It had taken several hours to convince Fury that Maria was not joking and he still didn't believe her. It wasn't that he didn't trust his second, in fact Fury trusted her over his own mother, not that, that meant a whole lot. Still he found himself grudgingly making his way to the Avengers tower.

The first clue that something was wrong was when JARVIS didn't give him any trouble about entering the building.

It had become almost a ritual of sorts to have an ongoing debate over his right to be in the tower to begin with, snarky comments from Tony filling in the empty spaces.

This time JARVIS made no comments, no almost saucy comments from the sometimes, almost, emotional IA, nothing but silence.

Right up to the moment the elevator doors opened to the apartments.

Children's laughter hit his ears with a sweet melody.

A girls giggle, a higher pitched near cackle form a boy, a boisterous laughter, softer giggles from a boy and several undistinguishable laughs of more boys. The full out laugh of an older woman stuck out like a soar thumb, as another female voice gave a sharp yell.

"Center couch!"

Fury blinked his one eye several times as he watched six kids and his second all scramble to get off the center couch with no problem pushing each other to do so. One child landed on his stomach on top of the glass coffee table and slide, his hands touching the ground.

Immediately a course of "Ohhh!"'s sounded.

The boy snatched his hands off the floor as if they'd been burned and scooted back on the table. "Ten second rule!" He yelled brown eyes flashing, light brown mop top flapping into his eyes.

A course of objections rang out from all the children, even his second was voicing her objection.

"Ten second rule only works for food!" A blond haired child stated with a stomp of his foot.

The woman who had called out the furniture held up her hands. "All right, all right." They all quieted rather quickly as her face grew thoughtful. "The thought, for this round, was to make this as life like as possible..." Everyone seemed to hang on her every word. "Touching lava for even a little while…JARVIS, what would touching lava do for the amount of time Tony did?"

"For the amount of time Sir was in contact with the ground, he would be badly burned." JARVIS response took a few moments then silence rained once more.

"It wouldn't have killed him?"

"No, Regnant JJ."

Her face scrunched up. "Regnant? Really?"

"I shall take that to mean that is another no."

"Good idea. As for you Tony, injured but not dead….Five minute suspension for injures."

Tony sighed, looking rather dejected, but still jumped off the table and moved to stand beside JJ. "This stinks."

"No worries kiddo. It's only five minutes."

"What the hell is going on here?" Fury nearly yelled.

Maria, and who he assumed was Clint and Natasha, if what he had been told was really true, and it was starting to look like it was, jumped down from the furniture they were on and offered him a salute with a sharp. "Sir."

JJ, frowning slightly, stepped forward. "Director Fury I presume? I'm JJ Darling, I've been taking care of "them since I found them last night."

Fury scowled. "And would someone mind telling me what exactly happened last night?"

JJ glanced behind him as the elevator dinged open and serving trays where brought in, a disgruntled chef not far behind.

"What is all the changes for? Do you not like the way I prepare my food? And all of these kiddy snacks, what is wrong with what is on the menu?" The chef demanded, arms waving about as he moved forward, nearly hitting Fury in the process.

"FOOD!" a small boy who could have possibly been Thor screamed, jumped down from where he was at and rushed toward the carts.

"Thor!" JJ's stern voice stopped him in his tracks. "First, no yelling in the house, second no one eats until everything is put back in its proper place, and hands have been washed."

Thor gave a quick nod. "Yes JJ."

"All right," the last blonde jumped down from an outer couch, "Bruce and Tony get the lamps, Thor and Loki have the table ornaments and the remotes, and I'll put the cushions back while Clint and Natasha talk to the Director."

"Of course friend Steve," Thor stated before who Fury could only assume to be Loki could say anything and they got to work as Clint and Natasha moved forward with Maria.

"Can you three handle this for now?" JJ asked. "I think I need to have a talk with the Chef."

"Course JJ," Clint smiled up at her. JJ, with a look of pure affection, gently brushed her hand through his hair then taking the Chef by the arm moved away to speak to him in a quiet voice.

Fury simply raised an eyebrow at the three standing in front of him.

"I told you sir." Maria stated blandly. "Children."

"We're four," Clint added holding up four fingers proudly. "So is Tony and Bruce, but Steve, Thor and Loki are five." The last was said with a little pout.

"At least that is what JARVIS was able to figure," Natasha added. "We can't be sure of course, it is after all a spell."

"Any idea of when this spell is going to end?" Fury asked, his voice low and very controlled. A voice that often sent agents of all sizes and experience running, everyone but Coulson. A quick ping of regret and pain filled him before he pushed it away. Two years was just not long enough to get over missing his best handler, and the closest thing to a friend that he had.

The three exchanged looks. A rather odd thing to see as the two children attempted grown up looks, which turned into something that looked more like a kid getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Fury exhaled very slowly trying to relive some of his tension. "Do we know anything about this," he searched for the right word, "spell?"

No response.

"Very good!" a voice announced excitedly. "A true challenge indeed. One plate of GMO free food for as long as you are here." The four turned to look at the Chef who was now rubbing his hands together excitedly. "It is so good of them to let you and the children live here while they are away. Though I do hope that nothing happens around here while they are on their very special mission, they did not tell you anything?"

JJ shook her head. "I'm afraid I'm not cleared for that. We're not even cleared to go into most of the rooms, any of the training areas, or especially that labs." She gave a small shudder. "Can you imagine what a bunch of four and five year olds could do in labs as advanced as the ones here are supposed to be?"

The Chef nodded in sympathy as JJ steered him toward the elevator. "I have a hard time letting my own children into the kitchen and they are seven and eight. It will be no worries JJ. Please be sure to let me know if you or the children are in need of anything else."

"Thank you so much for your understanding Chef Andre, it really is a big help." The chef nodded as the elevator doors closed behind him.

Tony laughed. "Nice story. Really like the bits about no training rooms, and no labs."

"Oh that was no lie Tony."

Everyone froze and the children gaped at her.

"I get it," Tony finally said. "Nice one."

"I'm not joking Tony." JJ stated firmly placing her hands on her hips. "The lot of you are way to small be attempting to handle weapons, or chemicals, or anything of the sort. Letting you into those types of places is just begging for trouble. You could get hurt or worse!" She shook her head. "No, no labs, no weapon ranges, no training areas not kid safe, and I mean it." One finger came up to point at each of them in turn.

"What if we can find a way to make it safe?" Bruce asked.

JJ pursed her lips and eyed each of the children. "We would revisit the topic."

"But your whole reason is that it wouldn't be safe," Tony butted in, "which means if we could make it safe your concerns would no longer be in issue."

Her eyes narrowed. "Anthony Stark, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that you could do that would convince me that you can make any lab or training area one hundred percent safe for children, and the weapons range is off limits period. If, and I do mean if, you ever bring this subject to my attention again you had sure as night, better have a really, really good plan or I promise you by all that is good that you will not like the consequences am I understood?"

Tony looked at her stunned speechless for a few moments before he nodded.

JJ took a deep breath, walked over to him and got down to his level. "I'm only doing this to protect you. If anything happened to you, to any of you, it would be my fault." She held up a hand to silence him. "Remember that I promised you that I would protect and care for all of you?" He nodded. "If you go into a training area, or a lab, or even the weapons range and got hurt then it would be my fault. My fault for not watching you close enough, my fault for not protecting you, my fault for not being there. Do you understand?" Her voice was rough with emotion, brown eyes pleading, agony shinning through at the thought of one of them being hurt.

Very slowly he nodded. "No training areas, no weapons range, no labs until we get big again."

Steve was the first to nod his agreement, Bruce was quick to fallow, Thor next, Clint and Natasha after that, though a little more reluctant, then she turned her eyes to Loki seemed to be thinking about it even as he nodded.

Tony gave a cheeky grin. "Doesn't mean we can't revisit it."

JJ chuckled and ran her hand through his hair to cup the back of his neck. "No it doesn't. Now all of you go wash your hands so we can sit down and eat as well as talk to the Director about what's going to happen next."

Fury watched expecting Clint, Natasha, and Loki, the most likely to rebel against orders, and could barely contain his surprise when the went toward the bathroom to do as they were told, with out fuse.

JJ motioned for the two adults to follow her to the kitchen. "Have a set." She gestured to the chairs around the tables. "Would you like anything to drink?"

"Coffee, black for him, milk in mine," came Maria's immediate response. Fury glared at her slightly, but she stared straight ahead pretending not to notice.

JJ quietly got the requested drinks as they listened to the noise coming from the bathroom. "You know," she finally said braking the quite, "the two of you are lucky I even have coffee made what with the tantrums I had to deal with this morning."

"Tantrums?" Maria questioned adding a little milk to the coffee JJ had just handed her.

"Oh yes, quite a few of them actually." With that she went ahead and began to explain what had taken place starting, at Fury's request, with what had happened the night before. JARVIS was more than willing to play back requested parts for the two agents to see as JJ sent dirty hands back to the bathroom to try again.

Finally all hands where washed, everyone was seated, and Fury was wondering where she had been since the beginning of the Avengers project. She would have been the prefect handler, especially after Coulson…

"So," he started as he watched the children and JJ eat. Well mostly the kids, JJ was doing more helping then eating. "Does anyone know anything about this curse?"

"It's not a curse." Loki piped up as he eyed the mac and cheese that was sitting on his plate. "It's a spell. A curse is meant to do a lot of harm, cause chaos and panic. Usually kill people. A spell can do all sorts of things, cause trouble, pull pranks, heal, turn people purple…."

Thor burst up laughing. "I remember that! You turned Lord Talwin purple then convinced him he had contracted a rare illness that would cause his manhood to shrink and fall off."

Loki grinned back, "Then he went to the healer and told her what he thought he had, which lead to him having to admit to cheating on his lady-"

"Who almost cut off his manhood herself when she discovered what was occurring." Thor broke into peals of laughter. "To think it was all because he said that mother looked bad in one of her evening gowns."

Loki glared in remembrance. "She had let us help her pick out the colors and the design and father said that she truly looked radiant."

Thor nodded also remembering. "She did though. I thought that there could never be another more beautiful as she." Loki nodded his agreement then sighed and turned his attention back to his plate.

"Not that going down memory lane wasn't fun and all," Fury spoke, a slight irritation in his voice, "but perhaps you wouldn't mind telling me what happened with this spell." He emphasized the word glaring slightly at Loki as he did.

Loki sighed. "Originally the spell was meant to turn back time itself. Strand them in a different era."

"You would leave us lost in time?" The child in Thor amplified the hurt in his voice making it more obvious then it normally would be.

Loki glared at him. "Not for long. It was only going to last a week, four tops." He started to stab his mac and cheese as if expecting it to jump off the plate and dance around. "Besides I was only going to send Iron Man, and the Capitan back, figured it would be amusing to have them switch places for a while." He shrugged as he picked a noodle up with his fork then allowed it to fall back onto his plate.

"Stop playing with your food and eat it Loki. It's not going to hurt you." JJ ordered. "Obviously it turned all of you into children instead," she raised a hand to stop any potential arguing. "It doesn't matter how it happened only that it did. Loki," she turned to him as he took a tiny nibble off the end of one noodle. His eyes lit up and he proceeded to eat his food with gusto. "Loki," JJ tried again.

He swallowed hard and nodded at JJ.

"What do you know about this spell? Will you change back? Can you change back?"

He took another bit thinking hard then slowly nodded. "I pink so."

Love shown from JJ's eyes and flowed from her voice as she spoke, "Swallow please Loki, than try that again."

Loki obeyed. "I think so. It is hard to be sure because I do not know exactly what went wrong with the spell. Being able to actually see what happened would be helpful."

"I can provide footage for most of the fight if that would be of assistance, Mr. Loki," JARVIS stated.

Tony leapt from his chair. "No! You do not call him Mr." He threw an accusing figure at Loki. "He tried to take over the world. He does not get to be called Mr.!"

"Tony!" JJ's voice was sharp. "That is quite enough of that. I do believe we have discussed verbally attacking one another."

"But-"

"Ah!" She held up a hand. "Not another word. I want you to go stand in the corner you were in this morning with your hands behind your back, five minute time out." When he didn't move she gave a wave of her hand. "Well get going. The sooner you get there and start you time the sooner you can get out."

Tony huffed then stomping his feet all the way, left.

"You have to be silent for your time to start and the only thing stomping your feet is going to do is give you sore feet, and a longer time out." JJ called after him. Silence was her only answer. "JARVIS, please start a countdown for five minutes, if Tony starts acting up, restart it, and when it's done let me know please?"

"Of course Iníon JJ."

"Wait….What did you call me?"

"Iníon."

"What language is that?"

"Irish." Clint stated as he polished off is mac and cheese. "It means Miss."

JJ tilted her head from side to side, lips pursed in thought. "Not bad. Ok, add it to the possible list, but let's see if we can find something better."

"As you wish." JARVIS stated.

Fury growled slightly. "If you're all finished with this nonsense, I want to know when I'm going to have my team back."

JJ frowned at Fury but held her tongue. "Why don't we have Loki and whoever else wants to, look at the footage JARVIS has and see what they can find out." Fury opened his mouth to agree when JJ keep going. "After lunch, and naps."

"Naps? Are you *&$!^ kidding me! You're really going to put them down for *(%&# &^ nap time!"

By now JJ was glaring. "Director Furry, I am going to tell you what I have already told them. Until this spell is reversed or goes away, they are children. As such they will not expose themselves or be exposed, to things children their age should not be exposed to. Cursing is one of them. There are much better ways to express your displeasure then cursing and I will not tolerate it in this house while they are children. Have I made myself quite clear?"

Fury narrowed his eye. "Woman, I am the head of the most secret, top government agency in the world, I can and will speak however I %*&#% well I please."

"Then you will not be speaking in this house. The choice is yours."

He frowned at his agents who simply shrugged, Clint being the one to answer his unasked question. "Hey man, rules are rules, and if we can't cuss, then you shouldn't be able to either." He paused in thought. "At least not here."

Fury let out a frustrated breath. "Fine. Treating the Avengers like children, however, is completely unnecessary, as it is obvious that they retain their full mental capacity."

"That may be true Director, however, I would like to point out that they are unable to do things such as reach the stove, handle just about anything properly, and had a fight this morning over who was going to wear the light-up tennis shoes. They may remember who they are, but they still have the bodies of children and therefore a child's needs."

"I'll assign an agent to take over, and Loki will be placed in custody."

JJ scowled at him. "First of all, unless you have an agent willing and capable of taking care of children, you're only going to end up endangering them. As for Loki, I go where he does. I promised him that I would look after him and that is exactly what I'm going to do. As I have already stated, they are children, and while their adult minds may be able to tell them what is happening and why, there is still a large part of them that is a child, and I will not allow you to mistreat or endanger him, or any of them for that matter."

"You will if I have you removed from the situation."

"Oh yes, because there are so many other people capable of taking care of two master assassins, a geniuses, two meta humans, and a two demi gods." Her voice took on a sing song quality. "Special, special yes you are. Special, special here's your card." Furry stared in slight shock at her. "Don't get it? How about this one." Once more she began to sing. "Here's your sign, here's your sign, here's your stupid sign. If you still don't get it go look up Jeff Foxworthy, shouldn't take you long then. In the mean time why don't you go back to wherever it is you came from and try to figure out a good plan, and Loki will look at the data when he gets up from nap time."

Furry opened his mouth, but closed it with a snap when Bruce growled low. "Be careful what you do next Director." His voice had gone gravelly and much deeper than a child's should, and both his eyes and skin were beginning to look green. "We happen to like JJ, and would be very upset if something happened to her."

At first he thought that Bruce was talking about him and the Hulk, but as he looked around the room he noticed how still it had gotten and how the other super heroes where currently looking at him, even Loki was scowling, though it looked more cute then dangerous.

"Yah," Tony said from the kitchen entry. "We like her, this is our home, and we're the ones who have to be looked after, and we say she stays."

"Sir," Maria spoke quietly. "Have you ever known them to do anything as quickly as when she asks?"

Fury considered this for several moments, thinking back onto what he had seen. He pinched the bridge of his nose hoping to hold off the migraine he could feel coming. "Fine. Until something else can be figured out, she stays. Something happens, things go wrong, any problems at all, and she's fired."

"Does that mean she's an agent now?" Natasha asked from her set.

"Has to be," Clint nodded his head with certainty. "She works for S.H.E.I.L.D. looks after operatives and is our go between, all of which makes her our handler."

Natasha nodded. "I like her better than Jamisan."

"Me to," Steve piped up as he finished his third plate of mac-in-cheese.

Tony hopped back onto his chair his time out done. "It doesn't take much to be better than Jamisan."

"Tony," JJ chastised.

He gave her his best innocent look and the table soon dissolved into bickering.

"Agent JJ Darling," Fury nearly yelled over the children who were content to ignore him. "Contact me when you have a report from Loki, and we will discuss things from there, Agent Hill, on my six." With that Fury turned and stormed out, coat bellowing out behind him.

JJ shook her head slightly bewildered. "JARVIS?" He gave a beep in reply. "Strike Agent from the list."

Now all she had to do was survive Miss Virginia "Pepper" Potts, and nap time.

Oh, joy.

Author's Note

This is for all nice loyal people. I had started this chapter before I got sick, and with all the wonderful reviews and the people who still added me to their watch list, I got my sister to help finish. I will try write little bit every now and then so I can keep getting chapters up to you. Thanks so much for support!

P.S. How this is written is who I think right now. Which why writing so hard... :-( Wish luck when I start college class on 22nd. Eekk! Scary!