"This evening, officials found the 2010 Ford Focus that was stolen from a McDonald's parking lot crashed into the lake beyond the former Avenger's Compound. The car was thought to be stolen by Natasha Romanoff, a former member of the Avengers, in an attempt to flee authorities. She was accompanied by an unknown man. Neither body was found in the car, but the damage is-"

Kayla turned off the tv and leaned back against the couch, running her tongue between her teeth and lip angrily. She wrung her fingers together as she breathed heavily, having been glued to the fixed television since Tessa left three hours ago. Her phone was set to loud, sitting at her side, but it had been silent. Nobody called. Nobody texted. Nobody reached out. No Bucky. No Nat. No Steve.

All of a sudden the phone rang and she jumped on it without looking, "Where the hell are you?"

"My cabin, where I live with my wife and daughter, where are you?"

"Aww, crap, sorry Tony." Kayla mumbled as she leaned her head back and massaged her temples with her free hand, "To answer your question I'm home with the kids."

"Where's the hubby?"

"Hopefully not drowning in the lake." She bit back, tilting her face to the side to see James bopping up and down to a non-existent melody next to her. The boy looked up at her and motioned with his grabby little hands.

"Dadda?"

Kayla's breath caught in her throat as she worked hard to bat away the tears in her eyes. There was a weight in her chest as she brushed her fingers through James's thickening blonde hair. He had his father's nose, and once the baby fat wore away most likely his strong jaw. Kayla hated that she considered never seeing her husband again- unless it was looking at their son.

Tony hummed on the other line, hearing the exchange, "He took Romanoff."

"He did. He got a tip from Barnes that her suit had a tracker in it. Ditched in it a fast food restaurant and stole a car. Unfortunately, security got a look at Nat before they left." Kayla explained, forcing a broad smile at the little boy that looked up at her with glistening green eyes.

"Yeah, I noticed. I had Happy go to retrieve his pickup shortly after the chase hit the news, but you tell your husband if he makes a habit of leaving it places I'm keeping it." Tony quipped, but Kayla wasn't in the mood for teasing. She pressed her eyes closed, not speaking for a moment until Tony continued, "Why don't you bring the kids out to the lake for a few days while Cap's gone. Morgan asks about your son sometimes. I'd like him to either be in her life or not. I don't want people making a habit of walking out on her."

"I'd honestly love that Tony. Thank you." Kayla answered quickly, knowing the weekend trip would be just what she needed.

"I'll send Happy in the morning for you and the kids."

"Does he..." Kayla trailed, taking a deep breath, "know- about us? About me and Steve and the kids?"

"He does. Just him and Pepper. Come, relax, the kids will play. Bring the mutt of yours so he can see the two puppies Steve brought us. Sound good?" Tony asked, but Kayla could hear in his voice that she'd be collected in the morning whether she thought it sounded good or not.

She nodded, even though he couldn't see her, that was all she could muster, "Yeah, that sounds good."

Natasha lowered herself onto the ground next to Steve as he leaned over the small pit he'd created and worked on starting a fire. The May evening air was brisk, but after walking for twenty miles through the woods near the old compound, Steve could see Natasha had grown weary, even if she wouldn't admit it. So he scooped up the Black Widow and carried her another for another ten before finding a safe place to hunker down for the night.

"You should be home with Kayla and the kids. Not out in the woods with me. You aren't on the run anymore, Rogers." Natasha told her old friend, but he just shrugged and blew gently as the small spark grew into a larger fire.

"You really think after all this time I'm gonna leave you alone, Romanoff?" Steve answered, his eyes glistening playfully in the growing firelight. "Besides, I needed this. I needed to get out of the house. I work. I make small talk with the coworkers. I come home to Kayla and the kids, who've been home all day by the way. We eat dinner, then we take turns staying up all night with Sarah."

"She's really sick isn't she?" Natasha didn't try to ease into it, she just dove right in with her question. She knew the moment that the child was born that she was sickly, and the first week of her life confirmed it. Natasha wasn't so sure the baby would make it long enough to make the two-day trip to meet her father hiding upstate in his new house.

Steve nodded, rocking himself from his feet onto his ass so he could relax, "She's like a mini-me. She has a lot of the ailments I had before the serum. It's hard, watching her suffer, knowing Kayla could fix it with her serum. But I can't do that to Sarah. Not without her consent."

"She's a baby."

"She's still a person who maybe doesn't want to be enhanced." Steve bit back, glaring at Natasha. She leaned back on her hands, looking from Steve's fiery expression to the flames themselves.

"Hmm." Natasha breathed shortly, stretching out her legs, "So you'd rather let her die a natural death than save her life unnaturally."

"I never said that." Steve's deep, angry voice rumbled, "If it came to that, of course, we'd give her the serum."

"Then save her the trouble and give it to her now."

"There are too many side effects, and we don't know how it would affect a child. We're already having a hard enough time with James and he doesn't have the serum, he just has our blood. It should be diluted but he's still super strong." Steve ran his hand through his long hair, pushing it away from his face as his chest deflated a little. "I'm torn, Nat. I wasn't ready to be a father. I don't know how to be one. Maybe Steve Rogers could have figured it out, but the man who's spent eighty years as Captain America isn't so sure."

"You're so overdramatic." Natasha grumbled, "You sleep first. We'll switch when you wake up."

Steve didn't argue or insist she sleep. He laid down and rested his cheek on his arm, facing the fire as his eyelids slid closed. He let his mind wander back to his wife and kids. He imagined Kayla alone in their house, changing Sarah while James waddled around her feet, pulling on her pant leg for attention. He imagined Sarah's smile and James's laugh. He imagined Kayla's soft lips pressing against his as he laid in bed, somewhere between sleep and consciousness. Steve could draw her from memory, every curve and detail. Asleep on the dirt by that fire, Steve felt his heart pulling against his chest, pleading him to go home.

Steve didn't wake up until dawn broke over the tree line. He slowly opened his eyes and pushed himself into a sitting position. He looked around, assuming Natasha would have eventually given in to sleep and curled up near him for protection, or perhaps she'd stayed awake all through the night, keeping watch over them as she'd promised.

But she was nowhere to be found.

"Natasha!" Steve called loudly as he spun around, looking through the wilderness for his partner. He looked to the ground, seeing the imprint in the dirt where she'd been sitting as he fell asleep hours earlier. He looked from the imprint, trying to figure out which direction he went off into. She'd ditched her Black Widow suit. She was wearing flat boots, but the thick heels left slight prints in the dirt, giving Steve an idea of where Natasha Romanoff had gone.

Kayla packed a duffle bag with clothes for her and her two kids as the sun continued rising into the sky, illuminating her dark Steve-less world. She kept pushing her hair out of her face, getting annoyed to the point she finally just piled the dark red hair on top of her head in a messy bun. Her green eyes darted around the bedroom to see if there was anything she was forgetting for herself and her daughter.

Kayla heard a car horn outside and pulled aside the blinds to see Happy sitting in the driveway in a silver Mercedes Benz. She turned to Sarah, seeing the little girl staring up at her mother with pale blue eyes and a toothless smile. "Alright baby, let's go get your brother," Kayla mumbled to the child before scooping her up and pressing the little girl against her collarbone. Once Sarah was settled against Kayla's shoulder, the woman moved to her son's bedroom, seeing him already standing in his crib, waiting to be collected.

"Momma."

"Yes, James?"

"Dadda."

"No," Kayla sighed, reaching down and grabbing the heavy child easily with her right arm, "Daddy isn't here right now. He's with Auntie Nat, but he'll be home soon. We're going to go see Uncle Tony for a few days, and you get to play with Morgan."

"Dadda." James babbled again, reaching up and trying to grab at a loose strand of hair. "Momma."

"Can you saaayyy... Sarah?" Kayla chirped at the boy as she carried the two kids down the stairs, hearing Happy approach the front door. She pressed a kiss to James's forehead as the boy pressed his chubby fingers to her face, trying and failing to pronounce the R sound in his sister's name.

"Sawah."

"Close enough," Kayla grunted as she set down the boy and opened the door, gesturing for Happy to enter their home quickly before closing and locking the door. She wrapped her arms around Happy to give the man a gentle hug, "It's good to see you Happy. Thank you for picking us up."

"Anytime. Tony's very excited to have you three out for the weekend. You heard anything from your husband?" Happy asked as he took her duffle bag and moved back out to the car to put it in the trunk. After closing the trunk, he looked up and realized Kayla was standing right behind him with a smile on her face and her massive dog parked at her feet, panting. She still had Sarah on her chest, and James stood dutifully by his mother's side holding his own car seat while Kayla held Sarah's in her free hand.

"Nope. He's in the wind. What else is new?" She shrugged as she passed Sarah's car seat to Happy and took her son's with a sweet smile. "Thank you, James."

"Mmmhmm." James hummed in response and grabbed onto Kayla's leg as he stared up at Happy nervously.

"Say hello to Mr. Happy, James," Kayla instructed to the little blonde boy as he pulled on her leg, moving it slightly. Happy knelt down to see the boy better, extending his hand to give the small boy a high five. James eyed it suspiciously, looking from the hand to the bearded man behind it. Kayla nudged him slightly, with her calf, signaling for the boy to greet the older man.

James smacked his hand into Happy's and Happy waved it painfully, feeling the sting from the child's strength, "Wow, he's his father's son."

"And his mother's." Kayla scoffed, ruffling the little boy's hair. "Let's get moving, I don't want to attract any more attention."

"Hey, Katie! What are you up to this morning?"

Kayla's back stiffened at Tessa's voice and turned to see her neighbor standing by the car with her water bottle in one hand and her iPhone strapped to her upper arm. Her headphones slung loosely around her sweaty neck so she could hear Katie over the sound of her panting.

"Oh, I'm actually taking the kids to my cousin's lake house for a few days. Steve's still gone, so Harold came to pick us up." Kayla gestured to Happy, and the man seemed genuinely surprised that she knew his real name. He hadn't spent much time around Kayla Ellis, but from everything he'd heard she was pretty self-absorbed. He didn't take her as the type of woman to remember the people who worked for men she slept with.

Then again, she did save Tony Stark's life so he could survive to see his daughter grow up. The woman was full of surprises.

Happy turned and smiled at Tessa, giving the woman a short wave in greeting as she looked him up and down. He wore a suit, which seemed a little out of place for somebody who was picking up their cousin. "Steve's still not back? I thought he was taking your sister to the airport?"

"Yeah, her flight got canceled," Kayla droned as James began tottering over to Tessa to give her a hug. "He decided to just drive her straight to Ohio! He probably stayed overnight with my parents, but he's gonna meet us up at the lake once he's back in-state."

Tessa scrunched her face thoughtfully, her defined brows lowered suspiciously, "Doesn't that bother you? Him going on a road trip with your sister.. without you?"

Kayla shrugged, but she kept her expression neutral, "It's not ideal, but, it is what it is." Kayla shifted Sarah as the girl began to squirm. She held out the little girl and pressed a kiss to her nose before holding her tightly against her chest again.

Tessa picked up the chunky James and held him as Happy continued strapping in the car seats into the beautiful car. Tessa knew Katie Carter kept her secrets close to her chest, but it didn't make Tessa any less curious. "So where's the lake house at?"

"It's a surprise. She hasn't even been there yet." Happy winked at Tessa, and Kayla snorted. "What, can't a man surprise his cousin and family with a fun weekend?"

"It's needed with all the stress of Natalie's breakup with Sam. I'm not happy with her right now." Kayla mumbled, lowering Sarah into the car behind Happy and strapping her in carefully as the girl babbled nonsensical words. Once Sarah was stapped into the car in her little pink overalls, Kayla carefully pulled out of the car to face her friend and collect her son. "We'll be back in a few days. Can you and Ryan keep an eye on the house for us while we're gone?"

"Yeah, of course. Keep me posted. Let me know when Steve gets to the lake, okay? If you need anything, I'm here." Tessa offered, then pulled Katie into a hug as James clung to her legs. "I love you, Katie."

Kayla's heart pounded against her chest at the words. It made sense. They'd been close for two months and Kayla did consider Tessa her best friend in this life. She was aware that Tessa didn't spend as much time with other friends as she did with them. But the idea was still alarming, Tessa considered Katie one of her best friends.

And she didn't even know who Katie was.

"I love you too." Kayla pulled Tessa against her a little tighter, leaning her face against the brunette's head. "Thanks for being such a great friend."

Kayla felt like a fraud. It felt like a great show, and she was a fabulous actress. She needed friends in this new life, but, she had hoped she could keep them at arm's length, but Tessa let her in. Kayla's chest felt tight as she pulled away, forcing a weak smile. She reached down and heaved James into her arms so she could buckle him in behind the passenger seat. Tessa took this as a sign to go, and she nodded as she put her headphones back in and continued running.

"Ready to go?" Happy asked as Kayla clicked her tongue, calling Zawadi. He found the open door on the passenger side and jumped into the backseat between the two children. Kayla locked up the house and plopped down beside the man, giving him one of her famous smiles before telling him she was ready.