Shortest fucking Chapter. I'm so sorry. Thank you for being patient with me and if I can hype myself up enough to post the next one ASAP, I will. I need the serotonin that T. Rycbar has been stealing from me.

IDon'tOwnMarvel

"Happy you better have a damn good reason to be calling me during my beauty sleep." Tony grumbled, actually sitting in the garage and not sleeping at all. Of course, Happy didn't need to know that part.

"There was an explosion at the theatre." Happy explained in an uncharacteristically worried voice. "I'm in the hospital now-"

"You sound fine." Tony interrupted, glaring at the computer screen when it wasn't giving him accurate readings.

"It's not- just- Tony, I didn't know she was there. You have to understand. I don't know what she was doing there."

Tony froze and immediately tried to remember if the kid had ever actually come home. "Who?"

Happy pulled the phone away and shouted at someone before returning the phone to his ear. "It's Lincoln. She's here too."

Tony's heart dropped and he made quick work of the stairs, running past Pepper on the couch. "What the hell happened?!"

"She must have been out doing something but it was like she came out of nowhere-"

Pepper had been startled awake from the couch and sat up. "What's going on?"

"Lincoln's in the hospital." Tony explained quickly, pulling on his jacket. "I have to go."

"What? How?" Pepper threw on her own shoes too and ran out the door after him.

"Okay, Happy? You still there? I need you to tell me exactly what happened." Tony spoke into the phone, letting Jarvis drive them away when he put the phone on speaker.

"I went to the Theatre to check up on the guy I said was shifty." Happy's voice shook. "There was some sort of drop off going on and I-I got into a fight with this glowy guy."

"What about Lincoln? What was she doing there?" He asked, trying to coax an answer out of the shaken up man. Pepper was just listening in and staying silent.

"I was fighting the guy and she came out of nowhere and tackled the other guy with the case of stuff. I was thrown across the room and when I tried to get back up, the kid appeared next to me and threw me to the ground too." Happy was taking more erratic breaths through the phone.

"Take it easy Happy, we're on our way." Tony hung up and took control of the wheel, picking up the speed.

What the hell was she thinking? He ran his fingers through his hair, passing a car that was driving a little too slow. If that kid isn't dead when I get there, I just might kill her myself.

They pulled up to the hospital and Tony was first out of the car with Pepper still following quickly after him. He took her hand, walking up to the front desk, so she didn't get left behind in his panic. She didn't take her hand away either despite their situation earlier that night.

"Hi can I help-"

"Yeah, we're looking for a girl who came in here not long ago. She was in the explosion?" Tony interrupted the lady at the desk who really just looked tired. "Lincoln Patel."

She sighed and reached for a clipboard. "You have some paperwork to do first. She's getting treated right now for the burns. Are you family?"

"Legal guardians, sure." Pepper took the clipboard and sat down with Tony who was still anxious and tapping his foot on the ground.

"Are you going to be okay?" Pepper interrupted his thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm doing great. Just that the crazy delinquent I live with had decided to tackle a terrorist and now," He ran his fingers through his hair. "Now, I'm the idiot who can't keep her out of trouble. Kidnapping, running away, trapped in another fucking dimension, and now a bomb?! Pepper, I swear, if she doesn't kill me one of these days, someone from Fury's 'super entourage' might."

Pepper rested a hand on his shoulder while writing with the other. "I'm sure, she'll be fine. What's her middle name?"

"Ansari. Or at least that's dead-her's middle name." He relaxed slightly and brought his tapping foot to a halt. Why in the everloving fuck did she tackle a terrorist?

About an hour passed before they were directed into a room where Lincoln was sleeping. Happy had been placed in the same room and he kept looking over at her like she might run off again. "They gave her some of the good stuff for the pain."

"Is she going to be alright?" Pepper directed her question to Happy who still looked on edge with a sling supporting his shoulder.

"Yeah, I don't really remember much of what the doctor said was wrong with her other than that she should be fine after a little while." Happy winced slightly, "Tony, I- I think she might've known."

"Known what?" Tony asked back, not really listening all that much while he did his own visual inspection of the kid.

"About the meet-up a-and the explosion." Happy explained, then catching more of Tony's attention. "You said she knows about things that are supposed to happen, right? What if this was one of those things?"

Tony actually hadn't thought of that. Lincoln already predicted his suit malfunction and the lunch with Rhodey despite him knowing very well that she wasn't a part of the planning for that. She could very well know more too because he knew for a fact that there wasn't a single climactic moment to make a whole movie over the past few days.

"She was scared of the Mandarin too." He muttered to himself, listing out the possibilities of conflicts in his head.

Pepper frowned at him. "What was she trying to achieve by tackling the guy then?"

Tony thought about that too. Lincoln did say she couldn't tell them the future, but she'd try to 'mix it up a little bit to fix some things'. She was never specific with the topic and always seemed on edge when he asked about it so he just stopped asking. If this was something she happened to know about, she must have known Happy would be there.

He looked up at the man. "If she didn't tackle this guy, where would you be at the time of the bomb?"

Happy opened and shut his mouth, somehow looking even more freaked out than before. "I don't know. Closer to it? You don't think-"

"She could have been there to save you." Pepper finished as they all looked to the kid laying on the hospital bed.

Tony absolutely did not like the sound of that. Lincoln had willingly thrown herself in a situation where she could have very easily been killed just to preserve the life of a man they all were particularly fond of. There was no way she would have risked herself if everyone turned out okay in the end, right? It didn't make sense to even jeopardize the situation unless lives were at stake. Thus, the most likely conclusion was that she was there to rescue Happy. After all, kids don't really put their lives on the line for strangers.

Personally, Tony was never super fond of this prophet side of her, but with the most recent turn of events, he figured he wouldn't mind living with it. After all, seeing into the future had to have some perks.

"Ow, motherfucker."

Happy sat up quickly at the sound of that oh-so-familar voice. He quickly shimmied himself off his own bed and into the wheelchair. It was only temporary until his leg healed up enough from the puncture wound so that he wasn't shouting in pain every time he tried to take a step. He couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed about it though while he rolled around the curtain to Lincoln's bed. If Tony and Pepper were still around, he was sure they would've rushed to her side too, but alas, it was just him after he convinced them to go back and get some rest.

He noticed her alarmed and confused expression almost immediately while she looked around. When she looked his way, he tried to offer her a small smile that was quickly returned with a horrified stare.

"No, no." She shook her head quickly before looking around with tears starting in her eyes. "I-I want my mom. Where's my mom?"

Oh boy, He cringed, knowing full well both her parents were dead. Sure, he had no idea how, but they definitely weren't going to bust into the room last minute just because she wanted it.

"I want my mom!" She shouted, having already alerted a nurse who was trying to talk her down.

"Miss, please-"

Lincoln shook her head and then grabbed at her IV, only for the nurse to pull her hand back.

"Lincoln, come on." Happy pleaded, putting a hand on her arm to get her attention. "Try to relax."

She just jerked away at the contact and cried harder. "No! I'm not supposed to be here!"

Happy couldn't do anything then when two more nurses showed up and simply backed up to his bed while Lincoln tried to pull away from the two nurses that were holding her arms. This was not at all how he wanted this to go. Ideally, he would have taken the opportunity of her being lucid to thank her for saving his life, but that wasn't really looking like an option right now.

"Let me go!" Lincoln screamed, proving that the talking-down wasn't helping enough.

While one of the nurses put something else in her IV, she began to relax a little more with each passing second. When she stopped throwing her arms around, one of the nurses left and came back with restraints to more effectively tie the girl's hands down.

"She said she'd be here." Lincoln cried, looking as if she wasn't fully registering the situation. "I wanna go home."

Needless to say, he felt terrible after that. She didn't even seem related to the same kid that found joy in running circles around him and stealing his hat. Now she just looked...like a kid. He couldn't exactly figure out how to describe it, but something wasn't right.

He moved back up to Lincoln's bed after one of the nurses wrote something down in her chart and then left down the hall. Frowning slightly, he checked the clock before deciding that sitting closer to her for the next hour and a half was more preferable than having to worry about her waking up and panicking again. He kind of wanted to avoid a second round of that even though she definitely didn't recognize him properly the first time. It was almost a little scary how terrified she had looked when she saw him.

An hour and a half later, Pepper showed up again without Tony and carrying a backpack. She gave Lincoln a quick glance before turning her attention to Happy. "She's still sleeping?"

"Yeah," He looked between Pepper and the girl. "She was up earlier, but it got a little out of hand when she started asking for her mom. The nurses knocked her out again and tied her up so she wouldn't hurt herself."

"Oh," Pepper nodded, setting the backpack down beside the bed and moving closer to put a hand on Lincoln's forehead. "Poor kid. Always thinks she's got everything under control."

Happy hummed in agreement. "You know who she reminds me of?"

"Tony with social anxiety?" Pepper asked back with a small smile and getting a chuckle out of Happy. She shook her head. "Sorry, I can't stay long. The real Tony just threatened a terrorist and I have to move out before something goes wrong. I brought her bag though."

Happy looked over at it, sitting up to see better. "What's it have?"

"Just her computer and journal she keeps strapped under her bed." Pepper pulled her phone out when it buzzed and glanced at it. "Tony said she'd want it. I also threw in some clothes and her stress ball."

"That was nice of you." Happy muttered, much more focused on another part of her explanation while Pepper tucked her phone back away. "How'd Tony know she kept a journal under her bed?"

Pepper waved her hand up in exasperation. "I don't know. He probably wanted to read it or something."

"That does sound like Tony."

"I have to go." Pepper sighed, starting towards the door. "BBC news just found our house. It's almost like sharing your house address on the news is a bad idea. Can you tell her I left the bag when she wakes up again?"

"Will do." He watched as she walked back out of the room before returning his attention to the kid.

Maybe he couldn't bring her mom back from the dead or even properly thank her, but he could in the very least stay by her side. It did make him feel a little better too to know that she wasn't dead after everything that happened. He did wish he could've gotten a better look at that bomb for Tony though.