The Avenger, The Assassin, and The Vigilante || B. Barnes

On and On

The Barnes family found that August ended on a much happier note than it had begun on. Bucky and Allie had started to find their rhythm with a newborn baby in the apartment. It was hard, it was long, but it was rewarding.

In celebration of Sam's acceptance of his role as Captain America and the birth of Steven, Sarah Wilson had decided that a cookout was in order when Steve, Allie, and Bucky felt that they had the energy to travel down. Waiting until Steven was just over a month old, Allie and Bucky arranged to come down at the end of September.

One early morning a few days before their trip down to Louisiana, Allie had woken up with Steven to feed him, walking to the nursery and sitting in her rocking chair as she spoke softly to him.

"You know," she whispered to him. "You are one lucky kid."

Steven's eyes were barely open, blinking and opening to look up at his mother. She simply smiled at the bundle in her arms. He often would wrap his hands around fingers or sleeves as he ate or was simply held. He wasn't a terribly fussy baby, at least when he was in Allie's arms.

Allie looked from Steven to the picture frame that sat on a nearby dresser. It was from the afternoon that they had brought him home. Sam and Wanda had worked hard to make the apartment as clean and neat as possible before Steve made adjustments that he knew his sister would want. The three were joined by Peter and May when Allie and Bucky had arrived back at the apartment.

Having begun to explore photography as a hobby, Peter had set up a camera in order to take pictures of the entire group. A small baby book sat nearby with the first few pages filled with more pictures that Peter and Bucky had each taken. Looking at the smiling faces in the photo frame, Allie looked back down at Steven.

"I can't think of any other little boy that gets to say that Spider-Man is his uncle. Or Captain America. No other little boy that gets to say that Wanda Maximoff is his aunt," she grinned. "Or that Steve Rogers is his actual uncle."

"Are you trying to give him an ego?" Bucky yawned as he leaned against the door frame.

"He has a good reason to have one," Allie grinned at him. "We do have a pretty swell family."

"Swell? Did you really just say swell?" he laughed.

"Hey! In my defense, I think it would be kind of nice to sometimes talk around him like we would have in the 40s. After all, had you not fallen and I hadn't gone missing, he would have been born then," she laughed softly.

"Well then," Bucky teased. "I think that's swell."

"You're an ass," Allie rolled her eyes and shook her head, grinning all the while.

"I do think you're right, though," he walked over and kissed the top of her head as he looked down at the baby that was on the verge of a milk induced coma. "He is one lucky kid."

In addition to their chosen family, Bucky and Allie knew that Steven had the Barnes family. At the first Sunday family dinner after he was born, the entire family had gathered in the Barnes family home to meet him. Thomas and Ruth had both cried, Bucky smirking at the both of them as they told him to keep quiet. With everyone safe and sound, they were happy to have what they had longed for for a long time. Things finally felt right in their home.

As frustrated as Peter was having to be in high school for a seemingly extra year, he happily made it known that he wanted to spend his afternoons after school at the apartment to help out with the baby, bragging about how he had the coolest little nephew. Allie would often doze off as Peter would rock the baby, watching movies and already trying to teach Steven about what he had put on the television.