Battle of New York
With her study door open Peggy Carter could faintly hear the murmuring of the television playing in the living room. She'd just finished up some household business, and was looking over some papers before lunch when she heard something crash in the front of the house. Stuffing her papers in her desk door as she sprang to her feet Peggy raced to the living room just as Angie's voice cried out her name. When she arrived she found her wife, pale and trembling, standing in front of the television, lunch smashed to pieces on the floor. "Angie?" Her wife pointed to the screen with a shaky hand and Peggy moved to stand beside her to see what Angie was pointing at. Peggy watched in stricken horror as things, she wasn't sure what kinds of things, came pouring out of the sky over New York City.
"Peggy?" Angie whispered, her voice giving away her fright.
"I don't know." Peggy said honestly. "I have no clue, darling."
As the shock of what they were witnessing faded a bit Peggy began to realize what she was seeing was an invading alien army. Peggy was well aware that they were not alone in the galaxy. Nicholas had once introduced her to a remarkable young woman with extraordinary powers who had been taken to another planet and trained as a soldier. He had also given her daughter an orange tabby cat named Agent Goose, who was not at all a tabby cat. Natasha still had it, her, Agent Goose living in her apartment. Yes, Peggy Carter was well aware of aliens, of gods and monsters, and all the other fantastical things that existed beyond normal human comprehension. Those things were the whole reason she and Howard had created and built SHIELD.
Standing there watching it all unfold on her television screen made Peggy feel uncomfortable in her own skin. It felt wrong for her to just be standing there doing nothing. She should be out there coordinating her teams, working with her agents, shoring up defenses, and fighting! But that was no longer her job, she'd retired, given control over to Nicholas. All she could do now was watch, pray, and hope that she'd left the world in good hands.
Nicholas had been working on something for years. She knew that it somehow involved her godson because of that bloody armor of his, and Peggy suspected that it also involved Steve. She could almost certainly tie the events in New Mexico to this as well. What she had not seen coming, and perhaps in hindsight she should have, was Natasha's involvement, but there she was on shaky cell phone footage right alongside Captain American.
"Oh God, Peggy, look!" Angie said as she sank onto the sofa. "What is she doing there!"
Slowly Peggy sat down beside her wife, taking Angie's hands into her own. "Her job, love."
Natasha had just turned seventeen when Fury approached her about joining SHIELD. She'd been trying to understand what her mother meant by finding purpose, and when he'd offered her a chance to follow in her mother's footsteps, Natasha hadn't hesitated. With a foundation of skills already had from years spent training in gymnastics, dance, and martial arts, Natasha trained to become the best. HYDRA, Hammer, AIM, the Russians, they all knew her codename and feared it. But those were just men, humans drunk and twisted on power. This, this was a fucking alien army falling out a whole in the sky! And she was just a spy, not a super soldier. She wore basic SHIELD issue tactical gear, not a technological suit of armor. She was just a human, not a god or an irradiated monster. At least she wasn't the only simple human on the team.
She stood with Clint at her side, which helped because if she was going to fight aliens in the middle of Manhattan she wouldn't want anyone else along for the ride. What was really freaking her out, perhaps even a bit more than the aliens, was the fact that she was fighting alongside Captain America just as her mother had all those years ago. That was even more trippy then the Norse God and the fact that her stupid genius idiot cousin was flying over their heads in a red and gold suit of armor. On the bright side the surrealness of fighting with Captain America had distracted her from the almost debilitating fear she'd felt while she'd been chased through the helicarrier by a massive green rage monster. "What has my life become?"
"Exciting?" Clint offered with a shrug.
While the heavy hitters worked on taking out the flying alien whale things, Natasha, Clint and Cap focused on civilians. Thankfully good old fashioned bullets seemed to work against the ground troops, though at this rate Natasha wasn't sure how long she had before she ran out. At least she'd last longer than Clint and his quiver. "Just like Budapest all over again."
"You and I remember Badapest very differently." Clint replied.
As they fought Natasha found herself wondering how much of Rogers tactician skills were his own and how much was the serum. It didn't really matter to her which one it was. She just wanted a few seconds to think of something other than, 'kill them before they kill you'. When Banner shows up she finds it hard to approach him but she does it anyway, her mother's voice whispering softly in her thoughts, "do not allow fear to become an enemy that slows you down and weakens you, poppet, but allow it to be a companion that makes you stronger."
"We could use a little worse." She tells him as she looks into his eyes and can't help but search for the monster within.
"Heads up." Tony's voice calls out over their comms once he knows Banner is with them. "I'm bringing the party to you guys, I wouldn't want you to miss out on all the fun."
Natasha watches as her cousin leads the biggest of the alien ship whale things right towards them. "Tony, I think we really need to talk about you idea of a fun party."
In Brooklyn in a faded red brick brownstone Peggy listens to her wife as she prays beside her while they watch their daughter and nephew fight monsters from another planet. Peggy had already called Nicholas and left him a seething message about Natasha being on this super secret team he's been building, and warns him that if anything happens to any one of her three children she'll take his good eye with her bare hands so he had better hope his Avengers can take care of business and survive it. Now she sits and watches as the Hulk crashes into one of the, what she is assuming is a ship, and flips it. She holds her breath because she can clearly see the shock of red hair at the bottom corner of the screen. Peggy Carter watches from the center of an emotional malesorm as Captain American uses his iconic shield to shield her daughter from harm. Taking her wife's hand in her own, Peggy begins to pray right along with her.
They're standing on opposite sides of the bridge. Cap looks concerned, but Natasha smiles. He doesn't seem to find it reassuring.
"Are you sure about this?" Steve asks.
Natasha smirks. "Yeah, sure, it's going to be fun." Then she raises her hand and points a finger at him. "Never. Ever. Tell my mother about this."
Steve watches her run towards him, onto the hood of the car beside him, and then feels her boots hit his shield. He uses all his strength to push, launching her up into the air and onto one of those alien bike things. He smiles as she pulls the rider from his seat and throws him to the ground. Shaking his head he simple says, "Those Carter dames are truly something else."
"Hey Nattie!" Tony says as he flies up alongside Natasha. "Having fun yet? Still sure you don't what me to make you some armor?"
Natasha groans, though she isn't sure if it's from the effort of stabbing knives into an alien's exoskeleton or because of Tony. "I'm not flying around in a tin can, Tony." She knew he was pouting, she didn't need to actually see his face to know that. "But," She added as she spared a second to turn her head and look at him. "If you want to make me some toys to play with, I wouldn't say no."
Tony whooped happily and did a corkscrew as he flew away. "I already have some ideas!"
On the list of things Natasha Carter never in a million years thought she'd be doing, using the scepter of a Norse god to close an interplanetary portal to stop an alien invasion wasn't even on the bloody list because how the hell could she have ever imagined something like this! But here she stood, on the roof of Tony's massive building pushing Loki's scepter through a forcefield with all her might. But then she hears Tony's voice in her ear telling her to wait, there's a nuke on it's way and he's diverting it. A nuke, if it were to hit, that wouldn't just take out New York City, it would rain chaos and death all across the five boroughs. Brooklyn. A faded red brick brownstone. "Tony."
"I got this Nat." Tony replies. "Wait until I give the signal."
"Stark." Steve's voice cuts in. "You know that's a one way trip."
Natasha's heart, already thundering from the fight, speeds up. "Tony."
There's a crackle of static over the comms that singles a change in frequencies, and then Tony's voice again. "Ya know, despite all his annoying flaws, Louie really does love Huey and Dewey with all his damaged little heart."
The comms crackle again, a switch back to the open team comms. Natasha stands on the roof of Stark Tower fighting the urge to drop the scepter to save Tony, her body trembling, tears welling in her eyes as she watches him carry the nuke up towards the hole. While in a SHIELD mobile command unit Agent 13's knees go weak, her face pales, and she has to catch herself on the railing where she stands.
Peggy's phone rings, Tony's face lighting up the screen. She's watching as Iron Man flies towards the hole in the sky, and as she answers her hand shakes. "Anthony?"
"Hiya Aunt Peggy." Tony's voice is calm and steady over the crackly connection, his eyes flickering between his distention and Pepper's line, she still hasn't picked up. "I just wanted to call and say I'm sorry, ya know, for being such a putz, for not living up to Dad and…"
"I never expected you to be your father, Anthony." Peggy tells him. Tears fall when she closes her eyes, unable to watch what's happening on the tv for a moment. "I have only ever wanted you to be you, my sweet, smart, and clever boy. I have only ever wanted you to see the amazing man I know you to be, for yourself."
There was a quiver in Tony's voice. "I tried, Aunt Peggy. I really did."
"We know you did, Anthony." Peggy opens her eyes to watch because she will not turn away when he needs her most. "I am very proud of you, Tony."
"That means everything to me, Aunt Peg." The line is quite for a second or two and then Tony continues. "Is Aunt Angie there too?"
"I am, bud." Angie said softly, her voice to unstead to speak any louder than a horse whisper.
"I'm pretty damn lucky you know. I got the best aunts ever." Tony tells them just before the line goes dead.
"Tony?" Peggy says softly. "Tony? Anthony!?"
Natasha hestates for a second, Tony's up there, he's in that hole in the sky, but it's only for a second. She pushes the scepter through, touching the tip of it to the tesseract. The portal starts to close, she watches, silently says every prayer her Ma has ever taught her. Her mind flashes through memories of growing up with Tony; birthdays spent together, lighting menorah candles with Aunt Ana, she and Tony with Uncle Howard in his lab, flooding it with tie dye form, and getting caught up to her neck in it by her mother, Uncle Jarvis teaching them how to make the perfect cup of tea, and building sandcastles with her Ma. The weight of it all is about to send Natasha crashing to her knees in the gravel but then a glint of light off of red and gold armor catches her eyes. She watches Tony falling and rushes to the edge of the roof as if there were some way she could catch him, only to see the Hulk do it for her.
Slowly Natasha sinks to her knees as the gratitude and relief washes over her. She smirks, lets out a stress fueled laugh. "And now he's going to be insufferable."
When they regroup, just before heading inside to deal with Loki, Natasha slaps Tony and then throws her arms around his neck. "Don't ever do something like that again!"
Tony hugs her, ignoring the confused looks on everyone's face but Clint's. "No promises, Nattie."
When she pulls away enough to demand a reason why he shrugs. "To much of her in me too I guess."
She thinks she likes shawarma, but it was honestly hard to tell. All Natasha could taste was grit and the metallic iron taste of blood. The city was a mess, it would take years to get it all put back together. With the immediate threat over, and now that Tony had gotten his shawarma, Natasha was making her way through the rubble and ruin on a hotwired, borrowed bike she'd found outside the shawarma place. She hadn't said a word to the others, though she did spare a reassuring glance for Clint and Tony. She just hopped on a working motorcycle and took off. Natasha didn't stop until she pulled up in front of the faded red brick brownstone. She trudged up the stairs, unlocked the door and walked inside. She and Tony had already called them, talked to them, letting them know they were both safe and sound. She knew they would be waiting for her, so it wasn't a surprise when they appeared as she made her way towards the stairs. She gave her mothers a wave and then began climbing.
With each step upwards she peeled away the nightmare she'd just survived. Her weapons belt, her utility belt, her gauntlets all hit the stairs as Natasha made her way to the second floor of her childhood home. Her boots were left on the landing. Her uniform lay in ragged dust and blood covered pieces in the hallway. Passing her own room she went to her mothers', and in her standard issue undershirt and shorts, skin covered in grit, grim, and blood both human and alien, hair matted with from the gash on her head that left an itchy dry streak along the side of her face, Natasha crashed onto her mothers' bed. She went face first into her Ma's pillow, not even caring that it hurt her battered, bruised face, or her busted lip. Reaching for her Mum's pillow she pulled it close, sandwiching her head between the two, and inhaling the smell of her mothers hair as if it were pure oxygen.
When Natasha walked in Angie shot to her feet and was about to run to her daughter, needing to hold her in arms, but Peggy stopped her. They stood there and watched as Natasha made her way up the stairs stripping off items as she went. Angie shook her head, "She certainly is your daughter isn't she, Margaret?"
"Yes." Peggy replied, knowing that Angie wasn't truly angry with her despite the tone and use of her real name. They'd both been terrified and overwhelmed with emotions unexplainable. Those feelings would take time to sort out and get over. "Yes, I suppose she is."
Peggy gathered up Natasha's equipment and weapons, stashing them away safely in Natasha's room, while Angie gathered up their daughter's ruined uniform. The sound Angie made upon discovering the blood on the uniform broke Peggy's heart. Once that was done they walked into their bedroom to find Natasha in middle of their bed clutching their pillows. They each walked over to their respective sides and laid down beside her. She curled into them and they held her, allowing the relief of her being safe and sound in their arms overshadow, for now, the fact that she was so shaken up over what happened, she'd come home and crawled into their bed the way she did when she was frightened and overwhelmed as a child.
"It's alright now, poppet." Peggy said softly as she pressed her forehead to the back of Natasha's head. "We've got you know, love. Mama and I got you."
"You go to sleep, angel." Angie said, pressing her lips against Natasha's forehead. "That's enough superheroing for one day."
That actually made Natasha snort into her pillows. Was she a superhero now? She'd think about what that means later. Right now, in this moment, all she was was a young woman who needed to be in her mothers' arms. To feel safe, and normal, and not have to deal with aliens and monsters and gods. And until she was finished being that young woman, the rest of the bloody world could just fuck off.