Pepper spent the afternoon in Peter's bed with him. She was on his uninjured side, sitting propped up by a mountain of pillows Tony brought in for her. She was right up beside the boy and he had shifted sometime in his sleep onto his uninjured side, with his face tucked into her side, his arm draped over her legs. Her laptop was open, but Pepper wasn't really working. She had the data from all of the digital cameras everyone had used on the trip to Montana downloaded into her laptop, as well as the memory cards that she'd copied from Elmer's camera, and was sorting through them picking out the ones that were her personal favorites – and the photos that she thought Peter or Tony might like.

They would be shared with everyone, of course, but she had the time to look at them, now, so she was clearing out any that were blurry, or too dark or just plain unusable. That would save the others time in the future when they wanted to go through them. She thought that she might send some to Elmer, too, thinking that he might like some of the ones that Ned had taken with the Idahoan in them.

A light tap on the door drew her attention and she looked up. Tony entered the bedroom carrying a tray with a snack on it. He smiled at how comfortable Peter looked and walked over to her side of the bed.

"I thought you might be hungry."

She nodded, closing the laptop and setting it aside.

"Thank you."

"Has he woken up at all?" he asked, bringing the tray over and setting it down before he settled onto the edge of the bed next to her.

"No. He's pretty out of it, I think. Did you check on Natasha?"

"Where do you think I got the tray?"

Pepper smiled.

"Is she awake, yet?"

"No. Stephen told me that he expects her to sleep until dinner, at least. Do you need a break?"

"I'm fine, Tony." She smiled down at the boy cuddled against her, and brushed a couple of fingers along his temple. "Did you bring enough for two?"

"For three," he said. "Just in case."

"Stephen isn't worried about him missing lunch?"

Clint had told them that they hadn't actually had more than cake and ice cream at the birthday party.

"No. You know how he is…" Tony adopted a fairly good imitation of Strange at his most formal. "'It's much more important that he gets the rest that he needs, Tony. It won't hurt him to miss a meal here and there.'"

Pepper chuckled at that.

"He's probably right."

Stark shrugged.

"I'm sure he is. He's good at what he does."

She nodded.

"You know, he's done a lot for us. We should probably find a good way to thank him for it."

"We gave him a girlfriend," Tony pointed out. "What more could he want?"

"I'm pretty sure we didn't have anything to do with that. And I'd suggest you refrain from saying it like that anywhere near Natasha."

"I'm not crazy," he said, amused. He made himself a sandwich from the various sandwich items on the tray. "We could send him on a vacation…"

"No."

"Wall art for the sanctum?"

She smiled.

"You're not very good at this…"

"I got you a crockpot for Christmas last year, remember? Of course I'm no good at this. Ask Natasha what he might like. Or Peter, even. They know him best."

"I might do that."

"We could get him a magic set. Complete with top hat and a saw for cutting the assistant in half."

Pepper laughed.

"We'll have to try and do better than that."

OOOOOOO

Stephen Strange was reading a book when Natasha stirred beside him. The doctor was stretched out on her bed, his legs under the same blanket that she was under, but the rest of him upright and propped against the headboard of her bed. A bowl of grapes was close at hand, but he wasn't eating – and he wasn't really reading, either.

He set his book aside when she moved, and smiled down at her when she opened her eyes.

"How do you feel?" he asked, softly.

"Terrible."

"Do you itch?"

"No."

"Your eyes don't look as bad as they were. Are they bothering you?"

"No. I'm fine, Stephen."

"But in the terrible way…?"

"Yes."

"If you could be a little more specific, I might be able to make you feel better."

"I feel grumpy and out of sorts and sleeping all day is going to keep me from sleeping tonight and that will make me sleepy tomorrow."

"What do you have scheduled for tomorrow?"

"Secret Avenger things."

Strange smiled.

"So, nothing?"

Romanoff scowled, and reached for his hand, turning away from him and pulling his arm around her, telling him without words that she wanted to be held. He was willing, and tucked the other arm under her to join the hands in front of her, across her belly, before resting his chin on her shoulder, pressing a kiss against her cheek.

"I could make you sleepy," he murmured into her ear, and smiled when he felt her shiver.

"What are you doing tomorrow?" she countered, turning her head.

"Spending time with you?"

"Good answer."

"Feel better?"

"A little."

"Go back to sleep, Natasha," he advised her, hugging her from behind. "You'll feel better by the time you wake up."

"Promise?"

"Of course."

OOOOOOOOO

Pepper and Tony stayed in Peter's bed with him the rest of the day. He didn't need them to. He was sleeping peacefully, his hand always in contact with one of them. Pepper left long enough to make a couple of phone calls that she needed to make for work, and Tony slid into the spot that she'd vacated, his hand resting lightly on Peter's shoulder, fingers sifting through his hair while he flipped through his phone with the other hand. When Pepper returned, she gestured for him to stay where he was and simply slid into the bed on Peter's other side, flanking him like they were so used to doing by now.

It was well after the normal dinner hour before the boy finally stirred, his system clearing itself of the medication that Strange had dosed him with and his empty stomach taking precedence over sleep.

"Are you awake?" Tony asked him, softly, when he opened his eyes and lifted his head from Stark's chest to look around, sleepily.

"Yeah. I think so."

He turned and saw Pepper on his other side, dozing with her head cushioned on a pillow and some of his blanket tucked around her.

"She fell asleep about an hour ago," Tony told him. "Go ahead and wake her up. She won't mind."

He didn't want to reach across Peter to do it, himself, and he smiled when the boy rolled just enough to be able to press the palm of his hand against Pepper's cheek.

"Pepper?"

She opened her eyes, and looked at him – and then at Tony.

"Are you alright?" she asked Peter, sitting up and reaching for his forehead.

"I'm fine."

"Your eyes don't look as red."

"No. I'm fine. Really."

"Hungry?"

"Yes."

"Tony?"

"Starving."

"We could go to the lounge," Peter said. "It's probably not too late to get something from the kitchen there."

"You're staying in bed, young man," Pepper reminded him, firmly.

"For how long?"

They both realized that Peter had already been medicated by Strange when they'd discussed keeping him in bed to get his hip healed, and he probably didn't remember the conversation that they'd had with the doctor.

"Until Stephen says you can get out of bed," Tony told him. "Probably through the weekend."

"That long?"

"Longer if we need to," Pepper confirmed. She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "We want to give your hip a chance to heal, and Stephen says keeping you in bed is the best way to accomplish that."

Peter frowned, a bit dismayed by the thought of being in bed that long. There wasn't a lot for him to do, after all.

"What does he know?"

Tony snorted.

"He's the doctor, don't forget. Just do it our way, okay?"

The boy sighed, but nodded. It wasn't like he had a lot of choice in the matter.

"Fine."

"Let's eat," Pepper told him. "Then we'll figure out what we need to do to keep you occupied."