I swear this story is going somewhere, I just have some OCD thing with chapters. And I am still open to suggestions for baby names. Thank you!
Later that same evening, both Tony and Natasha had gone to bed early, in their own space of the tower. Fury was somewhere else, maybe. If he was still in the tower, no one was telling Steve, and that was certainly for the best.
Steve was reading in what as almost a dark room, when there was a knock on the door. He got up to let Bruce, the unexpected visitor, into the apartment.
" I don't mean to intrude on you this late," Bruce said, " I mostly wanted to check up on you."
Steve shrugged, " I'm okay." He returned to sitting on the couch, gesturing the empty arm chair to Bruce.
Who also sat down. " Are you sure? You seemed to have a lot bottled up. It's not like you to go off like that, especially on Fury."
" That was…well, that was a special circumstance, I guess. But, I still haven't said anything to Nat."
" Really?"
" Yep. I said something even more stupid, and possibly just as upsetting, but not that. She's worried enough without that."
Bruce leaned forward on his thighs, " I know you want to protect her. I get it, you'll always be like that. But, to fill in a few blanks, do you think it would help to maybe tell Natasha what happened? The last time you were here in New York."
Steve leaned back on the touch and sighed, fidgeting with his hands before speaking. " I don't remember a lot of it, hardly any. And I'm not just saying that to avoid anything."
" I think it goes without saying that, whoever had you, may be who apparently wants this baby."
Steve got stiff. He looked away, eyes squeezing shut, breathing becoming slightly ragged.
" Steve…"
" there was a woman there," his voice strained," I was blindfolded, I think. My vision was altered somehow. I know there were a lot of people there, but I only ever heard one voice." He continued to fidget and squirm, " it was a woman. She had a Russian accent."
The doctor adjusted his glasses, " we went to the site after it was destroyed. There was an investigation, because it was passed off as an explosion due to a gas leak. They, uh, they didn't find a woman's body."
" Well, there was no doubt the threat was still out there."
No need to dwell on that. " Do you remember how you were tied down? You had bruising on your wrists. I've seen you push a car off yourself, so it's a mystery what kept you down."
Steve shrugged again, " I don't remember what happened, not all of it. I think they put me under the influence of something."
" Were you like that the entire time?"
" Maybe."
" Do you know of any kind of…experiments, or testing that they did?"
" I'm sure they did."
Bruce saw how uneasy Steve was becoming, and decided to throw in the towel, even if temporary. " Okay. Well, Tony locked up any notes I had from when we first brought you back here, something about security." He stood up, " if you think of anything in the six years it'll take for him to remember where he put them, can you let me know?"
Steve followed him towards the door, " there is one thing. There was a girl in London, Matilda Barrington, but they may not be her real name. She's the granddaughter of Bucky Barnes." Bruce stopped, simply to turn around and glare at him. " Yeah, I know. Details aside, she took his file from me, and I think she's on the hunt for him. No news is good news in our line of work, but I don't know what she's up to."
Bruce nodded, " got it."
" Can we keep this between us?"
" Absolutely."
Steve locked the door once Bruce left. He crossed the living room to the hallway. It was there that he bumped in to Natasha. Literally, as she was hiding in the shadows of the poorly lit area.
He grabbed her arm, " holy moses, Nat. I'm ninety-six, you can't do that."
He heard her choke, follow by a whimper.
" What did they do to you?!" she cried.
She had been listening the entire time. Without him being aware, she heard Bruce's voice and had stayed hidden in the hallway, assuming that interrupting would end their conversation topic.
" You never told me any of this!" She screamed, " you said that you didn't remember anything!"
Steve firmly held her arms as she threw herself into hysterics- crying to the point where it became difficult for her to breathe.
" Okay, okay." He was trying to counteract her, with a calming tone as always. He was also trying to hold her upright, and she was quickly giving way. " Natasha, it's okay, please don't…"
Natasha gave up the struggle when she began to wheeze, to the extent where it strained the muscles in her chest. Her hands tried covering the tears on her face, " they were trying to hurt you!"
" No ones trying to hurt me now!" he announced the comment as though it were an accomplishment. And for him, maybe it was, but now was not the time to dwell on that.
Steve wrapped his arms tightly around her frame, squeezing as hard as he thought he could, without causing any harm. All the reading on newborn care was taking over his mind, but it seemed to have an affect even if the subject was different.
" I din't want to safe you," his voice was soft as she sobbed into his chest, " I wasn't sure what memories were real and which one were nightmares."
She took comfort, being pinned against his chest and in such an embrace , bust still had sobs strong enough to yank at her vocal cords.
" Steve."
Her fears were seeping in to him. Before she was pregnant, she feared nothing. But now, being responsible for bringing someone into the wold (with someone else), she was long off the edge. But, it wasn't about the unborn child that had been the center of everything since the spring.
And now, it only worried him. But, just as she had been many times before, it was his town to be the firm ground to stand on.
" No ones trying to hurt me. And no ones going to hurt you, or the baby. I promise you that."
" I'm not worried about the baby!" she cried, " I'm worried about YOU!"
" Don't say that." He could teen the panic beginning to nudge it's way in when she began sobbing even harder, " it's okay, it will be okay. Somehow."
She pushed herself with great force, breaking out of the embrace. " How!? How can you promise me something like that!" Her face and eyes were stained red, and still damp. She was both angry and sad and was trying to hide at least one of them. " You can't predict what's going to happen."
" No, I can't predict what will happen to me. But, as long as I'm around, nothing is going to happen as either of you."
Natasha stumbled backwards, hitting the wall before Steve could reach out and stop her. Her hands were shaking as she tried to grab the closest door frame, her chest and stomach heaving.
" We can't even keep ourselves out of trouble!" she hysterically cried, " people like us shouldn't have children! We shouldn't be allowed to bring someone else into this!"
Steve tried to reach for her again. What she said terrified him, but, she was not alone in that thought. It was only a matter of time before one of them went public with that thought.
" I know. But, we can figure it out. Please, calm down, this isn't safe for you. Take some deep breaths."
She shook her head, losing grip with her own reality. " I can't lose you," she gasped.
She spun around into the guest bathroom- having the door slammed shut and locked before he had a chance.
" Natasha! Don't do this!"
The hysterical crying continued, and even without seeing her, he could tell she showed no signs of calming. The same went for letting him inside. He panicked- for her, for the baby. He was also able to hear shuffling around in the cabinet drawers.
His heart stopped. He fiddled wight he door handle, and her cries only became louder. Steve backed away from the door, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He took deep breaths in hopes of controlling the various thoughts that raced through his mind, none of them were related, and most didn't even make sense.
He reached into his pocket for his cell phone, and did something that he never thought he would do in a dire situation. He called Tony.
0000000000
Less than three minutes later, Tony was rushing through the front door of the apartment. He matched the image that he had just been woken up and removed from his bed in such a rush.
" Jesus, Barton can probably hear here wherever he is," was his first comment when hearing the screams and cries once he was inside.
Steve remained flustered, having no idea what needed to be done, which led to calling in the other man for backup. Other than that, he needed something to happen about fifteen minutes ago.
" I know, I know. Bruce was here, and we were talking about that whole prior incident when I was being held captive, and she heard the whole thing. I had no idea!" Steve was shaking as he rambled the details over Natasha's commotion. " And now she locked herself in there, freaking the heck out!"
" I'll say."
" This is so bad!"
Tony ruffled his already messy hair, " and I was in bed by eight." He lifted the small, black case in his hand, " I brought this."
Steve eyed the case and gulped, " are you sure about this? I mean, this can't harm her, right? Or the baby?"
" Nope. Less powerful than an epidural in her spine or anything I have cooked up for Bruce on a bad day. It'll calm her down, possibly knock her out for the rest of the night."
" Are you sure?"
" Convinced. How do you want to do this?"
Steve led him down the hall to the bathroom, where the crying had become louder. " I was thinking I could just…kick in the door, hold her down, and you jab her with the needle?"
Tony evaluated the plan, which was complete with hand gestures from Steve, " yeah, I'm game. Let's do this." After all, the injection was all him as there's no way the captain would have suggested that on his own.
" Natasha, please open the door," Steve gave one final offer, with no response.
He leaned against the door, and with one swift shove, it broke open. Tony was impressed, but kept that to himself or now. He followed Steve, rushing inside, and saw a distraught Natasha, crammed into the corner, brawling. She struggled when Steve pulled her away, despite likely recalling that she and no chance.
He also struggled with handling her. Tony could tell that he was being gentle, even if firm. Steve was trying to calmly talk her down, while unfolding her onto the tile floor. She screamed in response, but it was not something that made much sense. She also took a swing at Steve, with success, but he didn't seem phased by it.
Tony knelt at her side, immediately apologizing for the upcoming events. Steve had her pinned to the floor, a hand firmly placed on the small of her back, the other one on the arm that would be used.
" Nat, I'm so sorry, this is just to make you feel better," Tony said. He unzipped the case and removed the syringe. The case also carried an alcohol wipe, which he was quick to use before injecting the needle.
Steve felt horrific, holding her down against her will, even if she wasn't in the right frame of mind. It was against everything he would have believed on how to treat a woman, or anyone. Not just any woman, the pregnant woman he was in love with none the less. Though that was the reason he was doing this to begin with.
Tony removed the needle, and if on cue, Natasha's tense body began to calm. The screaming stopped. She took a few ragged breaths and slipped into what would hopefully be a restful sleep.
Steve removed his hands from her body, and watched her, overwhelmed with guilt. He believed that he had intentionally harmed her, and Tony noticed.
" Hey, we had to do it," Tony said, " I'm not a doctor, but, this kind of stress isn't safe. You said it yourself."
He kept watching her.
" I know, but it's not like we can do this every time. Something has to be wrong, right? It's like she snapped."
" With what you two have been through, I would be shocked it took this long. Plus, hormones, I hear those are a bitch. Do you need help moving her?"
Steve shook his head, " no, thank you. And thank you for…helping."
Tony leaned forward and slapped his shoulder. " It'll be okay. I know that's cliche, but, there has to be a reason people keep saying it. Right?"