“Hey Banner.” The voice came over the speaker in Bruce’s room and was followed by a round of coughing. “I’m really sorry to ask this ‘cause I know you’re going to meet up with the lovely Dr. Ross today” More coughing and a muffled ‘I feel like I’m dying…’ not from the person speaking. “But is there any way you could look after Bea?”
“Tony?”
“Yeah, I know. I sound gross, I feel worse. Never have children. They will infect you with germs you could never have imagined existed.”
Bea had been ill the previous week with a stomach bug, but she’d gotten better and everyone else seemed genuinely fine. Apparently her parents hadn’t come away from the sick toddler (and her germs) unscathed.
“We wouldn’t be asking you if we weren’t desperate Bruce.” Pepper added, she didn’t sound much better. “We know you’ve been arranging to meet with Betty for a while, but there’s no one else we can ask and we don’t want her to get sick again.”
“Rhodey’s on vacation with his new sort of girlfriend; we have no idea where Widow and Barton are, it’s like they’ve dropped off the planet; Thor and Jane have gone back to Greenwich and Cap’s gone Winter Soldier hunting with the guy with the wings.”
“You don’t have to justify it, I believe you both.” Bruce smiled. “I don’t mind looking after her for the day I just need to give Betty a call to re-schedule.”
“If Betty doesn’t mind I’m fully in favour of you taking Bea with you if need be. I know you’ve both been trying to fit in seeing each other for ages.” Pepper cleared her throat and Bruce heard Tony mutter ‘That’s attractive…’ before a sharp intake of breath. “I wouldn’t want you to miss out just because we’re incapable of withstanding toddler germs.”
“Okay, I’ll ask her. But only if it’s definitely okay with the two of you. She’s working in a university lab so that’s where I was going to meet her…”
“Completely fine.”
“Yeah Banner, she’s spent days in the lab with me and you. Betty’s a safer scientist than I could ever hope to be.”
“That’s true.”
“Funny.”
“We owe you Bruce, thank you so much.”
“No problem guys, just get better.”
When Bruce got to the lounge ten minutes later Tony was waiting for him with Bea. Bea was visibly excited, wearing a blue, purple and cream check shirt over a white vest with blue jeans and black sneakers, equipped with a little purple backpack, her hair tied up off her face in two little pigtails and Tony looked like death warmed up, still in his pyjamas.
“Thanks Banner. I owe you one. Now I’m heading back to bed so I don’t infect you.” He gave Bea a brief hug. “Be good for Uncle Bruce princess.”
“Will Dada!” Bea grinned waving to him as he headed back to his and Pepper’s bedroom, coughing as he walked. “Unc’ Bruce!” Bea ran to him.
“Hi sweetheart, are you ready to meet my friend Betty?” He offered her his hand.
“Yeah!” She bounced on her toes excitedly and grabbed the hand he held out. “’Et’s go!” She started to drag him towards the elevator.
“Okay, okay.” He laughed. “We’re going!”
Bea had insisted that she could walk all of the way to Columbia University but not even halfway there she’d gotten tired and Bruce had to pick her up and carry her. She was now asleep against his shoulder, napping peacefully as he tried to find the lab that Betty was in.
Once he did he pushed the door open with his free hand and stepped through, grabbing the door as it swung shut to ensure it didn’t slam and wake Bea up.
Betty’s head shot up from the microscope at the opposite side of the room.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” She grinned.
She turned the microscope off and pushed her stool away from the lab bench as he made his way across the room.
“Is this your god-daughter?” Betty asked reaching out to Bea, stopping abruptly when she noticed the Hulk teddy sticking out of the toddlers backpack.
“Yeah this is Bea.” Bruce smiled nervously noting Betty’s hesitation. “It’s her favourite thing. She never really goes anywhere without it.”
“That’s adorable.” Betty reached out and swept a few stray strands of Bea’s hair from her face. “Did you…” She gestured to the teddy.
“Oh, no. Tony did.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know actually.” He smiled a little. “She likes it and that’s all that matters.”
“Does she know?”
“About the actual thing? Yeah, she knows. Tony actually explained it to her.”
“Unc’ Bruce mad, Unc’ Bruce geen…” Bea mumbled sleepily.
“Hey, look who’s finally awake again.”
“Hi.” She smiled up at him sweetly, she turned to Betty and seemed to consider her for a moment before giving her the same response. “Hi.”
“Hello.” Betty smiled back.
Bea pointed to the picture on the computer monitor with one hand while rubbing her eyes sleepily with the other. “What that?”
“These are white blood cells,” He shifted slightly so that Bea could see the screen better. “Betty is a cell biologist.”
“Cell bio-gist.”
“That’s right, a scientist. Just like me and Jane… And sometimes your daddy.”
“’Ane an asto-physist.” Bea frowned, indicating that she knew it wasn’t the same. “See?” She pointed to the microscope and looked at Betty.
“Of course.”
“Okay, here you go. Have a toddler.” Bruce passed Bea over to Betty, who happily settled the little girl on her lap as she shrugged off her backpack and handed it to Uncle Bruce.
“Do you want to look through the microscope, or on the computer?” Betty asked, pointing to each in turn.
“Mi-co-scope!” Bea reached out and tapped the Leica microscope sat on the lab bench excitedly.
“Alright,” Betty hopped down from the stool keeping a tight hold on Bea, then set the little girl on her feet where she had just been sitting. “You look through here.” She pointed to the eye piece, Bea watching her expectantly before bringing her eyes to the lenses. “Can you see?”
Bea frowned. “Burry.”
“No problem, I’ll just turn this dial on the side here,” Betty pointed as Bea took her eyes away from the microscope to see what she was doing. “And you keep looking so you can tell me if it gets better or more blurry.”
“’Kay.” Bea grinned, looking back through the eye piece.
Betty slowly turned the focus on the side of the microscope.
“Mo’ burry.”
“Okay…” Betty turned the dial the opposite direction.
“Better.” Bea told her.
“Good, now I need you to tell me when it looks like the picture that you saw on the screen before.” Betty smiled. “When it does you can shout ‘Stop!’ and I’ll stop turning.”
Bea nodded.
Betty turned the dial slowly for a few seconds.
“Dop!” Bea called out.
“Does it look just like the picture did?”
“Yeah!” Bea looked up from the microscope and grinned at each of the adults in turn. “Petty!”
“Do you want to print a picture off to keep?”
Bea’s eyes widened and she started bouncing on her toes enthusiastically. “Pease!”
“Okay, just press this button.” Betty pointed to a button on the side of the monitor.
Bea pressed the button, the small printer at the side of the monitor made a high pitched whirring noise and printed an A5 sized picture of the cells, the date and slide name printed on the white framing section.
“Here you go cutie,” Betty handed her the picture. “Your very own microscope picture of some white blood cells.”
“Tank you!” Bea grinned. “Unc’ Bruce! Unc’ Bruce! Look!” She held the picture up to him, waving it in his face. “Science petty!”
“Science can be very pretty.” Bruce smiled, picking her up. “There’s a part of chemistry that makes chemicals change into pretty colours I’ll have to show you Iodine Clock one day.”
“Yeah, yeah! Petty colours!” She cheered before turning to Betty and pointing to the microscope. “Mo?”
“You want to see some different ones?”
“Pease?”
“Let’s see what I’ve got in my box of tricks.” Betty winked as she picked up the box of reference slides beside the microscope. “How about… Here we go.” She swapped the slide under the microscope for the one in her hand. “This is plant cells.” She told Bea as Bruce set her back on the stool. “They have a couple of extra parts in them that we don’t have in our cells. One of them is called a chloroplast.”
“Coro-past.” Bea repeated.
“Exactly! In the chloroplasts there is a chemical called chlorophyll.”
“Coro-phyll.”
“That’s what makes the leaves of plants all green.”
“Coro-phyll in coro-pasts make leaves green…” She considered this for a moment looking at Bruce before turning back to Betty and pointing at Bruce, seeming to have come to a conclusion. “Coro-phyll make Unc’ Bruce green?” She asked wide eyed.
Betty laughed to herself, the toddler looked genuinely concerned.
“No, no, remember what your daddy told you?” She turned to face him, still looking a little worried. “That’s because of something called gamma radiation. Don’t worry sweetheart, I’m not some strange plant man.”
At being told this Bea looked visibly relieved.
“See?” She pointed to the microscope.
“Sure, look through the eye piece like you did last time. It shouldn’t need changing now, should look perfect right away. Does it look clear?”
“Yeah! Petty!” Bea told her, clasping her little hands together excitedly.
“Do you want a picture of this one too?”
“Yeah!” Bea grinned. “Pease?” She asked sweetly, calming down a little.
“Of course, you just press the same button as last time and the printer will print this one for you too.”
“Okay!”
Bea pressed the button and waited impatiently for the few moments it took for the printer to complete its task. Once it did she waited for Betty to take the picture and hand it to her. After which she repeated her earlier actions of shoving it in Uncle Bruce’s face and insisting he looked at the pretty science.
“Are you two ladies feeling like food yet, or do you want to look at some more pretty science?” He asked, silently hoping they would go for the first option.
“I could eat.” Betty remarked. “What about you cutie? Go for food with me and your Uncle Bruce, then we can come back and look at some more pretty cells if you want? And if that’s okay with Uncle Bruce?”
“That sounds good to me.”
“Okay!” Bea agreed, holding her arms out to Bruce for him to help her get down.
Bruce picked Bea up from the stool and set her down on the floor, helping her put her backpack back on.
“’Et’s go!” She instructed, pointing to the door and charging ahead.
Betty couldn’t help but grin and laugh. “Come on Plant Man.”
Bruce hung his head and chuckled a little himself. “That’s not going away is it?”
“Never.”