Bun in the Oven - Sequel to Cooking with Bucky

Chapter 25 -- Baby Shower & Thanksgiving

By the time we got food, we noticed it was a lot like what we had at our anniversary party. Like they are copying our anniversary party to the T. Even James laughed at the food choices because of the similarities but there were some differences we noticed. More veggies. There were some fall theme foods as well, like apples, pumpkin bread and pears. Good selection for the guests. We saw my cousin Paul in line. He said thanks for the invite.

"I hope you don't mind that I invited my brother to your party." Paul said and revealed his older brother Andrew and his wife, Natalie, who I never met until today.

"Well, we are family so the more the merrier." I said. They smiled at me and congratulated us on our first baby.

"I hope things are smooth sailing for the next few months. Andrew here told me a little about you two after he met you guys at SHIELD. I'm Natalie, his wife." Natalie said as she introduced herself. "We're trying for one soon. We hope to have a baby sometime in two years!" She added.

"Then our baby will have a cousin sometime soon!" I said as I smiled and wanted to leave the table.

"Hey. You got come over here and see the roast beef!" James said rescuing me from my cousin-in-law.

"Sure thing, I'm coming right over. Sorry about that. I have a craving for certain foods and want roast beef." I told them.

"That's understandable. Have a good meal!" Andrew said as I excused myself and joined James.

"Thanks for saving me from Natalie over there!" I said to James.

"I saw your awkward conversation and thought I should bring you over here. This is good!" He said as he ate a few slices of roast beef and put some more on his plate.

"You need to try this. There's also some horseradish sauce, if you can stomach that. I know spicy food kind of bothers you now." James said with concern. I helped myself to slices of roast beef and added a spoonful of horseradish sauce to my plate.

"Let's go sit down and enjoy our food." I mentioned to him.

"Uh, yeah. Have you seen the cake?" James asked as we left the food table.

"No, I have not." I replied.

"You got it to see it! I think it looks fantastic! Follow me!" James said and led me to where they have the cake.

"Wow! This is amazing! How would they know something like this?" I asked in surprise. It was a huge sheet cake with white icing and trimmed in yellow and blue. The middle of the cake had a smiling teddy bear with balloons in his hands. In blue lettering it said 'Welcome Baby Barnes'. Also around the cake were cupcakes in the shape of baby shoes.

"I think they paid attention to ours at our anniversary party. SHIELD is known to have eyes everywhere, love. You know that." He jokingly said as we admired the cake.

"I think it looks so precious. Please, let's go to the table and eat before I start crying." I urged him. I tend to get emotional now which is all new to me. My doctor says its normal for first timers like me. We moved away from the cake and headed for our table. As we got there, Sam was waiting for us. He had a worried look on his face.

"We got a problem happening here, Bucky!" Sam seriously said to us.

"What's going on, buddy? Is it one of the guests?" James asked concerned while he looked around the room.

"It's not that, dude. It's over here. It doesn't look very pretty." Sam said, sparing the details as they watched. He gestured at the area near the far corner of the room. One of those golden circles rotated around on the wall. It kept rotating as if it was not going to stop.