So you may have noticed that I am jumping back and forth to during the pregnancy and a few days after the baby is born. It won't always been like that but it is important that you know of the difference. Anyway here is chapter two, I really hope that you enjoy it as much as you did chapter one (even more so).
Thank you to all the people who reviewed, favourited or subscribed to this story.
Disclaimer; I don't own a thing, if I did Jeremy Renner would have his shirt off a lot more.
Chapter 2
Clint watched as Tasha pulled the wailing baby close to her chest. This was certainly a sight that would still take a lot of getting used to, the deadly Black Widow cradling her infant daughter to her chest as she whispered to her in Russian. Clint placed a hand on her shoulder and stepped behind her so that her back was pressed against his front.
"Are you willing to reconsider my proposition yet?" he asked, his voice still rough from sleep.
Natasha turned to face him with a sly smile on her face, the newborn had quietened down and was now almost back to sleep; "You do know why I turned you down don't you?" she asked.
He nodded; "I seem to remember it had something to do with you being the size of a whale."
They had been lying together in bed, Natasha had been curled onto her side with Clint wrapped around her one hand placed on her stomach stroking it from time to time, he leaned in closer and pressed his lips to her shoulder before mumbling something into it.
Natasha had been on the edges of sleep and hadn't heard what he said; "Hmm?" she rolled over to face him, he scooted back a little bit to accommodate her large stomach; "What did you say?" she asked looking up into his eyes.
The archer smiled before licking his lips nervously; "I...wo-would you marry me?" he asked swallowing heavily once he'd finally said it. Natasha seemed lost for words, she stared at the archer as if he had grown an extra head, he laughed nervously; "And before you accuse me of only asking because you are pregnant, I'll have you know that I have been carrying a ring around with me for almost a year now."
"No." She told him sitting up and squirming slightly, the baby was pressing on her bladder making her need the toilet.
Clint also sat up; "Is that the end of the discussion?" he asked frowning at her looking hurt.
"No." She repeated; "Your baby is pressed against my bladder right now and I really need to pee, we will continue once I am back." She gave him a pointed look and he nodded slowly allowing her to go. Once she had returned he sat up facing her a wounded look colouring his gaze; "You can't ask me this now Clint." She told him with a frown.
"I told you that I've been wanting to ask you for almost a year!" he insisted.
She shook her head; "And you weren't sure, if you were you would have asked me when you first bought the ring. You only think you should marry me now because I'm pregnant." He moved to argue with her but she covered his lips with her finger; "Ask me again when we are up and 4 o'clock in the morning because this little one is screaming." She patted her stomach with a smile; "We'll see if you still want to marry me then." She told him with a small smile before climbing back into the bed.
"Okay, I'll ask you again then." He told her with a slight huff as he wrapped his arms around her once more.
"I'm sure you will my Hawk." She whispered into the night as sleep overtook her.
"If I looked like a whale it was your entire fault." She told him with a growl before swatting him with a hand as she rocked the baby who was now drifting off to sleep.
Clint gave her an amused look before prompting her again; "Well, are you ready to answer me?" He pulled a ring box from his pyjama trousers and quickly got down on one knee, Tasha couldn't help but laugh slightly at the sight.
"Have you had that in your pocket for a long time?" she asked with a smirk.
"Since the night she was born. You told me to ask you like this, I wanted to fulfil your wishes." He grinned cheekily at her; "Now please, my most deadly spider, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife." Natasha's expression was at once very serious.
She kissed baby Rose's head before placing her back in her cot.
Turning back to him she felt her heart beat quicken at the love she could see shining in his eyes; "I know that you've always said that 'love is for children' and you never wanted to get married again after what the Red Room did with Alexei, but I am not him and you are not the Natalia Romanova that married him." Her face was devoid of any emotions that would tell Clint what she was thinking, he inhaled deeply and continued; "I love you, I have loved you for so long. We have made this beautiful life together and I want to spend the rest of my life with you." She opened her mouth to interrupt but he held up his hand, he wasn't finished; "And I know that in our line of work one stray bullet could kill me tomorrow, but I need you to know that I am completely devoted to you and our daughter and I will fight every single day to keep you safe. Although of course you don't need me to fight your battles for you." A shiver ran down Natasha's spine, she hated him for knowing her so well, he had mentioned almost all of her fears in one single breath.
"Don't let me live to regret this Barton." She told him as she nodded slowly.
He had opened the ring box and was sliding it onto her finger before standing up and pulling her against him in a tight hug; "I promise you won't regret this." He told her before ducking his head to hers and stealing a kiss; "This, all of this will be worth all of the trouble we've been through to get it."
"Trouble," she muttered looking over the side of the crib as she nodded; "she certainly wasn't easy on me."
In Natasha's 8th month she experienced some bleeding, she had been sitting on the sofa of their shared living quarters when she felt something damp seeping through her underwear, she shifted uncomfortably for a moment or two before getting to her feet thinking that she needed the toilet, when she turned back to look at the grey sofa she realised that something was seriously wrong. She pressed the emergency call button that all the rooms had, just as a sharp pain ripped through her which knocked the wind out of her. She then grabbed her phone ready to call Clint, she hovered over the 'call' button for a second as she thought about it, he was on a mission and was due to return later that evening, a second pain caused her to almost drop the phone as the doctors entered her living quarters.
"I'm bleeding!" She managed to gasp out as three different doctors all fussed around her. She was moved up onto a gurney and wheeled to the medical bay, no one was talking to her they all rushed around taking readings and looking at computers, Natasha Romanoff was loathe to admit that she even felt fear but in this moment she was terrified. When the ultrasound machine was pulled over Tasha could tell that the doctors were really concerned.
It was Phil's friendly face that finally calmed Natasha, he arrived by her head as the doctors performed the ultrasound; "Hey, so what's happening?" he asked taking her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze.
A few doctors glanced his way; "The baby's heart rate has decreased slightly, we are concerned that Agent Romanoff may be experiencing a placenta previa," the doctor paused and at the confused expression on both the Agent's faces he explained; "A placenta previa is when the placenta has grown near to the cervix or it may be partially covering the cervix or it could be completely covering the cervix."
"I should call Clint." Natasha mumbled all colour had drained from her face, this must have been part of what the Red Room had done to her, it was almost too cruel to contemplate though, they would allow their Agents to become pregnant and then perhaps the agent would start bleeding and the Red Room would convince them that the baby had died. Natasha of course knew that if her baby had to be delivered now she would have an excellent chance of surviving, not least of all because of the fantastic doctors that were at her every beck and call on the helicarrier.
Phil pulled out his phone and turned to her; "I'll do it." He turned to one of the doctors; "Keep talking to her or she will rip your head off." He instructed before turning away to call Clint, the phone rang twice before Clint picked it up.
"Barton."
"Where are you?" Coulson asked trying to keep his tone neutral.
"Well that was friendly Phil. No, how'd the mission go? No, how is my favourite archer?"
"Sorry Clint," he paused, he didn't want the archer to panic but at the same time he could hardly beat around the bush making pleasantries; "it's Natasha..."
There was a long pause on the other end; "Is the baby okay?" he asked.
"At the moment yes, but the doctors are concerned." He paused and let his words sink in; "She started bleeding, the baby's heart rate began to decrease as well, she's in good hands though Clint." He then proceeded to explain to Clint what the Doctor had said might be wrong, Clint understood most of what Phil told him, while Natasha had refused to read any of the baby books he handed her, he had been nose deep in them since they had arrived.
"Right," Clint sounded subdued, he was clearly worried about Natasha and the baby; "I'm about half an hour out. I'll come straight to the medical bay. Tell her I'm on my way. Thanks Phil." He hung up and Phil put his phone back into his pocket before re-entering the room and moving back to stand by Natasha's head.
"How're you feeling?" Phil asked.
"Stressed." Natasha replied with a glare aimed at her doctor; "Apparently the bleeding has stopped...oh the bleeding, I-um...has the-"
"The clean up team has already dealt with it, don't worry." Coulson reassured her.
"Oh good. Thank you," she sagged backwards onto the bed her eyes slipped closed for a moment as she muttered; "When's Clint getting here?"
Coulson smiled at her predictability; "He said he's half an hour out, and I do not doubt that he will try to make sure he is here before then. You really have that man wrapped around your little finger don't you?" He asked with a warm smile.
Natasha found herself drifting off to sleep, the doctors were still fussing about her but the blood that she had lost and the late hour was starting to take its toll, by the time that she reopened her eyes Clint was sat by her bedside. He was talking to her stomach in hushed tones, she managed to catch the tail end of what he was saying; "...you can't do that again baby. You'll scare me half to death if you do that again." Tasha then became aware that he was gently stroking her stomach as he spoke to it.
"What took you so long?" she mumbled.
His eyes shot up to meet hers; "Hey," he whispered as he got to his feet and bent over the bed to press his lips to her forehead; "how are you feeling?" he asked.
She struggled into a sitting position and shrugged; "Okay I suppose...what happened? What did the doctor say?" she was desperate to know if they baby was okay.
Clint sighed, she had always been extremely inpatient so he was hardly surprised; "It is a partial placental previa, which means that you will have to be on bed rest for the rest of your pregnancy, if you disobey the doctor's orders you run the risk of haemorrhaging. When the baby is born it will need to be via C-section because of further complications that may arise..." he shrugged, he wasn't sure what the complications were; "It means your recovery time will be a lot longer. Fury won't clear you for active duty for over a month after the baby is born." He knew that while the baby was her main priority her job was also very important to her.
"Bed rest?" she grumbled pouting slightly; "Actually staying in the bed for another month?" she asked, when he nodded she sighed; "Well this is going to be dull." He gave her his best sympathetic look, he knew while she would be feeling aggravated at the same time she knew that it would be all for the best, for the life of their child.
"Barton! CLINT!" the bed was wet and the pains she had been telling herself were stomach cramps could be ignored no longer. Her waters had broken she was a week away from her due date and the last month of pregnancy had been almost entirely uneventful, bed rest had almost driven Natasha crazy but she had repeated to herself over and over that it would be worth it in the end. That end was now almost in sight.
The archer came rushing in; "What's..." he trailed off as he noticed the Black Widow's pale complexion and the thin sheen of sweat that covered her face; "Baby's coming?" he asked rushing to her side, she nodded and gritted her teeth as she rode out another contraction; "Okay, just hold on, I'll call the medical team, they are ready for you. Don't panic." His words came out in a rushed babble and Natasha tried to suppress her smile at how worried he sounded, his concern was truly touching.
"Okay," she said with a nod, when he hadn't moved she waved him away; "get on with it Clint. This baby isn't waiting!" Her words were very true and by the time the medical crew had arrived Natasha was in a lot of discomfort as the placenta previa began to cause trouble of its own. There was a lot of blood coating her legs and the sight of it made Clint feel as if the breath had been knocked out of him as he watched the doctors swarm around her. The doctors got her onto the gurney and hurried her from the room with Clint trailing behind them. The next few hours were some of the longest of Clint's life, only beaten to the top spot by any of the number of times he'd had to witness Natasha being tortured during a mission. Due to the fact that the doctors had to perform a tricky C-section he wasn't allowed to be in the operating theatre. Fury came to sit with him and keep him company while he waited.
"They are the best you know." He told him after the silence had become almost unbearable.
Clint nodded; "So everyone keeps telling me." He stared at the doors willing a doctor who come through them and tell him to come and meet his child; "That doesn't mean I won't worry about her until I see her."
Fury placed a reassuring hand on the archer's shoulder; "You should never doubt the resilience of your partner agent Barton. She would be furious at you if she knew that were doubting her ability to pull through this."
She would certainly shout at him later, she would roar at him in Russian for putting her through all that he had.
"She would mortally wound me for daring to doubt her the way I am." Clint muttered to himself just as a doctor burst through the double doors, Clint was up on his feet a second after he saw him; "Is she okay? The baby, has the baby been born?"
The doctor smiled at him with tired eyes, they had worked hard but she was fine, they were both fine; "You have a beautiful healthy baby girl Mr. Barton." He paused for a moment and let that information sink in, the archer's delighted grin was reward enough before the doctor gave him the second piece of good news; "Miss. Romanoff is also doing well. She is resting for the moment, you can come with me to see your daughter if you wish?"
Clint practically scoffed at the suggestion, he turned the doctor around and slung an arm over his shoulder before crying out; "Lead the way my man." He turned back to glance at the director who was smiling warmly at the archer as he marched through the double doors to go and meet his daughter.
A/N: There we go chapter 2, chapter three will be coming soon. Reviews are amazing. Thank you all for reading.
