Chapter 7
It turned out that it wasn’t just Tony, Pepper, and Natasha that went to meet the camp staff. James Barnes went – as did Eric Tatro since he wanted to make sure he was in the know about what was going on with Peter, since Ned would be in the thick of those things as well. Ned and Peter had been dropped at the compound that morning, and Romanoff and Barnes had simply hopped into stark’s SUV and had finished the drive with them.
They pulled into the Wood Leaf camp parking lot a little over an hour later.
“It’s pretty,” Pepper murmured, looking around with interest.
They’d seen all the satellite images but in person with the early afternoon sun so bright and glinting off the surface of the lake, it was far more pleasant in person.
Stark stopped the car in a large parking lot that was in front of a large wooden building. One of several. There was a porch that ran the length of the building and two different double door entrances. One of these opened when they started getting out of the car and two men exited the building, walked down a short staircase and waited for their guests to come meet them.
Jar Nor was a man who was about as average looking as anyone Tony had ever met. Brown hair, brown eyes and about the same height as Tony himself, who wasn’t tall by any means. He was wearing jeans and a long sleeved shirt and was accompanied by an older man wearing a polo shirt and khaki slacks.
“Mr. Stark…” He offered his hand to Tony, who took it. “Jay Nor. It’s an honor.”
“Thank you.” Tony shook the head, and then gestured to those with him. “My wife, Pepper. Natasha Romanoff. Eric Tatro, and James Barnes.”
Nor shook Pepper’s hand, too, but he was already looking at Romanoff – which wasn’t really that much of a surprise. She was deadly and beautiful, after all, and exotic. Far prettier than Tony, really.
“It’s nice to meet you.”
Pepper smiled.
“Thank you.”
Nor shook hands with the others, too, before turning to the man who had walked out with him.
“This is Dr. Douglas Brown, camp doctor.”
“Doctor.” Tony was especially pleased to see the man looked extremely competent. Not that Peter was clumsy or reckless – or accident prone – but he was still pleased the doctor was available. “Good to meet you.”
The doctor nodded, shaking hands with Stark but only nodding to the others.
“A pleasure.”
Nor rubbed his hands, clearly a little overwhelmed at having the guests that he did, but trying hard to rise above it.
“Let’s go inside, shall we?” he suggested. “I know you have plenty of questions and to be honest; so do I.”
They walked into the doorway and into a hallway. This led to a kitchen to the left – which was quiet just then – and the doors ahead of them led to a large, airy, room. There were tables set up so it was obviously a cafeteria at least part of the time. Huge windows dominated the far wall and she could see that the building overlooked the lake. It was large and blue with a dock that went out into the water in one area with a diving board on the end and was then apparently divided into three areas by strings of floating buoys.
“That’s the lake,” Nor told them, needlessly. As if realizing that, he added. “There’s a swimming area,” he pointed toward the front area. “Then canoeing toward the right side and fishing out toward the left.”
“All activities that Peter will be doing?” Tony asked.
“All of our activities are age appropriate for most age groups. We don’t allow anyone under eight, and there is a mandatory swim test before anyone is allowed to do more than wade in the shallows. Our lifeguards can teach your son to swim if he doesn’t already know how.”
“We have a pool,” Tony replied. “Peter is a good swimmer.”
“He’s allergic to horses, though,” Pepper added. "So that activity is off limits.”
“Of course.”
“Each camper’s parents are required to fill out a form,” the doctor told them. “We’ll know if he has any allergies and if there are any medication that he takes. I keep meticulous records on those kinds of things.”
“That’s reassuring,” Pepper said.
“Will you and Mr. Stark be staying at camp while Peter’s here?” Nor asked.
“No.” Tony shook his head, answering for them both. “We want Peter to have as normal of an experience as he can, given his relationship with me. I’d distract everyone.”
“We will have a SHIELD presence, however,” Romanoff said. “We’d like to have two agents join your volunteer staff in any capacity that you can use them – but will still allow them to move freely around the camp. And Barnes here needs to be added to your list of counselors for Peter’s group.”
“His cabin,” the camp director said. “Each group will be assigned to a cabin. It promotes teamwork and family.” He sized up Barnes, who watched him dispassionately. “It won’t be a problem. As long as you don’t mind helping with the other counseling duties, since we have two counselors per cabin and it wouldn’t be fair to ask the other counselor to try and wrangle the other boys.”
“How many to a cabin?” Romanoff asked.
“With the younger kids we leave it at six kids and two counselors.”
“We’ll want Peter’s friend Ned in his cabin,” Tony said, speaking up before Eric could request the same thing.”
“Of course.” He gestured for them to all take a seat at the closest table. No sense standing around if they didn’t need to do so, after all. “We’re excited to have Peter here, of course, and want him to have a good time.”
“We want that, too,” Pepper agreed.
“So how do we make that happen?” Tony asked, leaning forward and looking at everyone involved. “I want him to have fun, but he has to be safe.”
“Let’s discuss it.”
OOOOOOOOOOO
Peter and Ned spent the time before lunch playing on the playset that Steve had built for Peter. It was a good way to burn off some of the boys’ tireless energy and also to get them hungry enough to be ready to settle in for their lunch.
It worked, because both of them dropped to the ground when Steve announced they should probably go eat.
“Are you guys sure you want to go to summer camp?” Steve asked when they sat down with plates of chicken nuggets and French fries. “It’s a whole week, right? You could use that time to go on a trip somewhere fun. Like Disneyland.”
“Camp is going to be fun,” Ned assured him. “Besides, we can do Disney anytime. Camp is only in the summer.”
Peter nodded his agreement, making Steve smile and Sam roll his eyes.
“Is Shuri going to ask if she can come?” Wilson asked.
Peter shook his head.
“She said it sounds boring.”
“I knew she was smart.”
Sam was still not sold on the idea of Peter being away for so long. Even though he knew he wasn’t going to be alone. It was the idea of it all that he didn’t like.
“MJ isn’t going, either,” Ned said, dipping his fries in ketchup. “She’s going to her grandma’s.”
“Are any of the kids from your football team going?” Steve asked, curiously. Maybe the whole group could just be kids they already knew. That wouldn’t be so bad.
“Just Ned.”
OOOOOOOOOOO
A soft chime interrupted the quiet of the library and Stephen Strange frowned. He didn’t get a lot of notifications from his phone but he still carried one, of course. No one texted him, unless it was Wong, reminding him of something when he was out and about among the other sanctums.
“Text message?” Wong asked, looking up from the book he’d been studying.
“Email,” Strange corrected, frowning. Then his expression cleared as he read it – and turned somewhat chagrined. “From the clerk’s office at the courthouse.”
“Oh? They changed their minds and you have to be a garbage man?”
“No. It’s a confirmation. I’m officially the camp nurse for Camp Wood Leaf. I report to Doctor Douglas Brown in two weeks.”
Wong couldn’t hide his smirk.
“I wish I could see that…”