To Soothe a Monster

Part I

Agent Romanov watched the frail girl devour the food set in front of her in a starved animalistic way. It was not what she would expect from the gorgeous faced and doe eyed portrait of innocence she and Director Fury had been observing through the two way mirror. Romanov sighed. "I give up, Director, who am I looking at?" She asked. "All I see is a starving girl being fed."

Fury gestured at the girl. "This girl has been homeless since she was ten; she turned twenty two a few days ago." He said. "Girls that are twice her size don't last half that long wandering the streets."

Romanov looked back to the girl. There was no muscle mass to her tiny arms, most likely a result from malnutrition over the years. Her hands were small, dainty and incredibly feminine. They were not made to choke or break bones. She was not a fighter. "How has she survived?"

"I found her yesterday persuading a store owner to not only let her get away with stealing over a thousand dollars of merchandise but to give her more yet!" Fury said. "She has amazing powers of persuasion and I want to send her to persuade Doctor Banner to see our way. We give her a home, clothes, warm food and she persuades anyone of anything that we need persuaded."

"Banner? She's so tiny!" Romanov exclaimed. "She can't hold her own against him if he loses control."

"She won't need to." He said. "She can curb anger and diminish it completely within two blinks of an eye. Though, if it helps you sleep better at night, I am assigning you as her mentor. I want you to teach her some method of self-defense; she has two weeks before we ship her off to Calcutta."

As Fury left the room, Romanov looked back to the girl in the room who had finished her vicious devouring and was now sitting with her hands crossed in her lap, looking as adorable and innocent as ever. How could Fury expect her to talk to Banner? The man had the ability to turn into a superhuman with no off button if he was angered. She sighed heavily, she never questioned Fury's assignments before, why start now?

She left the room and walked into the one the girl was being held in. The girl looked at her almost fearfully and it tugged at her heart in a way Romanov had never experienced. "What's your name?" Romanov asked her in the gentlest of tones.

"Colleen," The girl said quietly. "My name is Colleen. What's going to happen to me? Are you going to put me in jail?"

Romanov smiled softly at the girl. "No, we actually need you, Colleen." She said. "I'm Agent Natasha Romanov. We need you to talk some people into helping us. You have powerful skills of persuasion, I hear."

The girl looked down at her hands. "I guess so," She said meekly. "People listen to me, but I don't know how I can help you. I can't fight. I don't even know how to hold a gun."

Romanov smiled. "I can teach you how to do that." She said. "You will have a home, you will have warm food, you will have clean clothes and you will have protection. All in exchange for your cooperation, we just need you to bat those pretty eyelashes at a few people, perhaps only one. You will never go hungry again."

Colleen's eyes lit up at the thought. She nodded slightly. "Okay, I will do whatever you ask of me." She said, her voice was almost as angelic as the rest of her features. Her words were almost sung. Perhaps she could convince Banner without bringing about his other side. How could any man resist such sweet features from a girl with an equally sugary personality to back it up?

"You'll be under my care," Romanov said and held her hand out to the girl. "Come along, let's get you cleaned up and find you a warm bed. What do you say?"

The girl took her hand without much hesitation and Romanov led her from the room to begin training her for something Romanov wasn't sure she could truly handle.

...

It was the fifth time that Colleen had tried to shoot a gun and once again, the recoil had caused her to jam the butt of the gun into her shoulder. Romanov masked a laugh. "Hopefully, we don't have to worry about that gun we placed under the table." She said helping the girl up. "You're more likely to hurt yourself than you are Banner." She smoothed the girl's hair down. "With a sweet face like yours, we shouldn't have to worry."

"I can only hope so," Colleen said nervously. "Considering, I'm about to see him in a couple of hours." She brushed off her clothes and walked over to the table and checked the gun holster beneath the table. She looked to Romanov nervously. "You will not leave me right?"

"The house will be surrounded; Colleen and I will be in the kitchen, watching his every move." Romanov assured her. "I promise you that no harm will come to you. You are and you always will be under my protection."

Colleen visibly relaxed at her statement. "I better go get dolled up." She said. "I can't win him over with words alone." She walked into the bedroom.

As soon as she was out of ear shot, Romanov pressed the communication device in her ear. "Fury, I swear if one hair on her head is out of place after this I am going to feed Banner his own testicles, is that understood?" she hissed into it.

"If he harms her, you are more than welcome to use any means necessary to subdue him." Fury's voice echoed in her ear. "He will not though, she can handle this, Romanov, you need to have more faith in her."

"It's not that I don't have faith in the girl," Romanov whispered. "I don't have faith in him."

The little girl that they had paid to lure Dr. Banner to their hideaway had jumped out the window. "Should've got paid up front, Banner," The man said to himself.

Colleen took a deep breath and revealed herself to the man. "You know, for a man who is supposed to be avoiding stress, you picked a hell of a place to settle." She said with a smile.

The man looked at her in a surprised way; he seemed to take in her size as if he was attempting to judge how dangerous she was. "Avoiding stress isn't the key." He said avoiding her eyes.

Colleen smiled. "Then what is? Yoga, music, hot chocolate?" She asked with an innocent smile on her face.

Dr. Banner actually smiled at her a little. "You brought me to the edge of the city, that's smart." He said. "Who are you?"

"My name is Colleen." She said. She'd never had a last name so she didn't have one to give to him.

"Are you here to kill me, Colleen?" He asked. "That isn't going to work out for everyone." His voice trailed off.

She laughed a little. "No, I'm not here to kill you, Bruce." She said. "Have you really looked at me? I'm five foot two and I have practically no muscle mass and the last time I shot a gun…" She pushed the collar of her shirt over her shoulder to reveal a large bruise. "It didn't work out for everyone." The man smiled weakly at her again. "I work for S.H.I.E.L.D. We need you to come in."

"If I say no?"

Colleen smiled sweetly. "You'll find me to be very persuasive."

"What if the other guy says no?" Banner said darkly.

"You've been two years without an incident; I don't think you want to break that streak." Colleen said but she began to walk back to the table where the gun was hidden. "The world is about to go to war."

"I actively avoid wars." Banner said as he walked towards her.

She began fiddling with her phone to bring up a picture of the tesseract. "This is the tesseract." She said handing him the phone.

His fingers brushed against hers as he took it from her and they lingered a little longer than necessary on her soft skin. She was very warm. He shook his head slightly, banishing the thought from his head as he looked at the picture on her phone. He narrowed his eyes. "What's Fury want me to do? Swallow it?" He asked.

"No," She said with a laugh. "He wants you to find it, it's been stolen. It admits a gamma signature that's too weak for us to trace. No one knows gamma radiation like you do."

"So, Fury's not after the beast?"

"Of course not, you're not a beast, Banner," She said gently. "Fury needs you."

"He needs me in a cage."

"No one is going to put you in a cage, Bruce."

"STOP LYING TO ME!" He shouted as he lunged forward onto the table.

Colleen backed out of her chair and to the opposite side of the room.

Banner straightened himself and looked up at her apologetically. "I'm sorry, that was really mean." He said. "I just wanted to see what you'd do… why didn't you pull a gun on me?"

Colleen laughed nervously. "It…it wouldn't do any good…" She said with a trembling voice. "I'd more likely shoot myself than you." She was shaking all over.

"Colleen," He said gently. "I'm not going to hurt you." He approached her slowly. "What can I do to make you see that?"

Colleen took a shuddering breath and took a step towards him. "Could… Could you hug me?" She asked hesitantly.

Bruce was taken aback by her request. It'd been such a long time since he'd held anyone. He wasn't even sure if he knew how. She came closer. "It's easy," She said as if she were reading his mind. "I'll show you." She took the last step, closing the gap between them.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and placed her head against his chest. Banner's arms lay limply at his sides for a moment. This embrace, it warmed him in such a way that he'd never experienced. He'd just scared the hell out of her and here she was embracing him. His arms slowly came up; one wrapped around her waist and the other tentatively stroked her hair. "I… I will come with you." He whispered into her hair.