The Marvel world and it's characters do not belong to me.
Chapter 9: A Friend to Help me Home
After Steve helped me to my chair I sat down and thanked him. Then I watched him as he sat down in his own seat and looked crossed the small round table to me and he gave me a small smile. I slightly took a deep breath to calm down a bit because I never been in this sorta situation, out with a guy eating food. This is probably the closest I had come to having a date.
I gave him a small smile in return and I looked down at the marinated single sheet menu and started to read it. It's not that I don't want to stare at Steve Rodgers eyes all day its just that I would become too nervous to and it will just end up extremely awkward.
I decided to go with something light so I chose Caesar salad. When I put the menu down and looked straight at Steve. He looked like he had already decided what he wanted to order. But it looked like he didn't even touch his menu. Just when I was about to finally strike up a conversation a blonde waitress came to our table with a wide a wide smile on your face.
"Hello, my name is Betty and i'll be your server. What can I get you?" She asked us. Steve looked at me to order first.
"Uh, I'll have a Caesar salad, a strawberry smoothie, and a water." I said. She nodded and wrote it down. When it was time for her to turn her attention towards Steve, she didn't look like she mind it one bit.
"And what can I get for you?" She asked him nicely. I don't think that he noticed that she was hitting on him.
" I'll have a hamburger and a Coke." He said. The waitress smiled at him again and wrote down his order.
"Got it. I'll be right back with your orders." She said smiling at him and then she left. Steve looked at me as I smiled at his obviousness.
"What?" He asked. I hid my smile and shook my head. He smiled and looked at the cars as they passed by. I decided that now was a nice time to try and start a conversation.
"You must order a hamburger often." I said. Steve looked at me and question. Silly start to a conversation I know but I never said that I was a pro at them. "You didn't seem to look at your menu." I said.
"I guess i'm a habit type of guy." He said and I nodded thinking about it.
"Makes sense." I said. He looked at me in a way that told me to continue and at first I hesitated to because it was luckily something that bothered him."Well considering what you've been through, most likely you would want to have something constant and stable and well American: A nice cheese burger." I finished.
"Never thought of it that way before." He said. I shrugged and looked up both my eyes were drawn to Stark Industries.
"Yeah a lot of people sit at this table just to see him fly by." The waitress said coming back with our food. But she wasn't speaking to me, Steve was also looking at the building. Then he looked away from and at her in question. "You're waiting for Iron Man right?" She asked him as she set the food on the table.
"Does he fly by often?" He asked he asked her. He was waiting to see Tony? Why? I wondered.
"Sometimes. But not today." She said before walking away. Steve nodded then he sat up straight to eat.
"You were waiting for Iron Man?" I asked. Steve looked at me and thought about his words before he spoke.
"Not really." He said shaking his head lightly. "I'm looking for the man without the suit." He said. Now that confused me.
"Why?" I asked.
"I knew his father. I wonder if he's anything like him. But based on what I've heard, I don't think so." He said, and I nodded at him in understanding. Steve took a bite of his burger, so I started to eat as well and boy was I starving. The food was really good and I tried to take my time as much as possible which still wasn't slow eating.
When we finished our lunch Steve paid the bill then he helped me up on my crutches. I think he may be the nicest guy ever. Seriously, he's like an adult model boy scout.
"So where are you headed?" Steve asked.
"Stark Industries." I said.
"Stark Industries? What's there?" He asked as we walked away from the cafe.
"I know people there that will take me home." I said. Steve looked down at me confused.
"Why can't you use a cell phone? Everyone has one i'm told." He said.
"I lost it . And I never bothered to learn one of the three numbers in it." I said. Shameful, I know.
"Oh. Well still, let me walk you there." He said. I smiled at him.
"You don't have to do that Steve." I said.
"I know, but I want to." He said. I nodded at him. I never had a guy want to walk me anywhere before. But then again I'm walking to Stark Industries with Captain America. That's not something a lot of people can say.
As we walked by a children's park I started to feel very hot again. Why does this keep happening to me? Steve looked at me with a worried expression when I stopped walking and started to sway back and forth.
"Jessica, are you alright ?" He asked. I shook my head gently and fell forward. Steve caught me in his arms while the crutches fell out from under mine. I leaned back into him as he sat us down on a park bench.
"Do you need to go back to the hospital?" He asked. I shook my head.
"I feel hot, it'll pass." I breathed. My hands felt like they were burning, so I looked down at them. And sure enough red showed through my light brown skin. I felt a light tingle on the fingers of my right hand. I looked at it confused and lifted it up. On my pointer and middle finger were two small flames arose as if they were lit matches. I gasped and shook my hand while blowing harshly on it. When the fire was gone I looked at Steve, he had this determined look on his face.
"How did you do that?" He asked.
"I don't know. Sometimes I feel hot. And sometimes this happens." I said to him. I felt a lump in my throat and wanted to cry. I was scared and I didn't understand what was happening to me. I shook my head gently and sighed. "What's wrong with me?"
"I don't know, but you should keep it to yourself. There are alot of people out there who try to to get their hands on people like you." He said. Which was the truth. In this world people with extended abilities were treated like animals and used. And it scared me that now I had fallen into that category. When Steve looked away from my hand he saw the worried look on my face.
"Don't worry no ones gonna take you, as long as I'm around." He said sounding every bit of a hero like he was. His blue eyes looked into my brown eyes with a promise. His presence made me feel safer and I believed in him.
"Thank you." I said and he gave me a nod.
"Now, do you still feel hot?" He asked me. I shook my head.
"No, it passed just like it always does." I said.
"Alright. I'm going to go get your crutches." He said. After he collected them he handed them to me. "Here you go." I put them under my arms and he helped me to stand up again. "Let's go." Steve said putting a hand on the small of my back. I nodded to him and we made our way towards Stark Industries.
The place was huge, I had never been inside before. I have however waited for Pepper to come out and so we could go shopping. Steve opened one of the front doors for me and I smiled at him before entering. The building looked very modern and classy.
Just when we were about to go to the front desk Pepper came out of the elevator.
"Miss Potts!" I called catching her attention while she was heading towards the door. She turned around and saw me then walking fast she came over to me.
"Jessica! Where have you been!? What happened to your leg?!" She said with a lot of concern.
"I had an accident at the park and had to go to the hospital." I explained.
"What kind of an accident?! Wait, what am I doing? We have to call Tony, he's been worried sick about you. Jarvis traced you but all Happy found was your cell phone in the park. We thought you could have been kidnapped." She said.
"Tony was really worried about me. Which I know that he would, but how much damage have I done?" I asked.
"We had been searching for you non stop." She said.
"I'm so sorry. I would have called but I must have dropped my phone when I fainted." I said. She took a calming breath and looked like she was going to say something else but the charming blonde that was standing slightly behind me finally caught her interest. I looked back at Steve who was standing there awkwardly.
"Miss Potts, this is Steve. He took me to the hospital and helped me to get back here." I said. She looked at me for a second then back at him.
"Really?" I nodded. "My name is Pepper Potts. Thank you for taking care of Jessica. We were so worried about her." She said holding out her hand to him. Steve took it.
"Oh you're welcome. But I really enjoy her company." He said. Shaking her hand. Peppers lifted an eyebrow at this and nodded. Steve looked down at me. "Well I'm sorry to say this ladies but I have to get going. It was nice meeting you Miss Potts. Jessica, be careful. And... I guess I'll talk to you later?" He said. I nodded.
"Bye Steve." I said. Then he walked out of the double doors. Miss Potts looked at me.
"Now let's get you home." She said. she has a car waiting for us outside and we got in and drove off. Pepper dialed a number and put her phone up to her ear. "Hey Tony...yeah I found her. Well she technically found me...No we're on our way over right now...Okay bye." She said. She looked over at me knowing that I was watching her the entire time.
"What do you think he's going to say? I asked.
"I don't has never been one for handling things like this, but he was very worried about you. He didn't sleep at all last night. He just flew around the city." She said.
"Oh." Was my response to that. I looked out the window thinking about what Pepper just said. I hope he isn't too mad. When we arrived at Tony's house there was this small built up of suspense as I wondered what he was going to do. Pepper opened the door for me and I walked into the house.
"It's okay Jarvis. Thanks." I said.
"Where is she?!" I heard from down the hall way. I looked over and saw Tony coming into the living room.
"You're in crutches! Pepper! You didn't tell me that she was in crutches!" Tony said loudly coming over to us.
"Tony, calm down. I'm standing right next to you." She said taking his arm. He nodded his head while he stared at the wall. Then he turned back to look at me.
"What happened?" He asked. I was a already a bit taken back by how worried he was.
"Tony we should all sit down first." Pepper said. He looked at me as if he wanted to say something any which he did.
"Sure let's all sit down." He said. Most of the time he just says things to be the last one talking. Tony then headed over to the couch and Pepper and I followed after him. When we sat down I proceeded to tell them what happened to me from start to finish. Minus the flames on the my fingers. I think that it would be best to continue to be silent about it.
By the end of the day it was decided that I would ware a special bracelet that tracked me. Which was kind of missed up, even Pepper didn't fight him much on that. I was only missing for one day people. I wasn't an escaped convict.
Hello my wonderful readers! I hope that you all really enjoyed this chapter I worked really hard on it. And a special shout out to Rubi Yuki for being such a great reviewer! Thank you! Oh! And don't forget to review this chapter! Reviews really do push me to write more. So, see you guys next time! Review my pretties!
