Alive

Chapter 10 - No smoke alarms

Andrea POV

All week I have been receiving gifts and bribes from Tony Stark.

Me and Maddy will come home from an awesome day together, and there will be a package waiting for us, which usually contains some extremely expensive technology or jewellery.

I would be loving it if that stupid AI, Jarvis would stop talking about how great the Avengers are or how amazing it would be to live with them.

Also, I'm pretty sure that Jarvis is watching me on behalf of Natasha, who I keep seeing while I'm out with Maddy.

So I have been extra normal and not talking to my dead sister in my own house.

Though I will admit that Jarvis has been pretty helpful, he basically made a schedule for us and it is flawless.

He even updates me on the new phone I got about how Maddy is doing during the day whenever I'm out, like if she's doing her work and remembering to eat, stuff like that.

I begin to wake up to old classical music, instead of that god-awful beeping noise that makes me want to bring a hammer to the alarm every time I hear it.

"Good morning Dr Collins, it is 7 am on Monday, you are going back to work today, the weather will be cloudy with chance of rain, and Madison is making breakfast." Jarvis informs me from the new phone, and when I hear the last bit of information I jump out of bed, preparing to hear the smoke alarm.

"Don't worry, I have guided her through it step by step, you will be having eggs and waffles." Don't know how he knew about the incidents Maddy has in the kitchen, I'm just grateful he will stop her from burning down the flat.

"How long till it's ready?" I do a little stretch before tying up my hair.

"Less than 10 minutes, I suggest taking a shower while you wait, you have 30 minutes till the car will arrive."

"Wait, what car?" No one ever mentioned a car being involved.

"Mr Stark has arranged for one of his drivers to take you to and from work every day." Damn, that will save a lot of money not having to pay for an overpriced taxi.

I do as advised and get in the shower before the breakfast is made, the smell is motivating me to go fast, never thought Maddy could make me want to run to the kitchen without fire being involved.

I get out and put on my scrubs, I am worried that since Jarvis knows everything that's going on, that he can see me or Maddy changing.

I'm hoping AI's can't be perverts.

But Tony Stark has probably used Jarvis in the past to peep at changing girls.

Just hoping that now he's married and that one of us is a minor, he wouldn't do that.

I know I should probably have more faith in a man I know barely anything about, but if he is anything like his father, then I would be cautious.

Howard was a good man inside, but it's the outside that you need to worry about.

If he loves you you're relatively safe, if he hates you you're screwed, I was in the middle we weren't besties but he trusted me.

"Morning Mads." I walk into the kitchen with Jarvis in my pocket. He's basically just an upgraded Siri or Alexa.

"Andy look! I did it!" She's so excited, I love when she's happy.

"Yep, no smoke alarms or fear of death." I sit and she brings me a plate, it's not black or dismembered, so far so good.

I take a bite and it is, well, not right.

Are waffles supposed to taste salty?

I smile and hum, which makes Maddy smile too. I think with some practice it can be good.

I begin to eat the egg and it is much better than the waffles, thank you Maddy and Jarvis.

"This is amazing Mads, I'm so proud of you." She begins to blush a little and shovels food into her mouth to try to cover it up.

"Doctor Collins, the car is waiting." With that, I put as much food as I can in my mouth before getting my coat and bag.

"Bye Mads."

"See you later Andy." I leave the flat to see a limo.

Why the hell would I need a limo?

I get in the back, and once I do I completely regret it.

Sitting opposite me is the owner of this vehicle holding a martini.

Once I see him I immediately try to get out, but the driver locks the doors.

"Ah ah, not so fast, I wanted to take this time to convince you of all the pros of working for the Avengers, while we forget about the cons altogether."

"Do I have a choice?" With a laugh, he replies with no.

"My driver, Happy is here on request by Pepper to keep me in line on this drive." He looks pissed to have a babysitter.

"My answer will be the same every time, so I recommend looking for a different doctor, good thing we're going to a hospital full of them."

"Happy take the longest way possible to the hospital." I feel the car slowing down.

"Wha- no, Happy take the fastest way possible." He takes my order and speeds up again.

"Slowest." He slows.

"Fastest." He speeds.

"Slowest." He slows.

"Fastest." He speeds.

This goes on for a while before Happy stops the car and gets out, shouting to his boss that he is using his vacation days till this is figured out.

"Well, if he's leaving." I go for the door again, but this time Stark springs half his body through the divider to the front and locks the doors.

"Seriously? Come on." I am so fed up with Stark and his childishness.

"Didn't you say that the whole point of this was to drive me to work?"

"And I will, just hold it." I look up to see his ass, he is shimmying his way through that tiny divider, which he finally gets through after 5 more minutes of wriggling like a worm to land on his head.

"Are you done?" I take his discarded Martini and swallow it whole, if I'm going to deal with Tony Stark constantly badgering me I'll have to start carrying around a flask.

"Thank you for flying with Stark airlines, please fasten your seatbelt while we explain why you should work with earth's mightiest heroes." He says talking like an pilot.

This is going to be a long day.