In this fic Evelyn is 15 months old
"Come on Tasha it'll be fine"
"I don't know Clint"
"Tash, we've been away before"
"But not at the same time, not since she was born"
"Tasha, Fury gave us a weekend off, do you know how rare that is? I've organised everything, the flights, the cottage, Pepper and Tony are going to watch Evie, and it's just two nights"
"You're sure she'll be okay?"
"I'm sure" he smiled at his wife, hoping she'd loosen her grip on their sleeping daughter. She'd overreacted slightly when he'd told her about the surprise vacation he'd booked for the two of them.
"What if something happens?"
"We'll come back early"
"What if we can't?... What if-"
"Tasha, what's the real reason you don't want to go?"
"Her whole life, she's never spent a night without at least one of her parents"
"Nat, we're not going far, she'd going to be staying at home with her four super hero uncles and her aunt who lover her more than anything. She'll be fine"
The next morning Clint and Natasha took Evie upstairs to Pepper and Tony's floor. Pepper had taken the whole weekend off work to watch Evelyn for them and was excited about looking after her niece.
Natasha kissed her daughter goodbye as Clint passed her bag and pink rabbit over to Tony.
"She won't go to sleep unless you read her The Cat in the Hat" Natasha informed them
"We know Nat"
"And she won't sleep without Rozovyy either"
"We got this Nat"
"Natasha, come on. They've looked after her before" Clint interrupted before Natasha could offer them more unneeded advice
"Right" Natasha nodded, "I'll have my phone"
She kissed her daughter once again and passed her to Pepper before leaving briskly. When Clint joined her in the elevator he knew she'd been crying.
He hoped he'd made the right decision persuading her to go on this vacation, but he really believed they needed some time off, and some time alone.
He took her into his arms, and the fact she didn't push him away confirmed she wasn't angry at him; she was just irrationally worried about leaving their daughter.
"Mama?" Evie asked, not two minutes after her parents had left, she pointed at the elevator
"Mommy and Daddy will be back in a few days Eve" Pepper told her gently
"Mama" she repeated again sadly
"Ot Oh" Tony said, watching his niece closely, "Is she going to cry?"
Right on queue silent tears ran down her face as her bottom lip quivered
"Make her stop Pepper!"
"What do you want me to do Tony?" Pepper asked, hugging her niece closer in an attempt to comfort her
"I don't know just please make her stop"
It'd been 45 minutes since the assassins had left, and all Evie had done was cry and ask for her Mom. Pepper and Tony had tried everything; they'd read her her favourite book, put her favourite DVD on (the Aristocats), gotten out all of her toys and even tried to bribe her with candy.
"Mama!" Evie asked again through her tears, she toddled towards the elevator doors and knocked sadly. She slumped to the floor in front of the elevator where she finally gave into exhaustion and fell asleep
"I hope she doesn't start crying again when she wakes up, I can't take it"
"Tony Stark, what are you ever going to do if you have children of your own?"
"Regular crying I can deal with; when they're tired or hungry and it's something I can fix, but that right there; that silent, heart breaking, soul destroying crying, I can't take that. She's so upset"
"She misses her parents Tony"
The elevator opened and Steve tripped right over Evie
"You know she has a bed right?" he asked, scooping up the wailing child from the floor
"She fell asleep there and we didn't want to wake her, it's the only time she's stopped crying since Nat and Clint left"
"Oh what's the matter Eve?" Steve asked
"Mama Dada" she answered between sniffles
"Its okay, they'll be back soon"
"Now"
"No not now Evie, but soon. Won't it be fun sleeping at Tony and Pepper's tonight?"
"No"
"Tell us what we can do to make it better? And don't say-"
"Mama and Dada"
"Damn it!"
"Nice try Steve"
That evening they'd successfully gotten Evie to settle enough to watch a film, but only by going back to Clint and Natasha's floor. All she'd eaten was a bowl of blueberries and she refused to go to bed.
"We are terrible babysitters, you know that?" Tony asked from the sofa, Evie had finally fallen asleep on his chest while Pepper lay beside him and gently played with the toddlers blond curls
"Yeah, who knew it'd be so hard to comfort a one year old?"
"It's weird, Eve is normally so easy" Bruce stated from his perch on the arm chair, Steve was sat beside him and Thor was in the chair opposite. It had taken the whole team so relax Evelyn enough to sooth her to sleep
"Perhaps tomorrow shall be easier" Thor stated, his optimism didn't extend to everyone
The five adults all fell asleep there in the lounge.
Evie woke around 4am and climbed down from where she'd slept on Tony. She toddled into her parent's room to find it empty, so she climbed up onto their bed, with some difficulty, and went back to sleep.
When Tony woke he had a mini heart attack; "Pepper, where's Eve?"
"What?" she slurred, sleep still clouding her thoughts.
At that moment Tony's phone rang; "Shit, it's Tasha! What do I do?"
"Answer it!"
"She's gonna want to talk to Evie, I'm so not being the one to tell Natasha Romanoff that we lost her child" he said throwing the phone to Pepper
"Hi Tasha" she answered after fumbling to catch the phone
"Yeah everything's fine. Yeah. No, she's still asleep. I promise. Okay, bye"
"She wants to speak to her when shes awake"
"You mean when we find her?"
"Yeah, so hurry up!"
It didn't take them long to locate the child, especially since she'd already woken up and was muttering to Rozovyy in Russian
"Morning Evie"
"доброе утро тетенька Pep!"
"You got that in English for me sweet?"
"Morning Aunty Pep" Evie giggled. She'd only mastered certain words, and Pepper was pleased that her name, or at least half of it, was included in her small vocabulary
"You feeling better today?"
She shook her head "Still sad" she frowned
"Why's that?"
"Mama and Dada gone"
"They'll be back tomorrow Evie, I promise"
"Promise?"
"Yeah, so can we have a good day today?"
"Yes please"
"And no more tears?"
"No more tears" she agreed, crawling over her parents bed to hug her aunt
Pepper rang Natasha so Evie could speak to her Mom, then she helped her get dressed. The whole team took her out to the Zoo before going out for dinner and ice cream. She was spoilt rotten and came back to the tower with new toys, clothes and stuffed animals. The six of them settled on the communal floor to watch 101 Dalmatians and Evie fell asleep on Tony once again, but this time they moved her to her crib.
By the time she woke up, and managed to climb from her crib and venture into Tony and Pepper's living room; Clint and Natasha were home.
"MAMA! DADA!" she squealed from the doorway and ran to jump into Natasha's arms
"I missed you baby girl!" Natasha told her as she held her daughter close and kissed her cheek
"You no leave again!" Evie instructed her firmly
"Hey little spider, where's my hug?" Clint asked
Evie switched to her father's arms, hugging him tightly before insisting he passed her back to Natasha. It was the first time Tony had ever seen Clint roll his eyes; that was normally Tasha's trademark.
"She really missed you guys" Pepper told them
"And just for future notice, we refuse to babysit again until she'd grown out of that heart wrenching silent crying she does when she's upset!"
"It get to you too?" Clint asked, giving him a knowing grin