Chapter Text
Tony made quick work of getting Peter cleaned up barely just in time for the elevator doors to open up, revealing a stressed and somewhat disheveled looking Deborah.
“Deborah!” Tony exclaimed, voice a little strained with nerves.
Deborah quickly stepped out of the elevator, looking flustered as she wrung her hands in front of her nervously. She turned to the sound of the man’s voice and seemed to relax upon noticing Peter and Tony looking back at her from the adjoined kitchen.
"Ms. Patel!" Peter happily yelled out, raising his hand to wave at her.
"Hey Peter!" Deborah replied in less enthusiasm as she awkwardly waved back at him.
She looked nervously around the spacious room and gave a short nod towards the other occupants sitting on the couch staring back at her.
A weird tension filled the room as nobody spoke for a moment and everyone looked at one another in the hopes that someone would say something.
Tony noticed everyones uncertainty and quickly picked Peter up and placed the wiggling toddler on the ground. The kid took this as the opportunity to run up to Deborah, an easy and unaware smile on his face.
Deborah visibly tried to shove her conflicting feelings down as she attempted to smile back at the boy. If it looked forced, Peter didn't seem to notice. She picked Peter up in one swift motion."Hi honey! Did you have fun staying with Mr.Stark?"
Peter nodded happily as he clung to her neck. Tony couldn't help but smile at the admission but quickly tried to hide the fact as Deborah looked back at him.
After quickly putting the dishes in the sink to deal with later, Tony made his way over to her.
Her shoulders slumped and eyes widened slightly in nervousness. "Mr. Stark! I am so sorry! I wanted to call earlier, I promise! But my apartment has been filled with these SHIELD agents since Saturday morning and they took my phone so I couldn't call anyone all weekend! I only just now managed to escape this- this agent or something, long enough to even come here-" She rushed out.
Coulson, who was sitting on the couch watching everything unfold, quickly turned completely towards Debby. "SHIELD agents? I don't remember reading anything about a home investigation happening" He spoke up.
Tony snapped his attention to the other man. Deborah looked close to fainting as she looked in between Stark and Coulson. "I- I…" She stammered.
Coulson smiled reassuringly in her direction as he got up from the couch to greet her. "Phil Coulson, agent of SHIELD" He introduced.
Deborah frowned and she couldn't possibly look any more horrified as she shook the other man's hand.
"SHIELD?"
"Yes, ma'am. Strategic Homeland-" Coulson followed up.
Deborah shook her head "Yeah, I know that. But… Why…? Why is SHIELD involved in this? And what do I have to do with SHIELD? What is going on?" She hurriedly asked.
Coulson seemed to overthink his answer, that annoying smile ever present on his face. "I understand that this is all very overwhelming Ms…?"
"Patel" She informed him.
"Miss Patel," Coulson continued. "I apologize for all the inconvenience. As far as I'm aware those weren't SHIELD agents at your apartment. SHIELD never approved of this investigation. I have been put on this… Case… And I personally never sent out any of our agents to investigate your threshold."
Deborah looked about ready to faint as she listened to what Coulson told her. Peter nervously looked in between all the adults standing and talking around him, his thumb disappearing in his mouth as he listened to them.
"You said one of them also came here with you, right?" Tony was quick to ask her.
Deborah nodded her head desperately.
"JARVIS… Why don't you quickly lock every exit in this building?"
"Already on it" The AI responded.
"Great. Don't let anyone leave this building unless absolutely necessary"
"Certainly, sir" The British voice continued.
"Let's sit, shall we." Pepper suggested from where she had now also stood up. She gestured towards the empty seats next to her.
“Excellent idea.” Tony agreed quickly and clapped his hands as he went over to the living room.
Everyone quickly sat down. Deborah sat down on the armchair facing the others. She placed Peter on the floor in front of her, who despite it all immediately went back to playing with his toys.
“So- How much do you know about the Par- Uh… The situation at hand?” Coulson asked hesitantly.
Deborah looked over at Tony before answering “Only what I’ve been told over the phone… That they didn’t even work here anymore?”
“That is correct. The uh-” Coulson started only to hesitate at the presence of Peter. They somehow managed to make it look like they did. So that they could… Keep him here. Out of the way I’m assuming...”
“Okay…” Deborah sighed, sensing the upcoming news.
“To keep things short. They were involved in a lot more “underground” type of research and work… With some bad people”
Deborah blew out a big breath as she let the information settle in.
Tony waved his hands around "Okay, so let's talk details later and maybe talk about, I don't know the person who claims to be a SHIELD agent that is currently in the building right now?" Tony interrupted.
"I was about to suggest that, Mr.Stark" Coulson smiled.
Deborah looked nervously in between the two men.
Coulson blinked a few times and turned back to Deborah.
"Ms. Patel, when did these agents arrive at your premises? And what did they say they were there for? Mr. Stark I'm assuming that your AI records every conversation?" The man said turning to Tony
"Obviously." He frowned in annoyance. "He keeps track of anything important-"
“Excellent.” Coulson cut through
Deborah gaped before attempting to recollect the events of the past few days “I- I uh went home on Friday and noticed that my door was unlocked… I do forget to lock it sometimes but it’s a pretty secure building so I didn’t think twice about it! Oh and my neighbor, she feeds my cat when I’m away so I thought maybe she left the door unlocked. But that’s not important” Deborah corrected herself. She wiped the hair out of her face and quickly continued. “Then on Saturday I got back from going grocery shopping when there was a man standing at the entrance of my apartment building. He told me that he was with SHIELD and that I was under investigation and that was that… He followed m up to my door and before I knew it there were three men in my living room asking all sorts of questions!”
“Did you tell them anything?” Tony pressed.
“Only what I knew! I just assumed that they were with SHIELD like they said they were! I-” She huffed.
“I understand, Ms. Patel. Did they show you any kind of badge? Or did you perhaps overhear one of them mentioning a name?”
“No not really no…”
“Are there any cameras in your apartment building?” Coulson questioned.
“I would assume so…”
“We’ll start there. For now I think it’s important that we discuss this case without… Sensitive ears… Overhearing our conversation.” The man suggested referring to Peter.
Deborah nodded, looking exhausted.
“Mr. Stark, can I talk to you in the kitchen for a moment?”
Tony frowned in confusion but stood up to walk over to the kitchen anyway.
“Champagne?” Tony offered.
“No thanks. I wanted to talk to you about Peter.”
Tony scanned the other man’s as he waited for him to continue. “Okay…” He said after a moment.
“Since Peter is a young boy he needs constant care and monitoring as you’ve probably experienced yourself. But because this is a very delicate situation it’s important that we handle this with utmost care.”
An uneasy feeling began to settle in Tony’s stomach.
“I have arranged for Peter to go to a safe house outside of the city where some of our finest agents can watch over him as we continue to closely monitor the situation”
What.