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Anna was what her teachers and the nuns at Saint Agnes orphanage called a precocious girl. She was reading three grade levels above her own, raised her hand for every question in class, and had a natural interest in the world around her.
Which was why, when she happened across a basket with a peacefully sleeping baby in it in front of the orphanage she got curious. There was a note on top of the blanket draped over the baby. Anna read it, and, not quite understanding the meaning, shoved it in her pocket for later thought. She crouched down, examining the baby. He seemed normal to her. All ten fingers and ten toes. Curly dark hair that, with a flash of envy, she wished she had. Lindsey from the grade above her told Anna yesterday that her hair was called dishwater blonde, which seemed rude to Anna.
To check for a reaction, Anna reached out and poked the baby in the stomach. He snuffled a bit. Her eyes kept being drawn back to his hair, and being unable to resist, she reached out and stroked that too. It was soft, all the way until it wasn’t. Anna tilted her head, shuffling closer and peering at what her fingers had brushed against. Her eyes widened.
There was no time to waste. Anna ran inside the orphanage, skidding around the corner. She nearly ran into Sister Maggie, who grabbed her by the shoulder as she panted.
“Anna,” Sister Maggie said. “No running inside, you know that. Go outside if you can’t contain yourself — ”
Anna panted, “There’s a baby — outside —”
“Outside?” Sister Maggie said, her brows furrowing together. “Someone left them there?”
“Yes,” Anna said, jogging to keep up with Sister Maggie as she turned and swiftly walked towards the door. “But — that’s not all!”
“Speak up, child,” Sister Maggie said. “What is it?”
“He has—” She bent over, hands on her knees, wheezing.
Sister Maggie stopped, setting a calming hand on her shoulder. “Relax. Take a deep breath. What does he have?”
Anna took a deep breath, in through her nose and out through her mouth. “Horns.”
Sister Maggie took the baby and the basket inside. She looked at the horns, made a small humming noise, and told Anna to go do her chores for that day.
But Anna was a curious child by nature, so when Sister Maggie took the basket with the baby and disappeared out the door Anna followed her. She followed her all the way out the entrance hall of the orphanage, down the grassy area outside, to the side of the old basement crypt that the children weren’t supposed to go in. She waited perched behind the stone entryway until Sister Maggie came back out, then crept downstairs, quiet as a mouse.
She found the baby fast asleep in his cozy basket atop the table. She stared at him for a while, fascinated by his chubby fists and kicking legs. Occasionally she reached out and very gently stroked the little nub of his horns. She wasn’t sure how long she had stayed with him when suddenly she heard footsteps coming down the staircase to the crypt. Anna scrambled to hide herself, tucking underneath the marble tomb slab.
“I understand,” a man’s voice was saying, steady and low. The footsteps grew louder, entering into the room. “It’s unusual, but I’m not sure what you’d like for me to do. You do know, I’m not actually —”
“Don’t be ridiculous Matthew.” That was Sister Maggie’s voice, brisk and no nonsense as ever. “I was in fact present during your birth, I rather think I’d have remembered that. I wasn’t completely high off painkillers.”
“Of course,” came the man’s voice, slightly dry. Matthew. With the name to match to the voice, Anna realized she knew this man. He came by the orphanage every weekend or so, volunteering at the soup kitchen and helping with the clothes drive. He was usually with Sister Maggie, assisting with whatever she told him to do. Anna had noticed him at first because of his dark red mirrored glasses and his white cane that swept out in front of him wherever he walked. Sister Maggie firmly instructed the children to refer to him only as Mr. Murdock. Mr. Murdock said just Matt was fine.
“I thought you might have a unique sort of empathy for his situation,” Sister Maggie was saying. They said some more things that Anna didn’t completely understand, something about a shield and a test. Maybe they wanted to get the boy a shield to go with his horns, once he was old enough. Anna perked up, excited at the thought of him waving a sword around like the knights in her books. They had to go through dangerous trials to receive the favor of the king. Was that what they meant by tests?
“I thought you said there was only one child,” Mr. Murdock suddenly said. Anna held her breath, sweat collecting on her forehead. Was he talking about her?
“What do you mean?” Sister Maggie said. There was a moment of silence, then echoing footsteps heading her way.
“Anna,” Sister Maggie said sharply, crouching down. Anna winced. Busted. “I told you you were to go back to your chores for today. What are you doing down here?”
“I wanted to play with the baby,” Anna said weakly. “I didn’t want him to be lonely.”
Sister Maggie sighed, then jerked her head. Anna scrambled to her feet. They headed not towards the entryway to the staircase like she’d been dreading but back towards the baby. Anna stuck her head over the basket, tickling her fingers over his little foot. He kicked out, and she laughed, delighted.
“It was Anna here who found him this morning,” Sister Maggie said.
“Ah,” Mr. Murdock said. “Anna, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”
Anna turned around, curious. “Sure.”
Mr. Murdock crouched down so he was eye level with her. “Do you remember anything strange about when you found him? Anyone hanging around on the street watching him, maybe?”
She scrunched her brows together, thinking hard. “No one was watching,” she said, shaking her head. She remembered something, and brightened. “But there was a note!”
“A note?” Sister Maggie said, sounding surprised. “I didn’t see that.”
“I was reading it,” Anna explained. Sister Maggie sighed again.
“Do you still have it?” Mr. Murdock asked. Anna dug around in her pockets, pulling out a paper clip, a stick of gum, a half done fortune teller she’d been working on, and finally, crumpled at the bottom, was the note. She handed it to Mr. Murdock, who passed it to Sister Maggie silently.
“Well,” she said after a moment, handing it back to Mr. Murdock. “That was supremely unhelpful.”
“What does it say?” Mr. Murdock asked, standing back up and tucking the note in his pocket.
Anna knew this one. “It says, who could love a monster like him,” she recited, proud of herself for remembering. She frowned. “Is the baby a monster?” He didn’t seem like one.
“No,” Mr. Murdock said, rubbing a hand over the bottom half of his face. He looked tired, and a little sad. “He’s not.”
As if he knew they were talking about him, suddenly the baby started crying, waving his hands around in fists. Sister Maggie reached for him, but before she could pick him up there was a loud crunching noise. Anna peered into the basket and saw that there was a large hole in it, right where the baby had been waving his fist a second ago. The baby started wailing even louder.
“Hmm,” Mr. Murdock said. “Did you know he could do that?”
Sister Maggie shook her head, reaching out and picking him up to place against her chest. She swayed with him for a second, then checked the watch on her wrist. “I need to switch out the laundry,” she said. “The towels will get musty otherwise. Matthew, will you take him?”
She didn’t wait for a response, pressing the baby into Mr. Murdock’s arms and striding away up the stairs. The baby was still crying, and Mr. Murdock wrapped his arms around him, rubbing his back and making soft noises to calm him down.
Suddenly Mr. Murdock’s shoulders relaxed. Anna hadn’t even realized he’d been tense until he stopped. He had seemed so perfectly composed, like he knew exactly what he was doing. She wanted to ask what the matter was when there came the sound of footsteps echoing against the marble floor, and then a pair of nice shoes followed by a suit appeared from the staircase into the basement.
“Hey,” said the man who walked in, surveying the room. He headed over in their direction, and Anna tensed, folding her shoulders over her chest. “I just got your call, I headed over as soon as I could. Brett’s pissed by the way, he says we’re shaving years off Bess’ life — holy shit, is that a baby?”
“Language,” Anna said before she could think better of it. She blushed to the tips of her ears as soon as she realized what she’d done, shuffling back to hide behind Mr. Murdock.
“From the mouth of babes, Fogs,” Mr. Murdock said.
“Yeah, no you’re right, that’s my bad,” the man said. He sounded a bit like he was smiling.
“Mr. Murdock,” Anna whispered, tugging on his shirt a bit. “Who is that?”
Mr. Murdock shifted the baby in his grip, smiling down at her. “This is my husband, Foggy.”
“Mr. Nelson,” Sister Maggie corrected as she also appeared from the stairs, carrying a basket of towels in her hands. She set them down on one of the tables off to the side and began busily folding them.
Anna perked up, intrigued. She hadn’t known Mr. Murdock was married. She peered around the fistful of fabric she was still clutching.
Mr. Nelson had dark blond hair that fell halfway into his eyes. He was wearing a fancy dress shirt with a vest on top, but the vest was hanging open and his sleeves were pushed up high to his elbows. His eyes were a light blue, almost gray color, and right now they were fixed on Mr. Murdock, a thoughtful look on his face.
He came over to Mr. Murdock and touched his hand over his elbow. There was a glint of gold from a band on his ring finger—the same as the one on Mr. Murdock’s.
Mr. Murdock leaned into the touch, his whole body pulled into Mr. Nelson’s space, like the magnetic fields they had learned about in science class. “Matt,” Mr. Nelson said. “What’s going on?”
Before Mr. Murdock could respond, the baby started fussing in his arms, then with a hitched breath began to positively wail. Anna grimaced, letting go of the shirt to smack her hands over her ears.
“Foggy,” Mr. Murdock said, slightly panicked.
“You just — you’re holding him wrong,” Mr. Nelson said, laughing. “You’ve gotta support their neck when they’re this little, here, let me —”
Then he was gathering the baby from Mr. Murdock's arms up against his chest, rubbing his back and making soothing noises.
“Aren’t you a sweetheart,” he cooed as the baby’s cries began to quiet, then stopped entirely. “Cutest guy I’ve ever seen, no offense Matty.” Mr. Murdock didn’t look very offended when Anna looked at him. His chin was angled in Mr. Nelson’s direction, and his whole face had gone kind of soft.
“He has horns,” Anna said, pleased to be able to offer something to the conversation that Mr. Nelson wouldn’t know. Mr. Nelson’s head snapped up, and Mr. Murdock coughed under his breath. Mr. Nelson’s hand came up to feel around the baby’s head, parting his thick curls to reveal the protruding horns.
“Huh,” Mr. Nelson said. “…They know you’re not actually —”
“Yes,” Mr. Murdock said.
“Right,” Mr. Nelson said doubtfully. “Well this suddenly explains a lot.”
“Really?” Anna asked, scrunching her face up. “How?”
“No reason at all,” Mr. Murdock said, ruffling her hair.
Anna crept up closer to the baby now that he was quiet again, peering up at him in Mr. Nelson’s arms. “If you’re Mr. Murdock's husband, how come you never come volunteer with him? And I’ve never seen you at Mass.”
“Anna,” Sister Maggie said. “That’s a very impolite thing to ask. Volunteering your time to the church is a gift, certainly not an expectation.”
“No, it’s all good,” Mr. Nelson said, rubbing the baby’s back as he moved back and forth. “It’s pretty simple. I don’t go to Mass cause I’m not Catholic, kid.”
“But you’re married,” Anna said, confused. “To Mr. Murdock.”
“She’s fine with us getting gay married but my not being Catholic is what gets her?” Mr. Nelson muttered to Mr. Murdock.
“It’s these new age kids,” Mr. Murdock murmured back.
“I think we’re getting a little off track,” Sister Maggie said. Mr. Nelson’s gaze slid to her and all the easy warmth there disappeared. Anna got the feeling that Mr. Nelson didn’t like Sister Maggie much. She wondered why that was.
“Right,” he said. “And why exactly are we here, again?”
“Anna,” Sister Maggie said, “Why don’t we give Mr. Murdock and Mr. Nelson some privacy?”
Matt fidgeted with the strap of his cane as Foggy walked around with the baby, now humming a quiet tune in his ear. He was curled up completely against Foggy’s shoulder, sound asleep. Matt’s chest ached.
“You’re really good with him,” Matt said softly.
“Yeah, well,” Foggy said, voice low to match his, “I used to watch Candy’s kids all the time when they were this age. I forgot how small they could get.” He set the now sleeping boy back in his basket, waiting for a moment to make sure he didn’t stir. Finally he turned to face Matt. Matt tossed his cane to the side with a clatter and crossed the few feet between them, needing to be near Foggy with the same mad desperation he needed air. He buried his face into the crook of Foggy’s neck, wrapping his arms around his waist.
“You’re kind of scaring me here,” Foggy said, voice soft. His hand came up to stroke along Matt’s back. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”
“He showed up on the orphanage’s doorstep a few hours ago,” Matt said into his shoulder. “There was a note.” He pulled it from his pocket, pressing it into Foggy’s palm.
“Jesus,” Foggy said after reading it. “What the hell is wrong with people.”
“It’s not safe for him to stay here. He’ll be found by SHIELD, put on some registry and experimented on. I can’t let that happen to him.” Matt swallowed. “He’s — completely alone in the world.”
Foggy understood. Of course he did. “What do you want to do?”
Matt hesitated. “Sister Maggie asked if I would consider taking him in.”
Foggy tensed. “You get how that’s a spectacularly shitty thing for her in particular to ask you, right? I’m not the only one seeing that?”
“It’s not about her, Foggy.”
“Yeah,” Foggy sighed. He stepped back, but slipped his hand around Matt’s, stroking over his knuckles. His thumb brushed over Matt’s ring, and Matt felt steadied by it, the physical proof that Foggy was with him through this. “Do you want to?”
“Do you want to?” Matt asked. “There’s no universe where this happens without you, Fog. I couldn’t do this alone, and I wouldn’t want to.”
“Aw hell,” Foggy said, running his fingers through his hair. There was a smile in his voice when he spoke next. “I’ve always wanted a couple hellions to run around with, you know that.” They had talked about kids before, in an abstract, maybe someday in the future kind of way. Certainly Matt hadn’t expected that day to come so soon. “It doesn’t hurt that he’s an exceptionally cute baby. None of that fish bowl look some kids have right after being born, you know.”
“Not really,” Matt said, amused. “What does he look like?”
“Lots of curly black hair. His skin’s a couple shades darker than ours, and he’s got the biggest wettest brown eyes when he’s awake. His horns are blue.”
“Blue?” Matt said, somehow not having expected this.
“Yeah,” Foggy said warmly. “You wanna try holding him again?”
Matt nodded, throat suddenly too thick to speak. They settled on the tiny cot in the corner of the room, Foggy showing him how to adjust his grip so the baby’s neck would be supported. He was so small in Matt’s arms. Matt traced a finger gently over one of his hands, marveling when his tiny hand wrapped around his finger in his sleep. Matt could hear his eyelids fluttering like a butterfly’s wings from whatever he was dreaming of. Usually the world was so loud to Matt, but right now it seemed very quiet.
“He’ll need a name,” Matt finally said, hushed.
Foggy shifted to look at him, and Matt could practically hear him beaming. “Yeah?” he asked, heart going fast in that way it did when he was particularly happy.
“Yeah,” Matt breathed, smiling goofily back at him. Foggy leaned forward and kissed him, firm and so bursting full of love it made his chest hurt.
“What do you think about Jonathan?” Foggy said when they separated. “Jon for short, maybe.”
Jesus Christ. How did Foggy keep doing that? Just reaching right into his chest and pulling out his heart to examine? It wasn’t right.
“Yeah, I like that,” Matt said roughly when he could trust himself to form words again. He straightened suddenly. “We don’t have anything for a baby at home,” he realized. “I don’t even know what we would need.”
“I think my parents still have all of Noah’s old stuff lying around in the basement,” Foggy said, retrieving his phone from the pocket of his pants. “I’ll text Theo and ask him to bring it all over.”
“You sure he won’t mind?”
“I don’t care if he minds,” Foggy snorted, thumbs already tapping over the screen. “He’ll do it anyway.”
“Wow,” Matt said, raising his brows. “When the older sibling comes out in you it’s really something.”
“Oh for sure. And I know you’re not talking, mister only child. You’re terrible at sharing.”
“What? No I’m not.”
“Ah, yes you are. Remember when I hadn’t moved in yet, and you freaked out when I borrowed your toothbrush?”
“Yes, because that’s disgusting,” Matt said with a scowl. “That doesn’t mean I don’t know how to share, it just means I have reasonable boundaries — ”
“Such an only child,” Foggy said, sounding amused. “My mouth has been on much worse parts of you — ”
“Shh,” Matt said hastily, checking on Jon. He was still fast asleep, his quiet heartbeat thrumming like a hummingbird's.
“I don’t think he can understand us quite yet babe.”
“He could be a prodigy,” Matt said, stroking his fingertips lightly over Jon’s soft curls. The pad of his finger caught on the edge of his horn and Matt explored it reverently, tracing around the rounded nub.
Foggy’s phone buzzed, and he picked it up to check it. “Theo says he’ll have the stuff over in an hour.” It buzzed again, and Foggy groaned.
“What?” Matt asked.
“Ma’s gonna freak,” Foggy said ruefully. “She’s been begging for grandchildren since the day we signed the papers, I’m pretty sure. Might as well get this over with sooner rather than later. You mind if I go call her real quick? I’ll be right back.”
“Go ahead. Tell her I said hello.”
“Will do.” Foggy leaned over and pressed a quick kiss against his stubble, then a softer one to the top of Jon’s head.
Matt followed his heartbeat out the door, then mostly tuned him out once he began speaking in a low voice on the phone.
There was still so much to do. There was all the paperwork and meetings that were sure to come from adopting an entire child, plus the part where they would be hiding his enhancements added a whole new layer of deception and difficulty to the situation. And despite the generosity of Foggy’s family, there was sure to be so many things they still needed to procure. Diapers and formula and a million other things Matt probably hadn’t even thought about yet. It all seemed rather daunting. And what the hell did Matt know about raising an enhanced kid? What did he know about raising a kid at all?
His dad had been younger than he was now when he’d become a single parent. Matt stroked his thumb over Jon’s brow and appreciated for the first time how scared he must have been. He wished, not for the first time, that he could talk to him, get his advice. Tell him he was going to be a father.
Dad had been alone when he was raising Matt. Matt had people. He had Karen, and the Nelsons, and Claire, and Sister Maggie, who had raised dozens of children. Most important of all, he had Foggy.
Matt tilted his head a little, picking up the sound of Foggy finishing up his phone call. He came back into the room, standing right in front of Matt. “Ready to head out?” Foggy asked, stroking a thumb down his cheek.
“Yeah,” Matt said, leaning into the touch. “Let’s go home.”