In My Eyes

Ch•10- Not Menacing Enough?

      Pepper swiftly removed the helmet, tears of joy poured down her red freckled cheeks. She hugged the metal to her chest, half crying, half laughing.

     "He's alive Jessi" she smiled through the tears "we're all okay" I had already heard the message from my Father so I understood her happiness.

      "We're not done yet" I looked over her shoulder to Maya. She was standing where the front door would have been. A bloody gash sat un-medicated on her temple. When she met my glare, she started to step over debris to get to Pepper and I "what's going on?" I demanded once she reached us.

"Why are you here Maya?" Pepper stood in front of me, placing her hand on her hip.

      "I will explain everything. I just need you to come with me. We need to get out of here" Maya pointed towards Peppers car that was parked down the driveway, away from the demolished house.

"Why? Why would we trust you?" Pepper snarled.

      Maya breathed, looking down to the ground for a split second before returning her gaze to us "because I know who did this" I bit my bruised lip and played with the ends of my once hair. I didn't know if we really should trust her or not. She's probably the cause of all of this "please, look, I can fix this" Maya added, pleading this time. Her eyes, her body language, and even her voice sounded sincere.

     I gave up and shrugged "alright" and I walked towards Peppers car without giving a single care about the situation.

"Jessi?" Pepper sounded completely shocked by my decision "What are you doing?"

      "Anything is better than just standing here and waiting" I called over my shoulder, not taking my eyes off the path in front of me "and waiting for what? Our knight in shining armor to return?"

     "What are you saying?" Pepper ran up to me, dodging some waiting reporters with their microphones.

     "I'm saying, we have to take matters in to our own hands. Dads doing what he needs to do, and so are we" I reached the car and gripped the back door handle. Maya ran up to the passenger side of Peppers car and opened the door for herself.

     Pepper still continued to stand outside of the drivers side door in the dark, staring at me over the hood "and what are we suppose to do exactly?"

"Maya said that she could fix this" I slipped in to the car "so that's what we do. We fix this"

                                      ***

      "Why were you at the house tonight? What was so important that you had to speak to Tony?" Pepper drilled Maya with questions as we cruised down the road to an unknown location across town. Pepper drove, Maya sat next to her, and I was left in the back middle seat. It was like Nick, Kurt, and Dale from the movie Horrible bosses, and I was stuck being Kurt.

      "I think that my boss is working for the Mandarin" Maya sounded as if she didn't care that her boss was a terrorist "So, if you still want to talk about it, I suggest that we get ourselves someplace safe"

     "Your boss works for the Mandarin,
you think?" Pepper squinted her eyes but kept them focused on the road ahead. No cars were out at the moment. It was just us and the Pacific Ocean to our left "But Tony says you're a botanist. So..."

      "That figures. What I actually am is a biological DNA coder running a team of 40 out of a privately funded think tank. But sure, you can call me a botanist"