A/N: I wanted to thank heygurlheyyyy for the extremely nice review! I also want to thank xEmilia, SilverHeart09, xoxoS.A.M., bookwurm23, lovetonystarkandwolverine, Chaos Terror Destruction, Eternal Density, FoolofaTook17, You cant rush science., and XxThe Best Damn ThingxX for reviewing and being continuous readers! I have so many more to thank who have made a story alert for my story or made it one of their favorite stories, and you all know who you are (hopefully)! Thank you all!
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That night, I dreamed the most puzzling dream I'd ever encountered.
I was sitting in my old room when my mom came in and smiled at me. After a moment, she jogged away, looking back at me and laughing. Though not knowing what was funny, I laughed also and followed her. She ran into Tony's garage and climbed the stairs. She was getting far ahead and I couldn't make myself go faster, so I fell behind, thinking she'd be there waiting for me. I ran up the steps and came to the top when, suddenly, everything turned to darkness. I looked around furiously for a sign of life or a spot of light. Then I saw Tony's solemn face appear out of shadows. I cautiously ran toward him, glad to not be in this darkness alone. But he turned his back on me, the blackness absorbing him, and I was left there alone with no mother, and no family, and the blackness swallowed me as I spiraled away into a deep hole...
I woke up abruptly, becoming fully awake in an instant. I looked around, bewildered.
That dream was so real… I thought, still pondering the strange dream.
Then I looked down: half the sheets were hanging off the bed, and the rest were tangling my legs. Along with the sheets, the waist of my pajama pants was twisted around so the side stitches were halfway to my belly button.
What was doing last night?! Jeez! I thought as I stood up to fix my sweats. I hate it when this happens… I sighed annoyingly, fixing the sheets on the bed and making the bed on the way to get it over with.
Would Tony have gotten back from Afghanistan by now? I thought curiously.
When I had left the lair after my failed attempt for permission to use the workshop, I was about to enter my room when Tony came out of his. I looked full into his face, but he never looked at mine. He walked past me without a glance, leaving me to stare after him in puzzlement, wondering why on earth was he avoiding me.
At that moment, I abandoned me feelings of resentment towards him, telling myself it wasn't healthy to hold such feelings, and was then trying to figure him out from a distance, attempting to observe him and get a better look.
I followed him downstairs, keeping a good twenty feet distance without him noticing, and sat on the staircase where I had a good view of the entire floor. I watched as a black luxury car had come into the "garage", a handsome brown-haired man come out of the car, and packed some cases into the trunk. Tony got in his Audi R8, started it and drove out, tires squealing. The other man, already in his car, spun around in a fast attempt to catch up with Tony, and drove into the tunnel. The entire time, Pepper was only watching and sharing a few words with each man. When she turned toward the staircase, I got up as quickly as I could and ran to my room. A few minutes later, Pepper had walked into my room and said that she would be staying here until I went to bed. I protested and said she didn't need to do that and that I don't mind being alone. But she countered, saying she had plenty of work to do here. I left it at that, but I went to bed early. I didn't want to be the reason she didn't get to go home and rest.
I hope she got some rest, I thought.
I checked the clock on my iPod—which I kept on my nightstand whenever it's not in use: 7:02.
How early I'm I going to keep waking up? I thought, shaking my head and sighing.
My mind switching gears quickly, I vaguely wondered, Would Pepper be here yet?
I decided to go check and walked toward the door. It suddenly opened and I saw Pepper.
"Oh!" I said pleasantly, smiling. "I was just abo—"
I stopped myself short, my optimistic expression changing speedily to a concerned one. Pepper's eyes were red: She had been crying.
"What's—" I cut myself off again, thinking at top speed. Pepper crying; Tony leaving for the Middle East, the land where they believe that they're saving people by bringing others' lives to an end quickly; the strange dream that must have been a premonition…
"Oh no," I said to her, thinking the worst must have happened. "He's not—he didn't—"
"We don't know," she said, her voice cracking. "Th-There was an attack—"
"Okay," I said, trying to be calming but was turning hysterical every second. "Sit down"—I lead her to the bed where she sat slowly—"and tell me everything."
I sat down next to her as Pepper took a deep breath. "I got a call from Rhodey..."
Who's Rhodey? I thought but didn't repeat it out loud.
"…he said that while they were transferring him back to the air base to fly him back here, they were attacked by locals. Tony was in the first Jeep so it was an easy target. They took him…" She shook her head as if she couldn't believe it happened. "Rhodey and his team are looking for him now and they won't stop until he's found alive or…"—She closed her eyes for a minute—"dead…"
My mind was still thinking rapidly. Oh no. What if they never find him? Or worse: what if they found him dead? Where would I go then? There are no other people, no other family, unless there's another sibling I don't know about… Would I be allowed to stay with Pepper? I caught myself before my thinking got out of control. Ifs never get me anywhere. They're only a distraction and a way to frighten others.
I cleared my head and said to Pepper, "Relax. There's always a chance that he's still alive. Most likely they would use him for something. He is the creator of the most dangerous weapons this world's seen. They would keep him alive for a little while; I'm almost positive. But then again, I'm not a terrorist." I shrugged and grimaced. "He's probably alive, right now, fighting and crafting an idea to get away from them somehow. I might not have known him for long, but I know he can come up with an idea to escape."
I paused, and Pepper said, "Your right. I know he can get out of it. But we have to make precautions in case of his…"—She struggled to say the word—"death."
I grinned at a thought. "Does Tony always get into situations like this?"
Pepper laughed. "You wouldn't believe the number of times I had to help Tony get rid of a reject. Some wouldn't stop stalking him. One time, Tony made me pose as his girlfriend to make a reject stop showing up in his garage." She sighed. "I just showed up down there and he put an arm around me and whispered in my ear to go along with it. I'm sure I wasn't very convincing: I was uncomfortable and struggling to get away, but I could tell he wanted this woman out of there, so I stopped trying to free myself. After she finally left, I told him to never make me do that again. Of course he thought it wasn't a big deal and that I was overreacting, but he just doesn't understand." She sighed again, looking at the floor with a troubled expression.
I hesitated. "Would I?" I asked quietly.
She looked very uncomfortable as she said, "I don't think you would want to hear it."
"I don't mind," I said simply, shrugging. "I wouldn't have asked if I didn't care."
She stood up suddenly, looked at me, and said softly, "I can't. I don't want to say. I'm sorry."
"No!" I said, standing up too. "Don't be. I shouldn't have pushed you."
There was a short silence until she said, "I better be getting to a meeting concerning the consequences of Tony's leave."
She turned around, walked quickly to the doorway until I said loudly, "He will come back."
She stopped and looked back for only a second, her eyes sad, and strode out the door hastily, like she didn't want to be seen. She was crying again.
So much for encouragement, I thought grudgingly at myself, staring at the spot where she had withdrawn.
After our motivational chat, we didn't converse much. She was off to so many meetings that involved Tony being gone and what they would do if he didn't come back.
I kept thinking it was my fault that she wouldn't go deep into our conversations. They were all business and "What do you want to eat?" But I convinced myself that she was just stressed with all the business she has to take care of.
It was morbid the entire time Tony wasn't around. I never knew his absence could cause the feel in the entire house to darken. It was unsettling.
When a month went by, I started to worry about my earlier, depressing thoughts of "what if". They were driving me into insanity.
Two months gone and still no Tony.
You'd think they would have found him by now—or maybe called to report of the search once and a while! I thought angrily as a stared out glass window, hypnotizing myself with the continuous push and pull of the ocean's waves.
After the first month, they stopped keeping us updated and they said they'll call when they actually found him. It wasn't making Pepper and me very happy, since him being found affected us the most.
All I did now was sit on the floor with my back against the bed, staring out into the seemingly endless ocean. I've tried to read, watch TV and my movies, and play video games, but I can't do the same thing for long. My mind would wander and I'd lose focus on what I was doing. After a while of reading or watching TV, I would have to backtrack on what I just saw or read, so I stopped altogether.
I started out just looking over the ocean while I had my iPod plugged into my ears, but I soon ditched my music, as it was too distracting when I observed the ocean. I wanted to hear the ocean, and imagine myself floating on the surface, watching seagulls and pelicans pass above me as well as find shapes in the clouds, and see the sky fade into rich colors made by the sun rising and setting.
More than once I've fallen asleep in the same spot on the floor without changing into pajamas. I would wake up and find myself in bed under the covers, and wonder how Pepper can even lift me off the ground. I'm surprised she even bothered to put me in bed. I supposed that she wasn't holding our "conversation" against me. I would have been shocked if she did; she doesn't seem like the one who holds grudges. I also guessed she wanted to make up for being gone all the time.
Since it's been almost three months, Pepper has been reduced to job-hunting. I caught her sifting through job ads, and I can see the anxiety written on her face. Her anxiety made me anxious! She looked like she was about to crack from all of the pressure. I left Pepper to work; I didn't know what to say to her and if I did, I think I would have been distracting her and definitely not helping with her multiple predicaments.
One night, I decided to put myself in bed instead of Pepper doing it for me. She was stressed enough without having to worry about me sleeping on the floor. I got a couple hours of sleep, but woke up again around one thirty. I stared at the ceiling, my eyes fully opened without any trace of sleepiness in them, wondering why I'm awake then instead of sometime when the sun was actually out.
"Incoming call from James Rhodes," Jarvis said at some point. His voice was loud to my sensitive morning ears, so I jumped at the sound.
James Rhodes…Would that be Rhodey who Pepper mentioned a while ago? I pondered that question, and answered yes in my mind.
I responded clearly while I sat up, "Answer it, please."
I waited a moment but no one said anything, and I wondered if they had hung up. To make sure, I asked, "Hello?"
"I didn't get your name last time. What was it?"
Interesting "hello", I thought before saying, "Cara."
"Right, I knew that."
I thought for a moment at who's voice that was.
"…Tony?" I guessed.
"Well I'm not Rhodey. Missed me?" Tony responded in the same uninterested tone.
He was most likely calling from Rhodey's cell phone since the terrorists took his. It's part of the whole hold-a-hostage thing.
"I haven't even met Rhodey yet and I couldn't really miss you when you never talked to me."
"Yeah. I called to apologize for that."
"Great timing," I said with sarcasm.
"I know. My timing's usually a lot better."
"Well, thanks for the apology."
"You're welcome," he said hastily. "Listen: I need you to tell Pepper to come to the airport at noon tomorrow."
"That's a lot of responsibility to give a girl you only started talking to three minutes ago."
"Well, you're related to me so I expect you'll remember."
"I'll make a mental note of it."
"One more thing, when Pepper leaves tomorrow, turn the TV to the news channel."
"Why?" I asked, confused.
"Just look for me. You'll know when you see it."
"Alright. Whatever you say." I said sarcastically.
"Don't be smart."
"I can't help it. I'm related to you, remember?" I said, smirking.
"Ha ha," he said drily.
Right at that moment, I yawned and I was unable to stifle it.
He must have heard it; he asked, "What time is it over there?"
"Well, you should know," I told him. "What's eleven o' clock minus ten and a half hours?"
There wasn't even a pause. "One thirty. Did I wake you up?"
"No. I woke up before you called, conveniently."
"I have to go. Flight's leaving."
"Call has ended," Jarvis said right after Tony's last word.
Well, that was abrupt, I thought with my eyebrows scrunched together.
I laid back into bed, finally regaining my sleepiness. It was the first time I've been thoroughly relaxed since Tony was captured. All I could think about was that he was actually talking to me. It was weird, but it felt completely normal talking to him. The thought made me smile.
Maybe it won't be so hard living here, I thought optimistically. Maybe these years will actually be somewhat enjoyable…
I fell asleep at the happy thought, feeling like everything was falling into place at last.
