chapter fifty-one
not my parents

𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐀𝐑𝐌𝐒 while staring at the Maximoff twins. "You know, I'm really trying to give you guys the benefit of the doubt, but when you do things like this, it makes it kinda hard."

"You two can still walk away from this," Steve told them from beside Adelaide.

Wanda nodded. "Oh, we will."

"I know you've suffered—"

Ultron groaned and Adelaide raised her eyebrows at the machine that interrupted the soldier. "Captain America. God's righteous man, pretending you could live without a war. I can't physically throw up in my mouth, but..."

"Oh, just shut up, you stupid piece of machinery," Adelaide said, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms over her chest. "If you really believe in peace, then we don't need to be doing this."

"I think, little girl, you're confusing peace with quiet," Ultron contradicted and she squeaked in annoyance.

"'Little girl'?" she repeated indignantly. "I am the same age as them." She pointed at the Maximoff twins before scoffing. "Little girl..."

"Addy."

She looked up at Steve and cleared her throat. "Sorry..."

Tony nodded, turning back to his robot. "What's the vibranium for?" he asked.

"I'm glad you asked that," Ultron said, in mock glee. "Because I wanted to take this time to explain my evil plan—"

Suddenly, Ultron attacked Tony and his drones began attacking Adelaide, Steve, and Thor as the twins joined the fight.

"Well, that's just rude," Adelaide huffed, running after Pietro. "Why on earth am I chasing the fastest man I've ever met? This sounds like a death wish..."

"Do you know that you talk a lot?" A voice behind Adelaide made her turn around and saw Pietro leaning against the wall with a smirk on his face. "It kind of goes against the purpose of being stealthy, don't you think?"

She shook her head. "Nobody asked you," she retorted, crossing her arms. "Why are you doing this? Is there a purpose to all of this?"

Pietro shrugged. "You should ask Stark."

"Which one?"

"Either," he replied shortly before zooming away.

Before Adelaide could say another word, she felt a presence behind her and saw Wanda, her eyes glowing red. "What are you—?" She turned around as the scenery around her changed and she saw a couple sitting at a kitchen island. "Grace?" she asked, walking closer to the pair. "Steve?"

"Have you been stuck in your head again, honey?" Adelaide furrowed her brows at the voice as a blonde woman appeared in front of her. "Grace and Steve don't exist. It's only us."

Adelaide glanced between the two. "Mom? Dad?"

"I see you've finally managed to get home," her 'father' said making her look at him in confusion. "I didn't expect you to take twenty-eight years."

Adelaide shook her head. "I have to go to work."

"Oh, but honey, you are," the woman told her. "You work at the bakery with your father and me. Are you feeling alright, dear?"

"My parents gave me up," she said, swatting the hand away from her shoulder. "This isn't funny anymore. Where are Grace and Steve? They actually care about me."

"Are you talking about Steve Rogers again?" her 'mother' asked and Adelaide ran a hand through her blonde locks. "You know they never found him in the ice. He's been missing since the end of the war. And I don't know who this 'Grace' person is."

"She's the person who actually gave a shit about me," Adelaide snapped. "And from the moment he met me, so has Steve.

"Addy."

"I don't know who you two are," Adelaide said, shaking her head. "But you're not my parents. I don't care what you say."

"Addy."

Adelaide jumped and glanced around at her surroundings. She looked up and saw Steve kneeling next to her. "Are we in real life?" she asked and he nodded, his mind still in a bit of a daze.

"Yeah." She quickly wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. "Are you okay?" he asked her, looking over for any injuries.

She nodded. "I'm fine," she replied quietly. "Are you okay?"

"I will be," he said, standing up and holding out a hand for her. "Come on, let's go find the others."

She followed him out of the tunnel and glanced at him. "What did you see?" she asked and he pressed his lips together, not wanting to think about it.

"It doesn't matter," he said, clearing his throat as they found the rest of the Avengers were gathered. "Not anymore."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐂𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐓 𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 Quinjet, the Avengers looked around in confusion at the large farmhouse. "What is this place?" Thor asked.

"A safe house?" Tony guessed, having had a conversation with Clint only hours earlier.

Clint let out a breath. "Let's hope." They all walked into the house and looked around. "Honey? I'm home." They saw a pregnant woman walk in from the kitchen. "Hi." Clint smiled. "Company. Sorry I didn't call ahead."

Laura Barton smiled. "Hey."

Tony leaned toward Thor. "This is an agent of some kind," he said under his breath and Adelaide quirked an eyebrow upward at him which he noticed. "Stop staring at me."

"Gentlemen," Clint said before looking at Adelaide. "And Addy, this is Laura." Adelaide smiled at the woman while the others looked at her awkwardly. "Ooh, incoming."

"Dad!" Adelaide looked over and saw two little kids running into Clint's arms.

Tony pointed at them. "These are... smaller agents."

"You know, I made that joke once, but it didn't go down too well." The group turned at the voice and saw Grace standing in the doorway of the farmhouse. "Well, Laura didn't find it funny. Cooper thought it was a great idea."

"Gracie!" Cooper exclaimed while Lila was hugging Natasha and Grace smiled, picking up the little boy. "Did you bring any candy?"

"Did I bring any candy?" she asked thoughtfully, a playful frown on her face. "Well, why would I do that? Is there a little boy and girl who live here who like candy?"

"Me!" the two said in unison making her laugh and she set Cooper down, pulling out two bags of candy for each of them.

"What do you say?" Laura asked her children who beamed up at the brunette.

"Thank you, Gracie!"

She ruffled Lila's hair before walking over to the group. "Sorry for barging in on you," Steve said, glancing at Grace in confusion for a moment.

"Yeah." Tony nodded. "We would have called ahead, but we were busy having no idea that you existed."

Grace shrugged. "That means I did my job correctly."

"Yeah, Grace helped me set this up when I joined," Clint said, gesturing to the brunette. "She kept it off SHIELD's files, I'd like to keep it that way. I figure it's a good place to lay low."

Tony looked at his aunt. "So, just how many other tricks do you have up your sleeve that we don't know about?"

She patted his shoulder while Steve and Adelaide followed Thor out of the house. "Well, they wouldn't be tricks if I told you, now would it?"

"Aunt Gracie!" he called after her as she walked outside. "I'm your nephew! If anyone should know something, it should be me!"

Lila held up her bag of candy that she got from Grace at Tony. "Lollipop?" she asked and he looked down at her.

"Okay."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 outside of the house and watched Steve stand on the porch. "What did you see?" she asked and he looked over at her. "Clint told me that you guys all saw something. And it's clearly affecting you. What's wrong?"

He shook his head and looked out at the field once more. "It's nothing," he replied. "I promise."

"See, I don't believe you," she said, standing next to him. "And do you know why I don't believe you? Because you are doing the same thing I have always done. Avoid the questions, give the illusion that everything is fine when in reality... you're not. So...?"

Steve sighed and rolled his neck. "I was... I was in the middle of a battle," he said and she tilted her head. "Everything was destroyed, but what got me was you."

"Me?"

"You were dead," he whispered and her face fell. "Because I couldn't stop whatever it was from happening. I couldn't live with myself if something happened to you."

Grace looked at him before letting out a breath. "I don't need you to protect me," she said quietly. "I never did. I fell in love with you because... you looked at me for me, not because I was broken." She took his hand in hers and placed it over her heart. "You feel that? A perfectly strong, beating heart. I'm not going anywhere. You owe me seventy years, Rogers."

"But what if you can't figure out how to start aging again?" he asked and she clicked her tongue.

"Well, then that would be giving up," she replied with a shrug. "And I don't intend to give up on us. I'll find a way, I promise you that. We are going to grow old together, Steve. I think we deserve that much."

He nodded and brushed back a lock of her dark brown hair. He kissed her nose and she smiled. "I love you."

"I love you more."

"Impossible."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍 the kitchen when Laura walked in. "Oh, sorry," Adelaide said making Laura look at her. "Am I in your way?"

"Not at all," Laura replied with a smile. "Is everything alright? You seem a bit... I don't know, distracted. Anything to do with the hit you guys took?"

Adelaide shrugged. "Probably."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Laura asked, sitting down across from the blonde who looked up at her. "If you want, of course."

"Is it... weird for me to hate two people I've never met before?" Laura tilted her head and Adelaide sighed. "I mean... I don't know. I saw my parents in that vision thing. And I've gone my entire life not really caring about them. But they were in my vision. And I hate them."

"Maybe it was your subconscious telling you that you wanted to know about them," Laura suggested with a shrug. "It's normal to be curious. About where you come from. Why you have blonde hair and not brown."

"But I've never cared," Adelaide said, playing with her fingers. "And I'm not saying that to argue with myself, I've just truly never given them a thought. All I knew was that they left me at a fire station when I was five years old. And I was okay with that. I didn't need anything more than that. I had a life that I was living. SHIELD, the Avengers. I was good."

Laura nodded before placing her hands over the blonde's. "I'm no expert," she said softly. "I can promise you that, but... I think somewhere, deep deep inside of you, you always wanted to know. Whether you acknowledged it or not, you were curious."

"But they were never there," Adelaide argued, shaking her head. "They never cared. But Grace and Steve... they care. They were the names I called out first in that vision because I thought it was them. He was the one who woke me up, she was the one who found me and recruited me to SHIELD. They're more my parents than... than those other people ever were."

"Are you scared to tell them that?" Laura asked.

"Tell them what?"

"That you think of them as parents," she said and Adelaide raised her eyebrows. "Family isn't always blood, Adelaide. Sometimes it's the people who are there for you during your hardest times that make them family. Maybe what you're so worried about is that everything would change if you told them." Laura stood up from the table and patted the girl's hands. "But I've known Grace for many years. I wouldn't be too worried."

Adelaide watched as the woman started toward the living room. "Really?"

Laura turned back and smiled with a nod. "You'll know what to do, Adelaide. You're a smart girl. Clint's told me that plenty of times. You'll know."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

an: grace, steve, and addy
deserve the world... truly

but we're only that much
closer to her calling them
'mom' and 'dad' :)