"We think they tracked you from the tower to the house," Tony said, tossing the deactivated tracker on the table. "This is just a theory but I think they thought you had the twins with you. They don't know you're moving in, you two just left."
"So a Hydra agent breaks into our home for the twins alone?" Steve sounded rather unimpressed by the theory and Natasha didn't blame him but Tony had a point.
"We're not exactly subtle where we're at. The news reports on us every other day and where the tower is. It would make sense if they bugged our vehicles and then waited until we left the group. They have a much better chance of getting what they want," Natasha spoke softly, as a group they were deadly, and while they could hold their own separately it was a lot harder. Natasha knew this was hard for Steve. They had arrived back to the tower looking a little worse than wear and had to answer questions. The security system was already up and active, which meant Steve demanded to see the recording, and stopped JARVIS as soon as the man left. He refused to let Tony look through the recording inside the house after the fact.
"Which is why he didn't break the house like he did the yard. It was a smash-and-grab while it was only you two," Tony said folding his arms as he sat back in a chair. "I think he was called back because it was a lost cause and no one really knows why you're there. When he found you guys outside getting ready to go back outside." Tony went to the shot where it looked like the man had gone still and pointed.
"Stone man here is listening to something, must have been an order. The house and property are still safe. I've covered the trail about who actually owns the house. That does mean, however, that they'll be striking the tower soon I think," Tony frowned harder as he tried to come up with a solution that didn't include rushing them out of the tower.
"We'll have to leave soon," Steve said, sitting forward to try and comprehend all of the information and theories that they had been bouncing around. "We haven't even prepared the kids yet. The child psychologist told us to always talk to them and prepare them for what's about to happen. I thought we had months yet before this was a necessity."
"Hydra didn't give us a choice. They'll adapt, it'll be hard but they'll have an entire house to run around in," Natasha was trying to be comforting but found her heart dropping into her stomach. She wasn't ready to leave the place she had managed to call home thanks to the Avengers. They were a family as dysfunctional as they were.
"Moving doesn't mean that you'll have to stop seeing the doctor either, in fact, that would be the worst thing to do for the kids," Tony stated, standing up as if he had anxious energy he didn't know where to place it. "You'll still have access to the speech therapist and all of that can still happen here. The tower is safe but I think getting you guys moved into the house is the best move we've got."
"We're isolated! How are we safer there? It'll take too long for you guys to come to our aid," Steve argued, and suddenly the man who wanted to start a life away from the tower was less than eager to leave. Natasha and himself barely held their own against the assassin and if they would have had the twins there it would have been worse.
"Not completely true. You do own all 23 acres around your house, but I bought the surrounding land too," Tony said, he took a deep breath. "JARVIS, pull up Rogers's house and the surrounding land." When it came up Tony isolated the areas he bought which added miles of protection for the Rogers family. "I have a house here... Pepper agreed to live there with me. Clint turned down the offer but this is officially unofficial Avenger land. The security is being updated as we speak. It's a little weird to me that they knew to track you two. You may not have had the twins but they knew. That seems a little weird. Bruce agrees so his house is... About here. Just in case he has to turn into the big guy he's safely away from people and will hopefully focus on the bad guys only." Steve stared wide-eyed at the map having not expected Tony to think as deeply.
"Who else knows about this?" Natasha asked sounding a bit breathless herself, she stood behind Steve placing her hands on his shoulders. It was just as much for his comfort as for her own as they grappled with reality. Months of quiet from Hydra and the peace was shattered in one afternoon.
"No one. They're not going to know either. It's not on any record they'd think to check and if they're looking for a house bought or built for a Steve Rogers it'll send them another direction. More your pay grade if you get my drift. This will still be our working office but it's time we had a bit less intrusion. We're not quiet about where we're at but it doesn't feel quite right," Tony said, moving across the room to the coffee bar in the meeting room. "JARVIS is making sure we're not bugged. Not even Fury is going to know." Steve had to admit that Fury hadn't inspired complete loyalty after the fiasco with Loki but had seemed to take their words more seriously. Perhaps it was because they proved that they would show up when disaster struck.
"Okay, we can be ready to go in a few days," Steve took a deep breath and tilted his head back to look up at Natasha. "I guess you should get looking at some furniture. We're going to need to at least furnish a few things." His hand shot up and grabbed what was flying at him from the air. Looking back down he noted it was a credit card, leaving him to frown as his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"Look, the kids need stuff," the words were said with no great emotion but Steve knew better. Tony often hid behind nonchalance and sarcasm but he cared a great deal. Steve had been able to share the moment that 'Timmy' the elf came about to Natasha, JARVIS had recorded it. Tony cared about the twins and while had given them lavish gifts had gone to painstaking lengths to make sure they both felt secure in the tower.
With that, Steve shook Tony's hand and made his way back to the shared crowded room. He took a deep breath and allowed a shudder to go through his body. The emotions threatened to rise up and choke him again. He could feel Natasha rub his arm, bringing him back to reality. They would be rushing their kids out of the home they had grown comfortable in, where they learned safety. "I don't know what the right move is, Nat," they were supposed to make the decisions about the twins together but somehow it still felt like it was on his shoulders. The man with the plan, the leader, the Captain. Their Dad.
"I think that's just parenthood," Natasha spoke softly and moved so she stood in front of him. She watched his eyes go to her temple, it was no longer bleeding but the bruise on her face and back was darkening and it made his eyes grow stormy. "We know that there was a chance of this sooner or later. The house is done and we can move them in. We'll move in the middle of the night. Take a car that doesn't fit us at all. We'll coordinate so Clint and the others follow shortly after. As a spy, this is my sorta thing. Move in the dark, hide in the shadows, and wait for the perfect moment to strike. We'll get them, all of them, we'll protect our babies."
Steve reached up and cupped her face, running his thumbs across her cheekbones. The fight had scared him more than he'd like to admit. Unlike Natasha, he didn't think to stash weapons on his person, and she had several. This man could match punch for punch and had the same strength he had as a super soldier, which left him worried about who else Hydra hadn't gotten ahold of. Except this man didn't speak at all and was basically muzzled. Was that to hide his identity? To prevent him from talking? Who was that man? "How are you feeling?"
"It'll take a lot more than that to hurt me, Rogers," it came out cocky, a typical Natasha response but she pulled his head down with her hand and kissed him gently. "I'm fine. You should know that. I think our activities afterward should have proven that."
"Yeah, and I think we should have waited, you had been slammed into the ground," Steve's protest was caught off by another kiss.
"Do you regret it?" Natasha asked softly, her eyes staring into his eyes determined to figure out the truth.
"Never," Steve whispered, a sigh following after as he took his hands from her face and brought her tight to his chest. "I could never regret what we did with you, Romanoff. I had envisioned that in a bed but... That was more us, wasn't it?"
"Of course it was," Natasha grinned against Steve's chest, gripping his shirt tightly. The only sign of her nerves. Clint had decided to extend the twin's stay in light of the day's events. Taking another deep breath she pulled away and turned to look at the cluttered room. "At least we'll be able to have room again. I love our kids but I don't love having all of their toys in here. Especially Timmy." James had refused to let them put Timmy in the Christmas box, and so now they had an Elf on the shelf named Timmy that doubled as a nanny cam. On the other hand, they could see where James had gone and what they did when they lost sight of them. JARVIS could tap into the elf's system at any point.
"Princess's art stuff will have a place, finally, maybe get her one of those toddlers' tables," Alina loved to draw and use her little tablet to make designs. While both of the twins were still very muted in responses, Alina was very obviously proud of her creations. Steve had proof of their own feelings of pride about her work of art because they nearly kept them all. Tony even had the first drawing she made for him framed and hung up in one of the conference rooms. Steve moved over to the small pile of hastily thrown stuffed animals and began to grab them. In most cases, he knew that there would be a period of getting rid of stuff but he didn't feel that could apply to the kids. In truth, they had so little to begin with. "Grab our bags? We can at least gather the clothes. We're definitely going to need to get boxes. But that's not going to look inconspicuous." They might not find the right house right away but Steve would rather delay that as long as possible.
"Or, you know those bags we have to load up the larger weapons? Keep them hidden as we move around," when Steve nodded Natasha grinned a bit. "We can hide as much of their stuff in those. But we'll still need a car that no one would suspect we'd leave in." That would be the most difficult task because they wouldn't be able to have the vehicle show up during the day, which meant someone would have to deliver it. Clint could, and he would do anything for those twins. She tried to remember if he had something on his farm that would work and be passable to escape in.
"We could get some SHIELD boxes, we move classified items all the time. That shouldn't rise eyebrows," Steve watched Natasha nod as he went to his closet and pulled out a few bags, and opened their drawers. He didn't own a lot of clothes or stuff in general, but he was sure that the kids had a lot more than he realized.
"We'll get through this, just like everything else. We'll do this together," she told him softly, kissing him softly as they went about going through their stuff to see what could be packed immediately.