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6. 𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘶𝘭𝘵

It was driving them crazy. A week since the hit and they all had either stay inside or have backup if you wanted to go out. Steve and Crystal had to work from home and the kids had to apologize to their friends that they weren't able to hang out.

Steve was in his office talking to a patient and then Crystal was done with a meeting, walking pass the kids in the kitchen doing homework, talking on the phone with business partners. Tony clicked his pen over and over, pushing Nats buttons.

"Can you knock it off?" Her eyes pierced at him.

"Shriver me timbers." He mocks and goes back to his work. Nat takes a deep breath, cracks her neck and studies. Tony raises his eyebrow and looks back at her. She got up to get more to snack on. He moved his fingers, snow appears between his hands. Tony made a snowball, whips it at Nat and dies of laughter.

Nat stopped as she felt the cold feeling on her back. With the whole staying in and being in the same room as him really crossed the line with her.

"Nat." He stops as she slowly turns to him. He saw that she was taking off her bracelet. "Nat, im playing." He gets up from his seat. Her eyes turned purple. "Nat!" She lifted him up in the air, sending him across the room. Crystal and Steve heard the ruckus and they sprinted. Tony held his head and pushed off the broken chair. Crystal ran to Natalie, snatched her bracelet and Steve helped Tony.

"Stop! Let me go!" Natalie pushes me off of her. She shakes her hair off her face and her face was filled with anger.

"Natalie! Calm down!" Steve halts.

"Calm down? We've been here for a week and I cant stand you all! Tony is annoying, mom doesn't sleep and has been lying about it, and dad, you sweep everything under the rug and take its all fine." We stood there stunned. "Go to your favorite child." She storms off.

"Natalie." I grabbed her arm but she shrugs me off.

"Leave me alone." We all turned and looked at each other.

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Natalie locked herself in her room, blasting loud music while we talked to Tony about his behavior. His sarcasm was just exactly like my dads, doesn't know when to stop, he did get in trouble.

"Where you heading out to?" Steve said as I put on my jacket.

"To clear my mind." He grabs me and kisses my hand. "Ill be back." Before he said anything I left. Happy took me to where I wanted to go. I stared out of the window, something I used to do as a kid whenever Happy used to take me to school or to practice.

"Ill stay here, ill keep an eye on you." He winks.

"Thanks Happy." I got out of the car and I walked up to the what seemed like a never ending of graves and I stopped. Two graves were staring back at me as I decided to take a seat in front of them.

"What a family reunion, huh?" My voiced cracked as i looked at my fathers and mothers grave.

Monica Stark
1971- 1998
Loving Mom and Wife

Tony Stark
1970- 2023
Loving Father and Husband and Avenger

It pains me to be here. Staring at both grey stones, realizing that both parents died for me, to keep me safe. I was picking out the flowers off the ground.

"Im in deep shit here." I laughed. "Natalie is mad. I mean she's a teenager, i get it. Is it my fault to bring her and Tony into my messy world? Steve? Mom..." i turned to her grave. "How did you live a double life? Having me and marrying dad, pretending nothing is wrong and then with HYDRA on your back." The breeze ran through my hair, moving a tear to the side. "Am I a bad mother? What if I get my family killed?" The silence killed me, I wished they said something back, it wasn't possible anyway. I placed the flowers on their graves, rested my forehead on them and headed back to Happy.

"Here." Happy hands me a tissue, wiped the tears away. "It'll get better."

"I hope so." I looked at the car. One of dads old sports cars. The bright flame red car. "Can I drive?" I asked him.

"I dont-"

"I promise to drive carefully." I begged. Happy sighs and tosses me the keys. We hopped in and I took a moment. This was the same car that my dad taught me how to drive in. I revered the engine. The excitement feeling of the car made me laugh.

"Just, be careful." I put the car in drive and we slowly got out the cemetery, but out of it, was a different story.

"You better have your seatbelt Happy."

"Wha?" I hit on the gas and we flew pass the street. Happy was holding onto his dear life, closing his eyes and yelling at me to slow down. I had this biggest smile on my face as the wind blew in my hair, the rush of adrenaline when I passed cars. We made it to the house and I turned to him. "You know, I'll do anything to make you happy but this..." he points at the car. "Cant be it."

"You gotta run before you can walk Happy." Happy chuckles.

"Just like your father."  A smile crept up as I walked up the steps and into my house. The house was quiet, the lights were dimmed and I heard music playing, it was a mix of Steves classics and Natalie's music. I stepped into the kitchen and saw Steve cooking.

"H-"

"Wait." I put my hand up to stop Steve from talking. "Let me soak this in." I walked up to him, watching him. "What Nat said, its true. Im not going to lie here." He puts the knife down and looks at me. "A dream came to me, i woke up before anything could happen. Thats why I haven't been sleeping, I just don't want it to come true. We both know what can happen." Steve places his hand on my cheek and caress his thumb on it, shyly smiles at me.

"You know you can't stop sleeping, just for it not to happen. It will eventually, sadly. But we have to prepare for the worse. Together, as a family." We heard footsteps coming down and it was Tony.

"Dinner ready yet?"

"Yeah, get your sister." Steve turns to him. He snaps his fingers before Tony went back up again. "Don't bug her please." Tony rolled his eyes and headed up.

"Can we talk about it later tonight?" I whispered as he nods and places and gentle kiss on my lips.

"Nats not in her room." Tony pants as he ran to us. My heart dropped.

"What do you mean not in her room?" I dropped everything and sprinted to her room. The room was empty, the window was open and all I could think of was that she was kidnapped. I paced around the room. There was no sign of breaking and entering.

"Steve!" I ran to him as he held me in his arms. "I-I need to-" everything was spinning, my hands were colder than usual, I was stuttering. "What if they got to her!?"

"Im going to look for her." Steve looks at Tony. "Stay with your mother." Steve speeds out to the door to look for our daughter.

"Mom?" Tony stood there, concerned as I dug through her things, maybe leaving a clue or something. "Mom!" Tony grabs me, making me snap out of my thoughts. "Did you think someone took Natalie?"

"Did your sister tell you something? Did you hear anything?" I came up to him. Tony was getting scared as I was panicking.

"No!" I took a moment to gather myself, Tony shouldn't see me like this.

"Okay, okay." I grabbed his arms and make him look at me. "Im going to call grandma, maybe shes at her house. Im probably overreacting."

"Is Nat mad at me? Is that why she's gone? I didn't get to say sorry, what if-" i ran to Tony, holding him.

"Natalie is not mad at you. Shes okay." Im hoping. I had this feeling like my heart was ripped from my chest when I tried calling her cellphone, which kept going to voicemail. "Pepper!" I held back tears as I called her.

"Crystal! Its late, is everything okay?"

"Is Nat with you? Shes not here and I just want to know if shes with Morgan." I can hear her hum. "Thats a no." My breathing became short. I couldn't hear Pepper as everything went numb. Tony grabbed the phone and talked to her. I held onto the table as my legs went jelly.

"Crystal!" Steve runs in and catches me. I sobbed into his chest. She wasn't with him. I lost her. Shes gone. My worst nightmare. "Doll, deep breaths, okay? Stay with me." I shook my head. I could tell he wanted to cry but he was trying to stay calm. His voice kept breaking as he tried to talk to Pepper on the phone, keeping Tony and I calm.

"Its my fault! They took her. They took her." HYDRA, who else was on my ass?

"Tony, help me get your mom outside." They picked me up and sat me on the bench. Steve cups my face. "Its not your fault. None of this is." I heard commotion upstairs. I quickly managed to get myself up and head to the noise. It was coming from Nats room. Soon as I opened the door, Nat was climbing in from the window. My blood boiled, hands were turning red.

"Where the hell have you been!" She jumps, turning to me and Steve, who just came in. "Who were you with!"

"I can explain-"

"Oh please do." Steve crosses his arms.

"I was with Dean, he-

"Dean will be another story, but you made me and your mother very worried." Worried wasn't even on the list. "Start off why you did this?" I didn't have time for this.

"No! The whole idea of us staying here, not going in public is to keep you, our family safe! You were there when the car blew up, was that even a warning for you? Why? Why did you go out?"

"Its my business."

"Not under my roof. You leaving and this whole thing going around is my business. You had no right to leave, and even with no bodyguard."

"I couldn't stay here anymore, I had to clear my mind and I texted Dean to come and pick me up." Im starting to really hate this Dean. "We just walked in Central Park-"

"You are not just a normal teenage girl Natalie. You are Crystal and Steve Rogers' daughter. You, we, put you and your brother in risk every time we go out, send you to school, you name it." My voice got louder, angrier. "We thought someone took you, I was out of my mind!"

"You're no longer seeing Dean, not until we clear this."

"What! Thats so unfair!"

"You know whats so unfair? Having the thought that someone took you! Having a panic attack! Having everyone search for you! Now thats unfair." I snapped at her.

"What are going to do? Ground me? Lock me here? Remind you, I have powers."

"And I am your mother." She looks down. "Lets all hope that tomorrow, nothing bad happens." I walked out of her room and walked into my room. I hid myself in the corner and cried. All i can think was that she's alive, shes okay, but the other half, what was going to happen now? Steve comes in, slowly opens the door.

"Shes safe now." I laid my head on his shoulder.

"I thought she was gone. I wouldn't forgive myself if she was gone." He strokes my hair back.

Natalie flopped her bag on the floor and sat on her bed. What has she done? She had never seen her mother cry like that, not since grandpa and Nat died. She knew what she did was wrong. She also thought that it was stupid of her to even leave the house, but she did. All Nat knew was that she would never do it again. She picks up her phone and looks at the millions of missed calls from her mom and dad, one of them being uncle Sam.

"Im sorry." She whispers, wiping her tears away.

"You made mom scared you know." Tony comes in, leans on the door frame.

"I know." She sniffs. "I was being selfish." Tony nods and was about to leave, but turns back to Nat.

"Nat?" She hums. "I thought I lost you. Please dont do that again."

"I promise Tony."