PART 2

Tony was tucking his giggling girl in, tickling her as he went through the bedtime inquisition.

"Wash your face?"

"Yes," she said with sly smile.

"Brush your teeth?"

"Yes."

"Clean behind your ears."

"Yes."

"Are you fibbing about that last one?"

"… maybe."

"Ha! Dad sense!" he shouts triumphantly, tickling her harder.

"Uncle Steve says I don't really have to wash behind my ears if I already did in the shower."

"Well, did you do it in the shower?" he asks with a knowing grin.

She looks down and presses her lips together.

"I forgot." Tony leans down and blows on her stomach, making her shriek with laughter.

"This is why Uncle Steve has dirty ears," he confides in his little buddy.

She lifts a finger to her lips, indicating it should remain their secret as she continues to giggle.

He kneels on one side of her bed, stroking her hair as she calms down. She reaches out her still-tiny hand for his and stares seriously into his eyes.

"Tell me a Mommy story," she begs.

"A Mommy story. Hmm." He kisses her little hand as he thinks of a Pepper story that he hasn't shared with her yet. That doesn't involve her cleaning up a mess a 5-year-old shouldn't hear about.

"One time, Mommy and Daddy were out for a drive, and a car hit Daddy's side."

"Oh no, Daddy!"

"I know! But Mommy reacted so very fast, she reached over and covered me with her own body."

"She rescued you!"

"Always. And she did get a big scrape on her side and some bumps on her head, but what was most amazing was what she did for the kid driving the other car."

"What did she do?"

"Well, this young man, Don, had taken his dad's car without permission, and he and his younger brother were driving too fast and he couldn't stop, so he turned the car so his brother wouldn't get hurt, but his leg got crushed. And instead of getting mad at him for crashing into us and for hurting her, Mommy convinced Daddy to help him with his leg."

"Of course she did," Natasha nodded confidently excitedly.

"So, that's how Daddy's company got into prosthetics, because Mommy was such a kind and generous woman."

"And beautiful," Natasha helped.

"She was the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."

"And strong."

"So very strong. I don't think there was anything she couldn't do."

"And very, very smart."

"The very smartest. Just like you. And she loved you so, so very much, even though she only got to see you once." His voice lowers at that last part. Natasha doesn't like the look in her daddy's eyes, though, so she reaches a little hand up to touch his face.

He smiles. He always smiles for her.

"So, are you ready for school tomorrow?"

"Wanda and Janet helped me pick my clothes, and Rhodey teached me how to set off the fire alarm, just in case," she beckons Tony closer, whispering. "I think Wanda likes Uncle Steve."

When Tony went back to work full-time and Steve had gotten 3 commissions at once with the possibility of more, they had decided to hire a student named Wanda as a part-time nanny for Natasha. Steve wanted to go through an agency, but Tony had wanted Wanda, whom he had met through Charles Xavier. She was the first in her family to go to school, and after meeting her hyperactive, troublemaking twin brother and homicidal-looking father, he decided the kid could use a break. Tony paid for her schooling and Wanda was a good influence on Natasha. Mostly. But even Tony could see how she hero-worshipped Steve. Tony had tried to convince him to ask her out on a date to which he had simply replied, "She's a kid, Tony."

"Well, what have I told you about Uncle Steve and dating?"

She shakes her head in pity, having seen for herself the blunder he made of trying to ask Janet's new assistant, Darcy, on a date once.

"He's great with the words until faced with a beautiful woman."

Tony smiles as her little shoulders shrug in disappointment.

"Yup."

She nods, then bites her lip nervously.

"Are you and Uncle Steve going to take me to school?"

Tony huffs. "What kind of question is that? Was there ever any doubt?"

"No, it's just… I know I'm smart like you and Mommy, but what if I'm not smart enough? What if I don't make any friends? What if I'm weird and nobody likes me?"

"Impossible," Steve says confidently, striding in and kneeling on her other side before kissing her head. "Everyone will love you. They'd be crazy not to."

She nods timidly, but then her lip quivers as she looks between the two men.

"But what if I miss you too much?" she whispers.

"Well, that's why you can take Bucky Badger with you." Steve answers, picking up the well-worn animal on her bed and handing it to her for a snuggle. "He's brave and ready for anything. And he'll look out for you, just like he did for me when I was your age."

Tony shakes his head lightly as Steve and Natasha have one of their silent conversations, but he gives her a reassuring smile when she looks back to him.

"Okay," she decides bravely, hugging her badger to her tightly as she nestles down into her covers. "I think I'll be ready. Good night, Daddy," she says, releasing one arm for a tight hug around his neck. Then she switches arms and hugs Steve. "Good night, Uncle Steve."

"Night, Kiddo."

"Night, Nat."

They walk out of her room after, turning off the lights and allowing the glow-in-the-dark superhero stickers on the ceiling to offer her their comfort (she was obsessed with Batman, Superman, and Black Canary these days, though she'd recently decided Green Arrow was pretty cool too).

They amble to the lounge, where they both collapse onto different sofas, contemplating the passage of time and how quickly their girl was growing. It seemed like just last week that Steve was moving in here and their whole lives were utterly and radically changed by the presence of someone still too young to smile, yet had stolen both their hearts and united them in a way nothing else ever could.

5 years ago

Tony woke abruptly, reaching for someone who was no longer there. When he caught his breath and remembered she was never coming back, he got out of bed to go check on the baby and reassure his aching heart that she, at least, was still real.

It was Steve's night to get up with her, so Tony gave a quiet knock before entering the dark bedroom. Fortunately, Steve was up and pacing the floor with the baby, gently bouncing her as he tried to get her back to sleep.

Tony approached, reaching out to run a finger down her cheek, calming the slight anxiety he felt any time she wasn't in his arms.

"Bad dream?" Steve asked as he handed her over without question.

At first, Tony didn't think he would deign to answer, but then he surprised himself by nodding. He didn't bother elaborating further, simply cuddling his daughter to his chest and letting her dull the ever-present ache in his heart.

In the three weeks since Steve had moved in, things hadn't warmed between them. Anytime Tony missed his wife or regretted the past or exhaustion and stress caught up to him, he found himself lashing out at Steve. And Steve lashed back, the grief he kept pent up boiling its way to the surface every now and then after being constantly poked and prodded. It came to a head a couple of days ago, the men's arguing rising to shouts that only stopped when they simultaneously realised they'd woken the baby, who looked terrified as they both immediately ran to comfort her.

They hadn't argued like that since.

Eventually, the three of them had developed their own rhythm, and Tony could admit it was nice to have help. He had openly cackled the first time Steve had changed the baby, recording it for "posterity" while not offering a single shred of help, tears of laughter in his eyes as he watched Steve realise things were backwards and start again, only for Natasha to relieve herself once he'd taken everything off.

They had more than once run into each other (literally) in the middle of the night while both attempting to make the wailing baby a bottle. They'd finally compromised and had worked out a sort of shift schedule, and now Tony had been able to sleep a little longer between the nights she was in his room, and Steve learned how to tend the baby alone on the nights she was in his.

Little by little, they started learning to live together. Steve had begun silently making enough for 2 every time he cooked, meaning Tony had (begrudgingly) started eating actual food again. One day Steve passed by the open door to one of the other guest rooms to discover Tony had emptied it and set an easel in the corner, though the engineer never bothered to mention the studio, nor had he seemed ready to discuss it, other than to nod and turn up his music when Steve had offered his gratitude.

One day, Happy delivered Pepper's final gift: a clock in the shape of the famed arc reactor Tony had invented to change the world with clean energy. It had Tony and Pepper's wedding date, the date he stopped making weapons and turned to helping people, and Natasha's birthdate, each etched on one of the three lines of the triangle, along with the inscription- "Your Greatest Power was Never Your Mind," inscribed around it. Tony spent that day holed up in his room, only coming out when Steve was putting Natasha down for the night.

"I'm tired," he declared.

"That's why I have her," Steve reminded him bemusedly.

"No. I'm tired of being so angry. Of being alone and… hating you. I don't want her to grow up in a house filled with tension and misery. I want- I just want peace."

Steve looked at him, then confided, "You know she called me, after that day in the lab. Said she was sorry about what happened between you and me, that she hadn't told me herself, that I didn't deserve to… Anyway, she said she hoped I'd get to meet the baby someday, that I'd get to be a part of their life since I was a part of their life-story. And she said she hoped you and I could find our way back to being friends, someday." Steve's eyes become more and more moist the longer he goes on.

The two assessed each other for a long moment, before Steve nodded and a weight was lifted off both their shoulders as they exhaled.

"I want peace, too."

Present Day

"Gee, Tony, I'm not sure I am ready for tomorrow," Steve confided.

Tony fidgeted for a moment, then spread his arms out on the back of the sofa.

"Well, Bucky Badger may have a special camera attached to that arm of his…" He stared up at the ceiling.

"Tony!"

"What?" he sat up innocently.

"How many times have I told you to stop messing with Bucky's arm? It's fine the way it is, it's not a toy at your disposal."

"But it's all-"

"It's fine," Steve insisted for the millionth time. "And our girl will be fine without any top-secret spy equipment accompanying her to school."

"It's hardly top secr-" Tony rolls his eyes at the glare Steve is giving him; Tony and Natasha call it his 'I'm the Captain, I'm the Boss, and I'm Disappointed' glare. "Fine. But what if she falls down on the playground?" he argues.

"Then she'll get back up, dust herself off, and keep playing," Steve declares confidently.

Tony huffs but promises he'd take the camera out in the morning. He doesn't need to know Steve is just repeating what Maria Rhodes (née Hill) had told him when he had voiced the same concern to her.

The next day, Happy drives Tony, Steve, and Natasha to her first day of school. At the door, she hugs them both tightly, then turns around, lifts her head bravely, and walks in. She doesn't cry or waver at all once she decides she's going inside, just clasps Bucky Badger in one of her small hands and finds the seat the teacher had shown her during orientation.

Tony and Steve are so proud of her they could burst, but it only takes a small nod between them for both men to hunch and join the small group of parents ducking beneath a window, watching their children's first day. They stay there an hour, watching as Natasha not only quietly listens to the teacher, but also makes easy conversation with several other children in class.

Finally, they go back to the Tower, where Tony immediately heads down to his lab to meet Bruce, and Steve goes down to the tower gym. Later, Steve brings Tony and Bruce lunch in the lab, as he often does, and they all sit and discuss a new charity Maria and Rhodey wanted them to get SI involved in. Steve goes back up to the penthouse to try to get in some studio time and Tony and Bruce get back to work. A few hours later, Tony looks up at the clock that now hangs in his lab, and he starts cleaning up mid-project to go pick up Natasha. Bruce chuckles to himself, waving Tony off when he asks what's funny.

All the way home, Natasha regales Tony and Steve with stories about her day. They smile at her and ask questions about class she's all too eager to answer, and then they ask her about any friends she's made.

She mentions a girl named Yelena and a boy named Matt and a girl named Kitty, who turns out to be Emma Frost's foster-daughter. Tony makes a mental note to call his old friend and tease her a bit. Finally, once she's gone through all she's learned that day and all she's observed, she gets a sly smile on her face as she glances up at Steve.

"Miss Gail isn't married, you know," she prompts him.

Steve raises an eyebrow at her, then looks to Tony, who just smirks and looks out the window, offering no help at all.

"No, I didn't know," he answers Natasha slowly. "How do you know?"

"I asked her," she replies bluntly, causing Tony to snort. "And she's real pretty. I bet if you asked her to be your girlfriend, she'd say yes."

Tony isn't bothering to hide his silent laughter at this point, so Steve glares at him. His face is bright red when he looks back down and addresses Natasha.

"Why would I need a girlfriend, when my best girl is right here?" he questions, poking her side. She giggles and swats at his hand. Then she scans his face.

"I'm your best girl?" she probes cautiously.

He bends down and kisses the top of her head, ruffling the hair Janet had painstakingly styled for her that morning.

"Always will be."

When her mouth tilts in a small smile, Tony leans down and kisses her head as well, before pulling her in for a side hug.

"Mine too."

She leans comfortably against Tony and holds Steve's hand the rest of the car ride home.

A/N- I believe there is enough context to understand Part 1, but I'll leave a summary just in case:

Summary: Tony and Pepper try to have a child for years. One night, after she'd received another negative test, Steve comes over to comfort her, and ends up fathering her child. Tony and Pepper's marriage obviously gets strained, but they eventually find their way back to each other. Steve is living a homeless, nomadic, poor artist life, and under the law (a real law in many places to protect the children) of Premarital Presumption of Paternity, Tony is the lawful father of any children of Pepper, a role he takes very seriously and guards jealously. He and Steve have a massive argument and Tony tells him to leave and never come back. Pepper then passes during childbirth. Tony is fully prepared to raise the baby alone, but grief combined with caring for a newborn alone take such a toll as to scare Rhodey and Bruce, who remind Tony that the baby (Natasha, whose middle name was changed since she's not Russian) already had another parent willing to help. Tony swallows his pride for his his girl, and calls Steve to move in, so his daughter would have the best life available to her. Steve sees his baby, realises how much Tony loves her despite their issues, and promises Tony he would never take her and his baby he would never leave her, regardless of what she calls him. This picks up 5 years later.

This is alternately titled "Avengers: Civil War: the Soap Opera Version!" Or: how the Avengers help Tony and Steve raise their girl.