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The team was sitting in the living room one Saturday morning. The front door opened and Sharon came in carrying several large bags.
"Alright, on your feet, I need everyone to help decorate."
"For what?" Steve asked, eyeing the bags warily. People these days decorated for Christmas early, but he had thought that wouldn't start until at least after Thanksgiving.
"Halloween," Sharon said. "Didn't you have Halloween when you were a kid?"
"Yeah, on October 31st," Steve said. "That's a month away."
"Ooh, yay!" Scott said gleefully, jumping off the couch to help Sharon with the bags. "Hey, eyeball lights!"
"Well Tic-Tac's onboard," Sam said.
"Are you kidding, I love Halloween!" Scott said. "Do you think we'll get any Trick-or-Treaters?"
"Mrs. Sosa down the street said this is a pretty big neighborhood for it," Sharon told him. "So I need someone to go out and buy a lot of candy, and get the good stuff."
"It's four weeks away!" Steve protested.
"And we don't want to be the gross hard candy house because waited until the last minute," Sam said. "Come on, Tic-Tac, let's go to Target."
"I want to go," Wanda said.
"No. I need you to put up decorations." Sharon ordered. "We are going to have the best house on the block."
"Since when do people decorate for Halloween?" Steve asked.
"This is where you stop asking questions and just do what she says," Natasha advised.
"You know we're probably going to get called away for a mission," Steve said.
"And what if we don't?" Sharon asked.
Steve sighed. He hadn't really celebrated any holidays since he came out of the ice, but Sharon wasn't going to let this go. Living with Sharon had been an adjustment and every time he thought he had a handle on things, she found a way to surprise him.
"Ok," he agreed. "Beats raking the yard I guess."
"Oh no, that's still your job." Sharon handed him package of orange trash bags. "Put the leaves in this and set them by the road, they look like giant pumpkins."
Scott and Sam meandered through the Halloween section of Target. Sam was studying the candy options intently, but Scott's attention wandered over to the costumes hanging on the other side of the aisle. Despite what had happened with the Sokovia Accords, Avenger costumes were still popular. They were even still offering Captain America and Scarlet Witch. He picked up a sleeve of a Scarlet Witch Costume. Wanda had been Cassie's favorite Avenger. For a moment he pictured her wearing it, running down the sidewalk pretending to throw things around with her mind.
Cassie had been too young to really enjoy Trick-or-Treating before he had gone to prison and last year had been the first time they had gone together. He had been hoping to make it a yearly tradition, but instead he had run off to help Captain America. It had been five months since had even talked to Cassie, and now she would be spending another Halloween without him, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas. They had already lost so much time together and there was no way to know if he would ever see her again.
"Scott!" Sam said sharply.
"Huh?"
"I said what kind of candy do you want to get?" He looked at Scott, concerned. "You ok man?"
"Yeah." Scott turned back to display. "I'm fine. What are we getting?"
"I don't know. How many Trick-or-Treaters do you think we're going to get?"
Scott thought for a minute. "Well, whatever we don't give out we're going to end up eating, so what do you want to get stuck with?"
"Snickers," Sam answered.
"I'm a Reese's guy. I think Wanda like Kit-Kat's and Sharon has that secret stash of M&M's that she thinks we don't know about. Steve'll eat anything and Natasha will just steal everyone else's stuff. Let's just grab three or four of everything."
"Sounds good," Sam said, tossing a few bags of snickers in the cart.
The team came back home from their latest mission and headed upstairs to change. Wanda threw her bag on the bed and started to unpack. She held up the dress she had been wearing. It was ripped to shreds. She usually wore leather, but it had been a covert mission.
"Do you thinking I can save this?" she asked Natasha.
Natasha shook her head. "You could always just wear it for Halloween and be a zombie."
Wanda shook her head. "I was thinking I'd be a witch, with a pointy hat and a broom stick."
Natasha held out her hand. "Let me take it. I'll be a zombie."
Wanda tossed her the dress. Sam poked his head in the door.
"You guys talking about Halloween?"
Natasha held up the ruined dress. "Zombie?"
Sam nodded. "Yeah, I can see that."
"What about you?" Wanda asked.
Sam grinned. "It's a secret but I think you'll get a kick out of it. Hey Steve, what are you doing?"
"For what?" Steve asked.
"Halloween," Natasha reminded him.
"Are we still doing that?" he asked wearily. Wanda could feel his irritation. He wasn't fond of the whole idea in the first place and lately Sharon had been a bit pushy about it.
Sam laughed. "Yeah, so figure something out."
"Superman and Lois Lane!" Sharon called. Steve bit back a response and headed down stairs.
"What about you Tic Tac?" Sam asked.
Scott shrugged. "I'm still thinking about it. I'll probably pick something up from the Halloween store."
"Well you have a week and a half to do it!" Sharon reminded him sharply. "Anyone without a costume is scrubbing toilets until New Years!"
Wanda frowned. Scott seemed a bit distracted, but she couldn't say why. He had been excited at first, but his enthusiasm had started to wane as Halloween drew closer. Wanda shook her head and returned to unpacking. Scott would be alright and she had her own costume to worry about.
A few days before Halloween everyone was in the kitchen carving pumpkins. Sharon was in the den sewing costumes. Steve stabbed the knife into the thick rind of the large pumpkin. Sharon had insisted on making Wanda's costume after she had said that she was just going to wear a hat with her normal clothes. Wanda had been excited about the dressing up at first, but she was getting frustrated that Sharon was being so picky. Sam had refused to share his for that exact reason and Scott was just avoiding her.
"Wanda!" Sharon called. "Come try this on!"
Wanda sighed and set down her knife. "I should have just bought one," she grumbled. "Just a minute!"
"Is she going to be like this for every holiday?" Steve asked, grabbing a spoon to scrape out the guts of the pumpkin.
"Relax," Natasha said. "Let her have her fun."
"This isn't fun!" Steve said, exasperated. "I don't think she's having fun either. It feels like she's running a mission."
"You said she was in charge of the house and this is house stuff," Sam reminded him. "Just let her handle it."
"She's driving everyone crazy!"
"It's our first big holiday," Wanda said, washing the pumpkin gunk off her hands. "She's just a little nervous."
"Do you even know what we're celebrating?" Steve asked.
"Chocolate and scary pranks." She flicked her hand and the guts flew out of Scott's pumpkin, showering him with sticky white seeds. "I think I'm going to enjoy this."
"Hey, what was that for?" Scott asked, wiping the gunk off his face.
"You've been staring at that things for 10 minutes," Wanda said. "We have eight more of these to carve and then we have to roast the seeds."
"I need some air." He headed towards the door. "I'll be back in fifteen minutes."
"You see," Steve said, gesturing after Scott with his carving knife. "This isn't fun. It's just a jack-o-lantern sweatshop."
Scott walked through the cool October air to the park down the street. He looked at decorations of the houses as he passed. In a few days, hundreds of children would fill these streets, laughing and running from house to house in a fervor of fright and free candy. None of them would be Cassie.
He had always loved Halloween, and when Cassie was born he had been excited to start reliving all the fun with her, but he had screwed that up twice now. Becoming Ant-Man was still the second best thing that had ever happened to him, but he missed Cassie. It was starting to hit him just how much he had given up to do this. He was a criminal again and being on the run wasn't much different from prison in the ways that really mattered.
He took out his phone and opened up Facebook. Maggie had posted pictures of Cassie and Paxton carving pumpkins. Cassie had carved a smiling vampire. He started to comment, but deleted it. It didn't do Cassie any good for him to drift in and out of her life. He had made his choice and he had to stand by that, no matter how difficult it was. He put his phone away and sat down on a bench, staring at the clouds.
It was Halloween. Steve was downstairs in the basement hitting the heavy bag. Sharon had been in an uproar since breakfast. She had gone so far as to make pumpkin oatmeal and pumpkin spice coffee for breakfast. He had slipped downstairs while she was in the shower to avoid her. She would find him eventually, but he get a few minutes of peace.
"Steve!" Sharon yelled from the stairs. "I've been calling you for ten minutes! Get up here and put on your costume! I still have to do your hair!"
Steve clenched his teeth. He took off his gloves and turned to her. "Sharon, you're getting a little intense about this whole Halloween thing," he told her, trying to keep his voice even.
"I am not!" she protested.
"You're ordering everyone around like a drill sergeant and its ruining the fun!" Steve said. "If this is how you're going to act every time a holiday comes around I'm not sure I can take it!"
Sharon started to argue but froze, a horrified look on her face. "Oh god, I'm turning into my mother," she said, sinking down to sit on the stairs.
Steve laughed and kissed her on the cheek. "Come on. You're not that bad."
"No, this is exactly what she does!" Sharon said. "She starts micromanaging every little detail and then my Dad hides in his study until everything's over. I used to go hide in there with him and we'd watch old newsreels of you with the volume up so we couldn't hear her."
Steve sat down beside her and put an arm around her shoulder. "It's ok. I appreciate that you want to make this special for everyone, but you need to relax. It's just a silly holiday where people dress up and eat candy."
She laughed, leaning her head against his shoulder. "I am so sorry! I can't believe I got this carried away over Halloween! Everything the last few months has been so intense, I just thought it might cheer everyone up."
"What if we go open a bottle of wine and just forget the whole thing," Steve said, helping her up.
"Well I still want to hand out candy," Sharon said, leading him up the stairs. "We did do all that work."
"Well I guess we did buy all that candy," Steve said. He took a bottle of wine out of the refrigerator and poured them each a glass.
Sam came running down the stairs dressed in a black trench coat. He had shaved his head. "Have you guys seen Scott?"
"Oh my god, are you Morpheus from the Matrix?" Sharon laughed. "Don't you that's a bit dated?"
Sam scowled at her and put an eyepatch over his left eye.
"Oh," Sharon said. "That's a good one."
"Have you guys seen Scott?" Sam asked again.
They both shook their head. He was probably hiding from Sharon like everyone else. Natasha came down with Wanda. She was wearing a tattered dress and greenish white body paint. Wanda was wearing a long black and red dress.
"Sam, his suit is gone," Natasha said. Sharon clenched her fist and took a long sip of her wine.
"Any idea where he went?" Steve asked.
Sam shook his head. "He didn't leave a note and no one saw him leave."
"Should we go after him?" Natasha asked.
"Where do we start looking?" Sam asked
"He went home," Wanda said with a look of realization. "All this Halloween stuff was making him homesick."
"Oh my god, I've been such an asshole," Sharon moaned. "He misses his daughter."
Everyone looked at her, stunned. Scott had never mentioned a daughter. Steve knew he had been married and that he had a girlfriend, but for someone who talked as much as he did, he was a bit of a mystery.
"He has a daughter?" Natasha asked.
Sharon nodded. "Her name is Cassandra. She's eight years old and lives with his ex-wife. I'm sorry, if I'd been paying attention instead of trying to be the queen of Halloween, I might have notice that he was acting weird."
"Well I noticed he was upset, but I didn't think he would run away," Wanda said. "Do you think he's coming back?"
"Doesn't matter, we need to go get him." Natasha said. "If he gets caught we're all in danger. I don't think he'd hold up long under interrogation."
"He can't have gotten far," Steve said.
"Uh Steve, with that suit he can go almost anywhere," Sam pointed out. "My guess is he's already in San Francisco."
"Ok we need to get to the jet," Steve said. They could sort everything out later, but finding Scott before anyone else did was the priority.
"I don't think we need everyone," Natasha said. "There are only two or three places he would go and the fewer the easier it'll be to stay out of sight. I'll take Wanda and Sam and you two stay here and hand out candy."
Steve sighed, seeing his last chance to escape Halloween slip away. "Fine."
"Man I shaved my head for this!" Sam complained, taking off the eyepatch.
"You can still wear the costume," Wanda said, putting her witch hat on. "If we have to walk around looking for him, we'll want to be in disguise."
"We'll check in as soon as we know something," Natasha said. They hurried out the door, leaving Steve and Sharon alone in the house. Steve refilled Sharon's wine.
"So since it's just the two of us-"
"You're still wearing the costume," Sharon said firmly.
"What's the point?" Steve asked irritably.
Sharon looked at him curiously. "Ok, I'll admit I got a little crazy, but why are you being such a Halloween Grinch?"
"I don't know what a Grinch is," Steve said.
"We'll fix that at Christmas, but what do you have against holidays?"
"Well I'm usually working," Steve muttered.
"You know that's not what I mean," Sharon said. "Halloween I get, it wasn't a big thing when you were growing up, but are you going to be like this every time a holiday rolls around?"
"Are you?" Steve retorted. Sharon looked at him, waiting patiently for him to explain.
"Holidays were just never that important." Steve took sip of his wine and set the glass on the island. "It was just me and Mom, and she was a nurse, so she usually had to work. Then she died and I just didn't see a point. I would go over to Bucky's place for Christmas dinner, but other than that it was just a day off of work."
"That's one of the saddest things I've ever heard." Sharon said. She slipped her arms around him, rubbing his back gently. "You know, my mother always turned every holiday into such a production. It sucked all the fun out of it. There has to be a middle ground where we can actually enjoy ourselves. So what if we dress up for a bit, then after the trick-or-treaters leave we'll put on our pajamas and watch a bunch of monster movies from the 1930's."
Steve kissed her. "Ok, I can do that."
Sharon patted him on the shoulder. "Come on Superman, let's go get dressed."
Scott slipped into Maggie's house and went to the kitchen. Maggie was in there with Paxton opening bags of Halloween candy.
"So after we put her to bed, do you want to watch Night of the Living Dead?" Paxton asked.
Scott hit the regulator and grew to normal size. Maggie screamed, tossing the candy bag at him. Cassie came running into the kitchen.
"Daddy!"
"Scott!" Maggie yelled. "Where the hell have you been?"
"Long story," Scott said, removing his helmet. He bent down to hug Cassie. "I'm sorry I had to leave. Captain America needed my help."
"You need to go Scott!" Maggie said firmly. Scott felt Cassie's arms tighten around his neck. "The FBI has our house under surveillance!"
"I know. Just let me take her Trick-or-Treating and then I'll go," Scott begged.
"This is a big risk Scott." Paxton said.
"This is the only night I can walk around without being spotted," Scott said. "Please, two hours."
Maggie looked at Paxton. He shrugged. "Fine," Maggie said. "You'll need a costume."
"He can take mine," Paxton offered.
"Thanks man," Scott said, shaking Paxton's hand.
"I'm going to have to take it in. Go get cleaned up."
"You're the best Maggie!"
Scott ran upstairs and took a quick shower. He came out to find Maggie and Cassie in the in the playroom. Maggie was laying out a garish gold and green outfit with a cape and a distinctive horned helmet.
"Loki?"
"Cassie's going as the Scarlet Witch and she wanted a villain to fight," Maggie explained.
"You want to see my costume Daddy?"
"Absolutely Peanut, run and put it on real quick," Scott said.
Maggie waited until she was out of the room. "Scott, you can't do this sort thing."
Scott sighed. "I know and I'm sorry. I just missed her."
"Then why did you leave in the first place?" Maggie asked as Scott got dressed.
"Because they needed me," he said.
"And you had to join the side that went to prison?"
"Yeah, I did," Scott said. "If I see something that's not right, I have to try and fix it, Maggie. That's just who I am."
"I know. That's why I married you," she sighed. "And why I divorced you."
"It's part of my charm." Scott said buckling the belt over the robe. Maggie draped the cape over his shoulders.
"This has to be a one time thing Scott," she warned him.
Scott sighed. "Yeah, I know." Maggie handed him a wig. "I'll pass. If I have to be the bad guy, I'm at least going to have good hair."
"Daddy, look!"
Scott turned to see Cassie run in, dressed in a red jacket and top and black pants. She stopped and waved her hands around like Wanda did when she was fighting.
"You look great, Peanut!" He knelt down. "Hey did I tell you that I got to meet the real Scarlet Witch?"
Cassie's eyes lit up in wonder. "You did?"
"Yeah, she's nice." He would have to remember to take a picture. Wanda would love it.
"Come on, honey, I'll do your hair," Maggie said. "Then you and Daddy can go out."
Natasha put the jet down in a park near Scott's ex-wife's neighborhood. "Ok, we agree that he probably took his daughter trick-or-treating. Two of us will search the neighborhood and someone will wait by his ex-wife's house for them to come back.
"Can I do the house?" Sam asked.
Natasha looked at him flatly. "You cannot go inside and pretend to be Nick Fury."
"Fine," Sam grumbled. "I'll take the neighborhood,"
"Me too," Wanda volunteered.
"Ok, I'll take the house," Natasha said. "Call in when you find him."
They dispersed to their assignments. Wanda looked around as she walked through the crowded streets. It was interesting to see the costumes. They didn't have Trick-or-Treating in Sokovia, but it looked like fun. She was happy to see how many kids were dressed up as Avengers. Even as fugitives, they were still heroes to the children.
She looked around carefully. There were lots of adults out as well as children, some in costume, some not. It might be difficult to spot Scott in the dark. He had left his costume at home, so if he was wearing one, she wouldn't know what to look for. Ahead she saw a little girl dressed in a familiar red jacket. She was with a man dressed as Loki. Wanda stopped for a minute to watch the girl, overwhelmed to see someone dressed as her. After everything that had happened, it was heartening to see that someone still looked up to her.
"Look, they gave me a full sized Hershey bar!" The girl said excitedly as the came back down the walkway.
"Oh yeah, look at that!" the man said. Wanda recognized Scott's voice.
"Scott!" she called, running towards them.
Scott stopped, gaping at her. "Wanda? What are you doing here?"
"You ran off without even leaving a note! We were worried!"
"Daddy? Who's that?" the little girl asked.
Scott smiled. "Cassie, this is my friend Wanda. She's the Scarlet Witch."
Wanda crouched down to eye level with the girl. "Hi Cassie."
"Look!" Cassie said excitedly. "I'm you!"
"I see that," Wanda smiled. "Have you taken down many bad guys tonight?"
"Yeah, lot of them!"
"Give me an hour?" Scott asked.
Wanda nodded. "The jet is at the park. Meet us there when you're done."
"Thanks," Scott said. "I owe you one."
Wanda watched them walk away. Her cellphone beeped. "Hello?" She listened for a moment. "Scott, we have a problem!"
Two men in suits were standing outside the Paxton house. Sam and Natasha sat in the yard at a house across the street and two doors down. Thanks to their costumes, they hadn't been noticed, yet, but Natasha didn't want to get too close.
"Wanda, I have two SHIELD agents outside the house."
"Now can I go act like Nick Fury?" Sam joked.
"I'm with Scott," Wanda told her. "We need to bring his daughter back to that street. Meet us at the corner."
Sam and Natasha stood and casually strolled to the end of the street, out of sight of the agents. Scott and Wanda joined them a few minutes later with a little girl.
"Hey guys," Scott said.
Natasha looked at him. "Loki?"
"Not my choice," Scott told her. "This is Cassie." The little girl waved excitedly. "Cassie, this is Natasha, the Black Widow."
"I'm going to be you next year!" Cassie said.
"And this is Sam, the Falcon. Costume looks good," Scott told him.
"Thanks," Sam said. "I need a drink, so say goodbye and let's go home."
"Wait a minute, my suit is in the house!" Scott said.
Sam groaned. "If you get me thrown back in the RAFT, I'm kicking your ass."
"I'll just slip in the back and get it," Scott said.
Natasha tried not to roll her eyes. "They brought more than two agents."
"I can't leave it!" Scott said. "That technology can change the fabric of reality!"
"Maybe you should have thought about that before you ran away from home!" Sam berated him.
Natasha noticed that Wanda and Cassie were whispering to each other. They seemed to come to an agreement and Cassie stepped forward. She tugged on Natasha's dress.
"I have an idea."
"I can't believe we let you talk us into this," Sam groused.
"I didn't hear any suggestions out of you," Wanda said.
Scott ignored them and kept his eyes on the two Agents. Cassie had been in the house for 10 minutes now. There was no reason for them to suspect what she was doing, but if they caught her helping him, Maggie and Paxton could go to jail. He cursed himself for the hundredth time that night. He had let his emotions get the better of him and now he had put everyone in danger.
Cassie emerged from the house with her candy bag. She skipped toward the sidewalk and past the SHIELD agents. As she turned down the sidewalk, one of them touched his ear, nodding. He took a step towards Cassie. "Excuse me young lady!"
Cassie ran. The agents pursued her. Wanda reached out and grabbed one of the agent's feet, tripping him. Natasha rushed in and tossed an electric disk at the other. He dropped to the ground. She punched the other one in the face, knocking him unconscious.
"Sorry boys," she said. "No hard feelings I hope."
"Daddy!" Cassie said, running toward him. Scott knelt down to hug her.
"Good job, Peanut," he said, kissing her on the forehead.
"I got the suit Daddy." She reached into her bag and took out a small plastic bag with the shrunken suit.
"Nice going," Scott said. He gave her a high five. "I have to go. Remember what we talked about. Go to your friend's house and change your costume, then wait an hour before you go home."
"Got it!" Cassie said.
Scott hugged her. He felt a tear slip down his cheek. "I love you Cassie."
"I love you too, Daddy."
"We need to hurry," Sam said as Natasha came jogging back towards them.
Cassie ran off the other way as they headed back to the jet. Natasha opened the hatch and started up the engine. They all strapped as Natasha took off. Scott took a last look out the window as San Francisco vanished from view.
"So you have a daughter?" Sam asked as the jet leveled off.
Scott nodded. "Yeah, I haven't seen her in five months and with all this Halloween stuff, I just freaked out." He frowned. "Am I going to get kicked off the team?"
"No," Natasha said. "We'll just let Sharon assign you extra chores."
"It's ok," Sam said gently. "This isn't easy on any of us, but why didn't you tell us you had a kid?"
"It's easier to just forget about it," Scott said. If he let himself dwell on it, it would be impossible to stay.
"If I'd known you had a kid I never would have asked you to come," Sam said.
"I came because I have a kid," Scott explained. "All this stuff we're up against, I can't sit back and just hope it goes away. I'm out there fighting to protect her. If I don't, who will?"
"She did a pretty decent job of it herself back there," Wanda said.
Scott grinned proudly. "I would have had to deal with the Sokovia accords sooner or later, and probably ended up in prison. At least this way I have some company."
Sam smiled. "Happy Halloween, Tic-Tac."
"You too," Scott said. "Do you think they left me any Reese's?"
"I hid a bag of everything," Natasha said slyly. "Even Sharon won't be able to find them."
Sharon and Steve sat on the couch in their pajamas. The Trick-or-Treaters had been more fun that Steve had expected, but they were both tired. He would have gone to bed, but Natasha had called to say that they were on their way back, so they sat on the couch watching the Mummy.
"So how did you know Scott had a daughter?" Steve asked. Not even Natasha had known, which was unusual. He trusted Scott, but he felt bad for not knowing anything about the man.
Sharon ripped open a package of sugar babies and emptied it into her mouth, chewing slowly.
"What did you do?" Steve sighed. Sharon was quiet for a minute as she continued to chew the sticky candy. "Sharon?"
"Don't be mad," she said. "When everyone moved in, I ran a background check on everyone."
"You did what?" Steve balked.
"Three total strangers moved into my house. Can you blame me for being cautious?" she asked. "And this thing with Scott kind of proves my point. We know almost nothing about him!"
"I'm kind of surprised that Natasha didn't know," Sharon continued, unwrapping a Mounds bar. "I figured she would have done the same thing."
"Cause that makes it better," Steve muttered.
"I think so."
Steve grabbed a handful of popcorn and dropped the argument. Sharon was a spy and this was what she was trained to do. The door opened. Scott, Wanda, Natasha and Sam came in still in costume. Steve looked at Scott. "Loki?"
"I had to borrow it from my ex's husband," Scott said.
"Care to explain?" Steve asked calmly.
"I'm sorry for running off," Scott said. "I don't know if I told you guys, but I have an 8 year old daughter."
Steve shook his head. "I didn't know that. That must be hard."
"Yeah," Scott said quietly. "With all this Halloween stuff, I got homesick. I wanted to take her Trick-or-Treating."
"It's alright," Steve said. "But you're on leaf raking duty for the rest of the year."
"Oh no, you're not going to weasel out of that one," Sharon said. "Bathrooms and trash."
Scott nodded. "That's fair."
"We were going to watch the Wolfman next if you guys want to change and join us," Steve said.
"Look who finally found the Halloween spirit." Natasha teased him.
"Are there any Snickers left?" Sam asked.
"Two bags," Sharon said. "Have at 'em."
Steve settled back against the cushions as everyone headed up stairs. Sharon snuggled closer against him as the mummy crumbled to dust.
"So tomorrow I need you to get the Christmas decorations out of the attic," she said.
"That's two months away!" Steve cried.
Sharon laughed. "Just kidding! Happy Halloween, Steve."
Steve kissed her and held her close. "Happy Halloween."
-End-