The House in the Field

“I’ll be home soon doll, I promise.” They were the last words that Bucky spoke to her before he left. She could hear them clear as day in her head as the pain filled her once again. The power had knocked out and the backup generator hadn’t connected. She wasn’t sure if it was her mind playing tricks or the worry that she was alone in a darkened superhero tower that made her think she was going into labour, but, that was the exact thought running through her head. She was lay on the sofa in the front room watching Die Hard when she felt the first wave of pain that quickly subsided, thinking nothing of it she continued to watch the film the crunching of the nacho’s she’d made filling the room as she filled her mouth. Her mind wandered to what her husband was facing at the moment; he had left to go on his last mission before he officially took paternity leave and it wasn’t even a proper mission, he had to go up in front of the government to relive everything he went through. Given the fact that she was three weeks away from her due date Ava was on official lockdown duty and couldn’t leave the compound, you know just in case. Steve and Tony had tried everything to postpone the meeting until after the baby was born but the government was unsympathetic towards his situation. He’d been gone two days and Ava was already bored of having no company. Steve, Tony and Sam accompanied Bucky as character witnesses; Natasha and Wanda had been sent out on a mission and Bruce was away on a trip with Helen so it just left Ava. She’d found herself talking to Friday just to hear someone’s voice, even if that was an AI voice.

“Friday launch the backup generator please.” Ava spoke out as soon as the power went down. She paused waiting for Friday to tell her it was done but after a minute or so she realised that it wasn’t going to happen. “Friday are you there?” She asked out again, sitting up quickly and that’s when another level of pain struck. Stronger and longer than last time. Steadying her breathing she struggled off the sofa and made her way to the kitchen to grab a glass of water, water fixes everything she thought. She’d just made it to the kitchen using the light from her phone when the room started spinning. “What the hell is going on?” She spoke out to no one in particular grabbing a glass and dropping it as a fresh wave of pain flooded her. She grabbed hold of the counter edge, thankful she had put her phone down already, whilst the pain subsided. She looked round the kitchen and that’s when she saw it, one of Bucky’s stupid parenting books. She rushed over as quick as she could manage flicking through the pages until she got to the chapter about labour and as if on que she felt a rush leave her followed by pain. She quickly scrolled through her phonebook to get to the name she needed and rang it forcing out slow breaths to calm herself down.
“Ava what’s wrong?” His concerned voice came out.
“Get him home now!” She screamed down the phone unable to control the pain any longer.
“Ava what’s happening?” Tony’s voice was louder as she heard silence from the background noise until she heard Bucky.
“Tony the baby, peanut is coming!” She cried out loudly, “my waters have just broken and my contractions are getting stronger and there is no power and Friday is offline and I’m alone. I need him. Get him back here now!” She screamed, sliding down the cupboard so she was on the floor. “Please get here quickly!” She cried down the phone as she heard the phone get passed over.
“Doll it’s me, it’s hot shot. It’s going to be okay. Tony’s going to get us home. I’ll be home soon, I promise, just stay strong.” He tried to sound calm but she knew him well enough to know he was panicking. “I love you doll, stay on the phone to me, keep talking yeah?”
“I love you hot shot” she spoke out breathing like she’d been taught before looking at the phone and noticing the black screen. “Fuck you!” She screamed out in frustration throwing her phone the satisfying crack as it hit the wall filled the room. She looked round finding a pack of matches and crawled her way into the living room with them and towels and lighting the few candles around her. Thankful Pepper insisted on Tony buying them. She pulled the cushions off the sofa and lay with her back against the base of the grey sofa and her feet against the white coffee table ready for what was coming.

“Ava!” Bucky’s worried voice filled the floor she was on. She heard the commotion of people entering the room she was in but she was too exhausted to look up to see who else had come. “Doll I’m here. We’ve got a doctor he’s on his way up.” He ran over to her as she raised her head off the sofa to look up at him holding her finger to her lip as she looked down. His eyes left her pale tear stained face and followed her gaze down to her chest where snuggled into it in what was once a white towel was a red face. “You... Peanuts here?” He asked his eyes tearing up as he realised he was too late. She nodded slowly, her eyes drooping with tiredness as he kneeled down to the side of her wrapping his arm around her pulling her to him gently.
“You were right daddy.” Her broken voice came out as a whisper. “Peanut is a girl.” She smiled up at him slowly as Steve, Sam and Tony walked in the room followed by one of the resident doctors.
“Ava I’m here to assist you through labour.” The doctor spoke out as Bucky shook his head, Steve noticing something was wrong.
“What is it?” He asked walked across the room to the couple.
“Our little girl is already here.” He looked up at the stunned faces of the others, Ava’s gaze not leaving her daughters face.
“I’ll check you both over.” The doctor looked over at Ava who nodded, Bucky standing to give him better access.
“We’ll wait outside.” The other guys spoke deciding that it was best to give them privacy and not really wanting to see everything Ava had to offer. The doctor waited until the door was safely shut before starting his examination, first off with baby Barnes. He noted that she was small, but, nothing to be concerned about. He held her out to Bucky and Ava didn’t miss the hesitation in his face as he stared at the small innocent baby. He was about to protest that she should be with her mother, but, Ava stepped in holding her hands out to the doctor who looked between the husband and wife before handing her the baby gently. He carried out a quick examination of Ava, which unsurprisingly came back as everything being fine, given the fact she had a rapid healing factor injected into her.
“You need to rest, and I mean that.” He warned her knowing she was stubborn; he couldn’t hide the shock when she nodded to agree with him. “If you need anything you know where I am.” He directed that to Bucky who nodded and thanked him walking him to the door, looking at Steve and leaving the door open for him to come in.
“Everything ok?” he asked as Bucky nodded.
“Will you take the baby; I’ll carry Ava upstairs.” Bucky asked making his way over to his wife who was fighting to stay awake.
“If you’re sure?” Steve asked unsure following his best friend and kneeling down at the side of Ava. “You sure you don’t want to carry the baby and I’ll carry Ava?” He asked Bucky shaking his head far too quickly for Steve not to suspect something wrong. Deciding not to push it, because Ava clearly needed to sleep he carefully took the tiny little girl off Ava and stood up with her holding her to his firm chest as she let out a little wail at the loss of contact from her mom.
“Come on doll let’s get you to bed.” Bucky whispered sliding his hands under her knees and back, picking her up just like he did on their wedding night and following Steve out of the room.

Notes