DESTROYED | What They Made Me | part 1✔️

5 - thank you, mister Stark

The next few days where spend in the hospital. Nova slept for a lot of it and was on pain killers most of the time. In the few times she had been awake Tony introduced her to Pepper and they talked a little. But most of the time he just sat next to her. Letting her play with his fingers until she fell back asleep.

After the second day she had been more awake and felt a lot better. Tony had taken her outside in a wheelchair. She wasn't allowed to walk yet because her spine was a little damaged and the bullet wound might open up, but when he took her outside, she looked around her, impressed by everything. She probably hadn't been outside a lot.

There was a small park by the hospital. As they walked through it, Nova pointed at a little grass field, hidden in the shadow of a big oak tree.
"Can we sit there?"
She asked quietly, almost in a whisper.
"Course kiddo"
He pushed the wheelchair onto the grass that was seeded with small flowers in all different colors.

"Can I get out?" She asked, looking down at her feet. Tony let out a sight. "You can't really stand yet, so.." he trailed off. She looked at him sadly, scared even.

"It'll get better though. But you have to rest now, or it's only gonna get worse."
Her expression didn't really change.
He let out another sight before mumbling "well why not". He walked towards her and crouched down in front of her. She looked at him hopefully.

"Listen, you can't walk yet, but that chair can't be very comfortable, is it?"
Her eyes widened a little.
"I- it's alright, I- ehm it- it's fine..."
she looked down at her bare feet. Wiggling her toes nervously.
Tony's mounts formed into a small smile. "But if we're going to stay on the grass, you might as well sit down in it, right?"

She looked up to meet his eyes. A small smile forming onto her face. Her blue eyes glistened in the sunlight as her short, messy hair danced around her face in the wind. Her smile was exactly like his. Even though she didn't really look like him at first sight, the longer you look at her little face, the more you see the similarities.

"I'm going to pick you up, alright?"
She nodded her head, her smile still on her face as she stretched out her arms. He carefully took her out of the small wheelchair and placed her in the long grass. Her small fingers brushed past the flowers. She carefully took a red one, plucked it out and reached for his hand with her not broken arm. She open it up and placed the small flower into his big, warm hand and looked up at him with a big smile on her face. "Thank you, Mister Stark."

He gave her a big, proud smile in return. "You don't have to call me mister Stark." He smiled at the little girl. "Tony is fine." He hesitated a little. She seemed to notice and tilted her head to the side like a curious little puppy. "Or.....dad, if you want." He said quietly. She gave him a big smile as she carefully pulled herself closer to him. She winced slightly but kept smiling at him. She gently rested her little head against his strong arm. Tony just couldn't stop smiling down at her. He rearranged her so he could put his arm around her.

They stayed like that for a while. Until Tony got tired of holding himself up, so he carefully laid down in the grass. Nova looked confused, but when she noticed what he was doing she just laid down next to him. She smiled brightly at him.

"You have a very pretty smile. I like it." He smiled at her. She blushed a little bit, but her smile grew even bigger.

"Mi- Tony? D-do I have a-a real name? They always called me 001, b-but I don't t-think..." She stuttered and stumbled over her words. She didn't even dare look up at him. He quickly interrupted her. "Nova. Nova Maria Stark."

She carefully peeked up at him. His face had a small smile on it and he carefully rubbed her small back. "Maria was my mother's name. She would have been your grandma. You would have lover her, but she's gone." Tony shrugged, but Nova could see that he cared about his mother a lot.

"I-I'm sorry. I think it's a pretty name." She gave him a proud smile. But Tony just looked sad. She carefully moved her arms up to turn his lips into a smile. Tony made a funny face, making Nova giggle and hide her face in the crook of his arm. Tony smiled down at her, pulling her just a little bit closer.

The small sound seemed to have drawn the attention of some people. "Is that Tony Stark?" "Why is he here?" "Who's the little girl?" "Tony?!" "Mister Stark!"

A small wave of panic hit him. He couldn't get Nova in to all of this. Not yet at least. He carefully nudged her side. "Nova? We should get back inside. Can I pick you up again?" She turned to look at him and nodded her head. When she noticed all the people coming there way she started to panic. "Dad? Papa what's happening. What do they want?"

He picked her up and put her against his chest. He started to walk away while reassuring Nova she'd be alright. Leaving the wheelchair behind, he hurried back up towards the hospital. "I don't want them to hurt me. Please" she sobbed into the crook of his neck. Tony quickly put his hand on her head. "They won't. I won't let them I promise." Slowly her breathing slowed down and Tony moved trough the hospital. He managed to stay ahead of all the people and got back to the room quickly.

Pepper was already waiting there with the lunch she was getting for the three of them. When she saw Nova crying in his arms and Tony's worried look she immediately started to worry.

"What's wrong? What happened?" She asked hurriedly.

Tony told her what happened while trying to calm Nova down again. They hadn't really thought about the paparazzi yet.

They ate lunch first and Nova was exhausted. Tony ended up sitting on her bed with her while they ate lunch. She crawled into his lap and fell asleep quickly after that.

Through the window you could see the front doors. Pepper was looking out of them and told Tony there already was a small crowd with reporters and photographers. Nobody noticed her standing there yet. They were just thinking of a way to get Nova out of there safely when someone did notice Pepper standing there. They all started screaming for Tony, taking pictures or filming whatever they could. She quickly drew the curtains shut and sat down next to the bed.

A little while later a nurse came in, telling them that, if everything stayed the way it was right then, they could take her home the next morning. Tony called Happy and they decided they would get her out really early in the morning, so there would be less people there and it would be dark, so harder to actually see her. They also decided to take her to the tower for now, to be sure she was close by them while they could still get some work done, and it was a lot closer to the hospital. Just in case.

He shifted Nova slightly so she would be more comfortable. The little girl was covered in Tony's way to big sweatshirt as she slowly moved along with his breaths. Because they had a late lunch they decided to skip dinner and go to sleep early so they could get up early as well. And so an hour later Pepper had left and Tony was asleep with Nova safely against him.