Brooklyn - Bucky X OC Love Story

33 - Banner?

** A/N **
I have purposely used terms that give no actual timeline since Wakanda. "Several weeks/months" and similar, purposely to make my life easier. So please don't nitpick my timeline.

Just remember that there's 2 years between CA: Civil War and Infinity War. So this will be another tiny time jump.

**

The last several months moved as a blur, Emilia got back to the swing of things at work and Bucky insisted on taking over as much as the house work that Emilia would allow. No surprise, despite the exhaustion of being pregnant in the warmer months, she still wanted to do as much as possible. Bucky, however, didn't want her to do anything. Steve seemed to side with Bucky on that one.

Steve yanked the sponge out of Emilia's hand, bumping her with his hip to stand in front of the sink himself. "Dammit, woman. Go sit down." He barked at her.

Emilia rolled her eyes at him, flicking the water from her fingers at him. "I'm pregnant, not bedridden." She argued. But she listened and moved to sit on the couch, kicking her swollen feet up onto the coffee table.

"Steve's right, doll. You haven't been feeling well, let us handle everything." Bucky insisted. He moved to sit down next to Emilia, pulling her to lean against his chest with a light kiss on her temple.

Emilia sighed, closing her eyes and leaning into Bucky's side. They weren't wrong, she wasn't feeling well, and she was tired. So tired. But doing nothing wasn't an option she was willing to accept. Over the last 2 years since finding Bucky again, everything had went from depressing and alone to reunited with her husband but dealing with the stress of Germany. Then the stress and exhaustion of Wakanda. Since then, things had quieted. It was time with her men, work and creating better friendships with her staff. Things were...better. An oversimplification of things, but generally things were better.

Steve's phone rang loudly as he finished up the dishes he pushed Emilia away from doing. "Don't even think about it." He warned with a stern finger before stepping outside to answer the phone call.

Emilia debated jumping up and finishing the dishes, but with Bucky next to her, she knew she wouldn't get far. So she remained in her spot, comfortably against her husband. "How are you feeling, doll?" Bucky asked quietly.

Emilia simply shrugged. "Tired." She answered with what was at least her 10th yawn of the day.

Bucky patted his lap with his left hand. "Come on over, mama. Lay your head down on my lap." He insisted. He wanted his wife to get all the rest she needed, if it meant extra naps during the day or shorter work days, he was fine with it. It wasn't like money was an issue, never would be by the sounds of what their accountant said. Something about the quarterly interest on their wealth alone was enough to live on. So they'd have to really start living outside of their means to even make a dent in their money. Still, Bucky insisted on working. He'd taken a spot with Steve doing occasional work for the government. It worked out perfectly, they still felt needed, they got paid and they didn't have to work much. But when they were called, it varied how long they'd be gone. Sometimes it was hours, sometimes it was days. They were warned there could be times where they'd be gone for months. Convincing Emilia to be okay with that was more difficult than he'd thought, but so far they'd never been gone for longer than a day.

Emilia gave up, scooting down onto the couch until her head was rested on her husband's thick, muscular thigh. Bucky laid his hand on her back, lightly rubbing along her spine while she adjusted and covered up with a throw blanket. A small nap didn't sound too bad, it actually sounded kind of nice.

Bucky stared down at his wife with all the love in the world, she was his world. That and the two little girls growing inside her. His hand found its way to her bump, at 30 weeks her bump was much bigger than they'd assumed she'd get, growing two babies would do that to anyone. But growing two babies with super soldier serum in them? Even worse. He felt bad that his wife was so exhausted and so sore. Most days were half days for her now. She'd work from 8am-12pm. That's when she would schedule all her consults and all appointments that a doctor was needed at. Carlie, the Nurse Practitioner, took over the rest of the day. He was told that she had a lot of the same authority as Emilia, so there were only a few things Carlie needed to grab someone for help with. But fortunately, Emilia had been given an intern, or was it a resident? He couldn't remember what she'd said. But he remembered that the doctor was young, they were learning but had chosen Oncology as their study so they'd work under Emilia until they were able to work alone.

Bucky's hand lightly traced patterns on her swollen, clothed bump while he stared out into the front yard, watching the cars pass by and the birds and kids play. This was what he wanted, simplicity with Emilia. He didn't want to fight, he didn't want to be involved in the world ending or hurting people. He just wanted his tired wife to lay against him while the breeze blew in the windows.

Steve took his phone call on the back patio, thankful that he did. It was an unsaved number. Turns out, it was Bruce Banner. He hadn't heard from him in years, last he knew, Bruce was missing. Hulk had destroyed the ship he was on and that included the tracker Stark had put in it. But, now he's back, and with bad news. He said "Thanos is coming." And insisted we'd need all the help we could get. His mission, get to Vision and protect him. Aliens were coming to rip the stone out of his head, something about killing off half of all living things.

Reluctantly, he called Sam and Natasha for backup. Both were overseas at the moment and would probably get there before him. But they'd both promised to wait for him. Now the debate was wither to bring Bucky or not. This wasn't the life Bucky needed, dragging him in again would be unfair. But if what Banner said was true about this Thanos, they'd need all the help they could get.

"Yo, Buck!" Steve said the second he stepped back inside. But he quieted himself when he saw Emilia's head in his lap, sound asleep. Poor girl looked like she had a beach ball under her shirt, with only 10 weeks left until the girls were born, he knew it would get worse. The decision to bring Bucky kept getting harder the longer he thought about it. It would be selfish to pull him away from his pregnant wife, again. It would be the exact scenario as in 1945, except this time they both knew about the babies.

"What?" Bucky asked quietly. He was pissed at first, that Steve almost woke Emilia. But the look on Steve's face made him change from mad to concerned. "What is it?" He asked.

Steve sighed, flopping down on the couch across from theirs, staring at Emilia. He wanted to do right by her, he just couldn't decide if that meant making Bucky go, or making him stay. If he stayed, half of all life could be wiped out, including Emilia and the babies. If he made him go, he could die and Emilia would be a widow yet again. "I gotta go to Scotland." He finally said quietly.

"Scotland? Why?" Bucky asked, immediately concerned. When Steve had stepped outside, he'd been laughing and joking, lighthearted. This was serious Steve. No, this was Captian America talking. "Just tell me, punk. What's going on?" He asked.

Steve sighed again, running his hand down his face. "That was Bruce on the phone." He started with.

"Banner?" Bucky asked, having only heard of him from Steve. But he'd been missing for years now.

Steve simply nodded. "He says aliens are coming, I have to get to Vision and protect him. They want the mind stone out of his head... If they get it, they could wipe out half of all existence." He vaguely explained. He wasn't even sure what to do, protect him? Get the stone out and destroy it? He was sure he didn't know how to do that. Vision's creation was kind of a freak accident on its own, who knows if he'd even survive having the stone removed.

"Okay. Then we go to Scotland, then what? What's the plan, Steve? We can't just be bodyguards to a robot man forever.." Bucky asked.

Steve leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees while his gaze moved to and stayed on Emilia. "You gotta stay, man." He insisted. He wasn't going to be responsible for them being separated again, he couldn't. "Em needs you more." He added in.

Bucky sighed, his hand stopped moving along her bump and simply rested on it. "If what you're saying is right, and half of everything on every planet could die if they get that stone. I don't have a choice, we have to make sure they don't get it." He argued. He didn't want to leave, life was peaceful for once. He'd gotten everything he could ever want. But this? This is too much to stay away from. There's too much at stake.

"Well he doesn't have the only stone they're looking for. There are 5, I don't know how many he has so far. But every new one he gets makes him harder and harder to defeat. You could die, we could all die and still lose." Steve argued back.

"Then that's why we need everyone. Let me know how long we have before we gotta go, but we're going." Bucky said reluctantly. He didn't want to go, but he couldn't stay. But he knew Emilia was going to be pissed, and terrified. He just needed to find a way to tell her without stressing her out. The last thing he needed on top of this was his wife going into labor early because he scared her.