Back Before the Start of Us (on hold)

We slipped away into a moment in time

This time the room was silent. Nobody knew what to say. Until finally, someone spoke up.
                              ______________

"First of all. Cap? Kids? With Romanoff? Funny. Second of all, do you really expect us to believe you? I mean come on this is ridiculous." Tony said, looking around the table and gaining a few nods of agreement.
"Look Stark, we can do a DNA test on all of them and we will but I think you should believe them I mean look at them. You can tell." Coulson told him.
Maria nodded her head. She felt the same.
"Well how are they here then? I mean like at all. How do they exist?" Tony countered and Steve joined in.
"Exactly, how in the world are they here? None of us have kids."
"Good question Cap. We do not know the answer to that. Kids, do you have some sort of explanation for this? I mean this place is practically impossible to break into." Coulson was staring at them.
Everyone was staring at them.

"How are we supposed to explain this?"
"I don't know James. Maybe just explain it exactly as it happened?"
"You say that like it's obvious Kat but they are never going to believe us. I wouldn't believe us."
"Yeah I know that —"
"Would you two stop it. Kat is right let's just explain it as it happened. They can do what they like with the information." Charlotte said, putting an end to James and Katia's argument.
"Any time now would be great." Tony said sarcastically, earning a glare from Steve and Natasha.
"Don't speak to the small children like that Stark. Small children cry when you're mean." Thor said looking at the kids apologetically.
"That's not quite right Thor but—" Bruce started but Wanda cut them off.
"Just let them get on with it." she snapped. It was the first time she had spoken since the kids arrived and everyone immediately went silent.

"Umm okay so you are definitely not going to believe us and it's a long story but—" James started.
Leo cut in, "Basically it was time travel. Dad- uh- Tony?- built this Time Machine like ages ago and it helped save the world but he had left it in the storage cupboard in his and Uncle Bruce's lab—"
"And we were all at a party- one of Uncle Tony's parties and we got a bit bored so we all decided to leave and Uncle Tony had left the door to his and Uncle Bruce's lab open so we went inside and-" Katia continued.
Lena spoke over her, "I wanted to see Uncle Tony's suit and so we went inside and we had a look but Immy went into the store cupboard and-"
"We found her but then we heard our parents coming and we were panicking so we didn't notice that Immy had-" James.
"Pressed the buttons and pulled the levers and it started spinning and-" Leo.
"I didn't know it worked!" Immy shouted back at him.
"We know Immy bear." Charlie reassured.
"Anyway the platform thingy started spinning and then there was like this huge flash-" Leo.
"And then we landed in the training room. But we realised that it didn't quite look like our training room-" Katia.
"Uh I actually realised it." Nate protested.
"Yes you realised it. Then the alarms went off." Noah.
"And Coulson, Auntie Maria and some other agents came running in." Charlie.
"And then we were brought here." Tatum finished.

Nobody spoke. The Avengers were all just staring at them. None of them looked quite like they believed what the kids had said.

"That's a bit far fetched." Tony spoke up.
"Yeah. Time travel? Isn't that supposed to be impossible?" Clint asked.
"Well theoretically it-" Bruce started but Clint cut him off.
"Exactly. Theoretically. Not actually."
"Well it's possible in the future." Leo piped up.
They all turned to look at him. Although their story was incredibly hard to believe, there was no denying how much Leo looked like Tony.
"The DNA test. How quick is it?" Steve asked, ignoring the others and directing his question at Tony.
"It's very very quick." Coulson assured.
"Yes we can get Dr Cho on it now. Her machine makes it very efficient." Hill said looking from her files.
"Then do it. Now." Tony demanded.
"Okay. I'll drop these files to Fury and then we can get right to it." Hill replied calmly.
"I'm guessing you want us to stay here?" Clint sighed.
Coulson looked slightly guilty, "Yes that would be easiest. Sorry. We won't be long."

Hill had already walked off to deliver the files to Fury and Coulson gestured to the kids to follow him out of the room. They were hesitant but eventually followed him out of the meeting room.

The second the kids left, everyone burst. They were all talking over each other asking questions nobody knew the answer to.
"What if they're telling the truth?"
"What if they really are ours?"
"What if they really did get here by time travel?!"
"What if they are just part of some sort of attack?"
"What if..."
"What if..."
"What if..."

Tony on the other hand, while he was sceptical, was also hopeful. If they really did turn out to be their kids then that meant he wasn't a total screw up. They seemed like great kids. Apart from the fact it was his mistake that landed them here, it proved to him that he could do this. That he finally got something good out of everything he had been through. And he was really hoping that Pepper saw that too. Going by Morgan's middle name he assumed that he and Pepper were going to be okay. And the rest of them. Looked like they all found happiness too. And with each other. He had been rooting for Steve and Natasha from the very start but Bucky and Wanda: that was something he had never thought about before. He looked at them now. 'They would be cute together,' he thought.

Tony rubbed his forehead and sighed. It was whatever ungodly time in the early morning it was and they were all shouting over one another like they had all the energy in the world. Another sigh. He knew he shouldn't have had that fourth drink last night. "FRIDAY what time is it?" he asked and the rest quietened down to listen to the reply.
"It is currently 2:34 in the morning sir."
"Thanks FRIDAY."
"Of course sir."
"Well. That just proved the point I haven't yet made. It is 25 to 3 in the morning and you are all shouting over one another like a bunch of energetic school children. Please. Shut up. If you want to talk do it quietly you've all given me a headache." Tony grumbled.
"I think that headache is because of all that whiskey you drank last night." Clint said, earning a slight laugh from a few of them.
"Nobody asked, Katniss. Just talk quietly." he repeated, resting his head back on his arms and closing his eyes.

It felt like they had been waiting forever but really it must have been less than half an hour when the door finally swung back open. The kids walked in with Coulson and Maria behind them, Coulson with a stack of paper in his hands. "Let's look at the results together, shall we?" he asked but really that was going to happen regardless of what the answer was.

He placed the stack at the head of the table as the kids awkwardly stood to the side and picked up the first piece of paper on the pile.
"Well, looks like..."