Bartoned

Chapter 35

While you were still a fair way off your wedding date, a lot still needed doing. There were dress fittings and bridal registries. Bridal showers and meetings with celebrants, photographers, bands, and caterers. More pressing than any of that, was Nattie's first birthday party to organize. With all that, work, and now Nattie running around everywhere, you were really looking forward to your honeymoon when you were taking a break.

Things in the compound had settled in completely and now the tower had reverted to being for Stark Industry-related business. The compound was much bigger, with more staff which meant a few changes. First was; there were more on-site facilities available to the staff because there was a lot more staff. More staff meant the Avengers had a little more time at home. They were all team leaders now delegating to their seconds for things like training recruits and sending their teams on missions. It was only the really big things that would have an actual card-carrying Avenger going along and thankfully none of those had popped up in months.

The medbay was much larger and there were specialists for more things. So now it was just a place people could go for all their medical needs. Whether that be the emergency patch-ups and physicals they used to provide or something like gynecology or obstetrics.

There was also now a childcare center on-site. It was in the office building and allowed staff to come in and breastfeed if needed. It was very handy for you and Clint because Doreen hadn't been able to move out with you permanently due to college and while she'd come and lived with you for the transition, you were now nanny free and the childcare center picked up where Doreen left off.

There weren't many kids in it yet, though you thought that was going to change. Wanda and Kari had applied to adopt in Sokovia and there were new recruits, office workers, lawyers, and medical staff. Some already had kids and some were thinking about it. Right now though there was Nattie, a pair of three-year-old twins who were the kids of someone in the psych department, and three kids who were all two but at staggered ends of the age whose parents were all agents. A four-year-old would be joining the group in a couple of weeks though because today was the day that Steve and Bucky brought their foster-to-adopt kids home.

They'd been keeping things a little close to their chests. Clint had hypothesized it was because they were worried something would happen and they wouldn't get to bring them home. In the same way, people didn't say they were pregnant until 12 weeks in case they ended up losing it.

You did know there were three of them. That they were all half-siblings and the age gaps were large. The oldest was fourteen, then eight, and the youngest was four. Aside from that, no one knew everything, so on the day they were bringing them home everyone was somehow just randomly busy in the front yard in the hopes of catching sight of them.

It was funny how many people's front gardens suddenly needed tending. Even Pepper was inexplicably tending the Goji berry bush in the front garden of Tony's house.

You, Clint, and Nattie were playing with various outdoor toys. She'd been chasing a ball around for about 20 minutes and you were just setting up her play table with paints and paper so she could finger paint. She ran over to you with Clint in hot pursuit and slammed into your leg. "Wassat?" she said, banging her hands on the paper.

"Did she just say 'what's that'?" Clint asked as he pulled up behind her.

You blinked down at your eleven-month-old in surprise. She'd been saying things that vaguely resembled 'mama' and 'dada' for a while but even though she'd use them to get your attention, they were never quite right and she'd mix them up or use them on other people too. This was the first thing that actually sounded like words that meant something other than 'Hey look at me'.