Degree two: Operation Baby-Daddy A Go
Darcy lifted the bags in her hands until she could easily toss the heavy things onto her unmade bed. She ignored it when one particularly heavy bag toppled over, bits of clothing spilling to the floor in a cascade of red, white, and blue.
When she had returned to her room the night before she had had no intention of going to sleep like Steve had suggested, her mind had been too preoccupied with their conversation. Though Steve had become a good friend, a friendship she thought could possibly rival the one she had with Jane, he still hadn't learned one very important thing about her. The fact was when Darcy got an idea into her head she refused to let it go…like ever. She was notorious back home for her stubbornness. She figured it was what kept her at Jane's side all those years when any sane person would have left long ago.
When Steve had made that comment about having a kid together something had just clicked within her. She had spent all night thinking over what it would be like to be a mother; to carry a child inside her and to raise it. But even more, what it would be like to have Steve's child. She knew he would be a wonderful father, their kid would never lack for affection. The more and more she thought on a little blonde-curly-haired, blue-eyed baby, the more she wanted it.
She knew getting it wouldn't be easy, the biggest obstacle in obtaining what she wanted would be Steve. The man had more problems than her college algebra book, and just as hard to comprehend at times. Still, she had seen something in his eyes when he had made that comment. She couldn't blame it on the alcohol, so that left only one thing: Steve Rogers had at least been thinking of having a baby. Or at least that was what she was currently telling herself, better to justify what she was doing.
Maybe it was crazy, and ok, probably not really a good idea, but Darcy was the kind of girl that reached out and took what she wanted. This was why she had come up with a plan, one that would expose his desire for a child and show her own to him. Her little shopping trip that morning had all been in preparation for phase one of Project Baby-Daddy.
Darcy smiled as she gathered the fallen clothing, her fingers lingering on one particular blue garment. After carefully folding the onesie and placing it in her drawer, she reached to gather the rest so she could have everything ready come dinnertime.
Dinner in Avengers Tower was probably the most formal meal of the day, but it also could be called the most chaotic. Tony had specially designed a table large and strong enough to hold all the Avengers and their significant others. There had been many failed attempts before the ten-foot long monstrosity had been built. Either the table couldn't hold up to the amount of food needed to feed a gaggle of superheroes, or it cracked under pressure from one too many food fights, or Thor simply forgot how strong he was and emphasized a point just a little too strongly. Darcy had even been witness to the Great Hulk-Out of the twenty-first century, otherwise known as Tony once again not knowing when to keep his mouth shut, that had leveled the entire table filled with food.
Darcy was curled up in her normal seat, an overly large plush chair located just right of the head of the table; Steve's seat. They had all joked about Steve and Tony's placements, the parents of their little rag-tag group, but Darcy was observant enough to understand just how correct they all were. Without either of them she doubted the Avengers would have survived. Not that she would ever call Tony Mommy or Daddy…Steve on the other hand.
Laughter rose up around the table, everyone enjoying a care and worry free moment; something that was rather rare among the residents of the tower. Every week it seemed as though there was a new supervillain just waiting to get their ass kicked. It would have been funny had it not caused an almost constant haze of stress over everyone.
Darcy toed the bag she had set at her feet earlier, her sock covered foot running carefully along the bright red tissue paper sticking out of the top. She doubted it would be long before someone brought up her morning, allowing her to casually pull out the bag without raising suspicion. Well, too much suspicion, Steve was far from an idiot.
"You know, I still haven't forgiven you for eating my cake." Tony pouted into his forkful of green-rice pilaf. He gave the light green substance a moment's thought before stuffing the bite into his mouth. It might not look pretty, but it damn well tasted divine. It was annoying actually, as Darcy had been the one to introduce him to that particular version of the dish.
"Stop whining, you sound like a baby." Darcy rolled her eyes, it figured that it would be Tony that brought everything up.
"But it was my cake, you all heard me last night say that it was mine!" Tony pointed his now empty fork at each and every one at the table. He distinctly remembered telling everyone at least five times the night before that the last piece was his.
"If you let it drop I will order five life-sized Iron Man cakes with light up ARC reactors for your birthday." Pepper reached next to her and placed her hand on Tony's. When she had been younger her mother used to tell her how it didn't matter if she ever had kids or not, because men were nothing more than big babies and you automatically became a mother when you started dating one. Thinking back on that she wished she would have listened more.
"Fine, but Darcy isn't allowed to have any." Tony stuck a mouthful of rice in his mouth as though that finalized his answer.
Darcy placed her arms around her middle and pouted all the while fluttering her eyes. It was a tactic she had used with great success on not just Tony, but Steve, Bucky, and even Jane. Alright, so it worked on pretty much everyone but Nat and Pepper, which was why it was her go-to when things weren't going her way. She ignored the mix of groaning and snorting that rose from around the table, focusing all her energy instead on a quickly wavering Tony.
"Goddamnit! Fine, but the last piece is mine. I mean it!" The fork in Tony's hand fell onto his plate with a loud clang as he crossed his arms over his chest. Darcy was evil, pure evil, and it annoyed him that he could never resist her.
"Thankies!" A bright, smug smile spread across her face. She still would eat the last piece, and she knew that somewhere deep down Tony knew it too. Still, she would allow him to have his delusions if they made him feel better.
"It is unfair that you can pout your way into or out of anything. One day you are going to find yourself in a situation where pouting and tears won't work." Everyone around the tower may give into the girl, but Tony knew that the type of creeps they normally dealt with would never be swayed by her little girl act. They fed off those sort of reactions, and it scared Tony to think of them getting their hands on not just Darcy, but any of his friends.
"And that would be the day the world ends." Pouting had been one of the first things Darcy had learned when she had been a child. Well, pouting and crying on cue. She had learned early on that such things made guys uncomfortable. Men could deal with war and death, but put a crying girl or woman in front of them and suddenly they became nervous little boys.
Darcy went back to her dinner, not caring how she looked as she shoveled the green rice into her mouth. The conversation with Tony had not been the opening she had needed, which was a little annoying, but at least she had gotten back into his good graces. Somewhat at least.
"So, Darcy, you left pretty quickly this morning, what did you end up doing?" Bucky side-eyed the woman next to him, the fingers of his metal arm tapping out a jerky rhythm. He had watched her that morning with a little more care than he normally did. Maybe it had been the obvious effort to keep her errands a secret, or maybe the way Steve had acted the moment Darcy had entered the room. Whatever it had been, Bucky had been on alert all day, carefully watching his two best friends move around each other in an awkward dance.
"Just some shopping. Oh, that reminds me, when I was out I found a couple of things for you, Pepper. Or, well, for the baby." Darcy ignored the suspicious way Bucky spoke and was looking at her, simply grateful that he had created an opening for her.
Reaching down under the table she grabbed the thin, paper-rope handle of the bag. She probably should have taken a bit more care and actually wrapped the items in a box with wrapping-paper, but her gifts the day before had been and she had just been too tired; read that lazy; to do it again that afternoon. She handed the bag off to Bucky, and with a wave directed him to pass it down the table.
"I know I already got the baby a present yesterday, but these were too cute to pass up. Plus I thought everyone would get a kick out of them." Not really a lie, had she seen them in passing instead of deliberately looking for them she would have bought them all the same.
"Thank you, Darcy." Pepper smiled at the younger woman. She hadn't had too much time to really bond with Darcy, mostly since she had become pregnant, but she liked the woman and got on with her well.
Taking the bag from Nat before Tony could grab it, Pepper set it in her lap. Darcy could see the smirk on Bucky's face as Pepper started to pull Avenger themed baby items out for everyone to see. She ignored him and the nervous clench of her stomach and tried to watch Steve out of the corner of her eye instead.
There was a soft smile on his face as everyone cooed over the Mjolnir shaped baby rattle, Iron Man onesie, and Hulk plushie. It was a smile that flickered when Pepper pulled out the last item, a bonnet made to look like the Cap's cowl. She wasn't sure what to make of the look that came over his face then, it was almost wistful and sad. It made the clench in her stomach all the more painful, mostly as she remembered some of the conversation the night before.
"That was all they had left, guess Avenger themed baby items are kind of hot right now. I figured I would shop around online to see if I could find anything for the rest of you. And well, if I can't I can always just make something." It actually annoyed Darcy that there were so few items available for the rest of the Avengers. In her estimation stores should be filled to the brim with Hawkeye themed NERF bows, Black Widow backpacks, Falcon toy launchers, and Winter Soldier jackets. She knew it was something that they all needed to see, mostly Bucky. For so long he had thought himself a monster, and she knew even now he slipped easily back into that way of thinking.
"Thank you, Darcy. They really are cute." Pepper carefully placed each item back in the bag, making sure not to even tear a single bit of tissue paper. When she had started things with Tony she had never imagined that she would end up part of the strange family that was the Avengers. Still, there she was having Iron Man's baby and had a whole slew of superheroes and super-scientists ready to babysit. It was a little surreal, but she wouldn't ever change it.
"Alright, you can have two pieces of cake." Tony reached over to grab the onesie only to have Pepper slap his hand. He frowned at her, but pulled his hand back to take another mouthful of his dinner.
"So I'm forgiven?" Darcy pushed her mouth back out into a pout and gave an over exaggerated fluttering of her lashes. The whole thing was really for show since she knew Tony had pretty much forgiven her immediately.
"For now." Tony waved a hand at the young woman, but gave her a crooked little smile. He knew she would inevitably do something that he could give her shit about. Hell, sometimes he wondered if she just didn't do it all on purpose.
Darcy winked at Tony, sitting fully back in her chair with a smug smirk. Her eyes fell briefly on Steve and the tightness in his shoulders that she hadn't seen in a long time. For a moment she felt regret at what she had done, but in the end she pushed it away and replaced it with an image of a little blonde-headed baby. He would understand…eventually.
Dinner and dish duty was something that was split up among the residents of the tower. It had all started out on a voluntary basis, but after Darcy and Pepper had ended up having to cook and clean several days in a row a schedule had been drawn up. The pairings had been created to prevent, or at least minimalize, damage to the kitchen. Not that it worked, mostly in the case of Bucky and Darcy.
It was their turn for clean-up duty, which usually meant a mini food-fight between their trading of snarky barbs. Though it was strangely quiet that night as Darcy scraped the leftovers into the garbage disposal while Bucky loaded the washer. The silence and looks she was getting from the ex-assassin left her unnerved.
"What are you playing at?" Bucky rinsed off the plate in his hand before placing it in the rack next to several others. Though he wasn't looking at her directly, he could see the way she stiffened out of the corner of his eye.
"What?" Darcy heard the squeak in her voice and cringed. It was hardly subtle so she had little doubt as to whether he had heard it or not.
"Don't play dumb, Doll." He shook his head. Both he and Steve had refused to allow anyone else to train Darcy, as had been suggested on more than one occasion by Clint and Tony. They had taught her themselves the basics of self-defense, and would teach her anything else needed in the future. It seemed as though he would have to add lying convincingly to that list.
"I'm not playing dumb, I really have no idea what you're talking about." She wasn't the best liar in the world, but she wasn't the worst…at least she wasn't when she was lying to anyone but Bucky. She swore the man had a built in lie detector. Which really made keeping Operation Baby-Daddy a secret so much harder. Alright, actually impossible when it came to the man beside her.
"Right, I'm no idiot. This morning Steve stiffened when you came into the kitchen, he wouldn't even look at you at first and when he did he turned bright red." It wasn't the first time he had seen Steve blush because of Darcy, but normally the woman had done, said, or wore something that caused it. This time all she had done was walk into the room. He figured that one of two things had happened, they had kissed or had finally slept together.
"I don't see how Steve blushing has anything to do with me." Damn Steve! Darcy fidgeted with the fork in her hand, tapping out Bohemian Rhapsody with it and her fingers against the sink.
"And I guess the look you sent him along with that little hand brush you gave him meant nothing either?" He stopped himself from rolling his eyes as Darcy faltered in her rhythm, only just.
"We're friends Buck, I look at and give you random touches all the time, does that mean something is going on between us?" After a moment Darcy continued to tap out the song, only to completely stop as she felt Bucky press up behind her.
"If only, Doll." Bucky laughed to himself at the hitch in Darcy's breath. He had to admit it was good on his ego to know he still had it with women, even if he didn't have any intention of taking things further with the one in front of him. "Seriously though, what is going on?" Sobering, he reached in front of Darcy and took the fork from her before pulling away and placing it in the washer.
Darcy turned towards her annoying friend and glared. He loved to catch her off guard, hell all of the damn superheroes in the tower loved to do that. She would bet everything that they had some sort of game going on to see who could scare or unnerve her the most.
"Nothing, Bucky, nothing really." Darcy cringed at the severe look Bucky gave her. It was the look he gave Steve when he knew he was lying about being injured, just before he physically dragged him to medical. She sighed and leaned back against the sink, the gig was, as they say, up. "We just got to talking last night about our future, and babies might have come up."
Bucky slumped back against the counter and ran a hand through his already messy hair. This really wasn't what he had been expecting to hear. "Aw hell, please don't tell me Steve is actually broody?"
"What do you think, you've known him longer?" Darcy turned to continue with the cleaning up, hoping if she acted like this wasn't a big deal that Bucky would leave it off. Of course she should have known better.
"So, what about babies made him so nervous?" It wasn't like Steve had never talked about children. From what he could remember from their youth, Steve had always dreamed of having a family one day, to be the father that his own had never been allowed to be. Of course, at that time Steve had planned on being married to the woman that carried his child, not whatever it was that he and Darcy were.
"He made mention that it was too bad that we couldn't just have a kid together, and I may have not only agreed but suggested that we should." Darcy visibly cringed as Bucky shot up straight and grabbed her shoulders in a near death grip. Sure, it was a bit shocking to hear, but she thought that he might be overreacting a little.
"Are you insane?" With wide eyes, Bucky stared down at the woman in his arms. This…this was a bit more than finally resolving a bit of sexual tension. This was…this was…insane, that is what it was. Totally and completely insane.
"What, I don't understand either of you. Steve and I are really great friends, we adore each other. You also have to admit we would be rocking parents." Darcy pulled herself from Bucky's grip, it was testament to just how shocked he was. They had roughhoused around before, and Darcy knew that she couldn't ever get out of his grip unless he wanted her to or was distracted.
"I'm not saying you wouldn't be, but, Doll, this isn't about that. Having a kid can complicate things between a married couple, how much more so for two people not even in a relationship?" Bucky watched Darcy move around the kitchen, clearing off plates before loading them into the washer. Both Darcy and Steve could be rash, but he had always thought Steve at least had a good, solid head above his shoulders. Though maybe he should rethink that thought if Steve was going around making suggestions like this.
"We could make it work." This was why she hadn't wanted to tell anyone about her plan, she knew each and every one of them would try and talk her out of it. For once in her life she didn't want to have to sit down and think things to death, she just wanted to do. Admittedly, having a child with one of your best friends after just one conversation was probably something that should be thought over in great detail.
"Maybe you could, but maybe it would just ruin things. Look, I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but just that you should really think about this. Think it over, talk with Steve, because he really cares for you and it would hurt him to lose your friendship." Bucky had seen the way that Steve looked at her, and he knew exactly what would happen if Steve lost her. Add in a child to the mix and Bucky grew worried.
"I care for him too. I promise I will think it over, but I doubt I will change my mind." She didn't want to change her mind, and it was upsetting that Bucky was being so logical and actually making her think. It wasn't fair.
"Whatever, now enough of all this feeling shit." Bucky could see the little wrinkles forming at the corner of her eyes, the ones that indicated that she was upset. He hated upsetting her, but he didn't like where her mind seemed to have been going. He would leave it off for now, but hell if he wasn't going to talk some sense into Steve for even mentioning such a stupid idea.
"I love you too, Bucky." Darcy gave an uneasy smile and went back to work.
"Yeah, yeah." Bucky shook his head and took the plate offered to him. He was going to rip Steve a new one just for making him have to upset Darcy, let alone the asinine idea he had put into her head.
Darcy entered her room to find it still a mess, the bags filled with baby items covered her bed and floor. She sat down amongst receiving blankets and newborn clothes, each and every one Captain America themed, and placed her head in her hands.
Maybe she had sort of jumped the gun, but the idea of a child, his child, just felt right. She wanted to believe that Bucky was wrong, that nothing would go wrong and she and Steve would be able to do it and nothing change. Still there was a part of her that whispered all the what-ifs.
What if Bucky was right and because of her stupid plan her friendship with Steve ended? What if she turned out to be a crappy mother? What if after convincing Steve she ended up not even being able to conceive?
She sighed and laid back on the bed, pulling one of the blankets into her arms. Maybe she was crazy for even thinking it, but she couldn't help but admit that she wanted it. Running her fingers over the soft material of the blanket she also had to admit to herself that this wasn't the first time she thought about having Steve's kids. He was her friend, her best friend, but she knew that her feelings for him had changed long ago.
Now all she had to do was figure out if she really wanted children, or if she just wanted to make some sort of connection with him, one deeper than the friendship that he offered.
Author's Note: Yay, I was actually able to get a new chapter done before Thanksgiving break! Anyway, first off I want to assure everyone this will not turn into a love triangle between Darcy, Steve and Bucky. Darcy and Bucky are close and they do like to flirt, but Bucky is not pining away after her. The reason for Bucky's reaction and view will be explained more later on.
Also, there will be a good deal of angst for a while before we get to the fluff. There was no way around it. We will get to fluff, so don't worry, but first Steve has a few things he needs to work out.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.