A/N: Sorry I took a little longer then I planned with this chapter. I kept leaving the file at work. D'oh! Anyway, remembered it today, so it's all good.

I don't know what you'll make of this chapter, so I'll just let you read and you can make your own call... :D

Chapter Fifty- Two

The next morning Tony walked into the kitchen just as Steve was pouring milk on his morning cereal and Bruce was waiting for his toast to pop. "Well," said Tony dramatically, breaking the peaceful scene with his loud voice, "she still hasn't told me."

"I'm assuming we're talking about Pepper here," said Bruce calmly as he leant against the kitchen bench, waiting for his toast.

"Yes," grumbled Tony as he took a seat across from Steve who was cutting up a banana to go over his cornflakes. "Why the hell won't Pepper tell me about this baby?"

"I don't know," said Bruce straight-faced, "I mean, you took it so well the other day, I can't imagine what would be worrying her."

"I'm not going to react like that when she tells me," Tony snapped. "Obviously." He grimaced. "Probably." Tony shook his head. "No, I'm going to be fine. I've had a run up at this thing, I've got my shocked pleasure down pat." He ran through a series of expression meant to display surprise and then absolute glee.

Bruce waved a finger at Tony's face. "What is that, what is happening with your face?"

"I'm doing surprised happiness," Tony informed him.

"You look you're passing gas," Steve informed him around a mouthful of milky cornflakes and banana.

"You look deranged," Bruce countered. "Whatever you do, don't make that face when Pepper tells you, otherwise she's going to have you committed."

Tony glared at them. "You two aren't helping."

Bruce arched an eyebrow. "Trust me, you not making the face of a serial killer at Pepper during such a critical conversation is us helping."

Tony groaned and rubbed his forehead. "I'm over thinking this, that's my problem."

"It's one of your problems, sure," agreed Bruce easily.

"Shut up, Banner," Tony snapped. "If I want someone in my life to make up pithy rejoinders, I'd invent an imaginary friend called Cyril who wears a cap."

Bruce's toast popped up but he ignored it, clearly intrigued. "And why a cap?"

Tony gave him an exasperated look. "So I can tell him apart from my non-imaginary friends, of course." He rolled his eyes. "And you call yourself a genius."

Bruce's expression didn't change. "How lucky is this kid of yours that insanity skips a generation."

Tony's stomach turned over at Bruce's words. "Kid of mine," he repeated raggedly. "God, can you even begin to imagine what that would be like? Two of me in the world."

"Ug," said Steve, "I'm eating here, do you mind?"

"You know, Pepper gets a genetic say this child, you may luck out," said Bruce sensibly.

"Two Peppers." The concept rolled around in Tony's head. "I'll never win an argument again."

"How many are you winning now?" asked Steve with interest.

Tony pulled a face and thought about that. "Umm-"

"It doesn't sound to me like your stats are going to take much of a hit somehow," said Bruce in amusement.

Tony made a frustrated sound. "I can't take this waiting, it's killing me. Waiting for Hammer, waiting for Fury, waiting for Pepper. I'm not built for this." He slapped the table. "Why won't she just tell me already? What could possibly have Pepper putting this off?"

Steve didn't look up from his cereal. "In El Corazón Palpitante, Rosalita didn't tell Umberto about the baby, because it wasn't his," he remarked absently. Steve must have realised what he said because he abruptly looked up and shook his head at Tony. "But obviously that isn't the reason here," he finished off hastily.

"You think Pepper has cheated on me with another man and is pregnant with his baby?" asked an outraged Tony. Even as an impossible theory, Tony was almost out of control at the thought.

"No, no," said Steve hastily, "of course I don't. Pepper would never do that, no matter how often you flaked on her and let her down and left her alone. There is no way she'd turn to another man when you're being an ass to her."

Bruce's lips quirked. "Not one of your most reassuring speeches, Cap," he said dryly.

Steve made a frustrated hand gesture. "You know what I mean, Pepper just isn't the kind of person to be unfaithful and even if it was a onetime thing, I know she'd tell you."

"What do you mean, a onetime thing?" asked Tony indignantly. "Are you saying that one time, when I'd upset Pepper, she might have found herself looking for comfort in the arms of another man? Is that what you're saying, Rogers?"

Steve looked out of his depth. "I just came for the cereal," he said unevenly.

Tony knew it was insanity to even consider Pepper being unfaithful but now that the thought was there, he couldn't get it out of his head. It explained why she hadn't told him yet and God knows, there were enough times when Tony had deserted her that Pepper might have had a weak moment with some bastard pretending to care. "Son of a bitch!" he bit out, his jealousy enveloping him in a minute of madness.

Bruce stepped in. "Okay, stop, just stop, Tony. You're on edge, I know that, but you need to calm down and think about this rationally."

Tony knew Bruce was right but that didn't stop him from fumbling for his phone. Huge emotions were washing over him and as panicked as he was at the thought that he was about to be a father, Tony found himself even more panicked over the fact he might not about to be a father, however infinitesimally remote that possibility was.

"Tony, no!" Bruce ordered him but Tony had already dialled Pepper's number, not sure if she'd left for that early morning meeting yet.

He forced himself to make his voice sound as natural sounding and calm as possible. It went to Pepper's voice mail. "Hey, sweetheart," he said brightly, "didn't get a chance to see you this morning, you were gone so early. Just thought I'd check in with you and see how you're going and if there was anything you wanted to talk to me about because my door is always open, wide, wide open, if it was any more open grizzlies would wander in off the street and would probably kill us all in our beds, not that there are lots of grizzlies in New York. Wait, no, that wasn't what I was going for, what I was trying to say was-"

Beeep.

Pepper's voice mail cut him off.

"Damn it!" muttered Tony as he dialled her number again and it went to voice mail once more. "Hey, Pep, me again. Got cut off. Not your fault I know. I mean I understand how these things happen." Tony's brain was about five steps behind his mouth. "A lot of things can happen that we don't plan and we can do something that we didn't mean to and then there are all these consequences but I just want you to know, if you're dealing with some consequences right now that I want to be a part of that, I really, really do and I don't care if there was a mistake when I wasn't around because I know how easy mistakes are to make and just because this mistake may have put his filthy hands all over you-". Tony couldn't finish that thought, banging his cell phone repeatedly on the table in a fit of fury at the thought of some other man touching Pepper. He drew in a ragged breath and tried to calm down.

Steve and Bruce were openly staring at him now after that little performance, Steve frozen in place, his spoonful of cereal halfway to his mouth as he listened in on Tony's garbled messages.

Tony quickly dialled Pepper's number again. "Pepper," he said hastily, "sorry, sorry, got a little crazy, but I'm fine now, I promise. Just call me when you get this and we can talk. Okay, love you, call me, love you." Tony hung up and then took in the way Steve and Bruce were looking at him like he'd just grown another head.

Bruce shook his head. "And that, Steve, in case you're wondering, is what a nervous breakdown looks like."

Tony felt sick to the stomach as he realised what he'd just done. "Oh God," he said in horror, "I've got to delete those messages." Tony leapt up and rushed out into the living room just as Pepper appeared through the door on the other side of the room.

Pepper smiled at him, her cell phone in hand. "Oh, hi, I just got your messages and I'm about to open them, it must be important-"

Tony bolted across the room and slapped the phone from Pepper's hand then promptly jumped on it when it hit the floor, smashing it to smithereens.

"Tony!" Pepper gasped in shock. "What are you doing?"

"It was a bomb!" he lied.

"What?" she said in disbelief. "A bomb?"

Tony realised he was going to have trouble selling that. "I mean, I just woke up and I was dreaming that your cell phone was a bomb and I guess I just got confused."

Steve and Bruce were in the doorway between the kitchen and living room, watching the show.

"Nice save," commented Steve straight-faced.

"Very smooth," agreed a laconic Bruce.

"Tony," said Pepper, giving them all a confused look, "what is going on, why did you destroy my phone?"

"I was having a bad dream," said Tony, having no choice but to back his lie.

Bruce leaned over to Steve in a quiet aside. "Some might argue he's still having that bad dream."

"That phone had all my numbers in it," said Pepper, still sounding like she was in shock.

"I'll retrieve the sim card and fix it all up for you," Tony volunteered.

Pepper frowned. "Are you alright, Tony? You've been behaving very oddly lately."

"I'm fine," said Tony with feigned brightness. "Not a care in the world. Why? Is there something you want to talk about, anything, anything at all? Maybe something on your mind that you've been carrying around for awhile and want to get off your chest?"

Pepper stared at him for a moment while Tony held his breath and then her shoulders sagged. "You know, don't you?" Her brow wrinkled. "How do you know?"

Tony's heart was beating ten to the dozen. "I, ah, well, I was in your office and-"

"You were snooping," finished off Pepper in exasperation.

"No, no, I wasn't snooping," said Tony quickly. "I was looking for some paper to write on and well, found it."

Pepper was looking at him nervously, biting her bottom lip. "Well?" she prompted him quietly. "What do you think?"

Tony took a deep breath, knowing this was his moment to do this thing right but even now the whole thing had this surreal feeling to it that made it hard for him to believe this was really happening. Even as it was really happening. "Sweetheart, I'm thrilled."

Pepper looked taken aback. "You-you are?"

Tony kept a big smile plastered on his face. "Of course, I couldn't be more excited about the whole thing."

She gave him a sceptical look. "Really? I thought you might have some issues about how it happened and me not telling you right away. I thought you might be mad with me."

Tony grabbed Pepper's arms and tried to block out the fear in his voice. "Pepper, I could never be mad with you over something like this. I'm happy, thrilled, ecstatic, excited, in fact I'm overjoyed, my joy couldn't be more over-"

"Overselling it," Bruce advised him from the sidelines.

Tony drew in another uneven breath and watched the relief flood Pepper's face. She hugged him and gave a little laugh. "Oh, thank heavens, I was so nervous about telling you and I really didn't expect such a positive reaction." Pepper pulled back and gave him a brief kiss. "Thank you for being so supportive and understanding and don't worry, Tony, I'm going to do all the work, you won't have to be involved at all."

"But I want to be involved," said Tony quickly.

Pepper looked really surprised at that. "You do? This kind of thing isn't exactly up your alley, Tony."

"Well, it's up my alley now," said Tony firmly, even though he wasn't as convinced of that as he sounded.

Pepper blinked. "Oh well, this is really surprising."

Tony was a little hurt that Pepper didn't think he'd want to be involved. "Why?"

"Because you've never shown any kind of interest in this stuff before."

"That was then, this is now." Tony put his arms around her and pulled her close. "This is our baby, Pepper, and I want to be a part of everything."

Pepper gave a little laugh and patted his cheek. "That's so nice that you're thinking this way, Tony, but honestly, there isn't too much more you can do now. It's kind of all been done."

"You-you don't want me involved?" asked Tony, not knowing what to think about that.

Pepper winked at him. "You've done enough. I'll take it from here." She glanced at her watch and groaned. "And I'm going to be late again at this rate." Pepper smiled at him. "We'll talk some more at dinner, okay?"

Tony shoved his hands in his pockets and forced a smile to his lips. "Yes, dinner, sounds great."

Pepper's smile included all the men. "Everyone have a good day."

"You too, Pep," answered Bruce for them and then she was gone.

Tony was left rooted to the spot. "Well, there you go," he said shakily, "confirmation, I'm going to be a daddy. Now I'll have two people to worry about consistently and get an ulcer over." Tony swallowed hard. "Yay," he said without enthusiasm.

"Because Pepper being pregnant is all about you," observed Steve.

Tony turned around and scowled at the other man. "Shut up Cap Stain...ahh... Cap... umm Capenstein."

"Not one of your better attempts," Steve critiqued.

"What do you do you want from me?" Tony complained. "I'm emotionally drained."

"I'm emotionally drained just watching you," agreed Bruce.

"Did anyone else think it weird that Pepper doesn't really want me involved with this baby stuff?" asked Tony unevenly.

"No," said Steve and Bruce as one.

Tony glared at them. "Shut up."

oooOOOOooo

"It's at 100%, sir, and all the checks are clear. We have complete control."

Hammer's lips curved up into a self-satisfied smile as he walked along the corridor to his penthouse apartment. "Excellent work, Jerry. I'm very pleased."

"I'm happy you're happy, sir," came Jerry's nervous response. "What do you want me to do now?"

"Brace yourself to be a part of history," was Hammer's triumphant reply.

There was a lengthy pause on the other end of the line. "Umm, okay, anything else?"

"Stay by the phone, we have just one more piece of the puzzle to put in place and then, by the end of today, there will be a new world order in place." Hammer hung up and could hardly contain his excitement. All of his plans were coming together perfectly and nothing was going to stop him now. A surge of pleasure ran through him as he imagined Tony Stark's face when he finally put all of this together. It was too delicious for words. Hammer walked through his apartment door to find he already had a visitor. The shapely woman with platinum blonde hair was lounging on his sofa. She looked up and gave him a cool smile which in no way reached her unsettling too pale blue eyes. His guest inclined her head. "Justin."

Hammer's smile was more genuine. "Well, hello there, my dear Ghost, I see you've made yourself at home." He didn't ask how she'd gotten past his heightened security. That was just what Ghost did and was one of the many reasons he'd been more than happy to have the enigmatic woman by his side in all of this. In his more generous moments Hammer knew he couldn't have achieved all this without her, but it wasn't in his nature to admit anything aloud.

"I always do," came the disaffected reply.

"Drink?" Hammer headed towards the bar.

"No."

Hammer nodded. "Right, clear head at all times, I remember." He pulled out a bottle of champagne from the bar fridge. "Well, if you don't mind, my dear, I'm in the mood to celebrate."

This caught her interest as that unnerving pale gaze of hers fixed him with an intense look. "The nano-pedes have completed integration?"

"Just got the word from Jerry," said Hammer with great pleasure. "Hammer is well and truly in da house." He smiled, enjoying his little pun.

Ghost stood up and looked to be thinking. "We're ahead of schedule. I thought that we'd have another day before integration was established."

"Nope," said Hammer brightly as he took a sip of champagne, enjoying the way the bubbles tickled his nose, "we're in and we're in today." He felt like doing a little jig, but Ghost wasn't one to hold with any kind of frivolity. Truth be told, he was a little intimidated by the icy woman. She was hard to read and gave no indication of what she was thinking at any given time. Add to that her lack of qualms about taking out anyone who got in her way and her unquestionable genius, she'd be quite the adversary. Hammer was just pleased they were on the same side. Of course, once he'd secured his seat of power, Ghost would have to be eliminated, which was a pity, but he couldn't take the chance she'd eventually get delusions of grandeur and end up challenging his carefully acquired power.

"So now just the relay needs to be planted," she observed, "and then the takeover can begin."

"Everything is organised south of the border?"

"Yes."

"Then yes, the relay is the last piece of the puzzle." Hammer looked over the top of his champagne flute at her. "It's arguably the most important piece, crucial to our plans and it needs to be delivered into the heart of the Avengers. Are you sure you can do that, Ghost?"

Ghost turned to him, a look of calm assuredness on her face, even as that face started to ripple, the nano-bots her blood stream had carried to all of the muscles of her face going to work, contorting her face and reshaping it into something else. The nano-bots worked their magic on her platinum hair, turning it chestnut brown before her eyes darkened to brown. The face of Maggie Riley, or more correctly, Peggy Carter stared back at Hammer and not for the first time Hammer marvelled at the amazing technology he'd managed to secure via Noble Maniatis. The ability of these specifically engineered nano-bots to be given a DNA sequencing from one person and transfer it to another was nothing short of miraculous.

The transformed Ghost stared back at him. "I'm sure," she said with clinical indifference, walking out the door.