Summary: Sarah Rogers, the daughter of Steve and Natasha Rogers, can't wait for her dad to return home from a mission. However, when he does return, he's injured and badly in need of a hospital.

Sarah Natalia Rogers was currently draped over the couch, looking excitedly out the window for the seventh night in a row. It was still very light out thanks to the summer months, so she could almost see all the way down the street. If that stupid garage wasn't in her way, she would be able to see the entire street. Nevertheless, she strained to see around it in hopes of spotting her father quicker.

"Sarah?" Natasha called from the kitchen. Sarah turned around just as Natasha peered into the living room. "It's time for dinner, malyshka."

"But Daddy's not back yet," Sarah whined, slumping down on the couch and twisting around to face her mother. "Can we wait for him?"

"Alright," Natasha said, glancing out the window behind Sarah. "Five more minutes."

Sarah happily turned back around on the couch, her face nearly pressed against the window. Natasha smiled at her and shook her head. Every time one of them left for a mission, she would sit at the window every night and wait. Natasha wasn't sure when Steve was going to be back, but she hoped it was soon for Sarah's sake.

"Can I go on the porch, Mama?" Sarah asked.

Natasha nodded and watched as she scrambled off the couch and onto the porch, forgetting to shut the door all the way as she ran to the edge of the garage instead of staying on the porch. Natasha laughed softly and walked across the living room to shut the door. Right before the door latched, she heard a muffled bang and a loud scream.

Natasha threw open the door and rushed down to make sure Sarah was okay. It was obvious as soon as Natasha looked at her daughter that the five year old was fine. However, neighbours were flooding into the streets and began yelling even more.

"Stay here," Natasha told Sarah. She nodded and watched as Natasha rushed up the street to see what was wrong.

As soon as she broke through the crowd of neighbours, she froze. Steve was laying on the ground with blood seeping from his chest. He gasped for air and ended up coughing up blood. That was enough to get Natasha moving again as she rushed forward and dropped down beside him.

"Steve? What happened?" she asked, hands hovering over his wound as she tried to think up ways to stop the bleeding.

"Gun—" Steve was interrupted by more coughing and Natasha panicked even more. "I'm fine, Nat."

"You're most certainly not fine," Natasha snapped. She looked around and spotted a couple of her neighbours that were watching and waved them over. "Help me get him to my car," she instructed. Two men came over and helped her carefully pick up Steve and rush him a few houses down to their own.

"Daddy?" Sarah whimpered. Natasha had almost forgotten about her in the haste to get Steve to the car.

"He'll be okay, malyshka," Natasha assured her, putting her clean hand on Sarah's cheek. "Get in the car. We're going to see Uncle Tony."

Sarah didn't have to be told twice. She clambered into her car seat and buckled her seatbelt as Natasha sped out of the driveway and towards the Tower. It was closer than SHIELD and Tony had good medical staff on hand, so that's where she headed. She broke nearly every traffic law on the way, but she wasn't going to take twenty minutes to be legal when she knew the Stark lawyers could get her out of any lawsuit if she got there in half the time illegally.

When they pulled up in front of the Tower, Steve was still coughing up blood and Sarah was in tears. Natasha tried to comfort her, but getting Steve inside and up to the medical floor was more important, so she focused on that instead.

"FRIDAY, get us to medical," Natasha demanded, practically holding Steve up on her own inside Tony's private elevator.

"Would you like me to contact Mr. Stark as well?" FRIDAY asked. Natasha glanced down at Sarah who was crying as if she was the one shot.

"Yes," she replied. Someone needed to watch Sarah while Natasha stayed with Steve. Hopefully, Morgan would be around so the two girls could play, but Tony would do fine at distracting Sarah if not.

When the elevator doors opened, medical staff were waiting with a stretcher just a few steps away. They rushed to pick Steve up and put him on the gurney before running him down the hall. Natasha tried to follow, but a few doctors stopped her. Before she could kill them all, someone grabbed her from behind.

"Hey, Red," Tony said, pulling her away from the doctors kicking and screaming. Natasha spun around and glared at him, but he didn't let up. "How about you tell me what happened?"

"Steve was shot," she said blankly. Tony seemed shocked for a few seconds before recovering. "It wasn't even on his stupid mission. He was shot coming home and now he's probably going to die because I couldn't get him here soon enough and—"

"Alright, time out," Tony interrupted.

Natasha furiously wiped at her face, trying to erase the tears that had managed to appear while her guard was down. She ended up smearing Steve's blood across her cheek and looked down at her bloodstained hands.

"Mama?" Sarah whimpered. Tony's eyes widened as he turned to see Sarah, not having spotted her before.

"Kid? Did you—You know what, let's go upstairs and wait for Steve to come out of surgery, alright?" Tony suggested, wrapping an arm around Sarah's shoulders.

She clung to his leg tightly so he reached down and picked her up. He held Sarah up with one arm and she wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder. He used his other arm to wrap around Natasha and guide her back into the elevator.

"Morgan's here," he said softly on the ride up to the penthouse. "She just got back from a sleepover, but I'm sure she'd love to play with you, Sarah. Does that sound fun?"

Sarah shook her head, keeping her face buried and Tony removed his arm from around Natasha to rub her back.

"What sounds fun?" he asked.

"I just want Daddy," Sarah cried, her words hard to understand with her face buried. Tony still understood her, though, and sighed as the elevator doors opened.

"Daddy is going to be perfectly fine," Tony assured her, walking out of the elevator. Natasha followed him numbly and he guided her to the couch to sit down. He sat down beside her with Sarah in his lap and looked at her tear stained face. "How about this, you and Morgan can play a game or watch a movie and I'll make sure Daddy is okay, alright?"

"Okay," Sarah said. Tony stood back up and set Sarah on the couch beside Natasha, telling them he'd go get Morgan then walking down the hall to her room.

"Morgan?" he asked, knocking on her door.

"It's open," Morgan yelled from inside. Tony opened the door and walked into her room, softly shutting the door behind him. Morgan looked up from her tablet and grinned when she saw her dad standing in front of her.

"Would you mind playing with Sarah for a while?" Tony asked. Morgan shook her head and sat up, locking her tablet and putting it away.

"Sure," she answered. "I didn't know she was coming by today."

"She wasn't," Tony said. He paused, wondering if he really should tell his fourteen year old daughter what had happened or if Pepper would be upset with him. He decided on a safe medium and said, "Something happened to Uncle Steve and she's worried, so I was hoping you could distract her."

"Yeah, of course," Morgan said softly. "Is Uncle Steve alright? What happened?"

"Yeah, he'll be fine," Tony told her. "He got hurt and Aunt Nat brought him to Stark medical, but he'll be fine."

"Is Aunt Nat okay?" Morgan asked. Tony shrugged and opened her bedroom door.

"As okay as she can be I guess," he replied, leading her down the hall and back to Sarah.

* * * * *

Natasha went back down to Stark medical once she was sure Sarah would be okay with Morgan. She sat in the waiting room since Steve still wasn't out of surgery and waited anxiously, one foot bouncing as she watched the clock. Tony came down to join her once Pepper got off work and he sat beside her silently.

"Miss Rogers?" a nurse asked. Natasha's head snapped up and she looked at the nurse with wide eyes. "Mr. Rogers is out of surgery and resting in his room. You may go back and see him if you would like."

Natasha hopped out of her chair and rushed back to the few rooms behind the door without saying anything to the nurse. Tony thanked her for Natasha and asked for the room number, but Natasha didn't need it to find Steve. She reached his room before Tony could even tell her where he was.

Tony followed her into the room but stayed at the end of the bed while she went right to the chair beside him. She dropped down into it and reached for his hand, pulling it towards her and covering it with both her hands.

"See? I told you he'd be fine," Tony said, crossing his arms and looking at her amusedly. Natasha rolled her eyes and forced herself to look away from Steve.

"Thank you," she told him. Tony waved her off.

"That's what the medical team is here for," he said. "If no one ever got injured, they'd be out of a job."

"Glad I can be of service," Steve groaned. Natasha looked back at him as he slowly opened his eyes and smiled at her. "Hey," he said softly. His fingers twitched and she held onto his hand even tighter.

"Hey," she replied. She brought his hand up to her lips and gently kissed his knuckles. He stretched his fingers out and barely brushed her cheek with them.

"You look worried," he told her. Natasha let out a short breath and closed her eyes. "Hey, I'm alright. Come on, you can't really think I'd die that easily, can you?"

"I suppose not," she retorted. Steve smiled at her and she smiled back even if her eyes began to water again. "What happened? I just heard a noise and came running to find you shot."

"Oh," Steve said, frowning. "Right. I was driving by and saw Mrs. Harris needed help carrying a box inside, so I helped her out. On my way out, I said goodbye and hugged her. Mr. Harris just saw me leaving and came yelling at me and his wife—I guess he thought she was cheating on him with me, which isn't what happened just in case—"

"Alright, continue," Natasha interrupted.

"Anyway, he yelled at us then pulled out a gun and shot me before either of us could say anything," Steve replied. Natasha frowned. "It's not his fault. You know how he gets when he hasn't had his meds and I supposed I can see how he might get that idea."

"He shot you and you're defending him," Natasha said, not really surprised Steve was doing such a thing. Steve just grinned and Natasha shook her head. "Just so you know, you gave the whole neighbourhood a scare and Sarah was so terrified she didn't stop sobbing until Morgan offered to play spies with her."

"Sarah saw?" Steve asked quietly. Natasha nodded and his face fell. "Oh god, I'm such an awful dad."

"No, you're not," Natasha immediately objected. "If anything, it's my fault since I insisted you be brought to the car instead of bringing the car to you."

"Is she alright?" Steve asked. Natasha nodded.

"She's fine, just shaken up," she replied. As if on cue, the door opened and Sarah came running into the room. Natasha and Steve looked up to see Tony, Pepper, and Morgan following her at a slower pace.

"Daddy!" Sarah yelled, flinging herself at the bed. She didn't quite make the leap and Natasha helped her onto the bed, telling her to be careful. Sarah either didn't hear or forgot Natasha's instructions as she hugged Steve tightly. Natasha saw his face contort in pain but he managed to not complain.

"Hey, baby girl," Steve said once she pulled away. "Mama says you were very brave."

"Not really," Sarah said, wringing her hands and looking down at her lap. "I cried a lot and was really scared."

"Hey, but that's okay," Steve told her. "Even heroes get scared."

"Were you scared?" she asked. Steve nodded.

"Yes, I was," he replied. "But Uncle Tony has the best doctors, so I knew they'd fix me right up."

"Me too," Sarah agreed. Steve glanced up to see Morgan standing beside his bed and reached up to grab her hand.

"Hey, kiddo," he said. Morgan smiled down at him and gripped his hand tightly. "Thanks for keeping Sarah busy."

"No problem," Morgan replied. "I'm glad you're okay."

"We all are," Pepper added. Steve smiled at all of them then pulled Sarah back down so he could hug her again.

"Me too," Steve said. He kissed Sarah's cheek and she curled up against him. "Now, when can I leave? I haven't been home in ages and would love to have a home cooked meal."

"Oh my god!" Natasha gasped, hands flying to her mouth. Everyone looked at her and she slowly turned red. "I completely forgot I had food on the stove."