A/N: So, this chapter was almost done when I posted chapter 10, but then I decided I didn't like it, and I ended up pretty much rewriting the whole thing several times.

I'm still not sure I like it, but like I said I've written and rewritten, and I can't think of how to make it better.

Chapter 11.

The sky was turning gray, and the air was getting chillier. Tiny snowflakes began to flutter and dance as they fell to the ground. It would be several hours before accumulation would be visible, and early morning before the neighborhood children would be able to gather outside for the season's first snowball fights, and snowman and snow-fort building.

Jetlag had finally caught up with Natasha and she slept peacefully on Micheal's lap as the older man gently rubbed the little girl's back.

Peggy sat on the couch with a tumbler of whiskey in her hand as she spun her story of how she had became Natasha's mother. She told her parents about how it all started when they had heard that the Russians were working on a super-soldier serum using information that they got from spies that had infiltrated the SSR.

'We weren't expecting to see children's bodies piled like cords of woods when we got there. Nor were we expecting to find a survivor. And we certainly weren't expecting them to have managed to concoct a successful formula with a single successful test subject.

That was the biggest surprise.'

The brunette paused and frowned a little at that, Natasha was most certainly not a test subject. She was a child, and a victim of Russia's ambition to create the perfect spy/soldier.

Next to her, Helen clutched her daughter's arm. The older woman's face was pale as her mind conjured up mental pictures to go along with her daughter's words.

'Mom? Are you okay? Do you need me to stop?' Peggy asked quietly. She unclenched her mother's hand so she could hold it, giving her a reassuring squeeze.

'Don't worry about me, go on with your story,' Helen said with shake of her head. It wasn't always easy for the older woman to hear about what Peggy did for a living, hearing about the dangers she faced, and the monsters that she went up against.

Peggy turned to her father and received a grim faced nod. But she couldn't help but notice that he was holding Natasha just a little bit closer, a little bit tighter.

'There's not much to tell,' Peggy said with a sigh. 'Or at least not much I'm allowed to tell, security clearance and all. As we suspected, the base was barren. Any useful information was either salvaged or destroyed. Natasha was lucky to have survived, and to have escaped from what the Russians had planned for her.'

'You mean she was lucky to have been found by you,' Micheal said, and Helen nodded her agreement. 'I shudder to think what would have become of her had you decided not to investigate.'

And so didn't Peggy. What if they hadn't gone? What if the Russians had returned? Or worse what if they hadn't? Who knows what would have happened to her little girl, the serum did have its limits after all.

Or at least Steve's did.

The brunette shook her head against those thoughts, Natasha was here and safe. She would grow up beloved by many people in a unconventional family.

'You know, it started out as pity, I think. She was such a pitiful little creature. You should have seen her huddled under that bunk bed practically naked, and covered in burns. But by the time we got back to base I knew I wasn't going to just give her away. I knew I was going to fight to keep her. I just didn't know how at the time,' Peggy said. 'Gail was the one who came up with the idea of forging a birth certificate, and marriage license.'

Micheal huffed a laugh. 'I always did like that girl.'

A slow smile spread across Peggy's face as she watched the little redhead's chest rise and fall. There was something inherently peaceful in watching her daughter sleep that had been sorely lacking in her life in recent years.

'Why?' her mother asked after several moments of silence. Helen's voice cracked a little at the end, and she shook with emotion. 'Why not just take them?'

'They're expendable,' Micheal replied, his mouth a grim line of anger. 'This damned war made a lot of children orphaned, there's plenty more where they came from. Natasha was a lucky little girl to have survived, and been found by Margret.'

Helen looked at her daughter, and shook her head, not in disagreement over her husband's assessment, but in wonderment.

'I don't know how you do it Margret,' she finally said.

'I do it because I want to, and because someone has to,' Peggy said. Her eyes burned with determination as she stared out the window. Now that Steve was gone, the brunette felt as if it were job, her responsibility to to carry on his fight to protect people from monsters, both human and alien.

'How does the serum they gave Natasha differ from the one they gave Captain Rogers?' Micheal asked. On his lap the redhead twitched and stirred as if she were in a particularly animated dream. Instinctively he stroked her head and whispered reassuring words until she stilled, unconsciously snuggling into her grandfather's warmth.

'We don't know. And it could be days, or months, or even years before they come up with an answer,' Peggy said with a slight frown. 'But as far as abilities go, so far they seem to be identical, which makes the ruse of passing her off as his daughter all the more easier.

The problem is, is that they administered the serum to a child. Aside from an elongated childhood, we don't know how the serum will affect her physical and mental development. She may theoretically end up stronger than Steve. Or she may plateau at some point. And then there is question of adolescence: what happens when the hormones of a teen mix with the serum in her blood.'

'Elongated childhood?' her mother asked. 'How long will she stay this small?'

'For several years possibly. The scientists predict that 70, 80 years from now she'll look somewhere in mid to late 20's.'

There was a stunned silence as the two older adults processed what their daughter had just told them. It didn't seem too farfetched to think that this little girl could live 100s of years, and the implications were both staggering and sad. How many generations of family and friends would she watch grow old and die while she remained young looking and healthy?

Helen gritted her teeth in anger. Those bastards had consigned an innocent girl to a life of either constant loss, or eventual bitter loneliness. All so that could compete with the Americans in some ridiculous arms race that neither country was going to win.

'I don't understand something though,' Helen asked after several moments of terse silence. 'Why give the serum to a child? Did they not know it would slow her aging?'

Peggy shrugged, and gave a shake of the head indicating that she had no idea what the Russians did or didn't know.

'Erskine said that the serum they gave Steve would make a good man, great, but a bad man, worse,' Peggy said. While she spoke she gathered the three tumblers and brought them over to the meager liquor cabinet for a refill. 'But a child is neither intrinsically good or bad. So by giving it to her at such a young age they were essentially getting around that caveat. They could then train, and indoctrinate Natasha and any other girls however they wanted without the fear of another Red Skull.'

Micheal silently thanked his daughter when she handed him his drink. There was a thoughtful expression on his face as he watched Peggy hand his wife her own glass before taking a seat next to her.

'I was just thinking.' the older man said slowly. 'Fifteen years from now she'll still look like a child, right? Well if they constantly underestimate Margret for being a woman, think of how much damage someone with the body of a child, and a mind of a trained spy could do.'

'Jesus,' Helen muttered angrily before taking a large gulp of her drink.

'I'm sorry,' Peggy said contrite. 'I'm sorry I dragged everyone into this. But everything I've done, every lie I told either on the phone or by letter was to protect Natasha. The Russians must never know that she survived, or that they had produced a working formula. The consequences would be dire for her, and dare I say the world.'

The Russians may have been their allies during the war, but that didn't mean they should be trusted.

'I'm not angry with you my dear,' Helen said. 'I'm proud of you. We both are. It can't be easy being a single parent, but you did the right thing. And most importantly, you gave us a granddaughter.'

Peggy rolled her eyes, and shook her head in fond exasperation.

'Easy or not, it is exhausting.'

'Poor, poor darling,' her father said, but there was a wide grin on his that bellied his words of supposed sympathy.

Beside her, Helen didn't even bother to hide her mirth as a chuckle escaped.

'You could be a little bit sympathetic,' Peggy said with a mock pout.

'We have very little sympathy towards you, don't we Micheal?' Helen said. The brunette was glad to note that whatever sadness or anger that was in her mother's eyes had completely dissipated. And if it took them mocking her for to get that way, well that was fine by Peggy.

'I don't,' Micheal deadpanned. 'Finally, revenge for all those years of running around after you and brother.'

'Yes, well neither one of us were enhanced,' Peggy said, and for a moment she froze as creeping panic fluttered across her face as if the full force of what she was undertaking hit her. She had no idea how to raise a child. What was she thinking? What if she screwed up?

'You'll be fine,' her father said reading her mind. 'Enhanced or not, she is a child. Which means she needs the same thing as any other child needs: love, discipline, and structure. But first and foremost is love. You give her that, and half the battle is won right there.'

Peggy gave a solemn nod. She could do that, she thought as she stared at the sleeping little girl. She could and would love Natasha with her whole heart.