Bruce walked to the ICU room that held the little girl who had wormed her way to the deepest parts of her heart in such a short period of time. He stood there for a few minutes looking at her and how peaceful she looked asleep. Then he dragged himself to the chair beside her bed and held her hand.
Life could just not be easy for the small 6 year old. Left in an orphanage, called a freak for most of her short life, bullied, and now this. Just when things were starting to look up for her, to be ripped from her in a short second. A lone tear escaped his control, making a path down his cheek. Without Tony there, he was lost.
He was so lost in thought, something him and Tony seemed to be doing a lot of lately, that he didn't realize Mia had woken up until she spoke
"Don't cry Mr. Banner, I'm fine. No need to worry." Her voice was small, just above a whisper. At hearing her admission the tears he was fighting to hold back broke forth.
"I'm afraid you're not, pumpkin." Bruce's voice wavered for a second. "The knife did too much damage, I'm sorry. So sorry." Mia raised her hand to wipe away his tears.
" It's ok, nothing is your fault. The matron was right, I don't deserve to live anyway." With that said she removed her hand, and looked at the sealing trying to fight her own tears. "You and Mr. Stark are better off without me."
Bruce jumped up at this, looking at the little angel who had given up on life. "No, you, Mia, deserve to live more than anybody else. That monster was wrong." He sat down again, and retrieved her hand that was now playing with end of the blanket.
"Mr. Stark left, didn't he?"
"Yeah," he said taking a deep breath, "Tony doesn't do deep emotions well."
"Oh." That's all she said on the subject. Bruce could see the wounded look in her eyes. The same feeling he had not 3 hours before as he watched Tony leave.
"Well, Miss Mia, what would you like to do?"
Bruce and Mia looked every bit of father and daughter as they sat there coloring pages, reading books together, laughing over jokes, or Bruce just watching her sleep every now and then.
It was one of moments where Mia had fallen sleep again that Bruce looked at his watch. It had already been 30 hours since he had seen Tony. In about 6 hours Mia's heart would start to fail due to the electrical shocks that kept her heart beating, shocks that were slowly frying the tissue of her heart.
Bruce was startled when a knock sounded through the room. The nurses had kept away unless called, knowing full well that Bruce was a doctor and knew when to get them. He stood and opened the door. On the other side stood Tony holding a box. Bruce pushed Tony gently back, walked out of the room, and closed the door. He was not happy with his husband right now and didn't want to disturb Mia with them fighting.
"She's not a pet Tony. You can't just up and leave, and come back when she's better. You hurt her bad." Tony just looked down in the box he held, then handed it to Bruce. Inside the box was an arc reactor, one that looked just like the one in Tony chest. "Why did you bring this Tony?"
"I brought it because that is what I have been working on for the past 30 hours. There is a computer chip that is inside that works just like the brain. It will tell her heart when to beat, it will even allow her to run or whatever she wants to do." Tony stood there with his hands in his pockets, looking lost.
"There is no way to monitor it Tony, what if something goes wrong."
For the first time in Tony's life he made no jokes, just a small quark of his lips. "It's connected to Jarvis. If something abnormal happens he will alert us, and we fix it. Its not perfect but its better than the other options." Bruce just stood there in disbelief. Tony had not gone home to get away from the problem but to fix it. He sat the box down on the ground and hugged his husband for all that he was worth.
"It's her choice now Tony, all we can do is ask her." Tony pick up the box that held their future, as Bruce opened the door and they walked inside.