"Good morning Commander" Catherine smiled as Steve entered the kitchen while she was preparing breakfast.

"Pancakes?" he asked "mhm" she nodded "craving" she explained rolling her eyes. Steve chuckled and gave her a quick peck on the lips.

Catherine was usually one that went for a more healthy choice of breakfast, "I thought you were gonna 'make us some eggs'?" he asked, mocking her exact voice from earlier.

"Well, your son wanted pancakes with lots of syrup this morning... what can I say" she winked at him as she sat his plate on the counter.

"I'm glad our daughter already knows what she wants" he answered as he grabbed the plate, not waiting for her reply with a smirk on his face.

"You wanna eat outside?" "Yes please" she smiled at him as she followed his lead to the outdoor.

Catherine was a bit confused that Steve didn't stop to put their plates down at the table they had outisde but rather made his way to the beach.

"Where are you going?" she asked a bit confused as there was no table down there where they could comfortably eat.

"What do you mean? We're having breakfast at the beach, come on" he stated, not turning around to look at her.

It was then when Catherine realized that he had a blanket under his right arm the entire time. She wasn't sure when or how he grabbed it, but she was glad he did.

Steve was never one for big gestures or lots of romance, he liked things simple and let his actions speak louder than his words. He was gentle and loving and the way he had treated her since the first time they had spoken had always let Catherine know just how much he cared for her.

Catherine didn't mind romance at all - she liked flowers as much as the next girl, she liked her candle light dinners and those romantic movies that made her cry, like the notebook.

However, she had come to love Steve's little day-to-day actions that she knew were his way to say 'I love you'. She could count the occasions where Steve was being hopelessly romantic on one hand in the twenty years that they had known each other, but this only made her appreciate them and him even more.

Anything he did she knew he meant it. And she admired that about him.

So this little out-of-the-ordinary picnic was just enough to make her heart burst. It was the smallest gestures that he didn't think much of, that made her love him even more.

Steve sat the plates down on the wooden chairs as he spread the big blanket in the sand and reached a hand out to Catherine as he finished.

"Here let me help you, young lady" he smiled, "Well, thank you, Commander. Such a gentleman" she continued, as she placed her hand in to his and slowly lowered to the ground and on to the blanket.

"Getting down is getting harder by the minute" she chuckled as she cleary struggled to reach the ground. Steve couldn't help but laugh at her.

"Hey! You have no right to laugh at me, you're the one who's responsible for this!" she pouted.

"I'm sorry, what now?" he continued laughing "I'm responsible?" he mocked "you seduced me!" he joked as he also got down on the blanket to lay right next to her.

Catherine let out a loud laugh "Well I'm not as irresistable now, am I?" she stated as she rubbed her belly that has grown quite a bit over the past months.

"What? You're even sexier now, Lieutenant" he winked as he leaned over and gave her another quick peck on the lips. "Yea right" she stated bluntly, as she had not felt very sexy these past couple of weeks as her baby bump got even more visible.

"I'm serious, Cath" he said as he locked eyes with her, underlining just how serious he was.

"Thank you" she smiled at him sincerely as she dug her fork in the pancakes.

"Mhhhhh, sooo good" she stated with her eyes closed. "Your son is gonna make me put on a few pounds" she chuckled as she opened her eyes and looked back into Steve's that were now filled with tears that were on the edge of falling.

He had never stopped looking at her.

"Steve... I'm sure I'll drop them with breastfeeding and everything" she laughed, trying to brush it off. She knew very well he wasn't on the verge of tears because of her weight gaining comment but whatever it was, she wasn't sure she was ready to hear it.

After all, Steve rarely ever cried and she could feel that he was tense which meant this was probably something he had trouble with saying out loud - and that was barely ever a good sign.

"Cath..." he started, already choking on his words "I uhm..." he exhaled slowly. "Shit" he mumbled, this was not how he had planned this.

"Do you have any idea how much I love you?" he asked. Good he though. Starting with the obvious to ease in to this.

Catherine looked at him, not sure she wanted him to continue but slowly nodded.

"Good" he smiled, reaching over to hold her hand. "Because I do. And it might've taken me a while to say it and I still don't say it enough, but I hope you know that I do. I always have and I always will. You know for my entire life I thought 'always' was such a dumb word - I mean like how can you say a word that goes in such length, when no one know what the future holds? And we don't get to decide on always. We don't get life on our terms. We get life on life's terms... or not at all." he exhaled once more before he continued and locked eyes with her "But I promise you, Catherine, I am going to love you always. Because I have tried to fight it, and I've tried to deny it,... and uhm... "

They both started laughing with teary eyes, knowing very well just how much he had tried to deny the fact that she was his girlfriend or god forbid that he loved her.

"What I'm trying to say is" he smirked "I have loved you for as long as I have known you, Cath. And I promise you, I promise that if I know one thing, it's that I'm going to keep loving you for as long as I'm breathing" he smiled nervously at her reaction.

Catherine wasn't sure where he was going with this but she couldn't hold the tears through any part of his speech. She shook her head in disbelief, unable to say anything back right then.

Steve got up, reached a hand out to her and silently asked her to get up. Just as she did, she exahaled once more to keep his tears from falling before he bend down on one knee, never losing the sight of her eyes, as he pulled out a small, delicate brown box.

Catherine covered her mouth, that was now hanging wide open, with her right hand, while her left one never let go of Steve's.

"Catherine Jane Rollins..." he smiled from ear to ear, tears now rolling down his cheeks as well "Will you marry me?"

"Oh my God" Catherine whispered, heart racing at a hundred miles an hour,

"Yes" she stated, "Yes!" it was as if reality hit her just then "Oh my God YES!" she yelled, beaming with the biggest smile Steve had ever seen on anyone's face.

Steve got up and swept her off her feet, kissing him between laughs and tears. It was as if the world around them stopped spinning.

Steve had never been happier.

"I love you so much" he whispered as he gave her a long, passionate kiss on the lips.

"I love you too, Sailor. So much." she smiled, returning his kiss even deeper.

Catherine had never been happier.

Author's note:

There it is, folks! Please let me know what you thought of the proposal! Here's a few of my thoughts

I read in a fic a long, long time ago that someone gave Cath Jane as a middle name and I absolutely fell in love with it. Disney Fan and obsessed with Tarzan right here! Haha

I always pictured Steve's proposal to be simple but huge with words, ya know? And for him to make it special in his way by saying things he'd usually never say out loud

I would love to read you feedback on this

We're looking at about two to three more chapters here! I'd love to know what you would like to see happening. I have a pretty clear picture of what the birth is gonna be like in my head but any input is very welcome!