|| O N E - L A S T - T I M E || A STEVE ROGERS FANFIC ✔

HER

"Steven... Stevie... Baby... Are you okay?" Sharon asks, slightly shaking him from his thoughts and gently pulling him to sit up so she can look him in the eye. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing Sharon." He promises and pulls her lips to his, kissing her sweetly enough to attempt at forgetting about Katrina and how she'd treated him.

"You're lying... but okay..."

Katrina would keep asking... He thinks as he holds her to his chest, rubbing Sharon's back as one hand runs through her hair. He moves to push her back down against the bed, finding that maybe he could tire himself out a little. Maybe he could love her enough that he would forget how Katrina would do just that to help him sleep. Fuck...

"I love you..." Steve whispers, his voice low and calm but shaky as he caresses her side with his right hand.

"I know. I love you too..." Sharon hums, she's still half asleep but she'd do anything he needs to keep him calm. To help him with whatever is going on inside his head. He has to be thinking about the baby... She pushes that thought out of her mind because that would mean that he's thinking about Katrina again.

"Don't ever... Ever... Think that I don't... Okay, baby?" He asks, his lips pressed against her neck, kissing her there over and over again as his breathing picks up and he allows his weight to go down on her just enough that keeps her against the bed but he's not holding her down so she can't move. He hates doing that to her- make her feel like she's caged, stuck, unable to move- he hates it.

"I promise. I won't. I know you love me..." She sighs and tilts her head for him allowing his lips to roam and teeth to graze against her sensitive skin. Her heart starts racing as she holds her arms tighter around his neck. A slight moan comes from her lips, "Steven..."

His eyes widen at that, he can't do this right now. It isn't working. This is only making him worse. Steve pushes himself up off her at the sound of his name coming from her lips like Katrina used to say it. "I'm sorry..." He places a chaste kiss to Sharon's mouth before he gets off the bed and leaves to go to the living room only to lose his cool and go to the car, slamming both the front door and the car door as he starts to remember more and more about the nights without Katrina, the night that he'd come home to see a crying Katrina.

It'd been nine months. Today marks the day that his fiancé was due to give birth to his daughter. To his child. To the other girl that would be the other half of the light in his world. Steve tried to rush home from work but he didn't make it in time. He found her sitting on the front steps of the apartment. Steve's heart drops from his throat to the bottom of his stomach.

"Katrina..." He breathes, getting out of the car and leaving the keys in the ignition and door wide open halfway in the parking spot and half in the street.

"Baby..." She whispers, not looking up as she feels strong arms wrapping around her. The only strong arms that she thought that she would ever need.

"What... What happened?" He doesn't know that she's just had a stillborn or that his daughter wouldn't be coming home.

"You... You weren't there... I'm so... I'm sorry... I didn't know... I... This is my fault, Steven. I should have gone to the doctors when you told me to go to them." She's a sobbing mess now. He can't help but hold her tight and kiss her head.

"Kat, tell me what happened. It's okay. I promise. I'm not mad... Princ'ss, you're okay, right?" He sees that her stomach isn't swollen anymore, he notices that she flushes when he asks if she's alright.

"No!" She shouts, not meaning to sound angry. "I'm not okay!"

"Hey... hey, calm down okay?"

"Steven, our baby died inside me. I carried her for three months after she died. She died... I had her in my stomach for so long. I should have gone to the doctor!" She blames herself, she blames him for not being there, she doesn't know what to think right now.

Steve's eyes search hers as he feels his eyes well up with tears like he always does when something like this happens, something emotional. He knows that there's nothing he can do, nothing that he could do in the first place. "Baby girl, this isn't your fault. This isn't my fault either. I know... Right now, it seems like it, princ'ss you can blame me for this if you want. Just please, don't blame yourself. Okay?"

"I don't want to blame you. This is all my fault. I..."

"No. Stop it." He grabs her hands and lays her palms on his own cheeks before his hands go to hers. "You could not have done anything different."

He doesn't let her get another word in before he kisses her sweetly and lets her cry.

Steve pounds the steering wheel as hard as he can without setting off an air bag. He hits the center and makes the horn sound. He's pissed at himself for doing this. For being with Sharon now.

Katrina had seen him- they'd bumped into each other at the club that he and Sharon had gone to for a little party. He doesn't remember how or why he'd ended up talking to her again but he had and he let her get to him. Steve let her get into his mind and allowed her inside his head. "Dammit!"