Silver Death

Room of Dust

They stare at me. Pepper doesn't  say a single thing. Fury on the other hand asks if I hate him for it. "Of course not. He was after all under the influence of his words."

"Aly?"
"Yes Pepper?"
"Why have you been acting as if you really are seven?"
"I'm not sure. I know how old I really should be, but I feel like I should be seven."

She looks away from me and at the table, "should I stop getting colouring books then?"
Looking at the floor I mutter "No. They're fun."

Fury gives a light chuckle "so, what were you doing in the lab?"
"Checking some stuff." He raises an eyebrow "I have some tests running, I just wanted to know a few things about myself. Sorry for not telling you Pepper."

"Am, am I allowed to see what your working on?"
"Yah if you want."

I turn and head back to the elevator, holding the doors until the others make it in. When the do I speak up "Um, how long until the others get back?"

Thy glance to each other, Pepper looks down and Fury looks at me. "How did you know thy were on their way back?"
"I'm not an idiot. Plus when Pepps personal phone rings during work hours and it's Tony's ring tone it's normally a good conversation to listen in on."

"Aly! Don't be listening to my phone calls!"
"I got curious, plus I'm out of colouring books to doodle in."
"I got two more yesterday."
"Oh. Good to know."

The doors open and the lab entrance is right in front of us, I walk in and turn on the computer.

"Hey Friday, can you put up the test results if they're in please?"
"Of course darling, one second please."
"Thank you."

Pepper looks at me while I'm bouncing a pen around, "when did she start calling you darling?"
"Don't worry, she's not hacked. Well she was, but not anymore."
"Aly."
"I hacked her, I got mad at Tony's name for me. She was calling me 'pipsqueak' so I changed it to darling."
"I'll have a word with Tony about that name."
"Thanks."

Friday picks this time to put the results up on the screen.

"Darling, you do not have any diseases, or disabilities. You have a mutated cell, unknown origin but probably from your mother or testing." My hand finds the place they always gave me needles, my thigh. "You are 35% American, 26% Canadian, 15% European, and 24% Russian."
"Thank you Friday. May I get a print out of my results?"
The printer beside the computer starts to whir, "they are printing."
"Thank you."

Spinning in my chair I face the other two "tada, my test results."

Fury looks at me "in a lab like Tony Starks you look up your heritage?"
"Yah. I don't use the bigger machines until I have permission, even then I wait for Tony to help."

Pepper leans on the table, "I could have helped you if you wanted."
"Pepper. You have a company to run, I'm already taking up a bunch of your time a day. This wasn't to hard, if I ever need help I will come ask."
"Okay."

She looks sad, "so how long until they get back?"
"Soon I think."
"Okay. I need Tony's help with cheering you up. You seem sad a lot lately."

"I'm fine."
"Okay."

I know when not to push her for information, this is one of those times.

Friday comes back on the coms, "the others are approaching the tower."

With a strained voice Pepper says thank you. Fury and I look at each other, with that oh no face. Pepper lifts her chin and lightly squeezes my shoulder "let's go see your mother." She starts to walk, not bothering to see if we're following. Grabbing Fury's hand I run to catch up to her, catching her hand as well. Let's go see mother.