"Nat ... Nat's gone through a lot too. I know she's a hard read." Bruce wouldn't pretend that he was objective on this matter, but he also had kept his feelings about her and their situation very close to the chest. He'd never really spoken about it to anyone, there hadn't been time, and he never got to process. It was there, in the way he used her nickname instead of her full name, in how familiar it sounded. They had a window, and it closed, but he would never forget the things she said to him, or the glimpses into her true self she gave him. However fleeting.

"That's not where it would have ended, and political fallout isn't the worst thing that would happen." He could see a lot of scenarios, and all of them led to greater disasters. No one could understand the levels that Ross would go down to like the man he hated. Bruce could see his vision, and that was what frightened him. Outside of generalized fear and hate toward someone who wanted to torture him. There was no point to trying to guess what Ross had in store for him. If the Hulk was still not coming out if/when he got back, he'd end it before Ross could get his hands on him. It was that simple.

He shrugged. "Of course we were, Tony. We're a group of troubled people with super powers and complicated pasts all attempting to find redemption through violence. You can't smash everyone together like action figures. Fixing the world wouldn't fix our own problems." Bruce said it matter of factly, and it wasn't meant darkly either, or pessimistically. They were human, that's all. "But we did put up one hell of a fight before we lost. For a short time, only the mission mattered again." The interpersonal drama was gone. Now only if it could stay gone.