Invisible To You (A Bruce Banner Love Story)

Chapter Twenty Four - Press Conference

One Month Later~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Bruce's POV~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The elevator doors open, and the sight in front of me makes me groan in frustration. "Tony, gosh darn it." I mutter, upset. He as asleep on the couch in the living room, cradling a vodka bottle like a teddy bear. There were two more bottles on the floor beside him. At least he made it to the couch this time instead of just on the floor. "Jarvis, can you call Steve up here? We have another Tony incident." Normally Pepper would be here to help, but she was on a business trip in Hong Kong.

"Mr. Rogers is on his way Dr. Banner." Jarvis replies. I sigh and thank Jarvis before grabbing the bottles off the table and throwing them in the garbage. I scowled as I snatched the one that Tony was hugging to his chest, and I dumped the rest of it before throwing that away as well. The elevator slides open as I slam the trash can closed.

"Again? Really?" Steve asks, growling in frustration. "He knew he had a press conference later today." I nod with a sigh.

"Probably because the conference was about Rose." I say, running a hand through my hair. "We're going to have to do it. Pepper isn't here too cover for him this time." Steve sighs, but nods. We were the only two around to do it, with Nat and Clint at SHIELD searching for Rose. They had reported to Fury a few days after the incident, and he had them looking for her.

"Lets get him to his room." Steve says. I nod and walk around, helping him until we each had one of Tony's arms around our shoulders. It was slightly awkward, Steve being about half a foot taller than me, but we had done this before, and we made it work.

We're about halfway down the hall when Tony becomes semi-conscious. "Hey Seteveie boy." He slurs, looking up at Steve. Steve just scowled and stayed quiet, so Tony turned to me. "Hey! Brother from another..." He couldn't find the word. "Test tube. Yeah. Brother from another test tube." He suddenly frowns. "I wasn't born in a test tube." He squints at me. "Were you born n a test tube Bruce?"

"No." I say calmly. Tony's eyebrows furrow in confusion.

"Really cause you turn into a giant thing." He says. Steve opens the door to his room. "You kinda look like a giant green emerald." He says. I raise an eyebrow. "Emeralds are pretty. I should get Pepper an emerald." His mind is starting to go completely off track.

"Pepper says she wants you to go to bed for right now Tony. Sober up." Steve says. Tony nods and flops onto the bed, practically asleep again. "You got this?" Steve asks. I nod. All that was basically left was turning Tony on his side so he wouldn't choke on his own vomit. I hoist Tony's feet onto the bed, and roll him over. I'm about to leave when he speaks again.

"What?" I ask.

"I really screwed up, didn't I?" He asks.

"Yeah. We were really hoping you could do this conference." I say. Tony shakes his head.

"I meant with Rose." He says. Man, he has mood swings when he's drunk. "I should've gone after her. Should have let you go after her like you wanted too." I sigh sadly.

"I shouldn't have let you stop me from going after her." I say quietly. But Tony has already fallen asleep.

Rose's POV~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Table five's order is ready!"

"Thanks!" I yell, grabbing the plates from the counter into the kitchen and turning to take it to the table. It's been a month since the incident at the tower, and apparently I am good at disguising myself. Fake tattoos, fake piercings, and dying my hair with random colors every few days (I used the dyes that washed out quickly so t wouldn't kill my hair. I still loved the red, even if I had to keep it hidden) made a good way to keep cameras off of your back.

I set down the plates with a smile and walked to the back of the small restaurant. They had given m a job here pretty quickly, even with that tattoos and piercings. The owners had liked the fact that I was a people person. I got along with most of the people that came in here, so it wasn't much of a problem. I took the orders for table twelve pretty quickly. They were regulars, and I headed back to the counter. I was filling up glasses with their drink orders when I overheard the TV.

"And now, another press conference on the disappearance of Tony Stark's goddaughter, Rose Saunders."

My head snaps around to stare at the TV. A what? "Another one? I'm changing the channel." Tia, my coworker, says frustratingly. She reaches up to grab the remote.

"No! Wait, I wanna hear this! Turn it up!" I say quickly, startling her. She looks at me strangely before shrugging and doing as I asked. The voices coming from the TV got louder so I could hear them. to my surprise, it wasn't Tony on stage, but Bruce and Steve. Where was Tony? Or Pepper? Why weren't they up there?

"We are still searching for Rose Saunders, who disappeared a month ago today." Steve says, all professional. An old picture of me appears on screen with a number underneath. I see Tia look between me and the TV.

"You know, she kinda looks like you." She says, and I shrug it off, trying to pay attention. Bruce was about to say something, when a commotion began happening off camera, getting everyone's attention. A figure stumbles on screen, and it surprises me. Not the fact that it's Tony, but... the condition he's in. He looks absolutely horrid.

Tony has bags under his eyes, and all of his clothes look dirty and messed up. His hair is in all directions, and looks like he hasn't cut it of even styled it since I left. The cameras zoom in on his face, and I see that his eyes are red, and he hasn't shaved in a few days. Even on camera, I can tell that he is drunk.

"Rose... you.. you need to come home." He slurs into the microphone. It isn't a terrible slur, but there is one there. "We all miss you, the..." He thinks for a minute. "Lil and Em... they miss you too." He stumbles, but quickly rights himself, leaning heavily on the podium, making some of the microphones squeal with feedback. "Please come home Rose. I love you."

Steve slowly coaxes the intoxicated Tony off the stage, and I just stare at the TV for a few moments after it goes back to the news. What had Tony done to himself? Was... Was that because of me?

"Hey, table seven wants their order." Lia says, nudging me with her elbow. I jerk out of my stupor.

"Yeah... Of course." I say, turning from the TV