Steve felt her shift in his arms. He almost always was up first, he had always gotten up early since joining the military, but lately the reason he woke up early was to enjoy more time with Raven. She was busy, and he loved that she had something to do, something she was passionate about, but he did miss having her all to himself at times, and this had become that moment for him.
She kissed his chest, "You're doing it again."
"What?" He smiled as she pulled away finally opening her eyes.
"Watching me sleep." She blinked herself more awake.
"Maybe I like looking at you." He smirked.
She laughed, "You better."
"Oh, I definitely do." He kissed her with a smile. She kissed him back and when they pulled apart, he asked, "What do you want for breakfast?"
"You cooking?" She quirked an eyebrow.
He breathed out a laugh, "I was thinking more like going somewhere."
"Oh really?" She smiled with her eyebrow still up.
"Yeah. It's a Saturday, you aren't planning on going to the orphanage today, so since you will anyway, I figured we could both go and check in on everyone and then spend the rest of the day in the city." He ran his thumb over her cheek.
"Have I told you recently that I love you?" She smiled.
"Not out loud, but don't worry. I know." He gave her another kiss. "Come on, I want bacon."
"And biscuits." She said following him up in the bed.
It was nice, them having time together. They very rarely had ever gotten the chance to go on dates before and now they made sure to go on one at least every two weeks. The city was nothing compared to how they were used to it being, but they tried to let it bother them as little as possible.
Raven bought some candy for all of the kids for when they stopped in and Steve had to admit, he missed the growing children. He'd used to go in all the time after it all happened, but as he got busy with his support groups he came in less and less, but he could tell the kids missed him from their smiles and hugs. As she was checking in on everything, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket.
When he saw the text was from Rhodey he went off to the side before opening it.
This your guy?
Steve looked at the picture and he wasn't sure without the reference photo, but the man seemed to share Ravens hair color and face shape. He texted back: Not sure. Send me the info.
"Hey you ready?" Raven came up to him with a smile.
"Yeah, you want to take a walk through the park?" He asked taking her hand.
"You know in all the time I've lived in New York, I've never actually gone to Central Park." She looked up at him.
"Well then, let's fix that. It's not that far." He leaned down kissing her forehead, "Knowing you, you might want to bring a sketch book too."
Raven adjusted her suits pant leg and Natasha smiled at her, "Feel weird?"
"Feels like I've gained weight." Raven smirked.
"Well you haven't. I think you just got used to looser pants."
"Yeah, and smaller shoes."
"It's just a fire Raven, nothing big." Her friend came and sat beside her, "If the winds weren't so strong and it wasn't growing at an insane rate, they wouldn't have even called us."
"Yeah I know, but we'd still be on our way because you're obsessed." She picked on Nat as the ship start to land, "It's just weird. Steve and I are 'retired' from all of this. I never thought I'd have the suit back on."
"It's a good kind of weird though isn't it?" Natasha stood up as the doors opened, a small smirk on her face.
Raven sighed, "I think so? I mean this type of fighting is just weird to me in general. Like I feel like Steve should be here."
"Yeah, well the shield doesn't do much good against forest fires."
"Then why's a spy here?" Raven smiled through her question.
"Oversee the operation." Natasha spoke convincingly but then a small smile grew on her face, "Plus you know, girls' trip. I'm sure Steve's enjoying having the place all to himself."
He looked from the address scrawled on the paper in his hands to the door across the street from him. He was in Austria, where Ravens father was supposed to have been. He wasn't labeled as vanished, but Steve didn't want to get her hopes up. As he walked up and knocked on the door, he knew he also wasn't going to let her get hurt.
"Coming!" He heard a man shout. He waited and when the door opened the man from the picture was in front of him, an older version of what had been in the file. The man's face wore shock as he looked at Steve, "You're…"
"Yeah." Steve didn't waste any time, "Are you Andrew Marks?"
"What?" The man froze, "How do you know that?"
"You match the photo." Steve handed him an old photo of the man from the S.H.I.E.L.D file.
"Come in." The man opened the door wider, "No one here knows me by that name."
"I know. You go by Charles Wilson here." Steve looked at him as he closed the door.
"What can I do for you Captain America?" Andrew turned to look at him, a nervous smile on.
"Why'd you do it?" Steve asked, his mouth moving before his brain, "Did you even care what they were going to do to your kids?"
"Shannon and Connor?" His face went pale, "What…what do you mean? They're-"
"They experimented on them!" He yelled at the man, his anger boiling, "Raven's gone through over four-hundred and forty-three experiments because you disappeared! They told them their parents had died! HYDRA took them and all this time you've been alive?!"
"Raven…Raven's my Shannon?" Andrew muttered, his eyes wide. "That's impossible."
Steve threw the file down on the table next to them, "It's all in there."
"No, Shannon had cancer." Andrew said, starting to flip through the pages, "We were trying to find a cure for her when Maggy was pregnant with Connor and the treatments were so severe it sent Shannon into a coma and Maggy got sick from the exposure. She died giving birth and Connor didn't make it. I-I couldn't stand to be there anymore…"
"None of that is in these files." Steve pointed at them, "You left your children. You left them in the hands of monsters."
"No!" Andrew shuffled through the papers, "They were dead, and Shannon was going to pass soon, and I couldn't watch that! I couldn't watch my little girl die!" He stopped and looked at Steve, realizing what he had said earlier, "They experimented…on my children?"
"They wanted to make more super soldiers." Steve watched as the man sat down at the table looking at everything.
"Oh, god." He picked up a photo of Raven, "She's my Shannon?"
"Raven is Shannon Marks." Steve confirmed, watching the man, he must really have believed they all died, just like Raven had believed he died.
"What about Connor?"
"He was killed by HYDRA to try and control her."
Andrew looked up at him, "They killed a little boy in front of his sister?"
"He was nineteen when he died."
"Oh god." Tears started to fall from the older man eyes, "I left them… I didn't know."
Steve felt a weight in his chest, his stomach sinking, "You really didn't know that they were alive and that S.H.I.E.L.D. had them?"
He shook his head, "No, when Maggy died she was the one I saw, they said they'd taken Connor away since he was a baby. I said good-bye to Shannon and left in the middle of the night, her heartbeat was so weak... How…How did they save her?"
"I don't know. It never said she was sick." Steve told him.
"I'm a horrible father…I should have known they were alive…I put my own grief above them." His head fell into his hands, "She hates me, doesn't she?"
"She thought you were dead up until three months ago." Steve felt his anger leaving. He'd wanted to hate the man. But he knew how hard it was to watch the people you love die, he couldn't blame him for not being able to be there when his two year old died. "She's mostly just confused. She said if I could find you, to do so."
"Now that you have…what happens?" Andrew asked.
"I don't know." Steve realized that the hard part was coming.
"Can I… Can I meet her?" The man asked, "I've seen so many things about her… Are the abilities…did they do that to her?"
"Most of them, yeah. They messed up and she was sick for a while." Steve told him, "Stark and Banner worked together to fix what was wrong."
"I can't believe S.H.I.E.L.D. let them do that to children." A tear went down the man's cheek, "My research into the super soldier project was used on my own two children."
"You were looking into it?" Steve asked, taking a step towards him.
"Yeah, I worked opposite of Hank Pym. He had his particles and I had the serum…I never got to finish it though…never wanted to without Maggy." Andrew told him.
Steve nodded, "Are you willing to come to New York? I'll let you see her. But it's up to her if she wants to see you."
"I understand." Andrew said, "Can I pack somethings? Pictures just in case?"
"Yeah." Steve motioned for the man to go. He ran his hand over his face. He wasn't sure how Raven was going to react to this.
A/N: So I know this took a while but I had computer issues, then mental heath issues, then used the fact I hadn't posted in a while as an excuse and blah blah blah. Next chapter should hopefully be up soon, if not, yell at me to do it. And leave a review! :)