"She really wants us to go to her office?"

Tony smiled at how pleased Peter looked, and he nodded, squeezing his hand.

"Yes. She wants to hear how your appointment with Dr. Wayne went, and wants to know how school was. If you tell us both at the same time, then we don't need to make you say it all twice."

"That makes sense," Peter conceded.

"She's pretty clever that way."

Tony was in a good mood. They'd had a pretty easy day, the day before – even though they'd definitely cancelled the trip to the zoo, since it was still snowing, lightly, when they'd woken up Sunday morning. Pepper and Peter had made pancakes and after breakfast Peter had bundled up and gone out to play in the snow. Pepper and Tony had joined him after cleaning the kitchen, but it was cold, and they'd ended up going back inside to warm up – although Peter spent most of the morning building a small army of tiny snowmen and gathering them around a snow castle that he built using a couple of shoe box-sized plastic boxes to make bricks.

He'd gone inside for lunch, and had been convinced that it wasn't a bad idea to stay inside where he was warm. They'd played with the piano for a while, with Tony and Peter showing off their repertoire to Pepper, who was properly impressed with both of them, and then had played board games at the dining table until it was time for dinner.

Peter had then been sent to take a bath, and when he returned, cleaner and still a little damp, but now dressed in pajamas, he'd been settled on the sofa between Pepper and Tony and they'd watched a movie before Tony carried him to bed, freeing Pepper to take a bath, too, and get her schedule prepped for the next day.

Maria had picked Peter up that morning, and Tony had driven himself and Pepper to the tower, where they parted ways so he could check on the progress of the new suit, while she had some meetings. They'd eaten lunch together and Tony had verified that she really did want them to swing by her office before he took Peter down to daycare. She'd told him that she was looking forward to it – and had told him that she had cleared that portion of her day for the next week, so they could do it every Monday.

Tony had picked his son up at school, and had taken him to his appointment with Dr. Wayne – and had remembered to ask the man about how (or if) he should address Pepper sleeping over, and maybe in his bed. To his relief, the doctor hadn't vetoed the idea, and had given Tony a few different suggestions on addressing the issue with Peter – and with Pepper.

Now they were back in the tower, and heading to Pepper's office, stopping at Tony's only long enough to drop off Peter's backpack and coat.

"Pepper's in her office, JARVIS?" Tony clarified.

"She is," the AI confirmed. "She is not alone."

"Oh? Is it a meeting?"

He looked at Peter, who smiled, clearly not concerned.

"An unexpected one," JARVIS replied. "She would almost certainly appreciate your arrival to end the meeting as soon as possible."

Now Tony was curious. He offered Peter his hand.

"We'll go crash her meeting," he told his son. "And send whoever it is packing, so we can have her to ourselves. Sound good?"

Peter nodded, his eyes excited.

"Yeah."

OOOOOOOOOOO

Pepper Potts was irritated and not bothering to hide it – too much. The man sitting in the chair across from her desk was not her favorite person in the world by any means, and he was even more annoying when he was trying to be slick, talking to her in a coaxing manner and trying to convince her to do something she had no intention of doing.

Justin Hammer hadn't called ahead. Hadn't asked if she had a moment to listen to a business proposal before he actually showed up in the lobby with a couple of his bodyguards in tow and demanded (demanded!) that the receptionist at the marble desk call Pepper and tell her that he was there and wanted to talk to her about a new deal that would make both of them incredibly wealthy. She'd scowled, but rather than sending him away, she'd decided that it would be easier to hear him out before declining whatever proposal that he had in mind.

She had a date with Peter in less than half an hour, after all, and she didn't want to put it on hold. Especially not for Justin Hammer.

He'd walked into her office like he owned the place, and had scowled when Pepper immediately sent his bodyguards packing to wait outside – or even better down the hall in the employee break room where they weren't going to be in anyone else's way or looming around her doorway. Then the man had the audacity to sit down at her desk, and reach over and help himself to one of the cookies that she'd set out for Peter's arrival.

Now she was listening to him map out a proposal for a merger of one of SI's larger tech companies with one of his manufacturing companies. A deal that she'd made perfectly clear wasn't going to happen, since it involved products that another SI company was already contracted to manufacture – and at a better price for all parties involved.

Pepper let him wind down, and then told him no, again. He was just beginning his third attempt to change her mind when there was a knock on the door and Tony poked his head into her office, clearly warned ahead of time that she was in a meeting. From the way his expression darkened – even from a distance – she knew that he hadn't known who she was meeting with, however.

The door opened, further, and Peter came in. He didn't stop to check things out, instead hurrying over to say hello and only giving Hammer a cursory glance as he did.

"Hi, Pepper," he said, moving stand beside her chair behind the desk, his eyes happy as he looked up at her.

Pepper ignored the annoyed look that Hammer gave the boy, and reached down to brush her fingers along his cheek.

"Hi, honey. Did you have a good day?"

"Yeah. Did you?"

"I did. I-"

"Who is that?" Hammer asked, interrupting.

"What are you doing here?" Tony asked, walking over before Pepper could reply. "Shouldn't you be under some rock, somewhere…?"

"Yeah, that's cute, Anthony," the other man replied. He looked from the man to the boy, and his eyes widened, slightly. "Is this the kid you adopted? Ricky?"

"I'm Peter," Peter told him, helpfully.

"Shouldn't you be in school?"

"It's over."

"High schools get out earlier than elementary schools do," Tony said. He looked at Pepper, trying to get an idea of how mad she'd be at him if he was a total ass to the other man, but her expression was carefully neutral as she smiled down at Peter. "Peter's been out of class for over an hour, now."

"So he really is as smart as I heard…" the man trailed off, looking even more annoyed as Peter decided that he wanted to be closer to Pepper, so he climbed into her lap, and reached for a cookie. "I assumed it was exaggeration."

"Where did you hear that?" Tony asked.

"He lived with my second cousin, for a while. Chelsea Marples. Until you decided to interfere." Hammer looked at the boy for a moment, giving him a smile that was probably supposed to be warm and welcoming, but looked greasy, instead. "If I'd known he was really that smart, I'd have adopted him, myself."