Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you know that this is a loooooooooong chapter. Like nearly 3k words long. But I feel like it was Necessary to build Peggy and Steve's relationship, to tie up some loose ends, to answer some of the questions you might have. Thank you so much for reading!!!
It had simultaneously been had the hardest and most rewarding 4 days of Steve's life. After the Nutella incident (witch Clint thankfully survived), He had taken her to the lab in the Tower so Bruce could perform all the necessary tests. And while Peggy was extremely intrigued by the robotics lab that was on the way to the medical facility, the second she saw the medical examination bed, she burst out into a tantrum that was unprecedented in how upset she was. It took Steve an hour to calm her down, and while Cling offered to help, Fury was in the room, so Steve had to decline. He had to prove to Fury that he could handle her.
The medical-phobia phobia, however, was far over-powered by all the amazing experiences he had with her. In-between tests on Sunday, he had broken out all the toys he had bought her. She has especially loved the small set of blocks eh had gotten her. At first, Steve had just watched her play, but after she had stacked 10 of them into a simple tower, Steve accidentally knocked over the tower with his foot when he went to grab a glass of water. He braces himself for tears must instead, out her mouth came laughter! It started as a tiny giggle, but then rapidly engulfed her entire body in a frenzy of laughter and smiles. It sounded like the chiming church bells Steve could remember hearing every Sunday morning, and seeing her so happy made him smile as well. He couldn't explain exactly why, but seeing her so happy made him happy too.
"Again!" she squealed, and quickly set up the tower again. Steve tentatively knocked down the tower again, and it sent her into another fit of pure laughter. They continued their game for 40 minutes and eventually upgraded to building New York City out of blocks and having Elly be a big monster to knock it over.
Monday afternoon, while he was making her lunch, Steve told Peggy to play on the couch while he made her a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich. He had learned the hard way that if he didn't give her food with Nutella, then she would refuse to eat it. It wasn't the healthiest option, but at least she was eating at all. However, the second he was done cutting it into four triangles (she was very particular that if it was a sandwich, it had to be 4 triangles), he spun around to let her know, but she had not just left the couch, but had left the living room completely. Thankfully, when he went looking for her, she was in his room. She had taken all of the books off of the bottom shelf, and was an island in an ocean of pages, going through each book and flipping the pages as if she was reading herself. Her interest in books was so adorable that Steve declared an improv book picnic, where he would read a book to her while she ate her sandwich. She even insisted on reading a few books to him, and her attempts to tell a story (that had nothing to do with the words on the page) made him melt in all the cuteness.
Tuesday was the much-appreciated end of the physical examinations, but the beginning of the comprehensive ones. There were little flip books that had different cartoon people on them, or shapes or animals. The first test was that she was shown a cartoon picture of something, and she had to properly identify what shape it was. It went great, she immediately told Br. Banner, Fury, Steve, and everyone else in the room that the Balloon was a circle, the cardboard box was a square, the cell phone was a rectangle, and a slice of cake was a triangle. Next, however, she was shown different pictures and had to identify what they were. She correctly got all of them, from a cow to a cookie, to a computer to a car, to a family. But when Bruce asked her who each person in the room was, her answers were still correct, but hilarious. Dr.Banner was "The doctor", Fury was "Furry", and when asked who Steve was, she identified him as "Boy mama"
"Why is he boy mama?" Bruce clarified, trying to hold back his astonishment and laughter.
"He does all the stuff Mama does and he's a boy," Peggy explained, her tone of voice 100% sure, and as if she was shocked that anyone couldn't clearly see that Steve was boy mama.
"Did you know that there is another word for that?" Bruce inquired, and her eyes light right up.
"There is?!" she gasped.
"Yes, it's called a Dad." Bruce smiled. "Some Kids even call their Dads' Daddy."
"His name is Steve Rogers." fury piped up, rolling his eyes.
"No." Peggy glared. "His name is Daddy."
"If you say so." Steve chuckled, as Fury sighed.
Now, it was Wednesday afternoon, and all of the tests were finally over. It was a strange feeling, on one hand, Steve was revealed they were over, but on the other, Steve was only supposed to care for her until the tests were done. And now that they were, he had absolutely no clue what was going to happen to her. The thought of her being away from him made him sick to his stomach, what if something happened to her when he wasn't there to help?
Peggy however, was paying absolutely no attention to Steve's thoughts of panic and indecision. The two of them were in one of the offices, waiting for Fury to come with the test results. Staring out the window at New York City had gotten boring to Peggy, so Steve had broken out a sketchbook and some crayons.
They were still sitting next to the giant windows that showed the city, and as the case always seemed to be with Peggy, she had to have an entire set up to even begin thinking about doing the activity. She and Steve were sitting across from each other, their right sides facing the windows. In between, them was the crayons, and they each had a piece of paper attached to a clipboard on their laps. Elly was sitting next to Peggy, and at her request, Steve had sent up a paper and crayons for Elly too. When dealing with children, stuffed animals were to treated as real people with feelings, needs, and desires, or at least that's what Steve had learned over the past few days. It was insane, to think that he had only met Peggy 5 days ago. His time with her both felt like both an eternity yet no time at all.
"What are you drawing?" Steve inquired, glancing over at her paper. He was drawing an elaborate portrait of her coloring, well as elaborate as he could get with crayons. Thankfully, when in the store, he had grabbed the 100 pack of crayons, so he had plenty of color options. Her sugar cookie colored hair was in high pigtails, tied up with lilac hair bows. Her long-sleeve shirt was white, but it had a rainbow polka dot pattern, with each row of dots being a different color. Sunlight wafted through the windows, highlighting her deep navy jeans that perfectly brought out the blue in her eyes.Her lap was full of crayons, and even though she could barely hold the crayon correctly, her little tongue was stuck out of her mouth in concentration, and her furrowed eyebrows read 'I'll finish this drawing if its the last thing I'll do!'. Her shoes were some of the tiniest Steve had ever seen and were sneakers that perfectly matched her lilac ribbons.
"Elly, a Hoppity, flutterflies, the big buildings and tella" She rapidity explained.
"Really? That sounds like a lot." Steve commented, seeing the blobs of color and scribbles that covered her paper.
"It is." She agreed. "What are you drawing?" She echoed, standing up, causing all the crayons on her lap to cascade into a rainbow waterfall. "That's me!" She gasped, toddling over to his side and peeking at his paper.
"That is you." He confirmed with a chuckle.
"I gonna draw you!" She announced and bolted back to her crayon station. "I need another paper."
"Why don't you just flip over the one you have now and draw on the back?" Steve suggested and went to flip the paper over for her, but she snatched it before he could get to it.
"No, it has drawn on it." She huffed, 100% done with Steve's common sense agenda.
"Flip it over, and it won't," Steve told her, and after a very heavy sigh, she compiled.
"There no drawing!" She exclaimed, picked up a blue crayon, and drew some scribbles. "I done!" She announced and showed the drawing to him
"Is that me?" Steve clarified, pointing to the blue blob.
"Yes," Peggy confirmed.
Steve held the two drawings up next to each other. While Peggy's was only one color, and you couldn't tell it was him, it warmed his heart more than anything had in the past two years.
"Can I keep it here?" He asked. If Fury made Peggy leave, and go somewhere where he couldn't see her again, he wanted a small piece of her to remind him of the good times.
"Sure!" Peggy agreed and shoved it at him. "Here you go!"
Before Steve could thank her for her wonderful drawing, the door swung open, and Fury stored in, a full folder of papers in his hand.
"Good Morning Rogers." He obligatory greed, and at down at the chocolate desk. To the right of Steve and Peggy were two black cushioned chairs, and in front of these was the desk.
"Hey Peggy, I'm going to talk to Fury, can you say here? Steve instructed.
"Yeah." She nodded. "I'm gonna color another one." She announced and grabbed the sketchbook.
"Good morning Director Fury." Steve finally replied, after making sure she was set up.
"Has she given you much trouble over the past few days?" Fury wondered, glancing at her.
"Not at all. In fact, it's been fun, taking care of her." Steve smiled before his face fell. Taking care of Peggy was one of the most fun things she had ever done, but now it was time for serious business. "What are the results?"
"While Banner was checking on Peggy, I had Agent Hill work on the other members of the HYDRA cult." Nick first began, sitting straight up in his hair, his hands clasped on his desk. "From what information we gathered, it started with her mother, Elsa Liesel Schmidt."
Steve grinned at hearing Peggy's mother's name, knowing he was correct when he first saw her.
"As you guessed, she is the descendant of Johann Schmidt, who you personally helped take down." Fury glared, and Steve quickly wiped the smile off his face. "Without us noticing, Schmidt somehow had a son, and that son is Peggy's grandfather. As I'm sure you could tell from just being in the same room as Elsa, she has the mental stability of a china cabinet in an earthquake. Being the Granddaughter of Johann Schmidt himself, she was supposed to take over HYDRA When Pierce died, but about 3 years ago, someone had the bright idea to have her get pregnant."
"Do you know who the father is?" Steve requested.
"Yes, and I will get to that, once you give me the time to speak" Fury sighed. "After Peggy was born, Elsa's mental health declined rapidly. According to her, Pierce kicked her out for having a girl, so she along with 9 other HYDRA members left and went to the abandoned factory. Their plan was to wait until Peggy was old enough, then storm HYDRA and take it by a coup."
"Even though Elsa was already in line for the Leadership?" Steve confirmed, utterly confused.
"Yes. In the 9 that accompanied her were her 2 Doctors, and the other 7 were just extremists who didn't like the way Pierce ran things." Fury continued. "The Doctors heavily experimented on Peggy from when she was a year old, and form those experiments, along with being super soldier, is what we believe gives Peggy her powers. So far, all she can turn invisible is herself and anything her skin touches. Other than that, and her super soldier genes, she's most healthy, and on track for development. Her only real problem is slight malnutrition, but that can easily be fixed."
Steve quickly glanced back, to make sure Peggy was still occupied by the crayons and was still visible. She was to bring and was currently helping Elly color some pink scribbles.
"?" Steve questioned. "Wouldn't she be only , because Schmidt was her great-grandfather?"
"I was about to tell you, but apparently you don't want me to finish a single thought I say." Fury growled.
"That's not what I meant to imply," Steve argued. "Would you just continue?"
"Because of her severe mental problems, and her criminal record, and the fact that she decided to cyanide herself this morning, Elsa is no longer available to take care of her daughter. But that makes everything so great for us because now we get the fun job of dealing with her." Fury told Steve, with a splash of sarcasm.
"What's going to happen to her?" Steve asked. It was the one thing that had been on his mind the most this morning. While it was interesting to hear her history, and a relief to know she was medically alright, it didn't change the fact that just her imagining her leave made his heart felt like it was tearing into pieces.
"Before S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, we would have sent her off with an Agent who was trained to handle an invisible toddler and everything would be fine. Now though, we're all we got, and she has no place to go. Any suggestions?" Fury offered.
Steve weighed his options. Fury would want to outsource Peggy, to have her go away with someone that was "properly trained" to handle her. However, there were some things you couldn't learn in a class. And was there really a class for dealing with Peggy's challenges specifically? In less than a week, her life had completely turned upside down, she had gone from a sheltered bubble to a bustling city with strangers and more strange things that she could ever imagine. Had anyone else ever handled that? At that exact moment, the idea hit Steve like a train. What if he adopted Peggy? These past 4 days had been far and away some of the best in his life, and he had come to realize that he loved her more than he had ever loved anything before. He had re-named her, taken care of he, and he understood what it was like to have everything change in a second. But would Fury let him? He was in charge of Peggy's case, and what if he decided that it was more important for Steve to be an Avenger than to take care of this little angel?
"I can take care of her." Steve decided. He had to, he had no choice. Ever since he had awoken from the ice, he had felt without a purpose. Sure he was an Avenger, but with S.H.I.E.L.D collapsed, it didn't feel like much of a purpose. And even before the collapse, Avengers had always seemed like a temporary job, it didn't seem to be his true purpose in life. But now he knew, the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. He job in life had to be to take care of her, to be a father to her in a way that would nurture her in a warm environment to help her become the best person she could be.
"You know this isn't a temporary position, Rogers." Fury checked. "If you do this, you're stuck for life."
"I wouldn't call it stuck, I would call it blessed." Steve countered, unable to hide his ever-growing smile.
Fury rolled his eye and sighed deeper than Steve had ever heard on a human. "I don't like this, but I can't tell you no."
"Thank you!" Steve exclaimed, wanting nothing more than to jump out of excitement. Fireworks were exploding inside of him, shooting out colors of love and compassion and pure joy that Fury said yes, and Peggy was going to officially be his daughter!
"You're probably wondering why I'm not fighting you on this." Fury guessed.
"Yes, actually, not that you mention it." Steve agreed, out of curiosity.
"Elsa was the only woman in the cult, but none of the 9 members were paternal matches for Peggy. Out of sheer curiosity, we searched for matches in the old S.H.I.E.L.D. database. And we did find a father." Fury informed.
"Who?" Steve questioned, so curious and excited he was barely able to sit.
"From what little information we have, Elsa was a master manipulator, and somehow talked Pierce into letting her have a child with the goddam Winter Soldier." Fury divulged.
Steve's jaw fell open in shock.