Scarlet's head pounded, her skin burned and stung, there was a strong ache in her shoulder, her lungs constricted with every breath she took, and her backpack was digging into her back harshly. In summary, she was having a pretty bad day. She couldn't help but think so as she sat in the back of an ambulance with dozens of medics running around outside in a panicked frenzy.
When she had first come to after the explosion, she had to fight to find the energy to push herself off the ground. Her skin smoldered, parts of her arm were turning a dark angry red with splotches of puffed up yellow sores. Her shoulder had been jostled when she hit the ground and a gash on her forehead was dripping blood into her eyes, probably from when her head made contact with the cement.
The chaos around her was disorienting. There were crowds of people screaming and running away from the collapsing building. There were officers and firemen running around, trying to control the situation, along with medical personnel racing to get their patients to the nearest hospitals. No one had noticed her yet. Slowly, Scarlet had managed to slip her legs under her and, with the help of the once whole bench she had been sitting on before, she got to her feet.
For a moment, she just stood there. The scene was so shockingly familiar to her. However unsimilar it might have actually been, Scarlet could have sworn the smoking building looked almost identical to the ruined insides of a room she had seen only a few times before. She could hear the cries of the civilians morph into the shouts of mobilized Marines and distant alarms sounding.
"Miller, get your ass out here!"
A flash of blonde hair and a rush of action and words blurred together. Finally, An explosion. A kaleidoscope of red, orange, yellow and blue before static and the call suddenly ended.
All she was left with was a sorry excuse of an apology from the video providers, a request for her to rate her call and a sinking feeling of helplessness.
The time she spent inside the building was a blur. People ran past her and she helped lift rubble. In time, she had made her way to the third floor and had been trying to break-down the brick wall with a metal rod because she couldn't move the beam.
It was then that she encountered the two agents. She didn't remember what she felt at the time, she just kept chipping away at the wall. When it was clear that they were sending someone in to remove her from the building, she panicked. In a moment she had left the trapped people to the agents and went to clear the last two levels. She had found three people on the fourth floor and shuffled them down the stairs as quickly as she could, which wasn't very fast, one of the men had broken his leg.
The experience with Stark had been surreal. For a moment, he had convinced her to leave the man to him and get the hell out of the deteriorating building, but then a spark of rage ignited when the building shook again. She had already left those people to the agents downstairs and she felt shame because of it. She had abandoned them, she wouldn't do it again. Her mind flashed back to the helpless feeling she experienced only days before as she sat staring blankly at a black screen. She didn't want to feel like that again, ever.
The time between pulling the man from the wreckage and her being whisked away by medical professionals was a barrage of images and soundbites. She couldn't tell you exactly what transpired within that time but she could recall the acute fear she had felt while falling.
It was like every nerve in her body was on fire, she was shaking. The stranger in her grasp was forgotten as she was overcome by an intense sense of animalistic survival instincts. She had clawed at the air hopelessly and, for a moment, she had an amusing thought, 'This would look really cool in slow motion,' but then that moment was over and she was back to blindly panicking.
She had only registered the fact that Stark had caught her when her feet had touched the ground and she was whisked away by men and women in blue uniforms. She was still shaking now.
After all that excitement her body and mind were lethargic. She had a hard time holding her head up so she rested it on the wall and let her body relax. The cool exterior of the ambulance did wonders for her burning skin and sore muscles. She could feel the tenseness in her back and neck melt away until she felt like a puddle of goo. Goo that was sticky and slimy and dirty from the blood and sweat that made her clothes, as torn and ruined as they were, cling to her body in an unflattering way. She couldn't bring herself to care, however.
She was more concerned about her situation. The Avengers were here. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing yet. After all, it gave her the opportunity to talk to the man she had been searching for, but she was completely thrown off guard.
What could she say to the man? How on earth was she supposed to convince him that she wasn't some crazed loon coming off the streets of Manhattan?
Her heart rate increased. Her breathing quickened as she felt a strange tightening in her chest.
What would happen if she couldn't get any help?
What would happen if she couldn't find the one she was looking for?
Her fingers and toes felt numb and her mind started spouting questions and fears a mile a minute.
What would happen if the people her mother warned her about caught up to her?
What was she even running from?
The hair on her neck rose and her body started shaking.
How could she prevent this from happening?
Was there even a way to prevent it from happening?
Was she just buying time right now?
Could he even help her once she found him, if she found him?
And then she stopped breathing.
She couldn't see the world around her. Too trapped within her own mind and her own thoughts. Her fears unearthed themselves from her mind like a corpse from a grave. Raw and decomposed and disjointed, covered in the muck of the earth and mouth open in a never-ending silent scream.
There was a yell from a place far off, Scarlet didn't notice it until she felt a hand on her back. She flinched, her head banging against the side of the car. She looked up to see whose hand was on her. It was in vain, though, her mind couldn't process anything but fear at that moment. The sudden scare only threw her deeper into her terror.
"Breathe!" It was a command, yelled so sternly in her face that Scarlet took in a petrified breath. But it was hard. She was fighting a losing battle against her own mind. Dark splotchy circles flashed in her vision and she was hit by a sudden dizzy spell.
"Miss, you need to breathe. Don't think, just listen to me and breathe."
The voice was back, but it was softer, not as harsh. She tried again.
This time her breathing came to her easier than before. She tried again. And again.
Slowly the dense fog in her mind cleared and her fright abated.
"There you go. Come on back to us, girly." Scarlet looked up at the man who was talking. He had warm eyes that reminded her of her own mother, the only difference is they were brown instead of a startling green. He was wearing an EMT uniform, a worker then. His dark skin was covered in a fine layer of sweat, he must have been helping cart around the injured to different medical personnel on-site. "You alright now? Gave us quite a scare there." He reached past her and grabbed a blanket out of one of the bins inside the ambulance. "Here put this around you, it'll help you feel better."
Scarlet took it from him hesitantly. The material was rough and she didn't think it would feel to good against her burns but she wrapped it around her anyways to avoid being rude. The man was nice and was trying to help. It was scratchy but the warmth was a surprisingly welcome feeling.
"There you go. My name is Chris. I'm going to be right over here talking to this gentleman for a moment. If you need anything, if you start to feel panicky or your chest starts to tighten up at all, you call me over, okay?" The man waited until she nodded back before turning to the man he had mentioned earlier. Scarlet didn't pay them any attention, she was too caught up in what had just transpired.
She knew what her brain was telling her, but she didn't want to believe it. She couldn't have just had a panic attack. It wasn't possible. Sure the problems she was dealing with right now were stressful but not worth panicking over. There was no denying, however, the fact that she had completely and utterly lost it.
Fears that she didn't even know existed now sat at the forefront of her mind. They were topics that she had only thought of briefly before moving onto the next. She realized now that, before, she had been to scared to even debate these questions for any length of time. She had been running around blind, unwilling to deal with the real problems that were facing her and it had made her panic.
Her chest was tightening again. She needed to calm down. She didn't want to bother Chris again. He told her to breathe, so that's what she would do.
She breathed slowly to try and slow her still racing heart.
In.
Out.
In.
Out.
She felt her body relax again slowly.
In.
Out.
In this small moment of peace, while she was surrounded by chaos, Scarlet's mind wandered off like a piece of driftwood on the water.
There was the sound of slamming doors in the house. Jane ran frantically through the house, searching, slamming each and every door open and closed it again when she didn't find what she was looking for. She was still dressed in her work jumpsuit and her hair was matted. Her fatigue was on full display, shown by the dark bags that hung under her eyes and the deep frown lines on her brow and between her eyes.
Her breath was fast and her forehead covered in sweat. Her eyes glistening, full of worry.
When she had exhausted all the options in the hall she moved onto the living room, throwing pillows across the floor and looking behind the couch.
"Scar? Where are you mini-me?" Jane turned back around to face the room when she didn't find anything. Her eyes studied the entry and kitchen, looking for any sign of movement. "Scarlet come here, now. Stop playing."
Jane rushed into the kitchen, nearly sprinting. She started throwing open cupboards, looking in the pantry and under the sink. Desperately, she started looking in more and more obscure areas, places she knew that her daughter wouldn't be.
She was so focused that she failed to notice the base of the window seat swing out and a toddler crawl out from the small hiding space concealed within. She was around four in this memory. Her little strawberry shortcake dress was rumpled and dirt smudged on her cheek.
Quietly, her tiny hands pushed the door closed and she ran towards her mother. She grabbed a hold onto the thick fabric and giggled.
"Boo!"
Jane jumped slightly and whipped around to face Scarlet. In a moment she had picked her child off the ground and swept her into her arms. Her breath shuddered and she pulled Scarlet tightly to her chest.
"Don't do that, Scarlet. I didn't know where you were." Scarlet's smile dropped slowly, replaced with a childlike concern for her mother. Why was she so scared?
"I was just playing hide and seek. Izzy taught me how to play." Scarlet pouted a bit. "I just wanted to show you how good I was at it. Not even Izzy could find me."
"Isabella wasn't watching you?" Jane asked pulling back slightly to look Scarlet in the eyes.
"She was, we were playing hide and seek."
"I don't want you playing hide and seek, okay?"
"Why not? I like playing it." Scarlet's pout became even more pronounced. Jane leveled Scarlet with a serious look so her daughter would know that what she was saying was important.
"I don't like not knowing where you are. Lord knows the kind of trouble you could get into without someone watching. I like to keep an eye on you." Scarlet pulled a face. "What? What's that face for?"
"I don't want an eyeball touching me, they're slimy." Jane stared at her daughter for a moment, bewildered, before she started laughing. She pulled Scarlet back to her and rocked her back and forth, still laughing.
"I love you, you silly, silly girl." Scarlet giggled as her mother nuzzled her face into the crook of her neck, effectively tickling her. "Let's get that dirt off your cheek now. You look like you were digging around the backyard." Jane carried Scarlet to the bathroom and grabbed a rag to wash her face off.
Scarlet never saw Isabella again after that.
Her daydreaming was brought to an abrupt halt when she noticed Chris and another man walking back towards her. Chris leaned down as he addressed her.
"Alright, sweetheart. This man wants to talk to you for a bit. Are you okay with that?" The EMT asked gesturing to the man next to him.
It took her a few seconds to realize who the man was. She was surprised, she hadn't been expecting him to come and talk to her. His appearance was ruffled, creased clothes and hair askew. Scarlet thought she saw faint bags under his eyes as well. He shifted slightly as her gaze landed on him and sniffed quickly looking away from her eyes.
"Is that, okay?" Chris asked again and watched her with concern. Scarlet turned her attention back to the man and nodded. "Alright, I'm going to talk to a driver to see about getting you to the hospital soon. Those burns don't look to good and I want to get someone examining that bump on your head." With that, the man got back up and went off to do whatever it is EMT's do and left the pair in a slightly awkward silence.
Scarlet shifted in her seat and looked back to Stark. The man most likely couldn't take the silence for long because he started speaking after a few moments.
"So," The man clasped his hands behind him and gave her a slight nod. "That was pretty risky what you did." He shifted his head to the side, his nose twitched. "It was also pretty stupid."
Scarlet didn't say anything. She didn't know what she could say and even if she did, she doubted she could articulate the words. This was her chance to talk to him and ask him for his help, however slight the chance might be that she would actually receive it.
When Scarlet failed to respond to the comment on her recklessness, Stark cleared his throat in an ungainly way and pushed on.
"How did you get those burns?" Scarlets studied him for a few seconds longer, just to make him squirm.
"I got them when the explosion happened." She said faintly. She wasn't certain what had happened. She just assumed that she was close to where the bomb had gone off. Stark must have shared her reasoning.
"You were close to the explosion?" He waited for Scarlet to nod in answer. "Do you know where it went off? If it came from inside the building or outside?" Scarlet shook her head and looked towards the pavement.
"I didn't notice. I was unconscious for a while after the blast." In fact, Scarlet didn't even know how long she had been out for. She could have been out for a long time before the sound of sirens and screaming had woken her. "I don't know how long." She admitted quietly, answering what was sure to be the man's next question.
"Why did you go in to help?" The question threw her. Why would he want to know? She tried for an answer, but she couldn't come up with one. All her reasoning didn't make sense now. Her reasonings before had come from a muddled cloud of emotions and stretched comparisons between two very different situations.
She couldn't find the word to express what she had felt at the time. Even if she did, she didn't want to express them, not to this man. This man, who had indirectly split her family apart while trying to make the world a safer place.
So instead she shrugged.
"I don't know. I thought I could help." Was all she said. It was a simple answer, not one the man could question her further on.
"It's a nice thought. Leave it alone next time and walk away."
Suddenly, Scarlet got angry. She didn't know why. Maybe it was because of the way that he said it or what he implied but she didn't care to decipher that at the moment. He was one to talk, he dives head first into the crumbling building and tries to lecture her about helping out.
"You're one to talk." Scarlet snaps back. She is almost surprised by her waspish tone. Stark's eyebrows raise but his face remains stoic. "You go out and help people all the time and that's fine, but someone else does it and you tell them to buzz off? What's so wrong with me helping?"
"You could have hurt someone, including yourself. What if you tried to pull someone out and had more rubble land on both of you? Then there would be two people at risk instead of one."
"Better than leaving them there and letting them try to get themselves out."
That statement had an effect on the man. Stark recoiled a bit as if her words had physically attacked him. Stark looked back in the other direction for a second before turning back to Scarlet.
She tried to look around the side of him to see what he was looking at, but he started speaking again and her attention was pulled away.
"What's your name?"
"Scarlet."
"Last name?"
"Miller."
"So, Miss. Miller, have you contacted your parents yet?" Scarlet looked away for a moment, unsure of how to answer him.
"No, not yet."
"Why not?" Scarlet shifted uncomfortably.
"I don't have a phone." Stark looked surprised, Scarlet could understand. Someone her age, walking around the streets without a cell phone. It's not completely unheard of, just uncommon.
"Your parents are one of those kinds?" He asked before sighing and pulling out a sleek phone, though, it looked more like a piece of glass than a phone. "What's your mom's number?" He said swiping through his phone at a speed that shouldn't have been possible. He looked up when Scarlet failed to respond.
"She's on tour." Scarlet stared at the ground as she spoke, feeling a twisting in her gut.
"Tour?"
"Marines." Stark's eyes flitted with some unknown emotion for a moment before he continued.
"What about your dad?" Scarlet felt another pain, this one different than before, still refusing to look up.
"Not in the picture." Stark stopped flipping through his phone and looked at her through his lashes.
"Then who are you supposed to call?" Scarlet gave a half-hearted shrug.
"Ghostbusters?" She asked sardonically. Stark tried to control his smirk before losing it and letting out a small snort. Scarlet couldn't help but give a small smile as well.
"I walked into that one." There was a shared moment of silence between the two while each of them collected their thoughts. Scarlet could tell the man was getting restless, looking to get out of the conversation, soon. She would have to ask now then.
"Mr. Stark, I have a question."
"Please don't call me Mr. Stark, it makes me feel old." Scarlet ignored him and pulled off her backpack. Fishing around for a moment, she finally found what she was looking for.
She pulled out a small slip of paper. It was a thick piece of craft paper bent down the middle. On one side was elegant cursive written in gold calligraphy, on the other, there was a small message written in chicken scratch handwriting. It was an old invitation to 'Anthony Stark's 22nd Birthday Party'. On the back was a simple 'IOU' with a messy signature below.
"Is this you?" She asked cautiously while holding out the slip of paper. Her hand trembled a bit while waiting for the man to take it. He did eventually, with a confused expression. He held it up to his face, Scarlet watched as his frown deepened and he tilted his head to the side. He looked from her back to the card and back to her again, his mouth opening and shutting over and over again, like a gasping fish. He pointed the card at her.
"Where did you get this?" He asked, bewildered. Scarlet looked between him and the card stuck in her face, feeling something akin to hope.
"It was my mom's."
"And she would be?" Stark asked, not missing a beat. Scarlet opened and closed her mouth, searching for her words.
"Jane Miller." There was another lull in the conversation while Stark wracked his brain. Scarlet braced herself for the man's answer, even though it might take a while.
Surprisingly, it didn't take long.
"Tall, blonde, obsessed with old vinyl?" He asked slowly, looking her in the eyes. Scarlet's own eyes widened. How did he remember her? Be able to describe her? How could he possibly know about the vinyl? She gave a perplexed nod and Stark's eyes lit up with recognition. He looked past her, probably reminiscing.
"She was my first secretary! Well, the first one that lasted longer than a week. Wasn't very good at keeping my days relaxing, that is, she actually made me work." Stark stopped suddenly and looked back at Scarlet. "I didn't know she joined the military. When did that happen?" Scarlet was careful to keep her face blank as she responded.
"A while ago. How do you know about the vinyl addiction?" She asked trying to turn the conversation around.
"She would always turn on the player when I had to put in overtime and she stayed to help." Stark waved his hand, dismissing the subject, then looked back to the paper. "I assume you didn't show me this because you wanted to restore old family connections." Scarlet shook her head. "Then what do you need?"
Scarlet bit her lip, she couldn't tell him the entire truth. She didn't even know the entire truth herself. Heck, she barely understood what was going on as it is, but there was no reason to outright lie to him. So she strung a story together quickly.
"Well, I told you that my mother was on tour." Tony gave a short nod, listening quietly. "She doesn't exactly know that I'm here." Tony's eyes widened comically and his eyebrows shot up, Scarlet was briefly reminded of the one chick with the eyebrow from the Adam Sandler movie Just Go With It. "She never really spoke about my dad in the past and I became curious. I've been trying to figure it out for years but I've never gotten anywhere with it." This part was true, Scarlet could vividly remember the nights when she stayed up looking through the house for any clues that her mother might have left behind. Stark interrupted her suddenly, his mind running ahead of her words.
"Wait, you don't think that I'm-. That I-." He cut himself off suddenly and made wild hand gestures to convey his meaning. It took Scarlet's scattered mind a minute to realize what he was talking about. When she did understand, she pulled a face.
"Oh, no. No, no, not where I was going with this." She said shaking her head quickly to banish the idea. Stark let out a relieved sigh, his posture slouching a bit.
"Good, because my relationship with your mother was strictly platonic. I mean she was very attractive, very, very attractive, but your mother would never have let me smash-"
"Stop! God, stop it now, please!" Scarlet's hands flew to her ears and she squeezed her eyes shut as if she could erase the words from the memory by doing so.
"Just clarifying, go on." Scarlet shook her head again and took a deep breath.
"During the last tour she was on, I found that." Scarlet pointed to the small card. "I've been debating, for almost a year now, on whether or not I should try and seek you out to ask about it. If it was real, which I hadn't thought possible at the time, I was wondering if I could ask you to help me find him, if not, I would leave it alone from then on."
She stopped talking then, letting both of them process her words. It wasn't the complete truth, but Scarlet surprised herself with how much of it was true. She had never realized how much she had relied on that slip of paper. It was her only clue, only hope, to find her dad. She never considered that the IOU on the back might have actually been real. She just assumed that it was some random memorabilia that her mom had held onto. Why she could never guess, but her mother was strange, so she wouldn't have questioned it. Scarlet had assumed that she would have to try really hard to convince the man to help her, not that she had already, but she was suddenly hopeful. She had assumed that he would have laughed her off and walked away at the mere mention of what she was asking of him.
She had assumed a lot of things.
She didn't notice the way Stark's racing thoughts were reflected in his eyes, nor how his finger had started tapping incessantly on the card in his hand. After a moment of his fidgeting, he held up his phone again and began typing rapidly. Scarlet was too occupied with her own thoughts at the moment to care.
"I'll tell you what," Stark spoke suddenly, Scarlet turned her attention back to him. "How about we get you all patched up and then we see what I can do for you. After all," He waved the paper around before handing it back to her. Scarlet took it and pulled it to her chest. "I owe your family a favor."
Scarlet blinked owlishly up at him. What was he saying?
"I'm going to find that EMT and tell him that I'm going to take you to get looked at. They'd probably send you to Presbyterian, you'd most likely end up worse off." Before Scarlet could say anything, he was off and into the masses to find Chris.
Her mind spun and went blank.
Had he just agreed? Scarlet's ears were telling her this but her brain was still trying to process. This was really happening. He was going to try and help her find him. Scarlet had only hoped she would come this far. Now her insides were twisting and jumping in a mixture of anticipation and anxiety.
Would they be able to find him? If they did, what could she do? What would happen if they couldn't find him?
No.
Scarlet cut off her thinking before she could slip back into her previous state of panic. She wouldn't let that happen again. Her situation was getting better, she was halfway there. There was no need to drown herself in the 'what ifs'.
It was then that Stark came back. He had the young EMT in tow and looked like a man on a mission. Chris stood next to her and started taking her vitals and checking her eyes and head. Scarlet looked to Stark in confusion for a moment before Chris started speaking to him.
"She should be alright to ride in a car. I'd recommend taking it easy wherever you go, but she should get to a hospital as soon as possible." The younger man stepped back and faced the billionaire. "Other than that, she's free to go." Stark gave a sharp nod and walked towards the edge of the barricade, only pausing for a moment to gesture for Scarlet to follow behind him.
Scarlet stood up slowly, her head swam for a moment before settling. She placed the blanket back in the back of the ambulance and turned to Chris.
"Thank you for helping me earlier." She said quietly, unable to meet the gaze of the man. She was embarrassed over what happened, she didn't want to mention it, but she felt the need to acknowledge the help he had given her. Chris gave her a warm smile and a nod before turning to help another person get sent off to the hospital.
She looked around to see where Stark had gone, he hadn't stopped walking after motioning for her to follow, she hoped she hadn't lost him already. She spotted him at the barricade, watching her from afar. Another man stood next to him, he was taller with big burly shoulders and sunglasses over his eyes. He spoke quietly with Stark as she approached.
When she was within earshot their conversation ended and the man opened the door for her and Stark. As she slid in, she heard another voice.
"What are you doing, Stark?" The voice was unfamiliar and Scarlet couldn't see who it was from where she sat. She had a hunch that it was one of his team members who addressed him, however, who else here would question him? Stark turned to face the man who spoke while halfway into the car.
"Sorry dearest, I've got to go. Something came up. Catch up with you guys later, though. Tell me how it went." With that, Stark got in and the door shut with a soft thud. Scarlet could hear the faint call for the inventor from outside. Moments later, the car started and turned onto the streets of Manhattan. Stark busied himself with his phone, once again swiping through the screen, his thumbs a blur.
The two were silent once again, though, this time, it was Scarlet who was fidgeting because of it. She didn't know where they were going or what was going to happen next. It made her uncomfortable. Throughout a large portion of her life, she hadn't had a parental figure in her life. The only person who could've filled that position was overseas for three quarters of the year and working the night shift for the rest of it.
Without a steady parental influence or guardian to watch over her, Scarlet found herself able to start making her own choices. It was such a difference from the overprotective shell of her mother, she was thrown by the complexities of navigating through everyday obstacles. She was only ten when her mother went to join the military and Margaret hadn't come into her life until she was fourteen. By then, Scarlet had learned how to skillfully navigate through everyday life without any guidance whatsoever from an adult.
She had gotten used to calling her own shots over time, she knew exactly what was going on at every moment of the day. At this moment, however, she didn't and she didn't like it.
"Where are we going?" She finally asked, looking away from the window and towards the man she was addressing. By then they were in Midtown. Towers loomed over them, casting huge shadows as the car cruised down the streets. Stark bobbed his head up from his phone.
"I told you. I'm going to get you checked out by people who actually know what they are doing, then we're going to see what I can do for you." After the billionaire had finished speaking, he brought his attention back to his phone.
"Yeah, but where?" Scarlet pressed. She didn't know much about the hospitals in the area, and knowing the name of the one she was going to wasn't going to help her all that much. Even though that might be true, however, she felt a certain sense of security when she knew what was up. The car rolled to a smooth stop and the driver yelled back.
"We're here boss." The driver got out and moments later the door opened. Stark exited without answering her, still glued to his phone. Scarlet scrambled over, trying to get out and ask the man again, but when she got out she finally noticed where they were.
She looked up at the massive building she stood before only hours ago. Avengers Tower was certainly something to look at, while it may not have been too easy on the eyes, it was still impressive. It was huge and thanks to the great media team at SI, everyone knew that the building was completely green. It was awesome, in the original definition of the word and not the modernized version. As the sun started to fall, the windows of the high-rise glinted and reflected the city around it, creating a beautiful, but slightly abstract, picture. Maybe the building wasn't as gaudy as she had originally thought.
Stark had started walking again. Up the steps and to the doors of the building. Scarlet raced after him. Her heart started pounding, the panic and anxiety she had felt that morning came back to her in a wave. Scarlet took a deep breath to ground herself before pushing forwards. Not giving herself any time to think about any consequences her mind could create, she followed the man past the threshold of the building and through the lobby. She let herself wonder for a second how the man ahead of her was able to navigate through all the people inside while still on his phone. The agents moved around her, barely any of them giving her the time of day. A couple people looked back at her when they noticed she was with Stark, but then they were quickly pulled away by their work.
It was over in a moment. The two were into an elevator placed at the back of the lobby and the doors were closing before Scarlet had time to catch her breath. In the strange calm of the moment, Scarlet found herself amused by her next thought.
'Well, that was rather anti-climatic.' A small smile slipped onto her face as she mused over the truth of that statement. She felt like laughing as an odd weight slipped off her shoulders. Looked like today was her lucky day, minus the whole explosion thing that is. And getting lost in the zoo. And her panic attack.
Okay so maybe it wasn't much of a day, but still.
Suddenly a thought occurred to her as she finally noticed that the sleek, modern interior of the building was very different from the white, sterile look she thought she was arriving at moments earlier.
"I thought you said that you were going to bring me to a hospital?" She asked, voicing her confusion.
"And I thought I told you that they might hurt you more than help you." Stark didn't miss a beat before answering, still on his phone. "Jarvis, take us to the med level."
"Of course."
The ceiling was talking.
Scarlet didn't jump, she didn't scream, she didn't geek out, she didn't do any of the things that she thought she might have done. Instead, she stood there, gaping at the ceiling until she felt the carriage start to rise. She then pointed, with a shaky finger, and turned to the only other occupant.
"Your ceiling is talking." Right then and there, Scarlet wanted the world to swallow her whole. She wanted nothing more than to be able to disappear under her giant stuffed comforter at home and deny the fact that she ever existed because of course the man would know that his ceiling was talking. She doubted the man had a look of surprise on his face right now as his elevator spoke back to him. In fact, as Scarlet looked up at his face, he looked quite entertained.
"You don't say?" He asked sarcastically. Scarlet glared at the man before frowning. "That's Jarvis, my AI. If you have any questions, ask him. J, this is - umm." The billionaire paused, then looked at Scarlet once again.
"Scarlet." She answered before the man had time to ask.
"Right, Scarlet Miller."
"Delighted to make your acquaintance, Miss. Miller."
Scarlet lit up with excitement. This was the AI that Stark had created? She had heard about it before but she never thought that she would ever have the chance to interact with it, or even an AI in general. It was so sophisticated, it sounded completely human.
"Shall I run protocol NA-021, Sir?"
"Yes, Jarvis. Cross-reference with JM-93 and send the results to my phone as you get them."
"As you wish."
The doors opened and Stark exited with Scarlet following behind slowly. She looked around and found medical staff and equipment everywhere. It looked like the whole floor was a dwarfed hospital. Stark finally put his phone back into his pocket and gave the floor a once-over.
"You have a miniature emergency room in your tower?" Scarlet asked, not looking at the man, preferring to look around. There was even a little waiting area where workers sat waiting for their turn.
"Are you kidding? Usually, half this tower is for R&D. Believe it or not, not everyone who works here is as careful as me."
Scarlet glanced at the man's hands, there were old burns and scars on them, not very noticeable but still there. Scarlet felt dubious about his last statement after she noted the state of his hands.
"The standard for safety must be very low then." Scarlet muttered, not loud enough for anyone to hear her.
"Let's get you looked at." The inventor said as he snagged a man in a white lab coat. "Doc, I need your expertise real quick." The man he spoke to blinked owlishly through his large spectacles as he turned around. Stark began to cart off the older man in the direction of one of the patient cubicles, the other following, bewildered. Scarlet sighed and trudged after the men.
This was going to take a while.
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Hey, guys! This chapter is huge! It took two extra days to get it written and edited, ugh. I wanted to get it done sooner but I didn't want the quality of the writing to suffer so I took the extra time to make sure everything was right. I got Grammarly, it's a god. It doesn't work completely but it's better than the grammar check on Google Docs.
So Scarlet and Tony finally meet! Yay! I had a fun time writing their conversation. I believe that these two people are very awkward in their own special ways so it was fun to see that play out. I'm excited about the next chapter. It's amazing how much this story has changed from what I had originally posted. I think it's a lot better now and I can enjoy reading it, instead of cringing.
Tell me what you guys thought. I would love to read your comments and suggestions. What do you think about the direction the story is going in? Do you have any hunches? What about the story is good or bad? Feedback is a great thing! Please like it if you liked if you'd like. Follow the story, or don't. I mean, it'd be nice. I'll see you guys next time!
~Insiga