"Steve..I…" "What's happening, Cath?" he interrupted "I've been worried sick for the past two hours. You left your phone, you leave with not so much as an explanation…. I don't…" he stopped as he saw he lip quivering and her eyes filling up with tears that have not yet left eyelid. "I'm sorry" she whispered when she pulled him in for a hug, resting her head at his chest, not willing to continue. "I didn't mean to upset you, Steve" she mumbled against his T-Shirt "I just… I needed some time to… to think" "Think about what, Cath? Please stop leaving me in the dark here, how am I supposed to make you feel better when I don't even know what's going on?" he continued sincerely.
"I know, I'm sorry" she repeated as she pulled away from his hug and taking his hand, motioning towards the bed. Catherine sat down slowly as she exhaled, when she noticed Steve still standing "Will you sit down?" she asked softly "I think you need to sit down" she winked at him, trying to lighten the mood a bit. Steve sat down hesitantly, unsure of what she might be keeping.
His mind raced at a hundred miles an hour, going from is-she-leaving-again to does-she-have-another-boyfriend thoughts to the conclusion that she was not done with the CIA at all. Steve was sure that the way she was acting, with not telling him anything at all and storming out of the hotel room, she was getting ready for another job. She surely was talking on the phone with the CIA outside, which is why she left in a hurry and didn't come back. Exhaustion and most of all disappointment were written on his face and he didn't care to hide it. If she was getting ready to leave again, he sure as hell wouldn't let her this time. He was ready for a fight with her.
When Catherine came back and asked him to sit on the bed, he hesitated on purpose. He didn't want to sit down and for her to hold his hand, to tell him that she will always, always love him. He just wasn't ready for a fucked up déjà vu.
Steve looked at her with anger in his eyes, not ready to comply with her request and Catherine could feel it "Steve…please sit down" she pleaded "Why?" he huffed at her "What is it Catherine?" he just about yelled at her. "Steve, I promise you, you wanna sit down for this one" she told him once more with a polite smile on her face, trying to show him that he was serious and that he might wanna consider her offer. "I'd rather stand, thanks" he was annoyed now and wasn't afraid to show it. "So?"
„Promise you won't freak out?" she looked at him with puppy dog eyes but he was not having any of it. If looks could kill Catherine was sure she wouldn't be breathing anymore so she decided to drop it and tell him the reason behind her behavior.
"Listen, Steve… before you and I got together this time I… I just…" she paused for a second to breath in deeply "I just haven't been intimate with anyone for a really long time and um… I guess I just um…" she stumbled on her words and he could feel it, he could feel how nervous she was all of a sudden so he decided to sit down right next to her after all. He reached a hand over to hold hers tightly and gave it a squeeze, asking her to continue "I don't know how to say this, so I'm just gonna blurt it out, kay?" when Steve nodded she geared up all her courage and continued "once we broke up and things with the CIA started getting more complicated and I was involved in so many jobs that I can't even count, I decided to stop um… to stop taking birth control for a while since you know… I didn't have any use for it, if you know what I mean" she winked at him, trying to lighten the mood. Steve didn't answer and he knew there was more to the story than her not having sex with anyone for a while. "I haven't taken it since" she confessed.
After a minute of silence and Steve being confused he finally decided to talk "okay, Cath… I don't understand why you storm out at such a little thing, babe. Am I missing something here?" Catherines shoulders dropped at him calling her babe and she immediately found herself a little more at ease. "Steve…" she exhaled "I cant believe I have to draw this out for you" she said as she raised both her hands up and covered her face in embarrassment "I'm not on birth control anymore, Steve. And we've made love about a dozen times in the past forty-eight hours… un.. uhm..unprotected"
It took a few seconds for the words to fully get to Steve and Catherine could see his face expression change with every second that passed and he realized what she had just told him "Wait, what?" he said with a tone that matched his entirely confused look "Are you… you're pregnant?" he asked hesitantly.
"I mean there's a chance, yeah. I don't know if I am, I haven't taken a test and even if I would, it would be far too soon to tell. You didn't really pay any attention in biology back then, did ya?" she joked, poking her elbow in to his side. "Holy crap, Cath" was all that he could answer, not really in the state of mind to joke with her right now.
"So what you're saying is… you could be pregnant? But you don't know if you are?" he questioned, still unsure if he had heard her correctly just then "mhm" she nodded, unsure of his reaction. "Okay, well… then it's basically like all the other times we've made love before, right?" he concluded and Catherine was silently grateful that he called it "make love" instead of sex, even though she was unsure of where he was headed with his somewhat odd statement. "What do you mean?" "I mean we've done it a million times, Cath. Who's to say that your birth control was even 100% effective? I mean things could've gotten in a different direction ten and fifteen year ago, no?" Catherine nodded, waiting for him to continue "well then that's it then. We wait and we'll see. All in God's timing right?" "All in God's timing" she repeated as she looked in his eyes, holding his hand a little tighter than before "So you're not mad?" "Mad? Why would I be mad, Cath?" he shot her a questioning look "I don't know because this is… soon? I get your theory about how it could've happened a hundred times before but we were also protected then. Like for sure protected… I mean things could have gotten bad nonetheless but this is different, Steve. The chances this time are way higher than all the times before" she said in a low voice, never losing eye contact with him.
Usually Catherine would have been fine with his first answer, but she wasn't sure that he really knew what was at stake here and she didn't want to just brush over this topic in case something really did happen.
"The way I see it, if it were to happen now, and I'm not saying that it will, we are more ready now than ever, right? So let's not panic… yet" he winked and she let out a lough "alright then, daddy" she joked as she tried to get up before Steve got ahold of her "come here" he said as he playfully pushed her on the bed and crawled over her, until his face was right on top of hers and he gave her a passionate kiss on the lips. "Do you wanna… um.. Would you want to up our chances here, Lieutenant?" she looked at him for a few seconds, trying to gather what he had just said before questioning him nonetheless "you serious, Commander?" - he nodded without hesitating. "I would love that" she whispered honestly before she closed the space between them, pulling him closer to her and kissing him deeply. She was definitely ready to up their chances.