There was an emergency! Shield had issued the highest level warning in their system and had called in all the members of the Avengers, including Steve and Tony. At first the couple had been frantic about what to do about their baby boy, but the problem was too large and important to waste time. Besides, the only people they trusted to keep their precious son safe were also called into action. So, the new parents had been forced into drastic measures.
Peter was currently strapped protectively to Steve's chest and Steve was practically going out of mind with worry. He wasn't alone. Tony was on the cusp of an all out panic attack and was frantic about the idea of taking his son out on a mission, but they didn't have much choice. The Shield helacarier was a giant target floating in the sky and the super heroes would not leave their baby boy on there. No, he was much safer with them. IT also had the advantage of allowing them to keep a constant eye on him, leaving both parents (but especially Tony) free to focus on the task at hand rather than be distracted with worry over what could possibly be happening to their son while they were elsewhere (though Tony still had half his brilliant mind worrying over the safety of his partner and child).
The other Avengers were just as nervous about bringing their baby nephew with them into battle. They had all agreed that Steve would lead from the back this time and the boys had all made a silent vow to get this over with as quickly as possible. Natasha, for her part, had spent a good chunk of time rolling her eyes and bemoaning the stupidity of her male teammates. Don't get her wrong, Natasha was worried for her baby nephew, but she was also worried for the city due to all of the excess damage that was currently being inflicted on it due to the overzealous actions of their "saviors".
Steve was a good 5 minutes behind his teammates and had been tasked with looking through the remains of the buildings and directing anyone he found to the Shield evacuation points. There weren't many people left in the city, but Steve had managed to come across a good half a a dozen stragglers in his search.
During this whole process, Steve made a point to always keep his vibranium shield in front of his young son. Steve was not taking any chances. He was perfectly fine getting shot or being hit by the stray piece of rubble. His baby son, however, was not.
Steve and the rest of the avengers slowly (too slowly for the tastes of Tony, Hulk, Thor, and Hawkeye) made their was towards the center of the city and were nearing the end of the battle. Steve for his part, could hear the fighting beginning to die down and decided to make a sweep of one last building before making his way towards his comrades, figuring that by the time he got there the fighting would be completely over.
Steve slowly and carefully climbed over a pile of rubble, his right hand securely on the back of Peter's head to try and keep the baby steady. Peter, however, was making a point of remaining anything but still and was currently alternating between throwing his cheerios at anything he could see and eating them.
Steve reached the top of the rubble pile and slowly slid down the other side to reach a large hole in the side of a building. About half way down, Peter's still developing motor skills failed him and his bag of cheerios slipped from his grip. Steve adeptly reached down and caught the bag eliciting a high pitched squeal of delight from his baby son who then proceeded to laugh and clap his hands together in excitement. Steve had become so used to this over the past hour that his son's actions didn't surprise him in the least. However the increase in noise doubled Steve's desire to get out of the open as quickly as possible.
He deftly jumped through the hole in the wall and began looking around the inside of the building. He had made it about halfway through the rather large structure when a loud sound made him jump.
He quickly turned and began slowly making his way towards the noise, his shield held protectively in front of Peter. The sound came again and this time Steve recognized what it was, a baby. Steve swiftly made his way towards the sound while still remaining aware of potential places for an enemy to hide in. He finally traced the now constant noise to a small dank room. There was a large hole in the far wall that let in an abundance of light and with it the chill of the outdoors. Squeezed into a small space, in what would have been a rather hidden corner of the room, was a small crib where the source of the wailing was coming from.
Steve scanned the room and didn't see anyone else. He quickly made his way over to the crying baby, depositing his shield on his back as he did. He gently picked up the poorly swaddled baby and cradled it gently in the crock of his arm. The child's crying stopped nearly immediately, though it was obvious that the baby still wasn't entirely comfortable.
Peter had stopped his fascination with the cheerios and had instead focused on the small squishy looking thing that his father was currently focused on. He reached up and grabbed a portion of the blanket that was covering one of the babies feet. The baby jerked and made a slight noise that startled Peter. He let go quickly and reared back as far as he could to get away from the strange thing.
Steve chuckled and smiled at the exchange. The two of them were adorable and he just couldn't seem to bring himself to put the baby down, though he knew he had to in order to make sure that the baby was unharmed and warm.
Steve took another look around the decimated room, taking in the presence of multiple other empty cribs and a few changing tables. He quickly walked over to the cleanest of those changing tables and set the baby down. Steve unwrapped the baby as delicately as he could so as to not further irritate any already existing injuries. After he did a quick inspection, he discovered that the little baby was unharmed much to his relief.
The baby started quietly complaining again and Steve, who had plenty of experience from when Peter was young, quickly realized that the little baby had only been crying because it needed a new diaper.
By this point, Peter had once again lost interest in what was going on and was shoving fistfuls of cheerios into his mouth while kicking his father for entertainment. This coupled with the growing wails and squirming of the infant on the table made the job of changing the baby's diaper rather difficult for Steve. Eventually he managed and expertly swaddled the baby.
It was then that Steve noticed the small embroidered words on the edge of the baby blanket. Steve gently ran his finger over it but couldn't make any sense of the foreign language. He was almost sure that he had seen the name before, but couldn't quite place where. In a moment of inspiration, Steve remembered that the words had been on a large sign above what had probably once been the entrance to the building. Realizing that he would have to wait for Tony to translate the words for him, Steve gently picked up the small infant and prepared to move out.
However, before the super soldier had time to act upon his plan, he noticed the metallic glitter of some sort of projectile moving towards him out of the corner of his eye. Acting on instinct, Steve turned his back towards the attacker and curled his body protectively around his young son and the baby, clutching them both as tightly as he dared.
He felt rather than heard the metal thing land right behind him. In an instant a comforting metal clad hand was on Steve's back and the warm and decidedly guilty voice of his lover was in his ear.
"Oh God!" Tony exclaimed. "I'm sorry. I thought you would recognize me. I mean its kind of hard not to."
Tony flashed Steve a cocky smirk and was met in turn by an angry scowl. Tony's smile slipped immediately and he realized a little belatedly that he was in a lot more trouble than he thought.
"Yes, well I was a little preoccupied wasn't I?" Steve said angrily as he gestured sharply with his free hand to the small children he had shielded.
Peter was staring up at his parents in fascination, one fist, that had once held a handful of cheerios, stuffed entirely into his mouth. Tony looked down dramatically at where Steve had indicated, took in the image of his son, blinked, and then looked back at Steve.
"Whats with the baby?" Tony deadpanned.
Steve frowned and gave Tony a look that made it plain that Steve was not happy with Tony at the moment, before shaking his head at his exasperating lover.
"So, why exactly didn't you contact me before you came barreling over here?" Steve countered.
"Um….." Tony replied intelligently. "Because…. I forgot I could?"
Steve glared at him before exhaling pointedly.
"And who exactly was it who wouldn't let me out of his sight without forcing me to put this" Steve gestured angrily to the small piece of opaque plastic in his ear, "in my ear so he could keep track of and check in on me?"
Tony smiled sheepishly and wished that he had remembered that the particular piece of technology he had forced upon Steve was capable of more that just tracking his every move and reporting it directly to Tony's suit.
Steve took a moment to look up the sky and mumble something incoherent under his breath, though Tony knew that he was asking for patience. He always did that when Tony had done something particularly exasperating.
"To answer your previous question, I found her. She was abandoned. Actually I was hoping that you could translate something for me." Steve explained with much more patience than Steve thought he was capable of at the moment.
Tony, realizing that his lover had just handed him a metaphorical shovel to start digging himself out of the hole he had some how managed to drag himself into, grabbed the line Steve had just thrown him like his life depended on it.
"Yes, of corse. What was it you wanted me to translate?" Tony supplied quickly.
Steve handed Tony the baby and she gurgled happily before settling quietly into Tony's arms. A small smile flashed across Tony's face before he refocused himself. Steve reached over and pointed at the embroidered name.
"This. I have no idea what it means, but I think its a logo of some kind. I saw it on a sign on the outside of the building too." Steve explained.
Tony took a moment to replace his mask, which he had removed after landing, and look over the embroidery. After a minute or so, Tony reached up and removed his mask again.
"It says, 'Klän Orphanage'" Tony stated with a hint of concern in his voice.
"If this is an orphanage, then why would they leave her here?" Steve asked, unconsciously reaching up to touch Peter. "I mean look at her. She's tiny. She can't be more than a few weeks old."
Tony nodded gravely as he looked down at the baby girl held lovingly in his arms. At some point the baby had fallen asleep. Looking at her peaceful face, Tony couldn't imagine anyone ever being able to do something like abandoning such a beautiful little girl. And yet, the fact that she was in an orphanage in the first place suggested that this might in fact be the second time someone had done so.
"Tony" Steve said as he gently laid a hand on his lover's shoulder.
"She's already ours isn't she?" Tony asked half relieved and half terrified at the idea of being the father of two small children.
"Yes, she most definitely is." Steve said smiling.
Steve reached over and the baby unconsciously grabbed hold of one of his fingers in her tiny fist. Peter chose this moment to once again drop his bag of cheerios, which was caught in an instant by Steve. This feat elected another ecstatic cry and bought clapping from Peter. Steve gently gave the bag back to Peter, who by this point had decided he was tired of being ignored again and started kicking Steve.
Tony looked over at his son and partner.
"Has he been like this the whole time?" Tony asked. A combination of exasperation, humor, and wariness tinging his voice.
"You have no idea" Steve sighed defeatedly, shaking his head slightly in exasperation.
Steve and Tony had made their way back to the shield helacarier with their two little ones and the rest of the avengers, who were enjoying fussing over their nephew and new baby niece. The head doctor on board had cleared the little baby girl and had concluded that she was about a week old. Steve and Tony had therefore estimated her birthday as May 19th.
Fury had sent one of his men out to find the head of the orphanage and drag her back to the helacarier. She was met with a great deal of anger from all the shield agents and Avengers. At first she hasn't understood until she had seen the baby that Steve was clutching protectively. As soon as saw the child that she referred to as a "worthless brat", she exploded in anger. It escalated to the point that Fury was so angry that he had actually yelled at the woman, who preceded to begrudgingly hand over all the information the orphanage had on the baby girl before swiftly leaving. It wasn't much, but it did confirm Tony's earlier fear that his new baby daughter had been abandoned at the orphanage in the first place.
Instead of taking his anger out on his friends after the horrendous woman had left, Tony channeled his emotions into teasing Fury about his protectiveness.
"You really are like a doting grandfather aren't you Fury." Tony had teased.
Fury's only response was a grunt while the rest of the avengers, minus Steve who was putting down the kids for a much needed nap, lost it with laughter.
"Maybe we should start calling you Grandpa Fury?" Tony continued to tease.
As soon as the words came out of his mouth Tony realized how perfect it was seeing as the old man had been friends with his father and therefore was the closest thing his kids would get to a grandfather. Fury had initially attempted to protest, failing miserably as his arguments were drowned out by the laughter of both the avengers and every shield agent in hearing range, but Fury quickly gave up after begrudgingly internally agreeing with what Tony had said. Not that Fury would ever let him know that.
Natasha, who was ecstatic at the prospect of no longer being the only female who was dragged all over the world with this group of goons, was currently cradling her new niece. She looked up at Steve and Tony, which wasn't very hard considering that Steve had been hovering around everyone one who had held his new baby girl and Tony had trailed behind him like a lost puppy.
"So, whats her name going to be?" Natasha asked the couple.
Steve and Tony shared a look. They hadn't actually thought that far yet. Tony was still mildly panicking at the idea of two babies being in the house. Well, at least this one wasn't exhibiting any signs of powers…yet.
"We haven't really decided yet." Steve supplied.
"Well, you should." Thor replied helpfully.
"Yes Thor. We will get right on that." Tony replied sarcastically.
Steve furrowed his brow slightly and bit his bottom lip nervously. He reached out for his daughter and Natasha, somewhat reluctantly, handed her to him.
"What about Sarah?" Steve finally voiced quietly. "After my mom?"
Tony looked up at Steve, removing the hand that he had unconsciously brought up to his chin when he began thinking of possible names.
"Sarah huh?" Tony said. Testing the name. "I like it, but its a little old fashioned. Maybe we should balance it out with a name she wont hate us for?"
Steve looked over at Tony with an angry glare.
"Oh, so she will hate us for naming her Sarah hm?" Steve said, almost daring Tony to disagree with him again.
Tony's hands shot up in a sign of surrender and quickly begins backtracking.
"What I meant was that there are a lot Sarahs. We might want to give her a more unique middle name?" Tony started hopefully.
Steve sighed dramatically.
"Fine. You pick her middle name then." Steve relented.
Tony, having been giving the green light, dashed over to the closest computer and began searching through baby names. He had soon settled into t-names and a-names, going through pages and pages of names and speaking aloud the ones he liked best.
At one point Steve had to intervene when Tony really wanted to name her Talon and remind his lover that they were trying to keep their child from hating them.
Finally after about an hour of looking, Tony had settled on a short list of his favorite t-names and a-names. He settled rather quickly on his favorite t-name, Taelyn. The a-names, however were a little harder. Eventually, he settled on three names; Adeline, Aillidh, and Amory.
Tony debated for around half an hour before Steve stepped in again and picked Adeline in an attempt to speed along the process.
This ended up backfiring because Tony, as it turned out, couldn't decide between their two top picks. Finally after getting tired of Tony's complaining, and due to their near imminent arrival at shield headquarters, Steve intervened yet again.
"Why don't we just use both of them so that we can get her birth certificate made up before we land?" Steve implored.
Tony's face lit up like a five year old who had just been told he was getting a puppy. It was that moment that Steve realized he had just accidentally given Tony exactly what he wanted.
"Thank you!" Tony practically squealed before jumping up, pressing a kiss to Steve's cheek, and skipping over to the shield agent that Fury had assigned to managing all the legal details of the adoption.
Steve slowly made his way out of the conference portion of the helacarier's main control room. He navigated his way through the ship to the medical wing and to the small room that Fury had arranged for the little ones.
Peter was just waking up from his nap and was staring bleary eyed up at Steve who smiled back at his baby boy. Peter reached up his arms weakly, a silent message for Steve to pick him up. Steve complied and reached down to pick up his young son. Peter, it turned out was still clutching his stuffed elephant teddy bear. Steve chuckled slightly and then deposited Peter on one of his hips, balancing the toddler expertly as he moved over to the makeshift crib to check on his new baby girl.
Baby Sarah was in a similar state of near waking as her new brother had been. Steve smoothly moved his arms so that he could reach down and pick up the little baby before clutching her lovingly the his chest. She yawned widely in Steve's arms before nestling slightly into his warmth. Steve started swaying slightly to sooth both kids and hopefully get one or the other of them back to sleep.
It was this scene that a triumphant looking Tony charged in on, newly printed birth certificate in hand. Tony paused for an instant as he took in the sight before him. His lover stood tall with their two children clutched in his arms, a happy and contented look on his face face. Their son, one thumb in his mouth and the other arm still clutching his teddy bear, balanced on Steve's hip. Their new baby girl sleeping curled against Steve's strong chest. It was a sight to behold and Tony could feel his heart melting into a giant puddle of mush at how wonderful it all was.
Steve turned to look at Tony, a smile plastered on his face.
"Well?" Steve questioned.
"I got it." Tony said, waving the still warm piece of paper in the air. "Sarah Taelyn Adeline Rogers-Stark. Born on May 19th. Daughter of Steve Rogers and Tony Stark. Its official. She's ours."
Steve's smile was as bright as a thousand Suns.
"Sarah Taelyn Adelina Rogers-Stark." Steve breathed adoringly as he looked down at their daughter. "Its perfect."
It was in that instant, looking at his lover and their children, that Tony realized he was well and truly screwed and he wouldn't change it for the world.