Can We Keep Her?

Little Super Soldiers

Bucky couldn't sleep. He'd tried. He'd laid quietly next to you and Steve trying to let the sounds of your breathing soothe him off to sleep, but all that had happened was, he'd watched you and worried about everything going wrong tomorrow. He'd gotten up and tried doing something soothing. He made chamomile tea despite the fact he hated it. When that hadn't worked he'd switched to hot cocoa and grumbled to himself that he couldn't get that balance between bitter and sweet that you had perfected. His hot chocolates always came out too sweet and he went too heavy on the cream making it a little bit sickly. He did drink it while trying to play video games. They just made him frustrated and he realized he was making himself more alert, not less. He tried reading next. When he'd realized he'd read the same sentence eight times without absorbing it, he'd left the apartment and gone to the gym, where he'd made his way through 8 specially reinforced heavy bags. When his muscles were screaming at him that he needed to stop and go sleep but his brain would still not keep going over the worst, he'd gone back upstairs and taken a bath, letting the hot water relax him.

Finally, at around six, he'd crawled back into bed, curled up as small as he could make his large frame against you, resting his hand on your stomach, and fell into a fitful sleep.

When you woke later, he snapped awake as soon as you shifted. "Hey, babe. Are you okay? Do you feel alright?" he asked. The panic came through in his voice, and you ran your fingers through his hair.

"I'm fine," you reassured him. "Everything's fine sweetheart. We made it. 34 weeks and they're all healthy and happy. You put together a nursery. I mean there was a lot of cursing. I've never heard so much cursing, but it's done. We have diapers and clothes and toys. Today we're just gonna get the babies to go along with the accessories."

Bucky chuckled. "The babies to go along with the accessories?" he scoffed. "You are such a dork." He nuzzled into your neck and you kissed him softly.

"Made you laugh though. So I think it was a job well done," you teased.

Bucky made a quiet whining sound. "What if something goes wrong? It's surgery. Things can go wrong."

You ran your hands in soothing circles on the small of his back. "You do know that you should be reassuring me, right? I'm the one getting the surgery."

He whined again. "I'm sorry. You'll be okay. Yeah, you'll be okay."

You chuckled and kissed his head. "You know that you survived falling off a train and losing your arm in the middle of nowhere - in the 40s?"

"Yeah. But I'd had super serum..." he protested.

"So do these guys. So chill. Go make me some tea," you said.

"You're not allowed to have anything. Remember?" Bucky said.

You grumbled and pulled the blankets back up.

There was a shifting behind you, and Steve's arms tightened around you for a moment and he nuzzled into your hair. "Whaz'goin'on?" he murmured.

"Nothing, honey," you replied, putting your hand on his hip.

For a moment you thought he went right back to sleep, but then he shot up suddenly and looked around. "What time is it? Is it time to go?"

"No. There's still time," you replied, patting his head and trying not to laugh. "Seriously you two. I'm the one that's supposed to be anxious."

"Sorry, sweetheart," Steve said, kissing your neck and trailing his fingers down your arms so they broke out in goosebumps. He leaned down and kissed your extremely swollen belly. "Hello, you three. We're going to meet you properly today."