Month 5

"Steve, your nose is bleeding again."

"What? Oh--dammit." Steve brought his hand up to his face and he pulled it away with blood dotting his fingertips.

Sam reached over and pulled a few tissues from a Kleenex box and handed them to Steve. Steve gratefully accepted them and held them up to his nose, tilting his head back against the couch and closing his eyes.

Sam watched him carefully. "Why does your nose bleed so much?" He asked curiously.

"Changes to my blood vessels, I think." Steve sighed. "You'd have to ask Tony."

Sam snorted. "He been doing research?"

Steve thought of the three-hundred something page book sitting on Tony's side of the bed and smiled a little. "Something like that."

Steve took the tissues away from his face when he finally felt the bleeding had stopped. He leaned forward to get up from the couch, wincing at the slight ache in his lower back. "Pretty soon I won't be able to get up on my own," He said as he crossed the room to throw away his used tissue.

"I'll help," Clint almost automatically said. He grinned. "Have they been moving?"

Steve thought a moment. "Yes," he said slowly. "But it's not always noticeable. I can feel them shift, and once and a while they kick me. Other than that, not much."

And thank God for that. Had their kicks been more frequent, Steve would have a few broken ribs.

Clint beamed harder. "You have no idea how excited I am, Steve."

"Oh, I think I have an idea," Steve teased.

"Only a few more months! Before you know it, they'll be here!"

Steve paused. "Yeah. . ." He could imagine five small children running and exploring the Tower, laughter echoing around the hallways, gummy grins on their faces as they toddled about.

There was that flutter in Steve's stomach again.

oOoOoOo

"Are you feeling alright, Buck? T'Challa?" Steve asked.

"Fine. Why?" Bucky said

Steve and Tony called bullshit.

Their eyes had dark circles around them, a sure sign of fatigue. Second, and while their nausea had simmered down to a mere annoyance, Bucky or T'Challa would have to stop themselves because of a dizzy spell. They'd also been complaining about their lower backs these last few nights. . .

Tony's eyes narrowed. "Are you sure?"

"Fine," T'Challa snipped, his voice a little sharper than intended.

A barely controllable flare of annoyance ran through them. "You're lying. Come on." They stood up and grabbed T'Challa and Bucky by the arm.

They let out a sound of protest. "Why?" they groaned almost childishly. "Where are we going?"

"To see Julie," Tony said, while Steve was dragging the other two (quite literally) out of the Tower and to T'Challa's car. He got them to stand up straight, and he held his hand out.

T'Challa stared at Steve's open palm dumbly. He was so out of it. "What?"

"Keys."

Bucky looked taken aback. ". . .you can't drive."

A scoff. "I have a license. Just give me the keys."

T'Challa shook his head. "No, I mean. . .you can't drive, like. . ."

Steve gasped. "Are you saying I can't drive because I'm pregnant?!" His face went beet red, his eyes narrowed to slits.

T'Challa was immediately wide awake, and he stood up straighter once he noticed his mistake. "Wait, damn it, I meant--"I meant I'm afraid something might happen. I meant I'm worried. I meant that I don't want you to get hurt--

"Give me the keys."

"But Ste--"

"Give. Me. The. Keys."

T'Challa reluctantly dropped his car keys into Steve's waiting palm.

Steve walked around to the driver's seat, opened the door, and slid in. Tony is the passenger seat. Steve started the car and buckled his seat belt.

Bucky knelt down to the passenger's side window, which Steve lowered just to send him his deadliest glare.

"Where are you going?" Bucky asked.

"I'm going to pick Julie up," Steve said defiantly, turning and facing forward.

". . .so did you want me to stay here, or--"

Without warning, Steve slammed his foot on the gas and sped away.

"Be careful!" T'Challa shouted after him.

The response he got was Tony and Steve rolling down their windows and sticking the middle finger out of it.

They could only sigh.

oOoOoOo

Julie looked at T'Challa and Bucky curiously. She grabbed their hands and inspected them, feeling around their knuckles and wrists.

"Have you experienced any swelling? Specifically in the chest or hand areas?" She asked as she pressed two fingers to Bucky's neck, feeling all around the underside of his jaw.

Their faces warmed, and they felt Tony and Steve's razor sharp gaze on them. "Uh, chest. . .area." Bucky said.

He saw Tony shift out the corner of his eye. He was probably smirking.

"Any other symptoms besides the nausea, fatigue, and the backache?"

They thought a moment.

"Mood swings," Steve piped up from the other couch.

"No we ha--" T'Challa stopped, suddenly remembering how uncharacteristically angry he was at Quill the other night. "Actually. . .yes."

Julie's mouth morphed into a smile. "Well. . .there's nothing serious going on, that's for sure."

"Wait, really?" Both Tony and Steve asked simultaneously.

"I would have thought you were pregnant," Steve said, only half joking.

"Oh, please," Bucky retorted, rolling his eyes. "We haven't had sex in a month."

Their eyes narrowed to pinpoints.

"Of course not, Steve." Leslie turned and smiled at them. "Not only because you're super-humans, and I'm sure the after effects of being exposed to certain things are far worse--these are incredibly common symptoms." She saw T'Challa and Bucky wince.

She glanced between the two men. "T'Challa, Bucky I have reason to believe that what you're suffering from is Couvade syndrome, also known as 'sympathy pregnancy.'"

"What?" both men asked.

"Well, for one, have you been stressed lately?"

"Excessively so." He cast a wary glance at Tony and Steve, who stuck their tongues out at them.

Julie smiled amusedly at them. "Oh, I can only imagine."

"Hey--!"

"Oh, hush, you two, we all know it's true," Julie teased. She turned back to the other two. "Well, what that means is you'll feel almost every ache, every mood, every craving, all the heartburn, and all the breast tenderness that they will feel. Just not as extreme. At most, it'll be a bother, but it won't last longer than the pregnancy. You might even gain a few pounds in the waist area."

Their eyes had gone wider and wider throughout Leslie's explanation. "What about. . .what about labor?"

"Now that's the question that I was waiting for." Julie shifted her weight to one foot. "It varies, depending on testosterone and estrogen levels within you specifically. In your case, it could be a number of things, because I have no idea how much testosterone a male super-human has. You could experience some minor cramps, or you could feel the same amount of pain that Steve and Tony do."

They blanched at that. Steve and Tony's smirks only grew wider.

"We'll just have to see when we get there." Julie packed up her bag, which she really hadn't needed. "Until then, try and watch out for more symptoms as much as possible. If it gets any worse, don't forget to call me."

They nodded dumbly and he watched her send Tony and Steve a warm smile.

"I'm assuming that someone else will be taking me home, then?" Julie said.