Miss Stark

R.I.P

     Emelia eyes flutter open slowly. She is blinded by the white hospital room for a moment. She blinks rapidly taking in her surroundings. She hears the beeping of the heart monitor over and over. She sees the the bag of clear fluid flowing down the long tube into her arm. As she starts to wake up more she wiggles her nose feeling the strange tube around her face. Emelia turns her head seeing Tony asleep in the chair. Bags were under his eyes indicating he hasn't been sleeping. "D-Dad..." Emelia stutters in a hoarse voice. Tony opens his eyes and freezes for a second.

"Emelia," he gets up out of the chair walking to her side. He looks at her in amazement and relief. "Oh my God! You're awake.." he hugs her tightly. "Thank God you're awake." Emelia grunts feeling him hug her so tight. Tony quickly let's go fearing he hurt her. Pepper walks in with some breakfast from the hospital cafeteria. She looks up.

"Tony?" He looks back at her. He moves revealing Emelia awake. Pepper drops the food and rushes over repeating Tony's actions. "Emelia! Oh my gosh, thank God!" once Pepper backs off, Emelia starts to push herself up to sit up.

"Careful..." Tony puts arms out wanting her to not be hurt any further. Pepper pushes a button moving the bed into an upright position for Emelia. She looks at her parents so confused.

"What's going on?" Emelia's voice goes in and out as her throat ached from thirst. Pepper grabs a small cup of water on a table to the side. Emelia took it with a slightly shaky hand and sips from it, relieving her throat. "So...why am I in the hos-" the events played in her head before she passed out. Her eyes pop and she starts to try and get out of bed.

"Em...don't you've been out for a few days...you need to take things slow," Tony tells her. Emelia reluctantly moves on the bed but sits on the edge.

"Where's Jackie? Is she alright?" Tony and Pepper look at each other. Their faces quickly faded from their happy visage. Tony sighs and takes ahold of Emelia's hand.

"When we came home...you were still convulsing on the ground. Jackie...wasn't moving," Emelia's heart sank. "We called an ambulance immediately. We tried reviving Jackie and as did the paramedics...." tears brim in her eyes as she begged for the worst to not be true. Tony squeezes her hand his eyes tearing up with her eyes. "There was nothing else that could be done...she....she died instantaneously from the massive shock." Emelia couldn't hold the tears. They fall down her face as she felt herself break apart. "Honey...I'm so sorry," Emelia cries turn to sobs. She felt sad on losing her best friend...but guilty as, it was her fault.

***

Emelia was released in time to make it to Jackie's funeral only a couple days after she got out. She was placed under close watch for awhile.

Due to the amount of electricity that got to her heart, her heart became weaker. The doctors managed to stabilize it but they gave her a heart monitor and orders to not try anything that would increase heart rate too much otherwise her heart might give out.

Emelia dressed in her best black dress for the funeral. She slips on the necklace she got from Jackie for her birthday last year. It was a BFF charm in half, Emelia fiddles with it as the charm would never be whole again. She walks out meeting Pepper and Tony at the front door.

The funeral was a small one consisting of Jacklyn's family and two close friends. Emelia sat between Tony and Pepper looking down at her knees. The preacher's words meshed together as Emelia fights the urge to cry. She couldn't bring herself to look at the open casket. It wasn't fair, she begged desperately for it to be some dream that she would wake up and it all be a joke.

The burial site was the hardest for Emelia. Each person walked by making their last condolences. After Leo, Emelia steps up. Tears blind her vision seeing Jackie's body. Emelia takes Jackie's hand stroking if softly with her thumb. Tears cascade down her cheek landing on Jackie's cheek. Tony wraps an arm around her, hugging her softly from the side. He pulls her away as Pepper sets down a flower on Jackie's casket.

Emelia's world was shattered. Her best friend is dead and she felt nothing but pain. Pain stood there but it faded from sadness to the dull pain of anger.