Chapter 20
Peter woke long before the wake up bell rang the next morning. Not too surprising, since he rarely slept through the night, even now that his life was far more stable than it had been. Used to being quiet, he slipped out from under his blankets and dropped noiselessly to the floor of the cabin. It was light outside, so it wasn’t the middle of the night and when he looked at his watch he saw that it was just after five am. Everyone was still asleep; Ned was snoring softly close at hand, and Brian mumbled something in his sleep, but didn’t seem to be awake.
They’d all watched with interest the night before when their new friend had taken off his prosthetic leg before going to bed. Ned had even asked if he could try it on, which had elicited a laugh from Brian who pointed out that a regular foot wouldn’t fit into the cup that was designed for what was left of his lower leg to slide into. Peter glanced at the leg before moving toward the door.
“Are you okay?”
Barnes knew Peter didn’t sleep through the night, and was well aware by then some of the reasons why. His whispered question was soft enough to keep from waking the other boys but still loud enough for Peter to hear from his bed next to the door.
“Yeah. I’m just not sleepy. Can I go outside?”
That way he wouldn’t wake anyone else up. It wasn’t their fault that Peter didn’t sleep, and they’d all stayed up pretty late the night before. Not only because everyone was excited about Peter knowing Tony Stark but also because they were pretty wound up from the sugar they’d eaten at the bonfire. They’d stayed in their beds like Bucky and Ross told them to, but they talked long after the lights had been turned off, and it had been fun – and a good way for them to get to know each other better.
“What are you going to do outside?”
Peter didn’t need the light on to see Bucky was looking at him, even though it was still pretty dark in the cabin since there was a curtain over the window that kept the early morning daylight from coming in too harshly.
“Just look around. I’ll just sit on the front step,” he added, knowing that no one would want him to go exploring the place alone. “Please?”
“Sure. Put on a sweatshirt and your shoes.” The Winter Soldier watched as Peter did as he was told and then quietly opened the door and slipped out, closing it behind him just as silently. Then he tapped his watch. “Peter’s outside. Does someone have eyes on the cabin?”
There was a slight pause, and then a simple ping of confirmation. Barnes knew that he didn’t have to get up since SHIELD had someone watching Peter, but he was also aware that the little boy was more his responsibility than anyone else’s just then, and that kept him from going back to sleep. He stayed in his bed (because he didn’t want to smother Peter with attention while trying to guard him) but he was alert and ready to spring into action if something came up, now.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
It was much too early to be awake but here he was, standing on the porch of his little cabin watching as the sun debated whether or not to come up over the lake or shine through the trees. Strange had a cup of coffee in his hand but the other hand was rubbing his back, which was killing him. The bed in the cabin had seemed to be decent, but he’d woken after a few hours and had discovered that there was definitely a problem with the mattress. Too hard? To soft? Whatever it was, it definitely wasn’t just right. He smirked, realizing that he was practically quoting Goldilocks and the Three Bears without intending to. A quick wave of his hand had changed the mattress into a better one, but the damage had already been done, apparently, because when he’d woken an hour ago he was still sore and stiff.
He’d taken a hot shower hoping to relieve the stiffness that way and had made an entire pot of coffee. There were two campers who required medication before they had breakfast, but that wasn’t for at least another couple of hours. He took the coffee out to the porch to see if anyone was up and about, but the morning was quiet.
It was almost pretty, if you were into nature and sunrises.
He snorted, wondering how long it would take for him to start writing sappy poetry, or something, and then almost spilled his coffee when a large, floating, piece of fabric suddenly came zooming out of the cabin door that he’d left open and slapped him on the shoulder.
“What-?” he realized what it was immediately, of course, and scowled, looking around, again, to make sure no one was around. “What are you doing here?” he hissed, gesturing for the cloak of levitation to go back into the cabin. “Are you crazy?”
It didn’t say anything, of course, and it didn’t go inside. It zipped around the porch as if it wanted to check the place out.
“Get in here,” he told it with an imperious gesture knowing full well that the thing wasn’t going to obey him if it didn’t want to. “Someone will see you!”
If it had eyes it most likely would have rolled them, but the ancient relic swept past him and went into the cabin. Strange looked around the area and then followed it, closing the door firmly behind him.
OOOOOOOOOOO
“What are you doing little man?”
Peter smiled up at Katie Wright, hands automatically going to the ruff of the large camp dog who he knew was named Tiny. The dog snuffled up against the boy, tail wagging ferociously as he licked his face and tried to get even more attention.
“Just sitting here.”
He was on the front step that led to the Alaska cabin, just watching the morning start up. He saw a lot of birds and a bunch of squirrels and other little animals in the ten minutes or so that he’d been sitting there. A flash of something moving down by the little cabin that he knew was where the doctor lived a few minutes ago had caught his eye but it had been quick and hadn’t repeated, so he’d decided it might have been a bird flying by or something.
The young woman reached down and tapped his nose. He was popular at the compound, and she’d seen him several times. He knew she was with SHIELD and that she was kind of undercover to help make sure that no one did anything to try and hurt him at camp, but he also knew that it was okay to talk to her. She was being the lifeguard that week and he knew he’d see a lot of her. Which was fine, because he liked her.
Of course, Peter liked pretty much everyone.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah. Just woke up early. What are you doing?”
“Tiny and I are going to go for a run.” She smirked. “Want to come?”
Peter shook his head. He wasn’t lazy and was a pretty energetic kid, but he’d already promised Bucky that he wasn’t going to go anywhere else.
“No. Thanks. I’m going to wait for everyone to get up and then see what we’re doing today.”
“Alright.” Another tap on his nose and this time Peter giggled. “We’ll see you later.”
“Okay.”
He watched the dog and the lifeguard walk off and then turned his attention back to the doctor’s cabin, but he didn’t see anything move there, again. A little while later – at 7:30 according to his watch – he saw one of the staff people walk up to the bell and ring it. A short time later he heard the others talking in the cabin and went back inside to see what was going on.