There was a distant, incessant ringing that brought Nat and Steve out of a very sound sleep. Steve reached over and grabbed the phone.
"Rogers." His voice was thick with sleep.
Suddenly he sat upright, "We'll be right there. Thanks, Bruce."
Nat heard Bruce's name and sat up, wiping the sleep out of her eyes. "Bruce? What's he want?"
"He wants us to come down right away, says he, Erskine and Betty have figured out what's wrong with you." Steve gathered Nat in his arms and walked into their bathroom.
Natasha looked on the verge of panic, "Steve, if your doctor wants to tell you something in person, it usually isn't good news."
"Not necessarily," Steve said, "Bruce didn't sound panicked or upset, just that he wanted us both to come down. Come on, get showered while I shave then we'll switch." He shooed her into the mammoth shower stall in their suite.
Half an hour later and they were out the front door, getting into Nat's car. Steve was driving in case Nat had another nausea situation occurring while in a motorized vehicle. That had happened yesterday. She'd had to pull over on the interstate and nearly got flattened by a semi as she darted around the car to puke at the side of the road.
Steve informed her she was going nowhere without him and that she damn well wasn't driving anymore unless he was with her. She bitched about it but Steve gave her the Eyebrow of Disappointment treatment and she acquiesced.
They got to the Tower in record time; Steve parked in front and ran around the car to help Nat out. It was just one of those every day occurrences in the life of a gentleman. She'd quit complaining about him opening doors for her, pulling out her chair and standing when she came into a room. It made him so happy to do little things for her so she let him have his victories. Besides, it made her feel even more cherished than she had a right to be.
She kept a firm hold on Steve's hand as they rode the elevator up to the lab. He could sense her nervousness. He was none too steady himself, silently praying that there was nothing seriously wrong with her; particularly since what she'd done by going back in time had been solely for his benefit.
Bruce greeted them with an uncharacteristic grin on his face. Betty and Dr. Erskine came out, smiling and they all sat around the conference table.
"Betty is the one who actually broke this case wide open," Bruce grinned at his former fiancee', squeezing her hand.
Betty blushed a little then looked at Steve and Natasha, "Captain Rogers, when you first when through the conversion process, do you remember when they took all those samples from you?"
"I remember," Steve said, "What has that…?"
"I'm getting to that," Betty said, holding up a hand to stop him. "They took blood, semen, saliva, everything."
Steve blushed at the mention of his semen. How they got that sample wasn't something he wanted to discuss with anyone. He was still embarrassed. Natasha squeezed his hand and smiled at him. As adventuresome as he'd become with her in bed, Steve still had some very delicate sensibilities about certain things. That including talking about bodily functions and apparently biological samples.
"Well, I got to thinking about Natasha's time travel and your relationship so I decided to test your samples." Betty looked positively smug.
"The samples from right after he was given the serum and had the conversion?" Nat asked.
"Yes," Betty nodded. "I have to ask you a rather delicate question, I'm afraid."
"Ask," Nat said, "I'll tell you anything you need to know."
"Did you and Captain Rogers engage in intimate relations very soon after his conversion?"
Steve blushed harder and coughed. Nat ignored him and nodded to Betty, "Yes, it was that same night."
Bruce, Dr. Erskine and Betty all breathed a collective sigh of relief. "All of Steve's samples tested extremely high for the serum. It was highly concentrated as it kept converting his cells, his DNA, everything. This concentration may have leveled out by this time but right after the conversion, at least in the first week or so afterward, the concentration of the serum was excessively high."
"Meaning?" Steve was getting lost in the scientific speculations.
"Meaning that even if the serum left your body in one form or another, through saliva, blood, or ejaculate, it was extremely potent and could affect the recipient of those fluids." Betty blushed a little herself. Steve looked like he wanted to crawl under the table.
"Wait, so when we had sex that first night and during that first week, he was sort of injecting me with the serum when we kissed and made love?" Natasha thought she was following the thought process rather well.
"Essentially, that is correct." Betty agreed.
"I am not following this very well," Steve said, trying not to die from embarrassment and focus. Natasha patted his arm.
"What happened was, and pardon me, Steve, we are really not trying to embarrass you. When you two had sex, which I assume was unprotected because Natasha assumed correctly that she couldn't get pregnant, your...um...contribution managed to heal and repair the damage done to Natasha by her Red Room handlers." Bruce was struggling to say it politely. "The serum combined with your semen, and well..."
Steve and Natasha stared at Bruce and Betty blankly. Dr. Erskine had an ear to ear grin on his face and was fairly vibrating with joy.
"My dear girl, you are pregnant! Captain Rogers, you are going to be a father!" Dr. Erskine came around the table and hugged both of them.
"What?!" Natasha was certain she hadn't heard him correctly.
"Pregnant? She's pregnant?!" Steve was apparently on board the Good Ship What The Fuck as well. He shook his head as if to clear it.
"Pregnant! Bruce and Betty chorused.
"The spontaneous nausea, your tiredness, your emotional outbursts, it's all from pregnancy hormones." Betty was absolutely beaming at Natasha. "There is nothing medically wrong with you; you're just pregnant!"
Natasha looked down at her abdomen and gently stroked a hand over it, "Pregnant? I'm pregnant?" She turned wide green eyes up to Steve. "A baby? We're going to have a baby?"
Steve put his hand over hers on her stomach, his eyes met hers in a suffusion of shock, delight, amazement and pure love, "A baby, Sweetheart! We're having a baby!"
Nat took about two seconds to burst into happy tears and fling her arms around Steve's neck. He lifted her into his lap and they cried together in solidarity and joy. Bruce, Dr. Erskine and Betty let them have their moment. After a minute or two, they turned back to the medical team who had just given them the best news of their lives.
"A baby," Steve breathed, it sounded like a prayer.
"I never thought..." Nat whispered. "Steve, are you okay with this? We've never talked about it because I never thought it possible."
"Sweetheart, without even trying you make every day full of joy. Now, once again, you've managed to bring even more joy into both of our lives. Of course I'm happy about this," Steve was beaming at her.
"Thank god, I swear I would have told you if I'd known. I'm...I'm...astounded, happy, ecstatic...I'm also scared shitless. I never thought this was possible." Nat was crying again in earnest.
"We will do this together, like we do everything else, honey," Steve assured her.
"I don't know how to be a mother...I've never had one." Natasha managed to blurt out.
"You'll do this like you do everything else; perfectly," Steve kissed her and held her tighter.
"How far along?" Nat managed to collect her wits for a moment.
"You're just entering the second trimester as near as we can figure with the dates," Betty told her.
"So...we'll have a baby in..." Steve started to talk before he'd managed the math.
"In about six months, yes." Bruce said, smiling broader than either of them had ever seen.
"We'd like to do an ultra sound and check. We can take a look at the baby and even give you the gender if you want," Betty told them.
Both Steve and Natasha looked at each other; Natasha nodded enthusiastically to Betty. "Let's do it." Nat said.
"An ultra sound?" Steve wasn't certain he liked the sound of that.
"Steve, it's technology that you might not be familiar with but I assure you it's been around awhile and is perfectly safe." Bruce patted Steve on the back.
In short order, they had Nat on an exam table, her shirt pulled up and her jeans shoved down a bit to expose her stomach. Steve stood at her side, holding her hand, not sure what to expect. Betty took a bottle and squirted warmed gel onto Nat's abdomen.
"Watch the screen, Captain," she instructed him, taking the ultra sound wand in her hand and moving it across Nat's belly through the gel.
Very soon, an almost indistinguishable form appeared. Betty tilted the wand a bit, applied a little pressure and pushed a button. "There is your baby's face!"
Steve and Natasha looked at a black and white rendering that was a little blurry but was unmistakably a face. Steve was wholly impressed, shocked, and filled with joy. Natasha's hand was over her mouth, as she fought not to cry yet again.
"Wait...do you want to hear the heartbeat?" Betty asked.
"Yes!" Nat and Steve said together.
Betty turned up the volume and almost instantly they could hear the swish swish noise of the baby's heartbeat. Suddenly she frowned, "Bruce, can you come here a minute?"
"What's wrong?" Nat picked up that something was concerning.
"Nothing, Natasha, it sounds like an echo...but I'm not certain," Betty stepped back to let Bruce take a look. He maneuvered the wand further over and down on Nat's belly.
"It's not an echo," He said grinning. "It's a twin."
"TWINS?" Natasha thought she just might faint. Steve looked like he was well on his way to joining her so Bruce shoved a chair at him.
"Sit down, Steve; I don't need you getting a skull fracture if you fall down."
"Yup," Betty agreed with Bruce's assessment and watched as he got the second baby's face to appear on the screen. "Fraternal twins!"
"Do you guys want to know what you're having?" Bruce asked them.
Natasha and Steve exchanged a look, "I had no idea any of this was possible," Steve said in wonderment. "What do you think, honey? Do you want to know what we're having?"
"Okay," Nat said weakly. She was just getting used to the idea of being pregnant and now to find out she was going to be a mother to twins; she was a bit overwhelmed.
"Twin number one...is a...boy; twin number two...is a...girl. One of each. Congratulations!" Bruce was absolutely giddy.
Betty wiped the gel off Nat and helped her sit up. "I'm so happy for you two and so glad that we could give you joyous news instead of something frightening."
"Thank you so much, Betty. You too, Bruce and Dr. Erskine," Steve was a bit overwhelmed as well. He tucked Natasha under his arm and looked down at her with nothing but pure love in his eyes.
"At least we got married before we found this out. We'd never hear the end of it with Tony if it had been the other way round." Nat laughed.
"I've got a new bride and now we have a new family together." Steve's silky baritone vibrated through Nat. She reached around his waist and hugged him to her.
Betty handed Natasha a stack of pamphlets and books. "Right now you guys go celebrate the good news. As soon as you have time, if you want Bruce, Dr. Erskine and I to act as your doctors, we can go over everything you can expect during this pregnancy. These are just some informational items that you may want to look over."
"Can we have sex?" Natasha asked, causing Steve to blush down to his toes.
"Yes! You can have sex; up to and including the last month." Betty laughed. "Just don't get too enthusiastic as it gets closer to your delivery date. The prostaglandins in semen can trigger labor when your due date is close. If you go over your due date, we will probably encourage you to try that to trigger labor."
"You two kids go enjoy yourselves." Bruce kissed Nat on the cheek and shook Steve's hand.
"Can we not tell anyone else? Just for tonight." Steve asked suddenly. "I'd like it to be just between Nat and I for right now."
"Steve, we're doctors. You know? Confidentiality?" Bruce was laughing. This was a lot for Steve in particular to absorb.
"He means they can't tell anyone anything. We decide who and when we tell." Nat rubbed her hand on his back.
"Got it." Steve said. "I'm still...I'm so overjoyed and overwhelmed."
"Me too." Nat said quietly, a little less sure about this new prospect.
Steve scooped her up in his arms and spun them around. "We're having babies!" His delight was infectious and Nat let him carry her out and down to the car. She was relieved that her problem had been solved and terrified that she knew next to nothing about being a mother. As she watched his face while he carried her, she knew they'd be all right. Steve was her rock and in many ways she was his. They'd weather this like they'd done everything else. Together.
When they got into the car, Steve kissed her senseless. "Do you want Peggy and Bucky to know right away?"
"We kind of have to tell them. You're smiling like a madman and I'm still running between yelling for joy and sobbing on your shoulder because I'm scared to death." Nat said ruefully.
"Natasha, you are going to be the best mother anyone has every known. You know why?" Steve cupped her face in his hands.
"Why?"
"Because you already know how not to raise children. You will do everything in your power to make certain our children are loved, cherished and have a solid family they can rely on. I will too, sweetheart. These babies are going to be so loved." Steve kissed her again.
She looked into his blue, blue eyes. He was so good, so earnest, so honest. "I have it on good authority that you will be the best father the world has ever seen. These kids will know that having Steve Rogers as their daddy means they will be loved and protected their whole lives."
That made him tear up. "You know, the doctors...back before the serum...they told me I probably wouldn't live much past twenty-five. Now here I am, with a beautiful wife and about to be a father of two miracle children. I'm twenty-eight now. When the babies come, I'll be nearly twenty-nine. Instead of living on borrowed time, I'm planning my life. My life with you and our children. Thank you, Natasha. You've made everything in my life so much better; added so much beauty and passion to it. I love you so much."
She put her arms around him and hugged him to her. "Thank you, my love for believing in me...in us. I used to think I was happy just taking care of myself. Now, I can't imagine not having you, Bucky, Peggy...the rest of the gang to worry about and love. These babies are something I never expected to be allowed to have." She put her hands protectively over her abdomen again.
"I'm really scared that I won't be enough. Not for you, not for these babies. I want to, I want to know I'm needed; it just feels so strange, yet." Her voice was unsteady as she looked up at him.
"Natasha, you are always enough. More than enough. To have overcome the things you have suffered, you are the strongest person I know and I admire you so much for becoming the person you are." Steve kissed her forehead.
"We've both been through the wringer, I think. I admire you as well. You don't know how much. You woke up into a strange new world with everything ripped away from you. I never told you but that night we first made love in your apartment, I realized I hadn't been a very good friend to you. I wanted to make up to you all the times I didn't notice when you were lonely, when you were floundering. I should have been a better friend back then, Steve. I hope I'm making up for it now."
He looked at her for a long time. "Nat, you didn't owe me anything. I was grateful that you were there at all. I told you how much I wanted you; to get to know you; how attracted I was to you. You took a shy, insecure grown man and turned me into someone who could love and make love with the most beautiful woman in the world. I can stand confidently by your side, saying, 'she's mine and I'm hers.' I can't tell you how much that means to me. I'm a better man because of you."
"I love you so much," Natasha's hormones were hiccuping again as she started to cry.
"Me too, doll; me too." Steve chuckled and kissed her nose. "Let's go home and tell Bucky and Peggy the good news."
Nat nodded and blew her nose. "I want to tell them, too."
When they got to the house, Bucky and Peggy came barreling down the stairs when Steve shouted for them.
"What on earth is wrong?" Bucky was looking slightly freaked out. Steve rarely ever raised his voice for any reason.
"Darling, are you all right?" Peggy went to Natasha and put her arms around her friend.
Steve and Nat held hands, grinning to beat hell and Steve told them. "Natasha is pregnant!"
"Oh my god! Steve, that's wonderful! Natasha! C'mere, baby doll!" Bucky picked Nat up and swung her around, then handed her off to Peggy while he hugged Steve.
"How wonderful!" Peggy was absolutely jubilant. "I thought you said you couldn't have children though or did I misunderstand?"
"No, you understood me. Steve's magical penis healed me from the inside out and now we're having twins!" Natasha allowed herself a moment of unbridled glee.
Steve swatted her on the butt, blushing furiously, "Natasha!"
Peggy and Bucky nearly died at that announcement. Steve looked like he wanted to crawl under the floor boards or kill Nat for mentioning his anatomy's obvious involvement in her pregnancy.
Nat was giggling like mad and dodged another swat Steve aimed at her. "I'm carrying your children, you know."
"You won't be pregnant forever, sweetheart and I've got a long memory." Steve teased her.
"And really aggressive sperm." Nat quipped just to watch him blush even more.
"Natasha..." Steve went positively scarlet and took a step toward her. She scooted behind Bucky who was nearly doubled over laughing.
"Pregnant or not, doll, spanking can happen." Steve reached around Bucky and grabbed her before she could dart past him.
Nat squeaked as he tossed her gently over his shoulder and smacked her bottom lightly. "Easy there, Tiger. Betty said we can still have sex. Don't damage the playground!"
"I'm gonna take the little lady upstairs and teach her some manners then what do you all say to going to dinner to celebrate?" Steve asked Peg and Bucky while Natasha giggled over his shoulder.
"Sounds great!" Bucky agreed after a quick glance at Peggy.
"Who else knows about this?" Peggy asked.
"No one," Steve said, climbing the stairs. "We wanted it to be just family for tonight." His words warmed Bucky and Peggy in ways they could never express. That Steve and Nat had told them first meant everything to both of them.
When they got upstairs, Steve gently took Nat off his shoulder, lay her on their bed and stretched out next to her. Both of them put their hands over Natasha's abdomen. Their eyes locked in perfect understanding. These babies were a miracle. Their miracle. Steve leaned down and kissed her.
"You're even more beautiful now, Nat. Just knowing that you're carrying our children brings a whole new dimension to your beauty."
"I can't wait to see them. I want to watch them grow with you, Steve." She admitted.
"I'm not going anywhere. We'll watch them grow together." Steve held her close. They stayed that way for a while, just marveling in the wonderful news they'd gotten and how lucky they were to be together in this.