Chapter Five
Bucky calls behind his boss' back to check on Natalia and Stevie several times throughout the workday. She always answers the phone chipper and lets Stevie have a minute to babble into the mouthpiece and Bucky can't help but smile mindlessly when he hears them both.
"Everything's running smoothly?" He asks for the third time.
"Everything's just fine, Bucky," Natalia replies like she has the first two times and Bucky lets out a breath.
"Tell him I love him," he says and he hears Natalia pull the phone away from her face and say to Stevie in baby talk, "Your daddy loves you very, very much, Stevie."
"He says he loves you too," Natalia says when she brings the phone back to her face and Bucky smiles.
"Does he?" He teases. "And you can tell because…"
"I can see it in his eyes, Bucky," Natalia says over-seriously. "When this baby can talk, he'll have a lot to say."
"What are you, the baby whisperer?" Bucky says and Natalia laughs.
"Sure," she says. "That's me."
By the fourth call, Bucky realizes he never even discussed payment with Natalia. Bucky also realizes that he's stopped calling to ask about Stevie. At this point, he's calling to hear Natalia's voice.
"I can't afford much," Bucky tells her when she answers. "I can probably get you six or seven bucks an hour. I know that's not very good, and you deserve more."
"You're right, I do," Natalia says and Bucky's throat closes up for a minute. Then, she goes on. "How about this, Barnes, instead of paying me in beans, you pay me in dinner?"
"What?" Bucky says.
"You, me, and the baby. Dinner on you, what do you say?" Natalia says and Bucky's still struggling to scrape his jaw off the ground.
"I say that sounds great," he finally manages to choke out and when they hang up again, he's feeling a fluttering in his stomach and a blush creeping up to his face.
At five, Bucky begins to gather up his things, but Fury stops him with an arms-folded, pursed-lip glare.
"What?" Bucky says.
"You're gonna be here 'til seven, remember Barnes?" Fury says and Bucky remembers suddenly. His mouth goes dry. Natalia's already sat with Stevie for hours, she'll be expecting him to relieve her. He'd forgotten to ask her to stay late.
"Of course," Bucky gasps. "Um, I have to call my babysitter. And tell her."
"You've been talking to your babysitter all afternoon," Fury says and he sounds less than pleased. Bucky almost gulps. He needs this job.
"She's new," he says. "My regular babysitter got ill, couldn't make it. I just had to make sure everything was okay. With Stevie and all." Fury makes a face, but he relents and accepts Bucky's excuse.
"Just be here 'til seven," he instructs before he returns to his office and Bucky picks up his phone again.
"I have another favor," he says weakly into the phone when Natalia answers and the line is quiet on her end.
"Yes?" She finally says.
"What do you say to two more hours?" He asks and Natalia hesitates again.
"I can stay," she says. He wonders if she's angry. She would have every right to be.
"This is unreasonable, I know," he says. "I'm mad at myself, too."
"It's fine," Natalia says. "I wouldn't have minded some sort of heads up, but… I'm not just going to leave Stevie here."
"I don't know what I'd do if you hadn't been here for me today," Bucky says, and then adds, "I might be out of a job without you. I just want you to know how much I really do appreciate this. I know it's a sacrifice."
"Just be back soon, alright Bucky?" Natalia says and Bucky agrees eagerly, sprinkling his words with desperate apologies until she hangs up.
He works the extra two hours and then he's out as soon as he can be, racing back home.
He bursts in the door at seven-thirty and finds Natalia and Stevie on the couch in the living room. Instead of lined up at the door with her bag in hand, like Bucky had expected her to be, Natalia is cuddling Stevie to her chest on the couch. A blanket from the closet is pulled over them both and they have their eyes closed, napping. Bucky stares for a second, and then leans against the wall exhaustedly, not sure if he believes what he's seeing.
He battles with himself about waking her, not sure what she'd rather more, sleep or being paid and set free, and decides to give her a few more minutes of sleep while he changes out of his work clothes in his bedroom. When he returns, he approaches her cautiously, not wanting to scare her. He puts his hand gently on her shoulder and shakes a little and she wakes with a start, jumping and crying out.
"I'm sorry!" Bucky says in a lowered voice because Stevie, with his head in the crook of her neck, was still sound asleep. "I don't want to alarm you."
Natalia yawns and stretches, one hand on Stevie's back and the other above her head and then she starts to sit up a little blearily.
"I'm sorry I took so long," Bucky says and he takes the sleeping Stevie when Natalia offers him.
"No bother," Natalia says and yawns again. "Stevie and I were having a blast. We were partying."
"Glad to hear it," Bucky says and starts to rub Stevie's back. One of Stevie's arms wraps around his neck sleepily. "You really tuckered him out."
Natalia pulls the blanket off herself and starts to stand, still stretching.
"Tuckered myself out, too," she admits. "I could have slept there for days."
"You still want dinner?" He asks and she looks up at him. "As payment. Remember?"
"Oh!" Natalia says and yawns for the third time before saying, "Yes. I do."
Bucky sits down next to her.
"You want it tomorrow night?" He asks and she smiles at him, starting to comb unruly red hair out of her face with her fingers.
"Sounds perfect," she says.