Resilience | ✔

Chapter Twenty-Five

They swapped stories as they drove. Learned a little more about each other.

Charlie was seventeen and had been in the foster system since he was 10. His dad had been killed in action and not long after his mother's mind just snapped, unable to cope with the grief. She'd been deemed unable to care for him, and no one in his extended family was in the position to take care of a 10 year old kid, so into the foster system he'd been tossed. His foster agent before Jackson had had a family emergency, and now here he was.

When Marley asked about Jackson, about how he must have gone away so much . . . Charlie just shrugged, said Jackson hadn't ever vanished at a random time. Just went to work in the morning and came back at night. "I'm sorry I didn't notice," he said after a moment, and she tried not to feel too sad about that. "It wasn't your job to," she said.

She told him everything, starting from the car ride down from Joslyn and Phil's house, finishing with arriving at Jackson's apartment. By the time she was done they were only an hour away from the compound. They stopped at a gas station to pee, since Marley's bladder was full of two bottles of coffee and two bottles of water.

"So what's with the weird assortment of food?" Charlie asked when they got back on the road.

"What do you mean?" Marley picked up the last hard-boiled egg. It was room-temperature and therefore kind of gross.

"Like—milk? Cucumbers? I'm a little confused," he said.

Right. "It's nutritious," she said. "I've been eating mostly starch for the past six or seven weeks, so I wanted to get stuff that would put my body back on track. Oranges, peppers, and carrots for vitamin C, and milk and eggs and cheese and salami for the different proteins. Oh, and coffee to keep me awake."

"The cucumbers?"

"I love cucumbers," she said.

He watched her for a few moments. "You're really smart. I never would have thought of that."

Marley thought about the minutes leading up to her kidnapping and smiled wryly. "Not as smart as I should be."

He didn't reply to that.

The time ticked by, and the compound crept closer, and butterflies slowly came to life in Marley's stomach. Soon—she'd be home so soon. Home and safe and with Tony, with her dad. With Beck and Pepper and Steve and everyone. Imagine their faces when she showed up at the compound. Bloodied and bruised but alive. She was already smiling in anticipation.

Eventually, they made the turn into the driveway and pulled up to the gates. She leaned out the window and pressed her palm to the scanner.

"Authorized," came F.R.I.D.A.Y.'s voice. "Welcome home, Marley."

"Let's keep my arrival on the hush-hush," Marley said, wondering how an AI could make her tear up. "I want it to be a surprise. But open the door to Hangar Two, okay?"

"Sure thing. Who's in the passenger seat?"

"A friend," Marley said. "His name's Charlie."

"Hi, Charlie," F.R.I.D.A.Y. said, and then: "Come on in."

The gates swung open, and Marley floored the gas. They shot down the driveway, gravel spraying behind them. Marley couldn't help but whoop, throwing a fist into the air through her open window, and when she snuck a glance Charlie was grinning, enjoying the speed just as much as her—though probably for different reasons.

They swirled into Hangar Two and parked under the wing of a Quinjet. Marley left everything but the keys in the car and ran for the door, hissing curses with each step, Charlie jogging behind her. She burst through the door, paused a moment to breathe in the smell of the compound—the smell of home—and took off down the hall, turning corners and pushing through doors until finally she exploded into the kitchen.