Give Life Meaning...

Identity

     Tony stared at the three adults in front of him, two looking as if they had turned to stone and the other ready to fight. "Look at where we live," he gestured to their surroundings, seeing Steve's sentimentality for family rising. Honor-bound to take care of his family no matter how it happened. "We're not set up to have children here at the compound." Tony was aiming for the uncertainty that still simmered under the surface for Steve and seeking right for the fear in Natasha. She hadn't spoken a word since those choked words earlier, and while she held the boy in her arms, it was apparent to him that of anyone, Natasha was struggling harder. 

     "So we make it child friendly! We stole two Hydra weapons-" Clint was startled when Natasha took an aggressive step toward him. 

     "They're not weapons! They're babies," her voice turned breathless at the end, looking from Clint to Tony before settling on the man before her. Clint sidled up to her, offering comfort only he could lend at the moment as fear and indecision clawed at her chest. "They're mine. You're not taking them anywhere." Natasha willed her tone to be as hard as she needed to be but was sure she missed the mark by the way Tony raised an eyebrow at her. 

     "Natasha-" He was cut off by Steve raising his hand to stop him from speaking. The man with the plan wasn't going to let him continue anymore. "What is it, Capsicle?"

     "We're not going to do this now, and definitely not in front of these two," his jaw muscle ticked with tension as he fought to control his temper. Turning to look at the little boy with the same eyes as his best friend. "You're sure... You're sure who..." 

     "I'm sure, Steve," Bruce cut in, knowing that Steve was trying to process all of this. Even if just on the basic level, it wouldn't be until years later that I.V.F was invented, and even then, Steve saw his friend die. 

     "How does this even happen? I don't understand how if someone different carried them, they could be both mine and Nats and Buckys," he looked down at the little girl in his arms, taking in her delicate features. Her blonde hair began to show that it would start to curl, and glancing over at Nat, he could see her hair doing the same. 

     "I imagine that since the red room is constantly looking for genetically superior children to train, they came up with the idea to take their best fighters' eggs and match them with who they assume are superior sperm. Instead of having the women carry them, they found an outside source that wouldn't hinder their missions. Mature eggs are collected from ovaries and fertilized by sperm in a lab. Then the fertilized embryo or embryos are transferred to a uterus. In this case, two different fertilized embryos were injected, but we don't entirely know if it was meant for both to take or if, by chance, both did," Bruce explained as gently as he could to the man that struggled to understand this new technology. 

     "You said their names in the file... Code three and four," Clint realized where the Captain was going with his line of thinking. 

     "We don't know for sure, but something must have gone wrong. They're not reported anywhere else in our file, but we don't think..." Clint didn't know how to continue while meeting Natasha's horrified eyes and Steve's look of comprehension. He appreciated that Steve wasn't reacting emotionally because Nat was having her moment, and it was hard to help them both at once. 

     "Right," Steve stated, his lips pinched as he shoved back the wave of feelings. He was stuck in a loop of thoughts. They had explained how it happened, but it didn't explain how they got his sperm to do what they did. 

     "We're going to look into who was all there with you when you were found and... Thawed," Bruce explained delicately. It would at least provide a clue as to who might be an inside worker for Hydra. They would have to find out soon because it wouldn't be kept under wraps forever that they had two baby super soldiers. Natasha turned on her heel and began walking back to the rooms. She didn't know to whose. Steve still had her daughter, but how did she go from never being able to have children to having children out in the world? Steve quickly followed Natasha, not wanting her to be alone and trying to decide how he felt about it all. 

     "How are you so calm?" Natasha demanded, reaching his room. She sat on the bed with the bed still holding the boy tight against her. It seemed unfathomable that he could be as stoic as he appeared, not with how he reacted when Tony mentioned giving them up. 

     "I'm not," Steve told her, moving to sit beside her on the bed. "I just discovered I have a daughter, and that's my best friend's son. I am anything but calm right now, but... They're family, and family sticks together, so no matter what happens, we have each other. " He sounded so much more sure than he actually felt, but somehow he had a part of his best friend there. 

     "What do we do now? Raise them? How? We don't know anything about being parents like Tony said," Natasha looked down at the solemn little boy and felt the fear go down her spine. She could only assume that Hydra and the red room were working together again., which meant they meant to send the little girl to the red room. 

     "Barton is a Dad," Steve quickly pointed out and looked down at the little girl who started to doze on his chest and then touched the boy's soft hair. "We can do this. as long as we do it together. I have something I never thought I'd get to have, and I have a part of my best friend. Thoughts of settling down and having that little domestic life went down with me on that plane... It's not going to be easy, bath time wasn't even easy, but we got through it." He looked into Nat's eyes and gave her a small half-smile. 

    "You won't leave me to do this alone?" She felt panicky, and the situation was spiraling out of control. It was one thing to think they were helping some kids they would hand over at the end of it all, but they belonged to her biologically. The shake of his head was not enough. "I need your word, Steve, that if we do this, we're in this together." 

     "I swear to you, Natasha, I won't leave you to do this alone," Steve spoke softly, staring into her eyes before touching the boy's back and feeling the flutter of his heart. "I'm with you until the end of the line." The line brought a lump to his throat, knowing that it was an equal promise to the little boy content in her arms. The clearing of someone's throat made them both look over at the door. 

     "I think now is a good time to remind someone that they are the Godmother to my children," Clint grinned as he stared at the two. Steve looked over at Natasha, confused, while a laugh escaped her. "The next step is to name them." The acute panicked looks that suddenly took over the both of them were hilarious to Clint.  

     "You want to call them Code three and Code four? Not that creative if you ask me," Clint shrugged but saw Steve shaking his head no. Most people had nine months to develop a list of boys' and girls' names, but they only had two days to know them and less than two hours to accept that the kids belonged to them. 

     "I don't know what we should name them," two entire names, something that was like an identity relying on them to pick correctly, shook his head. Steve looked over at Natasha and wondered if she had an idea. 

     "Alina," Natasha spoke softly, her mind working fast. There was no real rush to name them, but suddenly, it felt like the most critical task. "Your mother's name was Sarah, right?" Steve nodded mutely. Sharp pain in his chest brought him longing for his mother, wishing she could meet her granddaughter. Natasha watched Steve struggle with the weight of naming the kids, being a part of it, and missing his own family. This was her family, Clint, and his family had always been hers. 

     "Alina Sarah Rogers and James Alexei Buchanan Barnes," she felt Steve physically pull back and stare at her in shock. There was no doubt that there was some old fashion belief that the kids should have their father's last name, but the wetness in his eyes alerted her to his feelings. "I can't bring your friend back, but I can give you a piece of him back. James will know his father through you. He'll have the best of both worlds, and I know... I know you lost your mother young." 

     For Steve losing his mother felt like a lifetime ago. So much had happened since then. The freshest loss he had been feeling was the loss of his time period and Bucky. "Thank you," his voice cracked just a bit before blinking rapidly and kissing the crown of the little girl's head. "Alina Sarah Rogers..." A tear slipped down his face.