Just a Little Time

Captain Dad

Nick Fury, Tony and Steve were commiserating over how to best protect Richard now that he was likely back on the radar of the bad guys.

Natasha had caught three separate infiltrators; one Hydra, one League of Assassins and one unknown. Tony was completely reworking the security system frantically. Steve didn't dare let Dick out of his sight.

Dick wasn't worried. He and Jarvis were dancing their way through the top songs of the last sixty decades. Jarvis, who Tony had programmed for party mode way back when, was showing Dick the dance moves of decades past. "Thanks for letting Jarvis borrow your Ironman suit Tony!"

"How many billion of dollars worth of tech is doing the mash potato?" Nick asked Tony dryly.

Tony was massively entertained by the dance party Dick and Jarvis had going on. It always made him a happy when his world leading military tech was abused for the purposes of immature frivolity. He smirked at Fury.

Dick and Jarvis... The kid firmly believed Jarvis was alive and his best friend. When he'd gotten home, he'd curled up in the big chair in the lounge and the second all the adults were out of the room, he had told Jarvis every single thing that happened asking tons of questions for how he could have done things different. He had even confided secret insecurities and fears to the AI. All Steve had been able to get out of him was, "I was kidnapped again. It was no biggie."

Tony had programmed Jarvis to report any conversations with Dick in full if any of a long list of keywords was spoken during his interactions with the AI.  After the different incidents involving Dick, Tony thought it was important. Tony had started listening to the playback then called Steve to see if he wanted to hear too.

"Isn't this kind of like reading my kid's diary Tony?" Steve had protested. "I'm pretty sure Dick at least thought he was speaking confidentially to Jarvis. He went to all the trouble of waiting until we were out of the room and even I can admit we might have been hovering."

"Steve your kid is a twice orphaned, costumed vigilante with a history of running away. You need all the help you can get keeping up with him," Tony had argued.

At this point Natasha who had supposedly been minding her own business with a cup of tea had put her two cents worth in. "If Steve wants to establish a relationship of trust with his son he can't violate his privacy in this way Tony."

Of course, as soon as Steve walked away feeling vindicated, Tony had looked at Natasha. "You want me to restart it?"

"Of course," she had answered.

There'd not been anything in the conversation the adults really needed to know.

The only thing either adult got out of the conversation was that Natasha would whoop Tony's butt if he didn't reprogram Jarvis to change the answer the next time Dick asked, "Jarvis you're my friend right?"

"No. Just flat out no? Tony you complete horses rear. Fix the blasted AI!"

"Nat? Can you put down the knife? I know it's just the butter knife but... Was Jarvis supposed to lie? He's a computer not a friend. Okay, there's no need to eat that scone quite so aggressively."

Dick's response to Jarvis had been to laugh and tell Jarvis he was silly.

Today the Avengers were trying hard not to be a little mopey. Steve and Dick were moving to a safe house in an undisclosed location. Dick wasn't changing schools but he was being assigned a bodyguard carefully selected by Nick Fury and he would no longer be taking the bus.

The adults were sure they could be discrete about it. The bodyguard was a fully qualified educational assistant. Dick's educational assessment was pushed through with the psychological segment was incomplete. A brand new Stark Foundation gifted children grant was paying for the E.A. All the paperwork and hiring was completed in three days compared against the six months to a year the school board normally took to get support for a child. Exactly one child in the whole school board qualified for the grant. (Oddly enough there weren't a lot of other primary school children in New York City assessed to be performing five or more grade levels above the state standard.)