This was a mess. A horrible unfixable mess. All thoughts about Thaddeus Ross was swept to the side, because for all of Bruce's own feelings of anger and betrayal and opinions, it really didn't matter much in comparison. That could wait, and it probably should, because he was already going to be irrational walking into it. Tony blamed himself for his parents, and then he found out the truth, but it wasn't like retribution or relief, knowing it wasn't his fault. A car accident was bad, but being murdered by a supersoldier, that was worse. And he strangled Maria Stark. Fucking hell. If someone had a video of his mother dying, rather than just the actual knowledge of how she died, it would be terrible, and that was long ago.

Bruce stopped himself from saying what could be worse? and instead just gently ran his fingers through his hair, rubbed his arm, he didn't know what really would help, if anything could help. That's what Betty did for him, when things were bad, and it didn't fix things but he remembered then he wasn't alone. His heart felt like it could bleed for the man in front of him, who gave so much to him and others, and got this back. "Just remember to breathe," he murmured, having had experience with emotional breakdowns before. "You don't have to continue if you're not okay."