Chapter Text
Christmas Morning
One year later
Darcy was always up early, regardless of the day, but Christmas morning was something special. She awoke on her own and slipped from under the covers and Steve’s heavy arm. On the way to the stairs, she peeked into Charlotte’s room and found the nine-year-old still sound asleep, her stocking unopened at the foot of the bed where Steve had placed it hours ago.
She stepped carefully over the sleeping figures of Sam, Bucky and Natasha in the living room as she made her way into the kitchen and started the coffee. The cinnamon rolls she and Charlotte had made the night before had risen nicely in the refrigerator and she peeled back the plastic wrap as quietly as she could before she set the oven to preheat.
The sun was just starting to filter in pink and orange through the kitchen window when she bent to slide the cinnamon rolls into the oven. She closed the door quietly and stood up a second before Steve’s hands on her hips sent her jumping a mile in surprise. “Jesus!” she whispered around a giggle, turning to face him. “You scared the shit out of me!”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered back with a guilty chuckle and wrapped his arms around her. He kissed her temple. “I thought you heard me.”
Darcy shook her head. “You’re like a ninja; I didn’t hear anything.”
“Sorry,” he reiterated and dropped his head to kiss her lips. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
She smiled up at him and rested her hands on his chest. “You’re forgiven.”
Steve pulled back for a moment and took her left hand in his, critically examining the diamond ring he’d placed on her finger the night before. “You’re still sure about this, right?”
Darcy laughed and stretched up onto her toes to brush her lips to his. “Never been more sure of anything in my life,” she promised.
From the moment she’d met Steve and Charlotte, they’d made her feel like she’d belonged with them. Like the three of them had always been meant to fit together. So when, following the happiest year of her life, Steve had come to bed after a few hands of cards with Sam and Buck, and asked shyly if she wanted to make it official, she’d accepted with tearful kisses and without a moment’s hesitation.
“Good to know,” he said softly before he smiled again. “Because I think Charlotte’s awake…”
Darcy could hear the sound of wrapping paper rustling as she and Steve crept back up the stairs and the sleepy sounds of Charlotte talking to herself as she unwrapped the gifts in her stocking. She stood in the beam of sunlight in the doorway and watched Charlotte push back her messy blonde hair and squint at the title of the book she’d just unwrapped. The sun hit her ring and cast a spray of rainbow reflection on the wall that went unnoticed.
Darcy bit her lip and tilted her hand so the sparkle moved from the wall to the bed and hovered right in front of Charlotte’s gifts. The little girl frowned in confusion and tilted her head to one side before she looked up and greeted Darcy with wide eyes.
“Is that what I think it is?” she asked, a smile spreading slowly over her face.
“I sure hope so,” Darcy said, taking a few cautious steps into the bedroom, holding up her hand so Charlotte could see. “Otherwise, I’m wearing it on the wrong hand.”
Her blue eyes still wide and sparkling, Charlotte got to her feet and stood on her bed, eye level when Darcy made her way over. “He really asked you?” she asked before she glanced over Darcy’s shoulder where her father was leaning in the doorway. “You really asked her, Daddy?”
“Yes,” he assured her with a laugh.
She looked back at Darcy, her hands on her shoulders. “And you really said yes?” Darcy only had time to nod once before Charlotte threw her arms around her neck and attacked her with a hug.
Darcy caught her easily and hugged her back, her heart stuck somewhere high in her throat. “I take it you’re happy about this?” she asked, blinking back tears that had blurred her vision.
“We’re going to be a real family!” Charlotte exclaimed into her hair before she let her go and bounced on her bed. “Did you tell anyone else yet?”
Darcy laughed again and swiped at her eyes. “No one else is up yet, honey, it’s early.”
“It’s not early,” Charlotte insisted. “It’s Christmas! Can we wake up Uncle Sam and Uncle Bucky and Auntie Nat and tell them? Are you going to start planning your wedding? Can I help? Can I be the flower girl? Are you going to wear white? Do you think I’m ever going to be a big sister someday?”
“Whoa whoa whoa,” Steve called from the doorway. “One thing at a time,” he crossed her room in a few steps. “Let’s go eat some cinnamon rolls and open presents and have Christmas and we can worry about all that other stuff later, okay?”
Charlotte stopped her bouncing and smiled at her father. “Okay, Daddy,” she said simply and reached out to give him a tight hug too.
Steve wrapped an arm around her waist and swung her in a wide circle away from her bed. “Be careful going downstairs,” he warned, “you don’t have to wake everyone up just yet.”
They had almost reached the top of the stairs before Charlotte stopped herself. “I’ll be right down,” she promised. “I just forgot something.”
Darcy hung back while Steve descended the stairs on his own. In the reflection of the mirror on Charlotte’s door, Darcy watched as she went to her bedside table and picked up the framed photo of Peggy. She kissed the glass. “Thank you, Mommy,” she said quietly. “I knew you were listening.”
Swallowing down another lump in her throat, Darcy waited at the top of the stairs and offered her hand when Charlotte reappeared. “Cinnamon rolls?” she asked.
Charlotte slipped her hand into Darcy’s and squeezed her fingers with a decisive nod. “Cinnamon rolls.”