{"id":31569,"date":"2012-12-21T23:54:45","date_gmt":"2012-12-21T23:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/2012\/12\/21\/gadgeteerphilanthropist-iamthefirechild-92\/"},"modified":"2012-12-21T23:54:45","modified_gmt":"2012-12-21T23:54:45","slug":"gadgeteerphilanthropist-iamthefirechild-92","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/2012\/12\/21\/gadgeteerphilanthropist-iamthefirechild-92\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

gadgeteerphilanthropist<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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iamthefirechild<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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gadgeteerphilanthropist<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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iamthefirechild<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Her gaze was wide and blank, unfocussing. \u201cMy grandfather is dead.\u201d Even less tone marked these words, as if she barely knew what she was saying. Then she blinked, once, and tears slid down her cheeks. Summer\u2019s face worked, and mechanically she shoved the phone back into her pocket before both hands came to cover her face and she made a horrid half-muffled wail. Her shoulders shook with the effort of smothering gasping, strangled sobs, mingled with more of those aching cries.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Jarvis was hugging her again before he could fully process it, though only for a moment.\u00a0 One hand on her shoulder, he gave her a few quiet moments to gather herself, before gently asking her, \u201cWould you like some privacy, or shall I bring you to Mr. Stark?\u201d\u00a0 Mr. Stark\u2019s office was empty for the moment, and would likely remain so for the rest of the day.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t see any harm in letting her borrow it if she needed to.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d was all she could manage. \u201cI don\u2019t \u2014 I can\u2019t \u2014 \u201d Another wail struggled out of her throat. This wasn\u2019t like when she was crying after fighting with Dummy; this was infinitely more painful, tearing anguish that rocked her whole body. \u201cIt\u2019s already so awful for him, I can\u2019t \u2014 I should just \u2014 \u201d She wanted Tony, desperately, and struggled with the part of herself that didn\u2019t want to add to his burden. \u201cPlease?\u201d she whimpered finally.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In the end, the choice was taken out of their hands.\u00a0 Tony peered around the corner, wondering what was going on.\u00a0 \u201cJarvis, what\u2014\u201d\u00a0 He broke off mid-sentence, startled into silence, before he managed, \u201cJarvis, what happened?\u201d<\/p>\n

Relieved at Mr. Stark\u2019s arrival, Jarvis walked over to quietly inform him, \u201cShe was on her way to see you, and got a phone call that her grandfather passed.\u00a0 I don\u2019t\u2026quite know how to handle this, sir.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust\u2026let me.\u201d\u00a0 Tony stepped around Jarvis and pulled Summer close, one arm around her to guide her to the nearest couch.\u00a0 Anger or annoyance became temporarily irrelevant.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Someone’s arm, familiar and warm, went around Summer’s shoulder, pulling her along. Someone pushed her gently into a couch, and she leaned gratefully into the person, stunned with the sheer weight of grief that had come down on her. “Nonononono …” she moaned under her breath, tucking herself deeper into the warm shoulder. But the first rush of grief exhausted itself not too long after, and she pushed herself upright again, rubbing at her eyes, to notice that it was Tony’s shoulder she’d been crying into. “‘m sorry,” she muttered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

gadgeteerphilanthropist: iamthefirechild: gadgeteerphilanthropist: iamthefirechild: Her gaze was wide and blank, unfocussing. \u201cMy grandfather is dead.\u201d Even less tone marked these words, as if she barely knew what she was saying. Then she blinked, once, and tears slid down her cheeks. Summer\u2019s face worked, and mechanically she shoved the phone back into her pocket before both … Continue reading <\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[199,3768],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31569"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firechildren.net\/lightfire\/iamthefirechild\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}