βʀᴜᴄᴇ βᴀɴɴᴇʀ, pнd (
hulk) wrote in
taxonomites2009-11-11 11:32 am
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005 ☢ [location: ncis forensics lab, then sanctuary (for all)]
Most times after he's woken up from an episode (episode is the best word he can think of to describe it - like a seizure, only instead of biting your tongue there's immeasurable collateral damage), Bruce slept for a few days straight. Even though he couldn't remember most of what had happened and he never had a mark on him afterward, it was still an enormous physical strain. He was still tired even now, and this was after four days of constant sleep.
When he'd woken up in the infirmary of the Sanctuary for All, there had been a fresh set of clothes and his tablet next to his bed. He had spent the first few moments wondering just what had happened, then everything came rushing back - the party, Ross and Blonsky's sudden appearance, then nothing but vague flashes until someone had woken him up in the middle of a wrecked house. He did remember something about a pipe in someone's chest, but that had to be some kind of weird, post-monster dream. After that, it was a simple matter of figuring out what he had to do.
Run. Not that there were many places to run to while in this city, but he could at least get out of the Sanctuary and find some other place to crash. Bruce grabbed the clothes and ran through the network as he pulled them on. When he saw Abby's post, he knew what had happened - and who knew how many other people who weren't able to make such calls for help - and felt horribly guilty for it.
So, even though he was determined to leave the Sanctuary and avoid anyone who knew him as 'David', he still felt badly enough to be compelled into leaving a note at Abby's lab. It took him a few tries to actually write it (Hallmark really needed some 'Sorry I turned into a monster and hurt you' cards), but eventually settled on a simple 'Sorry'. Bruce taped it to the door and walked away. Maybe he'd leave a similar note at the Sanctuary later.
[ooc: Locked to Abby Sciuto first, then whomever wants to grab Bruce sneaking back in to the Sanctuary for All to leave the note for Magnus. Hee, silly hobouncle.]
When he'd woken up in the infirmary of the Sanctuary for All, there had been a fresh set of clothes and his tablet next to his bed. He had spent the first few moments wondering just what had happened, then everything came rushing back - the party, Ross and Blonsky's sudden appearance, then nothing but vague flashes until someone had woken him up in the middle of a wrecked house. He did remember something about a pipe in someone's chest, but that had to be some kind of weird, post-monster dream. After that, it was a simple matter of figuring out what he had to do.
Run. Not that there were many places to run to while in this city, but he could at least get out of the Sanctuary and find some other place to crash. Bruce grabbed the clothes and ran through the network as he pulled them on. When he saw Abby's post, he knew what had happened - and who knew how many other people who weren't able to make such calls for help - and felt horribly guilty for it.
So, even though he was determined to leave the Sanctuary and avoid anyone who knew him as 'David', he still felt badly enough to be compelled into leaving a note at Abby's lab. It took him a few tries to actually write it (Hallmark really needed some 'Sorry I turned into a monster and hurt you' cards), but eventually settled on a simple 'Sorry'. Bruce taped it to the door and walked away. Maybe he'd leave a similar note at the Sanctuary later.
[ooc: Locked to Abby Sciuto first, then whomever wants to grab Bruce sneaking back in to the Sanctuary for All to leave the note for Magnus. Hee, silly hobouncle.]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
Motion sensors detected him, turning her screen into the feed from the outdoor cameras. She recognized him. No one else had posture or movements like him. Involuntarily, she smiled without thinking. It was just a small one, barely turning the corners of her mouth up, but it was there. She thought he was about to knock, to check on her, but she saw the slip of paper. He turned his back. Abby jumped out of her chair, wincing as her arm jarred. It was still sore. She had to keep reminding herself of that.
Crossing the lab took way too much time, in her opinion. By the time she reached the door, she had to shout to get his attention. Alright, maybe she didn't have to shout, but she did.
"David!" Her voice carried, mixed with more emotions than she could count. She looked to her right and grabbed the piece of paper. After reading the solitary word, she held up the paper. "This the best you can do?" Humor was usually a strong suit for her, but it was hard to not be genuinely hurt. She had thought she meant more than a passive apology. Nevermind the fact that by writing it, she was convinced he was admiting that it was him that night, which caused a whole new set of dizzying thoughts to spiral through her brain.
"What happened?" She asked, hoping he'd answer her without all the bullshit from before. After this, it was going to be impossible to accept his need for privacy. After this, she felt she deserved more.
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
There wasn't anything like getting tossed around by the monster inside him that earned you clearance to be read in.
His shoulders slumped as he finished the turn, but he couldn't meet her eyes. "Couldn't think of what else to put," he shrugged quietly. He stared at the ground, hands stuck in his pockets awkwardly. What happened...? Bruce sighed sadly. "It's a long story. And. If you really want to hear it, um. It's gonna take a while. So."
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
"I've got nothing but time, David." She said as she sat. "I just. I don't understand any of it. That was you? But how?"
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
"That thing is not me," he said defensively, eyes darting up to look at her earnestly before returning them to the floor. "It's... I don't know what it is, but it's not me. It's just. Something inside me that..."
Bruce shook his head. He was beginning in the middle, and this was too complicated a story to get muddled right off the bat. "Let me start over. ...My name's not David Harrison. It's... It's Bruce. Bruce Banner."
He paused then, expecting some kind of recognition. He wasn't any Einstein, but he was pretty well-known in most scientific circles before all of this. Bruce hadn't figured out the entire "different realities" bit yet.
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
"Alright. Bruce. Got it." She'd never heard the name, but wasn't too surprised. No one seemed to know much about the people in her life, either. The world was a big place, after all.
"What does that mean, though." She shifted herself in her chair, trying to find the right words. "'Something inside you.' What does that mean, exactly? You were, you were huge. And green. How does that happen?"
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
"I don't know what it is," he admitted. "Before all those odd jobs that I told you about, I used to be a scientist - biology, chemistry, physics, nuclear physics. About five years ago, I was on working on a research grant from the U.S. Army, working toward improving gamma radiation resistance for infantrymen. Things were going well enough that we were ready for human trials pretty quick, and... Well. I kind of volunteered to be the guinea pig. Stupid move, I know, but all the math figured out right, and I double and triple-checked everything. It should have been safe.
"But when it came down to it, something went wrong and I ended up getting a full blast of radiation. By all rights I should have died from that much exposure, but instead... I turned into that thing you saw the other day. Next thing I knew, I was waking up in the middle of some national park a week later. Found out after I got back that it wrecked the lab. Put most everybody who was there in intensive care." He shook his head to dispel the image of Betty lying there, covered in tubes and bandages. He took a deep breath before plowing on. "The general in charge thought what had happened was lucky, wanted to find a way to use it, duplicate it. He tried to put me into military custody, and I've been running ever since."
He dragged a hand over his face once he'd finished. This was the first time Bruce had ever actually told the story to anyone - it helped a little to say it out loud. Even if it sounded like some kind of dime-store science fiction novel.
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
"That's why you monitor your heart rate, isn't it? It's tied to that somehow." The creature, whatever it was, wasn't Bruce. She couldn't imagine running from the government, hiding who you were for so long. Abby couldn't imagine a lot of it happening to her, to be completely honest. Her life just wasn't about those sort of things. Taxon had changed that, though, and had forced her to deal with the reality of strange and wondrous things that the world could do to a person.
This was really more of the former and none of the latter.
"Are they here? I mean, Taxon seems like it's own bubble sometimes. We've got no clue who brought us here, and I certainly don't have a massive creature lingering inside my DNA. Not that I've been made aware of, anyway. So it can't be about you. Right?"
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
His knuckles went white at that suggestion, he gripped his hat so hard. "I... I don't know. When I first showed up here, it... Well, it was right after another episode and I thought they'd finally gotten me. Once I change back, it's. I'm totally exhausted, usually sleep for a few days straight, so. Wouldn't have been hard. After a while without anybody in white coats showing up, I thought it was something else." He swallowed then, trying to stop his shaking.
"But then, on Halloween... They were there." His voice had gotten hoarse and small from fear. He had to clear his throat a few times before he could continue. "Right outside the Sanctuary. General Ross was there, with his men and his tanks and his helicopters... I tried to get away, but they were just everywhere all at once and then one of them beat the crap out of me and." He began breathing rhythmically, quick short in and out and in, but even that wasn't enough to stop the shivers.
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: NCIS forensics lab]
[location: Shelley]
[ location: sanctuary (for all) ]
The hours following Ashley had isolated herself other than going to tell her mother to get some rest herself. She hadn't slept much, not that it showed, so by the time anyone else was up and about she'd already been so for several hours. By the time David came back Ashley had grabbed her jacket to leave for a couple of hours: she hated just waiting around and feeling useless like she did now. He looked a little worse for wear but after what had happened she couldn't blame him, and if someone did then they obviously needed something pointing out to them.
"Hey." She threw a small greeting at him, pausing on her step on the stairs. Hoping that this was a dream was a long shot but far too much had seemed real.
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
"...Hi." Ashley had no idea how much Bruce had wished the last five years had been a dream himself.
[ location: sanctuary (for all) ]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
Bruce was gonna stick to his guns on this one. His mind was made up. ...Yep.
[ location: sanctuary (for all) ]
"You do realise that you're not the worst thing we've had around here?"
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
"And I really, really doubt that."
[ location: sanctuary (for all) ]
"Really? Okay... I'm a vampire, Henry's a werewolf, we have a Bigfoot who likes to help around the house and if we were still home I'd show you the Shoe. My dad put me in there and I nearly died. And he's Jack the Ripper so whatever you've got, we've seen just as bad." Or worse.
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
And... Okay, that was quite a list, but still. He was pretty damn sure that none of those things matched the monster in him. "You don't know what it's capable of," he said quietly. "Even I don't. And I can't let you stay near me when I'm this much of a liability."
[ location: sanctuary (for all) ]
[ location: sanctuary (for all) ]
And seeing the fact that David had taken leave of the infirmary without much warning just caused her to worry more. While it was John's note to go after females, she could hardly put past that he could go after people that she cared about. She did end up putting a bullet in his leg, after all. So when David - Bruce - walked back into the Sanctuary? She was standing at the stairs with her hands folded in front of her. Slightly relieved.
"Good to see that you are up and about again."
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
He looked up the stairs at Magnus, swallowing past the lump in his throat. Of course this had to happen right after finally finding somewhere he kind of belonged. "...Yeah, I was... I was just planning on stopping by before. Going."
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
She stopped in front of him and tried to find a proper way to say it without coming off as hurt. It was proving difficult. "Are you sure you want to leave?"
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
"I... I don't have a choice. I can't stay here anymore, shouldn't have even come in the first place. It was stupid, and selfish, and." He shook his head, angry that he had allowed himself to be so careless - not in regards to his own life, but that of everyone else in the Sanctuary. "It's best for everybody that I go."
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
"The creature outside the Sanctuary on Halloween." She tilted her head in hopes of being being able to see his face. "You became it, and now you're worried of hurting others. Am I correct?"
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
Yet for someone bound and determined to leave as soon as possible, Bruce was finding himself rooted to the spot.
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
She took in a deep breath. "Ashley has most likely informed you of what the purpose of the Sanctuary is. Please, if you truly want to leave, let me show it to you."
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
He paused at the offer. "She told me what you do here, yeah," he said cautiously. He raised his head to look at her stubbornly. "But you can't help me with this. It's my problem, and I'll find a way to fix it. I will." That last was said quietly, like he was trying to convince himself more than anything.
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[location: sanctuary (for all)]
[Location: Sanctuary for All]
His running into David wasn't contrived, however. It was just a matter of being in the right hall at the right time. "Hey," he looked at the other man concerned, "you alright?"