'Kay, Lovers, here it is! It's been ready since before I even posted the first one, but I kinda wanted you guys to work for it a bit before giving it to you. A girl needs her ego stroked from time to time, after all XD.
Anyway, without further delay, i present you the second chapter! Hope you enjoy!
The door to the room opens and Natasha looks up from her hands caressing over her belly and fiddling with the twinkling silver rings on her fingers. Bucky, Sam and Helen step out. She tries to stand from the chair she's seated on and both Sam and Bucky are quick to help her. The doctor nods at her and walks away.
"How is he?" She asks, looking between the two of them. Sam is the one to speak.
"He's receptive to all the new information. He isn't closing in on himself or anything like that. And he was already in love with you in 2015, so he isn't in denial over your marriage or anything."
"He did get a shock over the pregnancy thing, though." Adds Bucky. "He said something about not being possible?" Natasha sighs and nods.
"I was sterilized in the Red Room. I told him one night after a nightmare in... July 2015. His last memory is from September, so he would remember it like it was yesterday." She tells them and tries to ignore the shocked looks on their faces. "They obviously did something wrong, or Steve's serum fixed me. We don't know, and we honestly don't care." She strokes her belly and massages her back. God, it hurts! "So... can I go in?"
The boys snap to attention, nodding; and while Bucky helps her walk to the room, Sam opens the door and gives Steve a heads up. But nothing can prepare him for the sight that is Natasha. She's huge, her eight months belly at plain sight with the stretchy tank top and the maternity shorts she's wearing. She's slightly chubby, but that is understandable in a pregnancy; he would've been worried if she'd kept her figure. She looks tired, she has light shadows under her eyes and her hair is a mess. But she has this smile on her face...
Oh my God... she looks so beautiful!
He's silent as Bucky helps her cross the room and sit on the chair at his bedside. His blue eyes are glued to her belly and he has this urge to just touch it... He doesn't realize he's tugging on his bounds until Natasha chuckles, her cheeks going rosy in her mirth. But she doesn't say anything, just presses her finger in the tinny scan at the base of his shackle and it pops open. She takes his hand next, careful of the IV and waits while Sam lowers the security bar of the bed to bring his hand flat to her stomach. He gasps, his eyes wide in awe and he flexes his fingers slightly when the baby inside punches at the palm of his hand. He can see through his peripheral vision that Natasha is shooing Sam and Bucky out of the room, but he couldn't care less. He has made a baby, a son or a daughter, and he honestly doesn't care which one. He has a baby with Natasha, the woman he's been steadily falling in love for the last year, at least from his perspective. He's sure he's fallen even more and more deeply in the five years he's lost.
"Hey..." a small hand covers his own and he looks up to glassy green eyes and that crooked smile he loves. "We'll get your memory back, ok? Don't worry." She moves his hand to the spot the baby is kicking and relishes in the way his eyes light up in wonder.
"When are you due?" He whispers and moves his hand over her stomach, caressing it and searching for their baby's movements.
"Two weeks and four days."
"That's pretty accurate..." she laughs and pats his wandering hand, moving it where she can feel the baby.
"That's because we told the doc the exact day he was conceived." She tells him and laughs when he blushes. He looks down again and splays his fingers so hers fall in between.
"He... we have a son..." she hums in agreement.
"James Clinton Rogers Romanov, James Rogers for short." He looks up, his eyes full of emotions and Natasha bends to kiss him on the forehead. She's dying to kiss him properly, but the poor man has already been through too much today.
"I'm so sorry I can't remember anything," he whispers and Natasha moves away, her green eyes locking with his glassy blue ones. "I'm sorry I can't remember us." She shushes him, cradling his cheek with one hand and caressing his, still on her stomach, with the other.
"We'll get through this, Steve. Together, like always."
"Together…"
She leaves soon after, with Steve's prompting, to eat and get some rest. Even without his memories, he still looks out for her. He doesn't need to, she can take care of herself and he knows that, but that doesn't stop him from worrying or as Bucky says: fretting.
Both Bucky and Sam are waiting for her outside of the room, talking in hushed whispers while Sam fiddles with Bucky's metal fingers. When they see her walk out, they jump at her and help her to the elevator and then to her wing. They sit her on the couch as Sam makes them a light meal, or as light as you can make to a pregnant woman. When they finish she urges them to leave, but they are reluctant.
"Guys, I swear! I'm ok and if not, I'll tell ECHO. There's still two weeks until James comes and there's no indication that he'll decide to come early. I'm just going to get some rest." They're still uncertain, reluctant to leave her alone. She sighs. "Ok, you can bring me either Wanda if she isn't with Vision or Peter if he isn't studying, but neither of you are staying here, I know you had plans for tonight." They share a look and finally concede to her wishes.
As soon as the elevator's doors close behind them, Natasha lets the exhaustion of the day show on her face. The nap she'd taken had helped but not by much, much to her chagrin. She wobbles to her couch and sits slowly, rubbing her hand over her bell when the baby gives her a rather forceful kick. She adjusts her position until both she and little James are comfortable and grabs the book she's currently reading. Turns out that being with child wasn't compatible with fieldwork and as soon as Fury had caught wind of the pregnancy, he'd taken her out and restricted Steve to local missions only. As soon as the baby was born, Steve would be out too and they wouldn't return to the field until James was at least crawling. And they still would be restricted to local missions if they wanted to keep working as a team; if not, one would be on the field and the other at home with the child.
If she was honest, the new clause in the SHIELD employment contract annoyed her to some extent, even if it pleased her greatly. She was a person of action, and so was Steve; being restricted wasn't something she was used to. Hopefully taking care of James would be as tiring as it was rewarding. She smiles at the thought; she has no doubt that it will be an amazing experience.
The elevator dings, announcing the arrival of her babysitter of the night. She looks up and smiles when she sees Peter Parker walking towards her with his backpack on his back and a big grin on his face. The kid had really grown on her since Stark brought him along and although she'd been reluctant to have a teenager in the Avengers, Peter was a force to recon with if he set his mind into it.
"Hey, Aunt Nat! Bucky and Sam send me to keep you some company!" he informs her, dropping his back on the couch and bending over the back of it to press a kiss to her cheek and give her stomach a brotherly pat. She loves that he's taken to call her and Steve aunt and uncle, it makes her feel as if she's making some good on the kid, just like with the Barton children.
"In other words: you're on babysitting duty." He snorts and jumps over the sofa to sit next to her.
"So, what do you want to do? Watch a movie or would you prefer to continue reading?" she smiles at his enquiry, happy to see how perceptive he is in spite of spending so much time with Tony Stark.
"I'll just read for a bit and then I'll go to bed." She tells him and he nods.
"I figured as much if you kicked Sam and Bucky out." She chuckles and he grins. "Don't worry, I have some homework to finish and an essay to start. I came prepared. Oh, before you loose yourself in there, I brought you something!" he opens his bag pack and ruffles inside, taking out what she presumes is his homework –Spanish and Math, by the looks of it– before taking out a package and passing it to her. "I wanted to get you guys something, but I couldn't find it anywhere so I had to make it myself." He smiles sheepishly and rubs his nape, a habit he's picked up from Steve.
She takes the package with a smile and waits until Peter turns back to her to open it. When she does, she can barely contain her gasp. The fist thing that she sees is a big, grey hoodie with a merge of her and Steve's insignia, his shield but with a hourglass instead of a star in the middle. She takes it out and shakes it; it clearly is Steve's size. She sets it aside and moves to the next item, a light blue t-shirt with the same logo, this time her size, pre-pregnancy. She caresses the image, noting how it's painted instead of just printed over the fabric, making it more durable. The next items are two identical t-shirts, Steve's size again, with the same color as hers. She frowns.
"How come Steve gets two and I just one?" she pouts at the teen and he just grins at her.
"That's 'cause one's for you! I know that you like wearing his clothes, so I made two of his size so you could have it." He looks absolutely proud of himself and her affection for the teen grows even more. She chuckles and ruffles his hair, making him blush and his eyes sparkle in happiness. "Don't stop! There's one thing more!"
She smiles at him one last time before grabbing the last articles of clothing and taking them out. Her eyes water instantly. Baby bodysuits, ten of them and in five different sizes so James can wear them as he grows. Half of them are a light grey and the other half in blue, the same colors as the hoodie and the shirts and, of course, with the merge of his parents insignias in the center.
"Oh, Peter…" she whispers, caressing the soft cloth between her fingers. God, he'd even searched for a soft fabric that he'd know she'd like.
"Do you like it?" his voice is eager and slightly nervous, shy even. She turns to him after depositing the clothes back into the package and hugs him tight.
"I love it. Thank you, Pete." She moves away and kisses him on the forehead. He grins and returns the kiss on her cheek. He separates completely before grinning cheekily at her.
"Awesome! 'Cause I have another set of bodysuits but with a spider behind it and a shirt for me." He says, his nose high in the air. " That way Big Bro Pete and Baby James will match on their strolls around the park." She full out laughs and he laughs along with her.
"You are incorrigible, Peter. How much did you spend on this?" he cringes and looks away. "Peter…"
"Not much!" he reacts quickly at her tone, waving his hands in a crossing motion. She arches a brow and crosses her arms over her belly. James pats her from inside as if trying to calm her. Peter sighs in defeat and flinches away from her. "All my savings from last year."
"What?!" he curls away from her wrath and peeks at her only to look away quickly. She's seething! "All your savings from a year in clothes?! Peter, I thought May taught you the value of money! You've done just like Stark!"
James protests to the screaming with a hard kick to her ribs that leaves her gasping and taking a hand to clutch at her belly. Peter forgets about his fear in a heartbeat and is instantly kneeling at her feet, frantically asking what's wrong and what he can do to help. He runs his hands over her stomach, trying to calm the hyperactive child while Natasha gets her breathing under control.
"I'm so sorry, Aunt Nat! I just wanted to do something nice for you guys! You've been so stressed this last few weeks! I even saw Uncle Steve running twice his usual distance in the same time last week." He's babbling, he knows, but he can't seem to stop. His hands are now just resting over her stomach, feeling James tap lightly at his palm. "I just thought you'd like a little surprise… I don't care if I can't go out for a few months or I can't buy the new videogame with Ned, I promise!"
She looks up at his earnest eyes, still carrying a spark of fear; of her or for her she doesn't know. Maybe both. She sighs in defeat and rests a hand over his moving it over where she can feel her baby tapping away against her.
"You're so lucky I'm hormonal right now, because I would've skinned you if I was in my right mind." Peter gifts her a tinny smile and relaxes slightly. "But if you pull something like this again you're grounded." He giggles and she caves, chuckling with him and ruffling his hair.
"Duly noted."
He gets up then to grab the clothes and throw them in the hamper, informing Natasha that they need a washing before they can be used. Something about washing away residual chemicals from the fabric. By the time he gets back, Natasha is already immersed in her book so he walks quietly to the other side of the couch and starts with his homework. He's done with Maths in less than ten minutes and he immediately passes on to Spanish. He's left staring at the exercises with a blank expression until Natasha speaks.
"Trouble, Parker?" she has a barely concealed amused tilt to her voice that irritates and reassures him at the same time.
"Um… yes, actually. What's the Spanish word for left?"
"In what concept?"
"'I left the bags at the store'"
"It's dejé."
"Yo dejé las bolsas en la tienda?"
"Almost. Without the yo. They don't need repeat the pronoun in each sentence. The verb tells them the number and person: I left, you left and yo dejé y tú dejaste. See the difference? The way you said it wasn't incorrect, but it's better they way I'm telling you." Peter hums in acknowledgement and corrects his slight mistake.
"So if I say 'You have to finish your homework', the correct way to translate it is 'Tienes que acabar los deberes'?" when she smiles proudly, he knows he's said it right.
"Atta boy, Peter! Keep going, you've got it." She closes the book and gets up slowly. "I'm going to bed now, ok? Feel free to use the guest room if you're feeling too lazy to go to Stark's wing." She bends to him, kisses his forehead and wobbles down the hall and into her room. She changes into Steve's Dodgers shirt –Peter was right, she really does love to wear his clothes– and tucks the dog tags back into the shirt. She lays slowly, moving until she finds a position comfortable for both of them and after a few minutes of imagining the feeling of her husband's warm hands on her stomach she succumbs to sleep.
I know, I know, not much romanogers yet, but I promise that there's more in the next chapter. I'm also pleased to inform that the next chapter of Back in Time is almost finished already so if you haven't read it yet, I suggest you do. I've heard is pretty good XDXDXD. Btw, yes, the logo in the clothes is the one from the story poster XD. I'm gonna post it in my Tumblr account in a few if you want it.
PS: I would also appreciate more of your ego stroking, it helps me write if I know that someone is waiting impatiently for the next chapter. Don't pressure me, though XD. Be good with me, cause I'm kinda slow and I get Author's Block an awful lot.
Anyway, love you and TTYL, Lovers!