Steel Hearts

- 34 -

Then next morning, the girls were excited as per usual to visit their uncle and we're ready to leave before I could even put shoes on. After getting them in their car seats and buckled in, I drove the relatively short distance to my brother's house.

Not even five minutes out, I got a chorus of "Are we there yet?" and "When are we gonna get there?" This was a normal occurrence. Andrew was only one year older than me and his house was small, but perfect for him.

Once I parked the car in the driveway, the girls argued over who was going to knock on the door. We compromised and they both knocked at the same time, their small fists not entirely very loud the first time so I had rung the doorbell. When the door swung open, the girls launched themselves at him eagerly. He barely had a chance to lean down and accept their hugs before all three of them were on the floor.

I laughed at the sight, "Thanks for watching them today."

"Oh, it's no problem!" He managed to push himself from the ground, one girl in each arm with a grin on his face. The twins were chatting his ear off while I dropped a backpack of extra clothes and things like Sarah's EpiPen on the table near the door.

"Just in case," I tell him, fishing my cell phone from my pocket to look at the text I had received.

Pepper
Drive safe!

Eleanor
I will, thank you!

Shoving my phone back into my jacket pocket, I place a kiss on both girls' heads and let them know I'd be back later. In a chorus of goodbyes and I love you's, Andrew let me know he'd call if he needed anything and I appreciated that. It was always hard to leave the girls with anyone but Steve and I, but we were getting more used to it as the days went on.

Thankfully he lived roughly halfway between our house and the Starks. It made the drive easier.

It didn't take very long to drive from Andrew's home to Tony's. I parked my car in the gravel driveway in front of the beautiful lakeside cabin. The rocks beneath me crunched as I walked toward the door. My knuckles rapped against the front door and seconds later, Pepper reveals herself.

"Hi! Come on in," she steps aside for me to pass through the doorway.

"How have you been?" I ask, giving her a friendly hug. It had been a while since I last saw her.

"Good, good. You know? Family and all."

"Oh, I know that well," I nod.

"Anyways, Tony should be downstairs. You're welcome to stay for a while if you'd like," she offers, motioning toward the nearby door that leads to stairs.

"That'd be nice, thank you," I smile at her, moving slowly toward the stairs. Spotting a photo of a young girl on the wall, grinning from ear to ear, she was the spitting image of Tony, "Your daughter?"

Pepper smiles warmly, "Morgan."

"Steve and I have two of our own."

"Really?"

"Sarah and Jane," a small smile makes its way to my face. Talking about our girls made me happy and I could go on for hours about them if given the chance, "Twins."

"Oh I bet they were a handful," she laughs.

Scrunching my nose, I laugh as well with a nod, "Oh they definitely are."

My footsteps echo as I walk down the wooden steps, it was relatively dark and some of the lights were turned off. It was definitely Tony's new workshop. The little girl from the photo on the wall was seated at the bottom of the steps. She turned around, confusion lacing her smaller features as her eyebrows furrowed. She couldn't have been more than four years old, just around the same age as Sarah and Jane.