A/N: I swear the fanfiction for this movie writes itself; there's just so much to play with! I ask forgiveness for the scene in italics, as I cannot remember the exact lines exchanged between Tony and Cap (I'm running off of what I saw a few days ago). Hope you guys enjoy!
No Doesn't Always Mean No
"How are you and Pepper?"
"We're -"
"Pregnant?"
"No. Definitely not."
She tells him that they're "taking a break". That she needs time to "think things over" and "figure out what she wants". The superficial things, the kind of things that all relationships fall apart over.
She doesn't tell him what she really wants to.
She doesn't tell him that she can't live like this, with the anxiety and the fear that one day she may never see him come home. She doesn't tell him that it kills her every time she has to wait by the TV just so when the fight's over she can figure out if she needs to call Happy to pick him up or 911. She doesn't tell him that if it were up to her, she'd burn the Avengers compound to the ground if it kept him from putting on those damned suits and getting into harm's way. She doesn't tell him that she never wanted him to be the hero, not at such a steep cost.
She doesn't tell him that she's pregnant.
She wants to tell him, even though she's not far along enough to notice. God, she wants to tell him so bad. It's one of the best things that has ever happened to her, and yet she can't even celebrate with the only person in the world who would care just as much as she does. What's more heartbreaking is how even if she wanted to, she couldn't. He's never around the mansion; he's hardly at the tower. He's too absorbed in playing hero. At least, that was how she saw him last: neck deep into upgrading his precious suits, clueless as to the one thing more precious growing within her less than five feet away. He's callous, he's flippant, he's in over his head, but then again, he's always been that way. Maybe now she's just seeing him with new perspective. A baby would tend to change that.
She tells him to go to hell instead. She says those exact words, along with all the other standard excuses, as she hands over her suspension papers. Time off is what she needs. Time far away from anything with the name Stark attached to it. How much time, not even she knows. A few weeks, a few months...forever. As much time as it takes to get her and her child out of harm's way...out of his way.
In a perfect world, she would tell him she was pregnant and he would give it all up. But he can't, so she won't.
He can't ever stop being the hero, and she can't bring a baby into the world with a target on its back.