Second Chances - Book 1

Chapter 3: Special Announcement

As sunshine flooded the room, Bruce tossed and turned within the bed, enough to rouse Natasha from her slumber, she gave a light kick to his leg, to try and make him stop moving. "Sorry." Bruce eventually grumbled, earning an unintelligible murmur from the woman beside him. The man slipped out of the bed, peering into Vinny's crib before he went to make their coffees as well as to prepare a bottle, deciding he would even go as far as to make breakfast.

Meanwhile, in the bedroom, Natasha had decided to try and fall back to sleep, able to hear Vinny cooing to himself in his crib soon conjured a little curiosity. Getting out of her bed, Natasha crept upon him, watching the little boy for some time before he spotted her. The woman gave a gentle smile before carefully removing him from the crib, bringing him to the bed with her, laying back down with Vinny cradled in just one arm. "Good morning." She whispered, becoming more at ease with the infant, beginning to trust herself around him. "I trust you slept well." She gave a very soft smile, brushing some hair from his face. "I slept good too if you were wondering." She said, playing with his gloved hands, the baby continuing to coo, though more directed to her.

Within the time of 30 minutes, Natasha had remained to cuddle the infant, without even quite acknowledging it herself. Bruce had been stood at the doorframe, happily watching on. She was finally allowing herself to be a mother. To set aside those iron walls she'd built for herself so many years ago. He left her to cuddle him just a little longer, before finally speaking up. "Hey, uh, breakfast is ready, and his bottle." He gave a gentle smile, watching the two. Nat looked up, a little startled to begin with.

"We'll be right out.. actually, would you like to change him?" Natasha offered Bruce, giving a gentle nod and walking towards them. He liked to get himself involved with the whole parenting thing, even though he wasn't quite in that position to do so. Whenever Natasha allowed him to be involved, he wouldn't pass up the opportunity. And now she was keeping him, he felt he could afford to become close to the infant.

Natasha handed over Vinny, Bruce carried him to the changing station to get him changed, Natasha climbed out of the bed and moved off to shower in that time, getting changed in the bathroom.

By the time Natasha had come out of the bathroom, Bruce had already changed Vinny, he was now in a cute little outfit. "He looks.. cute," Natasha said as she approached the two of them, finding it much easier to smile in their company.

"I think so." Bruce nodded with a smile, looking to Vinny who was simply just staring up at his mother, and soon switching his gaze to Bruce. "Breakfast should still be warm. Even yours, bud." He smiled at Vinny, the trio walking off towards the small kitchen, sitting down at the table. Natasha offered to feed him his bottle, Bruce passed both the baby and the bottle over.

"So, are we down at the lab again, today?" Natasha asked as she fed the infant, looking up to Bruce, who nodded just a little.

"It would be easier for us to research that way, and we could also use the whiteboard I use for my equations, to come up with some ideas." Bruce nodded, offering the woman a soft smile as he ate, she returned it on a low key scale.

"Sure, okay. Sounds good." Natasha nodded, burping Vinny once he had finished, and then taking the time to eat her breakfast. "I can't imagine we'd be keeping him hidden for much longer. Someone is bound to find out." She looked up to Bruce once more. The idea worried her.

Bruce nodded softly. "Eventually, there'll come a point where someone finding out will be inevitable. I don't like the idea either, I'm not quite sure if the Director has any particular protocol for children within SHIELD, but I'll certainly do my best to make sure he stays right here where he belongs." Natasha looked back down to Vinny, nestled back up to his mother.