Chapter 2
Jennifer picked up on the second ring.
"Jenny?"
"Jen-"
"Is that you?"
"Jen-"
"Where are you?
"Jen-"
"Where the hell have you been?!"
"JENNIFER! I'm in New York."
"What do you mean you're 'in New York'?"
"I mean that I got on a plane and flew across the Atlantic and now I'm in America."
"Oh my god whatever. Just stay in touch so I know you're OK."
Jennifer hung up the phone, Jenny was of the opinion that the phone call could have gone a little bit better.
She made it outside to the taxi rank with the first driver getting out of his car to help her when he saw the walking stick. Jenny had booked herself quite a nice hotel in Manhattan and basically planned to visit as many sites as she possibly could over the next few days; relying heavily on taxi's. Thank god for inheritance money…
Jenny was in the last year of doing a biology degree so this, by default, made her a massive science nerd. It was only natural then that the first place she went to was the natural history museum which was, in Jenny's opinion, quite possibly the best museum she had ever been to. The following day was a much quieter affair, with Jenny resting up in Central Park taking in the scenery and all the Christmas wonder. She spent the entirety of Christmas day in her hotel room, ordering far too much room service and watching every movie that was on TV. On Boxing Day she went to visit Bryant Park, not to go ice skating of course, that wouldn't end well, but more just to take in the Christmas atmosphere. Naturally, Jenny was a big fan of doing anything that involved sitting, so on her final day in New York she took a bus tour.
On reflection, going to LA for New Year was a bit of a weird thing to do, but Jenny was very welcoming of the higher temperatures the city had to offer. Her plan for this stage of the holiday was a much simpler affair mostly consisting of R & R with multiple sittings on multiple beaches. This doesn't include the trip to Disney land that she had booked for the 29th, all of this possible because she could rent a wheelchair. Even with the best will in the world Jenny was pretty sure that she would never manage to walk round the park by herself. Jenny's New Year was a quiet one, she had a perfect view of the fireworks from her window; she saw this as a valid reason to not leave her room. New Year's Day was for her was a repeat of Christmas day, lots of movies and lots of food.
A few days into 2008 she set out for Malibu, by taxi of course. There were many beaches that needed to be sat on there. She'd set out for them quite early in the morning, so early that it was still dark in fact – she wanted to watch the sunrise. She had the taxi driver drop her off a few streets short of her destination. All the rest had allowed her ankle to get slightly better so she wanted to walk a little. It's a shame that she never saw the car heading towards her as she started to cross the road…
Jenny was aware that something wasn't quite right. There was a pain coming from somewhere. Was it her head? Yeah, yeah it seemed to be coming from her head. There was something else. What was it? She was on the ground. Yeah, her head was sore and she was on the ground. There was another thing. She was sure there was another thing. Someone was trying to talk to her. A man. A man was trying to talk to her. Her head was hurting, she was on the ground and a man was trying to talk to her.
"Oh my god! Kid? Are you OK? Please say something. Please don't be dead. Wait. Is that a walking stick? Oh my god I hit a disabled person. Oh my god I'm a terrible human being."
"Owwwww"
"Thank god you're alive!"
"Uh what happened?"
"I think I hit you with my car. But you're OK so that's good. Wait, are you Scottish?"
"Yeah. Who are you?"
"You don't know? Well I guess it is dark…I'm Tony Stark CEO of Stark Industries"
"Oh OK"
"Look I'm gonna take you back to my place. I've got a bodyguard who knows first aid and the best first aid kit you've ever seen. We can get that thing on your head checked out and then you can rest up. I think you have a concussion."
Tony was fully aware of the potential PR crisis that this could cause. Hitting a kid, a disabled kid whist being ever so slightly drunk and speeding would be the end of him. Even on the side of the street he was getting images of him in a jail cell with a 200 pound gay man creeping up behind him. No, this had to be dealt with quietly.
He helped Jenny up off the ground, trying to ignore the small whimper that escaped from her mouth and put her in his car. As an afterthought, he remembered to pick up the remaining pieces of her walking stick. Tony desperately hoped that Happy and Pepper, particularly Pepper, wouldn't kill him as he drove back to his Malibu beach house.
