"Alya, stop touching that cast."

"But it's itchy."

A pout planted itself on Alya's face as her mother carried her up the steps and into the house with her father trailing behind them, carrying a couple of bags full of clothes. Which was convenient because Alya couldn't very well go to the hospital in a mask and a stealth suit.

As soon as she was in any condition to be moved, they travelled right back to New York. Yelena offered to go with them, but Natasha assured her that they would be fine. When they landed, they took the car to the nearest hospital and made sure to get Alya checked out to be positive that there was no serious damage.

Alya was very disappointed to learn that she needed to wear a cast for the next several weeks. The stupid thing covered her whole arm from her bicep all the way down to her hand. It was her dominant hand, too.

Of course, she kicked up a bit of a fuss all the way home, which indicated to her parents that she was on the mend.

"I'm sorry it's itchy, but you need to leave it alone." Natasha kissed her cheek.

This little girl was never leaving her sight again if she could help it. This was the very last time she would ever go against her own maternal instincts.

"Oh good, you're back." Steve spoke as he finished drying his hands in a towel. "How is she?"

He could see that Alya didn't look too worse for wear, but looks could be deceiving.

"She's got a broken arm and some bruised ribs." Bucky told him. "But other than that, she's okay."

For once, he was grateful that Alya had inherited the serum straight from him, because without it, that collision would've been so much worse.

"Uncle Steve." She reached for the man, prompting him to take her.

"Hi, Buddy." He rubbed her back, swaying very gently. "How are you feeling?"

"It's itchy." She motioned to the green cast on her arm.

The doctor had asked her what color she wanted to make it and it took her nearly five whole minutes to finally decide on green. That was her new favorite color at the moment. She loved the way fresh grass and leaves on trees looked.

But that didn't mean she liked wearing the cast.

"I know." Steve pouted with her. "But you have to leave it on so your arm will get better."

Alya's pout grew deeper and she wiggled to get down, but he tightened his grip. He wasn't ready to let her go.

"Where's Rebecca?" Bucky asked, wondering just wear his sister and his eldest daughter were.

It had taken a lot of persuasion on their end to convince Wanda that she had to stay home. The teen didn't want to sit by and wait while she knew that her sister needed her, but she was truly in no position to get off the couch, much less fly to another country.

"She's out getting groceries. Said she needed the fresh air. Wanda's in the back, reading."

"Is she still in any pain?" Natasha questioned out of concern.

"No, it wore off a little after you guys left."

"I'll go get her."

The redhead wanted to speak to Wanda alone to prepare her for what she was about to see. Alya wasn't in bad shape, really, but seeing a less energetic version of her sister might startle Wanda. If there was anything she needed to get off her chest, Natasha was all ears.

Alya reached out for the freezer, opening it to find that there was still ice cream in there. So, she grabbed the carton, holding it as best as she could, and grinned.

"No." Bucky shook his head. "Put it back."

The smile fell from her face as she looked back down at the delicious treat she wasn't allowed to have.

"If you eat all your dinner, I'll give you a couple scoops." Bucky amended, not liking how sad she looked. "Okay?"

"Okay." She nodded and had no trouble putting it back where it belonged after that. "Uncle Steve, a train hit me."

"What?" The blonde furrowed his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

Alya liked to joke about a lot of things, but this was new.

Was she being facetious?

"She isn't kidding, Steve. She really got hit by a train."

Steve's jaw dropped before he could remember to shut it and his eyes widened as he took in that new piece of information.

What had these kids been up to?

"I'm just as confused as you are, but don't worry, Alya will clear it all up in a bit."

Alya was really starting to wish she had followed her instincts and called her parents when she had the opportunity.

"I'm sleepy."

But if anything could get her out of this, it would be sleep. Her parents would never question her if she said she wanted to voluntarily take a nap.

"Yeah." Bucky nodded. "I'll bet you are."

Maybe she was wrong.

"Would you care to tell us how all of this happened?"

Alya gulped and looked up at both her parents who were standing up, staring down at her.

This wasn't the ideal position to be in. Her parents looked so tall as they loomed over her, and everyone else was just sitting around, staring at her.

It made her feel very small.

"Um…." She picked at her cast, stopping when Natasha tapped at her hand, so she resorted to fiddling with the zipper on her sweater. "I…."

How was she even supposed to start this?

'Hey, you'll never guess how Nick Fury got us involved in his secret plans to save the whole world? But don't get too excited, it was all fake', really didn't sound good.

"How did you get involved in all of this?" Natasha helped her out a little.

"I don't think I should tell you." Alya diverted her attention.

She wasn't sure if Fury would want anyone to know about what was going on. Maybe it was supposed to be a classified.

"Why?" Her father knelt down and tilted her chin.

"Cause I don't know if I'm s'pposed to tell you."

"And just who told you that?" Natasha crossed her arms.

If someone was telling her child to keep secrets from her, then she needed to know exactly who it was.

"Nobody told me, Mama."

"Enough." Bucky rolled his eyes at her indifference and pulled Alya up to sit in her place, gently holding her arms so she didn't get the idea to run for the hills. "Who's little secret are you keeping?"

He, like Natasha, wanted to know just who was manipulating their daughter like this. His methods of getting answers weren't as nice as Natasha's, but it wasn't very much of a shock to Alya.

Sometimes she didn't listen until he got assertive.

"Alya, it's not nice to keep secrets like this." Steve tried a different approach when Bucky's didn't work. "We only want to help you, but we can't do that if we don't know what's going on."

Well, that was true. Alya could admit that.

"Um…."

"What happened after Venice?" Even Wanda was trying to make it easy on her.

She knew her well enough to know that whatever she disclosed, wouldn't likely end in her favor.

"I went to Peter's room, 'cause I didn't wanna be by myself with someone I didn't know…..and Ned got shot."

She definitely could've worded it better than that.

"Ned got shot?" Wanda's eyes grew large as Natasha sat down next to her husband.

"Yeah, with a tranquilizer."

"Who shot him?" Rebecca asked.

"He's gonna get mad."

"Alya, the only people you should remotely be worried about getting mad, are your mother and I." Bucky told her. "Who was it?"

"Uncle Nick." She admitted, her voice small with shame.

Natasha and Steve's eyes flashed with anger at the admission.

Fury was recruiting children now?

"What happened after that?"

"He took me and Peter away from the hotel and we met the guy that killed the water monster." Alya bit her lip, trying not to incriminate herself. "He said he was from another universe and there were more of those monsters, but I didn't really believe him. Uncle Nick wanted me and Peter to help him stop them, but he didn't want to, so we left and the next day, instead of going to Paris, we went to Prague."

"What happened then?"

"Um…Peter called a drone strike on the bus we were in." Alya cringed.

Now that she said it out loud, it really did sound horrible. Not that she had taken it lightly in the first place, it just sounded a whole lot more severe now.

"What?!" Apparently, everyone else thought so, too.

"It was an accident!" She quickly amended, though that probably didn't help. "He didn't know how to use the glasses Tony gave him and—"

"—What glasses?" Natasha arched a brow, making her gulp.

"Tony had Uncle Nick give Peter a pair of sunglasses with an AI."

Steve ran his hand through his hair in frustration and took a deep breath. This couldn't be happening again.

"He stopped the missile before it hit anything." Alya informed them, making sure they knew that she had no part in any of Peter's shenanigans. "He and Mysterio….that's the other guy's 'name', went to fight another one of those monsters."

Usually, whenever she was recounting events, she made sure to drag it out like a super long story, but the look on her father's face told her that probably wasn't the best idea. He didn't seem very patient at the moment, so it was probably a good thing that she didn't.

"And what did you do?" Natasha made it a point to ask.

"I stayed in the hotel room." Alya shrugged. She had nothing to hide there. "And I found out the truth."

"Which was?"

"He was using a lot of illusion tech to make the monsters. He used to work for Tony and I guess he wanted revenge. I don't know."

Bucky and Natasha were certainly proud of Alya for not running head first into a fight like that.

Fake or not.

But, she still got involved when she shouldn't have and she never once attempted to call anyone at home to tell them about any of this before it got out of hand.

So she was definitely not off the hook.

"Peter gave him the glasses before I could tell him, though."

Wanda slapped a palm over her face in irritation. She couldn't believe that Peter had given highly-weaponized glasses to someone he didn't even know.

"Daddy, can I have my ice cream?" Alya asked randomly.

"Finish the story and I'll think about it."

That was more motivating than all the help everyone was trying to give. She'd have no issues finishing up now.

"Okay. Peter wanted to tell Uncle Nick, so we went to find him, only it wasn't him. It was Mysterio…..and then we got hit by the train, I guess. I don't really remember. Can I have my ice cream now?"

"Why do you look so sad?" Alya asked Wanda as they laid, side by side in their parents' bed.

She had noticed the strange looks the older girl had been giving her nearly all day. It was like she was afraid she would disappear or something.

"I was really worried about you, Alya." Wanda leaned up onto her elbow to get a good look at her.

"But I'm okay, see?" Alya smiled in the dark room.

"No, you don't get it." Wanda shook her head, her throat clenching as her eyes welled up. "When you got hurt, I feltit...like I felt Pietro."

Sometimes she could still feel the gut-wrenching pain of losing her twin. The fear of even thinking she was losing Alya stirred up all those bad feelings.

"Oh."

Well now Alya felt bad. She didn't think about that.

She just thought that since she was alright and she was home now, that everything was fine and they could all move on.

It didn't work that way.

"Sorry." She spoke softly. "I won't do it again."

"Do you promise?"

It was childish, but Alya was good at keeping her promises. She took them very seriously.

"I promise."

"You'd better, or I'll yell at you."

"Uncle Steve?"

"Yes?"

"I don't wanna be an Avenger." Alya told the man as he pulled the covers of her parents' bed over her body.

Natasha and Bucky preferred it if she stayed in between them for a few nights just so they could monitor her and make sure that she didn't need anything.

Wanda was more than welcome to join, but she wasn't too keen on sharing a bed with Alya. That little girl kicked in her sleep, it was like fighting with someone that had really cold feet. So, instead, she laid with her until her eyelids grew heavy and then retreated to her room to fall asleep.

Steve had been thrown off by Alya's little statement and it took a moment for him to recover.

Now, where had that come from? Had he or anyone else ever pressured her into becoming an Avenger?

"Okay, that's fine." He finally managed to say.

He was glad she didn't want to become an Avenger. She was a child. A child should be aspiring to become a doctor or lawyer, or something like a teacher or accountant. Something that wasn't as life-threatening or stressful as saving the world every time something came up.

"It is?"

"Of course it is."

"But I don't wanna save the world." She clarified, thinking it might change his mind.

"There's nothing wrong with that. You're not obligated to save the world. As long as you're a good person and you treat people with kindness, you're doing something just as important as saving the world. Now close your eyes and go to sleep. I already read you two stories and if your parents see that you're still awake, they'll never let me tuck you in again."

Alya's blue eyes shot open as her body jerked into an upright position, screams of horror escaping her lips.

"Mama! Daddy!"

The room was pitch black and her eyes hadn't yet adjusted to the lack of light, so she could actually see anything. She tried to climb off the bed when she felt a pair of hands brush up against her, but the hands wouldn't let her go anywhere.

That only served to freak her out further.

Still suffering from the fear of the horrible nightmare that woke her up, Alya scratched away at the hands that were holding her and then tried to bite whoever they belonged to.

"Ssh." Natasha carefully restrained her so she wouldn't be able to hurt herself. "It's okay."

The nightmares were to be expected, but that didn't make them any less heartbreaking. She just wanted Alya to get to a point where she wouldn't have these constant night terrors interrupting her sleep.

It was hard to see her like this. So scared and so frantic.

"Mama!"

"I'm right here. Look." Natasha ended up having to turn Alya around to face her. "It's Mama."

Alya stopped screaming just as Bucky stood up to turn on the light before he sat back down on the bed. She felt his gentle hand stroking her hair in an effort to get her to calm down.

"What's the matter, sweet girl?" Natasha's voice was low and soothing. "Did you have a bad dream?"

This was exactly why the two adults had Alya sleeping in their bed. Well, that, and Natasha didn't really want her out of her sight for the time being.

If Alya needed something, she wanted to be right there.

The child tried to rub her eyes with both hands, but was unable to do so with her right because of the cast. She nearly gave herself a black eye in the process.

"Yeah." She sniffled.

"What was it about?"

When Alya shook her head, Natasha decided not to push her and instead, focused on comforting her. They could talk about her dream when she was ready, right now, it was more important to get her to calm down.

"Do you think Peter's okay?"

"I'm sure he's fine." Both she and Bucky had a bone to pick with the teenager while being worried about him at the same time. They'd cross that bridge when they got to it. "Look."

Natasha motioned towards Bucky so that Alya could see him holding his arms out for her to join him.

"I think he's lonely."

Alya smiled and launched herself at her father, her hand going right for his metal one.

"You have to go back to sleep, Scamp." He spoke softly in her ear, giving her a gentle squeeze when she snuggle into him. "Nothing can happen to you while Mama and I are here."

"Promise?"

"I promise."