A/N: Note is at the top again this week because, well, I don't really know lol. But ANYWAY. Thank you guys so much for your feedback on last week's gigantic honeymoon chapter lol. I'm glad that most you were happy with it, but there was a few who voiced a bit of dismay of the way that I've written Bucky lately. One of the reviewers I was able to PM and explain my reasons for writing him as I do, but since the other was anon, I figured I'd just give a brief(ish) reply here. This is the review: "I liked the first story that you made and I like this one too but ever since they started to have sex. Bucky has become like a bloody sex addict! I don't like the way you have made him into some guy who just wants sex all the time, even though he has been through a lot, he shouldn't use sex to escape the horrors of it...I mean I like all the characters and you portray them great even Bucky but when it comes to sex, he just wants it a little too much all the time. -_- I'd actually like to see a chapter were they don't have sex in." First, before I say anything, I would like to thank you, anon, for not being a jerk and not flaming me lol, and just expressing your opinions in a non-douchey way. There really aren't enough people who know how to do that, so I appreciate that, and the honesty. Honesty is good! Lol. And just to explain myself a bit - yes, I can see how to some, Bucky (in this story) could be a bit over-enthusiastic about sex lol, and it could get a bit old to read. I get that. However, for a man who has experienced a horrifying amount of pain and torture in his life, I don't think sex is just sex for him. It's more than that. It's a piece of his humanity and it took him quite a bit to get to the point where he could do ANYTHING physical with Summer without freaking out, and he definitely doesn't take it for granted the way other men would. So not only do I see it as therapeutic in a very real way, but there's also the fact that he's very much in love with a woman and is in a healthy relationship with her, and she's JUST as enthusiastic about sex as he is lol. It's just the way that I perceive them and always have, since I started writing this story. Some couples have more restraint, and well, in my mind, they don't lol. Also, they literally did just get married, and honeymoons are pretty much supposed to be chock full of banging. It was also their first time being a house all to themselves and being truly alone, so there were a lot of reasons why I felt it appropriate to write a gigantic chapter of like 70% sexytimes lol. BUT, I do feel the need to point out that there have been plenty of chapters where they don't have sex, like the ones where Summer was recovering from her accident and a good amount of others. Including this following one lol. So anyway, that's what I have to say about that, and I do hope that any readers turned off by the last chapter keep reading, because it was definitely a one time deal lol.
On that note, I am quite happy to now shut up and give you all this chapter :D I think you're all going to like it, and I look forward to your feedback (good or bad! Lol). Thanks and love to you all, and to midnightwings96 as well, as always :D Woo for getting back to Monday updates! Lol :)
On the flight back home from her rather exciting honeymoon week, Summer was nearly buzzing with anticipation. She checked the time constantly, tapping her foot on the floor of the plane, stubborn smile stuck to her face as she got more and more excited the closer they got to being home.
She had loved their week away, and it had been utterly perfect and beyond her wildest dreams for what a honeymoon could be, but she had reached her limit of how far she could be away from her son and she couldn't wait to grab him and squeeze him to death. She had actually cried that morning after having received a few pictures from Steve of the shenanigans David had gotten up to in her absence, and today nothing sounded better than being home with her little family and taking it easy before she had to get back to work the very next day.
"And here I thought you wouldn't want to leave," Bucky remarked, grinning at her as she checked her phone's clock for the roughly thousandth time.
She smiled back and said, "Well, me too, but I just miss David so much."
He nodded. "Yeah. Me too."
"It feels like it's been a month since I've seen him," she sighed. "The longest I'd ever been away from him before was like a day. I hope he didn't have a growth spurt or something while we were gone and now he's like five inches taller."
Bucky chuckled and patted her hand reassuringly. "I doubt that. Just relax. We'll be home soon."
She smiled happily at him and dropped her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "What a week this was."
He grinned and slipped his arm around her shoulders. "Yeah... it was, uh... some week."
"Do you think we peaked with the honeymoon and it's all downhill from here?" she asked, eyes popping open. "Like now we're gonna get home and we'll be one of those couples who are lucky to have sex once a week, because we're used to each other and we're boring now?"
The fact that Bucky laughed at her like she had just said the single most ridiculous thing imaginable instantly let his feelings on the matter be known. He shifted them so that he was looking down at her as he replied, "One thing I know is you'll never be is boring. Not having sex is the last thing you ever need to be worried about."
"Yeah, you say that now, but we're newlyweds. We won't always be newlyweds. And then if I end up having more kids and get fat..."
Bucky rolled his eyes and tugged her closer. "Hush, Summer. Just... stop. You know you're worrying for nothing."
She shrugged. "Yeah. But it's what I do."
"Well, then for now, stop doing what you do," he suggested. "And just be happy."
For him of all people to tell her that, she knew she needed to shut up and make her mind follow suit for once. It wasn't too hard to do, not anymore. After all, she was married to this man now, and that meant a lot.
They touched down in New York early in the afternoon, and they made it off of the plane and out of their gate without incident. It was on their way to pick up their luggage that they spotted a short, dark haired familiar woman and a shorter, equally dark haired little boy next to her, and Summer's excitement was born anew as she started waving exuberantly.
Darcy was the least recognizable and therefore best choice to come and pick them up from an airport as enormous and bustling as JFK, and she smiled and waved happily as David took off in a sprint towards his parents. Summer smiled so wide it hurt and opened her arms as he came closer, and just as she braced for impact and prepared to squeeze the very life out of him... he ran right past her and went to Bucky first instead.
Utterly gobsmacked, Summer turned and watched David all but clobber Bucky in a huge hug that made Bucky light up like a Christmas tree, all while Summer stood with her arms still out, as if unable to believe what she was seeing. Then she turned to Darcy and said, "I've been betrayed. My son is a traitor."
Darcy shrugged, gesturing to Bucky. "I mean, I hate to say it, but you can't really compete with that."
Summer tilted her head, unable to argue with this logic, and then she almost fell over when David attacked her next. She quickly got over her half-hearted offense and leaned down to hug him back, then started gushing. "I missed you so much! Look at you! Did you have fun while we were gone?"
Nodding furiously, David began machine gun-signing to both Bucky and Summer, beaming and doing the equivalent of telling them all of his adventures in one enormous run-on sentence. It was hard to follow him, but Summer did her best. "You... flew around... Manhattan? Ate an entire cake... no, two entire cakes... and... shot... a gun?!"
She immediately looked up at Darcy, who held up her hands and said, "Hey, don't look at me. That kid bounced back and forth between everybody all week. One day he would be stalking Wanda and the next he'd be glued at the hip with Tony."
"Tony?" Summer repeated, face paling. "Oh God..."
"I don't think it was an actual gun. I heard Tony say something about some new prototype that he was testing and -"
Summer held up her hand and shook her head. "Just... you know what, I don't want to know. I don't want to know. Let's just go home and nobody tell me anything about all the creepy dangerous things David did all week."
With that, David continued beaming happily and grabbed each of their free hands as Darcy led the way to the car waiting outside. Halfway there, Summer glanced down at Bucky and David's joined hands, then shook her head and smiled as she told Bucky quietly, "I can't believe he went to you first."
His answering smile was genuine, warming her from the inside out as he replied honestly, "I can't either."
She couldn't even pretend to be unhappy about the semi-snub. In reality, it made her ridiculously happy to see a bond of that caliber being formed between her son and his adoptive father. It was all she had ever wanted for David and far more than she had ever thought they'd be lucky enough to get.
After piling in the car, David silently regaled them with more tales of his adventures the whole way home, and he didn't stop even when they'd arrived at the tower and were on their way up on the elevator. He took to acting out the scenes, zooming around the enclosed space with his hands out to mimic flying, and Summer was chuckling at his antics when the doors opened and she found herself back home.
And it truly was home, because the first thing she saw was Steve and Tony bickering near the kitchen over something, while Natasha and Pepper sat nearby and sighed. But once Summer stepped off the elevator, both women instantly perked up and smiled as Darcy announced, "The newlyweds are back! Get the bottles of bleach ready!"
Summer rolled her eyes but grinned excitedly as she left her bag with Bucky and then dashed off towards the people she had missed a great deal over the last week. Natasha was the first to get up and give her a hug, which Summer would never get sick of considering how their relationship had begun, and then Steve was next, incredibly happy to see them back and wearing a very knowing expression as he greeted them both.
Summer smiled as Steve gave Bucky a one-armed hug, at which point Tony piped up and asked her, "So, is my house still standing? Is it a biohazard? Do I need to call the CDC to have it properly cleaned?"
"Yes, it's still standing," she sighed. "And no. No CDC necessary."
Pepper sighed right along with her and shook her head. "He wouldn't be Tony if he didn't ask."
Summer nodded, and then Tony shrugged and said, "Next time I go there, I'm taking a giant black light with me. Just to make sure. I trust my cleaning crews but..."
"Okay, that's enough," Pepper smiled sweetly before turning back to Summer. "So, have you had lunch?"
"No, actually," Summer replied.
"Good," Natasha answered, "because we're taking you out and you're going to tell us all about your week away."
"... I am?" Summer asked, eyes a bit wide. She glanced at Bucky, who only shrugged as Natasha grabbed her hand and began dragging her out the door, all of ten minutes after she'd walked in. "But... David..."
David merely smiled and waved goodbye to her, stuck happily at Bucky's side, and Summer narrowed her eyes playfully at the boy as Pepper and Nat steered her towards the elevator.
"I'll be right behind you guys," Darcy called as Summer was hustled into the elevator. "I'll go grab Wanda."
"Is this like a bachelorette party reunion?" Summer asked, smiling and shrugging at Bucky just before the doors closed.
"That's exactly what it is," Natasha replied.
"But without the random male strippers this time, right?"
"Considering it's three in the afternoon," Pepper smiled, "I think you're safe."
"Phew," Summer sighed with relief. Still, one could never be too sure. As far as she was concerned, Thor's human dancer counterpart could be hiding anywhere.
As the girls made their way to lunch, Bucky sat at the kitchen table with Steve and and Sam, David still glued to his side and drawing a picture with intense concentration next to him. Steve glanced at David and said, "I'd ask how the honeymoon went, but... little ears, so..."
"It went... very well," Bucky nodded, trying to keep his face impassive, but the way that Steve grinned at him told him that he looked as stupid as he felt inside. The good kind of stupid. "Very... nice."
Sam glanced at Bucky, then Steve, then back to Bucky. "I'm just gonna come right out and ask it. How pregnant is she?"
Bucky grinned and stifled a laugh at that particular question. "Probably not, but..."
Sam raised an eyebrow. "Uh huh, sure."
After a brief pause, Steve fidgeted in his seat slightly before asked, "How, um... how did the... surprise... she planned for you turn out?"
Bucky paused and stared at Steve in mild confusion. "You knew about that?"
"I walked in on that," Steve said with wide eyes, like the image was forever emblazoned on his memory, for better or worse.
"Walked in on what?" Sam asked.
"I... little ears," Steve gestured helplessly towards David, who was oblivious but still very present.
Not missing a beat, Bucky switched to French and asked, "What did you walk in on?"
Steve's eyes lit up in sudden realization, as if he had forgotten that they shared a language other than English. Following suit, Steve replied, "I walked in on Summer... practicing on Natasha."
Bucky's eyes widened and he leaned in slightly closer. "You saw Summer dancing on her?"
Steve nodded, face heating up in an instant slight blush. "In lingerie and everything."
Bucky stared at his friend in slight jealousy. Not that he was complaining, but why couldn't he have been the one to catch a glimpse of that?
"She jumped off as soon as I walked in, and I don't know who was more embarrassed, me or her," Steve went on, cringing at the memory. "Then Nat made me sit down and demonstrated part of the... uh... lap dance on me."
Bucky furrowed his brows. "... The beginning of the story was better."
Steve nodded. "Then Tony walked in."
Meanwhile, Sam sat there listening to the two men converse in what may as well have been jibberish, as lost as David was to what they were saying. He waved his hand and said, "Can't you all switch to Spanish? I know some Spanish."
Switching back to English for a moment, Steve replied, "I haven't learned Spanish yet."
Sam rolled his eyes. "Well, what the hell, man. What was the surprise?"
When neither man seemed willing to even drop a hint in front of David, Sam sighed, stood up and leaned across the table, then slapped his hands over David's ears and raised his eyebrows. "I'm waiting."
"Natasha taught Summer a burlesque dance to surprise him with on their wedding night," Steve whispered hastily, just to be extra safe.
Sam's eyebrows shot up his head and he pulled his hands away, sitting back down in his seat as he grinned. "Oh really?"
Bucky only had a minute to grin faintly before Steve switched back to French and asked, "So, how did it go?"
His mind drifting back to that dance... that perfect, amazing, beautiful dance... Bucky's grin widened as he shook his head slightly and said, "I'll just start from the beginning."
"Just start from the beginning," Natasha suggested, sipping a cocktail and sitting next to Summer at their little table on the patio of a restaurant not far from the tower.
Summer eyed her own drink, not really wanting it because it was early and her appetite for alcohol was all but gone following her wine binge from only two nights earlier. Then she glanced at the others, Pepper, Darcy and Wanda, all sitting there and waiting for her to get on with the story of how her dance turned out, and she smiled before shrugging, "It, um... well, it went very well. Like a little too well."
"How exactly does a stripper dance - sorry, burlesque dance - go too well?" Darcy asked, already over halfway down with her own drink.
"Um, well... so... okay," Summer sighed, trying to figure out how to tell the story without being too detailed. "So I... uh... I turned on the record and sat him down, and... got... started... oh, and he had the room like filled with rose petals and candles, so that was a nice little... extra touch, and..."
"... Yes?" Natasha grinned, egging her on.
"... And I pulled it off pretty well," Summer admitted. "No mess-ups. It went just like when we practiced, except better."
"Was he dying?" Darcy asked.
"Oh yeah," Summer grinned. "F-bombs everywhere. I think first he was in shock, and then when he got over that, he was just... yeah."
"Just yeah?" Pepper repeated, amused.
"He got... really into it," Summer recalled, staring off into space for a moment as she relived those perfect few moments of her life. "Like, he got so into it that in the end, after the lap dancing and stuff, when I got back on his lap and kissed him as the song ended, he kinda..."
All four women at her table leaned in closer just barely, and Darcy asked, "Kinda what?"
"Um..." Rather than force herself to say the words, Summer mimed a gun with her hand and then pretended to shoot it into the air. "Boom."
Pepper leaned back with a sudden, "Oh my... God."
"Oh hell yeah," Darcy laughed, downing the rest of her drink.
Wanda said nothing, expression caught between mild intrigue and the horror of just not really wanting to imagine her friends in such a scenario. She drank her own cocktail with wide eyes as Natasha smiled warmly at Summer and said, "You should be proud of yourself. You couldn't have asked for a better... outcome."
"Oh I know," Summer replied, face aflame. "I couldn't believe it. I kind of still can't. Because you remember what we practiced, and the lap dance didn't last that long. I wasn't trying to make him do that... but I guess he just..." she shrugged and giggled, blushing like an idiot.
"Well, damn," Darcy said, "when I get married someday, I want to learn how to do that. That's hot. Does he usually have... you know... trigger-happy issues?"
Wanda choked on her drink, and Summer smiled before replying, "Not since the very first time we slept together. He's got pretty good control and... you know... stamina..."
"So what happened afterwards?" Natasha asked casually.
Summer's blush deepened, and she muttered, "Um, well, we talked for like... two minutes, and then..."
"And then what?" Darcy asked, clearly greedy for more details.
"He... basically... killed me, over and over and over and... over..."
"As he should have," Natasha replied approvingly.
In the midst of this, Wanda couldn't help but ask, "Is this... common for weddings here?"
"Not really," Darcy replied helpfully. "I mean, all the banging, yeah. But the dancing, not so much. Besides, you have to keep in mind, Wanda, they're not humans. They are bunnies who look like humans."
Wanda glanced at Summer and laughed quietly, and Summer covered her face with her hand. "Oh my God."
"Oh my God."
Still conversing in French, Bucky couldn't help but laugh at the bewildered look on Steve's rather red face. Telling him things that made him blush and squirm would never, ever get old, because his reactions would never cease to be hilarious.
Meanwhile, Sam was glaring at them both. "This isn't fair. I want to know why Cap's as red as the stripes on the flag."
Ignoring Sam for now, Steve recovered enough to say, "Nat's... danced for me before, but I've never..."
Bucky shrugged, grin permanently fixed to his face. "Well, it had been a few weeks since we'd done anything. Not that it mattered. I still would have lost it."
Steve gulped quietly. "That's... wow."
"Perfect way to start the honeymoon," Bucky grinned, the memory of her dance definitely high on his list of favorites. If he thought about it too long, however, he'd have a problem soon, so he tried to keep the conversation moving. "The whole week was incredible."
"... Seems kinda like the first night would be hard to live up to," Steve noted.
Bucky shrugged again. "We made it work."
Steve wrestled with the dilemma of wanting to know but also kind of not wanting to know before he asked anyway. "What did you all... do the whole week?"
... Where to even start?
"First we did it in the bed," Summer said, recalling the first day. "Actually, the whole first day was in the bed. But then after that, there was the couch... the tub, the shower... the table, the counters, the stairs... the floor... uh... oh, the balcony. The um... hot tub... rental car... the lake..."
She glanced slightly nervously at Pepper, who was unfazed. "We knew what we were getting into when we offered you the house. It's fine."
Summer nodded, and then Natasha asked lightly, "Did you find my present in your suitcase?"
Eyes widening and blush returning, Summer replied, "Um, yes. Some warning would have been nice, you know."
Natasha grinned. "That would have ruined the surprise."
"You got me -" she halted before she blurted out something embarrassing. She then lowered her tone to a whisper and hissed, "You got me things that go places where things shouldn't go!"
"I wanted to be thorough," Natasha shrugged innocently. "I thought you might be feeling adventurous and want to try new things, that's all."
"I don't think I'll ever want to try those kinds of new things," Summer muttered. "I had a heart attack when I dumped out that bag."
Natasha laughed surprisingly heartily at that, then said, "Well, I'm sure you found a use for some of it."
Summer nodded and sighed. "Well, the... passion fruit flavored... stuff... was interesting."
"Passion... fruit?" Steve repeated, still in French, slight bewilderment now a permanent fixture on his flushed face.
Bucky nodded. "It was... tingly."
Steve blew out a deep breath, processing everything he'd been told in the last few minutes. Then Bucky waited for Steve to take a drink of the water bottle sitting in front of him, at which point he casually asked, "Ever role played before?"
When Steve choked immediately, Bucky laughed and Sam slammed his hand on the table and muttered, "You both suck."
"So basically, I acted like this sweet innocent girl and he acted like... well, he was kinda... himself, but a soldier, and we acted like strangers and it was... hot."
Darcy glanced at Wanda and said, "I hope you're taking notes."
"Notes?" Wanda repeated, and Darcy nodded.
"Yeah, for when you start dating, because I totally plan on trying some of this stuff with Sam later."
"Tony tried the roleplaying thing with me one time, but he was drunk and it didn't really work," Pepper recalled. "He pretended to my secretary. It was okay until he fell off my desk. He needed four stitches in his forehead. But you didn't hear that from me."
Summer stared at her boss and replied, "You know, I can totally picture that."
Pepper nodded. "He tried to just get up and keep going, but then he got blood on my nice white skirt and I wasn't happy."
Darcy then looked at Wanda and said, "That's not going in my notes."
"I've always wanted to act out something where Steve is my student," Natasha said thoughtfully, swirling her drink in its glass. "Which he basically was at first, but now that he's confident and very good at what he does..."
She trailed off when she noticed Summer staring at her silently, but with increasingly pink cheeks. It took her a moment to blink, shake it off, and then say, "Oh my God, I just pictured that like way too well. Like I went full teacher-student with an apple on the desk and everything."
Natasha chuckled and shrugged. "I might have to do that one of these days."
Darcy bumped Wanda's shoulder. "Hey, you could totally do a Star Trek thing. Androids, half-Vulcans who are basically robots. It's perfect."
"What?" Wanda asked, utterly lost on both what Star Trek was and who she was supposed to play such a role with.
Darcy sighed. "Never mind."
Summer then smiled at each lady at her table and said, "Well, this has been fun."
"It has," Pepper agreed. "Oh, and I'm sorry for Tony's other gift."
"What other gift?" Summer asked in confusion.
"It's in your room," Pepper shrugged. "It wasn't my idea. Although I'm sure it'll come in handy from time to time."
Summer was suddenly intrigued. What the heck would she find when she got home?
Bucky and Steve continued their top-secret talk into the late afternoon, discussing both the sweet and the scandalous aspects of the honeymoon and everything in between, all while Sam gave them the stink-eye and David didn't budge from the table the entire time. They didn't stop until the elevator dinging alerted them to the return of their women.
Summer and Natasha left the elevator first, laughing amongst themselves and stealing the attention of Bucky and Steve the minute they came into view. Summer was still blushing after what Bucky was sure had been an interesting conversation over lunch, and when David saw that she had come back, he got up and excitedly showed her the picture he'd been working on in her absence.
Bucky had been watching David as he'd drawn the picture, so he fully expected the way that Summer took it in her hands and then lit up with glee. "Oh wow! This is really good! And it's so sweet! Thank you, David!"
After hugging the happy little boy, she took the picture to the refrigerator and stuck it right on the middle of the door. It was a picture of the three of them at the wedding, not quite stick figures anymore but pretty close, and it was adorable. Summer came bounding towards Bucky then, leaning down and kissing him lightly before glancing at Steve and asking them both, "Have fun while I was gone?"
"It's always fun making Steve's head explode," Bucky shrugged. "How about you?"
"Oh, I, uh... yeah, fun," she smiled, and Bucky could only imagine how the girls had wrung all the details of the last week out of her over their little late lunch. "I'll be right back, I need to check my room for something."
He nodded, kissing her when she leaned down to give him one more peck before heading off towards the hallway, David trailing behind her. As she left, Steve smiled at her and then looked away, shaking his head slightly and blinking.
"You okay?" Bucky asked him, thoroughly amused.
"I will be once I get the images out of my head that you put there," Steve smiled with false sincerity.
Sam merely shook his head. "I'll get Darcy to tell me everything, since you guys won't fill me in."
"Sam," Steve sighed, "I'm not sure I could repeat some of the things he told me even if I wanted to."
Sam merely gave him a look and then got up from the table, calling after Darcy with impressive determination in his voice. Bucky glanced at Steve, who seemed to contemplate something for a moment before he asked very quietly, "Wasn't it weird? The very last thing you told me? Where you... while she watched and..."
Bucky shook his head. "Nope. Honestly nothing has ever felt weird with her, at all. We're always on the same page and it just... works. Works perfect."
Steve nodded, smile returning as he replied, "Well, on a more serious note, I couldn't be happier for you. I'm glad everything went great. You deserve it."
He might still disagree with that statement for the most part, but Bucky chose to accept it for the time being. "Thanks."
Steve smiled, nodded and then made to stand up. "Okay. I'm going to go try and forget most of what you just told me, otherwise I don't know how long it will be until I can look your wife in the eye again."
Bucky laughed quietly, watching his friend walk off and then looking around the tower as he found himself alone for the moment.
He really was happy to be back. In fact, he was simply happy, very much so, in general.
Summer found Tony's "present" sitting in her room, at the floor near the foot of her bed and wrapped in Cupid-print wrapping paper. Eyeing the somewhat large box warily, she glanced at David and asked, "Wanna help me open it?"
He nodded happily, and then they sat down on the floor and got started on unwrapping the mysterious gift. Considering how efficient of a wrapping-paper-ripper David was, it took them less than a second to get it all off and find the nondescript box it had been masking. Taking a breath, she then tore off the tape holding it shut, and once the top flaps were free, she pulled them open and they both peered inside.
David immediately tilted his head in confusion. Summer took one look at the contents and sighed heavily.
"That bastard," she muttered, though with a smile. Then she quickly amended with a glance at David, "I mean, that jerk."
Tony Stark had given her a box containing approximately two hundred early response pregnancy tests. She plucked one out of the box and shook her head, grinning as she read the labels declaring the tests 99.9% accurate and recommended by the most doctors, laughing to herself.
"Well then, at least now I'm set for life when it comes to pregnancy tests," she observed, tossing the test back into the box.
But she doubted she would need them any time soon. She took the box into the bathroom and shoved it under the sink, and forgot about it entirely within the next two days.
Their first night home, and each one thereafter, David went to bed with an enormous smile on his face thanks to having both of his parents there to read him to sleep. They made sure to make it a nightly routine, regardless of how tired or busy either of them were, and they all three settled back in to life as usual with ease. Summer and Bucky each went back to work, and life went on much as it always had, with a few marked differences.
Summer got to get used to introducing herself to new contacts as Summer Barnes, and Bucky would at times drift off in his head as he stared at his wedding band, hardly able to believe that he really was married now. Summer got a huge thrill out of the technically mundane process of getting a new driver's license and social security card, reflecting the new name, and when David's own new social security card came, it made him just as happy to see his name in official print as it did her.
In short, everything was pretty close to perfect and felt incredibly right. And yet, despite all of that, only one week after arriving home, Summer found herself utterly exhausted and asleep face-first on her desk late in the afternoon.
She had slept right past the end of her shift when her phone rang next to her head and made her shoot up with a squeal, grabbing the phone and answering it with a bewildered, "Hello?"
"You off yet?" Bucky asked on the other end.
Scrutinizing the clock on her desk, Summer squinted and then nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I am, I just... fell asleep."
"... Fell asleep? In your office?"
"Yeah, it's weird, I don't know," she shrugged. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, you just got a couple new letters in the mail and I thought you'd want to come open them."
She groaned. "I've already gotten four rejection letters this week. And a few emails. You may as well open them and save me the angst."
"You don't know that it's rejections," he pointed out. "Get out of your office and get home before I come get you myself."
"Ooh, feeling bossy today?" she teased, getting up and getting her things together in preparation to leave.
"Maybe. What's for dinner?"
She groaned again, grabbing her purse and heading for the door. "I don't know. I don't feel like making anything."
His silence betrayed his shock at such a concept. "You... what?"
"I'm just really tired," she explained, strolling out of her office and into the hallway. "I must not have slept enough last night."
"You slept for eleven hours," he pointed out. "You fell asleep at nine."
She frowned, making her way to the elevator and then shrugging, "Well, whatever. Then I went too light on the coffee today. But I'll be down there in like two minutes, so I'll see you then."
"Bye, kitten," he replied playfully, and she grinned at the pet name before hanging up and stepping inside the elevator. She then sighed and leaned against the wall, closing her eyes. She really was tired.
Once she got to the floor she resided on, she stepped out and immediately took off her heels as she headed towards Bucky near the kitchen. David was sitting at the table with a snack and his tablet, deeply embroiled in some game or another. Bucky greeted her with a soft kiss and a grin that she would never get sick of, and then he handed over the letters with a quiet, "Good luck."
She rolled her eyes at him and tore into the first envelope. "We already know what it's gonna say. No use in getting hopeful now."
Bucky gave her a look, but just as she predicted, the first letter was indeed a rejection, as was the second. Steve and Natasha and a handful of others had ended up streaming into the living room as she had opened the letters, none of them paying her much mind as she tossed the papers into the trash.
"And now for strike number three," Summer said, opening the third and final envelope as Bucky watched with his arms crossed. She gave him a look that dared him to express more optimism, and he didn't say a word as she pulled out the letter and scanned over the first paragraph.
She froze, then narrowed her eyes and reread the paragraph from the beginning. After reading the entire letter and feeling her heart drop into her stomach, she read it again, then again, and just to be sure she wasn't hallucinating, again.
"What's it say?" Bucky asked, watching her expression go from stunned to disbelieving to simply and utterly pale and shocked.
She leaned back against the counter, suddenly feeling woozy as she said, "They... they actually liked my book. They're interested. They want to meet me and sign me and oh my God!"
She looked up from the letter and watched Bucky's face light up with a huge smile. "Are you serious?"
"Yes!" she exclaimed, hands shaking as she shoved the letter towards him. "Read it! Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God..."
As she continued chanting, she began pacing and trying to remember how to breathe. She had been so prepared and ready for rejections that she had never really stopped to think what she would do if a publisher showed real interest, and now that one was, she had no idea what to even do.
"This is great, Summer," Bucky grinned after reading the letter. "I'm proud of you. I told you it would happen."
"What happened?" Steve asked, wandering their way and eyeing the letter with interest.
Bucky handed Steve the letter and then smiled proudly, "My girl's getting published."
"Really?" Steve smiled brightly, taking the letter and reading it for himself. Natasha headed over next to see what all the fuss was about, and the more smiles and hugs and words of congratulations that she got, the closer Summer got to hyperventilating.
"This is actually happening," she smiled, hands still shaking and heart pounding after Natasha had given her a hug. "Oh my God, it's actually happening."
"Excited?" Steve grinned, patting her shoulder.
She nodded furiously. "Yeah. Yup. Actually I'm so excited I think I might throw up."
Everybody laughed, but her own smile faded slightly with a sudden turn of her stomach that did not feel like pleasant flutters.
"Oh God. I'm gonna actually throw up."
Everybody then paused and stared as she slapped a hand over her mouth and ran for the nearest bathroom. Steve and Natasha both immediately glanced at Bucky as she ran off, but he merely shrugged at their inquisitive looks.
"Does she always do that when she's excited?" Natasha asked, a knowing but subtle glint in her eye.
"Not really," Bucky replied, folding up the letter and carefully placing it back into its envelope. "I'll go check on her."
Meanwhile, as Summer struggled to throw up the rather meager contents of her stomach, her excitement for the letter still didn't wane, even as she continued to heave long after there was anything left to come up. Once that lovely time passed, she sat back on her heels and leaned against the bathroom wall, unsurprised when she heard the door open and then felt a hand on her shoulder.
Bucky sat next to her on the floor, smiling sympathetically as he asked, "Are you okay?"
"Peachy, now," she sighed, trembling from both the excitement and the sudden sickness. "I don't even know what that was. I feel fine now, though."
"Good. Here," he muttered quietly, getting up and getting her a cup of water from the sink, and when he returned, she gratefully took the cup as well as the hand he offered to help her to her feet.
After sipping the water and then brushing her teeth, she turned off the sink and then took a deep breath before turning around and smiling hugely at her husband. "I'm gonna get published."
"Yes you are. Are you sure you're okay?"
"I feel perfectly fine now," she assured him, grinning even wider. "I'm gonna get published!"
She then squealed and jumped into his arms, and he laughed at her sudden exuberance and burst of energy following her odd initial reaction to the news.
"And to think," she grinned when he set her down on her feet, "this is all happening because of my drunken ramblings plus my idea to write you a story for your birthday."
"You should get drunk and write me dirty stories more often," he joked, leaning down and kissing her chastely as she giggled.
After stealing a few more moments together, they walked back into the kitchen are and Summer made a beeline for her purse, excitedly digging through it to find her phone. Once she had it, she texted Paul, who was working and couldn't answer a personal call at the moment.
GUESS WHO'S GETTING THEIR BOOK PUBLISHED, she text-yelled, sitting in her seat and bouncing in it as she read over the letter yet again, as if its content might have changed while she'd been hurling.
His answer came within less than a minute. ARE YOU SERIOUS BECAUSE IF YOU'RE JOKING I WILL KILL YOU.
She grinned and rapidly replied, I AM TOTALLY SERIOUS ITS HAPPENING AKSKSDKDKKDKDDKD!111!1
In the midst of the jubilant and mildly incoherent texting, David wandered over to her to see what all the fuss was about, so she held up the letter for him to see and explained, "Mama's gonna be a real author now! You know how I write stuff on the computer, and I worked really hard this last year on a book?" He nodded, and she smiled, "Well, a company wants to print my book and sell it to people in stores!"
His eyes widened, and she squealed all over again and gave him a hug as her spirits continued to soar. She still couldn't believe that this was real and it was happening, after so long of thinking she'd never get around to actually doing anything substantial with what she considered to be her primary talent, and yet, here she was.
First the wedding, then the honeymoon, and now this. How could it possibly get any better?
Summer had the following day off. Despite again sleeping well beyond her usual seven or eight hours, she dragged herself out of bed tired and ready to crawl back in to sleep some more, forcing herself to get up and get some work done. She spent half an hour dealing with work emails, then another half an hour with emails to her potential new publisher as they discussed the details of their offer. Her excitement was still at ridiculously high levels, and they stayed that way after she closed her laptop and headed into the kitchen to make breakfast while her boys still slept.
Natasha and Sam were already up and moving about the kitchen by the time Summer made her way there, and she excitedly shared more details of the book situation as she mindlessly began the process of making pancakes. She'd memorized the recipe everybody liked best ages ago, so it was all routine as she mixed the ingredients and then got started cooking.
"I'm hoping they won't want to edit the book too much," Summer said, flipping the first few pancakes as Nat stood nearby with her coffee. "I mean, I know they'll edit it some and they'll have their opinions, but... just as long as they leave the major points alone, I'm fine with that."
Natasha nodded. "I wouldn't worry too much right now. Just see how it goes and if you need help negotiating, I can give you tips on how to be persuasive."
Summer gave her a cautious look. "Tips on being persuasive from the Black Widow. Should I be scared?"
"Maybe," Natasha grinned, sipping her coffee.
"Watch out there," Sam interjected, walking past them with a plate in hand and some kind of omelet on it. "Pretty sure most of her tips are illegal."
"Well, I'll figure it out," Summer grinned, then froze when the scent of something horrible hit her nose. It came directly from Sam's plate, and it took her a minute to figure out what it was.
It was mushrooms. And typically, she was a fan of mushrooms, at least in certain cases. But in that moment, for some reason, they smelled like the absolute worst scent that she had ever had the displeasure of sniffing in her entire life.
She went pale so fast that Natasha noticed, lowering her cup of coffee as she asked with sudden concern, "Are you okay?"
"Uh..." Sweating suddenly, shaking, and mouth watering as the dreaded mushroom smell wreaked pure havoc on her stomach, Summer paused mid-pancake-flip and gripped the counter for support as everything started to spin.
"Summer," Natasha repeated, louder this time.
"I'm fine," she insisted, though deep down, she knew that she was not fine. "I just... uh..."
But Natasha was no fool, and she didn't hesitate before asking, "When was your last period?"
Summer whipped her head around and stared at the other woman as Sam paused halfway to the table, turned around and then said, "Oh God, I know what that means."
"I don't... I mean, I'd have to look at my phone, but I'm not... oh God." Summer shoved the spatula at Natasha, leaving her in charge of the pancakes as she ran off for the second time in less than twenty four hours to throw up. On her way to her bathroom, she smacked into Bucky, who had been wandering out of his room half-asleep, then shoved him out the way as she hurried to make it to the bathroom in time.
"Summer?" he asked, squinting and blinking as she ran away. The sound of her slamming the bathroom door shut and promptly throwing up quite loudly made his eyes widen in sudden concern and confusion.
Summer couldn't decide what was more confusing; why she was puking, or why it felt strangely almost good to be puking. The act itself was painful and gross, of course, but the second she was done, she immediately felt better, just as she had the day before, and she hadn't felt anything like that since... well, over six years ago.
Bucky came into the bathroom to check on her after she flushed the toilet, then dragged herself off the floor to brush her teeth for the second time in an hour. She glanced at his reflection in the mirror as he walked in and closed the door behind him, and she sighed as she rinsed out her mouth and then flipped off the water. "I'm okay."
"Are you?" he asked, eyeing her skeptically. "You don't look okay."
Her eyes darted to her own reflection, and she couldn't disagree. She was as pale as a ghost, and that was not a look she was used to seeing on herself. Recalling Natasha's question, she pulled her phone out from her pocket and clicked on an app that she hadn't looked at in about a month.
The minute she opened up her nifty little period-tracker and saw the words you are two days overdue! all cheerfully spelled out over the mildly obnoxious background of pink flowers, she became even paler and realized that she was actually in some potential trouble.
"What?" Bucky asked, expression growing more and more concerned the paler and freaked out-looking she became. "Summer, what?"
"Um... hold on," she said, checking the app's calendar for the last month. While it wasn't 100% accurate, the app listed her "fertile days" between each cycle, and just to be thorough, she checked which days her last ones had fallen on. She then started laughing, because her very last "fertile day" had been none other than her wedding day, and she had been too busy and distracted the whole month to see this until now.
"Summer, if you don't tell me what's going on-"
"I might be pregnant," she blurted out, locking her phone and setting it on the bathroom counter. She then watched his face as it shifted from concerned and confused to a little more wide-eyed and understanding but instantly stunned.
"Oh," he said quietly.
"Yeah."
They stood there staring at each other for a moment, her chewing her lip and him personifying a deer in headlights, neither saying a word. But then she remembered her lifetime supply of pregnancy tests under the sink thanks to Tony Stark, so she looked away and quickly ducked down, throwing open the cabinet door and pulling out the box as Bucky stood there and watched in a stupor.
After opening the box, retrieving one of the many tests in there and straightening up to face Bucky again, he asked her with wide eyes, "Why do you have so many of those?"
"Gag gift from Tony," she shrugged, opening the little pink box and pulling out an individually wrapped test. "Though I guess it's coming in handy, right?"
She smiled uneasily, and Bucky swallowed, staring at the test like it held his very fate in his hands, and Summer was suddenly overcome with worry that if the test came out positive, he wouldn't react well to it. After all, this was very fast, and though they already had a kid, a baby would be a brand new experience filled with all new challenges that they hadn't faced yet. Of course, they had agreed to stop using birth control prior to the wedding, but...
"Are you... mad?" she asked, voice sounding vaguely like that of a mouse.
"No," he shook his head quickly, to her relief. "No, I'm not mad. I'm just... surprised. This is really..."
"Fast, I know," she nodded. "Well, let me take the test. Could just be the flu for all I know."
He nodded, but he didn't budge from where he was standing or take his eyes off of her. She looked around awkwardly, then muttered, "Are you gonna turn around, or..."
Snapping out of it, he nodded and turned around, staring at the door while she sighed and got down to business, still in shock that this could be happening so soon. If she actually did get pregnant on their wedding night, it meant that Bucky had knocked her up the very first time they'd slept together with her fully off the shot. And that was just ridiculous. Apparently, lightning sometimes did strike twice.
The first time she had ever taken a pregnancy test, it had been while she was very much alone, and she had cried herself to sleep after it came out positive. This time, there was a distinct flutter of excitement and anticipation as she took the test, replaced the cap on it, and then set it down on the counter to wait for the three minutes it took to yield a result.
"You can turn around now," she said once she was done and her still-shaking hands were washed, some water thrown on her face for good measure. Bucky turned around, looked at her and then the test, and she slid to the floor to sit with her back to the sink cabinet as she explained, "We'll find out in three minutes."
He nodded and silently sat next to her, staring ahead just as she was.
It was the second-longest three minutes of her life.
Bucky's mind was racing. It couldn't happen this fast, could it?
They had talked about this before, and he had even his own fertility checked out by a doctor in the last few months, so it wasn't as if the possibility a baby had never crossed his mind before. He'd just thought they would have longer before they'd have to think about this. Maybe a few months, or six, or... a few years, even. Two weeks following the wedding seemed a bit fast.
In the midst of his brain going a mile a minute, he felt Summer's hand gently reach to hold one of his. He looked at her, and in her eyes he saw many things - fear, anxiety, happiness, excitement - but most of all, he saw love. She had so much of it within her, not just in her heart but in her very being, and he could picture her showering that love on a little baby so vividly and clearly that it made his own heart feel a bit warmer.
But it wouldn't be just any little baby. It would be their baby, his baby, a brand new little person that would change their lives forever. A son, a daughter, a brother or sister to David. A little bundle of both joy and nearly paralyzing fear because he had no idea what to do with a baby. It had taken him long enough to figure out what to do with a five or six year old - what if he was awful at it and the baby hated him?
"Bucky?" she asked quietly, her eyes wide as she looked at him. He realized that he must have looked at utterly terrified as he felt.
"How much longer?"
She checked her phone. "Minute and a half."
He nodded. "Are we ready for this?"
Her answer was surprisingly calm. "We're way more prepared than I was with David."
He nodded again, then furrowed his brows and rephrased the question. "Am I ready for this?"
Her eyes softened instantly, and she held his hand a bit tighter. "Well... I mean, nobody ever really is. That just seems to be the way it is. But you learn as you go. I did."
"But you're different," he muttered, looking away and staring at the floor. "You're..."
"... I'm what?" she smiled. "I was a kid. I had no idea what I was doing and I had nobody there to help me. But you're not alone. You've got me and we'll figure it out, if I actually am pregnant."
Bucky shook his head, still staring forward. "I don't even have two arms to hold a baby."
"Yes you do," she replied quietly. "A baby isn't gonna care that one's made of metal."
"It will if I accidentally hurt it," he muttered.
"You've never hurt me," she reminded him. "Or David. You can play the piano with that hand and do other... delicate... things with it. I trust your control over it. And I don't think that's really what you're worried about."
She knew him too well. He looked at her a bit helplessly, silent for a moment until he asked, "What kind of life is a baby going to have with me as its father?"
"A happy one, just like David has," she replied without missing a beat. "It's gonna be just like what you have with him. Only this time, you get to be there from the very beginning."
He still had his worries, and he knew he always would. There were voices in his head that liked to pipe up and get louder in moments like these, ones where he was on the cusp of having something amazing, and they were screaming at him now. But nothing quieted those old voices faster than the words of the woman sitting next to him, and her ever-stubborn faith in him. It was easy to believe that her words could be true when she believed so fully and wholeheartedly that they already were.
She smiled at him and then checked her phone. "Oh. It's actually been five minutes."
They both scrambled up to look at the test so quickly that it made them both dizzy. They peered down at the innocent-looking stick to get their answer, and once he saw it for himself, Bucky felt a small smile start to bloom on his face despite the still-present fear within.
He couldn't believe it.
"Oh my God, I'm actually pregnant," Summer gasped, swaying on her feet the minute she saw the two pink lines on the test. The second one wasn't even lighter than the first, which she knew was usually the case with such tests - no, both lines were bright and thick and may as well have been exclaiming in giant neon lights, congratulations, you got knocked up by a super soldier with expert-sniper-level aim! You're not just pregnant, you are super-pregnant!
Bucky held her to keep her from falling over, and when she broke out into near-hysterical giggles, he turned her around and pulled her into a tight hug against his chest. His fingers running through her hair, she laughed until she cried, and then laughed even more when she realized he was laughing too.
And to think she'd ever been worried for his fertility, or thought briefly that they might have trouble conceiving. Clearly, that worry was entirely unfounded.
When the laughter ran its course and she pulled away a bit, wiping her eyes and looking up at Bucky and all but melting when she saw the genuine happiness in his own slightly-shiny eyes, Summer finally got to experience what it was like to have what she had missed out on the first time around. Not only was she not alone this time, but getting pregnant had been her choice, and the man who had gotten her pregnant was no loser who would be running for the hills any time soon.
This was what it was supposed to feel like, and she treasured that happy, excited, exhilarating feeling all the more for having experienced the very opposite in the past.
"Do you realize what this means?" she asked him, voice wobbly for how teary she still was. He shook his head, and she grinned, "It means I got pregnant on our wedding night."
He laughed, and it made her laugh even more herself. "That's ridiculous."
"I know!" she exclaimed happily. "Everybody's gonna make fun of us so bad!"
"I don't care," he grinned before kissing her, and she savored every last bit of the sweet moment before a knock on the door interrupted them.
It wasn't just any knock. It's was David's signature knock, which meant that he was awake and likely highly annoyed that his bathroom was locked. Summer grinned excitedly and hurried to the door, unlocking it and then throwing it open before all but squeaking, "David, guess what?"
The boy blinked up at her, clad in pajamas and quite sleepy still, having no idea of the news that she was about to unload on him.
"I'm pregnant!" she announced. When he merely stared at her blankly, she rephrased, "We're having a baby! You're gonna have a brother or sister!"
His big brown eyes widened with realization, and he looked at Bucky as if to confirm this information. Then, once he decided that he believed this, he had only one question to ask.
Summer watched him sign the question, and she smiled and replied, "Well, we won't know if it's a boy or girl for a few more months."
David looked quite unimpressed with that answer. Then he stepped a bit closer, eyeing Summer's suspiciously flat stomach, and then he questioningly mimed a big belly. She nodded and said, "Yup, I'm gonna get big and fat. Just like I did with you."
He snickered cutely at that, and then she pulled him into a hug that was as tight as she could manage with her currently non-existent strength. After that came a sweet, quiet little family moment that she found to be the perfect end to a longer moment that had already been perfect. Even though she felt like crap and knew now that she was going to feel like crap for the foreseeable future, the happiness that was palpable between all three of them made every future challenge more than worth it.
Now they just had to spread the news.
All three of them headed back towards the kitchen together, smiling and very visibly happy and not even trying to hide a thing, and Natasha was the first to notice them when they appeared. Summer smiled stupidly and watched Natasha give her that look, the one that was amused and scrutinizing all at once, and then she grinned at Summer in a way that said she already knew exactly what was going on but that she'd humor her anyway.
"You look like you have news," she said, handing Summer a plateful of twice as many pancakes as she'd normally eat. Summer stared in confusion before she got it - eating for two.
"News? Who has news?" Steve asked, oblivious as ever, grabbing the giant bottle of syrup from the kitchen counter.
Summer glanced at Bucky and then opened her mouth to excitedly give her answer, but David beat her to it. He ran up to Steve, mimed the big belly thing again, pretended to cradle a baby in his arms, then pointed back at his parents with a big toothy grin. Steve stared at him carefully for moment, then looked up at the couple and raised his eyebrows with a growing smile.
"I'm pretty sure I know what he's trying to tell me, but just in case..."
Summer grinned at his response and then exclaimed uncontrollably loudly, "I'm pregnant!"
She then shoved her pancakes at Bucky and catapulted herself at Steve, giving him a sudden and excited hug that made him laugh and reply, "Wow, that was fast!"
"I know!" she squealed as she pulled away. "I thought it would take like, at least a month!"
Steve laughed again and then let her go to turn to Bucky, who was watching with a smile that was as nervous as it was genuinely happy. Steve raised an eyebrow and asked, "You okay there, pal?"
Bucky nodded. "I might throw up next, but yeah, I'm good."
Steve then chuckled and pulled him into a hug, and Summer smiled brightly at them both as she watched and bounced slightly on her heels.
"Well, congratulations," Steve said, beaming as he pulled away and patted Bucky's shoulder. "And I've gotta say, I always knew your aim was good, but this is just ridiculous."
Bucky laughed at the little joke, and Summer blushed slightly, knowing how very true that was. Then, the next thing she knew, Darcy was barreling in from the hallway and announcing, "Okay, I heard you squeaking all the way from Sam's room and holy crap how the hell are you already pregnant?!"
"Good aim?" Summer replied with a grin before Darcy pulled her into a hug of her own.
"Yeah I guess so! Snipers don't play around, do they?" Behind them, Bucky rolled his eyes but grinned at that particular remark.
"Guess not!" Summer chirped, and Natasha tapped her shoulder once Darcy let her go.
"You know what a good middle name for a baby girl is?" Nat asked casually. "Natasha."
"You know, I'll think about it," Summer smiled. "Oh man, names! Gah! We need to figure out names! And like a million other things!"
As she continued to happily babble, Bucky gently took her hand and steered her towards the table, sitting her down and gently urging her to eat in between freaking out and flailing with each new person who happened to come into the room and hear the news. One of Summer's highlights of the whole morning was watching David tell Vision with a number of adorable gestures and signs, then watching the very same innocent, wonder-filled expression on David's face appear on that of Vision as he wished her the best of luck with the new life growing within her.
But throughout the morning and the rest of the day, the single best part of it all was being able to look over and see Bucky there at her side, nervous and surely scared inside but still as happy as she was. He looked at her with a quiet, sweet sense of awe in his eyes, and it didn't fade as they slowly grew more used to the news being true. He made sure that she ate and was extra-attentive, even more so than usual, and she just knew that everything was going to be okay.
Where her first pregnancy had thrown her into a state of mental chaos and turmoil, her second one only a day in had placed her in a state of anxious but happy peace. Knowing that she and David had turned out just fine and stronger for all of the challenges they'd faced alone, she knew this time around would be no different in that sense.
But she wasn't alone this time, and that would make all the difference in the world. It would also make the copious amounts of barfing in her future totally worth it.