A/N: Hi everyone! This is my first story here. I hope you guys like it :D
I've never flown before. Its been more than four hours that I have been on this plane. At first it was scary but where I was going eased my nerves. The Starks have adopted me and I'm on my way to their mansion in Malibu. Before we took off I had a Video Chat with Tony. He said that there aren't really any important rules except for having fun, but not with a bunch of boys. I laughed when he said that because all of the boys I knew where back at the boarding school. The attendant on the airplane came up next to me asked, "Would you like something to drink?"
Her voice was soft and sweet. Unlike the Headmaster's from my boarding school whose voice was harsh and deep, considering the Headmaster was a female.
"An ice-tea would be nice, thank you," I replied looking up at her. The attendant walked over to James Rhodes, or Rhodey, and asked the same thing to him. Rhodey was Tony and Pepper's nickname for him. When I first met him he made it clear that he was only protecting me since Tony was too busy with his work. He also said that it would be dangerous for Tony to fly out long distances because there had multiple attempts at his life and didn't want to risk something happening.
"Here you go Miss. Russell," the attendant said handing me my glass of ice-tea.
"Thank you, and please, just call me Jan," I said grabbing the glass and taking a sip out of it. I didn't like it when people would call me Miss. Russell. There was nothing special about me. I was just another ordinary girl. I'm still trying to figure out why the Stark's even thought about adopting me. I have major talents, the thing I do best is playing instruments and some technology advancements. I play sports but it's not enough to get me a scholarship or anything special like that. There aren't very many people who can make a computer out of junk though. But why would they care if I could do things like that? I'm probably not the only person in the world to do that right?
"Are you enjoying the flight?" Rhodey asked snapping me out of my train of thought.
"Yeah, getting a little antsy though. I kind of want to be on solid ground again," I stated.
"Don't worry you will be soon enough."
It was about another 30 minutes before we finally landed in California. I quickly gathered up my stuff and put it in my backpack. Rhodey was waiting for me by the door of the plane.
"You excited?" he asked. I nodded in return. He walked out first down the stairs that were connected to the plane. I then followed him down finding a smiling Tony Stark at the bottom of the stairs. I saw him shake Rhodey's hand and wrap an arm around him hugging him. I started to walk toward Tony unsure of what to do.
"Hello Miss. Janis, how was your flight?" he asked. I was about to reply when a wave of heat and metal hit my back knocking both Tony and I to the ground. There was a sharp pain in my leg and I looked and saw a piece of the plane had cut into it. I looked up to see what was left of the plane engulfed in flames.
"No," I said.
"Jan come on we have to go, it's not safe here," he said his voice a little shaky. He picked me up and I winced. He started walking to the car where there was a man standing next to it waiting for us.
"Where to sir?" he asked opening the door. Tony set me down gently in the backseat of the car.
"Hospital, now." Tony got in next to me lifting my head up off the seat and putting it down on his lap. I could feel something dripping down my leg so I got up a little and looked. There was little pool of blood on the leather seat beneath my left calf. When I lifted it I winced in pain and noticed that it had become swollen. Tony noticed the blood and he took his jacket off and wrapped my leg in it.
"Ow," I hissed as he tightened it.
"Sorry but it's going to hurt until we get to the hospital," he kept pressure on my wound until we pulled in front of the hospital. He got out and picked me up. I saw a trail of blood dropping behind me. A nurse ran up to us and Tony told her I had a gash in my leg. The nurse then turned and Tony followed her down the hall. My vision started to get blurry and then it turned to blackness.
My eyes fluttered open and I looked at my surroundings. I was still at the hospital but I was now in a gown and my leg was wrapped. Tony was pacing back and forth talking on the phone. He looked up at me, "...go ahead and send a few. She's awake now, I have to go."
He came and sat down next to me careful not to touch my leg.
"Are you feeling ok?" he asked worry in his eyes.
"Yeah, how long do I have to stay here?" I asked not wanting to be here long.
"The doctor's going to come in and check on you soon. But I don't suspect that you will be here for long." I was relieved to hear that. I was anxious to go home, but the problem was I didn't know where my home was. I didn't know much about my family besides the fact that they're billionaires. Tony is a genius and his wife Pepper is the CEO of Stark Industries.
The doctor walks in looking at his clipboard adjusting his glasses while he reads.
"Alright Miss. Russell, are you feeling light headed at all?" he asked.
"No, not really. What happened to my leg?" I asked. The question in itself sounded stupid but I wanted to know.
"You had a large piece of shrapnel from the plane in there. It will take a couple weeks for it to heal fully but you can go home within the hour and get some sleep. You will need it," he said setting the clipboard down. I relaxed a little bit, knowing that I won't be in the hospital for long. The doctor started talking to Tony and then left.
"Once Happy comes, we can leave. Your clothes are on the stand next to your bed. See you in a bit," he walked out and closed the door. I slowly lifted my leg and got out of bed. I put my weight in my right foot and hopped over to my clothes. There was a new clean pair of jeans folded under my shirt. I changed and hopped over to grab my shoes. Once I was back sitting on my bed I put my shoes on and sat there looking around the room. There was a pair of crutches leaning against the far wall. Great I thought they're making me walk all the way over there. I got up and accidentally put weight in my left leg. I cried out in pain sitting back down on the bed. Once I recovered I made my way to the crutches again. Just as I got to them there was a knock at the door.
"Come in," I said grabbing the crutches and placing them underneath my arms.
"We're ready to leave when you are Miss. Russell," the man said. It must have been Happy. He was tall and a bit on the overweight side.
"Ok, lets go."
We walked out to the lobby where Tony and Rhodey were talking. They both looked over at me; a smile was growing across Tony's face.
"There she is. You ready?"
"Yup," I said walking past them following Happy. "Well come on slow pokes."
"Who are you calling a slow poke?" Tony asked.
"You," Rhodey said laughing. I turned around and looked at them. Rhodey was walking towards me while Tony was still standing there with a blank face. We got in the car and made our way to Tony's house.
I felt a nudge on my shoulder and I looked up from my phone. Tony smiled and I followed his gaze to a large white house sitting on the edge of a cliff. There were security guards surrounding the place.
"What's with all of the guards?" I asked.
"There have been attempts on my life, like you witnessed today, and Pepper insisted that we get guards just to be safe."
"Where are the guards from?"
"S.H.I.E.L.D." he said, "my dad was one of their agents before he got killed and I was supplying their weapons until 19 years ago."
"Why did you stop?"
"Well I spent some time in an Afghan cave and I saw the harm my weapons were doing against innocent people. I lost a good man that day."
"I'm sorry," I said. The car pulled up in front of the main doors and there was a redhead waiting for us outside. Tony got out of the car and reached a hand out to help me out. Once I was out I grabbed my crutches and made my way toward Pepper. Her hair was up in a ponytail and a giant smile pasted on her face.
"Hello Jan," she said reaching out for a hug. I did the best to try to hug her back but it was hard with crutches. She pulled back, her hands still on my arms, and smiled. "I'm happy you guys are ok. Tony called me when you guys to the hospital. I was worried sick."
"We're all fine. Just a cut on my leg, nothing more."
"Just a cut? Hun, you have to use crutches, I'm pretty sure it's more than that." I laughed and we started to make our way inside. Happy was following us with my back pack. Right, no real clothes I thought. I had a spare change of clothes in my bag. At least I had my P.J.'s.
"Happy is going to take your ba-" she paused, "I thought you would have more than one bag."
"I had three and then they got destroyed because of the explosion."
"Ah, well Happy is going to bring that to your room while we can have some girl time," she said and we both laughed. She started to make her way to a staircase, one going up and another going down.
"Over there's the living room if you couldn't tell then up there are the bedrooms and down here," she said walking down the staircase, "is Tony's lab. If you put this combination in..." She pressed four numbers and a picture of me showed up. "This code allows you to go anywhere that needs a passcode. Tony never keeps this place in tact so I have to come down here every once and a while and pick things up. Tony said he had something to tell you right?" I nodded. In the video chat we had before I took off on the plane he did tell me he had a surprise for me. "I'll have him tell you then." She smiled and started heading out the door back up the stairs. We walked passed the living room and walked into what looked like a kitchen and dining room. There was a long counter against the back wall and a counter parallel to the one along the wall. It was very white and bright from the sun coming in through the windows and reflecting off of everything.
"You can get to the pool through those doors and that's about it," she said. I nodded and couldn't help but smiling. She looked down at her watch and said, "Dinner's in about two hours so you're free to do whatever. Oh Tony wanted to see you when he got back from his meeting. Go down to his lab in about 30 minutes or so, he'll be down there."
"Ok. Quick question, what are we going to do about my clothes?" I asked.
"If you write down your size and preference in clothing I can send someone out and get some for you." Pepper reached in the folder she was holding and grab a pen and paper. I wrote them down and gave it back to her.
"I'm going to go up to my room, call me if you need me!" I smiled and slowly made my way back up stairs. Once I walked into my new bedroom I realized that it surely was a lot bigger than the one I had back at the boarding school. In the middle of the room was a king size bed and on the far end was a couch and T.V. screen. Over by the couch was a glass slider that went out onto a balcony over the cliff. I made my way over to my bed and flopped onto it, throwing the crutches on the floor. I quickly shot up in pain from the impact my injured leg had on the bed and bit my lip to keep from crying out. Tears started to form in my eyes and I quickly tried to blink them away. I tried to get up but the movement hurts it even more. I sit on the edge of the bed and reach down to grab my crutches. Slowly, I make my way back downstairs to find Pepper.
She was sitting on the couch on her computer surrounded with papers.
"Hey, Pepper, do you have any pain meds?" I asked. She looked up and nodded.
"Yes, I do. Just wait right here and I'll get it for you," with that she got up and walked away.
I was standing there for a few minutes and then I saw her walking back with a glass of water and two pills. She handed it to me and I swallowed the pills then drank the water.
"Thanks," I said handing the glass back to her.
"Tony's here if you want to see him. He's down in his lab doing, whatever it is he does."
"Ok, I'll make my way down there." I wabbled down the stairs to his lab and put my code in once I got to the door. I heard a hiss and pushed it open. Tony was sitting at his desk working on what looked like a metal helmet. He looked up from what he was doing and smiled at me.
"Hi Jan, your leg doing alright?" he asked.
"Yeah, its fine. Pepper just gave me some pain meds."
"That's good," he said getting up and grabbing something off his desk. "Hold out your wrist for me." I stretched out my hand and he put on a cloth bracelet that felt a little stiff to me.
"I made it from a special cloth that's hard to tear. So you can wear it whenever," he tied the ends and then smiled at me.
"Thank you, I love it. I can't believe a guy like you made this," I smirked studying the bracelet.
"That's not all. I have something else to show you. Close your eye for me please," I closed them then started to slowly opened my left eye. "Hey, no peeking."
"Aw, you're no fun," I pouted and smiled. I could hear him walk over to something and then I heard something opening. He footsteps started to get louder and I could tell he was walking back over to me.
"Ok, open," he said. Once I opened my eyes I didn't notice anything at first but then I noticed there was a bright light coming from the right. I turned and four metal suits shaped like a man. Iron Man, I thought. My mouth opened wide.
"Yes, I am Iron Man, but the public doesn't know that yet. The only people who know are us, Pepper and Rhodey. Rhodey thinks the public should know but I don't think the time is right. All they know is that its Stark Industries property and just a bodyguard," he explained.
"That would make sense, but I do agree with Rhodey. The press aren't taking kind to being told lies, even though they tell plenty themselves," I read many articles about the mysterious Iron Man. Tony has made some many achievements that I wish I could do. I have the capability but the resources are way out of my reach.
"What is it with you people and having everything out in the open?" he asked.
"Sometimes its for the best. But hey, do what you want. It's your life and the press can't run it," I started to make my way over to the suits to get a better look at it. The way these were designed is incredible.
"We're going to have to get you a wheelchair so you can move around faster," Tony said, I could hear the smile in his voice. I was only a few inches away from one of the suits. There were only suits with red and gold paint. The other two were just silver. One of them looked like it was a prototype because of how rusted and beaten up it was. It also didn't look anywhere close to the other suits. Every suit had a blue light coming from a circle in the center of the chest.
"What's the circle?" I asked it sounded better in my head then out loud.
"Its an arc reactor. I have one in my chest keeping me alive and another one powering my company," he stated.
"Ah, I've read about them. How you used to build weapons and then suddenly switched to arc reactor technology. Is it used as a power source? Keeping you alive and other things running?" the nerdy me was coming out. Yay.
"Wow, never thought you would be this interested in it. Yes, the one in the suits and at my company is being powered by it. But as for the one in my chest, it's acting as a magnet. Keeping shrapnel away from reaching my heart."
"So it's an electromagnet?"
"Essentially, yes."
"How did you get shrapnel in you in the first place?"
"Afghanistan. I was there for a weapons demonstration and we got attacked as we were leaving." He looked down as if the memory hurt him. I'm sure it did considering the scar it left him with. I wondered how he escaped and why he was attacked. But I will leave those for another time.
"So, you like it here so far?" he asked looking back up at me with a smile on his face.
"Yes, this place is amazing," I smiled. Then I saw something move in the back ground. It looked kind of like a robotic arm. "What is that?" Tony turned around and saw what I was pointing at.
"Oh, that's You. My pet robot. Dummy is around here somewhere, that's the other one. I've had them since I was in college. Made them for a project and they've been with me ever since."
"Back at the boarding school we weren't allowed to build things for our own pleasure. But I never listened. I had so many things I wanted to show you but the stupid plane exploded and destroyed it all. I had this new bag I was working on. It was suppose to be and indestructible bag but I never finished the prototype for it," I finished. Tony was awe struck. I laughed a little bit from his facial expression. "What? What's wrong?"
"I never thought a teenage girl like you would do that. You look like the type who is more into their phones and gossip than anything else. But knowing all that, that's incredible. I didn't know other teens had that potential." When he said those last words it didn't seem like he was that shocked. I didn't let it faze me though. Too much going on to think about something that stupid.
"Huh, glad I made a good impression," I stuck my tongue out at him. Suddenly Pepper came in through the door.
"Tony, Fury wants to see you," she said.
"Fury? I told him not to bother me this week."
"Well, the plane changed that."
"Who's this Fury and what does he have to do with the plane explosion?" I asked looking back and forth between Pepper and Tony for answers.
"You'll find out soon. Come along," Tony said walking to the door.
"Hey, I can't really walk all the fast ya know, injured leg and all," I said motioning a hand to my left leg. Tony nodded, "Right," walked up to me, "grab your crutches." He reached down and scooped me up. Pepper was holding the door for us and we made our way upstairs. The way Tony was walking made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt, but it suddenly stopped when we go to the top and there were men in suits standing with a straight face.
"Director Fury," Tony said setting me on the ground. The black guy with the eye patch nodded and simply replied, "Mr. Stark."
"How can I help you?"
"Only making sure my favorite man in armor is alright. As well as his new daughter of course." I raised an eyebrow at him and laughed.
"I'm sorry but that surely can't be the reason why you came. Just judging from all the men surrounding you," I said.
"You're right Miss..."
"Russell. But I would prefer Jan," I replied. This man was very serious. Whatever he came for was very important.
"She's very smart, no wonder why you like her. But, like she said, I did come here for something. Something that little ears can't hear."
"Excuse me, did you just call me little?" I asked making my way closer. Clearly that was a bad idea because almost every guard there raised a gun at me. "I have every right to listen as do those people."
"We understand Miss. Russell but these things are important-"
"Just let her listen. She's fine," Tony said cutting off the white guy in the suit standing next to Fury.
"Alright. We think that you need more protection. The events at the airport show that we need to take every precaution into knowing that you and your family is safe," Fury explained.
"What do you have in mind?" Tony said. We all made our way to the couch and sat down. The guards forming a half circle in the back.
"Well, I was thinking of stationing Barton here but he is away on a mission. So I'm placing Coulson here until Barton returns, which will be in a few days or so," Fury said.
"Doesn't seem so bad. What else do you want?" Tony rested his elbows on his knees.
"We want you to have the press conference next week," Coulson said.
"What? I thought we weren't going to do it," Tony exclaimed.
"Or we could have it tomorrow, your choice."
"Next week."
"Ok, we already have a speech prepared for you so you don't have to worry about what to say. Remember that all the public knows is that Iron Man is just a bodyguard in a suit. And that's all they will know for now."
"Alright, looks like my work here is done. Barton will be here no later than Friday. See you later Stark," with that Fury got up and walked out of the door with his group of soldiers.
"So, that extra room ready for me?" Coulson asked.
"Uh, no. That's Jan's room. You get the couch," Tony said patting him on the shoulder and walking back down to his lab. I followed him down as best as I could.
"Anything I can help you out with?" I asked as I walked through the door.
"Not at the moment, but if you want you can mess with the Iron Man helmet. I can't figure out why the sensors aren't working on it," he said pointing to it with a pen. "Think you can figure it out for me?"
"Sure," I said grabbing the chair and pulling it next to the table. I looked inside the and I saw a little light flashing. It was a red light and as I looked closer there were other bulbs just not lit up.
"Uh, Tony, does the light mean anything?" I said with a look of worry on my face.
"Those mean that something's wrong or that I have a voicemail. But I'm pretty sure no one left a voicemail when I was fighting," he said. I nodded and went back to the helmet. I traced one of my fingers over the blinking light and it turned off. What the, I thought.
"Fingerprint recognized, hello Miss. Russell." I nearly dropped the helmet when I heard that.
"What the-"
"That's J.A.R.V.I.S. He's my artificial intelligence. And he just got your finger print so you can now access the suits. But only for emergencies." He said the last part very sternly, making sure I didn't miss the last part.
"Can I try one out for the heck of it?" I asked bouncing with excitement.
"When you get better, I don't want you to get hurt even more than you already are."
"Ok, fine," I turned around flipping my hair at him and hopped of the seat grabbing my crutches. "Call me if you need me." I smiled and made my way back up to my room.
I flopped on my bed being careful this time not to hurt my leg again. I layed there for a few minutes noticing that everything was white and very boring.
"Hey JARVIS?" I said feeling like I was talking to air, which I really was.
"Yes, Miss. Russell?"
"Could you put on some alt. rock music? It's getting a little quiet in here."
"As you wish." A Coldplay song started play and I sat up. I reached for my bag and pulled out my laptop and my phone.
"At least I didn't lose you guys," I said to myself. There were three missed calls from one of my closest friends back at the boarding school. I sent her a text wondering what was so important. I sat it back down knowing that it would take her a while to reply. As I waited, I searched the web for new room decor. Nothing screamed "Buy Me" as I looked. Eventually I gave up and decided that a few minutes of rest would be the best choice for me.
I woke up to the evening sun shining through the window onto my bed. Did I really sleep for that long, I thought. Oh, it was only an hour, I forgot about the whole short days longer nights in the winter. And the whole part where there was no snow here, that was going to take some getting used to. I got up and made my way downstairs. Pepper was on the phone walking around and Tony was sitting on the couch tinkering with something.
"Morning sleepy head," Pepper said hanging up her call. "Rhodey's on his way over to have dinner with us and the pizza is on its way."
"Ok, I'll go make myself semi presentable," I hobbled back into my room and found my phone going off. I looked to see who was calling and saw one of my closest friends calling me.
"Hello," I answered.
"Omg you're alive!" she screamed. I quickly pulled the phone away from my ear. "I've been trying to reach you all day, are you ok? Did you get hurt? Please tell me you didn't hit your head and lose your memory."
"Summer I'm fine, while kind of. No, I didn't lose my memory, but I did get hurt. A piece of the plane hit my leg, had to go to the hospita-"
"Jan, oh my gosh, do I need to beat someone up? Just tell me who and I'll be there in a jif."
"Summer, we don't even know who did it so just calm down. Oh, I have to go Tony's calling me. I'll talk to you later," I said making my way to the bathroom.
"Ok, you better. I miss you Jan, and take care of yourself," I could hear how worried she was in her voice.
"I miss you too. And don't worry, I will." Once I hung up I used one of the hair ties on my wrist and put my hair in a braid. Then I made my way downstairs to have dinner with my new family.