The Ordinary Days
A/N: At last, here's the conclusion of the story! Thank you for your patience as I wanted to take the time to make sure these last couple chapters were right. I am so appreciative of the response I've gotten over these many chapters; everyone has been so kind by leaving reviews, kudos, and follows/favorites and it really means a lot to me.
Also don't forget to check out the epilogue which will be posted immediately after I post this chapter! :)
WARNINGS: Some physical violence occurs but it's not super graphic other than mentions of blood. Peggy's assault is brought up in the line that starts "'I forgot how cowardly you are,' goaded Steve scathingly…" but it's a very brief mention.
Chapter Eighteen
Much to everyone's relief, the intense blizzard finally died down enough for Dr. Roberts to drive out to the farm the next morning. He carefully examined Peggy and the baby and determined them both to be healthy.
"You did a good job, Steve," he praised as he clapped a hand on Steve's shoulder while they both walked down the porch steps out to his car. "Maybe you should come down to the hospital every once in a while to help with some of the deliveries."
Steve laughed wryly. "One time is enough for me, Doc."
"Just make sure they both get plenty of rest and telephone right away if anything happens."
"I will. Thank you."
Steve made his way back to the living room where both Peggy and the baby were currently resting. He was surprised to see Bucky standing next to the sofa holding the newborn in his arms and rocking him gently back and forth.
"Uncle Bucky wanted a turn with the baby," explained Peggy with a grin which made Steve chuckle.
"I really hope 'Uncle Bucky' doesn't stick."
"Too late, pal," chimed in said uncle, "I'll only be known as 'Uncle Bucky' from now on, and nothing else."
Peggy giggled as she extended her arms out to take the baby back and Bucky obliged. The baby squirmed a little in his mother's arms then calmed as she shushed him gently.
"You're a natural, Peggy," remarked Bucky, which made her beam.
"Oh, it's easy now; but wait until he wakes me up at three in the morning after days of sleep deprivation."
"That's what I'm here for," Steve declared indignantly as he sat on the end of the sofa next to Peggy. "To take the baby when you're on the brink of insanity."
Peggy smiled, but then it faltered. "I just hope we don't lose him before then."
Steve and Bucky exchanged a look.
"I won't let anything happen to either of–"
"I know, Steve," interrupted Peggy. "I know. I just…It would be foolish to think we're safe until we're certain Jack can't get to the baby."
"I'll watch over you while you're resting," Steve promised. "I won't let you out of my sight when you're asleep."
"We can take shifts," suggested Bucky, nodding. "I'll stay up for half the night and Steve the other half so you can get some sleep."
"And if Jack does come? Will you two just fight him off and hope for the best?"
"Hey, it would be two versus one," Bucky pointed out. "If we had no other choice, I believe Steve and I could overpower him."
Peggy cradled the baby a little closer to her at the thought.
"We'll keep you safe, little one," she whispered as she kissed the top of his soft head.
The baby spent the day sleeping on and off but occasionally woke up with a wailing cry that pierced everyone's eardrums. Steve did his best to cradle him so he would calm down and let Peggy rest, but when he couldn't he took the baby to her so she could nurse him.
As twilight fell, Steve carefully laid down the soothed newborn into his bassinet which they had moved from the nursery upstairs to the living room. The bassinet sat next to Peggy, who was too tired to make the trek to her bed upstairs, to which Steve had no objection. He was happy to let her rest anywhere; plus, having everyone together in one room made it easier to keep an eye on them.
Bucky sat in an armchair in the corner reading a novel while Steve went to the kitchen to make everyone a simple meal. While he was cooking, Steve could hear the wind picking up outside and it started to snow heavily. He was thankful that the doctor had come when he did because it seemed like the blizzard was starting up again.
After supper, Steve decided he would take the first shift and sent Bucky upstairs to the guest room to get some sleep. He glanced around the room for a moment and felt a slight sense of peace when he saw Peggy and the baby both sleeping soundly, but the feeling evaporated when he remembered he needed to stay up for half the night and keep watch in case Jack decided to lurk around the house.
Realizing Bucky had the right idea earlier, Steve perused the bookshelf in the living room to find something to read. He was currently skimming over the titles he was unfamiliar with when he heard a sudden commotion outside.
Steve froze and listened: it sounded like the animals out in the barn were stirred up about something. He could faintly hear them neighing and mooing restlessly over the sound of the whistling wind.
He worried they had become panicked by the storm so he rushed over to the window and drew back the curtains, squinting to look out to the barn which was hard to see due to the fast-falling snow. But he unmistakably saw what he was dreading: the barn doors had broken open which meant the animals had the opportunity to escape into the blizzard.
Steve heard the sound of footsteps behind him and turned to see Bucky descending the staircase.
"Do you hear that outside?" whispered Bucky as he looked at Steve worriedly. "Is it the animals?"
"The barn door broke loose. I have to go out there and make sure the animals don't escape."
"Let me go out there with you–"
"No," Steve interjected firmly as he pulled on his boots. "Stay with Peggy and the baby. I can take care of it."
Without letting Bucky get in another word edgewise, Steve pulled on his heavy coat and headed out into the freezing snowstorm. He bounded through the snow as quickly as he could to the barn and as he approached the open doors, he nearly got trampled by Penny, who bolted out of the door and started galloping away. Steve grabbed a rope that was hanging on the wall inside the barn and ran outside after Penny, who was trotting around the yard in frantic circles because she couldn't see in the heavy snowstorm.
Steve struggled to catch her but after several failed attempts, he finally got the lasso around the horse's neck. He guided her carefully back into the barn but just as they approached the open door, one of the cows pushed past them into the storm, making Steve fall into the snow and drop the rope. Penny took off with the cow further into the storm and Steve cursed under his breath.
He got up and squinted in the darkness. The snow made it harder to see even with his superior vision, but after a moment he spotted the animals heading down the dirt road.
"Steve!"
Steve turned and saw Bucky bounding up to him, struggling in the foot-deep snow.
"I told you to stay inside, Buck!" shouted Steve through the whistling wind.
"Yeah, well, I saw you struggling out here and thought you could use a hand! You can't catch them both by yourself."
Hesitating, Steve cursed yet again and motioned for his friend to follow him. They both clamored down the road to catch up with the animals which they spotted not far from the house.
Thankfully, with two of them, it was easier to catch them and lead them back into the barn. He ushered Penny and the cow inside and made sure all the animals' stalls were securely locked before he and Bucky slammed the heavy barn doors shut.
Steve reached for the padlock but suddenly froze when he looked at it: the top and front of it looked like it had been smashed by something. Perhaps with a blunt object, Steve wasn't sure; but whatever it was, it was clear that it did not simply break apart from the storm.
That means someone did this on purpose…most likely to draw him out of the house, Steve realized.
Panic coursed through him as he showed the damaged lock to his friend, who understood what had happened with wide eyes.
"Bucky, go around to the back door," he said in a low voice, and Bucky nodded. "I'll go in through the front."
Steve raced as quickly as he could in the white haze to the front door while Bucky circled around to the back. He tore open the front door and his blood ran cold when he heard the baby wailing.
Steve's eyes narrowed when he saw Jack Thompson in his living room, holding his child, while Peggy laid on the sofa behind him with tears in her widened eyes.
"You must be Peggy's husband," remarked Jack snarkily. "You are most definitely not the father of this child, though, which is why I'll be taking him with me now."
"Over my dead body," Steve replied threateningly, approaching them slowly. "Put the baby down, Jack."
Jack scoffed. "The baby is my biological child and I know you know it. I will fight you in court over it, so why not just let me take him right now and save us all the heartache of a legal battle?"
"You won't win if there's a court battle. You have no credible proof the baby is yours, other than a copy of a letter that you illegally stole. It would be me and Peggy's word against yours, and as its mother, Peggy would get the final say over custody. And I know you know that."
Steve noticed a slight hesitation in Jack's face as he appeared to be thinking.
"If what you're saying is true," he sneered while the baby in his arms fussed, "and that's a big 'if,' then what would stop me from taking the baby right now and moving to a new town to start a new life together? I could start fresh, claim the baby's mother died in childbirth, and give myself a new name so you'd never find me. Isn't that what you were going to do anyway? Lie to everyone about who you are in relation to the child?"
Steve snorted. "You seem to think you would be able to get away with leaving this house with the baby by your own volition. That's not going to happen."
Steve glanced through the doorway that led to the kitchen and saw Bucky out of the corner of his eye, silently opening and closing the back door. Bucky crept away toward the hallway which connected to the living room from the other side. Steve knew they had their chance with Bucky being able to sneak up on Jack from behind, but he was worried because Jack still had the baby in his arms.
He locked eyes with Peggy who was staring back at him with fear, but he tried to nod subtly to reassure her.
"I don't want the baby to get hurt," said Steve in a calmer tone to get Jack to listen to reason. "Just put the baby down and we can settle this between the two of us."
"Do you think I'm stupid?" he scoffed. "Me holding this baby is the only way you don't lunge at me and beat me into a pulp. You're going to let me leave with him or else risk hurting him."
"I forgot how cowardly you are," goaded Steve scathingly, trying to keep Jack distracted while he watched Bucky silently sneak behind him. "First you overpower a woman while she's drunk because you knew she wouldn't have wanted you if she were sober, then you use a newborn baby to hide behind while you kidnap him. You don't have the guts to fight me man-to-man."
"I'm not playing your game," he responded angrily while the baby continued to wail even louder. Bucky was right behind them.
"Admit it, Jack, you're a coward and you'd never be fit to take care of a child. You can't even get him to stop crying."
Jack's eyes shot daggers into Steve's but there was something desperate in them. The baby's cries reached a fever pitch and Steve could tell Jack was on the brink of panic.
In the split second when Jack looked down at the screaming baby to readjust the position in his arms, Steve made eye contact with Bucky for a brief moment and they both suddenly lunged forward. Peggy screamed as Bucky grabbed Jack around the middle and Steve tore the baby from Jack's arms while he was caught off-guard. Bucky struggled for a moment while Jack tried to pull him off and the two men tumbled to the floor.
Steve crossed the room to place the baby safely in Peggy's arms and then turned to stand his ground between them and Jack, who pushed himself up off the floor.
Panting, Jack tried to lunge forward at Steve but Bucky grabbed him from behind again and Steve swung, punching him across the face. Jack staggered for a minute but then elbowed Bucky, who got the wind knocked out of him and released his grip. Jack tried to take a swing at Steve but his quick reflexes made him duck while still holding his ground. Steve stood up straight and decked Jack again, sending him down to the floor.
With a quick swing of his legs, Jack hooked Steve's ankle and sent him crashing to the floor next to him. Jack tried to overpower Steve by getting on top of him and holding his arms down, but Steve's strength proved to be greater and he rolled the two of them over so he pinned Jack to the ground. Jack tried to weakly push Steve off of him but another blow to the head by Steve made him delirious.
Knowing Jack was truly overpowered, Steve landed several more blows to the man's face, taking out all the rage and sadness and resentment he felt on this villain who had so deplorably caused so much anguish for him and his family.
"P-please…" implored Jack between blows, nose bloody and eyelids beginning to swell. "Please…s-stop…"
Steve roughly grabbed Jack by the collar of his shirt and pulled his bloodied head up to his so they were eye to eye.
"You will never harass me, my wife, or my son ever again," he said darkly through gritted teeth. "If I so much as see you anywhere near our home or in Denver, I will finish what I could have finished today. You're lucky I'm sparing your life, but don't count on me being this generous a second time."
Without another word, Steve pulled him up by his shirt collar and dragged him to the front door. He took him all the way to the porch stairs and threw him unceremoniously into the snow. Steve did not bother taking one last look at the man before going back inside and shutting the door behind him, locking it securely.
He rushed back to Peggy and the baby, who were both crying.
"Are you alright? Is the baby okay?" he asked hastily as he sat down next to Peggy to examine them both.
"I-I'm fine," stammered Peggy as she took a deep breath. "We're both fine."
Steve breathed a sigh of relief and glanced up at his friend.
"You okay too, Buck?"
"Lovely, thanks for asking," he said as he rubbed ruefully at his ribs. "Nothing a bit of ice won't fix. Now, I believe it is the perfect time to make sure the punching bag outside doesn't get too far before we call the police. Is that rope still out in the barn, Steve?"
"It surely is."
Bucky left to find the rope outside and shut the front door behind him.
Steve gently brushed Peggy's tears off of her cheeks and she smiled, holding the baby close to her chest.
"Thank you," she breathed. "Thank you for keeping both of us safe."
"I promised you I would, didn't I? And a gentleman never breaks a promise."
Peggy gazed deeply into his eyes. "I seem to remember you saying those words some time ago."
"You mean when I found out about the baby and you thought I would leave you? Do you have any doubts now?"
"Never," she replied as Steve leaned forward to kiss her on the forehead. "You know, we really need to name him so we stop calling him 'the baby.'"
"I actually had an idea about that…what if we named him Michael?"
Peggy thought about it for a moment, a new tear threatening to slip down her cheek, but then smiled. "I…I would like that very much."
"It's settled then," decided Steve with a grin as he leaned down to press a kiss to Michael's head.
"Michael Steven," declared Peggy as Steve gave her a questioning look. "So he'll always know who his real father is."
Steve blinked once or twice and then a meek smile came onto his lips. "Okay."
"Hi, baby Michael," cooed Peggy. "Your mama and daddy are here to keep you safe."
The couple looked down at Michael wordlessly, neither one wanting to break the stillness of the moment of holding each other while their tiny son stared up at them with warm brown eyes. They could finally breathe now that the threat was gone – no more worrying, no more stress that these precious moments would be taken from them. The falling snow outside cast a silence over the house, and the silence was peaceful, and the promise of peaceful days was enough to bring them through the turbulent ones in their many days ahead together as a family.