SHE AND BRUCE WERE CURLED UP ON THE COUCH WHEN THE VISITOR ARRIVED. After their conversation that day, things didn't change much, and it was a testament to Bruce's statement when she didn't expect anything to. Either way, Bruce didn't point anything out to her, the two instead simply sitting together working on other things, her with her studies, him on an article about genetic stability that would take some time to finish.

She yawned, taking a break and stretching, draping herself across his lap, and he snorted softly, reaching out to stroke her hair as she tried to relax, her head hurting from all the work she had done in the hours she had been awake; surprisingly, she had woken up in the morning and decided to make the most of it.

"Marn," Bruce sighed in fond exasperation as she moved to settle right on his lap, curling up and tucking her face into the crook of his neck, "I swear, if you start purring, I will leave."

She laughed, practically melting into him as she finally got settled, searching for sleep as she listening to him type, having moved his laptop onto the arm rest, letting it balance precariously with him holding on in order to let her sit in his lap.

She didn't know when she fell asleep—she wasn't even aware she had, as she could still hear the sounds of Bruce working the entire time—but when she woke everyone was in the common area with them and Tony was taking a flurry of pictures, grinning madly.

"I'm making a slideshow for their wedding," he explained towards the man that she couldn't see from where her eyes were just barely open.

"We're not getting married, Tony," Bruce scoffed, shifting her in his lap, and she frowned; they could get married, that's not fair for him to say that they're not.

"We could get married," she pointed out, shifting and waking up, causing everyone to perk up, and it was clear they were waiting for her.

Bruce opened his mouth, only to close it, sighing. "We'll talk about this later, but as of right now, we're not getting married."

"But we could," she argued, frowning, and he sighed, nodding in agreement.

"We can, doesn't mean we are," he explained, and she wasn't happy, but she was appeased, tucking her head under his chin as she looked around at everyone.

Her attention quickly fell on the newcomer, a man in a large coat with an eyepatch and a perpetually disinterested and unimpressed expression etched into his features. He was lounging in a chair pulled up by Tony and was watching her with vague interest.

"Is this the government man?" she whispered to Bruce, tugging at the sweater she wore; it wasn't the screen-printed one, but the motion was meant to help him remember.

Bruce let out a surprised laugh, shaking his head as he looked towards the others who raised their eyebrows in question. "She thinks he's Ross. Ah, no, Marn, if Ross was here, I definitely wouldn't be. This is—"

"Nick Fury, I'm Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division," the man interrupted, standing and making his way over his hand outstretched.

She didn't take it, instead turning to look at Steve with wide eyes. "Did they name it after your shield? Tony said you were from the old times and you were in my history units, is it named after you?"

Steve shrugged, looking flustered at the prospect, glancing around to everyone else in the room. "Um, I mean, it is possible, Peggy was one of the founders, but...what a waste, she should have named it after herself. Besides, naming an institution founded on rule following and regulations after me doesn't seem right. Unless it's ironic."

"Everyone remembers you as the upstanding hero, Steve, that's how you're portrayed in your comics. No one likes to talk about how you disregarded literally every rule ever," Tony pointed out, and the blond seemed to find that all the more embarrassing, though he didn't look too apologetic about the fact, more that Tony knew he wasn't the way he was portrayed.

"Can we focus or do you two need a room?" Fury asked, and everyone turned back towards him.

"What's your name again?" Fury asked, addressing her.

"Marnie," she replied, and he shook his head.

"No, I mean your birth name, it'd be easier for us to track these guys down if we knew your original name so we can track to when they first kidnapped you," Fury explained, and she frowned, trying to understand what he was talking about, looking towards the other in confusion.

"Slow down," Bruce said, wrapping an arm around her protectively, "She doesn't even know why you're here, start there."

Fury sighed, but he nodded, glancing towards Arabella who gave him a look, and he took a step back, rubbing a hand over his mouth. "I'm here because I've been waiting until after you were stabilized and settled to come talk to you about your situation. There have been many others who wanted to do what had happened to you, but very few actually so much as tried, let alone succeeded."

"There's wind of other groups doing something more advanced than them, more stable," Bruce added, and Fury nodded, motioning towards him.

"We're not necessarily responsible for those, especially when we don't know where to start, but at least we can start with you," he explained, motioning towards her, "Because you have killed too many people and someone needs to pay for it, and it's been made very clear that you're not taking the fall for it unless we the entire team."

"You wouldn't," she snapped, glaring at him so fiercely that he immediately went to defensive, but he seemed undeterred by her, looking at her curiously.

"You said she was harmless," he said, looking towards Tony who shrugged.

"I said she wouldn't kill you for fun, I didn't say she wouldn't kill you if you tried to hurt us," he corrected, and he seemed almost proud of it.

Fury rolled his one eye, turning his attention back to her. "So we need you to give us as much information as possible so we can locate them."

"She's already given up as much as she remembers, and I can't risk pulling her memories out again, her scar's already too deep from last time, I won't be able to guarantee her mental safety," Arabella said, and Fury seemed to take her words seriously, sighing in frustration as he ran a hand over his mouth again.

"But we have their names already, remember?" Clint pointed out, "So we just need to trace them after that, they were able to find their research."

"But the trail goes cold, it'll takes more digging, they've either fallen off the grid entirely or they've made it so they're incredibly hard to locate," Natasha countered, and the man sighed, groaning as he rubbed his face.

She looked around at all of them, then towards Fury, unable to help herself before she spoke up. "What if I don't want to find them."

They all looked at her with varying degrees of surprised and confusion, Tony being the one to speak first. "What do you mean, sweetheart. You don't owe these guys anything, they hurt you—"

"Exactly, so I don't want them around," she interrupted, her voice raising to a whine, "I'm fine the way I am now, I don't want them back. I'm okay, can't we just move on?"

"Afraid not, sweetheart," Fury hummed.

"My name is Marnie," she snapped, glaring at him, "And I don't see why you had to come here and ruin everything."

"Don't talk to my dad that way, Marnie, he's just doing his job, besides, he's been in the know since day one," Arabella called out, and she faltered, realizing that this was the man the young woman always referred to when she talked about the person who raised her; he wasn't actually her father, but he was close enough.

"I'm sorry," she sighed, because she hadn't meant to upset anyone, "I just don't see why we have to go after them."

"Because you said it yourself, they sent you in because they were training someone else, not to mention they've already had other people besides you there, so we need to make sure they get out," Steve explained, catching her attention, "And they made you kill people, Marnie, you were their unwilling mercenary, they need to face the consequences."

"But I don't?" she countered, and everyone sighed.

"We've been over this and we're not having this conversation right now," Bruce decided, his tone final as he spoke right into her ear, and she winced,whining at how loud he was due to her heightened hearing.

"But I don't want them back, if we try to get them, what if they take me?" she demanded, feeling her breathing quicken at the thought, "I don't want to go back, I like it here."

"No one's gonna get you, I promise," Tony said, stepping forward, "All we're trying to do is make sure that no one else gets hurt."

She frowned down at her hands, shaking her head as she stood, making her way down the stairs, pushing past Fury who made a grab at her, but missed. "But what if I get hurt?"

º º º

An hour later saw Bruce making his way into his greenhouse, not quite sauntering, but not exactly walking, his hands in his pockets as he walked in. The team had been looking around for her for about fifteen minutes, knowing fully well that there weren't too many places that she could actually be, but he had known the entire time where she was.

"Marn," he called out, nearing the rainforest section of the expansive room, "Marn, can you come out, please?"

There was no answer, but he did see a head poking out from between a few trees that he had mentioned he liked, finding her sitting there, looking ready for a long nap. 

He fought back a sigh as he made his way over, not saying anything as he settled down across from her, their legs intertwining as he leaned against the trunk of the tree opposite her, tilting his head back as he looked at her, waiting for her to look back at him.

When she glanced at him, then looked away, he spoke. "We're not trying to hurt you, Marnie, we just want to make sure this stops once and for all."

"But I don't want to go back," she insisted, wringing her hands, "I know it's selfish, it's unfair, but I don't—I can't see them again, I don't want to. I don't want them anywhere near me or my life, not after everything."

Bruce nodded in understanding. He had offered to tell her the names of the people who had took her, so she could stop calling them her masters, but she didn't want to hear any part of it and it seemed that old habits died hard; she wanted nothing to do with them, but she couldn't stop herself from still referring to them as if they had power over her.

Yet, in a way, they still did. They had ripped away so much from her, she didn't even know her real name. She didn't have a life for so many years until now, she didn't even know how old she was. Even from far away, they still had an immense hold on her.

"You can get closure this way," he said, trying a new tactic, "You don't know where they are, you don't know if they're going to strike again. If they're taken in, you'll know they can never hurt you again, you can truly be free from them. And you can make sure the new person they had won't have to suffer the way you did, they can have a chance at a better life, so can all the people working for them."

She sighed heavily, tilting her head back. "I just don't want to hear anything about them. I can't help, and I'm not going to, but I won't stop you."

Bruce pursed his lips, nodding in understanding; she had gone through years of abuse and trauma, she had no obligation to go back to what she had finally escaped from. "I understand, and I know they will too. But we are going to have to dig into your past in some way, are you okay with that?"

She swallowed thickly, nodding. "Yes. But I don't want to hear anything about myself either."

Bruce furrowed his brow, confused. "Wait, you don't want to know what your birth name was, who your parents were, what you were like before they took you?" He would have offered to let her know her birthday, but all he had to do was take an X-ray and the question would answer itself.

"No," she said sharply, shaking her head, "I don't want to know. This is my life now, I'm not that person, I was never that person, I don't want to hear about her. I don't want to go back, not now, not ever. I just want what I have now. You said I just have to move on."

"But sometimes moving on means facing what you left behind," he countered, and she bit her lip, shaking her head.

"I only will if I have to," she decided, "But you can't make me and no one else can either. I get to decide."

Bruce nodded. For a woman who never had any free will of her own, it was nice to see that she was able to take it back now, and he wouldn't take that from her; he wasn't like those other men. He just wanted to make sure she was alright.

"It'll be okay, Marn," he said, reaching out towards her, and she immediately climbed back into his lap, settling with a heavy sigh, "They can't hurt you anymore, I promise."

He sighed as he just held her, thinking about all they would have to do. "I promise."

AUTHOR'S NOTE

So here we go ya'll, we're reaching the end of the story, kinda, we got three chapters left after this, and I'm so excited you don't know how cathartic it's gonna be, I can feel my heart soaring with excitement at the thought.

It has come to my attention that Bruce and Marnie's relationship is similar to the dynamic that Eddie and Venom have, because Bruce is way more in the know and Marnie is quickly becoming in the know and, like all the fics I love to read, Marnie states they're in a romantic relationship, Bruce says they're not, then they admit that they're bond is close and they start towards the romantic relationship. Wow, I just played myself.

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!