Chapter 37 - July 4

Steve's POV

Thump. Thump. Thump. That was all I could hear and all I could focus on, the sound of my fists hitting the punching bag. In the logical corner of my mind, I understood why my team had sent Steph away and respect them for having the guts to do so before it was too late to be safe. But that was just one small corner of my mind. The rest of it was filled with fury and rage at them for sending away my pregnant wife with no protection. Yes, she was a full member of the team. And yes, she was more than capable of taking care of herself.

But there was a part of me, call it primitive, call it old fashioned, call it whatever the fuck you wanted, that could not handle having her be out of range of my protection. Even knowing that she was due back on a particular day and that not hearing from her was a good thing had not helped my state of mind. I'd been given a very similar speech to what I was pretty sure Steph had been given to convince her to go, but no way had I waited to get back until they'd told me I could come back. I'd gone for one week. One week with about six hours of sleep total until I'd set up a dozen safe houses for myself and my family. Then I'd come back to the Tower because if Steph's panic button went off, I was going to be there to bring her home.

During the time between when I'd gotten back and July 4th, I'd had to go out on one Assemble call because we'd needed everyone we'd had. Frankly, the Hulk hadn't done the most damage to that HYDRA facility that day, I had. After that, the team had decided to temporarily remove me from the active duty list if at all possible. So the other two call-outs, which had been relatively minor, I'd stayed and worked the command center.

Oddly, my relationship with Steph's Merry Men had gotten stronger during that time. I was being a bear, I knew it, the team knew it, everyone with any kind of clearance to interact with me on a daily basis knew it. Probably because they didn't have a leg to stand on countering it beyond saying that it was necessary, the team didn't hold it against me when I didn't really want to spend my time with them. Even Bucky let me mope without too much chiding, which I would probably feel bad about later because he'd had to let Darcy off on her own to do the same and Darcy had even less training than Steph in all things covert. But then again, Darcy wasn't pregnant. At least not as far as any of us knew, so Bucky really couldn't relate and he knew it.

The first time I'd been unable to fall asleep for worry about Steph and the babies, I'd gone down to the gym. After about twenty minutes, Woody had shown up, and just set himself up going through a run on the treadmill followed by a lengthy strength training workout. Eventually, Ram had appeared and he and Woody had sparred. Once they finished, Woody left, and Ram went through his workout session. Every night for the past three weeks, if I'd shown up in the gym, at least one of those men had also appeared.

One week in, it had been Ranger's turn, and I'd finally spoken.

"Did Sam put you guys up to this?"

"No. We aren't exactly speaking with your team right now any more than is necessary to do the jobs we were hired to do."

I grunted, but didn't say anything more, and we'd worked out in silence for another hour. When Ranger was done with his sparring session with Tank, he stopped next to the punching bag long enough to say, "Steph would kill us if we let anything happen to you while she was gone." Then he'd just walked out.

Knowing he was right, I'd forced myself to take slightly better care of myself after that. I made sure not to miss meals, and through sheer force of will, I got at least three hours of sleep every night. That was around the time Darcy had reappeared, and it seemed she'd transferred herself from scientist wrangler to Steve wrangler for the remaining two weeks. And no one questioned it. She'd just come by several times a day chattering and making sure I was doing okay by whatever her standards were.

Until July 3rd. Once we'd hit the 24 hour countdown, I set up permanent residence in the gym, and everyone had pretty much let me. I didn't sleep that night, just kept focusing on my bags. Because the moment I stopped, all I could think about was the possibility of Steph not showing up. So I didn't stop until I felt a small hand on my arm.

Looking over I saw Darcy's concerned face.

"Cap, it's 11:30. Get cleaned up for her, please?"

I didn't say anything, just spun on my heel and walked to the staircase. In some sort of trance, I wandered into our suite and made my way into the shower. By the time I finished showering, the bathroom was filled with steam. I grabbed a towel, dried off a little, and stepped out of the shower and froze.

Perched on the counter was Steph, she looked nervous as she licked her lips and said, "sorry, I'm fifteen minutes early, but I just couldn't stay away any longer."

"Oh thank god," I muttered rushing over to her and pulling her into a kiss and wrapping her firmly in my arms. "I missed you so, so much, Steph. So much!" Steph matched the fervor of my kiss for several minutes before upping the heat even more. Somehow, seated on the counter, she was still in complete control, and before I knew it, she had my towel shoved out of the way and I was surrounded by her heat. She didn't last more than a couple of thrusts before orgasming around me and taking me with her.

When we caught our breaths, I stepped back and helped her off the counter so she could clean up. As she did so, I couldn't help but run my arms, and my hands, over her body counting the numerous ways it had changed while she'd been gone.

"Sorry for jumping you like that, but I swear, I woke up three days ago and did not think I was going to make it until today. Somebody somewhere flipped a pregnancy hormone switch and I needed you in a way I never have before. Oh God," she moaned, "I still do."

At that comment, I pulled her up into my arms and carried her back to our bed for the next couple hours. Finally sated, we lay in bed naked. I slid down on the bed to Steph's belly, which while it had just been a hint of a belly before we'd left the Tower, was definitely making its presence known.

"Hi there, babies. I missed you both too; I hope you've been treating Mommy right. I'm so glad to see you growing to big and healthy."

I laid there for a couple minutes more, talking to the twins and stroking Steph's belly while she ran her fingers through my hair until Steph's stomach started grumbling. Chuckling to myself because some things never change, I stood and pulled on some sweats and a tank top. Steph struggled to find clothes that would fit before finally taking a pair of my sweatpants and one of my shirts and pulling them on.

I paused for just a minute and said, "you're okay. Everything was okay?" Her eyes met mine, and I could see the regret at leaving me here to worry, so I dropped a gentle kiss on her lips and said, "it's fine. You needed to do that while you could. I just want to know that you're okay.

"I'm fine, the three of us are fine. We missed you like crazy, though, and we're glad to be home."

"I'm glad you're home."

Steph's POV

Hand-in-hand, Steve and I walked down the stairs to the common floor. I was curious to see how everyone would react and if we'd really pretend that nothing had happened like Maria had said we would. The reality ended up being somewhere in the middle. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, I was greeted by enthusiastic hugs from all. No one asked where I had been, simply said that they were happy to see me and asked how I was feeling. Steve stepped away and grabbed me a granola bar, which I ate quickly while answering their questions.

"I've been feeling generally really good- some trouble sleeping and some forgetfulness, just over the last couple days on that one thankfully. Otherwise, I've been feeling really good, especially this past week."

As I settled into a chair, Bruce wheeled in an ultrasound machine and said, "We have an appointment schedule for you on Monday with your doctor, but if you want, I figured we could take a look since I know everyone was at least a little worried about the two little ones."

I looked over at Steve, not sure if he wanted everyone around for this, and he just looked at me pleading. "Well, since I was instructed not to bring anything back with me, and I have no birthday gift for him, I'll let the Birthday Boy decide."

"Trust me, you coming home was all the birthday gift I need," Steve said with a kiss for me. "But, that being said, if you're okay with it, yes please!"

"Are you wearing Steve's clothes?" Pepper asked while I got comfortable on one of the couches and everyone crowded around.

"Yeah, nothing that is here fits."

"Good thing I made you a special something for the party then," Tony said.

"Party?" I asked.

"Of course! It's Cap's birthday, the country's birthday, and we're the Avengers. There has to be a party or people will talk." Tony said, "And yes, this is a mandatory attendance party. With uniforms for all who have them."

I laughed, "Tony, there is no way my uniform fits right now."

"What did I just say. I made you one that will fit, and believe me, getting that ballistic material with our electricity upgrades to also be stretchy was no easy feat."

"You made me a maternity combat uniform?"

Everyone had kind of turned to gape at Tony. "Well, obviously we don't want you to go into combat if it is avoidable. But people expect us to be in uniform at these events when possible, and I figured, might as well have you in something bulletproof just in case right? Not like you aren't known to draw trouble, and that Mario clown is still out there!"

"Huh, okay. Well if it fits without making me look like a whale, then fine. I don't want pants though, let me tell you, I discovered on my way home today that hauling two babies around in this gross humid heat is not my favorite activity. And I'm not even that big yet!"

I hissed out a breath when Bruce squirted the cold gel on my stomach waving him off when he apologized.

"You guys want to know the genders if possible, right? Otherwise I'll try to avoid certain angles."

I looked over at Steve who said, "yes, please."

Bruce started moving the wand around and JARVIS projected the image on the screen. "Oh, they look like actual babies now!" I cried enthusiastically.

I got several amused looks at that, but I just shrugged because it was true. There was some degree of awe on pretty much everyone's faces as they took in the sight on the screen in front of us. I shifted a little to get more comfortable, and when I did, one of the babies shifted too, which got a lot of smiles.

"Everything looks really good, Steph. Two heartbeats in the perfectly healthy range, they look like they're a good size, nothing to be worried about. And looks like you're getting a little boy and a little girl!"

There was celebrating around me and Steve gave me a hug, but I was just entranced by the image in front of me. When everyone had cheered, both babies shifted awake and then started moving around a lot.

"Can they hear us?" Darcy asked eagerly.

"I'm not an expert on this, but yeah, given Stephanie's due date, they should be able to hear at least loud noises at this point. Actually, I also brought this so Steve could have some fun."

So saying, he handed Steve a flashlight and told him to shine it on one side of my belly. Steve did as instructed and the closest baby kicked at the light, much to our delight.

"Can you feel that?" Bucky asked me.

"Yeah, it was weird when I first started feeling them. I wasn't sure what it was. Once they got coordinated enough to do kicks like that though, it was pretty clear. Still, it's neat to see it at the same time as I'm feeling it."

The other baby seemed to sense that the first wasn't happy when Steve shined the light in the same spot again and got the same reaction, and reached out toward it with it's arms.

"Awwwwww," Pepper cooed out.

"Do it to the other one!" Tony said with glee. Steve chuckled, but did as he was instructed, and we watched as that baby chose to punch at the light rather than kick it.

"That has to be the coolest thing I've ever seen," Darcy said in wonder.

"I'm glad I didn't know about that, or I would have been carrying a flashlight around with me everywhere," I said with a laugh. "Once I realized they were moving, I just did this if I wanted them to move." I poked at my belly, and it had a similar effect.

"Enjoy it while it still feels fun," Bruce said sagely, "when they get stronger, and you know those two will, and you start running out of space in there, my understanding is it gets less fun and a lot more… uncomfortable."

"Party pooper!" I teased, with a smile to let him know I didn't really mind. Then when Bruce handed me a wipe, I cleaned up and smiled out at everyone, "so, when does this party start?"

Apparently the answer was that the party had already started and we were late, so my comment caused quite the scramble. Tony walked to a coat closet and pulled out a couple uniforms for me, telling me which one he thought was going to fit me the best at the moment and handing Steve some extra pairs of boots just in case.

"I'm glad we took some time for ourselves before going downstairs," I told Steve with a smile. "Think you can pencil me in for some more when we get back?"

"Of course, Sweetheart. I'm still not quite over you being gone, so you'll probably be tripping over me at every turn for the near future. At least until you tell me to back off. Even then, I won't be going very far especially before the twins get here."

"A son and a daughter," I said, letting that sink in for the first time. "I know nothing about little boys other than the fact that my friend Mary Lou in Trenton's little boys are hell on wheels and they never stop."

"Good thing we'll have plenty of backup then, huh?" When I got a little off balance, trying to pull on the tight material of the new uniform, Steve stepped over and steadied me.

"You'd think being pregnant would get me out of the spandex," I groaned, but managed to pull it on without too much more difficulty. Steve was standing next to me, in the stars and stripes version of uniform rather than the stealth one, and I checked us out in the mirror. "Is it just me, or am I totally rocking this?"

Steve cleared his throat and adjusted himself before saying, "it's not just you, so let's go. If we stay in here along any longer, I'm going to get seriously side tracked, and someone will come in looking for us."

I walked over to my bedside table and fingered my daggers gently before picking them up and slipping the harness on. Thankfully it just went across my back and over my shoulders, so my increased bust size didn't cause any problems.

"Tell the truth," Steve teased, "what did you miss more, me or those?"

"You, hands down," I said giving him a kiss then pulling him out of the rooms to the stairs and down to the common floor. "But I feel much better having these back, much less vulnerable. Especially since I know I'm starting to slow down a little."

"You know, Stark, if you need another career at some point, you may have a future in maternity design." I said as we reached the bottom of the flight of stairs. As everyone turned to take in the uniform, I did my best attempt of a model walking the runway to the cheers of the team.

"Steph, are you sure you want to wear those shoes?" Bruce asked cautiously.

"I am absolutely certain I do for as long as I reasonably can!" I shot back happily, looking down at my flare boots. "And I'm pretty sure they are like days away from being taboo, so, yes. I will be wearing these today; Steve will make sure I don't fall."

Steve looked like he was thinking about protesting, but when he saw my smile, he just nodded in agreement. For maximum comfort, we were traveling to/from the event in a couple of those SUV limos. As soon as we reached the garage, the Merry Men let up a cheer at seeing me and I was passed around again. When I got to Tank, he let out an exaggerated "oomf" sound as he picked me up and said, "I don't know if I can call you 'Little Girl' anymore, Little Girl."

I punched him in the stomach somewhat playfully, pulling it enough to keep from hurting him, but definitely making sure he felt it. "What was that?" I asked as he straightened back up.

"You look great, Little Girl."

"Damn right I do," I shot back before letting Steve help me into one of the SUVs.

When we arrive at the party, which was located at the American Museum of Natural History, the fervor outside was intense. It was on the same level as our wedding had been, and because it was Steve's birthday and so many of the fans were holding signs wishing him well, we took some time to wander among the fans. Although the day was about patriotism and Steve's birthday, the babies were number one on all of their minds. We received numerous gifts from the fans as we walked through. As the first was handed to me, I wasn't really sure what to do, so I smiled and said thank you as I carefully took it.

"It's fine, just take the gifts, thank the people, and someone from SI will come and pick it up and it will get a full security workup before it is taken into the Tower," Steve whispered softly in my ear.

I did keep hold of a bouquet of flowers one little girl had handed me, unwilling to believe there was anything wrong with it. Over and over, I found myself repeating variations on, "yes, we are very happy, thank you;" "it was a bit of a shock, but we're so excited;" "yes, twins! We are doubly lucky;" and "I feel wonderful, thanks." Eventually someone came up and told us we really needed to move inside, so we did so with endless waves and smiles for the crowd.

Once we stepped inside, things didn't calm down much as the entire entryway had been transformed into a red carpet. We found ourselves posing for pictures together as we walked further along, responding to reporters questions as we went. I saw Jim in the distance, stepping in from outside and smiled at him, taking delight in the friendly wave I received in return.

"There is a party eventually, right?" I whispered to Steve, "With food and the like?"

"Yes, I promise." Steve laughed, then a touch of concern entered his voice as he asked, "Are you hungry?"

"I don't think I've stopped being hungry since the nausea wore off a couple weeks ago," I replied honestly. "I'm pretty sure the babies eat like us."

That got me a chuckle and a comforting rub on the belly that drove the reporters nuts, but Steve managed to move us through the crowd much more quickly after that. Finally reaching the banquet space, we had to then take the time to greet the guests who were between us and our table. When we finally sat down, I saw the empty plates signifying a served meal and who knew when that would start. Steve leaned in to say something comforting, but before he could, a waiter popped up and set a plate of small snacks in front of me. Pepper caught my eye across the way and winked and me, so I smiled my thanks in return.

The rest of the night passed quickly, and when I found myself nodding off, Steve gently guided me out a side exit and we headed home. My first night of sleep back in my husbands arms was, not by coincidence I was sure, the first full night of sleep I got since I'd left him a month before. And when I woke the next morning, I instinctively knew he'd woken hours before, but stayed with me to ensure my comfort as I slept.