Chapter 24: The day we went to the aquarium

Three weeks later

"Ready to go?" Steve asked as he pulled his jacket on his shoulders. He and Natasha had planned to go to the Banner aquarium, they were both excited to go back there. The moment they were together and swimming with dolphins was one of their happiest memory.

"No!" Elena yelled looking up at her father.

Natasha chuckled. "Hey, don't yell." She told her. "Just a second." She said to Steve as she drifted her eyes from the little girl to him. The mother was pulling the child's hair into a ballerina bun which was just a normal bun, but to Elena there was a difference between bun and ballerina bun!

The said girl was sitting on the couch between Natasha's legs and her face had a smile on it. She was not used to this kind of motherly love. Wanda, Maria and Pepper had been her mother figure for the past five years but none of them was mother. None of them had the gentleness and sweetness of an actual mother. To Elena's eyes, Natasha was her mother but she didn't say anything about it to anyone because she doesn't want to cause sorrow to anybody about her real mother.

"And done!" Natasha announced kissing Elena's cheek. "We're ready to go."

"Fiiiiish!" Jamie yelled running towards the door, he was the most excited of them all. He loved fishes and the Ocean. Natasha laughed and grabbed her bag, her eyes settled on Steve. "Shall we?"

"We shall." He replied and the kids ran towards the door. Elena climbed on her brother's back and opened the door, when she got down they did a high-five and giggled. "Rogers powers!" They declared before running out to the car.

The two parents laughed and was proud. Natasha was amazed by how her son had gotten used to be a part of an actual family so quickly. He was on clouds about knowing he had his father by his sides and he loved having a sister of his age with whom he could do everything.

The woman walked towards the door but Steve took her hand in a gentle way and said. "Wait," He gave her his boyish smile before capturing her lips with his in a sweet and passionate kiss. Natasha hummed happily in the kiss as she returned it. "Now, we're really ready to go." He announced and walked out of the house with her.

Natasha closed her house's door and locked it while Steve got the children inside the car. They were going to take Steve's car since Natasha's was at the garage for some reparations. She walked down the porch then the front garden and got into the passenger seat. "Let's go." She said once again.

Steve started the car and drove to their destination : The Banner Aquarium. That so amazing place Steve had wanted to go back to for so long.

He parked once they arrived. The kids had been angels during the road but somewhat excited. None of them had gone to an aquarium before and from what their parents told them, it was seemed like an amazing place. James had told his sister about all of the fishes he liked and she kept asking Steve and Natasha if those fishes were at the aquarium.

The parents had laughed about the kids' behavior. They always were bumming them out, but in a good way, they loved having a sibling and that's something we could easily see.

Natasha got out of the car first and got Elena, who was right behind her, out of the car as well. Steve took Jamie out and the little recomposed family walked towards the Aquarium. "Bruce gave us free tickets for the kids." Steve said as he looked at Natasha.

"Oh, did he? It is so nice of him to do so." She said, the sweetness in her voice showed how touched she was by the gesture. Natasha looked at Steve with pure joy in her eyes and together, they went to the aquarium for the second time in five years.

The little family stood near the exit, they had gone through the whole expositions and the fourth of them had just loved it. Natasha and Steve were very impressed by how Bruce had managed to make this Aquarium something greater than it used to be.

The fourth of them was sitting on a bench settled before a tree and the kids declared that they were thirsty. The parents agreed on buying them a drink and the mother asked what each of them wanted. A coke for James, Elena and her, and an iced tea for Steve, oh did he love those.

"Alright, I'll get them." Natasha said raising from the bench. She walked towards the small sort of restaurant set before the exit of the Aquarium. It was something new, when she and Steve came there the first time, there wasn't any sort of restaurant. She greeted the woman and said her order. "Three cokes and an iced tea, please."

The woman nobody and took the sodas from different fridges. She set them on the counter and smiled at Natasha as she said. "You have cute children." But before Natasha could say something the woman spoke again. "There you go, by the way."

"Ah, thank you." Natasha said and took some money from her purse to give to the woman.

"Very cute children, indeed." A voice coming from being her. Oh, it was a voice she knew all too well. Her body trembled as it recalled the filthy things this voice used to tell her.

She spun around with a gasp and looked at the last person she had expected to see there. "Alexei..." She whispered softly as her eyes set on him.

"Hello Natalia, it's been a long time hasn't it?" He asked, his Russian accent rolling off his tongue in a nice yet vicious way.

She could not believe her eyes and her ears. There he stood before her, looking all disgustingly charming. He always was the type of man who hid his true self with good looks. "Clearly not long enough." She retorted back with unknown confidence. "What are you doing here? What do you want?"

"What?" He said, acting offended by her words. "Can't a man catch up with his wife?"

"Ex-wife." She corrected him before taking the four drinks into her hands. "Leave me alone." She said and tried to storm off but he held her back.

"Wait a minute my little butterfly, there's no need to run. They are being taken care of."

"What?" She asked and turned her head to see one of Alexei's men near Steve and the children. "What do you want?" She spat out with anger in her voice.

"That is pretty easy," He told her as a dark smirk crossed his face. "It's you I want."

She scoffed and looked at him with hate. "You had me, you lost me, get over it." She said, insisting on the three last words.

He chuckled darkly and brushed a hand over her face but she pulled back immediately. "Don't get aggressive now, my little butterfly."

"Don't call me that!" She defended. "Leave my family and I alone."

"Come with me and they'll be safe."

"Do you really think that you can bargain with me?" She asked out of annoyance.

"Oh, I can." He said and raised a raised in the air, he snapped his fingers and another of his men got closer to Steve and the kids who were oblivious of the situation.

She set down the drinks back on the counter and got closer to Alexei. "Don't touch my children. Make them leave."

"Then come with me."

"I won't, I will never come back to you." She said with a heinous tone.

"You won't have a choice, butterfly." He said.

"Except, that the woman does have a choice. You see, if we follow Randy Pausch from The Last Lecture, you can't change the cards you are dealt with but you can change how you play them." A man said as he stood next to Natasha with an angel smile.

Alexei looked at the man with surprise and a certain anger. "Who are you?"

"Oh, I'm Sam Wilson." He said handing out his hand towards the Russian. "Also known as Detective Wilson and if you look on your right, you will see Lieutenant Jones but if you look on your left, then you're going to see Detective May." Sam said with smug.

"What the hell does this mean?" Alexei asked, getting angry. Natasha stood there, not understanding what the hell was going on.

"Oh that means we are arresting you for abuse on others, but also for using a fake identity to get into our country." Sam said.

"I think you're forgetting the traffic he has tried to input in the states." Maria, who arrived from behind Alexei, said as she smiled. "Right, babe?"

"Yeah." Sam said.

Maria couldn't help the smirk that had formed on her lips as Detective Coulson came and cuffed the Russian man while Jones and May cuffed his men. "I always knew you were trouble." Alexei spat out to Maria in anger.

"Oh, that's sweet. He's quoting Taylor Swift." She mocked him.

"Babe, she rocks." Sam pointed out as he gave her a serious look.

"Anyway, take 'em away." The woman said.

Natasha stood there, transfigured. She had no idea what had just happened and it was not like when Steve went back to Sharon or when they went out for the first time. Whatever happened, happened too fast. One minute her ex-husband was there, threatening her family and the next minute her cops friends showed up and arrested Alexei and his men. "Hey, Nat, it's okay. It's finished." Steve said as he walked up to her.

She blinked and looked at him, the confusion was slowly disappearing. He wrapped his arms around her into a bear hug and he kissed her cheek. "You were so strong, I'm sorry I couldn't do anything."

The woman looked at him and disbelief crossed her features. "You- You knew about this?"

"Yeah..." He trailed off with guilt. "I wish I could've told you."

"W-why?" She asked into the hug.

"He needed to be arrested after what he did to you." He told her.

She gasped and looked up a Steve. "Are you saying the accusations were false? That is dangerous! And against the law! Why did you even-"

"Hey, hey, hey." Steve interrupted her. "No, it was all true. Maria and Sam have been tracking him since he came into America and they waited for the right time to properly arrest him."

"Oh, my god." The mother exclaimed. "I hate you for doing this..." She said breathing heavily. "The children could've been hurt. You could have been hurt, Steve. You didn't think this through, did you?"

"Look, honey. I think you are still in a state of shock, everything is okay. We are all okay." He assured her caressing her head softly. "Nothing went wrong, it is all over." He said to calm her down.

Natasha closed her eyes as she let out a breath of relief, she would no longer worry to see Alexei at the corner of the street. To be honest, the woman had been afraid to see him again, she had been afraid ever since she was told that he had came back. Steve always knew how to calm her down, he had this kind of power of her and she knew she could let herself let him because Steve would never hurt somebody on purpose, except maybe if they deserved it.

Steve had driven his little family back to Natasha's place, they were mostly staying there since it was a house and since it was bigger than an apartment. The red haired woman had calmed down after Steve spoke with her and when the kids ran to her to give her a hug, her heart literally beamed with happiness over having so many good people around her to help. She was, of course, very thankful for what Sam and Maria did, she really did not except this.

It was a little late by now and as soon as they would arrive home, the kids would go to bed. After the thing at the aquarium, they had taken Jamie and Elena to some fast food restaurant for diner. Yeah, it is something really not healthy but hey, it can't hurt every once in awhile, right?

They quickly arrived home and the kids were fast asleep in their beds. Natasha was laying on her bed with a book in her hand while Steve was in the bathroom getting ready for bed. When he came out of the bathroom, Natasha closed her book and set it on her bedside drawer. "Can I ask you a question?"

Steve laid down beside her under the sheets and turned his whole body to her. "Of course, anything."

"Did you hear everything we've told each other? Alexei and I?" She asked, her eyes searching his in the soft light of the room.

"Yeah." He nodded then scooted closer to her. "Are you asking this because you called the kids, your kids? Because you counted Elena as your own child?"

"I…" She trailed off with a sigh and broke eye contact. "I feel like this is something bad."

"Why do you think so?" He frowned as his eyes never left her face.

"I wouldn't want to take Sharon's place." She said. "She is her mother and I'm not, I'm okay with it, I really am. It's just that… I wouldn't Elena to forget her mother because of me."

"Oh, Nat." Steve said and made her face him. "You would never replace her, I know that you would never let that happen…" He informed her with a smile. "But, if you're worried about this, then maybe you should talk about this with Elena. I think she would be happy to."

"Really?" She asked looking into his eyes, the anxiousness was slowly leaving.

"Yeah, of course." Steve assured her.

Natasha nodded with a smile playing on her lips. "I love you."

"And I love you, too." Steve said before capturing her mouth with his into a beautiful and passionate kiss.