The White Queen (S.Rogers)

Chapter 86

Steve stayed home for most of the next week.

He said it was because he didn't want to leave Brooklyn alone to deal with a sick child by herself. But it was because he was just as worried as she was, about Juliana's health. Brooklyn was so close to taking her GED test, the date rapidly approaching, and he was worried that she would not be able to pass, if she missed anymore classes. He managed to convince her that it was safe enough for her to attend class, while he stayed home with Juliana.

Nat had been helpful, running interference with him at the Tower, so he could be as left alone as possible. Kitty often came over, to help out, usually by running to the store for things they had run out of during that time. Mrs. De Luca was also extremely helpful, bringing over meals, claiming that only real Italian food would help the little darling heal faster.

It was the first real-time Steve had witnessed the adage 'it takes a village' at work.

Banner came over, the third day of Juliana's sickness, taking blood samples himself. Steve wanted to know the extent of Juliana's exposure to HYDRA's formulation of the serum. To find out if it was encoded in her DNA, like Brooklyn's, or if she had any of it at all in her.

It wouldn't affect how they were going to have to proceed to raise her, he explained. It was so they were prepared for any questions she might have in the future. So, when the time came, and she asked about her own body, they would be able to help her understand what might happen in the future.

Banner came back with the answer, fairly quickly.

Juliana did not have the serum encoded in her.

Bucky had failed to produce another child with the serum inside them.

That had Brooklyn in her head for a few hours. And Steve understood why.

Five children. Five children her father had produced. And of the five, only one had carried on HYDRA's soldier legacy.

Later after hearing the news, while they lay in bed, looking at each other, she admitted to him why she was uneasy about the test results.

"It doesn't make sense." She tried to explain. "One out of five? The odds that I managed to be born with it... It doesn't make sense."
He shrugged, reaching out to stroke the hair out of her face. "Maybe it was just meant to be that way. Maybe it had something to do with your mother. Maybe it had something to do with what they did during the years before they gave you to him. We have no real way of knowing, Babydoll. All we can do, from here on out, is deal with what is."
"It doesn't bother you?" She asked, her face worried. "I mean, there has to be another reason."
"Brooklyn." He moved closer, so he could wrap his arms around her, wanting to sigh in pleasure as she was pressed against him. "In the end... you are who you are. That's all you can deal with, really. The what ifs, they will drive you crazy, if you let them."
Banner had also taken that time to gently confirm that Brooklyn would, in fact, almost always produce children with the enhanced DNA of a super soldier. To what degree, well, the doctor was quick to point out that information would only be known once a child was born, and able to be tested.

It was also during that visit, that Banner had pulled Steve out into the hall, and dropped a new bomb in his lap for him to defuse, before it blew up in his face.

There had been nothing in the files that Brooklyn had given them, back in August, that indicated that Bucky was able to produce pheromones. Nothing in the files indicated that Brooklyn's mother was a pheromone producer.

That had gotten Banner thinking.

Where did it come from? That sort of thing was usually genetic, passed down to a child from a parent. With nothing to indicate that Brooklyn had been given the trait from her parents, Banner had looked deeper into some of the procedures done to her when she was a baby. One had stood out.