Hello, everyone! I'm finally back! The year is winding down and once my finals are over, I should be able to post more often. I expect to have a lot to write on, once CIVIL WAR comes out. (I can't believe that's in a week!)

On another note, today marks the anniversary of the day I posted the first chapter of "We Can Be Found," the one that started it all! It has been a crazy ride since, but I have enjoyed every minute of it. I feel like I have grown as a writer and become more confident in my own abilities-and above all, I've enjoyed giving people good stories to read. Here's to the next year, and whatever comes with it! Hopefully I can begin to foray back into my own original work this summer.

Enjoy the "part two" to last chapter, in which Scott fanboys, Christy makes a new friend, and we learn what REALLY qualifies you to be in the Avengers.

Chapter Twenty: "He Said 'Yes!'" Part Two

"Well…you could always just bring her along." Sam said, his voice slightly distorted over the Skype connection.

Scott stared at him goggle-eyed. "You mean bring her across the country? By myself? You did hear me when I explained everything, right?"

Sam nodded. "I heard you. But your ex can't really complain about safety—Cassie would be at the most guarded place in America outside the White House and Stark's Tower."

Scott just shook his head.

Hank (or Hope, he wasn't sure who greenlit it, actually) had awarded him a small salary for his work as Ant-Man. If he understood Sam correctly, he'd be getting more money if he officially joined the Avengers.

All this was enough for Maggie and him to re-negotiate visitation rights.

And, after he'd put a down-payment on a tiny apartment, she'd even agreed to the idea of letting Cassie spend some weekends with him.

Unfortunately, the first weekend happened to fall on the exact same date as his "Avengers interview".

Maggie might be cool with Cassie staying with him in the same city. But there was no way…

"Man, at least ask her!" Sam cried. "You're gonna be on a private plane, anyway."

"I am?"

"Yes!" Sam grinned. "You got friends in high places now, Lang."

Scott took a deep breath. "Alright. I'll ask."

"Good. Get back to me if it really doesn't work out." Sam had a funny look on his face. "Far be it from me to keep a man away from his daughter."

Scott frowned a bit at the odd statement. Did Sam…?

Nah, it was impossible. He'd checked. None of the Avengers had family.

Right?

By some miracle out of the highest heaven, Maggie and Paxton agreed to let him bring Cassie to New York.

The seven year old was over the moon with excitement. She carried a rainbow backpack full of Avengers action figures, and an autograph book.

"Are we gonna meet Captain America, Daddy?"

Scott grinned. "Yeah we are!" I hope he likes me…I read all his comics as a kid and now I finally get to meet him!

"And Black Widow and Hawkeye and Iron Man and Hulk and Thor and, and…" she frowned. "Who else?"

"Falcon." Scott supplied.

"Oh, yeah. Didn't you beat him up?"

Scott coughed uncomfortably. "Yeah, uh, maybe best you don't mention that, okay, Peanut?"

"Okay!" Cassie said blithely. "What I am I gonna do when you have your meeting?"

Scott looked even more uncomfortable. "Uh…I really don't know. Maybe just be real quiet and play with your toys…?"

Truth be told, he had no idea what would be expected from his daughter. But Sam wouldn't have told him he could bring her if it wasn't okay, right?

Right?

He still couldn't get the man's odd sentence out of his head.

"Far be it for me to keep a man away from his daughter…"

Cassie was looking speculative. "Can I still get autographs?"

Scott nodded, and pulled her in for a hug. "Yeah, Peanut, you can still get autographs."

"So when's this guy coming?"

Steve was his bathroom, in middle of combing his hair back, when he heard Christy pipe up behind him. He had vacillated between wearing normal clothes or the suit, before finally settling on the suit. It was a formal interview, after all.

And, contrary to popular opinion, Steve Rogers did have a bit of a mischievous streak. It would be funny to see the man's reaction to Captain America in the flesh, considering what Sam and Natasha had told him.

"Soon." he promised, fixing the finicky part with water.

Christy sighed. "'Soon' could mean five minutes, five days, or five years." she pointed out.

"Less than half an hour." Steve clarified. He glanced at his daughter's slightly devious face. "Lemme guess, you're overly excited that you get to spring your surprise existence on him."

Christy grinned. "Yup! And for a play date. Do you think Cassie will like me?"

Steve swooped his not-so-little girl up on his shoulder. "Who could hate you?"

"Red Skull? Zola? Pierce? Hitler?"

"Exactly." Steve grinned. "You can tell a lot about a man—or woman—by their enemies. I think you and Cassie will get on just fine."

"Okay. It's too bad Lila and Cooper aren't here. Then we could play real hide-n-seek. It's boring with just two people."

"Rope the twins into it. And maybe Vizh." Steve said, as they exited their room and into the Common Area. The three people he'd mentioned happened to be sitting in there

"What do you want from me, and how is a rope involved?" Pietro asked, from his position on the couch. He was enjoying the brief reprieve from training.

"I believe she is using the phrase to mean 'coerce into doing'." Vision added mildly. "It's slang." Over the past couple of months, the android had fully embraced his status as "the living encyclopedia".

Pietro rolled his eyes. "I know it's slang! I hate American slang!"

"It's not so bad." Wanda countered. "Some of it is very creative."

Pietro hmphed, clearly not convinced.

Christy, by this time back on the floor, said, "I was asking if you wanna play hide-n-seek later."

Pietro looked mildly less annoyed, and gave a sarcastic grin. "You were asking? I didn't hear."

Christy sighed in impatience. "I was about to ask. Happy?"

"Ej, truth is very important." Pietro said, mock-solemnly. "Nobody likes liars."

Christy gave an outraged exhale and turned to Wanda. "Wanda! Your brother called me a liar!"

"Pietro, try and act your age." Wanda said, looking up from her tablet.

"I act my age! I act my age ex-ext-excl…" Pietro groaned, frustrated. "What's the word?"

"Well 'exclusively' would be a lie, so I think the word you're looking for is 'extensively'." Steve offered. "It means 'mostly'."

"Yes, ex-ten-sive-ly." Pietro grinned. "Most times."

Wanda looked like she was about to counter that statement, when Bucky came striding into the room.

"Plane's comin'." He said to Steve. "Right on schedule." He grinned. "I see you got all spiffed up."

Steve shrugged, and gestured at Bucky's own uniform. He had on the black leather he wore for most missions, as well as his old Commando jacket that Steve had "borrowed" back from the Smithsonian.

"Nothin' like a good first impression."

Bucky's grin got wider. "And it'll scare the…crap outta him." He said, bowdlerizing at the last second. He would use occasional profanity, more than Steve on average, but never around Christy. (At least not on purpose.)

"Forgive me if I don't quite understand…" Vision said. "But why do you insist on antagonizing a potential ally?"

Steve frowned. "It's not really antagonizing. We aren't gonna hurt him. But according to Sam, he's still a bit star-struck over this whole thing: becoming a hero, getting mixed-up with us…"

"It's a joke." Wanda offered. She looked at Bucky. "Does he even know about you?"

Bucky shook his head. "Most likely not. So I'm gonna have fun. I can see it now: "But you're supposed to be dead!""

Sam's voice suddenly came over the base's intercom. "The ant has landed, repeat, the ant has landed!"

Steve glanced around at the motley crew that was half his team. "Alright. Let's go meet the ant."

Christy giggled.

Scott had already determined that he was bound to make a huge fool of himself. But he desperately hoped he could reign himself in, for Cassie's sake.

The first person to meet him as he stepped of the plane was Sam, thankfully.

"Looks like you made it just fine." the man said, as he and Scott shook hands. "And who's this pretty lady?"

Cassie looked a little shy. She clutched Bugsy, her stuffed rabbit (the 'ugly' one Scott had gotten her), to her chest and muttered. "I'm Cassie. Are you Falcon?"

Sam grinned. "The one and only! But you can call me Mr. Sam, alright?"

"Okay. Did Daddy really beat you up?"

Scott groaned.

"Yeah, he did." Sam said. "He surprised me with a sneak attack."

"And then you kidnapped me…" Scott muttered.

"Hey, any added creepiness was Natasha's fault, not mine! But c'mon, it's high time you met everyone else, and everyone else met you. And Cassie."

The three of them strode into the base and down several hallways until they reached a large conference room with a long, oval table and plush wheelie-chairs.

But it was the people sitting in the chairs that were the most interesting.

Scott dimly processed each one. Captain America at the head of the table, of course. Then Black Widow, a brown-haired man he didn't know, Hawkeye, the purple Android-man that had sent the news into a frenzy, a blond man and a brunette girl who looked like siblings…

And an even tinier girl, who sat to the Captain's right.

Cassie locked eyes with the girl. The girl stood up and meandered over. "You can have my seat, Sam." She looked at Scott and Cassie. "Hi, I'm Christy."

"Are you an Avenger, too?" Cassie asked, almost in awe.

Christy grinned. "Nah, my dad says it'd have to be the Apocalypse before I became an Avenger. That means no, I can't be one." Her smirk got bigger. "But my dad is Captain America."

Cassie shrieked for joy. Scott shrieked in complete and utter shock.

Everyone at the conference table broke out in laughter.

Christy and Cassie immediately retired to a corner to talk things over. Scott stumbled closer to the table, as Sam had already sat down.

"Okay…okay…can somebody please explain to me how Captain America has a kid?"

Hawkeye smirked. "Well, when a man and a woman love each other very much…"

The Captain cut him off. "Or, when a man out of time meets a tiny seven year old in foster care and realizes he doesn't want to live life alone, he adopts a child." He stood up and walked over to Scott. "It's a pleasure to meet the Ant-Man, Mr. Lang."

Scott returned the handshake in a dizzy fugue state. "Oh, uh, the, uh, honor's all mine Captain. Thanks for thanking of me—uh, thinking of me, y'know…Oh, God, you were my biggest hero growing up!"

Loud snickering could be heard from several people, loudest of all from the brown-haired man.

Steve took a deep breath and tried to wipe the amused grin off his face. "You can call me Steve, y'know."

"I-I can? I mean, of course I can! I'm an Avenger now and I…this is so cool!"

Sam called out, "Scott, sit down before you fall over or float away! You've got a few more introductions to get through!"

Scott groped his way into a chair as Steve took back his seat. He swallowed. "Okay, anymore bombshells for me?"

He got through introductions to Hawkeye ("just Clint, thanks"), Vision ("a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Lang"), Scarlet Witch ("Wanda, and I promise not to mess with your head"), and Quicksilver ("Pietro; I'm the fastest man alive!") in a relatively sane manner. It helped that he had been able to get a bit of information on all of them.

But the last man…

"And this…this is Bucky Barnes."

"Codename: Winter Soldier." the man echoed.

Scott could feel his mind going through everything he'd read and researched.

"Aren't you supposed to be, y'know…dead?" he said hesitantly.

Bucky smirked. "Called it." he said to Steve.

"You were a hero."

Everyone turned to where Cassie sat with Christy. The seven year old's solemn brown eyes looked at Bucky almost knowingly. "You fought the Nazis. But you died."

"Where did you learn that?" Scott asked quietly.

"TV." Cassie said dismissively. "So how'd you come back?"

Bucky swallowed. "Well, I never really…died. I just fell so far, they thought I died. And then the…bad guys found me. They hurt me so much, I thought good was bad. I didn't remember anything." He shot a glance at Steve. "And then my friend found me, and I came back. I remembered him, remembered who I was supposed to be."

Cassie nodded. "Daddy mixed up good and bad, too. That's why he was in jail. But then he remembered that he was supposed to be good, so he became a hero."

"You were in jail?" Pietro asked, giving Scott an incredulous look.

Scott leaned back in his chair. "Yeah, I was. That's…kinda a long story, though."

"Dad, can I show Cassie my treehouse?" Christy asked.

"Sure, baby, go ahead…" Steve looked at Scott. "Is that okay?"

"What?! Uh, yeah, yeah…be safe, 'kay, Peanut?"

"'Kay Daddy!" the two girls ran happily out of the room.

"So, Mr. Lang," Steve leaned forward, his team-leader face in place. "What qualifies you to be a member of the Avengers?"

Scott felt his stomach drop. "I…I have a suit…that shrinks…?"

"A lot of people have powers." Natasha cut in. "Doesn't mean we let them in."

Scott swallowed, wondering what it was these people wanted from him. Finally, he just decided to lay his cards on the table.

"Look, four months ago, I got outta prison. All I wanted was to get a job, so I could see my daughter again. I'm…I'm nobody, alright? Just a no-good, ex-con from San Fran who wants to give his daughter a reason not to be ashamed of him." He took a deep breath. "So, to answer, I dunno know that qualifies or un-qualifies me. But it's the truth. Honestly, I think I'm probably the last person you should pick. But if you want me, you can have me."

"Scott."

Scott attempted to control himself in light of the fact that Captain-freaking-America just called him by name.

"Once upon a very long time ago, someone asked me what made me so special. I told 'im…nothin'. I'm just a kid from Brooklyn that got lucky. Everyone on this team is just someone that got lucky. In light of that, I can't think of anyone I'd rather say this to." He stretched out his hand across the table.

"Welcome to the Avengers, Scott Lang."

"So, you live here?" Cassie asked, looking out the window in Christy's tree house. It was built in a tall tree that had a good view of both the base and the surrounding forest.

Christy nodded. "Yeah. I like it. It's kinda in the middle of nowhere, but it's got a really big backyard. And we go into the city a lot." She gestured at Cassie's rabbit. "What's his name?"

"Bugsy. Daddy got him for me for my birthday."

"Oh. I have a Captain Ameribear named Stevie. He's my favorite. I still sleep with him, even though I'm big, because Sam says it really doesn't matter. And Sam would know, he's a doctor."

Cassie's face scrunched up. "Who's Sam again?"

"Falcon. He's the best! See, it's a little confusing, because everybody has a superhero name, a normal name, and some kinda nickname. Like my dad. His superhero name is Captain America, but his normal name is Steve Rogers. And people call him nicknames like Cap or Capsicle…well, only Uncle Tony calls him that and Dad hates it. Or Stevie. But only Uncle Bucky calls him that."

Cassie frowned. "That's a lot of names to remember…"

"Yeah…but you get used to it."

"Is Captain America your real Daddy?"

"Yes." Christy said, firmly. She hated that question. Of course Steve was her 'real' dad, he wasn't fake! "But he's not my first dad. My first dad died when I was little. And then my mom died too. So I got adopted."

"Oh." Cassie nodded. "My mom and dad love me, but they realized that they didn't like each other as much. So they got divorced, and now mommy's gonna marry Paxton. He's nice and I like him, but sometimes I wish mom and dad could like each other as much as they like me."

"Sometimes I wish my mom didn't die." Christy whispered.

"You can borrow my mom if you want." Cassie offered.

Christy smiled, a little sad. "Thanks, but you can't really borrow a mom."

The two of them sat quietly for a minute. Fortunately, though, they were both up-tempered girls who couldn't stay melancholy for long.

"Do you want to play hide-n-seek?" Christy finally asked.

Cassie nodded happily. "Yeah!"

"Okay, great! Let's see if we can get Pietro and Wanda to play, and maybe Vision. Pietro's always really hard to find, because…"

Scott still couldn't quite believe what he'd gotten himself into.

Still, the more he stayed around the Avenger's Base, the more relaxed he felt himself becoming. Sure, these guys (and women!) were the stuff of legends, but always behind legends, there were people.

People who ate, drank, laughed, ached, and lived—just like everyone was doing right now.

And as he watched Quicksilver give Cassie a light-speed piggy-back ride, while Christy clamored for the next turn, he couldn't help but feel a sense of coming home, of belonging.

"They grow on ya, huh?"

Scott jumped. There behind him was Steve Rogers.

"Yeah…" he said. "Well…you guys may not be the weirdest group I've worked with. But you'll do."

Steve laughed. "I mean it, y'know." he said seriously. "We're none of us anything special, on our own. Sometimes together, we're not even anything special. But then, just when the world needs us…we somehow manage to scrape ourselves together to help everybody out."

Scott nodded. "I…I guess that's what it's about, anyway." he muttered.

"You gonna head back before Monday?" Steve inquired.

"Yeah, I've only got Cassie for the weekend…I meant to ask. Do you guys want me here full-time, or...?"

Steve shook his head. "If you can train in San Fransisco, no need to stay here, unless you wanna. If we need you, you'll know." He smiled. "Also, expect my daughter to be calling yours."

"Yeah, I kinda called that one." Scott replied. He moved his head back and forth in a gesture of incredulity. "I still can't believe…"

"With us, you expect the unexpected and believe the unbelievable" Steve said wryly. "Anything's possible."

Scott nodded once more, mulling over the words. They were words he wouldn't have believed two months ago.

Now, though…

Anything could happen.

Yup, anything can happen. Including...CIVIL WAR! AHHHHHH! To tell the truth, I'm both excited and terrified to view thisi movie, because I will probably suffer from a massive dose of FEELS and then have to tweak everything around to fit my ChristyVerse.

Before said movie comes out, you can expect one last chapter, as sort of a commemorations of, like I said, it being one year since I first posted WCBF. If anyone wants Steve and Christy cuteness involving Broadway plays and diners, tune in sometime before Thursday night. (When I go to the premiere for CW and cry my heart out.)

In the meantime, as always: Reviews are wonderful things...