A/N: Ermahgerd guys, here we go! There's some description of stuff about birth, just a warning in case you're squeamish about that, but it's not too descriptive. This is the last chapter I have fully written, so if I don't update for a while it's because I'm writing, not because it's over. Sucks to be you, it's not even over yet. (hehe) Enjoy :)

Finally, after what seemed like hours but was really only 10 minutes of waiting for something, anything to happen, Bruce came out of the room and sat down in a chair, his head in his hands.

"What the hell is going on?" Clint asked, voicing everyone's question. Bruce took a second to collect himself, then addressed the eleven people waiting for an answer.

"Natasha went into premature labour, which causes some problems in itself. Also, the baby is pretty small. However, she is at 29 weeks which means that the baby passed a huge milestone in its development. Something else was wrong though - because of…"

He stopped here, because he was about to mention the hysterectomy. He looked to Clint, who nodded.

"It's fine." Clint said, urging him to go on.

"Because she'd been given a hysterectomy and Tony's technology had repaired the damage, there were a couple of things that weren't working properly. This meant that when she started having contractions, her body had to work extra hard to try and get the baby out. The reason why she was bleeding so much is because the contractions were too intense and caused the placenta to separate. Then everything just went into overdrive, as far as we can tell, so the reason why it hurts so much is because it's like a normal labour except that it's amplified times two, basically. This is dangerous to both Natasha and the baby, but there's nothing we can do at this point except get the baby out. We can't do an emergency C-section because the baby is already on its way out. We slowed it down a little bit, but she's gonna start pushing in a minute, so I just came out here to tell you guys."

Everyone was silent.

"One of you can go in there with her." Bruce said finally, before getting up. He turned back as he was about to enter the room. "You have to come now though, we're almost ready."

Everyone turned to Clint and Laura. Laura nodded at Clint saying that he should go, but Clint shook his head and turned to Maria. Everyone but Fury exchanged confused looks, but Maria went inside with an equally confused Bruce. "Thank you." She mouthed to Clint, before closing the door.

Inside the room, Maria crossed to Natasha and studied what was going on. There were SHIELD doctors and nurses everywhere, going every which way with tools and instruments that Maria didn't recognize. The main doctor, who wasn't Bruce but someone named Lena, was on Natasha's other end, doing something between her knees. Natasha was lying with her eyes closed and an unreadable expression.

"How are you doing?" Maria asked her, and Natasha opened her eyes.

"Fantastic." She murmured sarcastically. Maria took her hand and squeezed it with her own.

"It'll be okay. I knew someone who had a baby before she was even six months along. It was actually fine. The only problem was that she named it Fanta."

"She did what?" Natasha asked, a smile quirking across her face.

"She actually did. Seriously - I never talked to her again."

They both laughed softly.

"Do you have any names yet?" Maria asked, continuing to try and distract Nat from the ever - present doctors who were poking and prodding at her. Natasha took a moment to answer, working through another horrible contraction. Maria simply stood there and squeezed her hand.

"Yeah." Natasha said after the contraction subsided. "But you'll have to wait and find out."

"Alright folks, let's get this party started. Natasha, at the next contraction I want you to bear down as hard as you can, counting to ten. Then we'll take a little break, and continue to do this until we have a little bundle of joy. Alright?"

Natasha nodded, wishing this doctor was slightly less cheerful. She never really understood why people called babies bundles of joy - sure, she was glad she was having a baby, but babies were more like bundles of… well, shit and snot. They were cute, but joyful wasn't really the adjective she would use to describe them.

Maria noticed that Nat looked a bit scared, so she tilted her chin towards herself and raised her eyebrows.

"You can do this." She whispered, and that was all Natasha needed.

She shifted her position and prepared herself while two nurses held her knees in place. On the next contraction, she pushed as hard as she could, squeezing Maria's arm very hard. Luckily Maria could take it. The people who couldn't take it were the nurses holding Natasha's legs steady. As she pushed, her knees buckled inwards naturally and, being as strong as she was, the nurses couldn't hold her.

Maria saw that this was happening, and rushed forward, holding both of her legs in place from her right side.

"Get Clint in here." She instructed. "Or somebody strong. I can't hold both of her legs forever."

Natasha stopped pushing as the ten seconds were over, and Bruce rushed out to find somebody stronger than himself to hold Nat's other leg. Doctors were strong, especially SHIELD doctors, but there were very few people stronger than Natasha. And several of them happened to be right outside that room.

As soon as Maria left inside the room, everyone but Fury looked at Clint with confusion. He sighed, glancing toward the door before deciding that everyone was going to find out somehow. Well, they might not, seeing as Natasha and Maria were possibly the two most secretive people in the world, but seeing as everyone thought the two were just coworkers and yet Maria had gone to be with Natasha for the birth of her child instead of her best friend, they deserved to know.

"Natasha and Maria are… well, let's call it 'together.'" He said, anticipating an uproar of more confusion. But Steve just asked a simple question.

"Together for what? A mission?"

Clint snorted and shook his head.

"No. Together together. Like, dating."

A silence filled the room, and then Tony, ever the silence-breaker, spoke up.

"Nat's gay?!"

"Apparently." Clint said, watching everyone's faces go from confused to shocked.

Laura covered her mouth with her hand and tried to process how two people living in her house for 3 months had been together and she hadn't noticed. She was going to have to wash those sheets. Tony just screamed "I knew it!" over and over again, and Pepper just sat there with her mouth open. Cooper raised his eyebrows and nodded before going back to his game. Wanda cocked her head sideways perplexingly, while Vision had no reaction at all. Fury chuckled, because of course he'd known all along. Steve just frowned.

"What?" Steve asked, after everyone had seemingly gotten over most of their shock. "But… she doesn't seem… what?"

Tony walked over to Steve, an amused but serious look on his face.

"Steve, buddy, the world has changed since 1945. Gay people aren't-"

It was right then that Bruce rushed out.

"We need somebody strong to hold Natasha's leg because none of the nurses can hold her down and right now Maria's doing it by herself, and we need somebody really quick." He panted, and everyone panicked and looked around. Clint stood up automatically, and everyone nodded. He headed inside with Bruce, while everyone else continued to process the recent news.

Inside, Clint crossed to Natasha's left side where Maria wasn't, and grabbed her knee. Nat looked up at the two of them and smiled slightly, before pushing as the doctor told her to. Even though this hurt more than anything she'd ever experienced before, she could do this. Because she was with her family.

"Awww fuck I can't do this." Natasha grunted through her teeth after two hours of pushing. Maria and Clint had gotten chairs and were struggling to continue to hold Natasha's legs, and Natasha herself was more disheveled than anyone had ever seen her. Most of the nurses had gone because nothing seemed to be going wrong, it was just taking a long time. So it was just the head doctor and two nurses, one of which was Bruce.

"Yes you can." Clint assured her, yawning as he braced himself against her leg on the next push. She was shaking now, wishing she could just fall asleep because this hurt and she didn't want to do it anymore. She just wanted the baby to be out.

"I can see the head Natasha! We're almost there, just a couple more." The doctor said, and Natasha braced herself and pushed again. She was so close. Finally. But then Natasha felt suddenly much more tired than she had been, if that was even possible, and there was a beeping noise, and the edges of her vision got dark. It was like the world was closing in on her.

"Smith, get the others in here. We need… baby… blood pressure… tasha!… help with the…"

It was like she was underwater. She didn't understand why they weren't telling her to push anymore, or why there were suddenly more people in the room, or why everything was going dark. She focused hard to stay awake when she felt hands all over her, inside her, and something really painful, and then someone put a needle in her arm and a piercing shriek snapped her back to reality.

"Here she is, very small but healthy." She heard the doctor say, and she narrowed her eyes at the tiny, red, squirming ball in the doctor's hands.

"Tasha. Hey." Clint said, coming into view.

"Hey. What…"

"Your blood pressure dropped and they needed help to get the baby out. Luckily it was almost out anyway, so it's okay. You're both okay." He said, and she felt Maria's hand squeeze her own. But the only thing she was focused on was her baby.

And then they brought her over. Natasha instinctively reached her arms out, her heart pounding as the tiny baby squealed and wiggled its little blanket. It was very very small, small enough that she was sure she was going to drop it. As she looked down into the little squirming face, she realized that she had no idea what to do.

"Hi." She said softly, and a tiny hand grabbed hold of her finger. "You're strong." She laughed, and everyone in the room smiled because this was the softest they'd ever seen her. As the doctors cleaned her up and gave her instructions, she could do nothing but stare at the baby in her arms. For the first time in her life, tears of joy were in her eyes. Not tears of sadness, or fear, or shame. Tears of joy. She was happy.