CHAPTER XIV

"See?" Eva asked, screwing the lid onto the baby bottle. "It's not so hard."

Alvie frowned down at the bundle of blankets and heat in her arms, and a pair of huge, monkey-like dark eyes blinked back at her. "Yeah, well – we haven't had to deal with diapers yet. When do Stark and Pepper get back?"

"Tomorrow evening. It's gonna be fine, Al. Between the two of us, how hard can twenty-four hours with a baby be?"

A hammy pink fist emerged from the blankets and latched itself onto Alvie's vintage silk shirt. "Don't you dare throw up on me," she told little Morgan, gently bouncing her up and down. "If you throw up, I'm putting ya in the trash."

Okay. Maybe Eva's right. Maybe babies ain't all bad.

Say that again when I gotta deal with a diaper.

Eva was poring over Pepper's detailed notes on childcare. "She's got the schedule down to the minute," her friend murmured. "One PM, pre-nap lavender massage and calming whale noises. God damn."

"If I was allowed outta the house," Alvie told Morgan, "I could take you all around New York in my car. Wouldn't that be nice, ma cherie?"

"This says we gotta talk to her in Latin. How the hell am I supposed to talk to her in Latin? It's a dead language."

"And I could do all my errands with you," Alvie continued. "We could go to Whole Foods together. Wouldja like that?"

"My God, it's color-coded. She's color-coded diaper changes."

"And you could come with me while I speak to all the charities I'm an ambassador for, and when I go and hand out food to homeless people –"

"And a brown highlighter's a little on-the-nose for – hang on," said Eva, looking up at Alvie. "You don't work with any charities. And I've never even seen you look at a homeless person before. You're one of the least charitable people I know."

"Well she doesn't have to know that!" Alvie snapped. "I want her to think the best of me. Not that I'm some – some kinda criminal."

"Al, you are a criminal."

"Treason don't count. I want her to be proud of her Auntie Alvie."

"I for one would be proud to have an enemy of the state as a babysitter," Eva said, putting down the ring-binder of instructions for what, when, how and where to do with Morgan. "You want me to take her now my hands are free?"

Alvie thought about it. "Nope," she replied. "I'm good. What does the schedule say we're meant to be doing with her now?"

"Baby pilates."

"Aw, hell no. Did it say anything about cartoons?"

"Nope."

"Right. C'mon, ma cherie. I've got the Clone Wars on boxset."

"I'm not sure if that's completely appropriate for –" Eva began, but broke off when her phone started to ring. "Damn."

As Eva answered the call Alvie took Morgan into the den where Khan dozed in front of the fire, ears twitching as he dreamed (hopefully) of eating Rachel Carson. She carefully arranged a nest of cushions for the kid, set her down (with support for the head as Pepper had repeatedly drilled into them), and was just popping open the DVD case for Clone Wars when a harangued-looking Eva stuck her head around the door.

"Al, I'm so sorry," she said. "I've got to go into the city for work. I've got a client that just flew in to have a meltdown in person at me about forced horizons in their rose garden, and if I don't go speak to them now –"

Alvie looked down at Morgan, who appeared to be dozing off despite the fact that the schedule indicated she should be ready and energetic for baby pilates. "How long will it be?"

"I dunno. Hopefully not too long." Eva ran a tattooed hand through her hair. "I guess I can always say I'm having a family emergency…"

"No. It's fine. We'll be fine!"

"I can always call Stark and tell him it might be worth coming home early –"

"Don't you trust me?" Alvie asked.

Eva frowned. "You know I do."

She's lying.

She's not. She's my friend.

Why would anyone trust you? You're crazy.

I'm not crazy.

A gurgle from Morgan temporarily distracted them both. Alvie reached over and tickled her cheek, which made the baby giggle. "I've taken all my meds," she said quietly. "You can check, if you want."

Eva's shoulder's sagged. "Okay," she said. "Point taken. And I do trust you. More than most people, nowadays. It's just me being paranoid about Morgan."

"Ya don't need to talk to me about being paranoid."

Eva's lip twitched upwards. "Right. Okay, well – I'll try and be back before midnight. Pepper says she sleeps for a good five straight hours, now. And if in doubt –"

"Check the binder," Alvie finished for her.

"If anything happens, call me and I'll come straight back. Promise?"

"Promise."

As hurried as she was, Eva still took a moment to hug Alvie goodbye. "Love you," she said.

"Love you, too. Say g'bye, Morgan."

"Goodbye, Morgan," Eva said, and disappeared. Alvie listened to the sound of her pulling her boots on, slamming the door, running down the drive and, finally, the roar of her motorcycle engine. Khan awoke, lifting his massive head to look around the room and assess that everything was as it should be.

We'll be fine, she repeated to herself. It's all gonna be fine.

%

It was gone midnight, and Eva still had returned; Alvie had received a phone call from her at eleven thirty-five wherein she had apologised profusely, triple-checked that everything was fine and promised to be back by dawn. Perhaps surprisingly, everything was fine. Morgan was fast asleep in her basket, Rachel Carson was sulking in the attic, Khan was keeping her feet warm and she had blazed through a season's worth of DVDs.

Her stomach was complaining, and since all that was in the room was baby formula she decided to get up and go on a hunt through the kitchen for something quick and densely packed with carbohydrates. "Stay," she told Khan. "Guard Morgan while I'm gone and I'll get you a carrot. No, not sausage. You're getting fat. Don't look at me like that. Fine. I'll see if there's any left over from breakfast."

Despite the lateness of the hour, Alvie did not bother switching the lights on in the kitchen as the moon gave enough of a watery gray glow for her to move around without crashing into anything. She rooted through the pantry until she found a half-eaten bag of lentil chips, took a leftover sausage out of the refrigerator for Khan, and stifled a yawn. Walking back to the doorway, she turned and gave the kitchen one last sweeping look before heading back to –

There was a man standing in the window.

Alvie screamed. She slammed her hand against the light switch. The kitchen flooded with light as Khan came barreling in from the den, barking madly. With her eyes struggling to adjust to the sudden change of light, the window was now just a square of black. In the other room Morgan started crying at the commotion. Alvie sunk to the floor, hands clapped over her still-open mouth.

They found me! They found me! They –

It's not real.

But –

It can't be real.

BUT I SAW HIM!

She grabbed hold of Khan's collar, desperate to hang on to anything real, concrete. It was happening again. Oh, God. It was happening again. She was back at square one. All those years and all that therapy and medication and it had done nothing, it had barely left a footprint in the hot mess of her brain…

Footprints.

Her fingers curled into the dog's fur.

If he was real, there would be footprints.

I can't. I can't look.

I have to.

Behind her, Morgan's cries rose to shrieks and wails.

Baby.

She stood up, heart racing, hands shaking, and walked into the den. Bending over, she scooped Morgan out of her basket and held her tight against her chest, soothing and hushing. "House!" she said. "Set the perimeter to threat beta!"

The windows flooded with light as, all around the edge of her property, floodlights turned on and hidden fences surged with electricity.

How did he get past it in the first place?

If he even existed, that is.

She kissed Morgan's forehead. "It's okay, baby," she said. "Hush, it's okay. You're safe. We're safe." Even if the security systems she had installed could not stop someone, Khan certainly would. He had gone straight to the back door in the kitchen and stayed there, growling, hackles raised and ready to pounce.

Once Morgan had quieted down, Alvie took a deep breath and headed back into the kitchen. Now, with all the light, she could see that there was nobody there.

But there had been.

There was not a chance in hell of her going outside to look now, but if she got up onto the counter she could lift the windowpane and look out into the flowerbed below. Carefully, eyes and arms tight on Morgan, she climbed up onto the counter and crawled on her knees over to the window frame. "House," she said, "unlock kitchen window 2." A hidden deadlock that clicked open. She wriggled the windowpane up with her foot and, trying not to think of how utterly terrified she was, stuck her head into the cold night air.

Frost stung her cheeks and a light breeze picked her chin, making Morgan grumble. But there – the begonias had been trampled down, hit with the imprint of heavy men's boots.

Alvie heard someone laugh, and then realized it was her.

I'm not crazy.

Leviathan is real.

Someone's trying to kill me.

A/N so while Coffee Run is my priority to get finished, I just had a review on this (thank you lovely reviewer) that reminded me of how much I also really want to see this fic through to the end (and Of Mice and Mischief Makers too, eventually, one day) and realised I totally had this chapter pre-written and ready to go and OOOH AREN'T THINGS FINALLY GETTING EXCITING. I've got some really cool ideas for how this will end and I think switching between these two fics for now will keep me more motivated to stay updating.

Also, while I'm here, I have many complicated thoughts and feelings about Falcon and The Winter Soldier, but for now I will distill them into the fact that I would die for Sam Wilson and particularly Redwing. In terms of canon, my plan is to keep these fics canon up until the end of Phase 3, aka Endgame/Far From Home, and then end it there for the sake of my sanity/a good ending point. This means there won't be any crossover with the show, although there might be a little nod or two, because I don't have the brain capacity to try and fit my Eva, Alvie etc into Wandavision and TFATWS. The worldbuilding is too good! They don't need me anymore!