"Ms Romanoff, may I speak with you?" The young, blonde male nurse stood in the doorway to her hospital room. He clutched a clipboard and she could almost smell his nerves. She also knew that look, the look she often saw on the faces of young men, the look of attraction. The look of attraction on the face of someone trying to be professional. She had been trained as a femme fatale, she could flirt in her sleep, usually without any awareness she was doing it.
Fury cleared his throat and the nurse glanced at him, opened his mouth to speak, but Natasha butted in first, knowing what he would ask.
"Yes, he can stay, anything you want to tell me he can hear."
The nurse nodded and began to walk across the floor towards the bed. His rubber soled plimsols made a soft patting noise on the floor with each step. He kept eyeing Nick, as though trying to work out if they were an item. He edged himself cautious down the side of the bed, watching Nick as he moved. Natasha swore if she made a loud enough noise he would scream.
He found a spot next to Fury's chair and began to speak,
"Ms. Romanoff, we have the results of your routine bloods. We have found a high level of the hormone hCG in your system." He paused, watching Natasha as though waiting for her to reply. She hadn't a clue what he was trying to ask her.
"The hCG hormone is usually only seen in two situations, most commonly in pregnant women, but as you have had a tubal ligation several years back this could be indicative of a reproductive tumour."
Great, she thought. She wasn't worried, a tumour could be taken out, her body healed relatively fast so if there was a cancer she'd be able to wipe it pretty soon. She was most worried about the time off work, more time in a hospital. He thoughts were interrupted as the nurse continued.
"With your consent your consultant, Dr. Kellichan, will come and do a brief ultrasound on a portable device. It will take a few moments and will hopefully confirm our belief there may be a tumour."
Natasha took the clipboard from him before he could say any more and scribbled her signature – well, one of them – onto the line at the bottom. The poor kid, he looked stunned, he had clearly been warned before he came in the room, been warned as best the staff could that Natasha was a bit odd. He clearly had not been expecting this.
She didn't particularly care what they were going to do, they got out the tumour, that was all she needed, then she could carry on.
Fury didn't say much in the next few minutes. The nurse was right, the consultant was quick, but then she presumed Stark had chipped in so she would receive the best of care.
She was concerned about the old man, she herself wasn't worried, he shouldn't be but she felt he was.
Not much thought went into it after the consultant appeared, clutching stark tech.
The woman was small and thin to the point of fragility, she wore glasses with a chain even though he must have been younger than Natasha herself.
The Stark tech, which appeared to be a small, clear tablet at first, was placed on her stomach rather than being hand held. No cold, sticky gel, no fuss.
Both the consultant and Fury watched the little screen, now illuminated with green lights and purring happily.
Natasha had to lay flat, breathe normally, think of nothing much. The scanner continued to whir but the sound paused suddenly and another replaced it.
Whom-whom-whom-whom.
At first she thought it was a malfunction of the tech. Then she saw Nick's face, a look of anguish had turned to one of pride. He met her eyes. She glanced away, looking at the consultant, there had to be some sort of explanation for this.
The consultant looked just as surprised as Fury, but she also looked delighted. Natasha was far from delighted. She was horrified, this was impossible. It couldn't be, but just as she began trying to convince herself it was all a sick joke, the Consultant spoke.
"I've only heard of this, never seen it in practise, pregnancy after tubal ligation."
"Pregnant?" Natasha spat back at her, the doctor nodded.
"Yes, Ms Romanoff, you're pregnant."
