Chapter Four
Stevie's home by the evening, but he's tired and Bucky sits on the rocking chair with him and cradles him, humming songs and rocking gently back and forth. Stevie's eyes are half-closed and glazed over and he doesn't even reach for the tips of Bucky's hair as it dangles in front of him. Bucky sprinkles a few kisses over his face and Stevie yawns and smacks his lips.
"You're sleeping with me tonight," Bucky tells him, standing up from the rocking chair as Stevie closes his eyes again. "I want to keep an eye on you, little guy."
Bucky sleeps a little better that night with Stevie cuddling up to his chest and Bucky can feel every little breath on his skin.
In the morning, as Bucky's coaxing Stevie to eat more (come on, baby, it's good for you, eat a little more, you're too skinny), he receives a rather unfortunate phone call. It's Mrs Carter, and Bucky holds to phone to his ear with his shoulder and pokes at Stevie's stubbornly shut mouth with a full spoon of banana oatmeal.
Bucky's exhausted. If Mrs Carter cancels, he's not sure what he'll do.
And cancel she does. She's come down with a bad case of the cold, she tells him, and she'd come babysit anyway except that Stevie has such a weak immune system that a cold might be the end of him, and Bucky know's she's right. So he thanks her anyway and hangs up, all the while watching Stevie bang his fists on the counter and shout, "No no no no no!" And he thinks, you and me both, Stevie.
"I can't cancel with work again today," Bucky says to Stevie. His stomach is twisting into knots. He'll have to leave soon and he can't leave Stevie alone. "Fury told me I'd have to work late anyway and I could lose this job if I don't go. We can't put you in a daycare; the other kids would sneeze on you and you'd keel over."
Stevie responds with gibberish.
"But I have no one else to call," Bucky said, and then it dawns on him that this is not entirely true. He remembers Natalia, thinks of how she'd really seemed genuinely concerned on the phone, and immediately starts telling himself no. Natalia? Some Russian woman he'd met on the street the other day? He didn't even know her. She could be a murderer, a wanted criminal. She could be notoriously bad with children. She could see this window into his life and realize what a hot mess he was and that she really wanted nothing to do with him anyway and Bucky's stomach turned again. It isn't exactly suave to ask a girl to babysit before you even buy her dinner and the idea that Natalia Romanova would turn her back on him seems a more plausible theory than the one about her being a wanted murderer.
But really, he has no other option.
Bucky calls Natalia.
"Hey, Bucky," Natalia answers. "How's Stevie doing?"
"He's better now," Bucky replied. "We're at home. Say 'hi', Stevie." He puts the phone up to Stevie's face and Stevie makes some cooing sounds into the phone. When Bucky brings it back to his own ear, Natalia's still cooing back, making babytalk and aww-ing. "He's a tough little guy," Bucky says.
"So, what do you need?" Natalia asks and Bucky realizes she's asking why he's calling her and holding the phone up to his baby at eight in the morning and he feels anxiety grip his heart.
"I have a pretty huge favor to ask," he says and cringes while he says it. "But if this is weird, cause I know it is, just tell me to get lost and I will. I'm just asking you because I'm beyond desperate." He takes a deep breath to stop himself from rambling. "I don't even know, you're probably not even free today, but… I have literally no where else to turn." Natalia's voice is questioning when she answers.
"Okay…?" she says. "What is it?"
"I work at an office in the city," he explains. "Nine to five deal. And my babysitter just quit on me."
"You're asking me to watch Stevie?" Natalia asks. "For nine hours?" Bucky swallows and finally gives up.
"It's too much. Look, just… Never mind," he says. "Forget I said anything, I'll just call in sick at work. Sorry for bothering you." He's about to hang up, cursing himself, when Natalia stops him.
"No, wait," she says. "I was just clarifying. That's what you want me to do?"
"It's a lot to ask," Bucky says. "But, if you can, I'd be endlessly grateful to you. I'd owe you the world."
"Alright, give me your address, Barnes," Natalia says and for a minute, Bucky can't believe he heard her right. He runs the Russian words over again in his mind and translates them into English and then back again and realizes that she's actually accepting his bizarre request.
"Really?" He says. "You'll do it?"
"I'll do it," Natalia says. "Because I like babies and I like you. But you owe me big time, Barnes."
"Of course!" Bucky exclaims. "Of course, I owe you! So much!"
Bucky gives Natalia his address and she says it'll take her ten minutes to get to his place and when they hang up, Bucky feels tension let go in his chest. He's never felt so relieved.
When Bucky turns back to Stevie, he finds that Stevie has upended the oatmeal bowl and is currently smearing it into his hair.
Natalia arrives precisely when she says she will, her hair messy around her face in stark contrast to the tight, wide curls he'd seen her in at the park. His guess was that she hadn't had much time to prepare, but her smile is still the most dazzling thing he's ever seen when he opens the door and ushers her in.
"Stevie's in the kitchen," he says. "He's having fun with his breakfast."
"Oh, dear," Natalia says as she walks in and sees him and she laughs. Bucky runs his hand through his hair and smiles a little. But he doesn't hesitate to appreciate her for long because he's still going to miss his bus and he has to warn Natalia about the what-ifs.
He gets the nebulizer out of the closet again to show her and explains that this is Stevie's asthma medication.
"It straps on his face," Bucky says. "With this little tiny mask. And you turn it on with this button and just leave it on him for maybe ten minutes and he should be okay." Natalia clutches her purse a little tighter looking at it and her eyes widen.
"You put that thing on such a tiny baby?" She asks and Bucky nods solemnly.
"He needs it sometimes," he says. "If you hear him rasping or wheezing or gasping at all, just get this immediately, okay?"
"Okay," Natalia says weakly.
"But, I don't want to scare you," Bucky says and he pushes the nebulizer onto the counter. "He's usually fine, you probably won't have to use it at all."
"Okay," Natalia says again.
Bucky begins to gather up his things for work.
"There's food in the fridge and the cupboards and I have labeled what Stevie eats for each meal," he says. "You can have whatever you want, just help yourself. If something happens, call me. My number's on that paper on the fridge."
"Is there anything else I should know about him?" Natalia asks and Bucky looks over at Stevie, who's drawing with his fingers in the oatmeal mess, and rakes his hair back into a messy ponytail.
"Be gentle with him?" Bucky says. "And I mean it, really gentle. He's fragile. Don't let him overexert himself. If he gets bored, he likes to play with stuffed animals and he really likes to be cuddled. He takes a nap at one. The diaper bag is by the crib. I get home at five-thirty." Natalia nods, taking everything in with wide eyes. Bucky's pulling his shoes on now and grabbing his keys off the counter.
"You can trust Stevie with me," she says to him and he looks at her and really hopes he can.
"I can't thank you enough for this," he admits. "Really." Natalia smiles a little and shrugs.
"It's no problem," she says and Bucky stops for a minute before he leaves just to look at her. He's grateful, and she seems so nice. He believes he's truly reading sincerity in her features when she talks to him and he hopes he's not imagining it.