Then:
The first thing Lance noticed as soon as he entered their flat was their dining room table being all dolled up. The good set of plates was laid out (the ones his mother gifted them after the wedding), there were flowers and candles and had he forgot an anniversary again? He couldn't go back to the dog house, he had just gone back to sleeping on their room with her. No matter how good their couch was he loved having her in his arms.
"Bobbi?" He called as he toed his shoes off while removing his tie. Lance hated business meetings but he and Izzy where about to close a nice security deal with the British government. He looked forward to that fat pay check! Maybe he would take his wife to a romantic get away, God knows she could use a few days away from Shield.
"In the kitchen!" She yelled back and he followed the sound of her voice. She sounded happy but he could never say if that was a good or a bad thing.
"Are we celebrating something?" He asked slowly. "Please don't send me back to the dog house!" He added quickly and wrapped his arms around her.
"We do and you're fine." She said smiling, turning around to face him. "I have a present for you!" She teased and he pulled her blouse away from her body fixing his eyes on her cleavage.
"Is it new lingerie?" He smirked as his lips found her skin, his fingers already pulling the buttons apart.
"That too." She batted his hands away and stepped out of his embrace. "Behave and maybe you'll get to see them later."
"I'll play along." He sighed defeated and trailed behind her towards the dining room. "So what's that big surprise?" He asked as he took a seat opposite her. Bobbi pushed a silver plater towards him and he eyed her carefully. "Am I missing something?"
"Just open the stupid thing." She snapped sassily and he couldn't help but smile. That was the reason he married her, for that fire in her eyes. Lifting the lid of the plater his eyes fell on the thin white plastic stick.
"Look, love," He started meeting her gaze. Lance was very aware that he was about to have his arse handed to him if he said something wrong. "I know that your cooking skills wasn't why I married you but you didn't even try this time!" He picked up the offending stick and wrinkled his nose.
"Don't you know what that is?" She smiled cryptically, crossing her arms over her chest pushing her breasts up. He got distracted momentarily before looking back at the plastic between his fingers.
"It's a pregnancy test but I still don't see why it should be on my dinner plate."
"It's a positive pregnancy test." She offered him one of her honest brilliant smiles and he couldn't help but return it.
"Still doesn't make sense." He shook his head baffled with her secrecy. She looked like she was losing her patience but Lance's brain wouldn't corporate with him what with her tits playing havoc with his thoughts.
"I'm pregnant." She blurred out after a few moments of silence.
"What now?" He chocked on his wine as the world around him stopped moving.
"I'm pregnant." She repeated again. "It's yours." She added after a moment.
"I sure hope so." He snorted. "Otherwise I'll be very pissed!" He let her words settle in, she was pregnant with his child. They were going to be parents, it shouldn't surprise him, really, since they went at it like teenagers and most of the time didn't use protection but still. Not that a child with her was a bad thing, Lance had his fair share of women but Barbara was the only one that got him thinking about marriage. "We're going to be parents." He said finally moving to kneel before her. His fingers splayed over her lower stomach and he pushed her blouse up, kissing the soft skin.
"I take it you are happy." She murmured running her thump over his cheek gently.
"Why wouldn't I be?" He asked, his lips never living her body.
"I don't know. We never talked about kids and our jobs are not what one would call normal-" He cut her off with a kiss, pouring all his love in it.
"It's a part of me and you." He assured her. "It can make me nothing but happy. I'm not saying it's gonna be easy but we'll figure something out."
Now:
"Have you seen Bobbi?" He thrust his head inside Mack's lab in hopes that his ex wife and love of his life would be here. Lance would never admit it to anyone but he would go to the ends of this world if that woman asked him to.
He bitched and moaned about her but she was the only good thing that ever happened to him. They had gone through a lot together, so much pain, that he thought she would never take him back. Thank the heavens that he was wrong, the circumstances that brought them back to each other might have not been good this time around but he wouldn't complain. Besides Izzy always said that he was an idiot for letting Barbara go.
"Skye said something about her feeling a little off." Mack offered sparing him a brief glance. "She's probably in her room."
"I checked." He shook his head. "She's not in her room, nor in the gym or anywhere else!" He was getting frustrated, they haven't actually come out as a couple to the team but everyone knew more or less. Lance couldn't understand why they just didn't move to the same room, it would save them time and energy.
"Then maybe you should check your room." Mack pointed out raising a suggestive eyebrow. Lance re routed towards his bunk, worried. There was something off with Bobbi the last few days but he couldn't put his finger on it. He knew better than to pressure her into telling him though.
Contrary to popular belief their divorce had been a quiet one. No one of them had the will to put up a fight if he was being honest. Once upon a time they thought they could have it all but fairy tales never come true and Lance knew that very well. He thought they'd lost everything back then but he was wrong. He should have listened to Izzy, what they had wouldn't go away so easily. Pushing the door to his bank open his gaze landed on the big lump of blankets. Sure enough there she was under it hiding from the world.
"Barbara?" He sat down beside her and pulled the blankets away from her face. He didn't call her by her given name often, she hated it and preferred the nickname more. At times like these though, when he knew something was off her given name was his way of telling her he wanted to talk seriously. "Is something wrong, angel?" He got only a grunt as an answer and he reached for her, cupping her chin softly forcing her to look at him. "Barbara." He repeated warningly. Finally she sat up glaring at him.
"I'm late." She hissed, her hands clenching and unclenching at her sides.
"Want me to drop you somewhere?" He asked raising a curious eyebrow.
"I'm late!" She repeated again putting emphasis on the word 'late'.
"I get it." He held his hands up in surrender. "I can probably ask May for one of the cars and take you where you want to go. She won't like it but it's not like she can say no." Lance bubbled on ignoring the look of disbelief on Bobbi's face.
"You are not the brightest marker in the box, are you?" She asked sarcastically and got to her feet.
"Oi-"
"I'm pregnant!" She cut him off before he could start a rant.
"Oh." His face fell a little and his gaze lowered to the floor.
"It's yours, asshole!" She snapped, she knew him well enough to see his train of thought. He probably made up some wild scenario about her going off with someone else and getting knocked up. Like she would let anyone but him to touch her like that.
"It is?" He asked hopefully as she passed back and forth in front of him.
"You ever doubted it?" She stopped in front of him.
"A little." He smiled cheekily and pulled her down to sit on his lap. "You don't want it?" His face grim as he took her expression in. Of course the timing wasn't perfect and their past didn't help much but a child with her would never be something he didn't desire. Even after what happened the first time around.
"I'm not sure." She admitted resting her forehead against him. "I swore I wouldn't put myself through this again, Lance. I don't think I can handle that much pain for a second time. It broke us five years ago and somehow we got past it. But can you imagine what will happen if we lose it again? It will fucking shatter us and there won't be any come back."
"Nothing happens the same twice." He murmured as he brought their lips together. "Whatever goes down, we're in this together. Got it?" She nodded slowly, tears threatening to fall. "Say it with me." He ordered firmly.
"We are in this together." They both said in one voice.
Then:
"I don't see it." He whispered as the doctor left them alone for a few minutes. They had their first appointment today and the doctor had showed them what was supposed to be their baby but Lance couldn't see it.
"It's right there!" Bobbi exclaimed pointing to the screen.
"You can't see it either, can you?" He smirked arrogantly kissing her neck and Bobbi elbowed him in the gut.
"We're going to be terrible parents." She groaned falling back against the examination table.
"Just because we can't see something that's peanut sized that doesn't mean we'll be terrible parents!" He laughed helping her to her feet.
"You think?"
"I'm sure." He assured her.
Now:
"I don't wanna go." She grumbled falling back against the bed.
"You don't have a choice." He shot back buttoning up his shirt.
"Can't we have sex again?" She stretched lazily and watched as his gaze locked on her body. They had recently moved into a small flat close to the base in order to have a little space.
"Is this what it is?" Lance narrowed his eyes, head cocked to the side. "You, trying to get out of the doctor's appointment by using sex?"
"I just don't want to see it." She admitted her eyes falling shut. "Having the ultrasound makes this real and I can't do real right now. I'm scared, Lance!" He could see the tears already forming behind her closed eyelids and he took a seat beside her.
"You think I'm not?" He whispered as his hand fell to her still flat stomach to caress the soft flesh. "I'm terrified that something will go wrong again and I can handle a lot of things but not seeing you like that." He confessed. Lance just couldn't see her broken like that, he would gladly go through another four months of torture back when he was still in the army than put Bobbi through so much pain. "If you don't want to do this, there's still time to..." He trailed off and her eyes shot open.
"I would never do that." She sat up throwing the blankets off of her, batting his hands away.
"Barbara!" He called as she disappeared inside their bathroom. "Come on, love. You know that's the last things I want but I'm not going to force you into something you don't want to!" He leaned against the doorframe and watched her as she got ready.
"I'm scared!" She repeated turning to face him. "I'm afraid that I'll have to go through a pregnancy again and have that dream ripped away from my arms."
"What if it doesn't?" He moved closer and wrapped his arms around her. "What if we finally get our dream and have a beautiful baby and live happily ever after?"
"You know I don't believe in happily ever afters." She said burying her face against his chest.
"I know, love." He nodded kissing her forehead. "But I believe for both of us." They stayed like that for a few moments wrapped around each other. "Ready to go?" He asked running his fingers through her hair.
"As ready as I'll ever be." She shrugged and moved out of his arms. "Let's go, Jemma must be waiting for us."
Then:
"Hunter." She whispered poking at his side. "Hunter!" She said a little louder and he shot up in alarm.
"Wha? I'm awake. I'm awake!" He called looking around wildly. "What wrong?" His hands reached for her, checking to see if she was alright.
"I want brownies." She smiled sweetly and leaned over him, giving him a good view of her breasts. She had discovered early on that getting him to do things was much easier when he was focused on her rack. Lance groaned and fell back against the bed. His head lolled to the side and he caught sight of the time.
"It's 4 in the morning, Bobbi!" He whined as she straddled his hips. "This is London! Nothing is open at this time of the night!" They had decided they'd stay in London for a while, Lance's family was here and given that no one of them had any idea about babies they'd need the help. Mama Hunter was ecstatic about the turn of events, her baby boy settling down and giving her a grandchild? All her dreams were coming true.
So they found a two bedroom flat downtown and Bobbi took that time off from the agency and here they were. At four am talking about brownies, by the time she had hit the fourth month of her pregnancy Bobbi had turned into the Cookie Monster when it came to cravings and sweets. If she craved something she had to have it or she got grumpy.
"We have brownie mix." She trailed kisses down his neck, to his naked chest and finally stoped at the waistband of his pyjama pants. "You can make them." Her hand slipped inside and she took a hold of him. A little more of this and she'd get another kind of sweet treat. "Come on, Hunter!" She laughed huskily and he moaned, hips pushing against her hand. "The baby wants brownies."
"Bloody hell!" He groaned pushing her off of him carefully. "You'll be the death of me, woman!" He didn't miss her small smile of victory as he made his way to the kitchen.
Now:
"Are you sure you don't crave anything?" He asked as they settled down to watch the movie. It became a thing soon after Shield was established again and the team had to split into smaller divisions. Once a week they would gather to have a family night, sometimes they ate dinner, others they watched a movie like tonight, and others they'd just sit around and kick back talking.
Since Bobbi had a little trouble with morning sickness even by the fourth month they decided that it would be better to crash at their place instead of anywhere else. "I'm fine!" She hissed kicking his thigh. It was an unspoken rule Lance had put in place early on. Bobbi always got the couch so she could lay comfortably and the others could go sit wherever the fuck they wanted. As long as Bobbi felt alright so was he.
"Boy, are you whipped!" Skye teased from her place beside Ward.
"You wanna talk about pussy whipped boyfriends?" Lance shot back eyeing the other man. It had been a while since Ward came to the team but it always got him the way Grant looked at Skye. It was the same way he looked at Bobbi and Lance was scared of the day Skye realised just how much Grant loved her.
"Tell us something we don't know." Fitz muttered shoving a handful of pretzels in his mouth, making the others laugh.
"I could go for a couple of pretzels." Bobbi said looking at the salty snacks and Lance was quick to grab the bowl from Leo's hands.
"Oi!" Fitz protested. "That was mine!"
"There's more in the kitchen." Lance growled lowly. "Go grab a new bowl!"
"Would you stop stealing other people's food?" Bobbi threw him a dirty look. He did that a lot lately and she couldn't for the life of her understand why.
"You wanted it and I got it for you." He shrugged it off. "If you crave it you have to have it." Not that it made any difference to her. She came to realise quickly that cravings didn't really matter when in the end you lost the thing you made so many sacrifices for. So early on this pregnancy she decided that there was no reason to make Lance's life difficult with petty things like that.
"Hunter!"
"Eat the pretzels!"
Then:
"What about Elizabeth?" He offered tiredly.
"Veto." She shook her head. "I'm not raising the next queen."
"She can be a queen if she wants to!" He chastised. "But I'll take the veto. How about Adrianne?"
"Nah ugh." She rolled to her side trying to get comfortable but her bump wouldn't let her. Earlier today they had learned that they were having a little girl and the name game had begun since then. Bobbi would swear that they went through an entire baby name book and had come up with nothing they'd like. "Nothing feels right! I want our daughter to love her name, I grew up hating mine."
"Which I don't understand, let me tell you. Barbara is a lovely name." He said turning to face her, dropping a kiss on her nose. "Last suggestion?" He asked, their gazes locked together.
"Shoot!"
"Isabelle." He said simply and Bobbi let out a small gasp. He thought it was a lovely name and it would make their friend very happy. Besides if it wasn't for Izzy he would never have met his wife. He owned her that much.
"Say it again." She grabbed his hand and placed it right where she felt the baby kick. It wasn't the first time but it was always something that made him tear up.
"Isabelle." He repeated and their daughter kicked again. "Ah! I think we have a winner." Lance smiled and pushed her tank top up, peppering kisses all over her stomach. "Do you like your name, baby girl?" He asked their daughter and she kicked once more.
"Don't tell Izzy about it yet." Bobbi laughed pulling him up and crushing her lips against his. "I wanna be there when she bursts into tears." She teased between kisses.
Now:
"No names." She whispered in the dark.
"What?" Lance hummed from behind her, snuggling closer to her body with his arm warped protectively around her growing bump.
"I don't want to look for names until the baby is born." She repeated steadily. "I want us to wait until we are holding them in our arms just to be on the safe side." The first time around luck wasn't really on their side even though they had choose the perfect name.
"I think we can do that." He agreed dropping a kiss on her naked shoulder. He would never tell her that because it would only feed her insecurities more but Lance didn't want to temp fate either. Maybe if this time they hadn't had everything planned to perfection the universe wouldn't screw with them.
Then:
"Pink."
"No."
"But pink is such a lovely colour!"
"It is not! It's just what society thinks is an appropriate colour for little girls. I'm not gonna force it on my daughter!" She hissed as they flipped through the colour samples for the nursery.
"O-kay." Lance held up his hands in surrender. "How about this?" He said pointing to a mint green sample. "We could paint the walls this and maybe draw some sunflowers too?" Bobbi hummed beside him thinking about his suggestion.
"I think I could be on board with that." She nodded smiling.
Now:
"I need to talk to you." Skye sat them down a warm April afternoon and Lance would lie if he didn't admit that he was a little scared. From the looks of it so was Bobbi, mainly because Skye and the phrase 'we need to talk' never ended up well.
"You are not pregnant, are you?" Bobbi blurted out. "Because if you came for advice let me tell you that I don't know shit either!"
"What? No!" Skye exclaimed giving them a scared look. "I just wanted to talk about the nursery." Bobbi tensed as soon as the words left Skye's lips.
"What about it?" Lance asked wrapping an arm around Bobbi's waist, rubbing her bump comforting. He knew his wife, he knew how scared she was about the whole thing and how hard she tried not to get attached even though both their doctor and Jemma assured them that the pregnancy was going absolutely fine.
"For starters there's none!" Lance could see that Skye was barely keeping her excitement at bay. "So we all thought that we could-"
"No." Bobbi cut her off firmly.
"Bobbi, we-" Skye tried to explain when his wife sat up with a little help from him. At seven months her bump was getting rounder and rounder and no matter what happened in the past Lance couldn't help but be excited about it.
"I said, no." She repeated and moved toward the kitchen.
"Bobbi!" Skye's voice took that commanding tone she had adopted from Coulson, the 'listen to me' tone the older man used when he was reprimanding his team members. His wife grabbed the juice bottled from the fridge and finally turned to face them both. "I can only imagine how hard all this is for you and I admire your strength. But by ignoring it doesn't make the fact that you are having a baby any less true. So the team and I thought since this is hard for you maybe we could help. We want to paint the nursery and prepare it for when you bring the baby home!"
"Skye-" Bobbi choked back tears because honestly she didn't do the whole crying thing but it was kind of hard with people like that in her life.
"Just let us do this! Everyone is very excited about it, Fitz has even designed all the furniture with Mack's help. You're going to love them." Lance caught her eye from across the room where he stood, leaning against the doorframe. He shrugged smiling and that moment they all knew she was on board.
"You can paint the nursery." Bobbi sighed turning away from them.
Then:
"Something's wrong." She murmured when he walked into the living room. Lance rushed to the couch and kneeled at her side.
"What do you mean something's wrong?" He asked worriedly as he fussed over her.
"I can't feel her." Bobbi explained running her hands over her large stomach. There hadn't been a day, since the first moment she felt their baby, that passed without the little one moving inside her.
"The doctor said she is just fine, beautiful." He cupped her check and kissed her lips softly. Everything seemed fine at their last check up and with only four weeks to go there was nothing to worry about. The baby was fine and she was fine too.
"I'm telling you, Hunter!" She hissed angrily. "Something's not right! I can't feel the baby moving at all since last night."
"Do you want to go to the hospital?" She nodded and he helped her up.
Forty minutes later they were at the maternity wing of the hospital waiting for Bobbi's doctor. "I'm sure everything's fine." He said taping his foot nervously. Time seemed to stretch and Lance honestly thought that he would lose it if he waited for another second.
"Please stop saying that." She sighed as she threw an arm over her eyes. "Nothing's fine and we both know it."
"Bobbi-" The door opened effectively cutting off whatever he would have to say.
"Back so soon?" Her doctor teased but no one of them could find it inside them to tease back. They had build a nice and trusting relationship between them. She had read somewhere that being comfortable with your doctor was important for new mothers. "Lay back and let me take a look." He instructed with a smile but it did nothing to easy her worries.
It was moments later when five words shattered her entire world into millions pieces. I can't find a heartbeat. The doctor had said but both of them could barely hear him. Bobbi looked at Lance and he looked back at her as the doctor kept explaining. All that mattered was that their baby didn't have a heartbeat anymore.
The next few hours were a blur, from getting the news, to inducing labour, to finally giving birth to a child they would never be able to raise.
Now:
"I don't know why I keep letting you touch me." She moaned as he rubbed her lower back.
"From what I've been told I do right quite a few things with my tongue." He teased placing a kiss on her temple.
"Stop sassing me!" She hissed as another contraction hit her. A knock on the door saved him from a good ass kicking. Skye poked her head inside all cheery and shit.
"How are you?" She asked bouncing inside the room. Bobbi planned to get her blood back, eventually Ward would knock up Skye too and then Bobbi would be the one bouncing around while Skye felt like castrating the bastard that got her into this.
"In pain." Bobbi grunted between breaths fighting the pain, the contractions were getting closer together. She refused to take any drugs this time around, she wanted to feel everything.
"That doesn't sound like fun." She sat down beside Bobbi's bed.
"It's really not." Bobbi was ready for this baby to come out kicking and screaming. Skye grabbed her hand and squeezed tightly.
"Just remember, we are all here for you." Skye had been repeating that the last few months. The team wanted Bobbi to know that no matter what, they were family. "But I wouldn't count on them for moral support right now, they're all a bit of mess. Let me tell you, I haven't seen May so nervous before!" Skye laughed as she shot to her feet, moving towards the door.
"Tell them I said 'hi'." Bobbi smiled holding her tears back.
"I will."
Two hours later Bobbi gave birth to a beautiful baby boy that looked a lot like his father. Daniel Hunter was very much alive and healthy and everything his parents ever wanted.
Then:
She had packed her bags and placed them beside the front door. Bobbi knew when she was fighting a losing battle and when it was time to give up. As far as her relationship with Lance was concerned they were done. It wasn't him, really, Lance had been nothing but caring and considered but Bobbi could barely look at him right now. Her midwife had suggested that maybe she should see a grief counsellor but Bobbi turned it down. She was fine, she would get through this. She had gone through harder things in her life.
In reality though she hadn't felt so much pain before. Losing a child couldn't compare with anything she ever felt before. She would gladly sit through hours of torture just to turn time back and never let this happened.
"Are we going somewhere?" Lance voice brought her out of her thoughts.
"I am." She felt heavy, like something was weighting down on her. Bobbi knew that walking out of here would destroy both of them, would destroy him. Yet staying somehow hurt so much more.
"They called you back so soon?" He tried to move closer but Bobbi stepped back.
"I'm leaving." She murmured and watched as realisation settled in.
"Bobbi-"
"Lance, please." She pleaded. "I can't do this, not anymore."
Now:
"Aren't you happy I talked you into this?" Lance teased as he wrapped his arms around her waist both looking down at their little angel. Of course the team would go on and use an Avengers theme for the nursery. The amount of Avengers plushies and drawings was ridiculous, if not a little bit endearing.
"Don't get cocky about it." She slapped his hands away laughing softly. He was right after all, nothing happened the same twice. They had gone through a lot the two of them, they lost a child and lost themselves for a while too. She was almost sure they would never recover from it. Bobbi had never been so happy about being wrong.
Then & Now:
"You know," She pushed him on his back and climbed on top of him. "The doctor cleared me for physical exercises again." His hands slipped under her tank top and cupped her breasts gently.
"He did?" She let out a heady moaned as he kneaded her soft flesh.
"Ugh huh." Bobbi nodded lowering her lips to his. "And we have approximately two hours before your son demands food again. Do you have any good ideas to kill the time?" In one swift move he flipped them around laying carefully against the mattress.
"A few of them." He smirked peppering kisses all over her face and neck. "I love you."
"I love you too."
~The End~