Thank you for staying with me through this! References for the story can be found here: [bit.] [ly/] [2m0Yf6u]

Steve got the call waiting at the bus stop. He excused himself from the parents' group conversation and answered a good twenty feet away.

"Report."

"Report."

"Rogers, Steven. Report to Triskelion by ten AM eastern daylight" – there was the school bus – "time, May first, two-thousand-twelve. Mission classified. Minimum mission time indefinite."

"Received," he said – "Received," repeated the robotic SHIELD autocaller repeated before hanging up– and called out, "Cait!"

His elder daughter yelled back, "What is it, da?"

"Get your brother back here. Change of plans, you're gonna spend the week with Aunt Becca."

Cait nodded and boarded the bus, reappearing moments later with Mihail. Steve cast around for a parent who could give them a ride but the only one still around was –

Dammit, not Casey. But he couldn't waste any time walking back home.

"Casey!"

She turned and smiled.

"I just got called in. Can you give us a ride back to my house?"

Ride secured, just in time for Mickey to hug his father's leg and ask, "Can we go to Central Park?"

"That's up to Aunt Becca. I'm not going with you. Cait, hold Reva."

They piled into Casey's car, Reveka sitting buckled in on her sister's lap, and Steve dialed. "Hey, Tony. I need to borrow your plane. The kids are going to their aunt's in the Bronx."

"No problemo. Why?"

"I can tell you in a couple minutes. How soon can it get down here?"

"Two hours? I could just charter one of the Reagan –"

"Would they take a toddler without an escort?"

Tony sighed. "I'll fly down. With the suit. One hour. Jarvis'll text you the details."

"Thank you for fulfilling your godfather duties."

"Yeah, yeah."

Next was Becca: "Hey, I just got called in. Jamie's already out in the field" – Casey huffed, disapproving – "and I need you to take the kids."

"Oh... all right. When will they get up here?"

"Three hours. I'm sorry it's –"

"Don't worry about it," said Becca, sounding like she was worrying about it. "How long?"

"Till the end of the week. Is that –"

"If they were my grandkids I'd say no. But somehow you have the nicest kids on the planet, so how could I turn you down?"

Steve laughed; it was a common theme, people asking him how he parented his children that were so calm. The secret, not that he would say it, was their mother.

"Thanks so much. Their godfather's gonna take them up, I'll give him your number and address."

"Sounds good."

He hung up and Casey asked, "Their godfather is Tony Stark?"

"Yeah." Last number – the elementary school. "Hi, this is Caitriona and Mihail Rogers' dad, Steve. We're having a family emergency, they're gonna be out for the rest of the week."

"George and I could take them."

"You don't have the clearance," Steve replied, and forced himself to add, "but thanks."

Casey liked Steve – she flirted with him at every neighborhood picnic, and he knew he was paying for this ride by letting her ogle him the whole way home. She was always quick with the offer of a ride to the bus, even though Steve long ago made clear he didn't want his kids to default to a car to get around.

She did not, though, like Jamie one bit. Most of the neighbors had accepted that Jamie didn't smile much, even learned to read her like Steve could, but Casey never stopped giving her shit for it. She was convinced that Jamie emotionally abused both husband and kids, and that just happened to be Jamie's weak spot.

They pulled up to Steve's house and he forced another "thanks" out before escaping the car.

Packing was easy: he already had a go-bag and the kids could easily pull out a few pairs of their clothes. Steve set up the dog food dispenser and called a neighbor to arrange for their kid to walk Olivia twice a day, tossed whatever the kids missed packing into a fourth bag and hustled to the airport. Two minutes later he doubled back for his shield and uniform.

"Take care of 'em," he told Tony on the tarmac. "Keep Reva from wandering around. Cait has workbooks she should do on the plane. Mickey's gonna try to doodle on the chairs, don't let him."

"I got it. I know kids."

"You don't know the first thing about kids, Tony. Listen – don't let them put anything in their mouth that isn't food, sit anywhere that isn't a seat or the floor, listen to anything with headphones loud enough that you can hear it, or watch TV the whole flight."

"And here I thought everyone said they were good kids."

"They are. But they're still kids. Reva's still potty-training so you need to make sure she goes to the bathroom at least once an hour. I forgot her diapers."

Tony shooed him away with, "The stewardesses can take care of 'em," and Steve hugged each of his children a final time. They waved from the plane windows as it took off.

Coulson met him in the Triskelion parking garage. "Professor Erica Selvig was conducting experiments on the Tesseract –"

"I told you, you should've tossed that thing back in the ocean."

"Renewable energy, Cap."

Steve turned to face the other agent. "We both know Fury's making weapons with it."

"Only if the Asgardians come back," he replied airily, left Steve in the hallway and called back, "and one of 'em just did!"

On instinct, Steve dialed Jamie's number. He had to tell her about the kids – she was still on mission, need-to-know and Steve didn't need to know apparently –

The dial buzzed twice, clicked and went to voicemail. Jamie never bothered to record her own message over the default robotic voice.

"She won't pick up," said Fury. As usual, Steve hadn't noticed her approach. "Loki got to her and Barton."

"How? There are safeguards –"

"He has a staff. Put it up against your chest, take control of your mind. Their eyes glowed blue. Obviously we didn't anticipate that."

Steve leaned heavy against the wall. Why did it have to be his wife, every time, screwed over like this? "D'you know what'll break it?"

"No. He got to Selvig too. And they took the Tesseract."

"Nicola..."

"You've made your position on the cube clear. Barnes was there to supervise Selvig's experiments because she thought she was getting somewhere." She handed him a file. "Just watch."

Steve watched: the portal, the fight, the Asgardian who deflected bullets and killed anyone he didn't have the time to turn. He left in a car with Selvig, Jamie and Clint Barton.

"The portal imploded after they took the Tesseract. We lost the entire facility, have no idea where they went."

"Romanoff?"

"Bringing in someone who can help with the Tesseract. She'll be here by tomorrow morning."

He replayed the video, focusing on the Asgardian instead of his wife. He fought differently from Thor, a staff instead of a hammer – more jumping and dodging, more Steve's style than Jamie's –

"So, we find her."

"Again."

"Again," he agreed. "And we get her out."

"Again."

Steve sighed. "Again."

"Well." Fury clapped him on the shoulder. "Third time's the charm."