After three days of Natasha and James getting along, the Tower broke out into all out war.
After Natasha got hit by a explosive can of silly string that Tony had meant for James, the Black Widow and her son had planed the ultimate retaliation. James jumped down from the air vents into the lab and blasted Tony with a pair of water guns. Tony chased James back to the living room only to get blinded sided by Natasha and a Super Soaker. The tow red heads chased Iron Man all around the Tower until Pepper took pity on him and came out with water guns from Tony's personal stash (He'd only bought them to play with James of course) and the four of them had turned the Tower into a watery battlefield. So when Hawkeye, it was inevitable that he would end up taking a water balloon the face.
"Clint!" Natasha gasped 'What are you doing here?"
"Finally got through all my hearings on account of you and Cap taking down SHIELD," Clint wiped away a drop of water form the corner of his eye 'Mind telling me why my face is dripping wet?"
"Sorry about that," James apologized "That was meant for Tony."
"You must be future boy," Clint guessed "Jamie, right?"
James smiled. "Your're still the only one that calls me Jamie Uncle Clint."
Uncle Clint?" Tony frowned "Wait so Cupid here isn't you're dad?"
"My dad?" James burst into a fit of laughter.
"What made you think that Clint was the farther?" Natasha asked.
"Aren't you two dating?"
James fell back onto the couch as his laughter kicked into second gear. "You are so clueless!" he managed.
"Oh come on! I can't be the only one who thinks this," Tony disputed "You two call each other every other day, you're practically inseparable, and Natasha's got an arrow necklace that screams 'future Mrs. Hawkeye'."
"You two are pretty close," Pepper admitted.
"This again," Natasha groaned. "Just because Clint and I are close and he gave a good luck charm when I first joined SHIELD, doesn't mean that scr-," Natasha stopped herself when she remembered that James was in the room "seeing each other. We are not dating okay? We're just friends."
"Plus I don't think that would help me patch things up with my ex-wife."
"How is that going by the way?" Natasha asked.
"Not so good," Clint answered glumly.
"Man, for a genius, you can sure be dumb sometimes Uncle Tony," James stifled a laugh "If that was your best guess on who my dad is, then you'll never see it coming."
"Do you miss him?"
"Who?"
"Your dad," Natasha stood in the door frame of James' room, the ten year old already tucked in and ready for bed.
James shrugged. "A little," he admitted. Truth was, he thought about his dad a lot. This was the longest the two had ever been apart. He was always being careful to not to do anything that give him away. He'd seen Back to Future, and James did not want to start disappearing or end up in some twisted version of his home.
"Tony and Bruce are going to get you home," Natasha reassured. "don't worry."
"I know they will. Uncle Bruce and Uncle Tony are the smartest people in the whole world," James said with certainty. Then he frowned. "It's just-"
"You're worried about how long it'll take?" Natasha assumed as she felt a tug on her heart strings. Here was this little boy, stuck in a place that was so similar to home and so different at the same time. It reminded her of Steve when he first got out the ice. And it made her want to do something. Then she remembered how James loved to draw animals. "Let's go to the zoo." James blinked "Tomorrow, we go to the Central Park Zoo, just you and me," Natasha could hardly believe the words coming out of her own mouth. "But no more hide-and-seek, deal?"
James smiled. "Deal."
"Come on, come on! Let's go!"
"Alright, alright," Natasha chuckled as James urged to finish her coffee. He'd been rushing all morning, if James got anymore excited Natasha was afraid he was going to bust. "Just let me get my purse alright."
"Tasha!" Clint's voice rang throughout the Tower "You need to come see this!"
Natasha sighed. "I'll be right back." She followed Clint's voice to the lab and found Bruce, Pepper and Tony all surrounding a monitor. "What's going on?"
"We've been hacked," said Tony
"What?"
"Turns out James got into the security feed," Bruce explained. "He's been splicing video feeds and cutting out anything he didn't want us to see."
Kid's got talent," Clint quipped.
"I am getting really tired of getting played by a ten year-old," Tony grumbled. "Anyway, the kid slipped up. I went through the files and was able to recover this." Tony's fingers fluttered across the holotable and pulled up an image: James in the gym, holding an unfamiliar object in his hand.
It was a Frisbee. Bright red with a white star in the middle. Natasha frowned. "Who's in there with him?" she asked.
"Not a single sole," said Tony "This was taken at 2 in the morning. Watch."
James threw the Frisbee into the air, the bright red disk soaring through the air until it hit the gym wall.
It ricocheted, bouncing off the wall and flying back and straight into James's hand.
Pepper gasped. Bruce took off his glasses to make sure he was seeing clearly. Clint shot out of his seat.
Tony, the only one who had already seen the footage, was the only one who wasn't in shock. "There is only one man who can do that," he said with certainty.
Pepper spoke slowly. "Tony, are you saying that you think-,"
"I am and I do," he confirmed "and when I get the DNA results back, so will you."
"How is this going to help get him home," Bruce asked slightly irritated. "Tony, we're supposed to be firguring out the orb, not tampering with the future and interfering with our friends' personal lives."
"I didn't spend three hours going through these buried files to play future Maury," Tony snapped "I did it because I thought we'd been hit by a HYDRA cyber attack. And second Banner, who do you think's been stuck in the lab with you for the last week and a half."
"You mean when you're not running around playing water guns and prank wars while I'm working in here 'till I pass out?"
The fight between the two sleep deprived scientists soon dragged in both Clint and Pepper as they tried to clam them down.
But Natasha. Natasha was too glued to the holoscreen, watching James throw the Frisbee and catch it over and over again. Natasha didn't need a DNA test to tell her who James's father was. She had seen all the proof she needed, and it wasn't the video. It was in his eyes. Natasha always knew that she had seen James's eyes somewhere before. Now she knew where.
On Captain America.
"Where is he?"
When Steve got the call from Natasha, the super soldier was ready to swim across the Atlantic if he had to. He and Sam had been in Switzerland when she'd called, tracking down a lead as to where Bucky might be. It was the first time Captain America and Falcon had been home in months.
To say that Natasha's call had sent him for a loop was an understatement to say the least. A ten year-old son from the future? But when Steve found out that James was his, he came running. He had to see his son and nothing short of an army would stop him.
Natasha knew the second she called Steve, that he would be back before dawn. The man took on an army single-handedly just to break his best friend out of prison. Leaving people in need, especially people he cared about, just wasn't in his nature. "He's in bed Steve. Sleeping is generally what ten year-olds do at 12 in the morning."
"Nat." The tone in his voice was warning enough that Steve was in no way in a joking mood.
Natasha smirked. "Follow me."
The Black Widow led Steve to a small guest bedroom on the next floor and there he was. He lay sleeping in a large bed, gently wrapped in a dark blue blanket, a small collection of toys ad books scattered across the room.
Steve starred at him in wonder "How long has he been here?"
"One week, three days and eighteen hours," Natasha stated.
Steve glared at her angrily "And I'm just finding out about him now?"
"We just found out," Natasha explained "He wouldn't tell us and Tony just got back the DNA results."
Steve's gaze slowly went back to James, watching the boy as he slept peacefully in his bed. "What's his name?" he asked, mystified "What's he like?"
Natasha watched Steve as he soaked in every detail of his son's face. "His name is James."
James. God, he named him after Bucky.
"He's sweet," Natasha continued "Kind. Polite. He loves animals and old Disney movies. He's favorite's Jungle Book. He likes to draw and pull pranks." Natasha glanced at Steve as he stood like a statue. "He has your eyes." She grabbed his arm as Steve started to enter the room "Steve , he's sleeping."
"Natasha," Steve's voice dripped with emotion, full of determination and desire "I need to talk to him."
She sighed. "Ten minutes."
Steve walked into the room silently and stood next to James' bed. This was his son. His son. As he reached down with a trembling hand, another shot up and grabbed his wrist.
James smiled. "Hey."
"Hi," Steve smiled as he bent down and brought himself to his son's eye level "sorry I woke you."
"It's okay," James replied sleepily "I'm a light sleeper."
Steve nodded, surprised by the boy's relaxed demeanor "Must've been quite a shock ending up here"
"A little," James admitted "mostly it's more weird than scary. Everything's pretty different,"
"But still so familiar all at the same time," Steve finished "I felt the same way when I got out of the ice."
"Except you went forward and I went backwards," James joked.
Steve's eyes narrowed when he notice the glint of a metal chain around James's neck. "Are those my dogtags?"
James nodded, pulling the chain out from under the collar of his camo-print pajamas. "You gave them to me when I was little. I couldn't wear them before 'cause I couldn't let anybody know. Uncle Bruce said it might mess up the future." James looked as his father, his pale blue eyes a reflection of his own "I missed you."
Steve put a comforting hand on his son's shoulder "I'm here now. And I'm not going anywhere," he said strongly " and no matte what happens, I want you to know that I'm with you,"
" 'Till the end of the line," James finished.'
"How'd you know I was going to say that?" Steve asked.
James smiled. "That's what you always say to me."