Who: Veronica, Steve, Molly, & Summer What: Family conversation Where: their house When: Friday evening Warnings: don't think so Status: started in docs; will continue in comments
Now that Christmas was past and Bucky and Kara were properly engaged, it was time for Veronica and Steve to talk to the girls about the possibility of them adding a baby to their household. Even though neither of them had officially adopted Summer, she was just as much a daughter to them as Molly and they wanted to make sure their whole family was on board with this before they started trying.
It was hard to pin the girls down now that they were on break from school, but they managed to get them both home for dinner. Rather than cooking, Veronica stopped and picked up take out on her way home and had everything out and ready on the table by the time Steve got home. She greeted him with a smile and a brief kiss.
“Molly! Summer! Dinner’s ready,” she called up the stairs.
***
They’d planned to talk to the girls after Christmas, and Steve was holding to that. He wanted their support, and he wanted for it to be okay if he and Veronica had a baby of their own sooner rather than later. He wasn’t in a rush or anything, but it felt like it was time. As long as the kids they already had agreed.
It was hard to believe that life had finally come around to a place where they were seriously talking about this, making plans for it. He remembered the person he’d been when he’d arrived in town, someone who would never have brought a child into his life, wouldn’t have even thought he’d want one after everything, but four years in Madison Valley, almost to the day, a lot of things had changed. What Steve wanted had changed.
He took a seat at the table, didn’t ask where Bucky and Kara were off to, just assumed that Veronica had taken care of that too, with a smile directed to his wife that was meant to be reassuring. This was going to be a good, easy kind of conversation. Pretty sure.
***
Most days Molly was nowhere to be found right up until dinner time. She had friends, she had a boyfriend, she was a busy girl with a life. Today, though, she’d just been hanging out, watching movies in her room and being lazy. She’d barely even gotten dressed, and came thundering down the stairs in sweatpants and a hoodie that definitely, technically, belonged to Liam. She liked the way Steve tried not to twitch when he saw her wearing it, even though the way she’d gotten it was totally innocent and boring.
“Just us?” she wondered, climbing into her own seat at the table, one leg tucked up beneath her. It was weird that the other set of parents wasn’t around.
***
Summer, too, thought it was interesting that it was just the four of them. By this point, she considered everyone in this house to be family. It was a bit strange that it was just Veronica and Steve at dinner tonight. It seemed pretty obvious to her that they had something important to talk to them about. Maybe this was just going to be a regular dinner, but she wasn't entirely sure.
"Yeah, where's everyone else?" She thought that would at least give them the opportunity to explain what was up.
***
“Bucky and Kara decided to go out this evening,” Veronica said. Sure, it had been at her suggestion, but it was easy enough to believe that the newly engaged couple simply wanted to go out and celebrate together. She didn’t want the girls to get nervous or think that anything was wrong, even though she and Steve did want to talk to them about something important.
She made sure to pick up their favorites from Hong Kong Kitchen and the tea kettle was on so they could enjoy some tea with their Chinese food if they wanted.
***
“And a good thing that they did.” Or that Veronica had arranged for it. Steve wasn’t someone who avoided subjects for very long. He paused briefly there to give the girls a moment to get settled and get started on their dinners before springing anything on them. “We actually wanted to talk to you guys about something.”
At least he waited for them to be eating. There wasn’t much of a chance of teenagers running off from a meal.
Even if he had at their age.
***
Molly stopped with a bite of food halfway to her mouth, eyes narrowing slightly as she looked between the twofold them. She didn’t bother asking what was going on. She knew Steve well enough to know that it was something he thought was too important to wait about, so he’d come out with it soon enough.
Hopefully it wasn’t going to be anything bad.
Maybe they’d decided to adopt Summer! That’d be great. Summer was basically family anyway. They might as well make it official.
***
Summer was also wondering if this could be about being adopted. She wouldn't be opposed to that. Yeah, she still had her dad back home, but he wasn't here. She thought he would want her taken care of and feel like she belonged. Of course, even without it being official, she did feel like she was part of this weird, amazing family.
She gently placed her fork on the plate and looked at the parental types expectantly.
"Okay," she said, trying not to sound too eager. "What do you want to talk to us about?"
***
The thought of adopting Summer had crossed Veronica’s mind, but she wasn’t sure how the girl would feel about it since she still had a good relationship with her father back home and she’d been hesitant to bring it up yet. They definitely considered her as much their daughter as Molly though.
“Well,” Veronica said, glancing over at Steve for moral support. “We’ve been talking about maybe expanding our family, but we wanted to see what you two thought about that before we made any serious decisions.”