Originally, it happens like this:
At his insistence, Pepper and Tony move back to Malibu after they find out she's pregnant, because between the fascists crawling out of the woodwork to try and recreate the wormhole and the megalomaniacs trying to take advantage of the chaos, New York is not the safest place for a superhero's baby to grow. They offer no explanation to Fury (who kicked up a fuss despite the knowing look in his eye) and disappear to California. Later, Tony and Happy kidnap her from the office and whisk her off on his plane with Rhodey, Bruce and, to Pepper's surprise, her mother.
Tony proposes to her on the balcony of their suite, and then marries her on a gondola in a canal filled with floating flower-shaped candles under the full moon while their plane companions act as their witnesses. Their rings are made of the same material Tony's suits are, and Pepper's diamond has the same blue glow as the arc reactor in Tony's chest. She cries during his vows and he staunchly denies ever shedding a tear until Pepper's mother brandishes the video she took like a weapon and dares her son-in-law to lie to her again. Tony puts her name on the lease of the next Stark building in DC as an apology.
When Pepper's past the first trimester and the risk of miscarriage disappears and her belly starts showing through her clothes, they cruelly wait until she's five months on before announcing the pregnancy to the world. The world, in turn, is thrilled for them. Happy is, of course, the first to congratulate them, because he's in the house when he sees the news. Bruce and the rest of The Avengers are next because they're squatting in his tower and have access to Jarvis in New York and the Stark Industries network is the fastest and most secure server to date. Rhodey pays them a visit and knocks Tony to the floor for not telling him first, then demands to be the kid's godfather. Tony gives a pleased, toothy, bloody smile and agrees. SHIELD sends several gift baskets of baby-centric goodies that Tony tries to throw into the garbage. Pepper donates them all to an orphanage, which is much more devious.
Trouble comes a-knockin' on New Year's Eve, and the fear and stress of the situation makes Pepper go into labor. Happy smartly rushes her to the second-nearest hospital and out of harm's way while Tony does his best to cover her back and help his team at the same time, calling on his best suit, then his next best and so on until all eight suits are too damaged or disabled to fight in and he's forced to pick up a gun. He calls War Machine, who has already abandoned his Very Important Meeting in DC to help them out. The Black Widow appears next to him and gives him some ammo, and then she's shot, blood spilling down her chest as she slips to the ground. Tony leans over to cover the hole in her chest and slumps over her, his unparalleled genius brain splattered all over the raised concrete they'd been ducked behind. His weight presses down on her wound, and Natasha Romanoff lives long enough for Clint Barton to find her, to push Tony off of her and take her into his arms and sob disbelievingly into her dusty red hair before she follows Tony's lead while two miles away, a red-faced Pepper watches as her newborn daughter took her first breath and gave a strong, sharp wail, and the rest of the world rings in the New Year.
But that doesn't happen again.
What happens is this:
Tony fixes Pepper's problem with Bruce's help and introduces her to Johnny Storm, and the epic friendship of two firestarters begins. With Johnny's help, Pepper learns how to control the fire now flowing through her veins and together, they help Tony and Bruce affirm the fact that they've removed the overheating troubles. Once she's out of danger, Tony decides to have his own body fixed up, the shrapnel from his body taken out by the best team of surgeons in the world while Pepper and Rhodey stand watch.
And then, while Tony has a heart-to-heart with Bruce and fesses up the full story of the past Christmastime, Pepper takes Johnny on a thank-you-for-your-help shopping trip, picking out flame-retardant fabrics and enlisting the services of several fashion designers to make a whole new wardrobe for their flammable selves. Johnny is understandably delighted and introduces Pepper to the World of Whedon (specifically Firefly) and then one day, on impulse, takes Pepper—the only woman he knew who could possibly survive it—for a spin in the sky. Tony witnesses them land on the balcony—Pepper smiling wide, her hair a literally windblown mess—and, in a fit of jealousy of her and Johnny's über closeness, finally gets down on his knee and proposes to her once more. He does this several times more until Rhodey clues him in and Tony makes a ring out of the gold-titanium scraps from his old Iron Man suits, a small blue diamond sitting proudly at the crown. He puts it on a necklace and hangs it on the lamp on Pepper's side of the bed while she's asleep, and Pepper comes out the next day wearing it on her finger.
Tony plans for a wedding in Venice, gondolas and all, but Pepper derails his plans by dragging him to Las Vegas. With Bruce as their adorably-ruffled ring bearer, Rhodey as Tony's best man and Johnny as Pepper's groom of honor, they're married in a Chapel of Love by—and this is a priceless moment in Tony's life—a Captain America-masked Elvis Presley. Tony sends the picture of them to Steve Rogers, who (according to Barton) literally facepalmed when he saw the photo, much to Tony's utter glee. And when the story of their scandalously cliché Vegas wedding breaks out on the evening news, Pepper's indignant mother calls to complain about Pepper's silence on the matter.
Over four months later, on Pepper's birthday, Pepper will deny feeling nothing, just like Tony will deny tearing up, when they're told they're having a healthy baby boy.
End Part 3 of The Monkey Wrench Series
Notes:
The first part of the chapter is actually what I originally wanted to do Post-Avengers, because what I wanted to do was make Anna's alternate version exist in the new timeline. But then I realized that it would probably incite a paradox and you guys would be like 'NO! THAT'S IMPOSSIBRU, HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?' until I came up with a viable explanation and I just really don't have one for that scenario. Yet, anyway. So, ergo, thus, I decided: No Alternate!Anna included in the package.
Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. Thank you for your patience and enthusiasm,
~E
