This chapter is based on Bluewolf0151's prompt (Thanks!)

Anna's Age: 9

"Where do you think you're going?" Tony asked raising an eyebrow.

"Nowhere…" Anna lied

"Really?" Tony crossed the room, standing in between Anna and the Tower's front door. "Because it looks to me like you were trying to leave the tower alone." He smirked down at her, crossing his arms. Anna sighed, fogging up her oxygen mask.

"I'm 9 now Tony! The other kids at my school go out by themselves!" She wined.

"The other kids don't wear oxygen masks and walk with crutches." He put an arm around her, leaned Anna back into the elevator. "Neither are they told specifically not to leave home without somebody with them."

"I'm not a little kid anymore." Anna glowered up at him; unfortunately she didn't look all that threatening.

"I know. But you still have to follow the rules."

"That's funny coming from you." She stormed off as soon as the elevator doors opened.

"See you tonight Anna!" Steve called to the girl as he walked into the elevator. All of the Avengers were either on a mission or at SHIELD headquarters.

"Looks like it's just you and me today." Pepper said smiling as she sat down on the couch beside the young girl.

"Yep… Don't you have to go to work?"

"Not today, I decided to take the day of to relax."

"Oh. That's good…" Anna ran her hand through her curly locks. "Do you wanna watch a movie?"

"Sure!" Pepper crossed the room, looking around the family's movie shelf. "How about… The Little Mermaid?" Anna shook her head, she'd seen that one 'a quadrillion' times. "Tarzan? Frozen?" Both were rejected. "Oh! How about Up?" Anna smiled, nodding. "Alrighty, Up it is."

"Can balloons really pick up hous-" Anna turned towards Pepper, and frowned when she realized the woman was fast asleep. "I'll just ask Bruce later." Anna continued to watch the movie until Pepper's phone buzzed on the coffee table. It was a text from Steve.

"Hey Pepper. I forgot a really important file back at the tower. Any way you and Anna could bring it down here? I've got a meeting with Fury in 2 hours!"

Anna turned to wake the sleeping redhead up, but quickly decided against it. Looking around the apartment she saw a large black folder sitting on the kitchen counter. Grabbing her crutches she walked over to it.

'This'll show them I can take care of myself.' She thought putting the folder into her backpack. It barely fit with the oxygen tank taking up most of the room. She carefully laid a blanket across Pepper's lap and lifted up her oxygen mask to gently kiss Pepper's forehead. Quietly she snuck over to the elevator. "Bottom floor please JARVIS." She whispered quietly as the doors closed.

Anna looked around the subway car she was in. It was pretty empty, only a married couple and a dirty looking blonde guy.

The subway stopped and a few more people boarded, all of which looked shocked at the young girl wearing an oxygen mask with forearm crutches lying across her lap. An older 'grandma-looking' woman sat down beside Anna.

"Hello. Is that your mommy and daddy over there?" The woman asked smiling sweetly. She pointed towards the married couple across the car. Anna shook her head. "Are you all alone?"

"Yep. But I can take care of myself." Anna said proudly.

"Oh I'm sure you can." The old woman nodded. "My name is Margaret."

"I'm Anna. My daddy knows a lady named Margaret. He called her Peggy and he loved her a lot. But she's old now." Margaret nodded, still smiling.

"Well, she sounds very nice." If Anna'd been a little older she would have figured out the old lady had no clue what she was talking about.

Margaret and Anna chatted until it was Anna's stop. "This is me I think." Anna said standing up.

"Sweetheart, are you sure you're going to be alright on your own?"

"Yep. Bye Margaret."

"Goodbye Anna." Anna walked off the subway and into the station.

"Woah woah woah. Little girl, you can't just walk in here." Anna frowned at the guard who kept her from entering the SHIELD base. She looked ahead at the large security gates and checks.

"Don't call me that. I'm Anna not 'little girl'."

"Well Anna." The guard knelt down to meet Anna's eye level "You can't go in there." Anna took a deep breath.

"I'm Agent Natasha Romanoff and Captain Steve Rogers' daughter. You know, the Avengers? I'm pretty secret to everybody outside of SHIELD and stuff but you can check their files. I exist. And I'm pretty sure they'd be pretty mad if they knew you-" She squinted to read the guard's nametag "-Agent Andrew Pond, kept me from going in." The guard's eyes widened and he waved Anna through security quickly. She smiled as she made her way through the gate. 'I can totally take care of myself.'

Anna looked around the halls. Steve had to be somewhere in the building. She'd been to the base a few times with different Avengers, but never on her own.

SHIELD was much smaller than it had been before the 'Winter Soldier incident'. (She still didn't know what exactly what that meant, just that something big happened. Steve would explain it later.) It was made up of less than 50 agents now, all of whom Fury knew he could trust.

Anna knew basically all of the agents, so none of them were really surprised to see her. They all assumed one of the Avengers was nearby.

"Hi Anna, how's it going?" A woman asked her, Anna recognized her as Sharon Carter.

"Good, what about you?" Anna liked Sharon; she was always nice to her. But she still didn't understand why Steve called her neighbor though…

"I'm pretty good, thanks for asking. Are you here with your Mom, or your Dad today?"

"My… Mom." Anna quickly lied, in reality Natasha was on a mission to Chile for a few days.

"That's nice." Sharon nodded. "Where is sh-"

"Carter! Hill wants you in her office, stat!" A man yelled. Sharon stood quickly, her face was very professional.

"It was nice talking to you Anna, I'll see you later okay?" Sharon flashed Anna a quick smiled before hurrying to the elevator.

Anna nodded and continued her trek to find Steve. Sharon had come from a large black door, so she assumed maybe Steve would be there too.

'Finger Print Identification.' A robotic voice reported once Anna got to the door. She sighed, backing away from the door she was an agent headed her way. She stepped out of the way, as the agent unlocked the door.

"You're Romanoff's daughter, right?"

"Umm… yeah."

"Fury really should program your fingertips too. Did you two get separated?"

"Yeah." Anna lied, trying to look as sad and lost as possible.

"Hey, it's alright. Here." The agent held the door open and let Anna slip inside before he did.

She wandered down the long hallway, seeing no sign of Steve. Just another dead end.

Anna'd been looking for Steve for about an hour and she was starting to feel really tired. She found herself in an empty hallway and sat down on a little chair propped against the wall. Her body ached from walking so much and she frowned at the little bruises on her forearms the crutches always left after walking too much.

"This is a restricted area, whoever you are-." Anna looked up to see a figure a little bit down the hall. The figure walked towards her and she stiffened. "Anna?" The figure stepped into the light and Anna relaxed, it was Nick Fury.

"I got lost." Anna murmured. Fury sighed and knelt down in front of the young girl.

"Who are you here with today?" He asked in a kind softer voice, the one he only used when talking to Anna.

"No one..." Anna'd learned there was no way she could lie to Nick Fury.

"You came here alone?" Anna nodded. "Does anyone know you're here?"

"No." Fury sighed

"How about we get you something to eat and I can figure out where Steve is?" Anna nodded slowly as Fury helped her to her feet. Her arms hurt too much to use the crutches. "Do you want me to carry those for you?" Anna nodded again and they slowly started walking towards the elevator, Anna's legs were a bit shaky without her crutches but she was alright. After a few moments of walking she reached up and held the Director's hand, he smiled a little bit.

"Do you have any cookies?" She asked as they stepped into Fury's private elevator. He chuckled

"I'll see what I can do."

Steve tapped his foot impatiently as the elevator climbed up towards Director Fury's office. Pepper still hadn't come with the folder, so he was pretty much screwed. His phone buzzed with a text from Agent Hill.

"What?" Pepper had called him 4 times while he was in his last meeting. He didn't have time to call her back as the elevator doors opened. "Director Fury." He hurried into the room, putting his phone away. "I'm sorry I'm late…" He froze in place when he saw Anna, spinning herself in Director Fury's chair, holding a box of cookies.

"Hi Daddy." She said, eating another cookie. "I brought you your folder." Steve stood, frozen in place.

"Where's Pepper?"

"Presumably back at the tower." Steve turned to see Director Fury standing by the window holding a cookie. "You were right Anna, these are pretty good." He said, taking another bite. "Anna told me she came here all by herself, to give you your folder." Steve looked back at his daughter, dumbfounded.

"I told you I can take care of myself." She smiled, eating another cookie. Steve started between the Director and Anna, speechless. The girl leaned forward a bit in the Director's chair, holding out the box of cookies. "Want one?"

Thanks again to Bluewolf0151 for your prompt! I had a lot of fun writing this one.

PLEASE leave me reviews and more prompts! I love to know what you guys think :)