Bruce barely had the energy to move over to make some room for Kae, and he didn't even try to put an arm around her. He was too tired to do it gently, and he didn't want to hurt her or the baby.

Kae just settled in there, still playing with his hair and scratching at his scalp. He needed to rest, and she was going to make sure he did.

It took Bruce seconds to fall asleep again, and he moved a little closer to her as he did.

Kae settled in there for a while. Apparently Hulk was tired too, because he didn't even stir until the next day. By which time Tony was ready and Bruce was up again.

"So what should we do?" Tony asked, looking at Hulk.

"I'm not sure," Bruce admitted. He had never considered anything like this happening. "Just keep him inside."

"And when he starts ripping this place apart?" Tony glanced over at him. "Maybe he'll recognize me if I go in there."

"He might," Bruce said. "And he also might do to you what he did to Loki and try to put a Tony-shaped crater in the floor." He sighed. "I'll go in. He's least likely to hurt me."

"And what if he does hurt you?" Tony pointed out. "You don't have nice shiny armor to protect you, Bruce."

"Tony, if he gets well and truly mad at you, the first thing he will try is to crush the suit like a tin can, with you inside it," Bruce pointed out, irritated. "Trust me on that one. The only one in this tower with even half a chance to surviving once the Hulk gets going is Thor, and he doesn't like Thor."

Tony grumbled but gave in. "Fine. You can go in, but I'm bringing Clint down here with another dart, just in case." His glare just dared Bruce to disagree as he texted the archer.

Bruce sighed a bit, but nodded.

"Alright," he said. "I can agree to that."

"Good, 'cause he'll be here in a minute or so."

Tony only let Bruce in once Clint was there, and even then he watched carefully.

Clint watched even more carefully than Tony, ready to tranquilize the Hulk at a moment's notice. Bruce just went into the Hulk room cautiously, keeping the Hulk in his sight at all times.

When the first few minutes went okay, Tony entered the room cautiously, keeping most of his attention on Hulk. Because he was aware that the big guy could do some real damage, but he wanted to make sure for himself that there wouldn't be any problems.

Hulk was slowly coming out of the earlier dose of tranquilizers. He blinked around blearily, and his eyes ended up focusing on Bruce. A look of confusion formed on his face; he knew he wasn't supposed to be able to see Bruce like that. Something was wrong. A fresh surge of anger burned off the last of the tranqs and he got to his feet, although he stayed crouched and balanced on his hands.

Bruce was wary, although he didn't make any moves to step back. He knew very well that any sort of movement like that would set the Hulk off.

Tony just watched for a few moments, giving the two a bit of time to get used to the new view. And then he moved forward.

"Well, looks like you two need some help bonding." He grinned.

Hulk's gaze snapped to Tony as soon as the man moved, and his eyes narrowed. All of a sudden, his simmering anger had a target, and he roared, smashing at the floor with his fists and lunging at Tony.

Tony yelped (which he would deny later) as he moved out of the way.

Kae glared as she saw what was going on and marched into the room. Clint didn't even have a chance to stop her.

"Hey!" she yelled, storming into the room, completely ignoring the fact that Hulk was actually angry. "No! Stop it!" She marched straight over to Hulk, glaring at him.

Nobody (except possibly Kae) expected the Hulk to actually stop. But he did: coming to a nearly screeching halt as he realized who was yelling at him.

"Kae!" Bruce said, nearly panicking. "What are you doing?"

"Saving both your butts, apparently." Kae eyed Hulk for a few more moments before she relaxed a bit and nodded, rewarding Hulk with a smile.

"Much better. See? It's just Tony. Metal man." She grinned and moved a bit closer to Hulk.

"Kae!" Bruce tried again, but he stopped when he realized that the Hulk was backing off from Kae.

"No touch!" Hulk rumbled. "No touch Kae!"

Kae frowned a bit before she realized what the problem was. He was afraid of hurting her. Shooting Bruce and Tony a quelling look, she held her hands up.

"It's okay," she soothed. "Here." She held out a hand to him, though she didn't approach again yet. "You're not going to hurt me."

"No!" Hulk insisted, keeping his distance. It was practically the only thing he remembered that he and Bruce agreed on: be careful with Kae.

"Alright," Kae agreed mildly. She didn't move away, though. "Feel a bit calmer now? You're not going to try and hurt Tony or Bruce?"

"Tin man too cocky," Hulk muttered, glancing sideways at Tony, although his standard volume was nowhere near set to 'Inside Voice.'