Hello! Many thanks to all my lovely reviewers!
None of them saw or heard from Katie until the next Friday, when she was supposed to get her stitches out. None of them said anything to each other, but no one acted surprised when 4 o'clock Friday rolled around and Katie didn't appear. Bruce and Tony sat in the common room, playing a game of chess on a carved wooden chessboard and not speaking.
The minutes ticked by, every second seeming to get longer. Tony finally stood. "I'm going to see if she's at her house."
Bruce was saved from answering him. JARVIS interrupted. "Sir, the front desk would like to speak with you."
Tony sighed and motioned for JARVIS to open the line.
"Mr Stark? There's a girl here..."
"Young? Brown curly hair, probably has a backpack?" Tony interrupted the voice.
"Yes, Sir. She says that she needs to see you." The secretary sounded doubtful. How many people had an invitation to see Mr Stark when he wasn't at work, after all? "I've already told her that you are a very busy man and can't be bothered, but she won't leave."
"Send her up, Jennifer. She's right and the invitation stands, so you had better remember her face so you can just let her come up next time, hmmm?" Tony bared his teeth in a shark-like grin at the phone.
"Yes, Sir."
AAAAAAA
Katie had argued with the secretary at Stark Industries for almost twenty minutes. She had also had to walk from school to the tower in the rain. Once she got there, Katie realized that she had no idea where to enter the building, since both her entrance and exit had been through the hidden garage where Tony kept his cars. Eventually, she had simply gone in the front door, only to realize that she was a wet, skinny, teenage mess and most of the people were wearing business suits and looking at her like she was a total lunatic.
Looking in the mirrored wall of the elevator, she sighed. Pulling her hair out of the sodden braid, she ruffled the wet strands with her fingers and combed a chunk over her black eye, trying to hide it from view. It was fresh, fresh enough that it was still swollen and an alarming shade of purple-blue. Her hastily-applied coat of makeup had smudged off and smeared in the rain, probably contributing to the looks she got from the lobby secretary.
The doors dinged and slid open onto the floor where Katie had been with Tony and Bruce and Pepper the previous week. Tony had called it the "Assemble" floor, if she remembered correctly. A shiver, mostly of awe and (if she admitted it) fear, ran down her spine. Of course, there were four other Avengers. She hadn't really forgotten them, but she hadn't really thought about it either; she was walking into the room where all six lived and worked, where the heroes who saved New York ate and slept. Even though she had been there before, it didn't make the idea any less intimidating.
"Katie! Glad you made it!" The exuberant voice of Tony Stark rang out, pulling her out of her contemplation of the famous people who stood where she was standing right now. She no doubt looking like the idiot she was, with a black eye and soaked clothing and a shoulder full of stitches. "Sorry about the secretary; remind me to scan your hand into the door before you leave so you can come in the garage."
The billionaire moved a dark knight on the chessboard next to him and then stood, walking over with a towel. "JARVIS said you were wet; caught without an umbrella?" He gestured out the window, where the cool, late September air was awash with sheets of rain. With one hand, he slid her backpack strap off her shoulder, setting it on the ground, swinging the towel over her shoulders.
"I don't have one," Katie said, looking down and fidgeting with the edges of the towel. "And sorry the secretary had to interrupt you."
Tony made a throw-away motion with his free hand. The other he used to carefully push back Katie's wet hair from her face, revealing the black eye he must have seen even through the hair. She flinched, but only a little. She should have know she couldn't hide it.
Surprisingly, Tony didn't comment. Bruce came over, greeting her with a small smile and a light touch on her arm. Katie wasn't sure why they all liked to touch so much – she had spent her entire life without casual contact, hugs, or parental hand-holding – and it felt alien, like she should respond to the movement but had no idea how. Perhaps her fear and confusion and cluelessness was evident, because Bruce kindly removed Tony's hand and directed her to the room where she had changed before, the one he said was hers to use, as strange as that was.
Katie stripped down to her (mercifully blood free, unlike to last time) tank top and reemerged from the room after toweling out her hair and pulling it back into the usual braid. Bruce was waiting on the couch. Handing her an ice pack, he got to work. It only took a few moments before all the stitches were gone, he was checking her throat and Tony was trying to convince her to stay for dinner.
"Who's JARVIS?" Katie asked when Bruce was done with her neck, both trying to buy time to tell Tony she couldn't cost him more money and time by making him feed her again, and because she actually wanted to know.
"JARVIS, you haven't introduced yourself yet? Shame on you!"
A small rush of static filled the room from countless speakers, almost a sigh. "Hello, Miss Wolfe. I am JARVIS, a sentient Artificial Intelligence system. I run all of Sir's houses and try to keep him out of trouble as best I can." The voice had a crisp British accent and sounded both exasperated and slightly amused.
"Erm... Nice to meet you, JARVIS." Katie responded. She switched her attention back to the grinning billionaire. "Mr Stark... Tony. Thanks, but I really can't stay for dinner, you've already given me enough and – "
He cut her off with another hand wave. "Don't worry about it, Kid. What's the point of having a lot of money if you can't feed a mysterious teenager every once in a while? Besides, Steve's cooking tonight, and you don't want to miss a 'Steve cooking' night."
Bruce took pity on her. "Steve is Captain America. Take the suit off, he's mild-mannered Steve Rogers. He's also the best cook out of all the Avengers. There'll be plenty of food; his metabolism runs about four times faster than most of ours, so he eats more than anyone except Thor."
Katie hesitated, which Tony took as approval. "Great! Let's go see if he needs help!"
You guys are the best! Updates might come a little slower now - school restarted and I can't sit and write for an hour a day. Plus, I'm working on four (and a half) stories right now.
Speaking of which, it's 2015! Which means... Back to the Future! I love it and we have arrived at the future year, so I am posting the first of a series of one-shots today called Points in Time!
As always, read and review!
