When Cara returned to Stark Tower, no one was looking at her suspiciously, so that was a good sign. She had bought her ginger ale and crackers, and a book about what to expect during the rest of her pregnancy and what to do in on go on her way back.

No sense in taking unnecessary risks and having another slip up like with Darcy at the doctor's.

But then again, that had taken her by surprise and she was so used to having to control her emotions, what with being an assassin, and the doctor did say that mood swings were part of the whole pregnancy thing.

Cara took a few of the crackers before heading up to her room and started thinking about where to hide the book so no one could find it. She thought about hiding it under her pillow, but that sounded so clichéd in her head, and hiding it under the mattress sounded just as bad. She consulted the book if she could do some exercise as there was no reason not to until much later.

The woman eventually settled on hiding it in plain sight with what she used other books for, a wedge to keep her chair from wobbling as she cleaned her bow and arrows to make sure they were up to par. Cara replaced the wedge already under the chair with the pregnancy book after switching the novel book jacket with the pregnancy one and tossing the pregnancy book jacket into the trash bin beside her desk.

Cara tossed the novel onto her bed before discarding her jacket haphazardly as well and walked over to her dresser to retrieve a change of clothes since working out was fine, but she just couldn't do it for a long period of time. This was all fine and good, because she was just going to do some running and target practice to keep her on her game.

Cara walked into her adjacent washroom because yeah, Stark had bathrooms attached to their rooms. This was something the woman didn't mind as it let her keep her privacy. She assumed it stemmed early on when she was still at the circus and had to hide her things less they get stolen. Or her brother took them, which ever happened first.

The blonde woman grabbed her bow and gathered up her arrows before heading down stairs to grab a water bottle. "Agent Barton, will you grab me a bottle as well?"

Cara looked up at the blond man also looking like he was going for a work out. "Sure thing Cap." She said grabbing a bottle and handed him the bottle from the nozzle, making sure their fingers never touched.

Okay, so maybe her aversion was more of an issue than she thought and the whole 'mind-control' thing set her pack a few-a lot of-paces.

"You're going to the gym too?" he asked and Cara nodded.

"I'm going work on my aim." She replied and backed away from the fridge and headed down the hall. The book said that jogging was okay as long as she kept drinking h the water and didn't let herself get overheated.

The two of them walked to the training room and while Steve went toward the punching bags, Cara went over to the next room where the target boards were and she heard the shots ring out and saw Natasha at one of the ranges. The blonde put on ear plugs herself before going to her own range and taking aim.

Cara could still faintly hear the shots Natasha was shooting, but she felt rather relaxed and in her element at the moment...which was why the sudden numbing of her hands took her by surprise and the arrow went way off course when she fired.

In fact, it didn't even hit the target, it hit the wall beside it, the last time her aim had been so bad was when she was back at the circus and just started out.

Cara heard the faint shooting stop and felt the redheaded woman put a hand to her arm, and though the woman's face was stoic, the blonde still saw the lingering concern hidden in her eyes because she never missed her target.

It wasn't so much as pride than a simple fact.

"I'm fine." She insisted and realized now was the time to stop working on her aim.

Maybe some jogging will help her as the book said that cramps weren't supposed to start until later. But what with the how the doctor told her that every woman's pregnancy was different, she wasn't going to jinx it by thinking about it.

…and she was already thinking about it. Damn it!

Cara gathered up her bow and arrows, opting to retrieve her stray one when she was sure Natasha was done using the range. She set her equipment off to the side and out of the way as she took the plugs out of her ears before taking a jog around the room, her gaze setting on the other blond to remind her that there was still someone else in here too.

The woman wiped her brow as she felt beads of sweat start to form and a bout of nausea form in her stomach, so she discreetly slowed her pace to a walk when she was close enough to her water bottle and glanced at the Captain when she heard him walking over. "What can I do for you, Captain?"

"Agent Barton, would happen to know where-"

Cara felt another wave hit her and her hearing spaced out, so she didn't quite catch what the man said, as she was too busy making sure she didn't throw up. As it were, she only caught the tail end of what he said and she furrowed her brow. "Could you repeat that, I thought I heard something else." The other blond looked at her questioningly, which Cara pointedly didn't acknowledge as he repeated what he said.

The woman moved to gather up her things again. "The novel? It's in my room; I'll get it for you later." She said before briskly walking out of the room.

Steve watched her leave; his expression bemused before he shook his head and walked back over to the punching bag. He didn't know Agent Barton very well as she was even more introverted than Agent Romanov, so he also didn't know if she was this…strange all the time.

He also didn't know why to ask her if she even had the book; but he figured it had something to do with how any of the times he did in fact see her; she always looked so…cold.

Cold and a little anxious, not that he could blame her for it though, what with the Tesseract thing and all.

The man glanced up at the opening door, seeing Natasha walk in with an arrow in one hand and waved at her, the woman nodding back. "Agent Romanov; is that…one of Agent Barton's arrows?" he asked in confusion.

The corners of Natasha's lips turned up in amusement. "Yes, it is." She replied and didn't elaborate about why she had it. Though she did add a, "I'm going to go return it to her."

"Allow me." Steve said and held out his hand, but Natasha only gave him an unnerving stare in reply. "Oh, uh, Agent Barton said she was going to give me a novel that she had, but I figured I'd save her the trip." He explained and hoped the redhead would stop with the stare.

This woman was scary on so many levels.

"Very well," Natasha replied and relented with the stare as she gave the Captain the arrow, "and you'll find the book you're looking for under the leg of the chair in her room."

"Thank yo-" Steve stopped mid-sentence. "You mean she doesn't even read the books she takes?"


Cara stepped out of the adjacent washroom while towel drying her hair and wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans. She glanced at the desk where her bow and arrows were before freezing.

While the rest of her arrows were all neatly in a pile with the bow on top, no pun intended, there was one stray arrow that could only be the one that she was supposed to go get, just lying there on her desk and away from the rest of the pile.

She willed herself to look down at the chair, a sense of dread forming in her stomach, or was that another bout of nausea?

Whatever, the point was, the pregnancy book was gone!

The woman clenched her fists until her knuckles were white to control her rising panic. She thought about who could have taken it before remembering that she said she'd give the real novel to Steve…Steve! This meant that he had it!

Cara looked over her bed to try and find the real novel before lifting up her jacket to let the dark letters on the cover stare mockingly up at her. She gnashed her teeth together as she scooped the book up and hurried out of her room and down the hall.

If she was lucky, then Steve wouldn't have eve opened the book yet. But if he did then he would see that it wasn't the book he'd wanted and she was sure that he'd figure out pretty fast who the pregnant woman was.

She felt another emotion rising, not panic, but it was driving her down the hall just as fast; fear. If she was found out, then she would have to admit that what happened really did happen.

And there was only so much she could say before the dam broke and have to think about it.

Cara was about to rapt her fist on the closed door when it opened and she stopped short, both her and Steve's expressions showing mutual surprise. "Captain," she greeted and lowered her hand while managing to keep her voice calm and controlled, "It seems there might have been a mix up about what book you were supposed to take."

The blond furrowed his brow. "I see." He said before moving to let her in. "Then come in."

Cara stepped into the room, her expression turning anxious and saw the book lying on the bed, thankfully unopened. She picked the book up and discreetly switched the book jacket back to its original book. Though she heard the steps getting closer, she still flinched when Steve put his hand on her shoulder, simply because she knew that it was a man's hand.

"Yes?" she questioned icily and damn it if she didn't start to feel guilty when the other blond suddenly looked as though she kicked his puppy. "I mean, what is it?" she amended in a softer voice.

Steve let his hand back to his side as he realized touching the woman was a bad idea. "I think; that you should sit down."

Cara furrowed her brow again and when she noticed the knowing look in his eyes, she knew that he'd already looked inside the book and must have seen that it was not in fact the novel he'd been looking for. It also meant that he knew.

He knew.