Emmy blinked up at Tiberius in confusion, head tilting to the side but otherwise making no move to get up.
"Come on, girl, we haven't got all day," said Tiberius with a forced smile, stepping further into the room. "Let's get going now."
"You won?" said Phil Coulson, setting aside his paper work and standing to ace the new comer. "I thought they would come in and tell us before allowing anyone to gather her. Her things are in my car."
"That's fine, I'll get her new things, keep them," snapped Tiberius before visibly forcing himself to smile. "Now come along, child. We have to be getting home."
Bucky took a step towards the toddler, not liking the mans tone.
"Why don't you let Emmy say good bye to Tony and Steve first?" suggested Coulson, trying to buy time while he figured out what was going on. "She can do that while I at least put her car seat in your car."
"No!" screamed Tiberius.
Emmy ran over to Bucky and hid behind his legs, cringing at the harsh voice.
"Hey, man, keep it down, you're scaring Emmy," said Bucky, eyes narrowing as he felt Emmy's trembling through his legs.
"Back away from my daughter you psycho!"
Tiberius threw himself towards Bucky but Coulson stepped between them, taser out and chest level, face as serene as ever.
"You need to step away and calm down now," said Coulson quietly.
There was shouting down the hall and feet running and Coulson still didn't move.
"Where the hell is he?" yelled a man down the hall.
Bucky set Emmy on the armchair and started towards the door to face the fast approaching threat, which turned out to be Steve, Tony, Clint, Natasha, and four men in uniform.
"Mr. Stone, you can't be here," declared one of the men. "You need to leave now."
"What the hell is going on?" asked Bucky.
"Get him out of my sight," snarled Steve, glaring at Tiberius as if that man was the root of all evil.
"Emmy!" said Tony, catching sight of his daughter sitting on the armchair Bucky had put her on, tears in her eyes and confusion clear on her face.
"Daddy!" squealed Emmy, lighting up at the sight of her fathers, clambering to her feet and launching herself into the air, knowing Tony or Steve would catch her. And they did.
"Emmy, I missed you," said Tony, openly weeping and he cuddled his daughter close. "I missed you so much. I love you. I love you. I love you."
"We won," explained Clint to Bucky and Coulson, unable to stop the face splitting grin.
"Then what the hell was that jack ass doing here?" said Bucky.
"After the verdict, he stormed out," said Clint. "Security lost track of him and when we couldn't find him, we figured he would try to find Emmy and take her away. So we came here."
It took everyone forty minutes to calm down enough to share the whole story, from the judge declaring Steve and Tony the legal rights to Coulson nearly shocking Stone into a drooling mess. The entire time Emmy refused to let go of Tony's dress shirt and would whimper in protest any time Steve tried to move away from where she could feel him pressed to her back.
"So is she legally yours?" asked Bucky in the end.
"The hold on the paper work has been removed, so once that is all settled she will be," replied Steve with a smile. "Shouldn't be more than a few weeks."
"Well, I'm glad this all worked out," said Coulson. "I need to be getting back to work, though. I have an agency to run, after all. It's no longer my job to be babysitting you lot."
"We're heading to the Tower," said Tony.
"Thank you so much for looking after Emmy," said Steve gratefully, shaking hands with the director. "You're welcome to join us tomorrow for our annual Christmas Eve celebration."
"I'll see what I can do," said Coulson. "Bucky."
"See you punks later," said Bucky, following Coulson out of the room.
When they finally arrived back at the Tower, Emmy was fast asleep, her previous night of nightmares and days of stress finally catching up to her tiny body and she slept peacefully curled up in Tony's jacket. Tony took her to his bedroom and curled up on the bed with her, joining her in the having a lie-down. That was how Steve found them an hour later when he finally made his way to the bedroom to change.
The sight of his husband and daughter fast asleep on top of the enormous cream covered bed was enough to take away the soldiers breath. Tony was sprawled out over the surface, one sock mostly off his foot from kicking off his shoes previously, one hand bowed under Steve's pillow, taking up as much space as possible, while Emmy took the opposite approach, curled into a tiny ball of red hair and soft clothes, thumb stuck firmly in her mouth, head pillowed by Tony's other hand.
"JARVIS, did you get a picture?" asked Steve softly.
"Yes Captain," said JARVIS in a smug tone. "I'll add it to the file?"
"Please."
Unobtrusively, Steve changed into grey sweat pants and a white cotton undershirt before finally moving around the side of the bed and kissing his husband tenderly. Tony griped but blinked his eyes open seven times before they finally stayed that way.
"You need to get up now or you'll never go to sleep tonight," Steve whispered against his lips.
"You're the devil," mumbled Tony.
"You love me," laughed Steve, pulling the smaller man into a sitting position.
Tony muttered something under his breath but allowed Steve to pull him into a fully standing position and stumbled over to his closet to change. The movement woke Emmy, who blinked in confusion before Steve scooped her up and tossed her into the air, earning a giggle from the young girl for his efforts.
"Emmy, do you know what tomorrow is?" asked Steve excitedly.
Emmy shook her head.
"Tomorrow is December 24," said Steve.
Emmy blinked, nonplussed.
"You know," Steve tried again, heading towards the door of their bedroom to join the rest of the team in the common area. "Christmas Eve?"
Emmy's face fell and she squirmed until Steve set her on the ground. Steve followed the little girl as she padded out of the room, down the hall, and into the common area. There she froze, staring at the transformed room.
"Christmas is Papa's favorite holiday," said Tony, crouching next to his daughter, dressed in a black tank top and charcoal grey sweatpants. "You'd think he'd like the 4th of July more, but you'd be wrong. It's Christmas."
"Christmas is a time for family," said Steve, making his way around the living room that looked like a Hallmark movie had exploded in it to the kitchen to pour two glasses of eggnog and one cup of milk. "It's one of the few things that hasn't changed since I was a kid."
"So Ducky," said Tony, looking at his daughter with a soft smile Steve had only ever seen him direct towards his teammates and bots. "How do you normally celebrate Christmas?"
Looking at her feet, Emmy signed her answer, small movements showing how sad it made her.
"You weren't allowed?" repeated Tony, just loud enough that he knew Steve would hear but not loud enough for it to carry to the rest of the team who were in the kitchen making a late lunch.
Emmy nodded.
"Want to know something?" whispered Tony, as if the two of them were about to conspire on a trick. "When I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to celebrate Christmas properly either."
Emmy looked up at Tony with her cartoonishly large eyes in surprise.
"That's right," said Tony, nodding. "But now I'm the one who gets to make the rules and I say we celebrate Christmas. What do you say? Want to give it a try?"
She took another look around the room, at the twinkling lights, garlands, mistletoe, and plates of cookies set about, before her eyes fell on the enormous tree that was bare and the huge box of ornaments next to it waiting to be put to use. Shyly, Emmy pointed at the box.
"Let's go get your aunt and uncles and decorate this tree," said Tony, sweeping Emmy off the ground and onto his shoulders as the Avengers alarm sounded.
*As an apology for doing such awful things to your feels last chapter, I put extra fluff in this chapter. You're welcome. :) Always - Ari