"What are we gonna do?" Steve asked me as we were sitting side by side on the couch, staring at the baby crawling on the carpet. So far nothing too crazy had happened; the baby just moved around and would gurgle every once and awhile.
I snorted. "I don't have a clue." I say with a wave of my hand at a stranger's child scooting around on the carpet. "That's somebody else's kid. Why the heck they would leave a baby on our doorstep I'll never know..."
"Do you wanna call the gang or should we wait until they get home?" Steve asked.
"Yikes. I hadn't even thought about them yet." I replied. "I think we should call them. Somehow I think coming home to a random baby won't go over well..." I say and grab my phone out of my pocket. I open Facetime and call Pepper. She answers on the third ring.
"Hey. Do you need anything?" she asked pleasantly, directing the phone at her face but keeping her eyes on the road...
"Uh, yeah." I answer, not really sure about how I'm gonna break it to her that Steve and I have become the baby sitters of a child we found on our doorstep. "Is everyone with you?" I inquire.
"Yep. We finished everything and are on our way home." she replied, with everyone else voicing some sort of greeting. "Here, I'll let you talk to Bruce." he said and handed the phone to him.
"Hey there." Bruce said. "What's up?"
I closed my eyes and frowned. "Um, I'm just gonna be blunt. Steve and I were eating lunch and then somebody rang the doorbell and we thought it was ding-dong-ditchers but when I went outside there was this basket and inside there was somebody's baby with a letter to 'The Avengers' and Steve and I brought it inside and it is currently crawling around on the carpet!" I say all in one breath. There's no response so I crack open an eye to see Bruce just staring at the phone. Nobody else in the car was speaking either.
Finally, Bruce swallowed and cleared his throat. "Okay." he said very slowly. "Have you read the letter?" he asked.
"Nope. I figured that we would once y'all got home." I answer.
He coughs. "Well, we're turning onto the driveway." he says matter-of-factly.
BREAK
"Dear Avengers, her name is Samantha and she is 8 months old. I am at a point in my life where I can't take care of her. Maybe I never will be. So I gave her to you. I figured that the world's best superheroes could take care of my child. She isn't very fussy, unless it's time for a bath. She still hasn't gotten used to them yet. Her favorite kind of baby food is the pureed carrots. If I ever am able to care for her again I will come back. Thank you from the bottom of my heart." I finish reading, us all gathered around apparently Samantha. "This is insane. I can't believe someone just gave us her baby." I add.
"There's no name or anything?" Tony asked as he took the letter. I shook my head. He scanned the page. "So we have no idea who this Baby belongs to either."
"What shall we do?" Thor asked. "Lady Pepper, do you have any ideas?" he asked, turning to the strawberry blonde.
She sighed and shook her head as well. "I have no idea. I guess we'll just have to take care of her until S.H.I.E.L.D. can find her mom..." she suggests.
Samantha stops crawling and sits up. She starts chewing on her hand, drooling everywhere. Samantha had a tuft of light blonde hair and bright blue eyes. You couldn't say she wasn't cute. She was wearing a yellow onesie with a duck on it. Suddenly, she stopped chewing on her fingers and started reaching up at me, making these little grunting noises.
I scooped her up. She looked right at me and then grabbed a chunk of my hair, studying it. "Hi Samantha." I say. She looked back at my face. "You're cute, but what are we gonna do with you?" I ask, more to the group as I look around.