INDY

For what may have been the first time ever, I woke up before Bucky. The small bed was empty aside from me, but my hand hung over the edge of the mattress, Bucky’s metal fingers clenched in mine. He was lying on his stomach on the little pile of blankets he’d made on the floor next to the bed, his face turned in the other direction so I had a perfect view of the ruffled back of his head, dark hair sticking out everywhere.

I grinned to myself and reached out to smooth some of it back down. He was usually a pretty light sleeper, but he didn’t even flinch when I released his hand and stepped carefully over him. I dressed quickly and ran my fingers through my hair, looking back down at Bucky, mouth open and snoring softly on the floor, before I slipped quietly out of the bedroom door in search of a bathroom.

After peeing, washing my face, and throwing most of my hair up, I felt better. A little stiff from all the days and nights of irregular sleep and nonstop walking. But better. I was just thankful the morning sickness had so far been mild, only really affecting me on mornings after I'd eaten too late at night.

I could hear movement in the kitchen, and every now and then, as I glanced down the hallway, a set of green knuckles would peek around the edge of the wall; Bruce working over the counter. I approached quietly, slowly. Today was the day I told the guy who’d helped me through college that I’d let the Winter Soldier knock me up. I was only thankful it wasn’t Tony.

“Hey,” Bruce greeted jovially, tilting a frying pan over plates so the breakfast hash he was making poured out into two neat servings. And one enormous one. “Good morning. I guess Bucky’s still-”

“Sleeping, yeah,” I responded, nodding and taking a seat on one of the stools. “Thanks again for letting us hide out here, Bruce. I didn’t really know where else to go.”

“Anytime. So you two have, uh, gotten pretty close now, huh?” he asked, large eyes shooting up from his work to my face and down again almost too quick for me to catch. His tone gave nothing away. He could have been asking about the weather.

“Yeah,” I answered unsteadily. “I mean, we were bound to, right? Working together, living together, and then going on the run together.”

Bruce made a face. “I dunno. From what I know about him, he’s not the most open guy. Even with all that other stuff.”

“Well,” I said hesitantly, trying to formulate words that would lead us naturally to what I had to say. “We… understand each other, I guess.”

Bruce watched my face for a moment, then nodded slowly. “Okay. As long as you’re sure about… whatever is going on between the two of you.”

He nudged a plate across the counter toward me and passed me a fork and a glass of orange juice.

“Thanks,” I said, stabbing at the food eagerly. My stomach was painfully empty. “Really, though, there’s nothing to worry about.” Unless you count the Super Baby I’m incubating. “Bucky and I probably don’t make sense to most people. But it makes sense to us. He’s always had my back. And I’m always going to have his.”

Bruce’s lips twitched, and even though his expression didn’t change, I could see him physically taking in the information I was giving him and accepting it. “Alright. I just.. I know you’re an adult now and you can take care of yourself and everything, but… I also know Tony wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t worry over you at least a little.”

Something in my chest twinged. “I know.”

We fell silent after that, just eating across from each other while the warm breeze rolled through, palm fronds dancing in the distance. It was nice to see Bruce again. (I hadn’t realized that GAP made hoodies in Mack truck sizes.) It was great of him to take Buck and me in during such a strenuous time for us… but it made me miss how things were years ago.

I missed Nat’s eyes narrowing on Steve’s position across the room, telling me “Watch this”, then flirting so loudly and boldly with him that he turned the color of her hair. I missed Tony’s irritation with Dum-E and the “I’m Done With Everything” attitude he adopted after I soothed the little robot into submission. I missed Thor calling me Young Indy and every Midgardian who’d lived through the 80’s — or been reliant on old cable — laughing. I missed everyone.

But I couldn’t deny I felt a vague sense of mortification at the idea of having to tell any of them what I was about to spit out over breakfast with Bruce. So maybe it was better they weren’t here.

“Bruce, I need to tell you someth-”

“Oh, hey,” Bruce said, waving at the doorway, where Bucky was standing with an uncertain expression.

“Morning,” Bucky said with a slight nod toward Bruce. Then his blue eyes fell on me and my cheeks started growing warmer. The tropical sun looked good on him. Everything looked good on him.

The corner of his mouth lifted a fraction, and he came closer, taking a seat on the stool beside me. He slid his hand onto the top of mine, squeezing it gently and looking into my eyes in that way he did like he was trying to see into my head.

You okay?

I gave him a small smile and a nod, squeezing his hand back before he turned to his food.

Bruce did a decent job of pretending not to notice the silent exchange. “So,” he said after a few moments of quiet. “Indy, you said you had something to tell me?”

I hesitated, glancing at Bucky out of the corner of my eye. He stilled, mouth full, and focused his eyes carefully toward the wall. I felt him rest his hand on my thigh beneath the counter top, a gentle show of support.

“Yeah.” My voice was shaking, wasn’t it? “There’s kind of a reason we could only come to you. Not only are you off-grid and capable of helping us if Hydra does find us again… but you’re qualified medically.”

His thick eyebrows pulled down. “Medically? Is one of you sick?”

Bucky turned his head slightly away, but I could feel the tension in his arm.

“No. Not sick,” I said, shaking my head. “But there is a… condition you should know about.”

Bruce’s eyes narrowed on both of us. “When Hydra last caught up with you, what did they do to you?”

“Nothing invasive,” I assured him quickly, holding up my hands. “I was just beat up some. But the medical factor I mentioned could also be of interest to Hydra if they found out.”

“Well, what is it? I’m sure I can help,” Bruce offered, his rumbling voice paradoxically gentle. He leaned back against his sink, which creaked dangerously.

I opened my mouth to speak, but what came out instead was a half-wheezed laugh. I cleared my throat and tried to start again, but Bucky beat me to it.

“Indy’s pregnant.”

If I’d thought Bruce’s eyes were big before, they were enormous now. He paced quickly away from us mumbling to himself, out the door, around the veranda, then back in like a big green boulder rolling around the place. He had a look on his face like he was running all the possibilities through his logic-wired brain. Not to mention trying to reconcile his idea of me (as he knew me) with the idea of me (as a mother to a half super soldier).

“And I’m assuming it’s yours?” he asked Bucky frantically.

“Of course it is!” I jumped in, standing from my seat. Bucky pulled me behind him.

“It’s mine,” he confirmed. “And we don’t know what it could mean. For Indy or the baby. Indy tells me you’ve got experience with super serum.”

Bruce nodded, still working to get rid of his shell-shocked expression. “Yeah. Yeah, I do, but-”

“Bruce,” I stepped around Bucky, slipping my hand into his. “Please. I know this is… a lot. But I’m scared.”

Both men turned to look at me. I felt tears welling in my eyes, but for once I didn’t feel the need to wipe them away or turn my face so they couldn’t see them. These were two of the men I trusted most in the world. They were the men I was going to have to trust with the wellbeing and delivery of my child.

“I don’t know how to do this with a regular baby,” I admitted, my voice cracking as I held a feeble hand to my stomach. “And we don’t know exactly what we’re dealing with here. I need your help, Bruce.”

“You’re… keeping it?” he asked cautiously.

I nodded slowly, and Bucky put his arm around my waist, drawing me into his side. “Yes.”

Bruce let out a long sigh, his eyes closed. “I’m no obstetrician,” he said as he opened his eyes again. “But I can help you. We need to get to the lab. Follow me.”

BUCKY

“I already miss alcohol,” Indy grumbled, running her hands over her face.

I tried to smile, but nerves and stress killed it quickly, so I lifted my hand to brush her hair back behind her shoulder. “I know, Doll.”

We’d been stuck down in Banner’s underground lab for the better part of an hour. Indy got to flex her computer skills again just long enough to illegally access her medical history for Bruce’s perusal. Then he’d taken a few samples of her blood and a few of mine. I’d had to fight against the ridiculous urge to knock the vials of my blood from his huge hands, but I knew it was necessary. For the kid.

“There’s not a lot I can tell you right now,” Bruce announced, staring through his comically large glasses at the tablet in his hand. His footsteps thudded softly across the sub-level floor. “It’s still too early. Based on what you’ve told me, you should be about 5 weeks along. There are other, erm, exams we could do.” He shifted awkwardly, then looked down at Indy, who was grimacing. “But we should probably wait to do those until I can get someone here with smaller hands.”

I glanced between them confusedly. What exams would need smaller….? Oh.

“Anyway, it’ll be a little while before I can find anything out through the blood tests. All I can do for now is confirm that you are definitely pregnant. Congratulations.” He smiled, giving us a brief nod before passing the tablet to Indy.

I leaned over closer to her as Bruce drifted away to some big, spinning machine he’d inserted our vials of blood into. The tablet read like gibberish to me, but Indy seemed able to actually discern something from the mixed bag of numerical quantities and acronyms. She grabbed my hand, pulling it to her lap as she stared down at the figures.

“Well,” she breathed, barely blinking. “It’s real. This is really happening.”

I swallowed the instinctive panic that flared up. I couldn’t differentiate between panic over the idea of becoming a parent and the worry I felt that maybe she wasn’t really sure about all of this. Covering my concern with a smile, I slid my arm around her waist and brought my metal hand to her cheek. There was a time when the idea of touching her with my vibranium prosthetic was horrifying. But she lifted her own hand and held mine there firmly, staring up at me with wide, nervous eyes.

“I’m going to be here with you,” I said in a low voice, hoping Bruce wouldn’t hear us over the whirring of his machines across the lab. “No matter what you need. No matter what happens. Okay?”

“I know,” she murmured, butting her head affectionately into my chest. “That’s not what I’m worried about.”

I settled my fingers against her hair, ruffling it gently as I threw a glance at Bruce. He was very conspicuously facing in the opposite direction, probably trying not to intrude on what was already a pretty sensitive moment.

“Hey, can I talk to you? Alone?” I asked, tilting her chin up so I could look in her face. My mouth felt suddenly dry. I hadn’t been this nervous around her since the night we’d spent in that firefly-filled clearing. The first night we’d slept together.

She nodded, eyebrows hitching up, and let me lead her from the lab.

I linked the fingers of my metal hand with hers as we walked out of Bruce’s house and onto the sandy beach. Our fingers fit together a little easier without the fake, clunky wedding ring I’d had to wear back in Texas. Indy and I had ditched them both back on the roadside during our trek to the coast.

I squinted against the mid-morning sunlight as we walked up the beach. I was glad I’d forgone my jacket; it was way too hot here for more than the dark red T-shirt I wore. Indy wore a pair of jeans and one of the crop tops that used to frustrate me so badly back in New York. The stud in her belly button was white. She’d mournfully fiddled with it a few days before, saying, “I guess I can kiss this thing goodbye.”

There were things that were going to change drastically. For both of us. I knew she was scared. I was scared. The idea of being a father was something I probably would have hissed at and hastily withdrawn from two years ago. And I knew I was asking a lot out of her — out of the universe — in wanting this. But now that it was happening, I couldn’t just turn away from it. I couldn’t identify the correlation, but it felt like it would be the end of us. She’d laughed and smiled and told me she wanted to keep the baby. I knew she wanted the same thing as me. Or… I hoped like hell I did.

I cleared my throat, aware that Indy was throwing questioning glances at me. We’d walked a good distance from Bruce’s house in complete silence, only listening to the wind, the waves, and the sea birds. I stopped our walking and turned to look down at her.

The gold streaks in her dark hair stood out, shining beneath the sun, even in the half-up-do she had it in. I suspected it was in an attempt to stop herself from raking her hands through it. Her eyes were more familiar to me than my own by now. And they still made my heart try to do things it shouldn’t have been capable of anymore.

“Indy,” I nearly croaked. “You know how much I care about you.”

She frowned in concern, stepping closer to me. “Yes.”

“I love you,” I continued in a voice I hadn’t heard in a long time. Maybe before I’d become the monster that haunted whoever I was these days. “I love you more than anything. And now you’re giving me a child.”

My hand shook as I lifted it toward her stomach, fingertips gliding across her soft skin. Even though she looked confused, she leaned into my touch, which I took as a good sign. It helped calm some of my nerves as I stuffed my other hand in my pocket, leaning my forehead against hers.

“I’m broken, Indy,” I whispered, watching tears spring to her eyes again. My own were misting up, too. “But you’ve always just… known how to make me feel like myself again. And I don’t ever want to be without that. I want you. Forever. I want you and me and this baby to be a family. I want to prove to myself that I can still be the man I want to be. A man who deserves you.”

A warm tear rolled down my cheek, but I held up two small rings between us. My mother’s bridal set. One of the only things I’d been able to salvage from back then. It had been passed from my mother to my sister. Now, I hoped to see it on the finger of the girl I couldn’t stand to live without. The thicker band had a circular opal set into gold filigree, with a second band meant to be worn beneath it — a matching band of only the gold ornamentation.

Indy’s eyes widened, tears spilling only inches from my eyes. She dragged in a ragged breath. “Buck,” she murmured quietly.

I closed my eyes and smiled. I’d always liked the way she said that.

“Marry me, Indy,” I whispered, brushing the tip of her nose with mine teasingly. “For real, this time. Marry me and put my lonely old soul to rest.”

Her lips slammed into mine, nearly knocking me over as her arms flew up over my shoulders. “You’re so melodramatic,” she laughed, kissing me again.

I lifted her off her feet and spun her around once, tasting her like it was the first time. I grabbed her left hand and pulled it against my chest, right over my heart.

“So, do I get an actual answer or not?” I asked with a grin.

Her eyes, the color of butterscotch in this light, grew serious as she leaned up to brush her lips gently against mine. “I’ve always thought you were amazing, Bucky. Always. And I’ve fallen deeper in love with you than I thought I ever would. With anyone. I’m scared about everything that’s happening to us. But I’m always a little less scared when you’re there.”

I was consumed, focusing on her lips as she spoke, my hand idly massaging the back of her neck.

“I love you,” she said, laughing as tears squeezed out of the corners of her smiling eyes. “I don’t know how we’ll do it, but I want to live life with you. For the rest of whatever we’ve got left. Put that ring on my finger, Sergeant.”

I let out a half-disbelieving laugh, sliding the rings onto her finger. It was a much happier moment than the first time I’d done this. She smiled down at her hand while I watched the light play against her freckles. Then she turned and grabbed my face, kissing me fully, like she’d been holding back before.

I felt every bit of love and affection she had for me, soothing decades of pain and warming the coldness of the spaces left behind by the Winter Soldier. I only hoped she could feel it. How much I treasured her, how grateful I was to her for saving me from my own emotional isolation. I hoped she knew how devoted to her I was. I laughed exultantly into her kiss as I realized that she’d just promised me a lifetime in which to show her.

BRUCE

I stood at the edge of the porch, barely able to make out Bucky and Indy in the distance. I’d come out of the lab intent on letting them know I’d managed to contact an appropriate medical professional to see to Indy. Someone both in-the-know and trustworthy. She’d agreed — quicker than I’d expected — to fly out once a month until it became necessary for Indy to have more frequent prenatal checkups.

There were also some things we’d need to watch out for. Between Indy’s preexisting anemia and whatever Hydra had done to Bucky, this definitely fell within “high risk” territory.

But when I saw the two of them hugging, kissing, laughing…

I can wait to tell them. Let them have this for a while. They both need it.

Indy had had a rough childhood, from what Tony had told me. She’d always struck me as a lonely teenager, the kind who moped habitually and lashed out at things that hit too close to home. She was a more emotionally balanced adult, now, so many years later. But that kind of loneliness wasn’t the kind a person outgrew.

I hadn’t had much interaction with the Winter Soldier, or Bucky, as everyone knew him now. But I knew enough about him to know how dangerous he could be. I could admit to a small bit of worry when I’d seen little Indy next to that machine of a man, her small hand inside his.

Maybe if I’d been Tony, I would have held onto my suspicion and mistrust a little longer. But Indy was a grown woman now. And there was something about the way he looked at her… Something that made me rethink my initial judgments.

He moved protectively around her. Even the smallest shift of her weight from one foot to the other had him reassessing everything around her, sometimes repositioning himself closer to her. And she seemed to feel genuinely safe around him, if the fact that she swelled with quiet joy when he entered the room was anything to go off of. And I was pretty sure Indy hadn’t served in the military, so those dog tags that hung from her neck were likely his. They had a strange bond. One I had trouble pinning down given their respective personalities and backgrounds. But it was there.

So, I was happy for them. They clearly needed each other. I could forget my conflicted thoughts about their unexpected coupling up. It was a small world, after all.