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Canon-Divergent after TWS.
Steve picks up a clone of his long-lost unrequited love, and tries, very hard, to be a father. He is very terrible at it; not because he's lacking the love or the common sense to take care of a child, but because he's still severely afflicted by the depression, PTSD, and emotional stresses of TWS, on top of trying to juggle these handicaps with the kind of personality that means he represses his pain and puts himself last.
This is less of a kidfic, and more of a recovery fic--Steve relearns himself via learning how to engage in reciprocal healing relationships: with his adopted son (who has only ever known the dehumanized, weaponized existence of a laboratory setting), and with the beginnings of something more with Sam Wilson (who, indeed, has many shared life experiences with Steve, and who has the emotional empathy and compassion to deal with this stupid-ass fuck).
On the kid side of things, this series also deals with the nature of what it means to be human. Is Steve human, after everything that he's been through? Is the clone? What's the dividing line, what are the identifiers, what makes them significant and insignificant--and by what basis does this provide to consider the clone to be a child, or a monster? Is he just a child with monstrous traits from monstrous suffering? Or was he born as a monster? Is he at fault? What is he, and what is to be done with him legally, politically, internationally--is he a military asset? Is he an extension of Bucky Barnes, with all of Bucky's rights? Is he something to be destroyed? Or is he just an innocent?
