Another rare one from someone else's perspective. It just made sense. Hope you enjoy it. :)
As one of Ms. Potts' secondary executive assistants, it was Daren Anderson's job to shepherd Mr. Stark around today. Ms. Potts was out of the country for several days, but they really needed a CEO presence at several things today, so Daren was supposed to try to convince him to be at each event. Maybe even on time. Daren was fairly anxious, because very few people could actually get the man to do anything, and Ms. Potts had said she was counting on him. This was unlikely to end well. He used his shirt sleeve to mop at his damp forehead while he waited, hoping the billionaire would show up.
He was there, ready to go, fully partially psyched up to greet the living legend as he exited the elevator (ten minutes late). "Good morning, Mr. Stark!"
The older man grimaced slightly. "Ah, yes. Pepper's assistant? Aaron? I forgot you'd be tagging along today." He didn't say it with any kind of negative inflection, but Daren still felt out of place immediately.
"It's Daren, sir," he said quietly. However, his discomfiture was soon replaced with curiosity. Apparently he wasn't the only "tag along" today. Mr. Stark was followed out of the elevator by a teenager. A young-looking one. The kid had almost the same color hair as the older man, was a few inches shorter, and held himself similarly, though his movements weren't as confident, and his body language seemed resistant. Huh.
As they walked down the hall, Mr. Stark and the kid seemed to be continuing a conversation they'd started before they got to Daren.
"But shouldn't I be resting?" the kid said persuasively.
"I thought you were fine. Which is it? I'm not leaving you alone. Helen said 24 hours. I can cancel my day if you're stiff feeling iffy."
Oh dear. That didn't sound good at all…
"It was just a concussion, Mr. Stark. I get those all the time. I should be…"
The boy's voice got quieter as he continued to argue whatever his point was, gesturing with his hands. This kid got concussions all the time? How? Why? He didn't have the build to play football or rugby. Why was he with Mr. Stark?
As Mr. Stark strode through R&D, he started looking around, and seemed to finally notice there was an inordinate amount of children in the Tower today. Especially compared to most days, when there were no children. "Derek, what's with all the kids?"
"Daren, sir. Um, it's "Family Day," where employees are encouraged to bring their older children to work with them if they want?"
"Oh, that's right. I remember Pepper mentioning that. They have anything dangerous locked away though, right?" Then, to the boy walking at his side, "Good thing, Pete, or I'm sure you'd find something to blow up down here."
"Of course, sir," Daren assured him, then startled a bit as Mr. Stark's shadow rolled his eyes and openly scoffed at the man's comment. Daren was doubly curious about the relationship here.
What Mr. Stark didn't see were all the looks the pair was getting as they walked through. The older engineer paraded through like he owned the place (which he did), and "Pete's" head swiveled rapidly as he took in all the projects that were on display. It was more than usual, since so many people wanted to show their kids or their spouses what they'd been working on.
"You're fine to walk around and look at what interests you, kid. We have a meeting at 9:30, but until then you're free of me," he said with a smirk. "Well, sort of. FRIDAY's…" The end of that sentence was too quiet for Daren to hear.
The teenager gave Mr. Stark a flat look before looking unsure about what he should do next. But soon a holographic display screen caught his eye and his feet seemed to move of their own volition. Mr. Stark grinned indulgently and turned to answer some questions from a few of the R&D employees. Daren sighed. He had hoped to get Mr. Stark to the meeting early, but at least he seemed aware of it, and sounded like he was planning to go. Maybe his day wouldn't be as much of a disaster as he had worried.
Mr. Stark was caught up in a very technical conversation that Daren had no understanding of or interest in, so he zeroed in on what the teen was doing. His interest in that particular wrinkle was only growing. "Pete" had picked up one of the automatic drone couriers they'd been testing recently, and seemed to be asking questions that the engineer was answering, though she looked surprised. They went back and forth for a few minutes, then the kid appeared to ask for access to the woman's computer. She reluctantly moved aside for him, and he spent about 30 seconds at the keyboard before backing up, looking satisfied. What in the world? The engineer peered at what he'd done and sat back in her seat slightly, her eyes wide.
Just then, Mr. Stark called, "Kid? C'mere for a second. Jake here has a question I think you're more on top of than me." What. Daren wanted to hear that exchange, too, but couldn't help quietly walking over to the courier drone set-up and asking the woman (her name badge said "Sveta") a few questions. He pasted on a professional smile.
"Sveta, hi. I'm Daren, one of Ms. Pott's assistants. I was just curious, what just happened here? What did that boy do with your project?"
"Well, apparently he fixed something that's been giving us trouble for almost three weeks now. I can't believe no one else figured it out. It really was a simple adjustment, now that I look at it from a that perspective." She was only half paying attention to him, typing furiously at her workstation. "Who is he?"
"I wish I knew. He's here with Mr. Stark."
"Well, it's Family Day. He's probably some kind of relative, huh?" She seemed fully immersed in what she was doing with the coding now, so Daren wandered back over to Mr. Stark and the wonder kid.
"Is that what you were looking for?" Pete was asking.
"Yeah, yeah, I guess it is," the intern supervisor said, as they both stared at something on the screen. It looked like schematics for the new Starkphone that was going to production in a few months.
"Kids just don't use it that way anymore, so if you're aiming at a younger audience with this release, it makes more sense this way."
"Yeah, you're totally right. Thanks… Peter, is it?" he said. Then, smiling up at Mr. Stark, he continued, "Think we can get this guy in on our final brainstorming session for this project?"
The kid, Peter, looked embarrassed, but pleased.
"Eh, maybe. You're not stealing my intern, Patrick, and he has school."
His intern? Daren had never seen this kid, nor heard of Mr. Stark having an intern. What was going on here? He couldn't be just an intern, could he? SI didn't even take high school interns.
"I think I'd be willing to work around his schedule," the man said lightly. "Think about it."
Daren's watch beeped, signaling that it was time for the department heads meeting. Hopefully an abbreviated one, because some of the heads would probably have kids with them. The whole "family day" was a great idea in theory, but they still needed to get things done and stay on schedule.
"Mr. Stark? Excuse me, but it's time for the meeting? Can we head that direction?"
"What? Oh, sure, Dallin. Pete? Let's go. John will have to solve his own problems."
"Daren," the assistant muttered in frustration under his breath.
Mr. Stark turned and looked at him. Actually looked at him. "I know your name, Anderson," he said quietly, amusement glinting in his eyes. Daren swallowed. He hadn't even mentioned his last name. "I'm just giving you a hard time and keeping you on your toes." Mr. Stark then pulled the kid away from his conversation with Patrick (that is what his id card actually said) and gestured for Daren to lead the way.
They were only three minutes late to the meeting, which Daren counted as a huge success. Daren sat at Mr. Stark's right, ready to take notes for Ms. Potts, and Mr. Stark tapped the seat to his left as he looked at Peter. There were a few other young teens sitting next to their parents, mostly looking bored, but all of the younger "kids" were at a separate table. Each one had been provided a SI version of a Kiwi Box, with some kind of engineering puzzle/craft-type thing inside to try to keep them occupied during the meeting. As it got started though, it was obvious someone had not thought this through. Even though the kids looked mostly between 7 and 12, they were universally struggling with the project, and kept coming to their parents with complaints or asking for help. It was not conducive to actually getting anything done.
Daren was trying not to feel anxious about the lack of productivity, and trying to take notes on the PR head's presentation, despite the general noise level, but he was struggling. Whose idea was this, anyway? Suddenly he noticed what seemed to be a silent conversation between Peter and Mr. Stark, which ended with Mr. Stark nodding his head and Peter leaving his seat to go over to the project table. Within about two minutes the chaos and noise level had dropped significantly, and all the younger kids were in their seats, focused on Peter as he quietly led them through the steps to assemble their miniature helicopters. After a few moments even some of the older kids had started drifting towards the project table. Daren watched in fascination. The animation on Peter's face as he tried to keep their attention while showing them how to do each step was uncannily reminiscent of Mr. Stark when he turned on his "public persona" for lecturing and press conferences. Daren found himself turning back and forth between the man and his teenage shadow, looking for similarities. Mr. Stark didn't have a kid, did he?
The adults realized the short gift of time they had, and the meeting proceeded rapidly. As it ended, several of the heads went over and complimented Peter for his quick thinking and help, while also oohing and aahing over their kids' helicopters. Daren heard them ask him whose son he was, and he just looked embarrassed and said, "uh, I'm just here with Mr. Stark." Well, that was a non-answer if Daren ever heard one.
Next they were touring the chemistry labs, and Mr. Stark was supposed to have a quick meeting with the lab heads there.
"Pete, this one will be short. You can just stay out here. I know you've been interested in Hall's work. He's right over there. Hall? Let Peter here see what you're doing today. He's up to speed on your notes." Hall looked surprised, but welcomed the teen over to his workstation, and started explaining some things to him.
Daren followed Mr. Stark into the meeting, feeling bemused. That "short" meeting would have been much longer if Mr. Stark hadn't called "Time!" at exactly 30 minutes, and thanked them all for coming before walking out. Well, there were some up-sides to following Mr. Stark around, Daren decided. Ms. Potts was much more patient, and they'd gone late to lunch several times because of it.
When they emerged, Mr. Stark headed straight for Hall's lab set-up, and Daren followed him.
"Mr. Stark, where have you been hiding him? You had to wait until "family day" to bring him in? Peter, please come back any time. I'd love to work with you more," Hall said effusively. "You're certainly a chip off the old block, aren't you?"
Mr. Stark's face was surprised, then confused, then amused. The play of emotions was rapid, but obvious to Daren. "Right? He's a sharp kid. Maybe sometime soon," and led Peter away, Daren hurrying to keep up.
The teen finally seemed to figure out what the chemist had meant, and he half turned, saying, "Wait, no, I'm not-"
Mr. Stark shushed him. "Sometimes it's easiest not to … " They had moved further ahead of Daren, and their voices were low, so he was only getting half the conversation.
"But, Mr. Stark, I think…"
"...doesn't bother me, kid… unless you"
"No, I mean it's fine, just…" Mr. Stark reached up and ruffled the kid's hair, squeezing him in a brief side hug before dropping his arm so they could walk more smoothly.
Daren's head felt like it just might explode, still not knowing what the relationship was here. Peter acted like the chemist had made a mistake in assuming he was some secret son Mr. Stark was keeping on the down-low, but Mr. Stark didn't act upset about the inference, or if it wasn't true, the mistake.
They broke for lunch at that point, and Daren didn't see the duo again until 1:30 that afternoon, when he escorted them to a security update meeting. Mr. Hogan, the head of security, seemed acquainted with the kid, too, and they were actually joking together for a few minutes after the meeting ended. Well, the kid was joking. Mr. Hogan didn't brush him off, and almost smiled at one of his comments. How did they know each other? It was then that Daren also noticed the kid wasn't wearing any kind of ID badge, unlike everyone else in the Tower (except Mr. Stark) but Mr. Hogan hadn't said a thing. That was not normal. Daren felt like he was getting a headache.
He didn't seem to be the only one. He saw Peter rubbing at his head a little, and Mr. Stark was quickly at his side, asking him quiet questions. Peter finally nodded, looking kind of tired. Mr. Stark stepped back and looked around, stopping when he spied Daren over his left shoulder.
"Daren, I'm not going to make most of the closing events today, sorry. Would you please let FRIDAY know when I have about ten minutes before I'm supposed to speak, and I'll run down? I'm gonna take Pete back upstairs." Daren nodded soundlessly. Upstairs. The only thing upstairs was Mr. Stark's personal labs and the Avengers and penthouse levels. That upstairs? It made sense, since the boy had come with Mr. Stark from upstairs earlier, but it still surprised him for some reason.
Mr. Stark placed an arm around the kid's shoulder, looking concerned, and steered him out of the room, only stopping to say something to Mr. Hogan on his way out. Mr. Hogan's face creased with some emotion too, and he waved them away.
There was no way that teenager was just an intern. Daren wondered how many people knew about this kid, about Mr. Stark's kid. Mr. Hogan seemed to. Did Ms. Potts know? Why hadn't anyone briefed him? This was seriously the weirdest day ever. But at least he'd managed to get Mr. Stark to three important meetings, and he estimated there was a 60% chance he'd even show up for his short presentation. Daren mentally crossed his fingers. This day had been much better, if way more confusing, than he'd expected.
Please let me know if you're reading and enjoying! :)