A light tap at the door to his office made Tony look up from the display on his desk, but before he could say anything Nick Fury let himself into the spacious room. The SHIELD director was dressed in his usual dark leather, and exuded competence, and Stark could see the slight bulge under the man's left armpit where he knew there was a concealed weapon – despite the no weapons allowed policy of the tower.

"You summoned me?" Fury ask, his deep voice a mixture of curiosity and impatience.

He was a busy guy, after all – but he always had time for Tony. Whether the man knew it or not.

"Yes." He wouldn't call it summoned, but he knew Fury liked to be dramatic. Tony stood up. "Thanks for coming."

"Peter's fine."

"I know." He'd checked in with Phil only half an hour before. "I wanted to talk to you about him, really. Actually, I wanted to talk to Natasha, but since she isn't available, I thought you might be the next best choice."

Which, of course, made Nick curious.

"About what?"

"Something to drink?"

"Sure." Despite the early hour, there were plenty of beverages offered to him. Fury chose a Dr. Pepper, and opened it, seating himself in one of the comfortable chairs in Stark's office before taking a drink. "What's on your mind, Tony?"

"You ever have a gut feeling something is going to happen?"

"All the time. Why?"

"Does it hurt?"

The man frowned.

"What?"

"When you think you know something is going to happen…" Stark repeated. "Does it hurt you? Physically, I mean?"

"No. It's a suspicion. A weird feeling."

"Does Romanoff get the same kind of sensation when she knows something is wrong around her?"

"You'd have to ask her," came the answer. "But I doubt it's physical. Why do you ask?"

"Because I've been doing a little research into the briefings that your people have done with Peter, both this latest incidence, and the time when we were gone and he was in the park with Pepper. From what he's told me, and your folks, and JARVIS, it seems that Peter might get an ache in his stomach when something is happening."

"Really?"

Stark shrugged.

"I'm not certain, of course, but from what I can tell. And he was fine at the compound – right up until he met Sitwell and Rumlow. Then he had a stomachache that went away after they left."

"Could be a coincidence."

Another shrugged, and a raised eyebrow.

"You're the one who told me that you don't like coincidences."

"Because they don't exist," Fury said. He took another drink of his cola, but he was very much interested in what Stark was getting at, despite his appearance to the contrary. "Show me what you've compiled."

"Yeah."

The display on the desk was turned so both men could see it.

OOOOOOOO

"If one more person asks me what happened to my head, I'm going to explode. I mean it. Poof. Right here."

Peter smiled up at the SHIELD agent, recognizing the annoyance in his voice, but knowing from the way he'd said the threat that it wasn't serious.

"I think you look cool," he assured Coulson.

The man pressed his fingers against the bandage that covered the stitches on his forehead.

"Yeah?"

"Uh huh."

Coulson glanced over at Hill, who had arrived just after lunch, and had immediately offered to take over for him if his head was aching too much to continue that day. He'd declined, of course, but she'd stuck around, anyway.

"I look cool?" he asked her.

She wanted to tease him, but the injury done to his pride and professionalism had taken a much harder blow than the one covered by the bandage. Instead, she simply nodded.

"Like a boss."

That made him roll his eyes.

"No one says that, anymore, Maria."

Peter giggled, and Hill smiled down at him, so relieved that the attempt on him had failed. She'd also volunteered to go with Romanoff and Barton on their clandestine assignment, but the same argument that kept Coulson at home had kept her there, as well. She was assigned to Peter and they (Stark, in particular) didn't want any more upheaval in his son's life.

"Everything is ready at the tower," she said, changing the subject. "Phil and I will take you to your dad's office for your snack, first, and then he'll take you to the robotics lab when your classmates get there. Got it?"

Peter nodded.

"Yes. Thanks."

Both of the SHIELD agents were aware that they were being a little overprotective of the boy that day, but they couldn't help it, and luckily, Peter either didn't notice, or didn't mind. If he thought it was odd that they shadowed him even in the halls, and Coulson guarded him in the bathroom, even, the boy didn't complain. All the adults were acting a little weird; Tony had hesitated before allowing him out the door with Phil that morning, and Phil had been twitchy, looking around everywhere to the car, during the drive to the school and even when they'd met up with the other SHIELD people.

Peter felt okay, though.

He had had a good weekend, and while he wasn't completely over the attempted abduction, a lot of good had overshadowed the scary, and despite his excellent memory and his intelligence, he was still eight, and was distracted easier than the grownups were. The kids were talking about the incident – it was the biggest topic in the classrooms before they started and all over the lunchroom. Phil told him that where the kids weren't able to hear, the adults were talking about it, too, but since SHIELD had locked things down, immediately, and no one had actually seen anything, there was a lot of speculation but no actual facts to gossip about.

That was how SHIELD wanted it, of course, and Peter had been told that it was better if he didn't tell anyone what had happened. Including Ned.

"I'll be right here when you get done," Coulson told Peter, stopping outside the door to his last class.

"Okay." Peter grinned, then, his brown eyes lighting up with mischief. "Hey?"

"Yeah?"

"What happened to your head?"

The SHIELD agent rolled his eyes, even as Hill snorted in amusement at the show of cheek.

"Don't encourage him," Coulson told her, pretending to be amused, even as he took a swipe at the little boy, who dodged the cuff, easily. It wasn't hard; Phil wasn't really trying to hit him, of course. "Get to class, before I tell your teacher you want to stay behind and clean the chalkboards."

Peter was still giggling when he left, and Hill leaned against the wall, watching as the door closed behind the last student.

"You realize they don't even have chalkboards, right?"

"Whatever." He settled in for the wait. "Any word from Romanoff?"

"No. And there won't be. You know how she is."

"Yeah." They wouldn't have word from Romanoff – or Barton – until the two were ready for SHIELD to hear anything. And that might not be until the problem was completely solved. "Makes me glad she's on our side."

Hill nodded.

"Me, too."

OOOOOOOOO

Tony was in his office when Peter arrived there after school. Not surprisingly, of course. That Fury was in his office, also, wasn't something Peter was expecting, but his reaction to the SHIELD director's presence was a smile that clearly showed he was completely at ease with Nick.

"Hi, Nick," Peter said, his smile lighting up his eyes and his entire being as Tony swept the boy up into his arms. "What are you doing here?"

"Came by to talk to your dad," Fury replied, casually. He gestured at the plate of snacks that Stark had put on his desk for Peter. "And to have a cookie, or two."

"How was school?" Tony asked, running his fingers through Peter's hair.

"Good. The others are coming by 4:30."

"That's my understanding," came the reply, and he smiled, because Peter looked so excited.

"I came by to talk to you, too," Nick said, when Tony put the boy down so Peter could climb into one of the chairs across from Tony's desk. "Your dad was telling me about the conversation that you guys had about your stomach."

"My stomach?" Peter echoed, uncertainly, reaching for an Oreo.

"How it can hurt you, sometimes," Tony clarified, sitting himself in his chair, while Nick did the same. "You know, when something feels wrong."

"Oh. Yeah."

The boy shoved the cookie into his mouth, unconcerned.

"Did it hurt you when you saw Sitwell and Rumlow on Friday?" Nick asked, frowning at the way Peter's mouth was suddenly much too full for a little guy. "Don't answer that until you've swallowed."

Peter nodded, his expression not as cheerful, but it was hard to be afraid when you had Nick Fury and Ironman next to you – and you had a mouthful of Oreo cookie. He chewed and cleared his mouth.

"Yes. And when I met them at the compound," he added.

He and JARVIS had discussed that, the other night, when the AI had brought up the topic.

"So you knew something was wrong?" Nick asked.

"No. I mean, maybe." Peter shrugged. "I just knew my stomach hurt and it didn't feel good."

"Did it hurt, later?" Tony asked. "When we were in the truck talking to Natasha about your Mars project?"

He'd been worried about Peter's arm, and his face – and his own general panic – so he hadn't asked if anything else was wrong.

"I don't remember," Peter said. He hesitated, trying to think back. Last Friday was a blur of a million different things. "I don't think so. But my arm hurt, a lot, so maybe."

"Does it hurt, now?" Nick asked.

"No." The boy smiled, reaching for another cookie. "Tony said it might be a super power."

Fury shrugged, but he was studying Peter carefully as he pulled the Oreo apart to eat the white stuff in the middle.

"It might be, at that. I want you to pay attention to when it hurts, for me, and we'll start keeping track."

"Like an experiment?"

"Exactly like one," Tony said. "If it starts to hurt, I want you to pay attention to what's going on around you – and tell someone, immediately."

"Not just any someone," Nick corrected. "Tony, or someone who knows what else you can do. Not a teacher, or a classmate. Understand?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

"I'm going to see a shrink."

If the SHIELD director was surprised by the change of topic, he didn't allow it to show.

"A shrink? Or a psychologist?"

"The second one."

"Not because he's crazy," Tony said – more for Peter's benefit than for Nick's. He and Fury had already had this discussion, too. "So that he has an outlet if he needs it."

"Smart," Fury told him. "We have a couple of psychologists assigned to SHIELD, too."

"You do?" Peter asked, impressed. "Really?"

"As stressful as our job is? Of course."

"Do you talk to them?"

Tony raised an eyebrow at Peter's question, but Nick simply nodded.

"No sense paying them if we don't use them. Including me."

"Wow. Do they have a couch?"

"No."

"Do they swing a watch in front of your face, to make you fall asleep?"

Stark snorted, but Nick shook his head with an amused expression in his eye.

"Nope. None of that. It's all for TV. The dude just has an office – kind of like your dad's, here – and we hang out and talk."

"About what?"

"If you're going to be in the robotics lab when your classmates get here," Tony interrupted, smoothly. "You'd better start eating."

"Okay."

Peter shoved another cookie in his mouth and Stark smirked at Nick, who shrugged and took another cookie, too.

Who needed Natasha to do interrogations when they had an eight-year-old