Let Go: Winterwidow

Chapter 16: Burnt Pasta

 Stevie was finally permitted home! After a week of painful watching and waiting, the little blonde had finally pulled through. Well, at least enough to be safe to leave the hospital, that was. He was currently on the floor crawling around his little playpen, filled with little stuffed animals, blocks, board books, and other baby necessities. He cooed as Natasha stressfully looked over their bills- it was going to be an even tighter month. She would have to cut back making trips to the laundromat and the grocery store.

"You're cute, baby boy," she smiled softly and hummed as she glanced at Stevie who was clinging onto the bars, holding himself in a standing position. He bounced on his legs and blew a raspberry at Natasha who chuckled and turned back to the forms. "That's right, keep breathing..."

The ginger had been well aware of the circumstances she had sent her husband into while she was at the hospital with the baby, but she trusted Nick wouldn't hurt him and felt bad for Bucky who was probably getting a real scare right now. She hadn't been permitted to tell anyone about their secret, mainly her own life partner. She wasn't the biggest fan of that rule, but she understood that it was for his safety.

The thing was... Natasha Romanoff was sort of a secret agent. She HAD worked for Fury a few years prior, but not at an office or anything. She had left because she had wanted to try to start her own life away from the chaos and darkness, and then she met her Bucky and well, you know the rest.

Shield had a loophole that turned out to be more trouble than they would've thought. The people they were fighting against were mainly terrorists and dangerous organizations like the mafia and whatever the regular police couldn't handle. And some had been spies that leaked into Shield's infrastructure and caused its downfall, and ever since then neither Fury or Natasha had been able to contact each other. She was one of their most powerful and skilled agents, so naturally the other siders would want to prevent them from coming into contact ever again.

Bucky, on the other hand, well, he had a different purpose entirely. She hated the fact that he was soon going to be involved in this mess, but she figured it was time to stop keeping the truth from her husband, and she was bracing herself for whatever was coming back to her. She just hoped that he would understand that this was for the best and that she would never wish any harm to come to him of any sort.

His purpose was that he had a very rare blood type. That might not be very important to anyone apart from Shield, but it was very lucky that they had him partially on board. Having a rare blood type meant that any security could be infiltrated by him. All these intense evil organizations had specific ways of identifying their people, and some included small, painless blood samples and such. Having an agent like THAT would be quite helpful.

But Natasha knew she would never force any of that on him, and if he didn't want to do this, hell, he wasn't going to! She really was looking for any excuse to back out now, but seeing as it was Fury she'd be refusing, that would be quite impossible, even for her. She may have gotten away with it once, but never again.

***

Soon Bucky returned home, much to the happy squeals of his son, but he seemed in no mood to be playful and loving. He glared at Natasha's back who was currently making dinner over the stove and she bit her lip slightly, the moment finally arriving.

There was a tension filled silence in which Stevie whined quietly in confusion as he looked between the two. What was going on with mommy and daddy?

"Welcome home," she finally managed to loosen her tight throat somewhat, but Bucky stayed where he was, still with that dark expression. "H-How was it? You look tired, you want to have some spaghetti? Specialty store bought noodles with aged sauce," she laughed nervously and turned to face her husband. Her attempt at humor was quickly regretted.