A/N: Hi guys! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed, I really appreciate it. I have this chapter and one more pre-written and from there updates might come slower because I've got more work and I've rediscovered my love of painting so I've been working on some acrylics.

After a month and a half of doing pretty much nothing but cultural assimilation, Steve decided to spread his wings. He borrowed a motorcycle from Tony's collection, and headed out to the United States with a duffel bag and a packet of cash. He was completely off the radar, to SHIELD's everlasting annoyance. Clint and Coulson had a bet going as to who would explode first- Fury or the agents assigned to "keeping" Cap.

With one innocent having gained independence, the rest of the Avengers turned to the baby of the group. Jaya was suddenly in the position of being mothered constantly, either by assassins, engineers, or scientists, and it was, to use an American phrase, freaking her out.

"I've taken care of myself for years, I do not need someone to ask if I've eaten lunch or done my laundry," Jaya griped to JARVIS. She was systematically "dusting" the TV remote and "rewinding" it back to perfect health, taking her frustrations out on it, instead of, say, Clint. "I took care of Bruce, remember?"

JARVIS, if he'd had a throat, would have cleared his throat. "Perhaps," he suggested delicately, "the Avengers are simply excited to have someone your age to care for, and once the novelty fades, they will realize you are in fact independent."

Jaya frowned. She hadn't considered that. "None of them have children?" she asked.

"No. Agents Barton and Romanoff are career operatives. Sir has never had that goal, and Doctor Banner's plans were, interrupted."

"Tactful," Natasha's voice said, startling her. "That option was taken from me when I was younger than you," she continued.

"I'm sorry," Jaya said guiltily.

"It was a long time ago," Natasha dismissed with a wave of her hand. "But. You deserve as normal and safe a childhood as we can give you. Clint and I, we know what having to grow up too quickly does to a person. So do Tony, Bruce, and Steve."

Jaya nodded slowly. "I guess, I can understand that."

Natasha flashed her a quick smile. "We're an odd little group, aren't we?"

"I think you're all amazing," Jaya said honestly.

"Don't forget yourself," Natasha retorted, smirking. "The baby Avenger. Have you eaten lunch yet?"

Jaya groaned and laughed. "Not yet."

AV-AV-AV

Tony was an engineer who understood physics very, very well. Probably too well. This made him the perfect candidate to teach Jaya about entropy and what it meant to control it. He thought he'd have a problem with a sixteen-year-old hanging around his workshop all day, but surprisingly, he didn't mind at all, most of the time.

"It's nice having a bright young mind to teach," he told Bruce.

Bruce glanced over at Jaya fondly. She'd worn herself out trying to make different particles decay into their half-lives, and she was asleep on the lab sofa, a small round lump under a Captain America blanket. "You'd make a good father," Bruce said. "You're really good with her."

Tony gave a shudder. "Perish the thought. No, you are good with her. I am good at pointing her in the direction of stuff to entropi-fy."

"Entropi-fy?" Bruce echoed, smirking.

"Yes. It's a very technical word."

AV-AV-AV

While the Science Bros gave her basic training for her powers, the super spies started training her in hand to hand and other spy skills.

"The most useful talents are ones that don't require any fighting," Natasha said, with a mysterious air.

"Like pickpocketing," Clint added, holding up the candy that had been in Jaya's pocket a second ago.

"I was talking about persuasion and manipulation," Natasha said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh. Those too."

Jaya raised an eyebrow. "Like on Leverage?"

"Ah, Sophie Deveareux," Natasha sighed dramatically. "Woman after my own heart."

"I like Elliot," Clint said.

"Of course you do."

"Except he gets hit too much. I like to be more, hands-off."

"We know, Clint."

"Just saying."

"Ignore the birdbrain," Natasha instructed.

AV-AV-AV

When Steve came back three months later, tanned and looking way more relaxed, he found Jaya in the living room, carefully "dusting" the edges of a brand-new piece of furniture to make it look distressed and vintage. "Isn't that cheating?" he asked.

"Steve!" Jaya left the coffee table and got up to give him a hug. "Welcome home!"

Steve felt a warm glow at the word 'home'. "It's good to be back," he said, returning the hug. "I missed you guys. What have you been up to?"

"Restoring and/or vintaging stuff," Jaya said proudly. "I have my own Etsy page, and I started high school. That's going okay."

"Good for you. Where's everyone else?"

"Tony is in Malibu on business. Bruce is consulting on something in R&D, and Clint and Tasha are on their way back from doing stuff in Mali. Did you have fun?"

"Yeah, I took lots of pictures. JARVIS?"

"Uploading camera roll," the AI announced. Giving Steve a Starkphone had been his idea, and it seemed the good captain was now fully at ease with the tech of the times.

The two looked through the photos and Jaya was spellbound by their quality. "Steve, these are really good. You should showcase these."

Steve blushed. "Thanks." He looked at her for a moment, assessing, and then pulled a sketchbook from his backpack. "I drew, some stuff, if you wanna see-" he handed it to her.

Jaya slowly, reverently, flipped the pages of the sketchbook. Sketches of all the Avengers, even Phil, in various groupings and poses, made her smile. They were so life-like. The caricature of a glaring Fury with steam coming out of his ears made her laugh. There were other sketches as well, of the people or places that he had visited. And there were sketches of other people too, that Jaya recognized from Tony's labs, people from Steve's past. "They're all beautiful," she said quality. "I mean it, Steve, your art is incredible."

He smiled softly. "Thanks."

Jaya was inspired by a sudden thought. "You should talk to Pepper," she suggested. "She could help you figure out a way to display it, if you want."

"Maybe," Steve started, and the elevator doors opening made him pause. "Hey guys."

"Welcome back," Clint replied, giving him a grin and a slap on the back. "Did you bring me a present?"

"Infant," Natasha muttered fondly, smacking Clint on the arm. She leaned up and kissed Steve on the cheek. "Welcome back. You look well."

"Thanks."

Natasha looked at Jaya expectantly.

She held up a pair of keys.

Steve frowned, surprised. "Are those my keys? How did you-"

Natasha beamed at her young student and gave her a high-five. "Nice work. Phil now owes me twenty bucks. He's gonna be so disappointed."

Steve's jaw dropped. "Are you- you taught her to pickpocket!?"

"It's a spy thing," Natasha said. "Never to be used for evil."

"Nope," Jaya said cheerfully.

Steve raised an eyebrow. "What else did they teach you?"

All three of them grinned.

Steve took an uneasy step backwards. "Maybe I'll just go back to the Pacific Northwest."

Jaya gave him puppy eyes. "But I need you to teach me how to best use my powers..."

Steve wasn't taken in for a second, but he caved anyway.

Seeing Steve's strategic mind in action was awe-inspiring, and when Tony came back from Malibu a few days later, the Avengers began training together, using different combinations of skills, team members, and tools to get impressive results.

Coulson may have cried happy tears watching his favorite people all working together like a well-oiled machine, but the only one present was JARVIS, and he respected Agent Coulson too much to say anything.

And then the Fire Nation attacked. No, Jaya had been watching too much anime. And then, the laser-shooting robots attacked.

The Avengers were called in to deal with it. Steve took the lead. "Everyone suit up. Hawk, Widow, prep the jet. Iron Man, take point and scope it out. Banner, gonna need a Code Green, buddy, sorry."

Bruce shrugged. They'd been practicing with the Hulk and he was getting used to it. Plus Hulk actually listened to Cap, so that was nice.

"And me?" Jaya asked.

Steve shook his head. "Not this time."

"I can help!"

"But you are sixteen, Jaya. None of us could live with it if anything happened to you. Stay here, and off active comms."

And they were gone.

Jaya could only pace fretfully and keep her eyes glued to the live news footage. JARVIS wouldn't even let her on comms just to listen, saying something vague about little pitchers. Jaya didn't understand that one.

So she paced, and redid the death and life of the living room furniture about fifty times as she paced, and-

"Miss Marcus, your energy levels are dropping. Please cease using your powers and eat something."

"What about them?" Jaya asked, gesturing to the TV, where the weary Avengers were mopping up the last of the bots.

"Coulson is already on site with food and water," JARVIS reassured her.

Jaya grudgingly reheated some of last night's curry and ate, keeping an eye on the TV, which was showing the aftermath of the battle. "All that damage," she sighed. She could fix so much of that if she was there...

JARVIS spoke up. "Captain Rogers is calling."

"Jaya?" Steve asked. "You still up for a job?"

"Yes!"

"Great. Coulson's gonna pick you up and bring you here. We need your repair skills. ETA ten minutes."

"Okay. I mean, copy."

He chuckled.

"Is everyone okay?"

"Yes, we're all fine. Hulk is de-Hulked and napping. No serious injuries."

"Good."

Ten minutes later Jaya was on her way with Coulson, who was helping her into various pieces of bullet proof tac gear. "We need to make you a suit," he decided. He handed her an earpiece. "Also your call sign is Entropy on comms. No names."

"Right." Now that it was happening, Jaya was nervous. The first battle had been aliens, spur of the moment global life and death but now.. she swallowed hard.

Coulson patted her on the arm. "Just breathe and follow Cap's directions," he advised kindly. "You'll be fine."

Cap met them on the perimeter and escorted Jaya in. "Focus on buildings and electricals, just like we've been practicing. Support beams and key utilities first."

"Kay." Jaya let her newfound instincts take over and she went to work, repairing buildings, ripped-up streets, and as many utilities as she could find. By raising rubble and debris they found several civilians were trapped, and Jaya felt a surge of satisfaction at being able to help.

Sometime later, a gentle touched stirred her focus. It was Bruce, awake from his post-transformation nap. "Okay, Entropy, time to go."

"I'm not done," she protested half-heartedly.

"No, but you're exhausted." Bruce put an arm around her shoulders. "You've given repair crews a huge headstart and made the buildings structurally sound. That's all you need to do. Come on." And he walked her back to the jet, where everyone else was converging.

"Good work everyone," Steve praised, as they headed back.

"Not too shabby for the second Avengers debut," Clint agreed.

Tony frowned. "Yeah, except we destroyed all the bots and we don't know where they came from." He kicked a pile of inert robot bits on the floor. "This is all that's left of one."

Jaya leaned forward to look at it. "I can fix it," she volunteered.

Tony eyed her and shook his head. "You're listing a little to starboard, there, kiddo. You get some rest and then you can pick it up later, okay?"

"Okay." She leaned into Bruce's shoulder and dozed off, the voices of the others fading into the background.

"She's really worn out," Clint observed quietly. "Is she okay?"

"She's fine," Bruce said.

"Doing this was a huge drain on her powers," Steve told them. "In our practices, this is how tired we calculated she'd be, so she's going to be fine. She just needs a plate load of sandwiches."

"Not 'merican," Jaya protested tiredly, waving a hand in Steve's general direction. "I'want rice. Nd'naan."

A soft chuckle, and a ruffle of her hair. "We'll get take-out," Tony promised.

"Mm."

She revived a little while later when Bruce waved the food under her nose. "Pumpkin curry," he said, handing her the box and a fork.

"I love you," Jaya mumbled, as she inhaled the take-out.

Bruce just grinned.