Iron Heart [1]

Chapter 5

Pepper cried as she walked swiftly in high heels towards the hospital. Obadiah was with her and he walked a little faster than her. They walked through the front doors. The receptionist immediately spoke as she knew exactly who they were.

"She's in surgery right now, but should be out in a few hours. When she's finished she will be in Emergency Room: 7446," the receptionist spoke.

Pepper and Obadiah made their way to the waiting room. They sat down and looked to the Tv, hoping for something to keep their minds off the situation. They were sadly mistaken, however. It was a news report on the crash.

"Earlier today, a terrible accident occurred. After it was announced Tony Stark disappeared in Afghanistan yesterday, word spread to the Stark household. Adalene Stark, Tony Stark's daughter, was informed by Miss Pepper Potts and immediately left in her car, a convertible, to clear her head, a few moments from disaster. However at an intersection, she was t-boned by an 18 wheeler. Miss Stark was severely injured and immediately rushed to the nearby hospital. She was not wearing a seatbelt and was going over the speed limit," the reporter stated as she stood in the mass of what was Ada's car and the truck. "One can only hope we haven't lost the legacy of a national treasure."

Everyone in the room sent regretful glances towards Pepper and Obadiah. A doctor then walked out.

"Miss Potts, Mr Stane. I assume you two are here for Miss Stark?" he asked.

They nodded in response.

"Follow me," he lead them down the hallway to three chairs.

He motioned for them to sit down in the two on one side of the hallway, right outside room 7446.

"First off, this situation is very complicated, legally," he informed.

"I assumed," Pepper mumbled.

"She is stable for the moment, but it injured in very severe ways. Miss Stark has two broken ribs, her lips are sliced , her nose is broken, her jaw is fractured, there were a lot of metal bases in her chest, back, and legs. She has spinal damage, which could cause paralysis. She has a severe concussion, we can tell from tests. She is unconscious right know. She is waking up from the surgery. There is a chance she won't be able to walk again. We can do plastic surgery, but it will be up to you."

Pepper felt the tears threaten to fall from her eyes.

"We will allow you to visit her in her room, but be warned, she will look different. It is up in the air if she will need plastic surgery or not. If so Miss Potts is her legal guardian, so it will be up to her," the doctor stood and left.

Pepper and Obadiah stood and walked into Ada's room. Ada laid on the bed, eyes closed. Pepper felt her heart ache for her. The blood had been cleaned off of her face, but it didn't help. Her jaw was broken, so she was unrecognizable. It was obvious the doctor had sugar coated what was going on. She had other facial wounds and her body was contorted in a way. She looked utterly terrible. The doctor then walked in.

"I suppose you will want to do plastic surgery?" he asked.

"Yes," Pepper sniffled.

The doctor handed Pepper papers as she started to sign them. A groan brought their attention to Ada. Her eyes slowly opened and looked at Pepper.

"Um, hey, Ada. Don't talk, okay?" Obadiah suggested.

"Ada, so we are going to need your permission to do plastic surgery on your face, then you can look normal, okay? It that what you want?" Pepper questioned as she contained her emotions.

Ada lifted her hand above the blanket covering her from the neck down and gave Pepper a thumbs up.

"Can you sign this?"

Pepper held the paper in front of Ada as she slowly signed it.

"You'll be going into surgery tomorrow," the doctor informed.

Ada tried to smile. She closed her eyes and fell back asleep.

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Five hours. She'd been in surgery for five hours, but nothing had come out of that room. A boy ran in. He was handsome, with piercing blue eyes and longish locks.

"You're Pepper and Obadiah right?" he asked out of breath.

The two nodded in response.

"I'm Jackson," he held his hand out and each of them shook it. "I've been surfing with Ada at the cove, and we've kinda grown close."

"Well, I'm glad that Ada has somebody other than me, Obadiah, and Rhodey looking out for her," Pepper smiled.

"I'd help Ada out any way I could," he stated. "I'm sorry it took me so long to get here, I was on a film set with Dave and, um, we worked late last night, and I just heard about it this morning."

Suddenly, a nurse came out.

"Miss Potts. Mr Stane. Miss Stark is out of surgery. She will look the same, as if she wasn't in the accident. However, she will have scars from where they had to set her jaw back into place during the surgery where th e stitches are now. They will be faint though. She should wake up in about an hour. She's in her room right now and asleep, so you can visit her while she is out. In an hour a doctor will come in and do a check on everything," the nurse informed.

Pepper sighed in relief. The three walked into Ada's room to see her still unconscious, of course. She looked peaceful, almost. The only thing that bothered Pepper and Obadiah were the various tubes sticking out of her. Pepper and Obadiah took seats next to her. Pepper grabbed her hand and rubbed it gently. She looked at her jawline, which had stitches in it. She smiled as she saw Ada's beautiful face in a peaceful state, despite the stitches.

Jackson kneeled on the other side of her and took her hand and kissed it. He leaned close to her ear.

"Ada, don't do this to me please. I think I care about you, don't do this now," he started tearing up, but clenched his jaw to prevent himself from doing so.

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An hour later, the doctor came in.

"Huh, she's not up. She should be up by now. Let me check her vitals and do some tests," he noted, then called out to a nurse.

Obadiah looked at her. She lost her father and had this accident because of him. He is dead. Oh, she will have  so much better of a life, he thought to himself.

After several tests on her and checks on the machine that displayed her vitals, the doctor and nurse's eyes widened.

"What's wrong?" Pepper asked.

No response.

"What's wrong with her? We need to know," Obadiah demanded.

"It's seems as if she's in a coma," the doctor sighed. "If we can't get her out of it we'll have to take her off life support."

Jackson leaned against a wall as tears threatened to fall. He tried to control himself, stay strong, but he just couldn't. The tears fell, and he slid down the elevator,with his head in his hands. He couldn't deny it now. He did in fact care about her.

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EDITED: 6/16/19

AN- I was tired of getting comments about saying that it was too fast for Jackson to love Ada, but I had reasons to do that.

»Ada has never really interacted with someone her own age, so she latches on to Jackson.

»THEY ARE TEENAGERS. We all know about high school drama about dating, and we know how easily it is for teens to "fall in love"

Anyways, I was tired of it so I changed it.