Iron heart

four

After a week and a half, Isabella was actually worrying me. I had been able to busy myself with making her arc reactor, but she didn't have much to do. She handed me tools, but otherwise stared at the ceiling in a blank stare. Her catatonic state got me, but I couldn't shake her out of it regardless. I understood the shock perfectly, she had just been kidnapped from the life she knew without warning and put in a cave with a strange man.

She had told me little things, like how classes were about a month in and she had been studying way too hard for the exams. the way she described it, she didn't have that much of a social life. Just school, studying, and a lot of working.
She'd rather die than get loans, so she worked three jobs and had two roommates that she didn't really know though they had all lived together for two years. She hoped that she noticed when Isabella didn't return, but wasn't really sure.

near the end of the week though, she died of boredom enough that she got out the soil they had given us that was already fertilized and stuff so we could just plant the crappy seeds they gave us.

Which is what she was doing right now as I was waiting for the stove to heat up enough that it would work. we were sacrificing a pan and a pot for this but we'd agreed her life and the at most state of it we could do the sacrifice.

"Precious" I said putting in yet another stick of metal to melt into the pan.
we'd smeared the pot down in Crisco, olive oil, and soap and were hoping for the best. we were also sacrificing a cup which I'do molded for the shape of the reactor on the size of the battery still inside her.

"Yep" she called from across the wall of the cave
"Hand me a thing of palladium."

Walking over with garden gloves on she did so, her tiny fingers clenching the thing that held all of them together.

"Thank you princess, now you can go back to the little house in the prairie"

She sighed nodding going back. Today she was wearing sweat pants and a normal blank green t-shirt and a jacket. It was similar to what she wore most days, though from what I was figuring we'd have to start layering up soon. it was pretty chilly as of now, and at night we didn't even need a refrigerator because of how cold it got. It was early September and I could feel it getting colder, and who knows how long we'd be down here. If it kept getting colder as it was now, soon taking turns with the blanket wouldn't be an option and we'd have to share it at the least. Which might end up being another problem. Guess what else I found out though. Isabella is totally single.

She's said the last relationship she was in was when she was seventeen, but ending abruptly when the boy abandoned her right after her eighteenth birthday. I cursed the man, Isabella was literally one of the kindest most beautiful people I had ever met. Not to mention she was smart to, having skipped most of pre-graduate during high school through AP classes and community college classes. Had next to no idea what she wanted but knew a little bit about everything.

I could almost say the same thing about me at that age except that I was drunk and sleeping with everyone. Isabella was still very much a virgin, while I was a well known really not a virgin. But she was gorgeous with the beautiful big dark chocolate brown doe eyes, to her hair that was getting longer everyday that went down to her shoulders. Her heavenly smooth peach porcelain like skin that I actually wanted quite a bit to get tan so I didn't have to worry so much. We were both going to get really pale in this cave though.

Behind all the beauty though, she looked very unhealthy. the bags under her eyes hadn't lightened that much, I could still see her ribs and some other bones. She told me she went to Dartmouth, which kind of explains the pale skin but I feel like she was a bit too pale. But we were trapped in the cave, the other two I could help her with but there wasn't much you could do about pale skin when there wasn't that much sunlight.

I was glad she was doing something other than staring into oblivion which seemed to be one of her favorite things. Gardening would give her something to do if not just temporary. with nothing but instant food, we would have some other things making us unhealthy so the vitamins would have to actually be taken, and Isabella said that she could find a way to hide the things that grew in with the garden she'd put in our food.
I had been kidnapped multiple times as a child for ransom, not to mention my prolonged stay in Afghanistan. My mental state was a lot better at handling this, but from her behavior this was Isabella's first rodeo.

I wasn't at all surprised, most civilians would spend there whole lives never being kidnapped or being near a bomb, or being held captive. This kind of thing could shake someone to the core as it was doing to the girl I was with right now.
Having your whole life ripped from under you, it was taking its toll on her. She already had trust issues from what I could tell, and bring stuck down here with me wasn't helping. I wish badly that I could make it easier, talking helped but she wasn't good at doing that.

But I couldn't think about that anymore. the stove had finally heated up enough to the part where I could do something which was kind of dangerous. I carefully put the cup mold in the ice water and took a wadded up t-shirt holding to the handle to pour the melted metal into to mold. quickly I began putting the previously prepared palladium where it was supposed to go and pouring the metal over that too. the I sunk it into the freezing water pouring some of it. It would be some time before it was ready to put into her the wires were connected though so it would do it's job protecting her heart.

"Woo!" I called

Isabella walked over to the sink washing her hands signalizing she was done gardening for the day.

"What happened?"

"I finished" she smiled big

"Yay, now what."

"Now we wait for it to cool, and do the biggest trust exercise of all time replacing the car battery with it. then you should be good for the next couple months, and we'll go from there."

She looked especially happy, which was nice all things considered.

"I can't wait. the battery is always either too hot or too cold and it bothers me."
I smiled at her descriptions of everything.
"Yes it must be a joy. Then when we get out whenever that is, I'll have to replace it with the element. until then though we'll live with this."
She nodded
"Will it do anything to me."
I shook my head "I was much more careful with this one than I was with my palladium one. I made it special so there's next to no chance that you'll get palladium poisoning like I did."
Turning to her I smirked "all that'll happen is that you'll have a night light in your chest."
I went back doing a few things when I felt her come over and give me an awkward hug from the back and peck my cheek,
"Thank you, Tony."
I grabbed her hand that was on my shoulder squeezing it lightly.
"I'd do it again for you."
Then I let it go and she walked off as usual to the bedroom to rest. I felt myself gulp, oh gosh this twenty year old college student was getting to me. As sad as it was that one interaction was as close as I got to her since I cleaned her wounds back when she was still unconscious from the drugs.