Chapter 13

Steve paced up and down the metal floor of the military base where they were staying. "Pick up the phone, pick up the phone, pick up the phone."

"Steve?" Peggy's voice crackled into his ear.

"Hey, hi," he hadn't thought of how to start this conversation, "how're you?"

"I'm alright," Peggy sounded suspicious. "Are you?"

"Yeah just a little confused. Peter just got here."

"What?"

"Yeah he-"

"Steve, I can barely hear you."

He cursed the phone signal, climbing the stairs until he was outside. "How about now?"

"Better. You were saying?"

"Peter just got here."

She hesitated, "how is he?"

"He's good, he seems really excited. For me. Except I can't come up with a reason why he would be so excited."

A pause. Peggy wasn't sure how she was going to tell him. In a perfect world, he would come home and then she'd tell him. Evidently, she wasn't going to be afforded that luxury. "Steve, there's something I have to tell you."

His heart pounded in his throat, "ok."

"I didn't want to tell you this way, and there's no polite English word," she sighed.

Realization dawned, "oh my God, Peggy, are you pregnant?" He heard her laugh, pulled the phone away from his ear, and pressed the video button.

His face appeared on her screen. "What's this?"

"It's a video call. You can see my face now. Peggy," his eyes were wide, lips parted in shock, "are you pregnant?"

She nodded, grinning, unable to speak.

Steve sat down heavily in the dirt. "Really? Wait, really? You're sure?"

Peggy grabbed the ultrasound picture from the refrigerator. "That's him!"

"It's a boy?"

She laughed again, God he loved that sound, and shook her head. "I feel like it's a boy. I won't know for a few more weeks."

"How, how," Steve struggled for words.

She rolled her eyes, "you know how."

He shook his head, laughing, blushing slightly. He hoped Bucky and Sam weren't anywhere nearby. "I know, I meant how far along are you?"

"Thirteen weeks now. He's measuring a week ahead, I guess he's tall."

"A honeymoon baby."

"Yeah." She stared at him, his wide grin, eyes glassy with unshed tears. "I went to a doctor Pepper recommended, he's healthy with a strong heartbeat. I should be able to feel him move in a few weeks here."

"Who all knows?"

"Bruce, Pepper, Peter, Morgan and May, but all rather on accident. Don't worry, Bruce is keeping a close eye on me. We've never had a super serum baby before." She knew deep down the words weren't true, but she didn't want to clarify. Didn't want to explain what Bruce had told her; it wasn't a phone conversation.

"When are you due?"

"Probably around mid-November, it depends if he keeps growing as quickly as he is."

"I think it's a girl."

"Well, mother's instincts say 'boy.'"

"How big is she?"

"About the size of a lemon, now. He was the size of a plum when I was last at the doctor."

"How are you feeling?"

"Far, far better than I was. The first ten weeks or so I couldn't keep anything down to save my life. I was miserable."

"But you're eating now?"

"Yes, all he wants to eat now are oranges. Last week it was eggs." The phone started flickering again, Steve's face becoming pixelated. Her heart sank, knowing that they would have to end the call soon.

Steve passed a hand over his face. Peggy was having a baby, his baby! The woman of his dreams, the life of his dreams, it was all so, so good. He didn't want to hang up, but he heard Bucky's voice calling him. "I have to go," he said softly, "I love you. And I love the Lemon."

Peggy laughed, "just a couple of lemons, the three of us!"

"I'll talk to you soon. Take care of Lemon for me, ok?"

"Is that what we're calling him?"

"For now, I think it fits her very well. I love you both!"

"And we love you. Give my love to the others."

The line went dead, and Steve was left with his thoughts, brighter, warmer than they had been in weeks.

"Hey, ready to come back inside? There's a few things we need to talk about now that-"

"I'm going to be a father."

Bucky stopped dead in his tracks. "What?"

Steve showed Bucky the palm of his hand, "that's about how big the baby is right now."

"Holy shit," Bucky breathed, folding Steve into his arms.

Peter loped up behind them. "Hey, Mr. Rogers, I'm really sorry, I didn't know, oh, ok," he relaxed as Steve squeezed him in a bear hug.

"You're ok kid, you didn't know I didn't know."

"This kind of hurts, Mr. Rogers." Steve let him go, apologizing as Peter rolled out his shoulder.

"Can't keep secrets, can you?" Steve asked good naturedly.

"No sir, not really."

Steve's mind came back to reality. "We're going to have to work on that. Come on, we have to talk." Twenty minutes later, the plan had been laid out before Peter.

"And that's going to work?" he asked.

"We think." Bucky shrugged.

"You think?"

"It's worth a shot."

Peter sighed, "this is the weirdest spring break I've ever been on."

"Wait, where does May think you are?" Rhodey asked.

"She wouldn't have let me come if she knew the truth."

"How much did you tell her?" Steve asked, leaning forward.

Peter cracked his knuckles anxiously, "she thinks I'm on an engineering trip out to see you guys. Very safe, very educational."

Sam snorted, "this is no field trip, kid."

"I didn't tell her it was."

"Either way, we decided for your safety whenever you're in the Hydra headquarters, one of us is on the ground with you, and one of us is watching from a distance," Steve said, "so you'll never be truly alone."

"Except you're going home, Steve," Bucky said while studying the hologram map.

"Excuse me?" Steve asked, incredulous.

"You can't stay, not now."

Rhodey's eyes darted across the table between the pair, "am I missing something?"

Steve's ears colored, and he didn't fight the smile that was crossing his face. "Peggy called. I'm going to be a dad this November."

"Such excitement!" Thor thundered, clapping his friend hard on the back as the others congregated to shake his hand and hug him.

"I agree with Bucky, you can't stay. Peggy needs you home more than we need you hear, no offense," Sam added.

The opportunity to be home meant the world to Steve, but he couldn't just leave his comrades and go home to his wife while the rest had to stay here. But they weren't wrong, Peggy needed him home. "I don't like the idea of leaving you all here, so I'll make a deal with you: I'll stay until we get Peter's portion of the mission off the ground. Then I go home."

Three days later, Peter, armed with a backpack and his glasses from Tony, walked towards headquarters.

"How ya doing, Spidey?" Sam asked via a small earpiece tucked deep enough to not be seen by Peter's fellow classmates.

"Spidey to Falcon, this looks like a straight up high school, I am in hell, over."

"You don't have to say all that."

"Spidey to Falcon, it's fun, over."

Steve leaned back in his chair at the base, looking at the ceiling to avoid laughing.

"I don't like either of you right now," Bucky grumbled. He'd been voluntold to be the man on the ground, having the most experience of the group both with disguises and Hydra. Shuffling around in a janitor's uniform made sure he was blending in and hiding his arm.

"Pointbreak to Spidey, what's first?" Thor adjusted his headset around his long hair.

"Spidey to Pointbreak, biology."

"Falcon to Capsicle, had they invented biology when you were in high school? Or was the Earth still cooling at that point?"

"Knock it off."

"Come on, guys, listen to Dadsicle," Rhodey snickered. From cameras located in the glasses, the team watched as Peter settled into a seat near the back of the classroom. He scanned the room, giving everyone a glimpse of what he was seeing. He introduced himself to the students around him, who all seemed weirdly normal. A young, pretty teacher strode into the room. Her hair was long and blonde, with eyes so blue they almost seemed fake. Peter casually rolled up his sleeves, looking down at his arms. His hair stood on end.

"Relax kid, you never had a hot teacher?" Rhodey asked.

Peter picked up a pencil, opened the notebook in front of him, and wrote, that's not it.

"Good morning class, and welcome to your new semester! I'm Miss Bergen, and I'll be your biology teacher for the next nine weeks. Why don't we go around the class and state our name and what year we were born?"

"Shouldn't that be a given?" Sam asked, "these kids have to all be the same age?"

Steve studied the class, the overly shining hair, perfect teeth, defined muscles. Come to think of it, none of the students really had a flaw on them.

"Hey Sam," Rhodey started, "you seeing what I'm seeing?"

Sam's voice crackled over the radio, "yeah."

"What is it?" Thor asked.

"They're all white."

Steve blinked. Not only were they all white, they all looked roughly the same. Some differences in hair and eye color here and there, but similar enough to be cousins to the naked eye. He hit a few keys, starting a screen recording to send to Bruce.

A girl in the first row with the same long, swinging blonde hair as the teacher stood. "Hi, I'm Amanda, and I was born in 1986."

Peter showed his arms again, more hair standing up.

The next boy stood, "hi, I'm Troy, and I was born in 1989."

Another girl, this one with brown hair, got to her feet, "I'm Joy and I was born in 1992."

Peter looked down at his paper, this time writing what is happening? They were coming closer and closer to him. Finally, it was his turn. He cleared his throat and stood. "I'm Ben, and I was born in 1990." He sat down as quickly as he could.

"Who's Ben?" Thor asked.

My uncle, Peter wrote. The rest of the class took their turns, standing, names, and years. Things didn't get better once the lesson began.

"This is like a eugenics lesson from hell," Sam commented softly.

Steve picked at his cuticles anxiously, the familiar pain building in his chest.

"Oh," Peter whispered as the slide changed, "this is bad."

Steve looked up at the screen, his jaw dropping in shock.

"Is that?" Sam started.

"The serum. Steve's serum. Bucky, get him out of there," Rhodey commanded. "Steve-" but when Rhodey looked up, Steve was gone.