Loki smirked.

Sitting in his quarters – almost a cell, really, although there were no bars and no locks – he waited. The moment would come, now, and it shouldn't be long. All he needed was for the boy to be alone and out from the protections the wizards had placed not only on the child himself, but apparently also on the entire city and surrounding area.

He couldn't go there – the distance was too vast for him to cross without assistance. Assistance that he couldn't ask for from Thor without announcing his plans – or at least making his dolt of a brother suspicious. That would never do, of course. He didn't need to be physically there, though. Loki knew his magic was far reaching. He'd used the other student and then, marvelously, he'd been able to use the doctor that they trusted with the boy's mental health.

Such delicious irony.

Once the boy was away from the protections of the wizards – and from Stark, who was a pest but carried a nasty sting, Loki would simply send a final strike and finish the boy. And complete his own vengeance.

How he looked forward to the disorder and the grief, the agony and the chaos that would follow once they realized what had happened. The boy would be dead. The Avengers would be reeling, and the wizards would understand, finally, that the gods were not to be messed with.

He was looking forward to it.

One more thing to do. Just in case the boy was so stupid that he hadn't figured out someone was behind it, by now – and Loki had to assume that he was incredibly dense, of course. One more near accident would probably do the trick. If not, he could cause another. He preferred not to, of course. Reaching that distance wasn't easy. Doing it without anyone noticing was even more challenging.

But the effort would be worth it. He just needed the boy alone and away from the protection of the others.

OOOOOOO

Saturday dawned sunny and bright, but there was a definite chill in the air. After a big breakfast, Stark gathered his little family and they drove to the water, where the charter boat was waiting for them. It was a good-sized vessel christened the Sea Bee which was owned by a retired Navy Chief who was obviously used to yelling at people when he was on the deck of a boat.

He introduced himself to the three, verified all of them could swim and handed out lifejackets to each of them, making sure that they had them on before he gave out orders to cast off from the wharf.

"This is going to be great," Pepper said, standing in the bow of the boat out of the way while watching the coastline get further and further away. She leaned against Tony, who was standing beside her, but she looked at Peter.

"Are you alright? You seem a little distracted today."

He nodded, looking away from her and watching the water in front of them.

"Yeah. Just thinking."

"Did you have any dreams last night?" Stark asked him.

The boy had fallen asleep after dinner the evening before, sprawled on one of the lounge sofas while Pepper and Tony played Pinochle with Steve and Bruce. Tony had just carried him to their bed and when he roused had told him that they wanted him close – just in case. It had been obvious that he wanted to protest and go back to his own bed, but Pepper had insisted, pointing out that with Natasha gone, it was her responsibility to try and keep him in bed, and theirs was larger than his was – and therefore more comfortable.

The reminder that he'd already intruded on Natasha once had probably been the deciding factor. He'd allowed Pepper to cuddle up against him and had gone back to sleep, holding her almost as tightly as he'd held her during his recent panic attack. He'd slept through the night, but his sleep had been restless, and both Tony and Pepper were certain that the only thing that had kept him in their bed – or in the state, for that matter – had been the fact that he wasn't alone.

"Yeah." He hesitated. "I dreamed about Loki. And May."

Peter was tired. His sleep had been filled with images; reminders of the attack that Loki had made on him, and the fury in his voice and expression when he'd started flinging trees at him. Loki had tried to get into Peter's head, and wanted to know about him, and Peter had been in a foul mood that morning and had pretty much goaded him into attacking him.

He wondered if that would be reason enough to make the god mad enough at him to hold a grudge. Enough of a grudge that he'd take it out on May, rather than on Peter. Or maybe hurting May had been the way to get to Peter. Maybe he'd wanted to hurt Peter by taking May away. If he'd been in his head at all – and he had been, Peter knew – then he'd know what May had meant to him. Dr. Bird seemed to think that it was feasible, and he was a pretty smart guy who knew how people's minds worked.

And maybe Loki was still in his head and was aware of what Pepper meant to him. That made Pepper a target. Like May had been.

Stark frowned.

"Why are you dreaming of Loki?"

"Because of what Flash said," he admitted. "You know what Loki can do? Could he have tried to get even with me by giving May cancer?"

"He didn't have any reason to get even with you, Peter," Stark told him. "You didn't do anything. We're the ones who-"

"I made him mad, Tony. What if I made him so mad that he wanted to get even?"

"He nearly killed you," Pepper pointed out. She'd seen the bruises. "I'd say he was even."

"Yeah, but what if-"

"If he wanted to do anything, he would have gone after me," Stark pointed out, understanding the concern and trying to address it rationally. "But he can't, Peter. He's not on this planet, and Thor is keeping an eye on him. He told us that he was. If Loki even wanted to do something, he'd immediately alert his brother and Thor would come down on him faster than anything else could."

"He was in my mind, though," Peter reminded him. "He knows who I love. He knows who to go after to hurt me. He's a god, right? Couldn't he-"

"We're coming up on the spot we're going to drop anchor," one of the crew of the charter boat said, interrupting the conversation without realizing it. "Are you folks ready to have some fun? We found a large school of tuna in the area the other day. They're a fun fish to catch – a lot of fight in them."

"But then we can let them go, right?" Pepper asked, turning from the conversation with Peter. "We're just in it for catching. Not for keeping."

The man shrugged.

"If that's what you want."

He had long since given up trying to figure out the minds of tourists. Even when that tourist was Tony Stark. They were paying good money for the trip, and if they didn't want to keep the fish they caught, well that just meant someone else could catch them, too.

"We do."

The man headed back toward the wheelhouse and Tony looked at Peter.

"We'll talk about this later, okay?"

"Yeah."

They both knew it wasn't really the time or place, and both were determined to have a good time. Deep sea fishing was a new experience for both of them. And for Pepper, as well, they knew.

Within half an hour, they were baiting hooks and tossing lines in the water, hooked up to special harnesses that were designed to keep them from being pulled into the water if they managed to catch something stronger than they were.

The conversation wasn't forgotten, but it was put on hold – for the moment, at least. Which was good, really. It would give Stark more time to think of more arguments to try and put Peter's mind at ease about the whole thing.

OOOOOOOO

"Okay. You guys can just say it, now…"

"Say what?" Pepper asked, curiously, as they were getting into the car.

It was late. Well after dinner – even though initially they had been told to expect to be back at the wharf by late afternoon. An unexpected storm had come up and had delayed the boat coming back to the dock. It was raining pretty hard, and lightning was flashing in the distance and seemed to be coming closer at an almost alarming speed.

"I'm a genius."

"We could say it," she agreed. "But would we have a specific reason to do so?"

"The fishing thing was a lot of fun."

Peter nodded, smiling. He'd had a great time. The excitement of catching fish that easily weighed what he did had driven his concerns and worry away – at least for the moment.

"It was great."

Stark gestured at the boy, also smiling, as he looked at Pepper.

"See?"

Since she had caught the most fish – as well as the biggest fish – Pepper had to nod.

"You're a genius."

"Hear that, Peter?"

"Yeah."

Of course, Peter already thought that, so it wasn't hard for him to admit it.

"Do we stop somewhere to eat?" Stark asked, starting the car and pulling away from the dock. "It'll be pretty late before we get home."

"Yes," Pepper said. They'd fed them lunch on the boat, and a snack once they'd pulled up the anchor and headed back to dry land to beat the storm, but that had been a long time ago and she was hungry. "Peter? A burger?"

"Yes. Please."

Stark nodded and turned the car toward the highway. They still had a long drive home, but he was definitely ready to eat something before going too far. The burger place that he had in mind was only a short drive away, but it wasn't a drive thru, so they'd have to chance getting rained on to go inside. Instead, when Tony pulled up to the restaurant, he parked in the front and offered to go inside and bring their meal to them to keep them all dry.

Peter said he could go, but Tony winked at him, looking over his shoulder at the boy.

"If you go, then I can't order extra cheese and fry sauce. You know momma doesn't want me eating all that yummy goodness."

Pepper rolled her eyes at that, and Peter grinned.

"I think she's more concerned you won't fit into your Ironman suit."

"Did you just call me fat?"

"No extra cheese, Tony," Pepper told him, amused. "But I will have a milkshake."

Stark made a face and nodded.

"I'll be right back."

The two watched as he trotted to the door of the burger place, and headed inside. The place was pretty busy, so they assumed it would be a few minutes, at least Pepper turned in her seat to look at Peter.

"Did you have a good time?"

"It was a lot of fun."

"Yeah." He started to mention the huge fish that she'd caught, when his spider senses suddenly were screaming at him that something was happening. As usual, they couldn't tell him what, exactly, but he knew immediately that they were in danger. A lot of danger. "Shit!"

"What is it, Peter?" Pepper asked, shocked by the expletive.

Not that she'd never heard the word before, but she'd never heard him use it.

"Watch out, Pepper," he said, pushing open his door and getting out of the car.

Even as he moved, there was a brilliant flash of light, immediately followed by a roar of thunder that literally shook the air around them. There was a crack and Pepper yelped in fright, startled. Suddenly the windshield was shattered as the branches of a huge tree came crashing down on them and she flinched, knowing that there wasn't anywhere that she could go to avoid the trunk of that same tree, which was falling directly onto the car they were in.

"Peter!"

She had only a moment to hope he had escaped, then realized that the trunk wasn't moving any longer. Through the few spaces in the windshield that weren't spiderwebbed and shattered, she could see the trunk was stopped. Not by the branches that had hit the car, or the ground all around them. Hidden from view by all of the branches to anyone but Pepper, Peter was standing outside his open door, his arms raised and locked, the tree held in place by sheer muscle alone.

"I got it," he grunted, looking over his shoulder at her. "Get out, though – just in case."

Pepper scrambled to open the door just as the tree was lifted by an outside force. She saw the Ironman suit now holding the other end of the trunk, keeping it from toppling any further – not that Peter would have allowed it to move.

"Pepper, move," Tony ordered, unable to hold the tree and help her out of the car.

She did as she was told, looking back to make sure Peter was out of the way, too. The boy waited to make sure she was clear and then eased the trunk down onto the car, allowing Tony to take the weight and let him slide along the driver's side to get free of the branches and out into the parking lot to stand next to Pepper, who was pale and shocked.

A small crowd of people were pouring out of the burger place – which had lost all electricity from the falling tree taking out the power lines that fed it.

She grabbed him, checking for injury automatically, and aware that he was doing the same.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah."

The tree was moved just a little as Ironman set it down once Friday told Tony that everyone was clear – including another car filled with a family who had just pulled up for a late meal, as well. Stark disengaged the suit as he walked over to Pepper, his expression concerned, and ignoring everyone but her and Peter for the moment. Friday had already run a scan on the two, but he needed to be sure.

"Are you two okay?"

Pepper nodded, and he pulled her into his arms, both of them looking at the tree that had demolished the car, but hadn't been able to hurt anyone.

"That was close."