Positive Regard

Chapter Forty Five

"When's Daddy gonna be home?" Stephanie asked Henry one evening.
"I dunno. He said three weeks."
"When's three weeks?"
"About fifteen more days."
"When's fifteen more days?"
Henry came into the kitchen and got the calendar from where it hung on the refrigerator and went back into the living room. "Here's when he said he might be back."
"Where are we now?"
"Right here."
"Can I mark it?"
"Ask Mom."
"Mommy!" Stephanie yelled. "Can I color the calendar?"
"Yes, but stop screaming."
"Yes ma'am!" She screamed.
She colored in the date Bucky planned to be home by. She drew flowers and hearts and some other stuff that I didn't know what it was.
Bucky wasn't home on that day, or the next.
"Is Daddy dead?" Stephanie asked, her eyes welling with tears.
"No, honey. He's not dead."
She climbed up onto my lap. "But you don't know that."
"No, I don't. But Mr. Fury would know, and he would tell me."
"How does he know?"
"He knows everything." I shrugged. "I don't know how."
Henry looked up from the book he was reading. "What does he do when he leaves?"
I shrugged again. "I have no idea. I don't think he's supposed to tell so I don't ask."
"Don't you worry?"
"I do."
"Was he really in World War Two?" He watched me closely, like he was still trying to figure out if we were telling him the truth.
"He was. He and Steve were."
"And you're really from the forties?"
"I am. Can't you tell from my fashion sense?" I smiled.
He laughed and went back to his book for a second before asking another question. "Am I allowed to ask about it?"
"Ask who about what?"
"Dad about World War Two."
Stephanie looked at him weird. "Why would you wanna know about war? It's sad. And Daddy doesn't like to talk about it."
"Hush." I nudged her. "Yeah, you can ask him about it. He won't mind."
"No, it's fine."
"You can ask. He's not gonna tell you anything he doesn't wanna talk about. He'd love to talk to you about it."
"Are you sure?"
"Definitely."
Stephanie sighed. "I don't care about a war. I wanna know when he's coming home."
"I don't know, Steph. He'll be home soon."

Tony and Pepper's baby was born the next week. Stephanie and Henry wanted to go see her, but they were in school, so I went without them because I wanted to go too and I was impatient.
When I got there, Tony was pacing and Pepper was watching him, holding the baby in her arms. She kept telling him to chill out and sit down.
"Hey. Everything okay?" I asked as I walked in.
"It would be if he would sit down." Pepper said, turning to me and smiling. "Hey. Where are your kids?"
"Henry and Stephanie are at school. I don't know where Steve is." I smiled. "Can I hold her?"
Pepper handed her over to me.
"She's adorable." I smiled. I wanted a baby. Bucky and I were having a conversation when he came home. "Hey, sweetie."
"Thank you." Pepper smiled.
Tony moved to stand beside me and looked down at her, his hands in his pockets. I glanced at him, then glanced at Pepper.
"Tony." I said. "Have you really not held your child?"
"I'll drop her." He said defensively.
"Shut up and sit down. Hold out your arms."
He sat quickly on the side of the bed. I put the baby into his arms.
"Support the head." Bucky's voice came from behind me.
Tony adjusted his hold.
"See? Are you good?" I asked.
He nodded. He was smiling now.
I turned to hug Bucky. "Hey. Are you okay? We've been worried."
"I know. I'm sorry. But it's fine." He hugged me tightly. "Where are the kids?"
"School."
"And Steve?"
"No clue."
He kissed me as he let me go. He came in and went to kiss Pepper's cheek. "Hey, sweetheart. Lookin' good."
"You're the only person who's lied to me about that today." She said with a smile.
"You're causing me a lot of trouble by having a baby. You know that?" He smiled.
"Oh, I know. Sorry about that." She laughed.
He greeted Tony and the baby. He watched them for a while before moving to stand by me. "Fine." He sighed as he put his arm around me. "We can have another kid, I guess."
"You guess?" I asked.
"I guess." He agreed with a smile.
"Daddy!" Stephanie whisper yelled from behind us.
We turned around to see Steve with the kids. Stephanie ran to him and jumped in his arms. He'd knelt down for her, then picked her up and hugged Henry with his free arm. "Hey, guys." He smiled. "How've you been? How's school going?"
"Good." Stephanie giggled as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "I missed you so much."
"I missed you too, honey." He smiled and kissed her head.
Henry grinned. "Is it true that you took a knife off a dead Nazi?" He asked excitedly.
"Oh, yeah. I love that thing. It's super cool. I thought my mom was gonna faint when I showed her." Bucky grinned.
"Can I see it?"
"Hell yeah, kid. I'll show you when we get home."
"Cool!" He grinned.
After a while, we left. Steve was gonna come, but then he remembered he had "something he was supposed to do," so he went to that. Tony seemed more comfortable with the baby, so that was good.
"Dad?" Henry asked in the car.
"Yeah, kiddo?" Bucky turned around to look at him.
"Can you tell me about the war?"
"Sure thing. What do you wanna know?"
"Everything. From the beginning."
Bucky nodded. "Well, I was born--"
I put my hand on his leg. "I don't think he means that far in the beginning."
"I'm a main character."
"Skip to the Hitler part."
"Fine. Hitler was born on--"
Henry laughed. "I meant the fun history stuff."
"Hitler's history. But that's for the best. I didn't know when he was born anyway." Bucky smiled.
Stephanie sighed. "Are you ever gonna get to the good stuff?"
"All right, all right. You guys are a tough audience. Okay, well, I joined the 107th Infantry Regiment in '42..."