I probably should've slept. But I couldn't. You know that aching feeling you get when you're doing something you probably shouldn't, but want to anyway? That feeling was whir-pooling inside me the entire car ride. Well at least all the way to the airport. Yeah, airport. We were going to none other than New York.

For the first 20 minutes of the car ride, Jim was busy telling the agent in the passenger seat every single care take rule to our van. I tuned out halfway through, enjoying the scenery around me.

I was becoming extremely weak, but thankfully, when we were still a ways before the airport, tony called, saying to use his private jet. That cut our trip by 30 minutes, and meant I could get a few I.V's hooked up. We were able to meet him, but he quickly disappeared with fury. The luxury jet was much better then our van, but that didn't stop Jim from complaining about "his precious in the hands of SHIELD cronies,"

I slept for most of the trip, finally. When I woke up though, I didn't feel much better. Mentally, a little worse because of my nightmare. I'd rather not dwell on it, the past is the past.

Jim must've noticed because he glances over at me. "Been out for about an hour, we're about to land," he explained, and my view shifted to the shaded window. My feeble hands lifted the shades to the towering buildings, their tips reaching to the clouds, barely grazing. I'd only been to New York once. So many memories here...

I didn't know if I could face my past again, and the minute I set eye on New York made me doubt everything about coming here. I visibly tensed, and Jim arched his eyebrows in pity.

"Come on Lil, the idea of them finding us will be like 0%," he said, waving his arms about. I scoffed and began to look at the tiny ant people scurrying down avenues. "You're a smart kid, jimmy, that's not the exact percent,"

He rolled his eyes, "I might as well not try to be comforting and smart it's too much work,"

I laughed, but laughing quickly turned into hacking. Jim shot from his seats towards me as I began to cough up blood. "Jesus Christ... NURSE. Or PERSON!" He called, but I tried waving him off. "I'm fine," I whispered, wiping blood from my chin. "No, you're not fine. You are so far from fine. I think the word is chronically unwell,"

"I heard someone calling!"

Tony burst through the door, an iron man arm latched to his hand. "She's coughing up blood," Jim said, standing up from his crouched position. Breathing was becoming hard, and my eyes widened as my lungs screamed for air. "It'll take too long..." Stark whispered glancing at me, but then fixed his gaze on his arm.

"I think I have another way,"

"No," Jim said, before anyone had even blinked. "You're definitely not taking her, flying her, in her health. Especially not with me,"

Tony smiled, "do you have a suit?"

If not for my atrocious searing pain behind my ribcage, I would have laughed. "Excuse me, but, what?" Jim spat, dissatisfaction splayed across his face. "A suit, like a hero suit or something,"

Jim laughed for me, "we're not heroes, and I definitely don't have a 'suit'"

Tony moved closer to me and snapped his fingers, "remind me to get you guys some suits, harness your power,"

He lifted his arms and the rest of his suit flew through the open door. "Dude. Bro. Stark. Whatever I call you, no," jimmy said, trying to block tony. Tony pushed an arm out effortlessly, causing Jim to 'oof''.

"We never formally introduced ourselves, what should I call you other than animal girl?"

"Emily," I answered, smirking at his cockiness.

"Emily. Okay alright, and what about for boy friend who seems to have a grudge against me?" He said, grinning as he jabbed his thumb behind him.

"It's Jim, and I'm not her boyfriend. And your definitely not going anywhere with her," Jim answered obstinately. "Sounds like your boyfriend," he chortled. I rolled my eyes, "jimmy, it's the only way,"

"Ooh, can I call you jimmy?" Tony remarked facetiously. "No and no," Jim crossed his arms.

***

Iron man held me in his arms as we peered over the emergency door. "God damnit, Emily! How did I let you persuade me?" Jim shouted over the raging wind. We had significantly lowered, but not enough for skyscrapers to even graze us. I raised an arm as if to touch the clouds. "I've never touched the air this high as a human before," I said, confounded. "I'm not even gonna start on how weird that sounds," tony said, his iron man mask gleaming. "Ready?" He asked.

"No..." Jim mumbled behind, but loud enough for me to hear. I nodded, and could feel the energy draining with the lack of I.V's. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, we plummeted to the earth below. I beamed as I enjoyed the utter joy fullness of free falling. I would do this as a bird, but few times, I would turn human halfway through, and before falling back into a bird.

I stopped doing that after a woman saw me and screamed bloody murder. Let's just say, when Jim found out, he sounded just like the lady. That was Austin, Texas; and because of my little stunt we had to vacate. All we needed was for news to travel and then we'd have officials breathing down our necks, slicers in hand to see inside us.

I thought about what people would think if they saw us now. Panic. Fear. 911. But everything ruled out for two reasons:

1. This is New York, they literally just had an attack from an alien.
2. I'm with iron man, that pretty much excuses everything.

Those reasons didn't stop the cameras from rolling though. As we got close enough, and tony had started using his thrusters to fly, people began to point. Phones were being held up in awe as onlookers cheered. We went down the streets, whizzing through the sheer glass buildings. My reflection flashed past me, and in the blur gave me the illusions of looking into a pool of water. From what I saw, I didn't look too good.

We landed with a thump in front of the hospital, and the swarm of people overwhelming us turned me into panic mood. I had been accustomed to always living my life like that. People=bad. Crowds=worse. Swarms of adoring fans=death.

Well maybe I didn't anticipate the last one. "Give him room!" Officials called. Ugh, officials. Not that I didn't think policeman didn't do their work well. I admired them for their bravery. They just tended to work for government, and the government wants me as a weapon, dead, or locked up. "Iron man, sir!" The stout, brown haired man bellowed and saluted. Iron man saluted after placing me on my shaky feet. "Yes very nice, I like that. Now, can we get her a heel chair or something?"

At the mention of me, every camera turned towards me, and my heart sank as I realized a camera crew was present. "What's your name?" One of them asked, shoving a microphone into my treasured personnel bubble space. "Umm, Emily..." I said. "Emily!"

"Emily!"

I'd never heard any group of people shout my name so much. The only time I ever imagined someone saying to do much was when they held torches and pitchforks. "Emily! Why did iron man have to rescue you?"

Everyone fell silent, and I smirked. "Please, I didn't need rescuing. He's just doing me a favor,"

The questions started up again but I was shoved into a wheel chair and zoomed into the blinding light.