The Scholarship

Home

"This is your closet," Tony said as he led me over to it, he opened it obviously it was empty. Pepper decided that her and Natasha were going to take me out later tonight to get some clothes to make sure I got what I liked. "I figured you'd like a little bit of privacy for inventions so I have this." He led me over to a small part in the wall that had a panel over it. Popper the panel off, "Now the code if your birthday and..." he started putting some numbers in, "if you could put your thumb right here, " we stayed silent waiting for a beep, "perfect now you're the only person who can open it. Give it a try." I obliged and out came a large drawer from the wall.

"This is amazing, too bad I don't have anything to put in there yet huh?" I cracked a joke.

"Not yet, but by tomorrow you will." He smiled at me, "You know kid, you're happier when you don't have anything to worry about."

"Couldn't you say that about anyone?" I shot back and started rolling along my room to get used to it. It was a large step up from where I grew up, "This is a culture shock you know? It's weird, because tomorrow morning I won't be waking up in the apartment I spent my entire life in, It'll be here in a beautiful house with people who care about me. This could take some getting used to." I muttered and looked down. I heard Tonys foot steps walk over to me as he gently lifted my head.

"That's the beauty of all of this. You're going to be able to enjoy the kind of life you deserved and never got. Come on, let's get you back downstairs. One more week and you're out of this blasted cast and back to school so lets get as much down as we can while you're out yeah?"

I smiled and nodded at him as he got me downstairs with the lift that was temporarily put in for the wheelchair.

"Oh good Andy, I need to know your size so we can go. I know it's a hassle to try on clothes and bottoms aren't an option for you to try on at the moment. But I'd like to get clothes for you now before you go back to school." I nodded and proceeded to tell her my last known size. Everyone was talking about school and it only made me nervous. I had gotten close to Damon as well as his friends, and I didn't want to find out that everything would be going back to normal. Damon and I hadn't been alone since the picnic and I wasn't sure what that meant. I liked everything right now, and I didn't want it to go back to the way it was before. It was scary, and a little pathetic that out of everything I've dealt with so far that was what I was concerned for.

"Pepper, I haven't actually been shopping in years. I may be wrong with sizes." I tried to warn her.

"Well we're going to keep the tags on everything so we can exchange or return ok?" She said with a small smile on her face. I nodded wearily. We made our way to the mall, I did what I had done every time we found ourselves not at the hospital, I kept head down. People liked to stare when you were in a wheelchair. Heaven knows I've done the same thing plenty of times. While we were there I spent a good portion of the time just nodding a yes or a no when Nat and Pepper suggested something. They tried to make conversation with me but I really just wasn't feeling talking at the moment. Not when I felt eyes on me at all times. It really felt like an eternity until we got home and I made an excuse to go to bed early without dinner. Tony and Pepper both seemed unhappy with my decision but I assured them that I was just incredibly tired and wanted to go to bed. Eventually, they understood and I made my way to my new room and into the attached bathroom to brush my teeth and dry shampoo my hair. It was weird and didn't near make it feel as clean as it does when you're in the shower but my other option was a sponge bath. I made my way back to my bed and launched my self onto it the best I could without hurting any body parts. As I got comfortable and drifted off to sleep at 8:30 at night I heard a light knock at my door. Not wanting to talk I just let them assume I was completely asleep. The door opened and I heard the footsteps of someone getting close to me.

"Sleep well Andy," Damon whispered and kissed my cheek. I hid my smile until the door closed. I'm pretty sure I had the best night of sleep I'd ever had that night.

The next day Tony, Bruce and I were all in the lab. At this moment in time I was working on a pacemaker that Tony had walked me through making. This was one that would hopefully charge itself due to the core we had put into it. Mine wouldn't be put anywhere near people mainly because I didn't want to be at fault if this caused some one severe damage, or even death. But it was a start to something to help people. All I could hope is that one day I would be able to help people the way Tony does now. We all were so lost in our own thoughts that it was a shock to hear Jarvis let Tony know that someone named Hank Pym was on the phone.

"Hank Pym, I haven't heard from his since the early 90's." Tony muttered, "I'll be back." He jogged out of the room and went to answer the call in his office down here. Bruce and I looked at each other then shrugged. He would tell us about it when he was done.

5 minutes later we heard yelling coming from the office and a door slam. Tony came out looking angry.

"What's wrong?" Bruce asked putting what he was doing down.

"Hank Pym was a guy that I at one point in time thought would one day be a good partner. The way you and I are now." He motioned between him and Bruce, "Well one day he started going on about how he thought we could make an A.I. so smart that he could function on his own basically like a human. Kind of the way Jarvis is, but he wouldn't have a switch. We wouldn't be able to shut him off. He wanted to name him Ultron. I told him his was crazy. I understand technology is wonderful! But at this point in time, I had barely just started to work on Jarvis and that seemed impossible. Now it just seems dangerous. He had this huge plans that Ultron would be everywhere, able to save anyone from any situation. It all the computers, inside everything that generates electricity. I don't want Ultron in my fucking toaster. " He snapped and started to walk back and forth, "Well he wants my help again. Hank wants my algorithms for Jarvis. Saying he figured it out. That all he needs is the humanity of Jarvis and he will have it all figured out. Once again I told him he was crazy. Jesus why would you want that? I understand the good it could do, but all I can see is the bad that is could do to. The safest thing is for this to be completely dropped."

Tony went back to work like nothing ever happened but you could tell that it was bothering him. It was bothering all of us though. The amount of danger that could cause is almost unfathomable. I could only picture it getting into the wrong hands. We wouldn't be safe at all.