Bruce Sees A Therapist (to be changed later)

25| Visitation From Some

Half an hour later, Bruce and Natasha sat down at a table on the rooftop garden upstairs. Rex and Yelena, in matching waiter suits, served up their dinner.

"Thank you," Natasha said, completely ignoring her sister's annoyed face saying that she had been forced to do this.

"You're welcome." Yelena grumbled. "Have a nice fucking dinner." She went down the elevator bickering with Aurelia.

"They're so cute," Natasha sighed. "As a couple, I mean." A sudden thought occurred to her. "Alian Rexov, does he have any siblings?"

Bruce frowned, both at Nat's willingness to talk about Alian and in memory. "As I recall, he had a older sister who was kidnapped as a small child. Katerina Rexov."

Katerina. "Is she still alive?" Natasha pressed.

Bruce shrugged lightly. "I didn't look much into it. Since she was taken a long time ago, I don't think she is, but there's a chance."

"What if she was taken by the Red Room?"

Bruce stared at Natasha. "Well, then, from what you've told me, she'd either be dead or under an influence or somewhere in the world roaming free." He glanced at the cityscape around them. "Take your pick. But I can dig into it later."

Natasha smiled at him gratefully. "So, what was the team like without me?" She twirled her spaghetti.

Bruce winced. "Kind of crumbly. Clint and I were all, 'we've got to save her and wait for her to wake up', but Steve said we should continue on missions, Tony was getting high, Yelena was making out with Dr. Rex, that type of thing." He shrugged again. "To be honest, we were kind of lost without you. We had to find out footing again after you left the hospital."

Natasha leaned on her elbows. "What is that, anyway? The hospital-society thing, I mean," she added.

Bruce shifted. "It was a group of people that Betty and I made when we were in college. All the nerds into one room, what could go wrong?" He chuckled lightly. "We disbanded in the 90s after SHIELD tried to buy us out because of some of the experiments we were doing."

"What kind?"

Bruce glanced at the cityscape. "Um, some vaccines, cold fusion, cancer research, that sort of thing."

Natasha did a metaphorical double take. "'Cold fusion'?" She asked, eyebrows furrowing. "How close were you to that?"

Bruce thought about it. "I'd like to say we were close, but it's always 'close' until we're proven wrong." He suddenly looked pleased. "But the best the science side did was quantum mechanics. And of course we did well, we had Hank Pym." He added, smiling ruefully. "I wonder where he is now."

Natasha nodded and they ate in silence.

Bruce picked up his cup and sipped it, careful to watch her movements and her getting over a mental hurdle before she blurted out, "Did anything happen between you and Betty Ross while I was gone?"

Bruce stared at her in disbelief. "No!" He furrowed his brows. "Why would you think that?"

Natasha shrank into herself. "I— I just thought— I don't know—" her voice turned accusing— "you two looked pretty cozy a few weeks ago, in that restaurant."

Bruce sighed, setting down his cutlery. "Natasha."

He only said her name, but she felt her face crumple into something between tears and a frown; setting precedent in this new and interesting thing her face could do of its own accord.

Bruce looked slightly panicked over the sight of her being this upset. "Nat—" he dragged his chair over to her side of the table. "Nat, we were catching up."