Chapter 4

Jenny was actually quite impressed with the surgeon when he turned up, especially when she realised that her definition of thorough was way different to his definition, which seemed to be a whole new league of thorough. As well as taking measurements he got casts and x-rays too and then sent her off for an MRI scan. Although Jenny became quite concerned when he described that these were no ordinary prosthetics.

Earlier that afternoon:

"What do you mean 'they're not conventional'?" Jenny was getting concerned now. Yeah this was free surgery but she didn't want to make her situation worse.

"Well, in normal amputation you cut everything off. Here, we will only be removing what's underneath the skin; bone, muscle, blood vessels, nerves – you get the jist. The prosthesis attaches to the bone and fuses with it as the bone heals over the following six weeks."

"How on earth does that work?" Jenny's curiosity was beginning to spike.

"Well the science is a little complex but basically the top part of the prosthesis is made of a titanium mesh that has 4 parts – the outer parts sit on the outside of the tibia and fibula, the inside parts go into the bone marrow of both bones. The mesh then eventually gets incorporated into them." He looked pretty pleased with himself after his little explanation. Jenny could all but imagine the many hours of work he and Tony had put in to making something like this.

"The benefits of a procedure like this are pretty cool, kid." Tony had decided to join them from his lab. "Not only will the new feet kinda resemble the old feet given that they're going inside the skin of your old ones but they're going to be seriously strong too – I'd avoid kicking people in the nuts, you'd probably make them infertile."

The surgeon re-entered the conversation. "Yes, yes I should probably worn you about that. Once the healing is done, you're going to be the owner of 2 feet that are internally speaking, entirely made of titanium and silicon. It's going to be one hell of a kick – bone breaking potentially."

Present day:

It was at dinner, after Pepper had gone home, that Tony brought up the topic of family and apparently he'd noticed that she had failed to talk about any of them. This certainly dampened her mood – she'd spent all afternoon trying to sneak pictures of Tony when he wasn't looking.

"You know, you've been here for a few days now and you haven't spoken about your parents once – don't you think they're worried about you?" He was looking less concerned, more curious.

"Well uh, they're actually both dead. All my family's dead. I stay with my friend Jennifer and her family." Jenny wore a small, yet sad smile. She'd had a long time to accept her parents' fates.

"What did they do for a living?" he asked.

"Well, my dad actually worked for you. He was killed in 9/11." Jenny was pretty sure he wouldn't know him.

"You're Andrew Brown's daughter." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah I am. How do you know?"

"Contrary to popular belief I do actually pay attention to what happens in my business. We lost 10 people that day – only one of them was from Scotland. Your dad was a good man, kid." The smile he passed over to Jenny was genuine, and he really did remember Andrew and was genuinely upset when he learned of his death. "What happened to your mom?"

"Oh, um, well – she was killed in the 7/7 bombings in London. They say that had she sat anywhere else she would have probably survived." Jenny looked down at her food. She really missed them terribly. Would they approve of what she was doing here? She hoped they would.

"Holy shit you are one unlucky kid. You know when you go home I want you to keep in touch. I'll give you my phone number and I'll text you – we probably won't be doing the surgery until the summer anyway so it'll be good to keep in contact. Plus, I just want to make sure you're OK because wow you've had a shitty hand so far!"

Jenny could only manage a small 'thank you' and a smile before returning to her food.

The following day:

Jenny was an early riser, Tony was not. It was her penultimate day in Los Angeles, Pepper had already arrived for work, but had been busy on the phone all morning – she only caught parts of the conversation she was having "He won't want to see anybody without an appointment." "Well if you're not wanting to meet with Mr Stark who do you want to see?" "What you mean he's on his way?"

Jenny watched with a bemused expression as Pepper got more and more floundered. Eventually she hung up the phone. "Jenny, sweetie, there's a man on his way here to talk to you. He says he's from the Strategic Homeland Intervention something something Division. I wouldn't worry about it, the government usually gets involved when Tony does anything ridiculous, although this is the first time we've ever had these people over."

It was just then that the doorbell rang which Pepper went to answer. She returned with the man, middle aged, balding.

"Jenny, this is Agent Phil Coulson. He's from that government agency I told you about. I'll leave you to talk – if you need anything, JARVIS will get me." With that, she left – leaving Jenny alone with the man.

He gave a reassuring smile, Jenny wasn't good at hiding her emotions and she was very nervous.

"There's no need to worry Miss Brown, I'm just here to get you to sign some disclaimer papers and have a chat and then we're all done."

"What are the disclaimers for?" Jenny asked.

"In short, they say that you won't use your new feet for harm or malintent. If you do you'll be in serious trouble. I wouldn't worry about this, if you lead a good and normal life, this will never be of a concern. It's only if you go out with the intention to hurt people with them, which I'm sure you won't do." Jenny did feel reassured, even if the presence of a man from the government still made her nervous.

Over the course of the next hour and a half, they talked about everything; from her life before her parents died to the methods she used to study for exams. In that small frame of time they covered, what felt like, nearly every aspect of Jenny's life. She told him about how she wanted to do a PhD and all about her final degree exams that were coming up in May, as well as her excitement over the operation which had been set to happen on the 5th of June that year. His conversational skills were excellent and half the time she couldn't believe that she was telling him all of this information – they had only just met! Eventually though, it was time for him to leave not before he wished her all the best of luck for the future.

On the other side of the country:

"So is she a threat?" his boss asked.

"No, not at all sir. She is definitely no cause for concern." he replied.

"Well then, I guess we can leave them to it –"

"There was something else Sir. I think she'd be perfect for the Programme."

"The Programme? We haven't found any suitable candidates in years. What makes you think that she is suitable?"

"She has the right mind-set sir. I questioned her on every aspect of how she lived her life, she seemed pretty perfect for it."

"Well if you're so sure, you are free to begin recruitment."