Peter spent a few hours in the Quinjet simulator that afternoon. Groot had been interested, as had Rocket – who loved to fly, apparently – and Quill. When they walked from the helicopter to the simulator, they found Drax and Mantis still there, although Mantis wasn't even trying the program; she seemed to just be there to keep the other company.

She looked over at Peter when they arrived, and gave him an odd look. At first Peter thought that maybe it was because she knew how scared he was, but was reminded that Alec had told him that while she could feel the people around her, Alec kept her out of his mind and thoughts.

"She could be catching Tony's thoughts, though," Alec admitted. "She already knows that you're in danger – and has to know that Tony is worried about you."

"Does she have that kind of reach?"

"Oh, yes. Not to mention, the stronger the emotion, the easier to feel. Tony's worried. She's going to pick that up. Considering that you're the one that he's the most worried about, it wouldn't be surprising if that concern is laced with your signature."

Huh. Peter hadn't considered that, although he knew Tony was worried – and probably much more than he was letting on to Peter. He didn't like worrying Tony and Pepper, but this wasn't something that he had any control over at the moment, so all he could do was help in any way that he could – or stay out of the way and try to make Tony think that he wasn't as scared as he really was.

To that end, he immediately challenged Drax to a dog fight, since Drax was the one that had the most experience on the simulator and the best chance of beating Peter. When he was shot down, almost immediately, Drax demanded a rematch, and then Rocket wanted a try against Drax, and then the others took an interest and gave Peter a much needed distraction from the events of the last few days.

He was, of course, far more experienced with the simulator, since he played with it all the time, but Rocket and Quill were both experienced pilots and once they caught on to how the controls worked, they proved to be dangerous. Peter's excellent reflexes made him a good pilot, and he was just shooting Quill down when his watched beeped to remind him that he was supposed to meet Pepper in the garage, soon.

"I'll see you guys later," Peter told the guardians, just as Gamora came around the corner, clearly looking for her companions.

"I want a rematch," Rocket said, smarting at the thought of being shot down by a kid.

More than once.

"Any time," Peter said with a smile. "I'll see you guys, later."

He dismissed himself and Quill turned to Gamora.

"Want a go at it?"

She rolled her eyes.

"No."

"What did you learn?" Rocket asked, curiously.

"These people are optimistic of their chances to be able to stand against Thanos."

"Yeah? And…?"

"So were the Nova Corps," she pointed out. "And we all know how that ended."

"We're not leaving though, right?" Drax asked.

It was clear he didn't like the idea of running from any fight. Even a hopeless one.

She nodded.

"They're the best chance we have, I think."

"And they're good people," Quill added. "Not to mention, I still have family here on earth, somewhere, and I'd hate to see this planet destroyed."

"I am groot?"

He hesitated, and everyone looked at Quill.

"Do I want to visit them?"

The question surprised him, since it wasn't something that he ever would have considered.

"You mentioned it was a homecoming for you," Gamora reminded him.

"Yeah. But the earth home," he said, feeling uncertain – and a little uneasy. "I wouldn't know any of them. My cousins would all be old, now, and my grandfather…" he trailed off, shrugging. "No. I probably would be better off not even making the try. How would I explain where I've been?"

"You tell them you were stolen by ravagers because your crazy celestial father wanted to experiment on you," Drax told him, helpfully.

Quill wasn't the only one to roll his eyes at that.

"Tell us what they have going for them," Peter told Gamora, changing the subject. "And what we can do to add to it."

OOOOOOO

Tony was waiting in the garage, already, by the time Peter arrived at a trot. The billionaire was leaning against Peter's Pontiac, and when he looked at Peter, he was pleased to see that the boy looked a little less stressed than he had. Always a good thing. He also noticed the cloak wasn't hanging out with him.

"Did Stephen leave?"

"About 20 minutes ago," Peter confirmed. "At least, that's when the cloak abandoned me. I assumed he was going home."

They both knew that the cloak preferred to spend time with peter when Strange was at the compound.

"What did you end up doing?"

"Killed Starlord in a half dozen dogfights in the Quinjet."

He said it casually because he knew that it would amuse Tony – which would relax his concern, even if it was only for a moment.

"And the raccoon?"

Peter smiled, since he knew Tony knew Rocket's name. Obviously Tony was trying to keep him from being concerned, as well. He loved him for the effort.

"Him, too. And Drax a few times. Then I watched them. You?"

"Listened to Steve and Gradymatson babble at each other in military talk. Line of sight, defensive teams, fields of fire… all those things."

"Are they going to evacuate the area?"

"Not yet. Not until we have a better idea of a timeline. There are a lot of small farms between here and the city, after all, and it's coming up to harvest time for many of them. We don't want to pull them too soon and have them standing by for what could end up being months."

"That makes sense."

"Yeah." Tony shrugged. "I never even considered it, so it's probably a good thing the military guys came. It's their specialty – this kind of thing. They're planning on using guard units to start – they mobilize faster than the regular army. So they tell me, anyway. I would have thought it worked the other way. But these people are closer than bringing entire units from someplace like Tennessee or something."

Peter nodded his agreement and started to say something, but Pepper's car pulled into sight, just then, and he and Tony parted. Tony onto Pepper's side, when she pulled into the garage, and Peter moving to stand at the front of the car. She smiled at both of them and turned off the car while Tony opened her door.

"There are my two favorite men."

Peter smiled, watching as Tony pressed his cheek against hers, and then kissed her. A movement outside of the garage before the door closed showed him another car – the one that had been following Pepper from the tower, he knew – peel off and head for the auxiliary garage.

"How was the drive?"

"Uneventful." She got out of the car and tossed a small paper bag at him – which he caught, easily. "Three donuts from the shop you like by the tower."

"Thanks."

"Make sure Shuri gets one, at least."

"I will."

"Where is she?"

"Working on the shield," Tony replied as they left the garage. "I checked in with her – once – and was politely and firmly told to go away and let her work."

"She's been working on it all day?"

"Pretty much," Peter told her.

"Then she needs a break." Since the workroom was off of their quarters, Peter could go get her while Pepper was changing. "We'll feed her dinner and distract her with other activities. I don't want her burning out."

"Peter can distract her," Tony agreed.

OOOOOOO

"But I am only just getting to the interesting part…"

Peter shrugged.

"Tell Pepper," he said. "She wants you to take a break."

"A few minutes to eat dinner will not mess with my schedule, too much, I sup-"

"The rest of the night," he interrupted.

She frowned, looking at him as if he had grown another head.

"That is not possible, Peter. I am getting to the calibrating and the-"

"All the tricky stuff?"

"Yes."

"Then you're better off doing it in the morning," he replied, reasonably. "After you've had a good night's sleep."

"I do not need a good night's sleep. I need to get this done."

She looked slightly annoyed, but Peter only smiled.

"Good luck telling Pepper that," he said, shrugging. "She's dragged Tony out of this place a million times; him all 'but it's almost done' and her all 'then it can wait until later'."

"I will explain it to her. She will understand."

Peter just shrugged, again. He doubted it. Pepper's mom thing was pretty unreasonable, at times – and Tony was a lot more persuasive than Shuri.