Disclaimer: So no nothing is mine. Any legal action would have negative results. I also have no money. Please remember that.
Quick Note: I reposted the last chapter because one of you lovely readers pointed out a little mistake I made with the dates. It's now fixed and thank you very much for letting me know. If anybody spots another mistake please don't hesitate to tell me!
One of the things that becomes fairly clear when the plane lands is that, though life can go on without Steve and Cassie there, that life becomes remarkably less organized. Apparently, the highly valued qualities that the two of them bring to the metaphorical table of their workplace and friend group besides their numerous superpowers, leadership, and medical capabilities, are their levelheadedness and sanity levels. They are also both capable of sharing these levels out to their friends.
Thank all the gods for Pepper and Reyna. Sam, Barton, and Natasha all probably could have been calming influences too but are currently otherwise engaged. Barton and Natasha are both still enjoying there time on the Barton farm as far as Cassie knows. Although it's possible they're off in Manilla saving existence as humanity knows it. If that's the case, maybe Cassie'll hear about it from Nat next time they all meet up for coffee.
Sam apparently decided to spend a few Armageddon free weeks with his family down in the Carolinas somewhere. He's voluntarily isolating himself with his family. This further cements Cassie's already iron-clad belief that Sam Wilson is a very brave man.
All this to say that all of the Avengers (including the newer members) are highly public figures even at the best of times. Scant months post an accidental robot apocalypse caused by one of their teammates is not the nest of times. In fact, it's not even remotely 'good times'.
The result of hero-ing with a spotlight is that nothing in life can ever be private. Evidently this includes your flight plans. Flying in to a private airfield out in upstate New York clearly doesn't increase your odds of avoiding invasive press all that far. Well, to be clear the air field itself is still plenty private. What isn't private is the road directly outside of the airfield.
"I think this is how Princess Diana died," Cassie comments dryly as they both examine the hordes of paparazzi lining the formally quiet rural road. "I mean sure, there was a cliff and I think an illicit affair involved in that situation, but I don't think we can possibly be that far off."
Steve is busy craning his neck and using his six feet of height to figure out a way through the crowd that won't involve threats that would make bad sound bites or acts of imminent violence. Cassie isn't even trying to see over the heads of the crowd. It's a lost cause without either a step stool or an instant growth spurt, and neither of those is available.
He shrugs. "I missed that happening but I caught a late night documentary on it after I woke up." Cassie waits for him to notice her raised eyebrows and questioning expression which takes about six seconds. "I don't necessarily need to sleep as much as anyone else. Directly after New York, I didn't particularly want to try."
Cassie nods. Steve doesn't mention the levels of insomnia and PTSD he'd suffered early on after waking up in the twenty-first century, but she knows it wasn't good. Instead of poking she changes the subject. "Do you think there's a way out of here without getting sued for a hit-and-run? Because I am willing to bet that 'Captain America and Girlfriend Smush Reporter' isn't a headline we want to see."
"I think you'd win that bet," Steve concedes. He takes another moment to examine the matting hoards and then straightens his shoulders. "Okay I have a plan. Stay close."
She takes the instruction and slides over, melding herself in to his side. Steve wraps an arm around her and picks up their bags on the other side. "Not that I'm complaining about the proximity and personal contact," she says, leaning up to speak directly in to his ear. Cameras are flashing at them and after a particularly bright burst Cassie is starting to understand why celebrities always wear sunglasses. "But what exactly is your plan? If it involves sprinting I need to ditch my shoes."
Her footwear has broken a cardinal demigod rule and is not marathon friendly. Instead she's in flip flops which are nice for flying and comfort but not great for outrunning blood thirsty monsters. Hint hint, she's not talking about the mythological kind.
Steve shakes his head and leans down to talk to her. "No sprinting," he says. "The method I'm going with is tried and true. Very loud honesty." Before Cassie can ask what exactly that means Steve takes action. "Move away from the car or I will make you," he calls. "You know I can and you know that I will. Back up to at least a ten feet radius and get out of the road."
The press shockingly does as they're told though the pictures and shouting don't stop.
Happy Hogan, Tony's personal driver pulls forward and climbs out of the car. He opens the door for Cassie and she slides all the way across the back bench seat so that Steve can sit too. He waits a moment to help Happy load everything in to the trunk of the car and then climbs in next to her.
Moments later Happy climbs in front and revs the engine before pealing off down the road. They enjoy a brief moment of silence and Cassie shuts her eyes as she leans back in to the leather seats. She can hear Steve taking measured breaths and feels the shift of him rolling his head to stretch out his neck. Would it be a surprise to any one else to tell them that both of them had been relaxed twenty minutes ago?
Probably.
"So that was insane," Cassie comments, eyes still shut. "Were they that bad before we left? Or did I just not leave the tower enough after Ultron to know about it?"
A warm kiss lands on her forehead before a second one lands on her lips. "No," Steve says when he pulls away. "No. They weren't that bad. Pepper and Reyna had it under control and the world cared more about the recovery efforts and the immediate fall out. Apparently our personal lives are interesting again."
She nudges him in the side. "You're going to have to come up with a few more rants. Topic list includes Right to Choose, concealed carry, and pay equity. Take your pick."
Steve is normally focused, which makes it all the more entertaining that Cassie can get him to stop thinking about one issue and move him on to another so quickly. Immediately his face changes. "You know employers used to say that you didn't have to pay women much money because men had families to support and women were just working for spare change? My mom was a single mother supporting me and herself and that didn't get her nearly enough of a salary!"
Cassie reaches over and pats his shoulder. "There we go. Remember all that for the next time we have to leave the building. I'm sure there'll be fifty of our closest friends in the New York City press core ready and waiting to write it all down and report to their editors."
"What do you make on the dollar now?" Steve asks, beginning to search through his pockets. Possibly to take notes.
"I'm not a very good comparison," Cassie tells him honestly. "Tony pays me far more than any of my classmates are getting. Hades he's paying me more than people who graduated from my school fifteen years ago are currently making. Male or female. In general though, it's about eighty cents on the dollar if the woman is caucasian. I think there's also an argument being made by a lovely group of chauvinists that says that women choose to make less money than men over the course of their lives when they have kids."
The rant that follows after that brings them al the way in to the city. It's also one Cassie wishes she could record and leak to the press without feeling like it was an enormous violation of her boyfriend's privacy. By the end of it she thinks it's possible that Steve's next political project might seriously be to solve the issue of pay equity.
If that's the plan, it's one she can get on board with.
Happy drives them straight in to the tower garage, but on the way in they can see a larger than usual press contingent parked outside. They unload the car and take the elevator back up to their apartment. Actually, this reminds Cassie of the day they ended up almost accidentally moving in together. Hopefully this time will have fewer surprises and personal relationship adjustments attached.
The hope about having fewer surprises implodes with a comic style mental poofing noise as soon as the doors open for an unscheduled stop in the team common room. Or, what used to be the team common room. Now it looks more like a very expensive private playground has exploded. Minus sand, dirt, wood chips, and any and all things non-healthy and hypoallergenic.
Cassie stops short in the doorway as Steve throws out a hand to keep the elevator doors from sliding shut on them. "We only let Tony adopt the one kid right?" Steve checks with her.
"I only remember one," she confirms. "Which doesn't exactly mean that they couldn't have adopted more if they wanted Katya to have siblings. The gods know there are more than enough orphaned mortal kids and demigods who could use parents, but I'm sure someone would have told us."
Steve frowns. "We can't even leave a private airfield without being mobbed. I can't imagine Stark and Pepper would be able to do a Brady Bunch without it showing up online or in the newspaper."
"You missed Princess Diane but you caught the Brady Bunch," Cassie muses, turning around to look up at him. "Someday we'll manage to fully prioritize the pop culture and historical list for you. Also, whoever made you watch that should be found and punished in retribution for what you had to sit through. Please tell me they only dragged you through the movie and didn't make you main line the TV show because that is too many episodes."
Steve grins and nudges her forwards in to the room. "I didn't actually watch it. Nat made a reference and then rolled her eyes and told me to look it up when I looked confused. I spent some time online looking at a plot summary and then decided that I never actually needed to watch it."
Cassie shifts a pile of legos off of one of the couches and sits down. "A wise choice. Annabeth's mom would be very proud," she hesitates as she kicks off her shoes. "Actually she probably already is. The gods choose mortal favorites pretty often. A lot of them liked Odysseus. Not Poseidon obviously but Athena was involved there and those two have issues."
"And yet their children are getting married."
She spreads her fingers. "Romeo and Juliet without so much murder and a convenient happy ending. Actually just with a happy ending. It wasn't really a convenient one, and there was definitely murder. Only not of people. Would you call it self-defense do you think?"
Steve moves a basket of Lincoln Logs and sits across from her. "As long as they attacked you first."
Cassie sighs and kicks of her shoes, twisting the tie out of her hair to let it down from the ponytail it's been in for the last six hours. "I guess I'll worry about that when the monsters of Tartarus figure out how to manage the judicial system." Suddenly it dawns on her that Alecto the fury has masqueraded as a lawyer more than once in living memory. "Oh shit."
Of course that's when the elevator opens and Tony walks in with Katya in tow. "Hey now," he calls. "There are little ears present. To quote a certain Captain, watch your gosh darned language."
"I have never said that ever," Steve mutters before changing his attention to Katya who is now hiding behind Tony's leg. "Hello Katya."
The little girl leans out and waves. Then she looks at Cassie who gives her a smile and she darts away to a fluffy looking and complex blanket fort still under construction. It's an impressive structure.
"Remember what we talked about," Tony calls after her. "Nothing beats a slack lined pulley system and couch cushions can always be used for upright structural support. Triangles and I beams, those are the keys."
Hearing this advice and knowing children of Hephaestus as she does, Cassie stands up and begins clearing off the rest of the couch. She grabs a few of the cushions and makes them in to a stack near Katya to be used for the building project. Katya thanks her in shy, accented language and quickly gets down to work. She'll probably be absorbed for the next hour or so.
She slides up next to Steve where he's talking to Tony and takes his hand. "So," she says. "If this is the playroom now, which you know, is totally fine, do we have a new team common space or are we giving up on that?"
Tony brushes the comment away with a wave of his hand. "I didn't see much point. I've been putting money in to the construction upstate and things are livable. The armory is fully stocked, as are the communal and group kitchens and bars. State of the art gyms, Olympic and SHIELD training facilities, plus I threw in a target shooting range and a climbing wall. Medical facilities are waiting for your walk-through and I've got the labs and R&D facilities prepped. We've got hangars, garages, and helipads set too."
"Housing and recruits?" Steve asks.
Tony pulls his phone out of his pocket and taps the screen a few times before giving it a flick to bring up a three dimensional projection of the blue prints for the facilities they're discussing. "Housing them over hear," he says, pointing to a set of low, military style barracks. "Set up to SHIELD standard issue, but with better tech and water pressure, according to Maria Hill. This wing is for recruit training. Cafeteria over here." He gives the projection a spin and indicates a separate set of buildings and storage marked with a stylized A. "The facilities set up for our specific needs are these ones. Specialized equipment and all."
Cassie reaches out and selects a building marked for medical use. "I'm guessing that this one is where I'll be?" she asks, looking up at Tony to check. "I'm assuming I'm taking the staff that works for me here. I might need to hire a few new people to round everything out."
"Yeah," Tony says, drawing out the word and tapping the building next to the one she's highlighted. "That building you tapped is for the medical research facilities and some of the record keeping. This one here is the hospital and functioning medical center. Pepper's put together some basic staff."
She sighs. "This is code for you having gone overboard once you found new equipment to build, buy, and house, so I'm going to have to spend the next month of my life in staff interviews for qualified trauma, accident and emergency personnel, GPs, and physical therapists." A muffled thump and a childish shriek of surprise interrupts the conversation momentarily as Tony's attention snaps to his newly adopted daughter until she emerges from beneath the blankets and gets back to her building. "Plus a pediatrician," she adds.
"Oh yeah," Tony says, skirting around them to scoop Katya out from under the piles of cushions to check her over for damages. "Add that on there. Katy, why don't we move along to the lego. Pep got you a pirate ship in desperate need of assembly." Katya makes a sound of delight and darts off to find the appropriate box. Cassie notices a few spark have landed in Tony's shirt which he beats out casually. "Any chance that pediatrician can be like you?"
Cassie groans and beats her head against the nearest solid surface. Luckily for her forehead and brain cells that turns out to be her boyfriend's chest which is marginally softer than a wall. Marginally.
"I'll call my brother in the morning when I'm less jet lagged," she says, her voice coming out muffled by Steve's shirt. "But I'm warning you now that getting Will means getting Nico. So, find a job somewhere in upstate New York for a History and Italian major who likes to wear black. Also make sure you didn't accidentally build on any kind of graveyard. Nico talks to ghosts."
Stark whirls and raises an eyebrow. "You mean he sees dead people?"
She points at him threateningly. "Stark there is no way in hell that you can make me drag Steve through The Sixth Sense. And I say this as someone who has personally been to at least one culture's version of hell and seen the inner workings."
"I think Bucky watched that movie," Steve says. "It's a horror film isn't it?"
Cassie makes a face. "Not my favorite genre. Real life has enough freaky monsters and summonable spirits. Some of whom really will do the eye bleeding insanity exorcist twist thing. I don't need to see them manufactured by Hollywood." She turns her head to look back at Tony. "Hiring my brother is going to be the same kind of situation as when you hired me," she warns. "Not a lot of in hospital training, no internship, no residency. You'll be getting medical school, battle experience, and healing magic."
Tony just shrugs. "If he can handle giving my demigod daughter shots and yearly physicals when she needs them I'm fine with it. Tell him to help you hire people and that I'll get him on salary as soon as he's done in school. Plus I'll get him and his boyfriend housing. There's gotta be an opening for an Italian speaking human Ouija board somewhere in the New Avengers."
Steve is a good enough sport to pull Cassie in to his chest before she can collapse in to it and rubs her back for a moment. "What is the new team housing like?" he asks over her head. "One big building with separated apartments again?"
Apparently that's the plan for the immediate future but not the long term. The property the new complex is built on contains nearly a dozen empty lots that the rest of the team can build on if they want to. If things go well with Stark's Malibu house they'll probably all just call Annabeth, Piper, and Rachel and have them design the houses after individual meetings with team members. Evidently it'll take them a while to get to that point though so they're not worrying about that yet.
Personally, Cassie is just going to try not to think about the fact that they're al going to have to move all of their things at least twice sometime in the next few years, and once in the next month or so. She's also going to have to call Will and figure out how the hell to run a job interview when you're in charge of hiring competent medical staff to service a top secret semi-private semi-government Avengers Initiative.
She's too jet lagged for this.
The sound of Steve yawning brings her back to alertness and she starts, standing up straight and grabbing ahold of Steve's hand. "Tony," she says, interrupting him mid stream. "At this point I have absolutely no idea what you just said and from the look on Steve's face he's catching every third word out of your mouth and reacting on thirty-three percent of the information. Tell one of the many underlings you pay to send us the rest of the information and then you two can continue this conversation after a minimum of six consecutive hours of sleep." She begins to tow her boyfriend out the door. "These are doctoral orders and I'm enforcing them. Bye Katy."
Katya waves back at her and then turns to look at Tony. "Come help?"
The simple request derails any protest or snarky comment Stark has on the tip of his tongue. Instead, he gives Cassie and Steve each a swift nod. "I'll have someone send you the building files and blueprints over night. We can talk somewhere near lunch time after I get Katya to the babysitter."
Cassie frowns. "You have a babysitter who's chill with the whole, 'accidental and unpredictable lighting on fire thing'?" She hopes that the tone of her voice says without her having too how unlikely that person's existence really is."
"Turns out those Maximoffs and McCaffrey are good for more than just their superpowers. Until I can figure out an everyday job to employ Mr. Speedy and Miss Witch Magic for, Pepper and I am using them for childcare to justify the money we're putting in to their bank accounts. Plus the company is sponsoring them for work visas which means we do actually have to show that they're being gainfully employed."
Steve blinks at his friend blearily and then looks at Cassie to see if she's processed the information any more coherently and completely than he has. She shakes her head to let him know that she hasn't. He turns to Tony. "I'm sure I'm going to know that all of that is important and vital to future team functions and operations at some point in the next twelve hours."
Tony rolls his eyes and waves them out. "Go crash the both of you. I'm going to go help my new daughter build a pirate ship. Try not to step on any lego pieces. Those things hurt like an absolute b-" he cuts himself off before the swear can come out. "It hurts," he grits out. "Leave. I'll see you when everyone's conscious. FRIDAY will have your schedule."
After that Cassie and Steve stumble out of the room and back in to the elevator. A yawn so expansive it pops Cassie's jaw comes up on her as a surprise. Steve is systematically pinching the skin on his inner arm between his fingernails to keep himself awake. Cassie doesn't know if he's capable of sleeping standing up but she wouldn't put it past his super soldier capabilities to make that possible.
They make it to their apartment and Steve hauls the bags in to their bedroom. Cassie stops in the kitchen to fill two large glasses with water. She drains one of them and brings the other one in to their room after Steve. She kicks her shoes off near the door and then passes the glass to Steve. "Drink," she tells him. "We'll figure out some food when we wake up. Right now I think I'm just going to pass out on the mattress. I might even do it while still in my clothes."
Steve finishes his water and puts it on the side table next to the bed. Then after a single glance at the bags he's dropped by the closet he simply sighs, shucks off his shirt, shoes, and pants. Then he collapses backwards onto the mattress in just his boxers. "Nice plan," he tells her, eyes already shutting.
Cassie grins tiredly and pulls off her pants before lying down and tugging at the blankets. "Lift so I can get under the covers," she tells him. Steve rolls sideways and pulls the edge of the puff back so that she can slide under them. After a moments consideration he rolls under to join her and tugs at the arm she has curled over her body. "Move on to your stomach?" he asks.
She does as he says with a tiny noise of discontent at having to move. A moment later she realizes Steve's train of thought as he walks his fingers up her spine to undo the clasp of her bra and pull the slightly pokey piece of clothing away from her skin. She shifts her weight from one arm to the other to help get it off her arms and makes a contented sigh as Steve tosses the garment away. "Thank you. Nice planning addition."
"I'm a decent improviser," Steve murmurs, half addressing his pillow. Or possibly her hair. "Those things must be seriously uncomfortable." He moves his fingers along the indents the bra had left in the skin over her ribs. "Don't think they've changed much in the last century either."
"Hmm," Cassie murmurs. "Maybe I'll suggest to Pepper that the next thing Stark can work on is inventing a better bra. Nat'll probably help out. Maybe Darcy too. 'Till someone comes up with something I'm just gonna be happy we've moved on from corsets." She shifts on the mattress until she's curled in to his chest and presses a kiss against the skin over his heartbeat. "Now sleep time. Night night."
If Steve responds at all, she doesn't hear it.
She's already asleep.
Actually she stays asleep for the next several hours until a quiet and repetitive ping, ping, ping wakes her up by steadily increasing in volume. "Okay," he mumbles. "'m up. Steve?" she sits up and looks over her shoulder at the empty rumble of blankets where she had expected to find her boyfriend. "Huh," she mutters. "Guess your up too." She stretches and gazes up at the ceiling. "FRIDAY? I'm awake. You can quit the beeping now."
"Of course Doctor Morgenstern," says FRIDAY's crisp Irish accent. "Captain Rogers was called to an early meeting with Colonel Rhodes and Mr. Wilson an hour ago. He requested that you be left to sleep for as long as possible."
Cassie pushes her hair out of her face and reaches for her phone where it's siting on the night stand to check the time. The little glowing numbers tell her that it's just after eight in the morning. That means she's been asleep for nearly thirteen hours which for her is nearly unprecedented. To be fair though, between packing, sightseeing, travel, and the werewolf, she was up for nearly a full twenty-four hours prior.
She puts the phone down and then looks back up at the ceiling. It's still unclear to her about where to speak when addressing an AI but this is really the best guess she can make so she's going with it. "And it is no longer possible for me to still sleep because..."
The question is left hanging and FRIDAY is apparently programed to handle that kind of thing because an answer is immediately forth coming. "You have a somewhat time sensitive message from Miss Potts. As I understand it she is coordinating a social gathering amongst you, Miss Ramirez-Arellano, Miss Romanov, Miss Maximoff, Miss McCaffrey, and Miss Foster. I was asked to tell you that should you attend, you should bring any and all photographs from your recent vacation and in return will be provided with a full range of eggs, coffee, tea, pastries, and breakfast meats."
"What time am I supposed to arrive at this Breakfast Club?" she enquires, already calculating how much time she'll need to shower, brush her teeth and hair, and otherwise make herself presentable. In a pinch she can be ready in between twenty minutes and three-quarters of an hour.
There's a brief pause during which she assumes FRIDAY is checking with Pepper to confirm details. "Miss Potts says that a breakfast buffet will be fully catered to her and Mr. Stark's suite at nine. Arrival at any time between now and ten is perfectly alright but you are cautioned that the earlier you arrive, the warmer and more plentiful the food will be."
This is said as though it's a direct quote from Pepper and Cassie smiles to herself and begins to get out of bed. "FRIDAY, please tell Pepper that I will be there as close to nine as I can be. If there are donuts, ask her to save me one."
"Of course Doctor Morgenstern," FRIDAY says efficiently. "Would you like me to turn on the shower for you?"
The fact that her home is run by a robot with the power to pre-heat her shower could be creepy. This could be the very beginning of a horror or science fiction movie. In fact she's pretty sure that movie already exists in several different formats. On the other hand, the ability to roll out of bed and walk straight in to a hot shower could be seen as a definitive job perk depending on the perspective you chose to view it from.
Cassie stands and opens a drawer to pull out some clothes. "You might as well," she says. "Thank you FRIDAY."
The AI lets her now that it's signed off by making a cheerfully animatronic noise and Cassie hears the rush of water pouring from the shower head as she makes her way in to the bathroom. There are several towels ready and folded over the towel rack. A brief tough tells her that they're already warm and Cassie can't help but smile at the realization that the presence of the towels means that Steve must have thought ahead and put them out for her.
Some couples can become overly co-dependent and Cassie knows this. She knows that that's the point where most relationships begin to fail. She also knows that she can exist perfectly happily on her own as a person and in healthy relationships, that's how things work. What she's only learned recently is the the best part about a relationship is having someone around who thinks about the tiny things that might make your life easier and just does them because they know it'll make you happy.
Love isn't always shown in huge gestures.
Sometimes it's a gesture as simple as warm towels and making sure you can sleep as late as possible.
There's no way to prove this, but Cassie, as a medical professional, is just about ready to swear straight up and down that there are magical healing and restorative powers attached to the taking of a hot shower. After twenty minutes under a hot spray her muscles are visibly relaxed after the flight from yesterday, the slightly grungy feeling go travel is gone from her skin, and she's as fully awake as she can possibly be before food and some kind of caffeine. And Cassie has no godly relationship to Poseidon.
She dries off and after checking the time again she takes the extra ten minutes necessary to blow dry her hair a little. It's too long to get completely dried out, but at least this way she won't show up at breakfast with all of her friends looking like she has a mat of blonde yarn shooting out of her scalp. Of course, Reyna and Meg have both definitely seen her looking worse and she's fought and trained with Natasha and Wanda.
In the end she arrives on the floor completely reserved for Tony and Pepper at five minutes after nine. If the gods are anywhere on her side this morning she's early enough for most of the food to be left. As ordered, her phone is in her pocket and loaded with all of the vacation photos.
This phone is also confiscated mere seconds after she goes through the door. This confiscation is carried out by Darcy Lewis who scurries away with it with a noise frighteningly close to a cackle. By straining her ears she can make out the other woman excitedly talking about how to hook up the phone to the big screen TV to run a vacation slide show.
Cassie seriously hopes Darcy never decides to be a super villain.
She makes her way over to Reyna who is standing beside a large array of breakfast foods. The other girl acknowledges her presence in her company for the first time in nearly a month with small nod. This is about as physically affectionate as Reyna likes to be in public so Cassie takes it for the enthusiastic greeting it probably is and considers herself hugged in a mental way.
That consideration becomes more certain when Reyna hands her a plate loaded with fresh fruit, bacon, and an apple cider donut. The plate is immediately followed up with a cup of hot chocolate with cinnamon on top. The magnitude of the gesture is a better greeting right now than any hug.
Cassie grins and takes both the plate and the cup before sinking down on to one of the couches next to the coffee table. Reyna sits down across from her clutching a large mug of cafe con leche. Cassie takes a sip of her hot chocolate and makes an appreciative noise. "Oh thank you," she says once she's swallowed. Then she takes a bight of donut. "Wow. You really do consider me a friend."
Reyna shrugs. "Well you introduced me to my boyfriend. Plus you hooked me up with a job and a place to live. And there were those couple of times when you saved my life so I figured I'd do you the favor of making sure you ate something before the inquisition gets started."
"I think we're probably even on the life saving thing," Cassie says mildly, popping a grape in to her mouth.
An inclining of the head is the first response she gets and then Reyna leans forwards. "Fine. Hand me a bit of your bacon and we'll call it even."
Cassie proffers the requested breakfast meat and gets down to work on her plate. Pepper doesn't seem to have notices that she's in the room yet, but she's got a sneaking suspicion that once she does, talking will take priority over eating breakfast. And gods is she hungry right now after not eating for the last fourteen hours outside of a quick snack on the plane.
She spends a few moments looking down with her concentration on her plate and when she looks up again the couch around her has filled out considerably. Natasha and Wanda are across from her sitting next to Reyna. Apparently she's been teaching Reyna Russian for a while now. From what Cassie can gather, despite all the therapy and work they've done, Bucky still sometimes slips in to Russian and out of speaking English. Reyna is trying to learn how to follow through understanding the change over.
Meg is sitting next to Katya on the ground at the end of the coffee table contentedly tapping a flower vase in front of her to make the tulips inside change color. Katya is watching with a mesmerized expression as red blush seeps up along the petals as the previous buttery yellow recedes from full, to veins, and final out of existence. It's one of the first tricks she learned and one that a lot of the Demeter cabin uses when senior counselors are coming around to do cabin inspections.
Percy has multiple circuitous rants about why this strategy should count as cheating.
Pepper is seated in a high-backed arm chair next to her and at the head of the table. Normally, Pepper looks efficient and put together but a very little bit harried and exasperated. For the moment, she's calmly sipping from a cup of green tea which from a new mother and CEO, Cassie considers to be a very brave choice.
The seat on Cassie's other side is occupied by Dr. Jane Foster. She's perched cross legged beside her wither back to the arm of the chair. On her lap is a plate of pastry piled up to what looks to her to be a godly sized portion of food. The size of her coffee mug terrifies Cassie on a deeply instinctual level.
"Hey," Jane greets, talking with a mouthful of sugary breakfast food. "Did you have a nice vacation with Steve?"
Cassie smiles back at her. "Yeah it was amazing." She gestures somewhere in to the room behind her which is, to the best of her knowledge, the direction that Darcy vanished in to with her phone. "Darcy confiscated my phone to get proof. Weirdly enough, she didn't ask for my password. Should I be worried about that?"
Jane waves her hands, scattering flakes of her pastry and nearly spilling her coffee. "It'll be fine. She's good with tech. Either she'll figure out how to guess your password, manage to get around it, or come ask for help. Darcy's stubborn but she knows when she's beat." Jane pauses and considers. "Though she's also really good at swimming off the deep end when she has to."
Frankly, Cassie isn't sure weather that statement makes her feel better or worse. The idea that Darcy might be able to crack Olympian technology is highly disconcerting. Thank the gods she has yet to meet a monster with any degree of technological know-how. The day the demons figure out how to actually use the internet is the day every single demigod on the face of the planet is going to need to find a nice big rock to hide under.
Instead of pursuing the topic Cassie shakes the thought away and examines Jane's plate more closely. "Are those homemade pop tarts? I didn't think that was a recipe that the public could even access."
The astrophysicist frowns and closely examines her breakfast. "Technically I think this is considered homemade toaster strudel. Darcy found the recipe and gave it to Pepper's chef when she first floated the idea of us all getting together for breakfast. Plus she pinned it to the refrigerator. She's convinced I can't cook and forget to eat, which, you know, isn't wrong."
Cassie holds up her mug and clinks it against hers in toast. "You're not the only one. Though I have to say, living with someone who eats five major meals a day has helped a lot with making sure I get at least two of them."
"Yes," Jane says, brandishing her breakfast. "But the real question is, can you make toast without burning it?"
Her plate is empty now so Cassie sets it to the side. "I will admit that I'm capable of that. Besides," she holds out a hand and reaches for a bit of her power to make her palm glow with heat. "This makes fires a little easier to put out. Steve still does a lot of the cooking though. He says he like the variety."
"How'd you do that?" Pepper asks, interrupting their conversation.
For a split second, Cassie is left wondering what Pepper's referring to. Then she realizes that her palm is still glowing. In her distraction, the energy output has ticked up, and now thin shimmers of heat distortion are visibly discernible as they ripple outwards from her skin. The light and heat both vanish as Cassie clenches her fist. She hasn't used her powers in a while because she hasn't had to, but apparently the energy has built up and is looking for an outlet.
Now she turns to answer Pepper's question, and when she does, she speaks seriously. Normally she wouldn't feel comfortable answering those kinds of questions in a room full of non-demigods, but the people in this room are her friends and she trusts them. Besides, Pepper isn't asking for herself. She's asking so that she can better learn how to take care of her new daughter. Cassie will do everything she can to help that happen.
The words she's going to end up using for her response actually make her laugh a little. "This is going to make it sound like I'm a solar powered human. Okay, so my father is the god of the sun which means that light and heat are both within his sphere of influence. Genetically I get the ability to use a little bit of that power. Mostly what I have power over is light, but light is energy and vice versa and you don't get light and energy without generating heat."
Pepper puts down her coffee cup and looks across at her new daughter who is now settling in for a late morning nap with her head on Meg's knees. "And the whole," she makes a vague all encompassing gesture. "Body on fire thing? Did you ever have to deal with that?"
Cassie shakes her head. "No. No not me. When I first grew in to the ability to use fire I was about, fourteen or fifteen, but I didn't tend to get more than a few unplanned sparks. I know Leo had problems with it. He burned down a machine shop when he was five. I'm more like a human flash-bang grenade than a flamethrower. I'll blind, deafen, or launch someone through a wall before I end up engulfing them in fire."
Meg sits forwards a little, being careful not to jostle Katya. "I once caused a minor earthquake," she volunteers. "Rare in a Demeter kid. Our powers are normally more low-level. Mom was proud. At least, I think that's what the fruit basket was about. Of course knowing my mom, it might have just been about her thinking I needed more fruits and vegetables in my diet. How she would know is another question entirely but-" she shrugs. "Anyway it was only a small one. Nico almost sunk part of Death Valley once." A realization seems to dawn on her. "Do you think it being called Death Valley helped?"
"Probably not," Cassie says honestly. "If it did I'd have a lot more power in Florida. That's called the Sunshine State."
Natasha raises an eyebrow. "Aren't you from Florida?"
Cassie sighs. "Technically yes, but I also technically haven't been back since my mom died. Well, apart from that one thing on the way to the Sea of Monsters. Also, to be fair that was less of a visit and more of a layover after escaping a monster infested cruise ship run by one of my former best friends." She sips her hot chocolate and then takes look around at a few of the faces staring at her. "My early teen years were very much a journey. I'm calling the hear and now the destination until I figure out where we're all ending up next."
A fervent "amen" is the response she gets from both Meg and Reyna.
The latter of those two relaxes back in to her seat. "Meanwhile I am secure in the knowledge that I have never in my life caused any kind of natural disaster."
"And we in the camp of those demigods whose parents happened to bless them with world collapsing capabilities salute your exclusion from that particular club," Meg says cheerfully.
Natasha frowns over at her slightly. "I wouldn't have thought either of you would have really world collapsing capabilities on an environmental scale." She inclines her head towards Meg. "I could see you causing a famine of some kind. Maybe a bumper crop or low level seismic event." Next she turns to Cassie. "I don't know how you could end the world. Localized droughts or the prompting of a wild fire in Nevada maybe."
Jane, now finished with her breakfast puts her plate down and moves along to her coffee. "Do you just spend time thinking about how your friends could end the world?"
Nat shrugs. "Clint and I spend a whole lot of time sitting somewhere waiting for something to happen. We've got to talk about something to kill the time. Besides after Ultron it seemed like building up some contingencies might be a good idea." She turns back to Cassie. "So? How would you do it?"
Cassie slowly sets down her mug and folds her hands in her lap, staring down at her fingers. "I couldn't really," she says slowly. "Not ending the world. Reyna could lead a coup without much effort and that's be a bigger global issue. Jason could knock out global power in a week if he was willing to do it. Percy could stand in Luisiana or anywhere on the coast or below sea level and wash out half of the global population. If Nico or Hazel were willing to give their lives to funnel the power they could probably actually reach in to the mantle of the Earth and crack it open."
She gestures over to Jane. "Thor could make the world go dark. Put us back in the dark ages and launch the kind of flood people build arcs for. If a few of his friends decided to help we'd be toast. If any of our parents decided to kick in we'd all be deciding which of the afterlife's we're going to end up in. Banner could rampage, any one with political know-how, access, and assassination capabilities could end the world as we know it."
"Oh you could totally do it," Meg says with a snort. "Hades, you'd do it more effectively than anyone else."
Immediately all eyes fall to her and Cassie sighs, twisting her fingers together and then untwisting them before answering. "Contagion," she says. "Plague. It's another aspect of my father's power. If I were going to end the world I'd stand in JFK and Heathrow airport and unleash a warped and as yet untreatable strain of something nasty. Smallpox or meningitis. Maybe black lung. It would incubate, manifest slowly, and be completely untreatable by anybody except me. By ninety-six hours in, up to twenty-five percent of the world's population could be infected or dead. Give me two weeks and unless I stop it, the Black Death looks like a cold. Wait a month and a lot of the world population is dead. Everyone except the people I want saved."
No one is laughing now and Cassie bights her lip before reaching out and taking another grape. "Anyway that's how I'd do it. Not a natural disaster. Just a human epidemic that nobody can stop. Nobody but me." She shrugs. "That's actually how the Black Death happened. A long, long time ago. One of my elder French half-siblings thought it'd make a shortcut out of the Hundred Years' War. They kind of miscalculated the fallout. Another of my siblings got our father to intervene on the side of the English and other Europeans. The gods had a soft spot for England for a while."
The silence hangs in the space for a moment. Then Darcy breaks it as she appears next to them holding a mimosa. "Sooooooo... What you're saying is that, out of all of the demigods and Avengers I've met, you're the one I need to be afraid of." She nods decisively. "I'm about to dedicate a whole lot of time to staying on your good side. Know that. Accept it. Think of me fondly." With that she also hands Cassie her phone back. "That's all in Greek by the way. I hit likely buttons until pictures started showing up on screen. I think your phone likes me. Does your phone make judgements? Is it like Thor's hammer with less Zap?"
Natasha is still looking at her intently. "The other demigod scenarios you described would also be calamitous, just more imminently manageable. And they would be insulated one time events. You said each of the others would have to be willing to die to pull it off. Would you have to die for what you described."
"No," Cassie admits. Because for fuck's sake there's no point in trying to beat around the bush now. She's just admitted that it's within her capabilities to create a world ending super epidemic. "At minimum, I bend basic power to emit a single warped viral strain in a very crowded place. Like I said, airport. It'd knock out my power reserves for a few days. Then I'd be fine. If I wanted to end life on Earth, I could do it and walk away. On the other hand, if anyone else on the planet launched a disease, I'm the CDC's best single shot at an impossible group cure. I'd have to do it with magic, but I could fix it."
"That thing you did with the hay fever that one time was cool," Meg says with a nod.
Cassie slips her phone in to the pocket of her jeans and then decides that as long as she's going full disclosure she's going the whole way. "Interestingly, if we're talking about what I could do to someone one-on-one, the options are a bit more varied. Most music is based on a rhythm and so is the body, which is medical. That intersection means I can do some things with heartbeats. I could speed one up until the heart exploded or possibly stop it completely. I could also freeze respiration. Possibly I could give a person cancer through solar radiation, or overloading their cells with energy. In fact, all of this is theoretical because I have never once tried it."
Jane takes a swig of coffee. "I've met some Norse dark elves," she says. "I can see how it would be hard to try to give them cancer or something. If that's most of what you deal with I see how some sunlight, fire, or sonic boom would be more helpful." She sips again and then turns to the demigods in the room. "Odin called me a goat once. Is that normal godly behavior?"
"Well..." Reyna says considering. "No one attempted to smite you. So actually no. I'd say that was a step up from typical godly behavior when confronted with a mortal romantic partner for someone in their cohort."
"They probably thought the dark energy I was carrying around would kill me first," Jane decides. "It's been two years and I still don't know what all that stuff might have done to me." She turns and faces Cassie. "Any thoughts?"
Cassie considers and mentally reviews everything in Jane's medical files. "Everything in your physical seemed normal. I don't pick up any weird or dangerous vibes from you with magic. Of course, given that power emits from me, I might be getting interference from the source. If you want, I can try getting deeper in to it. Most mortals don't survive prolonged contact with godly power."
Jane raises her eyebrows. "Well now I feel special."
"You probably should," Meg says seriously. "Thor is the only god I have ever heard of across four active pantheons of supernatural beings who has decided to actually commit time to staying on Earth with a mortal being. He commits time to helping you. He cares about what's important to you. Thor protects your loved ones and has godly friends of his help out with it. He eats pop tarts and blue raspberry lollipops because you like them. He worries about weather you've eaten and lives in your house here in the mortal realm on Earth most of the time."
Reyna inclines her head. "She's got a point. My mother was a patron goddess for my family for centuries before she ever actually graced my father with her presence and two children. Then she never came back. Most demigods don't even meet their godly parents until they're in their early teens. Most of the time, gods hang out for something like a year, and then they bail. If they even stay that long."
"Any advice?" Jane asks archly, looking like she isn't sure she really wants an answer.
Cassie decides to give her one anyway because so far it's been a morning for honesty. "Don't have any kids," she blurts out. "Seriously that's my advice. Be really freaking careful about any kids unless you know for sure that you would be okay with eventually raising it on your own because that is a highly realistic possibility. In fact, according to the statistics I have, it's a probability not a possibility. And definitely don't until I figure out what happened with the Dark Elf thing."
Jane has flushed bright pink but she still purses her lips and nods. "Noted. Thank you for the honesty. All three of you. I wasn't sure if it was a subject any of you were okay talking about."
The slideshow of Cassie's vacation pictures has started now and views of the United Kingdom are now sliding past on the television screen.
"Who else are you going to ask?" Reyna asks, not without humor. "Use whatever resources you've got. We're what there is. Personally I'm kind of terrified about how any kids of mine would turn out."
"Nice view!" Pepper says enthusiastically of King Arthur's castle. "Seriously gorgeous. Meanwhile yeah. What do part demigod kids turn out like? Asking as a potential eventual grandmother."
Cassie figures that question is probably on her too. "The short version? Lower power levels, higher life expectancy. Some diluted godly power comes through along with the ability to look through the Mist. Monsters probably steer clear. The child of two demigods would get some combination of powers from both sides, like any other DNA Punnet square. A demigod child with a god has only happened once, and that's me."
Natasha grins at Cassie and Reyna somewhat devilishly. "And the child of a demigod and a super soldier?"
Reyna and Cassie exchange a look. More accurately, Cassie tries to exchange a look with Reyna and finds that her friend seems to suddenly think that the coffee table is really interesting. Cassie looks down to check. It's really not.
She takes a deep breath. "That's unknown," she says, trying to ignore the fact that her face is heating up and probably looks flushed. "It's never happened before. As far as we know, there are no part super soldier children. It's possible the serum changed Steve and Bucky's DNA, but they certainly got different strands."
Now that they're talking about some of the science involved she's got a little more distance from the part of this that is about her personal life. The result of that is that she's a bit more comfortable with her topic. "A lot of the serum stuff is a blank space. No one knows why Steve and Bucky survived when no one else did. We don't know why Steve is still stronger and faster than Bucky in tests or how Bucky couldn't tell he'd been given the serum when it first happened. Gods, we don't even know why Steve grew ten inches when Bucky didn't. It's possible a super soldier baby would be completely normal. It's also possible it'd pulverize the ribs of it's mother."
"In which case, the woman who can heal from anything would be a good choice," Pepper says. "From a practical stand point that is. Not that either of you have talked about it with your respective boyfriends or even ever want kids. I wasn't even sure I wanted kids until Tony called me and said he was brining home a daughter." With that she stands and goes over to pick Katya up, settling the little girl in her lap. "Enough about magic and contagions for the day," she decides. "Let's look at vacation pictures now."
So that's what they do. They watch the slideshow and Cassie gives narration for each one.
In her head, she's wondering about a million things she hasn't actually thought about before.
Wow...
The future is a great big freaking tackle store of worms isn't it?
A/N: So there it is. It's kind of a plot filling chapter because I need to establish the new relationship balances going forwards before tackling the events of Civil War. Also, I wanted to bring up the fact that all of these characters are in at least their mid/late twenties or early thirties and in committed relationships. I wanted the conversations they had to reflect that which means talking about long term planning and personal progress along with decisions about what they want their family dynamics to be. Also, I was thinking about what Cassie might be capable of and that's what I came up with. Kinda scary right? Any way, review for me! xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox