May 12, 2013, New York City

'Right, Liz, off you get.'

The car skidded to a stop, the people in the front and middle seats twisting to smile at the person in the back seat. They all looked sympathetic as Lizzie opened up the boot, stepping out and waving goodbye. She slung her bag over her shoulder, shutting the boot and walking away.

'Right then, Bridgeport?'

James nodded happily, watching as Natasha tapped several buttons on the cars dash. 'I can't believe you managed to get this thing. SHIELD must be stupid.'

'James.' Bruce warned, from the front seat. 'Don't be rude.'

'But they are.' James said, scowling. Sophie, squashed between James and Howie, nudged the younger boy without looking up.

'Why do we need to go to Bridgeport?' Bruce said, as they started moving. James glanced out the window, eyes widening as the scenery changed.

'No reason.' James shrugged, bowing his head and looking at the STARKpad on his lap. He was writing up an article on the recent mutant riots. 'Hey, How, you couldn't get me some quotes, could you?'

Howie looked up from his chess game with Sophie. They were both equally terrible so it resulted in some long games. 'Yeah that'll make me look good, won't it?'

Sophie snorted. 'Hey, Clarice, happy mothers day. Say what did you think of the people calling us devil spawn?'

She and Howie chuckled slightly, James rolling his eyes at them.

'Yeah, sorry for asking.'

The car came to a stop, Bruce and James unclipping their seatbelts. Bruce smiled at Natasha, the two staring at each other for a second. 'Right, see you around.'

She nodded back as the two Banner's climbed out of the car. Howie looked up from his chess game with a raised eyebrow.

'Hey James, let me see that article before you hand it in, okay?'

James pulled a face. 'Why? I won't say anything insulting.'

Sophie raised an eyebrow out of James sight but Howie just leant around her. 'There's a few words mutants find worse than they seem. Just let me have a look.'

James nodded, smiling slightly. 'Course. See you around.'

'See you.' Sophie and Howie said together. Despite the now empty seat next to her, Sophie didn't move over, choosing to say sat right next to Howie.

'Tallahassee, right How?'

Howie looked up, running his metallic hand over his face. He nodded, looking nervous. 'Yes, please.'

Natasha smiled at him in the rear view mirror. 'Not nervous, are you?'

'No, why would you say that.' Howie said quickly, picking at wiring on his hand. Looking around the car, he blinked several times. 'I still think this is an infringement on my grandfather's intellectual property.'

Sophie raised an eyebrow, closing down the chess game. They both had one king and one pawn left, the game would never finish. 'First off, that's a terrible attempt at changing the subject, Edwin. Secondly, your grandfather neither perfected nor patented his design so there's so technical infringement.'

Howie scowled, poking Sophie's side. She giggled as they came to a stop again. She raised an eyebrow at him as he unclipped his seatbelt, shuffling around slightly.

'Got your suit, yeah?' Natasha said, head tilted.

Howie nodded, holding up his suitcase suit. He held gifts for Clarice in the other hand and Sophie had to lean across him to open the door.

'Good luck Edwin.' She said as he struggled to get out.

'See you later, Anastasia.' He replied, shutting the door.

Natasha turned her head, smirking at Sophie as the girl moved to the front seat.

'What?' Sophie said, strapping herself in again.

'Nothing, nothing.' Natasha said, turning the car on again. 'Just checking, you do have a boyfriend don't you?'

'Oh, shut up.' Sophie said, scowling and pulling out her phone. She sent a few texts to her father and her CO's, to check in with anything she and Lizzie needed to do before they went back. 'Where are we going then?'

'Art gallery.' Natasha said, lips twitching again. 'Any preferences?'

Sophie shrugged. 'Not really. Wherever you think is best.'

Natasha nodded, switching some buttons to turn the car back to normal. They drove along, Sophie's lips pursing. Eventually, she looked up, staring sideways at her mother.

'Have you noticed anything weird about James?'

Natasha pulled a face, not looking away from the road. 'Well, not really, he is your boyfriend.'

Sophie's eyebrows furrowed. 'So?'

'So I wouldn't like him either way.' Natasha smiled. When Sophie didn't smile back, Natasha shrugged. 'So he's being a bit of a jerk, so what? Tony does that all the time and you still think he's funny.'

Sophie frowned. 'You know that's different. James is getting worse and sometimes it doesn't seem like he's joking.'

'But he is still good most of the time, isn't he?'

Sophie shrugged. 'Most yeah, but its getting less. It's like he's two different people. Besides the obvious I mean.'

Natasha sighed. 'Its probably just the way he was raised. He was alone with his dad for his entire childhood, he just doesn't know how to talk to people. Plus the fact his dad actually is two people might mean something.'

'I guess.' Sophie said, eyes scanning the road. 'Speaking of Bruce-'

'Don't.'

'But seriously-'

'I said don't.' Natasha frowned, lips thinning. 'I'm his handler, we work together, nothing more.'

Sophie chuckled. 'Seriously. You spent your last birthday with just him. No one else, not even me.'

Natasha pulled the car to a stop, turning off the engine. 'We were finishing off our mission in Brazil.'

Sophie smirked slightly, getting out of the car. 'You reacted quite strongly to someone who was just finishing a mission.'

Natasha walked around the car, smacking the back of Sophie's head lightly. 'Let's go.'

Sophie laughed, linking arms with her mother and walking into the gallery. Natasha flashed some fake credentials at the man at the gate, getting them in without paying a cent. Sophie grabbed a couple maps from the side, holding one out to her mother.

'Where do you want to go then?' She said, smiling upwards.

'How about...' Natasha scanned the map, smirking. 'Modern art.'

Sophie grinned, knowing how much her mother despised modern art, a view she shared. It wasn't so much that they considered it bad but more that they couldn't see the point in it. Natasha especially had never understood art, it being something that was useless for an emotionless assassin. She had grown better at appreciating it after Clint had given their daughter some crayons as a child but her disdain for the subject was something Sophie had picked up over the years. Clint had argued with Natasha for months when he found paintbrushes and coloring pencils snapped and thrown in the bin, Sophie never drawing again. Modern art was still something neither could understand, due to their respective upbringings.

Still, it was fun to mock.

'Let's go.'

Arms still locked, they walked off in unison, walking against the crowd so everyone had to move out of the way. Some people opened their mouths to say something but a glare from both girls stopped them. Even with Sophie's hair dyed, everyone knew who both of them were. Several people even stopped to salute them or applaud them, making Sophie grin and Natasha's eyes brighten.

Finally they made it to the exhibition, sitting down opposite a completely blank canvas.

'The Truth about Life.' Natasha read from the plaque. She turned to Sophie, smirking and speaking in Russian to her daughter. 'If he means it sucks, he's right.'

Sophie laughed, nodding her , replying in the same language. 'Maybe he meant the truth about his life, blank and boring.'

Natasha lips twitched and she nudged Sophie to look at the people from the next bench over. She cupped her hand around her ear and Sophie nodded, recognising the sign language. They were both quiet, listening.

'Its so profound.' One of the men was saying. 'The artist clearly understands the human need for colour and excitement...'

'...but has come to the conclusion that there is no true colour in our existence.' His female companion nodded.

The other man sighed. 'Makes you feel so small, doesn't it.'

Natasha and Sophie looked at each other, lips shaking. Without saying anything, they stood up and moved to the next room, trying not to laugh. They both managed not to, though Sophie was full on grinning when they were out of sight.

'So profound.' She drawled, smile widening. 'I can't believe them.'

'Shh.' Natasha smirked. 'Not in English.'

They sat down on a bench again, Sophie looking around. Eyes narrowing slightly, she pulled out her phone, typing furiously. Natasha sat next to her, giving commentary on the artwork around them. After the fifth time of Sophie not laughing at a joke, Natasha allowed herself to frown.

'Something wrong, Soph?' She said, in mock confusion.

'Just informing the gallery they're about to be robbed.' She said, nodding to the guy behind them. 'He's trying to hack into the secure servers.'

'Why hasn't he yet?' Natasha said, in no way confused with the revelation of the man's intent. She had clocked him the moment they walked into the room but had let her daughter take the lead. She was caring like that.

'Because I'm stopping him.' Sophie smirked. Pressing a final button on her phone, she smiled and stood up. 'Let's go. We don't want to be here when the guards run in.'

'Why not?' Natasha said, knowing the answer but wanting to hear Sophie say it.

'Don't want all the hero worship.' Sophie shrugged. 'Then people know our faces more.'

'Good girl.' Natasha wrapped an arm around Sophie's shoulders, leading her away from the exhibition, even as they heard other people rushing in. 'Now where do you want to go? Stay here or somewhere else?'

'Somewhere else.' Sophie said, easily. 'People are staring.'

Natasha nodded, glaring around as she steered Sophie outside. She was so used to keeping her a secret, to keeping her safe, it was difficult when people paid close attention to her.

'How's the training going?'

Sophie raised an eyebrow. It was rare for Natasha to start small talk. 'It's good, yeah. I think I got the bazooka down the other day.'

'Bazooka?' Natasha said, sounding actually surprised. Sophie had gotten used to hearing the difference between her mother's fake and genuine emotions. 'They let you use a bazooka?'

Sophie laughed at the worry on Natasha's face. 'Come on, Mama, don't tell me you've never used a bazooka?'

Natasha spluttered as she lead her daughter to a nearby café. It was quite posh, bigger than some of the neighbouring restaurants and seemed to pride itself on its 'authentic French cuisine'.

'Of course I have. I was training to be an assassin. Need to know everything.'

'And how old were you then?' Sophie said, sitting down at a table on the third floor. The floors below were protruding so each floor could lean over a balcony and watch the floor below.

Natasha glared. 'I was eight, shut up.'

Sophie giggled, leaning back in her seat. She fiddled with her phone as the waiter came over, Natasha looking up and ordering, in perfect French to the delight of the waiter.

'Ooh, ma mere, parlez-vous francais?' Sophie giggled. 'How posh?'

Natasha eyebrows furrowed. 'Sophie, you speak French, you just answered in French when he asked you a question. Why is that funny?'

Sophie shrugged, giggling again. Natasha had to smile, her daughter happy always cheered her up. Natasha watched as Sophie's phone flashed and she picked it up, eyes widening. She began to type again, focused.

'Who are you texting?' Natasha said, startling Sophie. The girl whipped her head up, eyes wide and mouth pursed. 'James?'

'It's no one.' Sophie blushed.

'Aw, you're allowed to text your boyfriend, Soph.' Natasha teased as their food was brought over. 'There's not to be embarrassed about.'

'Mama...' Sophie moaned, blushing more as Natasha smirked. Sophie looked sideways, down at the floors below. Her face hardened. 'Mama.'

Natasha turned, following Sophie's gaze. Her eyes narrowed at the people who had just walked in, holding huge bags like lifelines and clearly, to the assassin at least, hiding guns beneath their jackets. They all flinched when sirens were heard in the distance and one, apparently the leader, pulled his gun out, shooting it into the air.

'This is a hostage situation!' He shouted. 'Nobody move!'

Natasha rolled her eyes, looking incredulously ar her daughter. 'Seriously. It's our day off.'

Sophie shrugged, smirking slightly. The men started spreading out, running up the floors. 'Well, we can deal with stares. What have you got on you?'

'A gun, my batons and a couple Widow's Bites. You?'

'Two guns and several knives. What if they grab someone?' Sophie frowned, glaring at the men surround them.

She opened her bag in her lap, inconspicuously moving her weapons to their holsters and wishing she had left them there to start with. The gun holsters on her hips and the knife straps running down her thighs could be passed off accessories for her jeans when empty, less so when she was carrying actual weapons.

'I'll deal with them. I'm guessing you haven't been trained in that yet.' Natasha said, waiting for Sophie's nod. 'You stay up here and cover me.'

Sophie nodded again. She let her bag fall to the ground and placed her hand over two knives, glancing up at the people on their floor. They were right at the top, so she would be able to look down at all the other floors once she had gotten rid of people on this floor.

'Need something, girly?' One of the men said, smirking and waving his gun in her direction.

'I'm actually insulted you don't know who I am.' Sophie frowned, gripping her knives and getting ready to stand. 'You need to watch the news more.'

'What's that suppose to mean?' A woman said, walking up, eyes wide. 'Can we get more money for you?'

Natasha started counting down and Sophie smirked. 'In your dreams.'

Natasha hit zero and they both moved at once, Sophie throwing both knives and Natasha vaulting over the balcony. Sophie ducked down before the others on her floor could shoot at her, jumping back up and throwing two more knives. Successfully hitting all five in either their legs or upper arms, she turned, pulling out a gun and looking down the balcony. Someone shot at her and she barely dodged in time, her shoulder getting nicked. Ignoring the bleeding and the pain, she raised her gun with the other hand, shooting down and hitting the people aiming at her. She was using specially made SHIELD practice bullets, which would do some serious damage but were far less likely to kill the victim. It wasn't impossible, just unlikely and she doubted her mother was taking that precaution. Though her mother did have have stunners in her arsenal.

Within a few minutes, every attacker she could see was down and her mother was on the bottom floor, evidently having taking care of everything else.

'Soph!' Natasha shouted from the bottom floor. 'The police are here, let's go.'

Sophie nodded, grabbing her bag and skipping past the people moaning with knives in their shoulders. She paused, looking back at them. 'I'll want those back, by the way.'

She smiled at her mother as she reached the ground floor. Natasha put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her towards the door. Natasha offered some money to the owner but he shook his head. Sophie realised, with a start, that his clothes were crumpled and he was shaking, probably having been grabbed by one of the gunmen.

'Thank you.'

Natasha shrugged, though Sophie smiled under her arm. The elder nodded her head. 'Just doing our job, wish they hadn't tried it.'

'No one was seriously hurt, that's the main thing.' A member of the police said, heading down from the top floor. Sophie blushed but he waved her off. 'It would have been a lot worse without you Miss Barton.'

'Barton-Romanoff.' Sophie smiled. 'I got it legally changed.'

'I'll inform the press.' The policeman smirked, winking.

Without another word, the two Romanoffs walked out of the café, heading back towards their car. Once they reached it, Natasha stopped, pulling Sophie into a hug. The young girl gripped her mother tight, sighing.

'Thank you, Sophie.' Natasha said, kissing her forehead. 'For today, and everything else.'

Sophie smiled into her mother's jacket. She knew Natasha wouldn't be happy about her taking her name, as it wasn't even her real name, but Sophie wanted to prove she was her mother's daughter, and she loved her mother equal to her father.

'Love you mama.' Sophie said.

'Love you too.' Natasha said, pulling away. 'Now lets go home and terrify your dad with stories of what we did today.'

Sophie laughed, moving around to the other side. She stepped into the car, grinning from ear to ear.