Resilience | ✔

Chapter Nine

Marley jolted awake to the sound of the bedroom door exploding open. She bolted upright to find Tony Stark standing in the doorway, wearing black slacks, a startlingly white dress shirt, a black vest, and an emerald green tie. Green-tinted glasses rested on his nose.

"Time to get up, kiddo," he chirped.

Marley, not fully awake, threw Iron Bear at him. He caught the stuffed animal and chucked it back, a perfect toss to her lap. "Nice throw," he said. "Get up, get presentable, we're going places." He snapped his fingers a few times.

"What?" she mumbled, wiping grit out of her eyes.

"You can borrow clothes from Nat or Wanda, something nice but not crazy fancy," he said. "We leave in thirty minutes!"

Before she could even formulate a question, he was gone. She stared sleepily at the doorway. She'd been dreaming about something—she'd flipped someone off, and Jackson scolded her. Stupid and silly and not at all something she should be thinking about and holy shit we're going places, he'd said we're going places, we—

She lunged off the bed, nearly faceplanting, and dashed to the doorway. Tony was no longer in the hallway, but Natasha was, looking flawlessly put together in exercise clothes. "Natasha," Marley said, and she looked over. "What the hell is happening?"

"You go shower, I'll figure out something for you to wear," Natasha said, not answering at all.

"What for?" Now Marley was pretty close to fully awake.

"You'll see."

Marley crossed her arms. "What if I don't want to shower?"

"What are you, two?" Natasha cast a scornful look in her direction and vanished into her room. "Take a shower. Don't make me ask again."

Marley hesitated, but that tone of voice was not one to be messed with. She retreated back into the room and closed the door. She found shower supplies in various places in the bathroom and took a quick shower, despite wanting to linger. There was enough space in the shower for ten people and four showerheads, each with a knob to control pressure and a knob to control temperature down to the degree. It was by far the largest, craziest shower she'd ever been in.

When she got out, Natasha was waiting in the bedroom, several outfits laid out on the bed. "Choose one."

There was one with a leather jacket. Marley grabbed it without even looking at the rest and returned to the bathroom. The jacket, a soft gray scoop neck T-shirt, black jeans, a black belt. She changed, put on her mother's necklace, and rubbed out her wet hair with a towel, then headed back out. Natasha whistled appreciatively and held out Marley's combat boots. "Lookin good."

"Meh," Marley replied articulately, jamming the boots on.

Natasha made for the doorway. "Follow me."

"Do I get to know what this is about?"

"No. Bring your backpack."

They were ambushed a few corridors away from the bedroom by Beck, who hugged Marley and managed to whisper in her ear "Say yes" before Natasha hauled her away, ripping into her about keeping secrets. Marley would have been terrified, but Beck didn't look fazed. She actually winked over her shoulder as Natasha pushed her down the hall.

Say yes? What the hell did that mean?

Natasha, back from dragging Beck away from Marley, led the way through some more halls and a few rooms until she pushed open a door into a garage, where a black limo sat. "Get in," she ordered.

"Wh—" Marley took one look at the master assassin's face and got in.

The only other person in the car was Tony, sitting with his back to the driver's area, sipping out of a coffee mug. "Ah—Marley, how are you?"