Archive of Our Own

Chapter 1: Beginnings

It was their two-year anniversary since they started dating (or six years if you counted working together and silently obsessing over the other for the previous four). Clint had taken Phil out to eat at a nice Italian restaurant in the small Ohio town that they were passing through on their way back from a mission.

"What do you think, drive all day tomorrow?" Clint asked as they were eating their Chicken & Shrimp Carbonara.

"Yeah, it shouldn't be more than eight hours." Phil said as his phone went off.

"Phil, I thought you turned that off." Clint said somewhat pouting.

"It's the other line." Phil answered as he checked the caller id: Franklin County Ohio Police. "Shit." He swore before flipping the phone open. "Coulson."

Clint watched as Phil's expression became more of Agent Coulson and less just Phil. "I'll be there as soon as I can thank you." Phil hung up the phone as Clint raised an eyebrow. Phil gave him a look that said not here so they got boxes for the dinner, paid and left. Once they got to the car, Phil went to the driver's door and Clint sat in the passenger seat.

"You want to talk about it?"

"My sister, Elizabeth, and her daughter, Abigail, are my only remaining family. My sister was killed in a car crash tonight. I need to go pick Abigail up."

"I'm sorry. Did you have a contingency plan?"

"Yeah, I would take care of Abigail…"

"Here," he said unbuckling. "I'll drive and you make some phone calls to Fury and anyone else. Let them know that we'll be a while longer."

"We?"

"Yeah, get it through your skull Phil that I do love you. I'll stay and help you raise your niece and it'll be just peaches. We'll be a beautiful and happy family." Phil looked at Clint and the relief on his face showed just how the turn of events had affected him. He kissed Clint briefly.

"I love you Clint. Now budge over and drive to Franklin, Ohio. It should be around 2 hours from here."

"I love you too." Clint said as he got in the driver's seat and Phil sat in the passenger seat. In the hour and fifteen minutes, it took to drive from wherever they were to Franklin Ohio, Phil reported in to Fury to let him know what was going on. Fury was a tad bit miffed, but understood, especially since he was one of the few privy to the fact that Clint and Phil were even in a relationship. He wished them luck and told them to keep him informed of the situation. "How old is she?" Clint asked after the conversation ended.

"About 13 months. So she's going to be a little thing." Phil answered.

"Crib, diapers, the whole nine yards?"

"Yes."

"It'll be fun. We'll make it work, Phil. I know that if anyone in our crazy line of work can make it work, it's us." Clint stopped the car at a red light and gave Phil a kiss. They pulled into parking lot of the police station and parked the car. They went to the main desk and asked where to go. First, they were led to the morgue where Phil positively identified Elizabeth's body. A few minutes later, they went to a small room where a dark-haired baby girl was gurgling happily in a playpen as she played with a light up toy. Her eyes brightened further when she saw Phil and she cooed gleefully. He bent down and picked her up, smiling and playing with her fingers.

"Hey Abby. Remember me? I'm Phil." He spoke quietly as Clint watched them. "I'm going to take care of you." He turned to the officer and social worker. "What paperwork do I need to fill out?" Clint carried the diaper bag and then took Abby in the other arm. She smiled up at him and played with his fingers. Phil filled out all the forms and made sure that those were all he needed to do, before taking the bag of Elizabeth's personal belongings that had been on her when she died. They put the car seat in the back and buckled it in before placing Abby in the seat.

Once they arrived at the apartment, they reheated their dinner from earlier and fed Abby some fruits and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. After they were done eating, Clint played with Abby and her toys as Phil began packing up Liz's things and dividing them into two groups: the storage-pile and the donate-pile. Phil smiled as he heard Abby laugh loudly. This may work after all. Phil thought to himself. Two hours later, Phil had finished going through the clothes and most of the other things so he went to check on Clint and Abby. He chuckled softly to himself when he saw the two of them. Clint had changed Abby into a pair of pajamas and was singing Billy Joel's New York State of Mind as he rocked her to sleep in the rocking chair in Abby's room. Phil watched how Clint held her protectively and smiled.

When Clint had finished singing the song Abby was asleep and Clint slowly got up and placed her in the crib. He turned the baby monitor up and took the portable extension with him. "Shh. I just got her to sleep." He whispered to Phil as they left the room, leaving the door ajar.

"When did you become so good with kids?" Phil asked him seriously, as he gave him a kiss. "Because that was pretty adorable."

"I dunno." Clint smiled as they sat down on the large sofa, kicking their heels up on the coffee table. "You just have to do everything with kids. Gotta feed them, play with them, change their diapers, and eventually put them to sleep. It wasn't that difficult."

"Did you change her diaper?" Phil asked questioningly.

"Yeah."

"Since when did you know how to change a diaper?"

"I googled it. Wasn't that hard." Clint said sheepishly.

"Well, it should only take tomorrow to straighten out the rest of the stuff. I figure we take the toys, clothes, pictures and a few other things and donate most everything else. We can pick out a new crib in New York and everything else. I don't want to move more than we have to."

"It'll be fun to pick out new things for Abby. I like her. She's cute."

"I'm glad to hear that." Phil said laying his head on Clint's shoulder.

"Phil," Clint said looking down at Phil as Phil looked at him. "Earlier at dinner, before the phone call, I wanted to ask you to marry me."

"Do you still want to?"

"I wouldn't learn how to change a diaper for just anyone." Clint smiled as he bent over to kiss Phil. "Yes. I still want to marry you. I meant what I said earlier about being a family."

"Yes, Clint Barton, I will marry you."

Clint and Phil watched TV for a little while before falling asleep on the couch cuddled together, the baby monitor next to them fully turned up in case Abby awoke.

Chapter 2: A New Home

Phil, Clint and Abby- Chapter 2

The next day, Phil called a donation truck to come pick up most of the things in Elizabeth's apartment. They had packed up everything that they were taking back to New York and put it into the SUV. Abby and Clint sat in the SUV as Phil spoke with the landlord and handed back the keys to the apartment. Abby slept for only part of the way, so Clint sang to her while he was driving. He sang lots of Billy Joel and other classic rock songs to pass the time and distance. They drove through the night to the city and unpacked the basics from the car. When they arrived home at their three-bedroom apartment, they changed Abby's diaper and dressed her in her pjs and all went to bed in the large master bed. Phil and Clint bracketed themselves around Abby. She slept on her back, her tiny hands wrapped around each of Phil and Clint's fingers.

Clint woke up first six hours later followed by Phil and Abby. Phil made coffee and breakfast, Clint changed Abby's diaper and brought her out to the kitchen. "Phil, did we bring in the booster seat?"

"No, I don't think so. Let's get all of the things from the car up and then we can go shopping." Clint went and unloaded most of the SUV into the living room while Phil moved the few things in one of the spare rooms and gave Abby a bath in the kitchen sink. Clint took a quick shower. After he was done, he moved the few things they had brought that were Abby's into the room that would be hers. Once everyone was dressed, they went to the store to go shopping.

Phil put Abby in the cart and they browsed each aisle. First, they went through car accessories.

"We're getting her a new car seat."

"How about this one?" Clint asked pointing towards a convertible black one that came in other colors. Phil looked at that one and a few other nearby ones.

"How about the purple one?" Phil said pointing to a similar black and purple model.

"Sure. It's got like four cup holders. That's so cool…I wish I had something like that when I was a kid." They got a few other things from the aisle to stick in the car before going through the crib, bedding and other aisles. An associate took their items up to the front of the store while they shopped so that they didn't have to carry it all around they store. Phil and Clint each picked out a diaper bag that they would use. They gathered more toys and picked up a few movies that they each would be willing to watch the hundreds of time she might make them watch them.

After they had finished they checked out and loaded all of the purchases into the SUV. They took them back to the apartment, set up the crib, and got the rest of the purchases placed in some random type of order. Abby walked and crawled around the room, admiring the new things. Once they had gotten most of the major things put away and set up, they went grocery shopping. They filled up the cart with all sorts of groceries. Some for Phil and Clint while others were mostly for Abby. Phil worked on dinner when they got back to the apartment after they had finished unloading groceries while Clint played with Abby in the living room. She picked up a few books and handed them over to Clint.

"ead." She said looking at him expectantly as she made a motion to be picked up.

"Phil did you hear that? I think she was telling me that she wants me to read a book to her."

"Fantastic!" He shouted as he came into the living room with an apron on. "I'm going to call Fury after dinner so that we'll all go in tomorrow to get the paperwork filled out for both Abby and for us getting married."

"ead." Clint picked Abby up and sat her in his lap on the couch in the living room.

"OK, Abby and I will be out here reading!" Clint read a few of the books before dinner and resumed after they ate and had cleaned up. They continued to read the books before they both got tired and Abby laid down on his chest, her head on his shoulder. Clint placed a protective arm around her to keep her from falling before going to sleep. That was how Phil found them on the couch when he was done talking to Fury. He smiled to himself and found the camera. Phil took a picture of the them and saved it before waking Clint up to get everyone to bed.

Early the next morning, Phil and Clint got up before Abby so they were showered, dressed and caffeinated. Phil was in his usual suit while Clint decided to go for the black cargo pants, black shirt and black SHIELD jacket. They fed and dressed Abby in a black onesie with a pair of baby jeans and black jacket. Everyone had breakfast before leaving for SHIELD's land headquarters. Once they arrived at HQ, Phil carried Abby while Clint carried the diaper bag and they went directly to Fury's office. There were few people around HQ, but the few that were there began whispering about them as soon as they left the room. When the trio arrived in Fury's office, Abby had a long, serious look at Fury for a moment.

"So this is the little girl who has got you both wrapped so tight around her little fingers and is bound to get tongues wagging around here?"

" Director Fury, this is Abigail Cooper, my niece."

"Did I also hear right that you two are planning on getting married?"

"Yes, sir." Clint spoke up as Abby looked over at Clint and made a motion that she wanted to be held by Clint.

"And you're all right with a kid Barton?" Fury asked skeptically as Clint picked her up and balanced her on his free hip as he set the diaper bag down on the floor.

"I wasn't sure before I met her, but I plan on having both Phil and Abby in my life for a very long time, sir. I'm getting a new skill set and she happens to like me." He said smiling as Abby smiled and giggled while she placed her hands all over his cheeks and neck.

Fury looked at the three of them for a moment. "Fine. Fill out your paperwork, we'll get Abby identification info and a card and the works. Let me know when you want to get married, cause I expect to be there, hell I'll even perform it myself. Hill will probably want to, too and Romanoff. Also, you can bring her into the office, but only in office space or the cafeteria. I don't want to see her anywhere near the range or anywhere near R & D or somewhere dangerous stuff could happen."

"Yes sir." They both responded together.

"Yesir" Abby said smiling up at Fury. Fury actually smiled and laughed a little.

"As for undercover work, I'm benching both of you. We'll make an effort to only have one of you in the field at a time."

"Sounds like a plan Director." Clint said looking somewhat hopeful.

"All of your paperwork should be at your office. I had most of it delivered yesterday. Once you get it filled out, take it down to HR and they'll get a card for her. There's some packages in your office too." Fury's phone rang and he picked it up with a look that said they were to leave. The trio went over to Phil's large office nearby to get the paperwork filled out. There were a few large packages that Clint opened with Abby enthusiastically. There was a SHIELD logoed portable crib with removable changing station, a few super soft SHIELD blankets and one large, heavy blanket lined with Kevlar.

Clint sat down on the couch and began filling out the parts of the forms that applied to him. Abby played with her toys in the portable crib Clint set up in the office while Phil was at his desk catching up with paperwork before starting the rest of the forms. Around lunchtime, Abby had fallen asleep in the crib clutching at the soft SHIELD blanket when there was a knock at Phil's door. Clint opened the door and let Natasha in. Clint gestured for her to come in and sit with him on the couch. She looked between Phil, Clint and Abby before looking back to Clint.

"Phil and I are getting married and adopting his niece. You want to be my best man at the wedding?"

"Of course. Her name?"

"Abigail, Abby for short." Phil said smiling at Natasha as Abby moved around. Clint picked Abby up and sat her on his lap.

"Tash, this is Abby. Abby this is Tasha." Abby and Tasha looked at each other for a moment before Abby smiled sleepily and curled her small hand around some of Natasha's fingers. Natasha's lip curled up and she stayed sitting with Clint and Abby. "So lunch? I can bring you something up?"

"Italian, Chinese, or Thai all sound good." Phil said as Clint nodded along.

"So regular Thai order then? Plus a non-spicy dish for Abby?"

"Sounds good."

"Be back soon." Natasha removed Abby's fingers from her hand and quietly left. Phil continued to work on paper work while Clint took care of Abby. Natasha returned and they divided up the food. Clint and Phil ate theirs, feeding Abby pieces of each of their orders before giving her a portion of the non-spicy dish Natasha had ordered for her. "Let me know when you are getting married. See you later." Natasha left after eating.

Phil and Clint took Abby down to HR to get the paperwork in for everything. Abby was fingerprinted, had her picture taken, had blood and DNA samples taken and a retinal scan done. She was a trooper through all of the procedures so she got a few stickers right there. They got her badge and went for ice cream before heading home. The trio watched TV for a while before going to bed. Clint gave her a bath and Phil tucked her into her new crib. They each gave her a kiss good night before going to bed.

Chapter 3: Arrangements and An Arsekicking

The first week was the hardest for Phil and Clint. They had to run to one store or another to get something that they forgot. Luckily, Abby was a fairly sound sleeper and rarely woke up to fuss in the middle of the night, which allowed Phil and Clint to be able to get a good night's sleep. One night, Phil woke up to find Clint gone from their bed. He got up and softly walked next door to Abby's room. They had decorated it with teal paint swirls and teal fabrics on the rocking chair and crib. A little mobile danced in circles above the crib with pictures of Clint, Phil, one of Natasha and one of Elizabeth. Clint was swaying from one foot to the other in a soothing motion with Abby in his arms. When Clint turned around, Phil saw that her little hands held on to the fabric of his shirt in a small clump. Phil came over and held his arms around Clint, holding him.

"Everything all right?"

"Couldn't sleep…" Clint replied quietly.

"Anything you want to talk about?" Phil moved so that they were facing each other with Abby in the middle of them.

"I had a flashback to my childhood…and I just got a little nervous and…" He sighed as he held onto Abby closely. "I think that the only person I love more than this little girl is you. I've never felt this way and I -" Phil reached out and held his cheek. "I don't want to mess this up or mess her up."

"You're going to be great because you are worried. If you thought that you were going to breeze through this easily, I'd be more worried. But we'll be great. Sure, it'll be hard at times, but we'll give her as normal of a life as our jobs allow. So long as she knows that we love her and are always here for her, then everything else will fall into place." Phil kissed Clint before kissing Abby's forehead. He gently took the sleeping infant and placed her back in her crib. "Come on, let's go back to bed."

"Thanks." Clint whispered as they walked back to their room kissing Phil again for good measure. "You always know the right words to say."

Phil, Clint, and Abby went into SHIELD the next day and had a quick meeting with Fury. Abby was wearing the new SHIELD jacket that Fury had sent for her. It looked just like Clint's plain black jacket with SHIELD emblems on the shoulders of the sleeves, except obviously smaller.

"Director, we'd like to get married in the next two weeks. When would work best for you?" Phil asked holding Abby on his hip. Fury looked up from his desk and shook his head.

"I got next Wednesday evening free. That work for you?"

"Sounds perfect." Clint said respectfully.

"Make sure to tell Hill and Romanoff. Glad to see the jacket fits." Fury added before dismissing them. On the way back to Phil's office, they saw Maria.

"Next Wednesday evening." Phil told her coolly as they passed in the hallway.

"I'll be there." She said equally aloof heading her own way.

They got to Phil's office and started their day. Abby began to play with her toys, including a small e-reader tablet that had games and learning activities for a baby to learn. Clint and Phil had taken turns reading the recordable e-books that were on the reader so that she always had one of them to be able to read to her, even if they couldn't actually do it at the time. Phil worked on paperwork and had a few meetings that were mostly phone calls. Clint went to the range before heading back up to Phil's office through the vents. He stopped around one of the office break rooms that some of the lower level agents usually hung around. The group of six guys were standing around getting their coffee mugs and gossiping like little girls.

"I think Coulson is obviously getting soft. He's got a kid and his boyfriend." The last sentence practically dripping in sarcasm.

"Yeah, no way he's still as tough as those other guys said he is."

"I mean, god, they're practically both way out in la-la land."

Clint could see each of them and took note of their faces and names. The one guy that had come in last looked somewhat uncomfortable, so Clint remembered that guy as well. He made his way out of the vent in the supply closet down the hall from Coulson's office before coming in and plopping down next to Abby on the couch. "So a bunch of junior agents seem to think you're weak and not nearly as cool as you used to be now that you're a family man." Phil looked up at him.

"Really, go on." Clint pulled up the files on the six guys that were gossiping about them and the one of the guy that looked uncomfortable. They were all due for more training in a few more areas. Areas that Phil and Clint both specialized in. Phil picked up the phone. "Director, I wanted to know if I might be able to put a group of junior agents through a few training exercises."

"Is it that group of six down on 3?"

"Yes, sir."

"Whatever you want to run them through is fine by me." Phil smiled. "I'll send them an email now to let them know that they have mandatory additional training to attend at-"

"Four am"

"Four am tomorrow morning in the training gym. All right, it's been sent. Have fun and drop Abby off with me in the morning when you get here. We'll enjoy watching the show."

"Will do, sir. Thanks!" Phil hung up the phone and smiled at Clint. "We're heading home now since we'll need to be back here around 2 am."

"Training exercises?"

"Yup, have Tasha come by to spar with you while they're going. I want to see their faces when you and Tasha really go at it and they're getting their asses handed to them by me."

"It'd be even better if Fury came on down with Abby to hand her off to you. We'll need to have her in the SHIELD jacket and looking like a little mini-me." They packed up the few things they needed to take home with them as Natasha dropped by briefly.

"Training at 4am?" She inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"You game?" Clint asked as he picked Abby up from the couch and held her on his hip. She nodded.

"Lunch?" Phil asked Natasha as he shut his computer down.

"Sure." The four of them left the office and ordered some Italian take-away at a nice restaurant that Clint knew that was between SHIELD and home. They took it to the apartment and sat around the living room eating and watching television. Natasha left after about an hour and Phil went to bed while Clint played with Abby until they were tired and went to bed in the late afternoon.

Phil woke up around 1 am and got ready. He dressed in his dark navy SHIELD uniform, brewed the pot of coffee, and woke Clint up. Clint dressed in the same navy uniform. They got Abby up and dressed in a similar SHIELD outfit with her SHIELD jacket on. She went back to sleep after they dressed her and put her in her car seat. They pulled into SHIELD at 2am. Clint dropped Abby off at Fury's office, still asleep and content in her stroller. There was a diaper bag with anything that could be needed and a lunch bag with some food for her when she woke up. Clint and Natasha helped to set up the training gym before the recruits got there. The two of them began sparring and continued until after all of the recruits had arrived. Phil stood up in front of the group.

"I'm Senior Agent Coulson. You are all here today to complete mandatory training. We will begin with some warm ups. One hundred push -ups, followed by 3 miles around the gym. That's 12 laps around the gym. Begin now." The group proceeded to do the initial warm-ups while Phil took notes. When they were done, Phil went to the front again. "We will now break into groups of pairs and spar the three winners of those will then get to take me on." The sparring still took a while. Fury looked out the window at the top of the gym with Abby on his hip. She saw Clint and her face lit up in a smile. Clint smiled up at her and gave her a smile and salute. Two of the groups were done, a winner declared and the third just finished. They took a short break to get a cup of water before Coulson and the three winners gathered in the middle of the mats. Clint and Natasha sat on the sidelines and smirked.

The second the fight began, one of the junior agents was incapacitated by Coulson, another flipped onto his side and the last holding his gut. The fight lasted another minute and a half. The three agents on the floor couldn't move and Coulson walked off the mat and said, "Dismissed" as he, Clint and Natasha gathered their things as Fury strolled in with Abby. Phil could barely contain himself when Abby gave Fury a salute and said "Thank sir" before walking over to Clint. Clint picked her up and they left with the junior agents still on the floor or just their jaws to the ground.

"Good dadas." Abby said smiling as she snuggled her head into Clint's shoulder. Everyone stopped in their tracks in the hallway and smiled over at Clint and Phil.

"You two are going to be impossible." Fury said leaving them on their way to Phil's office. They went up to Phil's office where Phil and Clint each took turns showering in the small bathroom with shower in Phil's office while the other played with Abby. Phil walked in to Clint playing with Abby.

"Dada. 'ead. Peas dada."

Clint and Phil sat down together and took turns reading a book to her. She smiled and giggled excitedly when Phil and Clint did funny voices. Phil and Clint finished their work for the day and then they went home and had a wonderful dinner before turning in for the evening. Clint and Phil got Abby ready for bed before singing a lullaby to her and turning the music a nightlight on. They each kissed Abby goodnight before going to bed in their room.

Chapter 4: The Wedding

On Saturday, Phil and Clint took Abby to a dress shop. To find a nice dress for her for their wedding. One of the consultants helped them find a few different dresses. Abby really loved the one poufy white organza dress and added a purple sash at the waist. They bought it and took it home. The next two days at work went by quickly. Natasha agreed to take Abby after the wedding and for the day after. Wednesday evening came with Clint and Phil in their tuxedos and Abby in her dress. They stood in front of Fury, one hand holding the other's hand and their other hand holding Abby's hands. Maria stood behind Phil and Natasha stood behind Clint.

They went through the vows and the statements that had to be made in a short and rather sweet ceremony. Phil and Clint exchanged their rings and kissed each other before bending down and each kissing one of Abby's cheeks. The whole group adjourns to one of their favorite restaurants and has dinner. After dinner is done, Phil and Clint leave for their hotel and Natasha takes Abby back to Phil and Clint's apartment. Abby and Natasha watch Disney's Mulan before going to sleep. They go back into SHIELD in the late morning on Thursday while Phil and Clint are both gone. Tasha drops Abby off with Fury for about an hour and a half while she's at the range.

"Well, Bee, guess it's you and me again." Fury says looking down at the little girl who is looking up at him expectantly. "I got a meeting with a few younger agents, so can you chill with a movie?" Abby nodded her head at him. He grabbed the diaper bag and Abby's hand and they walked down the corridor to the meeting room. He sat her down in a comfortable chair. "OK Bee, I need you to stay quiet. Shh." He said placing a finger to his lips.

"Shh." She whispered as he put a pair of noise-canceling headphones onto her ears. He turned on a Winnie the Pooh movie on the video player. He turned the chair so that he could see her, but no one else in the room would be able to. Abby sat quietly engrossed in the movie while Fury tore apart the junior agents that had messed up in a field assignment. After the agents were, dismissed Fury picked her up and took her back to his office where she continued to watch Winnie the Pooh for another thirty minutes while he had phone conversations. Abby came up to Fury and handed him Tacky the Penguin.

"Peas, 'ead."

"All right." He sat down next to her and proceeded to read the book to her.

When Tasha came back to take her to lunch, she smiled as she saw Fury finishing the story. "You are sworn to secrecy Romanoff." Fury said as she held one of Abby's hands while taking the diaper bag back.

"Yes sir." Abby and Tasha said at the same time.

Abby's wedding dress: At David's Bridal: Product_Organza-Dress-with-Ruffled-Skirt-and-Sash- at-Waist-H1281_Bridal-Party-Flower-Girls-All-Flowe r-Girl-Dresses

Chapter 5: A Visit to Medical Or Abby Gets Sick

The next few months go by just as quickly. Phil and Clint are assigned various missions, but never at the same time. Clint's are usually sniper missions and Phil's are usually to have a competent person in charge on the ground. Phil is sometimes gone for a day to a week and Clint's have been 3 days at maximum. One of the times Abby is alone with Clint, she sneezes and coughs.

"Hey, Bee, What's the matter?" He asks her grabbing a tissue to wipe her nose. He feels her forehead as he wipes the snot from her nose. "You feel OK? You're feeling warm."

"No, not feel good." She said sleepily.

"OK, let's take you to the doctor at work. Just to be safe." He packs up a diaper bag and drives her to SHIELD. He takes her into the Medical Bay. "I need a doctor to see her. I think she's sick." He says a mild panic rising in his voice.

"Sir, I'll need you to calm down." The nurse tells him.

"No, I need a doctor to see her now. I don't know what she has, but she feels warm and has been coughing and sneezing."

"I'll see who I can get for you, now please just wait a moment." Clint is anxiously waiting, shifting from one foot to the other while rocking back and forth with Abby, more to soothe himself than her. A female doctor in a white coat comes over to them.

"I'm Doctor Helena Fuller. I can see her if you come on back to one of the exam rooms." She said politely showing him to one of the exam rooms nearby.

"Clint Barton." He said as he followed her still holding tightly to Abby. He sat her down on the exam table still holding onto her.

"Her name?"

"Abigail Rebecca Cooper."

"Your relation to her?"

"Adoptive father. Phil Coulson is the other father. He was her uncle before that. It should be in her file."

"What are her symptoms?"

"Coughing, sneezing, mild fever."

"Anything else feel yucky, Abby?" Abby gestured to her tummy. "Right here in your tummy?" Dr. Fuller asked as she pointed to where Abby pointed.

"Yes."

"OK, open your mouth, stick out your tongue, and say 'ahh'." Helena showed her what she wanted Abby to do and Abby mimicked her.

"Ahh."

"Good." Helena ran a few more tests like that to check other areas.

"It looks like it may just be a cold. It should go away on its own in about a week, but you can treat the fever with a baby aspirin. I'll prescribe some for her. Only give it to her every six to eight hours or so while she has the fever. If she doesn't have a fever, there's not too much else that can be done. Keep her well rested, and give her plenty of liquids. Broth soups would be better than cream soups. Otherwise, I'd say fill the prescription and take her back home."

"All right. Thank you." Clint nodded taking note her directions as his phone went off. "Barton." He held up a finger as he listened. "Yes sir. She's fine, it's just a cold. OK, we'll see you on our way out. Thank you sir." He hung up the phone. "Looks like we've got a detour on the way home."

"OK. Home dada?"

"Home in a bit Bee." He picked her up and shook Dr. Fuller's hand. "Thank you for seeing her. Would it be possible for you to be the doctor she sees whenever something comes up?"

"You're welcome and I would imagine that so long as I don't have a transfer I would be able to. Here's her prescription. Remember every-"

"Six to eight hours."

"If she gets any worse or has any new symptoms, give me a call. My number is on this card." She handed Clint the prescription and a business card. "Take care!" Clint and Abby left Medical and headed up to Fury's office. "How's my Bee?"

"Bad, yessir."

"What Bee?"

"Wha' yessir?" Clint and Fury chuckled at the same moment, both of them putting a hand over their face.

"She thinks-"Fury managed to get out.

"Yes, that your name is-" Clint wheezed.

"Yessir." They both chuckled before becoming serious again.

"Bee. My name is Nick. You can call me Uncle Nick. You-" he pointed to her "Bee. Me-" he pointed to himself "Uncle Nick. Me-"

"Nick."

"OK. Feel better Bee." He tousled her hair and sent them on their way. "Barton, the only other people that are allowed to hear about this are Hill, Romanoff, and your better half. Take good care of her." Clint chuckled a bit still going out the door and gave Fury a vague salute as he left. He took her to the store and picked up all sorts of fun soups with a few kid-themed chicken noodle soups. When she wakes up crying, he rocks her in his arms and tells her that everything will be all right. After three days, all she has left are some sniffles.

In the middle of the week, Clint begins telling her stories of "Pirate Sam" and his fearsome and wondrous adventures. He models Pirate Sam loosely after Nick Fury and Abby loves the stories even if she can't completely understand them. This is mostly because Clint adds great arm gestures with silly and crazy voices and faces. The experience could be loosely described as theater so when Phil comes back in the middle of one of those stories, he can't help but laugh, plop down on the rocker in Abby's room with her and be amazed that Clint was able to handle it mostly on his own.

Chapter 6: Uncle Nick and Abby Part 1

Three weeks later, Fury met with Phil and Clint. They brought Abby with them and she sat with a coloring book and a pack of crayons.

"I'm sorry, there was no other way. I need you both in Moscow tonight." Phil and Clint looked at each other before looking at Abby. Coulson frowned; worry etching across his face while Clint ran his hand across his face pausing over his mouth. "I will watch her for you the entire time you are gone, but I need both of you."

"How long would we be gone?" Phil asked cautiously.

"Two days maximum."

"What's the assignment?"

"I need you to pick up Alexi Kozlov with Romanoff."

"Kozlov? What's the plan?" Clint asked as he went and sat with Abby, carding through her hair with his fingers while she continued to color. Fury went through the plan with them and they reluctantly agreed to do the mission. "We need to pack a bag for Abby." He noted as he turned to Abby. "Abby, daddy, and I have to go out of town for a day or two. Uncle Nick is going to watch you. Is that OK?" Abby looked up at Clint.

"Bee stay with Nick?"

"Yes, Bee is staying with Nick."

"Daddies have to go?"

"Yes, daddies have to go. We'll be back as soon as we can."

"OK."

"We need to go home to pack a bag."

"OK daddy. Up." Abby said making grabby hands at Clint to pick her up.

"We'll be back soon." Phil said as he and Clint took Abby and went to go pack a bag for her. They returned with the bag and brought the stroller and portable crib from Phil's office. "Her diapers are in the diaper bag, clothes in the suitcase. Day outfits are on the left, pajamas are on the right."

"Her books and a lot of her movies are on her e-reader. Coloring books, crayons, and markers are in the diaper bag as well. The car seat is in with the stroller if you need it." Phil and Clint picked Abby up.

"Bye Bee. We'll be back as soon as we can." Clint kissed her face a few times.

"We love you Abby. Be good for Uncle Nick." Phil also kissed her a few times on her cheek and forehead. They handed her off to Nick. "Take care of her." Phil and Clint waved good-bye to Abby and Nick before going to the air base and being dropped off in Moscow.

Nick looked at Abby when they left. "All right munchkin, let's do dinner. How does some Italian sound?"

" 'sagna?" Abby asked excitedly as Nick put her into the stroller, the diaper bag in the pouch on the bottom.

"Yeah, let's go see if Hill wants to join us." They walked over to Hill's office. "Hill, Italian tonight?"

"Sure, just a moment." She put a few things away quickly, locked her office, and went out to the hallway. "They took the mission?" She asked seeing Abby.

"Yes. We're going to go to that hole in the wall place." They walked silently while Abby giggled as she played with a toy in her stroller. They got to the car and put Abby in the back seat in her car seat giving her the e-reader to read a story or play a game. As Fury drove to the restaurant, Abby finally picked out a story that Phil had read on the e-reader, so the three of them listened to Phil Coulson's voice reading Tangled. They arrived at the restaurant and were seated. Their waiter came over and took their order.

"I'll have the seafood alfredo-, she'll have the-" Fury starts to order.

'sagna!" Abby said excitedly smiling and giggling.

"And I'll have the mushroom ravioli. We'll have breadsticks and salads for the three of us." Maria adds as the waiter finishes taking their order.

"I'll be back with the breadsticks and salads shortly." The waiter leaves and they begin to chat about Abby.

"So Abby, what's your favorite color?"

"Blue an' Pur-ple. You?"

"Red. Nick?"

"Black, obviously."

They went back and forth going through some of their favorite things. When asked what her favorite music was Abby replied "Daddy singing." They ate their food quietly and slowly with Nick helping Abby with her food when she was having trouble with it. When the entrees came out, he cut up the lasagna into very small bite-sized pieces, blew on it to cool it down, and then fed it to Abby in between taking bites of his own meal. They boxed up the leftovers and went back to base. He set up the portable crib and then put the TV in his office onto the Curious George movie as he worked on paperwork. Abby crawled over to him and fell asleep on his chest, the movie finishing up in the background. When he was ready, he got up slowly and set her down into the crib next to the couch in his office. He cleared the rest of the couch off and took a pillow and a few blankets out of the closet in an office cabinet. Fury dimmed the lights and went to sleep, the soft medley of music playing from an iPod near the crib.

Fury woke up early, showered in the bathroom adjacent to his office, and proceeded to work on more paperwork. When Abby woke up an hour later, he was ready for food. He dressed her in a new outfit and changed her diaper. They went to a local bakery-café and got breakfast. Fury had coffee and Abby had chocolate milk. They made a detour back to base stopping at a park to play on the playground and get some fresh air. Fury walked Abby around before allowing her to climb up the ladder and go down the slide a few times. They walked back to the car and went back to base. Abby worked quietly on the floor behind his desk on some workbooks, learning new concepts and listening to music while Fury had a few meetings in his office. They went to lunch in the cafeteria and brought it back to his office.

After lunch, they packed some things up, went to the helipad, and took a helicopter to Washington DC where he had a few meetings. Abby played with her e-reader and headphones while he had his meetings. They had dinner in DC at the Blackfinn Restaurant. Nick ordered the Hong Kong Style Chilean Sea Bass and Iron Skillet Mac-n-Cheese with lobster. He fed Abby between bites again, blowing on the food before giving it to her. She enjoyed the lobster and giggled as she was fed. Nick ate a little of the Mac-n-cheese that she couldn't finish.

They went back to the base where the helicopter was parked and took it back to New York. They went back to Nick's office and turned on Tangled. Nick sat with Abby and they watched the movie together. Abby hummed along as best as she could to the songs. When they got to the "I've got a dream" song, Abby turned to Nick.

"Uncle Nick, what's your dream?"

"I have a lot of dreams, Bee. One of them is to make the world a safer place for everyone, especially you."

"Good." They continued to watch quietly, Abby occasionally humming along. She fell asleep during "I see the light" on Nick's chest, her head on his shoulder. He pulled a blanket over them and let her sleep.

Chapter 7: Uncle Nick and Abby Part 2Homecoming

At 2:30am, Fury's phone rang. He got up slowly, careful not to wake Abby up and picked up the phone. "Fury."

"Coulson. We're en route back home with the delivery."

"All right. Your package is safe and we'll meet you at the hanger."

"Thank you, sir. Coulson out." Fury hung up the phone as Abby woke up bleary eyed.

"Shh. Go back to sleep Bee."

"Story."

"OK , Bee. One story." With that, Fury took the well-worn copy of Green Eggs and Ham and read it to Abby as she drifted back off to sleep. Abby continued to sleep as Fury carried her down to the interrogation area, her hands gripped tightly onto his shirt. "I need you to prep a room for Kozlov with the usuals."

"Yes, sir." The three intermediate agents replied quietly snapping to attention. He saluted back and took her back upstairs and got himself a cup of coffee. He got the call that the plane was coming in at 6:42am. He walked slowly down to the base's landing site, Abby still sleeping in his arms, a plush SHIELD blanket wrapped around her to keep her warm. At 6:50 am, the plane had landed and was putting the final landing tweaks before allowing disembarking from the plane, so at 6:56.57am, Phil was holding Abby in his arms, embracing her tightly to him in a hug. Clint walked down the ramp, his one arm in a sling from being shot during the mission. A group of agents swarmed the plane and helped Natasha unload the unconscious Kozlov back into the base. As Abby woke up a little, she stretched and hung onto Phil as she sleepily drifted off to sleep again murmuring "Pirate Sam no like green eggs an' ham in 'is boat." Phil, Clint, and Fury all looked at one-another before chuckling quietly to themselves.

They went up to the conference room where Clint and Phil debriefed the mission to Fury while Abby slept on. The debrief took 43 minutes at which point, the tables turned. "What did you two do while we were gone?" He asked nodding to Abby and Fury.

"She worked on some workbooks and books before we went to Italian with Hill the first day. We came back and she watched Curious George before falling asleep. We had breakfast at a small café and stopped at the park where we played on the playground for a while. We came back to base I had to take her to DC with me for a few meetings, so she rode in the helicopter down there."

"You took her in the chopper without asking?" Clint groaned.

"I had her strapped in with a car seat and headphones. She was fine. After the meetings, we went to dinner. She enjoyed the Mac-n-cheese with lobster before we returned to base, also on the helicopter. We watched Tangled and she fell asleep about halfway through the movie. She woke up briefly when we got your call, but fell back asleep after a story." Then I walked around base with her sleeping, getting things prepped for your return."

Phil glanced up at Fury. "Thanks for holding up your end."

"Not a problem, now take the rest of the day off, both of you."

"Yes, sir." Phil and Clint said at the same time. Phil carried the diaper bag and clothes bag down to the car as Clint dropped the portable crib and anything else that they didn't need on them back in Phil's office. Clint met them down at the car and they all drove home.

" Daddies home!" Abby exclaimed excitedly as she looked at Clint and Phil. "Daddy hurt?" she asked gesturing to Clint.

"I'll be all right Bee. I just need to take a nap, okay?"

"OK. Kiss better?"

"Sure. Right here." He pointed to the bandage on his arm. Abby kissed the bandage and gave it a very light pat.

"Better?"

"Lots. Daddy's going to take a nap now, okay?"

"Sleep tight." She whispered giving him a kiss on the cheek. Clint went to sleep and Phil chilled with Abby.

"That was very sweet Abby. I know daddy thought that was very nice of you."

"Play game?"

"Go ahead, pick a game and we'll play." She toddled over to where the games were in her room as Phil followed her. She sat down and looked at the games.

"Candy land." Phil grabbed the game and brought it over to the coffee table in the living room. They played a few rounds before calling it a 2-to-2 tie. Phil made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch with glasses of milk for both of them. They watched Tangled while they ate lunch. Once they

were done eating, Phil paused the movie.

"You want to help me wake daddy up?"

"Yeah dada." Abby smiled and giggled. Phil picked her up and they went over to the master bedroom, Abby still giggling. They sat down on the large bed next to Clint as he rolled over and pretended to be still sleeping. "Daddy, wake up." Abby giggled.

"Five more minutes…" Clint mumbled from the pillow before opening his eyes and tickling Abby with the good arm. She shrieked and laughed while smiling broadly.

"Daddy, stop." She said breathlessly and he ceased tickling her.

"Phil, let's go on vacation somewhere warm. We have time to use and I want to spend time with my two favorite people somewhere that isn't work. Abby, do you want to go to the beach?"

"Yeah daddy. Dada, please?" She gave Phil the best puppy-dog eyes she could manage and Clint tried to do it too. Phil looked between the two of them and shook his head.

"Fine, where do you want to go Clint?"

"I looked into some a while back and there was one in Mexico that looked really good for families with kids of all ages. We could go there. It's supposed to be really great."

"All right. Get the passports and start packing. I'll call Fury and let him know we'll be back in four days."

"Beautiful." Clint said as he took Abby to her room to pack while Phil fished his phone out of his pocket to make the call.

Chapter 8: Daycare and Abby's 2nd Birthday

Their trip to Mexico was incredibly fun for everyone. Clint and Phil had Abby go to the baby sitter for a about a hour or two each day over the three days they were there while they went to the duo massage time. They all went to the beach and played in the sand and water. Clint and Phil helped Abby build a sand castle on the beach. Abby enjoyed being held by Phil and Clint while the three of them were out in the ocean. They had gotten her a pair of water wings and kept her close when out in the water. They found a few seashells and took them back to their room. They went home after the third day and had a great time.

The three of them continued their routine with occasional weekend trips or plans in the city. Occasionally, Fury or Natasha would babysit for the night so Phil and Clint could go have date night.

One night, Clint brought up their routine with Phil. "I think we should get Abby into daycare at work so that she can start socializing with kids her own age."

"Yeah, I think that would probably be a good idea."

"I'll check into it tomorrow. Night Phil."

"Good night, Clint."

The next day Clint and Phil took Abby over to the day care center. They introduced her to Miss Helen, the head of the SHIELD daycare. She was an older woman with silver hair pulled back into a bun. Abby liked Miss Helen and some of the other kids were nice. They left Abby at the day care the first day and when they picked her up, she told them how she had a good time. So that became their new routine, head into SHIELD, drop Abby off at daycare, do whatever they needed to do that day and pick her up before heading home. She still saw Fury and Natasha, but it was less frequently now.

On Abby's second birthday, they celebrated it at daycare with cupcakes and later Phil and Clint had Fury, Maria, and Natasha over to celebrate. Fury got her a Tangled dish set that she liked. It had a placemat, plate, bowl, cup with straw, and silver ware set. Natasha got her Disney Princess Memory, Disney Pictionary, and Disney Candy land. Maria got her a few of the Disney movies that she didn't have. They had cake and ice cream before Abby needed to go to sleep. Everyone left around the same time. Abby sighed before heading to bed. "Thanks daddies. I had lots of fun."

"Glad to hear it baby girl." Clint said giving her a kiss on the forehead.

"Good night, Bee. We love you." Phil whispered kissing her forehead, too.

Chapter 9: Attack!

Abby continued to learn new things at daycare. There was another time when Phil and Clint were assigned to different missions at the same time, so Fury picked her up from day care at the end of the day.

"How was your day Bee?" He asked her as he held her hand while they walked back down the hall.

"Good Uncle Nick. We did puzzles and coloring and played with centers and ate lunch and had naptime and snack. Your day?"

"Good. Not too much else. What do you want for dinner?"

"Pizza with pepperoni and lotsa cheese."

"All right, we'll go to that place your dads told me about." Fury put Abby into her car seat and they drove to the family-owned pizza joint that Clint and Phil had been to with Abby. They got the original crust pepperoni and extra cheese. Nick told some jokes to Abby and she laughed and giggled, happy to be spending time with her favorite uncle. They walked back to the car when they were done eating and went back to Fury's office at base. Nick put Cars into the DVD player and they sat on the couch watching the movie.

Everything was going fine until the alarm was triggered. Abby looked up at Nick in a panic, her hands over her ears. "Nick?"

"Abigail, I need you to put these on, be as quiet as you can be and stay very close behind me." He said seriously putting a small Kevlar vest onto her small body and a helmet on her head.

"OK Nick." She said as her voice shook a little, trying to keep it together as best as a two and a half year old could. Fury took out a radio and a gun as Abby followed him out into the hall.

"Hill, what's going on?"

"Breach in level 3. Not sure what it looks like yet. I'll meet you in the east stairwell on three to assess."

"Abigail stay close." They walked down the hallway to the stairs and quickly made their way down to three where they met Maria. She arched her eyebrows when she saw Abby. "Couldn't leave her. Abigail, I need you to stay right here." He said as he had Abby stand in the reinforced corner of the stairwell. Some more SHIELD agents came to the scene with full battle gear on. Fury pulled a younger agent to the side.

"Name?"

"Jones, Hector Jones, sir"

"Jones, that little girl is your responsibility right now." He said pointing to Abby. "She must stay safe. If we need to fall back, you get her out and then contact me, Coulson or Barton for instructions. Got that?"

"Yes sir!" He affirmed as he went to stand in front of Abby. Abby stood as still as she could.

Fury and Hill opened the door slowly to assess the situation. There were about seven masked intruders coming down the hall. Fury and Hill quickly drew their guns and fired shots in to the attackers, knocking them all down. The SHIELD agents came in and disarmed the intruders as Fury came down the hall. Jones stayed with Abby, relaxing only slightly. Fury had the intruders brought down to the interrogation rooms. He came back over to Jones, Hill, and Abby.

"Jones, take Abigail up to the cafeteria and get her something to drink and eat. When you've done that, take her back to my office and try to let her sleep or put Tangled on the TV. I will personally relieve you when the time comes. You are to stay with her until that occurs, understood?"

"Yes, sir." He said saluting and then taking Abby's hand. Fury went off in the opposite direction as Hector and Abby went up to the cafeteria. He took her little helmet off and attached it to a strap on his back.

"Who are you?" Abby asked as they went over to the line.

"Hector Jones."

" Abby."

"What do you want to drink or eat Abby?"

"Hot cocoa an' chocolate graham crackers." She told Hector quietly.

"OK." They reached the front of the line. "I need a hot chocolate, a large coffee, and a lot of chocolate graham crackers." He picked up the drinks and food and took Abby over to one of the table. He put the purchases down on the table and then sat Abby down next to him.

"Make sure you blow on the cocoa before you drink it."

"Kay." She heaved a sigh before taking some of the graham crackers, dunking them in the hot cocoa, and eating them. Hector sipped at his coffee and ate one of the graham crackers.

"Good?" He asked Abby.

"Yes." She ate a few more graham crackers quietly. "Hector, were those bad guys?"

Hector paused, not knowing how to respond to the question. "Yes, but we'll always protect you and keep you safe. I think your parents and family will always do their best to do that."

"OK. That's what daddies say." They finished the crackers and their drinks, so they went up to Fury's office and put on Tangled. Abby fell asleep on Hector's side at the end of the movie. He pulled a blanket over her and dimmed the lights nearby. He hummed some of the songs from the movie as he checked his email on his tablet.

Four hours later, a disheveled and irate Clint Barton quietly stormed into Fury's office. He quickly took in that the person sitting with his sleeping daughter was not the person he should have found with her.

"Where's Fury?"

"I'm sorry sir, I don't know where his is or when he will be back. I am under strict orders not to leave."

"Give me the radio."

"I'm sorry-"

"I swear to god if you finish that sentence it will end badly for you. Now. Give. Me. The. Radio." Hector passed him the radio. "Fury, get your ass up here to your office so that this-"

"On my way Barton, don't have a cow."

"Fine."

"Hector, you better give him his kid unless you want to get shot in the knee with an arrow." Hector picked Abby up and gave her to Clint as Fury came into the room.

"Sorry about that Barton. We had a breach earlier. Hector Jones was just making sure that she was safe and looked after while I went to interrogate those muth-"

"Ah-ah." Clint huffed still looking pointedly ticked off and stopping Fury from cursing in front of his daughter.

"Bad men…"

"How long have you been holding out the mini Kevlar?"

"I've had to upgrade it like two sizes since she's grown." They heard a cough from Hector. "Oh." Fury paused. "Good job Jones, you're dismissed. Thanks." Hector got out of the room as fast as he could while still looking dignified.

"You'll have to ask Abby for her assessment, but I thought the kid did good. She seemed ok too. Though if we've scarred her, we got plenty of shrinks on payroll, someone's bound to have some child psychology under their belt."

"Ok. Well, I'm taking her home and I'm not coming back until Phil gets back. My debrief is as follows: I watched the guy for three hours before getting confirmation to kill. I shot him through the head and he's dead. End of report."

Chapter 10: Aftermath at Home or Abby is a Trooper

Clint took Abby home after the incident and had her sleep next to him in his and Phil's bed to keep her close. Phil got home from his assignment, toed off his shoes and immediately went to them. He hugged Abby between him and Clint.

"A breach?" Phil asked Clint quietly.

"Yeah. It was over fast and she wasn't in the hallway. Fury assigned a newer agent to keep her safe. That was who I found her with."

"Daddies…" Abby yawned as she turned over between them. "What wrong?" They hugged her tight to them.

"We were just worried about you." Clint told her kissing her forehead.

"With the bad guys?" She asked quietly.

"Yes. What happened Abby?" Phil asked her bordering between 'Agent Coulson' and Dad.

"The loud sounds went off and Uncle Nick put a vest on me an' a hat. He said to stay close and be quiet. Then Hector stood before me. There were lots of bangs and Nick told Hector to stay with me an' take me up to eat an' get a drink."

"Did you see anything?" Phil asked quietly.

"Just Hector an' Nick an' Maria an' lots of big guys next to Nick an' Maria. They had those things like you and daddy have that go boom."

"Are you all right?" Phil asked her.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Are you feeling scared or feeling hurt or anything?" Phil asked looking in her eyes.

"I was scared the other day, but Uncle Nick an' Hector keep me safe. And you an' daddy keep me safe, too. I can be scared, but I can be brave, like you an' daddy at the same time." She sighed. "I stay quiet, listen to what you tell me and keep down and small." Phil and Clint both felt their hearts breaking and growing at the same time. Their little two and a half year old baby girl knew how to handle herself in a crisis. They pulled her into a tight hug and all three sat together, Phil and Clint crying a little. "Daddies, why are you crying?"

"We're really proud of you." Clint said wiping his eyes a little.

"Yes, very proud." He wiped his own eyes. "You guys hungry?" Phil said as he looked over at Abby and Clint as they nodded. "Let's get some lunch and then we'll come back in here and sit together and watch The Princess and the Frog." Phil changed into sweats and a t-shirt before they went to the kitchen.

"Sounds good to me." Clint said as he lifted Abby into his arms as he stood up. They went into the kitchen and made popcorn and got some of the candy and took it all back to the master bedroom. They watched Princess and the Frog and ate their snacks. When the movie was over, they turned Planet Earth on and eventually they all fell asleep wrapped up together in the big bed.

The next morning they went in to work and dropped Abby off at daycare. Once Abby was taken care of, they went down to the range and worked on firing. They stayed at the range for about two hours. Once they were done, they went into Phil's office and worked on paperwork before picking Abby up from daycare.

Chapter 11: Vacation Interrupted

They worked over the next few months and occasionally one of them would have a mission. They finally took a vacation in Southern California and were relaxing on the beach when Phil got a phone call.

"Go for Coulson's phone." Clint said cheekily as he picked up the phone from the cup holder on Phil's beach chair. Phil looked up from where he and Abby were building a sandcastle.

"Very funny Barton, put your husband on." Fury deadpanned into the phone. Clint handed the phone over to Phil.

"It's your boss, boss." Phil smirked at Clint as Abby continued to work on the sandcastle next to them.

"Coulson."

"Stark's been found. He's on a plane back to Malibu. I realize that you're on vacation, but I need you to go meet him at Stark Industries. You're the closest in the area and I don't think anyone else can handle him. I need you to debrief him."

"This shouldn't take too long?"

"I should hope not, but there's no telling with Stark."

"Fine." He hung up the phone, sighed, and rubbed his hands on his eyes. "Sorry." He kissed Clint's cheek and forehead.

"The sooner you go, the sooner you can come back." Clint kissed him on the lips. Phil kissed Abby good-bye for the moment.

"I'll head on back to the hotel, change and hopefully meet you for dinner. I'll call you." He walked back to the hotel and changed into a suit and drove to the press conference. Phil walked over to Pepper Potts at the press conference at Stark Industries.

"Miss Potts?"

"Yes."

"Can I speak to you for a moment?"

"I'm not part of the press conference, but it's about to begin right now."

"I'm not a reporter. I'm Agent Phil Coulson, with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division."

"That's quite a mouthful."

"I know. We're working on it."

"You know, we've been approached already by the DOD, the FBI, the CIA…"

"We're a separate division with a more specific focus. We need to debrief Mr. Stark about the circumstances of his escape."

"I'll put something in the book, shall I?"

"Thank you." Phil said graciously as he left Pepper and then the press conference. He picked up his phone as he got back in the car. "I've supposedly got something on the books with Miss Potts. Can that be good enough for right now?"

"Try Stark himself tonight at the Fire Fighters Charity Ball, then we'll call it good for the moment and let you get back to your vacation."

"Fine, but I'm bringing Barton and tell Tasha to swing on by our room for Abby."

"Whatever. Just get something booked." Phil hung up on Fury and then dialed Clint.

"Yeah babe?"

"Get your suit on, we're going to a party tonight."

"OK. Got a sitter lined up?"

"Tasha will be there in an hour or so."

Phil got back to the hotel and met Clint and Abby. He got Abby squared away with her e-reader while Clint showered and got into his suit. Natasha knocked on the door just as Clint was finishing up. Phil let her in and Abby ran over and hugged Natasha's legs. "Auntie Tasha."

"Hey Bee. Ready to have fun while daddies are gone for tonight?"

"Yes." Clint came out of the bathroom and Phil went over to fix his tie. "Go on daddies. Go to your party and dinner." Abby said as Natasha picked her up, put a bag on her shoulder, and went back out the door with Abby in tow to go see a How to Train Your Dragon and have dinner. Clint slung an arm around Phil's shoulders.

"Well, let's go bag the billionaire and then eat. We're totally going to expense tonight to SHIELD."

"All right, let's go." They went out to the car and drove over to where the fundraiser was being held. They left the car with the valet and went in just acting like they belonged there. Phil and Clint checked out the food before scoping out where Tony Stark was. Phil found Stark at the bar and approached him while Clint continued to munch on the appetizers at a distance.

"Give me a Scotch... I'm starving." Tony said to the bartender as Phil approached him.

"Mr. Stark?"

"Yeah?"

"Agent Coulson."

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. The guy from the…"

"Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division."

"God, you need a new name for that."

"Yeah, I hear that a lot."

"Listen, I know this must be a trying time for you, but we need to debrief you. There's still a lot of unanswered questions, and time can be a factor with these things. Let's just put something on the books. How about the 24th at 7:00pm at Stark Industries?" Tony looked off distractedly at Pepper Potts.

"Tell you what. You got it. You're absolutely right. Well, I'm going to go to my assistant and we'll make it a date." Tony walked off to Pepper and Phil went off to the other side of the room to Clint.

"You want to dance somewhere quieter?" Clint asked Phil, smiling a little as he chewed on some type of appetizer.

"Somewhere Stark won't see." Phil responded as Clint took his arm, leading him to a deserted balcony up another floor. The music was fainter from their position, but could still be heard. They danced for about two songs before Phil spoke. "You know, I really wanted this vacation to be special. No interruptions or anything."

"Duty calls sometimes. Besides, Bee loves her Auntie Tasha and Uncle Nick when we both have something come up. Have you seen the way Fury holds her hand and just dotes on her?" They both chuckled at that. "She knows that sometimes we have emergencies at work and occasionally have to go save the world, but I think she's okay with it so long as we are able to get it done and then come back to her."

Phil paused and then kissed Clint. "Thanks. Let's blow this Popsicle stand and go eat some great food."

Clint chuckled. "Italian?"

"Sounds good." They walked out the back door hand-in-hand and walked over to the Italian restaurant that was nearby. They ate and laughed at dinner and had one of the best times out by themselves in a while. Natasha texted them that Abby enjoyed the movie and that Abby was going to spend the night at Natasha's. Phil and Clint picked up the car and went back to the hotel for a few rounds of making love.

They met Natasha the next morning at a café for breakfast. Abby ran over to them and hugged their legs. "Daddies!" She took their hands and led them over to where Natasha was sitting with Fury. "Auntie Tasha and I saw the dragon movie last night and it was lots of fun. Then we went back to her hotel and she painted my nails! See!" She held up her hands and stuck out a sandaled foot to show them her bright blue nails with white flowers painted on top.

"Very pretty, Bee." Clint said taking her hand and looking closely at Natasha's work.

"Yes, very nice." Phil agreed as he placed Abby between him and Clint on the booth across from Fury and Natasha. Their waitress came and took their orders. Just coffee and toast for Fury, Natasha had coffee with crepes while Phil and Clint each got an order of pancakes and bacon with their coffees while Abby got an order of little pancakes with scrambled eggs with chocolate milk.

"So Stark has an appointment with you in about two weeks?" Fury said as the waitress left after bringing Abby's chocolate milk and the coffee pot and leaving it on the table.

"The 24th at 7pm." Phil said stirring the one pack of sugar into his coffee.

"Keep an eye on him from a distance in the mean time." Fury arched the eyebrow above his eye. Clint chuckled to himself a moment before taking a long sip of his coffee. "I've got to get going, but I want you two to stay out here until after you appointment with Stark. Think of it as a working vacation. I've got you booked at a new hotel for the next two weeks on the ocean up in Santa Monica. I'm going to send Sitwell and a few other agents over at the end of this week. Until then you're still on vacation. Natasha has another assignment so she won't be able to back you up."

"Sounds good. See you later, sir." Clint and Phil said at the same time.

"Bye Uncle Nick." Abby said as she blew a kiss to Nick. He smiled and pretended to catch it. Abby moved over next to Natasha once Fury had left. Clint, Phil, Natasha, and Abby finished eating quietly before paying the bill and leaving. Natasha went off to go to her next assignment while Clint,

Phil and Abby went back to their hotel to pack up and move to the new hotel. They checked in to the suite at the new hotel. They put the bags down and checked out the balcony that overlooked the ocean. It had four chairs and a small table that was covered by an awning. The living area of the suite had a large desk, couch and television. The bedroom had a king sized bed and a foldaway bed. Abby went and climbed up on the foldaway bed.

"This must be my bed! It's very nice." She said admiring the fluffy blankets and soft linens. She climbed down from the bed and went over to the window to look outside at the ocean. "So pretty, daddies. Look at the birdies!" She exclaimed as she saw some birds swooping around outside.

"Bee, you okay with going to a museum? There's one that's not too far away." Phil asked her, holding Clint's hand.

"The Getty Villa?" Clint asked smiling at him.

"Yeah, get a little culture."

"Lots of pretties?" Abby inquired.

"Lots of pretties and lots of flowers."

"OK. Let's go." They drove the little ways over to the Getty Villa and walked around the museum. Phil and Clint pointed out different works of art as they saw them. They stopped at the café and grabbed some drinks before walking around the grounds in the gardens and peristyle. Abby stopped to smell the flowers and loved every minute that they spent there. "Are there other places like this here?" Abby asked them.

"There's another one like this one with different art and gardens around here." Clint answered.

"Can we go there tomorrow?" Phil and Clint looked at each other and nodded.

"Yeah, I don't see why not." Phil answered as they walked back to the car. They brought pizza and breadsticks back to the hotel with them and ate them on the balcony as the sun set over the ocean. Phil and Clint took turns reading to Abby before she nodded off to sleep. Phil and Clint went out on the balcony, leaving the door ajar with the screen. Phil opened the bottle of wine that they had bought and poured two glasses. They clinked their glasses and sipped slowly listening to the waves crashing onto the shore.

After the second and a half glass of wine, Clint broke the companionable silence. "What do you think will happen with Stark?" Clint ventured cautiously sipping on his wine.

"I'm not sure as he's rather unpredictable. I've heard whispers of a group being formed, but that's all that they've been. Just whispers."

"If anything goes south, I'll be your back up." He looked over at Phil seriously. "And by back up, in this case, I mean I'll have an earpiece in and a scope on your area, watching if anyone or anything needs to be taken down."

Phil chuckled a little at that. "That'll make it a little better." He yawned and stretched. "Let's go to bed." They left the empty wine glasses and empty bottle on the table as they locked the door behind them. They changed into their pajama pants and stayed shirtless, cuddling together in bed.

Abby woke up first in the morning and entertained went out to the living room sofa and read a book quietly to herself. Thirty minutes later, Clint came out of the bedroom area and checked that Abby was there. "Good morning daddy." She said quietly. "Can we get breakfast?" He walked over to her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"Yeah baby girl." He sat down with her on the sofa, holding the room service menu. "What do you want to eat? We can go through the menu and test your reading." They went through the menu and finally ordered a double fruit salad, a bagel with cream cheese, a bowl of oatmeal, some milk and two blueberry muffins. They had coffee in the room already. "Let's go wake dad up." They went into the bedroom a little noisily and Abby shook Phil a little.

"Dad, time to get up! Breakfast is coming and we gotta go to the museum!" Phil turned around and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Dads up. Dads up." Phil muttered sleepily. He got up and went to the bathroom, as there was a knock at the door. Clint went to answer the door, while Abby laid out making blanket angels in covers. The server laid the trays out on the table on the balcony and then left.

"Daddy! Is breakfast ready?" She asked running out to the living area.

"Yeah Bee." Phil joined them, scooped Abby up so she was perched on his knee and tucked in to breakfast. They finished breakfast, dressed and went to the other Getty Museum. They did the same thing that they did the previous day, walking around the museum first, looking at the pictures, and then exploring the grounds and fountains. They had lunch on the pier and then went back to swim in the hotel pool. Abby enjoyed spending time with Clint and Phil. They slept in the next day, enjoying the extra sleep before going on a day cruise around the coast. Phil got a call from Fury while they were on the cruise.

"Coulson."

"Sitwell and six other agents will be at the local SHIELD office tomorrow morning at 8am. I need you to brief them on the situation and start them on some minor surveillance of Stark. There's also a few other projects that I need you to review and then give me some feedback on."

"Sounds good, sir. I'll be there bright and early."

"Thanks, Coulson."

"Night, boss." They had fish for dinner before turning in for the night. Coulson woke up early and went in to the local SHIELD office. He spent the morning briefing Sitwell and the other experienced agents about the Stark case. Clint and Abby spent the morning walking around the downtown Santa Monica. They brought Phil lunch in the early afternoon after going through the two different security checkpoints. They ate in Phil's temporary office before being interrupted by Sitwell.

"Oh, sorry sir. I didn't realize you were occupied."

"What did you need, Sitwell?" Phil asked as Sitwell's eyes flicked over to Clint and Abby sitting with Phil and raised an eyebrow questioningly. "His clearance is high enough and she's been at base longer than some agents."

"There was an attack in Gulmira, Afghanistan by an unknown person or object just a few minutes ago. All branches and organizations don't have a clue what's going on."

"Thoughts?"

"I think it may be Stark, sir. The location is close to where he was being held while kidnapped and early thoughts are that it was an unmanned drone of some type. Reports are filtering in that say it was some type of advanced weapons system. It all screams Stark to me, sir." Phil thought about the information presented before speaking.

"Monitor it and let me know if anything else happens."

The next few days passed quickly until it was the day of Phil's appointment with Tony.

"I got a bad feeling babe." Clint told him as he was dressing for the day.

"Keep your com on. I'm hoping it will be cut and dry, but with Stark you never know." He kissed Clint and Abby good-bye.

"Just call me, I'll be listening. I have the rifle and scope nearby. Abby will be fine." Clint hugged him tightly. "Be safe."

"I'll have Sitwell and the other agents with me if need be." Phil left and briefed Sitwell and the other agents to be ready in cars at Stark Industries on a moment's notice. Phil sat in the lobby of Stark Industries waiting for Tony, but saw Pepper Potts walking down the stairs from where Tony's office was.

"Ms. Potts? We had an appointment. Did you forget about our appointment?" She continued walking rigidly toward him.

"Nope, right now. Come with me." He got up from his seat.

"Right now?"

"We're going to have it right now. Yeah, walk with me."

"Okay." He fell into step with her and noticed that she glanced worriedly back at Obadiah Stane. "I'm going to give you the meeting of your life. Your office." They went out to the parking lot, got into a car, and drove to SHIELD's office. After they had reviewed the flash drive Pepper had smuggled out of Stark Industries, they went back down to the garage. Phil pulled up his phone quickly and called Clint. "Looks like your feeling might have been right just monitor the situation with the scope and use your best judgment."

"Follow your signal, listen to your com and keep Abby safe?"

"Yes. I'll see you later."

She called Tony from SHIELD.

"Tony?" Silence. "Tony, are you there? Hello?" The phone hung up. "Something's wrong. I have to call Rhodey." She went down the contact list. "Rhodey, Stane paid to have Tony killed."

"What do you mean, he paid to have Tony killed? Pepper, slow down. Why would Obadiah…Okay, where's Tony now?"

"I don't know. He's not answering his phone." She walked with Phil and the agents back to the cars from SHIELD's building. "Please go over there and make sure everything's okay. Thank you, Rhodey." She hung up the phone. "I know a shortcut." She said as she got into the driver's seat of her car. Phil got into the passenger seat as the five agents got into three other cars. Sitwell and one of the other agents provided communication back up. They arrived at Stark Industries and got out. Pepper led them to Section 16. She tried her swipe card at the reader and it was denied each time she tried to swipe it.

"My key's not working. It's not opening the door." She said turning to Phil. He put his hand out and one of the other agents passed him a small explosive. He attached it to the lock of the door. "Oh, wow! What's that? It's, like, a little device? It's, like, a thing that's going to pick the lock?" He pushed in and the explosive began to blink.

"You might want to take a few steps back." Everyone turned with their backs to the explosion and Pepper covered her ears. The explosive went off and the door opened. Phil led the party down the stairs to the basement. Everyone had their weapons drawn and ready. They moved quietly through the dark corridors of the warehouse, looking around as they went. They paused in front of a large metal suit. "Looks like you were right. He was building a suit."

"I thought it'd be bigger." Pepper heard some chains rattling behind them and turned to look, seeing some power lines discharging a little. Phil jumped over a railing and went to investigate further down. Phil heard her shriek and start to run. The other agents began to fire at the gigantic metal suit that appeared behind her. The suit swatted the first agent away and then smashed a second, before going after Pepper. Phil and the two remaining agents made their way outside slowly and came into the lobby as Pepper was running out while the arc reactor exploded into the atmosphere. They made it outside in time for the larger explosion not to hurt them.

Phil called Sitwell to bring a team to get Stark and to contain the scene. They got Tony fixed up with a medical team on site and Clint came with Abby asleep in the car seat to feed and monitor Phil. Phil had to direct the scene and everything. Eventually it all calmed down, but Phil had to run interference to not get the real story out. He wrote up all of the various statements for people to read at the press conference. He determined that Rhodey should go first, while making some final changes to Stark. He came over to Tony as Pepper was finishing some make-up on his face.

"Here's your alibi." He said handing Tony some note cards.

"Okay." Tony said as he took them.

"You were on your yacht."

"Yeah." Tony responded as he looked through the note cards.

"We have port papers that put you in Avalon all night, and sworn statements from 50 of your guests."

"See, I was thinking maybe we should say it was just Pepper and me alone on the island."

"That's what happened."

"All right."

"Just read it, word for word." He glanced through the cards some more.

"There's nothing about Stane here."

"That's being handled. He's on vacation. Small aircraft have such a poor safety record."

"But what about the whole cover story that it's a bodyguard? He's my…I mean, is that…That's kind of flimsy, don't you think?"

"This isn't my first rodeo, Mr. Stark. Just stick to the official statement, and soon, this will all be behind you. You've got 90 seconds." Phil left Tony and Pepper as he made his way back to the main pressroom, before Pepper stopped him.

"Agent Coulson? I wanted to say thank you very much for all of your help." Pepper said smiling at him.

"That's what we do. You'll be hearing from us."

"From the Strategic Homeland…"

"Just call us SHIELD."

"Right." She said as he left.

Phil monitored the press conference from the back as Tony got up behind the podium and began his statement. "Been a while since I was in front of you. I figure I'll stick to the cards this time. There's been speculation that I was involved in the events that occurred on the freeway and the rooftop…"

A reporter interrupted him. "I'm sorry, Mr. Stark, but do you honestly expect us to believe that that was a bodyguard in a suit that conveniently appeared despite the fact that you…"

"I know that it's confusing. It is one thing to question the official story, and another thing entirely to make wild accusation or insinuate that I'm a superhero."

"I never said you were a superhero."

"Didn't? Well, good, because that would be outlandish and fantastic." Phil put his hand over his face and pressed at the bridge of his nose. "I'm just not the hero type. Clearly. With this laundry list of character defects, all the mistakes I've made, largely public."

Rhodey nudged him. "Just stick to the cards, man."

"Yeah, okay. Yeah. The truth is-" he paused and looked up at the crowd before continuing. "I am Iron Man." And with that, the room exploded in noise and chaos. Phil walked out of the room and dialed Fury.

"I know, sir. I tried, but you know what he's like."

"Fine, I'll have to go have words with him personally. Get your family, pack them up and get back to the office here. It's been going to hell without you here."

"Right away, sir." Phil hung up his phone and walked out to his car back to the hotel to pack up and get back to New York.

Chapter 12: Interlude and Abby's 3rd Birthday

"Abby, where's your bag for Uncle Nick's" Clint asked trying to find the bag in the living room.

"Here, daddy!" She said dragging the bag by the handle on the floor to him. "I wanted to add my favorite pillow. Uncle Nick's aren't too good."

"All right," Clint said lifting the bag onto his shoulder. "Let's go." She held Clint's hand as they went back to SHIELD's headquarters. There was a few hours when Clint's departure and Phil's arrival had not overlapped, so Abby was stuck with Nick for a few hours in Phil's office. Nick reviewed Stark's proposal for the SHIELD Helicarrier. While watching Cars, Abby wandered over and sat next to Nick.

"What you looking at?"

"Plans for a new base." He said putting an arm around her.

"What's wrong with this one?" She said leaning up next to him.

"We'll still keep this one, but the new one will be easier to travel in."

"Will my daddies have offices in the new one?"

"Yes, with plenty of room for you, too." He hugged her to his side. Phil came breezing in a minute later.

"Done." He pulled Abby up into a hug and kissed her cheek. "How are you, Bee?"

"Good, a little tired." She threw her arms around his neck and settled her head on his shoulder.

"You can sleep if you want to." He told her as he settled himself in his office chair and turned on the computer.

"'Kay." She yawned and sleepily closed her eyes. Fury stood up and went to the door.

"Glad to see you back quickly. See you later."

"Thanks." Phil said quietly as he worked on filling out his report quickly. Once it was submitted, he turned the computer off, locked the office door, slowly went over to the couch and laid down, Abby still clinging to his chest. He put one of the fluffy blankets that he hid under the couch over both of them and fell asleep.

Three months later and it was Abby's third birthday. There was a friends at day care party that Phil and Miss Helen oversaw. They had cupcakes and the little ice cream cups while all of the little kids sang "Happy Birthday" to Abby. After work, Natasha and Nick came over for dinner, ice cream cake and presents. Maria had to manage a crisis that came up in Rio. They had Clint's homemade Mac-n-cheese with Phil's slow-cooked ribs. Everyone enjoyed the food and after dinner, they opened presents. Nick brought Maria's gift of a gift certificate for more books for Abby's e-reader. Fury's gift was a Stitch plush stuffed animal and a Nemo and a Squirt plush stuffed animal set. Natasha gave her a certificate that was for a day out with just the two of them: shopping, spa, and a Broadway show. She hugged everyone to her and they took a picture of the five of them together.

Clint gave Abby a mini-NERF bow and arrow set. She started playing with it and Clint helped her begin aiming it a little. They brought it one day to SHIELD and Abby brought it out as she was hiding around Phil's office. Phil came back for a meeting with a few junior agents and as the meeting progressed, Abby shot at each of the junior agents with her little NERF darts. She nailed the first three in the head and the last one on his ID badge on his chest. Phil noticed them as they hit the agents in succession. It took all of his training to keep a serious face and once they left, he waited a few moments before he chuckled.

"Abby? Did you do that?" She slowly came out from the vent by the file cabinet, Clint following her after.

"Yes, Dad. Did I do good?" She said eagerly and smiling. Phil smiled down at her.

"Hey, I helped." Clint said hugging Abby to them.

"Very good, Clint. Now our daughter will be able to hit all of the agents with whatever she wants." They laughed. "Now, Abby, you can only do that when we tell you that it is all right."

"Okay daddies." She kissed them on their cheeks and laughed.

Chapter 13: California or Abby Hates Tony Stark

It was around 9pm and Abby sat stubbornly on the floor of the apartment, her head lolling tiredly behind her on the couch. "Do we hafta go to California again?" She pouted at them. "We just went there daddies. Can't we go somewhere else?"

"I'm sorry Bee, but there's no other way. Nick has an assignment, Tasha has one too, there's no one else to watch you here." Phil told her as he packed for everyone.

"Maria" Abby countered.

"On assignment." Phil explained.

"Hector?"

"On assignment too."

"Sitwell?"

"On assignment too."

"I hate Tony Stark." Abby huffed as she begrudgingly accepted the fact that no matter how hard she begged, she was stuck going to California.

"Agreed, babe." Phil told her as he kissed her cheek.

"Thirded." Clint said coming into the living room, a bag packed with bows and a few other weapons for the trip. He stopped and kissed Abby's other cheek. "We'll let you pick the next two vacation spots, how's that?" She thought for a moment.

"Australia and Europe."

"I think we can manage that at some point." Phil went down to the car to put the bags in the trunk before coming back up. "Ready?" They nodded as Clint carried Abby down to the car and strapped her in. They drove to the SHIELD airbase and had help from the other agents to load from the car. Abby had a small pouch with her e-reader and headphones that she held on to. Clint strapped her car seat into her seat in the small plane and then strapped her into it. Clint sat next to Abby while Phil sat up front by Fury, going over a few more plans. A few minutes later, Hector Jones ended up sitting on the other side of the aisle.

"Hi Hector!" Abby said tiredly.

"Hey Abby!" He said as the plane started up.

"So you're coming too?" She yawned again.

"Yes, ma'am. Why don't you get some shut-eye? We'll have plenty of time to talk later."

"Ok. Night." Abby nodded off to sleep as the plane started up.

"Nice job, Jones." Clint smiled at him.

"Just trying to look out for her, sir." He told him still a bit rigidly.

"Glad to see that."

The plane ride took a few hours and at the end, Abby was still sleeping. Clint carried her off the plane and Hector took the liberty of carrying the car seat down. Clint, Abby, Hector and another SHIELD agent got into a SHIELD SUV with another SHIELD agent behind the wheel. Hector held Abby while Clint strapped the car seat in before buckling her into it. She continued to sleep as they drove to the SHIELD office of Los Angeles. Phil drove separately with Fury to get the situation ironed out. Clint and Hector took Abby up to one of the offices and found a couch for her to sleep on. Clint's phone rang quietly.

"Barton."

"Barton, I need you to come scope out the roof near-by. Is Jones still there?"

"Yes, sir."

"Tell him I need him to stay with Abby while you're away. Phil's busy prepping Stark's home in his absence."

"Yes, sir." He set the phone to the side. "Jones"

"Yes, sir." Hector responded.

"Director says that you need to monitor and stay with Abby while I go scope out the scene. That good?"

"Yes, sir." Clint put the phone back up.

"Yes, sir, he's fine with it. Location?"

"Randy's Doughnuts."

"Be there soon, sir." And with that, Clint hung up his phone and grabbed the weapons bag from the pile that had been placed in the office. "Thank you Hector Jones." He clapped Hector on the shoulder. Abby continued to sleep for another hour before she woke up. Hector picked her up and they walked down to the street to a small café and got breakfast. They ate there and then went back to the office. He played go fish with her with the deck of cards in his pocket. He helped her along and they didn't really keep score so they said they tied. Forty minutes later, Clint came back still in his vest.

"How's my girl?" He asked her as she ran over to him, hugging his leg.

"Great. Hector an' me had breakfast and played go fish an' had fun." She smiled up at Clint. Hector stood up and went over to him.

"Thanks Hector." He shook his hand. "Director Fury wants you to head over to the Stark place and help with his house arrest surveillance. We'll drop you off on our way to the hotel."

"Yes, sir."

"Was she any trouble?"

"No, sir."

"Look when it's just me, Abby and you, you don't have to call me sir, just Barton could suffice."

"All right Barton."

"That's better." He gathered the bags with Hector and went down to the car. Abby was buckled in to her car seat and Hector and Clint sat up front. They dropped Hector off at the SHIELD perimeter and stopped to talk to Phil.

"Ok, we'll see you at the hotel later?"

"Yeah. I'll let you know when I'm on my way. If it gets late, go ahead and eat without me." Phil said as he went to meet Hector as Clint and Abby went to the hotel to go swim in the pool.

"Jones, I heard you watched Abby again. Thank you." Phil said as he walked over to Hector before clapping him on the shoulder.

"Not a problem, sir. She's a very nice kid." He smiled at Phil while walking beside him up the hill to the house.

"Not too much trouble?"

"Not at all, sir. It's been an honor to be able to be trusted to take care of her, even if it's just a little while."

"You have family, Jones?"

"Father, step-mother and three younger half-sisters. I had to watch them when they were little. Gave me some childcare training."

"You must be pretty good at it for Abby to ask for you." Phil raised his eyebrow.

"Really?" Hector's said surprisingly.

"She didn't want to have to come, so she listed off people that might be able to watch her. You were her second alternative."

"Well, if there's ever a time that you need me, I wouldn't mind being assigned Abby-duty." They had reached the house.

"I'll keep that in mind. I need you to monitor this side of the house with Agents Ford and Grant. Report anything unusual."

"Yes, sir." Phil walked inside the house directing a few agents to bring in the crates they had brought with them as Tony and Fury were talking.

"Well, clearly you know my dad better than I did."

"As a matter of fact, I did. He was one of the founding members of SHIELD."

"What?" Tony asked surprised.

"I got a 2:00." Fury got up looking at his watch.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait."

"What's this?"

"Okay, you're good, right?"

"No, I'm not good." Tony said confusedly.

"You got this? Right? Right?"

"Got what? I don't even know what I'm supposed to get." Tony was still confused.

"Natasha will remain a floater at Stark with her cover intact and you remember Agent Coulson, right?"

"Yeah."

"And Tony, remember, I got my eye on you." Fury gave Tony a nice, long hard stare with his one eye before retreating.

"We've disabled all communications. No contact with the outside world. Good luck." Natasha stated professionally before leaving herself.

"Please. First thing, I need a little bodywork. I'll put in a little time at the lab. If we could send one of your goon squad down to The Coffee Bean, Cross Creek, for a Starbucks run, or something like that, that'd be nice." Tony said to Phil as he walked slowly towards him.

"I'm not here for that. I've been authorized by Director Fury to use any means necessary to keep you on premises. If you attempt to leave or play any games, I will tase you and watch Supernanny while you drool into the carpet. Okay?"

"Yeah, I think I got it, yeah."

"Enjoy your evening's entertainment." Phil said as he walked off to do a perimeter check. He had agents set up the film screen for Tony in his garage lab and then the projector. Before he left for dinner, he stopped by the garage. "Remember that we're watching." Tony gave him a mock salute before turning back to going through more of the Howard's box. Phil went to Agent Adams on his way out. "I'm going to grab dinner briefly, update Director Fury and rest for a few hours. You're in charge until I return. Monitor everything and let me know of anything unusual occurs." Phil drove over to the restaurant that Abby and Clint had picked. They had a quick dinner together as a family before heading back to the hotel where they slept. Phil woke up a few hours later, showered, changed and wrote a quick note to Clint and Abby telling them he'd call later before heading out. He reported over the phone to Fury.

"He seemed set when I saw him six hours ago."

"I have a situation developing in New Mexico. Aim for Albuquerque. I need you and Barton down there. Abby will have to go too. Let me know what you find."

"All right. We'll drive."

"That's fine. I'll send you more information once I know. Bye Coulson."

"Good-bye sir." He hung the phone up and went to brief Agent Adams on the situation. "Director Fury needs me elsewhere, so you are now officially in command of the situation here. Keep the phones and communications down."

"Yes, sir. He broke the perimeter, earlier, but he's back." Adams responded as Phil rolled his eyes. Phil went down to Stark's lab and had it scan his fingerprints before going in.

"I heard you broke the perimeter." He said walking in and examining the scene unfolding around him.

"Yeah. That was, like, three years ago. Where have you been?"

"I was doing some stuff."

"Yeah, well, me, too, and it worked." Phil examined one of the crates that was open on the floor. "Hey, I'm playing for the home team, Coulson, you and all your Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Now, are you gonna let me work or break my balls?" Phil hoisted up a Captain America Shield prototype.

"What's this doing here?" He asked holding it up.

"That's it." He looked at it a moment. "Bring that to me."

"You know what this is?" Phil asked skeptically.

"It's exactly what I need to make this work." Phil handed it over to Tony. "Lift the coil. Go, go. Put your knees into it. There you go. And drop it, drop it." He placed the level on the tubing. "Perfectly level. I'm busy. What do you want?"

"Nothing. Goodbye. I've been reassigned. Director Fury wants me in New Mexico."

"Fantastic. Land of Enchantment."

"So I'm told."

"Secret stuff?"

"Something like that."

"Good luck."

"Bye."

"Thanks."

"We need you."

"Yeah, more than you know."

"Not that much." Phil replied as he turned around and left the building. He found Hector on his way out.

"Sir." Hector stood at attention.

"Just wanted to let you know I was leaving and to thank you once again for your help yesterday." Phil smiled a little at him. "Take care and I may have a few projects for you once we're both back at base." He reached his hand out to shake Hector's hand.

"Thank you, sir." Hector replied as he shook Phil hand. "Safe travels." Phil called Clint on his way to his car.

"We need to be on our way to New Mexico. I'll be by the hotel shortly for us to check out and be on our way."

"Fury's call?"

"Yeah. See you in about ten minutes."

"Okay, see you then."

Phil pulled into the hotel parking lot nine minutes later and was up in the room another minute later. Clint and Abby had packed the bags up and Phil did a last minute sweep of the room to make sure nothing had been forgotten. They were checked out and in the car five minutes later. Clint drove the first five hours, stopping periodically for bathroom breaks for Abby. They fully stopped before they were out of California for dinner at a small diner. Abby entertained herself by watching some movies on her e-reader, before falling asleep in her car seat. Clint and Phil had swapped drivers so Clint had put on an "Abby's sleeping in the car" play mix, so that he and Phil could listen to whatever they wanted. Clint put the passenger seat down and went to sleep for the next five hours.

About three hours into Phil's turn, he stopped at a small gas station in the middle of nowhere. He started the pump to fill the gas tank and then went in to grab some snacks. He bent down and looked at the donuts, debating between the chocolate and powder ones. He heard a guy yell at the cashier "Hands up! Don't move! Who else is here? Who owns that car outside?" Phil stood up.

"I do. But it's really more of a lease."

"Toss the keys over."

"OK. OK." Phil said trying to calm the robbers down. He reached into his pocket, took the keys out, and tossed them to one of the robbers.

"Empty the cash register. And start filling this bag with cigarettes." One said as he slung a bag on the counter.

"Excuse me. I also have this gun." He said calmly. "You'll probably want that."

"Put it down right now!" The robbers said aiming their guns at Phil.

"OK I don't want any trouble."

"Toss the piece over here, man." One of them said.

"I prefer not to throw it and risk the gun accidently going off. Do you want me to slide it over?"

"Slide it over to my foot and no funny business."

"OK I'm just going to move over to this aisle. And I'll slide it over to you." Phil stated calmly as he walked slowly over to the next aisle and paused. He dropped down, slid the gun down the floor to the first robber, took over of the bags of flour, and threw it at the other guy's face. As flour-face was stunned, he ran, leapt up a little to kick the gun from robber one causing him to shoot his own foot. He took the shotgun that robber one had, smacked flour-face in the face to stun him and then cracked it over the first robber's head also knocking him out. The clerk looked stunned as he crouched down and placed both guns on the counter.

"Sorry for the mess." He said as he put the two donut packs on the counter. "I couldn't decide." He placed some money on the counter. "Keep the change." He grabbed his donuts and went to leave.

"Wait! What should I tell the police?" The clerk asked him wide-eyed.

"Tell them those tae-bo tapes really paid off." Phil said before leaving the store. He placed the pump back, opened the car and sat down. Clint and Abby were both still sleeping in the car. He started the car back up, turning the big band music back on before pulling out of the station, smiling to himself. He continued to drive for a few more hours before Clint and Abby woke up. They stopped at another diner for breakfast at five am, eating slowly. Phil left briefly to check the message from Fury telling them to head near Puente Antiguo on the other side of Albuquerque.

"Where are we going Daddy?" Abby asked finally while Phil was away.

"I think Albuquerque, New Mexico, Bee." Clint told her between mouthfuls of pancakes.

"What's in Albuquerque?" She asked before taking a sip of her chocolate milk.

"Dad has a quick assignment, but you and me can go and look for arrowheads. Does that sound fun?"

"Like a treasure hunt?" Abby asked excitedly.

"Exactly, just like a treasure hunt."

"Cool." She smiled broadly, as she finished her sausage and pancakes. Phil returned to the table. "Daddy and I are going on a treasure hunt to find arrowheads later once we get to wherever we're going."

"Sounds good." Phil said finishing his coffee.

"Updated directions?" Clint asked casually.

"Yeah off the 285."

"I can drive the next few hours."

"OK."

"Can we all listen to Tangled? I like it when Daddy sings along as Flynn and the bandits." She asked excitedly, knowing they had a while in the car still.

"Sure Bee." Clint told her smiling. "We can listen to whatever you want to while Dad sleeps for a little while."

"Yeah!" She hugged Clint's neck and kissed his cheek. "Thank you Daddy." They paid their bill before stopping in the restroom. Abby held Phil and Clint's hands as they went back to the car. Phil slept in the passenger seat as Clint drove while singing along with Abby to Tangled and other Disney movie soundtracks. Once they got closer to their destination, Phil took over driving while Phil navigated. They pulled onto a bluff overlooking a valley. Phil got out and looked over at the crater with all of the pick-up trucks and people milling about. He took out his phone and called Fury. "Sir, we found it."

Chapter 14: Abby in New Mexico

Once they got closer to their destination, Phil took over driving while Phil navigated. They pulled onto a bluff overlooking a valley. Phil got out and looked over at the crater with all of the pick-up trucks and people milling about. He took out his phone and called Fury. "Sir, we found it."

"All right, the full Roswell team plus containment is already on their way and should be there ASAP. Stay there. We'll come to you."

"Affirmative. We'll be here." He went back into the car and sat in the driver's seat.

"We in the right place?" Clint asked, an unsure look crossing his face.

"Yeah. The Roswell and Containment units should be here soon. They'll call when approaching." Phil said quietly as Abby was reading a story on her e-reader. Clint nodded in understanding as Phil's phone rang. "Coulson."

"Sitwell here, we're nearing the site and we have a large motorcade behind me with supplies to set up the base and perimeter."

"There are a large number of civilians around the site. We'll break it up with the satellite excuse."

"Sounds like a plan. We should be arriving in about 30 minutes."

"Good. We'll be here."

"We? You and Barton?"

"Abby too."

"She have to go to California too?"

"Wasn't too pleased about it."

"Ouch. We'll make sure to have a safe room for her."

"Thanks. See you soon."

"Sitwell out sir." They each hung up their phones.

"Sitwell and everyone should be here in 30 minutes."

"Sounds good." They waited patiently in the car until 26 minutes later; Phil's phone chirped that it had received a message. He flipped the phone open and saw that Sitwell was arriving now. He threw the car into drive and drove down to the crater site as the motorcade came in. Phil took to a loudspeaker. "Attention ladies and gentlemen. This is a satellite crash site. We must ask you to please exit the premises and go back to your homes as quickly and orderly as possible. Thank you." He finished as the civilians packed up their belongings quickly and got the heck out of there. Once all of the civilians were gone, he and Sitwell began directing the rest of the SHIELD agents with erecting the base and perimeter around the hammer. Once the fence went up, a private trailer with a few small beds went up and was designated Phil's. Clint and Abby crashed briefly on one of the beds to catch some shut-eye.

While Clint and Abby napped, the SHIELD agents and contractors worked quickly to further assemble the base and investigate the hammer-like object that was embedded in the dirt. Phil and a group of SHIELD agents went into Puente Antiguo to confiscate Jane Foster's research. It was too dangerous for the moment. They arrived to the lab with no one there. Phil directed each group of agents to tackle different areas and load everything into the vans and SUVs.

As they were finishing their removal of Doctor Foster's research, Jane, Darcy and Eric arrived back at the lab.

"Hey! That's my stuff!" They ran back in to the building. "What the hell is going on here?"

"Ms. Foster, I'm Agent Coulson with SHIELD."

"Is that supposed to mean something to me?" She shouted at him. "You can't do this!" Eric had caught up to her.

"Jane!" He stood beside her. "Jane, this is a lot more serious than you realize. Let it go." He whispered to her.

"Let it go? This is my life."

"We're investigating a security threat. We need to appropriate your records and all your atmospheric data." He was walking back to the truck with its trunk still open

"By 'appropriate', do you mean steal?" Jane said still trying to fend off the SHIELD agents. Phil reached into his jacket.

"Here, this should more than compensate you for your trouble." He said handing her a check.

"I can't just buy replacements at Radio Shack, I made most of this equipment myself!"

"Then I'm sure you can do it again."

"And I'm sure I can sue you for violating my constitutional rights!" Jane yelled at him.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Foster, but we're the good guys." He told her seriously.

"So are we! I'm on the verge of understanding something extraordinary. And everything I know about this phenomenon is either in this lab or in this book." Jane tried explaining as Phil nodded to one of the agents to take the book. "And you can't just take this away…Hey!" She cried as the agent placed the book in the trunk of the car before being handled out of the way by the agent and then Eric.

"Jane! Easy! Easy, Jane…" Eric said protectively as the agents closed the trunk of the van.

"Thank you for your cooperation." Phil said as he left with all of the black vans and cars, full of Jane's research. They made it back to base with everything. "I need a few of our scientists to look over her research." He told one of the junior agents before turning to Sitwell. "Any changes?"

"No, this thing is still throwing off interference like crazy."

"All right, I'm going to check on Barton and Abby and eat some dinner briefly with them. Let me know if anything happens."

"Yes, sir." Sitwell stated quickly as Phil went to the trailer where Clint and Abby were. Abby was playing cards with Clint.

"Dad!" She cried out and ran over to him, hugging him tightly. "I'm hungry, can we eat dinner?"

Phil smiled at her and brought the MRE box over. "We can have Southwestern-style Chicken with Black Beans and Rice or Hearty Beef Stew."

"Chicken." She said happily.

"How about the cornbread to go with it?" Clint asked as he walked over and looked through the box. They opened a few bottles of water and Abby added a tropical punch kool-aid to hers. Phil and Clint drank water and heated up the three packs of Southwestern Chicken and cornbread over the flameless heater. They arranged them on disposable plate and presented Abby with hers before sitting down on the floor with theirs.

"Now Abby, we need to go over a few things, okay." Phil told her after they had each eaten a few bites of their meal. "First, this is an active base. You cannot go anywhere without Daddy or me, understood."

"Nowhere without you or Daddy. Got it." She said seriously.

"Second, if the alarm goes off, Dad or I will tell you what to do. Do what we tell you without hesitation or question. We may need to leave you by yourself. If that happens, hide and we'll come get you when it's done." Clint told her as he put his earpiece in and adjusted it so that it was comfortable. It was on, but muted.

"Listen to daddies if alarm sounds and obey directions. Hide if I have to stay by myself and wait for you to come back. Got it."

"Third, we may need to put you in your uniform if the alert level goes up, is that ok?"

"Yeah. Anything else?"

"Do you need anything else to entertain you or anything else? There's going to be one more supply truck coming in later."

"Some Oreos and maybe animal coloring books with crayons."

"All right. I'll put that out shortly. This taste ok?"

"Yeah, daddies. Delicious." She smiled up at them. They finished eating and ate the chocolate chip cookies from the MRE box for dessert. Phil stood up and placed the disposable plates in a trash container. Clint made an extra MRE for Phil to take to Sitwell. Phil kissed Abby good-bye for now before Clint stood to talk quietly at the door.

"What channel are we on?" Clint asked pulling out the radio transponder.

"1138." Phil told him as Clint adjusted the channel.

"Call me if you need me. I'll get Abby under the bottom bunk with instructions to hide there until one of us comes to get her." Phil smiled and kissed him.

"Sounds like a plan. See you in a while." Clint kissed Phil's cheek before Phil opened the door, taking the MRE and went back to the main structure.

"How was dinner, boss?" Sitwell asked as Phil handed him the MRE.

"Good, made you one so you wouldn't starve."

"Aww, thanks boss." Sitwell said tucking into the warm pouch. He finished it quickly before disposing of the bag in a receptacle. Phil called the Roswell office.

"Agent Myers, This is Agent Coulson on site near Puente Antiguo."

"What can I help you with Agent Coulson?"

"On that last supply truck, I need three cases of Oreos and a few boxes of colored pencils and 10 different coloring books, make them mostly animal ones, any Disney ones and pick out a few others."

"All right, we'll be sure to have those on the truck. Anything else you need?"

"No, that was it. Thank you and good night." Phil hung up the phone as Sitwell looked at him. "All Abby asked for was some Oreos and coloring books with crayons. Figured everyone else might enjoy having some too."

"You're subjecting her to MREs for the time being so I can appreciate that. Actually we'll all probably appreciate those." Sitwell told him as thunder began rumbling in the distance. "Shit, that's just what we need." The computer screens frazzled a little as a bolt of lightning went down at some point nearby. Sitwell looked at his cell screen as it also frazzled out.

"Sir, feed from the keyhole can barely penetrate the cloud cover. Tech's barely working as it is, with all the interference that thing's giving off." The technician said as he looked at another screen. "And we've got a commercial aircraft coming right over us. Southwest Airlines, flight 5434."

"Divert it like all the others." Sitwell told him looking at the security monitors for the base. "Hold a sec. We've got something outside the fence, west side." Sitwell held up a radio. "Delancey, Jackson. West side perimeter. Go check it out." He waited for them to get over there and report. "Delancey, Jackson. Report." He waited another moment before another guard radioed in.

"Agent down. We've got a perimeter breach." Sitwell hit the alarms, which began blaring around the base. Agents began running around attempting to find the breach. One of them reported that the intruder had entered the south tunnel. A few seconds later, another report of the target sighted in the east tunnel filtered in through to Clint. Clint and Abby heard the alarms go off before looking at each other.

"Abigail, I need you to stay quiet and hide under that bunk. Don't come out until Dad or I come to get you."

"I need eyes up high, with a gun." Phil ordered into the radio as Clint kissed Abby's forehead before he pushed Abby below the bunk and used the blanket to obscure the view that anyone was under there. Clint paused in the other room of the trailer where all of his gear was and went for the rifle before grabbing the crossbow. He ran out into the rain to the crane bucket and brought the bucket up high as another report on the comms said the intruder was heading north. Clint followed the movement through the plastic tunnels before he heard Phil speak.

"What have we got?"

"There's a massive electromagnetic surge coming off that thing. Systems are barely coping."

"Barton? Talk to me."

"You want me to slow him down, sir?" He drew the bow to the ready. "Or are you sending in more guys for him to beat up?"

"I'll let you know." Phil responded as he walked down the corridor. Clint adjusted the crane to better aim at where the intruder was fighting with a large, beefy guard.

"Better call it, Coulson, 'cause I'm starting to root for this guy." Clint told him as he watched whoever this guy was go straight for the object in the middle of the tunnels. The intruder paused at the object. "Last chance, sir."

Phil looked down from his vantage point two levels up before making a call.

"Wait. I want to see this." Everyone watched as the guy reached down to grip the object and attempt to pull it up to no avail. He tried a few times before stumbling backward and looking upward before giving a mighty scream of frustration. He dropped to his knees and bowed his head, appearing defeated. Phil finally lifted the radio up. "All right, show's over. Ground units, move in."

Clint brought the bow down and continued to look around. The intruder was handcuffed and led up the stairs to an interrogation room. Clint brought the crane down and went back to the trailer. "Abby? You can come out now." Abby scooted out from under the bed as Clint dripped a little on the floor from himself and the bow.

"Everything ok, Daddy?" She asked quietly.

"Yeah. I need you to play by yourself here while I go find out what happened."

"Ok."

"I'm going to lock the door behind me. Don't open it for anyone."

"I won't Daddy."

"That's my girl." He left the trailer and locked the door behind him. He kept his bow with him as he went up to the main area. "What happened?" He asked Sitwell as Phil was getting ready to go into interrogation.

"Not sure yet. Guy looks like a merc, though."

"Yeah, acted a bit like one too." Clint agreed as he went to watch the feed from interrogation. Phil entered the room and began talking.

"You made my men, some of the most highly trained professionals in the world, look like a bunch of minimum-wage mall cops. That's hurtful. In my experience, it takes someone who's received similar training to do what you did to them. Why don't you tell me where you received your training? Pakistan? Chechnya? Afghanistan?" He paused waiting for any type of response. "No you strike me more of the soldier of fortune type. Where was it? South Africa? Certain groups pay very well for a good mercenary like you. Who are you?" He paused and the intruder looked up at him and stared. "One way or another, we find out what we need to know. We're good at that." Phil's phone chirped as he reached into his pocket and looked at it. "Don't go anywhere." He exited the room.

Clint went over to Phil. "Abby's fine. She's in the trailer playing. She stayed under the bed like we told her to."

"Thanks." Phil turned to the techs in the command center. "I want his picture run through every single database we have access to and the few we're not supposed to. I want to know who that guy sitting in my interrogation room is. The sooner we find out the better." He turned to Clint as he checked his phone message. "Aw, shit." He swore as he flipped the phone around to Clint.

"I thought it smelled a little fishy that Hammertech had such prime ideas going into the expo." He sighed and relaxed just a moment. "Well, let me know if anything else happens. I'll keep my comm in. I'll try to get Abby to sleep some."

"Sounds good." Phil walked to the stairs with Clint before whispering softly to Clint. "I'll come by later. I love you."

"I love you too." Clint whispered back before heading back over to the trailer and putting his bow away. He unlocked the door and went in.

"Hey Daddy. Is Dad ok?" She asked looking up from her e-reader.

"Yeah." He looked down at the still wet clothes he had on. "Bee, can you grab those fatigues over there for me?" She got up and grabbed the fatigue shirt and pants, an undershirt and pair of underwear.

"You're all wet Daddy. Here." She handed him the pile of clothes. Clint went over to the small bathroom at the front and changed his clothes. He emerged, leaving the fatigue shirt open.

"Thanks Bee. You tired?" He asked as he went to sit over next to her. She yawned as she went to hug him.

"Yeah." Clint sat with his back against the pillow on the wall. He lifted Abby so that she curled against his chest and then wrapped his arms around her.

"Phil, she's asleep."

"Thanks." Phil said quietly before heading back into the room as he heard the guy say "good-bye."

"Good-bye? I just got back." He continued to spend the next half-hour trying to get some type of response from the guy before Sitwell came in.

"Sir? He's got a visitor." Phil left the intruder in interrogation while he went to meet the visitor. Phil stood atop the steps leading into the main command center and looked down at the visitor who had introduced himself as Dr. Eric Selvig.

"His name is Donald Blake?"

"Dr. Donald Blake."

"You have dangerous coworkers, Dr. Selvig."

"He was distraught when he found out that you'd taken all our research. That was years of his life, gone!" Phil, Sitwell and a few of the techs were combing through looking to see if anything Selvig was saying was true. "You can understand how a man could go off like that. A big, faceless organization like yours coming in with their jackbooted thugs and… that's how he put it."

"That still doesn't explain how he managed to tear through our security."

"Steroids! He's a bit of a fitness nut." Selvig said loudly. Sitwell and the main tech looked over at Phil with questioning looks on their faces.

"Sir?" Sitwell asked as the tech's monitor had a security alert flashing on the driver's license. It had a falsified data banner that flashed. Phil glanced over at it for a moment before turning back to Selvig.

"It says here that he's an MD."

"Well, he is! Or he was. He, ugh, switched careers and became a physicist. A brilliant physicist. He's a wonderful man. He's a man in pain." Phil decided to let him come in to see what 'Donald Blake' did.

"Oh, Donny, Donny, Donny!" Eric said as he came in. 'Don' looked up. "There you are. You're gonna be all right. I'm taking you home now." They walked quietly out together before Phil called out to them.

"Dr. Selvig! Just keep him away from the bars."

"I will!" As they left, Phil glanced at their retreating backs.

"Follow them." A few agents slowly followed them out of the base and radioed out to the few agents in town to keep an eye on them as well. Sitwell approached him so that it was just the two of them.

"Why don't you go check on your family? I can hold the fort down for a little while. Make sure Abby is ok."

"Thanks. I'll be back." Sitwell clapped Phil on the shoulder as he walked away to go to their trailer, before turning around and making sure that the techs were working on following up on 'Donald' and Dr. Selvig. Phil walked up to the trailer and knocked softly before coming into the dimmed room. Clint had left a nightlight on as Abby slept with her head still on his chest. She stirred a little as Phil came in before blearily opening her eyes.

"Dad?"

"Yeah, Bee. Are you ok?" He moved the few hairs that had moved out of place as he looked deeply into her eyes.

"Yeah, you ok?" She asked moving over and making grabby hands to be held by Phil.

"Yeah." Phil said as he hugged her to him.

"Can you walk me outside?" She asked yawning a little. "Stale air." Phil chuckled a little as he stood up with Abby holding tight to his neck. Phil, Clint and Abby went outside in the fresh air as Abby took a deep breath. "Walk and tell me a story." Abby settled against him as Phil began walking along the less muddy sections of the base speaking softly the story of Beauty and the Beast.

Sitwell watched from the command center as Phil walked with Abby in his arms Clint beside him as a story was slowly spun. He watched as he saw a little tension ease away from both men as they wandered around at night with their little daughter, hoping to ease any of her discomfort. She was soon asleep before Sitwell walked out to meet them. "Go sleep for a little. It's been a long day for you. I'll come get you personally if anything occurs." Sitwell told them as he gave Coulson a small smile.

"I'll get you in a few hours and then you can go too." Coulson told him as he turned back to head back the trailer.

"Whatever you say, sir." Sitwell told him before heading back to the command center. Phil and Clint put two of the bunks together and cuddled together with Abby still asleep on Phil's chest. Clint sighed.

"You know we can't keep bringing her on assignments, right?" He asked as he felt Phil shift minutely next to him.

"Yeah. But we're never going to be able to find anyone with clearance levels high enough that would want to be a nanny for a couple of guys who work in a top secret government agency."

"You'll never know if we never ask and never even try." Clint countered.

"Fine, we'll try after this assignment." They settled the matter for now and fell asleep. They slept for about five hours before Abby woke back up. She slowly got up as Clint dragged his hand across his face.

"Where you goin', Bee?"

"I need to pee, Daddy." Clint swung his legs over the side and took her hand as they walked over to the bathroom. Clint waited outside while she went, slowly waking up.

"Thanks, Daddy. I'm hungry. Can we eat?" They went back to the bedroom and Phil was up and almost done dressing. They changed Abby into her mini-SHIELD fatigues and cap. Phil pulled the sunglasses out while Clint rubbed in some sunscreen on her face and arms.

"Ok, we'll go eat at the office now, so I can get caught up with anything that has happened." They walked over to the mess and grabbed coffee and bagels with cream cheese for Clint and Phil, orange juice, a bagel with cream cheese and some cheerios for Abby. They brought their breakfast back to the main command center and plunked Abby down on a chair with an empty desk. A few of the techs that weren't used to working with Coulson looked at the little girl with a SHIELD uniform and then to each other, one snickered a little. Phil was being briefed by one of the techs that he had worked with before as Sitwell heard the snicker first.

"You. Quentin. Up. Now." He had Quentin go down the hall and began chewing him out for ten minutes. A few things were heard occasionally from the room, including: "Mandatory sensitivity training", "possible reassignment", and a very loud "Get your shit together" before Sitwell came back out, followed a few moments later by Quentin who looked unsettled. No one else said anything or even glanced at each other. Sitwell grabbed a bag from a pile and set it down on Abby's desk. She opened the bag and saw the coloring books and colored pencils with sharpener. Abby dug further into the bag and found a small bag with four Oreos in it. She grinned as she looked over at Sitwell, who smiled and winked at her before becoming serious again.

Abby worked on coloring at her desk while Phil, Clint and Sitwell worked with the technicians. She began in the Tangled one before moving on the animal ones. She colored some pages for Sitwell of an alligator and a lion, careful to stay in the lines. While she was coloring, one of the computers went haywire showing another touchdown. Phil went over to the tech.

"What the hell was that?"

"I don't know, sir. We got massive energy readings out of nowhere and then they just disappeared. Fifteen miles due northwest." The tech said as he followed Phil

"Let's go take a look." Phil said as he walked down the steps to his car with the tech and Sitwell following behind. Abby and Clint just looked at each other and arched their eyebrows without even having to say anything. Clint chuckled because some how she had managed to copy his eyebrow movements, which made him, laugh. Phil drove off with a group of other cars full of agents. They listened to the radio transmissions that were going in the room as Clint joined Abby to color some of the Finding Nemo coloring pages. He heard another agent report out to Team 2 that was shadowing Jane, Eric, Darcy and 'Donald'.

"Base to Team 2, we've got activity outside the town stay on your target." Clint and Abby kept coloring.

"Base, we've got Xena, Jackie Chan and Robin Hood." Clint cracked up laughing at that one. While they were coloring, Phil had finally arrived at the landing site. He bent down to look at the marks.

"Get somebody from Linguistics down here." He ordered as the weather began to change frightfully all at once into dark and stormy clouds as a funnel cloud began to emerge from the sky. Phil and the other agents went back to the cars and looked around trying to figure out what was happening when something crashed down and a shockwave of sand flew out in a circle. Everyone had ducked behind the cars in time and they slowly emerged from behind them.

"Is that one of Stark's?" Sitwell asked cautiously as they looked at the large metal suit that had landed at the site. Phil sighed a moment.

"I don't know. The guy never tells me anything." Sitwell passed Phil the bullhorn as Phil took it. Phil walked closer to the metal suit before raising the bullhorn to his mouth as the suit came closer to them. "Hello. You are using unregistered weapons technology. Identify yourself." The suit stopped and the faceplate area began to slide down. "Here we go." He said to Sitwell as he thought Tony Stark would pop through the faceplate, only to be surprised when a fiery blaze began crackling form the suit up to the face. Phil turned and screamed "Incoming!" before running and ducking to try to avoid being killed. The Destroyer fired upon the cars and managed to cause some more damage before stalking away from the site to its main target of the town. Phil, Sitwell and 2 other agents dove into Phil's car before taking off towards town, following the Destroyer. The injured and remaining agents reported to base.

Clint stopped coloring and began to monitor the feeds, so when the object began pulsing and throwing off radiation to shouts from some of the scientists says, "We're spiking." And "Levels increase!" had him worried. He glanced over to Abby as there was a cracking noise coming from the center of the base. The computers were going haywire, so he grabbed Abby and ran away from the center towards the trailer as the item gave off a high frequency pitch before one last crack freed it from the ground. It flew up into the sky amidst the rumble of thunder, headed towards the town.

A huge thunder and lightning cloud swarmed the town with flashes of light and the blue crackle of thunder and lightning visible from the base. Suddenly another dark cloud patch went roaring through the town briefly, before the dust and object settled.

"Excuse me!" Phil yelled as he got out of the car and ran up to 'Donald' who was now clad in silver, grey and black armor with a large red cape swaying in the breeze. "Donald? I don't think you've been completely honest with me." Phi l accused as he stood in front of Thor

"Know this, Son of Coul. You and I, we fight for the same cause, the protection of this world. From this day forward, you can count me as your ally if you return the items you have taken from Jane." Thor said as he moved to stand next to Jane.

"Stolen." Jane charged, still angry at the loss of her work.

"Borrowed." Phil counter-suggested. "Of course, you can have your equipment back. You're gonna need it to continue your research." Phil told her as she smiled at Phil a little more at ease.

Thor turned to Jane, "Would you like to see the bridge we spoke of?"

Jane looked back and forth between Thor and Coulson before saying "Sure."

Phil realized he was losing control of the situation and shouted "Wait, I need to debrief you!" as Thor took to the sky with Jane at his side. Phil and the other agents went back to base to ready the paperwork they would need for Jane, Darcy and Eric about the situation. Phil debriefed Darcy, Sitwell debriefed Jane and Agent Leigh debriefed Eric. After the debriefings were concluded, Phil had all of three of them sat together in the same room. "Dr. Foster, I would like to assign you both a protection detail to make sure your site is secure and a science team to help with the scientific aspects of your case."

"Fine, but I would like to have Darcy stay with me."

"We will leave that up to her." Phil said magnanimously.

"Agreed." Phil said. The rest of that day was spent having agents assist in moving all of Jane's equipment back in. Clint stopped by with Abby at one point and they went in search of Phil. They were stopped by Darcy.

"Excuse me? What are you doing here?" She asked to Clint's back. He turned around and Abby smiled at Darcy.

"I'm looking for Agent Coulson."

"He's around back. I'll walk you to him." They walked out to the back where Phil was directing a few agents with placing a few other things and installing new fixtures to make the building, more secure. "Hey, G-Man!" Phil turned around and spotted Clint and Abby with Darcy. "You have visitors."

"Thank you Miss Lewis. I'll take them from here." Clint and Abby met him halfway across the yard before Clint set Abby down to stand on her feet. She looked up at Phil and then watched Darcy from between Phil's legs. Clint leaned in close to Phil to whisper in his ear.

"What does that girl do?" Abby wandered off to Darcy, intrigued by this young woman.

"She's currently Dr. Foster's assistant."

"Think Bee'd be interested in having her as her n-a-n-n-y?"

"We'd have to ask both of them, but I don't see why not."

Abby found Darcy and watched her for a moment. "What are you doing?"

"I'm Darcy." She held out her hand to shake Abby's. Abby took her hand and shook it.

"I'm Abby."

"Well, right now I'm figuring out what I need to get at the store for Eric, Jane and I."

"Do you need Oreos? I have lots of Oreos. Would you like some?" She said taking some of the cookies out of her bag.

"Sure. You want to share? I've got some milk. Here." Darcy poured two glasses of milk and sat down at the table with Abby. Darcy twisted the cookie so that it split in two with the cream on one side and then dipped the cookie into the milk before eating them. Abby smiled and watched what Darcy did before doing the same. And that was how Phil and Clint found Abby, smiling and eating Oreos with Darcy. Phil went to Abby and whispered in her ear.

"Would you like to maybe have Darcy be your full-time sitter?" Abby nodded and smiled. Phil picked Abby up and set her in his lap as he sat down. "Miss Lewis, I have a proposal for you."

"I'm listening G-man."

"We, Clint and I, have been looking for someone to be able to look after Abby, especially if we both have an assignment at the same time…"

"So, G-Man, are you basically asking me to be your nanny, cause I'd have to think about that."

"Yes, Miss Lewis that would be what we would be asking. We could wait until after you have finished setting Dr. Foster's lab back up and have briefed the new scientists on everything you can think of. We can negotiate a contract and benefits if you would like to proceed forward."

"Would my internship finish my college coursework and get me my degree?"

"I think that something can be arranged."

"Can I have a few hours to think about it?"

"Certainly. We will be in town until later, so we'll stop by at that point."

Darcy considered the offer and finally decided that it might be a good move for her. She would have to see what the contract could have with it before fully deciding. Phil, Abby and Clint stopped by on their way back to the car.

"I want to know what benefits, salary, living arrangements and everything that would be expected of me."

"Benefits: full health, dental, prescription coverage, paid time off, credit card, travel and a fairly high up SHIELD clearance level already because of your experience these past few days, but working for us would be a level up. Living arrangements are negotiable. You could be a live-in nanny and we'll have to find a new place in all likelihood anyway or you could live nearby. Salary to start $100,000. Our expectations would be to generally take care of anything relating to Abby. Some days that may be just planning an outing to the park or museum, other days you'll have to be her only person if both of us are needed somewhere." Phil told her professionally as he wrote them down on the legal pad.

"There may be little notice some of those days." Clint added.

"We can also have your Masters in Political Science awarded to you and your student loans forgiven immediately." Darcy paused and thought for a moment.

"Abby, would you listen to me?"

"Yes Darcy."

"All right, where do I sign up?" Abby hugged Darcy and smiled.

"We're going to have lots of fun!"

Chapter 15: Darcy Moves In

Darcy took about a week to get the new scientists and interns all situated with Jane. She explained a few things to them including the fact that as brilliant as Jane was, she would forget to eat and sleep sometimes when she was working hard on a problem. She went over with them what Jane's favorite pop tarts were (Brown sugar cinnamon and wild berry) and how she liked her coffee (black with four sugars). Darcy packed up her small amount of things before Phil came to pick her up, go to the airport, and take her back to New York.

"So, boss-man, Clint said you had some good leads on new apartments?"

"Yes. I have a few options, but there was one that I really liked. We're all going to check it out tomorrow around 11am."

"Sounds good. Where am I staying tonight?"

"Well, we have a daybed in the office that you could use for the time being. Anything you don't need right away we can store. Oh." He pulled a package out of his inside pocket. "This is for you."

"Can I open it?" She asked giving it a small shake.

"Go ahead." She tore into the paper and opened her brand new iPhone with 120GB. She smiled at him.

"Thanks! When you say you'll be on it, you're on it."

"It has one of the highest signals and has been slightly modified to be able to send out a distress signal, which we can establish later."

"Cool." They got to the airport and loaded the luggage into the plane before taking off back to New York. Abby and Clint met them at the airport. Darcy hugged Abby and they both smiled together. Clint and Phil loaded the bags into the trunk of the SUV and they went back to the current apartment. Darcy put her bag on the floor of the office that had been cleared of most of the clutter.

"Shower and bathroom is down here." Clint told her as he gave her the brief tour of the apartment. "We're doing breakfast out tomorrow, so all you should need here is coffee. We have the coffee maker already set. We're leaving around 9, so get up whenever will enable you to be ready by that time."

"Ok. What are the plans for tomorrow?" Darcy asked them.

"We're having breakfast and then touring my top three apartment choices. We'll see them back to back to back and then evaluate them to see what we all thought of them." Phil added coming out of Abby's room where he had just put her to bed.

"Good night and thank you Darcy." Clint wished her as he and Phil retreated to their room.

"Good night Darcy." Phil told her.

"Night guys, see you in the morning." Darcy said as she closed the door. She unpacked some of her things from the bag before going to the bathroom to finish getting ready for bed. At eight, she woke up, took a shower, and dressed before joining Phil, Clint, and Abby in the kitchen for a cup of coffee.

"So boss-men, where's breakfast?" Darcy asked sipping her coffee.

"A little café near where the first house is. We are using aliases with the realtor for safety issues. I'm Colin Peters. Clint is Brad Clark. Abby is now Ally and you are Kelly Donnelly." The adults finished their coffee and finished getting ready to go before heading down to the SUV. They ate breakfast before meeting the realtor at her office.

"Colin Peters."

"Pamela Delaney. Who else do we have here?"

"Brad Clark, my husband. Ally, our daughter and Kelly Donnelly, our nanny."

"Nice to meet all of you. Did you want to go to the first property now?"

"Sure. We have room in our car. I can drive and you can navigate." They went out to the SUV, Abby, Clint, and Darcy sitting in the middle while Pam sat in the passenger seat and Phil drove. The first property was out in Midtown East along the East River. They parked outside the building and Pamela opened the lockbox and got the key out. They walked in to the foyer, stopped in the hallway, and began following Pam around the house.

"This property is vacant, so it would be easy to move in to. Here's a half-bath and a walk-in coat closet. Up those few stairs and past the door is the main hallway of the house. If you keep going straight, there's the living room. There's doors out to the terrace where you can put some patio furniture. Another door leads out to it from the den. The hallway leading to the den also has a door that leads to the building lobby which has a full time doorman, attended elevators, a parking garage, swimming pool, basketball court, squash court and fitness center. On the other side of the stairway is the formal dining room. Next to that is the kitchen and breakfast nook. There's another bedroom with a full bathroom in the corner and a pantry area by the kitchen. Between the pantry and bedroom is a staircase upstairs and a closet. Let's go up the main staircase to the second floor."

"Here is the master suite there are two walk-in closets, one is adjacent to the bedroom, and the other is off the dressing room. There are two smaller closets in the dressing room. There is a large double master bath. Going back out into the main staircase and out the other side are the rest of the bedrooms. The first one is a large one that has a shared attached full bathroom with another bedroom. There's the fourth bedroom with no attached bathroom, but there is a full bath next to the bedroom. The laundry room is in the corner of the floor. That's pretty much the tour. Any questions?"

"Not at the moment." Phil told her while they looked around a little more. They visited the two other properties and then dropped Pam back at her office. "We'll be in touch later, Pam."

"I look forward to your call, Mr. Peters."

The four of them went home and evaluated the apartments. "So, what did we think of the first one?" Phil asked Abby and Darcy.

"Loved it!" Abby and Darcy both shouted at the same time.

"Second?" Clint asked.

"Too many floors with no elevator." Darcy said.

"The bedrooms were super tiny, not cool." Abby said.

"Third?" Phil asked.

"Too complicated and not laid out well." Clint said.

"Was there anything we didn't like about the first one?"

"Not really…." Darcy said as she thought about it for a moment.

"Darcy an' I can share a bathroom!" Abby said excitedly.

"Ok, Clint and I need to talk for a little while about that."

"Abby and I could go shopping for a little bit. There's a pretty great store selection within like four blocks of here."

"Sounds good. We'll see you back in about an hour or two?"

"Sure. Come on Bee, let's go. We can take your stroller." Darcy said heading to the door with the stroller as Abby ran to meet her.

"See you soon, daddies!" Abby smiled and waved as Darcy set her into the stroller and they went shopping.

"So, I liked the first one enough to want to get it." Clint told Phil.

"So did I. I can see us being at home there." Phil said getting up to go sit on the couch.

"And that second walk-in closet in our room, the one by the door, we could totally use that as an armory…" Clint added as he sat next to him.

"You must have read my mind. I knew there was a reason I married you." Phil leaned over and kissed Clint before picking up the phone and calling Pamela. "Pamela, Colin Peters. We'd like to make an offer on the first house."

Darcy and Abby arrived back at the apartment with a few purchases as Phil's phone rang. "Pamela, did they take the offer?" Everyone paused and was silent for a moment.

"Yes, we just need to sign the paperwork and then it'll be yours." Pamela told Phil.

"Can we sign the paperwork tomorrow morning?"

"I think that could be doable. If we get the paperwork done tomorrow morning, I think you could get the keys tomorrow afternoon."

"Sounds good. Brad and I will meet you at your office tomorrow morning at 10."

"I'll see you then." Phil hung the phone up.

"We'll have a new home tomorrow afternoon and can move in after we get the keys." Everyone cheered. They spent the rest of the afternoon and evening going furniture shopping for Darcy's room and new furniture for other rooms in the house. They picked out a new sofa set for the den and a dining room set.

The next day, Darcy and Abby went shopping for a new comforter set and other room pieces for both of their rooms while Clint and Phil signed the papers for the house and got the keys. They spent the next day packing up the current apartment and moving everything over to the new place. Clint accepted the new furniture delivery and had them assemble the pieces where they belonged. A team of professional movers came in to move their furniture into the new place the next day. By the end of the week, they had moved in and were almost done settling in. Darcy went into SHIELD with Phil, Clint, and Abby the next day. She was fingerprinted, photographed, and given her an identification card.

While that was happening, Fury stopped by Phil's office.

"You got a minute?" He asked Phil.

"Yes." Fury came in to the office, closed the door, and sat next to Clint.

"With Abby now off-base most of the time with Miss Lewis, I had wondered if you had thought about having a bodyguard for them."

"We hadn't really thought that far ahead to be honest. Your thoughts?" Phil told Fury.

"I think that since Abby is already familiar with Hector Jones, he might be a suitable candidate. If he and Miss Lewis get along, it could be a good match. We could contract him out to you, so that he's still a member of SHIELD. Might be easier if he took one of your spare bedrooms too." Fury suggested. Phil and Clint looked at each other, nodding in agreement.

"I think that might work. We'll have to have Darcy and Hector meet first and run it by her before any offer is made." Phil said.

"She should be on her way back up soon. We can run it by her then." Clint added. Darcy came up to Phil's office a moment later and knocked on the door. Fury opened the door and ushered her in. Phil pulled up Hector's file. "Darcy, we wanted to run something by you." Clint began.

"Since Abby has been on base mostly before now, we haven't really had to worry about security for her. Since she'll now be in your care off-base, we were thinking of having what comes down to a bodyguard with the two of you when you're at home and out." Phil told her as she nodded along.

"Abby is already familiar with this man, Hector Jones." Fury added as Phil handed her the tablet.

"We wanted to make sure that it was all right with you before we introduced you." Darcy considered Phil's statement for a moment as she read Hector's file highlights.

"I suppose it couldn't hurt. He'd be around all the time though, right?" She asked.

"Yes. We'd probably have him take the bedroom next to yours." Clint added.

"I'll meet him." Darcy told them. Clint and Phil smiled at her.

"Just a second." Phil told her as he checked where Jones was supposed to be before he picked up his phone and dialed the line. "Hector Jones. This is Agent Coulson. I'd like you to report to my office immediately." He hung the phone up as they waited for Jones.

"I'll be right back I need to go to the bathroom." Darcy said as she nipped out of the office quickly and ran to the bathroom. On her way back, she literally ran into Hector Jones.

"Sorry!" They both said at the same time.

"That's ok. Darcy Lewis." She said smiling a little.

"Hector Jones." He said extending his hand. She shook it as Phil came out of his office.

"Darcy?"

"Go ahead, Coulson."

"Jones, I have a proposal for you if you'll step into my office." Hector followed Phil back into the office and sat on the chair in front of the desk as Darcy sat back down on the sofa.

"Miss Lewis has signed on to be Abby's nanny. With Director Fury's permission, we wanted to contract you out to be Darcy and Abby's full-time bodyguard." Phil said.

"Would I still be a part of SHIELD?" Hector asked.

"Yes. You would retain all of your current standing in SHIELD. You would also have your own room at our house to live in and have full use of the rest of the house as well as the fitness center, pool and other areas of the building's common areas."

"Yes, I think I could do a great job keeping them safe, if Miss Lewis wouldn't mind." Hector said as he looked at Phil and Darcy.

"Then that's settled. Do you have much in the way of baggage? We can get you moved in tonight possibly. Go grab anything you need and meet Agent Barton, Miss Lewis, and Abby out in the front lobby. He'll take you to the store to get a bed and dresser. I'll be back later tonight."

"Thank you, sir. I won't let you down." Hector saluted Phil and left the room to pack his bunk up. He brought everything he had in his pack and met Clint, Darcy and Abby in the main lobby as instructed. "Agent Barton, Hector Jones reporting for duty." Clint motioned for him to follow them and they went out to the SUV where Hector dropped his bag into the trunk.

"All right, Hector. A few rules. When we're not at SHIELD or there's no one else around, call me Clint, Agent Coulson: Phil and Miss Lewis can be Darcy, unless she tells you otherwise. We're running a bit more informal over here."

"Thank you Clint." Hector said as he sat in the passenger seat.

"Let's get you a bed and some stuff for your room." Clint drove them to a furniture store where they picked out a nice bed frame with mattress and had it set to be delivered that evening. They stopped by the house to unload Hector's stuff before in his room before they were going to run back out to the home store.

"So here's your room." Clint said as Hector carried his bag up to the room before opening a door a little ways down the hall. It was a decent sized room that had a couple of windows and a large closet.

"Daddy, I'm tired, can I just stay here with you?" Abby said yawning and tugging on his hand.

"Sure Bee." He said as he brought her up onto his hip. "I'll be back in a moment." He said as he left the room to Darcy and Hector. He tucked Abby into her bed before coming back a moment later to Hector and Darcy. "Ok. Go out and pick out whatever you want to personalize your room. Only real rule is that the art has to be semi-classy. Pick your favorite painter and go with that. I'll have them put your dresser and bed together here and here." He gestured to the spots in the room where they would be put. "Darcy go ahead and take the SUV and use the card. Try not to take longer than maybe 3 hours. I'd like to have dinner with all of us tonight."

"Will do bossman." Darcy saluted a little as she pulled Hector along. "Come on Hector; let's get you set up here."

"Oh, we're going to get you a decent TV for your room. Maybe later tonight or tomorrow. See you both later." Hector and Darcy went and bought everything they thought he would need: bedding, some things for the bathroom, a comfy chair, and a few more casual clothes. They came back and Phil was home. They dumped all of the purchases up in Hector's room and joined Abby, Phil and Clint in the casual dining room for dinner. Clint had made spaghetti, meatballs, meat sauce, breadsticks, and salad.

"So Hector, doing okay with moving in?" Phil asked him over dinner.

"Yes Ag- Phil. Darcy has been most helpful with helping me pick out everything."

"Just let us know if you need anything." Clint told Hector.

"Daddies, why is Hector staying with us?" Abby asked looking up at Clint and Phil.

"Hector is here to help Darcy look after you." Phil covered quickly as Abby nodded and accepted what Phil told her. That night, Hector worked on unpacking most of the purchases and making his bed before falling asleep. The next morning, Clint gave Hector the full tour of the house and showed him the closet in Master Suite that had been converted to an armory just in case.

They spent the next few weeks working on a routine. Darcy, Abby, and Hector would work on workbooks and learning in the morning and afternoon. Sometimes they would go out to a museum or a park. Evenings were usually spent with Phil and Clint or whoever was home.

Once, Phil and Clint were both away for a week on a mission, so Darcy and Hector took care of her. Phil and Clint had arranged for the three of them to go to Hawaii while they were away.

"Ah. This is going to be great." Darcy said as they stepped off the plane and were leid. Hector was next as he held Abby on his hip and received his lei. They were driven to the hotel and upon arrival were checked into their bungalow. It had a beautiful view of the ocean and a balcony.

"Darcy, can we go to the beach, please?" Abby asked her as she smiled up at her.

"Yeah, Bee. Let's go grab our suits from the suit cases in our room."

"Hector come too?"

"Yeah, Bee, I'll go put mine on too." He smiled at her and pointed to his room. They all changed into their bathing suits, out sunscreen on, grabbed some beach stuff, and went out to the beach. They had rented a large, double lounge chair with shades, laid their towels out on them, and put their things on it. They all went into the water, Darcy taking her hand as they waded in a little at a time, before Hector picked Abby up and took her out a little further. Abby splashed in the water and laughed as Hector spun her around in the water and air. Darcy smiled and laughed as Hector brought Abby over to play as they all swam and walked around in the ocean. Once they were done in the water, Hector and Abby worked on making a sand castle while Darcy watched them. They spent about a half-hour working on it before calling it finished. Darcy took pictures of them working on it and the finished product.

They went back to the room and changed before going to dinner at an Oceanside restaurant. They had various fish entrees and enjoyed the view and breeze from the ocean. After they were done eating, they walked back to their bungalow on the beach and Abby held their hands.

"What do you want to do kiddo?" Hector asked Abby as he noticed she was slowing down, so he picked her up and she settled her head on his shoulder.

"I'm tired. I want to sleep." She yawned.

"I think we can handle that." Darcy told her smiling up at her. They arrived back at their rooms and Darcy gave Abby a quick bath and dressed her for bed before tucking her in. Hector stood in the doorway quietly as Darcy got Abby's e-reader out and played one of the stories that Phil had read and another that Clint had done. Abby fell asleep by the end of Clint's story. Darcy gave her a kiss on her forehead and turned the lights out leaving the night light on. Darcy and Hector retired to the living room and watched a movie before Darcy went off to sleep in the other bed in Abby's room and Hector went to his own room.

The next day, they all went on a tour of the volcano and Abby held tight to Hector and Darcy. On the walking portions, Hector would carry her on his shoulders. They got as far as they were allowed to before they worked on the return leg of the trip. Abby fell asleep with her head on Hector's shoulder on the way back. An older woman approached Hector at the end of the trip back to the departure point.

"You have a lovely family." She told him before leaving. He ran a hand over his face, smiled, and laughed a little so that only Abby and Darcy could hear him. Darcy chuckled a little too.

"Really?" She asked him.

"I know." He smiled as they laughed a little and Abby woke up. "Let's go get dinner, honey."

"Sure, sweetie." She smiled and took his arm as they walked over to the car before driving over to the restaurant they had seen one their way over. They got burgers and fries for their meal before heading back to the hotel. They went to a small movie theater and saw the family movie that was playing before heading back to the hotel bungalow. Darcy gave Abby a quick bath before putting her to bed.

"So, White Collar, Hoarders, or CSI." Hector asked her browsing through the channels.

"White Collar." She said settling next to him on the couch with some popcorn and water. "Matt Bomer is dreamy." They watched the marathon on TV, each taking turns every half-hour or so to check on Abby, before falling asleep on the sofa. Abby woke up before them I the morning and walked over to the living room before changing the channel to watch partway through Tangled. Hector woke up first as Abby was quietly singing along with the songs. He made them each a bowl of cereal from the kitchen and they ate it while sitting at the coffee table, watching the movie. Darcy woke up as the movie ended.

"Darcy, can we go to the beach again?" Abby asked her.

"Sure, kiddo let me get something to eat first. You can go change into your suit, okay." Darcy said picking up an apple and orange and beginning to peel the orange as Abby took off to their room and returned five minutes later with her bathing suit on and her beach cover-up over that. After about ten minutes, Darcy went and changed into her own suit before they were all ready to go. They gathered their beach items and went out to the beach. Hector, Darcy and Abby all played in the ocean and hung out at the beach for a few hours before going back to the bungalow and playing a few board games. The rest of the week went by quickly and before they knew it, Darcy, Hector, and Abby were back on a plane to New York feeling relaxed and rejuvenated.

The next seven months went by without a glitch until a Russian oil team found the site where Captain Steven Rogers had crashed into the ice 66 years prior and Phil was called out to the site.

Chapter 16: Captain America Awakes

Abigail Cooper was a very smart and sly little girl when she wanted to be. When she really wanted to know what was going on around her she tried to sneakily listen in to conversations. Rarely did this succeed. One day, Darcy had an outing with her family and Hector had some training, so Abby was hanging out with Phil in his office at the main SHIELD office in New York. Fury stopped by to talk to Phil.

"Captain Rogers is…" Fury began quietly before Abby went into the bathroom. She boosted herself into the vent that Clint used. She quietly moved through the vents to investigate a little. Somehow, she made it across the building and she looked out around the empty room from her vent. She dropped down, crept over to the door, and peered in. Her eyes went wide when she saw the sleeping blonde man on the bed. She quietly opened the door and slipped inside. She listened to the baseball game that was playing on the radio as she moved slowly over to the bed.

Abby looked at him and stopped herself as she began to reach out to touch his face. She looked around the room and found a note pad and pen. She drew a little picture for him of herself holding his hand and wrote"to: Steve Rogers (Captain America) From: Abby Cooper (Coulson-Barton)." On one side and on the other side she wrote "Thank you for being one of my heroes! I hope to see you soon!" She slyly tucked the drawing into his pocket before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. She ran back to the vents and went back to Phil's office through his bathroom. Phil looked up at her as she settled back onto the couch.

"Come on Bee, it's time to go home."

"Dad?" Abby said seriously. "Is Steve going to be okay and wake up?"

"That's where you were? You found Captain America?" Phil sat down on the couch next to Abby.

"I'm sorry for running off Dad." She apologized quietly.

"Just don't do it again."

"I won't." They sat silently for a moment.

"So what'd you think?" He asked her curiously, as they got up from the couch and began packing up their things to head home. She beamed brightly at him.

"I drew him a picture and put it in his pocket. He looked just like you said." Phil pulled his bag onto his right shoulder and pulled Abby onto his left hip.

"I'm glad you thought so." They began walking to the car when the building alarm went off. Phil dropped Abby down onto the floor and pushed her behind him as he drew his gun. She crouched down and quietly waited for Phil's instructions. "Stay down and pull the radio out of the bag, Abigail." She quickly and quietly pulled his radio out of the bag and passed it to him. "This is Coulson. What's going on?"

"Coulson, he broke out, headed out the front door." Fury's voice said through the radio.

"Rogers is up and out?" Phil asked looking down at Abby.

"Yes. Can you meet me in Times Square?"

"Abby's with me."

"She can stay in the car. I need you there." Phil pulled Abby to him and ran to the car, setting her into the back seat quickly as he threw himself into the driver's seat, turning the car on as he went and throwing the car into drive. She buckled herself in using the regular seat belt as he drove over to Times Square. He pulled up to the group of other cars with flashing lights and parked the car.

"Stay here. I'll lock the door. Don't open the door for anyone."

"Yes Dad." Abby said settling herself into her proper car seat. Phil went over to Fury and saw Steve Rogers heading slowly towards Fury.

"What's happening?" Phil asked

"Captain Rogers is going back to base for a few tests and to get briefed. Can you and Abby come back to base? Jones should be done with training to watch her."

"All right." Steve stopped in front of Nick and Phil. "Captain Rogers, I'm Agent Phil Coulson." He said trying not to show how excited he was.

"Nice to meet you Agent Coulson. Director, which car am I going back to base in?"

"My car is right over there if you'll follow me." Steve looked at Fury who nodded approvingly before walking with Phil over to his SUV where Abby was waiting. Steve placed his hands in his pockets a moment and pulled out a piece of paper. He looked over the pen drawing of himself and a little girl named Abby, before noticing that the name Coulson was also on the paper. They had reached the car and Phil opened the back seat to talk to Abby while buckling her in. "Everything's okay, Abby. We're going back to base with Captain Rogers. Hector will meet us there, okay?"

"Excuse me, Agent Coulson? Do you have a daughter named Abby?" Abby's eyes went wide when she saw Steve waiting on the other side of the car with her drawing.

"Yes, she's right here." He said as Steve opened the other side of the back seat and went to sit down next to her. They looked at each other a moment before Steve stuck out his hand to Abby.

"I'm Steve Rogers." She took his hand and shook it.

"Abigail Cooper-Coulson-Barton." He smiled at her as Phil got back into the driver's seat and Fury sat in the passenger seat.

"Nice to meet you." Fury quietly snapped a quick photo with his phone of Steve shaking Abby's hand for Phil. They drove back to base where everyone got out and went back inside. Hector met Abby and Phil on their way to a conference room.

"I'll take her home, sir. Let us know if you'll be home tonight." Hector said taking Abby by the hand as Phil gave her a brief hug before turning back to follow Fury and Steve

"Okay. Agent Barton will be in the field another few days." Phil said before leaving Abby and Hector in the hallway.

"Well, kiddo, did you just meet Captain America?" Hector said as he picked Abby up and held her on his hip as he began walking out to his SUV. Abby smiled up at Hector and hugged him.

"Yes. He seems just like Dad said he should be."

"Oh, yeah?" He said buckling her into her car seat.

"Yeah. He liked the picture I drew him." Abby said brightly as Hector started the car up and buckled in. He started to drive them home.

"What do you want for dinner since it's just us tonight?"

"Let's see what we have." They arrived at home and went into the kitchen before deciding on having spaghetti with sauce and garlic bread. Hector got Abby ready for bed and tucked in. He read her a few chapters from her most recent Magic Tree House book before she fell asleep. "Night Hector." She said sleepily.

"Night Abby."

"Hector?" Abby asked.

"Yeah, Bee?"

"What's gonna happen to Steve?"

"I don't know, Bee."

"He could come live here. We have space. Night Hector." He turned her night light on and shut the overhead lights off before leaving her door slightly ajar. Hector felt his phone buzzing as he went over to his room down the hall and took out his phone.

"Jones here." He said answering the phone.

"Did I miss her?" Phil said sighing a little.

"Yeah, she just fell asleep. We read the next few chapters in the Magic Tree House book."

"Okay. Anything else happen?"

"Yeah, she wanted to know what was going to happen to Steve. She thought he could come live here."

"She would say that." Phil chuckled a little. "Would that be all right with you?"

"Yeah. I don't see why it couldn't hurt. I mean he's been asleep for over sixty years and between at least Darcy, Abby and I, we can catch him up on everything."

"That actually could be an excellent plan, Hector. I'll run that by Clint and Fury. Anything else?" Phil said impressed by the idea.

"No. That was it. How's everything on your end?"

"Not too much, mostly testing and briefings. I'll call you back after I talk with Clint and Fury."

"All right. I'll talk to you later." Hector turned the television on to a rerun of some law series before drifting off to sleep.

Meanwhile, back at SHIELD, Phil hung up the phone. He paused and considered the idea for another moment before dialing Clint's secure line. "Hello?" Clint said picking up the phone sleepily.

"Hey, you got a second?" Phil asked softly.

"Yeah. Anything up?" Clint said a little more alertly.

"He woke up today and Abby met him. Hector put her to bed tonight and she suggested that Steve come live with us. What do you think about that?" Phil said quietly. Clint paused before answering.

"I think that having Abby, Darcy, and Hector around regularly to catch him up to speed might be a good thing. We can help too, but I think it'd be good for everyone, especially him. So yeah. Go ahead. We'll adopt your hero once you clear it with the boss man." Phil smiled and chuckled a little.

"I'll check with him. I miss you."

"I think we might be able to wrap up earlier than anticipated. Love you and see you soon."

"Love you too."

"Bye." They both said at the same time before hanging up. Phil put his phone away and went back to the room where Fury and Captain Rogers were sitting discussing things. "Excuse me, sir? Can I have a word?" Phil said gesturing out to the hall. Fury looked at him a moment before standing up.

"Have a look at these, Captain Rogers and I'll be back." He pushed a few papers over to Steve before exiting with Coulson to another room nearby. "What?"

"I just spoke with Hector to see if Abby had gone to sleep and while we were talking she had asked him what was to happen to Captain Rogers. Hector told her he didn't know and Abby told him that Captain Rogers could come live with us. I ran the idea past Clint and we both agree that it might be better for Rogers to become more acclimated with this time by spending time with other people. We'd be more than happy to have him stay with us. We can convert a room over for him. I just don't think it would be a good idea for him to be alone now." Fury really looked at Coulson for a moment.

"We'll wait until Barton gets back before we broach the idea to Rogers. We still need to run some more tests and have him under observation a few more days."

"All right sir. If that is all you needed me to do today, I'll head home now."

"Go on home Phil. I'll see you tomorrow around 10am. Give Abby a hug from me."

"Will do." Phil packed up his briefcase and drove home. He went upstairs, dropped his briefcase off in his room before going over to Abby's room. He gave her a soft kiss on the forehead before closing the door and going over to Hector's room. He knocked softly on the door and Hector answered quickly.

"Phil? Anything up?" Hector asked looking more alert.

"No. Clint should be home sooner rather than later. You hungry?"

"Yeah." They walked downstairs to the kitchen and popped one of the frozen meals that Darcy had made into the microwave.

"So I talked to Clint and he agreed that having Captain Rogers here would be good thing."

"Okay. Where would he stay?"

"Depending on what he'd like, either we repurpose my home office or we change the den or living room around. Fury said we need to wait until Clint gets back to even broach the topic of Rogers staying with us."

"We should probably run it by Darcy too. I think she'll be back tomorrow afternoon or evening."

"Sounds like a plan." Phil said before tucking into the smaller helping of mac-n-cheese before heading back upstairs to their rooms. Clint was home around seven am the next day and Darcy arrived around nine am. Phil and Clint pulled Darcy aside together. "Darcy, we might have another person coming to live with us." Phil began.

"Okay, could be cool." She said taking it in stride.

"It would be Steve Rogers, potentially." Clint told her as Darcy paused with that information.

"You mean they found him? And he was alive?" Darcy asked, her jaw hanging open.

"Yup." Clint said smiling.

"Pending Fury asking him and his acceptance." Phil added quickly.

"Awesome. Will he also be under my tutorage?"

"Between you, Hector and Abby, yes." Phil said.

"Okay." They moved everything out of Phil's home office in hopes that Steve would join them. Phil and Clint put in a twin bed with a nightstand, a small dresser, and a small desk with a comfy chair that looked out on the street. Phil put a medium blue set of sheets on the bed with a few thinner blankets and a soft comforter that had different shades of blue all over it. Darcy and Hector put a small pile of white towels in the bathroom and tried to make the room look welcoming in the hopes that Steve would accept the offer.

The next day, Phil and Clint went to SHIELD headquarters. They waited for Fury and Steve in one of the smaller conference rooms. Steve came in followed by Fury.

"Agent Coulson." Steve said as he sat down.

"Captain Rogers, I have a proposal for you." Phil told Steve.

"Go ahead." Steve said looking between Phil and Clint.

"This is my husband Clint. We have a large house where we live with our daughter, Abby, who you met the other day. We also have her governess, Darcy, and their bodyguard, Hector living with us too. We wanted to know if you would like to come live with us. We thought it might help you to learn more about what you missed and make this transition a little easier on you." Phil told him calmly smiling reassuringly.

"It might be helpful to have a larger support system if you have questions, concerns, or just need to talk to someone." Clint added. "We're both," he pointed to himself and Phil. "really good listeners. Darcy and Hector are too. Abby, despite being nearly five, is full of some amazing insight. This was actually her idea initially."

"Do you have a spare room for me? I wouldn't be an imposition to you?" Steve looked down at the table surface.

"The room is smaller, but it has its own bathroom and is on the first floor by the kitchen." Phil told him still smiling.

"Look, Steve, we want to help you. We want to give you a home and to a certain degree, become a part of our kind of crazy and unusual family." Clint told Steve giving his most genuine smile. Steve thought in silence for a few moments.

"It would be nice to have a place to call home again." Steve began. "Sure. I accept your offer."

"Great. Glad to hear it." Phil said as Steve shook Phil and Clint's hands.

"I'll call Hector and have him start lunch. We can take you to the house, eat, and meet the family, drop anything you have now off and figure out everything else you need." Clint told Steve as Phil signed the papers that Fury gave him. Clint stepped into the hallway and told Hector to have lunch ready for them since they were coming home with Steve. Phil, Clint, and Steve arrived home forty-five minutes later. They went into the kitchen, dropping Steve's bag off in the hallway first. Abby, Darcy, and Hector met them in the kitchen.

"Hey, Darcy, Abby, Hector. This is Steve." Steve waved a little awkwardly as Phil began the introductions. "You've already met Abby." Abby went up and hugged Steve as he smiled at her.

"Hi Steve. Welcome to our house." Abby told him nicely.

"This is Darcy." Phil continued as Darcy shook Steve's hand.

"Pleasure to meet you and welcome." Darcy smiled at Steve.

"And this is Hector." Phil finished as Hector went to shake Steve's hand.

"Nice to meet you. I made burgers and fries, Abby made the salad and Darcy made dessert and cut up the watermelon."

"Let's eat." Clint said as they all sat down around the table and passed the plates and bowls around the table. They ate lunch before showing Steve over to his new room. He looked it over and smiled.

"I like it." Steve said.

"We were going to take you out shopping to get anything else you need." Clint told him.

"Okay." Steve said taking everything in.

"There's also an art supply store on the way if you wanted to get some supplies." Phil offered.

"Thanks. I think I'd like that too." Steve smiled a little.

Phil, Clint, and Steve went to a nearby Target and picked up anything Steve would need for the bathroom, and his bedroom. Their next stop was the art supply store where Steve picked out a few sketchbooks, some charcoal pencils, some colored pencils and a few other supplies. Before heading home, they stopped at the grocery store. Phil and Clint went through the store with Steve and got some foods that Steve liked (any fresh produce and fruits mainly). They also got many different foods for him to try sometime soon.

When they returned home, Hector helped Steve get his new things settled in his room while Phil, Clint, and Darcy put away the groceries. They left out some chicken, vegetables, and rice to make for dinner. Once Steve had his things settled, Phil and Clint showed him how to work the kitchen appliances and where everything was in the kitchen. Clint showed him how to use the stove and oven while he baked the chicken and had the rice going on the stove. After that tutorial, Phil took him around the house, showing Steve where everyone's rooms were upstairs and where to find whatever he might need.

"If you're not sure, you can always ask any of us." Phil told him as they came back through to the kitchen.

"That's part of why we're here anyway." Hector told him as he set the table.

"If you want to begin tomorrow morning, I can start teaching you anything you want to start with." Darcy said sitting down next to Abby.

"We can have lessons together!" Abby said smiling brightly. Phil, Clint, and Hector placed the platters on the table and they all quieted as they ate. At the end of the meal, everyone cleared their place, rinsed their plate, and placed it in the dishwasher. Hector finished the few remaining dishes.

"Steve?" Abby asked looking up at Steve.

"Yes Abby?" He responded squatting down to her eye level.

"Do you want to watch TV or play a game with us? We usually try to do that when we're all together." She took one of his hands and played with it a little, turning it over in her much smaller ones.

"Sure, that sounds like fun. What do you want to do?" Steve smiled at her.

"Well, we could play a few rounds of Bananagrams and then watch Dirty Jobs later." Abby said looking from Steve to Phil and Clint, who nodded approvingly.

"How do you play Bananagrams?" Steve asked.

"It's like Scrabble, but instead of everyone contributing to the board, you try to use all your tiles to make words. Kind of like making your own crossword puzzle." Clint helped to explain.

"Sounds fun, let's play." Everyone sat back down at the kitchen table and got out the double pack of Bananagrams. The four games that were played went by quickly. Phil won the first one; Abby the second, Steve the third, and Clint won the last round using mostly arrow terminology. They packed up the game before heading to the den and all sat down in the various seats around the TV. Abby settled in next to Steve. Phil put an episode of Dirty Jobs that had Mike Rowe visiting as a zookeeper at the San Francisco Zoo, becoming a cheese maker for a day, and being a volcanic ash mud bath mixer.

"Hey Steve," Darcy began during a commercial break as he turned his head to look at her. "Abby and I watch a lot of documentaries to teach her and me things. We were going to start the Planet Earth series tomorrow if you want to join us. We usually try to write down a few things that we learn as we go and talk about it afterwards."

"I think I would enjoy that. Thanks!" Steve smiled again at Darcy

"Darcy and Hector were going to take me to the Bronx Zoo once we finished, but you can come too! It will be so much fun!"

"I'll join you tomorrow and on the trip to the zoo." Steve said.

"Okay, Bee. I think it's time for you to go to bed." Phil told her.

"Alright Dad." She waited as Clint came over and picked her up.

"I think Phil and I are going to head to bed once Abby's done." Clint said as Abby laid her head on Clint's shoulder. "Goodnight all."

"Steve, if you have any questions, I'm sure Darcy and Hector could answer them." Phil said as Darcy and Hector nodded in agreement.

"Thank you for letting me stay with you." Steve told them as Phil and Clint made their way to the doorway.

"Not a problem." Clint told him.

"We're really happy to have you here." Phil added smiling.

"Night Steve." Abby said yawning tiredly.

"Good night Abby." Steve told her.

Chapter 17: Steve and Abby Hanging Out

Over the next few days, Darcy and Hector took turns catching Steve up with history and culture that he missed. Everyone watched many of the more family friendly films since Steve crashed. Steve, Abby, Darcy, and Hector sat down for a few days in a row marathoning every Disney movie since 1944. Steve enjoyed Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Tarzan, and Tangled. Hector, Darcy, Phil and Clint began with other films once Abby was asleep such as It's a Wonderful Life, The Sound of Music, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings. While watching the movies, Steve sketched the people that he remembered from his time to try to not forget their faces. Phil had Steve write down all of the names of people he wanted to know about so that he could find out about them. Sadly, every name that was on the list had died.

Phil and Clint helped him to get past his disappointment and move forward. Darcy, Hector, Abby and Steve drove up to Boston one weekend while Phil and Clint were away on assignment. They went to a Red Sox game, since Steve's beloved Dodgers had moved to L.A. and he could never support the Yankees. They had an enjoyable time cheering the Sox and eating ballpark food. It was a fun time for everyone and was the event that Hector asked Darcy if she wanted to date him exclusively. She said yes and they had smiles on their faces the rest of the trip.

When they returned to New York, Darcy and Hector continued teaching Steve and Abby new things. Steve began drawing more sketches of his new family. Abby was one of his favorites. She had so many facial expressions and he enjoyed being able to give Phil and Clint something for having him stay with them. Some of the sketches were framed and placed in the staircase gallery. Others, they put into airtight scrapbook pages.

One day, Phil and Clint had to go in to SHIELD HQ for the day to file paperwork, go through an orientation for a few new agents, and hit the range. Darcy and Hector had the day off for a date, so Abby had been left with Steve. Captain America could handle her by himself, couldn't he?

"Steve, can we go to the Met today?" Abby asked as she and Steve ate breakfast.

"Sure. You need to go get dressed and then we can go."

"Okay Steve!" Abby ran off upstairs to go get dressed. When she came back downstairs dressed in jeans and a nice shirt, her hair was still a little messy. "Steve, can you braid my hair? I want it out of my face so I can see the art better."

"Sure, Abby." She plopped onto his lap and set the hair tie on the table next to him. He brushed her hair out and smoothed the sections before beginning to braid them together. It only took a minute before Abby was up and ran over to the bathroom to check it out. She came back smiling.

"Perfect! When did you learn that?" She gave Steve a kiss on the cheek.

"I used to help the girls with their hair sometimes back when I did the Captain America tour. Glad you like it." Steve and Abby went to the coat closet, took out their light jackets and sunglasses before going out and locking the door behind them. They started the hour walk to the museum.

"Steve, I can't see anything." Abby said as she tugged on his hand. Steve stopped, bent down as he lifted her up and onto his shoulders.

"Better?" He asked her as he began to walk again.

"Wow. Do you see like this all the time?" Steve chuckled a little.

"Not all the time. Once I was a really tiny guy."

"Really?"Abby asked disbelieving

"Yeah. So what's your favorite color?"

"Teal. Yours?"

"Blue. Favorite book? Mine's The Hobbit."

"What's the Hobbit about?"

"It's about the journey of a very small guy and a group of dwarves who go to get some treasure back from a dragon."

"Could you read it with me sometime?" She asked excitedly.

"Sure. We could even start it when we get back." They continued their walk to the museum going by Central Park. They had arrived at the museum and went to the ticket desk, Abby still on his shoulders. "Hi, one adult and one child."

"Here you go." The desk clerk gave him the two tickets, which he passed up to Abby. "Here's a map."

"Thank you." Steve said before they went over to the other side of the lobby and opened the map. "Where did you want to start?"

"I love the European paintings and sculptures. Can we do some of those first?"

"I think that's doable. We can always come back another time to see more."

"Okay." Steve kept Abby on his shoulders and walked quietly together over to the European art. They moved quietly through the halls for a while as they admired the artwork, occasionally making a few remarks about some of them. At 2pm, they finished the wing they were on and went up to the bathrooms. Steve hesitated a moment, unsure of which bathroom Abby should use, before Abby took his hand and walked into the men's room, muttering under her breath. "Honestly, not like I ever saw the inside of a woman's bathroom without Tasha or Darcy anyway."

Abby went into one of the stalls and took care of her business while Steve used a urinal quickly. He had finished before Abby and waited for her to finish before they washed their hands. They stopped at a small café they had seen on their way back from the museum and grabbed a small lunch. Abby smiled at Steve tiredly when they began the return trip. As he carried her home, she fell asleep in his arms. When they arrived home, Steve settled on the large sofa in the living room, Abby still asleep against his shoulder and chest, before he too, nodded off for a little while. That was how Phil and Clint saw them when they arrived home about 30 minutes later. They smiled to each other before setting about to make dinner together.

Chapter 18: A Brief Thunderstorm

Thunder shook the air as lightning struck and clapped around the city. Abby woke up with a cry and ran to Clint and Phil's room.

"Dads, I'm scared. Can I stay with you?"

"How about we get you a mug of cocoa first and then you can stay with us." Clint said sitting up and holding Abby close to his chest as she nodded approvingly. The three of them went down stairs together to the kitchen and got out milk, cocoa, and some sugar. Clint stirred the hot cocoa while Abby laid her head down on his shoulder. Phil rubbed soothing circles on her back as she calmed down. Steve came out of his room.

"Couldn't sleep either?" Phil asked with a sympathetic smile on his lips.

"Not right now. Flashbacked to the war for a few minutes." Steve said as his left hand shook a little.

"Have some cocoa." Clint told him as Phil poured the drink from the pan into four mugs while Abby added some mini marshmallows to the top. They took the cocoa to the den and sat around the fireplace slowly sipping on their drinks, taking comfort from both the company and the warmth. After a few minutes, Abby dozed off to sleep in Clint's arms.

"You want to talk about it." Phil said quietly to Steve.

Steve took a sip from his mug. "It wasn't really anything specific. The thunder reminded me of the guns and cannons and everything. The lightning amplified the clouds to make it look like the guns were firing. It just brought back too many different memories."

"We're always here for you Steve." Clint told him.

"You can always talk to either of us about anything." Phil told Steve as he helped Clint up from the floor careful not to wake Abby.

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. The cocoa was excellent, by the way. Good night."

"You're welcome and we'll see you in the morning, all right." Phil said tiredly to Steve as he and Clint turned to head back upstairs. They slowly walked up the stairs and back to their room, laying Abby down between them before they all fell back asleep, more peaceful than before.

Chapter 19: Before the Storm

Their quirky little family unit continued to become a little closer. Steve and Abby continued to make treks to the park and various museums, usually with Hector and Darcy. Steve continued to draw and sketch various people and places. Steve and Abby often went to the art supply store with Hector to pick up more supplies. Abby and Steve would often sit in the den and draw or color, documentaries playing in the background.

Abby, Clint, Darcy, and Steve were making cookies in the kitchen when the doorbell rang. "On it!" Phil called as he went to answer the door.

"Kay, Dad!" Abby yelled back as she dropped another round of cookie dough onto the tray, smiling up at Steve and Clint who smiled back. Darcy chuckled as she scooped more dough into the scooper before handing it to Abby. Abby plopped a few more rolls of dough on to the baking sheet before they heard footsteps approaching the kitchen. Abby glanced over at Phil with a huge grin on her face. As soon as she saw Phil's tense face and Fury behind him, her smile quickly left.

"Director Fury needs to speak with Clint and Steve and I. We'll be over in the conference room and let you know what's going on when we're done." Abby tugged on Clint's hand as he went to go and he paused to hug her close to him and kiss her head briefly before going to join the others in the next room. Abby stood still where Clint left her, trying to keep her head up. Darcy turned the oven off and went over to her and wrapped Abby up in her arms in a big hug. Abby clung to Darcy before Darcy picked her up and Abby wrapped her legs around Darcy's waist.

"I'm here Bee." Darcy told her as they went over to the living room and sat down on one of the couches. Darcy texted Hector to come home immediately.

"I hope they don't have to be gone long." Abby whispered to Darcy.

"I'm sure that the Director will consider it. Just wait. We'll find out in a little while."

"Okay. Maybe we can take another trip." A small smile on her face, looking up at Darcy hopefully.

"Possibly." Darcy told her smiling. A few minutes later, Phil and Clint came into the room, scooping Abby into their laps.

"Bee, Dad, and I have to go away for a little while." Phil told her gently.

"We have a detail that we have to go on. We're not sure how long yet." Clint told her just as quietly.

"Could I go on a trip with Darcy and Hector and Steve?" She said her eyes darting between them.

"Probably." Phil smiled down at her.

"Can you both call me?" She whispered as she hugged them to her.

"We'll try." Clint whispered to her smiling at her. Abby clung to them a little longer before breaking the hug and kissing Clint and Phil on the cheeks. She scooted off her fathers' laps and walked over to where Fury stood in the doorway. She looked at him passively as her eyebrows quirked up like Phil's did sometimes.

"You make sure that my daddies can call me and that they come back to me as soon as they can. Got it Uncle Nick?" Her voice calm and more authoritative than it had any right to be at that age. Fury arched the eyebrow of his one eye in a surprised manner.

"I will make sure that they can call you and try my best to get them back quickly." He said stooping down to talk with her at her eye level. "I promise." Abby looked at him a moment before she stuck out a hand.

"Deal." Nick took her hand and shook it.

"Deal." Abby smiled and ran back to Phil and Clint, hugging tightly to them.

"When do you leave?" She asked quietly as Fury left

"Tomorrow morning." They said quietly.

"Can I help you pack?" Abby asked hopefully.

"Yeah, let's go do that now." Clint said scooping her up and taking her upstairs as Phil followed behind after telling Fury they'd meet him tomorrow morning at the hanger. Abby helped Clint and Phil pack their clothes. After they finished packing, the three of them went to the park for a little while. Phil and Clint slept with Abby between them.

They left in the morning, leaving Steve, Hector, and Darcy with Abby. Abby talked with Phil and Clint while they were away at the base, overseeing Project Pegasus at the Joint Dark Energy Mission Western Division in the Mojave Desert. Clint told her it was very boring and that he wished he could be with her. Phil told her it was much the same as Clint had. They tried to call the house when they had a little while during the day.

Suddenly one day, Phil called Darcy. He briefed her quickly telling her that Clint had been compromised and that Thor's brother Loki was here. She needed to go with Jane to Tromsø to keep Jane safe. Hector and Steve would be able to watch Abby. Darcy packed quickly and met Jane at the SHIELD base, where they flew to Tromsø. Steve went with Fury to the helicarrier and Hector stayed with Abby.

Chapter 20: Post-Battle

Steve's phone on his utility belt buzzed as he was walking back home. He struggled a moment to get it out of the pocket. "Rogers."

"Steve?" He heard Abby's panicked voice.

"What's wrong Bee?"

"I'm in the safe room in daddies' closet,"

"Are you alone?"

"Yes. Hector went to check outside, and," she sniffed "and he hasn't come back."

"Bee, stay there, I'm coming for you."

"Okay."

Steve ran as fast as he could to the house. He unlocked the front door to the house and dashed over and up the stairs two at a time. He bolted right into Phil and Clint's room to the panic room hidden in their suite. "Abby? Abby?" He asked as he stood outside the door. "Are you all right?"

"Steve," Abby's voice came from the speaker box next to the door.

"Open the door, Bee."

"Ok." The door slid open and Abby ran into Steve's waiting arms. She clung tightly to his neck as he held her close. Abby refused to let go of him.

"Bee, I need to call Director Fury."

"'Kay, just don't leave me."

"I won't. I promise." He walked down to the conference room with Abby still on his hip, her arms firmly around his neck, and picked up the secure phone. Steve looked down at the phone numbers and dialed the one for Fury.

"Fury."

"Rogers here. I have Abby with me and Hector is MIA."

"Ok. Both Coulson and Barton will be out of commission for a while to recoup. What did you want to do with her?"

"I'd prefer to take her out of here. Maybe over to Stark's."

"Sounds like a plan. I'll let you know when I hear about Jones."

Steve hung up the phone. "Bee we're going to go hang out with a new friend of mine, okay?"

"Sure." Steve got up and brought them both to his room, where he packed a bag with some clothes and a few other things. They went up to Abby's room and added some of her clothes and stuff to the duffel before locking the house and heading towards the remains of Stark Tower. She fell asleep on Steve's shoulder as they made the walk to the remains of Stark Tower. They took the elevator down to the workroom where JARVIS assured them Tony would be.

"Hey Cap, what's with sleeping beauty on your shoulder?"

"Tony, I have a favor to ask. This is Phil and Clint's daughter, Abby. They're still finishing recuperating and can't see her yet. We need a place to stay for a little bit, so can we please stay here?"

Tony flicked his eyes from Abby to Steve and then rubbed his hand over his eyes and face.

"Fine. Bruce is here too. Just FYI." Tony said. "Have a seat wherever and we can get food or something going." Steve went and sat down gingerly on one of the sofas, careful not to wake Abby up. Tony joined them a few minutes later.

"Thanks Tony." Steve told him seriously. "She was with her body guard of our little group at home during the attack. He apparently went out to check something and left her alone in the safe room. He didn't make it back in and I didn't see him outside the house. Fury said that her dads are still getting better but that she won't be able to see them yet. So right now I'm all she's got."

"You're both welcome to stay as long as you need to. I got some comfortable cots down here that we can break out since a lot of the upper floors are trashed. Bruce should be fine with it too." He let the air hang for a moment. "So how did it even work with Legolas and Agent?"

"Probably not my story to tell, but she was his niece before her mom died when she was a baby. Phil and Clint got married and adopted her shortly after that and the rest is kinda history."

Tony nodded his head and smiled a little at Abby. Bruce came into the workshop area all cleaned up and freshly showered. He looked at Steve then Abby, a little confusedly for a moment before coming to sit on the seat near the couch.

"Hey Bruce. This is Abby. She's Phil and Clint's daughter. They're not allowed to see her yet since they're recuperating together. So I'm taking care of her until they're better."

"And they're crashing here with us." Tony added.

"So how do you fit into the Phil, Clint, Abby equation?" Bruce asked as he rubbed his chin a little.

"Well, I was still in a coma at a SHIELD base here and Abby snuck into the room through the vents. She's really good at bending the rules sometimes, but she drew me a little picture and put it into my pocket. I woke up and ended up breaking out of the base. Phil and Abby were at the scene when SHIELD caught up with me. She asked Phil if I had anywhere to go or any family and he said that he didn't know. So he and Clint asked me if I wanted to move in with them and I said yes. They're a little unconventional, but they're home. Abby's nanny is off with her old boss somewhere in Scandinavia, and her bodyguard is MIA. He left her in the safe room in the house and went to investigate something. No one's been able to find him yet. So that's why Abby and I are staying here."

Bruce smiled at Abby, who started stirring. "Hey Steve," she said blearily, "Where are we?"

"We're at my friend Tony's house. This is Tony and our other friend Bruce." He said gesturing to Tony then Bruce.

"Oh." She said a little more brightly. "Nice to meet you both. I'm Abby."

"Are you guys hungry? I'm kinda hungry." Tony said after a moment.

"Yes, thank you, what can I pick from?" Abby asked politely.

"Um. JARVIS, what options are in the fridge or freezer?"

"Sir, there are a number of pizza crusts, pastas, Chinese, Indian, and Mexican dishes that can be microwaved or baked."

"Anything grab you?" Tony asked Abby, who was staring in awe at him.

"What was that? Who was that?" She asked still in wonder.

"Oh, that's JARVIS. He runs the house." Tony told her.

"Where is he?"

"He's like a computer system. He sees everything and can talk. Say 'Hello', JARVIS."

"Hello, Miss Abigail. What would you like to eat?"

"Can we put a pizza together?" She said smiling up at Tony, Bruce, and Steve.

"All the ingredients are in the kitchen off the workshop, Miss Abigail." Abby let go of Steve and jumped off the couch.

"Can you take me there, Tony?" She said turning to Tony.

"Sure, munchkin. Stay with me. There's a few dangerous things on the tables here." He said taking her hand and guiding her safely through the workshop to the kitchenette. Bruce and Steve trailed behind them. Tony got the crusts out of the freezer and Bruce got some ingredients out of the refrigerator. The four of them made the pizzas just the way they wanted. "What next munchkin?"

"Can we watch Disney movies?" Her eyes went wide with hope.

"Which ones?"

"We could watch Brave, Tangled, Up, Princess and the Frog, Wall-E, Finding Nemo, Lilo and Stitch, Toy Story 1, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, or Cinderella."

"JARVIS, queue those up in the lounge area of the workshop. We'll start em up in bit." They all walked back to the lounge area and plopped down on the couches with the pizza and drinks on the coffee table.

"Miss Abigail, which film would you like to begin with?" JARVIS asked as Abby thought a moment.

"Can we start with Tangled? It's my favorite." She said her eyes looking up hopefully at the three men.

"Sure. Start it up, JARVIS."

"Thanks." Abby said settling in between Tony and Steve on the couch, enjoying her pepperoni pizza. They all sat enjoying the pizza and company. Between movies Tony, Steve and Bruce set up the cots after moving the coffee table away. They all lay down on their cots; Abby's right next to Steve's and eventually fell asleep.

Chapter 21: New Arrangements

Steve's phone rang in the morning after everyone was up. "Rogers."

"Fury. Abby can come and visit Barton and Coulson. They're on the private med room in the back of medical. Have Stark bring you. No word yet on Jones."

"Thanks, sir. We'll be by later." He hung up the phone. "Hey, Bee. Your dads can see you now."

"Really? Can we go soon? Please?" She asked excitedly.

"Yeah. Tony, can you get us up to the helicarrier?"

"Probably. Let me get a jet together." He got his phone out. "Rhodey, I need a favor."

"What Tony?"

"I need you to fly me and a few friends up to the SHIELD Helicarrier?"

"Tony….What?" Abby hugged Tony as she smiled up at him.

"My munchkin friend wants to go see her dads."

"Munchkin friend?"

"Tony? Can he take us?" She whispered to him. Tony moved the camera down to Abby.

"Rhodey, are you going to deny this cute and adorable munchkin the opportunity to see her fathers after all of the craziness that's been going on." Abby pulled her cutest face.

"Fine. Get me a plane. I'll take you."

"Thanks Rhodey. We'll see you in a bit." He hung up the phone. "Steve, we got a ride up."

"Thanks Tony! Go get changed Abby." Steve said as he pulled Abby's bag towards her. She grabbed the bag and ran over to the bathroom. She changed into a pair of jeans and a plain t-shirt with a plaid shirt over that. Tony went to another room and changed.

"Steve can you do my hair in a braid, please?" Abby asked smiling.

"Yeah, just grab your brush and a hair tie." Abby sat down in front of Steve and he quickly sectioned her hair and pulled it together into a tight French braid. "How's it look?" Steve asked Abby as she dashed off to the bathroom.

"Perfect!" She smiled at him.

"Okay. Let me get changed first. Then we can go." Steve went into the bathroom next to change quickly.

"Ready?" Tony asked as he walked back into the workshop.

"Yeah." Steve and Abby replied.

"Bruce, we'll see you later back here." Tony told him.

"No problem." Bruce said smiling. "I'll be here." Abby, Steve and Tony went to meet Rhodey at the SHIELD land base.

"Ready?" Rhodey asked them.

"Thank you, Mister Rhodey." Abby said giving Rhodey a hug. "I haven't seen my daddies in a while, so I'm really excited to see them."

Rhodey pinched the bridge of his nose as he closed his eyes before opening them. "I'm happy to help you go see them." Rhodey opened the jet and went through the pre-flight checklist before he allowed everyone to board. "All right. We're clear." Everyone got on and buckled in. Rhodey piloted everyone up to the SHIELD Helicarrier. He got clearance to land and then he taxied the plane to park. Some techs came out to tie the plane down. They disembarked from the plane and Abby put her ID badge on when they got off the plane. They went to the main carrier entry where Fury met them. "Hey, Uncle Nick! Where are my daddies?"

"I'll take you to them Bee." They walked to the medical bay and went to the private secure end. Fury swiped the door code and opened the door. Tony, Fury, and Steve waited in the hallway looking in. Clint was sitting next to Phil's bedside. He had a few IVs and an oxygen tube leading to his nose, but otherwise looked okay. Abby ran to them and Clint caught her and pulled her into a tight hug. "Oh my baby girl." Clint whispered to her, not letting her go. He kissed her forehead a few times before pulling her out in front of him to get a look at her. "You look great. Did Steve do your hair again?"

"Yes daddy. Thanks." Abby kissed his cheek and smiled adoringly at him. "Is papa okay?"

"I'll be okay. I just got a boo-boo." Phil said quietly. Clint set Abby down by Phil's uninjured side and she kissed his cheek and forehead.

"I hope you feel better papa." She said quietly as Clint pulled her back to his lap.

"What have you been up to Abby?" Phil asked.

"Well, Darcy had to go with Miss Jane somewhere and then Steve had to go with Uncle Nick so Hector and I were together. Some loud noises happened, so we went to the safe room at the house. But then, there was something wrong, so Hector went to check on it and didn't come back. So I called Steve and he came to get me. He took me to his friend Tony's place where we ate pizza, watched Disney movies, and slept in his workshop on cots. It was fun. Their friend Bruce is there too. Tony's friend Mister Rhodey brought us up here to see you both. When can you both come home?"

"We're not sure yet baby." Clint told her. "Papa will have to be here longer. Did you want me to come home with you today?"

"Please. Then we can come visit papa whenever we want and we won't need Mister Rhodey to bring us up all the time."

"Sure thing Bee. You can stay with papa and me for a little while, and then we can go home. Why don't you tell papa a story while I go talk to Steve?" Clint set Abby down on the chair as she began to tell Phil a Pirate Sam story.

"Thanks for taking care of Abby and bringing her here. I can't tell you how relieved we were that she was safe."

"No problem. If you want to stay at the tower, I have space. We're going to be making repairs and rebuilding anyway. You can all move in."

"Really?" Clint asked skeptically.

"Yeah. We'll get a medical area set up for Agent first and some better temporary housing while we set the rooms permanently."

"Okay. If you insist. I'll let Phil know. Thank you." He said setting his hand on Tony's shoulder and looking at him with a grateful look.

"We can get a moving team to get your stuff over once we get the rooms done. Bruce and I can keep an eye on Abby sometimes if need be."

"Thanks. I'll bring Abby back later." Clint turned back into the room and set Abby back on his lap as she concluded her story. Fury, Tony, Rhodey, and Steve went to a conference room elsewhere. "Daddy, can I color? I brought some coloring books and crayons."

"Go ahead. We'll talk a little while you do." Abby got out her coloring book and crayons and used Phil's tray table to work. "So Tony has offered some rooms as he rebuilds the tower, including a medical one for your recuperation. He said that he'd get everything taken care of. I think he genuinely wants to see everyone safe."

"Abby, how did you like staying with Tony?" Phil asked, turning to look at her.

"It was fun. We made pizzas and watched a lot of Disney movies. JARVIS is amazing. He knows everything. Bruce was fun too. He didn't say a whole lot. But he seems good. Why?"

"Tony wanted us to all move in. It may take a little while, but if you want to, we're willing to move there."

"Can we? Please?" Her eyes looked between her fathers hopefully bright. They looked at each other and nodded.

"Sure."

"Yeah! Are we going back to Tony's tonight?" Abby asked.

"I'm going to take you back there later." Clint told her. "But right now, we're going to stay with papa for a bit longer." Clint took one of the coloring books and started to color one of the sheets a little.

"Bee, Clint. I'm getting tired. I'll be fine if you head out now." Phil said yawning a little.

"Okay papa. I love you. See you later." She kissed his cheek and forehead.

"I love you too." Phil said kissing her forehead.

"We'll see you tomorrow, okay?" Clint asked as Phil nodded. "I love you."

"Love you too. Bye." Phil said as he closed his eyes.

"Okay Bee. Let's see if everyone's still here." He got out his phone and called Fury. "Hey are they still here?"

"Yeah, Stark's got a surprise for ya. We're on our way back to you. Stark has set up a medical room at the tower for him, so Rhodes is going to fly you all back to Stark Tower, including Coulson."

"Okay. I'll go tell Phil. See you all in a little bit." Clint closed the phone. "Looks like papa is coming with us. Let's go tell him." He swiped his card and opened the door. "Hey babe." Clint said as Phil looked over at him. "Looks like Stark was really serious. He got the med room set up for you already. So you get to fly back down with us." Phil smiled tiredly.

"Well the change of scenery will be nice. I'm going to sleep a little bit. All right?" Phil said nodding off a little.

"All right. We'll get you back to ground." Clint told him as Fury swiped the door open. A few medical personnel set up the portable machines and placed them on the bed to transport Phil to the plane. Clint, Abby, Steve, Tony and Rhodey all walked steadily together with them as they got Phil settled on the plane. Clint held Phil's hand as Abby sat with Steve. The flight back to Stark Tower was uneventful as was getting Phil settled in the new medical room at Stark Tower. Phil asked Tony to stay a second while everyone else left. A SHIELD cleared doctor was coming to monitor Phil.

"Thank you very much for this and keeping my family together. It means a lot to me." Phil told him genuinely grateful for Tony's hospitality.

"I will deny this to my dying day, but I never wanted anything to ever happen to you even before I knew you had a family. I have more money than I could ever know what to do with, so if I can keep you guys safe and together…then I will. Get better Agent." Tony smiled at Phil. "We'll see you later." Tony went to go hang out with Steve, Abby, Clint, Bruce, and Rhodey. They got dinner and Abby approached Tony.

"Thank you for taking care of my dad and bringing him closer to me." Abby hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Daddies said that you asked if we wanted to move here. I'm super excited about that too. JARVIS is amazing too. Thanks Tony."

They all watched some television before heading to bed in a few rooms set up near the workshop. Abby and Clint slept in some cots in Phil's room. Everything was all right for the time being.

Chapter 22: One Big Happy Avengers Family

Hector was found barely alive under a pile of rubble about three blocks away from the house. He was brought to Tony's new and expanded medical rooms and stabilized. It was going to take a while for him to get better, but he was alive. Darcy stayed with him once she returned from Scandinavia, so Abby hung around her fathers sometimes or any combination of Steve, Tony, and Bruce.

Phil's physical therapy went slowly but smoothly. He resumed more of his deskwork duties in his room at Stark Tower with Fury, Hill, Sitwell, or Clint bringing most of it. Phil was still not cleared for active duty, but appreciated being able to spend time with Abby.

One day when Abby was off with Bruce, Tony approached Clint and Phil in Phil's medical room.

"Hey Tony. What's up?" Clint asked.

"I wanted to put a GPS tracker in Abby, just to be a preventative measure of security. JARVIS and I made a few models. One or two have a two-way JARVIS speaker that can be used when we activate it or a code word is used. They are meant to be injected under the skin." Phil and Clint looked at one another for a few moments, their eyebrows, and facial expressions doing the talking. They finally both nodded off in the same direction.

"Sure." Phil agreed.

"We could do it later today or tomorrow." Clint told him.

"Alright. I'll get a few prepped and then you guys could decide later which one to go with." Tony said before heading to the door.

"Thanks for caring Tony. We appreciate it." Phil told him as Tony stopped at the door and turned around.

"She just wraps you around her little fingers, doesn't she?" Tony asked smiling.

"Yeah. First day I met her as a 13-month-old baby, I played with her while Phil went through his sister's stuff. Phil thought I wouldn't want to stay with him because of her, but I wanted to. I wouldn't learn how to change a diaper for just anyone, you know." Phil, Tony, and Clint all smiled a little. "You get used to it." Clint offered.

Tony chuckled. "You got that right. Bruce, Abby and I are going to be down in the lab, doing basic science stuff. You know like a vinegar volcano, pop rocks/mentos and coke, making potato or marshmallow cannons, starting a garden, that kind of stuff. I think Bruce was also doing a thing on yoga."

"Okay. Have fun!" Clint and Phil both hollered after him.

Tony went towards the floor elevator. "JARVIS, where's Abby and Bruce?"

"They are in Bruce's room working on yoga and meditation, sir."

"Thanks buddy." He went down a few floors to where Bruce had a temporary room.

Bruce and Abby were on their own yoga mats in the warrior's pose and then a stretch before they were done. "Hey Tony!" Abby said rolling up her mat next to Bruce. "What are we doing today?"

"We can do some science experiments and plan some other things. Was there anything special you wanted to do?"

"Can we do the pop rocks and mentos with diet coke? Please?" She gave them her biggest smile.

"Yeah, we can do that. JARVIS, have Dummy put the supplies on the table." They went down to the lab and got their supplies together with some help from Dummy. The three of them put on their lab coats and goggles. They set up the experiment and then Tony shoved the mentos into the 2 liter of diet coke before running behind the shield wall. The liquid went everywhere in a beautiful explosion of diet coke and carbon dioxide. They tried a few other experiments using other ingredients that met with varying degrees of success. When they were done, they cleaned up, laughing at all of the fun they had.

Bruce took Abby up to the living room and sat down to color with her. They each worked on a different book, passing colored pencils and crayons back and forth as needed.

Abby turned to Bruce when she was done coloring. "Bruce. Can we take a walk? I'm dying to get outside."

"Let's go check with your dads."

"Okay. Thank you Bruce." Abby said taking his hand and leading the way to Phil's room. She knocked on the door and entered with Bruce trailing after her, still holding her hand. "Papa? Can I go on a walk outside with Bruce? I promise to behave." Phil's eyes flicked up to Bruce, who nodded okay.

"Sure. Be on your best behavior and you have to stay with Bruce the whole time." Phil told her smiling; glad that she was finding friends and stability in the new situation they found themselves in. She grabbed her coat from the closet in the room and kissed Phil on the cheek before grabbing Bruce's hand.

"Bye papa!" Abby yelled. Bruce grabbed his coat and then walked them outside. They walked over to Central Park. Bruce pushed Abby on the swings as she giggled happily. "Bruce, can we do the slides next?"

"Sure, just make sure that I can see you."

"Okay, Bruce." He watched her climb up the steps to the slide before she stopped at the top. She waved to him and slid down. She went down a few more times before running back to Bruce. "I'm ready to head back home." She yawned and she took his hand.

"How about I carry you home?" Bruce asked. Abby stood in front of him and he lifted her up to him. She put her arms loosely around his neck and her legs around his sides. She fell asleep within 10 minutes of beginning their trek home. He walked slowly back to Stark Tower and brought Abby back to her room next to Phil's room. Bruce took her jacket and shoes off and tucked Abby into the small twin bed in Phil's room.

"Thanks Bruce." Abby muttered quietly as she turned onto her side and tucked her teddy bear into her arms.

"Good night, Abby." Bruce told her as he turned on her nightlight and closed the door. He went next door to see Phil. "Hey, we're back. She fell asleep on the way back, so I just tucked her in."

"Thanks. She really enjoys spending time with you and Tony. It means a lot that I know she's safe with you both." Phil said smiling tiredly.

"I don't know about-" Bruce began before being interrupted.

"No. You are careful with her and I have enough faith that even if you ever did Hulk-out by her, I think he'd protect her first. She enjoys spending time with you. I'd be hesitant to try out play time with Hulk, but I think that if push-came-to-shove, life-or-death, she'd be safe with both parts of you." Phil smiled reassuringly at Bruce. Bruce sank down into the chair next to Phil, closing his eyes a moment and took a deep breath. A few tears leaked out of his eyes. "I trust you to keep her safe if I can't."

"It means a lot to me to be considered such a part of your life." Bruce managed to get out.

"Honestly, Abby gets attached to people easily once she gets to know them. She has been telling Clint and me all about how much fun she's had with you and Tony. She still talks about Steve, but not as often now. Sooner or later, she's going to induct you into the extended family. Natasha and Director Fury have been in her life from the beginning when she came to us. Its Aunt Natasha and Uncle Nick. You might not get the Uncle title, but you'll always have the affectionate way that she'll say your name. She'll consider you family, so because she does and will, Clint and I will. Besides, we'll all have to balance out Tony with more normalness."

Bruce chuckled. "It's going to take all of us to balance that out. You do know he's going to spoil her with anything and everything she wants."

"I know. See, we're going to need you." Phil told him seriously. Bruce chuckled and then took a few deep breathes.

"If you will have me, then I would be more than happy to stick around and help out with her." Bruce smiled as he got up from the chair. "Thank you for everything."

"Not a problem. Hang in there." Phil told him as Bruce moved to leave.

"Good night, Phil."

"Night, Bruce." Phil responded with as Bruce left.

The next few weeks went by quickly until it was time for Abby's fifth birthday. Tony had planned a big party for the few people that knew Abby in their now much larger 'family'. Abby, Phil, Clint, Steve, Darcy, Hector, Director Fury, Natasha, Bruce, Tony, Pepper, Rhodey, and Happy all gathered around one of the bigger tables at Stark Tower. Abby sat in front of her beautifully done Disney princess cake, smiling as the adults sang happy birthday to her. She blew out the candles. Clint sliced up the cake and plopped ice cream onto each plate as it was served. Abby opened up all of her presents and let out a whoop of joy when she opened up her last present from Tony. She held up a very official scroll that said in big bold Disney letters GOOD FOR A WEEK AT DISNEY WORLD WITH PAPA AND DADDY. Abby ran over to Tony and hugged him tightly.

"Thank you so much Tony! But you hafta come too." She said hugging him again.

"Maybe I'll come down for dinner one day." He deflected. "I got you it to spend time with just your daddies."

"Okay. But thank you so much! I've never been to Disney World. Oh, I'm so excited!" She hugged Tony and was almost vibrating with excitement. Happy set up the camera to take a picture of everybody together before running back to get in the shot. It took about five pictures in quick succession. Tony looked at them and picked out the best looking ones for JARVIS to send to the printer. Abby asked for one to use, so Tony gave her one. She ran off to the craft corner of the living area and set to work. Abby worked on stickering and coloring before presenting the bright masterpiece to Tony. He took it and smiled. It was a foamy craft picture frame with the picture of them inside. It was surrounded by party hats on the edge with some fun marker lines and had 'Abby's Family' written on the bottom frame. Tony hugged Abby.

"Thank you, Abby. I'll put it in my workshop right next to the picture of you with Dummy, Butterfingers, and U." Abby giggled and gave Tony a kiss on the cheek.

"I'm glad you like it." Abby went over to talk to Pepper and Natasha. Clint and Phil stood together looking at the craziness and wonderfulness of their larger than life family.

"If you had told me five years ago that I would be a father and eventually have Tony Stark considered to be in my family, I would have taken you down to medical and had you on psych hold." Phil told him.

"I would have been right behind you. It's still unbelievable sometimes." Clint agreed.

"You know that trip to Disney is going to be the be-all-end-all trip for her. Tony is going to get her in everywhere without a line and probably have us stay at the most expensive place there ever was." Phil said smiling.

"Yeah, but what can you say. I'm excited about it." Clint admitted.

"Yeah, we do make a pretty beautiful family after all." Phil agreed.

THE END