a/n: Thanks for the support guys ha h a feel free to leave reviews on what you hope/think the next chapter will be and all but just know I've already planned it out so it won't change anything (sorry!)

By the time Clint arrived in New York – Natasha had already been in the hospital for close to three hours, and Pepper had arrived too, after managing to get Jarvis back online.

"He's nearly here." Pepper soothed Natasha as she lay in the bed. "Last time I spoke to Jarvis he said Tony was not far from here. He's going to be fine." Pepper rubbed Natasha's hand.

"This sucks." Natasha said as the contractions started – she had been given some drugs, but Natasha figures she probably dispelled the effects due to her high drug tolerance level, and the contractions still hurt. The lady in here who insisted on looking at her lady bits said that she was dilating very quickly, and she should be fully dilated in a few hours, and to just let it happen naturally.

There was a noise of disturbance outside the room – you can't go in there! Hey!

Clint burst into the room, nurses trailing behind him. He was bruised and there were cuts on his face, and there was blood all over his uniform, but he was there and he was alive and Natasha was so glad to see him.

"Clint oh my god –" Natasha was gasping and she pulled him to her and she kissed him so hard that his taste numbed the pain twisting in her stomach. Pepper edged awkwardly out of the room, shutting the door behind her. She tried to calm the nurses about Clint's appearance from the roof and demands to see her.

"Oh my god what happened to you?" Natasha panted after they broke apart, her hand still on his blood stained shoulder.

"Got shot." Clint simply said before he kissed her again. It had only been a little over a week – but it was a week of camping on cold rocks and dehydrated food and going to sleep every night without her warmth, and he had just missed her so much. "I'm so sorry I left."

"It's okay." Natasha said and kissed the cuts on his face, her soft fingers running over every cut and bruise. "You got shot."

"Yeah."

"You should get that looked at. The bleeding isn't nor-" Natasha grimaced as her sentence was interrupted with a contraction.

"Tasha?" Clint instantly became worried.

"Contraction." Natasha squeezed out. She just gripped Clint's hand really hard, and Clint nearly dropped to his knees; Natasha was crushing his hand, and he was so tired he couldn't really fight back. Then Natasha relaxed, and she exhaled long and deeply. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Clint mirrored what she said before, rubbing his hand. His eyes were heavy and his body was sore, and Natasha saw this. She saw how he ached with each movement; saw how strained and tired his eyes were – she's seen worse from him physically; Budapest proved that. But it was his eyes, and what his eyes said, and how tired and hooded they were. It was how emotionally exhausted he was, and Natasha just wanted him to rest.

"You're tired." She said, putting her hand on his hair. His skin was clammy and cold, and his eyes were red from not much sleep. "You should get some rest."

Clint nodded, leant in and kissed her again, but it was soft and slow and Natasha felt the cut on his lip that she couldn't see. She ran her hand through his hair and rested it on the base of his neck, which was strangely hot. Clint settled his head down against his arms on the side of Natasha's bed, and she listened to his deep breathing that was returning to a steady tempo. His back rose slightly with each breath, and Natasha realized how much she missed him in her bed every night. She hadn't really noticed before because she couldn't cuddle much with Clint – the bump was in the way in more ways than one, and she was used to just simply waking up and him being there.

But he had been gone a week and Natasha didn't know what he had to go through to get here – she just knew she was really grateful to whoever helped him, and for just having him love her, and to soon have children with him, and for him to be here now, sleeping peacefully – if rather battered and bruised – safe here, where they could protect each other.

Yes – Clint was here now, and she could protect him, and he could protect her, and everything was right again.

Outside, Pepper had found out that Tony was back too, and ran up to the roof to find him. She found him sitting on a piece of metal that was the exhaust for one of the ventilation shafts, and his suit was scratched and blackened in areas. It was evident it was a tough fight in the Caribbean's.

"Hey, what are you doing up here?" Tony said, getting up. He had taken his helmet off, but he couldn't take off the rest of the suit without the help of Stark Tower. Literally. He had built in disassembly bays everywhere in Stark Tower. He could practically put the suit on and take it off wherever he wanted – call it paranoia, but there was even one fitted in the toilets.

"I heard you took Barton back." Pepper said.

"Yeah – put this around you, it's too cold up here." Tony said, offering her the blanket. Pepper frowned, but took it, wrapping it around her.

"Where did you get this?"

"From Thor's girl."

"What?"

"You probably don't know her – Jane Foster? The Astrophysicist?"

"Oh," Pepper laughed, then suddenly stopped. "No."

"Oh."

"Why do you have her blanket?" Pepper said, emphasizing the next words. "From. Her. Bedroom?"

Tony put his hands up. "No no it's not like that! It was Barton –" Pepper raised an eyebrow. "No! I mean it wasn't Barton Barton. She saved him!"

"Oh yeah, because Jane," Pepper tried to put apostrophes around the name, as if Tony had made it up. "fought off Austrians, the ones that Clint Barton, master agent couldn't."

"No! It was a heroism thing, she found him and took him back to her lab and patched him up! You should be grateful, if it wasn't for her Barton wouldn't be here." Tony said, undignified.

"Oh." Pepper's features softened. "I'm sorry. It's the pregnancy, I just … I'm sorry."

Tony looked to her and simply melted. "No Pepper don't – oh don't cry I'm sorry, I shouldn't have – oh please stop."

"I'm sorry for this, but I can't stop." Pepper said, tears running out of her eyes like she had turned on a faucet somewhere. She leant up to kiss him, and then the moon came out and Pepper saw that there was an ugly black bruise running across his chin and down his armour. There was a cut on his eyebrow that had closed up but the blood had run down and dried around his eye and nose. She tried to kiss him gently, and Tony had responded.

"Thanks for bringing Barton back safe." She murmured, and Tony nodded as they parted.

"I just hope he can do the same for me if the situation calls for it."