All I Want Is Everything

The plan

Wave hello to pride
on my highway
Yes I almost died
On a blue highway.

Billy Idol, Blue Highway

This is a little short, but it moves the action along anyway.

The next week found Ella in a hospital conference room with two other people. One of her conditions had been that any and all Barnes' had to keep their distance from this meeting. She would not be pressured, and she felt very resentful toward Mrs Barnes. She'd wondered whether Bec's parents hadn't planned the whole thing—Mrs Barnes to get her riled up, Mr Barnes to use her anger and presenting the situation in ways he knew would be more palatable—but didn't want to ask. She'd like an illusion or two in her life left.

Mrs Barnes hadn't tried to cash the check Ella had written her.

She felt like an idiot; the meeting had been scheduled rather last minute after she was done with her music classes, no time to drop off her acoustic guitar, and it wouldn't fit into the trunk of the Corvette. She had to drive with the top down to get it to fit, and she couldn't drive her Buick for awhile; it had been vandalized and was in the shop for body work. So the guitar was in the conference room too, undercutting Strange's impression of her professionalism.

"George Barnes says that you have a degree in mechanical engineering," the doctor said, his tone implying disbelief.

"Yes. New York City College. I passed the FE Mechanical exam on the first try." She sounded unimpressed with his disbelief.

"James Rhodes," the handsome man next to Strange said, extending his hand over the table to her. She instantly liked him more. "So what do you know about robotics or medical devices?"

"I did take a beginning class in robotics and a seminar in biomechanical engineering."

"Good, so you wouldn't be starting from scratch. I realize that your background isn't in prosthetics, so your role here would be to help design and produce the prosthetic arm for a rock drummer. I'm pleased that you're a musician; you'll be providing valuable input into the demands of drumming. I feel like we need to understand here that the ambition here, to provide a fully functional prosthetic, may not be possible. We're both interested in pushing technology as far as we can but it might not be far enough, and our best may be a less than fully functional arm."

"Right," Ella agreed.

"You know the drill, we'll be going through a few iterations, working with the patient to improve it and get the most functionality possible. I understand that you have a rather tumultuous history with the patient. Will this be a problem for you?"

"No," Ella said slowly. She'd thought about this ever since the Barnes parents had come over. "The scope of the project is limited. Plus he's a really good drummer. It would be a shame to the genre to lose that talent." Strange rolled his eyes, then plonked something on the table. It was a rubbery sort of arm, colored like orange sherbet.

"This is a naturalistic prosthetic arm. It's not functional, it's for the look of an arm. Another material that's common is a hard plastic. The functional ones look like a metal clamp. We want to marry an accurate anatomical design with function, but with a thumb and fingers. What do you think?" he asked.

Ella burst into giggles, horrifying herself. Strange looked affronted. "It looks like a cheap sex toy for a very specific kink," she said, then giggled again. Rhodes started to laugh but Strange looked put out and put upon.

"Fine, you can be in charge of the aesthetics," he snapped, and Ella brought herself under control.

"I'll be honest, I don't know how this will work," Ella said, sobering. "For functionality, we need a way of moving the arm forward and back at the joints. I understand that Bucky's shoulder is intact, which will be very helpful, but the wrist also rotates. I don't think we can fit hydraulics into an anatomical arm, and for drumming, he needs flexible hands and wrists and elbows."