Another chapter! This is mostly just the quiet before the storm, to be honest. After this, Steve, Maria and Sam are going to be fighting almost non-stop :P

Anyway, just wanted to thank those who followed and favorited since the last update. And I even got a review ;) Things are looking up :P

Kurosnik: Thanks for the support! Hope you like this update :)

Make You Feel My Love
~Book IV~

Disclaimer: I do not own Civil War or any other Marvel characters in this story. All I own is the story I've come up with and my own characters.

Chapter 14

After a while, both Sam and Natasha began to try and force Maria to go to the medical wing as well, and after having made sure that Steve was okay with her leaving his side for a little while as Tony wanted to speak with Steve in private, she made her way up the stairs with the help of Sam.

The amount of tests they took was unimaginable. Maria didn't even know what half of them were, but after having been pricked by syringes from top to bottom, she was rather done with the medical staff and simply wanted to go back to Steve again. Sam stood by her side as she sat on the cot. He watched her face slowly turn into one of annoyance and he couldn't help but smirk.

She glared at him as the last couple of blood samples were taken, "This is ridiculous."

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but we do really want to help," said one of the nurses, removing yet another syringe from Maria's arm.

"Yeah? Well you will help me by actually giving me some answers as to why I'm in this condition!" she snapped back at the nurse, who, seemingly unimpressed by Maria's anger, turned around and walked away with the blood she had taken from Maria. "Urgh!"

"Now, calm down," pressed Sam, placing a hand on her arm. "At least we'll figure out what is wrong this way."

"No they won't," sighed Natasha with a roll of her eyes. Both Maria and Sam averted their gazes to the doorway, where Natasha was standing with her arms crossed over her chest.

"You know something, don't you?" asked Sam, his hand still resting on Maria's arm.

"I'm quite sure Maria knows it too, deep down," replied Natasha, eyeing the nurse who returned with yet another syringe and more vials to be filled. "If you don't mind, nurse, I have something I would like you to do for me."

Natasha walked over to the nurse and whispered something in her ear, causing the nurse's face to fall into one of realization before she scattered off to grab whatever Natasha had asked for. With a smug look on her face, Natasha turned to Sam and Maria.

"Maybe Steve should be here for this," contemplated Natasha before beginning to walk away.

"No – No! You don't get to go," began Maria, gently hopping down from the cot, "urgh… Y-You don't get to go, until you tell me what you know. Back at Peggy's funeral, you made it seem like you knew something. You can't just keep this from me, Nat. That's not what friends do."

Natasha turned around, her face filled with emotions. Perhaps Maria had struck a nerve with her last sentence, knowing full and well that Natasha was unsure about friendships still. Though Maria could not care about that at the moment as she was too worried about her own condition.

"I'm sure that when those results come back, it will show a rather serious mineral deficiency along with other, uh, deficiencies," replied Natasha quietly.

"Why?" asked Maria and Sam at the same time.

"Why? Well, let's put it this way," began Natasha, "When was the last time you and Steve were, um, intimate?"

Maria's heart sank.

"What has that got to do with her condition?" asked Sam with a roll of his eyes.

"About two months ago," replied Maria to Natasha's question, earning a look from Sam.

"And what does Steve have in his DNA?" asked Natasha.

"Super soldier serum…" replied Maria quietly.

"To keep a life form with that serum in its blood alive, the life form needs a very high metabolism. That's why Steve eats so much without getting fat," explained Natasha. "Now-"

"Stop…" whispered Maria, a tear slipping down her cheek.

"Why are you crying?" asked Sam with a worried tone to his voice, grabbing for her arm again. However, she shoved his hand away from her, glaring at both Sam and Natasha.

"Stop this. Do you think this is funny?"

"M, what are you talking about?"

Another tear slipped down her cheek. Her heart beat fast, thumping against her chest and for a little while, the pain subdued as her emotions became more painful than the physical pain.

What Natasha was implying was that Maria was pregnant. The simple thought of it made her entire heart break in two. To become pregnant and have a family was the one thing in life that she wanted the most – so much even that it was what she knew, deep down, that she would do anything to be able to fulfil that wish of hers; so much even that Wanda had used that very wish against her to weaken her a little over a year ago when they were fighting against Ultron. Though she could not get pregnant, not after the accident Artur had brought upon her. The doctor had told her so himself, and it was now imprinted into her brain and heart as something she grieved each day. No such miracle could happen to a body that was so broken as hers. Her self-healing abilities did not come forth until a little after she had joined SHIELD, meaning her body did not heal from that accident. The scar was still there on her abdomen. From the other wounds she had gotten and healed from over the years, she had no scars.

Bruce came to her mind then. The moment they had shared outside of Clint's house. He had wanted to tell her something about her powers related to the subject of bearing children, though he never got to finish his sentence.

But it was impossible, she thought to herself, impossible for her to become pregnant. Her doctor had told her that her uterus had been torn apart because of the rod that had pierced her abdomen, and that it would never heal properly again.

"Do you think it's funny to joke about babies and pregnancies with me?" she whispered, her anger flaring up as Natasha simply stared at Maria, unsure of what to say. "Because it is not! I can't get pregnant, Nat!"

"That was what your doctors said several years ago," pressed Natasha. "Didn't Stark and Bruce tell you that your powers were activated because of a very intense moment in your life? Didn't they tell you that it was most likely that exact moment when you fell off the building?"

"Oh yeah, they told me alright," hissed Maria. "And they were probably right. But I didn't heal! I've got a scar and the doctors told me I couldn't get pregnant!"

"Have you not had any periods?"

"Of course I have but-"

"Then why are you doubting me?" asked Natasha, taking a step forwards.

"BECAUSE I CAN'T!"

The room fell silent after her outburst. Both Sam and Natasha watched her stand there, breathing heavily. During her outburst, several tools all around the room had flown up into the air, hitting the ceiling before clattering back down to the floor.

A quiet cough was heard from behind them; the nurse had re-entered the room, "I have the results from the blood-test you wanted me to do, Miss Romanoff."

Natasha did not reply to the nurse, but simply kept staring at Maria.

"I don't want the results," snarled Maria to the nurse before pushing past Sam, stomping back towards the doorway, ready to leave the medical wing.

"Maria, please-"

"Having your period doesn't mean you're fertile," snapped Maria, glaring back over at Natasha. "I was fine with you accepting a different path in life with this whole accord-thing that's torn our team apart. I was fine with that, Nat. But this – Stop talking to me about pregnancies that I know I can't have, or otherwise, we're going to have a real problem."

With that said, she turned her back on her friend and left the medical wing. As she was walking down the stairs, the physical pain still gone, she heard Sam call her name, though his footsteps never followed her downstairs. Instead, she had to push her way past the agents working downstairs towards the office where Steve and Tony were. She watched Tony storm out of the office, the same sort of fury on his face directed towards Steve as Maria held for Natasha at the moment. He left Steve seated in a chair with some papers in front of him. She saw him rub his hands across his face, clearly distressed about something.

She entered the office quietly, though Steve still heard her enter. He furrowed his brow at her before quickly standing up and walking over to her.

"You've been crying," he stated, placing his hands on either side of her face, their noses inches apart.

"Nat…" she said quietly. "She was bugging me about something… I really don't want to talk about it."

"Okay…" said Steve quietly, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead. "Did they find out what was wrong?"

Being close to Steve again made her calm down. The flame of anger inside of her slowly died down, and she closed her eyes, leaning in against his chest. Her emotions calmed, and the physical pain returned, though it seemed to be slightly less than earlier and she could breathe normally and stand on her own two feet. Whatever it was, it was no pregnancy. Due to her messed up uterus, her period was never regular and it being two months late meant nothing to her – especially because the doctors had told her she could not get pregnant. No, it could not be that. The pain came to her when she used her powers, most of the time. She did have to admit that she had been feeling more tired lately, yet she could not point out exactly when that fatigue had begun.

"I don't know. They kept taking tests, but I left before they could give me the results. Nat bothered me," she mumbled against his chest, a feeling of security wrapping itself around her as Steve wrapped his arms around her waist.

"If you want to talk about it, I'm all ears," he said soothingly, placing yet another kiss to her forehead.

She sighed, "I want to know what Tony wanted to talk to you about."

"Let's make a deal," he said, his voice rumbling through his chest. "You tell me what happened upstairs, and I tell you what happened here with Tony."

Maria looked up at Steve, not moving out of his arms, "Deal."

With a soft smile, Steve led her over to the table, sitting them both down.

"Nat said I was pregnant."

Silence fell over them, Maria attentively watching Steve's reaction to her words. A part of her was afraid he would reject her words in a way that would confirm her unsurness of whether or not he wanted a family with her (something neither of them had discussed at all), while another part of her wished for him to be relieved about the fact that she was not, as it would make things for her so much easier.

However, she was unsure of how Steve was reacting. His face stayed neutral, staring at her expectantly as though he knew there was more to the story.

"You're not freaking out," stated Maria, causing Steve to raise an eyebrow.

"Maria, you've told me several times that you cannot get pregnant. That's why – uh," he began, blushing furiously.

"That's why we haven't been careful like other couples, yeah, I know," chuckled Maria, adoring the fact that Steve was still nervous about those things.

"So, why should I freak out – Should I freak out!?"

"No, no," soothed Maria, shaking her head before grabbing his hands. "I can't get pregnant. It was rather hurtful to hear her say she thought I was."

"She most certainly didn't mean anything by it," urged Steve. "There's a lot of pressure on all of us right now, she's probably feeling it too."

"I don't know why seeing as she's already made up her mind to take the easy way out," muttered Maria, earning a stern look from Steve to which she cowered.

"Darling, we can't know her motives for sure seeing as we haven't asked her," said Steve. "And also, don't take what she said personally."

Maria nodded.

"Are you at least feeling better?" asked Steve quietly, a worried expression on his face.

"I am, no thanks to the doctors. It's just… pain. And I don't know why I have it. I get it when I use my powers for too long, and I get tired way easier when exercising… Maybe I have some sort of disease…"

"Can you get sick? And I don't mean viruses such as the common cold, but worse things… cancer or other things…" wondered Steve before sighing at Maria's shrug. "If Bruce had been here-"

"We do have Tony… But I doubt now is the time to ask him for help in this matter… It feels like things are escalating. Like we're not only having different opinions about things anymore, but as though we are nearing something… like a battle of some sorts…"

Steve squeezed her hands before lifting them up to his lips, pressing a soft kiss to each and one of her knuckles, "Whatever happens, we have each other."

"Can I join in on that too?" asked Sam as he appeared in the doorway. "I mean, I can join in without the kisses, right?"

Steve smirked at his comment, lowering their intertwined hands to rest in his lap.

"Nat wants to apologize-"

"Good for her," snapped Maria before sighing, "I'm sorry Sam, I'm not mad at you."

"I know," sighed Sam, sitting down next to Steve.

"Now, I've held my end of the bargain… What did Tony have to say?" asked Maria, earning Sam's attention as well.

Steve glanced between Sam and Maria before beginning his story, telling them both about how Tony had tried to sweet-talk Steve into signing the accords, telling him Tony's motives and fears of a group of heroes that gets too much control and end up destroying the world. Steve also pondered on whether or not Tony was simply still in shock after what had happened with Ultron, that he never really got over it or tried to move on from his original failure to create a safe-keeping program to protect the entire world. The deaths still weighed on his mind along with the insecurity of not being enough against a bigger foe that may or may not exist out there in the universe, though instead of hurting him the way those things hurt the others (because the others did truly still remember everyone they had not managed to save), they hurt Tony in a way that created fear... and made him make stupid decisions.

"On the outside," pondered Sam, "Stark may be someone who is strong and powerful and without any care in the world, but on the inside, he's not much different than the rest of us."

"He's just scared…" breathed Maria, looking down at hers and Steve's intertwined fingers. "Doesn't mean it makes up for all the things he's done so far."

"Not to mention, he's got Wanda locked up in HQ," added Steve, earning an angered look from Maria.

"What?" she asked.

"Apparently, it's for her own good. He sees her as a danger to the public because he's afraid the same thing is going to happen again…" breathed Steve, shaking his head. "She needs to practise, not stay locked up."

"Amen to that," added Sam.

"Okay, so we have two goals now," said Maria. "Get Bucky the hell out of here with us, and get Wanda out of her prison."

"I'm in," said Sam, earning a nod from Steve.

"First, how are we going to get out of here?" asked Steve, gesturing around the glass-walls of the office through which the large amount of agents working could be seen.

"We could pretend to need to go to the bathroom?" joked Maria.

"You won't get out," said a fourth voice, surprising all three Avengers. "Not unless we manage to distract them all."

Sharon joined the three of them around the table, holding a few pieces of paper clutched against her chest, "Also, if you're going to plot to escape, maybe you should close the door."

Maria glanced at Sam who bit his lip and looked away, knowing full and well that he was the last person to enter.

"Now, the receipt for your gear," said Sharon, giving each of the three Avengers a piece of paper.

"'Bird Custome'?" read Sam, glaring over at Sharon.

"I didn't write it," excused Sharon.

"You better not have, he's very protective of his bird custome," teased Maria, earning a glare from Sam.

"It's not… a… bird custome…" tried Sam before realizing it truly looked like it.

"No, of course not, Falcon," teased Maria, earning a chuckle from Sharon.

The two women stared at each other in shock. Well, it was mostly Maria who stared at Sharon in shock while Sharon simply tried to offer her a smile; one that Maria was not returning. Steve sensed the tension and offered Maria a curious look, to which she shrugged and looked back down at her own gear's receipt. Whether she would ever start to like Sharon, she was unsure of. Though she could not deny the fact that without Sharon, they would most certainly not have gotten as far as they had gotten now, and Bucky would probably still not be in close-range to them. Then again, Bucky would also most likely never have been caught either, though Maria tried to deny that fact as things were better when Steve knew where his best friend was. After all, Bucky did need help to get back into his old self, and if Bucky was nowhere to be found, no one could help him. At least now, even though he was caged up at the moment, someone could get to him and help him.

At least now, Bucky was not alone anymore.