bruce banner, LIFELINE

the emergency number.

She stared at the chalkboard, it was wrong. Twenty seven days of craving and she didn't possess the heart to change the number. Because the higher the number the longer Bruce had been missing. Plus, Bruce always crossed his sevens, Parker didn't want the choice to.

She had tried her hardest to continue, business as usual but the tell-tale signs of paranoia were becoming more evident as the days passed.

Her nails were ragged and chipped; definitely not fit to be in the medical profession. She had also taken to nervously twirling a cigarette between her fingers at every moment she could spare. The end was soiled with rosy Vaseline from her lips but it still remained unlit.

It was tough but her long patience had finally given way. She swapped the cigarette in her hand for her phone that lived in her pocket. Fully charged, the only way she would allow it to function. If it dipped below 90% then it meant a recharge was on its way followed by a potential heart attack.

She called Bruce again, and again she was greeted with the same voicemail message. You would assume she was sick of it now but just hearing Bruce's voice was enough.

However when she spoke the same tired plea for help she heard the desperation in her voice. Her voice had also had a gravelly edge to it, which she hated. It was at the end of the message that she decided to do something.

She was going to Bruce Banner's house, whether he likes it or not.

"Right." She said after the phone call.

Parker gathered herself together which meant putting the unlit cigarette back in the corner of her mouth. It's presence soothed her in a way that she couldn't begin to describe, the comfort and friendship her partner once offered her was replaced with a cigarette. Bruce had been away too long.

She walked out of the surgery and was hit with the full force of Indian heat. Parker was able to deal with it better than Bruce, the doctor would constantly have a layer of sweat on his brow. That no matter how many times he wiped it away would remain.

It was the little things Parker missed the most. She walked past a group of young kids playing football, she smiled as the ball rolled to her feet and the children followed behind. She didn't simply kick it back, instead deciding to get involved in the game. She dribbled with the ball as tiny legs tried to intercept, and playfully tried to grab hold of her body to slow her down.

She laughed, the first time in too long. Looking she saw a young girl standing by the goal. And she passed to her, sending the hoard of children with the ball. Parker watched as the girl hit the ball towards the t-shirt marking the goal. The ball rolled between them and the girl team were in an uproar.

Parker clapped her hands with a wide smile on her face. The girl was the one who had seen her just days before and before Parker could recognise what was happening she had run to the nurse and hugged her.

The girls head rested on Parker's stomach, and she whispered,

"You're the pretty lady."

Parker was slow to react but she slowly rested her hand on the girls short hair. This was the part of children that she disliked, along with Bruce; what to say.

They liked being with children, countless times they had played against each other in street football matches like these. Those were the times Parker was most happy, it reminded her of times before it went bad and she used to entertain herself playing with her brother.