Hearing the door click closed, Natasha felt awkward just standing there looking down on Madison's sleeping form.

How could this be her child? Wouldn't she feel some form of motherly bond to her that would drive her to need to care for her? The most she could admit to feeling right now was curiosity. The other Steve had said that Madison held the secret to how she was able to carry a child to term. For so long that dream had eluded her because of that damn Red Room. She had come to terms with the fact that she was never to have children, that was until her twenty year old child had come waltzing into her life.

There were just so many questions floating around in her head and no prospect, at least for the time being of getting answers.

Against the wall was a soft reading chair to which Nat pulled close to the edge of the bed. Taking a seat, Nat reached for Madison's hand. It was a certainly a day for surprises because on her delicate fingers sat two exact rings just like the ones Nat's mother had given her when she was younger.

She found herself stifling a sob that almost escaped as she stroked Madison's hand held gently in her own.

Steve and Bucky made it down to Banner's lab not long after leaving Madison's bedroom. Both men were anxious to return, so whatever this important news was it had better be good.

"Alright, we're here," Steve announced, walking into the lab and coming to stand near a table with equipment strategically placed along it.

Bucky entered quietly as he normally did and found a lab chair with a view of the hologram charts Banner and Tony were working on. He normally entered the room without announcing his presence. On more than one occasion a member of the team had commented on how stealthy and creepy it was. Bucky just figured you learned more when no one knew you were there.

Banner moved to speak first, "as you know we took some blood samples from Madison in hopes that we could begin to pinpoint whatever it is that's driving her fever to spike." He pointed to a hologram chart that showed the detailed medical information about Madison that seemed to be constantly refreshing.

Steve and Bucky both looked a bit lost by what they were seeing so they waited for someone to explain.

"Don't try to understand all the bells and whistles boys," Tony said. "What you should be most interested in Papa Smurf," Tony chuckled, "Is this." He brought up what looked to be a DNA breakdown.

"This is your DNA pattern," Tony brought up a chart of colors broken down into two long columns.

"Where did you get a sample of my DNA?" Steve asked, surprised and shocked by what he was seeing.

"Remember a little incident not too long ago when a certain brainwashed individual shot you three times?" Tony said, lowering his voice and pretending to point in secret to Bucky from behind his hand.

Looking at Bucky who just gave him a 'resting bitch face' in return, "Awkward," Tony continued on. "I got it from the hospital records."

"This is the blood workup that we just took of Madison." Banner brought up another screen with a similar two column chart showing a DNA break down.

"Now this is Natasha's blood work from when she first joined SHIELD." Banner brought up a third screen. He then slid them across his desktop to Tony's screen who proceeded to lay all three of them on top of one another.

Tony started to explain why what they were seeing was so interesting, "A child has two of each type of chromosome, one inherited from each parent, and everyone has two alleles at each locus."

Steve and Bucky both looked extremely lost at what they were hearing.

Sighing Tony started over, "When a mommy and daddy love each other very much."

"I get the idea Tony, you don't have to give me the birds and bees talk," Steve offered with a sigh, reaching for a chair to sit down for what was looking to become a long conversation.

"So you are saying that to determine Madison's parentage you have to find the two people who when," Bucky's eyes got wider as he made a mixing motion with his right hand, "makes up her combined DNA pattern."

"You know, I really need to start giving you more credit for how much you pay attention in class young man," Tony quipped.

Bucky snickered and ducked his head before tuning back in for the rest of the explanation.

"Madison is 99.99% your child. Yours and Ms. Romanoff's that is," Tony said to Steve before stepping away to another screen.

Steve sighed out of relief. Part of him still couldn't believe all of this was happening much less true. But the other part of him was beginning to love the idea of having a child. He had always wanted to be a father, but it never seemed to be the right time for such a thing, plus there was….,

"Why do I feel like there's more to this story though?" Bucky's question snapped Steve out of his thoughts and back to the situation at hand.

"Because you are a highly suspicious person my friend, and that Is one of the qualities about you that I'm coming to truly appreciate," Tony said as he opened another screen that seemed to show moving blood cells.

"What are we looking at," Steve asked as he leaned forward in his seat.

"That is Madison's blood under a 400x magnification." Banner's voice held a state of awe about it as he focused on the screen before them all.

As they watched the screen blood cells that seemed perfectly normal, floating about, would move slowly to another and one would absorb that other. It was like watching a game of Pac Man and seeing the little yellow guy flying across the screen gobbling up pellets.

"That's why she has that fever," he said, excited to have found this phenomenon. "Her body is changing in some way and it's literally fighting to prevent it." He took a breath before going on, "unfortunately, it's losing badly."

This shocked the two men. Bucky jumped to his feet, stepping forward as though to emphasize his words, "does that mean she's…" He couldn't bring himself to say the word.

"Dying," Tony spoke up, "god no, but she is fighting like hell to prevent whatever is going on from happening. I've never seen a person's white blood cell count be this high and they show no signs of something serious like cancer."

All four men were focused on the screen before them trying to wrap their minds around what had been discussed.

"The best news is that her vitals are strong," Tony said bringing up a new screen, "and she's young and healthy. So whatever this is, unless it gets worse, we might just have to let it run its course and hope she can fight it."

"That's the big plan," Steve's exasperated tone clearly gave away his frustration at the situation. "Just wait to see if she survives this?"

"Cap, I can only imagine how scary this is for you. I mean this is your kid." Tony said, pausing as if to just realize what he had said. "Capsicle has a kid. Well they didn't have your love life as part of the tour in the Smithsonian that's for sure. I wonder if they'll update it now." He thought out loud, casting a roguish smirk Steve's way.

"Focus, Tony," Banner interjected.

"Right. She really is the best line of defense against whatever," he said waving his hand toward the screen, "the hell this is. She's containing it inside herself. F.R.I.D.A.Y has been running a level 1 containment protocol program on her room and all of us here to be sure nothing biological has been floating around that we don't know about. So in all honesty, there's really not much more we can do other than to wait and make her comfortable. She'll more than likely pull out of this whenever its run its course and she's ready to wake up."

Bucky sat back down in his chair, frustration clearly showing on his face. "I hate waiting," he muttered under his breath.

"Well, right now Madison is best off sleeping through whatever this is…so waiting is what we will have to do," Banner offered sympathetically. "I'll keep monitoring her to be sure she's as comfortable as possible. If there's any changes I'll let you all know." With that he turned back to his screens to what he had been working on.

"Look, I know this whole thing with Madison's health is top priority for you right now Cap," Tony said as he walked around the table closer to the two men. "But we also need to start trying to piece together more of this puzzle that Fury and this TVA Agent dropped in our laps."

Steve was torn between wanting to help in any way possible this kid, his daughter, he had just inherited and also addressing what was looking like a very big issue that was about to come their way.

"I might be able to help a little with that," Bucky softly offered from his seat. Suddenly, Bucky had the full attention of the men in the room.

There was a soft knock at the bedroom door that broke Natasha's concentration from analyzing Madison's face.

"Come in," she spoke softly in hopes that she wasn't disturbing Madison's rest.

Wanda slipped into the room, closing the door behind her.

"Any change?" She asked, coming closer to the opposite side of the bed.

"Nope," Nat said, wiping at the corner of her eye, "Sleeping Beauty hasn't moved since we put her here."

Wanda didn't need to be a mind reader to know Nat was worried. That was something Wanda always liked about the Russian spy. She could adapt to almost any situation on the fly, but deep down she appreciated order instead of chaos and favored having all of the facts rather than just flying by the seat of your pants. She had learned a lot from her over the past few years.

This new side of Natasha was a refreshing change of pace for Wanda. Sitting at Madison's side on the bed, she gently lifted her hand placing it in hers.

"She bites her nails," Nat said, laughing softly. "I do that too when I'm overly nervous about something," she said, tucking her fingers away from view into the palm of her hand.

Wanda smiled, encouraged that Nat was beginning to find some kind of connection with Madison even if it was something as small as that.

"She has your hair I think," Wanda offered, trying to keep Nat focused on the good things going on at the moment.

She laughed, "Really? I was thinking it was more a combination of mine and Steve's. It's not really red and not really blond like either of us." Nat allowed her fingers to play with the tail end of Madison's braid that was sitting against her shoulder.

"Well she's definitely got your nose," laughed Wanda.

"Oh god yes," Nat laughed. "Can you imagine a girl with Steve Rogers 'strong Roman nose and chiseled jawline'? The poor girl would have looked like Jay Leno."

The laughter felt good after all of the tension of the past few hours.

Their smiles softened as Wanda thought carefully about how to ask the next part.

"Nat, do you think…" "Wanda could you…" both women started to speak over the other.

"Sorry, you go," Nat smiled.

"I was going to ask how you might feel about me attempting to read Madison's thoughts right now," Wanda asked shyly, almost ashamed to admit she was offering such a thing.

"Oh my god, I was about to ask how you'd feel about doing that," Nat spoke up enthusiastically. "Please try," she motioned towards Madison. "I would hate to know she's hurting right now and we aren't doing anything about it."

Wanda smiled knowing they were thinking the same thing. Great minds and all that.

Closing her eyes, Wanda listened carefully to the silence in the room. Normally it took a moment or two for Wanda to find a person's mental voice when there were several people around. Right now there were at least a dozen or more people in the compound she had to sort through to find the new voice.

"Oh my god he's so hot," came the voice of a staff member downstairs.

"I wonder if we move this over here if we'll get the same effect." Banner's mental voice was easy to pinpoint. Wanda moved on quickly from there.

"I hope she won't be mad that I was listening in on their conversation. Even sick she's really beautiful. But that's Steve's kid, which would be too weird right?"

"Oh Bucky," Wanda thought, we'll have to explore that one later. She smiled as she moved on to the next mental voice that was very faint.

"Hello? Hello, can anyone hear me?"

"Hey!" Wanda mentally greeted Madison to which Madison jumped both literally and mentally.

"Did you find her?" Nat asked, having noticed how Madison's body involuntarily twitched.

"Yeah, sorry. Apparently, I'm too loud even mentally," Wanda offered with a laugh. She closed her eyes again and refocused her mind.

Madison appeared in Wanda's mind. She was very pale and tired looking, much like she looked lying in the bed just now.

"Where am I? Madison thought. "I'm scared."

"Oh no sweetie don't be scared," Wanda said, reaching out and taking Madison's hands in her own. "You are asleep right now. You got very sick and passed out. We aren't really sure why, but you are in your room right now in the compound."

Nat watched intently as Wanda apparently carried on a mental conversation with Madison. "Is she alright? Does she know what's going on?" Natasha didn't like not being able to be a part of what was going on.

"Mom?" Madison thought. "Where's my mom?

"She can hear you, Nat" Wanda said. "Talk to her, it'll comfort her."

"Hey there sweet girl." Nat spoke softly as she brushed a few strands of hair off of Madison's forehead. "Everything is going to be okay. Tony and Bruce are working to figure out what's going on with you. Why you got so sick. Don't tell them this, but they are two of the smartest people I know. If they can't figure it out…well…." She drifted off, smiling to herself.

Wanda smiled as she said, "She's smiling. She's comforted when she hears your voice."

Suddenly the door to the bedroom burst open and two frantic looking super soldiers burst into the room looking ready to fight off the worst possible enemy. Close on their heels were both Tony and Bruce.

"Holy hell, guys!" Nat shouted. This caused both Wanda and Madison to jump at the sudden commotion in the room. Wanda's tie with Madison was abruptly broken by the intrusion.

Banner marched over to the monitor by Madison's bed and pressed several buttons before reaching for a paper readout coming from the machine.

"What in the hell is wrong with you maniacs" Natasha said, visibly shaken by how quickly the quiet of the room had been disrupted.

Bucky and Steve were both panting slightly having run up five flights of stairs in a couple of minutes, but it was Bucky who found his voice first.

"Her monitor spiked downstairs in the lab." He said, straightening up and holding his side slightly. "We thought something had happened."

"Something did happen," Bruce said, showing the readout to Tony who lifted his shirt to wipe at his forehead. "Calisthenics for everyone starting tomorrow," he said, pointing at everyone in the room. "Five flights of stairs shouldn't have about killed us," he said panting.

Reaching for the readout Banner held they spoke quietly amongst themselves.

Having gained his composure, Steve spoke up. "Carry to share with the rest of the class?"

"What was going on in here right before we came in," Tony asked Wanda and Nat.

"We were just talking to Madison," Nat motioned between the three of them. "Right before Rocky and Bullwinkle here burst in."

Bucky gave his grumpy cat frown, as Wanda liked to call it, at having been referenced to either Rocky or Bullwinkle.

"Her readouts are spiking off the charts. It couldn't have been you just talking to her." Banner said, with a sneaking suspicion there was more to the story.

Both Wanda and Nat looked down and away from the men in the room.

"Alright Romanoff, spill." Tony ordered.

"I asked Wanda to see if she could connect mentally with Madison," she mumbled softly.

Everyone's eyes landed on Wanda. Some shocked, all amazed, but also all waiting for a response.

"She's definitely in there," Wanda offered with a smile. "You scared the shit out of her when you came into the room though," she laughed, trying to sound harsh but failing miserably.

"You can hear her," Bucky asked, coming closer to the side of the bed Wanda was sitting on. This new change fascinated him. Wanda's powers, really any super power that his new teammates had were fascinating for Bucky to learn about, but Wanda's especially. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to be able to hear what someone was thinking. To be able to cut on and off the ability like a light switch.

Sitting down on the bed, his hand seemed to involuntarily rest where Madison's foot lie under the covers.

Wanda closed her eyes and reestablished the mental link with Madison.

"She's happy now. She can tell everyone that is in the room. Bucky, say something to her," Wanda encouraged.

He thought for a minute as to what to say. Nothing seemed to be the right thing so he just went with what was on his mind at the moment. "Maddie, it's me Bucky. Are you alright, are you in any pain?"

The monitor near Bruce began to beep quickly in response it seemed to Bucky's voice.

"She likes hearing your voice. She said not to be so worried," Wanda laughed aloud. "She said it will give you wrinkles to worry so much." Which of course caused Bucky to laugh.

"I wish I knew what the hell was going on here," Tony thought to himself.

"She doesn't know what's going on either Tony," Wanda spoke. "She's just as worried as you are."

"What?" Tony quickly turned around and asked. "Wanda did you just read my mind to know I was thinking that?"

"No. Madison said it to me."