Chapter Seven
James Stefanovich Rogers
How do you explain to a child that their mother is never coming home? Steve had lost his mother, but he had been almost fully grown by then. James was still so young, only four years old. At least, he thought as he left the second story flat with the young boy asleep against his shoulder, James had never known his parents up until now. He had been raised by Sharon, safe and well and now, now that Steve had the chance to fix things, to get the wretched stones back to where they belonged, he thought it was time to bring his son home.
He had tried, he had hoped beyond hope that if he could return the soul stone then they might be able to retrieve Natasha. He felt it was the least he could have done, she had gone through an impossible pregnancy with a plan in mind that turned out obsolete. She had lost another family member and barely allowed herself a backward glance to their baby. They had named him but it was at Steve's insistence they honoured Russian tradition with his middle name and with the nickname Yasha. Natasha had tried not to care, although he knew she had.
She had made the ultimate sacrifice, a sacrifice that Steve couldn't think about without feeling cold inside. She was gone, but she had succeeded in what she always planned to do, she had given her life to do the right thing. Now Steve was doing what he knew she would want. She would want him to make it right, to enjoy his life and not become married to the job as she herself had done. There was only one thing, one person that Steve should be married to and that was where he headed now.
James would grow up with a Mom and Dad, he would be as normal a kid as he could be given he was conceived only because of the shield of the Super Soldier Serum. He was special, clever, strong and opinionated so Sharon told him. He was also blonde haired and blue eyed and going to wake up in a place he didn't know, in a time he didn't know but Steve planned to make sure of one thing, one thing he had to know in order to make everything fall into place.
He looked up at the sky, watched lights dance across the darkness amongst the stars. It was cold, he could see his breath and was glad the little boy was wrapped up in a thick blanket. Their little boy would know the one thing so important to every child and the one thing that a young Natasha had never known. He would know he was loved.