Hey all sorry for the delay. the beginning of the quarter had been hectic and I've been dealing with some scheduling conflicts. I know the last chapter was really short and for that I apologize. I also wanted to tell you all I was considering starting another story but am not sure If I should. Any way that's enough of me going on tangents. Here's the next chapter. Just a heads up there's a paragraph of smut. It's pretty short so if you don't want to read it feel free to skip it. I would like to remind you all to please read and review. I love reading your comments. they make my day. So here it is. Enjoy!
The past few weeks have flown by quicker than I thought they would. I started training with Peggy after the first official team meeting. Bucky and Steve started working out at the boxing gym close to the apartment. Things between the three of us have been good. There had been a lot of cuddling and the occasional make out session. Our communication had gotten better. Things were good.
We were a few days away from leaving and Christmas was a week away. I didn't think much about that. The holidays were one of the few times a year I got to see dad. Just thinking about that made me sad. Gramps being as perceptive as ever noticed. I was in the lab listening to Gramps talk about some party he was planning when I started thinking about how Dad and I spent last Christmas. I decorated the entire house in red and gold ornaments. Dad got a kick out of the Iron Man tree topper I made. I dressed Axl in reindeer antlers and a Christmas sweater I managed to wrestle him into. Just thinking about it made my eyes water.
"Kid you all right?" Gramps asked looking concerned.
"Uh, yeah sorry, what were you saying?" I said trying to distract myself.
"You look like you're about to cry. What's going on?"
"I'm fine just thinking about the holidays makes me a bit homesick." I say.
"What do you normally do for Christmas?" He asks.
"Christmas is one of the few times of the year I do get to see my dad. We normally just stay home. We watch movies, build stuff in the garage, talk, play board games, open presents. Dad tries to make eggnog from scratch but gives up so we just drink hot chocolate. I make dinner. Debate whether The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Christmas movie or a Halloween movie. It doesn't sound like much but…"
"I get it, it doesn't matter what you did as long as you two spent it together." He says looking like he's remembering something.
"Exactly. And me celebrating without him just feels… strange. And I know it doesn't matter. Its not like I'm going to get to celebrate it any way. We leave in three days."
"Kid it's okay to say you miss him." Gramps says.
"I know." I say quietly.
"What's he like?" Gramps asks.
"Gramps, I can't tell you that." I say. I can't tell him that almost twenty years after his death dad still resents him.
"Nora, I'm not telling you to tell me specific events or dates. Just tell me about him. His personality."
"He's essentially a futuristic version of you. The looks, the snark, life of the party. Stubborn as hell. Loyal to a fault. Both have the same love'm before you leave'm perspective on relationships."
"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." Gramps says.
"It really doesn't. That's not necessarily a bad thing you know."
"If you say he has my looks then I know it's not." He says oh so humbly. "When should I expect to meet him?"
"Can't tell you."
"Nora it's a simple insignificant peek at my future." He says.
"Gramps, that's my dad you're talking about." I say giving him a glare.
"I didn't mean it like that." He says trying to make me feel better.
"I'm going to explain it to you the same way I learned it, People assume that time is a straight progression of cause to effect but in reality it's a nonlinear, nonsubjective big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff. Or in scientific terms time is not a straight line it is a bunch of seemingly unrelated events that are connected to one thing or another. If you change one thing you change them all." I say quoting my grandfather to my grandfather. Which I now know wasn't originally from him but me and my favorite time traveling TV show.
"Timey wimey stuff?"
"Whatever you do, won't just affect you, it has a ripple effect."
"Give me an example."
"Manhattan." I say.
"I don't see what a city has to do with…" I give him a look and he gets what I mean.
"How did you… It's highly confidential. I never told you. We could be accused of treason." He starts babbling about being arrested and never seeing the light of day again.
"Gramps relax, this stays between us. You never told me but like I said before, ripple effect."
"So it…" he starts.
"Don't know. I just spoiled that for you, I might have altered the future."
"You hardly told me anything."
"And that's as close to me spilling the beans as you'll get." I say giving him a grin.
"But…" Gramps whining was interrupted by a knock at the door.
"Hi sorry to interrupt." Steve said walking into the lab.
"Don't worry sweetie, you're not interrupting, we we're actually just finishing up." I said giving Gramps a look telling him not to argue. I turn to look at Steve and he was blushing.
"Um it's lunch time so I wanted to know if you wanted to, uh maybe go get something to eat." He said putting his arm on the back of his neck. He was nervous, it was really obvious.
"Pal, she lives with you already, why are you so nervous to ask her on a lunch date?" Gramps asks him. Steve just gets even more nervous. I punch gramps' arm.
"Gramps! Be nice." I tell him giving a hard look. I turn around to look at my soul mate. He's fidgeting and blushing. "I'd love to go Steve just let me get my coat."
I put on my coat and walk over to Steve. We hold hands and start walking out of the lab. As we walk out Gramps yells out, "Use Protection!"
That makes me fist my other hand and squeeze Steve's hand harder. I threw Gramps a glare over my shoulder as we walked away. I heard a glass break in the distance and Gramps complain about the spilled coffee.
Steve was quiet. I noticed him look at something and then quickly look down. He let go of my hand immediately and put it in his pocket. He looked nervous and every serious all of a sudden. "Everything all right you look, nervous?" I ask him.
"Uh," He looked a bit scared, I had not idea what until I heard someone said, "Hello Captain," in a flirty voice. It was Private Lorraine, Colonel Philips' secretary.
"Uh Ma'am." Steve said awkwardly avoiding eye contact. I could feel how tense he was.
"And who is this?" She asked looking me over. She looked at me the same way all the bitchy sorority girls in college used to.
"Hi, I'm Nora, Howard's cousin." I introduced myself. After Gramps' gave me my new identity on my birthday we had agreed to say we were each other's cousins when talking to strangers.
"Howard? As in Howard Stark?" She said astounded.
"Yes" I said.
"I didn't know," She said paying more attention to me now. "How do you two know each other?" She said looking at us, obviously noticing Steve's awkward posture.
"We're working together?" Steve answered.
"Oh, you're also a secretary." She said giving me an obviously fake smile.
"No, I'm a medic." I answer.
"A nurse that's great." Private Lorraine said in a high-pitched quirky voice.
"Doctor actually." It's a bit of a lie. I do have a Ph. D but I still haven't graduated from medical school.
"Oh, That's impressive. I never had a brain for numbers or school. Never really caught my interest." She said giving Steve a flirty smile that just made him visibly sweat.
"We should get going." Steve said before she could continue this uncomfortable conversation.
"We should, It was nice meeting you," I said giving her a fake smile.
"You too." She said before turning around and leaving.
We took a few steps and made a left to a hallway.
"I'm sorry" Steve said abruptly.
"For what?" I asked genuinely confused.
"For what just happened."
"Having a conversation with Private Loraine?"
"I had no idea she was going to so openly, ogle me." He said apologetically.
"Well, at least she didn't kiss you." I said jokingly but apparently he didn't realize I wasn't being serious.
"Nora that didn't mean anything to me. It was all her and…" He started before I interrupted him by putting a finger on his lips.
I looked around and saw that the hallway was empty and there was a closet behind him. I lead him to it. I opened the door and pushed Steve in.
"Nora what are you…" He asked before I got him to stop talking the only way I knew how. I pulled him down a bit and kissed him. I deepened the kiss and Steve responded just as much as I did. When we finally did separate he said, "What… was… that for?" in between pants.
"Needed you to stop talking. Stop panicking." I tell him wrapping my arms around his waist.
"I just didn't want you to feel…"
"Jealous? Sweetie, I'm a bit insecure but not that insecure." I say putting my hand on his cheek.
"You don't have to worry about that beautiful. No one compares to you. I love you and I love Bucky. No one else matters. She was just a stranger that jumped me." He said explaining himself.
"Hey, you don't have to explain yourself, I know." I said leaning up to kiss him again. He put his arms on my waist and pulled me closer to him. Steve got bolder and deepened the kiss. He moved his hands up and down my back until he finally rested them on my lower back. He always hesitated before going any lower. He finally moved his hands and put them on my thighs. He broke the kiss and started kissing my jaw. He reached my ear and whispered, "Jump." I was confused but did it anyway. As I did he lifted me up holding me up by my thigh. I wrapped my legs around his waist and kissed him again.
He turned around and pushed me against the door. We had had some pretty intense make out sessions before but this one definitely makes the top five. I threaded my hand in his hair and kept one on the nape of his neck. He deepened the kiss and whoa. I had heard people say that when you kiss someone you love and the kiss is so amazing you see fireworks but I thought they were exaggerating until right now that is. I started moving my hips against his and he let out a moan. He broke the kiss and started kissing down my neck, making me gasp.
I moved my hips faster against his and felt how affected he was. He groaned against my neck, "Nora…" He moaned out. When I heard that I had an idea. I started thinking back to the last make out session between the three of us a few nights ago. The three of us were in bed and Bucky and I were kissing while Steve kissed down his chest. He got Bucky's underwear off and got him off. After I saw that I was curious and thought about trying it out on one of them. Now seems like a pretty good time.
I kissed Steve's forehead and said "Hey handsome, I want to try something can you put me down." He answered with a groan. He kissed my neck and put me down. I put my arms around him and lead him to switch places against the door. I leaned up and kissed him. I kissed down his neck and then reached down to start unbuckling his pants. He put his hand on mine and stopped me.
"Nora, you don't have to…" He started before I got him to shut up with another kiss.
"I want too, now relax." I said kissing him again before getting on my knees in front of him. I undid his pants and pulled them down. He was tenting pretty bad and groaned in relief when I palmed him. I decided to pull down his underwear and as soon as I did I realized how much I had affected him. I wrapped my hand around him and stroked him a few times. "Uhhh" Steve groaned. I looked up and Steve looked down at me. I kissed the tip and took him into my mouth. "Uhhh Nora, babygirl." I think I'm doing something right. I've only heard him call me that once or twice. I ran my tongue under him and sucked him. I bobbed my head and moved my hand at the same rhythm. I hollowed my cheeks and sucked harder. "Baby, I'm not gonna last." I bobbed my head as fast as I could and sucked him off. "I..I'm.. uhh I'm cuhh." He moaned out as he spilled into my mouth. I swallowed everything and then slowly stood up.
"Was that all right I've never done that be…" Steve slammed his lips against mine before I could finish.
"You were perfect." He said giving me a smile.
I looked down and noticed he still didn't have his pants on. "Um sweetie, if we're still having lunch you may want too um, " I said looking down.
"Oh, Actually I was thinking of repaying the favor." He said more as a question.
"As great as that sounds, I think we've disappeared long enough. Though I'll take a rain check handsome." I said giving him a smile.
"Anytime Babygirl." He says giving me a smirk. It's hard to believe that a couple of weeks ago we could barely say two words to each other and now we're making out in a closet.
When the both of us agree we're presentable, Steve leaves the closet first and makes sure the coast is clear before I leave. We both leave the SSR and go have lunch at a diner a few blocks from headquarters. The entire time I could not get the smile off my face but at the same time I couldn't stop thinking about the possibility of me not aging anymore. I needed to talk to Gramps. It had been a couple of weeks and I was late. I knew I wasn't pregnant since nothing had happened between the three of us besides a bit of fooling around.
"Everything all right?" Steve asked.
"Yeah why?" I asked.
"You're distracted. You haven't said a word since we ordered." He says looking concerned.
"Oh sorry just got lost in thought." I said.
"Want to talk about it?" He asks.
"Not really much to say. What about you?" I ask trying to change the subject.
"What about me?"
"We leave in a few days." I say.
"That huh. I feel confident. We're all ready. It won't be easy but we can do it, we have to."
"So pretty nervous?" I retort.
"A bit." He answers solemnly.
"Steve you rescued all those prisoners in Azzano on your own with little training and a prop shield dressed in tights. You're not alone this time. If you did it then you can do it now because this time you're ready. You are the perfect man for the job so stop doubting yourself."
"Bucky was right, you do always know the right thing to say." He says.
"And like I told him, I've just been lucky it doesn't always happen."
"You're to hard on yourself." He reprimands.
"In my line of work I have to be. One mistake could cost some one their life." I say. He just stays quiet at that.
After lunch I went back to Gramps' lab and Steve went to another meeting.
"How was lunch?" Gramps' asked.
I couldn't help but smile a bit. "It was good. I had a BLT with some fries or I guess they're called chips here."
"That's all that happened?" He asks giving me a weird look.
"Yeah like we said we were just going to lunch." I responded.
"Did Rogers try to eat you?"
"No why would you ask that?"
"There's a mark on your neck."
"Oh shit really?" I said turning to look at my reflection in a mirror in the back of the lab. Yup there it was a hickie. I'm never going to live this down.
"You two were necking like teenagers." Gramps says with a laugh.
"Oh shut up." I say blushing.
"Oh I can't wait to mock Rogers with this, he's going to look like a tomato." He says laughing even more.
"Don't you dare. It took me forever to get him to open up. I swear gramps if you taunt him with this I will get you back." I said glaring at him.
He noticed how serious I looked and said, "Fine I promise"
"Good. There's something we need to talk about."
"You need me to give Rogers some pointers?"
"Gramps, get your head out of the gutter. I meant about that thing we discussed a few weeks ago. The result of those tests." I remind him.
"Yeah, I got more results this morning." He says.
"And" I say waiting anxiously for him to tell me what showed up.
"And everything was normal. Well as normal as blood cells that don't degrade normally do anyway. The only thing that was off was the slight gamma signature but we already knew about that." Gramps explains.
"So nothing out of the normal." I ask just to make sure I understand everything clearly.
"Exactly, we'll keep running them to see if there are any changes but from what I've seen our theory is spot on." He says and I feel anxious.
"Remind me again besides the obvious no aging what else am I facing." I say dreading what I'm about to hear.
"Lets see, you're going to look the same as you do now, you heal faster, not sure how fast. Metabolism will increase to match that."
"Any effects on fertility?" I say looking away to avoid the look on Gramps' face when I asked that.
"Not sure but it's a possibility. Have you noticed anything?" He says sounding concerned.
"I'm late and I know for sure I'm not pregnant." I say. "I'm hungry all the time and I eat a lot but I haven't gained weight. As for the healing," I look back at the mirror and see the hickie already fading. "still working as fast as before."
"We can keep running test but we both know what they'll say." Gramps says.
"I know. No more test and this stays between us. I don't want to worry the guys. I'll tell them when we're not at war."
"Nora…"
"Gramps we have bigger things to worry about." I say playing with my necklace.
"If anything changes let me know."
"What's the point? We both know I won't change, that's the problem." I retort.
"It could be temporary or there could be a way to reverse it."
"Let's face it Gramps, we don't even know how I travel through time, how are we going to fix this."
"We'll think of something. Now stop moping and go enjoy the time you have left before you leave where every you're getting shipped off to."
"Fine." I stand up from where I was sitting and start to feel light headed and then it happens again. The bright light and the chills. Worst Timing Ever.