Chapter 34
“What have you learned?”
Romanoff rolled her eyes.
“It’s been ten minutes, Nick. There’s nothing to learn. We don’t have a wall of potential kidnappers or paparazzi heading this direction.”
“But you might.”
“Tony’s AI wiped the post and is watching for anything related to Peter from any of the other relatives of Peter’s cabin mates. We might not get any kind of reaction, at all.”
“But you’re ready if there is…”
“Of course.”
Romanoff didn’t anticipate anything happening, but she’d be ready in case it did – of course. The post about Peter being at camp was unfortunate – especially since it had actually had the name of the camp in the post, but they would adapt if anything came of it. So far (in ten minutes) there hadn’t been any response, but she knew Tony would have his AI paying close attention to anything that might refer to that post and would pass any information on to SHIELD so they’d be able to react as needed.
“Keep me apprised.”
“You know I will.”
The call ended and she looked over at Clint, who was shaking his head.
“How long before we hear from Tony, do you think?” he asked her with a smirk.
“I imagine as soon as he gets off the phone with Nick.”
There was a soft ping and Romanoff felt her phone vibrate in her hand. She looked down and the caller ID was a picture of Tony Stark. A good thumbnail of him with his signature cocky expression, only before she’d used it, she’d edited it with devil’s horns. It had amused her enough at the time that she’d kept it and even now, with him settled and less of an annoyance than he’d been before, she still kept it.
“Or before,” Clint said, his smirk turning into an actual smile at being right about hearing from Stark.
“Romanoff,” she said, answering the call and ignoring Barton.
“Are we worried?”
He was worried, she knew, but it was her job to make sure he didn’t have any reason to be.
“Not at this time.”
“Should we be?”
“Your AI took the post down fairly quickly,” she reminded him, always impressed by his ability to control so much access with so little effort. “We’ll be watching for any indication it captured the attention of unwanted people. Right now we’re not worried. Just being cautious.”
“Does Peter know?”
She rolled her eyes.
“It was ten minutes ago, Tony.”
A slight pause and she and Barton both heard Pepper in the background of the call saying something to the equivalent of I told you so.
“Yeah. True.”
“We don’t have any reason to tell him, so we won’t. Barnes will know. Coulson and the others already do.”
They had earpieces, after all. Barnes didn’t have that option. An earbud wasn’t a terrible thing, but it was uncomfortable to try and wear one all day and all night, and even the Winter Soldier hadn’t wanted to bother.
“What’s Peter doing?”
“Free time,” she replied, amused at the change to his line of questioning but not showing it – even in her voice. “Last I checked he was in the gym.”
“He’s okay?”
“He’s fine, Tony. He’s having a good time.”
“Probably doesn’t even miss you,” Barton added, smirking, again, because he knew it wasn’t true and that it would annoy Stark more than anything. It was always fun to mess with a billionaire, after all, and Tony Stark was the only one Clint knew. But he wasn’t going to do the same to Pepper. “I bet he misses mom, though.”
A feminine chuckle in the background, now, and Romanoff rolled her eyes at Barton.
“I’ll check in with Barton before they go to bed,” she promised Stark. “And will let you know if anything comes up.”
“Thanks,” was the reply. “I’ll have JARVIS send you updates if he catches anything on social media or elsewhere that we need to know about.”
“Sounds good.”
She ended the call and scowled at Clint.
“Why are you such a turd?”
He snorted.
“Crud, Romanoff. Do you kiss Peter with those lips?”
Sometimes.
OOOOOOOOOOO
“We saw a ghost!”
The kids in the gym looked at Ned with interest – although some of them were clearly skeptical.
“A ghost?”
“Like with a sheet?”
“No…” Ned shrugged. “We didn’t really see it,” he said. “But it touched me.”
“It was probably a branch or something,” one of the older boys said, dribbling a basketball but having come over to hear what was going on. “And the wind moved it.”
“It wasn’t windy,” Ned said, looking at Peter for substantiation . “Was it?”
“No.” Of course, Ned had just agreed not to tell anyone so Peter was hesitant to say too much. For the very reasons his friend wasn’t supposed to bring it up, just yet. “It felt like something else,” he admitted, torn between standing up for Ned and keeping things low key enough to avoid worrying anyone in authority.
“Like a ghost?” the older boy sneered, no longer dribbling.
“Like something,” Peter repeated.
“Let’s go see if we can find it,” one of the girls said, looking excited at the thought.
That was met with immediate agreement by several kids.
“Where was it?” one of them asked Ned.
“In the trees,” he told them. “Out past the-“
He was interrupted when they heard the deep booming of the bell being rung, and there were several groans of disappointment.
“Time to head back to the cabins,” one of the counselors who had been in the gym shooting hoops with the boys told them. He hadn’t missed the conversation, of course. “Straight back, everyone. No ghost hunts, tonight.”
Some of the kids shoot a few extra hoops as the others start filing out, joining others who had been down at the water, or walking around down around the bonfire area – or just playing boardgames in the cafeteria.
“We could go take a look, later,” one of the older boys said, softly, as they headed out the door, across the porch and down the few steps. “Maybe sneak out after dark…?”
One of the boys from his cabin grinned. He hadn’t really thought much of the ghost idea, but clearly liked the idea of sneaking out after dark for an adventure.
“Yeah. That’d be great.”
“We can’t sneak out,” one of the older girls said. “We’d get caught.”
Peter didn’t hear the rest of the conversation because Phil was suddenly close at hand and made a gesture that made the boy think that he wanted to talk to him. Which was fine. He didn’t want to talk about sneaking out of the cabin, anyway.
Phil smiled down at him as the rest of the crowd walked up the hill, Ned pointing at the area of the trees he and Peter had been exploring.
“Your nose is sunburned.”
Peter touched his nose.
“It is?”
“A little, yeah. Be careful or it might fall off.”
The boy grinned at that.
“Uh uh.”
“Are you having a good time?”
“Yeah. You?”
Peter knew it wasn’t really a vacation for Phil, but it was outside and it wasn’t running around watching for bad guys or anything, so it was probably better than what he did, usually.
“The best of times.”
Peter was young, but he was pretty sure that was sarcasm. He wasn’t good at it, but Tony was, and he hung around him a lot.
“You’re tanner,” he told Phil. “So that’s a good thing, right?”
“True.” Phil tapped his nose. “What’s this I hear about a ghost?”
“Something touched me and Ned in the woods, earlier.”
“Something?” Now the SHIELD agent’s expression was the one Peter was most used to; serious and contemplative. “Did you see it?”
“No. But I felt it. It touched me when I asked it to.”
“Did your stomach hurt?”
“No. It kind of tickled, but not like anything bad was going on. Just felt funny, you know?”
He didn’t, of course, but Coulson nodded.
“Do you still feel it?”
Peter hesitated, clearly thinking about it.
“Not really. Not like before.”
“Let me know if you do, alright?”
“Yeah.”
“And no sneaking out, tonight,” he added, which made the boy smile.
“I wouldn’t do that.”
Even if he wanted to, he knew he couldn’t get past Bucky. But he didn’t want to.
Coulson watched the boy trot up the hill toward his cabin.
“Did you learn anything?”
He shook his head at the voice in his earbud.
“Not really. But maybe we should take a look in the woods out behind the doctor’s cabin…”
Just in case.