Alive

Chapter 9 - Payments

Andrea POV

What the fuck?

Why is there a billionaire Avenger at my door?

"Dr Andrea Collins, good to meet the woman who apparently saved my life, Tony Stark, but I'm guessing know that." He sticks out his hand for me to shake, which I do after a minute of wrapping my head around the fact that this is real.

Why is he here, did Miss Romanoff tell him?

No that can't be it, he probably wouldn't have knocked on the door if he was here to attack.

He walks past a shocked Maddy and a freaked out me and makes himself at home sitting on the sofa while Mrs Potts smile apologetically and enters behind him.

"Maddy can you go watch tv in my room." She takes a moment before slowly nodding and walks away without taking her eyes off Mr Stark, probably thinking this is a dream or something.

"Nice place, not as big as mine obviously, any of my houses, but this is adorable I can see Cap liking this." Why is he talking about the size of my flat? Did he come here just to boost his, already immeasurably big ego?

Mrs Potts also seems confused about where he is going with this so she coughs in hope of bringing him back on track, but he doesn't seem to get it so I have to interrupt him while he's staring at my small tv, old laptop, and tiny phone in disdain.

"Why are you both here?" I'm trying not to sound too rude but it's hard to be nice when he just waltzed into my home with no explanation as to why.

"Right, well our friendly neighbourhood spider has told me everything you've done for us, and the hospital pointed to you when I asked who is responsible for saving the redheaded ninjas life," he looks around once again. "And you are clearly not getting paid enough, so we want you to be the Avengers doctor." He finishes with a smile while I probably look mortified.

"Uhh." What is the nicest way to say fuck no?

"Obviously you would be living with us, and your friend and animals can come too," he says looking at the happy little puppy and annoyed kitty staring at him with judgment, "and you will be paid generously, plus you will be in the company of Avengers which is a payment in itself."

I do my best to hide my shock, the disbelief threatens to show as I think over what he had just said and try to decide what best ways to tell him to go to hell.

"I'm honoured but-"

"Yes you are, now let's get going." Mr Stark interrupts and stands to his feet, looking ready to get out of my flat.

"Tony I think that the 'but' in her sentence says she was going to reject your offer." Stark looks like a child who was just denied candy, which is a mix between offended and appalled.

"Then I'll jack up the offer, you can get weekly massages by Wilson, and your nails can be done by a witch." I'm honestly a little tempted by the offer of free massages.

"Tony, you can't offer your teammates as payments." Pepper tried to reason with him but he seems to be thinking of what skill every teammate can contribute to getting me to agree.

He then goes on to list everything they will do for me.

"You can stick magnets to Barnes' arm."

"You can use Wilson's wings to fly whenever you want."

"You can make Thor lightning at anything."

"You can fly in my suit."

"You can get Loki to turn you into an animal."

"You can shoot Clint with his arrows." At this point, he's getting desperate.

"Spider can take you for a swing around the city."

"You can do anything you want with Steve."

"Or you can do anything you want with Natasha."

"You can trap Thor with Hulk and see what happens."

"You can use Steve's shield as a sledge."

"You can steal Barnes's arm and watch him run around for it."

"Or stick a magnet to the ceiling and see what happens."

"You can-"

"Ok! It's pretty clear I'm perfectly happy at the hospital saving hundreds of lives instead of patching up a few cuts. Goodbye Mr Stark, Mrs Potts." I practically shove Tony out the door with the help of his wife and give them a wave before shutting the door in their faces.

"Are they gone?" Maddy meekly peaks out from behind my bedroom door, she was almost definitely eavesdropping the entire time.

"Yes Mads they're gone, are you ok?" She sits back on the sofa and I join her, she is pretty shaken up from that whole incident.

I start to make some hot chocolate to relax us both while Maddy strokes Hestia, the purring cat calms her down.

"Why didn't you take it." I freeze at the question before continuing to make the hot drink.

"I didn't think you living in a superhero's home would be safe, they could be attacked or something, and as I said to Stark, I prefer to help the casualties of the Avengers wars." It is half the truth, I am concerned about Maddy's safety, though it is clear Natasha Romanoff won't harm Maddy, but if she got involved with the Avengers then she would most definitely suffer.

A knock on the door makes me halt on dropping marshmallows into the hot chocolate.

"I got it, you get the whipped cream." She does as told and puts only a smidge on mine and an extreme amount on her own.

She is my little sister and I love her but she better not mess with my hot chocolate ever again.

I open the door to see no one there but a huge white package with a bow on it.

"What is it?" Maddy calls from the kitchen.

"No clue." I bring it inside and set it on the coffee table in the living room, where Maddy joins me with the drinks.

"Can I undo the bow?" I nod my head and she instantly lunges for it.

Once the bow is gone the package opens to reveal a large tv, laptop, and phone with a sticky note on it.

"Thought you could use an upgrade.
P.s my AI is on there, his name is Jarvis.
Xx Stark."

I take the note and show Maddy with a sigh.

"He really doesn't give up, does he?"

"Nope."