(A/N): Wow! Tenth chapter already! Okay, fine, it's been a while, but it feels like I just started this. Anyway. I've decided that none of the events that occurred in Captain America: The Winter Soldier will be included in this fic. It would kind of mess up everything. …This chapter makes me really want it to be Christmastime.

Chapter Ten

It was winter break. Finally. It wasn't snowy, but I was definitely feeling that Christmas vibe.

I felt as if I got an early present this year. Mom was released, perfectly fine, from the hospital on December 11th. When we went to pick her up, there were hugs, and there were tears. It somehow reminded me of my friend's funeral (the friend who commited suicide, the friend whose death had sent me into a silent depression years before), in a dark, horrible way that I wanted to forget. But I was happy this times, and they were tears of joy. The first words I had spoken to her when I saw her in the hospital, recovered: "Promise me you'll never let that happen again, Mom." The words had been scratchy, tear-sogged, but still legible to the ear. And the words Mom had responded with, in a calm voice: "I love you." But there had been no "I promise."

Now it was December 14th. My parents barely agreed to let me go to work this time, but in the end, they decided it would be fine. I would be back on December 20th, five days before Christmas. It would all work out.

I sat on my suitcase, struggling to zip it. I had packed a bit extra—one present for each Avenger, just in case. I wasn't even sure if they all celebrated Christmas, as Thor was from Asgard, where I suspected they didn't have the holiday, and the others were... well, they were themselves. I was pretty positive that Steve celebrated—someone had told me he was Christian—but I just wasn't sure.

There was a loud honk outside. I slipped my big dark brown Ugg boots over my skinny jeans and hustled to the door, lifting my heavy suitcase so it wouldn't thunk on the stairs on the way to the front door. Mom and Dad were waiting right there. "Have fun in New York, sweetie," Mom said, kissing me on the forehead. "I love you. Be safe."

"I will, I will," I said, smiling and rolling my eyes. "Love you guys. See you in a week."

I was shocked to see the Avengers in their weird car instead of Fury in the Range Rover. Sure, they picked me up for emergency my-parents-got-in-a-car-crash ice cream and when they got bored and decided to let me skip half of school, but for actual work? Did Fury actually trust them that much?

After putting my suitcase in the trunk, I raced to the car and hopped in my usual seat so they could drive away quicker. If Mom and Dad saw who were picking me up, they'd be shocked, and it'd probably reveal a few secrets about my job.

"Hey, Elizabeth," Natasha welcomed. "Hope you don't mind, we're starved. We're gonna stop by a Dairy Queen before going to the tower."

I laughed. "Um, that's fine." I paused. "So, Fury really let you guys pick me up?"

"He called us our babysitter and said if we drive, you'll be able to watch over us longer," Tony grumbled.

I laughed again. "If that's the case, I'm the world's crappiest babysitter."

"Yeah... Fury doesn't know we aren't doing the best-behaviour thing anymore with you around. He still thinks we're trying to seem more normal around you," Tony said.

"So, what does everyone want?" Natasha asked. She had a tablet—not an iPad, some kind of unrecognizable brand. Something told me that maybe it was Tony's. "I'll order, but I need to know what you want. So, let's start with Thor, considering it should be the biggest order."

"Three burgers and some fries," Thor requested.

Natasha tapped something on the tablet and looked up. "Clint?"

"Oh, um... a chicken burger, some fries."

"Tony?"

"Same as Legolas," Tony responded.

Natasha only tapped two keys this time. "Bruce?"

"A large chicken strip basket."

"Steve?"

There was a pause. "Um..." He was in deep thought. "Two chicken burgers, please. And a medium fry."

"Mmkay." Natasha typed stuff. "My order..." she muttered, typing away. "Elizabeth?"

I was struck with a sudden decision. Great, I thought sarcastically. I love decisions. "Um... a small chicken strip basket."

"Okay," Natasha said, finishing up what she was typing. "So, I have three hamburgers and two buckets of fries for Thor, a chicken burger and a medium fry for Clint, a chicken burger and a medium fry for Tony, a large chicken strip basket for Bruce, two chicken burgers and a medium fry for Steve, a grilled chicken wrap and a large fry for myself, and a small chicken strip basket for Elizabeth. Is it right?"

Everyone nodded, and by that time, we were at the drive-thru.

The girl at the pick-up looked a bit shocked at the large order, but Natasha, who had lept in the front seat (pushing Tony away in the process) to order earlier, took it all and passed it back like it was nothing.

Natasha then gave Tony back the driver's seat and sat back by me. Tony was the only one who couldn't eat in the car-plane-whatever-the-heck-the-vehicle-was-thing because he was piloting, but the rest of us chowed down on our food like we had never been fed in our lives. Especially Thor.

oooooooooooo

When we got back to the tower, everyone had eaten (about halfway through the flight, we had landed somewhere and let Natasha pilot so Tony could eat his food). We all went up to the meeting room for whatever reason, and let me tell you, I was shocked.

The entire tower was festively decorated for Christmas.

Tinsel was wrapped around basically everything, there was at least one tree in every room, mistletoe hung from every doorway (but they told me, luckily, that I was not forced to be included in the whole mistletoe-kissing thing), and twinkling lights were stapled to the entire ceiling, providing a warm, wintery light. The meeting room didn't even look like the meeting room; it looked like a living room on Christmas day, fake fireplace and all. There was one big, silver fake tree, with presents underneath.

"So, Elizabeth," Steve said. "We're having a Christmas gift exchange right now. I know we could do it closer to Christmas, but... well, actually, we can't. But Fury will explain that tomorrow. Anyway, we understand that you probably didn't bring gifts, but we all got each other one thing, including you, so we just want you to know, don't feel bad about not having anything for us."

How did I know this was going to happen? I thought. "Actually, I do have presents for you guys!" I said. I grabbed my suitcase and pulled out six tiny wrapped gifts. "I wasn't sure if we were celebrating or not."

"How could we not?" Clint asked. "I mean, if you didn't celebrate, wow this would have been awkward, but since you obviously do, how could we not? We even explained it to Thor."

We all handed out gifts. I wasn't sure what to open first. I had six different gifts in front of me, all wrapped in silver wrapping paper. Actually, on the one from Clint, I was pretty sure the "silver wrapping paper" was just aluminum foil. But whatever.

"Okay, so just to torture Tony, we're all gonna open Stark's gifts first. Tony, you can watch us," Bruce smirked.

"UUUGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH," Tony groaned. We all laughed, and opened our presents while Tony watched in agony.

I laughed. A tablet. With the name Stark on the back. Just like the one Natasha had earlier. "Gee, Tony, where'd you get this?" I asked sarcastically.

"Hey! Be grateful, Junior, it's one of seven in the world. Stark Industries makes weapons, not specially made for Avengers and Liz tablets."

I smiled, but rolled my eyes. "Thanks, Tony."

Next, we all opened Steve's gifts while Steve waited patiently. I got a collection of all the Sherlock Holmes books, a vintage set. It was unexpected, but a nice gift nonetheless.

From Clint, I got a knife set. "This one'll be easy to smuggle past my parents," I said, my voice full of sarcasm.

"Got the idea from Tasha," Clint said, crazily grinning.

Natasha smacked his head. "Did not." Clint raised his eyebrows. "Okay, fine, maybe."

From Bruce, I got a microscope, the really expensive kind with all sorts of knobs and things that I'd never be able to understand. What was this, some competition on who could give me the most extravagant gift? I said my thanks, and next was Thor's.

To be honest, I was a bit worried about this. Thor was... Thor. And you never knew what you would get from an Asgardian prince.

I opened my gift with caution, slowly tearing the wrinkly, jumlbled wrapping paper. Luckily, the gift was normal enough. Well, it was a box of Dixon Ticonderoga pencils, but whatever. I said "thank you" anyway. I looked around. The others got completely random things from Thor, too. He must not have been the best gift-finder.

Last was the gift from Natasha. I was shocked to find a large amount of beautiful MAC and Sephora makeup. There were palettes upon palettes of eyeshadow, five different lipsticks, five lip glosses of the same shades, three different pencil eyeliners, and six different mascaras. I looked at the others' gifts from her and found that they weren't as huge. "Wow," I said, "Thanks."

"Someone's excited about finally having a girl in the tower to buy stuff for," Clint said.

Natasha rolled her eyes. "A woman can only go so long buying beef jerky and cheap beer."

"Hey!" Tony said. "For the record, I buy expensive beer."

Last of all, the Avengers opened the gifts from me. My gifts seemed small compared to theirs, but they all gave me sincere thanks.

It was one of the merriest Christmases I'd ever had, and it wasn't even Christmas yet.