Nowhere to Go But Up✓

I Feel My Power Grow

We were at the compound and Dr. Banner was running all sorts of tests on me. It turned out that the swift kick I gave Sharon had given her a major concussion. Oops. I clearly had never been that strong before so they were trying to figure out how exactly I had been able to do it. So far I had been pricked and prodded so many times that I felt like a life-sized pin cushion. Tattoos were unfortunately off the table now. He even brought in Dr. Strange for some help.

Bruce, as he insisted I call him after three days of me referring to him as Dr. Banner, had a break through the night before and called Steve down to the lab. It seemed to be on the right track for him as he then wanted Joey to come too. By mid-afternoon he had his answer. "So you mean to tell me that I'm part super soldier now?" I asked. We were all seated around a conference table, Steve next to me holding my hand. Sam and Bucky were off somewhere fighting over attention from the kids.

"It appears that during gestation and then the birthing process some of Joey's DNA fused with yours, mutating yours and giving you some of Steve's powers, specifically his strength."

"But she's not a super soldier, right?" Steve asked.

"No, the quantity of it in her blood is significantly smaller than both yours and Joey's. Now as Joey grows I'd keep an eye on him. My guess is that he'll mature physically faster than other boys his age."

"Meaning what exactly?" I asked, concern for our son growing.

"I'm not too sure. I'm hoping that he'll just be stronger than other kids but there's no other cases that we can draw from. This is just my theory." Steve and I shared a look. This wasn't what we had planned when we were thinking of Joey's future, all this uncertainty. "Guys, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Steve didn't grow anything weird. Honestly, based on how Steve reacted to the serum, I'm going to assume that Joey is just going to turn out exactly like his dad."

"I mean, he's already his mini me. Barely two months old and the kid doesn't look anything like me. Apparently my genetics are very weak. Lucy doesn't look anything like me either." I was rambling now and Steve could tell. He pulled me into his arms and I broke down. Steve lifted me up and led me to what used to be his rooms at the compound.

"I'm scared." I whispered once we were safely in the privacy of his room. We just stood there, in the middle of the room, holding onto one another for dear life.

"Me too. But we have to believe that he'll be ok. It won't do us any good worrying about the what if's. We just need to be in the present. We have two kids that need us to not fall apart. And we have a wedding to plan. Let's focus on those things for now. The future can worry about itself." I nodded, knowing he was right. But it's a mother's right to worry. "I think we should stay here for a bit."

"Why? I thought you said that with Sharon and John in custody, there was no more threat."

"Not for them. You need to learn how to control your new-found strength. The compound is better equipped to train you than our house."

"What about the kids? And the animals? And the agency?"

"Ok, breath. The kids will obviously come. Not many of them stay here full-time anymore so there are open rooms in the same hallway as mine. I already talked to your parents, they're fine looking after the animals. And as for your agency, that's why you hired two more agents. They've been doing fine holding down the fort while you were on maternity leave, they'll be fine with holding it down until you have enough control that you don't rip doors off their hinges." He said that last bit with a small smirk.

"It was one door. Just one, and you're going to hold this over my head forever."

"No, I just know how that feels. Right after my procedure, when I was chasing after that German spy, I ripped a taxi door clean off and then used it as a shield." We both laughed.

"So what you're saying is that from the very beginning, you had a thing for shields?"

"I guess you could say that. I gotta say, I am glad that however much of the serum got passed to you, wasn't enough to make you grow. I like being so much taller than you." He chuckled.

"You've got like seven inches on me. Eight on a bad day. But you're right. I love how much taller than me you are. It's like I'm being cocooned in a big safety net when you hold me." He tightened his arms around my waist, pulling me in. I buried my head in his chest and inhaled his scent. Our private moment, however, wasn't private for long as Sam and Bucky burst through the door, the latter holding Joey out like he was a bomb. "What on earth happened?"

"Explosion, major one. Definitely something that should be handled by the super soldiers." Sam said.

"Well I guess that leaves you and me out Sam. See ya!" I yelled at Steve and Bucky as I grabbed Sam and ran out of the room, Sam alerting the AI system to seal the door with them still inside. We could hear them yelling at us but we just took off laughing.

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Steve found me in the gym a little while later, going to town on a punching bag, working out my anger on a punching bag. "Wow, easy there, slugger. What did the bag every do to you?" I rolled my eyes, smiling slightly.

"Nothing. I just needed to hit something and seeing as the one thing I really want to hit already has a major concussion because of me, means I have to find something else to take my anger out on." I said before returning to punching.

"Hey, are you going to be ok?"

"Yeah, eventually. I'm not mad that I have this, I'm hesitant to say gift, so for now we'll call it a thing. It's just one more complication to an already complicated life." He got really quiet and I realized that that had not come out the way I intended. "Hey, don't do that. You are not the reason my life is complicated. That happened long before I met you. You are by far the least complicated thing in my life." He smiled, pulling me away from the punching bag and kissing me.

"You are covered in sweat." He laughed.

"Well I was beating the absolute shit out of that bag there."

"Let's get you a shower and then something to eat. You're probably starving."

"You know, if this serum thing means I get your metabolism, I'll consider this the universe's greatest gift to me." I said as we walked out of the gym. He laughed and I was certain that we were going to be just fine.

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Guys, we're almost at the ending. Only two more chapters left. I'm not ready for this one to be over but I do have another story in the works to publish once this one is over.