My Life with the Avengers

The Visitor

The next morning, I woke up to my phone ringing on my nightstand.

"Hello...?" I answered groggily.

"Hi Jackie." Caleb said on the other end. "How are you feeling?"

"Better than last night." I told him. "No concussion but Bruce said I've got two cracked ribs. He's giving me an x-ray today."

"Is he a doctor?"

"Yeah."

"Cool." Caleb said. "Oh, my mom wanted me to ask you what time you and your uncle are coming to get me."

I looked at my alarm clock and saw that it was 10:30. I had totally slept in. "Probably around 11:30." I told him.

"You just woke up, didn't you." Caleb said. I could practically hear him smiling through the phone.

"You try having a two hundred pound raging bull tackle you with the force of a runaway freight train. Then we'll see how you feel the next morning." I forced myself to get out of bed and headed downstairs.

"I think I'll pass on that one, thanks." Caleb said.

"Yup. Thats what I thought." I said as Bruce walked into the kitchen. "Jackie," Bruce said. "Can you come down to the lab please? I need to take your x-rays."

I nodded. "I've gotta go, Caleb. I'll call you when I'm on my way over."

"Okay, see ya."

I hung up the phone and followed bruce downstairs. "How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Better, but still really sore." I told him as he got the machine set up.

"Alright, hold still." Bruce said. The machine went off twice and Bruce pulled up the pictures. "That's strange."

"What?" I asked.

"Last night, I distinctly felt fractures in your ribs. But the x-rays show that they're fine."

"And thats... bad...?"

"No, in fact, its great. Its just strange, thats all."

"So we're good?"

Bruce nodded. "But you may want to ice your ribs. And your face."

"My face?"

Bruce raised an eyebrow and I could see some amusement in his eyes. "Have you looked in the mirror since last night?"

I shook my head and he turned on a built in camera on one of the computers. "Oh man." I said , seeing my face. My right eye was black and blue with a cut running through my eyebrow, my lower lip and been cut and was slightly swollen and I had a large bruise on my left cheek.

"If the bruising hasn't gone down by monday, then you don't have to go to school."

"Bruce, I love that you care so much, but I'm going to school. The only reason I wouldn't be would be if I was in the hospital."

"Alright," Bruce said. "Now, you'd better go remind Tony that Caleb's coming over."

"Will do." I said. I told Tony, who had nearly forgotten and then got dressed. After grabbing a doughnut from the kitchen, Steve and I drove over to Caleb's house. His mom opened the door when I knocked. "You must be Jackie," she said with a smile. "Caleb is just finishing up getting ready. Come on in."

I smiled and walked in. "Thanks." Their front room was very cozy in style. There was a table by the door next to me with a bunch of family photos on it. A couch stood against the left wall with another couch across from it and with a coffee table in the middle. There was also a small piano on the far wall and a downward staircase was on my right.