Before she could get the words out the world went black, collapsing in on itself and dragging her down with it.

"Pepper!" Clint couldn't remember the last time he'd moved that fast, diving behind the ginger to catch her as she collapsed, whatever she'd been about to say lost in the silence. Steve still had hold of her arms as between the two of them they lay her back on the bed, completely confused.

"What happened?" The captain asked, glancing over at the other as he straightened.

"No idea…" Clint muttered, perched on the edge of the bed next to the ginger, watching her as he pulled her wrist onto his lap, pressing two fingers against it, checking her pulse: "She's not dead?"

Steve's gaze narrowed a little at his comment, crossing his arms over his chest, about to say something when the woman between them groaned, blinking awake and gazing up at the celling: "Oww..." Pepper whimpered, immediately moving to sit up, her arms protecting her stomach, cradling the source of the continued cramps, not even caring about the two men in the room with her. Everything hurt, her stomach complaining almost as much as her head, she'd been out less than a minute.

"Morning!" Hawkeye teased, gently placing a hand on her chest and pushing her back down, forcing her to stay lying on her bed as Steve left the room, heading off to find the doctor in the building: "What was that about? You sick or something?" As usual he was trying to make her smile, keeping the concern as far out of his voice as possible, Virginia looked ill, even he could work that out. She was white as a ghost and every time she moved she was cringing in pain, looking ready to cry. Gently he stroked his hand through her hair, not taking his gaze from her, usually she'd have pushed his hands away by now, but Pepper was being unusually accepting of his attention as she tried to calm herself down, not daring to move her arms from protecting her body.

The strawberry blonde stayed silent as the third man came into her room of that day, glancing down at her with a sigh. Usually Bruce Banner stayed out of the way, especially of Pepper Potts and her ability to cut most men in half with just a look. The big guy had never been exactly keen on the woman, she annoyed him. But right now she looked more like a kicked puppy than hell on heels, curled around and hiding from most of the world.

"Miss Potts?" The doctor crossed around the room, sitting on the other side of the bed and waving away Agent Barton, watching the woman curiously.

"Mhm?" She muttered, looking up at him before suddenly realising who it was, trying to pull herself upright again as she quickly retracted her hands, out of all the Avengers, he was probably the most likely one to have worked out exactly what was going on. He may not be a medical doctor but Pepper was still reasonably certain he'd have some ideas: "Doctor Banner…"

He scowled a little as his hands found her shoulders, pushing her down again: "The others say you fainted…" Bruce muttered, trying to engage her in some sort of conversation as he visually checked her over. She looked shattered, but that was almost normal for her: "Anything hurt?"

"My stomach…" Pepper complained before she could stop herself, glancing up at him: "And my head, and everything else."

"When did you last eat?"

"This morning."

"Sleep?"

"Last night? I think?" She scowled, still gazing up at him from where he'd forced her to stay: "It's probably just stomach ache… I'll have eaten something bad."

"Food doesn't make you pass out." The scientist pointed out, shifting a little further up the bed and gently leaning over to place his hands on her stomach before she could stop him; his touch was on her for barely a moment before she'd panicked, pushing him back at bolting upright, and backing away on the bed from him.

"Don't do that!" She hissed, wrapping her arms protectively around herself again, glaring at him as the thing inside her tuned over, complaining angrily at the touch.

"Sorry… Didn't mean to hurt you…" He muttered, running a hand awkwardly through his hair, pretending he knew nothing still. The brief contact and her reaction had confirmed his suspicions, as little as he knew about women it was almost obvious, she was pregnant. So Barton hadn't been wrong about his suspicions, Pepper Potts was having Anthony Stark's child. Resting his head in his hand he gazed at her, trying to calm his blood pressure.

iTheir little incident had been a surprise, he and Tony had just managed some massive breakthrough, it had been something between terror and delight when the lab didn't blow up. With grins to match each other's they'd crawled out from behind the protective screen, covering the lab in two paces and grabbing the vials.

"Bazinga!" Stark had laughed, brandishing the test tube he was holding, making some reference to some awful American TV program that he'd subjected Bruce to over the past few weeks.

"It'll explode if you keep agitating it." The other scientist muttered, rescuing his experiment: "you're more dangerous with it than the fire was…" He hadn't even noticed Tony's eyes on him as he crossed the room again, replacing the vials in another rack. The older man was behind him before he knew what he was doing, Tony's arms where around his waist and nuzzling into the back of his neck.

"I could be more dangerous…" Stark muttered, licking his lips with a smile, lowering his hands a little. Bruce hadn't been expecting that, but he wasn't going to push the other man away: "…how else are we supposed to celebrate such a development?"

Whatever happened next was a fantastic memory, one than hurt to recall but felt so good. It was only once it was slightly too late (they'd collapsed in Tony's bed, completely naked and reasonably sure they'd be sore in the morning), and the thought of Stark's girlfriend had suddenly passed through his mind.

"Tony…" He groaned, glancing up at him: "Where's Pepper?"

"No idea…" The older man groaned, stroking his hands through the other hair, keeping him close: "…Not here? I think she's working somewhere…" /i

He still wasn't quite sure where the strawberry blonde had been than night, but neither Tony nor her had mentioned it since: "I think you've got a stomach infection." He pushed up off the bed, crossing his arms over his chest: "Rest up and drink lots of fluids. It should be gone within a week."

The two of them held eye contact for a little while, both of them knew it was a lie. He'd figured her out and she knew it.

Doctor Banner turned to leave, biting back his feelings: "You really should go to the hospital Miss Potts, there's something wrong if it hurts that much. You can't hide the amount of pain you're in for much longer."

Pepper looked away, closing her eyes: "I can deal with it… I can do this on my own. I don't need anyone."

He'd almost felt when she spoke again: "He's left me." The words hurt, it was the very first time she'd managed to accept it, the very first time she'd told anyone what she really thought.

"I don't want anyone else's help."