An Interesting Arrangement

Chapter Seven

4 years later

Loki smiled as Stephanie clambered onto the piano bench. "You're a musical little tyke, aren't you?"

Stephanie beamed with the amazing amount of sweetness and innocence than only a four year old can produce. "Of course I am, Uncle Loki. And soon you and Mom will start teaching me!"

Loki smiled and ruffled the blonde girl's hair. She was awfully sweet.

"Incoming!" Bucky called playfully as he ran after two year old James Clint Rogers, or just JC.

"Uncle Loki!" JC called cheerfully as he toddled over to his other uncle.

"Hey buddy!" Loki grabbed the toddler and threw him up in the air. JC squealed in delight as Loki caught him. Natasha smirked as she walked into the room.

"You two are awfully cute." She said smiling.

"Come play with us, Mommy!" Stephanie begged, dragging her nine month pregnant mother over to the piano.

Natasha smiled at her daughter. "How about I play background music and you and Uncle Bucky dance?"

Bucky chuckled. Stephanie was quite the musical child, always singing or dancing. Her mother had promised her that as soon as she was older she'd teach her ballet. But for now, Stephanie settled for dancing with one of her uncles while her mother played music.

As Natasha began playing a lively piece, Bucky walked over to his niece and bowed. "May I have this dance?"

Stephanie smiled and gently placed her hand in his outstretched one. "You may."

They spent the afternoon in this manner until Bucky took Stephanie and JC up to take their naps.

Natasha grunted slightly as she rose from the piano bench and Loki rushed over and helped her up.

"You should be resting." Loki playfully admonished her.

Natasha gave him a strained smile as she carefully straightened up. "I know. But I hate to disappoint them with Steve..." Natasha trailed off, but she didn't have to finish. It was always hard for her to be away from Steve, but on his most recent battle a few weeks prior he'd been badly injured, requiring him to stay in the hospital for an indefinite amount of time. And since she was nine months pregnant, Natasha couldn't visit her husband in fear that someone would make the connection or worse, that one of the Avengers might see her. So she had to deal with Skype calls as she prepared to have her third child without her husband. The kids, who had been told about their father's line of work, weren't nearly as worried and Natasha always made sure to put on a good face in front of them. But it was really wearing her down so Bucky and Loki tried their best to take the stress off of her so that she could have the baby without any complications.

"Natasha..." Loki was about to say something, though he had no idea what, when he heard an odd sound. "What was..." he broke off as Natasha looked down in horror.

"Loki..." she said slowly. "My waters broke."

"Which means?" Loki asked, wide-eyed, even though he really didn't want to know the answer.

"Which means the baby is coming. And it's coming now."
                                      *
To his credit, Loki didn't faint or throw up or start panicking. He did, however, turn really pale before asking her what he should do.

"Can you teleport me to the hospital?"

Loki shook his head. "A day or two ago, yes. But with the baby already coming I'd be afraid that something would go wrong with the magic affecting it as it came out. Same goes for portals."

Natasha sighed. "Then looks like I'm stuck with you and Bucky as my midwives."

"What?" Bucky asked, aghast, from the doorway." Loki quickly explained the situation.

"Ok, boys." Natasha said firmly before they started panicking. "Here's what we're gonna do."
                                     *
Stephanie glanced up as Bucky ran downstairs for the umpteenth time that day.

"How's Mommy doing?" She asked her uncle.

"Just fine!" He called to her as he grabbed a few things from the kitchen.

"How much longer?" She persisted.

Bucky stopped for a moment and shrugged. "Who knows!"

At that moment, there was a scream from Natasha and Loki exclaimed "I see the head! Keep pushing!" Which caused Bucky to dash up the stairs.

Stephanie glanced to where JC was playing quietly on the floor with his toy car. "Think it hurts?" She asked her younger brother.

Another scream erupted from upstairs and JC nodded. "Yep. Hurts a lot, probably."
                                    *
Natasha gave out a relieved sigh as Loki handed her the clean baby. "I'm never doing that again."

Loki shrugged. "After seeing that, neither am I."

Bucky chuckled. "I would certainly hope not."

"So what're you going to name him?" Loki asked curiously.

Natasha smirked. "I thought I'd name him after one of his midwives. How does Edward Loki Samuel Rogers sound?"

Loki was so touched he couldn't speak, so Bucky spoke for him. "I think it sounds great." Natasha smiled and kissed the baby's head.

"We'll go put Stephanie and JC to bed and then we'll come up and see if you need anything." Bucky told her quietly. He handed her a laptop. "Just in case you want to call the punk."

"Thank you." Natasha said quietly as Bucky led Loki out of the room. She carefully opened the computer and called Steve.

"Hey Steve!" Natasha said, smiling as her husband came onto the screen.

"Hey Nat!" Steve said, happy to see her as well. "What's going on?"

"Well I thought you might like to meet the newest addition to the family." Natasha said, shifting the camera so that Steve could see their baby sleeping peacefully beside her.

Steve was at a loss. "Oh, Nat. I can't believe... how... darling, I'm so sorry I wasn't there. If I could've been..."

Natasha shook her head slowly. "I know Steve, I know. Just... get well soon so that we can see you."

"I'll get better twice as fast." He promised her. "What are we calling him?"

Natasha smirked. "Well I thought I'd name him after one of the midwives and call him Edward Loki Samuel Rogers."

Steve's eyes bugged out a little. "Loki was one of your midwives?"

"Well I mean it could've been Sam." She teased.

"But it was Loki, right?"

Natasha laughed. "Yes! When you come home I'll have to tell you the story."

Steve smiled. "I'd like that. I'll be coming home soon. I love you."

Natasha smiled as tears sprang into her eyes. "I love you too, Steve."