REVIEWS! You are all my favorites. So here's chapter three, just for you.
They did have a good afternoon. Pepper joined them for lunch and while still quiet, Katie was much more willing to talk to the CEO. Bruce, Tony, and Pepper learned that Katie was seventeen, her last name was Wolfe, and she was a senior at one of the many New York Public High Schools.
"What are you going to do next year?" Pepper asked when lunch was over. Katie had shyly asked for a tour of the tower and Tony had smilingly agreed, leading the way and trying overtly to make the quiet, gun-shy teenager laugh.
Katie shifted in response to the question. "College, if I can afford it." The last part came out in a mumble and Pepper took note but didn't comment. The teenager looked up nervously. "I've applied to Julliard... but I don't know yet."
"Music?" It wasn't really a question – Julliard was a famous music school after all. Katie nodded.
"I had two years in a pre-military school, my sophomore and junior years." She hesitated. "I got a pilot's license."
Tony stopped short. "You can fly?"
"I really liked it, but... I think music will be better, even though it... doesn't have a lot of income." She looked at her shoes again. Katie hated talking about money. So she changed the topic.
"So you're... an employee of the company? A Research and Development partner for the Avengers?" She looked at Bruce.
He laughed. "I guess you could say I'm the Avenger's leading gamma radiation expert on missions," he said, smiling. "I should reintroduce myself." He took a deep breath – most people didn't know he was the Hulk, since it wasn't very widely publicized, but once they found out they usually treated him differently. Silently, Bruce said goodbye to the casual, if slightly shy, way the young girl treated him.
He held out a hand, a silent test. "Dr Bruce Banner, also known as the Hulk." Katie stared at him for a moment, as if judging the truthfulness of the statement, then carefully put her hand in his and shook it timidly. Bruce was watching her face and did a little happy dance; he was sure the hesitation was more for the fact that people made her skittish than the fact that he had a monster inside him that could destroy them all.
"You're not particularly tall for a guy who turns into a huge muscle man." She quipped lightly. All three adults were so surprised by the joke that they stopped walking and Katie almost ran into Tony.
"Sorry! I wasn't... I didn't..." She stammered, her chin dropping again.
"It's my fault, Kid. I shouldn't have stopped so suddenly." Tony steadied her elbow. "Did you know that when you smile, you could probably light up the city?" Katie turned pink and ducked her head, but not before sending a small smile in Tony's direction. After she turned around, Pepper tucked her arm into Tony's and gave him a small kiss on the cheek, her eyes shining with gratitude at Tony's kindness.
Bruce managed to convince Katie to stay for dinner as well. As the day wore on, the teenager had gotten more and more skittish, and it hadn't been hard for the adults to guess why. They were getting closer to taking her home.
Dinner was New York deep dish pizza. The adults watched silently as Katie stuffed herself. It was if she hadn't eaten in days and had never had anything that good before.
Then the time came. Tony didn't know how to say it, but Pepper did. "Tony and Bruce are going to give you a ride home, Sweetheart." Katie stiffened slightly, but all the adults saw it. Pepper came around the table and much to Katie's surprise, gave the bony teenager a hug. When Pepper released her, she stepped back. "The door is always open. Night or day, whenever. Any time, okay?"
Tony nodded. "Even if the other Avengers are here, don't worry about it. We'll save the room for you where you changed earlier."
Katie was about three seconds away from crying. She barely knew then, any of them. They had rescued her from getting killed in an alleyway. And now they had opened their very fancy, very famous home to her.
Bruce scooped up a backpack and the trio headed for the elevator. Pepper waved as the doors closed behind them. Bruce handed her the bag. "Here's this, don't forget."
Katie looked at it curiously. "This isn't my bag," she protested quietly. It was a thicker material, matte black and a lot cooler than her bag. Besides, her backpack had one of the straps sliced in half by a madman with a knife.
"It is now," Tony simply said. "We couldn't send you off with a broken backpack. It would be so awkward to carry to school. We just shifted all your stuff over. No sentimental connection, I hope." Katie shook her head and shifted, thinking of her laptop and phone, which were now ruined and in the garbage. It had taken her forever to save enough money to buy them and now she was back to square one. She didn't say anything out loud, but if she had looked up, she would have seen the small smiles on Tony and Bruce's faces.
They slid into the same black car Tony had picked her and Bruce off the street with earlier. Again, Bruce sat in the back with her while Tony drove. Katie had given Tony her address in a quiet voice. When they were only a few blocks from the dingy apartment complex, Bruce leaned over. "I know Pepper and Tony said the door is open whenever, and it is, but I at least need you back here next week, say... Friday? After school ends for you? I need to take out the stitches in your shoulder." He handed her a bottle of medication. "This is just a pain medication. It shouldn't be too bad, but if you need it, take two every six or seven hours." Katie just nodded.
The car stopped. Katie got out and stood in front of the building. The air reeked of urine and alcohol and the area was poorly lit. "Thanks for... the lift." Tony and Bruce said brief good nights and waited while she mounted the steps to the building. She unlocked the door with a key hanging on a ribbon and slipped into the dark.
Two hours later, Katie was on her bed in the tiny room that was considered her own. It was really a closet, but her bed fit and most of the time her mother didn't bother walking down the hall to yell at her if she was in there. Katie had already withstood an hour and a half of screaming about Katie's absence from school, the call from Tony, and why she wasn't home for dinner with her darling mother and her boyfriend. Fortunately, her mother hadn't paid the full electric bill, so it was dark enough that her mother hadn't seen the new backpack that Katie carried.
Katie sighed. She unzipped the bag and began to sort through her music and check out the damage from the pages flying all over an alleyway. As soon as she cleared the top layer of music, though, she had to stuff her pillow under the door to make sure her mother wouldn't hear her.
Tony and Bruce had filled the bag.
Her broken laptop had been replaced with a Stark Industries laptop, a sleek computer only half a centimeter thick and infinitely lighter than her dinosaur. The top pocket held a new Starkphone, the background image set to a photo of Bruce and Tony wearing safety goggles that they must have taken in one of the labs that she had walked by that day. There were several new changes of clothing in the bottom of the bag; a blouse almost identical to the one lost in the alleyway attack that morning, a few pairs of jeans, a couple of nice shirts. Her wallet had a post-it note on it. It read simply: open me. Katie did as instructed and began crying in earnest. There was fifty dollars in cash, mostly fives. A new credit card, plain silver with the SI logo on one side and her name on the other was in one of the pockets. A folded piece of note paper was slid behind the card.
Hey Kiddo,
Just in case you need something and can't make it to the Tower, this Stark Industries credit card is for you. Use it for whatever you like; don't worry about the balance. My phone number, Pepper's, and Bruce's are in the phone. Call or text us if you need to.
Don't forget to visit.
Tony
Thanks for all the reviews last time, guys! There were several very good ideas that will probably make it into the story, somewhere! Keep reading and reviewing and have a good New Year!