Chapter 6
“What?”
“You heard me.”
There wasn’t anything wrong with his hearing, they both knew.
Barnes frowned at Steve and Romanoff both.
“Have you been drinking?”
Steve smiled and it was a measure of how much Romanoff had thawed toward the man that she didn’t scowl. Her eyes were amused.
“It’s a serious request.”
“You want me to pretend to be a counselor?”
“Yes.”
“At a summer camp.”
“Right.”
“For children.”
“For Peter, to be specific,” Steve said, knowing that his friend liked the little boy. “We need someone close to him while he’s at camp. Natasha can’t be a boy’s counselor and if I go I’ll be too much of a distraction and Peter won’t have a good time.”
“Let Fury do it.”
Romanoff rolled her eyes, and now she did smile.
“He’s already declined.”
Bucky scowled.
“You can’t tell me that you don’t have a dozen younger guys here that can pretend to be a counselor for a week…”
“If we needed someone to just be hanging out close by, yes,” Natasha agreed. “But we have several agents out on various assignments and can’t get them back in time, and most of our younger guys are recruits themselves, or not long out of their own training. This is Peter. We need someone with good instincts to be right beside him. In case something happens.”
“Are you anticipating something happening?”
He knew the answer to that before she said anything, though. She was thorough and cautious and very good at her job. So she would expect anything and plan for just that.
“It never hurts to be sure.”
“You’re the best choice, Buck,” Steve said. “You’re a little older than the average counselor but we can age you down a little to make you fit in, better.”
“Peter knows me, though,” Barnes reminded them. “You don’t think that’s going to be suspicious?”
“They’re going to find out that he’s Peter Stark,” Rogers told him. “It won’t be a big shock that Tony would have a security person close at hand.”
“We’re not going to tell them that you’re SHIELD,” Romanoff added.
“I’m not SHIELD.”
“Exactly. Peter can’t let it slip – and neither can Ned.”
“Ned’s going, too?”
“They’re best friends.”
“Ugh.” Another eyeroll, but he knew he was going to agree – and they probably knew he was going to agree, too. “For how long?”
“A week.”
“You’re going to owe me.”
Both of them nodded.
“Big time.”
“What do I need to bring?”
He’d been to summer camp when he was younger, but that was a long time ago and he was sure things had changed since then.
“I’ll get you the information on the place and you can make a list.”
“Fine.”
OOOOOOOOOOOO
Peter was in Pepper’s office when Tony returned to the compound. The boy was munching on cookies and telling her about his day, but he looked over when the door opened and tossed a happy smile in Tony’s direction.
“There’s my boy,” the billionaire said, walking over and pressing a kiss against the top of Peter’s head from behind and smiling a greeting to his wife. “How was daycare?”
“Good. We talked about summer camp.”
“Yeah? Anything interesting?”
“Just what there is to do and that kind of thing. Some of the other kids have gone to camp, too, so they were telling me what they did there.”
“Like what?”
“Swimming. Campfire. Camp games.”
“Sounds fun.”
“Yeah.” He reached for another cookie. “Pepper said you went to the compound.”
“I did. Yes.”
“To see Natasha?”
“And the others,” he confirmed. “We were talking about camp,” he added. “And how we can make it safer for you.”
Peter didn’t care if it was safe, really, but he was a smart little guy and he knew better than to say that to them.
“What did you learn?”
“Mostly about the people who work there. The cook, the counselors. That kind of thing.”
“Oh.”
“Any concerns?” Pepper asked, curiously.
Tony rolled his eyes, but he shrugged, cheerfully.
“Nothing worth mentioning right now.” Meaning that he’d discuss it, later. “Are you guys about ready to call it a day?”
“Yes.”
OOOOOOOOOOO
Tony had planned to have a fairly quiet night. Not because he needed to decompress, or anything; he hadn’t had a stressful day and knew Pepper hadn’t either. He just found that he enjoyed the quiet evenings with the three of them.
Ned, however, had different plans and no sooner had they pulled into the garage and then walked into the kitchen was JARVIS announcing that Ned was calling for Peter.
The boy ran into his room to take the call. Not to be secretive or anything, but because it was just easier to use JARVIS to handle the communications than bother with his phone.
“What did you find out about the camp?” Pepper asked as Tony put the milk away and then pulled out the chicken breasts that had been thawing in the fridge for their dinner.
“They have some staff that are permanent and some that are revolving. The revolving staff are criminals.”
She frowned.
“What?”
“Not all of them,” he amended. “But some of them are people working off community service.”
“For what?”
“Non violent stuff. Romanoff will check them out as she gets the list. The rest of them are college students, or volunteers.”
“Any new concerns?”
She already knew the initial concerns that he had about sending their son away to camp. In fact, she shared many of them. It was a long way, after all, and a whole week.
“No. Not really.” He was resigned to the idea, now, and aware that the Avengers were as dedicated to keeping Peter safe as he was. He’d trust them (with JARVIS peeking over their shoulders and helping where needed). “SHIELD will vet all of the staff as the names come in and will take care of anyone they aren’t sure of.”
“Take care of?” she echoed with a raised eyebrow and a smile. “As in make them sleep with the fishes?”
His answering smile was amused, and she was pleased to see it.
“As in veto them being there or keep a closer eye on them. Nick is going to have a couple of agents posing as staff to keep a closer eye on things instead of just having them skulking in the bushes all week.”
“Good.”
“Although they’ll probably have them skulking in the bushes, too,” he added.
Probably.
“You and I have an appointment with the camp director and the onsite doctor,” Pepper told him. “Next weekend. So why don’t you make sure Steve or Sam invites Peter out to the compound for the day?”
“Not Romanoff?”
“She’s going to be at the meeting.”
Fair enough.
“I can do that.”
True, not every parent was going to meet with the camp people before dropping their kid off, but Tony wasn’t every parent, now was he? He was about as high profile as they came and because of that so was Peter. The goal was to keep that from ruining their son’s weekend (and all the others kids at camp, too, if they could avoid it) and that meant making sure the camp knew what to expect and give them whatever they needed to help things go smoothly.
They were meeting the doctor because they also wanted to make sure Peter would have competent care if he managed to hurt himself in the course of the week. Peter didn’t need to be there for that and would have more fun at the compound.
“Good. JARVIS? Is Peter still talking to Ned?”
“Yes. They are discussing what to bring to camp, so it may turn out to be a lengthy conversation.”
She smiled.
“That means you get to help me make dinner.”