In the Summertime (when the weather is fine)

[innitmarvelous_og]

 “Hey Pep, have you seen Rhodey?” Tony asked as he leaned down over the lounge chair his wife was all comfy in to give her a kiss.

Pepper kissed him back but immediately frowned when Ethan, who had been laying against her, opened his eyes and began reaching up for his Daddy, "Now see what you done? He was almost asleep!"

The little boy had had a busy morning running around and playing with all the other children his age here at the picnic. After they'd had lunch, Pepper had decided to try to get him down for a nap on the lounger with her. It'd taken a lot of keeping Ethan in her lap when he wanted to get down, and rubbing his back to calm him, but she had finally succeeded in getting him to succumb to sleep.

Or at least she had until Tony came along, instantly made the formerly sleepy little boy with his presence. 

"Is Mommy keeping you prisoner, sport?" Tony asked as he reached down to pick up his son.

"Pee'ner, Dad'ee! Peei'ner!" Ethan chanted.

Pepper rolled her eyes, "Now look what you got him doing!"

He looked at the little boy with a smile on his face, "Mommy's no fun, is she, squirt?"

"No un, Mommy! No un!"

"Tony!" 

With his wife still glaring at him, Tony had enough sense to look apologetic, even as he started trying to get the little boy to calm down. He eased Ethan's head down towards his shoulder, and started rubbing his back, "Okay, champ, let's try to settle down and take a nap for Mommy." To his surprise Ethan stayed laying against his shoulder.

"So," he began once he was sure that wasn't a very temporary thing, "Rhodey?"

Pepper picked up her sparkling water, and took a sip before answered, "No, I haven't seen him yet." 

"Huh I wonder where he is? It's almost two and he said he'd be here at eleven or twelve."

Although he had had to attend a meeting at Edwards Air Force base, Rhodey had said he was still planning on coming to the SI family picnic as soon as he could drive down to Malibu as soon as he was dismissed from the meeting. But things change and maybe something came up that he just couldn't get away from, or worse yet, out of.

"Maybe he couldn't get away from the base as quickly as he originally planned to or thought he could?" 

"Yeah, looks like," Tony said, frowning.

"I'm sure he'll get here soon."

"Yeah, probably... unless something's come up and they've decided them need him to stay on base for whatever reason." 

If that was what had happened, he hoped is wasn't something they'd need War Machine for. Because Tony knew if they did, his friend would be stuck for most of what was left of his Independence Day flying encased in metal  to some far off land in the world, and that be a lousy way to spend a day he had basically been promised off by his superiors.

Actually strike that, Tony thought to himself, It's not just a lousy way to spend the 4th of July but it outright sucks. 

He should know since he'd spent enough time in the Iron Man suit flying off to far away missions with the Avengers.

"I think he's finally asleep," Pepper said quietly, pointing to their son, and bringing him out of his thoughts, "Do you want me to take him back?"

Tony took down at Ethan, and after seeing he was as limp as a wet noodle in his Daddy's arm, shook his head, "No, he can stay with me."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah, let's not take a chance of waking him." 

Although they had had plenty of experience and success at handing their sleeping son off to each other in the past without waking him, Pepper could see the wisdom in Ethan staying with her husband for now, "Okay, why don't you sit down with me then until he's up? We can watch the archery challenge together."

"Archery challenge?" Tony said, easing down onto the empty lounger beside her.

"Yeah, someone got the idea of having an archery challenge for anyone who's interested. I think it's supposed to start in about two minutes."

"Oh brother!"

"What?" she asked when she heard a snort from him.

After checking to make sure he hadn't woken Ethan up, he answered, "It's just after you're seen Hawkeye in action, watching other people shot arrows is ridiculous and boring,"

"Well, I know they won't be up to Clint's level of skill with a bow, but I'm sure it'll still be worth watching."

"Yeah, I'm sure! These people are just lucky Clint's not here to sweep the floor out from under them!"

His wife laughed, and said, "Just watch, maybe something interesting will happen." 

"Uh huh," he quipped in disbelief, looking off away from the attempts at archery in front of him time to see a familiar face was almost upon them.

"Hey, sorry I'm late."

"Jim! I'm so glad you finally made it!" Pepper exclaimed, wiping away the part of her drink she had spilled on herself when he surprised her.

"Yeah, me too," he replied, adjusting the garment bag slung over his shoulder.

Tony held up a fist to bump with his best friend's own, "Belated happy Independence Day, platypus, and welcome to our little celebratory shindig in the honor therefore!"

Rhodey smiled and rolled his eyes at the wording, "Thanks, I think. Say, got anywhere I can change out of my uniform?" Of course he had been planning to change anyway but seeing that his godson appeared to be waking up prompted it even more since the little boy liked to play with the things pinned on his godfather's uniform whenever he got the chance.

"Well, of course we do," Pepper answered, pointing across the way towards a temporary building, "The men's room is right over there. You don't mind changing there right?"

"No, not at all. Okay, I'll be right back after I get changed and have put my uniform back in my car."

"Okay, we'll be here."

Rhodey nodded, and turned around to head towards the building Pepper had pointed out, It wasn't far off, and it took him less than a minute to get there. He was just to step inside when a little boy cut him off and darted inside before he could. 

"Colton Aiden!" a female voice fussed from behind.

Shaking his head, he smiled, and started into the bathroom again when he heard the same female voice speak again, "Hey, sir, I"m sorry about that."

Rhodey looked over his shoulder, and smiled, "It's okay, ma'am. I guess your son just really needed to go. Huh?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Still, I'm sorry about that."

"It's no problem," he replied, and started to go inside again but stopped, He turned around to say something to the woman, to introduce himself but stopped when he saw a man approach her and kiss her on the cheek.

Oh, well, it was a crazy idea anyway, he thought with a shrug and finally went into the restroom.

Eleven minutes later, he was walking back to where he had left Tony and Pepper to find Pepper standing up and locked in conversation with a woman who had her back facing him. As he got closer to them, he could see that Ethan was fully awake and eating what looked like ice cream while sitting in his father's lap.

"Hey there, buddy!" he said, kneeling beside Tony to say hello to his godson.

"Unca Ro-ro!" the little boy said, reaching out towards him.

"Whoa there, kiddo!" Tony said, hurrying to move the ice cream away before they both wound up wearing it.

Ethan held his arms up to his Uncle and before anyone could say anything he picked up the little boy to hug him.

"Careful, he's got--"

"Sticky hands and face," Rhodey finished, feeling the stickiness of the little hands wrapped around his neck, as well as from the little face pressed against the same area.

"Tony!" Pepper said, exasperated, coming to the rescue, "You could have warned him!" She opened her arms to take her son but the little boy cling to his Uncle.

"Come to Mommy, baby."

Ethan shook his head, and pressed his little body closer to her Uncle.

"Sweetie--"

"It's okay, Pepper," Rhodey said when it was obvious Ethan wasn't going to leave him without causing a scene.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I am," he assured her, "Besides it's been awhile since I got to see my favorite godson. Right sport?"

"Wight!"

Pepper smiled, shaking her head at the pair, and turned to look at the person she'd been talking to when he'd come back. "Oh, Jim?"

Rhodey had just been about to sit down in the lounger she had vacated, and stopped when he heard his name, "Yes?"

"There's someone I'd like you to meet. Monica?"

The back of the woman turned around, and he saw her face for the second time that day.

"It's you!" he said, with a laugh.

She smiled back, and nodded, "Yeah, it's me."

"Do you know each other?" Pepper asked in a puzzled voice.

"No, we've never met before today," Monica said.

"Well, not officially anyway," Rhodey added.

"Then wha..."

"Oh," Monica said, turning to her and it was then he noticed that the same little boy from earlier was close by eating his own ice cream, "Colton cut him off in an effort to get to the bathroom in a hurry."

"Ah."

Tony noted how his best friend was smiling goofy at the woman he had just met. "So, Pep, are you going to introduce them or should?"

She shot her husband a glare before saying, "Oh, right, sorry. James Rhodes, I'd like you to meet Dr. Monica Rambeau, the new head of our biophysics department. Monica, this is one of our dearest and Tony's oldest, closest friend, Colonel James Rhodes."

"Yeah I thought I saw a colonel's eagle on your uniform earlier," Monica said, offering her hand to him.

Rhodey took it, arching an eyebrow as he asked, "Oh, do you have a father or brother who are or were officers?"

"No, I didn't have any brothers. Just a sister. As for who was in the service, well you're looking at her. I was a Captain in the Air Force."

"Was?"

She nodded, "I was honorable discharged a few years ago so I could take over raising my nephew after my sister died." She pointed over to the little boy he'd met earlier.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said, turning to look and finding the little boy he'd met earlier.

"It's okay, we're doing fine now, thanks."

By now, Ethan was wanting to get down so Rhodey set him on the ground and watched him to make sure he got safely back to his parents, who seemed to have disappeared a respectable distance away, safely.

"So, where's your husband at?"

"Husband?"

"Yeah, I'd like to meet him."

She gave him a confused smile, "But I'm not married."

"Then who? Oh you know what? Never mind! That's none of my business!" 

Before either of them could say anything else, her nephew came running over, "Aunt Monica! Aunt Monica!"

"Excuse me," she said to Rhodey before turning to her nephew, "Yes, sweetheart?"

"Can we go play the bean bag toss next, Auntie? Please?"

"Colton, where are your manners? Do you see the nice gentleman standing here?"

The boy looked at Rhodey, and said, "Hello." Then he looked at his aunt again, "Please can we go play bean bags now?"

The two adults tried to hide their amusement as Monica tried to enforce some semblance of discipline, "But I'm talking with this man, Colton."

"But you've talking forever already!"

"Colton--"

"You promised! You promised we'd go play after you got done talking to the portant lady!"

Monica sighed, "You're right, I did promise. But that still doesn't mean you get to be rude to an adult or interrupt my conversations."

"But--"

"Settle down, Colton. We'll go play whatever game you want after I get finished talking to this nice man. Okay?"

The boy gave her a disappointed look, "Oooookay."

"I have a solution," Rhodey began cautiously, "Why don't I walk with you over to the bean bag toss? That way... Colton is it?" 

The boy nodded.

"That way Colton can play and we can talk."

Monica considered it, "Okay, then. If you don't mind?"

"No, I don't mind."

"Alright then. Say thank you to Mr. Rhodes, Colton."

"Thank you, Mr, Rhodes."

"You're welcome, sport."

"Well, I think the bean bag toss is over that way," Monica said pointing.

"Then please by all means lead the way."