Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Avengers 1. Blindsided

A/N: I don't own _The Avengers_, _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D._,or _Thor_. Also, the time line has been skewed to allow for the preceding oneshots. Everything from _Captain America: the Winter Soldier_ forward is a year after it happens in the cannon, except Steve met Sam, and Sam joined the team (sort of) before WS. R&R!

They had spent the past year looking for him, and he had been right in front of them all along. It was Garrett; he was the Clairvoyant. He was someone they had all trusted with every fiber of their being, and he had been playing them the whole time.

As these thoughts ran through the mind of Agent Phillip J. Coulson, his fists hit the punching bag with great force each time. He was so focused on letting out his anger, he missed the figure walking up behind him.

"Dad, don't do this to yourself, please. He had us all fooled, and I think Trip might be just as angry as you are. Garrett may have saved your life in the past or whatever happened between you two to make you trust him, but he _took_ the lives of Trip's friends. He's gone now, and he'll pay for what he did; I'll have Mom make sure of it.", Skye told him.

"Did I ever tell you how happy I was when the two of you agreed that, even though she's just a little older than you, your respect for Darcy is great enough for you to call her that?", the Level 8 agent asked the Level 1 agent.

"You've mentioned that a few times. But, the real reason I came down here, we have a major problem that neither Trip, Fitz, Tony, nor Bruce can fix.", she said.

"What happened?", Phil asked.

"Well, Jemma ran those blood samples Tasha sent, and we found out that Tasha is pregnant. Yeah, it's supposed to be impossible, I know; but it's true. Jemma ran the tests three times more when I asked her too, and she'd already run them five times each. Add that to the fact that without S.H.I.E.L.D., Bruce could be in danger right now, and Jemma's a complete mess!", Skye explained, shocking Phil.

"I-I-I'm going to be a grandpa?!", Phil managed to get out.

"Yep, and I'm going to be an aunt! But, Dad, until I find Tasha, I think Bruce's safety should be our first concern. I have the backup laptop doing a facial recognition software scan for her, so until it goes off, I've got nothing on her. Anything I can actually do to help us?", she replied.

"You can go and collect everyone's badges. I'm going to call Darcy and ask her to have Tony increase security. Since every record of every member of our family is on its own flash drive in the safe at home, I want you to erase "every" record of this team. We're going into Odyssey Protocol, making us ghosts.", he answered as he hurried up to his office.

"You got it!", she called over her shoulder as Jemma walked up behind her.

"Is he okay?", the scientist asked, trembling.

"Jem, my dad just went to call home to get Tony to increase the security if he hasn't already. He's Tony's best friend, and he's married to one of the nation's top scientists. Bruce is safer now than he ever was before. Keep calm, and it will all be okay. Just breathe, and hand me your badge. Dad's orders, not mine!", Skye emphasized the last part of her statement.

Jemma nodded, took a deep breath, took her badge out of her pocket, and slid it across the table to Skye. The dark haired girl smiled sadly at the auburn haired girl, looking just passed her to see Fitz and Triplet.

"Jemma, send them in. I need their badges, then I have to get May's badge. And, if you're that worried, call him.", Skye said, and Jemma did as instructed before hurrying to the lab to call Bruce.

Fitz and Trip eyed Skye wearily as they stepped into the room, watching as she pressed a button on her computer to start erasing any trace of the team. The middle Coulson child sighed softly before looking at the two men.

"Coulson asked for your badges. He said they are the last things we want to get caught with, so hand them over.", Skye demanded, holding out her hand.

"What's that?", Fitz asked, pointing at her laptop as he handed over his badge.

"Don't freak out, but I'm erasing any trace of all of us. Really, I'm not; but the only other copy of any of our files is kept under lock-and-key by a rather snarky, pain-in-the-ass friend of mine. He's one of the most loyal people I know, and he trusts very few people, which I am one of, as is Coulson. If you ever meet him, make sure you never betray him. He won't like that, and he will make sure no one will like you. Got it?", Skye told them, and both men nodded.

"If there's anything you'll need from me, I'll be in the lab with Fits and Simmons.", Trip said briefly, and he and Fitz left back for the lab.

Skye hurriedly made her way to the cockpit to get May's badge, and the woman gave it up surprisingly easily. The badges in hand, Skye made it up the stairs and was in her father's office before he had even finished his phone call to Darcy.

"Is that Mom?", she asked him.

"It is, and she says, 'Hi!'", he replied, holding the phone away from his ear.

"Hey, Mom!", Skye said cheerily, but softly into the phone.

Skye remained silent until Phil's phone call was over, knowing not to interrupt an important phone call between her father and step-mother. Once he had hung up, Phil looked at his only daughter with a look of plain relief.

"Tony had the security upgrades done before I could even ask. Steve and Sam are okay, but Steve wants to find Bucky, who happens to be Winter Soldier. Maria made it to the guest apartment level, and she will be masquerading as S.H.I.E.L.D. leader-turn Pepper Potts' employee. S.H.I.E.L.D. is going underground, the way it was intended to be. All of the academies are going to be largely unaffected by us going underground, but we have to flush the Hydra agents out first.", Phil said, taking the badges from her.

"It all seems so simple, yet so difficult. Should I run a facial recognition scan on Bucky too? I think Steve would want the help.", Skye replied, and Phil smiled at her.

"Bucky won't be found until he wants to be. He and Nat are different in this. Nat doesn't want to hide because she has a family now, she has Clint. Bucky wants to hide until he knows who he is, why he's here, and how he can return to any semblance of normality.", he explained, and she nodded.

"Here, take it. It's not like I had it that long anyway. I'm going to go check to see if Tasha's popped up yet.", Skye replied, leaving the room, eager to find her sister-in-law.

As Skye started down the stairs, she heard a faint beeping. She turned around and reentered the room, her eyes catching on a golden flash from the safe.

"Dad, is that your badge blinking?", she asked, and Phil turned to look at where Skye was pointing.

Sure enough, it was his badge. A set of coordinates blinked before going solid, and Phil gaped.

"Do they all do that at some point?", Skye asked.

"Not to my knowledge, and I've been at S.H.I.E.L.D. since I was in my early thirties. Your uncle recruited me into the army when I got out of school, and then to S.H.I.E.L.D. once I was at the CIA. He gave me this badge, meaning he knew about this. He's leading us somewhere. Tell May to meet me in the Opps Center.", Phil said before closing the safe, his bade still in his hand.

That night, while May flew the BUS to the coordinates on Phil's badge, the man himself woke to a light tapping on his bedroom door. He opened the door to reveal a teary-eyed Skye, who clung to him tightly the second she saw him.

"Nightmare?", he asked.

"Yeah.", she mumbled back.

"Well, c'mon then. We both need to get some sleep.", Phil said as he led his daughter by the hand back to the bed.

"G'night, Daddy.", Skye mumbled, and then she was out.

Phil smiled at her, because it was rare that Skye was ever this clingy and innocent. Usually when she had nightmares about Quinn shooting her, she was at home and usually went looking for ice cream and/or her older brother. Only then would you have a difficult time telling the difference between 23 year-old Skylar Coulson and 2 year-old Emma Rogers.

Just before 5:00 A.M., Phil's door opened again, and he groaned as he realized he would have to explain his family to Melinda May.

"What the hell, Phil?", she hissed.

"She had another nightmare. Generally, when a girl gets scared, she runs to her father before anyone else. Usually, Skye goes to find her brother, but as he's at home trying to locate his wife and unborn child, she has me. Skye is my biological child, Melinda. The only person on this plane other than the two of us, who knew that is Simmons, and she only knows because her second cousin in the best friend of my youngest son's godfather. We all live in the one place, so when Jemma goes to visit Bruce at Christmas, she bunks with Skye.", he said quickly, and May nodded slowly.

"I came to wake you because we'll be landing in about an hour and a half.", she said and walked away without another word.

Once she was gone, Skye spoke up.

"So, that makes it more people on this plane who know even a half truth than people who know no truth about the family."

"Yeah, but I don't really care.", was Phil's only reply.

"Hey, Dad, before we land, can I call Ward?", she asked.

"Go ahead, and use your training to see if you can tell what his location is.", he answered, and Skye hurried off, still clad in her Captain America pajamas.

"Hey, it's me.", Skye said into the phone.

**"Hey."**, Ward replied.

"Just calling to let you know Grant Ward no longer exists. Coulson had me erase any trace of us.", she told him, silently adding, "outside of Tony Stark's secret hard drives."

**"Okay. Who am I now?"**, he asked.

"Whoever you want to be.", Skye answered, and Ward let out a laugh.

**"The next time I see you, I might even be Tom Brady."**, he said.

"Ah, supermodels and fame. Always the quarterback, right?", she asked.

**"Sure. Hey, I've got to go. Agent Hand wants us to get moving. I'll talk to you later."**, Ward told her, but Skye could hear the snigger from somewhere behind him.

"Sure.", she said, listening closely, hearing Garrett's voice behind him saying something along the lines of "-you hate the Patriots!" and Ward laughing along with him.

Then the line went dead. Holding back tears, Skye ran straight to her father, wrapping her arms around him. Unsure about what had occurred, Phil just held her like he normally did after her nightmares.

"Daddy, Ward is H.Y.D.R.A. I heard Garrett laughing in the background, and then Ward laughed with him. I listened as hard as I could, and he's on Garrett's side. I could tell.", she whispered into his chest, but Phil was still able to understand the muffled response.

"If he is H.Y.D.R.A., we'll catch him and end this. Now go get ready, we'll be landing sooner rather than later.", he said softly, and Skye nodded before walking towards he bunk to grab a change of clothes before going to get a shower.

While Trip, May, and Jemma were tiring of the trek through the icy tundra of Canada, Skye, Fitz, and Coulson showed no signs of being even the slightest bit weary. Each time someone even mentioned stopping, Fitz chewed them out for it, insisting that they trust Phil. Finally, they came to the where the coordinates led.

"There's nothing here.", Skye whispered, and May started telling Phil it was a trap.

Phil grew angry, and he threw his badge with all his might, prompting the turret gun to pop up. It fired a few shots, but Phil stepped out into the clearing anyway.

"I am Phil Coulson, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.", he said, and the doors opened.

A small, portly man walked out, and he smiled before leading them all inside. Skye eyed the man, Agent Eric Koenig, not sure if she could fully trust him. Her suspicions were proven true when he forced them all to take polygraphs after Ward showed up. It took Skye every ounce of self-restraint she had when it was her turn.

"Name?", Koenig asked.

"Skye, just Skye. No last name.", she said, and the censors luckily did not go berserk.

"Any other names?", he asked.

"Well, at the orphanage, they gave me the name Mary Sue Poots. I got rid of that as soon as I could.", Skye said, using every technique Natasha had taught her over her sporadic visits to the tower over the past year to blend the truth of her name at St. Agnes' with the lies of her full name.

Koenig asked a few more questions before congratulating Skye and presenting her with a lanyard to replace her badge. Skye took it and made her way into the hall.

"I did it! I passed the test and got a lanyard. You're the only one left.", she chirped, not letting on to what all she knew.

Ward, however, was able to pass the mega-polygraph and was given his own lanyard. Skye went back to work on her secret mission of trying to prove Ward to be H.Y.D.R.A. as Phil took Simmons, Fitz, and Trip with him to locate Marcus Daniels, an escaped, gifted convict of the Fridge. With her father gone, and no other family around to protect her, Skye's training was truly being put to the test. Ward was trying to get her to believe he truly loved her, and Skye was trying to convince him that she suspected nothing and truly loved him. The difficult part was convincing herself that she had not fallen in love with him over the past several months.

_'Natasha's first lesson was not to let your real emotions show for even a millisecond. Someone with skills like Ward could tell you were faking instantly.'_ she kept reminding herself, but it was no easy task. She hated what he had done, how he had lied to her and the team. She could not stand how he had lured everyone, especially her own father, into a false sense of security. She wanted to kill him, destroy him, herself. Well, almost.

There was still that part of Skye that was unwilling to kill another human being. It was the part of her that believed everyone had some level of humanity to them. Natasha told her it was the one thing that proved, without a doubt, that Skye was indeed Phil's daughter. Phil would/could kill, and had killed, another person, but he preferred taking prisoners alive; he much more preferred justice to be done, for there to be punishment for the crime. Skye found she preferred that as well. And she had figured out the perfect punishment for Ward.

Skye had set the trap as best she could. After Ward had forced her onto the BUS, after Phil and his "splinter team" went on their mission with the drop plane and after May's departure, she sent a single encrypted text message to Tony, the only person she knew would be in a position to help her. Then, she gave a fake location to Ward, so she could set her plan in motion by pretending to unlock the hard drive. He did not understand why she would pick the small diner in L.A., but he would never understand a lot of things about Skye.

"So, how long is this going to take?", he asked for about the fifth time.

"It'll only be about fifteen more minutes.", she told him, her eyes briefly darting over to the police officers at the bar.

Ward looked at them as well, but he was far more anxious and impatient.

"Hey, what's the longest you've been deep undercover?", Skye asked, preparing to psyche Ward out to the fullest extent of her plan.

"Sixteen months, about five years after I got out of the academy.", he said, and she cut him off before he could begin his next sentence, honestly not caring about what he had been doing.

"It must be hard, living a double life like that.", she said casually, "Gaining someone's trust and then betraying them like that and all. I don't know how Garrett did it: all of that time he spent as your mentor, only for him to lie to your face and betray you like that."

"It was hard to accept, but we have bigger problems to deal with now.", Ward replied, growing more anxious.

"If you had one more moment with him before you shot him twice in the back of the head, what would you say to him? What would you tell him if he was sitting right across from you? Would you tell him he's disgusting? Would you tell him he's a disgusting, backstabbing traitor?", she asked, preparing to show him her laptop screen.

"Skye, they're starting to clear the place out. We've been made.", he said gently, but the only Coulson daughter was having none of it.

"No, we haven't been. I tipped them off.", she said, showing him her screen.

The cops came over to them, asked them to get up and put their hands on the back of their heads. Ward went into attack mode, and Skye packed up her computer and the real hard drive, putting the fake one she created as part of her plan in the real one's place. While Ward fought more officers, she bolted from the diner, doing anything to get away until one of her family members arrived. She jumped into a police car and sped down the street, only to be met by Deathlock.

He grabbed Skye and pulled her from the car, knocking her unconscious in the process. When she woke, she was on the BUS, handcuffed to the staircase on the cargo hold level.

Deathlock and Ward were arguing. She flat out told them she was not giving up the location for the hard drive. She gave up the fake hard drive's access location and password only after Deathlock nearly killed Ward. Then, they locked her in the interrogation room for "safe keeping." Skye was sure her plan had failed when the door swung open to reveal her father.

"Daddy, I'm fine, but the real hard drive is in my bag, which Deathlock has.", she whispered to him, and he smiled.

"He doesn't have your bag, Skye.", Phil said in a slightly louder whisper.

"Then who does?", she asked.

"I do, darling.", came a familiar voice from beside her.

"Loki! Where did you- You didn't!", she quietly exclaimed.

"Deathlock has been temporarily frozen just outside of Los Angeles. I pretended to be him in order to rescue you. Once we heard of the plan, and found Agent Hill and your father, we made one of our own. Now, shall we get going?", the adopted son of Odin replied.

"Can you transport large items, or can you only do that with people?", Skye asked, and Phil smiled as he caught on to her train of thought.

"We can indeed take Lola, but only if we hurry!", Loki stated, catching on as well, and the group of three rushed down to the cargo bay. Phil opened the hatch, and he and Skye jumped in. Ward came barreling onto the catwalk by the stairs, and gaped before beginning to open fire. Loki blocked the shots before waving his hand to send Lola, along with her passengers, to the garage at Avengers' Tower. Ward started aiming for the god of mischief, but one flash of golden light later, Loki was gone.

"Damn it! Garrett is going to kill me for this! At least I have the location and password to unlock the damn thing!", he screamed to himself.

The magic around them slowed, and the swirls of color stopped. Phil went to work inspecting Lola, searching for any dents or bullet holes. The second Skye realized where they were, she ran to the elevator and asked J.A.R.V.I.S. where Clint was.

"Agent Barton is in his bedroom, Miss Coulson.", the cool British voice replied.

"What's he doing in his room?", she asked.

"He seems to be reading. Shall I send you up?", the AI asked.

"Yeah, but don't tell him. I want to surprise him.", Skye said, and the elevator rose, not stopping until she was on her brother's floor.

Walking into his bedroom, she saw him going through his wedding album, not a book. Holding back tears of her own, Skye plopped down beside her brother and wiped away his tears.

"Clint, I found her.", she said softly, and he sat bolt upright, his blue eyes locking onto her brown ones.

"Where?", he asked.

"She's hiding out at the beach house. The facial recognition software turned up a hit this morning, and I meant to tell Tony in the encrypted text I sent, but I was kind of in the midst of saving my own life. Did Jemma tell you?", she replied.

"Yeah, but it was only because Dad had her call me once they were somewhere safe. I can't believe I'm going to be a dad! I mean, this was supposed to be impossible! I just wish the world hadn't gone to hell in a hand basket right as this happened. God, now I feel like one of the parents whose child was born on 9/11. How can you bring a child into a world in the shape ours is in?", Clint asked.

"You rely on you extremely weird family to help you, that's how. Reggie's pregnant too, so how do you think she and Bruce feel? Grant it, she only found out last month, but you get the point.", Skye answered, and Clint hugged her to his chest.

"What would I do without my wise baby sister?", he asked no one in particular.

"Get the same answer I gave you from our father or step-mother.", Skye answered confidently.

He chuckled before saying, "I love you, kid sis."

"I love you too, big bro.", she whispered into his chest, finally feeling safe again.

After a few minutes of no noise, apart from their breathing, Clint spoke.

"Do you want to go with me to get her back? If we take the Bifrost watch, we can be home before dinner time."

"Let's go talk to Dad first; but as long as he approves, I'll go.", Skye answered, and the two went to the elevator.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., where's our father?", Clint asked the AI.

"He is on the commons floor with Agent Hill, arguing.", came the AI's cool voice.

"Thanks, J. Send us up?", Skye called out, and they were off.

On the commons floor, the brother and sister found their father arguing with their "Aunt" Maria. Neither was yelling, but the arguing was evident.

"Phil, just drop it. We're done for at this point. If we go underground, we have no more pull. Just get Ward for what he's done, and get Garrett too. After that, we'll figure something out. I think S.H.I.E.L.D. is finally finished.", she told him.

"Not a chance, Maria. S.H.I.E.L.D. is who I am. Without S.H.I.E.L.D., I wouldn't have a family. I'm intent on restoring the agency's good name.", he argued back.

Clint cleared his throat, and both turned to face the two siblings.

"Yes?", Phil asked.

"Oh, it was nothing, Dad. We were just wondering if we could go to the beach house for the afternoon. We'll be back by dinner time.", Skye said, and Phil let out a laugh before rolling his eyes.

"Skye, this is so not the time for this.", he responded.

"Dad, she's not messing with you. We honestly intend on going to the beach house. That's where Skye's program found Nat. I have to go find my wife and unborn child. I'm going no matter what you say, but Skye wasn't going to go until you said it was okay.", Clint stated, and Phil nodded.

"If Skye has as much as one scratch or bruise on her when you get back, I'm taking away all weapons.", Phil declared, and he walked away, still arguing with Maria.

"Was that the go ahead for us to leave?", Skye whisper-asked her brother.

"I think so. Let's get going before he changes his mind.", Clint said, and the two rushed off for the family's private plane.

A few hours later, the two Coulsons landed the red Ford Mustang convertible, which Tony had given to Clint as a birthday present, in the driveway of the beach house. They entered as quietly as they could, and were about to head up the stairs when they heard her voice.

"Whoever you are, drop whatever weapons you have and get out of here before I open fire. I'm not afraid of you!", Natasha called out, and Skye outright laughed.

"I would hope your husband and sister-in-law wouldn't scare you, of all people, Nat!", she called back.

Natasha's once slim form made its way down the stairs, and Clint simply smiled at her appearance. She was wearing maternity jeans, a white flowing tank top, and gray flats. Her small baby bump was something that, while not expected, was not a bad look on her. Other than the pistol in her hand, one look at Natasha, and you would have no idea she was an assassin.

"Take a picture. It'll last longer.", she said with a smile, and Clint took out his StarkPhone and snapped a picture of her.

"I believe I just did.", he replied as he placed his phone back in his pocket.

"How did you two find me?", the redhead asked.

"I had nothing to do with it. Finding you was all Skye.", Clint admitted, and Natasha turned to the younger girl.

"After Jemma told me about the test results, I knew I had to find you. Between the world seeming to crash and burn because of something in our own shadow and my SO turning out to be H.Y.D.R.A., I needed my big sister.", Skye said, her sincerity pouring out through her doe-like eyes.

"I'm glad you found me. Wait, Ward is H.Y.D.R.A.?", Natasha blinked a few times at the realization.

"Yeah, and he tried to shoot Lola. Dad about had a cow! Loki was able to block the bullets, so she's fine.", Skye responded, and that set Natasha off even more.

"Get me back to the tower. I may be in no condition to kill Ward myself, but I can still help find his ass. No one shoots my family and gets away with it!", she hissed, and the brother-sister duo felt it best not to argue and do as instructed.

A/N: Okay, so this actually was longer than I anticipated, but I knew I would end this chapter when I felt the chapter was over. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you stay tuned in for more! R&R!


	2. Welcome to the Family

A/N: I don't own _The Avengers_, _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D._,or _Thor_. Also, the time line has been skewed to allow for the preceding oneshots. Everything from _Captain America: the Winter Soldier_ forward is a year after it happens in the cannon, except Steve met Sam, and Sam joined the team (sort of) before WS. R&R!

It was almost dinner time, and everyone had gathered together in the large family dining room. Everyone, that is, except for the Coulson siblings and Natasha. Phil was becoming impatient, because he knew his children, and Clint and Skye, were always home when they said they would be. Tony was worried too, because he, like the rest of the family, knew Natasha was pregnant. Tony was an only child, but over the past few years, he had come to see the other Avengers like siblings; so, until Natasha and her unborn child were safely inside the walls of Avengers Tower, he would not stop pacing.

Tony ceased pacing straightaway when the elevator doors opened, revealing a laughing Skye, a smiling Clint, and a positively glowing and pregnant Natasha. He let out a breath he had not realized he had been holding, and the small blonde girl to his right bolted across the room. Natasha caught her goddaughter with ease, and the sound of the grown woman's laughter was enough to put a smile on even Maria Hill's normally stern face.

"I missed you, Aunt Tasha!", the three year old said clearly, obviously hoping someone else had stepped off of the elevator.

"Oh, Em, I missed you too. Don't worry, though, because I know there's one more person who can't wait to get up here for dinner. He heard it was Italian night.", Natasha said, and the elevator dinged before opening behind her.

Emma, who had now been set back on the floor, peaked around her godmother's leg and shrieked. Her blonde curls went bouncing behind her as she ran towards the newest arrival.

"Daddy!", she cried, flinging her arms around Steve, who had promptly fallen to one knee to receive the three year old's hug.

Steve said nothing, his silence as he embraced his daughter powerful enough to say more than words ever could.

"I missed you _so_ much, Daddy! Did you catch the bad guy?", Emma's small voice asked, and all eyes in the room shifted from the girl to the soldier.

"Sometimes, catching the bad guy isn't as simple as it sounds. This time, the bad guy was really a bunch of bad guys; but I think your Uncle Sam," Steve tried to explain to his toddler, but he was also suppressing the urge to chuckle along with the other adults when he realized he was Captain America with a daughter who had an honorary uncle named Sam, "and I got 'em.".

"Where is Sam?", Skye asked, and Steve turned to face her.

"On the way back, he got a call from his nephew. Sam has some sort of family emergency going on, and who am I to judge that when my baby sister almost died a month ago?", Steve's question just made Skye hug him.

"I can't promise to never be killed, but I promise to try to take better care of myself.", she whispered to him.

"Skye, it wasn't your fault, so shut up before I change all of the codes again. You nearly died, so now we, as in this family, are going to track Garrett down and kick his a-", but Tony was cut off by Pepper.

"Tony, there are children present!", she hissed.

"I get it, Tony, and thanks. So, what exactly are we having for dinner?", Skye asked.

"We're having homemade pizzas. I've been working like crazy all day, worrying about my danger prone sisters.", Tony said, making Natasha and Skye pull him into a three-way hug.

"Sorry we're causing you to go gray, Tony.", Skye joked, and Natasha laughed.

"But at least the gray looks good on you.", Natasha added in an attempt to console her "brother."

Tony rolled his eyes at them and ruffled their hair, before moving into the kitchen. Skye noted that while her team members seemed shocked at what was going on, not one of them said anything. She looked at her father and her best friend, begging someone to break the silence.

"Little known fact, Tony cooks when he's worried.", Jemma finally spoke up, bringing them out of their stupor.

"You know Tony Stark, and you never told me?", Fitz asked.

"He's my cousin's best friend, and he's my best friend's honorary big brother. I kind of have to know him. It's not that I didn't tell you, Fitz; it's that I wasn't allowed to tell you. I was there when Skye found out who she was, and my cousin was a part of this family before that. He sort of drug me into it by the wrist.", Jemma explained, and Bruce gave an over-dramatic sigh.

"And here I was thinking you actually loved me, Jem.", he said jokingly.

"You know I do, and congratulations, by the way.", she replied with a giggle.

"Thanks, but you know this means you lose your room, right?", Bruce asked her.

"I figured as much. I'll just have to bunk with Skye again.", Jemma stated, looking over at her best friend who nodded happily.

"You know you're always welcome in our apartment, Jemma.", Darcy and Phil said together in synchronicity, causing Trip, Fitz, and May to blink a few more times.

"Mom, Dad, you're scaring them.", Skye sing-songed, clearly not helping her team.

"Once we get everyone settled at the table, we can tell them about the family. We need a little more organization before we create more chaos.", Darcy said, prompting Pepper to take charge.

"Organization is my middle name!", Pepper said excitedly, only for Tony to respond almost at once with his own comment.

"No, that would be Anne; although, 'Virginia Organization Potts-Stark' would be a highly unique and original name."

"Honey, I love you, but shut up.", Pepper said, but she failed at keeping calm and not laughing.

"Pep, Tony doesn't do the whole 'shutting up' thing, and I don't think he really ever has when he's in a relaxed environment.", Jane said, and laughter broke out all across the room.

Pepper organized people in their chairs, putting Phil and Darcy in the large, two-person chair at the head of the table, with Roger's booster seat was on the chair at the corner between Darcy and Skye. Clint was on Phil's other side, Natasha next to him. Steve sat next to Natasha, and Emma's booster seat was on the chair that was positioned between his chair and Caroline's. Trip was given the seat on Caroline's other side, and Jemma was sent around the table to sit beside Skye. Fitz sat beside Jemma, and May next to him. Jane tentatively took the chair next to May, eying the female agent strangely. Thor sat beside her and placed his hand over hers, his smile setting her at ease. Loki sat between his brother and Bruce, keeping quiet about why he even lived in the tower. Bruce took his place beside the chair that sat opposite Phil, and Reggie filled in the spot between her husband and Agent May. Pepper sent Maria a look, and the brunette woman took the seat at the corner closest to Pepper, herself. The chair beside Pepper was obviously meant for Tony, as he was the only one not seated. No one, not even Pepper, knew who the last chair, the one between Maria and Trip, was for.

"Go ahead and tell them. I have to toss the salad first, unless someone wants to help me?", he called as he looked over the bar to see everyone sitting down.

"Oh, I'll help!", Skye volunteered, rushing over to aid her "brother."

"Thanks, Skye. Jemma, since your really don't have to explain anything, can you set the table while Skye and I finish up in here?", Tony called to the auburn-haired scientist.

"Sure, but why is there an extra chair out here?", Jemma asked, and Tony smiled.

"While Pepper organized everyone, I invited Rhodey. He's just as much a member of this family as Sam is.

"If Rhodey's joining us, I'll be back in a minute. Anyone have any particular requests for wine? Natasha, none for you!", Pepper made sure to tell the other redhead.

"I know, Pep, I know!", Nat called in reply, but Pepper was already in the elevator.

A few minutes later, as Pepper reentered the room, J.A.R.V.I.S. announced that Rhodey was in the lobby, waiting on the elevator.

"So, wait, who is Rhodey, exactly?", Fitz asked quietly.

"He's Tony's other best friend, Colonel James Rhodes; he's also Iron Patriot.", Jemma answered as she walked up behind him with a glass of ice.

"I prefer War Machine to Iron Patriot, though.", came Rhodey's voice as the elevator opened.

"We know!", was the general response, though it was met only with laughter.

"Ah, I see new faces around this table. Let me guess, unforeseen circumstances forced you three to tell your team the truth?", Rhodey asked, looking at Phil, Skye, and Jemma.

"Ding, ding, ding; we have a winner!", Skye said bitterly.

"Tony told me about you being shot, Skye. How are you doing?", Rhodey asked sincerely.

"I feel fine, and the nightmares aren't as frequent, but I have them now and again. I just realized I never talked with you about that. I talked with everyone else in this family about it, but not you.", she replied with a faint chuckle.

"Well, if you want my opinion on it, there are worse things than getting shot.", Rhodey said simply, and Skye nodded.

"I saw a memory of someone going through something that was worse than being shot. No matter how much pain I went through, I will never have to go through the pain my dad did.", she said softly, and Roger placed his small, toddler hand on Skye's shoulder.

Skye immediately brightened when she turned to look at her younger brother, smiling at the two year old. Neither spoke, but the message in Roger's light blue eyes was clear: Skye did not need to be sad about seeing what their father had gone through.

"You know, Roger, you're a lot smarter than most of us give you credit for, you know more than you're letting on, and you hide it rather well. I wonder where you got that from.", Skye said, her eyes shifting from her little brother to her father.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Skye.", Phil said, and he was met with a lot of sarcastic replies.

"Exhibit A, ladies and gentlemen.", Clint said with gesturing towards Phil.

The laughter picked up again, and Tony gave Loki the signal to bring the food into the dining room with magic. The food served itself in equal portions to each person, and with a flick of Loki's wrist, all of the glasses containing ice were filled with water.

Fitz jumped slightly, but quickly regained his composure. May looked suspiciously at the plate in front of her, and Trip remained silent as he noticed that the Rogers family and the Coulson family were all saying grace quietly amongst themselves.

"All right, it seems everyone has finished praying over his or her food, so eat up!", Tony said excitedly, and everyone did as instructed.

After a few minutes, Maria spoke up, "Phil, didn't you say you were going to explain everything to them?"

"Technically, Darcy said it, but yes. I guess I'll start. This really all began a few months after the first time Thor returned to Asgard, after he went to stop Loki from destroying Jötunheim…", and story time over dinner began.

Later that night, after dinner was over and the dishes were done, everyone sat in the media room, lying/sitting in various positions on the large pillows that covered the floor.

"What are we watching tonight?", Skye asked as she lay on her back, staring at the ceiling.

"Well, tonight was Emma's turn to pick. I hope nobody minds watching Cinderella.", Steve said, and no one objected to the movie.

By the time the movie had ended, the children were both asleep, and several of the adults were nearly asleep as well. The adrenaline of the day had worn off, and everyone suddenly felt drained. Skye was still awake, and she leaned over and gently shook Jemma.

"Is the movie already over?", she asked sleepily.

"Yeah. C'mon, let's get to bed. The others are waking up the team to get them settled in their temporary rooms.", Skye whispered to her best friend, who stood up shakily.

"Your legs are asleep, aren't they?", Darcy said as she came over to them.

"Just a bit. Where is the team sleeping?", Jemma replied.

"They'll be on Natasha's former floor with Maria. Trip and Fitz are sharing a room, and May has her own room.", Phil said as he joined the ladies, Roger on his hip.

"Then let's head upstairs.", Skye said with a yawn, and the five filed out of the room and into the elevator.

Fitz was starring at Jemma curiously, and Bruce caught on.

"She's just tired. When I stay up until dawn doing science projects with Tony, I won't talk to anyone unless I have to.", he told the younger scientist.

"Wait, you're her cousin?", Fitz asked.

"Well, second cousin, technically, but yes.", Bruce replied, "I know Phil could've explained things better at dinner, but he was mostly trying to get through the explanation process in order to get to work."

"What exactly is he working on?", Fitz asked, his curiosity making him forget who he was talking to.

"Let me get Tony, and we'll tell you together.", Bruce said calmly before wandering off to find his best friend, who was trying to apparently comfort Pepper.

"Did something happen?", Bruce asked his friends, who looked at him with teary-eyed smiles.

"Everything is fine, Bruce. I guess I just finally broke after trying to be the strong one after H.Y.D.R.A. attacked and the whole world fell apart.", Pepper said as she wiped away the last of her tears.

"You need something, buddy?", Tony asked.

"It's time to tell Fitz the full, uncensored truth. If he's going to marry Jemma someday, which I'm convinced he will, he needs to know.", Bruce said, and Tony nodded.

"Honey, I'll be upstairs soon, but can I tell him? I'll wait until after we send Fitz to bed!", Tony pleaded with his wife.

"Only Bruce, and he can tell Reggie. But no one after her is to know until I say so.", Pepper relented as she kissed Tony goodnight and made her way to the elevator.

The Science Bros. walked over to Fitz, casually escorting the younger scientist into the stairwell. They led him further underground until they came to the laboratory door. As the doors to the lab opened, Fitz barely had time to register what it looked like. Tony and Bruce shoved him into what looked like an average RV.

"Why am I in an RV?", Fitz called back to them.

"This is no ordinary RV, my friend. This is an RV handcrafted by yours truly. With the press of a button, it becomes enormous; with six floors, it can easily become a mobile command unit.", Tony said as he and Bruce entered the RV.

"Take a seat. This is an extremely safe environment for us to speak freely.", Bruce added, gesturing to the sofa across from the table.

Fitz took a seat, and the two Avengers each took a seat on opposite sides of the table. Fitz shifted under the gaze of both men, but that went away when Tony busted out laughing. Bruce followed quickly after, but they regained their composure, and Bruce began talking.

"Okay, so this all started the Christmas after Phil and Darcy got married. Pepper didn't think her mom would approve of Tony, so she forced him to throw this big Stark Industries Christmas party to create a reason for her mom to believe she wouldn't be able to make it home for Christmas. The party was almost over when Skye and Jemma showed up with an e-mail from Nick, well, Director Fury to you. As soon as we all knew who Skye really was, we went straight to work on our new mission. We had to find out what Skye's mother was. While that is still up in the air, we, being the Avengers, are now burdened with the task of destroying H.Y.D.R.A. and all who serve it. Jemma and Skye have spent the past year learning spy tactics from Natasha, hand-to-hand combat from Steve, weapons handling from Clint and Tony, and even more hacking from Darcy and Tony. When H.Y.D.R.A. attacked last month, I was about to begin teaching them chemical weaponry and gamma radiation factors; you know, what could go wrong when gamma rays are mixed with something else.", Bruce said casually.

"The girls are what we like to call deceptively strong. You wouldn't know by looking at her, by Jem can Judo-flip Steve. They also have the ability to appear so innocent and sweet right before they go all kinds of evil on you. They can pick up on every small emotion you let off, so Jem already knows how you feel. What Skye does, is that she listens for every little detail, every rise in the pitch of someone's voice. Of course, that is how she realized Agent Ward's H.Y.D.R.A. The more training they get before you all go out again, the better off your team will be.", Tony stated in a matter-o-fact tone, and all Fitz could do was nod.

"So, now you know what Phil's plan is, we have to tell you something that is not to leave this room, unless you are strictly in the presence of members of this family. Agents Triplet and May are not to know this, as they are not on the list. You were added last minute on Jemma's behalf. Are you ready to hear it?", Bruce asked Fitz slowly.

"Yes, sir.", Fitz replied without blinking.

"Before we tell you this, the only people in this tower you address as 'Sir' would be Phil and the Director. We are telling you this: Director Nicolas Fury is indeed alive. The Director plans on returning us, as in S.H.I.E.L.D., underground. When my father, Peggy Carter, and Colonel Chester Phillips founded S.H.I.E.L.D., it was a _secret_ organization meant to handle the unknown, such as Red Skull and Project Rebirth were handled by the SSR. It wasn't until just a short while ago that S.H.I.E.L.D. went public, and New York really had sealed the agency's fate.", Tony said, for once, not speaking badly about his father.

"Nick always told us, starting from the moment we had Loki in custody, going public was a big mistake. Right now, under the cover of darkness, all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files, weaponry, and technology are being shipped in small amounts to basements under Tony's buildings and any building anyone else in this tower might own that H.Y.D.R.A. knows little to nothing about. For instance, the weapons are being shipped to New Mexico to Jane's old lab. It serves as a perfect location owing to its close proximity to a Bifrost connection point. The technology is being scattered between five different STARK Industries laboratories, and the hard copy files are on their way here. These files will get here tomorrow in FedEx boxes claiming they're really just boxes of lab equipment. We'll need you to pick them up and bring them here.", Bruce said, and Fitz felt there was suddenly a lot of weight on his shoulders.

"Leo, we know it's a lot, but these files are the only things that can bring S.H.I.E.L.D. back to any semblance of its former glory. Yeah, even if I didn't hack S.H.I.E.L.D. for fun, I'd know your name. Jemma told us all about you Leopold. Don't worry, your mother has been informed of the situation, and she knows that while no record on you can be found until we take down H.Y.D.R.A., we have copies of everything on hard drives in one of my many top secret vaults in the tower. You can call her once a week from the private line, but never use the company line. If H.Y.D.R.A. hasn't already started wiretapping the lines for STARK Industries, then I'm an electric blue, tusk-less walrus.", Tony said, and neither scientist could control the laughter that followed that statement.

Once he regained his composure, Fitz spoke, "I'll get the files here safely,... What am I supposed to call you?"

"Tony. After all, you're a member of the family now, Leo! Get used to it!", Tony said energetically with a brilliant smile.

"Things are going to be a lot more fun around here; I can feel it!", Bruce said before they told Fitz what floor the guest bedrooms were on and sent him on his way.

Before Tony let Bruce go upstairs, he placed his hand on his best friend's shoulder.

"Bruce, we wanted you and Reggie to be the first to know, so here it goes: Pepper's pregnant, and we want you and Reggie to be the baby's godparents. Don't answer now, because I want you both to talk this over. Remember, no one other than Reggie is to know. Goodnight, Bruce!", Tony said, and the gamma radiation expert blinked a fair few times before running to catch up with Tony.

"Me? Tony, I am a bomb with a highly unpredictable fuse. How do you expect me to balance two children?", Bruce asked, to which Tony only laughed.

"You have been alone with Roger and Emma at the same time before, Bro. If you can handle the two of them, I think you could handle your own child and your godchild with Reggie, Pepper, and me by your side. I believe in you and your amount of control, Bruce. Isn't that enough?", Tony asked, and Bruce nodded.

"I'll talk to Reggie, but it's a tentative 'Yes.'", Bruce answered, and the two parted ways in the elevator as Bruce stepped off onto his floor.

A/N: Okay, so to the guest who could not figure out who was related to who, read the one-shots I wrote prior to this story, starting with "The Unlikely Little Liar." I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you stay tuned in for more! R&R!


	3. Ain't It Fun?

A/N: I don't own _The Avengers_, _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D._,or _Thor_. Also, the time line has been skewed to allow for the preceding oneshots. Everything from _Captain America: the Winter Soldier_ forward is a year after it happens in the cannon, except Steve met Sam, and Sam joined the team (sort of) before WS. R&R!

Less than a week later, Phil had packed up his team and was ready to go on another mission. Just as they were preparing to board the elevator, it opened to reveal Nick Fury. The shock came, however, when Skye hugged him.

"Are you okay? Aunt Maria said you were shot four times in the back, and I thought twice in the stomach was bad enough.", she asked him.

"I'm fine now. Where are you all headed off to?", Fury asked, locking eyes with Phil.

"Cybertek; we intend to find out what they know about Garrett and H.Y.D.R.A.", Phil replied, and Fury nodded silently.

"Also, we need to get all of this done before they find out I switched the hard drives.", Skye added, Clint stiffening as she spoke.

"Are you sure I don't need to come along? An extra set of eyes and hands should never be taken for granted.", he asked, his blue eyes looking unblinkingly at his father's.

"No, you are staying here. In case of an emergency, how many depths of water can the tower's systems pick up our signals on our comms links?", Phil replied, his gaze swinging over to Tony.

"You, Skye, and Jemma are all connected to J.A.R.V.I.S. for up to 100 feet deep. I've gone farther, but that was in the suit. You all be safe, and don't kill anyone you don't have to. Blood trails are almost as bad as paper trails.", Tony answered, and Skye and Jemma nodded.

"Got it!", they chorused, but they were not leaving yet.

"Skylar, if you do something stupid and are not around when your niece/nephew is born, I will find you. The result will not be very pretty. I can't lose my sister.", Natasha said as she pulled the younger woman into a tight hug.

"Don't worry, Nat. I'll be safe, but I'll have J.A.R.V.I.S. on standby with the extraction plan I prepared. You've taught me everything I know.", Skye said with a smile.

"Which is why, when things get back up and running, I am requiring all level two personnel and below to have an SO to train them. After Level Two, the SO will become more of a handler. I want Skye's SO to be Natasha, and Jemma's to be Clint. Agent Fitz, I think Captain Rogers may need an occasional side project to keep him from ripping out his hair over his children, so he will be you SO.", Fury said, and everyone mentioned smiled.

"All right, if that's everything, we're going!", Phil called, but Roger ran forward before he could set one foot on the elevator.

The small boy was holding something, which Phil recognized as the winged helmet Thor, Loki, and Jane had given Roger for their first family Christmas.

"You keep it, Sport; I'll be home before you know it, and then, we'll all sit down with big bowls of ice cream and watch _Shrek_.", he said softly to his youngest son as he pushed the helmet back towards the two and a half year-old.

Roger merely nodded before Darcy walked over and picked him up. Phil looked at her, and he tried to reign in his emotions, but he failed. As he knew that he may not come back from this mission, he pulled her into a kiss, and Darcy knew it then too.

"Be safe. Be careful. Be smart.", she told him in barely a whisper before backing up towards Tony, Clint, and Natasha.

That night, everyone in the tower slept off and on, no one getting more than four hours of uninterrupted sleep unless under the age of five. Tony had actually been asleep when he woke to J.A.R.V.I.S. saying he had a call coming through from Skye.

"Patch her through to my comms link, and I'll put it in, J. I knew this night would land me in the lab one way or another.", he told the AI as he got out of bed and put the Bluetooth-like device into his ear.

"Skye, you do realize that it's midnight here?", he asked as he stepped into the elevator.

"I know, Tony, but we have a slight situation.", her panic-stricken voice came.

"What happened?", he asked, sleep and tiredness forgotten in an instant.

"Leo and Jemma were supposed to find the BUS. Agent Ward found them and took them to Garrett. That old quarter tracker from the SSR that Trip's grandfather had was in Leo's pocket, and we can find the plane, but Jemma's not answering any of my calls. Tony, get J.A.R.V.I.S. to connect to her comms link frequency and see if you can get a hold of her. I promised Tasha I had everything under control, and now Jemma and Leo could be dead. Please, Tony, find them!", Skye said, and Tony heard the click; the call was over.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., patch me through to Jemma's link.", he called out.

"Connected, Sir.", came the AI's reply.

"Jemma, Jemma, can you hear me?", he called anxiously.

"Tony? Fitz, are you sure we're not dead? I swear I can hear Tony's voice.", Jemma sounded weak, and Tony knew that meant one of three things: she was near 100 feet underwater, she was dying, or both.

"Honey, it is me, and you are alive; I had J.A.R.V.I.S. connect me to your comms link. Where are you, and are you with Leo?", he asked her, not liking how weak she sounded.

"Tony, we're in one of the sealed emergency escape pods from the BUS. We locked ourselves in here when Agent Ward chased us, and then he ejected us into the Caribbean. Fitz has a weak distress signal going out, but no one is looking for S.H.I.E.L.D. frequencies anymore. Can you locate our signal and find us?", Jemma relayed her situation, which made Tony close his eyes and breathe slowly.

"I'll find you two, don't worry. Whatever you do, do not blow the glass in. Who knows how long you'll be in the water before anyone gets there for you?", Tony said before hanging up, the ding signaling that he had reached his destination.

"J, connect me to Nick Fury, pronto!", Tony said, and he made his way directly to the spare change of clothes he kept in the lab.

To say Bruce was expecting to wake up to Tony hammering on his front door would be an overstatement. The physicist had been dreaming pleasantly, finally, when he woke to the rapid knocking, and he hurriedly pulled on his robe before telling J.A.R.V.I.S. to let whoever it was inside.

"Bruce, we've got trouble. I've already called Nick and he's on the way with a helicopter, but Jemma doesn't have much time, and neither does Leo.", Tony said quickly, and Bruce was suddenly no longer tired.

"What happened to my cousin?", he asked gravely.

"She sank to the bottom of the Caribbean Sea in a pressurized metal container.", Tony replied, and Bruce turned away from him.

"Let me get dressed, and then we can go to the helicopter.", and that is what they did.

It was daylight when Jemma heard the faint knocking on the glass. Turning around from where she and Fitz had been debating who should take the last breath of air before they disobeyed Tony's orders, she smiled. Iron Man was carving a circle into the glass with a laser. Tony popped out the circle, and tossed a water-proof bag into the container.

"What are these for?", Jemma asked.

"Rebreather; I told you not to blast the glass in, didn't I? Bruce figured you wouldn't listen anyway, so we brought you these. _I_ am going to blow the glass in and carry Leo to the surface. Jem, you are going to swim up on your own, but you'll stay right beside me. Bruce has two hyperbolic chambers set up for you two, because this water is not going to be pleasant. On my count, okay?", he told them, and they nodded, each taking a rebreather.

"One, two, three!", and on three, Tony blasted the glass in, and grabbed Leo as Jemma swam out.

The three swam upwards, and each of the two scientists took in a huge breath of air when they hit the surface. Tony lifted his face mask with his free hand, and then he signaled to the helicopter pilot. The helicopter got closer to the water, and Nick held out a hand. Jemma took his hand, and he pulled her on board. Tony then lifted Leo onto the craft, before climbing on himself.

"I'm going to hack Skye's comms link now to let her know the Science Twins are alive and mostly well. Once you have them stable, Bruce, we should go. After all, H.Y.D.R.A. thinks we believe Phil to be dead. We can't exactly walk in and help him save the day now, can we?", Tony replied before talking to J.A.R.V.I.S.

"He's right; we can't help Phil and the others, but you can. He knows what you did, but not why, so you need to talk to him anyway.", Bruce said, and Fury nodded.

"I'll let him read me the riot act, and then I'll tell him the good news about the change in directors.", he stated, and Bruce raised an eyebrow.

"Did the lamp hit you that hard when she threw it at you? I know your wife knows about everything. I mean, she has a security clearance almost higher than yours, if that's possible, but are you really prepared to take a backseat role for her? You've been the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. longer than Jemma's been alive.", Bruce asked him, and Fury nodded.

"I'll still be watching everything, but I can only trust one man to rebuild S.H.E.I.L.D. the way it was originally designed to be. Wouldn't you, Doctor Banner?", Fury asked.

"I would only trust Phil to do this. He loves S.H.I.E.L.D. second only to his family.", Bruce replied, and the remainder of the conversation needed no words.

Fury made his way to where he heard voices, but stopped when Phil came crashing through a wall. He looked down at his best friend before sighing and sticking out his hand to help him up.

"Sir?", Phil asked.

"You don't have to call me "sir", Coulson. Look at me. I'm dressed like I live under a bridge.", he replied coolly, and Phil just smirked.

"What are you doing here?", Phil replied.

"Skye got through, and we found the 'Science Twins', who are fine, no thanks to themselves.", Fury answered, mumbling the last part just loud enough for Phil to make out.

"I'll have words with them later, and speaking of having words-", but Fury cut him off.

"I know. I went through a lot to bring you back the first time, and I can't exactly do it again.", he said to his friend, who shrugged.

"That may be, but when we do talk about this, I may get loud.", Phil said calmly, and Fury nodded.

"I owe you that much. Now, didn't Garrett make an appointment to have his teeth knocked out? Here, you might want something to defend yourself with. This-", but Phil cut him off, seeing that it was the weapon he had fired at Loki just prior to his death, but post-stabbing.

"I know what this does.", and off they went.

Garrett looked up to see them walk through the hole in the wall, and he smirked.

"Fury, Well, hell... When was the last time anyone saw a tag-team wrestling match with four dead guys?", he asked, looking at Deathlock.

"I only see one dead guy in here.", Phil said, yet Garrett was still laughing.

"Oh, the power's all on this side of the room, fellas. Phil, I'm surprised you try and stop me. Of course, I don't blame you, Nick. You haven't seen the big picture, the big bang, the timeless frozen oceans, but Phil here has. We share a bond. We're blood brothers.", and Fury raised his eyebrow.

"You didn't tell me he'd gone this crazy!", he said to Phil.

"He's really stepped it up a notch. Looks like you may have to take Loki's trophy from him after all.", Phil replied jokingly.

Garrett rolled his eyes, but then moved on with his speech, eyes on Fury.

"You remember that speech you used to give us, Nick, about how one man can accomplish anything once he realizes he can be something bigger? Well, now I am.", he said, to which Fury felt like facepalming.

"_A part_, _a PART_ of something bigger. If you told me this whole Hydra path thing you took is because you misheard my damn "one man" speech...", he trailed off, not sure if what he wanted to say was appropriate for other human beings to hear.

Garrett babbled on some more, and Fury turned to Phil.

"You got it, right?", he asked on the topic of the aforementioned speech.

"Totally. Loud and clear.", Phil said, and he fired his weapon at Garrett while Fury handled the Centipede Super Soldiers filing into the room.

Garrett's flight through the air was not as hilarious as Loki's had been, but it was still gratifying. He attempted to get back up, but in a few short steps and one swift movement, Deathlock stomped down on Garrett's head. Fury signaled for the steel make-shift coffin to be brought in, and he turned to Phil with a smile.

"One point for Skye. You have an incredibly talented girl, Phil. She might be ready for Level 2 sooner than I thought.", Fury said, and Phil could not help but light up with pride.

"She was trained by the best, and I definitely don't mean me. If you'll excuse me, I think it's time for me to get my plane back.", Phil said as he ran off towards the BUS.

"That's fine. I'll just go and look for that niece of mine. I think she deserves a high-five or a hug for that one!", Fury called back before going to look for Skye.

That night, as they sat on the BUS, Fury sent Trip a look which clearly said to go anywhere but the room they sat in at the moment and be quiet. Skye saw this and turned to her honorary uncle.

"I'm staying. I don't care who yells what, but this is about my father, and I will not leave him.", she said firmly, and Fury, to May's surprise, nodded and turned to Trip.

"I'll go fly the plane.", he said simply before walking off, the one-eyed man scaring him slightly.

As soon as Trip was gone, Phil stood up and began yelling. He had yelled for about ten minutes before Fury even made a movement that might have suggested he was about to speak.

"-stupid, stupid, stupid decision! I clearly didn't think it was the best decision!", he yelled.

"It was a 'break glass incase of emergencies' type thing.", Fury replied.

"It was only supposed to be used incase of the fall of an Avenger!", Phil cried out, obviously frustrated.

"Exactly.", was all Fury said.

Skye realized what had just been said, and she allowed herself a small smile. She had always known her father was one of the Avengers, not to mention Tony brought it up every family dinner. That particular team of misfits would never be able to properly survive without him, especially if they kept on adding more members.

"And I'm damn glad I did it.", Fury continued after the realization had dawned on Phil's face.

"I am, too!", Skye added, and the two men smiled at how childlike she sounded.

"You know how many people I trust.", Fury said once he had reigned his emotions back in.

"You can count them on one hand.", Phil responded.

"And I'm not afraid to cut off fingers. The principle S.H.E.I.L.D. was founded upon was pure:-", and May finally chimed in.

"Protection.", she said.

"I thought S.H.E.I.L.D. was founded on the basis of keeping Steve's memory alive? I mean, it was founded by three of the five people who were closest to him when he went on ice. Granted one of those five people was dead and the other was believed to be dead, but still, Peggy and Howard weren't going to let his memory fade away, and Phillips was just upset he had lost an agent-to-be as good as Steve.", Skye cut in, her eyebrow arched and a perplexed look on her face.

"Well, yes, but Steve, as you know, will do anything to protect his country. Anyway, like Agent May said a moment ago, Protection. One word. Sometimes, to protect one man against himself other times, to protect the planet against an alien invasion from another universe. It's a broad job description.", Fury said, and Skye had to force back the laugh that desperately wanted to escape her lips.

"No need to tell me.", Phil said with a straight face.

"But the belief that drives us all is the same, whether it's one man or all mankind.", Fury added, and Phil finished the statement.

"That they're worth saving."

"That truth lives inside you, Ph-Coulson. Before it was torn apart, S.H.E.I.L.D. was a lot of moving parts. Guys like you were the heart. Now, you'll be the head.", Fury said, handing a small cube to Phil, and Skye was at a loss for words for once in her life.

"What is it?", Phil asked, looking at the cube.

"Tool box, to help you build it back up.", Fury said simply, and May looked confused.

"You want me to start over, rebuild S.H.E.I.L.D.", Phil stated in a sudden realization.

"From scratch. Take your time, and do it right.", Fury said sternly, and Skye smiled behind him.

"Do you really believe he would rebuild it any other way? If he does it that way, the only people working for S.H.E.I.L.D. are people we can trust, right?", Skye asked.

"Once again, you are brilliant, Skye.", Fury said before turning back to Phil. "You are the only person I can trust to do this."

"Thank you,", Phil began, but remembering that May was in the room, he proceeded to finish his response carefully. "How do you- How should I proceed?"

"That's up to you, Director.", Fury responded, and Skye stood up as the two men shook hands.

"And you, Sir? Where are you heading now?", May asked before Skye could say anything.

"Well, I'm trading in my bird's-eye-view for two solid feet on the ground. This will be the last time you'll be seeing me for a stretch.", he responded, and Skye quickly switched her gaze to her father when Fury said "bird's-eye-view."

"Dad, as happy as I am for you, I need to go to my room. I just got hit by an idea the size of a semi-truck. If I don't tell her about your, for lack of better words, promotion, can I call Nat? As my new SO, I may need her advice on what I want to in order to find Ian Quinn, if only to punch him in the face a fair few times and to get the gravitonium back.", Skye asked, and Phil nodded, allowing Skye to skip up the stairs and into the secret room behind his own bedroom.

The room was decently lit, and a curved desk sat on one side of the room. The desktop had four computer monitors on each side, and one of Tony's projectors in the middle. Connected to the projector was Skye's laptop, as she had placed it there almost as soon as they had returned to the BUS. Tony had taken the unused room on as a project for Skye's birthday the year before, and the young hacker loved it. To the right of her desk, Skye had a small reading nook set up where she sometimes would crash while she had her computers running different processes and programs. On the opposite side of the room, on the left hand side of the projector's screen, Tony had installed a candy bar, which may or may not have a real bar hidden away inside of the lower cabinets.

Skye let out a sigh, picked up the STARKphone that sat on her desk, and called her sister-in-law. On the first ring, Natasha answered in a truly Natasha way.

"Please tell me this is Skylar Julia Coulson, and please tell me that you are all alive, young lady!", she almost pleaded.

"Nat, it's me, and we all made it; Ward made it too, but Dad has special plans for him. I called because I need your opinion.", Skye assured her, and Natasha was quick to respond.

"If the question is 'What should Dad do to Ward?', I vote for letting me have a go at him."

"Nat, no. Ian Quinn, the guy who shot me twice in the stomach, was released from the Fridge by Garrett and H.Y.D.R.A. How should I go about looking for him? I mean, he'd be back out in the open now, so facial recognition would be fairly easy, right?", Skye asked, and Natasha took a little more time before replying this time around.

"That's how you found me, so it should work. Plus, now that you can use your office/room thing, which you need to name, you can get that done pretty fast if you use Tony's satellites.", she said.

"Didn't he just buy the S.H.E.I.L.D. satellites?", Skye asked with a smirk on her face.

"Yeah, but no one knows. He did it in a very Walt-Disney-Buying-Up-Florida-Swamplands way.", Natasha replied, and Skye let out a laugh for the first time since the mission began.

"Except, no one has figured him out yet. Disney got caught.", Skye stated, and Natasha let out a laugh.

"Do you want me to start the search for Quinn, or do you want to do it yourself, Ms. In Control?", she asked through her laughter.

"I'll do it. Dad will want to know as soon as Quinn is found, and I'm the closest to him at the moment. I have something you can do, though. There's this woman who was helping Garrett, and she left with Quinn. If I sent you her picture, could you track her down?", Skye asked.

"Of course. I would be out of a job if I couldn't.", Natasha replied, and Skye pulled a picture of Reina up on one of the monitors.

"Okay, I'll send it now. Talk to you later, Nat.", she said.

"Talk to you later, Skye. Take care of yourself, and take care of Fitsimmons, too. Tony told me this morning.", Natasha replied.

"I'm just glad they're okay. As soon as the two of them can travel again, we'll be on our way home. I think we'd all enjoy a vacation after these past few months. Hang on," Skye said as Phil walked into the room and held out his hand for her phone, "Dad wants to talk to you."

She handed her phone over, and Phil lifted it to his ear.

"Natasha, contrary to what Skye said, we're on our way home as soon as we pick up Jemma and Leo. Tony built the infirmary for a reason, so let's put it to use. I'll call from my cell when May gets the wheels up.", he said, and Skye looked slightly shocked.

"Okay, I'll let Tony know, _Director_ Coulson. Nick told all of us before he told you, and we've known about it since the day you guys went to Cybertek. Bye, Phil!", Natasha replied, hanging up before Phil could ask her anything else.

"I need to set up a home base, and the whole family apparently knew about this before we did because your uncle told them what he was doing after we left for Cybertek. So, logically, Avengers Tower is the perfect place for me to begin rebuilding S.H.I.E.L.D. Set up whatever tracking software you were planning on setting up to find Quinn, and meet the rest of us in the cargo bay.", he replied, handing her back her phone.

"Okay, Dad, and don't forget to breathe. I don't think Mom will like it if you die from lack of oxygen. Before you go looking into new S.H.I.E.L.D. recruits, I think we should take a week off. It's the perfect time to go to Beale Street.", Skye said with a smile, and Phil let out a breath.

All of a sudden, the adrenaline left him, and he felt weaker than he had since Fury had stepped off of the plane. Skye helped him sit down in the chair on the other side of her desk, and he let out a laugh.

"You're right, Skye. I was so anxious to get started, that I completely forgot about the well-being of the others. Maybe a vacation would be good for us? Memphis, you say?", Phil asked, and Skye nodded as she handed him the glass of scotch she had just poured for him.

"Or we could go to Orlando. We need to all be able to forget we're the remains of a super secret agency for a little while. Wouldn't you agree?", she said calmly.

"I _have_ wanted to go on a family vacation for a while now, and we _have_ been pretty stressed out for a while now. We can discuss it with the rest of the family once we get home.", he said, downing the glass of scotch.

After Phil was ready to go, he and Skye met with the team in the cargo bay. The hatch opened, and they saw Jemma and Leo standing in front of them. Skye squealed when she saw Leo's arms around Jemma, and both scientists turned a light shade of pink. Skye rushed forward and hugged both of them tightly.

"Don't you two ever not listen to Tony when it's a life or death situation again. When he told me what you almost did, I was glad he'd been there. I don't want to loose anyone else. Now, come on. Dad says we're going home for a bit. You two have to get some more rest before anything else happens, okay?", Skye sounded like their mother when she spoke, but she really did not care, because her best friends needed some serious berating for nearly getting one of the two of them killed by trying to blow the glass in.

"Whatever you say, Skye!", both told her before everyone got back on the BUS.

Back at Avengers Tower, Tony was dodging projectiles. He would not stop pacing, so Natasha started throwing pillows at him. Eventually, the other adults joined in, and it became a contest to see who would hit him first. Just as Natasha released her last pillow, the elevator dinged, and Tony stopped, the pillow hitting him in the head.

"I win!", she cheered, and Skye's voice made her cheer louder.

"But not fairly, Tasha!"

"I'm so proud of you, Skye! I told you the Trojan Horse plan would work. Do you know how H.Y.D.R.A. took the fake hard drive thing?", she asked as she hugged the younger girl.

"They didn't, because nearly everything was copied to both hard drives, not just Leo's funny cat videos to the fake one. On the bright side, I erased all of the information from H.Y.D.R.A.'s systems by starting the failsafe protocol I added to both hard drives.", Skye replied, and Steve was the first to comment.

"Good. We do not need H.Y.D.R.A. finding out how you and Phil survived, nor do we need them knowing how much we know about your birth mother."

"Exactly. Dad has something he wants to discuss with all of you.", Skye said as Clint came over to give her a hug.

"Everybody already knew about the 'Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.' thing, so what else?", the archer asked.

"We need a vacation. All of us do. A very smart girl told me earlier that we need to be able to forget about S.H.I.E.L.D. for a little while. Too much stress will only cloud our judgment. Now, who has an idea for a family vacation?", Phil asked, and hands shot up.

"Okay, Darcy, you first.", Phil called out.

"Can we quickly take a vote on how many people in this room have ever actually been to Walt Disney World?", she asked.

Only Caroline, Pepper, Tony, Maria, Trip, and Reggie raised their hands. Darcy nodded, and she turned back to Phil.

"Well, my mother always made us spend vacations with her parents at one country club or another, so I've never been.", she said simply.

"Even before the Other Guy came around, I was still not a very kid-friendly person.", Bruce stated.

"We're assassins.", Clint and Natasha chorused.

"I was on ice for nearly seventy years.", Steve obviously had one of the top three excuses.

"My dad died when I was a kid, so Mum worked all the time to support the two of us.", Leo said.

"Mum and Dad never really wanted to go when I was little.", Jemma said, only sounding slightly sad.

"Foster kid, people!", Skye reminded them all.

"I have a story similar to Leo's.", Phil gave his reason.

"My mother is a first generation Chinese American. Disney World wasn't, and still isn't, her thing.", May explained quickly.

"We're Asgardian.", Thor and Loki said together.

"I was the same as Phil and Leo, only it was my mom who died.", Jane simply shrugged her shoulders as she gave her answer.

"Then it's settled. We're going to Disney World!", Tony cheered, acting like the kid everyone knew he really was.

"When did you go there, anyway?", Skye asked out of pure curiosity.

"I went when EPCOT opened. It was for SCIENCE!", he explained, and Skye laughed.

"That does seem like you. So, how are we dividing up hotels and groups?", she asked, and the other adults looked at each other.

"J.A.R.V.I.S., please set up a chart with the most logical scenarios for this Disney vacation.", Tony called out to his AI.

"Of course, Sir.", J.A.R.V.I.S. replied, and everything was finalized in about a half hour.

"This is going to be fun.", Tony said as he paid for it all, and for once, no one could find a way to tell him otherwise.l

A/N: Okay, so the Avengers are off to The Most Magical Place on Earth. Even though I am the one writing this, it should be interesting. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you stay tuned in for more! R&R! P.S., I do not own Disney World. Belive me, I would not be writing if I did; I would probably be on Space Mountain if I did.


	4. A Break from Chaos

A/N: I don't own _The Avengers_, _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D._,or _Thor_. Also, the time line has been skewed to allow for the preceding oneshots. Everything from _Captain America: the Winter Soldier_ forward is a year after it happens in the cannon, except Steve met Sam, and Sam joined the team (sort of) before WS. R&R!

A week later, the family had been split into color-named groups, courtesy of J.A.R.V.I.S., different people going to different resorts on the Disney World property...

With the Blue Group:

Steve was in awe, as were his companions. The resort looked like a 1940s Atlantic Coast boardwalk. It reminded him of going to the Stark World Expo with Bucky. Caroline was just amazed at how much Disney seemed to invest into their resorts. Maria and Melinda both wondered if the strange feeling they both felt was the feeling of being an adult who got to act like a kid.

"This is it, Disney's BoardWalk Inn Resort. Ladies first.", Steve said as he pretended to hold the automatic door open for his four female companions, smiling at the look of childhood innocence and amazement on Emma's face.

With the Red Group:

The Coulson-Barton family pulled up to the resort J.A.R.V.I.S. had assigned them, and they were all in awe of the place, but no one more than Skye.

"I've read about this one a few times. It's supposed to be a Victorian-era Palm Beach style resort; I really thought Tony would have kept this to himself.", she said as the van came to a stop.

"Well, he did go with whatever J.A.R.V.I.S. Selected.", Clint told her as they stepped out of the van and followed Phil into the lobby.

With the Green Team:

As much as Loki had loather Midgard before, he was, if anything, glad he had began to actually like it. Thor stopped the car outside a building painted in a pastel blue. Each group member slowly exited the car, and walked inside. The whole place seemed focused on the beach, and Loki was quick to react by pulling out his STARKphone and searching where Tony had sent them in detail.

"Of course, Stark would allow his AI to send us to one of the resorts closest to the park centered around technology.", he said to himself, and Thor let out a low chuckle.

"We're at the Beach Club Resort, brother. Maybe you can lounge by the pool or get a tan and let more women ogle you at any of Tony's parties.", the blonde said in reply.

"Is it really my fault if women find me attractive? And are you insinuating that I am pale?", Loki responded quickly.

"Considering what you are by birth, I would be worried if you weren't a little on the pale side. It's like me being big and bulky like Father.", Thor explained, and Loki, after finally coming to terms with his parentage roughly a year prior, nodded in agreement.

Jane returned from the Check-In desk, and Trip walked over from where he had been standing. Now they had to find their room.

With the Black Group:

As part of the goal to keep them all from remembering who they were within S.H.I.E.L.D., Tony was thrilled when he pulled up to the Polynesian Resort. If Tony was thrilled, Bruce was bouncing off the walls of the Dodge Journey they were in. Jemma and Leo were looking everywhere at everything, and all of this made Pepper and Reggie realize one thing: this trip was part of the childhood most of them never had.

"Pep, we have to do something like this every year. We can't take back how their childhoods were, but we can make sure our children have childhoods, right?", Reggie whispered as she leaned towards the redhead.

"Right. Maybe we should just sign up for the Disney Vacation Club now and save time.", she replied with a laugh, and Reggie laughed too, the pressure of being the wives of super heroes gone temporarily.

That night, all four groups met up in Downtown Disney for dinner. Upon entering the district, they had all made a pact to not buy anything that night unless absolutely necessary. Tony, once the deal was made, took the lead and headed for the restaurant J.A.R.V.I.S. had made reservations at. They group came to a halt in front of a large building with a dinosaur skeleton sticking out of it.

"We're having dinner with animatronic dinosaurs. Okay, this is officially the second weirdest family dinner I have ever been to.", Skye said, and Tony gave her strange look.

"What was the weirdest?", he asked.

"That would be the dinner right after I was shot where everyone came home after a mission of some sort and we all looked as close to dead as I ever want to see any of you. That was the night that Rhodey crashed your guest bedroom because Loki lost his temper and accidentally froze his Iron Patriot armor.", she answered with a laugh.

"That was a pretty weird night.", Tony added, and everyone who was there laughed at the memory.

They got into the restaurant and were seated pretty quickly in the dining room closest to the aquarium. Three tables had been moved together to create enough space for all twenty-one of them, and they were sitting in almost the same arrangement they had sat in at the tower.

"Okay, so let's set some ground rules for meal times. First, if we're all together, no alcohol for anyone. Second, no foul language at the table. Third, no throwing food. Fourth, when asked a group question, answer one at a time. Anything else?", Darcy stated, and no one had anything to add.

"Now, who wants cola to drink?", Phil asked, and all of the "children" and Darcy raised their hands.

"I prefer Sprite.", Melinda said, and Trip nodded in agreement.

"Dr. Pepper for me.", Maria said, and Phil nodded.

So Phil ordered two Sprites, one Dr. Pepper, 2% milk for Emma, apple juice for Roger, and sixteen Coca-Colas. The waitress gave them one look before deciding to just do whatever they asked. Thor and Tony were easily recognizable, and, even while giggling and heavily pregnant, Natasha still looked slightly scary. Due to her not wanting to be near Natasha, the waitress began taking the dinner orders from Phil's end of the table. Ordering went well, but Steve received a strange look from everybody when he ordered Emma's food.

"She'll have the kids' grilled chicken with vegetables."

Steve gave them all confused looks, so Caroline sighed before answering the unasked question.

"He is the only person who can get Emma to eat her vegetables. I can't even do that, so I take advantage of it when I can. Emma's always listened to her daddy, even before I married him.", and everyone understood why the three year old would choose to eat vegetables instead of fries.

Dinner was over and done with by eight, and the Avengers family found themselves sitting at Ghirardelli as the children ate their ice cream and the adults either followed the children's example or sipped on their coffee.

"So, which park are we meeting up at tomorrow?", Melinda asked, and everyone called out different answers almost at once through mouths of multiple desserts.

"Okay, let me rephrase that. Where did J.A.R.V.I.S. say we were going tomorrow?", she asked, and Pepper replied before anyone had the chance.

"Steve has the schedule on his phone, and I have it on mine as well. We're going to Hollywood Studios tomorrow.", she said.

"Why do I have the plan on my phone?", Steve asked.

"Because, for as long as I can remember, Dad made me watch those film reels of your old 'Buy war bonds' shows, and they always called you the Star-Spangled Man with the Plan. As team leader, the plan is your responsibility. Pepper just likes to know exactly what's going on, which is why I made sure she had it, too.", Tony explained, and Steve smiled.

"So what is Hollywood Studios exactly?", he asked as he shook his head.

"It deals a lot with the movies and how things work. They have a Star Wars ride and other Star Wars thing too.", Skye said as she held a sleeping Roger in her arms.

"Well, the park opens at nine o'clock, but we have Extra Magic Hours, so we can get in at eight o'clock. We should all head back to our rooms, or resorts, and get some sleep. All alarm clocks should be set to six o'clock, and I will call everyone to make sure to call everyone and make sure you are all awake.", Pepper said sternly, and no one dared to cross her, so they followed her orders.

The Blue Group reached their resort, and room; and Caroline set the alarm clock while Steve got Emma ready for bed. Melinda pulled out the sofa bed and got herself ready for sleep, and Maria was already brushing her teeth by the time Steve was finished getting Emma ready.

"Emma, are you going to sleep with Aunt Maria tonight?", Steve asked the three year old.

"Yes, Daddy.", she mumbled back sleepily.

Within half an hour, everyone in the Blue Group had fallen into a peaceful sleep.

The Red Group reached their villa and prepared for bed in silence. Skye pulled out the sofa bed in the second bedroom, and Roger climbed in. All five of the adults looked on and cooed over how cute they thought he looked, marveling at how he was asleep before his head hit his pillow.

"Well, I'm not about to make a pregnant Pepper Potts-Stark angry; so, good night people!", Skye said with a yawn, and she got into bed beside her two year old brother.

"Skye's got the right idea. Good night.", Clint said as he got into the other bed alongside Natasha, and Darcy and Phil left the room and made their way to their own bedroom, where they went to sleep peacefully for the first time months without worrying about H.Y.D.R.A.

The Green Group had returned to their villa, and Jane was asleep in the master bedroom, and Trip had gone to sleep on the sofa bed in the second bedroom. Thor and Loki sat in the living room, researching Hollywood Studios more without the knowledge of the others. After about twenty minutes of intense, and rather informative, studying, the two men decided to go to bed. They clearly had a long day ahead of them.

The Black Group made their way to the suite reserved for them (a suite which cost a whole lot of money that Tony would only tell Pepper about _after_ the trip), and the three men crashed before their heads hit their pillows. In the master bedroom, Pepper snapped a picture of Tony with her phone and texted it to Reggie, who then replied with a similar picture of Bruce. Both men had apparently fallen asleep while trying to text the other one. Pepper took Tony's phone out of his hands and looked at the screen.

'Everybody seems so happy. We should do this every year.', the text read.

Smiling, Pepper called Reggie, who answered with the question that made Pepper's question obsolete.

"Tony wants to come back every year, too, huh?"

"Apparently so. Are Jemma and Leo sleeping okay?", Pepper asked in reply.

"Yep. Well, they're sleeping okay _now_. Jemma only got into bed a few minutes ago. The four of us decided to just shower tonight before bed. Leo fell asleep almost as soon as she laid down beside him. I think they're helping each other through this. It sort of reminds me of the way you and Tony helped each other after the Killian incident.", Reggie answered, and Pepper chuckled.

"That incident prompted Tony to get the shrapnel out of his chest, which forced us to buy one of those Arc Reactor night lights they make for kids. I never needed a night light until I started living with Tony, and now I have to wean myself off of the one that was bought to replace it!", she told the scientist.

"And then he told Bruce that whole story, which resulted on the two of them deciding to heavily invest in energy shots. At least they're sleeping now.", Reggie said tiredly.

"True. We should head that way as well. Good night, Reggie.", Pepper replied, sounding equally tired.

"G'night, Pepper.", and the call ended.

The next morning, Tony and Pepper's alarm clock went off at six o'clock sharp. The redhead was up and in the bathroom before Tony had even opened his eyes. The self-proclaimed Genius-Billionaire-Philanthropist (the Playboy part was dropped the moment he had proposed to Pepper) sat up as the water turned on, and gave a large yawn. He immediately moved over to the closet and pulled out his clothes for the day. Tony turned as Pepper opened the bathroom door, now showered and in her outfit, he caught sight of the mirror and smiled.

"It's kind of nice, you know, not having to worry about the Arc Reactor distracting anyone on one of the rides at any of the parks. I learn to appreciate losing that thing more and more each day.", he told her.

"And, we made it the whole night without the light. Say nothing about the rhyming, Tony, or so help me-"

Pepper never finished that statement. Maybe it was because swearing to God was a little difficult when you live with two Norse gods? Or perhaps it was because the threat was clear without being finished? The most likely reason, however, was that Tony had kissed her before she could say anything else.

"We did it!", he cheered, and Pepper could not help but cheer with him.

"Yes, we did! Now, go get ready. I have to dry my hair.", she said as she shoved Tony into the bathroom before grabbing her hair dryer.

On the other side of the two-bedroom suite, the other four shot up when the alarm clock went off. The girls went into the bathroom to change, and the guys realized only one of the three bathrooms was still available. Leo let Bruce go, and he waited for the girls to get out of the bathroom. When they finally came out, he hurried in and closed the door without even taking a second glance at them. Reggie and Jemma looked at each other before laughing.

"Oh, what wonders you can achieve when you instill the fear of Pepper Potts-Stark into any man who's lived with her for over a week.", Reggie said, and Jemma nodded, no words able to overcome her laughter.

That was when Bruce entered the room, highly confused.

"What's so funny?", he asked slowly.

"Oh, nothing. It's just fun watching you boys work at top speed to get ready before Pepper's timer goes off. We have to get to the park by eight, meaning we have to hurry downstairs if we want breakfast.", Jemma said simply as she walked out of the room with a sunscreen bottle in hand.

The scene was the same with all of the groups: get up, get ready, and threaten whoever was moving the slowest with no food or Pepper's wrath. Each group went to a restaurant on their resort's property and ate a quick breakfast before rushing outside to board a bus or boat to Hollywood Studios.

A/N: Okay, so the Avengers are off to The Most Magical Place on Earth. Even though I am the one writing this, it should be interesting. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you stay tuned in for more! R&R! P.S., I do not own Disney World. Believe me, I would not be writing if I did; I would probably be on Space Mountain if I did.


	5. A Day at the Movies

A/N: I don't own _The Avengers_, _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D._,or _Thor_. Also, the time line has been skewed to allow for the preceding oneshots. Everything from _Captain America: the Winter Soldier_ forward is a year after it happens in the cannon, except Steve met Sam, and Sam joined the team (sort of) before WS. R&R!

It was interesting, Bruce thought, to watch the reactions people had to seeing Emma Rogers. When people looked at her, one of three thoughts seemed to cross their faces. It was either, "She's so cute!", "Fourth of July isn't for another five weeks!", or "She must really love Captain America." The last one was Bruce's personal favorite, simply because it was true. Since the very first Christmas Eve the family had together, Emma had called Steve "Daddy", and she even refused to sleep without her Captain America doll when Steve was away on missions.

These thoughts went through his head as they stood in line for Muppet Vision: 3D. As he thought, a woman about the same age as Caroline saw Steve holding Emma. She was tall, curvy, and platinum blonde, though her mousey brown roots were beginning to show. Bruce knew what was going to happen, as it happened regularly in New York, so he nudged the others to get them to watch. Maria was the first to let an almost inaudible giggle cross her lips as the woman began to talk to Steve.

"She's adorable.", the woman said, nodding towards Emma.

"Thank you," Steve began, looking at Caroline just over Emma's head for instructions, "Ma'am."

"I don't know that I'm quite old enough to be called 'Ma'am', but I think I can let this slide. I'm Tiffany, by the way.", the woman said, flashing Steve a flirty smile.

"Steve.", he said politely, tightening his arms around Emma, who was almost flattening herself against her father to keep Tiffany from even attempting touching her.

"How old is she?", Tiffany asked.

"Three, but only just.", Steve replied, very used to women flirting with him shamelessly while he stood directly beside his wife.

"I've always wanted children of my own, but my ex-husband told me flat out he never wanted children. So, here I am, on vacation with my sister and her kids, _single_ for the very first time since high school.", Tiffany said, and Steve prepared to speak again.

But before Steve could say his usual line of "And I'm taken.", his phone rang. He turned to Caroline, who just smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Who could possibly be calling you now? We're all here on vacation!", she asked as she took Emma into her arms.

"Sam is the only person I can think of who might be calling now. Hello?", Steve replied as he answered the call.

"I've given up my position for a week and a half, and all twenty-one of you decide to vanish? Where are you all?", it was Fury.

"Phil, I think it's for you!", Steve joked as he handed his cell phone to the new Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"I thought Nick was supposed to be told by J.A.R.V.I.S. where we were going?", he asked as he accepted the phone.

"Well, that message never reached me, so explain. I've secured as many agents in Europe as I possibly could; but they're all Junior Agents, and I have no idea where to send them. You have an idea, Director?", Fury replied.

"The school is the only place possible to keep them safe. Only four people _alive_ know of its existence, and Tony only knew because it was partially named after his father. The other three are you, Maria, and me. Just take them there, and we can deal with everything else when I get back. Right now, I'm at the 'Happiest Place on Earth.'", Phil replied, and Fury sighed.

"Phil, why in the hell would ALL of you go to Disney World?", Fury asked.

"Because we needed a break, and it seemed like a good idea at the time. We only just got here yesterday.", Phil answered.

"Good enough, I guess. But next time, I'd like to know where my family is before I go insane.", and the call ended.

Phil tossed the phone back to Steve, who caught it easily before pocketing it. Tiffany looked at the seventeen people between the Rogers family and Phil. She wanted to say something upon realizing it was the Avengers, but one look from Natasha stopped that idea before it reached her mouth. Steve looked to his "sister" gratefully as he took Emma back into his arms. The redhead nodded, signaling that it was nothing.

The line moved forward, and everyone received a text from Tony.

_"Don't wanna say this out loud, but Steve should really just get __**I'm Taken**__ tattooed across his forehead."_ it read.

"One could say the same about any of us, Tony, aside from Loki. This team has a lot of admirers.", Steve called back over his shoulder, and everyone agreed with him.

Soon, they were seated in the theater, all wearing 3D glasses, waiting for the show to begin. As long as they were in the show, they were not The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. They were just your not-so-average family on an average vacation. Natasha, Maria, Darcy, and Pepper all squealed when the water hit them; and the children and childish adults were almost constantly laughing. When the show ended, Tony had decided that Steve's newest nickname was to be Sam Eagle. Steve had taken the joke in a stride, and was quick to respond by telling Tony that if they were the Muppets, he was Miss Piggy herself.

"I'd resent that, but it's unfortunately true. Where are we off to next, people?", Tony replied, and Emma was the first to respond.

"Little Mermaid!"

This was how the day continued for the most part. They had gone to nearly every show by the time lunch rolled around. After lunch, they went to see _Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage!_ Almost as soon as it was over, it was determined that there was only one ride in the entire park the kids would be able to go on at their ages: the Great Movie Ride.

The cast members who were helping them into the boat-like trams repeatedly mentioned that the ride might be too scary for the toddlers, but the entire family laughed that off. Roger barely noticed it when Bruce Hulked out one time, and Emma actively embraced her strange family. With dishes that came to and from the dinner table by magic, at least one attempted kidnaping a month, and Asgardians randomly arriving through portals all over the tower, a kid learns not to be scared of surprises.

So, they went on the ride anyway; and people seemed to be astonished when neither child as much as flinched when a "gangster" took command of their vehicle. Emma actually stuck her tongue out at the alien from _Alien_, and Roger asked his father if he was supposed to be scared by it. The only time either child made a noise was when they reached _The Wizard of Oz_. Emma squealed with delight at the sight of her favorite movie.

"Daddy, look! It's Dorothy's house!", she cheered.

"I see it, Emma-bee. Oh no! It's the Wicked Witch of the West!", he replied with a gasp of mock-horror.

"She wouldn't last ten seconds against Aunt Tasha!", Emma decided, and Natasha blushed a light pink at the toddler's words.

Emma quieted down after that, but as she watched the scene intently, she began singing along with the munchkins when they said to follow the yellow brick road. Roger joined in, and the two cheered enthusiastically when they saw the animatronic Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion.

Once they exited the ride, Tony decided they were going on Toy Story Midway Mania. Almost at once, everyone decided that the people trained to use guns would have to be partnered up. It was also decided that Clint would sit the ride out with the two toddlers. His deathly precise aim was determined to be a definite form of cheating. So, naturally, while everyone else was on the ride, Clint took his brother and goddaughter over to meet Buzz Lightyear and Woody.

On the ride, the remaining eighteen paired off. Caroline picked Reggie almost at once, and Pepper picked Darcy. Tony surprised everyone by grabbing ahold of Phil instead of Bruce, who took chose Jemma as his partner. Leo and Trip silently agreed to be partners, and Skye latched onto Steve. Jane chose Loki for the sole purpose of separating the two Asgardian brothers, so Thor was partnered with Natasha. This left Maria and Melinda as the final team. When they got to the ride's loading dock, Loki and Jane were placed in the first and Pepper took the second row. Thor and Natasha took the third row, and Phil and Tony took row four. Row five, which was the start of the second set of carts, was where Steve and Skye wound up, and Caroline and Reggie took row six. Row seven was where Bruce and Jemma were, with Leo and Trip following behind them in row eight. The first row, row nine, of the third set of carts was where Melinda and Maria wound up.

The ride itself was a fierce competition between the family members, and their strategy was not as much to beat the person next to them as it was to beat everyone in the family. Natasha and Tony both had a secret goal to set a new daily high score.

Clint, Emma, and Roger were across from the ride, looking at various toys, when the group exited the building in fits of laughter. Clint saw, and he could not help but laugh as well as he asked them what happened on the ride.

"One of us wound up resetting the day's top score, and the ride operators seemed shocked to find out it was Natasha.", Darcy managed to get out.

"I fought off aliens with two handguns, so I would be worried if this ride was a challenge.", Natasha said calmly as she slowly stopped laughing.

"Okay, so what's next?", Tony asked as he began to sober up.

"I would like to go on the Tower of Terror.", Thor said, and Tony grinned.

"That sounds like a great idea. I don't care if pregnant women shouldn't ride Tower of Terror, because I found out I was pregnant while trying to stop H.Y.D.R.A. No theme park ride is going to mess with me or my child. Right, ladies?", Natasha replied in all seriousness, and the other pregnant women agreed.

"Should I really go on this ride? No one answer; I'll sit this one out this time, and Tony and I can build a simulator for me to experiment with for next time.", Bruce said, and Reggie got an idea.

"Hey, why don't you all go on the ride, and we can take Roger and Emma to the _Honey, I Shrunk the Kids_ playground? We can all meet up at Hollywood and Vine for dinner, because I know you're all going to want to go on the roller coaster.", she said to them all.

"I'll stay off Tower of Terror, but I'll gladly switch with someone to go on the roller coaster.", Maria stated as she nodded with Reggie's plan, and Natasha offered to switch.

When they met up for dinner that night, the group that had gone on the two thrill rides had also gone on Star Tours, which the two toddlers were also too short to ride. After regaling Bruce and Reggie with the story of how Natasha, of all people, had been selected by the computer to be the rebel spy, Tony showed Bruce and Reggie the picture from Tower of Terror as they had dessert. All of them were laughing and smiling, except for Pepper and Leo. In said picture, Pepper was smacking Tony upside the head, and Leo was just plain terrified.

"She found out about the new suit. Perhaps a free fall function isn't really worth it?", Tony told Bruce when asked about why Pepper had hit him that time.

"You finally figured that out, did you? Free falling in the suit is not the best way to cope with your anxiety. That would be like trapping Bruce in a room with Betty, while she's trying to get him to test a new 'cure', to help him control his anger.", Reggie said, and Tony nodded as he accepted his defeat.

The family finished dessert and made their way over to Fantasmic!, the nighttime Mickey vs. Villains firework show. The show was amazing for them, as they had never seen it before. Throughout the whole show, the only downside Tony could find was that he believed the whole thing would have been cooler had it been set to the Pirates of the Caribbean theme. That, of course, prompted Steve to ask what that was, and Tony to schedule a _Pirates of the Caribbean_ marathon upon their return to New York.

As their night in the park drew to a close, the groups went out front to either the waiting area for the busses or the waiting area for the boats. Steve and Pepper looked at the schedule, and told the other family members near them that the next park would be Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Let's just say, when everyone was in his or her bedroom, they all fell asleep within a matter of minutes. It had been a long, exciting, exhausting day.

A/N: Things are about to get wild! Even though I am the one writing this, it should be interesting. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you stay tuned in for more! R&R! P.S., I do not own Disney World. Believe me, I would not be writing if I did; I would probably be on Space Mountain if I did.


	6. Walk on the Wild Side

A/N: I don't own _The Avengers_, _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D._,or _Thor_. Also, the time line has been skewed to allow for the preceding oneshots. Everything from _Captain America: the Winter Soldier_ forward is a year after it happens in the cannon, except Steve met Sam, and Sam joined the team (sort of) before WS. R&R!

The next morning, getting to the park was much the same as the day before, only no one took a boat. From the moment they stepped into the park, the family could tell they were surrounded by wildlife. While most of them were distracted by the animals, Natasha grabbed a park map and opened it up. She looked over the paths for a few minutes before calling Pepper over. The two redheads debated which way the group should go, and what they would do first, for only a couple of minutes. It was decided that they would start with _It's Tough to be a Bug!_

"Guys, hang a right at the ring-tailed lemur. We're going to see a show that should definitely make sure we're all awake. Adults, or kids trapped in the bodies of adults," Everyone turned from Natasha to Tony and/or Loki as the words came out of her mouth. "remember that these bugs are audioanimatronic."

"Well, it's not like I can do anything! I'm wearing the necklace!", Loki said with a laugh, pointing to the golden chain which hung around his neck.

"Let's just go! The wait time is only about ten minutes with the walk to the theater.", Pepper said while trying not to laugh, and they were off.

Darcy, the only one who was a major Broadway fan, pointed out the different playbill puns around the theater's lobby area while they waited for the doors to open. Finally, the doors swung open, and everyone moved into the theater. They decided to sit in the second row, and everyone made sure to put on his or her "bug eyes."

Once the 3-D glasses were on, the show began. Flick, the ant from _A Bug's Life_, called down from the ceiling, moved on screen, and announced the first bug. The Chilean Tarantula, Chili, came up behind him, and Flick jumped. Then Chili began giving a demonstration on what his deadly quills could do.

That was the first time Clint noticed Skye shiver. He thought it was just because it was cold in the theater and wind was being blown at them. When she shivered again as the Black Widow spiders dropped from the ceiling, Clint knew something was wrong. He remained silent, however, not wanting to upset his sister while they were in the show.

Skye was quick to leave the show as it ended, and Clint followed after her. She was walking down the exit path when he caught up to her.

"Skye, what's wrong?", he asked calmly.

"I don't like spiders. The only spider I _do_ like is Natasha; and somehow, I don't think she actually counts as a spider. I didn't want to tell you before hand, because I didn't want you to think I was a baby.", she told him, and he laughed.

"Seriously, Skye? I wouldn't have thought that at all. None of us would have. We all, except maybe the scary, yet loveable, Melinda May, have irrational fears.", Clint responded, and the look Skye gave him made her seem very childlike.

"Really?", she asked quietly.

"Yep. As much as I love heights, and as much as I see better from a distance, I am terrified of falling without a parachute or in a controlled environment, such as Tower of Terror. Nat's even got an one.", he said as his wife walked up beside him.

"What have I got?", she asked.

"An irrational fear. Exception you, Skye is scared of spiders.", Clint answered, and the redhead nodded.

"Natasha, what's your irrational fear?", Skye asked innocently, and Natasha could not help but answer.

"I suffer from Hadephobia.", she explained, and Skye looked at her curiously.

"She's afraid of where she'll end up postmortem because of the things she's done in life.", Clint clarified as best he could without actually saying the word 'Hell' in the middle of Disney World.

"Why are we discussing fears?", Tony asked as he came up behind the three.

"I'm arachnophobic.", Skye answered, and Tony nodded.

"I understand, because I am still autophobic; Bruce is too. As much as he thinks he's a danger to people, if he were to be isolated from the world, if he had no friends or family, he would probably try to kill himself again. Granted, that approach to ending his isolation never worked in the past. Our mutual fear is one of the reasons we're best friends. We help each other. Now, Pepper is a different case. She is autophobic-by proxy; her irrational fear of what might happen if I were to have no one, if all of you were to just dessert me for no reason at all. Everyone is afraid at some time or another, Skye. It's part of what makes us human. To be honest, I think being able to admit to being afraid is one of the greatest human qualities there is.", Tony said simply, and the other three seemed taken aback.

"That was surprisingly deep, Tony. You know what, we should all sit down, once we get back to New York next week, and list all of our stupid irrational fears. If we all know what the others are afraid of, we can help each other overcome our fears.", Skye said, and Clint agreed with her.

"It would be good, because I was only mentally okay during the end of New York because I'd had my grappling arrow. If I would've gone into free fall like you did, Tony, I would have been petrified.", Clint admitted.

Tony agreed, as did Natasha, and he said he would talk to Pepper about it later on that night. So, with that taken care of, the four waited at the end of the exit path for the rest of the family.

"Where to next?", Steve asked once they had reached the four.

"Dinoland USA!", Clint said, sounding rather childlike.

"You and your dinosaurs!", Skye exclaimed, and Leo looked to Jemma for an explanation.

"Clint _really_ loves dinosaurs. That's it, actually.", Jemma said, and Leo nodded.

"Well, let go then.", Phil called out, and the family started walking back towards the entrance for _It's Tough to be a Bug_ where they would find a path to lead them to Dinoland USA.

Once in Dinoland, it was Clint's turn to have his father observe how childlike he could be. While the expectant mothers (except for Pepper) and Darcy had gone with the children to _The Boneyard_ playground, the remaining fifteen adults got in line for _Primeval Whirl_. Each cart seated four people, so they decided to go in groups of three. First went Loki, Jane, and Thor in a green cart. Next, Steve got into a blue cart with Maria and Melinda. The yellow cart, which came third, was filled by Jemma, Leo, and Trip. A red cart came fourth, and Tony nearly dived into it with Pepper and Bruce. Phil, Skye, and Clint took the second blue cart, deciding to be the last group.

The carts spun around and bumped around a lot, but there was nothing but laughter from the family. When the ride was over, the riders met up with the mothers near _The Triceratops Spin_. Phil reached out to take Roger from Darcy, but stopped about halfway.

"That coaster hurt your back, didn't it?", she asked, giving him her 'I told you so' smirk.

"Yeah, probably. If you want to go with them on _DINOSAUR_, then I can take him on that.", Phil answered, nodding towards the flying triceratops behind him.

"Okay, but do you need anything before I go? I have some painkillers in my purse, and it's just some over the counter stuff, don't worry.", Darcy replied, and Phil nodded.

"Yes, please.", he told her as she placed two pills in his palm.

"Here.", she said.

"Thank you, I love you, and have fun with the Carnotaurus.", he whispered to her before kissing her on the cheek.

"Your welcome, I love you, and have fun with the Triceratops and toddler.", Darcy whispered back, as she pecked Phil on the lips and hurried off with the other family members going to ride _DINOSAUR_.

Phil, along with the mothers and Emma, made his way to the flying dinosaurs with his son. They stood in line for a while, and none of them dared to check the time out of fear the (un)lucky phone to say the time of day might be crushed by its owner. By the time they were on the ride, Phil felt the others must be almost done with their ride.

The dinos lifted off, and Phil allowed Roger to pilot the Triceratops. About halfway through the flight, the two-and-a-half year old began to wave to someone standing by the exit without even turning his head to look at the person or people.

"Who're you waving to, Sport?", Phil asked.

"Mama, Skye, Clint, and Tasha!", the boy replied.

Sure enough, when Phil looked over to the exit, he saw his wife, his daughter, his eldest son, and his daughter-in-law. Chuckling to himself, Phil made a mental note to set an age to start training Roger to pilot aircraft. He felt his youngest would make an excellent pilot someday.

After regrouping, sitting through _Finding Nemo: the Musical_, and playing some carnival games, the family made their way towards the ASIA section of the park. The wait for _Expedition _Everest was over an hour, and most of them were hungry, so they knew it would be better to grab lunch first, especially after a few of their stomachs gave off growls.

So, seeking food, they stopped at _The Yak & Yeti_ restaurant, desperate to escape the heat. While the adults were using chopsticks for their food, the two toddlers had spoons. Roger, who was eating Kids Vegetable Lo Mein, was getting frustrated as the noodles kept falling out of the spoon. He stopped trying to eat the Lo Mein and ate his applesauce quietly, watching the adults around him. It was only when Phil finished his Chicken Lo Mein and placed his chopsticks on his napkin, pointed at himself, that Roger had an idea, which, in itself, was quite impressive for an almost-three year old.

Roger waited until his father's back was turned before picking up the chopsticks, which were much to large for his small hands in the first place, and making another attempt at eating his noodles. Natasha noticed this first, and she nudged Clint, who in turn nudged Skye. She nudged Steve, who told Caroline quietly. She did the same to Loki, who told Thor, who nudged Jane, who nudged Trip, who got Leo's attention; he turned to Jemma, who looked at Bruce, who nudged Reggie, who quietly told Tony, who passed the message along to Pepper, who told Maria, who told a smiling Melinda.

"You have quite a resourceful son.", Melinda said to Darcy, who called out Phil's name upon seeing what Roger had done..

Finally, the Coulson patriarch turned to see what everyone was looking at and he held back a chuckle. His son was definitely destined to be an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Agreeing upon saving the two rides in ASIA for when the children were older, the family moved on, after lunch, to the _Maharaja Jungle Trek_ before they planned on setting off for AFRICA. That was where they discovered Jemma and Caroline's mutual irrational fear of bats. After consoling the two women, they decided it was best to quickly move on to the next activity.

That activity happened to be the _Kilimanjaro Safaris_. The line was a decent size for late spring, and everyone learned a little bit about the animals from all of the posters lining the queue. By the time they reached the front of the line, Emma and Roger both were fairly versed in the Swahili names of the animals they were about to see. Tony was the first to point out that the Disney Imagineers had named the protagonist of _The Lion King_ "Lion", and they all had to at least chuckle at that.

Once on the ride, their driver/guide began telling them facts about each animal they passed.

"Up here, on our right, you can see some red-orange colored animals with black and white stripes on their hind legs. Those are Okapi. Look at those stripes, and what do you think they're related to?", he asked.

Most people shouted out "Zebra!", but Clint shook his head as the answers from all over the truck came to the front.

"The skull isn't right for it to be in the Equine family. It looks more like a relative of the giraffe.", he replied loud enough for his family and the driver to hear.

"Correct, sir. They are actually the only known living relatives of the giraffe.", the driver announced, and Skye turned to face her brother.

"How did you know that?", she asked, amazed.

"I saw it's head, Skye. You know I see better from a distance.", he replied with a smirk.

The truck continued on, and everyone snapped pictures and watched the animals until they came to a bridge. The guide mentioned that he did not mind the bridge, but he was not overly fond of what was to the left of it: Nile crocodiles.

"I, however, am a slight gephyrophobe after falling off the bifrost.", Loki said quietly.

"Nothing is going to happen, Loki. Just remember that the animals are real, but the 'safari' is fake. We'll be back to the start in about fifteen minutes.", Jane told him, and he nodded.

"Thank you, Jane.", Thor whispered to his wife.

"He's family; I would've done that for anyone of you guys.", she replied.

When they saw the baby giraffe and heard the guide's facts about it, most of the family looked at Loki.

"What?", he asked.

"You are about the same weight and size as a newborn giraffe.", Natasha said bluntly.

"I'm mostly muscle, and I am a giant, frost or not.", Loki responded as if it was nothing for him to be compared to an animal.

When the ride cam to a close, they gathered their belongings and exited the ride. Emma was fighting sleep, and Roger had given in to the temptations of nap time. After realizing it was time the FastPass return for Expedition Everest, the eighteen people going on the ride took off for it at top speed, and the other five decided to go and find someplace to sit in the shade.

By the time people began lining up for _The Festival of the Lion King_, the others had met up with Phil, Darcy, Natasha, Emma, and Roger outside the Harambe theater. Skye looked angry, and Clint was laughing.

"What did you do to your sister?", Darcy asked.

"Nothing, I swear!", Clint replied, throwing his hands up in defense.

"Clinton Francis Barton, you liar! I told you not to buy that picture in the first place. I look horrible!", Skye snapped at him.

"Let me see it.", Darcy commanded, and Clint handed the photo over.

Darcy smiled at it, showed it to Phil and Natasha, and handed it back to Clint.

"Skye, there's nothing wrong with the picture. You look absolutely adorable, and I think protecting you from a real and or animatronic yeti is in his job description as your big brother.", Darcy told her stepdaughter softly, and Skye smiled.

"I guess I did overreact a little. I'm sorry, Clint, for what I said. Forgive me?", she said to her brother, who simply hugged her in reply.

"Okay, now that we've taken care of that, who wants to see _The Festival of the Lion King_?", Phil asked the family, and all of the children/children-trapped-in-adult-bodies cheered.

They went in, along with the other guests, and found themselves in the Lion section. Considering how many of them roared and yelled as part of their jobs, they found this pretty dead-on.

"This is going to end _so_ well.", Skye said sarcastically as Steve was selected to go up and demonstrate how a lion roars.

"It could've been worse, Skye. At least Thor or the Other Guy didn't go up there. The whole theater might have started shaking and falling apart, and they did just build this one.", Bruce joked as Thor just rolled his eyes and smiled before they roared as one.

The show continued, and the attention was back on the African dancers on the center of the stage. Pretty soon, the signal came for them to roar like a lion (or, if it was one of the other sections, bleet like a giraffe, trumpet like an elephant, or snort like a warthog) to greet the animals. Then, Simba's voice reached their ears.

Roger had looked around excitedly for the lion, but pouted when he could not find Simba. His frown was quickly turned upside-down when the animal-floats began arriving. First came the giraffe, and Timon stood on the back of the float. He complained about the float's speed, and everyone laughed. Pumba came out next, and he had the Tumble Monkeys put him in the Warthog section. The elephant was third, and the trumpeting ensued quickly after its arrival. Finally, Simba entered and asked if he was in the right section.

To answer the audioanimatronic, they all roared as loud as they could (aside from Thor, who toned down his roar). Simba approved of the roars, saying that it was the right section.

Through every musical number, someone in the family was singing. As if it was a rule, which is was definitely not, but someone was _always_ singing when they went to see any of the shows. When the song "Be Prepared" (with Tony being the one to sing along, despite the looks he was getting) was sung, many looks were shot at Loki, who looked rightly abashed. The trickster allowed himself a small smile as he realized how much the song sounded like his plans to rule Asgard and Midgard.

Soon enough, however, they found themselves swaying along to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" and taking part in the sing-a-long/sing-off between the two halves of the theater. After that, Timon dismissed the audience in his usual Timon manner, and the family stepped out of the darkness of the theater and into the dimming brightness of the early evening hour.

"So, what are we doing now?", Skye asked Natasha, who was looking at the map while Pepper checked her phone.

"Unless we're going to go up to Rafiki's Planet Watch, we're done. Any plans for dinner?", Steve said as he beat them all to the punch, for the first time on the trip, by pulling the plan up on _his_ phone.

"I think we should steer clear of the petting zoo and tarantulas until after we have that discussion on irrational fears.", Clint said, and everyone else agreed with him on that.

"As for dinner, I am tired. So, I say tonight is a 'Go-Back-to-Your-Room-and-Order-Room-Service' night! Any arguments?", Phil's statement was met with nineteen shaking heads.

"Then let's get to those buses!", Darcy cheered, and they left the park, everyone headed to the bus stops numbered 1-5 to find a bus back to his or her resort.

As they waited, Skye turned to Pepper and asked the question the others had forgotten.

"Please tell me tomorrow is a rest day and that I can sleep in!"

"It is, Skye. Tomorrow, you can sleep in until ten, and then we're going to Downtown Disney again tomorrow afternoon for souvenir shopping and dinner.", Pepper said with a smile, as she was also pleased about having a chance to sleep in a little later than normal.

A/N: **(**The chopstick thing with Roger has happened in my life before. I am part Vietnamese, and my grandmother has quite a few pairs of chopsticks; my younger sister taught herself how to eat noodles with chopsticks when she was about four or five, and I do not even remember how old I was when I began trying to eat with them!**)** So, they have a day to relax. What could _possibly_ go wrong? Even though I am the one writing this, it should be interesting. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you stay tuned in for more! R&R! P.S., I do not own Disney World. Believe me, I would not be writing if I did; I would probably be on Space Mountain if I did.


	7. Splash, Shop, Stalk

A/N: I don't own _The Avengers_, _Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D._,or _Thor_. Also, the time line has been skewed to allow for the preceding oneshots. Everything from _Captain America: the Winter Soldier_ forward is a year after it happens in the cannon, except Steve met Sam, and Sam joined the team (sort of) before WS. R&R!

Splash! Water made contact with Clint's face, and all he could do was laugh. Since about 1 o'clock that afternoon, the Coulson-Barton family had been by the Beach Pool at the Grand Floridian. At the moment, he was in a furious, yet small scale, splash war with Skye. Natasha had been trying to stay out of the splash war by sunbathing on one of the lounge chairs. Phil and Darcy were with Roger, trying to begin teaching him to swim. Trying being the operative word, as the nearly-three year old seemed to want to join the splash war.

So, naturally, when Clint turned around, he expected to see his brother or his sister. The last person (in his family) that Clint expected to have splashed him was Natasha, yet there she was behind him.

"Gotcha!", she told him with a triumphant smirk.

"How did you even get in this war?", he asked her in addition to his own smirk as he looped his arms around her waist.

"I decided to join up because some of the teenaged boys out here keep checking me out.", Natasha answered with a fake smile, and Clint chuckled.

"You know you can't exactly blame them for starring. You're a really hot redhead, and an even more beautiful woman than their girlfriends would probably ever amount to.", he said as he looked around at said teenaged boys.

"Even when I'm this huge?", she asked, looking down at her baby bump with a soft smile.

"No matter how huge you might thing you are, you will always be beautiful to me. I love you Nat-", but Clint was cut off by Skye splashing him.

"Sorry to ruin the moment, because that was so sweet I almost got a cavity just listening to you, but Dad says it's time to go back up stairs to get ready to go. We have two hours before we have to meet the others at the Market Place in Downtown Disney, soon to be Disney Springs, and you know how Pepper is when things don't run on schedule.", she said all of this at a fast enough speed for Clint and Natasha to understand her, but she was also out of breath.

So, the three headed back to their villa, none of them noticing the dark haired, fair skinned man watching them from the other side of the pool.

At 5 o'clock sharp, the four groups met up at The Market Place in Downtown Disney. They had two hours to shop before their 7 o'clock dinner reservation at _The Rainforest Cafe_, which J.A.R.V.I.S. had selected based on its close proximity to the bus stop. Almost at once, all of them headed towards the large World of Disney store. The last person to walk in was Clint, and his hair was wet.

"What happened between the Market Place archway and the store's door?", Skye asked him as she laughed at her older brother.

"Stitch decided to get in on our splash war, only we ended the war!", Clint exclaimed.

"Wait, so the figure on the top of the building squirts water? Why wasn't I informed of this?", Tony asked childishly.

"Because none of us realized that until Clint's misfortune popped back up. We didn't really pay attention to Stitch when we were here the other day, so none of us saw it happen.", Darcy said with a shrug of her shoulders.

Before another word could be said, Emma ran to one of the shelves filled with familiar logos. Six of them let out sighs and groans before they all followed the three year old, who had already gotten into a verbal altercation with another toddler.

"Girls can't like super heroes!", the boy toddler told her.

"Yes they can!", Emma snapped back.

"No they can't!", he said again.

That was when Tony walked up.

"What's going on here, Em?", he asked nonchalantly.

"This _idiota_ keeps saying girls can't like superheroes, Uncle Tony.", Emma said, and the boy looked up.

"You're Iron Man!", he said breathlessly.

"Yes, I am. Emma, what did I say about saying mean words in Italian?", he said to the boy before turning back to Emma.

"Not to, because saying mean words is meaner than being physical with the person you called a name. Physical _is_ the right word, right?", Emma replied, and Tony nodded.

"How about this: I, as a superhero, can safely say, young man, that girls can be superhero fans just as much as boys can, especially Emma.", Tony said to the kid, who could not be older than five.

"Okay, I guess girls can like superheroes too.", the boy said before skipping off to where his parents were, looking at _Star Wars_ toys.

When the others decided to walk up, Emma had turned back to the toys and clothes in front of her. She was looking at a t-shirt with Steve's shield on it, complete with scratches and scorch marks from the Battle of New York, though Tony was positive the t-shirt shield's scratches were digitized on the shield's image for dramatic effect.

"So, what happened here?", Steve asked, looking between Tony and Emma.

"I had to explain to a young man that is completely appropriate for girls to like superheroes just as much as boys do. I couldn't let my, so far, only niece get told she can't like her own father, uncles, or aunt, now could I?", Tony responded with a smirk.

"You pulled the 'Iron Man' card on the kid, didn't you?", Steve asked as he helped Emma find a shirt small enough for her.

"Oh, naturally. I felt that, as a super hero, I had the authority to rule on who can be a fan and who cannot.", Tony's natural arrogance was back, but no one minded too much, if only because they were all distracted by the Avengers merchandise.

"Remind me why Nat and I agreed to let anyone make Avengers stuff, if we're the ones that get continuously left of of stuff.", Clint said as he inspected an Avengers t-shirt.

"Well, Tasha's is mostly a good thing, because it makes her harder to recognize. As for you, my friend, I honestly have no idea, whatsoever, why you get left off. Maybe it's because you and Tasha are kind of like a matched set? Mostly, I think you two agreed because without your normal source of income, and the fact that my company gets attacked almost as much as I do, we needed a failsafe for money.", Tony pondered this as he spoke, and Clint merely shrugged, deciding to drop the issue.

For the next hour, not that it felt like it, the 21-member family went from room to room in the giant store. The last room they entered was the Princess room. While Emma tried to determine her favorite princess, the adults watched as child after child exited the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in princess dresses or knight attire.

"That looks like something Emma might enjoy.", Pepper said to Caroline.

"We'll have to look into booking appointments on our next trip.", Natasha said, and the women blinked before Skye said the one thing they were all thinking.

"You're having a girl!"

"Yes, I'm having a girl. Clint and I found out at my last appointment, the day before we flew down here. I didn't want to know at first, but Clint did. When I saw the goofy grin he had when the doctor told him, I had to know. Do you know yet, Caroline?", Natasha responded, and the blonde nodded with a small smile.

"Steve didn't want to know, but I did, so none of you can tell him or any of the guys. We've discussed names for both genders, just incase the doctor turns out to be wrong; as of right now, my child is to be named James Steven Rogers.", she whispered to the other women, all of whom awed and giggled.

"I've still got a few more weeks before I know if I'm having a boy or a girl.", Reggie said, and Pepper remained silent, as she and Tony had still not told anyone other than the perspective godparents of their child.

"How is it that you _all_ managed to get pregnant around the exact same time?", Skye asked as Emma hurried over to Steve with a Cinderella music box.

"Easy, within the last five months, we've had so much going on, so many times the guys and Nat almost got killed, that there have been a lot of fights and, ahem, _making up_.", Jane answered, trying not to think about how she and Thor spent their morning while Loki and Trip had gone to the pool (mostly to test the theory that women are just automatically drawn to Loki; it was true by the way).

The women continued to talk, and the men continued to distract each other to keep from going insane inside the Princess room, not noticing the _same_ man from the Grand Floridian Beach Pool that morning watching them again from the other side of the room.

By the time 7 o'clock rolled around, the entire family had large bags in their hands, each filled to the brim (almost) with Disney merchandise. They had bought everything from Christmas stockings to charm bracelets. While they could have sent the items to their rooms, Steve, along with Thor and Phil, thought it would be gentlemanly for the men to carry the bags.

Dinner was a fun-filled family affair, complete with animals and thunderstorms _inside_ the restaurant. They were seated at a group of tables lined up together across from the bar, which made Darcy feel as if she had to go over the rules again. Everyone agreed to continue following the rules, and Tony commented that he might have to find barstools similar to the ones in the restaurant and buy them to put in their home theater. There was only one small problem they faced at dinner.

"Is there a rule against shooting people at dinner?", Clint asked as another Sparkling Volcano dessert went behind them.

"Yes, Clint, it is against the rules, even at home, to shoot anyone during family meals. I know that the servers shouting 'Volcano!' is annoying, but you can deal with this for now. I mean, you live in the same building as Tony, so you have to have a high tolerance for annoying people and things.", Darcy replied, and Tony just nodded, accepting the fact that he could be highly annoying when he wanted to be.

"What's the rule on physical assaults?", Melinda asked darkly.

"Unfortunately, they're not allowed either. By the way, where are we going tomorrow?", Skye replied, and Melinda let out a sigh as she went back to eating.

"We're going to EPCOT tomorrow.", Steve said, yet still, no one noticed the man watching them.

After dinner, the family boarded the busses back to their hotels. Phil, Darcy (who had Roger sitting on her lap), Clint, Tasha, Tony, Pepper, Leo, Jemma, Bruce, and Reggie had all found seats together, but there was no seat left open for Skye.

"Guys, it's fine. I'll sit towards the front, and if when we stop at their hotel, I'll move back here. It's not a big deal.", Skye assured them, but Clint grabbed her arm before she turned away.

"I'm going to sound a little paranoid and over protective, but take this, and you can give it back to me when we get inside the room.", he whispered as he handed her his pocket knife.

"Okay, and thanks, Clint.", she whispered back as she pocketed the knife and made her way to the front to find a seat.

She found one, and sat down, not realizing who was beside her. It was the same man who had been watching the family all day. When she looked towards the window and saw his face, her hand flew to the knife.

"What the Helhiem are you doing here?", she whisper-hissed.

"Well, in finding my own path, I found a way to use my skills to make enough money to get me by. My latest contract was to forcibly obtain information from a woman with legendary skills. Unfortunately, I am human. I would never hurt a pregnant woman.", he replied.

"Funny, because I could've sworn you were a robot.", Skye said dryly.

"I thought you grew up, somewhat.", he said coolly.

"Fair enough. Just know this: you touch one hair on her body, or endanger her child, and I will personally see to your end. How did you find us, anyway?", she asked, not daring to glance back at her sister-in-law like she wanted to.

"I didn't. Sergeant Barnes did. He said he wanted to know where an old friend of his was, and that Romanoff would know."

"If 'Bucky' wants to talk to Captain Rogers, he can do it himself. The guy lives in a tower with a gigantic A on the side of it, so finding him is no Labor of Hercules.", Skye remarked, filing the information away for later.

"I'm stuck here for the rest of the week, now, and I have no way of contacting Barnes until I can leave Florida. How do you suppose I tell him that?", he asked.

"You don't have to tell him now, and I wouldn't tell him about your target being with child at all. To be completely honest, for about a month now, Natasha Romanoff hasn't even existed.", she said, thinking about the last name change from "Romanoff" to "Barton."

They both went silent until the bus pulled up in front of the Polynesian. Skye stood, prepared to tell her father that _he_ was on the bus with them, as ironic as it sounded, but she stopped. Her older brother's voice, telling the story of how he joined S.H.I.E.L.D. and how he recruited Natasha came flooding back to her. As furious as she was, and as much as he had hurt her, Skye knew this man could be of use to them, to the new S.H.I.E.D. She could kill him right then and there, or she could be like her brother and make a different call.

The doors closed, and the bus continued down the road. Skye sat back down next to _him_. When the bus stopped at the Grand Floridian, she spoke again.

"I understand what you're going through, sort of. Someone I love dearly told me a story once, about a night where he made a different call, and he saved a life instead of taking one. I should hate you, and I know I should have already stabbed you or something, but I can't. Truth is, your target was just like you once upon a time. She used her skills for whomever was paying her, and she was the one who was saved. I am going to do this, not because I still have feelings for you, but because I feel that you could be of use to us. Don't even think about leaving the bus stop, or else I'll send my favorite assassin after you. And, by the way, my favorite assassin hates your guts almost as much as his wife does. So, what do you say, Grant Ward; do we have a deal?", Skye asked the man beside her, and Grant finally faced her.

"Depends on who 'Us' is, Skye."

"You'll see.", and they got off the bus.

Skye rushed over to her family, quickly telling them everything she knew. Clint was dumbfounded that he had inspired his sister so much, and Phil was proud of her decision. The two men walked with Skye over to where Grant stood, Clint calling Tony.

"Okay, this is 'Us', or at least part of it. Yes, this is Agent Barton, and yes, the Avengers knew our favorite boss was alive the whole time. When Tony Stark gets here, if you accept our offer, we will be, basically, inserting a micro-chip into your body to help us keep tabs on you until we have a place to put you. Your turn to talk.", Skye said, turning to Phil, who nodded.

"Let me tell you, Grant, I would've killed you tonight without a second thought if I had been the one to sit down beside you on that bus. My entire immediate family was on that bus, and I will do whatever I have to in order to protect them. Skye, however, made a different call; and for that, I have never been more proud of her than I am this night. I believe you can help us track down any remaining H.Y.D.R.A. cells/agents, which is why I won't take your life or had you over to one of the many people who wish to torture you to death, namely every female in my family, starting with my wife. You make one wrong move, and I'll let all of them at you at one time. The only question left is this: Do you want to take the deal and be an asset, or do you want to die?", Phil spoke clearly, and stopped just as a portal opened up behind him.

"I'll take the deal as long as you don't let Agent May near me. I like being able to talk, walk, and possibly have children in the future.", Grant answered as Tony pulled what looked like an ear-piercing gun out of his pocket.

"Stick 'em.", Clint said, and Tony fired the "gun" into Grant's lower back.

"Congratulations, Grant Ward. You have officially been micro-chipped. Now that we've settled that, Skye is like a sister to me. If you ever hurt her again, I will use you for target practice, and I definitely won't be alone. Right, Clint?", Tony said with an evil smirk.

"Right, Tony.", Clint replied with an equally evil expression.

Phil smiled at the boys, _his_ boys. He knew that they would protect their baby sister even if and when she did not need them to. That was the thought that helped him sleep at night, as it would that night. Well, that and he was eager to see what would happen if you put Melinda May in the Chinese pavilion, Tony Stark in the Italian pavilion, and Steve Rogers in the American pavilion at EPCOT.

A/N: So, they have a day to relax. What could _possibly_ go wrong? Even though I am the one writing this, it should be interesting. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you stay tuned in for more! R&R! P.S., I do not own Disney World. Believe me, I would not be writing if I did; I would probably be on Space Mountain if I did.


End file.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Avengers, Family, Romance