bruce banner, LIFELINE

the secret.

Parker swore at the lock, the door never seemed to be able to open when she wanted. She cursed the bad karma that came with smoking, serves her right really. She had never run three hundred metres as fast as she just did, her sprint was even faster than her Calcutta chase. Of course the even sidewalk helped and knowing her destination; Peter's room. 

There was something in there that she needed to see, she knew as hiding anything  in this dysfunctional family never worked out well. She learned that the hard way. And if Peter's are anything like hers then an intervention was needed right now.

"Cathy!" The shout was distant and Parker pretended she didn't recognise the voice.

"Fuck me." Parker whispered as the door finally unlocked and she slipped in leaving the keys in the lock and threw her jacket onto the floor. 

She took the steps two at a time, swinging herself around the banister until she was at the top. Peters door was covered in magazine cut offs, just childish pictures and sayings that Peter either didn't have the heart to take off or the time. Parker deduced that it probably wasn't anything to do with a girl (or boy for the matter) that he was trying to hide.

The one thing that stood out most was a 'No Entry' sign. Parker remembered it because she was the one that gave it to him after he complained that Aunty May was sneaking in and rearranging his sock drawer. Up to now she had always honoured the command but then it went out of the window as she went in the door. Actually it was more like tried to get in the door. 

The mess in Peter Parker's room wasn't even on the verge of clutter; it was pure chaos. Parker thought her parties got out of hand, Peter's room made them seem like child's play.

Bomb site was a more suited word for what she saw. Broken lamps and questionable dents in the walls were rife and unsettled the onlooking and unprepared Parker. His desk was another story, littered with tech pieces, documents and God knows what else lurked under the coffee stains. Did Peter even like coffee? She didn't know. 

She could have found a logical explanation in her head for all of this, like how she had convinced herself that Bruce Banner was just lost in the beginning. But just like a green monster, there always had to be one element she couldn't begin to explain; a spandex suit.

It lay on his unmade bed, the bright red and blue standing out against the white sheets. Parker may have been out of the country but she knew that lycra would never come back into fashion. 

She slowly reached out to inspect it further treating it as if it could explode or disintegrate in her hands, which in all honesty would be one of the better outcomes of this situation. Surprisingly it felt nice and cool against her fingers it reminded her of a short lived leotard she used to love. Maybe it was harmless, a joke or something. 

Then she found the bloodstain and the joke stopped being funny.  As she ran her fingernail over it flaked away slightly, it was old. That truth didn't offer her any more comfort. The notion t was her brother's blood was unsettling but not as much as the alternative,

Parker now realised her life had never been as simple and normal as she believed. 

"I can explain." Peter gasped. He stood in no man's land in the doorway. Parker was looking out of the window, it was open slightly and she noticed how it could be locked and opened from the outside. A definite new feature. 

Parker balled her hand with the suit in it into a fist. The expression on her face had turned to anger and frustration as she faced her brother "Yeah, you better fucking explain Peter. And it better be good,"

That's when her and Bruce Banner were the same; they were the most angry when it had anything to do with the ones they loved. 

Peter began to scratch the back of his neck, he may be taller than his big sister could possibly take her down thanks to his 'skill set' but she was angry. And Peter had learned at a young age to avoid her when the veins on her forehead became a tad more visible. He swallowed a lump in his throat.