Back to You

Chapter 1

Morgan Stark was a lot of things a crier was not one of them. Today that changed, today was the last day she would ever see her mother. Pepper Stark had continued to work for S.H.I.E.L.D after her husband's death but never thought S.H.I.E.L.D would fail to protect her. Well, they did and now Morgan was the only living Stark left. Morgan sat in the front row at her mother's funeral. Through the whole ceremony, tears fell down her face, they didn't stop once. They left marks and Morgan could have sworn she had two canyons on her face. She sat in silence as Rhodey gave her eulogy and kept her eyes on the ground the whole time. She knew he kept looking back at her, checking on her. She didn't care, she was only 10 and she decided that she would never care for anybody again.

    Rhodey finished speaking and sat down in the spot next to Morgan. The funeral ended and people slowly started to file out of the building.

"Morgan, are you going to be alright?" Rhodey asked as he slowly stood up to leave. Morgan didn't answer, she couldn't her mind couldn't form the right words. She sat there in silence, crying. She stared at her black shoes, hoping he would walk away and leave her alone.

''We should go Happy is waiting outside for us." Again she didn't respond, but this time she got up and walked out with Rhodey. She slid into the back of the car and Rhodey slid in next to her.

"Drive us home Happy." The engine of the car rumbled to life and Happy drove them back to her house. She sat in the back of the car thinking about what she would do now. Her parents were billionaires so she wasn't worried about money, but would she be able to go home and still sleep at night? Would she be able to get out of bed in the morning to go to school?  It all just felt like too much for her. All she wanted to do was go back in time and enjoy those days her Dad would have her help him make new gadgets for her to play with. She already missed the days her mom would teach her how to make supper. The car slowed down and she looked out the window. Happy pulled the car into her driveway and parked it in front of the garage.

'Here we are" Happy said, breaking the silence. They all climbed out and Morgan noticed another car parked in front of the garage. She looked up at Rhodey with a quizzical look as if to say, "who is that?" without actually saying it. He didn't have time to respond before a woman with a very peppy voice came over.

"Hello," the woman said while crouching down to stand at Morgan's height. "I'm Stacy and you must be Morgan" Morgan just met this woman and already didn't like her. She was too peppy and her vanilla perfume was giving Morgan a headache. She nodded her head to answer Stacy's earlier question.

"Your a talkative one aren't you?" Stacy joked. Morgan gave her a look of disgust. Stacy gave her a fake smile and stood back up to talk to Rhodey and Happy.

"I'm here to take Morgan in," she said. "She will be joining a small family of three in a foster home." Morgan snapped her head up so quickly she almost gave herself whiplash.

"What? No" she talked for the first time in hours. Her voice was scratchy and dry from crying and the lack of talking for what felt like days. She didn't want to go to a foster home. Foster homes have always had bad reputations, the foster care system had a bad reputation altogether.

'I'm sorry dear, I know it seems all so fast but you can't stay here by yourself. Not till your 18." Stacy had a sympathetic look on her face but Mogan didn't buy it. "I'll give you as long as you need to pack a few day's worths of clothes you can come back for the rest later." Morgan didn't stay long enough to hear what else Stacy had to say. She walked into the house slammed the door and locked it. This can't be happening, this can't be happening, she told herself that same statement over and over. Maybe saying it enough times can make it come true. Like a wish. With her back to the door, she slid down to the floor, and with her knees pulled close to her chest she sobbed. Loud sobs echoed across the empty house. Hoping that Stacy would forget about her and drive away wouldn't work so she picked herself up off the floor and dusted herself off. As she walked up to her bedroom she passed a mirror in the hallway. Taking her already soaked sleeve she wiped the tears from her face. Not like it did much they would just be back in a few minutes anyway.

The light grey walls of her room welcomed her. Everything was just how she had left it,

An unfinished gadget was sitting on her desk with blueprints and tools. The bed was unmade and her pillow was still on the floor. In the closet was a duffle bag with her initials stitched on it, she pulled it out and grabbed a few different shirts and a sweatshirt out. She folded them nicely and laid them in the bag. She also grabbed a few different pairs of pants. Tucking her pillow under her arm she pushed a few other tools into her bag as well. On her way back downstairs she grabbed her hairbrush and toothbrush from the bathroom. Once she was back in the living room she heard a loud banging. Looking around the room she found nothing and was confused, where was this noise coming from. She got her answer when she heard Stacy and Rhodey calling her to open the front door, she had forgotten she had locked it. Now she dreaded what their reactions might be when she goes back out to them.

    When she reached the door she heard a small click and the door swung open. Stacy was standing there with a panicked look on her face. She let out a sigh when she saw Morgan standing there with her bag and pillow.

     "Thank goodness, we thought you ran away." Stacy tried to pull her into a hug but Morgan pushed her away. Stacy played it off and acted like it never happened. "Ready to go kiddo?" she asked. Morgan just stared at her, she didn't want to answer that question. "Right then I'll carry your bag for you," Stacy said trying to break the uncomfortable silence. Morgan shoved her bag onto her shoulder and tucked her pillow further under her arm and walked silently out of the door, leaving Stacy there with her arms still outstretched. The three adults followed her over to the black car parked next to Happy's. Happy gently grabbed Morgan's bag and pillow and put them in the back of the car. Stacy opened the back door for her and Morgan climbed in, Stacy took her spot behind the wheel.

    "I'm sorry you couldn't stay with us kid" Rhodey apologized. He had a sad look on his face and she could tell he really meant it. She gave him a sad smile and stepped out of the car. Her arms wrapped around his torso and she tried to blink back the tears.

    "It's ok" she whispered. Knowing that it might be that last time she saw Happy and Rhodey for a while she gave them both hugs and then climbed back into the car. As the car pulled out of the Starks driveway she waved them goodbye.

    The car ride with Stacy felt like the longest car ride Morgan had ever been on. Morgan sat in the back in silence watching the scenery outside fly by. But Stacy kept disturbing the peace by talking. Stacy asked Morgan thousands of questions and Morgan refused to answer. She never actually said anything the entire ride there and she wanted nothing more than for Stacy to shut up. Finally, after 3 hours they pulled into the driveway of a house in the suburbs. It was a medium-sized house with a blue exterior and a grey roof. There was a small porch and on the porch was a woman, a man, and a small boy.

    Stacy turned around in her seat to face Morgan. "You'll be staying here until we give you any new news. If anything bad happens don't be afraid to call or text me." Stacy handed her a small slip of paper with her number and email address. Morgan pushed the slip into her back pocket and got out of the car. The one thing she wanted right now was to escape the sound of Stacy's voice. While Morgan went to the back of the car Stacy went up to talk to her new foster parents. Thoughts kept swirling in her mind, ideas of the family being cruel people. But some of her thoughts of them were nice, that maybe they could become parent figures to her. At that thought she felt guilty, her mom had just died and she was already looking for a new mother. How selfish could she be? The awful sound of Stacy's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She shut the back door and walked up towards the porch. A ball came rolling down the driveway towards her feet with the little boy chasing after it. She bent down to pick it up and handed it to the boy. He had light brown eyes and light blonde hair. His orange shirt and shorts were an odd combination, Morgan had guessed his favorite color was orange and that he had dressed himself.

    The boy gave her a warm smile and ran back up to his parents. Morgan followed him but the closer she got to the family the more she wanted to turn around and run back home.

    "Hello Dear, I'm Megan and this is my husband Liam." the woman said. Megan had the same brown eyes as her son and Liam had the same light blonde hair as the little boy.

    "And I'm Michel!" the little boy screamed. He had an excited grin on his face and looked like he was trying so hard not to start jumping up and down. A smile crept onto Morgan's face, she would have never thought a little boy would be so excited to introduce himself. When Michel saw Morgan smile his smile seemed to grow. Maybe this family wouldn't be as bad as she had told herself.

Thank you for reading. I'm super excited to continue this story but the updates might be inconstant. Stay tuned!