Redemption

Romangers appreciation month: James Rogers

All characters belong to Marvel Comics

Natasha awoke to the coldness of relief dabbing across her brow. It was hard to focus. Heat and relentless light. Stench of blood and phantoms of recurring pain.

Glass shattered. White light faded to red. Arms outstretched and wrapped around her stomach.

"Steve!" Natasha screamed as she clutched her gun with bloody fingers. Debris toppled over her, bullets echoed and bodies dropped into puddles of blood. She kept her arm leveled on his shoulder, feeling the jolt of pain ripping her from the inside out, but no tears spilled from her eyes, as though she became frozen as ice against the smoldering flames consuming the room. "Steve." she gritted, her eyes blurred with increase of pain surging in her veins. She compressed her hand over wound cutting into her deep. Red blossoming under black leather. Spreading fast. Painful, stinging and consuming her. "The baby!"

"Hang on, Natasha," Steve said in a frantic pitch. His hands fumbled over her belly. Time was slowing down. He pressed his palm onto the wound. He didn't wince at the sickly, wet sound of blood draining from her tearing flesh. He felt her chest jerk as he arms held her firmly against him. Instantly, he raised his hand to the comlink. "Tony emergency evac. Natasha is down." His breath hitched as he looked in her dimming green eyes. He flicked his eyes to the gray fog, and saw Iron Man flying closer to their position. «Repeat. Natasha is down."

Natasha gasped in agony; she arched her back off the floor. "The baby..." She managed in a rattled cough, feeling a sharp throb in her womb. A sense of detachment as fluid drained out of her. Wincing, she snapped her pained green eyes to Steve's watery blue eyes. She stared at him. Just him. "I feel him coming," she said, her voice filled with panic. Her skin turned sallow and breath ragged. "I need to get to a hospital now!" She hissed, tasting blood. "Now!"

Steve felt a lump form in his throat. He pressed the comlink again. "Tony." He sounded out of breath. "Natasha is having the baby. I'm going to move her to the ledge and you are going to take her." He ordered, placing his steady arms underneath Natasha's body, and carefully scooped her up. He wasted no time, and hasted to the ledge. His eyes narrowed down at her. "Nat, look at me." his voice cracked. "Everything will fine. The baby will make it." He trudged forward, and met Stark hovering over the ledge. Gently he handed his love into the red and golden alloy arms of the billionaire, keeping his hand encompassed over her womb. He felt his son. Feeling her skin growing cold, he leaned closer as he could and pressed a shaky kiss on her clammy forehead. "I love you, Natasha."

She gripped his wrist, bringing it to her chest. "I love you..."

She lay there under the thin sheets for a moment, unblinking and staring at the harsh light. An embrace of warmth gripped her wounded shoulder, feeling her bones jostled she turned her head, and stared at the gleams of his dog tags. The name engraved on the steel plates reflected in her heavy eyes. Steve. He was at her side, sitting in a chair, wearing his uniform. It was vibrant blue with the colors of America. It was smudged with blood. Her blood. The material had been tattered from a struggle to shield her and their baby from the hunger and cruel demons. His blonde hair wasn't spiked or neatly parted. Lank strands were messy and sloppy over his slacked forehead, and he smelt of cinder and sweat. His face covered with gashes and streaks of maroon over his broad jaw. He looked worried and held great despair over his face.

She blinked the haze out her eyes, and stared the softness of his gaze. She had fallen into the blue storms of unyielding flame. At first she couldn't say anything, her perched throat kept her vocals locked, but when his fingers threaded against the dismay of her scarlet hair, she clasped her hand over his wrist. She felt his steady pulse. "Steve," she released a strained whisper. Her bluish-green eyes swelled with tears. She felt empty. Narrowing her eyes down at her bandaged abdomen, she realized that her unborn son-their baby had been stolen. She felt barren without feeling his little heart beat tugging against the protective walls of her womb. Her face paled as tears washed away the smears of blood. Her eyes wandered throughout the room, searching for her infant son.

"Easy Nat," Steve breathed heavily, his palm instinctively pinned her against the pillows. His sincere blue eyes swelled with pain, as he looked at her with stillness plastered on his chiseled features. His full lips pulled into a grimace, but honest gaze never left her. "There was an accident." His voice sounded detached and uncertain. Natasha felt her heart clench in her chest. "You took a hit and the baby..."

Natasha glared at him with burning green embers of fury. She refused to listen to his words. "No," she seethed against clenched teeth. A spike of icy fear pierced her thumping heart. The sound of the monitors droned in her ears. Blood pressure was increasing with every tear the slipped out of her feverish eyes. Pain split her chest opened, and it felt like cold hands of the Red Room ripped out her heart. It was hard for her to process everything. She remembered the explosion in the Avenger's Tower, the Iron Man suit encased over her body, and blood splatting on glass. Everything else after the sonic boom of the hellish situation blotted into crimson. All that kept her stable was the softness of his lips crushed over her mouth, kissing her with every ounce of his strength. The moment she felt pieces of metal tearing into her flesh...She knew their baby was in danger. She grabbed his shoulder, fingernails digging into muscle. «Steve...He's alive...Dammit. Our baby is alive."

Steve caressed his fingers over her cheeks, soothingly. "Yes, he is alive," he said against torrents of tears. A weak smiled managed to tug across his lips. He tried to give her strength, but seeing her unbidden pain made his soul diminish. "All I wanted to do was protect you and our son. I thought my strength would keep you from harm." He choked up, his eyes narrowing to her wounded stomach. "After the attack at the Tower, Stark flew you to the hospital and you underwent an emergency C-Section. They managed to save him...I got to see him for the first time."

"I know you're keeping something from me, Steve." Natasha gritted darkly, closing her eyes shut. "The baby is weak, isn't he? My damaged body couldn't protect him. I know that I don't deserve a son...My past prevents me of having a good life. All I wanted..." She was breaking into pieces. Jagged and sharp. "I just wanted to feel his tiny fingers grasping my hand and tell him that everything will be alright." A sob rasped out of her chest. «I'm always going to to be there protect him." She shook head against the pillow, biting hard on her paled lips. "Now, I guess that's not how it's going to be..."

"I don't want to hear that, Natasha," Steve intoned, his low voice cracking. "You gave him life. He is out there waiting to see you...His beautiful mother." He lightly grimaced watching her tears slip down her face. He knew she was feeling so much. «Yes, he is small, but his heart beats strong. Our son is fighter. I know he won't give up for us."

Natasha kept her misty green eyes lowered, panic started to recede. Her stomach quivered. "What does he look like?" she asked in a murmur, her heart squeezed with doubt that her newborn son was frail and weak.

Steve raised her hand to his lips, and allowed wet embrace of a kiss to dissolve over the coldness her veins produced. Natasha's eyes widened, she was trembling in shock. He kept her steady, holding a loving kiss on her shaky hand. "Our son is beautiful, Nat. The most precious and beautiful baby boy in the world. You gave him life, you never surrendered to the pain, and you kept fighting." He leaned in closer, and stroked his fingers tenderly along her cheek, wiping away the tears. "Now, he is here with us. A little guy with my eyes and your smirk." He leaned in closer, and cried against her jaw; allowing his lips to roam on the softness of her skin. "The nurse asked me to name him, so I used the names of people that defined our past. His name is James Alexander Carter Rogers."

Her body stilled and relaxed against the wall of pillows. "James Alexander Carter," she repeated, taking a long deep breath. «James because of Barnes, Alexander is from my past lover and Carter is the last name of Peggy." She felt her lips slack into a faint grin, and she touched his hand, her fingers brushed over his knuckles. "I want to see him, but I'm not sure I stand." She admitted, her breath hitching in her chest. Tears sloped down her face, and landed on his lips. "I know he is healthy and strong."

Steve pulled back, he framed his hands over her face, his thumb traced along the curve of her jaw, and then he kissed her before saying against her lips, "I'm taking you to see him, Natasha."

"No, Steve," She protested weakly in shuttered breaths, feeling bile rising up her throat. "I'm not healthy enough to walk out of this room..." She became frozen as he pulled the sheets off her body. Steve's strong right arm looped under her legs, and his left arm held her securely as he lift her up, and carried her out the room bridal style.

Natasha dug her face into his chest, crying as his heart pounded against her lips. She dared herself to glance once, and found the Avengers assembled in the waiting room. Clint was sitting in a chair with a brotherly smile on his bruised face; Thor was sipping a cup of coffee, Tony was annoying Banner with a clicking pen he stole from the nurses station. Standing in the darkness with a hood over his unshaven face was Bucky Barnes; his pale blue eyes looking at her, asking her forgiveness and thanking her for giving Steve the greatest reward a wartime soldier could ever receive.

As their faces drifted into the light, Natasha tilted her head up, and stared into Steve's blue eyes for moment, before she entered the nursery, and saw babies sleeping close to each other. First her eyes wondered over the small beds, looking at all the children wiggling their small limbs under blue and pink blankets. Then, she settled her watery gaze on a little baby boy. He was so tiny and nestled in warmth. He was beautiful. A smaller version of Steve, but when he opened his eyes, she saw the unyielding and determined blue. The eyes of Captain America.

Seeing her child, the miracle of redemption that Steve blessed her with, Natasha felt another flow of tears empty out of her. "Hello, James," she whispered, her voice raw. She was lost with words. Her hands trembling as she felt the mantra of all her doubts and fears vanish in one blink. Her heart felt like it halted to a stop as Steve's hand stroked through her messy curls. Relief had written over every line of her face. She was beaming with radiance. "I'm a mother..." She rasped with shuttering disbelief. "This child is mine."

Feeling contentment brush over her scars, Natasha wove her fingers over his battered face, and then met his lips. She sealed a kiss over them with everything she had and everything she wanted to give him.

Steve smiled brightly against her lips, bruising an embrace of wet heat over her mouth in those silent moments as they listened to the soft cries of their legacy. "I love you," he whispered against heated skin. He broke away to catch his breath, just and felt her heart dancing with the pace his strong heart. His fingers slipped through her mussed red hair. He knew that he would pledge his life his family. He would protect his newborn son, James, and raise him with Natasha as his wife.

"I promise you that I will never allow you or our son..."

Natasha cupped his face, not submitting to his pledge. "I don't like being a damsel in distress, Steve." she said, firmly. Her palm splayed across the muscles planes of his powerful chest. "I will protect our son no matter the cost."

He didn't say anything.

"I love you, Steve." Natasha brushed her lips over his jaw. She kissed his chiseled skin possessively.

Steve met her eyes, fathomless winter blue. "We're in this together, Natasha." He pressed a kiss on her sweaty forehead, and answered, honest and true. "You're my partner."

"I guess we both found our right partners." Natasha smirked, her shining eyes glancing back at their little son, and then she enveloped his mouth with a slow, deep and savory kiss.