The Tower: Happily Ever After

Adrenalin Crash

"Oh god, the babies!"

The battle against Cul, Odin's brother and god of fear had ended, and Bruce had been calmed from the Hulk rage he'd fallen into due to Cul's powers. I came down from my adrenaline high after soothing Hulk back down so that Bruce could share the space with him, I remembered the last time I had seen the babies was in the jaws of the Vulparev who had grown to be huge beasts in size and gained some kind of powers at the threat to the children.

I quickly grabbed the threads, searching for the babies. When I wrapped my hands around them, I felt them with Natasha, Wanda, Clint, and Sam, as well as our grandchildren and the Vulparev. I let out a sigh of relief and the overwhelming urge to cry hit me. I took a deep breath and looked back at the rest of my family who were gathered around and talking about what had just happened. "I'm gonna go check on the kids," I said as my iron suit bled back out of its casing.

"Sweetheart?" Steve said, taking a step towards me. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah - I mean -" I shrugged and gestured around at all the damage caused. "No, but I need to hold the babies."

"Okay," he said. "We'll catch up with you in a bit."

I nodded and took off, following the trail of the thread to the palace and finally finding them taking cover in the old escape tunnels under the palace. They all looked at me in relief as I flew in and landed near them, and the kids ran over and hugged my legs. The vulparev were still in their large forms and I wondered if it was like a pokemon evolution and that's just how they were now. Natasha was holding Nova and Sam had Thour but both the vulparev were sticking close to their charges. "Is it over?" Wanda asked as I crouched to soothe the little ones.

"Yes," I said. "There's a lot of damage. I don't know where we'll sleep tonight, but the palace is big."

"What the heck is up with these guys?" Natasha asked, pointing to Inky and Icy.

"They went through a pokemon evolution?" I said, which made Clint start laughing. "It was crazy. The babies were threatened and they just Hulked out."

"That's - Jesus, you'd think Loki would have told us that," Sam said.

"Why? It was definitely funnier this way," Clint argued. Sam laughed and shrugged.

Wanda came over to me with a look of concern and rubbed my back. "Okay let's go find somewhere nicer to wait for everyone. Maybe there are guest quarters we can use."

"Thank you," I said softly and she took my hand and started leading us out of the tunnel.

It took a little while for us to find somewhere to crash. We had to ask a few guards and by the time we were in some living quarters the children were practically asleep on their feet, the vulparev had shifted back into their tiny cute selves, and all the adrenalin that had been keeping me going was gone and I felt like I was about to completely fall apart.

"Okay, little ones," Wanda said. "Let's have a snack and a story. It might be time for a little nap before dinner."

"And you," Natasha said to me. "Let's go feed these two and relax."

"Okay," I said, taking Thour from Sam and instantly feeling a little more grounded when the infant was in my arms.

Sam kissed me gently and brushed a lock of my hair off my face. "I'm proud of you, honey," he said.

"Thank you," I said. "I'm kinda proud of myself."

He grinned and tapped my nose with his index finger. "Good. Now go get some rest."

I followed Natasha into the bedroom. The bed was not quite king-sized and there was no way we were all going to fit in it that night. The idea seemed to add to that raw feeling I had. After all, this had happened, I wasn't going to be able to go to sleep with all my spouses and I hated it.