Author's note! I own nothing of Marvel-verse except my OC character, everything else belongs to the amazing Stan Lee, may his wonderful self Rest in Peace, Jack Kirby and all the other amazing men and women who helped bring about the Marvel-Verse in Comic AND live-actions well as cartoon and animations. All my work and creativity put in here is purely fictional and fanfiction based on the MCU-verse. All my work here and creativity put into this storyline is purely fictional AND fanfiction based on the MCU-verse. Thank you, and have a wonderful adventure! also have a great Day/Afternoon/Night.

Chapter 4

When Nick had told her they'd won, that he was taking her to her uncle, she had grabbed her bags that had thankfully still been in the room, though tossed it had definitely been, her school bag and homework was still very much intact. She ran as fast as she could to the prepped aircraft with hopeful tears in her eyes, but the destruction she saw on her way to Stark Tower, which had practically been nearly dismantled and one-third of New York had been destroyed, the Aliens who come through what Hill had said was a Portal had Bianca's eyes wide with terror. There was no way all the Team had survived this. It had her asking herself who they'd lost. The list of who could have been killed ran wind in her mind terrible at such a fast rate she had no idea her tears had been rolling down her face.

As soon as the craft had landed and the ramp opened, she rushed off the craft as fast as a fox had run out of its den because of a fire and made her way into Stark Tower's building where she came to a full dead stop as soon as she entered the building, watched the entire team resting there grumbling about politicians. Feeling her chest lighten so much so that her shoulders sagged, and her gym bag and backpack had fallen right off her shoulders hitting the floors giving off a thud that drew their collected attention. With her breathing in a rampage and her legs feeling like led as she looked at them each by face, making sure they were all there.

Even Loki was there, cuffed and a strange mouthpiece around his mouth, likely to keep him quiet. It was only at that moment she noticed her wet face.

Seeing his niece standing there, her chest heaving and rasping like she might be having an asthma attack, Steve moved from the table he'd been leaning against "Bia," he said, taking just a few steps through the team he was momentarily surprised by her jumping into a run and slamming into him, her arms around his waist as she cried into his belly. Sighing, Steve wrapped his arms around her and simply held her. They were all still beaten up and dirty and bruised, hell even Tony was busted up pretty badly. Probably him more than any of them, then again, Steve didn't break as easily as Tony could, even though Steve was still bleeding in some places, Tony had taken a lot of hits. And a Missile, then he had survived quite a few thousand feet fall that he likely would have K. on had Hulk not caught the guy, which they were all very thankful for.

After she was done with her tear fest Steve knelt to her level and softly sighed. "Bianca, I think you and I and Natasha need to have a talk. Yeah?" He told her with a nod of yes.

Sighing, Natasha walked up to Steve and held her hand out to Bianca, who instantly took her hand and let her lead her away from her uncle and the others as Hill and Fury walked in. When the kid stopped and looked back to her uncle as he stood and began to speak with Fury. "It's okay El, he'll be on his in a minute. We're going to go upstairs though," she told the clearly bothered ten-year-old.

Looking back and forth from her Agent Aunt and her uncle, she pointed back to her uncle. She didn't know what was wrong, but for some reason, she had a feeling that she wasn't the one in trouble. "But Uncle Steve-"

"Yeah, the tower, come on Pumpkin," Tony said jogging up to them, taking her hand pointing at Steve. He'd had to take the armor off because it was making him suddenly Claustrophobic and waved the rest of the team on, "Thor, there's a place for him up thereto. Come on. I think Cap. wants a moment alone with Director Fury."

Back up the elevator, heading back up into Stark Tower.

Bianca rested into Natasha's side, the assassin's arm draped around her, her hand still held in Mr. Stark's hand. She stared into the reflection off the elevator as they rode up to the tower. "Aunt Nat?" Bianca softly asked.

Looking down at the child staring blankly into their reflections, Natasha rested a hand to the top of her strawberry blonde hair, "What is it sweet girl?" Natasha asked softly.

"Am I in trouble for stabbing that guy in the leg?" she asked timidly.

Her question was adorable, and honestly, the majority of the team tried not to laugh. "No baby, you're not in trouble for that. I don't think you're in any trouble." She told the worried girl. Leaning down, Natasha kissed the top of Bianca's head. "It'll be okay. Uncle Steve isn't mad at you for anything."

Hearing the elevator close, Steve sighed as he looked at Director Fury, "When did Natasha start training Bianca?" He asked, showing Fury the video on Stark's phone he'd gotten from the Bay Cell. "All I've taught her was how to hit a punching bag. That was all, Romanoff I watched on the video feed." Steve confessed.

Watching the video, Fury sighed. "Look, Rogers, we had no idea how long we were going to have Bianca, we'd already had her for three years. Bianca showed interest, started running around the tracks with Natasha, watched her and Clint sparing, all of it. So, they did small things. Natasha has never shown Bianca any of that. That was all your niece Cap." Fury explained. "I would, however, recommend her continuing her training with Agent Romanoff and Clint." He said, sealing Steve's shock and anger at him suggesting that. Fury rushed after the man as he headed towards the elevator. "Steven, please, just hear me out! She's interested, alright, you cannot change that. She's not just yours Rogers!" He shouted. He took an annoyed breath as the Captain quickly turned back to him, he was going to put just a small thing straight right here, right now. "She's a Rogers, Steve, she's also a Dugan. And to top that, she has your sister in her. Dugan always told Bianca that her energy was so close to Stephanie's. The kid hardly ever runs away. But I'll hit you one better, just because she calls Natasha Aunt, it's very much the opposite. Aside from Sarah, Natasha is the only mother that girl has ever known. And maybe Laura Barton also. So, whether you want to accept it or not, she's never going to run away from a fight. She's too much like you."

"She's ten, Fury," Steve told him with growing nervousness.

Nick felt for the guy, he really did, but Steve needed to see the bigger picture. "Yes, Bianca is ten years old, but she will not stay ten, Steve. Do you really want your niece to grow up and have no idea how to defend herself? Do you really want Bianca to run away from everything in her life? I know I don't. She is talented, Steve. Why not hone those skills to help Bianca in the future?" Fury asked him. He really wanted to know. Because now Fury was concerned that Rogers wanted the girl to run away from every challenge she was given in life, not just a fight.

Thinking about that for a moment, Steve sighed with a shake of his head. "That's not what I'm talking about Fury. I just want her to be smart and safe, she could have been killed on that aircraft and I'd have been responsible, I brought her on that craft, my niece!"

Nodding, Fury gave the Captain that much. "Yeah, you did. But because you thought she was safer there. And you know what? You were right. Bianca was safer there on that aircraft than down here on the ground, and do you want to know something else?" Fury was done sugar coating things. He was going to get down to the dirt. "Your girl handled herself perfectly. She stopped the guy long enough for Thor to get there, granted the man was tricked and Coulson was killed, yeah, a painful loss. But you know what? That is no one's fault. Coulson died doing his job. Bianca is a kid, not an Agent and she still tried to stop it, but she had to get away first to tell someone, which is why she made a run for it. To save herself and tried to stop Loki from escaping by telling an Agent, or you. She prioritized. Tell me, Captain, what ten-year-old can prioritize in that situation like that as fast and effectively as she did today?" Nick asked, waiting for Steve to answer him. Fury made a choice to answer for them both. "Not a lot."

They waited in silence, just staring at each other for what seemed like all day.

Taking in a deep breath, Steve rubbed his face and released the heavy breath, "I'll sign the Paperwork for Nat to pick her up after school and make sure she knows when Bee's practices are. Oh, and while we're actually discussing things like this, completely off-topic though, but she wouldn't tell me why she's dropping Cheer. Any idea why she'd drop it?" he asked curiously.

Thinking about that, Fury bit at the inside of his cheek at that news. "Girls can be very brutal, Cap." Fury told the man. Until it all hit Fury like a building. "She hasn't told you, has she?" Fury asked Steve. When the Captain gave him a frowned brow of confusion Fury sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Steve, Bianca has no friends at school, never been to a sleepover, no birthday parties, nothing. Kids have gotten meaner over the years, and sadly, today the bullies are the ones getting protected when someone fights back. Thankfully, Bia knows how to avoid those situations. She enjoys Cheerleading, but sometimes the team isn't so nice to her." Fury told Steve. He'd have thought Bianca would have told Steve about kids at school. But obviously, she hadn't. "But she's at a new school, I'd think someone would have become her friend by now. Maybe you should talk to her about that."

Knowing Fury was right, Steve nodded. When he and Fury got up to Stark's Tower, Steve entered and Natasha instantly approached him with an expression of worry, "Not right now Romanoff. Bee, can I talk to you for a moment?" he asked. When she moved off the Bar-top with Stark's help and jogged over to her uncle. Nodding to Tony when he pointed to a door, likely one of the rooms that had not been destroyed.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Natasha watched the door close behind Steve before turning to Fury. "Fury, what did he say?" She felt a panic in her that Steve may be protectively paranoid and never let her see Bianca again. The girl was special to Natasha. Loved her as much as she loved Clint's family, as much as she loved her sister. The girl had been alone, and Natasha had, unfortunately, and fortunately, become attached to her. She wasn't sure if it was motherly or sisterly, but she knew Bianca was family. And that was scary to her. The thought of never seeing Bee scared Natasha. And it made her very nervous.

"You'll see in a moment," Fury told her. There had been a rather interesting and very serious talk in the elevator on their way up. "He will need a word with you after he is done talking with her." Fury told her. He wanted to tell her not to worry, to not fidget over the twenty minutes that Steve and Bianca were away talking about a very serious topic.

That being Bianca's training with Romanoff.

But Steve had a different discussion he wanted to have with Natasha. When the doors burst open and Bianca ran out with an excited squeal as she ran to Natasha, hugging the confused woman, her arms wrapped around Bianca's excited self.

With her arms around a very excited girl, Natasha looked at Steve curiously and very confused.

Smiling at how excited Bianca was, he knew there was going to be more she'd likely be more excited about. If Natasha agreed. "Need to talk to you," Steve told her, his voice was calm and easy. When Bianca let Natasha go, she made her way to him and into the room he was using as a personal meeting room. Closing the door, Steve took a breath to start in on what he was planning on asking Natasha, that was until the redheaded Assassin turned on him, there he saw the fear on Natasha's face.

"Before you take her away from me, at least let me explain why-"

"Hold up, Romanoff, I'm not taking Bee away from you. She just ran to you not even three minutes ago, all excited. She'll continue her training with you. But I'd like to ask you something… Well, something extremely personal." Steve said. Now he was just nervous.

Blinking back her shock, Natasha waited for him to continue on with what he meant. His nervousness was clear, he still didn't know how to talk to women. "What are you talking about Rogers?"

Taking a coughed breath, Steve cleared his throat, "I need someone to be there for Bianca if anything ever happens to me. I would have no objections if you would…Well, um, if you would… Real quick here before I jump the gun. Do you have any children?" Steve asked suddenly.

Shaking her head, even more off guard than she had been before. "Wait, What? No, I-I… Can't…" Pinching the bridge of her nose, Natasha took in a deep controlling breath. "I can't have children, Rogers. Where exactly are you going with this?" Natasha asked him.

Well, he was going for it. "Look, as much as I would want to, I'm already Bianca's uncle and permanent guardian, but I haven't had much time with her like you and Fury. But, as I said, if something were to happen to me, I need someone who will protect her, teach her where I can't. Fury said she's pretty close with you and himself. I already asked if he would be her godfather, also to the point that I have no one else or any friends left alive, and because she knows you both and I know I can trust her to be well cared for- I am so sorry," Steve mumbled. Okay, he was trailing like a snail now, this was not good. 'Whoa, this is more awkward than I thought.' he thought.

Trying not to think so hard about what Steve was trying to say, Natasha watched him carefully. The guy was nervous about something, and she was honestly a little confused about where he was going. "Well, she already calls me her aunt, and if Fury is going to be-"

"No, I'm asking if you would be her mother, Natasha." Steve interrupted how quickly, stopping her before she got the wrong idea like he knew his mumbling was causing.

Natasha's heart jumped into her throat as Steve said the one word she thought she would never be. She was in a form of shock as she stared at him. "You- wait, I-I…" she was honestly out of words.

"Fury already said you may be a little stand-offish about it in case your enemies found you. And I totally understand that-"

"You'd let... You'd let me be Bianca's mother?" Natasha asked him. She figured her question shocked him from the way he looked at her.

Smiling warmly, at the Assassin, Steve nodded. "Yeah, trying to figure out how to do that without having the paperwork public. Because apparently everything is public knowledge these days."

Taking several breaths to control herself Natasha took a seat on a nearby chair. "Um, will, S.H.I.E.L.D. has ways to keep that covered. Mostly it would have to be more of an emotional thing than a legal thing." She told him. Seeing his confused expression Natasha sighed. "Steve, everything eventually becomes public knowledge. You of all people should know that. If we adopted her together because I wouldn't be able to do so legally without being... some relation to be allowed to by legal Laws. So, to legally be considered her parent, or parents, Bianca would be an even bigger target because of not just one of us, but both of us. If she remained your niece and my pupil, then documents mean nothing in that aspect. She would be 100% safer. Let her come to us rather than us run to her. This is me protecting Bee, this is me protecting you, as well as myself. As an Agent with a very bad and bloody past, I cannot, will not, let anyone of our enemies find her and use her against us. Because both our enemies could do so many terrible things to a person's child if they knew about said child's existence." Natasha explained. Thinking of her past, the things she had done, Natasha felt terror chilling throughout her.

Nodding, Steve looked over his shoulder to the door before taking a deep breath in, "Okay, then how do we do this?" He was curious, because legally if anything happened to Steve, she went right back to the foster system. To being bounced around.

"We all adopt her?" Natasha answered with uncertainty and a shrug. "Honestly, I don't know yet. I'll talk to Fury, see what could be done." She told the Captain.

Nodding, Steve turned to leave, clearly, she needed a moment from the shock she was still displaying. "Natasha, it's just a request. If you aren't comfortable with it, you don't have to-"

"How long until you plan on adopting her?" Natasha asked him. She wanted a time frame for not only Steve, but herself.

"Within the next year, possibly. But as you said, enemies kind of make me nervous to do that." He admitted.

Nodding, she took a deep quiet breath, "Okay. Then we have about ten months to figure it out." She told him, standing from the chair she made her way out with a soft thank you to Steve when he opened the door for her. She smiled as soon as she heard Bianca softly laughing with Tony, playing an old game on one of the Screens that were still intact. It sounded like Tony was losing from all his loud playful dramatics. He got along well with Bianca, and Tony didn't get along well with a lot of people. Walking to them she watched for a moment and heard the girl's stomach growl. Natasha figured Bianca likely hadn't eaten from being so worried. "Alright kiddo, I think we should go find something to eat, come on,"

Steve laughed a bit walking to them and playfully ruffled Bianca's Strawberry blonde hair. Even after all the insanity she had gone through, he had to say he was surprised that her hair had remained soft with hardly any tangles. "She's right, Bee. Let's go eat,"

Even though she really liked that idea, she had no idea where they could possibly go, "Where? The Alien's ruined half of Manhattan,"

Amused, Tony stood up straight. "She is definitely your kid, Rogers."

That had been two and a half years ago.

Today, Bianca was waiting out front of her School for Fury to pick her up. But he hadn't arrived yet. Which was weird.

"He-hey, Bianca, right?" A nervous boy asked walking up to her. Hell, he knew he looked nervous. His hands were sweaty and clammy.

Smiling at him with uncertainty as to why he'd try talking to her, no one had ever liked enough to her try, and she hadn't the courage to talk to anyone else after a while because they had always given her that look like she was a nasty stray, like they were too good to be around her. But she knew this boy. Bianca had been at this school's branch since her uncle had gotten her back in 2011, and with it being 2014 she had simply accepted that no one would ever want to talk to her unless they were trying to bully her. But not wanting to screw it up if he had good intentions, Bianca smiled a little at him. He was a little guy, a bit of a string bean, but he was the cute little nervous nerd kind of boy with big curious eyes and a rather adorable smile. "Yeah, Peter, right? Peter Parker?" She asked with some fear she'd gotten his name completely wrong. But his ecstatic smile had her smiling a full real smile of relief.

Completely dumb-founded she even knew him, Peter nodded, rubbing his clammy hands together, a blush coving his cheeks, then, he began to stutter, "Uh, um, we-well, yeah, yeah, P-Peter, umm, I-I was just wondering i-if you, um… Want to walk home to-together?" He asked, his eyes glancing over to a group of hysterically laughing jerks, pointing at him. His enthusiasm and confidence was instantly shot to shit. "Um, a-actually,"

"I will definitely walk with you," she said, stepping beside him and clapping her hands softly to shock him out of his discouragement. She could hear their laughter behind her, and she wasn't sure if they were laughing at her, or Peter, either way, it was something she was used to. She had seen Peter's falling and sad expression as they laughed, and it had her sad for him, she felt how bad he felt because she felt that way every day when she came to school. Kids were mean, really mean. Not wanting to see him this discouraged, Bianca smiled at him. "My ride must have gotten held up anyways, I'll let them know where I'm going. Come on, where do you live?" she asked him.

Smiling big at her, Peter felt a surge of encouragement, "Um, well, wh-where do you live?" he asked curiously.

"Oh, I live 30 some minutes away from here, I live in Brooklyn with my uncle," She answered him with a smile as they started on their walk. Looking around she noticed Parker was missing her other half, "Hey, where's your other half? That friend of yours? Ed, right?" she asked, feeling a little cringe coming on, she knew she'd messed that boys' name up badly. She wasn't all that great with names half the time, especially when it came to classmates.

Shocked again, Peter smiled at her, "Ned, actually, you were close, he-he, um, Ned took the bus home," He answered her. Peter had to say, he was shocked.

They talked and laughed as they walked and rode the train. She had texted Fury before they had gotten close to the train station that she was walking with a new and would meet him at the train station halfway to Brooklyn, so he didn't have to drive that much.

When it came for him to get off, the two of them said goodbye for the weekend. When she got off the train and waited outside the train station for Fury, constantly re-reading the text message he had sent her in response. But something felt weird. Tapping her foot nervously on the steps, she looked at her watch. It was getting late. Like really late. Sighing, she tried calling her uncle. When that fell through, she attempted to call Natasha. "Nat, Uncle Steve isn't answering, and neither is Uncle Fury, I am now walking home, not like that's a problem or anything, but I'm worried and a little weirded out because I got a response from Fury, and it just doesn't seem like what Uncle Fury would normally say. Like at all. Anyways, he said he'd pick me up today, but he never showed, and his text makes no sense at all," She sighed realizing she was about to go into a total ranting fest and just decided to save it for late, "Never mind, anyway, I will see you tomorrow for training. I hope. Unless you have a random mission then I suppose I will see you when you come pull my butt out of bed. Anyways, I love you, if you're with Uncle Steve tell him I love him too. Bye," she sighed hanging up the phone.

When Bianca arrived home, she yawned at seeing how late it was, it was almost 8:30 at night and she still had homework she needed to work on. She had tried walking around to see if maybe she could find her uncle Steve. The Gym was a bust, the Kitchen he normally visited was out because he also was not there, she'd even tried looking around some of the normal places she knew he would sit and sketch. Those were also a no go. And no one was answering.

Annoyed that she still had homework to do she knocked on the Nurses door to see if she was home. Again, no answer. Rolling her eyes, she went to her and Steve's apartment, "Thank God I have all week to do homework," she yawned again as she opened the door. Hearing the music playing, Bianca softly laughed at the thought of Uncle Steve leaving the music on by accident. Walking into the apartment, she dropped her backpack to the floor near the bookcase and came around the corner and turned the light on. Not paying attention to anything else or the mess in the room as she walked into the kitchen and got a Gatorade from the fridge and began to chug the thing with a deep thirst.

With half the bottle downed, Bianca took a relaxed breath as she closed the refrigerator, turned her back to it and rested back against the cold metal appliance. Taking another drink, her eyes closed in exhaustion, she felt her phone buzzing on the countertop table. Curious and a little annoyed, she was just getting responses from people. She sighed and lazily approached the counter and picked up her phone and swiped up on the screen to see what the hell was going on. Her phone was being blown to pieces with missed calls and text messages. Confused, Bianca set her drink down, "What? 87 missed calls? What the heck is this?" She was completely confused. Seeing the number of voicemails, she blinked trying to not hallucinate. Was her Gatorade spiked? "Oh my God, you have to be kidding me. This is not happening. What the heck," she scrolled through the texts of all the people who'd been messaging her, Bianca found her uncle's messages, fifty some messages she was just now getting, thirty-two from Natasha, twenty from Pepper, and twenty-one from Agent Hill. Every single one saying that Fury had been injured, that he was in surgery, then the messages and the voicemails that she had saying Furry was dead, that she shouldn't go home and to get to S.H.I.E.L.D. or the avenger's Tower as soon as possible or the very sacred and pissed off voicemails from her uncle, Natasha and Pepper and Tony telling her to answer her phone and call them back as soon as possible. All in all, the time she had taken to listen to a few of the voicemails and read a few of the messages had taken her about eight to ten minutes, then the lights switched off and her heart dropped.