Don hears a rumor
Don knew there was a benefit of keeping an ear open for office gossip.
It was a good way to find out who was having troubles, who might need some help, who was arguing or fighting with whom…all the office climate and politics. Back when he was running with Cooper, they’d spend an hour catching up on the gossip the minute they rolled into a new town, and it was always beneficial in one way or another.
He’d been the topic of the rumor mill once or twice, but Cooper typically wasn’t.
Coop kept a low profile, kept his personal business far removed from the office.
But right now, the rumor mill was focused on Cooper.
Cooper who had apparently had a run in with the hulk.
The actual hulk.
The general consensus seemed to be that Cooper was fine.
Don stopped listening at that point, because other than there being a general consensus that Cooper had been fine and survived the encounter, what happened during the encounter was a jumble of rumors, half truths, conjecture, and out right catty bitch jealousy.
If anyone in fugitive recovery could encounter the hulk and be perfectly fine afterwards, it would be Cooper.
But if it was in the rumor mill, there had to be a report and the report would have most of the story.
Not all of it. Cooper didn’t always write the most thorough reports, the more impressive the catch, the less he seemed to write.
Don poked at the computer system and yes….there was a fugitive recovery report on Dr. Bruce Banner filed by William Cooper.
Coop had encountered the hulk.
Don read it.
Six times.
The words didn’t change, but Don was feeling slightly hysterical.
Cooper had encountered the hulk….and fed him Mexican food.
He’d let him go and that sounded like the sanest decision in Cooper’s long and storied career, but who signed off on this report without having Coop sit down with a psychologist because…this wasn’t the safes, sanest, or smartest encounter Cooper could have gotten involved in, take the hulk out for Mexican food, really Coop?
He looked at the picture again. Yeah. That was the hulk, absolutely 100% confirmed, the hulk, eating Mexican food with Cooper, who was not wearing anything more protective for this encounter than one of those truckstop flannels that made most agents grumble about a lack of professionalism. At least there might have been some ingrained self preservation because Coop was sitting in such a way that his badge and gun were not on the hulk side.
He read the report again.
Werelizard
Don had a moment when it finally clicked.
Coop hadn’t known.
Coop had walked into the encounter completely blind.
No idea that Dr. Bruce Banner became a giant rage monster capable of leveling a city block without a thought.
Anyone else and it would have ended badly. Don knew that without a single doubt.
No wonder the rumor mill didn’t know what to make of this one.
Don printed out a copy of the picture.
He’d have to ask Coop about this one next time he ran through town.