Hello all! Here I am again! I hope you all enjoy this updated version of The Adventures in Babysitting. This will combine that story and the Adventures of Steve and Charlotte. I hope you enjoy it! I do not own anything but Charlotte, she is my OC! Enjoy!
There weren't a lot of times where Charlotte Barton felt like this. It was a new uncertain feeling that she was experiencing. She had just hung up the phone from talking to her brother, Clint. He and Laura were going out for their anniversary dinner and he told her that he had invited his friend Steve over to watch Lila and Nate. Charlotte didn't think twice about it, until Clint mentioned something about Steve being an old man. It was then that she put two and two together, realizing that his friend Steve was Captain America. It was then that he asked Charlotte to come help Steve, in case anything strange happened. Charlotte was more than happy to do so. Her gut told her that Steve would be fine taking care of Lila but she wasn't sure how comfortable he would be watching Nathaniel. She chatted with her brother for a few more moments before letting him get ready for his dinner. Charlotte tossed her phone to the side, and got up from the couch, getting herself ready for her night.
Steve Rogers didn't know how he ended up agreeing to this situation. Clint had asked him to watch over his youngest daughter Lila, and their almost year old son Nathaniel. Steve was told that their oldest son Cooper was hanging out with friends and having a sleepover at the friends home. To say that Steve was nervous about tonight, was an understatement. Sure, he would watch the little kids down the street from him in Brooklyn. Then again that was seventy years ago. A lot had changed in the time that he had been asleep. He knew that watching Lila wouldn't be the problem, it was Nathaniel that would be more of a challenge. In being so weak looking, not many of the mothers in the area would let Steve watch children under two. Come to think of it, he had only did it once, but it couldn't be that hard, right? The whole premise was to make sure that they didn't kill themselves or burn the house down. That was something that Steve could do. Besides, he had a few tricks up his sleeve. He brought his shield hoping that Lila would find it somewhat entertaining.
Steve arrived at the Barton Farm a little earlier than the asked time. He knew that there would be some things that Laura would want to go over, but he wasn't too worried about it. He knocked on the front door and Laura opened the door with Nathaniel on her hip, welcoming Steve into the home. It was the same as he remembered it. Thankfully this time he was at Clint's farm it was for other reasons than needing a safe place to not be seen. He walked into the home and was greeted by Clint and Laura's daughter Lila. She looked up at him a scrunched her face before saying "hello," and wandering off. Laura shook her head.
"Don't worry. She'll come around soon, you should have seen the stare downs her and Natasha used to have."
"Her and Natasha?" Steve questioned raising and eyebrow.
"Yeah. For a while Nat was over here every other week. They grew attached, then she didn't come over for months because of a mission that she had to go on. Clint and I think the glares were her way of being angry." Laura explained.
"I'm convinced." Clint stated walking down the stairs of his home and over to his friend. He gave Steve a hand shake accompanied by a man hug. Steve would be lying if he said it wasn't nice to see Clint. Since the Avengers had parted ways, he missed his quick wit. Laura shook her head at her husband's words.
"Okay so the rundown, Lila eats about 6 and Nathaniel will eat whenever he is hungry. You can used the food that is labeled for him only. It's mostly soft foods. I would like for them to be in bed around 8 at the latest. You don't have to bathe them, we had bath time earlier on in the day. Lila might push for it but she really loves taking bubble baths." Laura explained. "It's a bubble thing that's for sure." Steve nodded his head listening intently. Well at least the part about bubbles never changed. "That's pretty much it. Clint will have his phone on if you need him and were more than welcome to ask any questions." She informed him. Steve nodded his head, agreeing to her words.
"Thank you," He said to them. Laura gave him a soft smile before calling over Lila and handing Nat over to Clint. The parents said goodbye to their children before heading off to date night. It didn't take Steve long to realize that he was in fact alone with Hawkeye's children. Before Ultron came around, he would have never suspected that his archer buddy was in a relationship, let alone had a family. Steve shook his head before leaning down and picking up Nathaniel, holding the small child in his arms. The child looked at Steve before blowing raspberries in his face. He frowned. "So that's how tonight's gonna go, huh?" He asked. Nat blew another raspberry and Steve shook his head before carrying him throughout the house in order to see where Lila ran off too.
When he saw the girl sitting at the table with a piece of paper and crayons, he smiled. Now this was something he could do. He was good at drawing and he knew that if Lila enjoyed it then it was something they could bond over, instead of them staring at each other doing nothing. He stood next to the table where she sat. "Can I join you?" He asked, Lila nodded before handing him a piece of paper. He dragged the paper across the table and went into the adjoining living room and grabbed a few toys for Nathaniel to play with. Steve placed the boy on the ground before taking a seat across from Lila. Steve began to draw a simply country side, every so often he would glance down and look at Nate who was playing with his toys or biting on them. Just making sure that he wasn't doing anything harmful to himself.
After a few minutes, Steve heard what sounded like a key going into the front door before the sound of the door opening. He sat straight up and raised an eyebrow. There was no way that Clint and Laura would be back so soon. Steve glanced over at Lila who didn't seem phased by the noise. Steve walked the small distance from where they were sitting to a position where he could see the front door.
"Excuse me, who are you?" Steve asked as the petite brown haired girl ignored the man's voice, making her way into the home, closing the door behind her. She set her black bag down on the entry way table and walked towards Lila who was coloring at the moment. Steve walked over to her and stood between her and Lila. The girl raised an eyebrow and looked up at the male with an almost confused look on her face.
"I'm Charlotte, the babysitter." She stated, folding her arms across her chest.
"Hi Charlie!" Lila said looking up from her coloring. Lila got up from her sitting position and walked over to Charlotte who was still standing, looking at Steve. Their stare down was broken when Charlotte felt tiny arms wrapping around her legs. She knelt down and gave Lila a proper hug, kissing the side of her head. She wandered back to the table and sat down, starting her coloring again. Charlotte got up off of her knees and stood up, looking at Steve.
"I thought I was babysitting Lila and Nate." He said with a slight disappointment to his voice.
"You are a 95 year old man, what in god's name made you think that they would let you watch children." Charlotte stated and Steve's eyes widened.
"For your information, I'm a good babysitter." He argued.
"Oh really? Then where did Nathaniel crawl off too." She countered. His face paled and he glanced around. Charlotte rolled her eyes and pushed past him to walk down the hallway to where she had last seen Nate. "Hey there buddy." She said to the smiling baby boy. Charlotte took him into her arms and he comfortably sat there, she walked back over to Steve. "Clint sent me in to make sure you didn't get in too far over your head."
Steve's face puckered and he felt slightly offended that his friend didn't trust him enough to watch his children, however he did know Clint. There was a reason for everything that he did. Though Steve might not understand the immediate reasoning behind why he invited Charlotte over to assist in him babysitting, he knew that he would realize the reasoning as to why later on and it would all make sense. For the moment, he simply stood there watching the girl interacting with both children equally. Well, as equally as she could. Charlotte still held Nate on her hip, and she was leaned over looking what Lila was drawing. "That's a beautiful drawing," She said to the younger girl.
"Thank you." She said not bothering to look up from her drawing. Steve let out a smirk, knowing that feeling of intense concentration when he was drawing. It was the same face that Lila had on at the moment.
Since Charlotte arrived, Steve became absolutely silent. He wasn't quite sure what to say about the whole situation. He knew that it would probably be a good idea to talk to the woman standing a few feet from him. "How long have you been watching them?" He asked her. Charlotte looked over at him, her blue eyes looking into his own.
"For about five years now. Lila was just a little baby and Cooper was two years old. I would have started earlier but Clint thought I was 'too young to babysit babies'" She said to him with a roll of her eyes.
"And how old were you?"
"18, which is legal age but Clint was an ass and in protective father mode. I was over here a lot when he was away on trips, helping out Laura if she needed it." She explained. A though of her not knowing what Clint did. Clearly she knew who he was, calling him a 94 year old man, which he was. Then again, she could know who he was without knowing about what Clint did and who he was. Steve nodded his head.
"I can imagine that. He does seem to have obsessive tendencies." He stated.
Charlotte scoffed and shook her head. "That might be an understatement," She said with a laugh.
"So you've known Clint for a while?" Steve asked deciding that it would be better to get to know the strange woman rather than being skeptical about her all night until Clint and Laura returned from their date. Charlotte nodded her head before walking back over to the little play area that Steve had made for Nathaniel to play. She set him down on the ground and sat on the floor with him. As soon as Nate sat down, he reached over and grabbed his stuffed lamb and began biting its nose.
"Yeah, I have." She told him, picking up one of Nathaniel's cars and driving it around on the wooden floor. Steve nodded his head slightly. "Did Laura say when she fed Nathaniel last?" She asked. Steve shook his head. "He might be hungry, can you grab the chair in the corner over there and put him in it. Bring him to the table to be closer to Lila, he eats better that way." Charlotte told him with a shrug. She didn't have a proper reasoning behind her discovery, it was something that she had discovered when Nate had refused to eat. It made things simpler for her. Well, there was that one time where he accidentally threw food at her, but there was no way she was going to tell Steve that. The look on his face might be more entertaining. Steve watched as Charlotte made her way into the kitchen before grabbing items that would eventually be eaten by Nathaniel, who was still chewing on his lamb's nose. He knelt down and picked him up before walking over to grab the baby chair in the corner. These were something that had significantly changed since he had babysat years ago. Like most everything else, they were plastic.
Steve placed Nat into the baby chair and placed the table on top of the opening. He made sure to not get Nate's fingers caught in the latches. He looked towards Charlotte who was in the kitchen preparing food for him. Maybe this was why Clint had her come over as well. He would be too afraid to feel the little man too much. Charlotte walked back into the area with a green bowl and a small blue spoon. She set down the bowl in front of him before placing some of the pasta that she had heated up for him on the tray. She also placed the spoon near him just in case he wanted to try to pick some up. That, and he love to try and be like his elder siblings.
"There we go! Now we just have to make sure that he doesn't choke. You know CPR right?" She said to Steve who nodded his head.
"Of course. That is rule number one in babysitter school."
"You went to babysitter school? Lucky, I got kicked out."
"That doesn't surprise me." Steve countered. Charlotte looked at him with a smile. "Ah, he does have a sense of humor. I was beginning to think it was frozen." Steve shook his head.
"No that was my babysitting skills." He said, Charlotte nodded her head, confirming the thought that she had since she walked in the home and saw his shocked face.
"So Clint didn't tell you that I was coming, I thought so."
"No, he didn't." Steve said. Charlotte nodded her head, interesting.
"Can we have Dino nuggets?" Lila questioned, interrupting their conversation.
"What?" Steve asked as if it was the strangest thing that he had heard.
"Dinosaur chicken nuggets." Charlotte explained to him in a slow childlike voice.
"They are chicken nuggets shaped like dinosaurs, duh." Lila said as if he was stupid.
"Lila!" Charlotte scolded, "Now what did your father say about sass?"
"No sassing until I'm 16." The little girl said with a sigh.
"That's right, what vegetable do you want?" Charlotte asked.
"Eww gross!" She shrieked
"What? You don't want to become big and strong like Steve? I'm a lost cause sweetie, but you too can grow up to be tall and strong."
"Daddy said you're short because you're a carnie."
"Well you can tell your dad to shove it up his a-" She tried to say but she felt hand covering her mouth. Her blue eyes narrowed and she knew that Steve was behind this. She pulled his hand off of her mouth and turned to look at him.
"Language." Was all he said, she rolled her eyes and scoffed before walking back into the kitchen. Taking a deep breath she began searching the freezer for Dino chicken nuggets. When she found them, she walked over to Steve and handed him the bag.
"These are the Dino chicken nuggets." She walked back over to start the oven before walking over to see how Nate was doing on his food. When Charlotte realized that he had finished most of the pasta, she decided to give him some purred broccoli that she had seen in the fridge. "What do you want for a veggie Lila?" She said to him.
"Corn." She said with a sigh. Charlotte nodded, of course that was what she wanted. Lila always wanted corn.
"Do you wanna watch the kids and I'll cook?" Steve asked.
"Do you know how to work the oven? Did they have those back then?" She asked. Steve rolled his eyes and fake laughed.
"I think they only hire you for entertainment."
"That and my charming good looks." She stated back with a smile.
"If I have any questions, I'll ask okay?" He assured her.
"Okay." Charlotte said with a nod. "Just heat the broccoli pure for 10 seconds." She couldn't help but say. Steve tossed her a teasing look. She rolled her eyes and walked back over to Lila and Nate. She took a seat across from Lila and glanced down at the table. Her face scrunched up slightly. What Charlotte found was the scenery drawing that Steve had started earlier on in the day. "Did you draw this?" She asked him.
"Hmm?" Steve asked placing the broccoli into the microwave.
"This scenery did you do that?"
"Uhh, yeah I did." He stated.
"Its stunning." Charlotte told him, glancing over at him. One of his hands was behind his neck, rubbing it slightly.
"Thanks, its nowhere near done though." He told her with such a truth in his eyes and her eyes widened.
"You're serious? Steve this is incredible." Charlotte told him. Steve shrugged his shoulders, grabbing the pure out of the microwave and walked over to her. He handed her the container.
"Yeah, I couldn't do sports before the surgery. I couldn't do much of anything in fact, so I taught myself to draw." He explained. Charlotte tested out the temperature of the broccoli before feeding it to Nat.
"Thats incredible." She said setting down the drawing.
"Thank you." He said shyly. Steve have her a simple smile before heading back into the kitchen to make Dino Nuggets.
Charlotte waited for Nathaniel to be finished with his meal before cleaning him, the tray and the mess he made up. She set him on the floor and let him crawl around. Lila got up as well and began playing with her little brother. Charlotte took this opportunity to walk into the other room and to see how Steve was doing with the Dino nuggets. The first sign was a good sigh, there was nothing on fire.
It wasn't much longer that Lila was helping to set the table for dinnertime. Steve was still amazed at the Dino nuggets. They looked and smelled amazing, but still the same smell as chicken nuggets. He was still learning many things about being in the present day and this was just one of those things that he would have to learn to adjust too. There was a slight possibility that he could in fact love these Dino nuggets. When the timer went off, he took the Dino's out of the oven and placed them on top of the oven.
Charlotte walked into the room and grabbed plates and cups for them. "Lila, what do you want to drink?" She asked.
"Milk." She called back.
"What about you, Steve? I think Clint has a few beers hidden somewhere in this fridge." She stated but he shook his head.
"No, thank you though. I think I'll have some milk as well."
"To build strong bones?"
"I think I have strong enough bones, you however might need some. Maybe it will help you grow." Steve joked. Charlotte rolled her eyes.
"Very funny, Steve." She joked. Charlotte went into the fridge and poured three glasses of milk before bringing them to the table. Lila sat in her seat watching over Nathaniel playing with his toys. Steve dished up the rest of the meal before handing the plates to Charlotte who took them to the table. Steve joined them at the table and they began to eat their dinner. Out of the corner of her eye, Charlotte began watching Steve as he ate the Dino nuggets. Judging by the look on his face, he was enjoying them.
"Charlie! Can we watch Nemo?" Lila asked, her large brown eyes were looking over at her as they all ate their Dino nuggets. Charlotte nodded her head.
"Of course we can! Then it is time for bed."
"What is Nemo?" Steve asked.
"Finding Nemo!" Lila said as if it was the simplest of things.
"I don't think I've ever seen Finding Nemo." Steve stated, both Lila and Charlotte looked at Steve as if he had been frozen for seventy years.
"What do you mean you've never seen Finding Nemo?" Charlotte asked. "That should have been the first thing you saw!" Steve shook his head. Finding Nemo was not on the list of movies and things to watch to try and catch up on the times. Before this night, Steve hadn't even heard of the movie before.
"Alright, I'll watch the movie. But in addition to Lila having to go to bed right after, She has to help me clean the kitchen." He decided. Charlotte nodded her head. It sounded like a fair enough deal to her.
"And I'll put little Nat here to sleep a little ways into the movie." She stated. Lila nodded her head.
"Nate always loves falling asleep to movies." She informed them biting into the head of a Dino nugget.
"Then it's decided. After dinner its Nemo time." Charlotte stated before digging back into her meal.
As usual, Lila didn't sit still and watch the entire movie. She had turned her attention to playing with other items such as her dolls. Though sometimes she would forger what she was doing and continue to watch the movie. "Charlie can we play dress up before bed?" Lila asked about half way through the movie.
"Of course we can." She said to the little girl with a smile. Lila nodded at Charlotte before walking over to Steve.
"You can play too!" She told Steve whose eyes widened.
"Do you have any tricks up your sleeve, Steve?"
"As a matter of fact I do." Steve told them. Lila and Charlotte looked at each other before watching Steve get up from his sitting position and walking outside of the home.
"Charlie? What did you do to piss off Steve?" She asked. Charlotte let out a small laugh before shaking her head.
"Sweetie, I didn't do anything. I think he has a trick up his sleeve." She stated playing with Lila's brown hair. Several seconds later, Steve walked into the room carrying his Captain America shield. Lila's eyes widened and she ran over to Steve. Charlotte had never seen the girl so excited, not even when Clint told her she would build her a playhouse. At the moment it was half built.
"Do you want to know how to hold it?" Steve questioned. Lila nodded her head. "Okay, hold out your arm." He said and she held her arm out. Steve helped her to place her little arm within the holders. He let it go slightly. "Now be careful, don't go swinging it around." He explained. Charlotte smiled. She could only imagine the look on Clint and Laura's face when they came home and their house was destroyed due to the power of the shield. Lila walked over to Charlotte and held it up.
"Oh my goodness. Look how cute you look! You are off to save the day." She said to Lila with a smile. The little girl had such a perfect look on her face it made Charlotte come close to crying. This was way too precious. She was just thankful that Clint wasn't here to see what his daughter was doing. Charlotte knew Clint well enough to know that he would not be happy if his daughter was holding the Captain America shield. Lila ran back to Steve.
"I wanna be Captain America!" She told him. Steve let out a laugh before nodding her head.
"Maybe one day." Steve said. Charlotte looked over at Steve and smiled. When Clint had asked her to come over and watch Lila and Nathaniel with Steve, she was quite skeptical about the entire situation. She would do anything for all of Clint's children, but the knowledge of Captain America being there, and the fact that Clint probably wouldn't tell Steve that she was coming, her nerves were rattled. Lila ran back over to Charlotte and took off the shield carefully before handing it to Charlotte.
"Now it's your turn." Lila said. Charlotte nodded her head before slipping her arm through the shield. She looked over to Steve.
"Well what do you think?" Charlotte asked him, her blue eyes shining as she held the shield. Steve looked at the brown haired girl standing in front of him. He would be lying if he said she wasn't attractive. Charlotte was a beautiful dame that just happened to be holding his shield, which he swore made her more attractive. He thought he tried his best to not stare at her even in her outfit that was white shorts and a coral t-shirt. He shook the thought away from his head, not wanting to get any ideas.
"It looks good." Steve told her. Charlotte gave him a smile before removing the shield from her arms and handing it to him.
"Don't worry Cap, I wont be taking you job anytime soon. Lila on the other hand," She said and he laughed, nodding his head.
"I thought the kids would like seeing the shield." He said with a shrug.
"You would have been fine here on your own." She told him. Steve gave her a smile.
It wasn't much longer until Charlotte began to notice Lila nodding off while watching the movie. "I think we have a man down." Steve joked motioning towards Lila. Charlotte nodded her head.
"I think you are right." She confirmed before getting up from the couch and walking over towards Lila. "Time for bed." She said to him. Lila shook her head.
"No," She wined, but Charlotte shook her head.
"No buts, its time for bed."
"I haven't taken a bath yet!" She argued.
"Didn't you have one earlier in the day?" Steve asked and Lila became silent.
"I think thats a yes." Charlotte said looking over to Steve who nodded his head.
"Your mom said that you did." Steve added.
"Fine," Lila said with a sigh "Goodnight Steve." She said before wandering upstairs.
"Alright, then it's bed time." Charlotte said, "I'll be back in a few." She said to him. Steve nodded his head and his glance went back into the kitchen that him and Lila had half cleaned up. Steve walked back into the kitchen and began finishing up the dishes.
"Do you want to watch a movie?" Charlotte asked walking into the kitchen.
"Yeah, sure. That sounds great." Steve told her. She nodded her head and walked out into the living room. Steve placed the towel that he had been using to dry off his hands on the oven handles before walking into the living room and over to the couch, sitting himself down.
"Have you seen Toy Story?" Charlotte asked from her sitting position near the television. Steve shook his head.
"No, is it any good?" Steve questioned her.
"Such a stupid question." Charlotte told him rolling her eyes at such a crazy statement.
"So I take it is a good movie then?"
"Its an absolute classic." Charlotte assured him before grabbing the dvd from the stand and placing it into the player. She walked over to the couch and sat down next to Steve. She grabbed the remote and began to play the movie.
"Thank you," Steve stated.
"Hmm?" Charlotte asked wondering where he was going in this conversation.
"For coming over tonight, I know that you could have easily blown off watching them with me but you didn't."
"Oh you could have handled them yourself, its just Clint being protective. Besides, the look on your face when I walked in was pretty priceless." Charlotte said with a little chuckle.
"No, i'm being serious."
"Really, Steve. It's nothing." Charlotte shrugged off his compliment.
"Alright." He said to her dropping the subject.
"Actually, I should be thanking you, you did make the night much more entertaining." Charlotte told him grabbing a blanket from another couch and wrapping herself in it.
Steve barely heard the door to the front of the home open and close. He knew that he should get up and see who was at the door. He was still in charge of babysitting the Barton children, even though he was asleep on the couch with a warm body pressed up against his, Clint and Laura walked into the living room to find Charlotte sleeping on the couch. Her body was laying on the couch cuddled next to an almost awake Steve. Steve wasn't quite sure how they had ended up in this position. The last thing he remembered was her placing her head on his shoulder. Steve didn't think that they would end up in a position like this. He sat up as the light in the room turned on, doing his best not to wake up the sleeping Charlotte. Laura walked into the room and smiled before shaking her head. "Goodnight Steve." She said before walking to the stairs and walking up them to her own room. Clint walked into the room and leaned against the door frame.
"She fell asleep, and I didn't want to move her, then I fell asleep also." Steve explained doing his best to make a seemingly awkward situation as best as he can.
"Yeah man, whatever. Don't stress over what happened, I can only see what I see and you know what happened. Just remember that if you hurt my sister, I'll kick your ass." Clint said before exiting the room and heading upstairs.
"Sister?"
It was in the moment, that Steve finally discovered the real reason why Clint had invited her over.
"I may have done something bad." Clint said as soon as they got into the car. Laura froze and glanced at her husband. She couldn't possibly think of something else that he could have done in the span of five minutes since Steve had arrived at their home. Though she knew her husband, she was preparing herself for some crazy adventure.
"What did you do?" She asked with a disappointed sigh. Clint looked over at her, knowing that his phrasing of what he had said had caused her response to him.
"I invited Charlotte over to watch the kids with Steve." Laura closed her eyes and let out a laugh. She should have known that was what was coming.
"Trying to play matchmaker, Clint?"
"Steve needs a little more 'me' in his life." Clint said with a shrug
"So you chose your sister?" Laura asked raising an eyebrow.
"I wouldn't think of anyone else better for her, or him in that matter."
"You're becoming soft in your old age." Laura said with an affectionate sigh.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's just hope she doesn't kill him. That one I wouldn't be able to explain to the rest of the Avengers." Clint said before starting the engine and driving off
Please review and let me know what you think! I will be taking requests, as always!