Coffee House Love: Steve Rogers x OC Love Story

NEW Chapter 44

Heidi was sitting in her office in the penthouse, combing through the partial matches FRIDAY had found. Every week she dedicated one night to trying to find Bucky, FRIDAY came up with thousands of partial matches a day. They were rated by how closley of a match they were. Heidi refused to fail Steve, to fail Bucky. So she combed through matches FRIDAY found, stopping at less than a 20% chance of it being a match.

She had already sifted through 4,000 matches tonight, it was after 2AM and she wasn't sure when she'd get to sleep. She had another 8,000 to comb through. Each match was more and more upsetting, every week she did this she felt less hopeful. The desk in her office in the penthouse was littered with pictures of Bucky. As many as she could dig up. Most from the 40s, several from his time in the service and several from his time with Hydra. She didn't even know him, but looking at the flood of pictures on her desk broke her heart, how a man that seemed so sweet was taken advantage of so badly. She'd heard all the stories about Bucky from back in the 40s with Steve, she's heard about the small glimpse of himself he got when he stopped himself from killing Steve in DC. She felt like she already knew him, already loved him.

The now familiar sick feeling overwhelmed her as she sifted through the matches, pulling herself out of her office chair and darting into the bathroom across from her office. As soon as she reached the bathroom, she dropped down to her knees. Violently throwing up into the toilet. As soon as she started, she already wished she'd shut the door. She knew she was going to wake Steve up, she felt guilty waking him up so often, but she loved how he took care of her when she was sick.

Steve was at her side a moment later, his hand rubbing up and down her back while his other hand rubbed her bump. She threw up so violently that she had tears down her face, her throat ached, she felt like she'd been doing situps. This had became such a regular thing. Mostly everyday, she was overwhelmed with nausea. She even had a trash can lined with far too many plastic bags by her desk in the lab, in case she couldn't make it to the bathroom.

When Heidi was done being sick, she leaned back against Steve. He moved his hand from her back to her bump. He slipped his hand under her shirt, gently rubbing her bump with his fingertips. "I'm here, sugar. I've got you." Steve reassured her, he leaned in and kissed her temple gently while a few tears ran down her face. He just sat there with her, holding her, soothing her while she calmed down her hormones.

"What were you doing up so late?" He asked sweetly. Heidi leaned her head back onto his shoulder. "Looking through possible matches with FRIDAY." She admitted.

"Sugar, you need sleep. I can't have you staying up all hours of the night to look for Buck." Steve said calmly.

"I have to find him, I can't let you down.." Heidi said quietly.

"No, you never let me down, sugar. I just need you to help me take care of you, I need you to sleep." Steve pleaded.

"I know, baby. I just need one night a week for this." Heidi reassured him.

"I'll take over, sugar. I need you to sleep, I need you to take care of Dustin. He can't come out with eyebags because you're staying up looking for his Uncle Buck." Steve said with a quiet laugh.

"I'm sorry, baby.." Heidi said with a defeated sigh.

"You have nothing to be sorry for. Are you ready to lay down?" Steve asked, Heidi nodded. Steve stood up, gently scooping Heidi up into his arms as he carried her back to bed. "You're going to sleep in today, understand?" Steve said.

"Yes, daddy." Heidi said teasingly as she smiled up at him. Steve smiled down at her, giving her a quick kiss on the forehead before sitting her on the edge of the bed. "I'm calling Stark, you're sleeping in." He insisted. Steve texted Tony, however. It was almost 3AM after all. When he sent the quick text, informing him that Heidi would be in at lunch, he climbed into bed with Heidi. She immediately curled up against him, her bump resting on his bare ribs while her head found its home on his chest.

"Get some sleep, sugar. I'll deal with FRIDAY tomorrow." Steve promised. He laid there with Heidi, gently rubbing her back until he finally felt her drift back off to sleep. Only then did he close his eyes and try to get some more sleep.

Steve woke up, hours later, luckily still feeling Heidi sound asleep in his arms. He carefully grabbed his phone from the nightstand, reading the text from Tony. Tony had texted back to take the day off and asked if Heidi was okay. He sent a quick response before putting his phone away and hugging back onto his wife for a while. He wanted her to sleep as long as she could, as long as she needed. He already felt guilty enough that while he slept, she was feeling sick, she was awake and looking for Bucky.

Hours went by, Steve happily holding onto her, admiring her. She finally stirred against his chest and woke up, opening her eyes to smile up at Steve. "Good morning, sugar. How are you feeling?" Steve asked.

"Better. Thank you, baby." Heidi said with a sleepy smile. "How long did I sleep?" She asked.

"It's almost lunch. Don't worry, Stark insisted you took the whole day off." Steve reassured her.

"I wonder if he regrets giving me this job, I keep missing work.." Heidi said quietly with a sigh.

Steve took her face into his hand, gently cupping her cheek while he moved her to look up at him. "He doesn't. He loves you, so much. So much that I hate it. He does not regret hiring you, you're the best thing that's happened to that company since Stark stopped building weapons." Steve promised.

"But we're only 20 weeks. You think he's going to deal with this for another 4 months?" Heidi asked.

"Yes. I think he'd do anything you said, anything you needed." Steve reassured her.

"I'm dealing with the matches from now on, sugar. You need to sleep." Steve said. He gave her a kiss on the temple as his hands started to rub up and down her back.

"Fine.." Heidi said with a defeated sigh.

"How are you feeling? Do you need to get a little more sleep?" Steve asked sweetly as he smiled down at his wife.

"I'm okay, for now. But I'm not hungry yet." Heidi admitted.

"That's okay, sugar. We can just lay here until you're ready to get up." Steve promised her. He felt her situate to lay comfortably against him again, resting his head on top of hers as she curled up into his side. He knew she would end up falling back to sleep soon. "Get a little more sleep, sugar. I'm here, I've got you." He cooed quietly.