A/N: In this story Steve didn't go back in time and Natasha came back to life when Steve returned the Soul Stone. So this story is not canon (duh) and I will make more changes along the way.

Chapter I

Natasha was retired, well, she was officially retired. She was still doing odd jobs here and there, but her time as a full-time Avenger and Black Widow were over. It was still weird to be retired. She had been sure that Steve would have been the one to have problems to be a civilian with his sense of duty, but no he was acing it. He'd bought a house in Brooklyn, was renovating it and going to art school. And of course, he had Barnes back in Brooklyn which made Steve happier than she'd ever seen him.

Natasha herself was still struggling. She knew she didn't want to live her old life anymore and she knew that it was okay to retire after everything she'd done to save the universe, but she still hadn't found a new purpose. She was still trying to find something that fulfilled her. She loved that she was able to dance again, to just watch movies for hours or read the whole night, but something was still missing. She'd helped Sam and Torres from time to time which felt good, but she knew that didn't want to do it full-time. Never again. What kind of other job could she do with her CV?

Maybe she should get a cat? Definitely not a dog, but maybe a cat would be good for her? Steve always said that she reminded him of one.

An aggressive knocking on her door interrupted her pity party. She knew immediately who was on the other side of the door. She wondered what Yelena was doing in New York and what kind of trouble that meant for Natasha.

Natasha had a pretty vivid imagination, but she would have never seen the sight before her coming. Yelena was holding a sleeping baby in her arms and had a diaper bag thrown over her shoulder. A baby! What the fuck was Yelena doing with a baby? It couldn't be hers, she'd gone through the same procedure as Natasha.

"Hey, sis!" Yelena walked past by her into the apartment like she wasn't carrying a child.

"Hey, sis?" She repeated. "Why the fuck do you have a baby with you?!"

"Shh!" Yelena touted and covered the baby's ear. "No cursing in front of the child!"

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Why do you have a freaking baby with you?"

"It's yours!" Yelena pushed the baby into her arms. "You can keep her!"

Natasha looked at the baby in her arms who was now awake and looking at her with big blue eyes. She was truly beautiful and Natasha fought off a smile. She had to focus on Yelena who obviously had completely lost her fucking mind.

"What do you mean? Did you steal a fu-" She looked down at the baby. "A freaking baby?"

"What?" Yelena gasped and seemed offended. "No, I did not steal a baby! I..." She took a deep breath. "I knew her mother...She was my friend and now..." Yelena wiped a tear away. "And now she's dead...and I promised her that I would find a good mama for her girl."

"And you think that's me?!" Natasha asked in disbelief. She was truly sorry about Yelena's friend and she knew that Yelena was telling the truth, she'd never been able to fool her, but this was too much. "I can't be someone's mama!" The baby made a sound and seemed to be drifting off again. A weird warm feeling filled Natasha's chest. "This is insane. What about the father?"

"Not in the picture. And he'll never will be." Yelena said with a clenched jaw. Natasha knew there was more, but she didn't ask. "She doesn't have anyone. I can't be her mother, we both know that. But you can, Tasha."

"What is her name?" She asked, looking down at the little girl. She had a little bit of brown fluff on her head and rosy cheeks, and she smelled heavenly. She loved the smell of babies ever since she'd held Lila in her arms for the first time.

"Chloe, her name's Chloe." Yelena said with a smile.

"Chloe. A beautiful name for a beautiful girl." Chloe opened her eyes again. Okay, did babies already recognize their names?! God, she didn't know much about children. "How old is she?"

"Two months. She was born on August 13th." Chloe started to cry. "She's probably hungry. Here-" She opened the diaper bag. "I got a bottle for her."

Yelena gave her the bottle and Natasha fed the baby on auto-pilot. She couldn't take care of Chloe, right? This was insane. She could never be someone's mother, could never give someone that unconditional love.

"I can't do this, Leni." Natasha sighed. "You know that."

"I know you can do it, Tasha. But I also know that I can't force you. Can you at least take care of her until I found the perfect family? Please? I can't hand her over to the authorities. I don't trust them."

Yeah, Natasha didn't really either. She'd heard enough horror stories and Chloe deserved so much more. "Okay, yes." She sighed and burped Chloe when she done with her lunch.

"Thank you, thank you!" Yelena squealed and hugged both Natasha and Chloe. "Okay, then let's go shopping!"

"Huh?"

"You need stuff for her. Duh! A bed, clothes and who knows what else!"

Right.

They spent the afternoon shopping baby stuff. The first thing they bought was a baby sling so Natasha could carry Chloe more easily. And she kept to herself how much she loved to have that little body pressed against her chest and to have Chloe look at her with curious eyes. She was surprised that her credit card didn't melt with the amount of times it got swiped. Everything was delivered by evening and Yelena helped her setting up the bed and the changing unit.

They tucked Chloe into her new bed and Yelena bent down to kiss forehead. "Bye, my little bug."

"What?" No, she couldn't go. She couldn't leave her alone with the baby!

"I'm sorry, sis. But I have to go." She kissed Natasha's cheek. "I'll be in touch. Thank you for doing this for me. And Chloe. And my friend."

"You never told me your friend's name." Natasha knew that Yelena wasn't going to. Yelena smiled and left the guest room that was now Chloe's room. Temporarily, of course.

As soon as the front door closed Chloe started to scream. Shit. Okay, deep breath. You can do this. You jumped off a cliff, you can calm down a freaking baby!

She couldn't calm down a freaking baby. Chloe wasn't hungry, she didn't need her diaper changed , and she didn't have fever. She had no clue what she could do for the little girl. She hummed every song she knew and cradled the baby, but Chloe didn't stop screaming.

What was she supposed to do? She'd promised Yelena that she was going to take care of her friend's child and she'd failed after five seconds. She picked up her phone to call Steve. It was almost midnight, probably late for a senior citizen, but she couldn't care about that now.

He picked up after the fourth ring. "Nat?" He answered groggily. Yeah, he had been sleeping.

"I need you, please come!"

"What's wrong?!" He sounded wide awake now. "What's that noise?"

"Please just come. I really need you!"