The One who Survived

Olivia

Peggy's POV

It has been 2 weeks since I was released from the hospital. Unfortunately, Olivia has to be kept in a healing chamber. Even after Howard offered to keep her in the room he'd prepared, the doctors thought it best if she was somewhere close so they could keep an eye on her.

"I don't understand! If that kid is really Rogers than why is she so sick!?" Howard yelled, picking up Olivia's photo again.

"Howard. She 2 months premature. It's natural for babies that early to be sick." I explained taking a sip from glass of water.

"Still, Steve never got sick. Why isn't she getting any better!?" He had started calming down. I would say that I agree with him, however Steve wasn't always like he was when Howard knew him.

"That's not true. Steve was sick all the time before the serum. Remember, he had asthma and arrhythmia before." I explained as Maria took a seat next to me. She smiled at me.

"You never know Howard. Olivia could have not picked up the serum from Steve genes. She could be more like Peggy and have no serum at all. That wouldn't be so bad." Maria said.

"No but, she still has his genetics running through her system. It should be helping her a bit, shouldn't it!?"

"It is. Without it we have no idea weather or not she would've survived even this long." I said getting up. "I gotta go. They're taking out her tubes today. I wanna be there for it." I placed my cup on the counter and grabbed my bag.

"I think I might join you on that one. Maybe we can finish our girls day afterwards?" Maria asked.

"Of course, maybe we should invite Ana as well." I said. Maria grabbed her bag and went to the tele to phone Ana. 5 minutes later we were both headed outside to the car. We picked Ana up and headed straight to the hospital. I showed the front desk my ID and a nurse escorted us back into Olivia's room. She was awake and looking around the room, her blue eyes big. We walked in and I made my way over to her.

"Hi sweetheart." I said picking her up. She was still very small and had a ton of cords going into her body. She looked up at me and reached a hand up towards my face. I kissed her forehead and sat down in the chair next to her bassinet. Maria and Ana were standing behind me smiling. A hand brushed a piece of her hair out of the face and I turned back to the two of them.

They both smiled at me and then came a knock on the door. The door opened and in walked the doctor. "Good Morning Miss. Carter." He greeted pushing his cart of supplies in. "I assume your here for the removal of Olivia's tubes?"

"Yes, Indeed we are. I also wanna know when I'm gonna get to take her home." I said. He made his way over and checked her IV bag.

"Well, she's healing. Quickly healing. However, she's still not as strong as I believe she should be before we release her." He explained. I felt her squirm in my arms when he stepped closer, as if she was scared of him. I let her snuggle against me and motioned for Maria and Ana to sit down. "Except, we are going to go ahead and take out her feeding and breathing tubes today."

I sighed and looked down at Olivia. She was looking around again, she looked lost yet curious. The doctor stood up and two nurses came in. "If you'll just set her down on the changing table, we'll make this as fast as possible." One of them said.

I stood up and placed her down on the table. She looked at me and gained a few tears in her eyes. Brushing my hand against her forehead in hopes to comfort seemed to help slightly. After a few moments I was pushed out of the way by the nurses, who were harshly yanking and tugging on the cords connected to my daughter. "Ready ladies, on the count of three. Just give them a nice good tug and they should come out." The doctor said. "Now, Miss. Carter. She'll be in a bit of pain afterwards but we'll give her something through her IV to help with that."

I nodded and felt a hand on my shoulder. I knew it was Maria, even without looking. "Ready, okay. One... Two... Three." I saw them pull the two tubes out and a loud cry filled the room. Tears swelled in my eyes as I realized; this was the first time I've ever heard her cry. The nurses rushed away to depose of the tubes and clean up, while the doctor pushed another liquid into her IV bag. I got to her side and rested my hand on her head. Her cries were beautiful, yet hard to hear. "You can pick her up, it's alright." The doctor said backing out of the room.

He closed the door and I picked Olivia up off the table almost immediately. "Shh... Your okay Olivia. It's okay sweety. Mommy's got you, I've got you baby." I whispered, holding her close to my chest and let her cry.

Slowly her cries stopped and she fell asleep on me. I didn't even notice that Ana and Maria were still in the room until Ana spoke up. "You were truly made to be her mother, you know that Peggy?"

I turned to look at her and Maria nodded. "The way you handle her. It's like it's natural to you. She truly is a mommy's girl." We all stopped for a moment at that comment. "Sorry, I didn't mean to..."

"It's okay Maria. She may never be able to met her real father, but I don't want her being a Howard's girl either." All of us laughed slightly. "Let's give her a few more minutes and then we'll go. I really feel like a massage would do me some good right now."

"Alright that's perfectly fine. I can go call the shop and tell them we'll be around in about, say 30 minutes?" Maria said. I nodded and looked over at the two girls who stood in the room beside me.

"Thank you." I said. "I mean for everything. For being there when labor happened and even now. I don't think I would've been able to get through this if it wasn't for you ladies."

"It's no problem Miss. Carter. I rather enjoy having you and Baby Olivia around. Plus you'd do the same thing for me someday, I hope." Ana said. I smiled brightly at her and Maria stepped out of the room to make her call.

"Would you like to hold her, Ana?" I questioned walking towards her. She took a step back and then looked at me worriedly.

"I don't know Miss. Carter, I don't know how to hold a child so small." Ana said. "Plus, I thought you wanted to spend as much time as possible with her."

"I have her entire life to do that. And it's just like holding any other child." I took another step closer and this time she didn't step away. I motion for her to come closer and she reached out her arms. Gently I placed Olivia into them and helped Ana rearrange to help make it a bit more comfortable. "There, just lift her head a bit more. Look at that, you're a natural Ana." She smiled slightly at me and looked down at the sleeping babe.

"She's so light. Is it normal for baby's to be this light after being born?" She asked.

"No, but she was 2 months early so that could contribute to it."

Maria came in the door and told us that the massage place was ready for us whenever. Ana handed Olivia back to me and went to grab her coat off the hanger. I placed Olivia down in the bassinet and heard her whimper softly. "It's okay. I'll be back either later tonight, or bright and early in the morning. Alright baby. Mommy loves you, and I can't wait for you to see what your Uncle Howard has done with your room."

We left, letting the nurse know and headed to finish our girls day.

All we didn't know is that there was much more happening on that day than we had originally thought.

Word Count: 1430