A/N: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL THE FAVS, FOLLOWS, AND REVIEWS! I never believed how much easier all of those things make writing, but wow.

Enjoy!

Chapter 3

"You think this is why they want from her?" Natasha asked.

"Think about it. She'll probably be at fighting age in a maybe month. If you could replicate that, you could grow an entire army and have replacements ready to go. You'd be nearly unstoppable." Clint said leaning on the table.

"That still doesn't explain why the aliens went after her." Steve said quietly.

"Maybe that's why she's growing like that. Alien mutation." Tony offered.

"But her blood and tissue analysis showed no abnormalities, even after the second round of tests." Bruce argued halfheartedly while rubbing his eyes.

"But we don't know what an alien mutation would look like." Tony countered.

"It's possible, but not likely." Bruce said under his breath.

"That's not important right now, we need to figure out how to deal with her. She may be a part of some evil plan, but she's still just a kid and she needs to be taken care of." Natasha stated.

"Then that's what we'll do." Steve said looking over at the now one-year-old.

All the Avengers looked at their leader. Tony sighed, "What are we gonna name her?"

A week later..

"Steve!"

Nadia ran up to Steve holding a piece of paper. They all argued over what to call her, but eventually picked the name Natasha wanted. Steve really didn't care. He was just worried about the little girl who now looked about four. Her "development" as they had been calling it, had started to slow down as she got older. But she still was growing at a fairly exponential rate. Thor was still in Asgard and they had not been in contact since he left three weeks ago.

"Look! I drew Natasha and Clint!" Nadia exclaimed practically bouncing off the walls.

Steve smiled and took the picture she offered him and tried to keep the shocked look off of his face. It looked almost like a photograph. Well as much like of a photograph as something can look that's drawn in crayon.

"Where'd you learn to draw like that?" Steve asked.

"I watched you do it." She said looking at him like he was dumb. Steve stared at her as she skipped away already bored with the conversation.

"Naddie," Steve called out still looking at the picture, "Do you want to go show Tony and Bruce the picture?"

"Sure!" She yelled excitedly and ran towards him like she always does.

Steve held out his hand and she enthusiastically grabbed it.

"Guess who's here." Steve called out as they walked into the lab to warn Tony and Bruce.

Tony turned around dramatically and threw his arms up, "Naddie!" he yelled.

She just as enthusiastically yelled back, "Tony!" and jumped into his open arms. Tony spun her around once and set her back on the ground.

"So," Tony asked kneeling down so he was eye level with her, "To what do I owe the pleasure."

"I wanted to show you my picture!" She shouted, once again.

"Well let me see it." Tony said with a smirk he only seemed to have for Nadia. He took the picture and looked down at ready to tell her Wow what a beautiful drawing! but was shocked. He closed his eyes and opened them again. "Did you draw this all by yourself?" Tony asked, clearly flabbergasted.

Nadia looked slightly unsure of how to take Tony's reaction and almost timidly replied, "Yes."

Tony stood up. "Bruce," he called, "come look at Naddie's drawing."

Bruce walked over and thankfully got over the initial shock way faster. "Wow, Naddie, this is really beautiful. Why don't we go upstairs and hang it on the fridge."

Nadia seemed to regain some of her usual enthusiasm and grabbed Bruce's hand as they walked over to the fridge. She gave Tony a sideways glance as she walked past him.

Tony looked to Steve. "Did she really draw that? All by herself?"

"I'm as shocked as you are Tony. I didn't even know she wasn't using the coloring book." Bruce and Nadia walked back in hand in hand. Naddie was talking animatedly. "So we hear sound because our eardrums pick up sound waves and it rattles three bones in the ear and its moved to that one thing.."

"The cochlea?" Bruce asked.

"Yea, that. Then it's sent to our brain and it turns it into words?"

"Yes, Naddie, that's how we hear." Bruce replied with a very, very surprised look.

Tony and Steve looked at Bruce and he shook his head. He was at loss for words. A moment later Nadia's stomach grumbled.

"Why don't we go get you some lunch." Steve bent to Nadia's level as he spoke to her.

"Can I have pizza?"

"Sure."

"Yay! Bye Tony. Bye Bruce." She yelled as she ran out of the room.

Steve followed her out glancing back at Tony and Bruce. After Steve left, Bruce looked over at Tony. "You got an explanation?"

"Nope." Tony said popping the p. "I got nothin'."