AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well folks, we're winding down! I'm so glad everyone has been enjoying this fanfic-turned-into-a-freaking-novel! Honestly, I had no idea it would be this long when it was bouncing around in my head. One more chapter to go after this, and I hope everyone will stay tuned for some other fanfic I have coming up, one already started. Kudos to the two readers who PMed me and asked if the number on Pepper's "Jarvis keep quiet" protocol was Gwyneth Paltrow's birth date. Yes it was! Congrats on noticing! I love to hide little tidbits like that in my stories. So now we have another warning for content here, people. What follows in this chapter is basically a word for word account of how my sister's baby's birth went down a few weeks ago. I was in the delivery room with her, and it was tense, but it all actually happened. My way of coping with that experience was to write it as Pepper's. If you have issues with this sort of thing, or if Discover Health Channel icks you out, consider yourself warned ahead of time. Enjoy!
My Best Friend's Baby: Chapter 11
If Tony thought he had overextended his afterburners rushing to Pepper when she was attacked at her apartment, it was nothing compared to what he was doing now.
He positively risked burning out his jets, to the point to where JARVIS had to warn him to back off, he was overloading the suit and if he crashed into the Pacific, he was no good to anyone, let alone Pepper. He briefly even went suborbital to cut down the distance, but he couldn't stay that high for long, even gliding back down to earth, and so he had to be accepting of the fact that he simply wasn't going to make it back to Los Angeles in anything less than five hours. He wasn't quite successful in blinking back the tears either. He was heartsick that Pepper could be in any kind of pain or fear, and that he wasn't there for her at that very moment, was killing him. He had felt like such a weight had been lifted off of him now that they had finally found each other and started working out all of the misunderstanding and hurt they had put each other through. In an instant,though, with Happy's phone call, all of that had come crashing back down on him like a ton of bricks.
What was worse was that Tony was certain and afraid that somehow he had been the cause of whatever was sending Pepper to the hospital with bleeding. What the hell had he been thinking, having such vigorous sex with a pregnant woman? Did he have absolutely no self control? She was a hormonal mess, of course she had wanted it as much as him, but he should have been the one to put the brakes on and put a stop to it, or at the very least, been more careful about what they did end up doing. He must have done something, broken something. It was the only explanation he could come up with.
Quickly, he did the math in his head. She was at 25 weeks. Technically speaking, babies born that early had survived, but not often. If they had to take the baby out, it had a chance, but it wasn't much of one. He asked JARVIS to look up the record holder, which JARVIS replied was a premature baby that had been a day shy of 22 weeks gestation. The biggest problem with babies born that early was lack of lung development, infection and potential brain damage. When JARVIS had clinically rolled out these facts, Tony had to keep himself from flinching. Instead, he asked JARVIS to call up one of the images from the 4D sonogram that had ended up being his favorite. It seemed to show the baby, his son, smiling as he sucked his thumb. One could really see his features in the image, and Tony could see so much of himself in the boy. Of course there were some echoes of Pepper too. Tony had to admit, the baby was cute. He wondered what kind of person he would grow up to be if he had the chance.
Tony had never before considered the possibility that Pepper's baby, his baby, might not survive the pregnancy. He had lulled himself into not thinking about it, telling himself that in 21st century America, technology existed to make such things baseless fears. He knew, of course, that this wasn't the case. Anything at all could go wrong, especially if the father couldn't keep himself from inflicting damage due to out of control passions. Tony was disgusted with himself, despite JARVIS reassuring him that it was highly unlikely anything Tony did to bring on the bleeding.
Tony tried calling Happy back a few times, but it went straight to voicemail. Then he tried calling Pepper, but no response. He tried texting everyone, and got a response from Rhodey that he was stuck in a meeting at the Pentagon and couldn't get away from Washington before Tony would arrive himself, but to keep him posted. Charissa was at a dance recital for her oldest daughter and also requested to be updated ASAP. Finally Lauren responded.
It seemed that Pepper had arrived at the office, a little tired, but in the best mood anyone had seen her in for a long time. She had stayed in her office most of the morning, and then, right before lunch, had gone to the bathroom. She had come back out white as a sheet and told Lauren, as Charissa had left already, that she was bleeding and should go to the hospital. Lauren had called Happy and the two of them had taken Pepper to the hospital. She had been admitted for observation and was in the assessment area. Neither Happy nor Lauren had been allowed back because they were not family or related in any way, and Pepper had left her phone at the office. Happy's had gone dead and he had forgotten his charger. Well that explained the lack of response or information. His first impulse was to just fire everyone out of irritation, knowing Pepper would just rehire them five minutes later behind his back, but that was childish. It wasn't anyone's fault but his own, he was sure. Tony texted her back that he should be less than an hour arriving, and spent the rest of the trip mentally willing everything to be ok and for his suit to go faster.
He had never been so happy to see the California coast line appear in the distance. He came roaring over Los Angeles, pretty sure he was breaking the sound barrier and some pissed off suburbanites were going to be reporting him to the cops in a matter of minutes, billing him for busted windows. He just hoped he didn't get arrested before seeing Pepper. Happy had told him the name of the hospital and he zeroed in on it, coming to a screeching landing on the front lawn, gauging a trench into the grass. He ran to the emergency entrance and jumped out of the suit at the door, ordering it to fly up and wait for him on the roof as the astounded security guards watched in disbelief. He breezed past them to the desk where a bored looking woman looked up and, seeing Tony Stark coming running up as his suit flew upwards behind him, caused her eyes to go wide in shock.
"Where's the assessment area?" he asked a little louder than he should have. It was all he could do to not shout it. Still stunned, the woman pointed, her mouth still open wide. Tony ran past the desk without a backwards glance. His eyes slid over the signs, getting turned around twice before a helpful nurse pointed him to the exact door.
But when he ran up to the admitting station and asked for "Virginia Potts" or "Pepper Potts," the nurses then told him to go to yet another area, a monitoring area, saying she was being monitored over there, and no they couldn't tell him her condition.
Tony was sure he wouldn't need to exercise for a week by the time he arrived, panting to the correct area, was told she was in monitoring room 325, and was he a relative?
"I'm the father," he said easily, rushing past their surprised looks down the hall to the room. He wasn't sure what he expected to find, Pepper in labor perhaps, but he certainly didn't expect to find her lounging on the bed, "laughing" with Lauren and Happy, and eating Chinese takeout.
"What the hell is this, a party?" he asked, a little irritated.
"Tony!" Pepper grinned. "I'm so glad you made it back. It's been a scary day. Everything ok?"
"Um, no it isn't!" Tony said, flabbergasted. "Happy said you were miscarrying or something."
Pepper shot a look at Happy, who replied that he certainly hadn't, only that she was in the hospital being checked for bleeding.
"Oh Hap," she groaned. "No I'm not miscarrying. False alarm, apparently. They're just keeping me on these monitors until 7pm tonight to make sure. But they're saying I can go home then. You didn't rush all the way back here, did you? Please tell me you didn't do something unsafe, like go suborbital?"
Tony was determined not to answer that one just yet. "But...you were bleeding? And you're NOT miscarrying?"
"Yes and no," said Pepper. "The doctor says...um, you're not squeamish are you?"
Happy immediately jumped up and ran out of the room.
"Wimp," Lauren muttered. Tony shook his head.
Pepper bit back a grin. "Well, seems it's not uncommon for women to develop harmless, benign cysts on their...um...cervix. Happens all the time. Well, if they...you know...uh, pop, they can bleed a little, but since I'm at a point where everything is so vascularized down there. You know how head wounds bleed a lot even when they aren't serious because of all the blood vessels? Same thing at this point in pregnancy. There's a lot of blood flow and, it just seemed worse than it is. But no sign of labor or distress in the baby."
Tony's head was swimming. She was OK? She was really OK? "But...how did the, uh, cyst, burst?"
Pepper blushed and hung her head. "Uh...the doctor says we need to be a little less...uh...vigorous."
"That's my cue, I'm outta here," said Lauren, getting up to follow Happy.
"Wimp," Pepper called after her.
Tony barely saw Lauren leave. He was too busy melting with relief.
Pepper looked up at him, somewhat contrite. "I'm really sorry if we scared you, Tony. I told Happy to update you but not to scare you to death. I admit, I was freaked out too, but I never meant for you to rush back here thinking I was miscarrying. I'm sorry about this."
Tony shrugged. He was still irritated, especially now that the fear was subsiding, but he was elated that nothing serious was wrong. He shrugged, and bent down to kiss her gently. She returned the kiss, leaning up to him, before he gently pulled away.
"Uh uh, no more of this," he said somewhat reluctantly. "We don't need any more ER visits."
She looked like she was about to protest, but, realizing he was uncomfortable and worried, as was she if she admitted it, she reluctantly nodded. They could show affection in other ways, but it was going to really suck to put sex on hold for at least four to five more months, three to give birth and four to six weeks after to recover, especially now that they had rediscovered each other. They had already gone six without each other and it had been rough.
Since Tony had arrived, Lauren went back home to Chris, her fiancé. They did have a wedding to plan after all. Happy, unquestioning saint that he was, simply nodded at Tony's instructions to retrieve the suit from the hospital roof and put it in the trunk of the car. The doctor finally came to examine Pepper one final time, then release her, at which point Happy drove them both home. Tony never wanted to feel that kind of fear again, although he expected that willingly taking on fatherhood meant there would be no less than five more incidents like these throughout the kid's life. Various mishaps in his own childhood had sent him to the ER for stitches, and that was for simple things like tumbling down the stairs and flying glass, the result of one of his childish experiments gone wrong. Not that his adult ones faired much better. Any kid of his was sure to follow suit, he knew.
That night, lying in bed next to Pepper, who had, at his insistence, taken to sleeping in his bed instead of the guest room, he knew that the time for taking full responsibility had arrived. He wanted nothing less, and that meant being open with the world, and not just with Pepper and himself.
As Pepper snored lightly next to him, surrounded by pillows propping her belly up, he reached over to his night stand and grabbed his phone to type up a quick email to Charissa. He had a press release he wanted her to type up. Hopefully this one would go over better than some of his previous releases to the press.
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooo
"Tony Stark made a startling, although not unexpected announcement this morning. Representatives from Stark Industries confirmed this morning in a press release that Stark is in fact the father of Personal Assistant Pepper Pott's unborn child. Reportedly due in three months, both Stark and Potts have maintained that he was not the father, and that they are not romantically involved, until this morning. Stark was unavailable for comment at his Malibu home..."
"Well, I tell you Barbara, me and Whoopi knew it from the start. That girl's been crushing on him forever, no other reason she'd hang around for ten years, the way he acts. Seems like she'd be a real idiot to think she's different than any other girl he's done..."
"Statements issued by the Stark Industries Board of Directors seem to indicate that they suspected, but had no official confirmation about the paternity of Pepper Potts' baby. While several board members have extended their well wishes, even more have expressed concern about what it could mean for Stark Industries if a personal relationship between Tony and Pepper sours. It is well known that Pepper has kept Tony on track professionally all these years, and a personal breakup would undoubtedly lead to her leaving, at which point business would be affected at S.I..."
"Well, they're taking it pretty well," said Tony amiably, as he turned to see Pepper holding her head in her hands on the sofa. "Oh come on, Pep, it's not like we expected any different."
"Why can't the go bother the Kardashians or something?" she groaned. "Hell, they live right up the road."
"Never mind that," said Tony, looking at the sheet of paper she had handed him. "Parenting lessons? Lamaze lessons? 'Birthing without fear' classes? Do I have to be at all these?"
"Hey, you wanted in on the whole deal," she said standing up. "Both of us know we could use some pointers from the experts. And we still need to talk about that spare room next to the bedroom for a nursery."
"Hey you know I have no problem hiring a professional decorator or something. But thankfully we already have the changing table," he said with a grin.
Pepper flinched at the memory of the robotic changing table dumping an entire bottle of baby powder on the imitation baby. "Um...yeah. (Hell no) I think I want to decorate the nursery myself though, seems more personal. And tell Dummy thanks, but no, I don't need help painting. I'm going to have to redo that wall now. And for your information, you don't have to keep leaving that baby catalog opened to page 80 everywhere hoping I'd see it. I did. We're not decorating the nursery with Iron Man lamps, mobiles and bedding. Sorry."
Tony gave her a mock disappointed look and made a mental note to find some Iron Man baby clothes instead.
"Oh by the way," she continued. "We need to think about getting Lauren and Chris a wedding gift. It's two months away, after all."
Tony shrugged, "We could just get them about 50 Hawaiian shirts. Hey, why does Chris wear Hawaiian shirts to work, anyway?"
Pepper looked away. "It's not a happy story," she said. "His mother always wanted to go to Hawaii. His dad walked when he was five, no idea where he is. His mother struggled to support them, and they never really got to take a vacation anywhere. His mother loved those old Elvis movies set in Hawaii, and she always told him that when things got better, they'd celebrate by going to Hawaii. He always wanted to go, for his mom's sake. Someone gave him a Hawaiian shirt when he was a kid and he wore it all the time, and told his mom he was just focusing on the trip they'd take some day. Well, his mom was killed in a car crash by a drunk driver when he was 14. He bounced from foster home to foster home, older kids are harder to get adopted apparently. He didn't really have much of a family after that. He got scholarships to college, he was real bright, but he was more or less on his own. So when he started working at S.I., he kept wearing Hawaiian shirts to remind himself that someday he'd still like to go to Hawaii, for his mom's sake, especially since he could afford it now. She was cremated, and he wants to spread her ashes over Diamondhead. He was so excited when Lauren agreed to marry him. He agonized over just asking her out. She was the high up secretary to the CEO's PA, classy and smart, and he was the computer nerd from the second floor who wore loud shirts to work and listens to Daft Punk. He thought he didn't have a chance. He would debate for days over just talking to her. He told me once that he would purposely remote access her computer and mess around with her desktop image, nothing serious or work related mind you, just enough to make her call down to IT for help 'fixing' it. At which point he'd go up and 'fix' her computer, just so he could talk to her. He finally got the nerve to ask her to go get coffee with him, and she thought he was cute enough to bail on our coffee group's regular outing to go with him. Naturally we all followed and spied. He's so excited to finally be getting his own family, a wife and kid. He's long overdue for it too."
Tony looked up quickly. "Kid?"
Pepper smiled and said, "Yeah don't tell anyone yet. Not even Charissa or Happy, neither of them can keep their mouths shut. Lauren thinks she might be pregnant. She's felt off and she was asking me how I felt those first few weeks. It's really too soon to tell, but she really thinks she might be. Chris is going to flip."
"That's awesome!" Tony said, truly meaning it. There was a time in his life when he would have looked at a guy getting married and having a kid and thought 'poor sap, he's about to have a boring life' and be thankful it wasn't him. Women and endless random sex to keep him entertained seemed like the life for him. But ever since Pepper's pregnancy, topped by her story about Chris, and he realized just how truly alone he had been for most of his life. But for Pepper and little Oops, he still would be. She had only been in his house and pregnant with his child for a fraction of the time he had known her, and already he knew how empty the house would be without her if she were gone. He could certainly sympathize with Chris, orphaned so young and on his own, just as Tony had been, excited to finally get the family he had yearned for and someone to love him. Tony barely knew the man himself, but he felt a strange sort of kinship with him and Lauren, who had been so good to Pepper these last few months. Then there was Charissa and her family. Would that be he and Pepper in five years? He found himself hoping it would be.
Then a sly grin spread across his face. He had a great idea. He was about to turn towards Pepper when a noise caught his attention.
Just then, Happy came through the back door looking a bit weirded out.
"Why is there some space age looking robotic alien pod in the backseat of the Bentley?" he asked.
Ooooooooooooooooo
The next two months later by in a frenzy. With all of the drama of most of the pregnancy, Pepper had been far too preoccupied to properly prepare for the baby. Now that the drama was being put to rest, coupled with ever escalating nesting hormones coursing through her system, Pepper threw herself into preparations with fury. With Tony's help she personally repainted the unused guestroom and went on a shopping spree for furniture that did not include robotic arms, much to Tony's chagrin.
Pepper also got into a cleaning frenzy. Even though Tony a house keeper who came once a week, it didn't keep Pepper from cleaning everything in sight. This was also around the time that insomnia sent in for her, so it was also not uncommon for these cleaning frenzies to take place at two in the morning. Tony would frequently find her obsessively scrubbing the kitchen counters or vacuuming the upstairs. It mystified him, but Charissa's husband warned him that the best thing to do was stand back and let her go. He had stopped questioning his own wife's oddball actions in the last trimester with their second child. It saved him from having things thrown at his head, he said.
Preparing for the baby were not the only issues that Tony and Pepper had to face. With a little nudging from Pepper, tony agreed to visit the Stark Industries employee health counselor to help them work out the feelings that they had brought up for each other and get past the hurt. Tony wasn't keen on in-depth counseling sessions that brought up the post dramatic stress of his capture in Afghanistan, but even though he only attended a handful of sessions, the counselor did help them get past some of the issues and work towards the impending new parenthood.
Tony also learned not to make too big a deal of the classes that Pepper wanted him to attend. Even though he figured that JARVIS was far better equipped to inform him about all matters that had been written upon concerning parenthood, he had to grudgingly admit that there was something to be said for face-to-face examples from teachers. One of the better classes that Pepper shoved him into was a "Just For Dads" class that was taught by a guy with four children of his own, two boys and two girls. He offered practical advice for dads, like learning to change diapers and feed babies. He went over what dads could do for mothers who both bottle-fed and breast-fed, something Pepper had not really talked about before, and Tony wasn't completely sure what she was going to do. The teacher of the dads' class told him what to do in case of postpartum depression, and how to help a woman recovering from a C-section, should one be needed. Perhaps the best bit of information Tony learned from the class for fathers was that when changing a baby boy, always make sure the little penis was pointed downwards before closing up the diaper, lest you find yourself with a baby who has a soaked upper torso. He filed that away as need-to-know information.
As far as sex went, Pepper's libido had not abated in the least, not even with the scare that had sent her to the hospital with a false alarm. She was still all for giving it a go, but Tony was more reticent. Despite the assurances from both her and the doctor that he had not hurt her, he didn't want to risk another emergency like that. Still, he wanted to show love and affection, and he wasn't keen on giving it up entirely himself. Finally, they compromised by doing everything but the intercourse part, bringing each other off by taking matters into their hands, so to speak. In a way, it was actually an experiment for the both of them to rediscover a certain level of intimacy in this way. It allowed them to truly learn about the other in ways they might not have thought of, especially since the buildup was often slow and steady. They tried different positions and scenarios, and while Tony was concerned that even bringing her to orgasm might trigger labor or complications, after the first few times when that didn't happen, he began to relax around her.
Then, of course, there was the media. If the media have been brutal to Pepper when she announced her pregnancy, they were even more so when she confirmed what everybody already suspected, that Tony what's the father. Requests for interviews came pouring in, which they initially ignored until Charissa gently suggested that they consider at least two of them, in order to put some of the rumors and frenzy to rest. The very last thing any of them wanted was was to talk about their personal life when it was still unsure between the two of them, nor did Pepper relish the thought of being on camera in front of millions of people while she was heavily pregnant and about to pop at any moment. But they had to concede that they had hired Charissa as PR rep to Stark Industries, not just because of her expertise, but because of her intuitive nature of the business. After their appearances on Good Morning America and the Larry King Show, some of the interest did indeed start to die down, as well as the media frenzy, although interest would follow them for well over a year following. Charissa had thoroughly prepped them for any interview questions which were prescreened, but of course a few sneaky ones were slipped in unexpectedly, such as Pepper being blindsided with the question of how long she thought it would take for Tony to start wandering. Although it was presented as a joke, she knew the question was inherently serious.
She tried to keep the testiness out of her voice and laugh about it on camera, but she made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that while Tony may have been a womanizer, he was never a cheater, which was a separate thing entirely. When Tony decided he was going to commit to something, such as Iron Man or righting the wrongs done in Stark Industries' name, he did it. She knew that he was serious about being a father and had no doubt he would be great at it. The worst question Tony got was whether or not he was going to make a miniature Iron Man suit for the baby. But it wasn't until they were asked what names they had picked out that they realized they had not even thought about names and had better start.
While many couples had nearly an entire year to handle these various things concerning the addition of a baby into their lives, Pepper and Tony had to cram most of it into eight weeks. On top of all that, they were preparing for Lauren's wedding, in which Pepper would be a bridesmaid, and then Lauren would be gone for two weeks, leaving Pepper without a secretary at a crazy time. There were certainly some major changes and shakeups happening at Stark Industries.
Ooooooooooooooo
"Lauren and Chris were totally blown away by that trip to Hawaii that we gave them," said Pepper.
"I'm glad," said Tony, "when do they leave?"
"In about an hour," said Pepper. "They are leaving directly for the airport."
Typically speaking, Tony detested weddings. Going back to his old mentality of feeling sorry for the guy at the altar, rather than happy for him, Tony's past experiences with weddings were limited to a few friends he made in college, and the grown children of board members who invited him, at which point he usually felt obligated to attend, whether he wanted to or not. But Tony had to admit that this was the first wedding he had actually enjoyed. Aside from the fact that he was truly happy for the couple getting married, he had changed his mentality about settling down with one woman for the rest of his life, and even found himself considering the alarming possibility of asking Pepper that the question himself. The thought utterly terrified him, and of course, especially, at the thought that she might say no. But if she said yes, he was pretty sure that very little would compare to the happiness he would feel in that moment. Perhaps the best part of the day, however, was seeing Pepper in her bridesmaid stress, which had had to be altered twice to accommodate her expanding belly. Even though she was so pregnant she look like a tick about to burst, Tony didn't notice a single other woman in the room except her, not even the bride. There was no question in mind that she was the most beautiful woman for miles around. His heart swelled at the sight of her, with her hair piled onto her head and the dress shimmering around her in waves.
He was so enthralled with her, and her with him, dressed in his tasteful tuxedo, that they barely noticed all of the looks and gossiping going on around them. At the reception, both of them fielded many remarks, some of them congratulatory and some of them snide, with apparent ease and good grace. Pepper was never good at being the center of attention and was content to sit at a table munching on the crepes and fruit from the chocolate fountain, until Lauren was ready to leave. But Tony was having none of that. They had done enough of being ashamed and he wanted to show her off. He whisked her out on the dance floor and carefully twirled her around with the other dancers in a perfectly executed ballroom move. She smiled nervously, but then laughed a true soft laugh as he swished her around the floor, gazing into her eyes. Anyone watching, no matter how jaded, could see they had eyes only for each other. Most of the time, women actively flirted with Tony, knowing his reputation. But this time, with Pepper on his arm and the two lost in each others' eyes, few tried and the ones who did quickly gave up.
Finally, after the bride and groom's first dance, and then the dance with the parents, little bags of birdseed were passed all around, and guests started lining up outside leading to the limo. Pepper was feeling tired, so she opted to stay seated at the table inside and asked Tony to go out and throw birdseed at Lauren for her. Tony was a little concerned, surely she wouldn't want to miss this part? But everything was happening so fast that he didn't have time to question. He went out and joined the cheering crowd wishing Lauren and Chris farewell, hugged Lauren and shook Chris' hand, and waved goodbye as the couple climbed into the limo, heading for their dream honeymoon. Tony smiled and headed back inside to Pepper, but was derailed by people stopping him to talk, now that the bride and groom had departed.
Tony was in the process of trying to shake off some exuberant relatives of
Lauren's when the stressful call of his name came from the back of the reception hall.
"Tony!" the voice, unmistakably Charissa's, echoed across the room.
Suddenly Happy appeared out of the crowd and ran to him.
"Better come quick boss! Pepper's water just broke," he panted.
Tony could only recall two other times in his life when it seemed to him that time completely stopped. The first was when he had been informed that his parents were dead in a car crash, the second have been during the ambush in Afghanistan when he was hiding behind a rock and a Stark Industries missile landed right next to him. When time holds still like that, you have no idea what is going on around you because you can't think at all. It's a bit like having a Charlie horse of the brain. His next coherent thought was that Pepper was now in labor in the middle of a wedding party, and for some unfathomable reason he was standing there like a dummy, not moving, with his mouth hanging open.
It took Happy actually pushing him to get him moving, and when he did, he didn't stop. In fact, he was pretty sure he might have barreled over Lauren's 89-year-old grandmother by accident in his hurry to get to the back of the room where Pepper was sitting. He knocked over three chairs as he came to a skidding halt in front of Pepper, who was doubled over as much as her distended belly will allow, with Charissa rubbing her back and Charissa's husband Todd standing nearby, holding the baby while the two other children stood by with their eyes wide.
"She needs to go to the hospital now," said Charissa. She looked down at Pepper and scolded, "why didn't you say anything about having contractions? You should have been having them long before your water broke. You didn't feel anything?"
Pepper whimpered. "I thought they were just cramps. They weren't really that bad. I expected it to hurt more. Then I thought it was just Braxton Hicks contractions. I figured if it got worse by the time Lauren left that we could run by the hospital and get checked out. I didn't expect it to come on so quickly."
Charissa rolled her eyes. "Girl, the only thing anybody knows for sure about labor is that it never goes by the book. I had completely different labors with all three of mine. Hannah took forever and James came out in a matter of hours. You just never know for sure."
"Yeah, well, I know that now," Pepper quipped, somewhat irritated. "Look you guys can lecture me all you want when I'm at the hospital, but for now, can we get out of here please?"
At that moment, a janitorial arrived to mop up the fluid on the floor, which caused Pepper to drop her head into her hands and groan. Tony could only imagine how mortifying this must be for her to have this happen in such a crowd.
"She will need a towel," said Charissa. She handed her keys to her husband who handed the baby to 10-year-old Hannah.
"Go get one of the beach towels out of the backseat,' said Charissa. Todd ran off quickly, and returned in record time with a giant beach towel which they wrapped around Pepper's waist. Her face was still beet red as Tony and Todd helped her to her feet and took up positions on either side of her to help her walk to the door.
"Shouldn't we get a wheelchair or something for her?" asked Happy. "I mean should she really be walking? What if the baby falls out?"
"Oh Hap," Tony groaned. "Just go get the car for God sake."
Happy took off like a shot, and the crowd parted to let them by. Several people offered well wishes as they passed. Happy had pulled the car up to the front in a screeching halt, and Todd and Tony managed to get her into the backseat with as little fanfare as possible. Charissa leaned in to hug Pepper goodbye, as Tony gave her some final instructions about what to do at the office on Monday, with them undoubtedly planning to be gone. With promises to text and call as soon as possible, as well as instructions to text Lauren, Happy pulled the Bentley out of the drive. It was almost a repeat of the sendoff of the bride and groom for the crowd that gathered outside to wave goodbye.
"Well it looks like this is it," Tony said with a grin. But his grin faded as Pepper doubled over with a real contraction.
"You bet it is," she said, with a pained smile in return. He gulped.
Oooooooooooooooo
Thankfully Pepper had already filled out the pre-admittance paperwork two weeks prior to their arrival, so when they arrived all they really had to do was go straight to the assessment center, where she would be hooked up to a fetal monitor to determine whether or not she truly was in labor, which of course only took a few minutes to determine that she was. In fact, she was already dilated to 5 cm, which was halfway through.
Tony was astounded. "You seriously had no idea before now?" he asked. She shrugged.
He managed to keep from rolling his eyes. After the assessment nurses did, in fact, determine that she was in labor, she was transferred to the labor and delivery department. This particular hospital was trying a more accepted and modern model of delivery, in which the woman went through labor and delivery and recovery all in the same room. There was a staging area in the corner, where the baby would be attended to after the birth, and if nothing was wrong with the baby, it would remain with the mother throughout the entire time. When they arrived at the room, however, it looked like a regular hospital room to Tony. The baby staging area was behind a curtain, and the lights were dim, and the TV was on. They moved Pepper to the bed and the nurse on call came in to demonstrate some of the laboring tools they had in the room. To Tony's surprise, they included what looked like an exercise ball and a strange looking type of chair and a very large tub in the bathroom that could be used to soak in during labor.
The nurse did have a bit of bad news for them, though. If she wanted an epidural, it might be a little while longer, because the anesthesiologist had only just been called in, and they were in the middle of a shift change. It shouldn't be too long, though, she assured them. Tony looked sideways at Pepper who was attempting to do the Lamaze breathing techniques she had learned. She kept telling him that it wasn't too bad, but he knew she was putting on a brave face for him.
He felt his heart clinch as she squeezed her eyes shut and carefully breathed through another contraction. He had not really thought before about the fact that someone he loved was going to be in a great deal of pain, and that would be very little he could do about it. Not only that, it would be going on for several hours. He hoped he could take it and not do something totally pussified, like pass out or something. Some superhero he would be then.
The next few hours were uneventful. Happy stayed until Rhodey showed up with a deck of cards, prompting a couple rounds of four person Texas Hold 'Em until Pepper's inability to bluff, on top of her growing pain, made her toss down her cards and claim every last one of the men in her room were bastards in need of a good ass kicking. On that note, Rhodey and Happy hastily retreated to the coffee shop as Charissa came in for a quick visit.
The two women chatted amicably for a few minutes, as Charissa filled Pepper in on the fact that she had texted Lauren, who had been on her way to the airport for her honeymoon in Hawaii, and Lauren had asked if she needed to stay and come to the hospital, being somewhat flabbergasted that Pepper had gone into labor at her wedding.
"I hope you told her to get her butt on that plane," said Pepper, turning to her side to fend off another contraction.
"Oh yes I did, and she did. But she was texting me right up to the point where the flight attendant fussed at her to turn her phone off. She's pissed that she's missing it, and will likely be somewhere over the Pacific when it arrives and not even able to get the text announcing it. But oh well, she'll get over it when she sees Hawaii. Better yet, she'll have her own in 7 months," said Charissa.
"So they ARE having one?" asked Tony.
"Yup," said Pepper. "She got the confirmation from her doctor a few days ago. They're super excited!"
"Well the daycare is almost finished," said Tony. "A few more will make the place merrier, that's for sure."
Charissa stayed until she could no longer justify being away from her own kids for the night, wished them both luck and left. Rhodey also left, with instructions to call him as soon as anything interesting happened. Tony tried to tell Happy to go home too, but the loyal driver just smiled and shook his head and said he'd take up residence in the waiting room, the Jets game was on.
Tony really wished the anesthesiologist would arrive to give Pepper the epidural, as she was starting to have a hard time during the contractions. She was visibly sweating, and squeezing his hand harder and harder. The nurses came in every so often to try and get her to use the laboring ball, walk around in the halls to speed things up, even go for a half an hour soak in the laboring tub, but it didn't seem to Tony that any of it was helping much. Finally, the anesthesiologist arrived and the staff kicked Tony out of the room so they could apply the catheter to Pepper's spine.
Despite Tony's protestations that he wasn't squeamish, the doctor assured him that he did not want to be in the room when it was done, it would be disconcerting enough for Pepper. Thankfully, despite the man's tardiness, he was quick and efficient. When Tony went back into the room, Pepper was already lying more comfortably in the bed flipping TV channels. Tony started to breathe a sigh of relief until about an hour later, when Pepper's face contorted in pain.
"Pep, what's wrong? Are you still feeling something? I thought this stuff worked instantly?" he asked with concern.
She gulped for air and said "It's supposed to, but I don't think it's working right. I can't feel anything on my right side, but I can still feel my left leg and the left side. I feel it when it contracts, and it hurts."
Tony got up and walked out to the nurses' station and told them Pepper's epidural didn't seem to be working. A nurse came to check, and then asked for the anesthesiologist to be paged. When he arrived and assessed the situation, he frowned.
"Well, this is uncommon but not unheard of. Sometimes the epidural won't work as effectively in some people as it will in others. And I hate to say so, but it's probably because of your red hair. Most people don't know that redheads usually need 20% more anesthetic or sedative than other people when going into surgery. I see it often enough to know it isn't a myth. They can also have more difficulty during labor," he said.
"Are you joking?" Tony asked, looking over at Pepper who whimpered.
"Afraid not," said the doctor, sympathetically. "Now we have a few options here. We could take the epidural catheter out and attempt to re-apply it. But she's in active labor now, she's really close to delivering and I'm not sure we'd have enough time. Plus the contractions are going to make it hard for her to hold still. We could take it out and she delivers naturally, which will be worse than it is now. Or we leave it and try to up the dosage a little, and hope it works, but we can't give her much more. When she's a little closer to delivering, we can give her some narcotics, but we don't like to do that, it can cross the placenta to the baby."
Tony looked down at Pepper. "What do you want to do?" he asked.
"Leave it...and...up the dosage..." Pepper panted.
"You understand that this might not work and there will be no change, correct?" the doctor asked.
Pepper nodded.
The doctor administered another dose of the numbing medication, monitored Pepper for a while longer, and then left. While she said it helped a little, Tony didn't really see where it helped at all. She was still whimpering, and eventually groaning, in pain, and it was getting worse. How much longer was this going to take? Tony hated every second of this, watching her in agony, and she was still not experiencing the full effect of labor. How much worse would it have been without the epidural? He didn't even want to think about it.
Finally, the nurse came back and checked Pepper again. "Well, hon, 10 centimeters" she said, "Looks like it's about that time. We need to get the doctor down here. You ready to have this baby?"
Pepper just groaned and nodded. "Just get it out. Use a melon baller if you have to."
The nurse grinned as Tony winced at the mental image. "I don't think it'll come to that," said the nurse.
Considering how slowly everything seemed to have been moving to Tony, as soon as it was apparent that delivery was imminent, things started to move very rapidly. Tony only just had enough time to fire off a group text to all their friends that Pepper was going to deliver any minute now, before some other nurses pushed him into a corner and handed him the paper spacesuit he was expected to wear. After having to take it off once because he put it on backwards, he was shown where and how to scrub his hands as the delivery team came in.
It seemed to Tony the room began to transform, as if it were the inside of a UFO or something. It went from a dimly lit, comfortable room to a brightly lit operating room in a matter of seconds. The curtains were pulled away from the baby staging area, and the lights turned on, as the pediatric nurse stood ready and waiting next to the bassinet and cleaning unit. Panels in the ceiling retracted and huge lights came down, illuminating the room to about a thousand times what it had been, making Pepper squint and blink. A nurse moved the bed into the delivery position, which went from reclining to nearly upright, bringing Pepper into a near squatting position. Tony took a seat near her head and held her hand, nearly as terrified as she appeared to be, as a nurse took up a spot on her other side to support her. She tried to smile at him, but the fear in her eyes was apparent. It broke his heart. At this point, he would have given anything to trade places with her, anything that would mean she didn't have to go through this.
Pepper's doctor came in and grinned at her. "Well, Ms. Pepper, you about ready to have this baby?"
"I wish people would stop asking me that and get him out, already. I've been ready to have him since about four months ago," she grumbled. The doctor grinned.
Everyone took up their positions and the process of pushing began.
Once again, for Tony, time seemed to crawl back to a stop. It seemed like Pepper pushed forever, going through the motions of waiting for a contraction, pushing, holding, pushing, only to have the contraction fade, she would lean back to rest, and then a minute later everything would start all over again. She leaned heavily against him, trying to control her breathing, with Tony whispering what encouragement he could give and rubbing her back. The pain was worse now, if that was possible, and she was actively crying out, in spite of the half-working epidural. Tony wanted to yell at someone to please do something. How could the medical staff be so calm when she was obviously in distress? It took a god deal of willpower for him to remain silent, knowing they were doing everything they could and it would do no god to anybody for either he or the staff to dissolve into hysterics. They saw laboring women every day, surely nothing was amiss about Pepper or they'd say something?
"OK, I see the head," the doctor suddenly announced.
Without thinking, Tony dipped over to look.
"Tony!" Pepper yelled, "Get back up here! Don't look!"
"Why?" he asked, perplexed, although admittedly what he did see was a sight he wasn't sure he was prepared to see. She seemed ready to explode.
"Just don't!" she whimpered. "I don't need you having that mental image of me bulging out like a balloon for the rest of our lives…Oh, no, get that thing outta here," she told a nurse who was wheeling a mirror around so she could see. The nurse shrugged and moved it back, trying not to smile.
"Why is it so hot in here?" Pepper whimpered. Tony looked at her sharply. He wasn't hot, in fact it was rather chilly in here. He noticed her face was flushed and she was sweating, and it didn't seem to be from the exertion. The nurse noticed it too, and moved to grab an ear thermometer and take Pepper's temperature. A frown of concern crossed her face.
"Doctor?" she said. "Pepper has a temp of 101. It seems to be rising."
The doctor looked at the thermometer but her expression didn't change. "OK, she's spiking a temperature. Was she given antibiotics when she was admitted? Tested for any infections?"
"Nothing showed up on the intake," said another nurse.
"Get some antibiotics in her IV. We're going to stop pushing here for a few minutes and see if her temperature goes down."
"What if it doesn't?" asked Tony.
"We may have to do an emergency C-Section. We'll make that call in a few minutes, but she's pushing without much progress. She's been pushing for thirty minutes already. I can't let her go much longer like this," said the doctor.
Tony felt his heart stop. Was Pepper in danger? And the baby?
Suddenly Pepper began to noticeably shake. She had been trembling for some time, but not her shaking was becoming noticeable, and she didn't seem able to stop. He put his arm around her, whispering to her, asking if she was ok, but her glazed eyes barely registered him, and she seemed to be trying to stay awake and failing. His alarm grew, and he signaled the nurse. The doctor came over and they checked Pepper's vitals. She was still stable, but Tony didn't like the frown on the doctor's face, especially when they rechecked Pepper's temperature and it had gone up again.
"Tell them to prep the OR," she said evenly. "We need to get this baby out now. Her fever is going up and she's at risk for seizures at this rate. We'll give the meds another ten minutes to kick in, and then we'll try pushing one more time. If not, we go to emergency C-Section."
Tony dropped his face into Pepper's hair and tried to keep the tears from forcing their way out from under his eyelids. He was beginning to wonder if three months in a cave at the hands of terrorists was less stressful than watching Pepper go through this. Her breathing was ragged and the contractions were still racking her body, but she was too tired to even cry out at this point. Finally, ten minutes passed and her violent shaking had subsided somewhat. He almost felt like he would welcome a C-Section at this point, if it meant this could be over with, but with the epidural not working properly, he understood why the doctor wanted this baby out the normal way. What would they do if they had to perform surgery on pepper and the epidural wasn't keeping her from feeling it? Would they have to knock her out entirely? Could she endure that?
Pepper was barely conscious from exhaustion as the nurses and Tony hoisted her back upright and entreated her to start pushing again. She started crying in fatigue and pain, but did as she was told. Tony had to admit, he was impressed. He was 100% certain he couldn't have done it, and he had faced down all manner of threats as Iron Man to compare this to. The doctor called for forceps to be made ready in case she didn't have the strength to push the baby out, but between the encouragement of the medical staff and Tony's pleading, with one final agonized shove, the slippery form of the baby tumbled from her body and into the doctor's hands.
Pepper slumped but struggled to raise her head as the doctor held the baby up and said "It's a boy! Congratulations, both of you."
Tony felt himself laughing and sniffling at the same time. The doctor asked him if he wanted to cut the cord, and while his first response was "Isn't there someone a little more qualified for that than me?" he relented and agreed, carefully taking the scissors. Then the pediatric nurse whisked the baby over to the staging area to tend to him, and his howls of protest let the entire room know what he thought about the entire situation. Tony turned back to Pepper, who was being lowered into a laying position as the doctor and attending nurse dealt with the afterbirth and making her more comfortable, checking her vitals. She still had a fever, although it had gone from 101 to 105, then back down to 100. This meant she and the baby would be on observation for at least 24 hours, meaning no visitors except Tony. He went over and kissed her softly. She opened her eyes slightly and smiled, and beckoned him closer.
He leaned in, and then smiled when she whispered, "Don't just stand there,
numbnuts, go take pictures of him!"
He whipped out his phone and went over to snap pictures of the baby. The infant was yelling at the top of his lungs as he was being cleaned off, already sporting a hat on his head as the nurse began to swaddle him. Tony snapped several pictures, in utter awe that this little screaming being had come from Pepper. And him too. The baby did look like him, he mused. But his hair had very slight reddish highlights, definitely from Pepper.
"Hey little guy," Tony murmured. "None of that now, it's all over."
Amazingly, at the sound of Tony's voice, the infant stopped crying and turned his head in Tony's direction. Tony was surprised, he hadn't thought the baby would recognize his voice. The nurse picked him up and handed him to Tony.
"Here you go, dad," she said with a grin.
"Uh...um...okaaay," he said nervously, holding out his arms. The nurse showed him how to hold the baby, and gently laid him in Tony's arms. He was so light, it felt like he wasn't holding anything. The baby yawned.
'Gosh, he's kinda...cute,' Tony mused, taking note of what a sappy idiot he already sounded like.
He carried the infant over to Pepper, who was still out of it. She smiled at Tony's approach with the baby, though, and held out her arms, and Tony laid the baby in her arms. They both could only stare at the little person, marveling at the entire situation. The medical staff let them be for a few minutes, before the doctor came over to say Pepper likely would need a plasma transfusion, as she had lost a lot of fluids, and both she and the baby would need to be on antibiotics because of Pepper's fever. It had been a rough labor, but the doctor was pleased on how everything had ended up.
As they were moving Pepper and the baby to a permanent room, Tony fired off messages to Rhodey, Happy, Lauren and Charissa, complete with pictures he had taken and what account he could give over text message of how everything had gone down. Happy indicated he would be up for a quick visit and then finally go home, while everyone else sent their congratulations and Charissa asked for the name so she could get to work on the press release.
"What are we going to call him?" Tony asked a very sleepy Pepper, still cradling the baby in her arms.
"Howard," she said, "after your dad. Middle name's Yinsen, after the man who saved your life. Howard Yinsen Stark. But we can call him Howie."
Tony beamed. It was perfect. And Howie seemed to fit the baby perfectly, named for his grandfather, but uniquely himself. Tony fired off a reply text to Charissa, and then carefully climbed into the bed next to Pepper and wrapped both her and the baby in his arms. He had no idea what he was doing. He didn't know how to be a dad. He didn't know if he would be the man Pepper needed. But for the first time in his life, he was more than willing to try. And it was going to be fun, of that he was sure.