"Tony she needs a place to stay for a while" Pepper pleads. They were having pizza in his lab since he was working on improvements on his suits. Pepper had got a disturbing call from her sister earlier that day. Her sister was adopted through her father had taken into their family for a friend.
"Who Dominique? I thought she was engaged to the guy Ben." Pepper sighs and she explain why Dominique needs to stay with them. Tony nearly drops his pizza in shock. "Pepper we need to go get her." Tony swallows his food and was about to leave to find wherever she was. Pepper stops him quickly.
"Tony, she is on a bus here . I'm going to prepare a room for her and she says that she'll be in New York around 8 in the morning." Pepper says as Tony lets out a shaky breathe. He had taken a liking to Dominique. She was incredibly smart and talented. She had help him with some ideas for clean energy. She was there for their wedding and help Tony with Pepper's temper. Tony and Pepper had a hard time sleeping because of what they heard of Dominique.
"Welcome to New York City" says several signs as she exited her bus. She grabs her beaten up knapsack and exits the bus without any problem. She had kept her head down and moves as quickly as she could. She had enough quarters to make a final call to her sister to let her know that her bus was early. She held her breathe when Pepper had pick up.
"Dom, was your bus early?" Pepper's voice laced with concern. Dominique's throat was dry and scratchy. Swallowing the little bit of saliva she had got her words out.
"Yes, I'll wait by the window in front of bus stop Greyhound 132. The pickup and drop off area." Her voice was raw and worse than what Pepper had heard the night before.
"We'll be there in a couple of minutes." They said their good-byes and Dominique sat down in front of the window of the pickup and drop off area. She sees a expensive looking car pull up quickly in the semi-circle. A golden redhead woman jump out and sees her. Dominique smiles but she struggles to get up. Pepper fell to her knees and embraces her. Dominique had on a worn faded blue hoodie. She had it covering her face and arms. It look 2 sizes too big and the sweats she wore were the same. Her hands were bandage sloppy and stain with old blood. "Thank God you're okay Dominique" Pepper whispers. Tony comes at help her get off the ground. He took her knapsack and Pepper let her lean on her for support. They get into the car with little difficulty. Pepper didn't miss how Dominique had hiss in pain when she got into the back seat or how she was favoring her left side. Tony loaded up her knapsack and got behind the driver's wheel. Pepper got into the back seat with her sister.
Once they left the station Dominique went ahead took off her hoodie. Pepper gasp quietly and Tony couldn't take a glance because of traffic in front of him. Her right eye was swollen shut and dark purple. The skin around it was swollen and heavily discolored. Her left eye was in the process of a healing black eye. Her lips were chapped terribly with caked on blood in certain places. Her right cheek was swollen terribly, her nose looks like it was broken at some point then reset, her neck had bruises all over. "Pep, I think that I have some internal injuries. I was coughing up blood for a while." Her voice was quiet as Pepper brought her into a hug carefully.
"Tony we need to take her to a hospital." Dominique lost consciousness as Pepper try to keep her awake. Pepper sees her some blood leaking out of her hoodie. Carefully she unzips her hoodie and lets out a startled gasps. "Tony hurry she's bleeding" Pepper says as she applies pressure on Dominique's side.
Days later Dominique open her eyes to see a pristine ceiling with blinding lights. A steady beeping make her sigh peacefully. She thought that she had died for a while there. She turn her head to the window to see that Summer was now cooling down to Fall. A nurse walks in to see that she was awake. "I'll get your sister, she had to excuse herself for a moment." Dominique paid her no attention, she tried to replay in her mind how she end up in the hospital. Pepper came into the room with poise and grace. She grabs a seat next to her and held her hand.
"Hey Dom how are you feeling?" Dominique's throat felt better than before. She could talk without straining her dry irritated throat. Her face didn't hurt or her body anymore. She could see the morphine drip giving her the sweet release from her pain.
"Much better now Pep. What happen, why am I here?" Dominique asks as she looks at Pepper's sadden face.
"You passed out in the car. They had to take you to surgery because you were bleeding internally. They nearly lost you several times but Tony beg them to keep going. They did everything that they could and you have been asleep for the past couple of days. I'm just glad you're alive. Does Mom and Dad know?"
"No, please don't tell them" Dominique whispers. Her heart got heavy when she had envision her parents' face. Her mother would probably break down while her father would grab his nearest gun in anger.
"Only if you tell me everything." Pepper demands. Dominique sits up as best as she could. Pepper grabs her bed panel and Dominique's bed goes into an upright position to where Dominique would be comfortable.
"Okay but hand me the tissue next to you and a cup of water. I'm going to need it for this." Dominique says solemnly as Pepper complies.