"We'll have the band play something slow…" His entire body was shaking and that wasn't because of the giant hole in the front window. He was about to die and he was terrified. But at least he got to talk to Peggy one last time.
"Steve.."
"Steve…" Peggy called through the radio.
A hand was shaking him awake, paired with a gentle voice "Steve.. I need you help."
He opened his eyes, not giving away the terrible nightmare he was having. For some reason he was having it more often. He didn't want to examine why. "What's wrong?" Steve yawned.
"I got up to go to the bathroom, and I can't get the blanket and pillow back.." Peggy said with what could be considered a whine. They weren't anywhere close to the 9 month mark, but Peggy was certainly getting sick of being pregnant.
Steve chuckled and sat up to help her get comfortable again, "Better?"
"Much." Peggy settled back in bed, "I'm sorry. I hate needing so much help."
Steve combed his fingers through her hair, "Well I like helping." The soft light coming from the outside world outlined her features. So god damn beautiful. "I was happy to wake up anyhow."
"Bad dream?" she guessed.
"Yeah, but the kind that's not a dream. Something that happened." He ran his hand over her large baby bump.
Peggy watched him, the light shone on his face and she could see his concern, or sorrow. "Well you're just here with me. And two others."
Steve smiled, "I know. You should rest, it's your last day-"
Peggy grumbled, "Don't remind me. I don't understand why I can't just work from home. I don't want to be out of the loop." she couldn't wrap her head around job security once she got back from having the twins. Mother's just didn't run companies in her world, they just didn't.
"You'll still be in the loop, just more relaxed." Steve assured.
Peggy scoffed, not really believing him. "Sleep well darling. Peggy's orders."
Steve nodded, "Yes Ma'am."
Peggy poured the tea in a travel mug. No coffee allowed, or most of her favorite tea's. She put them all in the back of the cupboard but turns out they had to be thrown away, because Peggy couldn't be trusted. Steve brought in the dirty dishes from their breakfast. "Breakfast was wonderful. Once I'm housebound maybe I'll make you breakfast."
Steve looked at her with a sheepish expression, "That's really not necessary."
"I'll learn how to cook. I'll be a mother, I should he able to do more than scramble eggs."
Steve kissed her cheek, "You can't even do that dear."
Peggy slapped his shoulder, "I can! Tony helped me the last time we were over. I can make eggs."
Steve put the dishes in the dishwasher, "Sure thing babe." He liked teasing her.
She waddled out of the kitchen, "I'm very pregnant, you have to be nice to me." Peggy sat on the bench and started the process of getting her shoes on. She leaned over trying to reach the shoe to propel slip it on her foot, but any ounce of flexibility she had was destroyed by her round belly, and general puffiness.
"Need help?" Steve watched her.
"No-" Peggy rested against the wall and closed her eyes, "Yes. I need help." she admitted in defeat.
Steve walked over and kneeled in front of her slipping the flats on. They weren't the most stylish things in the world, but they didn't hurt her feet so Peggy was sold. He kissed her belly before looking up at her, "Help is good. Accept our help."
Peggy nodded, "How'd you end up with someone so stubborn."
"I was lucky," He helped her up, "Go to work, have a good day Director."
Peggy pecked his lips, "Have a good day Captain."
Peggy walked out of the elevator into the head office level. Maria was talking with a secretary and joined Peggy on her walk (waddle) to the office. "Good morning Director."
"Good morning." Peggy sighed, "How has everything been?"
"Your secretary has your gift of a day's worth of paperwork." Maria through the debriefing.
Peggy pursed her lips, "Hopefully people aren't too eager to see me go. Oh do you know the time for the going away 'surprise' party they are all throwing me?"she already knew. She knew a week ago that it was happening after she saw some of her secretary's friends passing notes agony whispering.
"So much for surprises." Maria laughed.
Peggy laughed, "No one has ever successfully surprised me."
"I'm sure that's not true."
"Oh you're right." Peggy opened her office door and paused, "The blitz caught me off guard." she cracked a smile and went to her desk.
"You always have to bring up the war don't you? You're worse than Steve." Maria walked off down to her office.
Peggy hung her bag up on the coat rack by the door, but grabbed her phone before sitting at her desk. She had a few text but nothing urgent. Something from Trish continuing to ask about the sex of the babies. "Come on, just let me know I won't tell anyone!" She didn't believe that Steve and Peggy didn't know. But they weren't lying when they say they didn't know. They wanted to be surprised, but that means they had to be careful showing anyone the sonogram that would be able to determine the gender. "We don't know, and you won't know for at least a few weeks." Peggy replied then started in on her daily work. Leaving SHIELD if only in a physical sense brought along some stress. Of course she wouldn't be far, but she didn't want anything bad to happen if she could help it. It was her imatia that she was never able to fully delegate tasks she knew she could execute herself.
This brought her to the task of the century Finding a personal assistant. Pepper had been telling her this for a full year, now that her waking up anniversary had passed. Nothing had been so chaotic that she needed someone to help her organize everything, but with the babies on the way she knew it was what she needed. Her secretary was wonderful, but she got a new job working as a white house assistant after a wonderful recommendation from Peggy. She'd figure out, she was sure.
Her assistant walked in, "Can I get you anything?"
"I don't think so." Peggy looked up from her computer, "I'm sure you're happy to get away from me aren't you."
The secretary laughed, "Not at all. I'm going to miss running and getting you Coffee and filing your paperwork for you. But you're kind of a Diva." She joked.
"I am." Peggy played along, "All that fame and fortune has certainly destroyed my humanity hasn't it."
The secretary shook her head, "I feel worse for you. How will you find someone that can replace me?"
"I have a while to do it. I'm going off the radar for a bit anyway. Friends are insisting I stay with them, since Steve doesn't trust me not to get into trouble when he's gone." Peggy exaggerated. It wasn't Steve who was concerned, it was herself. She was never good at staying away from high stress situations. In everything she did there was a sense of urgency or extreme strategy involved. Even in the new era where it seemed socially acceptable to sit on the couch and watch Television all day-a pregnant woman's dream-she couldn't focus.
The phone cut off what she was about to say. She exited to office quickly to take care of the call.
Steve was sitting on the couch re-reading a baby book that was supposed to be good. The door opened and Bucky walked in with a metal arm full of groceries, "I got the stuff." He set the bag down. Peggy had requested the Lasagna Bucky made so well. Her tastes while always fairly unhealthy had gotten out of hand in her pregnancy, especially since all her stomach was so sensitive. "There's one good thing about whatever they did to me." Bucky started putting things away, "I can eat whatever the hell I want."
"I don't know." Steve shrugged, "Kale aint that bad. Organic stuff is good."
Bucky didn't want to shatter his best friends dreams, "How's the book?"
"Same as all the others." Steve set it down, "Nothing's making me feel better about any of it. There's no dad advice for superheroes and secret Agents. Maybe Peggy was right, It's too dangerous."
"For who?" Bucky poured himself something to drink, "The kids?"
"I keep having dreams about the Valkyrie." He said quietly, "About crashing, and I can't afford to do that again."
Bucky sat next to his friend, "Are you going to quit the Avengers?"
Steve opened his mouth to protest, but maybe that was exactly what he was going to do. "I don't know Buck. I have a few more months before the twins are here, but don't you see what I'm saying. I can't stand the thought of making Peggy live through losing me again. And being a father is just going to make everything more important."
"Glad I'm not going to have kids." Bucky chuckled to lighten the mood.
"What do you mean?" Steve shook the subject out of his mind and focused on his friend.
"Well, Nat can't. Not that we're serious or anything."
Steve rubbed the back of his neck, "You're pretty serious. For Natasha's standards. It's been almost a year and you two hang out a lot and-"
"Fondue?" Bucky smirked.
"Shut up." Steve rolled his eyes, "Why does everyone pick on me for everything? But yeah you two are kind of serious."
Bucky inhaled, "Well, Nat can't have kids. But could you imagine me as a dad?" He said like it was ridiculous, "I'm an uncle kind of guy. Take the kid off your hands for a few hours and go to the park, show up randomly with gifts, get into trouble Uncle Bucky."
Steve could see his perspective, "Maybe you should be Captain America. Since I'm going to be the stay at home Dad."
"I'm not the Captain America type. I might have been, but not anymore" It felt more somber than it should have been. Captain America was always a title, something given to him. Steve Rogers was Captain America… Captain America was never limited Steve Rogers.
"I'll talk to Peggy about it. Nothing I can do for a while anyway." Steve handed Bucky the remotes.
"Way to bring the room down Rogers." Bucky punched Steve in the shoulder.
After a few episodes of a crime drama that someone put on their list for mandatory viewing, Peggy opened the door, "I'm home Darling."
"We're in here." Steve announced, "Bucky's here too."
"Damn, I was just going to say how much I hate that man. But I suppose I'll have to keep that internally."
"Not too internally. I don't want those punks coming out hating me." Bucky pointed, "I'm making Lasagna."
"Mmm!" Peggy looked in the fridge seeing the ingredients. "There was a rather silly party they threw for me during lunch." She reached into her purse and tossed a bag in Steve's direction, "Look what Maria gave me."
Steve reached in and pulled out two matching sets of onesies; one had 0-8-4 and the other had the SHIELD logo on them. "Okay, that's kind of cute."
"What's 0-8-4?" Bucky asked looking in the bag to see if there was anything else. There wasn't.
"An object of mysterious origin that needs to be identified by SHIELD if it's dangerous or not." Peggy sat on the other side of Steve, "Thor's Hammer was a 0-8-4."
"The Valkyrie was, before they figured out I was on it." Steve nodded.
"Well then that is pretty cute."
Peggy leaned forward to look at Bucky, "When will you be starting dinner?"
"Whenever the Pregnant Dame wants me to." He shrugged, "I'm guessing you're asking because you'd like it soon."
She grinned, "Please and thank you."