"Emmy?" called Bucky softly.

"Go away, Barnes," said Clint coldly from his spot guarding the bed. "She just fell asleep. You are not waking my niece up after what you did."

"I didn't mean it like that," said Bucky tiredly. "I'm just no good. I can't be her uncle, I've killed hundreds of people. I killed her grandparents. I've never been around kids before. I don't like kids, even when I was one of them I didn't like them. I don't know what I'm doing!"

"It doesn't matter what you think," growled Clint. "She doesn't care about what you've done or who you used to be. Emmy adores you. She has zero fear of you. And you rejecting her, that's not something you can fix with a simple apology. So when she wakes up, you will tell her you're sorry and then you will make it up to her by being the very best uncle you could dream of because that's what's going to matter to her."

Bucky wanted to yell at Clint, tell the archer that he was not to be bossed around, but Clint was right and Bucky knew it, so he nodded and left, slipping past Steve before the super soldier entered.

"How is she?" asked Steve softly.

"She's under the bed," said Clint. "She's smart, she'll bounce back from this but it's going to take time. She's probably going to be clingy for a while until she feels comfortable in the knowledge that we're not leaving but it'll get better. Have you told Tony?"

"Yeah, we had a chat just now about it. He's down in the workshop now."

"How far behind on work is he?" asked Clint, not truly wanting to know the answer. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"If he were up to full health, he'd just be a week of hard work and sleepless nights but he's not, so it'll be closer to two weeks. It should be three but we both know he won't take the time he really needs."

"I'm going to go check on him," said Clint. "When he's all caught up, I'll take us all out to lunch at that Chinese place he likes so much."

-Winging It-

"Are you sure you're up to this?" asked Steve for the tenth time as he walked next to Tony on the busy street.

"It's been almost three weeks since we got back," groaned Tony. "I'm fine. Seriously, just a bit tired but Clint promised me Chinese as a reward for catching up on my work so I want my Chinese food! Emmy does too, right Em?"

Emmy giggled and nodded, her casted hand waving around in the air in glee while her uninjured one yanked on Tony's hair for balance. It was cold, well into December, but bundled up they were all warm and no one really wanted to battle the traffic.

"Bucky just texted me that he arrived at the place," said Clint, glancing down at his phone. "Also there's a guy approaching on your six, Cap. Not lethal, probably just wants a picture or something."

"Hello," said Steve pleasantly when the man was within earshot and making eye contact.

"I want my daughter back," said the man, talking over Steve in a voice that sounded like it could have been thunder but everyone present personally knew the god of thunder, so the voice fell short of its mark.

He was almost as tall as Steve, easily taller than Tony, with rough caramel hair, full beard, and glare to match. His cheap suit and yellowed with age dress shirt offended Tony on a personal level but the worst thing came when he opened his mouth.

"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," said the man.

"Clint, take Emmy and go tell Bucky we're going to be a bit late," said Tony calmly.

"Sure thing," said Clint. "Come on, Emmy. Let's go get Uncle Bucky to buy us ice cream."

"No sweets before dinner," said Steve absently, not taking his eyes off the man standing before him trying to claim Emmy; the only person allowed to claim Emmy was Tony and that was because Steve couldn't break Tony of the habit of introducing Emmy as his.

"What do you want?" demanded Tony as soon as Clint and Emmy were clear.

"I want my daughter back," said the man. "My name is Tiberius Stone and I want the girl back."

"Well Emmy's mine," said Tony loftily and for once Steve was glad of the fierce possessive streak his husband had because Steve had never seen anyone successfully take from Tony what the man had claimed to be his. "So go find some other child you've abandoned to claim because you're not getting her."

"I'm her father, she needs me!"

"She needed you back when she was getting hit and thrown into a closet for talking and yelled at and starved," snapped Steve. "Where were you then?"

"I don't have to answer to you," said Tiberius imperiously. "Just return what's mine to me now or I will take you fags to court. Who do you really think they will side with?"

"Tough choice," said Tony sarcastically, rubbing his chin as if deep in thought. "The man who abandoned her and left her to be abused or Captain America and Iron Man who adopted her, removing her from that environment and gave her a loving home? You really want to go against my lawyers?"

"That girl is mine and you know it."

"What's her favorite food? Color? What time does she go to bed?"

"All things that can change. She's mine. I'll see you both in court."

"You're really going to put her through that?" said Steve, trying to be reasonable. "Think about it, Mr. Stone. You left. Her mother died. She was sent to live at a home where she was hated and hurt. She has only just started to recover from that and you want to drag her through a legal battle?"

"If that's the only way to get her back then yes. My lawyer will be calling you."

Tiberius stormed off before the super hero's could respond.

"He can't really do that, can he?" said Steve, turning desperate eyes on Tony, begging the billionaire to fix it like he fixed everything else when it broke. "He can't take her away from us. He left, we adopted her. She's ours."

"Technically the papers are still being process," said Tony slowly. "Even Agent can't make it go faster. So until they are fully processed, we technically only have temporary custody of Emmy. To the courts, we're just her foster parents. And if this guy really is her father, he will have legal rights to her. I'll get JARVIS on researching the guy, finding out every dirty secret and where the hell he's been for the past few years."

"So the court could side with him?" whispered Steve.

"What?" said Tony, looking up at his husband for the first time, realizing he had been speaking aloud more than in his head.

"You just said-"

"No!" said Tony in a rush to console his husband. "No, I meant that he has enough of a case that he can take us to court, not that he would win. Emmy is ours. Trust me, baby, I'm not going to let anything happen to our little girl."

Steve didn't look convinced so Tony leaned up and kissed him. He still didn't look convinced after hat so Tony took his hand and they walked the rest of the way to the Chinese place in silence, holding hands as the city rolled by without them noticing because their hands were still firmly clasped together but the rest of the world was trembling at best, on the verge of falling apart and though neither said it they knew that if they stopped, if they let the other go for even a fraction of a second, the world would implode and they would be lost.

*Feedback welcome.

I did the thing. The thing where real life rules come back into play and even Tony can't rush the adoption process. Trust me, it takes ages. Always- Ari