Love and the White Wolf - Book 3

4. Downtime

Dr. Strange advised James the next morning that I wouldn't be going due to the chances of the other timeline affecting my baby. Although he was sad I wasn't going he was looking forward to this mission. It had been a long time since he had taken on HYDRA and he relished the fight. Sam arrived in his gear and waited patiently in the living room. He was looking forward to meeting his counterpart as well. Jim wore the clothes he had been wearing the entire time in our timeline and acknowledged he was learning more about how a team should be properly outfitted. He came to me and thanked me for my hospitality and understanding. As James received the order to proceed through the portal Jim waved goodbye. James kissed both me and Steve and said he would be back home soon. The portal closed and we were on our own.

At least we were until I received a call from Pepper Stark. She was flying to her Maui beach house with Morgan and wanted to meet Steve. She had checked with Nick Fury who thought James would be on mission for a couple of days. She offered to fly him out when he was done.

"It's been far too long since I saw you," she said. "Please come. You can sit in the shade with a pina colada and Steve can play in the sand with Morgan. We'll catch up and relax."

"They'll have to be virgin pina coladas," I replied. "I'm pregnant again."

She squealed. "You have to come. We have so much catching up to do."

I agreed and she promised to set up a private flight to Los Angeles for later in the day. I called Sarah to take the dogs and she agreed to pick them up within the hour. For the rest of the day I packed and did laundry. A limousine picked us up at 4 pm and by 5 pm we were on our way. We arrived in Los Angeles by 7 pm local time. Pepper waited in the limo and right away asked to hold Steve.

"Look at him, he's beautiful!" she exclaimed. "Eyes just like his daddy. We're going to have such fun Steve!"

He clapped his hands and said "yay" which pleased her even more. Pepper had a condo in Los Angeles where we would spend the night. By the time we got there from the airport Steve was falling asleep in my arms. She didn't have a crib but it was a king sized bed so there was plenty of room for both of us. I put him down, changed into something more comfortable and was astounded to see the changes in Morgan in the year and a half since she had been our flower girl. She had plans to teach Steve to swim, make sand castles and go snorkeling. Pepper explained he was only 9 months old. I told her he was walking with furniture, crawling and climbing already, describing how he was close to climbing out of his crib which horrified and astounded her. Morgan thought it was funny.

The next day we took off early and with the time change we were in Maui before noon. Pepper's beach house was beautiful and we had a wing of the house to ourselves. We walked along the beach with Steve saying "wow" at everything he saw. I dangled him over the water so the waves tickled his feet making him kick and squeal then stretch his feet trying to catch the next wave. Pepper hired a nanny to help with the kids freeing us up for two days of pure bliss sitting in the shade and watching the kids play in the pool. Steve could actually dog paddle with a bit of support and gave every indication he loved the water. On the third day we heard James was on his way. Just before noon I heard his voice calling to me as he came out of the house. I stood up to go to him and he told me to close my eyes. I heard Pepper make a surprised sound. Then he was in front of me and I could smell his manly scent. I put my hands out and touched his bare chest. He took my hands in his and said to open my eyes. He had long, almost shoulder length hair and a full beard. I screamed in surprise and he rewarded me his beautiful smile.

"The reason you couldn't go there was that there was a time differential between the two timelines. What was two days in our timeline was almost six months in theirs," he said.