Wrong Number, Kid

Chapter Twelve

"Friday, print Peter a gold badge, same as me. He's going to be assigned as my official intern, so he'll need the same access. I want it printed and laminated by the security office by the time we get up there" Pepper power walked into the tower, Peter trailing behind her, trying to emulate the power Pepper radiated as they walked together to the elevator.

Yesterday, after Pepper had gained yet another headache from staring at paperwork all day, Pepper decided that she wanted an intern to help her. And she knew exactly who she wanted for the job.

After a quick call to Fury informing him that she was stealing Peter away from him and then promptly hanging up, she drove over to Peter's house the next morning.

She walked right inside and dragged Peter out of his warm bed with no explanation other than, "You're coming to work with me today."

And when a determined Pepper Potts-Stark says you're going to do something, you don't argue, you just do.

She shoved him into the bathroom, telling him to take a shower, and then picked out a suit from his closet that she left out on his bed.

The morning was a complete whirlwind that Peter honestly didn't remember most of it. By the time he had fully woken up, Pepper had already driven them to the Tower and she was now leading him through the lobby of Stark Industries.

"Hey, Pepper? Not that I don't love spending time with you, but what exactly am I doing here?"

"I told Nick that I would be borrowing you for a bit, so you'll be interning here at Stark Industries alongside Tony and I."

"And Uncle Fury signed off on this?" Peter asked, confused as to why he would do that.

"It's so cute that you assume I gave him a choice, sweetie." Pepper looked over at her new personal intern with obvious fondness as they entered the elevator.

Pepper planned to teach Peter everything and then rub it in her jealous husband's face that she met this amazing kid first. She knew Peter was amazing from the first time he ever texted her. He's chaotic in the best way and extremely intelligent while still maintaining that childlike naivety and curiosity. She knew Tony was going to absolutely love Peter, which is why she had adoption papers drawn up and hidden in her personal safe that she planned to pull out at the most opportune moment.

Sure, she was going to have to fight Nick Fury for Peter, but she knew she would win that fight. Fury could have Maria Hill to step in as SHIELD director if he wanted, Peter was going to be hers.

Pepper felt a self-satisfied smile spread across her lips as she made a mental list of everything she was going to teach Peter as he worked alongside her.

After Peter got over his confusion, his excitement skyrocketed!

"I get to come to work with you?! Oh man, this is gonna be so cool! I get to see you be a badass, in person!" Pepper couldn't hide her smile as Peter geeked out over her.

"Honey, you do know that running a company won't be all about being a badass right? There's a lot of paperwork, business meetings, and problem solving involved and you might find it boring, but I want you to do your best, understand?" Pepper asked him straightforwardly.

Peter nodded his head erratically, there was no way that he was going to let his mother-figure down, even if his enthusiasm was close to bursting.

They picked up Peter's security tag from a slack-jawed Happy Hogan and went up to Pepper's office where she introduced Peter to her assistant, Emily, and immediately started teaching Peter everything she does at the company.

First they went over Pepper's schedule, and then the meeting began. Today she went to a meeting with the Law Division of the company, then she went to have an in-person report from the supervisor of the R&D department, after that she had a lot of reports and phone calls to make.

Surprisingly, Peter paid attention to all of it, diligently taking notes and watching how Pepper responded to certain problems that popped up. Peter even solved some of the problems R&D was having. Overall, Pepper was incredibly proud of her protege.

What Peter didn't know was that Happy had just told Tony that the annoying kid Pepper and Natasha had basically adopted was in his building and he was now currently hunting them down.

He had just gotten to the R&D department where he had apparently just missed them when he witnessed the chaos of movement his employees were in. Everyone was in a flurry of movement and he had to physically stop one of the supervisors and get them to take a few deep breaths so that they could tell him what happened.

"Mr Stark! The problems we've been having with the prosthetics to increase their flexibility, it's solved! We were giving Mrs Potts our reports when she brought in this high school kid. She didn't even explain who he was, just said he was her new intern. As we were talking the kid went around to all our whiteboards with a red marker and just fixed all our equations! ALL OF THEM!" The supervisor was physically shaking in either shock or excitement, maybe both, Tony thought as he watched Dr Gareth rant.

"Mr Stark, is he a prodigy? Is he going to be working here with us? When will he come back? We'd love to be able to pick his brain on a few things."

Tony looked at the man uncomprehendingly: this teenager just went through his R&D department, solved every problem his workers were having and left with Pepper, leaving chaos in his wake. That's it, Tony couldn't take it anymore. Who was this kid?! Pepper can't just keep him all to herself!

Tony took a firm hold of the supervisor by his shoulders and demanded, "Where did they go?"