GirlGamer1986- Thank you! here is the next chapter, sorry it took a while. I hope you like it!
May 18, 2018
My emotions were all over the place with the events of the day. Tony was missing in outer space, there was a powerful alien looking for the most powerful stones in the universe, and Steve was home and had met Margaret. After their initial meeting, we eventually made our way back downstairs to the others. We wanted to spend forever just the three of us, but we knew there were things we could not avoid forever. We made it into the living room space and Steve carried Margaret the entire way. She started telling him about her favorite cartoon and he was eagerly listening to every word, even though most of it wasn't entirely comprehensible. When we arrived, the others were already there and they froze as they saw us.
"Hey Margaret, you're going to meet a lot of new people here. They're all really nice people," I told her gently. She had always been a calm and friendly baby. However, she wasn't used to meeting a lot of new people. Her circle was small and I had a feeling it could be overwhelming to suddenly have a new group in her space. "So Rhodey explained?" I asked the room.
"Yeah," Nat was the one to respond and then smile. "Hi Margaret, I'm Natasha," she waved to my daughter. Margaret remained quiet as she just observed the new people in the room. Soon everyone greeted Margaret and congratulated us, and I then had Steve place her with the toys on the nearby rug.
"Can you play here for a bit while we talk?" I asked her. She nodded and I thanked her as I gave her a kiss on the head and we stood with everyone else to discuss our next move.
"So we gotta assume they're coming back, right? And they can clearly find us. We need all hands on deck. Where's Clint?" Burce asked.
"After the whole Accords situation, he and Scott took a deal. It was too tough on their families," Nat told him.
"Who's Scott?" He asked.
"Ant-Man," Steve said.
"There's an Ant-Man and a Spider-Man? Okay, look, Thanos has the biggest army in the Universe. And he is not gonna stop until he gets Vision's stone," Bruce warned us.
"Well then, we have to protect it," Natasha said.
"No, we have to destroy it," Vision said, drawing the attention to him. "I've been giving a good deal of thought to this entity in my head, about its nature. But also, its composition. I think if it were exposed to a sufficiently powerful energy source, something very similar to its own signature, perhaps, its molecular integrity could fail."
"And you, with it. We're not having this conversation," Wanda told him firmly.
"Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain that Thanos can't get it," He told her.
"That's too high a price," Wanda said. Steve and I looked at each other with the same silent sadness.
"Only you have the power to pay it. Thanos threatens half the Universe. One life cannot stand in the way of defeating him," Vision said.
"But it should," Steve stated. "We don't trade lives, Vision."
"Captain, 70 years ago, you laid down your life to save how many millions of people. Tell me, why is this any different?" Vision said.
"And I know how it feels to be on the other end of that," I told him. "I know how Wanda would feel. Look, we're all a family now, This team is my family, our family. We fight to keep each other safe just as much as we fight for the rest of the world," I said to them all. The others in the room nodded, agreeing with my claims of how important we all were to each other.
"You might have a choice," Bruce offered. "Your mind is made up of a complex construct of overlays. Jarvis, Ultron, Tony, me, the Stone. All of them mixed together. All of them learning from one another."
"You're saying Vision isn't just the stone?" Wanda asked.
"I'm saying that if we take out the stone, there's still a whole lot of Vision left. Perhaps the best parts," Bruce replied.
"Can we do that?" Nat asked.
Bruce thought about it but then shook his head. "Not me. Not here."
"You better find someone, and somewhere fast. Ross isn't exactly just gonna let you guys have your old rooms back," Rhodey said to him before looking at me. "And I have a feeling he'll be making a visit here himself to see it done. I took in a deep breath understanding what he meant. He'd come here and he'd find out about Margaret. I glanced at our toddler quietly playing by herself before looking desperately at my husband. He was already looking at me with his own determination.
"I know somewhere," he said. "We can all go and we'll be safe from Ross and have the resources we need to get that stone out of Vision's head." Steve then explain to us the plan to go to Wakanda, and we gave ourselves ten minutes to grab what we needed and get on the jet out of there.
"Are you sure it will be safe to bring Margaret? Pepper is here, she can take care of her," I asked Steve when we were alone in our room grabbing what we needed. I had Margaret on my hip, her head resting softly on my shoulder as she held her favorite small stuffed pig.
"If we leave her here and Ross comes back, he might see her. I don't know if now is a good time for that, especially without us here too."
"But we're bringing the fight to us. They'll come for Vision's stone, I don't know if she should be there," I voiced with concern.
"Wakanda is very safe, I promise. Even if it comes to a fight, there will be somewhere safe for Margaret." Steve's confidence in his statement made me finally agree. If he trusted the people of this country to keep her safe, then so did I.
"Okay," I said. "I'll go get her things." I handed Margaret over to Steve and he made his way out of the room to get on the jet.
"And Mads," he said before leaving and I looked back at him waiting to hear what he was going to say next. "You should suit up too. We might need all hands on deck for this one." I took in a deep breath and nodded once before he left. I hadn't elaborated to Steve how much my powers were fading. I got bruises more often again, I had another cold earlier that year. Sure the bruises still would fully heal within a couple hours, but I didn't know how my body would handle any real injuries.
I knew My suit Tony made was bullet proof and very up to date. He had made a new one around the time Margaret was six months old. I wasn't very happy with him for doing so, but he thought it was important just in case I need it. I guess now was that time. He changed the design, got rid of the stars on the gloves. The gloves and boots were still red, but more of a burgundy instead. The main suit was also now black and not navy. I didn't know what people would want to call me anymore, but I doubted it would be Miss Americana. We both knew that title faded away the longer Steve had been gone.
After putting on my suit and packing the necessary items from Margaret's room, I got on the quinjet with the rest of the team. I sat next to Steve who was still holding Margaret.
"Hey baby, do you wanna show daddy some of your stuffed animals. I brought a couple of your favorite," I asked her as I pulled out her bear and cat and she was still holding her pig. She had been mostly quiet, and I wanted to get her to feel more comfortable communicating to Steve like she was with me.
"Where we going momma?" she asked me.
"We're going on a little trip. You know how sometimes we drive around the woods in my car? Well this is kinda like that but we're going to be flying in the sky!"
"The sky?" she asked with wide eyes. "It's scary?" she asked.
"It's very safe, and if you get scared, you can hug me" Steve told her with slight hesitation but I smiled encouragingly at them both. "I promise I'll keep you very safe the whole trip and then you get to see some new places, meet some new people."
"How about you tell daddy these little guys' names?" I distracted her while holding up her cat and bear.
"This is Katy Cat," Margaret said quickly as she grabbed the cat gently from my hand. "She goes mew mew mew," she held up the cat to Steve and he laughed softly at her cat noises.
"That's right, Margaret," Steve told her. "Who's this?" he asked while holding up her pig.
"That's Pinky," she replied. Meanwhile we began to fly off the compound, but she wasn't paying any attention to that.
"And what sound does Pinky make?" I asked her.
"He says oink!" she giggled. The pig sound was always her favorite. "Oink oink oink!" she repeated.
"Good job, Margaret!" I exclaimed. "Last one here," I gave her her mini teddy bear.
"Puffs!" she happily told us.
"That's his name?" Steve asked and I gave him a laugh.
"Yes, she named him puffs," I informed.
"Puffs says grrrr," Margaret added as her nose scrunched to make the sound.
"Grrrr," Steve said back to her and she went into a little laughing fit.
She played with her animals with Steve and I was content in just watching them. It was the happiest I think I had ever felt. To hear their laughter together and see them happy, it was everything I wanted since I first experienced the joy that Margaret brought me.
"Momma says we can get real Katy Cat," Margaret told Steve.
"Really?" he asked me with surprise on his face. We had never had a pet before, but Margaret was asking a lot for one.
"Yeah I was thinking of getting us a cat soon," I said. "They're sweet and cute and relatively easy to take care of. But his or her name would not be Katy Cat, we'd have to give them their own name," I said to Margaret.
"That sounds nice," Steve said and I smiled back at him. Throughout the flight, the rest of the people on board started to interact more with Margaret as well. Despite all of our fears and anxiety for how this day could end up, having Margaret there was a way to feel innocent joy. We could spend this time smiling before we had to get back to work.
A/N: Here was the calm before the storm! Final Wakanda battle happens in the next chapter. I wanted this cute little interaction with our Rogers family first though. So I have made 2 edits that were inspired by the Endgame posters from 2 years ago. They had all the dusted character's posters in black in white and the characters still alive were in color and they all said "avenge the fallen." I've made one of each version for our Maddi. You can see them on my tumblr page creationcitystreet-em, I just posted them today! Sorry to torture/tease you with that, we'll find out very soon what her true fate is…