Darcy knows they're fighting outside. Darcy also knows she should be staying inside this building and definitely not exit out into the street. She can hear people shouting and police car sirens wailing. There's a child in this restaurant who appears to think the louder he cries the safer he'll be.

But she sees a child across the street who appears to be lost in all this mayhem. She can't be older than seven and keeps looking around her, lost in all the chaos, so small that no one is giving her a second glance as they run around. Darcy doesn't really have to second guess herself about this as she runs out of the restaurant at full speed, ignoring the waitress behind her who's yelling at her to stay inside.

It only figures as soon as she heads outside all hell breaks loose. Or, even more hell.

A S.H.I.E.L.D helicopter comes barreling down from the sky and crashes into the building down the street, slowing its momentum and breaking off the propellers in its rubble. But it's still speeding towards her on the concrete. Darcy is shocked into standing where she is.

Things start to move in slow motion. Someone screaming at her from the restaurant, her body quivering as the black helicopter comes closer, people around her are vacating the street, and then suddenly a flash of green.

A lot of green.

Hulk has jumped down from a building and uses his gigantic arms to circle around the helicopter. It pulls him a foot but the momentum is halted by his sheer strength. He crushes it between his fists and tosses it over a building for no reason other than he can.

Darcy can't stop shaking.

It's only made worse when Hulk looks at her and she says, "Bruce?" He'll recognize her, right? That's why he stopped the helicopter, she presumes.

His roar is deafening in the street. It isn't aimed at the sky and it isn't at any enemies. It's right at her and although he's ten feet away her hair still blows back from the force.

Darcy has never felt more vulnerable in her life. She's always heard stories of how out of control and frightening The Hulk can be but to see it first hand . . . how can Bruce have this inside him? How does he deal with having The Hulk as a second consciousness?

"Whats happening Big Guy?"

Darcy looks up to see Iron Man floating in the sky. Apparently he thought the roar warranted seeing if he needed help. But no, he was only bellowing at Darcy.

"Darcy whats happened?"

"I-I, um, I'm going back inside." She has half the mind to still look for the child but she's apparently been taken care of. Darcy wills herself to move although her legs feel like jelly.

The battle continues but Darcy is no longer scared of S.H.I.E.L.D's enemy. She's frightened Hulk will act on his rage towards her and crush her like he did the helicopter.

Sooner rather than later the battle is over. She's shaken back to the real world by another patron who looks very concerned.

"They're only here to help," she tells Darcy. "He is awfully frightening though."

"Yeah," is all she says in reply.

Somehow Darcy feels as though agreeing with her is like betraying Bruce. She knows he's inside Hulk somewhere. With this thought in mind she starts to make her way through the street towards her apartment. She wants to drink a lot of caffeine and work. It helps take her mind off of things.

/

It's early the next morning when Darcy hears her phone buzzing next to her. Turns out she'd been exhausted when she had come back home last night and passed out, then woke up at five in the morning. It's now seven thirty and she's been up ever since doing menial things to pass the time. Darcy figures it's S.H.I.E.L.D calling her to say she should come in to help with the clean up.

Instead it's Bruce's number flashing on her phone. Darcy only has a second of hesitation - for which she feels more guilty than is healthy - and picks up the phone, sounding very cheerful, "What are you doing up so early? You've missed all the good infomercials, you have to be up at five for those."

"I had an inkling you might be up," he says. She can hear how taut he is from his voice.

Darcy tries to shrug it off. "It happens."

"So you're saying it has nothing to do with yesterday?"

"Why, are you hurt?"

"I should be asking you. You saw me. Or, well, The Other Guy."

This conversation is happening too fast and much too soon. If it is to happen (and Darcy is hesitant to have it but she doubts this is high on Bruce's 'fun things to do' list) she wants to do it face to face. To see the man she's been with for the past five months and see his eyes.

"We should probably meet up somewhere that we can talk privately." Now there's a silence she didn't expect happening and it takes her a few seconds to figure out why.

Bruce didn't think she would want to meet up, much less privately meet.

Darcy hopes this shows her faith in him because that still hasn't wavered, no matter how scared of the Hulk she may be. Bruce has more control over his anger than most people realize. She just didn't expect the Hulk to be so angry at her. Or, to be frank, so large and terrifying, Darcy thought people were exaggerating. She never viewed any clips of Hulk because she didn't see the need for it. Perhaps she would have been more prepared had she done that.

"Are you su-"

"Unless that sentence is 'Are you super excited to meet me outside of Stark Tower in an hour?' you shouldn't finish it."

He gives a nervous laugh. "Stark Tower is private?"

"You have your lab and I'm sure they'll give us time alone."

"Tony doesn't know the meaning of the word privacy."

"He will when I say it."

"You're very intimidating when need be," laughs Bruce.

With the promise of meeting him at Stark Tower in an hour set they say their goodbyes and Darcy is left thinking 'what the hell am I going to do now'?

Should I lie and say I wasn't scared? Or did Tony tell him I was? Or was it Hulk who told him about me?

To be honest she's never really asked about the mechanics of the relationship between Bruce and Hulk. She's still not sure if she should. What if Hulk hears her and makes him even more angry?

/

Getting to his lab is no easy feat when Tony Stark is involved. He seems to enjoy really poking fun at Bruce and although they'd met briefly a few times before, when he heard she's into science, he suddenly became a lot more interested in her than usual.

"You've found yourself a keeper Banner," Tony told him before they made their escape. He shouted down the hall to them, "I know its a lab but don't get your DNA everywhere!"

Darcy snickers while her significant other only rolls his eyes. He opens the door for her and she notices there's an extra table with only two chairs in the corner complete with an omelet (she assumes ham & cheese as she so much loves) on one side and a Caesar salad on the other.

"I did have an hour to wait so I thought you'd like breakfast while we talked," Bruce explains. He's fiddling with pulling his shirt sleeves up but most likely so he doesn't have to look her in the eyes.

Darcy takes a seat and hadn't really realized how hungry she was until she takes a bite. It's still hot - he must have re-heated it in the microwave - and it's very good.

"Cooking is a skill I picked up while abroad," Bruce remarks as he pokes at his salad.

"You're really good at it. This is delicious. Why aren't you at my apartment every morning?"

Bruce smiles at her. He still hasn't touched his salad.

"Are you messing with your food because you're trying to determine whether it's sentient or are you just nervous? Because while that crouton you're poking looks very crunchy I don't think it's dangerous beyond that."

"You're acting pretty normal so I don't know if I should be nervous or not," responds Bruce cautiously. "I know this conversation needed to happen I just-I wish it'd been before, not after."

"I'm acting so normal because I don't know how to act." Darcy nervously laughs. "And How do you know what happened? Or don't you?"

"Tony said when he came to check why H-The Other Guy was roaring like hell he saw you and said you looked like you were about to pass out. Tony said he didn't come after you though."

"I hoped you could tell me why he would do that," Darcy says. Tell me I'm safe, she adds in her mind.

"As far as I know all you were doing was standing in the street. I doubt he'd be threatened by you-" When she raises an eyebrow at him he quickly amends with, "I'm sure you could tase an average guy into submission but he's not really average. And I'm really uncomfortable with the fact you were out in the street, Darcy. Staying inside is a much better option. What if you'd been hurt?"

She can see the pain flash in his eyes at the thought of her being injured but she feels the need to explain herself. "It wasn't like I went out willy-nilly. There was a kid who needed my help."

"I can't reprimand you for trying to help someone but you picked a bad time to do it. He could have stopped whatever was going to happen."

"A helicopter was shot out the sky right as I ran out and was coming towards me. Trust me, if I knew that was going to happen, I would have made sure I have the superpower to spurt wings and fly or something. I don't have a death wish."

Darcy eats her last bite of omelet and leans her elbows on the table. "Hulk came out of nowhere, Bruce. He saved me. Then he exploded at me. It didn't make sense."

"This is going to sound crazy but . . . I knew you were going to be there at that time and if I were of my own mind I would have gone to check on you. Thing is he knows how much I care about you and, well, maybe somehow that's translated into him?" Bruce begins to theorize. Hulk isn't one much for talking inside his head and when he is it usually isn't pleasant. "And to be honest his explosion may have been anger at you being outside where it wasn't safe."

Darcy blinks. No way. Not all of that anger just because she was in harms way. She's never talked to the Hulk before so-

"He's part of you so he'd know of me, right?"

"Yes but Darcy you should know that's not a fail-safe. He knows I care and even if he only was passing through, saw you and the danger you were in and tried to help, I'm . . . " he pauses as thought his is difficult to say. Not because of what it includes but because after fighting The Other Guy so long it's hard to admit when he did something right. "I'm so grateful he did that. But it doesn't mean you shouldn't stay out of his way. He's dangerous, Darcy, I can't express that enough."

Darcy can't escape how much suffering is in his eyes or how tense he sounds. It's as though he's said this before but the warning wasn't heeded. He's not only worried for her, he's scared for her. And probably some for himself. Changing into something you don't have control over and then having to deal with the consequences have to be so draining. She isn't sure why she's never thought of it before in those terms. No wonder he's so cautious, so nervous.

"I don't say this for pity. I only want you to be careful. And I try to make it so you never see him."

"That's the first time I've ever seen him though. Five months is a pretty good track record, right?" Darcy tries to smile but it's weak. "I guess I feel badly I didn't take it so seriously before. You tried to tell me about him but I didn't really pay attention. I thought I could handle it."

"Now you can see why I was so wary about entering a relationship," Bruce says, rubbing his left temple. He can feel a headache coming on. "Things don't always turn out very well for me. This has been the longest I've stayed in one place."

"I'm glad you stayed," Darcy is quick to say. When he only looks mildly confused she adds, "I am, Bruce. You're a great guy and I care about you a lot too. That's why I came over here to discuss things with you. That's why I'm making an effort. If I wasn't able to tell the difference between you and The Other Guy would I be sitting across from you right now?"

Bruce smiles warmly at her words and avoids saying anything by finally eating his breakfast. All in all he's pretty sure Darcy isn't going to go anywhere because of . . . the Hulk, and he's not going to give into temptation and leave because he thinks it'll be safer. Because he has control over this. If a time comes when he and Darcy cross paths again he's sure she'll remained unharmed. He didn't tell her this because he doesn't want her to be too comfortable around him, but Hulk apparently said to Tony afterwards, "Woman safe. Puny guy happy now."

'Puny guy' couldn't be any more thankful.