To say Danielle was nervous was an understatement. She was slightly terrified of how her Mom would react to meeting Sharon. Thankfully, Wanda agreed to coming along for the trip down to the Big Apple, stating she too needed to get some Christmas shopping done.

As Alice and the two enhanced girls walked to the apartment door, Danielle felt her heart rate beating rapidly. What if her Mom hated Sharon? What if Sharon hated her Mom?

Wanda detected the uneasiness in her adopted little sister and took Danielle's hand in her own. A small glowing red mist encased their intertwined fingers and Danielle felt herself growing calm. Wanda had been practicing a lot with not only the physical attributes of her powers, but also the mental. Controlling or maintains certain feelings was something that Wanda used a lot with Danielle and herself since joining the Avengers and both girls were thankful fork it in that moment as Danielle used her free hand to knock on the apartment door.

She had called ahead already to notify Sharon of the visit and plans and the CIA Agent was happy to take the day off to go shopping with Danielle and her mother. Finally, when Sharon opened the door, all eyes were on Alisson Harper. Alice took one look at the smiling blonde before wrapping her arms around the woman in a hug. Wanda and Danielle exchanged odd looks as Sharon returned the gesture.

When they separated, Alice said only one word, "Thank you."

Sharon nodded. "You're welcome."

After the introductions, the group of women set out on the town in search of the perfect Christmas gifts. Danielle decided to keep it simple. Clothes for the men and gift baskets for the women. And, of course she couldn't leave out her new friends at school. She had already ordered most of the presents online; a skirt for Liz, a headband for Betty, sketchbook for Michelle, a Polaroid camera for Sally, new sweater for Cindy, and two limited edition Star Wars shirts for Ned and Peter.

The only three gifts Danielle bought that were different for her Mom, Jack, and Wanda. Jack got an electrical drum-set, Wanda got a Spotify gift card, and her Mom had a large family portrait of the Harper Clan framed and wrapped waiting in the back of Danielle's closet.

After the morning of shopping, the group dropped all the large bags off at the apartment before retreating to a nail salon not far from the Avengers Tower.

"I remember living there for five months." Wanda recalled as they stared out the glass windows in their seats as they got their nails buffed, polished, and painted. The women doing their nails were Viatnamese and understood little English. Thankfully, Sharon and her Mother spoke fluent and were keeping up conversation with them while they did their nails.

Danielle chuckled at Wanda's comment. "Yeah... We stayed in the same room for a long time."

"Until we moved to the Compound and you were forced to stay in your own room." Wanda added. "Was I the only one who noticed that Jack never once left Tony's side the entire time?"

Danielle laughed and shook her head. "He's like a puppy."

"You were the same way with Steve." Wanda retorted.

"Vision was the same way with you."

Wanda drew her eyebrows up. "What? No, he wasn't."

"Yes, he was. He followed you everywhere."

"And Tony."

"Hardly did I ever see him following Tony. It was more the other way around." The girls laughed.

Once the laughter subsided, Wanda spoke again. "Are you nervous for the soccer try outs this week at school?"

Danielle took a deep breath in. "I hadn't thought about it until now. Which makes me extremely nervous."

"Don't worry, you'll be great."

"Do you think you could make it to my games if I did get in?"

"I'm sure if no one recognizes me here, no one will recognize me at a soccer game."

"Jack too?"

"I don't think even an alien invasion could keep Jack from going to each and every one of your games if you make the team. Steve and your Mom, too." The conversation then drifted to the woman sitting a few chairs down talking with Shadon and the two women doing their nails. "How is she?" Wanda asked Danielle.

Danielle smiled. "Just like I remembered. But...something's off about her."

"She just came back from HYDRA, Danielle. Something's bound to be off about her."

"I know that, it's just...it seems like she's...waiting?" Danielle sighed.

"I noticed that. I read her mind and a lot of it was...blurred. Like she purposefully was trying not to think about it."

"Maybe all the things she's done..." Danielle trailed off as she watched her mother smile and laugh with Sharon on the other side of the room. It hurt her to think of her Mom as someone who's killed people because it wasn't who she was. Her mother wouldn't hurt a fly and she couldn't imagine how it must have been for her to kill a HUMAN.

Danielle hadn't even really killed a human yet. Sure, Eris had killed plenty of HYDRA men in Sokovia, and back in her days with Ultron when Danielle had to fight off Klaue's men and other scientists in labs for the evil AI. But not once had she ever ended someone's life.

Danielle had to admit that she had snuck a peek at her Mom's extensive portfolio Natasha, Steve, Rhodey, Tony, and Sam had put together after finding out SHE was the assassin on TV Wanda, Vision, and herself were worrying about a few weeks ago. The Silencer. And the fact that all the people her Mom killed were for her and Jack. To keep them safe. Danielle and her brother had been the cause to the end of these people's lives. When she thought more about it, Danielle felt herself looking at her Mom a different way. A way she really didn't enjoy seeing her; a monster.


Peter was on his usual rounds after school. First, Delmar's, then the alleyway to get changed into his suit he'd designed for himself, and finally, his afternoon began. That day was pretty slow, but very productive. A few car robberies, one guy who was harassing a lady in the park, and a little kid who almost got hit by a bus.

In between each excursion, Peter always took short breaks on the roofs of buildings to eat his sandwich while he waited for another crime to take place for him to stop.

While eating his sandwich on the roof of an apartment building in Brooklyn, Peter reflected on his day at school. It was pretty crappy to start off. He was late to first period because he missed the train after his alarm broke for the second time- he really needed to work on controlling his strength. During the day, Peter also noticed Danielle wasn't at school. He'd really wanted to talk to her after the Winter Formal a few days before hand, but she hadn't answered his calls or texts. He was beginning to get worried. But, to make matters worse for his really crappy day at school, Flash decided it would be fun to get the whole wrestling team to chant 'Penis Parker' during gym.

His day really was crappy, but at least he had Spiderman to fall back on in the afternoons. But sadly, it wasn't always busy being Spiderman, much like right now. Peter had stopped reflecting on his day and now resorted to trying to count how many pedestrians on the street were wearing blue. As he counted up to sixty-five, when he stopped at sixty-six, he suddenly recognized the owner of the blue hoodie. "Danielle?" Peter muttered to himself as he set his sandwich aside and knelt forward on the edge of the roof to get a better look.

Sure enough, the teenage brunette was standing on the sidewalk coming out of a nail salon with three other women. The first, he recognized as her Aunt Kate, but the other two were strangers to him. One was the same age as Kate and the other was maybe a a few years older than Danielle. For some reason, though, the younger brunette girl laughing with Danielle looked oddly familiar. Peter just couldn't pinpoint where he had seen her before.

But the other woman he noticed looked a lot like Danielle. Both had curly brown hair, plump lips, prominent cheek bones, pale skin, jutted collarbones, and petite noses. Not to mention, the brown-grey eyes Peter had looked into dozens of times before. Why did this woman look so much like Danielle? A relative? Most likely. Maybe that was why she ditched school, to spend time with out of town family. Where had Danielle said she was from? Northern New York?

Peter watched as the four women chatted, laughed, and talked as they walked across the busy street. Something quickly caught Peter's eye though when a car down the street turned the corner and was speeding right towards where the group of women were walking. "Oh, God!" He cried out as he swung from his webs quickly towards the intersection before the car got any further. Peter quickly dropped from his webs a few feet away from Danielle and her family and caugh the speeding car. He used all his strength to stop it by lifting it up in the air before he finally dropped it. "Phew." The teen vigilante huffed.

"Oh my God!" Peter spun around to see the older brunette woman running the few feet distance between her and Danielle to check to make sure she was alright. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Danielle-still wide eyed from the near fatal accident-shook her head. "No. No, I'm fine, Mom." She replied.

Peter became extremely confused in that moment. He clearly remembered Danielle telling him her parents were dead. How was it now that she was calling this woman who looked almost exactly like her, 'Mom'? Was that even possible? Had Danielle just lied about her dead parents? If so, why?

Just then, the group of women all turned towards the vigilante still standing in the street. "Thank you." The younger brunette girl told him with a slight accent.

"Er," Peter awkwardly cleared his throat before taking on a deeper tone. "It's no problem, ma'am. Just doing my job." He said before shooting his webs up at the roof and swinging away. God, he was so stupid for not just stopping the car and leaving after that. What if Danielle's Aunt recognized his voice? What if DANIELLE recognized his voice? There were so many questions and such little answers.


One minute, the car wasn't there. Then the next, it was, only someone was there to stop it.

After getting their nails done, the group of women walked out from the salon and started across the street where Wanda had said she saw a really cute boutique she wanted to look inside. The younger enhanced took the lead while the older women stayed in the back chatting.

"So, you've never really told me anything about your Decathlon Team and how it works." Wanda said as her and Danielle walked with their arms enterlocked with each other.

"Well, apparently you just answer questions on different subjects." Danielle tried to explain, but to be truthful she really did have no idea. "It's kind of like a more intense and longer team version of trivia."

"I can't wait to see you compete."

The girls were so encaptured in their conversation, they hadn't noticed the car speeding head on towards them until it was meters away. Danielle's first reaction was to hold a hand out and stop it with her powers, but there were too many people. Her second thought was to teleport her and Wanda out of the way, but once again, too many people around. Danielle was all but out of options when a red and blue blue jumped down in front of her and Wanda to catch the car IN HIS HANDS to stop it.

He held it up in mid air for a good four seconds before dropping it back down onto it's wheel. Wanda and Danielle gasped and staggered back slightly as Sharon and her Mom ran forward. "Oh my God!" Her Mom cupped Danielle's face in her hands and looked her up and down to make sure she was safe. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Danielle's eyes were still on the weird looking strong person who stopped the car and was dressed in a makeshift red and blue costume with goggles taped over his eyes. Eyes that seemed to be glued on her as he turned around to check to see if she too was alright. Danielle turned to face to her worried Mother to reply, "No. No, I'm fine, Mom."

Her Mom let out a sigh of relief before pulling her into a hug. Once she was released, Danielle turned to face Wanda who seemed to be getting a once over by Sharon. "Are you alright?" Danielle asked her.

Wanda nodded and took her hand in Danielle's. "Are you?" Danielle nodded back before they all turned to face the one that saved them. Danielle wanted to thank him, but Wanda beat her to the punch. "Thank you."

"Er," A soft voice replied before clearing his throat and replying in a much deeper voice. "It's not problem, ma'am. Just doing my job." He exclaimed before shooting something out from his wrist and swinging off and around the building, out of sight.

"Let's get out of the way." Danielle's Mom said before her and Sharon quickly ushered the enhanced girls out of the street as a crowd began to form around them and he speeding car driver.

Once they were off the street and inside the boutique they were initially heading to, they all sat down on the vintage chairs and caught their breath, letting the adrenaline drain from their systems after the incident. It was a very eventful day.


While it was very eventful for Danielle, Wanda, Alice, and Sharon down in NYC, it was a dull and boring weekday for the rest of the Avengers back at the Compound. With Wanda and Danielle gone, Jack had no one to really socialize with due to the fact that Rhodey and Sam were out on a recon mission in Chile, Natasha was visiting Clint for the holidays, Tony was out in Malibu, and Steve was following up on a lead he had about the Winter Soldier friend of his. Which really left the sulking android as the only source of entertainment in the place.

Vision usually hung around Wanda and hadn't really strayed from much other contact from any of the other members. Steve enjoyed holding civilized conversations with the artificial guy, as did Rhodey and Natasha. Sam was still trying to figure out how to HAVE a conversation with him and Jack? Well, Jack just really liked introducing the guy to normal human experiences like watching Star Wars.

"How does Han Solo understand what the Wookie says?" Vision asked half-way through Episode One. "His verbal patterns don't indicate that he is saying much anything than random noises."

Jack held back a round of laughter to answer, "I think that's kind of the point. No one really understands Chewie except Han. That's why they're such close friends."

"So the verbal imperfections of the Wookie are purely for enhancement of the characterization of both Han Solo and Chewbacca?"

After Jack took a minute to decipher what the android said he finally replies, "Yes." How Wanda even hung out with this guy without dying every second of every day was beyond Jack.

Just when Luke and Han were about to rescue Princess Leia, Steve, Sam, and Rhodey walked in. "How was Berlin?" Sam asked the blonde super soldier as the walked into the kitchen.

Steve must have just gotten back along with the other two war heroes due to the fact that he still had his duffel bag still in his hand when he shrugged and replied, "No good leads. Just another dead end."

"I'm sure you'll find him soon. It's only a matter of time." Rhodey assured the Captain.

"Yeah..." Steve didn't sound too convinced. "But what did you guys want to talk about that was so urgent?"

"We just came to report back from our trip." Sam answered.

Jack had all but blocked out what e three men were saying, but stopped short when the next sentence came out of Steve's mouth. "How did scouting Harper work out?"

Jack turned his head slightly to listen in closer. Rhodey shrugged. "Well, she surprisingly got along well with Sharon."

"Bummer." Sam grumbled. "I was hoping to see at least one cat fight today."

"Sam," Steve said in a scolding tone.

"Sorry."

"But the real reason we called you was because of something that happened a few hours ago before we left them at Sharon's apartment." Rhodey exclaimed. "They almost got hit by a car, but that vigilante Tony's been looking into stopped it from hitting Wanda and Dani."

"They alright?" Steve asked.

"They're fine."

"But Harper wasn't." Sam added. "She was freaking out. I mean, all day. She was throwing looks over her shoulders and eyeing up people nervously everywhere they went. It was bad enough when Wanda spotted us, but there were a few times she came close to making us."

Jack stood up then, rage boiling within him and the movie with Vision forgotten as he charged towards the group of men. "You were spying on my Mom and sister?" He demanded.

"It was for precaution." Steve explained.

"You knew about this?!"

"I ordered it."

"What? Why would you order them to spy on them?"

"To make sure Danielle was safe."

"From who? My Mom?" No one answered and that only fueled the enhanced boy's anger. "Seriously? After everything she's done for Danielle and I, you don't trust her? You think she's going to hurt Danielle?"

"Not directly." Rhodey replied. "We can't trust her just yet."

"Why, because she's former HYDRA? Well, hate to break it to you, so was I. So was Wanda. So was Dani! And so is your little war buddy, Rogers." Jack spar. "We were all apart of HYDRA, so what? You gonna spy on us? Throw us in a cage if we get out of hand like they used to do with us in Sokovia? You gonna throw me in a cell? Wanda? Dani?" He watched all three men wince at each name he said. "Hold on a minute, you told me Wilson and Rhodes were in Chile on a recon. Were you-were you not gonna tell me?"

Steve sighed. "We knew you'd be upset-"

"Yeah, damn right I'm upset. I'm pissed. You're threatening my Mom. My family."

"We're not even sure she's really your Mom, Harper." Sam finally snapped.

Jack was taken aback by his comment and the expression each men gave after he made it. It was clear that information wasn't meant for him to hear. "What did you just say?"

"We had a theory that what HYDRA did to Bucky...brainwashing..." Steve started. "They might have done it to your Mom. We didn't want to risk your sister's life on just your better judgement-"

"My better judgement?" Jack scoffed. "Like you're trusting Sam's safety on your better judgment about Barnes when you guys get a lead on him?" He retorted. "She's my Mom, and she ain't brainwashed. I mean, what were you planning on doing if she was? I mean, both you guys have guns in your holsters. You gonna kill my Mom, Rogers?"

"We don't want to-"

"Wrong answer." Jack cut him off swiftly. "Is this what happened when Wanda, Dani, and I came into the the picture? You held guns to our heads for precaution until you realized we weren't a threat? And if we were, you would've shot us like you would her?"

"That's not what it's like at all-"

"Yes, it is, Rogers." Jack interrupted again. "That's exactly what you're doing to her. And why?"

"Because she killed people!"

"So have we!" Jack retorted. "You've seen the video, Steve, I know you've seen what we can do. What I can do. What Wanda can do. What Danielle can do. What Danielle has done." Steve winced at that and Jack physically hurt from bringing up what Danielle was capable of. "You gonna shoot her if she gets twitchy? You gonna throw her in a cage?"

"No one is getting thrown into a cage."

"So just killed then?"

"No one is getting shot."

Jack laughed humorlessly. "If I find out that you three are spying on my family again, I'm taking Danielle and my Mom and we're leaving. I am not having another person pointing a gun at one of my family member's heads again. Not anymore." He stated before storming off.

"Well, that went terribly wrong." Vision remarked from his spot in front of the TV.


A/N: Lots of view points in this chapter. More Mommy!Harper distrust and lots of Wanda/Danielle, Sharon/Alice bonding. Not to mention, Peter pop up. And of course Jack being a defensive little bean. If that's how he reacted, can't imagine how Danielle would react if she found out Steve planned on killing her Mom if she got out of hand. Or how Danielle would react if she found out her Mom actually planned on killing Steve. Oh, so much angst these next few chapters.

Songs for the chapter are Best Day Of My Life by American Authors for Christmas Shopping Fluff and Believers by Imagine Dragons for Jack's argument with Sam, Rhodes, and Steve.

Incorrect Quote of the Chapter:

Jack: Who the fuck-?!

Steve: Language!

Jack: WHOM the fuck?!

Tony: ...No!