(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 4 - 15th May 2015

Something wasn't right with Natasha. Bucky had known it for a couple of weeks now, since the Maximoffs had come to the Tower and tried to take out on Tony. Maybe it wasn't exactly then. Even before, she had been different. In some ways, ever since they went to find Yelena and finish off the Red Room for good.

He did try to talk to her about it, but honestly, he struggled with how to broach the subject. He was just an old-fashioned guy out of his time, who sometimes still felt out of his depth just living day-to-day in the modern world. All this talking about deep feelings, unwinding the psychology of some of the things Natasha had been through in her life, he did his best, but mostly didn't really know where to start.

On mission, she was professional as ever, in team meetings, nobody else seemed to notice. Yelena, Steve, nobody had said anything to him, and Bucky was sure they would have, if they suspected anything was wrong. Natasha had spent some time with Wanda and Pietro, trying to get through to them, to help them understand they were in a safe place. Between her and Yelena, not to mention Steve, Bruce, and Tony, it seemed like maybe they were getting somewhere with the twins, and yet, Natasha didn't seem any happier.

Maybe that was the wrong word. She wasn't obviously unhappy, not really, she was just different. Moody, moony, something like that. Bucky wasn't sure he knew the right word and he sure as hell didn't know how to fix it. God, he wished that he did, but he didn't.

In desperation, he had called Barton, even though he was technically 'on leave' with his family at the farm. He just didn't know where else to turn.

"And yes, I know, if she knew I was talking to you about this, she would probably kill me, but I don't know what else to do."

Clint got quiet for a long while, then he audibly sighed in Bucky's ear. "Why don't you bring her here?" he suggested then. "I know Laura would love to see her and I've never known Nat miss any chance to spend time with Cooper and Lila. You know you're both always welcome."

"You're sure?" Bucky checked. "I mean, if it's easier for you to just have Nat visit..."

"Come on, the kids love their Uncle Buck," he said, with far too much glee. "Besides, I'll be honest, I could use a pair of super-strong hands around the place for a few days, if you don't mind pitching in with a couple of home improvement jobs?"

Bucky was more than happy to offer his services, not least because he was sure it would help Natasha to be around the Barton clan too. As Clint had said, she loved the kids, and Laura, and the whole farm vibe. Besides, it was the place where they had first talked seriously about their future together. Maybe it would help to try that again. Bucky had to hope so, because he hated to think of Natasha struggling with anything, not feeling as happy as he always wanted her to be.

They certainly got a warm welcome when they arrived at the farmhouse. The kids hugged first Natasha and then Bucky himself, welcoming them back and asking all kinds of questions, so fast it made his head spin. Natasha was happy to be led over to the couch and sit down with Cooper and Lila, answering every question they had, with a smile on her face. It made Bucky smile to see it. He hadn't realised quite how much until Laura called him on it.

"See, being here is helping already. Both of you, I hope," she said happily.

When his gaze finally shifted to her properly, he noticed how her size had increased since he last laid eyes on her. Sure, it had been a while, and yes, he did know she was pregnant, but still, there was much more of her than Bucky had been expecting.

"Yeah, I know. I'm a whale."

"No, you're not." Bucky shook his head fast, feeling awful for any shock that might have shown on his face. "I wasn't... You look great," he promised her. "I just didn't realise you were... you know, so close."

"Well, I still have a few weeks to go yet," she told him, one hand resting on the top of her over-sized belly, "but honestly, I have had the doctor check so many times that it's not twins. I swear, I was never this big with Lila or Cooper."

Bucky nodded along, not really knowing what to say. He didn't know all that much about pregnancy and didn't feel comfortable asking either.

"Uh, you have any names picked out?" he tried instead, as Laura lowered herself into an armchair and gestured that he should take the other one.

"Sure, we do" said Clint, returning from taking the bags to the guest room. "I made a promise I can't get out of on that one."

His eyes moved from Laura to Natasha, the latter smiling widely as she explained. "Hey, I didn't say you had to name your next kid after me. You came up with that all on your own."

"In the circumstances, what else could I do?"

The way they looked at each other, Bucky might have been worried if he didn't know better than to let himself go there. In the beginning, before he knew about Laura, he had suspected that there was something more with Clint and Natasha. It had been years now since he was told the whole truth. Close as they were, it was neither a romance nor even a sibling relationship. It was something else entirely. The kind of bond that existed between Bucky and Steve. Unbreakable and special and forever, in a whole other way to anything else. Still, some time, he would like to hear the story of how it had been promised that the new Barton baby would be named for Clint's partner in what used to be called Strike Team Delta.

"About that," said Laura awkwardly, looking to Natasha and visibly wincing. "I know you were looking forward to a real name-sake, but it seems that baby Natasha is actually baby Nathanial."

Bucky watched with amusement he couldn't hide as Natasha moved her face closer to Laura's swollen stomach and declared the baby inside was a traitor. She was smiling through her fake-anger within a second, assuring her best friend and his wife that it really didn't matter. She was just honoured to know her name was even the inspiration for the new little one's moniker.

"Speaking of new kids on the block," said Laura then. "How's Yelena doing?"

Conversation moved on so easily then. Clint took the kids with him to the kitchen to make coffee and sandwiches for lunch, and Bucky leaned back in his chair, happy to be a casual observer to Natasha telling Laura about Yelena's progress and anything she felt was okay to share about what was happening with the Avengers in general.

It was good just to see Natasha smiling so much, seemingly at ease in a way she hadn't been lately. Maybe just being at the farm was what she needed to feel better. Unfortunately, Bucky could only fool himself so far. There had to be more to it than just needing a vacation with her surrogate family, and at some point, like it or not, he was going to have to ask her about it, even if that did risk ruining everything. Maybe just not today.

Natasha moved in closer to James in the guest bed at the Barton farm, reaching up to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Thank you," she said softly, not entirely surprised by the way he looked at her in confusion. "For suggesting we come here," she explained. "It's so good to see Laura and the kids, to spend some time away from... everything. Besides, I have so many good memories here."

She meant at the house, she honestly did, and yet she also knew he could take it another way. They had shared some very good times in the bed they were currently in, after she got through the tougher parts of her recovery from the incident with HYDRA. James obviously knew what she meant from the way he smiled at her then.

"I thought it would be nice to take a break. Everything has been so intense lately. Finding Yelena, helping her adjust. Shutting down the Red Room, and then all those HYDRA bases, and now, with the Maximoffs..."

"It has been a lot." Natasha sighed, leaning into his touch as he moved her hair back from her face and let his hand linger at her cheek. "R is important, at least, it is for us non-super-powered people," she told him, with a smirk.

"You know, for a non-super-powered person, you hold your own pretty well," he said with a smirk of his own, leaning down to kiss her lips, his forehead pressed against hers. "All I ever want is for you to be happy, Natalia. You know that, right?"

"I know," she told him. "Same here. You are happy, aren't you?"

She didn't mean for her voice to get that strange shake in it when she asked the question. Most people couldn't inspire that kind of worry in her, but James was one of the tiny minority that could. She had given her heart to him, in so many ways. Natasha knew the danger of that more than most, but she trusted James, so completely. She couldn't even picture a scenario where he would ever break her heart or her trust. Honestly, the idea of even trying to imagine that was too awful to contemplate.

"I'm happy so long as I'm with you," he told her, kissing her again, and again, and again.

There were no more words after that, which was fine by Natasha. She knew actions always spoke much louder anyway.

"I really appreciate your help, man," said Clint, bringing up one oil smeared arm to wipe across his sweat-covered forehead, as they exited the barn together. "I mean, I'm not saying I couldn't have got the job done by myself, but it was a heck of a lot easier with a super-man on hand."

Bucky squirmed a little at the phrasing, but he didn't argue.

"You're welcome for the help," he assured his friend. "You would've been anyway, but I guess I kind of owed you, you know, for letting me and Nat come and stay again."

Clint frowned a little, then shook his head. "I didn't do you any favour by letting Nat come and stay here. She has an open invitation, always, and she knows it. For as long as she wants you to be wherever she is, then you're welcome too."

Bucky nodded that he understood, watching Clint as he pulled off his gloves and headed for the cooler, grabbing two beers from it. He came back towards Bucky, gesturing for him to take a seat on the crates piled nearby. Clint joined him there, handed him a beer, then cracked the top off his own, clinked the two bottles together, before he took a long drink.

Not knowing what else to do, Bucky opened his own bottle and took a swig. The alcohol wouldn't have any effect on him, but the cool drink was always welcome on a hot day, regardless of anything else.

"So, what's going on?"

He was startled by the question and was sure it showed on his face from the way Clint smiled.

"Come on, Barnes. You made some great excuses about needing a break from all the Stark Tower and New Avengers craziness, and I get it, I do, but there's more to this than just that. Obviously, you don't have to tell me, but as the closest thing that Nat's had to family in a long time - except for Yelena, obviously, and she only just got back into her life - and also, being a guy..."

"I don't... It's not that I don't want to talk about it." Bucky sighed, rubbing his forehead that started to ache the moment he tried to find the words. "Believe me, I appreciate the offer, it's just... I don't know what happens next."

"With you and Nat?" Clint asked, looking equal parts intrigued and confused as Bucky glanced at him then. "I thought everything was fine."

"It is, it's great. Honestly, it is. The present is fine, it's the future that's... uncertain," he tried to explain, taking another drag from his beer.

He was unsure why he thought it could possibly help, but he kind of hoped it might anyway. Focusing his eyes on the view before him, of rolling fields and blue sky, as far as the eye could see, he tried to find a way to say what needed to be said, at least to Clint.

"I don't know what she wants. I know the answer to that is to ask her but... well, maybe I'm just afraid of what she'll say if I do. She told me a long time ago, she's not the little wife kind, and I get that. It's not what I'm looking for, not really, but a part of me does want to marry her. Maybe that proves how old-fashioned I am, I don't know, but it's how I feel about her. In my time, when you loved somebody and wanted to be with them forever, you got married. It was just... normal."

"Nothing about the way we're all living now is exactly normal." Clint sighed. "Of course, you are talking to the one member of the Avengers with a wife and kids."

Bucky turned to look at him and found Clint smiling widely.

"You don't have to have one or the other, man. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's not easy having both, but it's possible. I'm living proof," he said, pointing into his own chest, before downing the rest of his beer and then sighing when he was done. "You know, Laura was an agent before we were married?"

"What?" Bucky was sure his eyes were wide enough that he probably looked like a cartoon. "She was with SHIELD?"

"It's how we met." Clint nodded. "Obviously, when she got pregnant with Cooper, she couldn't be in the field anymore. Fury helped me set up this whole situation and the rest is history. Now, I know as well as you do that Nat can't have kids, at least, not biological kids, but I don't see why you guys can't have everything else. A place of your own, marriage maybe. Kids too, if you were willing to adopt."

Bucky took in all that Clint said and found himself shaking his head. Barton made it sound like the easiest thing in the world, even though he just said it wasn't. It was a kind of future that Bucky could easily want with Natasha, but as well as he knew her these days, he really wasn't sure how to broach the subject. The last time they had a serious talk about these things, right here on the farm, it hadn't gone so well.

"Like you said before," said Clint, his hand on Bucky's shoulder as he stood up. "You're never going to know how Nat feels about this stuff unless you ask her. Now, if you had asked me a couple of years ago if I thought she was the settling down type, in any way at all, I would've said no, but things have changed a lot since then. Obviously, there are no guarantees, but if there is anybody at all in this crazy-ass world that Natasha Romanov loves enough to build that kind of future with, I have a feeling it would be you," he said with a smile, before he moved to walk away.

He hadn't gone more than a few yards, when suddenly he stopped and looked back, calling for Bucky's attention.

"Just make sure you talk to her about it fast, okay? There are exactly two people on this planet that I have zero secrets from. One is my wife, and the other is my partner."

Bucky nodded once, to let Clint knew he understood, then watched his friend walk off towards the farmhouse. Looking at the half-empty bottle in his hand, Bucky took a deep breath and drank the rest of his beer down in one. It had no effect, just as he knew it wouldn't, but maybe he could make pretend it really had given him the courage to face the conversation that came next.

Standing up, he tilted his chin, put his shoulders back, planning to walk right into the house, find Natasha, and say what needed to be said. He made it all of two paces before literally running into her coming from the other way.

"Hey," she said, smiling at him, though the expression didn't quite seem to reach her eyes. "I heard you wanted to talk to me?"

"You did?" Bucky checked, looking towards the house and seeing Clint's back disappearing through the door. "But I just..."

"He didn't say anything." Natasha shook her head. "I was actually coming to see how you guys were getting along in the barn, when you started talking..."

She had overheard. Of course, she had. She was the greatest spy who ever lived, or at least one of them. Bucky couldn't help but think that might just simple things up a little bit, so long as she wasn't mad at him for talking to somebody else about their future before he actually talked to her.

"So..."

"So..." she echoed back. "I don't know about all the other stuff right away, but maybe we could go back to thinking seriously about moving out of Stark Tower, you know, into a place of our own? Yours and mine. Nobody else."

She looked up at him with those big green eyes and Bucky was sure he fell in love with her all over again in an instant.

"Sounds good to me, doll," he told her, smiling widely.

It was a look she returned, before throwing her arms up around his neck and kissing him soundly.

To Be Continued...