Sitting in at the edge of the bath in his apartment, Steve Rogers was attempting to give Ashley a bath. The water wasn't deep, he was just trying to get some of the dirt from her body and her hair. She seemed to like playing in the water, Steve had managed to dig some rubber ducks from one of his old boxes for her when he used to help out with Peggy's grandchildren. Yellow, pink, red, white and blue rubber ducks floating around in the water. Soon four o'clock came and Ashley was on the floor, dark brown hair in a braid and wrapped in a towel and a diaper he'd borrowed from the woman a few doors down. The doorbell sounded and Steve checked on Ashley before answering, seeing the familiar red-headed Avenger he'd worked with earlier this year.
"Hey, I brought the donuts but the corner store only had tinned fruit" she handed a plastic bag to Steve and walked past him, shrugging off her brown leather jacket and hanging it up with Steve's.
"It's fine, the fruit isn't for me anyway" he moved into the living space again. "Right, there's someone I need you to meet..." he sighed, glancing back at the space where Ashley had once been playing... "Damn it" where did she go?
"Uh, Steve?" Natasha seemed pretty confused, looking at the rubber ducks on the laminated flooring.
"She was right here!" Steve was panicking, not every item in his apartment was child-friendly. Hearing a crash from the kitchen, both Steve and Natasha made their way quickly into the small room. There they saw Ashley, giggling and pulling another plate out of the cupboard and throwing it onto the floor.

"Ashley!" he walked over, picking the small girl up and holding her on his side. "You scared me for a moment there, princess" he sighed seeing that she wasn't hurt. Remembering Natasha's presence in the room, he turned to her with a hopeless smile. "Ashley, this is Natasha. Nat, this is Ashley. Phil's daughter." he walked over to Natasha again. Natasha tilted her head, examining the small child.
"Hello Ashley, my names Natasha" she gave a friendly smile, taking Ashely from Steve. Ashley gave Natasha a shy grin, her cheeks going red.
"She doesn't talk too well, when I found her Melissa didn't seem very motherly" he sighed, starting the pick up the shattered plates, plastic bag on the counter. Natasha took a bowl down from the cupboard, opening up the tin of fruit and straining the syrup they were in and just leaving the fruit in the bowl.
"I actually kind of expected that from Melissa, she was lost without Phil." she sat down at the table, Ashley on her lap and letting Ashley dig into the fruit with a spoon.
"I'm just disappointed, you'd think she'd try to raise the girl, you should have seen the neighbourhood they were hiding in! It was filthy, the door had been broken for goodness knows how long..." he leaned back on the counter. "Want a coffee?" he offered, opening the cup cupboard and taking out his favourite mug; one with the London Eye painted delicately on, his name in a fancy yet clear text on the handle. Natasha shook her head, declining but thanking him for the offer.

"Melissa... I have no words for her." Natasha tried keeping her focus on Ashley as the girl ate, having abandoned her spoon and used her fingers to eat the slightly sticky peaches. "What are we going to do about the little one-"
"She has a name, it's Ashley."
"My dearest apologies." Natasha rolled her eyes, yet she showed a hint of an amused smile. "Now, what are we going to do about Ashley?" the girl didn't look up either of the times her name was mentioned, then again she didn't exactly know her name was Ashley... Thank you, Melissa. "Buying her some clothes would be a start, Steve"
"I was planning to, only I have no idea what I would dress a two year old in..." He looked down into his cup, a spoonful of coffee beans and two spoonful's of sugar. No milk. As the kettle boiled away he turned back to Natasha.
"That's why I called you, I need help with her. The only experience I have with kids is back in 2012 when I would help out with Peggy's youngest grandson..."
"You called me for help with a kid?" she arched one of her dark red bows, Natasha didn't think she was at all motherly, Steve saw she was rather good with Ashley so far, all Natasha had to do was help him out with clothes, stuff for Ashley's room, et cetera... That is, if Steve could manage to adopt her.

3 Months Later

"Steve? It's Pepper, how did everything go?" the voice of Tony's girlfriend came from the pocket of his pants, Steve hated touch screen phones, they get rubbed in the wrong way and you've accidentally called someone. Or in this case, answered someone. Putting the phone to his ear, he sighed.
"Sorry, Pepper. Repeat that?" he hadn't heard the first time, the woman chuckled lightly on the other end.
"I said, how did everything go?" She repeated herself, all the Avengers and company knew that Steve was trying to adopt Ashley, it was now February 2015 and he had just found out whether the adoption was approved of or not.
"Well... It could have better... They'd managed to get Melissa - That's Ashley's mom - down there, she screamed bloody murder at me." he let an exhausted sigh, stopping to sit on a park bench.
"Oh, Steve I'm sorry to hear... I only met the woman once, she always seemed so lovely..."
"Well, it was nothing we could control." he shrugged. "Anyway... Ashley Shrapnel isn't my daughter, neither is Ashley Coulson..." he heard Pepper's soft gasp at the other end, then audible murmurs in the background. That's when Steve realised he was on loud speaker.
"They said no?"

"Well... Not exactly... Ashley Coulson might not be my daughter... But Ashley Rogers is!" he laughed, hearing a few claps, congratulations along with a 'You freaking prick!' from Tony Stark. Steve looked at the girl sat on his lap, dark hair in neat pig tails and wearing a sky blue dress with a white t-shirt beneath. Natasha and Pepper had dressed her this morning, Tony getting a suit for Steve to make the Captain look more presentable. Ashely was allowed home with Steve today, the paper work all signed and Ashley was now officially his daughter.
"Steve! That's amazing!" Pepper's gleeful tone nearly deafened him. "Where are you now?"
"We're in the park, I was going to get Ashley some ice cream."
"Ice cream!" the two year old giggled, looking up at Steve with a grin. He looked back down at Ashley with a smile.
"That's right, and then we'll go see Aunt Pepper and Uncle Donkey-Face"
"Hey!" that time it was Tony's voice around the others' laughter.
"Well, we'll be over in-" CRASH! RUMBLE! "2 minutes, I don't want to get caught in this storm."
"But ice cream!"
"We can have ice cream at Tony's, Ash. I promise." Ashley jumped from his lap just as it started to pour down in thick, heavy rain drops. Taking off his jacket, he picked up his daughter and set her on his side, covering her with a jacket as he jogged to The Avengers Tower, damn... What a day this had been for both Steve and little Ashely Rogers.