadn't it worked, the science was all correct so what was wrong? Bruce stands up and paces towards the wall on the other side of the room, he leans on it gently and feels tears streaming down his face, their final chance wasted. In defeat, he slams his fist against the wall, crating a small dent but a loud noise.

"Bruce?" Asks a croaky voice from the middle of the room.

"Y/n?"