Champion

Epilogue: A New Age of Heroes

The harsh cries of her infant son startled Willow from sleep. She stood up immediately and moved towards the crib in her room. Joey was bawling his eyes out and hitting his tiny fists against the blanket covering him. "Aw what's the matter little one." Willow murmured. Bending down to scoop him up. "You're okay, everything's fine." She said softly, beginning to rock him gently in her arms.

"Do you require assistance Ms. Peterson?" Came a voice from around her. Willow looked up at the ceiling. FRIDAY, she was always vigilant. "I could wake Mr. Barnes."

"No thank you FRIDAY, I'll be fine." Willow said, continuing to bounce her small bundle of joy. A small coo came from the crib on the other side of her bed and Willow smiled, slowly walking towards her daughter. "Hello little one. Did big brother wake you up?" Evelyn cooed again, smiling up at her. "I know, he's a big crier isn't he. I just think he doesn't like to be alone though. Will you two be okay sleeping together?" Willow knew that her children couldn't reply and quite possibly, couldn't understand her but she always felt compelled to talk to them.

"Okay, here we go." Willow gently laid Joey down inside Evelyn's crib before shifting her so that the two of them were side by side. Joey immediately calmed down and Eve turned towards her brother, putting her small fist on his chest. Joey grabbed her hand and held it. The sight brought tears to Willow's eyes. "Look at our children Steve." Willow murmured. "They're so beautiful." Slowly, the twins closed their eyes and fell back asleep.

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Ever since Steve's death, everyone had been walking around Willow on pins and needles, expecting her to break, to crack, but Willow couldn't afford that. She had two children to take care of now.

When Willow had found out she was having twins, she couldn't believe it. Not one, but two little human beings were growing inside of her? Steve's family and Willow's had never had a history of twin births. In fact, Willow was almost positive it had never happened in the entire history of her family and what was even more surprising was that she would give birth to a boy and a girl. Her sons name she had already picked out but Evelyn's was a trickier name to decide on.

"What about Haliey?" Pepper had asked, looking up a list of baby names to show to Willow who shook her head at nearly every one on the list.

"Maybe I'm old fashioned but I've always liked names like Judy or Phyliss." Pepper nodded.

"Okay, not a problem." And immediately she switched her search to baby names from the 40's. Willow had laughed and watched as a list popped up. "You can pick little Joey's middle name and your daughters full name." Pepper added as she opened up the list and began to scroll.

"Oh, middle names are easy. My family has had the tradition of putting their first names as their children's middle names. So it'll be Joseph Steven Rogers and then my daughters first name followed by Willow Rogers." Pepper smiled.

"Thats a sweet tradition." Willow had thought so too as they both looked back towards the list. "Oh, Evelyn sounds nice. You could call her Eve for short." Willow smiled.

"I had a cousin named Evelyn. I wonder what happened to her." She murmured, rubbing her already large stomach thoughtfully.

"Well, Evelyn Willow Rogers and Joseph Steven Rogers. Those are beautiful names Willow." Pepper said, standing and touching her own stomach lightly. Pepper had finally revealed to Tony when they had arrived back on Earth that she was pregnant and Willow and Pepper immediately began to bond over their shared expectancies. They just so happened to have the same months for their due dates, though Willow might have to deliver sooner since she was having twins.

"Did you and Tony ever settle on a name?" Willow asked as they began to walk towards the kitchen together. Pepper smiled.

"Didn't Tony tell you?" Willow shook her head. "We've decided on Steven." Willow slowly smiled.