"Home sweet home!" declared Steve upon entering the tower with his arm around Tony's waist and Emmy's uninjured hand clasped firmly in his.
"I'm sleeping for a month," said Tony, collapsing on the nearest couch with a groan, his body not quite recovered from it's most recent bout of illness. "If the assassin twins ever find that guy who thought kidnapping us was a good idea, let me know. I want to take a whack at him."
"Okay," said Steve with a grin, kissing the top of Tony's head while Emmy ran around the familiar living room, giggling.
"Daddy," said Emmy, tapping on Tony's cheek. "Daddy."
Tony opened one eye to stare at his daughter. "Yes Ducky?"
Emmy pointed to the elevator.
"Daddy's kinda tired, can Papa take you?" said Tony.
Emmy nodded and ran to the elevator, laughing when it opened.
"You sure you don't want to take her?" said Steve, worried. "You never turn down going to your workshop."
"When I go down there I'm going to see how behind I am and the bots are going to want attention and I'm too tired to deal with that," grumbled Tony. "I'll go down after…sleep and maybe food…mostly sleep."
"Okay," said Steve soothingly. "You rest for a bit. I'll wake you when it's time to eat and then if you're feeling up to it you can go to the workshop for a few hours. But just a few. I don't care how behind you say you are, you are not making yourself sick again just because you feel like you need to work. Pepper and Fury will understand if you take some time off to get better."
Tony nodded and waved in the general direction of the elevator where Emmy was waiting. With a final kiss, Steve joined the four year old in the elevator and took her to the workshop.
The workshop looked just like it always did when Tony wasn't in it, quiet and calm and chaoticly set up rolled into one. The instant Emmy entered, though, it came to life and Steve just stood back and watched. Dum-E rolled up to her, beeping joyfully and Emmy jumped on him, all limbs and laughter.
"Someone missed you," said Steve, arms crossed and leaning against the doorframe as the scene unfolded.
Dum-E rolled around the room with Emmy in tow, taking her to all his favorite spots, letting her pet the other bots when they too begged for attention. This lasted until Emmy reached up on a worktable and grabbed the tablet resting there. Once she had that, she ran back to Steve and held it up to him imploringly.
"Thank you," said Steve, accepting the tablet with a fond smile.
Emmy took his hand and pulled him back to the elevator and then living room where they found Tony fast asleep on the couch with Bucky on the ground watching television. Taking the tablet out of Steve's hands, Emmy ran back to the couch and set the tablet on the end table near Tony's head before jumping onto Bucky.
"Hey brat," said Bucky gruffly though he let Emmy crawl all over him like a kitten.
"Emmy, play nice with Uncle Bucky," said Steve, sitting down on the couch with Tony, lifting his head into his lap to play with the brown locks.
"I'm not your uncle, kid," said Bucky. "I don't want to be your uncle."
Emmy paused in her climbing, looking at Bucky with the saddest eyes ever, just brimming with tears, and then she ran from Bucky, across the room, and would have made it to the rest of the tower if Clint hadn't chosen that exact moment to arrive, walking in from the general stairwell, and catching Emmy instinctively as she barreled into him.
"Hey Em," said Clint, swinging the toddler up from the ground and into his arms. "Where are you off to in such a hurry?"
Emmy pointed back at the living room where Steve's angry voice was floating out and sniffed sadly.
"What's got your Papa so upset?" said Clint, carrying her back to the living room.
"She has abandonment issues," hissed Steve - one large hand over Tony's exposed ear, effectively sandwiching the genius's head between hand and thigh, blocking out 90 percent of the noise and allowing the exhausted billionaire to remain sleeping through the drama - as Clint stuck his head around the corner. "And you tell her you don't want to be her uncle? She adores you, Bucky! Do you know what type of setback we're looking at now?"
"Hey Steve," said Clint, loath to interrupt but needing to regardless. "I'm going to take Emmy to her room to hang out for a bit."
"Thanks," said Steve.
When they arrived at Emmy's room, Clint set her down and joined her on the floor. Normally, Emmy would be off, running around her room and grabbing crowns and hats and scarves to dress Clint up in, wanting to play and run around, but not this time. This time, she slowly walked over to her bed and crawled under, dragging her stuffed dog with her and the stolen blue blanket that used to be Clint's but she hadn't let go of since the hospital before curling up in a ball and sticking her thumb in her mouth.
"Want company?" asked Clint, peeking under the bed.
Emmy shook her head, blinking owlishly out at nothing, the dog's ear replacing her thumb in her mouth to get sucked on, no tears leaving her eyes which made it worse because tears Clint knew how to handle but this calm, dead look was not.
"Okay," said Clint. "Is it okay if I just sit here then?"
Emmy nodded and Clint sat down, leaning back against the tiny bed, picking up one of the many books near the comforter and began reading it, resigning himself to another rough day for Emmy. He almost felt sorry for Bucky, being on the receiving end of Steve's anger but then that empty look in Emmy's eyes came back to his memory and he decided Bucky would be getting off easy if he only had to deal with Steve.
*SPOILER FOR NEXT CHAPTER!
"I'm sorry, what?" said Tony, shifting his grip on the girl riding on his shoulders.
"Emmaline is my daughter and I want her back now," said the man.
END SPOILER!
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