My first thought when Bucky asked me his deadpanned question of whether we were hoping for a boy or a girl was that he was kidding. He had to be joking, right? I mean, he wasn't smiling or jumping up and down - or freaking out - so it was a prank. And the fact that he stopped to take care of his own "business" before coming out, that had to prove that it wasn't positive. I mean, Bucky wouldn't be FLIPPANT about an unexpectant pregnancy.

Then I saw the smile start to creep across his lips, slowly, but soon fully bloomed - until his entire face was just lit up with it. And I realized that he wasn't joking. It wasn't a prank. I was actually pregnant. After knowing him for - I tried to do the mental math, but I wasn't great with doing it in my head and my head was spinning anyway - but we were in love, so did it matter how long we'd known one another?

"Brooke?" Shit, I'd done it again, I'd zoned out. That happy smile, the one that had made Bucky Barnes look like he'd swallowed a glow stick was disappearing because I was caught up in a mental equation for no good fucking reason.

I shook my head and smiled at him. "Aren't we supposed to say 'it doesn't matter as long as they're healthy'?" Biting my lip, his smile returned and he pushed away from his spot by the bathroom and joined me on the bed. His mouth met mine and it really didn't matter how long we'd known one another, or how little time we'd actually been intimate - the test I'd chosen HAD been the one that was supposed to be able to detect the hormones at the earliest possible moment - all that mattered was that this was Bucky and me.

He held me as tenderly and carefully as he had the first time, like I was precious and made of glass. Something I knew would be a new normal for us, because regardless of what I said - or what any doctor would tell him - Bucky would be treating me with kid gloves until the little being that was inside of me came out safe and sound. But first, while he held me gently and stared down into my eyes as if he were seeing me for the very first time - I wondered if maybe our fast paced relationship wasn't how things were supposed to be for us. Maybe we were just supposed to be this way.

"You know I have to get it confirmed, before we tell anyone else," he looked like he both understood and was fit to burst, but I didn't want us to tell everyone only to find out that we got the ONE false positive in the bunch. "I'm not -" my hands went up to cradle his face as carefully as he was holding mine. "I AM happy about this, Bucky, I AM, but I don't want to announce it and be wrong."

"If we are wrong," he swallowed and I held my breath, waiting. "Can we try?"

"Yeah," I surprised myself with the answer, but it felt right. "Yes, we can try." If I wasn't really pregnant, when we got back to Brooklyn and I had my doctor have a once over, then I'd go off my birth control and we'd TRY for real. His smile, the smile that I'd do anything to keep on his face, came back in full force.

"I was planning on waiting -" his eyes seemed like they were flashing. "But waiting with you isn't in the cards, Brooke." Confused, I sat up as he pulled away, wondering what the hell he was doing. He got off the bed and was rifling through his bag - then he was kneeling beside the hotel bed with a tiny black velvet box in his hand. "Spontaneity used to be my strong suit, if you can believe it," I shook my head as my heart hit full speed. "I saw this in the window of a shop on my way back from talking to Yori and -" He stopped talking and opened the box. "Even though I lost something when I confessed to him, Brooke Ashley, I realized that I'd already found so much more with you. A home, a family -" his smile was back and I knew he wasn't JUST talking about me, but included Connie and Bryn - and the rest of my insane group of friends in the mix. "You are every single thing that Steve kept telling me I deserved, Brooke, and you keep telling me it too."

I swear to God I better be pregnant, because I was teary eyed and blinking away the damn things so I could see him.

"Marry me," he grinned, and I bit my lip. "Or Rogers might come back and start busting my chops again." I giggled through my tears, and sobbed, and then said YES, of fucking course I said yes!