The past few days and nights had been trying for Bruce, psychologically. It wasn’t Rick’s fault, however. He liked kids- they were the future, as they saying went. He and Betty had talked, briefly, about having children and Bruce, complicated even before the procedure, had always waffled and changed the subject. It wasn’t that he didn’t want them, he did. It was just he had hang-ups on his own father and his childhood.

Obviously, everyone had their issues with how the were raised; too many rules or not enough. Too much candy, too many toys, too few friends. Bruce’s issues were of a different nature, however. His father had hated him from the moment he’d taken his first breath and had been consumed with jealousy over his wife’s affection towards their son. Somewhat ironically, Brian Banner had been convinced that his infant son was a monster, tainted to the genetic level by the radiation from his own work in atomic physics.

Despite all that, he actually did want kids, but it had always been ‘some day’ after they married, some day they would have kids and move to wherever and be happy together, forever. 

Someday never came, of course and Bruce suspected that it never existed at all. Not for him, at least. Betty still had her life with Leonard Sampson in Virginia, assuming he waited for her. And, from what little he learned from Leonard the night they had spoken over glasses of wine, Bruce could say that he did like him. He seemed pleasant and helpful, he provided for Betty and treated her well. He loved her as Bruce did, even if his resentment towards Bruce was apparent.

‘It’s just as well.’ Bruce thought, as he watched Rick bounce around like the frog he was imitating. If he’d had kids before Culver, they would be no better off than he had been as a child and he’d have left Betty widowed and a single mother.

“David!” Rick shrieked, suddenly. Bruce nearly had a heart attack before he realized that Rick had seen the city of Alamogordo, just beyond the tree line. The terrain they had covered was quite rough; they were at a high spot, for now.

Bruce picked him up and set him on his shoulders and Rick laughed. “Yes, you’re almost home.”

“David?”

Bruce shifted to look at Rick, who was sitting near the fire pit they had built a few hours ago. “Rick?” He answered from his position, reclined against a tree. It had taking some coaxing, but the kid had finally dropped the ‘mister’ when he addressed Bruce; it didn’t seem right, given the situation.

Rick averted his eyes and didn’t say anything for a minute, focusing instead on twisting a stick through one of the loops of his shoelaces. “..my parents are gonna be really mad at me, aren’t they?” Rick was so quiet when he asked, Bruce had to take a moment to process.

“Oh, Rick- no they won’t. I promise you that they won’t be anything but relieved to see you.” But if they see him with with their child, they would be horrified. Bruce sat up and leaned forward to show Rick that he was sincere, but Rick still wasn’t looking at him. He was still focused on his feet, on the dirt, and on not letting Bruce see that he was crying.

“Hey, no, it’s okay Rick-” Bruce cursed that he should be so awkward and unsure about how to comfort people and remained frozen, scared to upset Rick any further.

Kids could have severe emotional whiplash but, in this case, he could understand it. Rick had wandered away from his parents and now he was scared that he was going to catch hell for getting lost. The reality was that his parents were probably at least a hundred times more scared that he had died or was kidnapped or any number of terrible things.

Fortunately for Bruce, Rick was less concerned with ‘situation appropriate behavior’, and found comfort crying into Bruce’s shirt, again. Bruce had nothing but sympathy and held him tightly as he shifted to lean back against the tree. Once Rick had cried himself into an exhausted sleep, Bruce set him down on his old sleeping bag, away from the fire. This might be the only time he had to catch any food for them, and though he hated the idea of leaving Rick unattended, it was necessary.

Only two more days.

Part one |

”..what’s that sound?”

Bruce looked down at Rick. The little boy had his eyes shielded as he looked up towards the canopy of the trees, trying to discern where the cacophony of noise emanated.

“Cicadas.” He said, after a moment. It took a while to realize that they had been listening to them for hours, by that point. Bruce was so used to the sounds of nature that he was able to tune them out; a kind of auditory fatigue.

“Oh.” Rick squeezed Bruce’s hand as they continued walking. “What’s a Cicada?”

“It’s a flying insect; they are really interesting because they live in the ground for several years before they crawl out to finish their life cycle.” Of course the really fascinating part of that was that all the time spent underground was prime numbers, which gave them a head start over their predators. “I bet if we look hard enough, we can find one of their shells; they don’t have wings when they crawl out of the ground, then they shed that skin, kind of like how a snake will shed? Well, there will be a dried cicada-shaped husk left over.”

Rick looked up at Bruce with wide eyes. He seemed to be asking permission without really verbalizing it and Bruce smiled at him; if he wanted to go look around for one, he was fine with that. Rick grinned and ran several feet in front of Bruce and peered into the scrub brush that lined the path where they were walking.

They continued on for several miles and Rick maintained a steady orbit around Bruce, returning to show him everything that interested him; Slugs, interesting fungus, a skeleton of a mouse, an owl pellet- all of which produced no less than 50 questions, each.

Lunch was an interesting affair. Bruce had to summon patience to an extent he’d never had to try, before. Every time a rabbit would get close to the trap he’d set, Rick would titter and be generally child-like and the prey would jet off in the opposite direction. Rick would run off after it, shrieking and laughing.

They didn’t manage to catch anything.

Clearly, he’d have to catch that day’s meals while Rick was sleeping. Didn’t kids take naps anymore?

“Hey, kid-”

Crap. Bruce crouched down and waited for the child to stop crying and notice him; it wouldn’t due to scare him any more than he already was.

It had taken him several minutes to just convince himself that it was perfectly fine to approach the kid, anyway. There was no telling why he was crying, how he had gotten into this remote section of New Mexico Forest or why he was even here. Looking closer at him, though, Bruce decided that he’d probably wandered away from his camp and had gotten lost. Judging by the mud and current distress, Bruce also guessed that he’d been out here for at least a few days.

The danger with helping this kid - not that he would actually consider leaving him there- was that he could either be captured or reported for kidnapping and then captured. Worse, he was actually putting the kid in more danger by just being around him. But, in this remote forest, it was more likely that the kid would starve or be preyed upon by wildlife than anything Bruce could bring to the table. Even if he was tracked here, the General wasn’t so cold hearted that he’d put a child in danger.

Bruce was bowled over as the kid ran directly for him, having finally noticed him. He latched onto Bruce’s waist and cried even harder into his shirt. “Hey- it’s ..” Bruce looked around, forever paranoid, and gently picked the child up and held him close, hugging him and rubbing small, hopefully comforting, circles on his back. “What’s your name?”

The kid sniffled and mashed his forehead against Bruce’s chest, tired and starting to wind down. “Rick. W- .. what’s yours?” He was very quiet and Bruce was aware that he’d have to get some information before Rick drifted off to sleep. “David,” He lied with some regret, “Can you tell me how long you’ve been in the forest, Rick?”

Bruce shifted the child to one arm and supported him on his hip as he stood and started walking. They would need to get to a city, soon. Alone, it would take at least two days but with the kid, it would take a little longer.

“..no.” Rick tightened his hold and Bruce pat his back, again. “It’s alright.”

They would need to get to a safe place to bunk down for the night- it was already eight in the evening and the sun was beginning to set. Bruce needed to find something for the kid to eat and it was probably going to be something like squirrel or rabbit. He looked down at Rick and considered. Was this kid a picky eater? Would he care? No, it was more likely that after however long he was lost, he wouldn’t think of turning down a meal.