Chapter 4
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"Here you go, Mister Gray. This room is for all the children who are ages two through four. We would've done separate rooms for each age for the children, but even in a building this big, space was a little bit limited and there's so many other orphaned kids of various ages that we had to start grouping multiple ages into one room. But! All of the older kids have been told the importance of being nice and gentle with all of the younger kids and all of the older children in the room have all stepped up to the plate and have all been excellently behaved and also super helpful!" Peter proudly exclaimed the last bit.
"Wow..." Tony replied as he took in the sea of children in the room "There's certainly a lot of kids."
"Yeah.." Peter said sounding sad "A lot of younger kids lost one or all of their parents or guardians. Some of the children in here are half-orphaned children of people who work here at Stark Industries who had no other options for childcare seeing as they lost the people in their families who normally helped with childcare. Some are children of people who help with F.E.A.S.T. all of the others are completely orphaned and are being housed in this room full time."
"Full time?" Tony asked "As in some of these kids are having to sleep in here?"
"Well, yes.. There are cots that can be folded up and put away at the start of the day then brought back out at bedtime." Peter replied "I know it seems like it isn't a lot, but Stark Industries is doing so much more for everyone in this city than pretty much any other company. There are a lot of children who were orphaned in this event and there were a lot of people coming from all over the world to try to find family afterwards. My Aunt May and I went to Oscorp and Hammer Tech and just about every single big company with a building this size asking for this type of help for these people. Stark Industries is the only one who not only said "Yes." but also went the extra miles to provide clothes, food, toiletries and other amenities for all of these people who were displaced by this event."
"Huh... I didn't know that." Tony replied.
Peter shrugged with one shoulder "A lot of people don't."
Then like a switch was flipped Peter changed the subject "There are ten caregivers for each shift and six different shifts. How this works is there are six caregivers for each shift, but the extra four caregivers per shift is for if anyone needs a day off, the reason there's six shifts a day instead of three or four is so that it can keep shifts short so none of the caregivers get burnt out but also for if any of the caregivers need to switch shifts for any reason one of the extra four caregivers per shift can trade out to fill in the gap."
Tony nodded along as Peter explained how the schedules of the caregivers worked.
"Normal pickup time for the children who don't live in this room full time is seven-thirty P.M. so that the others have space to pull out their cots and get into bed by eight P.M. so that none of the smaller kids are cranky from lack of sleep when the other kids who don't live here start getting brought in at six A.M. ... We're able to provide all the younger kids here all three meals a day plus three snacks a day and since you work in the building no one will care if you stop by throughout the day to check in on her or have breakfast, lunch or dinner with her here."
"Do the kids ever get to go outside and get any fresh air at all?" Tony asked as no outside time had been mentioned.
"Mister Gray, you've seen how bad it is outside. There's nowhere we can really take them. The whole city is littered with debris. Maybe in a few days when things are cleaned up enough for the city to start functioning again we can start taking the kids to a playground. But right now, the best we can do is keep the kids entertained with what toys, games and movies we have."
"But Stark Industries has a rooftop garden." Tony said.
"I'm sure it does." Peter replied patiently "But neither the workers for F.E.A.S.T. or the people temporarily able to make Stark Industries their home have access to those gardens. We only have access to the levels Stark Industries has generously allowed us to use for The F.E.A.S.T. facilities."
"Oh.. Well... I'm sure if I speak to Mister Hogan about it, he can maybe swing it to where you can at least take the kids outside for half an hour each day." Tony replied.
Peter smiled "That would be really awesome, Mister Gray, and the kids would love it if they could have a chance to play outside."
After another beat, Peter opened the door to the room for the younger children and the caregivers who were all around the room interacting with the kids all looked towards the open door.
"Peter!" A lot of the younger kids cheered and kept up to all hug Peter. To which Peter blushed.
"Hey everyone. This is Mister Gray and his daughter... ?" Peter introduced.
"Morgan." Tony supplied.
"Morgan." Peter states to the room "Morgan, Mister Gray, these are the first shift caregivers, Lila, Kyle, Elise, Norma, Brian and Julie. "Peter gestured to each one the names corresponded to. "They'll tell you everything you need to know. Anyway. I really should get going."
"Aww!" A lot of the you her kids cried out with disappointment "You can't stay even just a little while?!" One of the four-year-olds pouted.
"Sorry. There's stuff I was supposed to be doing that I better get back to. But I can maybe come by later." Peter explained.
"Yay!" The kids cheered.
Peter grinned "I said maybe." but he said it with a small huff of laughter as he backed out of the room leaving Tony with the caregivers and a room full of kids.
"I can't believe you were lucky enough to meet Peter on your first time dropping off your daughter." Elise said almost in awe "He's literally the backbone of The F.E.A.S.T. program. He volunteers to act as a caregiver for all of the younger kids at various times every day, plus he tutors all of the older kids and even several of the adults in several different subjects." The woman bragged.
"Yeah that kid is just too good for this world. And too dang smart for this world too." Brian chimed in "He pretty much holds the entirety of The F.E.A.S.T. Program together with his own bare hands."
"What about his Aunt?" Tony asked "Didn't she found F.E.A.S.T.?"
"She did and the way she used to brag about her nephew... According to her, F.E.A.S.T. was actually all Peter's idea long before the event that wiped out half the population happened." Kyle replied from beside Elise and Brian.
"So... It was her nephew's idea and therefore she just left the running of all of it to him? He's just a kid!" Tony exclaimed.
"Oh... He didn't mention it?... Oh poor thing is probably still in denial." Elise said looking a bit teary eyes "His Aunt May was in an accident shortly after Stark Industries approved The F.E.A.S.T. Program to use space in Stark Tower for facilities. She died. Poor Peter is one of the many orphans who doesn't have any family left at all. He lives on the level above this one with all of The High School Aged Kids because now he has nowhere else to go. But despite just being a kid, he's running everything involved with F.E.A.S.T. on his own and he volunteers every moment of his spare time to help in every area of the program whether it's helping care for the younger kids or helping train the displaced adults for jobs. He really does so much for all of us."
When Tony left the room he headed to Happy's Office. At first it was going to be just a meeting to arrange it to where the younger kids could go out to the rooftop gardens for half an hour everyday. But now... Now he wanted to know exactly what all he could do to help a kid who has lost everything and everyone but who was still helping to hold the world together for so many children and adults and the kid had practically been doing it all alone...
But not anymore...