Chapter 77: Farming Another Windfall of System Points from Tony Stark
In the busy ground-floor lobby, Tony finished what he was saying and returned his full attention to the receptionist. He was preparing his next line of approach when the desk phone rang.
The receptionist glanced at it and gave Tony a polite smile. "My apologies, Mr. Stark. One moment, please."
"Of course." Tony inclined his head with practiced civility and settled his elbow on the counter.
The call connected. Whatever was said on the other end had an immediate effect on the receptionist. Her expression shifted into something considerably more attentive, with a degree of genuine respect behind it.
"Yes, sir."
"Of course. I understand."
"Wishing you a speedy recovery."
A short exchange. She set the phone down.
Then she reached below the counter and placed a disposable wristband in front of Tony with a certain formality.
"Good news, Mr. Stark. Mr. Lawrence's condition has improved enough that he's able to receive visitors."
She explained the wristband. "This corresponds to the top floor access. Take elevator one, and it will get you to Mr. Lawrence's floor. The band is single-use and deactivates once you've reached the designated floor. For your return trip, please collect a return band from the top-floor desk."
Then she looked past Tony toward Logan, who had been edging toward the door with every intention of changing into formal attire somewhere else.
"Sir. You're welcome to come up as well. Mr. Lawrence says he'll see you."
Logan's eyebrow went up. There was a flicker of something that wasn't quite gratitude. "Oh? Two minutes ago I needed a suit just to walk through the door. Now that's not an issue?"
His voice made clear what he thought of rules in general.
As far as Logan was concerned, a man who had been fighting since the First World War and was still at it had no particular obligation to feel strongly about dress codes.
If they'd pushed the suit requirement, or used the lack of an appointment as grounds to keep him out, he had been prepared to find a different way up to meet this Mr. Lawrence.
The receptionist did not engage with any of this.
She reached below the counter, produced a standard-cut black suit, and placed it on the surface in front of him.
"Sir. Some requirements don't change. This is your suit."
"The changing room is on your right."
Logan looked at the receptionist's perfectly professional smile, which communicated nothing except competence, and felt a particular kind of wordlessness settle over him.
He took the suit, made a sound that was not quite a word, and headed for the changing room.
On his way, he rapped one hand lightly on the counter. "One suggestion."
"Fewer rules next time. It's a lot."
The receptionist nodded. "I'll pass your feedback to management."
"Now, if you'd like to change."
She was the human equivalent of a locked door, and Logan, who had been prepared to say several more things, found there was nothing satisfying left to say. He went into the changing room.
He came back out in the suit shortly after.
"Don't stare. Here's your band." Tony held a wristband out without any ceremony.
Logan took it in silence. They walked into elevator one together.
The elevator settled perceptibly the moment they were both inside.
Not the settling of a mechanism under too much load. The settling of something that had just received the weight of four people distributed across two frames.
Tony and Logan looked at each other. Both with the same expression.
"How much do you weigh?" Tony asked.
"Three hundred pounds." Logan answered without hesitation.
Tony looked him over. "Wouldn't have guessed that from looking at you."
Logan, not enjoying being assessed, asked: "And you?"
"With the armor, about three hundred as well."
"Lighter than I expected. I figured this setup of yours would come in around six hundred, given how solid it looks." Logan reached over and knocked twice on Tony's chest plate. Two clean metallic rings.
By the time the exchange was finished, the elevator had reached the top.
They found Matthew's office without difficulty. The instructions from the desk had been clear.
Knock knock knock.
"Come in." Ada's voice from inside.
Tony walked in the way he walked into most places, which was the way a man walked in when he had already decided the space was agreeable to him. Logan followed.
The first thing Tony saw on entering was Matthew in a wheelchair, an IV drip running from the stand beside him, oxygen mask over his face. His color was poor. The overall impression was of someone who was being held together by medical equipment and not doing well at it.
Looking at him, Tony felt something uncomfortable move through him.
[System: +2,000 points. Tony Stark is deeply grateful to you and is experiencing substantial guilt.]
Two thousand System points. Excellent.
"Tony. Good to see you again." Matthew pulled the oxygen mask aside and smiled.
Tony took a breath. The easy manner he usually walked around with had gone quiet.
"How are you doing? Still not recovered?" The concern in his eyes as he looked at Matthew was not a performance.
Umbrella's medical division was among the best in the world. That Matthew was still in this condition after their care said something significant about the severity of what had happened.
Matthew caught the look on Tony's face.
Then, to put a little more weight on the situation, he gave Tony a dismissive wave. "The blast caught my lower back at a bad angle. The company's medical staff are excellent, but there are limits to what current technology can do. It's going to take time."
"Your lower back?" Tony's attention sharpened immediately on that detail.
A lower back injury was not a minor thing. Damage there, if it was serious enough, could affect how a person moved for the rest of their life.
The thought that his friend had taken this injury shielding him made Tony's feelings considerably more complicated.
[System: +2,000 points. Tony Stark has revisited the memory of that moment. His gratitude for your willingness to put your life on the line for him has increased substantially.]
Another two thousand points. Excellent work from Tony, as always.
The man was, Matthew thought, essentially a System point machine with a genius-level IQ attached. Genuinely invaluable. And for that reason alone, he was not dying in the final battle. Not a chance.
"It'll heal. It just needs time." Matthew said it with the tone of someone putting the other person at ease. Then he turned his attention to Wolverine, who had been scanning the office with quiet interest.
"It seems like you have something to discuss with me."
Logan, entirely relaxed about this, helped himself to a glass of the iced whiskey on the side table, poured it, and drank it first. Then he looked at Matthew.
"Matthew Lawrence. That right?"
Matthew nodded.
Logan saw no reason to work up to it. "I've heard you run an orphanage called the Nursery."
"If it's possible, I'd like to adopt one of the children there. A girl named Nikki."