Summary: After the Accords fallout, Team Cap is forced to go underground to avoid imprisonment. Now, with the Accords successfully amended and everyone is safe to return to the normal world, there's only one thing Steve and Natasha want to do: get their son.

Three years. It had been three years since the Accords had first been suggested and the resulting fight had taken place. While those who had taken the government's side and signed the Accords had been free to continue as normal after the airport fight, those who had opposed (or in Natasha's case, defected) had been forced to go underground. Only after two years did they decide to try and amend the Accords so they could continue working as a team and not have to run between safe houses in different countries. It was Natasha they sent to contact Tony in secret and ever since then, she'd been going back and forth to help edit the Accords to everyone's liking. Now, a year after the edits first began, the Accords were being finalized and the Rogue Avengers—as the news called them—were returning home.

"Can't we just sign them privately?" Wanda asked, fidgeting in her seat as Tony explained there was an entire press conference just for their signing.

"With all the history tied to this thing, no," Tony replied. He'd tried to keep the conference small, but there were certain government officials that needed to be present, specific EU ambassadors necessary, and many news sources that had been promised a first-hand account of the process.

"It'll just be a one-day thing, though," Natasha reminded her. The first signing had been an entire weekend, so getting it cut down to just a day was nothing short of a miracle.

The next five minutes consisted of Tony explaining the process and how the day would go. By the time he'd finished, they were being called out and the ceremony began.

* * * * *

Natasha was usually the one that kept it together the best. Most of the time, Steve was antsy and fidgeted while Natasha watched on with amusement. Now it was the exact opposite. Steve had been forced to pilot the quinjet because Natasha simply couldn't sit still long enough to focus on flying.

For what it was worth, Steve wasn't surprised. It had been three years of no contact other than short phone calls to Laura and finally, finally, they could see their son again. Natasha had actually cried when Steve told her they were going to pick up James immediately after the Accords signing. They hadn't answered any questions from either the team or the reporters before walking out the door and loading up a quinjet.

"Nat, pacing won't make the jet go faster," Steve said softly, wrapping his arm around her waist to stop her in her tracks. He still had one hand on the controller as they couldn't put the jet on autopilot without entering the Barton house coordinates.

"I know," Natasha replied, sinking down onto his lap and laying her head on his shoulder. He gently kissed her temple and shifted slightly so they were both more comfortable.

"We only have an hour longer," Steve told her.

She groaned and buried her face in his neck, making Steve smile. He knew it was hard on her being away from James for so long. She'd always had a hard time going on missions and leaving him behind. After three years, he wasn't surprised she was so antsy.

The hour seemed to drag on forever, but eventually Steve was landing the quinjet in an open field and opening the back hatch. Natasha ran out of the jet before the hatch had fully opened, jumping to the ground in her haste to get to the house. Steve grabbed both of their bags before following after her, fighting the urge to run as well. Now that they were finally at the Barton house, the excitement about seeing James again seemed to finally arrive.

Natasha was almost to the house when the front door opened and a little blond boy came running down the stairs in nothing but shorts and mismatched socks.

"Mommy!" he screamed. Natasha didn't bother stopping as she scooped James up into her arms and hugged him tightly. James wrapped his arms and legs around her and Steve felt his eyes well up with tears as he approached them.

"Hey, baby," he heard Natasha say softly. He couldn't see her face, but he knew she was crying. Her body was only shaking slightly, but he knew her well enough to know she was an absolute mess.

"Daddy!" James exclaimed, wiggling away from Natasha.

She reluctantly handed him over to Steve, keeping one arm around him as the little boy hugged Steve. Just like he'd thought, Natasha's face was wet with tears and she bit her lip as she looked at James. Steve pulled her to him, wrapping one arm around her shoulders and using the other to hold James.

"Hey, bud," Steve said, kissing his cheek.

James moved so he could wrap one little arm around Natasha's neck and the other around Steve's, moving back and forth as he kissed their faces. Natasha laughed, more tears starting down her cheeks when James tried to kiss them away.

"Don't be sad, Mama," he told her, letting go of Steve to hug Natasha.

"I'm just so happy to see you again," she said, kissing his cheek as she hugged him.

Steve wrapped them both up in his arms and kissed Natasha's head softly. He heard the front door open again and looked up to see Laura, Lila, Cooper, and Nathaniel grinning. All the kids had grown in the past three years, but James and Nathaniel had grown the most. If Steve were honest, he was a little surprised James remembered what his parents looked like. He'd only been two when they'd had to leave him; now he was five but still clearly knew who they were. Even when Steve had a beard and Natasha's hair was longer with blonde at the end, James hadn't had a single doubt about who they were.

"He's been watching out the window for the past three hours," Laura said as they pulled away.

Natasha smiled at her and Laura said nothing about her teary eyes. Even Laura had tears in her eyes, so Steve figured she wouldn't be snitching on them to Clint anytime soon.

"Auntie Laura told me this morning," James explained, not moving from Natasha's arms as they walked towards the house.

Steve picked up their bags from where he'd dropped them on the ground and followed Natasha into the house.

Laura had cooked a full dinner for them complete with dessert and juice. James was squished between Natasha and Steve so tightly Steve wondered how he had any room to eat. He'd pulled their chairs close enough they practically formed a bench instead of chairs.

The entire meal, James told them about how Laura had started teaching him to read and how Lila was showing him how to do archery. Cooper let him and Nathaniel play with his Legos and old action figures, but neither James nor Nathaniel would tell them how to do their secret handshake.

By the time the kids were getting ready for bed, James was having trouble keeping his eyes open. He refused to part from Natasha longer than it took to use the bathroom though, so Natasha agreed to let him stay up a little longer. He fell asleep on her lap five minutes later, but Natasha didn't attempt to move him.

"He always asks about you," Laura said as they sat in the living room.

Steve had his arm around Natasha's shoulders and his hand on James's small head. Natasha was curled up beside him, looking very content with James on her lap.

"I can't believe we actually left him this long and he remembers us," Natasha murmured, gently brushing some hair from James's face.

"The kids and I told him stories every day," Laura smiled. From the first night until his last, one of them had told James a bedtime story about his parents. There were photos of them covering his side of his and Nathaniel's shared room. Some of them were taken by their friends and others had been found online, but Laura knew it didn't matter to James.

"I'm never leaving him again," Natasha decided, staring down as James softly. Steve pressed a kiss to her forehead and Laura smiled. "No more missions; I'll just stay home and we can play together all day."

"Sounds like a plan," Steve agreed, glancing down at James and making a mental note right then to tell Tony the Rogers were officially done Avenging.

He always had been better at strategizing missions and he could do that from the safety of the Compound as he watched James and Natasha play nearby. If Tony argued, well, that was a problem for another day (Tony didn't argue; he bought them a house and told them he didn't want to see them on missions ever again, but they did need to visit every once and a while).