Author's Note: Happy 4th of July to all my American readers! So, since today is America's birthday, I decided to post a birthday chapter for Christy. Hope you all enjoy. Thanks to everyone who's been keeping up with this story. I should be finishing up "I Dream Things..." soon, so this will be my primary story for a bit, until I get caught up to CATWS timeline-wise. Yes, I am going to take the ChristyVerse into WS and AoU timeline, but with my own twist (SPOILERS Bucky gets better SPOILERS).
There's a small reference to Loki being in the Tower. If that confuses you, go read my other story "I Dream Things That Never Were (And Ask Why Not)." That should clear things up,
Anyway, you all know the drill: read, review, favorite, follow! Thanks to you all!
Chapter Seven: Eight Years Old
"I can't believe my birthday's on Monday." Christy complained one day at recess, about a week before said day.
"Why are you complaining? It's your birthday!" Tally shot back, almost scolding. "Who cares what day it is?"
"Okay, okay; you're right. But still, it means I gotta come to school on my birthday. That's annoying. But whatever. So…would you guys be able to sleep over on Friday, the Friday after my birthday?"
Sienna looked torn between ecstatic and worried. "A sleepover? At Stark Tower?"
"Avengers Tower." Christy corrected automatically. "And yeah, why not? It'll be fine. It's my house, too."
"Have you even asked your dad?" Tally questioned.
"Well…no. But he'll say yes, I know he will. It's safe."
"But my parents don't know…" Sienna trailed off.
Christy frowned. It was true, very few people knew that she was Captain America's kid. Her dad had explained that it was safer that way. Tally's family only knew because Mr. Jackson worked for SHIELD as a tech worker.
"Maybe my dad could pick you up and drop you off." she suggested.
Sienna brightened. "My parents are always busy running our store; they'd probably like that."
Christy nodded. "Yeah, and my dad always does nice stuff like that anyway. So that's not suspicious. Hopefully."
Tally grinned. "This is gonna be the best birthday party ever. Can I get Iron Man's autograph, for Damian?" Tally's twelve-year-old brother was obsessed with Iron Man.
"Sure, I guess. We could maybe go swimming in the pool, too."
"But it's cold…" Sienna said.
"Oh…it's indoors."
"You have an indoor pool?!"
Christy felt a tiny twinge of embarrassment. She knew that she was privileged to live where she did, and it was awkward when her friends, especially Sienna (who she knew came from a not-so-well-off family), made a big deal about it.
So she used a coping trick she'd learned in the Tower—fight awkwardness with humor.
"No, my crazy uncle does. But we can borrow it for the night. Ask your parents if you can sleep over when you go home tonight."
"Dad?"
Steve looked up from his dinner at his daughter's earnest face. "Yes, baby?"
"So…my birthday's next week…"
He was prepared. Honestly, he'd been expecting this a lot sooner. "Yes? What would you like?"
"Uh…a sleepover, please."
Steve was momentarily thrown for a loop. "A sleep…oh! You want your friends to come over? That's fine. I meant, what present do you want?"
Christy frowned. "Well…I've already got a lot of presents lately, Daddy. I can't think of anything else I want."
Steve smiled. "Alright, I can just surprise you. But you want a party?"
"Yeah, on Friday, the one after my birthday. But you might have to pick up Sienna and drop her off, cause her parents don't know…"
"That's fine, but I will need to talk to them. On the phone or otherwise."
"Okay, I'll ask her for their number." she smiled. "This is gonna be the best birthday ever!"
Steve couldn't help but grin back.
Monday March 18 dawned bright, sunny, and not too bitter cold, as though even the weather knew whose birthday it was.
Christy woke up to the smell of bacon and chocolate.
Is it Saturday? 'Cause that's when Dad makes breakfast. But yesterday was Sunday, so…
Suddenly, she remembered.
It's my birthday!
She tore out of her pajamas, got dressed for school, threw a brush through her hair, and raced out to the kitchen.
Sitting on the kitchen table was a stack of chocolate-chip pancakes, doused liberally with whipped cream and covered in eight blue-and white candles.
"Happy birthday, Christy."
Christy shrieked and ran blindly up to her dad, squeezing him in a hug. "Thanks, Daddy!"
Steve ruffled her hair. "Well, you're easy. All you need is a good breakfast; you didn't even ask about your present."
Christy whirled back around to face the table. Sure enough, a wrapped package sat next to her plate.
"What is it?" she asked, as she started to tear off the wrapping paper.
"Be careful, it's a bit fragile." Steve said.
Christy finished taking off the paper and uncovered a brown teddy bear with a dark blue coat and black goggles.
"Is this a Bucky Bear, Daddy?" she asked, her voice trembling. She rocked the bear back and forth in her arms.
Steve nodded. "Straight from my time. I searched around online and found it."
"You should have it. He was your friend."
"Uh, actually, I may have…" Steve trailed off awkwardly.
"Did you buy one for yourself?"
Steve grinned sheepishly. "Yeah. That's not too strange, right?"
"Nuh-uh! He was your friend. Oh!" she dashed into her room and returned, carrying Stevie, her Captain AmeriBear. She sat the bears in front of her on her lap. "Stevie, this is…Jamie. Jamie, this is Stevie. You guys are gonna be best buddies forever."
Steve pressed his eyes shut. I am not going to cry, I am not going to cry; you brought this on yourself, Rogers, so you are not going to cry…
Christy sat the bears on the table and turned her attention back to her breakfast, giving Steve a moment to compose himself.
"Thanks for the present, Daddy." she said finally.
"No problem, baby. I'm…I'm glad you like it."
Friday rolled around fast. Both Sienna and Tally's parents had sent in a note saying that Steve could pick their children up from school, so Steve currently had three little girls and their bags crammed in the back of 'his' car.
(It was Tony's, technically, but he used it whenever he couldn't use his motorcycle, so Tony had more or less gifted it to him.)
He smiled as the girls chattered away in the back and let his mind drift back to his conversation with Natasha that morning.
"Nat, please, you've gotta help me! And Christy loves you, anyway, so…"
"Christy loves everybody in this Tower, Steve. That's a terrible argument."
"You want me to ask Tony to be around for an eight-year-old's birthday party? Barton's AWOL for the weekend, Bruce is working with Loki in the lab…that still sounds weird, by the way, and Thor is…Thor. You're my only hope!"
Natasha sighed. "Alright, alright; I'll come. But you owe me, big time."
"Oh please; how much trouble could three second graders get up to?"
When they arrived at the Tower, Sienna pressed her face up to the window.
"You really live here?" she asked.
"Uh-huh." Christy said.
"It's…big." Sienna whispered.
"Yeah, but so's my Dad. And we're with him."
Steve blinked back tears as he recalled a similar conversation with Christy on the day he'd brought her home.
Things change so much in five months…
On their floor, Christy was a good little host and took her guests into her room, to put away their bags.
"So…what do you wanna do?" Christy asked.
Sienna shrugged, still a bit awed by the Tower, but Tally looked speculative. "Can I get Iron Man's autograph now?"
Christy bit her lip and thought. "Probably…" she tipped her head to the ceiling. "Jarvis?"
"Yes. Miss Rogers?"
Tally's eyes went wide and Sienna shrieked.
"Oh, sorry, I forgot to explain about Jarvis!" Christy exclaimed. "He kinda runs the Tower. He's a robot…computer program…something."
Tally looked around the room and frowned. "Any more surprises?" she asked sarcastically.
Christy looked sheepish. "No, I don't think so. Sorry!"
"Were you meaning to ask me something, Miss Rogers?" the AI persisted.
"Is Uncle Tony working on anything important, top secret, or life-threatening?"
"I do not believe so..."
"Okay. Thanks, Jarvis." Christy turned to Tally. "So, we can go up, if you want." she grinned a bit. "Welcome to my world."
"Your world is weird." Tally said fervently. Sienna nodded in agreement.
Christy shrugged. "Blame my family, not me!"
They left Christy's room, only to find another accidental surprise.
Natasha was standing in the living room, talking with Steve.
"Hi, Aunt Tasha!" Christy said, giving her aunt a hug. "Why are you here?"
Natasha laughed. "Happy birthday, kid. I'm here to give your dad back-up tonight. Who're your friends?"
"Oh, right! This is Tally and that's Sienna. This is my Aunt Natasha."
"You mean the Black Widow." Tally clarified. Christy shrugged.
"Well, yeah, but she's not working right now."
"Your world is weird." Sienna echoed.
Natasha and Steve appeared to be very close to losing it. "Manners, girls." Steve said, his voice shaking with suppressed laughter.
Tally stuck out her hand. "Nice to meet you, Miss Romanoff. My dad says you're crazy."
Only years of spy training allowed Natasha to keep a straight face. "And who's your dad, sweetheart?"
"His name's Thomas Jackson. He works for SHIELD and does something with computers."
"Ah, okay."
Sienna offered her hand shyly. "Nice to meet you." she practically whispered.
Natasha gently shook her hand and whispered something back in rapid Spanish. Sienna smiled.
"What, what did you say?" Christy cried.
"That's for us to know and you to learn later, kid." Natasha replied.
"Can we go get the autograph now?" Tally asked Christy.
Christy nodded. "Her brother's obsessed with Iron Man." she explained, for Steve and Natasha's benefit. "She wanted an autograph for him."
As the three girls trooped into the elevator, Steve asked Natasha, "So, what did you say to Sienna?"
Natasha smirked. "I told her that I may be a spider but I don't bite."
Steve laughed.
Later that night, after managing to wrangle an autograph out of Tony and swimming in the indoor pool, the three girls plus Steve and Natasha were eating pizza for dinner.
"What movie do you guys wanna watch?" Christy asked.
Sienna shrugged. "It's your birthday."
"I know, but I wanna know what you guys like."
"Disney works." Tally offered. "Can we watch Aladdin?"
Christy nodded enthusiastically. "I love that movie! Is that okay, Sienna?"
Sienna nodded. "I like it."
"Aladdin? I don't think I've seen that one." Steve muttered to Natasha.
"Oh, you should like it. Especially the hero."
Steve did end up liking it. More to the point, the three girls did. The whole apartment was soon filled with the sound of three girls belting out "A Whole New World" with varying degrees of on-key.
"Jafar's a jerk." Tally said, as the credits rolled. "I'm glad he got stuck in the lamp."
"I like Jasmine." said Sienna. "She wasn't afraid to stand up for Aladdin."
"Yeah, I like Jasmine, too." Christy said. "But I like Aladdin better. He gave his bread to those kids even though he was hungry. And he saved them from that stupid prince." she frowned. "Dad, did you ever do that?"
"Do what, baby?"
"Give some of your food to somebody hungrier than you. 'Cause I know you were kinda poor."
Steve shook his head. "Nothing so heroic as in the movie, although I did give food to kids on the street a time or two. Bucky would always pitch a fit and say I couldn't afford to be giving food away."
"Why?" Tally asked. "Because food was expensive?"
"That, and because I…used to be a lot smaller."
Sienna and Tally inched closer. Christy, though she'd heard this story a hundred times before, appeared to be listening just as intently.
"Alright, I'll finish the story if you guys eat the cake."
Christy looked around wildly. "There's cake?"
"And what would a party be without cake? Of course there is!"
Two hours later, all three girls were fast asleep, saturated with cake and Steve Rogers' origin story.
"I still don't see what you needed me for." Natasha said, as she helped Steve straighten up the living room and kitchen.
"Well, maybe I didn't need you, but I did want someone for back-up. And you had fun, admit it."
Natasha just smiled. "They're good kids."
"That they are."
"Fearless and innocent and…mostly normal."
"Mostly." Steve glanced in the direction of his daughter's bedroom and lifted his hand as though toasting. "Happy birthday to my one-of-a-kind eight-year-old. May this year be better than the last."
Natasha nodded. "Now that, I'll drink to."
