Throwing Caution to the Wind

Chapter 10

He walked into the meeting room as silently as be could, unfortunately, Mr Stark had other ideas.

"Look who I found" said Mr Stark walking into the room date Peter.

The scientists stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him. He waved akwardly.

"Peter, you're back, we were really missing you" said one from the end of the table.

"Yeah, come on, take a seat, give earned it" said another, patting the empty seat next to him.

He stood there, not used to the attention when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"See kid, they love you" said Mr Stark gently. "Now go on out there and be thr genius I know you are" he said that last part loud enough that Dr Boonton heard him from the far side of the room.

That was enough encouragement for Peter to go and sit down in the empty seat.

Immediately he was bombarded with questions as to how they could improve my the Flood Vacuum.

Turns out they were hammering out the details today.

He spent the hour talking design and possible power scources. It felt fantastic.

Finally, as everyone was saying their good-byes, they asked him to become an honourary member of what they had dubbed 'Mr Starks Square Table'. They all found the irony go the table being a rectangle instead of square, but it rolled off the tongue better.

As he was getting ready to walk out the door, Mr Stark stopped him.

"Come into my office for a sec"

Peter got worried, the last 2 times he had been called to someone's office, it hadn't been great a time for him. 

Once he was seated opposite from him, Mr Stark cut right to the chase.

"Listen, I didn't appreciate how Dr kept you in his office doing paperwork. In fact this whole thing with you being here is kinda shady. I had someone else have a look at his request pages. And he found that there was a ton of missing information and he completely by-passed the approval process. He just got it approved without going through some of the higher ups. You're not even legally supposed to be out of school right now."

Peter wasn't sure what to say. How was someone supposed to react to that. MJ was right. But what now.

"But then I realized how much everyone here loves you. I went to Elenora to ask about the application pages you have her. And she thought that you had done sometime wring and asked me to give you a second chance. And the scientists love you too. And I'm assuming that you also love it here too" he looked at Peter who immediately nodded.

"So I was thinking, maybe I could arrange a legit internship for you, with me" he looked at him very seriously. "But if you don't feel comfortable doing an internship here after that, if you ever apply for one, you can put me as a reference."

Peter was speechless, he had just gotten offered an internships with his childhood (and teen-hood) hero. He couldn't say no. This was going to be amazing.

"Thank you Sir, I don't know what to say, I would love to have an internship with you. When would I start" Peter stumbles through the whole sentence and internally cringed.

Mr Stark took it in stride.

"Well I'm glad you're so excited, but we're gonna be to go through a proper application process. Exept it's more of a background check. So maybe give it a week and a bit. All your papers are good. No changes there, but I've got to fill out the right pages, then we can get it started.

"Ok, so I guess I should get home then" asked Peter.

"Yeah, I'll get my driver to take you home since I'm assuming you've missed your subway." he said.

"Ummm, no actually, I'm normally waiting for while, so I'll be on time" that was a lie, but Peter didn't want to explain everything to May just yet. Movie night was cancelled too, otherwise he probably would have taken him up on the offer. But Ned was sick and MJ felt like she was coming down with something.

"Ok kid, up to you. Get going though. Safe travels."

*********

When he got home, he listened from the doorway to see if May was home. She was. Thankfully he had texted her telling her he had missed the subway so she wouldn't be worried. He took a moment to prepare himself for the inevitable. Telling her what had happened. And then he turned the key.

"Hey May" he said walking through the door.

"Hi honey. I'm making pasta. Give me a few minutes" she said in greeting.

He took a whiff of the he air. It actually smelled pretty good. Hopefully it stayed that way.

As soon as they sat down, May said something be had been hoping to avoid for at least a few more hours.

"So I got a call from Pepper Potts today. She told me that apperantly what you've been doing over at Stark Industries has been illegal."

Peter couldn't help it when he started crying. It had been such a long day, with getting scolded by Boonton, being banished to the office during the design meeting, to Mr Stark telling him about the questionable legality of his presence at the tower. It all just came out.

"Oh sweetheart" she said getting up to comfort him.

"Its, been such a long day. And I-I love it there" he said through tears.

"Oh sweetheart, come here" she helped him stand up from the table and gently led him to the couch, dinner completely forgotten.

She sat them on the couch and held him while he cried. When he finds calmed down, he explained everything from the very beginning.

"But Mr Stark offered me a real internship" he said when he finally finished.

"That's great honey" there were tears in her eyes from when she had realized that her sweet little nephew who only ever wanted to help people had been taken advantage of. But she told Peter they were just leftover from her chopping the onions.

"I'm so proud of you. You got people with masters, PhD's and Nobel prizes exited to listen to you" they sat there for a while. She held him protectively to her chest as if she could keep harm fork him for the rest of is life le that.

It was when Ben died that May realized that he was growing up. He had holed himself in his room for days. She had taken to leaving his meals outside his door for him. She always found the dishes cleaned and back in the cupboards the day after. But when he finally came out, he acted years older. When she noticed that, she wanted nothing more than to walk out onto the roof of the appartment building and scream at the stars. She wanted to ask the universe why it had to be Peter. Why did the universe have to quash his happiness, steal his childhood. That night, when she was sure that Peter was sleeping, she found herself on the roof. But not to scream like she had originally wanted to. But to promise herself and Peter that as long as there was air in her lungs, and love in her heart, she would be there for Peter.

Eventually with enough time and subtle babying, she manages to get Peter to go back a little bit in maturity. He acted less like he held the weight of the world on his shoulders, and more like he was a weight on the world. He stated laughing again, he started building Legos with Ned again, he became the version of Peter that he needed to be for himself.

She felt like that again. He was out exploring now, figuring out his life, and as much as she wanted to, she couldn't protect him from heartbreak, or disappointment. And as much as she wishes she could, she couldn't be there to screen every person he decided to trust. He trusted people whole heartedly u til they have him a reason not to. And even then, he would always try to see things from their perspective. And just like that night on the roof with the stars as her witness, she promised herself that she would be there for Peter. For as long as she could.