Book One: A Wolf Among Beasts

Chapter Twenty Four

The morning sun rises in the sky as Bruce wakes, back in his own form, alone. There are track marks from the Hulk but nothing else, no sounds of animals, no Eli. She's not here. He tries to remember what had happened, his last sighting of her had been in the factory, right behind the other guy came out, he doesn't know after that. He stands and takes a breath.

"Eli?" he asks looking around for a sign she's with him, but he finds none. She really isn't here. His eyes land on his backpack and he grabs it to open it, he searching the contents. Every thing he normally packs and then a letter, which he pulls out. His name scrawled across the front in Eli's handwriting. He doesn't hesitate in opening it. Pulling out the paper from within and unfolding it to read it.

........

Bruce

If you're reading this then I'm sorry but it's time I moved on. And it's time you did too.

I wrote this letter after our little run in with Stryker, just in case something similar were to happen. Given our histories then it was more then likely. And I am guessing that it did if you're reading this. I'm sorry.

I want you to know that my time with you have been the best of my long, insufferable and miserable little life and I will forever remember it and you. No matter how long I live. No matter where I go I will take those memories with me. I take you with me. In the end this is for the best for you. You want a normal life. And you're not going to get that with me. I don't belong in normal, I don't deserve it. I don't deserve you. And I will only get in the way of your happiness in the end.

Your research and journal are in the bag, go to New York, get your data, find your cure....Be happy with who you are.

I love you, with every inch of my soul, and I always will. You've made me feel things I thought it impossible for me to feel, things I never thought I would have the chance to feel. My life has been filled with more blood and pain and suffering then you can ever understand, but you were the one good thing. Hope you know what you mean to me.

We won't see one another again and in time you will move on with someone more suitable to your life. I hope you get everything you want. I really do.

Yours forever, Elizabeth

................

Bruce swallows the emotional meteor shoved down his throat, eyes watering. If she'd told him she felt this way before he could have made her feel better about all of this, he could have tried anyway. She's stubborn, maybe too stubborn. He folds the letter up and carefully puts it back in his bag. His heart aching. His throat struggling to hold by a flood of emotions that he fears will cripple him if he lets them surface. His fingers brush over the journal in his bag and he closes his eyes with a small sigh. Tears fleeing down his cheeks. He always knew this day would come, but he thought it would be further down the road, when he was older, when he got too old for her. Not this soon. He pushes his hands to his eyes and steadies his breathing.

...............

Eli pulls her baseball cap down over her eyes as she walks back through the favela, heading to her old apartment. It's too risky to go straight back to Bruce's, she'll give it a few days, keep an eye on it, then return to grab her stuff and then she supposes she should move on. Find somewhere else to hide from the world. She looks around before ducking into the abandoned shack, though left alone just in case. She presses herself back against the door as she closes it then lets herself feel, tears quickly form and fall, her chest aches with such pain she worries it might floor her. She's scared it will cripple her.

................

Bruce decides on heading North to the States. If he's lost Eli he's going to do what she wants him to do to fix himself. And he will find her again, because she wishes him to have every thing he wants; well he wants her. More then anything. One at a time. Cure then Eli. What kind of man would be if he did figure out the cure and then forget the woman who stood by him through these 19 months. Who supported him despite her own feelings towards it. A woman he adores and treasures. Who he loves with all of him. He will find her.

.................

Eli sniffles sitting on the floor of the shack, her knees pulled up to her chest, her arms tight around them. She knew leaving him would hurt but this is ridiculous, she can't even stop crying.

................

Bruce makes his way up out of the trees and along a rough mountain road. He notices a logging truck coming down the road towards him, and he waves it down, praying that it will stop for him. It does. He lets out a breath and then leans in the window.

"Can you help me?" he asks.

"No habla Portuguese"

"Where..? Donde...donde estoy?"

"Paroma. Paraguay? Brazil es ayi...Ochenta kilometers" The trucker waves Bruce inside, Bruce glances behind him, thinking on Eli, thinking about going back for her, nut he knows she wouldn't go back to Rio, she wouldn't risk getting caught.

...............

Eli wakes laying on the floor, curled up in the fetal position. She frowns at herself and then sits up. No more. She is not this person. Not the girl that cries because her boyfriend left. And she left him. She does not get to be all weepy about it. So she stands and she straightens her clothes. Takes a deep breath and gets on with her life.