day one
Natasha was shocked. No, she was furious. Fury had gone and gotten himself another mutant baby, and now he wanted Natasha and Rogers to go live with it until they took down the organization that had made this kid in the first place. When they had been called into Fury’s office, they were glad because it meant they could go on a solo mission together. They never did that anymore. Natasha was excited to spend some quality time with her friend, killing bad guys.
But instead of “go get rid of a HYDRA base” or “go take out a threat to SHIELD”, it was “go live in Louisiana and take care of this baby while the rest of us get to do real superhero stuff”. Those weren’t his exact words, but still. After a lot of arguing and “are you fucking kidding me, Fury?”s and “I’m an avenger, not a damn babysitter!”s, everyone realized that Fury was not going to budge on this.
“You two are my best agents, Avengers Initiative be damned. We have a good house set up for you in New Orleans. It’s right on the bayous, good neighborhood, good neighbors. We’ll have several Agents stationed around you discretely. Don’t disappoint me.”
And that was that. Natasha, still a little shell shocked (they both were) went to pack a bag. She threw in dresses and heels without much thought, knowing there would be closets full of clothes at the safe house. She was going to assume that identity of Hillary Mesa, a stay at home mom, while Steve would turn into Aaron Mesa, her husband and a CEO at a company working with renewable energy. The kid, a little girl, had been in a bassinette labeled “Romana” when the Russian field agents found her, and they decided it would be easiest to continue calling her that. Romana Mesa had a nice ring to it, anyway. Fury had suggested that Natasha dye her hair, but backed off when she threw him a death glare, subconsciously touching the flaming red hair cascading past her shoulders. She would never be a blonde.
In three hours, Natasha and Steve (Hillary and Aaron) were on a first class flight to Louisiana, the baby sleeping on Natasha’s chest. They had bickered the whole way there about the right way to hold the child, the right way to talk to her, the right way to change a diaper, and everything in between. Natasha had been trained at the Red Room to take care of kids, so she could be whatever she needed to be whenever she needed to be it. Plus, she spent so much time around Clint’s kids that parenting was like a deeply buried twelfth nature, behind everything else she was good at. Steve, on the other hand, had much more experience with children but still had no idea what to do with them. He thought he was right and Natasha was wrong. Natasha thought she was right and he was wrong. Finally, they agreed that while they were in public, Natasha would put on the image of stay at home mom, but while they were in private Steve could take care of Romana all he wanted. It’s not like they were going to admit it, but the little rosy cheeks and alert blue eyes and dusting of brown hair were starting to grow on them already.
Thankfully, Romana didn’t cry much during the short flight. She was only eight months old and was content sleeping in Natasha's arms or looking around the plane. When they finally landed, Steve reached above to get their suitcases, not wanting Natasha to disturb the child. Hill had left them clothes to wear on the trip, clothing Natasha in a floral tea skirt and white bouse, while Steve got to be all practical in slacks and a sweater. Natasha bounced Romana slightly when she began to cry, and they hurried off the plane.
“Well Rogers, how to do you like being a dad?” Natasha smirked as Steve came out of the bathroom after changing Romana’s diaper. They had been on the way to the car Fury hired to take them to their house when they noticed a vile smell coming from the child.
“It’s...stinky. Here,” he said, handing her back to Natasha.
The drive was short, and after three and a half hours of travel, they arrived at a white, columned, three-story house in a gated suburb. The whole place was shrouded in willow trees and old fashioned street lamps, the road made out of bricks. It was cute. They unloaded their bags and went walked up the driveway, Natasha still cradling Romana against her chest. A few kids rode their bikes in the culdesac, a few people mowing lawns or sipping lemonade on their porches, but everyone stopped to look at their new neighbors.
“Kiss my cheek and laugh at something I said. You look like a robot,” Natasha muttered through a smile. Steve followed her instructions, pausing on the porch to add another kiss to Romana’s head. She giggled, burying her little face in Natasha’s shoulder. The baby was small for her age, but developmentally mature. Helen Cho did the initial exam when Romana arrived at the compound, taking DNA and blood samples to determine whether she was enhanced for not. The child had been given some sort of serum, Helen reported, but the exact breakdown was still being analyzed in the lab. She could already pull herself to a standing position and walk with assistance, eat solids, and babble certain words, in her own baby way. Because of this accelerated development, they decided to tell anyone who asked that she was already a year old. It would look suspicious in an eight-month-old could do all the things an older baby might be able to.
Steve unlocked the door, allowing light to spill into the huge house. The interior was vintage but open and bright. A long hallway cut the bottom story in half, a huge living room on one side of the door and a kitchen with a bar on the other. The dining room was connected to the kitchen through a large, arched doorway. Farther back there were two bathrooms, a sunroom, and a door leading to the back patio. There were a gazebo and a dock out into the bayous, bright green grass, and a swing hanging from the canopy of a huge willow tree. Natasha, still with Romana settled on her hip, began the trek up the large staircase. Upstairs, there were five bedrooms and three bathrooms. One of the rooms was a nursery decorated with pale greens and whites, mobiles of fake leaves and a large bay window overlooking the backyard. Natasha’s room was painted two walls red, two walls white, a large canopy bed settled in the center of the room. What she assumed was Steve’s room was painted blue, with an American flag hanging above the bed. She chuckled a little at that, making a mental note to thank Fury for that touch. The other two were identical guest rooms. Natasha allowed Romana to climb the stairs on her own, gripping both her little hands. The third story was a second living room, a much cozier one. Less for show. Completed with a flatscreen TV, shag carpets, and an L shaped curved couch, Natasha knew this is where they would be spending most of their time to avoid the gazes of their nosy neighbors.
Romana toddled over to the window seat across from the stairs, Natasha smiling in amusement as she followed the baby. Natasha lifted her to stand on the window seat with her little black shoes. Romana put her hands up to the glass, babbled and pointed to the gazebo.
“Do you want to go outside,” Natasha questioned.
In response, Romana sat down and tried to get off the seat. Natasha swept her up into her arms. “Come on, let’s go find daddy and check-in. maybe we’ll go out after that.”
She felt so strange referring to Steve as this child’s father, but Romana was learning hot to talk, and she could ‘t call Steve Steve, or Cap, or Aaron, or whatever else she might end up staying. Natasha’s stomach did a little flip when she realized this would mean Romana would call her mom. They made it down the stairs together, Natasha’s heels making loud noises against the wooden boards. It was going to be hard to sneak around this place while wearing shoes.
“Hey, Rogers, just looked around upstairs. Should we go out to get dinner or something? I don’t think Fury really left us anything to eat,” Natasha called through the house.
“Are you sure we should go out?”
Natasha found him unpacking books onto half-empty shelves. All she had brought for entertainment was her laptop and her phone. “I think it’s fine. It’s going to look strange if we don’t get out of the house at some point. Besides, we can stop at the grocery store on the way back. We need food.”
They eventually decided on going to a fancy pizza place twenty minutes away. There was a BMW SUV in the driveway, car seat already installed. Steve changed Romana’s clothes to a sage green linen dress with a little white collar. It was cute, and it seemed that Romana’s assigned color was green. Natasha has noticed that with children, the adults around them seem to pick up on one color for their child. Their room is that color, their clothes are that color, and soon enough the kid likes that color more than their parents do. Natasha and Steve locked the door behind them, nearly to the car when two women approached them.
“Hello, I’m Jackie, and this is my wife, Lisa! You’re the new neighbors, right?” Jackie stuck out her hand, and Steve shook it, sending a sideways glance to Natasha. Natasha shifted Romana in her arms and squeezed Steve’s shoulder in what she hoped was a reassuring manner.
“Yes, we are. My husband Aaron and I just moved from DC with our daughter, Romana.” Natasha replied sweetly, smiling.
“That sounds lovely!” Lisa said (in the fake way that people say things when they don't really care, but want to seem like they care anyway).
“Oh, it is, we’re so excited to be here! Anyways, we’re about to go off to dinner. See you another time, Jackie! Bye Lisa!” Natasha pulled Steve along with her to the car, unlocking the door.
“Wait, I don’t think I got your name,” Jackie called from behind them.
“I’m Hillary, Hillary Mesa.” Lies, lies, lies. Natasha set Romana gently down in the seat, bucking her into the harness before walking around to get in the passenger side of the car. “Have a good night!”
“You think they’re just neighbors, not HYDRA, not anything else?” Steve asked, buckling his seat belt and backing out of the driveway.
“They seem harmless,” Natasha responded, turning around to check that Romana was still buckled securely. She was entranced with the mirror on Steve’s headrest, reaching her hang up in an attempt to touch it. Natasha smiled softly.
“She’s pretty cute, I’ll admit that much,” Steve said, glancing back at the baby.
“Yeah,” Natasha said softly.
They got back to the house at nine thirty, trunk full of groceries. Romana slept soundly in her car seat, having already fallen asleep against Natasha in the restaurant, then in the sling strapped to Steve’s torso in the grocery store while they shopped. Steve, careful not to wake her, took her out of the car and upstairs while Natasha carried three bags of food into the house. When she was finally done putting it all away, Steve had put Romana to sleep.
“What a day,” he sighed, collapsing into a stool by the bar.
“Amen to that, captain,” Natasha responded.
“We need to read the files Maria sent over earlier. We need to look at the lab samples and call Stark and google how to take care of a baby.”
“First of all, we don’t need to google it. Fury sent us with a parenting for dummies book. I don’t know if I should be insulted or thankful. Secondly, let’s leave all that for tomorrow. I’m tired. You’re practically falling asleep on your hand,” (Steve interrupted with an indignant, ‘no I’m not!’ before sitting up straighter) “let’s just go to bed and deal with everything else in the morning.”
Steve agreed grudgingly and followed Natasha upstairs. He split off to take a shower, so Natasha opened her laptop and checked for any communication from Fury. There was an email from Pepper that said "I'm dying to come over, Romana is just too cute! maybe I can talk to Tony about visiting...have fun you two! love, Pepper" and another from Clint reading "behave yourselves way out there in croc land. or alligator land. I don't know the difference. promise to facetime us (as in the team, we miss you guys already) every day. I want superbaby to know who we are. -clint". Natasha typed back responses to her two friends, sending an update to Hill and Fury as well. It was ten when she heard the water turn off, ten fifteen when she heard Steve settle into his bed and shut off the light. Her phone buzzed, displaying a text from the soldier: "goodnight romanoff" she replied, "night capsicle. sleep tight. don't let the bedbugs bite". then, as an afterthought, "we're going to kick ass at this whole baby thing. we can do this :)" She set her phone on the bedside table and watched as the moon rose, a smile on her face. Maybe this won't be so terrible, after all.