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 28

4 months later

"You were sleepwalking again last night."

Maria sighed. She was sitting in the sofa, next to the wheelchair she had been confined to a month back. As the baby grew more and more, Maria became weaker and weaker, by now only depending on her powers to keep her alive. She could see it bothered Steve tremendously, seeing her in such a weak state, but she kept up the façade that she was alright which seemed to calm him down a bit. Lies were no good in a marriage, of course, but sometimes one had to tweak the truth a bit in order for the other to feel better.

Marriage, it was such a strange word to her. Never had she really thought she would marry or even find someone that loved her back. And of course she had never really thought that person would be Steve, a hero who during his lifetime only had done good deeds, while she had done… other sort of deeds. The fact that they now were two parts of a whole made her smile a lot, and Steve sometimes caught her smiling to herself when she was sitting watching TV or reading a book.

"What did I do this time?"

"You walked to the living room and turned the TV on. Said your show was on," remembered Steve before chuckling. "And then I guess your strength sort of faltered 'cause you suddenly exclaimed you were going to take a nap, and then you fell back asleep."

Maria shook her head but still smiled, "At least that was it. I didn't scare you this time."

Steve sat down next to her, placing an arm around her while she cuddled up next to him.

"Don't you worry about me. I can handle it."

She hummed a yes, suddenly feeling overpowered by her own fatigue, the warmth Steve provided not helping her to stay awake.

Sleepwalking was a side effect Maria had gotten during her last months of pregnancy. Exactly why, the doctors couldn't tell them, but it sometimes turned rather creepy. Steve had told her how he had awoken to find Maria standing in a corner, facing the wall or finding her collapsed on the kitchen floor. Each night was a rollercoaster for the both of them, and not just because of the sleepwalking.

The past month, Maria had sometimes awoken to extreme pains, which the doctors had deduced were Braxton Hicks. Pains that actually caused her to scream out in pain and also cause her to become completely confused, not knowing where she was and sometimes even who she was. Now that it was only two days to her due date, both she and Steve entered a state of panic whenever those pains did arrive, thinking it might not be simple Braxton Hicks anymore. Though so far, no baby had wanted to come out yet.

A small room close-by their own bedroom had been prepared for the baby; a small nursery. Sam and Scott – the two people who neither Steve nor Maria had thought would actually do the job – had taken it upon themselves to decorate the entire room. Clint had helped sort out what stuff they needed while Wanda stayed with Maria during the days, keeping her company when Maria was not taking naps. Better friends were hard to find.

So far, however, there were no real plans on making the nursery into the baby's actual room. This because neither of them knew for how long they were going to stay. The news sometimes showed some horrible event Steve and the others could have helped prevent, and Maria knew that Steve, albeit he never said it out loud, longed to be back out there and help the people in need. Maria did too, actually, and at some point, they would. The other Avengers could not stay hold up in Wakanda forever either, and there would come a point, now sooner than ever, where they would leave the safety of Wakanda. Therefore, making plans far into the future was not something either of them did.

Eventually, Maria did doze off, because she was suddenly awoken by Steve shaking her arm, trying his best to wake her up.

"What?" she snapped, furrowing her brow while shielding her eyes from the light.

"Maria, come on, you gotta work with me here." The worry and panic in his voice caused Maria to tense up, her mind going into red alert. She opened her eyes, not caring if the light hurt her eyes and searched for Steve. He was not hard to find though as he was crouched right in front of her, both his hands holding her upright.

"What…?"

"Okay? You gotta get into the wheelchair, honey… You ready?"

"What is happening?" she asked, though did exactly what he told her to, holding onto his arms as she, weaker than she normally was, hobbled over to her wheelchair. Her large baby bump felt slightly pained, though at the same time she had never felt better in her life. Weak, yes, but there was a sense of serenity inside of her that she could not quite understand.

His eyes still filled with panic and with a worried crease in his forehead, Steve started to wheel her towards the front door.

"Steve, I'm still in my pajamas – what is happening?"

"It's like those nights when you wake up in pain. Only it's not night."

"Braxton Hicks can happen during the day too, Steve. I don't feel any-" As though on cue, she doubled over in pain, letting out a weak little whimper before suddenly fainting again. Steve gently shifted her so she was sitting upright again, opening the front door for them to leave through.

He put on his shoes, needing to crouch down next to the unconscious Maria. Being in eye-level with the baby bump caused him to suddenly feel a sort of strange calmness as well. He had a purpose with this panic, he had a purpose with this worry. He was going to be a father. And with Maria too weak to even stay awake during the, what he supposed were, contractions, it was all up to him now. He went into Captain America mode right then and there, the panic dissipating slightly.

Gently, he placed a hand on her belly, "I guess we'll see you soon, little one."

The midwives and the doctor were running in and out of the room, though Steve barely noticed them. He only noticed Maria's pale face and tired eyes. The both of them were staring at each other, smiling widely. In order for Maria to stay awake, her body was being pumped full with painkillers and drugs continuously. Had she only gotten one injection, her body's powers would have gotten rid of it a long time ago, therefore she needed to have the painkillers injected into her continuously. A long needle had been injected into her arm, its syringe covered in Hydrus Acidulus, Maria's Kryptonite, to keep her skin from healing to the point where it broke the syringe.

She felt no pain, though the machine next to her showed her whenever she did have a contraction. The way the needle suddenly began to move back and forth quickly and sporadically just showed to Maria how grateful she was that she was not feeling those pains.

The two knew what gender the baby was going to be, yet Maria had still chosen pink clothes for the little baby to be put in after the birth. Mostly because she found pink clothing on a baby adorable, but also because colors were not connected to gender according to Maria and Steve.

She reached out a hand towards Steve which he quickly took. Without saying a word, she nodded her head and Steve's smile grew even more. The two knew they were both ready. They had saved the world at least twice now, to then also give something as beloved as their son to the world was something they both were ready for.

While still having their fingers intertwined with each other, Maria was ordered to push. She stared at the midwife in front of her, following her orders blindly as she herself could feel none of the signals her body sent her. After what seemed to be five minutes but what later turned out to actually be seven hours worth of pushing and long pauses, Maria was ordered to lay back down. The midwife struggled with something and Steve watched with wide eyes. The serenity Maria had felt during the entire labor, that strange warm feeling she had not quite been able to pin point where it came from, was suddenly explained to her when the cries of a small infant filled the room.

Love.

Just pure love.

She began to cry and Steve wiped her tears, whispering words of praise and love to her. With a smile on her lips, the midwife lifted their newborn son over to Maria who, with newfound maternal instincts immediately placed the little baby against her chest, cradling him. The moment the boy's cheek touched her skin, the baby stopped crying. Maria could feel his little heart beating furiously, panicked, though he slowly calmed down, cuddling against his mother's warmth. The trauma of birth seemed already forgotten as the little boy found its way back to his mama.

Steve and Maria were now no longer two parts of a whole. Instead, the three of them were three parts of one whole now. A family.

The midwives finished what they had to do, taking their little boy away from them for just a few seconds to weigh and check up on him before they left the three to get acquainted to each other. Maria covered up her son with the blankets she had around her, placing soft kisses against the top of his head continuously.

Steve gently stroked his cheek, adoring the softness of the baby's still untainted skin and smiled. He kissed his wife passionately before, albeit very, very carefully, kissing the top of his son's head.

"Welcome to the world Joseph James Rogers," he whispered into his son's ear, smiling widely.

"We will make sure the world stays safe for you. That will be how we make you feel our love."

Well, that was it! I mean there will be more once the next movie comes out, but as some of you might have realized, this is more of an ending than what the previous stories have had. I wrote it like this so that, in case I can't continue, this actually had a proper ending. I mean you never know what's gonna happen within the span of six months (I actually have no idea when the next movie is due to come out, but I'm guessing late spring XD ), so I gotta be prepared.

But I obviously plan on writing more XD I have so many more ideas! Especially ideas concerning little Joseph! :D

Special thanks to love . fiction. 2017 who reviewed a lot and gave me a lot of motivation to continue writing. And of course also a special thanks to everyone who reviewed, favourited, followed and simply read what I've been writing. You are all angels in my eyes!

I hope you guys liked reading this as much as I liked writing it! I'll see you all after infinity war comes out!