Battle Scars {An Iron Man FanFic}

Chapter 32: Extensive Research

A/n: This is dedicated to @snowpops_56 ! Thanks for reading and commenting :D I hope you enjoy this chapter :)

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Chapter 32: Extensive Research

Andy's POV

"Excuse me, ma'am?" I heard a voice say and my tired eyes instantly shot open. Before me stood the young librarian, she had sandy colored hair and a bright smile. The only falter to her appearance was an occasional lazy eye and a metallic right hand she always tried to hide behind designer gloves.

"Yeah?" I managed to say, my mouth tasting horrible.

"Your time has run out" she said simply and if I hadn't looked at the idle computer screen in front of me, I would have thought she was out to kill me. I nodded and collected all my notes from the weathered wooden table. They were all on small scraps of paper, the only free thing they supplied here except for water, bathrooms, and tiny pencils. However you had to return the tiny pencils. I stood up and pushed my chair in.

"See ya later Ms. Rachel" I said in a plain voice as I started to leave. She wore the same sneer the entire time and I couldn't really blame her. It's been half a week since Jaime disappeared and a little over a week since I left Malibu Point. If the park was going to open up its shower room, it hadn't yet. And there wasn't exactly an isolated creek with clean water that I could pollute without causing a chain reaction. Bottom line, I smelled, horrible. I tried to wash up in the bathrooms but even then it's not enough.

I walked out of the library slowly, still trying to wake up from my little nap. How could I be so foolish, now I would have to wait until my six o'clock hour to hit the net again; that is, if they let me. I spotted Al hanging out directly under the bench I had tied him up too, calmly patting down on a misshaped rock beneath his paw. I grabbed the rope from around the handle of the bench and untied him. I walked him quickly away with the crude leash until I crossed the street to the neighboring park. I let go of Al and tucked the rope away in my satchel, knowing I was in the clear.

The library refused to have Al waiting for me outside without a leash, it was ridiculous really. I sat myself on a bench that was in between the baseball field and the basketball court. Pulling out my notes, I started to remember something from my sleep. Numerous quarter pages landed on the very worn out wooden table and some fell through this large gap in the wood that I could fit my hand into. Even though my hand was reasonably tiny, it was still a pretty big gash.

I bent over to grab them and, as I picked them up, instantly remembered her face. I raised my head up as the image flooded my mind and hit my head on the bottom of the bench table. I cried out and slowly lifted my head out from under the bench. As I rubbed my head, I felt a small piece of gum stuck to it. Great. I tried to pull it out blindly and ended up with what must have been half of the initial goop. As I paused to roll up what was in my hands, I remembered the reason why I hit my head.

Looking for a free space of paper, I had one hand in my satchel searching for a pencil. When I realized there was none, that I left the one I stole at home, I made a small whining sound. I did not want to forget this picture, I couldn't. I searched the floor frantically and spotted a white ball point pen more than a few feet away. I called Al, who was playfully biting the untied laces of my sneakers, and told him to go run and get the pen. He did so and came back with it clenched in between his teeth. I said my thanks and he leapt up onto my lap.

"Come on" I muttered to myself as I tried to get the pen to work. As soon as my once invisible circles became inked with blue, I grabbed the blank side of a page and sketched out her face. Even though I was a horrible drawer, and I mean so horrible most people couldn't tell what I was drawing, I slowly trudged through. I drew her face, focusing on her eyes and her chin, knowing them the best. Her tummy, which had been so enlarged, looked ready to burst. I drew that to the best of my ability and instantly recalled a memory, a scene that played out in front of me.