Billy studied the ceiling for a long time, letting his mind drift in and out of what passed for consiousness as he mulled over Iron Man's words. His head still hurt, but he'd finally managed to get his hands on some wonderful, wonderful asprine, so it no longer felt like his brains were going to dribble out his ears. He closed his eyes and let out a very long sigh, trying to clear his head.
"Can I see the phone, please?" he asked, opening an eye to look at Eli. "I was supposed to call the parental units this afternoon anyway."
Eli passed the phone over to Billy without complaint. He wasn’t exactly looking forward to explaining to his grandparents that he’d gotten his shoulder cut open and was now grounded at the Avengers Tower
( ... )
Cassie closed her eyes. Please Eli, don't mess this up for me... Had Iron Man not said the magic words of "grounded" and "staying here" (and were she not feeling totally drained) she would be yelling back about how the Avengers weren't doing anything to save them, there had been adults there (hell, Chamber had shown up, and that Mrs. Xanathos person had been scary enough) but there was no way she wanted to mess this one up. Grounded from home sounded a lot better than being grounded at home.
Cassie was going to say something but instead glanced over at Billy and bit her lip. She ought to focus on what to say to her mother instead. She could only hope her mom wouldn't put up a fight when she told her about this grounded thing. What's she going to tell Blake? Cassie wondered. She went over a rudimentary form of the possible conversation in her mind. "Spending the week at her friend's house." "What friends?" Stupid Blake.
"I want to know about the school thing, too," Kate said. She drank some of the water next to her bed in an attempt to stave off the hoarseness she knew was coming and continued. "As it is my dad's probably going to home school me from now on out of sheer paranoia, but if he has to call the attendance office to tell them I'm going to be out for however long because of an injury that might have been prevented if you guys had bothered to train us properly in the first place instead of being arrogant enough to assume that a group of determined teenagers was going to do as you ordered and go back to playing at normalcy, he will. Maybe you're not the one directly responsible for all of this, but you have no right to be all high and mighty when your neglect contributed to the current situation."
Satisfied, she took another drink of water. Whatever happened after, at least she'd told off Iron Man and felt justified about it.
"Sounds to me like you've already figured out what you're going to do with us."
Teddy looked around at the rest of his team, his friends, and his expression tightened. Eli and Kate were being uncharacteristically silent, but he could hardly blame them; he didn't know what he was supposed to say, and starting a fight with Captain America ... it just wasn't ... even with all that had happened, he couldn't raise his voice to try to protest anything.
What was left to say, anyway? That he knew that they'd gone too far, that he knew they'd messed up? This time it hadn't even been their -- his -- fault, and still they were going to be treated like kids.
A week ago, a month ago, he'd have given anything to have the Avengers agreeing to take them in and train them. Things had changed.
Comments 16
"Can I see the phone, please?" he asked, opening an eye to look at Eli. "I was supposed to call the parental units this afternoon anyway."
Reply
Reply
Cassie was going to say something but instead glanced over at Billy and bit her lip. She ought to focus on what to say to her mother instead. She could only hope her mom wouldn't put up a fight when she told her about this grounded thing. What's she going to tell Blake? Cassie wondered. She went over a rudimentary form of the possible conversation in her mind.
"Spending the week at her friend's house."
"What friends?"
Stupid Blake.
Reply
Satisfied, she took another drink of water. Whatever happened after, at least she'd told off Iron Man and felt justified about it.
Reply
Teddy looked around at the rest of his team, his friends, and his expression tightened. Eli and Kate were being uncharacteristically silent, but he could hardly blame them; he didn't know what he was supposed to say, and starting a fight with Captain America ... it just wasn't ... even with all that had happened, he couldn't raise his voice to try to protest anything.
What was left to say, anyway? That he knew that they'd gone too far, that he knew they'd messed up? This time it hadn't even been their -- his -- fault, and still they were going to be treated like kids.
A week ago, a month ago, he'd have given anything to have the Avengers agreeing to take them in and train them. Things had changed.
"Can I go now?"
Reply
"Those of you who are well enough to go back to your rooms can do so. We'll take care of arrangements regarding your parents visiting tomorrow."
Reply
Leave a comment