It was early November, it was cold, and Emmy still insisted on going to the park. They walked, Steve pulling a wagon behind him with blankets and food, Natasha quietly trying to convince Bruce to hold her hand, Thor talking animatedly to Tony about the all the possible flavors of Pop Tarts, and Clint walking with Emmy on his shoulders. They looked like a normal if unusual family out for a day of fun together.
When they reached the park, Steve laid out the largest blanket, the one that could fit them all and protected them from the cold ground, and sat down with his sketchbook while Tony and Clint took Emmy to the playground and Thor, Natasha, and Bruce went to the field to play catch.
Emmy squealed in excitement when she went gliding down the cold slide into the waiting arms of Tony. Tony caught her and swung her around just to hear her laugh. He still thought he was going to be a terrible parent but he loved Emmy so he decided to deal with it as it came.
When Tony set her down again, Emmy ran back to the play toy and began climbing it again. It took her a while because she was still closer in size to a one year old than a four year old, so most things were beyond her reach, but she was creative and took to climbing much like Clint. By the time she reached the tunnel, she was panting but still smiling. However, she found the tunnel blocked by a man wearing all black.
"Hello little one," said the man with a slight accent. When he smiled he revealed slightly crooked teeth that were stained by years of drinking wine and smoking.
Emmy frowned and turned around. She didn't like strangers.
"Wait, where do you think you're going?" growled the man. "I've been camping out here for hours waiting for you."
Emmy took off, using her size to her advantage by diving into the smaller parts of the play toy in hopes of getting back to her family. She could tell the man was right behind her, he was panting and cursing, but she was almost out.
Reaching the open ground that was a short sprint away from the swings where Clint and Tony were, Emmy took off, going as fast as her little legs would take her, but it wasn't fast enough. The man caught her three strides in, wrapping an arm around her waist and hoisting her off the ground as if she weighed nothing.
"Daddy!" screamed Emmy, squirming and reaching for her father.
Tony looked up from his conversation with Clint and neither wasted time with shock, merely jumped into action, both taking off after the man. Steve made to follow, knowing he would be able to catch the man easily with his advanced body, but more people in black came out of the trees and bushes, attacking the other Avengers to buy time for their coworker to get free with the kid.
"That's my daughter you asshole!" yelled Tony, diving and wrapping his arms around the mans legs, sending the kidnapper crashing into the ground.
The kidnapper let go of Emmy in surprise and the girl went flying, hurtling towards the ground, eyes clenched shut in expectation of the harsh impact of hitting the ground. Instead of the ground, though, she felt strong arms wrap around her and pull her into a firm chest, which was what she ended up landing on instead. She didn't even pause before she started fighting whoever had her, needing to get away, back to her family.
"Hey kiddo, quit it, it's just me, it's Uncle Clint, you're okay," said a very familiar voice from just above her head. "I've got you, you're okay. You're safe."
Emmy looked up to confirm that it was, in fact, her uncle. Clint grinned down at her and she instantly wrapped her arms around his neck in a vicelike grip, sobbing uncontrollably. Clint looked around for the next threat, knowing there would be one and knowing that he had to get Emmy to safety.
Easier said than done. They were surrounded and while they had a few weapons among them (they were the Avengers, after all) they were still out gunned, though the only gun they truly cared about was the one pointing at Emmy.
"If you surrender now and come with us, you all get to live," said a woman with blonde hair and yellow eyes.
There was only a moment of hesitation before one by one they set down their respective weapons and Emmy curled further into Clint, hiding from the woman because she had come a long way in trusting Natasha but this was a woman she didn't know.
"I've got you, baby," whispered Clint, rubbing Emmy's back and shielding her as best he could. "It's going to be fine."
They filed out of the park, surrounded by people in black with guns. They loaded into one of those large white vans that just screamed kidnapper and the only thing that stopped Tony from making a snarky comment about it was the fact that his daughter was still in danger. Maybe he was maturing after all. And for that forced maturity, these idiots were going to die.
"Now isn't this cozy?" said the woman as they rolled through the city.
"Yeah, I so enjoy long rides in creeper vans with people I barely know," snapped Tony, hands twitching to get a hold of his daughter, who was still crying into Clint's shirt, or Steve's hand but Steve was sitting next to Natasha on the other side of the van and he didn't want to give away the fact that Emmy was his since it wasn't public knowledge.
"Oh, it won't be a terribly long ride," said the woman with a sickly sweet smile, revealing a smudge of lipstick on her right front tooth. "And will you shut the child up? Honestly, that sniveling is getting on my nerves."
"And that fact that you left my picnic basket at the park is getting on mine," growled Steve, taking attention away from Emmy long enough for Clint to whisper in her ear and get her to be quiet.
Emmy unburied her face at Clint's quiet words and took a quick peak around the vehicle, confirming that each of her family members was still there. She saw her fathers sitting across from each other, silently communicating via looks with Uncle Bruce breathing deeply so as to not unleash the Hulk in such a confined place, Uncle Thor tapping his fingers on his thigh, and Aunt Natasha next to her, her eyes never staying on one spot, always searching for an opening.
"Alright, baby girl," whispered Clint in her ear, barely making any noise at all so that no one else would hear him. "I need you to be brave and trust us. Things are going to get scary and they might try to take you away. If that happens, I need you to know that we're coming for you, all of us. And when this is all over, we're going to take a nice relaxing trip."
Clint kept up his steady stream of talking for the entire ride, switching from telling Emmy how good she was being and how proud they were of her to talking about all the cool places they could go on vacation, never mentioning how they would end up at his farm because the less she knew, the better. But his steady tone and rumbling voice was soothing to the young girl, so he could have been talking about Pearl Harbor and it wouldn't have made a difference.
Eventually, the car rolled to a stop and everyone was once again forced outside. It was snowing, the air was crisp and pure, and the forest around them deadened any outside noise. They were forced into a large holding cell outside of a bunker door.
"You Avengers never get a chance to just relax and enjoy the outdoors," said the woman. "So here's your chance. We'll be back in the morning to talk to whoever survives the night. Enjoy!"
The instant the people in black disappeared behind the closed doors of the bunker, Tony turned to Steve and looked deep into his eyes.
"How are you doing?" the genius asked.
"Emmy," said Steve, trying to move past him.
"Clint's got her for the moment," said Tony, far more calmly than he felt; he too just wanted to get to his daughter but he needed to be sure that his husband wasn't about to have a flashback before he let him near their kid. "But I need to know where your head is at. I know it's cold."
"Twenty percent," whispered Steve.
They had come up with a scale to deal with their variety of head issues. If the situation ever produced a possible trigger, they could update each other to their mental stability via percentages so anyone listening in wouldn't know. When Steve admitted to twenty percent of his mind panicking, Tony knew he was okay to hold their daughter. Twenty they could work with.
"You'll tell me if that changes?" said Tony.
Steve nodded.
That was enough for Tony it seemed because the billionaire let go of Steve's face and they rushed over to their daughter.
"Are you okay, Ducky?" asked Tony, gratefully taking Emmy from Clint and letting her burrow between Steve and him.
"Steve," said Natasha softly, knowing the best way to help the situation was to give Steve a task. "We're not going to survive a night in this cage, you know that. Thor, Bruce, and you have a shot but the rest of us don't if we stay exposed like this."
Steve blinked at Natasha until his vision cleared and he looked down at his husband and daughter who were huddled against him, then at the rest of his family who needed Captain America, not Steve Rogers. Tony nodded up at him, a trusting look that had taken years for Tony to aim at him and there he was, trusting Steve to get them out of this.
"Bruce?" asked Steve, tearing his eyes away from Tony and taking on his Captain America persona. "You good?"
"Yeah," said Bruce, twisting his hands in his shirt uncomfortably, hating the confined space.
"I want you to be ready for a code greed," said Steve seriously.
Bruce nodded jerkily, not liking the idea at all.
"Nat, what type of lock are we looking at?"
"Electric."
"I want to poke it with something," said Tony.
"You do that."
Tony brought Emmy over to the door with him and began trying to slip his arm through to take it apart but his hand was too think.
"Nat, you have small hands, right?" called Tony. "I need them."
Natasha shook her head but went over and helped him. Her hands fit right through the bars, so Tony directed her movements with surprisingly succinct demands. He could feel Emmy starting to shiver in his arms as they worked, her tiny body being the first to start succumbing to the cold.
"Thor?" called Tony, not taking his eyes off the lock. "I need your sea of muscles over here."
"You rang?" drawled Thor.
Tony kissed the top of Emmy's red hair and handed her over to the god. Thor took the child despite his confusion.
"She's cold," explained Tony. "You're warm. And you have that cape on you all the time. So if you let her freeze, so help me but you will regret your long life."
"I understand," said Thor seriously.
Thor was wearing a large jacket and quickly bundled Emmy in it close to his chest. Even her little head barely peaked out, cheek pressed firmly against Thor's red flannel shirt, watching sleepily as the others worked to free them.
"Why doesn't Thor just summon his hammer of destiny and get us out?" asked Tony after the lock proved to be particularly frustrating.
"We don't want to alert our captors, love," said Steve absently while discussing the odds of piloting the small aircraft that looked like a mini quinjet with Clint. "And the odds of that hammer hitting one of use as it smashed it's way through are high."
"I'm Steve, I say things," grumbled Tony. "Purple wire, Nat. No, not that purple one, the other one. Yes."
It was another twenty minutes before they got the lock working properly and by then the snowfall was reaching epic proportions. Thor, Clint, Bruce, and Emmy all huddled in a corner together to conserve body heat while Steve had Tony and Natasha blocked from the wind as best he could with his broad bulk. Tony managed to keep up a steady stream of lewd comments to Steve to keep the soldier grounded and instructions to Natasha to keep her moving, barely pausing to breathe it seemed. Every once in a while he would call over to the others to check on them.
"Bingo!" yelled Tony when the lock whirled into place and the gate opened. "Natasha, I would kiss you if I didn't think you'd kill me with your pinky if I did."
"Or if you weren't married," said Natasha drily.
"No, Steve would understand," said Tony with a smirk. "Purely a platonic kiss amongst teammates, not at all the like hot and heavy kissing I do with Cap. Speaking of hot and heavy, who's ready to commit grand theft aircraft and get the hell out of here?"
"Language," said Steve automatically.
"Dibs on pilot!" called Clint, leading the charge out of the cage and to the only partially hidden aircraft. "Seriously, how dumb are these guys? Who leaves an aircraft unlocked?"
"There are a total of three people in the world who have actually stolen similar planes before," said Tony, moving to the console the instant he was inside. "And out of those three, only one of them has the knowledge and ingenuity to actually hotwire this thing into working. All three of those people are currently present. In short, they are very dumb, my friend. Very dumb indeed."
"Work your magic, Stark," said Natasha, keeping an eye on the bunker.
"I'm married," flirted Tony while he pulled wires apart. "But if you ask my husband and he's cool with it, babe you better believe I'll show you a night you won't ever forget."
The engine started with a hum.
"Yay," said Tony. "Now strap in, minions, time to fly our asses out."
"They don't have a car seat for the little one," said Thor.
"I called dibs on pilot," said Clint, shoving Tony out of the drivers seat just as a herd of angry would be supervillians emerged from the bunker, firearms blaring on the side of the plane.
"I don't care who called dibs, if someone doesn't get us out of here the Other Guy is going to make an appearance," growled Bruce.
Clint grabbed the controls as Tony wove over to Thor and Steve, strapping in and taking the shaking Emmy out of Thor's large arms to pull her close. As soon as they were in the air and out of gunfire range, everyone felt free to move about the cabin.
"Tony, I need you to check the system and make sure there's nothing that can track us," called Clint.
"Emmy, stay with Papa," said Tony, handing Emmy over with a quick kiss.
Emmy sat on Steve's lap and looked up at him, purple eyes taking in every movement he made. Steve seemed lost in his own world, trying to fight off some horrible memory. Emmy tugged on his shirt to get his attention, not liking how tense he seemed.
"What is it, baby girl?" asked Steve, smiling down at his daughter who looked up at him so trustingly, as if she truly believed he could do anything (which she probably did). "Are you okay? It's been a crazy day, hasn't it?"
Emmy nodded slowly. She didn't like how the day was going at all, she didn't like that someone tried to grab her, she didn't like that they were taken away from the park, she didn't like that she was cold, she didn't like the people in black, she didn't like how tense everyone was, and mostly she didn't like that she didn't have her bear.
"Why don't you try to sleep?" suggested Steve even though it was still early in the evening.
Emmy shook her head and waved her hands in the motion of patty-cake.
"Okay," laughed Steve, even more of the tension draining from his face. "Ready? Patty cake, patty cake, baker man. Bake me a cake as fast as you can. Roll it. And pat it."
Steve tickled Emmy's sides instead of patting to make her giggle.
"And mark it with an E. And put it in the oven for Emmy and me!"
As Steve started another round with Emmy, Tony worked away near Clint, first to make sure that there was no one tracking them and no way to find them and then to get the controls more stable.
"Whoever made this thing did a shit job," said Tony softly as he worked.
"Yes well isn't that why you designed your own?" replied Clint, steering the craft steadily.
"Smartass," snapped Tony, his eyes narrowing as the entire situation caught up to him.
Out of the entire team, Tony was the one everyone wanted to have with them in a crisis because he was just crazy enough to think up the impossible and do it but his coping skills were terrible because he pushed off the reality of the situation until what he deemed as a more convenient time, which was normally a when they were clear of danger. But that did mean his teammates had to watch for the inevitable crash of emotions and figure out the best way to handle each one. Sometimes they just had to wait it out, sometimes distraction worked.
"You realize that Emmy said her first word earlier, right?" said Clint, opting for distracting Tony.
"Yeah, she said Daddy," said Tony, not truly paying attention as he adjusted the final wire and snapped the cover back into place.
Clint silently counted from three to one.
"Holy shit!" yelled Tony, jumping up excitedly. "She called me Daddy!"