The force of Bruce's awakening threw both Jennifer and himself to the floor as the bed turned over. Natasha was able to move quickly enough due to her fighting reflexes, and got out of the way in time. Tony ran over and wrapped Bruce in his arms, trying to offer compression to help him stay calm.
"Breath, buddy. Breath." Tony soothed, no stranger to having to talk his friend down. "You're safe. You're home. Natasha, get Steve. Now." He nodded to where Jennifer lay unconscious. Bruce was murmuring incoherently and trying weakly to escape Tony's grip. "Shh. Buddy. Its me, its Tony. You're at home."
Steve came in, running back ahead of Natasha, and he quickly scooped Jennifer up off the floor and put her on a nearby empty bed. Her body had already began to glow and heal herself, light radiating out from her chest. Steve hesitated at her side for a moment, then came over to help Tony. He took a blanket from the warmer out as he came by.
"Dr. Banner, its okay. Calm down. Breathe." Steve said, wrapping a warm blanket around Bruce's shoulders. Bruce shook his head, putting his hands over his ears and shaking his head violently.
"Shhh. Bruce. You're home. You're safe." Tony repeated.
"Wha- What happened? Where's Thor?" Bruce mumbled. He scooted himself away, bracing his back against the wall. He pulled the blanket around himself tighter.
"Thor is outside with the rest of the team, man. He brought you home." Tony rubbed comforting circles on his back. "You're safe. You're safe here at home."
Tony looked up to where Natasha had backed into a corner; She was silently crying, watching as Tony and Steve tried to bring Bruce back to reality. She shook her head, and Tony took the hint to not bring her up yet. Bruce began to take more slow, even breaths. He drew his air in slowly through his nose, following Tony's lead.
"What happened to Doctor Ford?" Bruce ask after a few moments, looking around.
"She's laying over on that bed." Tony nodded to the next patient area. "She uh, she was keeping you alive there for a bit. Your heart was giving out."
"What?" Bruce exclaimed, "Is she okay?"
"She's fine. Just really, really tired. It takes a lot out of her to use so much of her healing. She had your heart going on her power for several hours." Tony explained. He kept answering to keep Steve from having time to speak, knowing that Steve may say something about Jennifer being weak or hurt, which would add to the stress on Bruce.
"Steve... Tony... Guys I am so sorry." Bruce groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"It's okay." Tony soothed again. "We're here. You are here, and that's what matters. You do need to let me start a new IV on you, though. You need more fluids."
"Yeah. Yeah, okay." Bruce nodded. Tony left him with Steve and got the supplies to start another IV. He looked over to Natasha's corner, and much to her disappointment, Bruce followed Tony's gaze and noticed her. "Nat?"
"Hey..." She whispered, looking down rather than over to him. "Hey, Bruce..."
Everyone in the room froze for a moment. Bruce's eyes traveled up and back down Natasha's form, hovering over her abdomen. Tony's eyes widened and he looked over at Steve, who looked equally nervous.
"Nat?" Bruce said again. "Natasha?"
Natasha came over and sat beside Bruce, bracing her back on the wall and sliding down until she was seated on the floor.
"Hey." She whispered again. "I, uh... I think we have a lot to talk about."
"I think so." Bruce agreed, his face even paler now than before.
Tony came over and replaced the IV that Bruce had ripped out, without saying a word. He hung a bag of fluid and tapped Steve's shoulder and jerked his head, and Steve followed him, and Tony pulled the curtain behind him, separating Jennifer's side from Bruce's.
Bruce looked over at Natasha, and moved himself a bit away from the redhead. At first she tensed, because it seemed as if he wanted to be further away from her, but then he angled himself so he could face her, and he re-adjusted himself to face her better.
"So." Bruce said, his eyes falling back to her stomach.
"Uh. Yeah." Natasha nodded.
"You're pregnant." Bruce stated. Natasha nodded.
"Yep." She said. "Twins. That's why I'm this big already."
"Wow. Congratulations." Bruce said, and his voice cracked. He looked at the floor between them rather than at her anymore. His face fell even more, he looked devastated. Natasha raised an eyebrow at him.
"Bruce." She said firmly.
"Hmm?" He hummed, not looking back at her.
"Bruce. Look at me." She said, taking his hand. He pulled back a bit at her touch, but then allowed her to take his hand in her.
"I'm happy for you and who-"
"These are our children, Bruce." Natasha interrupted. "You're their father."
Bruce jerked away in a panic, his eyes wild.
"What- Natasha- We can't-" He stammered, fumbling over his words for something to say. "And you decided to carry them to term? Why? What the hell? Why would you keep them knowing they're half of me? Good Lord Natasha- Are they even human?" Bruce rubbed his hands over his face and groaned loudly. "Natasha..."
"They're perfectly healthy." She replied, her voice breaking. She wrapped her arms around her belly in defense, her large green eyes swelling full of tears which rolled down her cheeks in silence. Every fear she'd had came crashing down on her as he suggested she should've terminated. "Jennifer went over every thing you wrote about your changes in your journals with a fine tooth comb, she's done blood work weekly. Ultrasounds. They're perfectly healthy, normal children." There was a bite to her voice, an anger she could only hope masked her pain. "Besides, this is the only chance either of us are going to get. It wasn't supposed to be a possibility. They're a miracle."
Bruce sat and looked at her for a moment, tears slowly rolling out of his large brown eyes. He looked at her and started to speak a number of different times, but always just closed his mouth and would look away for a few seconds.
"How far along are you?" Bruce ask, his voice now sheepish but more his own, calmer one.
"Almost nineteen weeks. You've been gone for sixteen of them." Natasha answered. "These kids survived Sokovia, all the fighting with Ultron. They're tough, fighters themselves." She held her hand out, and slowly, Bruce moved back over to her and laid his hand in hers. She placed his palm flat against her abdomen. "Give them a minute, you'll feel a little- Right there. Feel that?"
"Yeah." Bruce breathed. New tears rolled down this scientist's face. "Wow."
"I know you and I, we have a lot to figure out." Natasha said gently. Bruce looked up from his hand against her stomach to her face; She looked so scared and hurt as she spoke. "But I just think, you know, if you want- I think you'll be an amazing dad. You don't have to, though. It was my decision to keep them, after all."
Bruce sat in silence at this statement. His brow furrowed deeply.
"I shouldn't have said that." He said after what seemed to be hours. Natasha tilted her head, waiting for him to elaborate. "Suggesting you should've aborted. It was over the line. I just... I panicked." Bruce sighed deeply, and Natasha gingerly laid her hand over his.
"I know." She said with a sad smile.
"No, I don't think you do." Bruce scoffed, shrugging his blanket shrouded shoulder up to dry his face. "I used to want to be a father so bad. Before the Avengers, when I was just a nobody professor..."
"You were a Nobel nominee, Bruce..." Natasha said with an eye-roll.
"Not the point." Bruce replied. "Just... Just let me get this out, okay?"
"Yeah, sorry. Just... You sell yourself so short so much." Natasha reminded him. "I hate that."
"Nat- You're right. I wanted to be a father. I wanted the marriage, the kids, a cat and a dog... I got superpowers, government contracts and a fish tank. Life comes at you fast, and I let that dream go. I had to. That man wasn't half Hulk, or an Avenger, he was a teacher. His life was stable and predictable and safe." Bruce paused for a moment. "Or it was mostly safe." He laughed half-heartedly, remembering the accident that exposed him and made him change.
"Bruce..." Natasha mumbled, her heart aching.
"It was all something I could never have afterward. So I stopped wanting it. I tried to learn to be happy with what I had." He finished. Natasha nodded and looked away, her tears rolling freely once more.
"You wanted those things... Just... Not with me." Natasha said through a forced, watery smile.
"I didn't say that." Bruce blurted quickly.
"You didn't have to." Natasha shrugged. "We were never even a real couple, Bruce. I'm a big girl, you don't have to lie to me. This was supposed to be someone else, right?" She said, gesturing to her stomach.
"No." Bruce shook his head. "I was supposed to be someone else. I was never looking to be someone who 'saves the world'. I just wanted to play in a University lab, make new things, teach young minds." He shook his head. "I wanted to be everything my dad wasn't. Right up to actually being a dad. I never saw it as an option when I became an Avenger."
"Its reality, if you want it." Natasha said, still not looking over at him.
"I have a lot of work to do with you, don't I?" Bruce ask. Natasha's head finally shot up, her eyes meeting his.
"What does that mean?" She snapped.
"I didn't do right by you. Not once." He shook his head.
"What?" She ask, face looked at him with uncertainty. "What are you talking about?"
"It was never just sex, Natasha. I get the feeling you thought that it was for me, but it wasn't. I cared..." He paused, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, "Care. I care about you. I wasn't using you. I could never do that to you."
"Bruce..."
"I could hear you. Faintly. Begging me to wake up." Bruce confessed. "If you'd led with them..." He pointed to her stomach, "I may have woke up sooner."
"I wanted you to be awake for that." She mumbled. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize to me. For anything." He said, and she tilted her head again.
"What about the push-"
"Not for anything." Bruce repeated. "I think at this point, our only choice is to decide how we move forward." He paused and looked over his shoulder for a second. "I assume everyone knows they're my babies?"
"They do." Natasha nodded.
"Well then, we're going to have to decide what we want to do before they all decide to get involved." Bruce shrugged.
"Uh- 'What we want to do'?" Natasha repeated, curious. "I already told you, I'm keeping them."
Bruce took her hand and gently raised her knuckles to his lips and placed a feather light kiss on her hand.
"No, Nat. What are we going to do?" He repeated. "Do- Do you want to be with me? For real, no holding back? I mean- I'll try not to. You know how it is for me." He stammered a bit.
Natasha looked at him for a moment, lip quivering.
"Really?" She said, wiping her cheek free of a stray tear.
"If you want." Bruce nodded. "I do, but I don't want you to feel like you have-"
Natasha's lips cut off his words as she pulled him into a kiss. At first, he is caught off guard, but it takes him no time to come to his senses, one hand gently cradling her face, the other landing on her stomach. His thumb idly rubs her baby bump as their lips move together. Bruce pulls away when he feels tears that have rolled down her face falling on him, and he carefully wipes them away with the end of his blanket.
"So, yeah?" He asks with a grin.
"Yes, please." She says, kissing him again. It starts softly, but soon her hands are trailing down his chest and she has to stop herself. "You're still so sick." She whispered against his jaw, and he laughs.
"Already getting better. Don't worry." He replies. "I do have to ask you one small favor, though."
"Anything." Natasha nods.
"Can you go get me some clothes?"
Tony found himself a stool and made his way over to Jennifer's bedside, where Steve had already taken the doctor in his arms and was laying there with her, holding her close.
"He didn't mean to, man." Tony reminded the Captain.
"I know." Steve nodded. "She was probably going to pass out soon, anyway. She put a lot of herself into keeping him going. It's..." He paused and sighed. "It's who she is. And her job."
"You okay?" Tony ask, looking his friend over.
"Me? Yeah, I'm fine. I just..." Steve paused and placed a kiss on Jennifer's temple. "I want to keep her safe, all the time. But I also have to let her do her own thing."
"It can suck." Tony nodded. "Pepper and I- we have some pretty serious ups and downs. She's a strong willed woman, like Jennifer here. Resilient. I know you want to protect her, but its not always going to be possibly. You know the job. She knows the job. But you have to trust that she knows her limits and that she knows what she's doing... Which she does. Jennifer just saved Bruce's life."
"I know." Steve nodded. "Just hard to see her like this."
"You should've seen her when we got back from Sokovia." Tony smiled fondly. Steve looked at his friend, confused. Steve had stayed in Sokovia with SHIELD to help organize the start of search and rescue, and had not made it back to the states for over a week.
"Why?" Steve ask.
"She slept for three solid days." Tony explained. "Glowing like a little glow worm, healing herself where she'd used herself all up healing all those people. She knew it would happen, she kept going. Saved so many lives. But if you'd been here to see that, I don't think you'd have handled it well. I mean- You've been in love with her for how long?"
"Longer than I was aware." Steve laughed.
"She's good for you, Cap." Tony complimented.
"I think so, too." Steve agreed. The sound of the medbay doors opening caught both their attention, and Tony looked over toward the door, leaning back so he could see past the curtain.
"I'm going to go check on Brucie Bear, I'm a poor substitute, but he still needs medical care and until she wakes up, I'm afraid I'm it..." Tony said, standing from his stool. "Nat just left, that's who opened the door. You good here? Need anything?"
"I think we're okay." Steve said, placing another gentle kiss on Jennifer's forehead. "I'm just going to stay with her while she rests."
"Well let me know if you need anything." Tony said as he disappeared behind the curtain.
Steve nuzzled his face into the sleeping doctor's curls, closing his eyes and taking a moment to just enjoy her scent, the weight of her cradled against his chest. She groaned a little and Steve held her tighter, willing the pain he knew she must be feeling to go away. He had ask her once, before they were together, if healing others hurt her. She had smiled and told him that 'pain is nothing but fear leaving the body', which he found out was something Thomas, her father, had said when she and her sisters were children.
He also found out that, yes, it did hurt; She simply did not care enough about the pain to worry about it. It was just a part of the gift, and she planned to take the bad with the good, because it was simply too much good to be bothered about the bad.
This did not stop Steve from worrying that it would be the death of her one day.
Jennifer had, since the day Steve had met her, had a tendency to keep going past where her body could keep up. She'd force all her power into whoever needed her, and drain herself to nearly fatal levels. It terrified him, but there was nothing he could say that would keep her from using her gift to help as many people as she could. That was just another thing that made Steve adore her.
"Knock knock." Tony laughed as he popped around the curtain to find Bruce had found his way back onto the bed.
"Hey Tones." Bruce smiled weakly.
"I need to change out your fluids." Tony said, clamping off the IV line on Bruce's hand. "Also, since you know now, congrats, brother. I'm so excited for you."
"Yeah, thanks." Bruce chuckled nervously. "Twins. That's... It's pretty..." Bruce looked at Tony, wide eyed. Tony laughed.
"You'll be great." Tony assured him.
"I'm scared, Tony. I want to be a good father," Bruce sighed. "I really do."
"You will. You both will." Tony replied.
"I could hurt them. They'll be so little." Bruce groaned. "Nobody in their right mind would let a baby near the Hulk."
"You're not the Hulk. You're Bruce." Tony reminded him. "And you're one of the most gentle, kind men I have ever had the pleasure to meet. You'll be such a wonderful dad."
"You'll be a great uncle." Bruce smiled.
"Looking very much forward to that part. But I have to ask- How, uh..." He hesitated and sat down on the bed after hanging a fresh bag of fluids. "I don't mean to be nosy..."
"You're my best friend, Tony." Bruce smiled, "Just ask."
"How'd talking to Nat go? I mean, we could hear the first part of your little freak out, but not after that." Tony confessed.
"It was okay. We're just... We're a pretty broken couple of people." Bruce shrugged. "But we're going to try and be a real couple. Its what we both wanted for a long time, and there is no excuse now. We're about to have two children, for crying out loud."
"That's fantastic!" Tony boomed, grinning.
"I made a real mess before I left. Which, I want the record to show, I did not mean to do. Also- I lost your jet, I'm sorry." Bruce blushed a bit, but Tony laughed.
"I already got the insurance check and a replacement on it." Tony replied. "No worries."
"Right. Anyway. I really screwed up with Nat, and a lot of that is on me." Bruce laid back as Tony stood and moved to get out a protein pack for his friend.
"You're here now." Tony reminded him. "It's not too late."
"I don't know what I'm doing, man." Bruce confessed quietly.
"Nobody does." Tony snorted. "You've seen Pepper and me, right? And you should see poor Steve with Jennifer..."
"Are they!?" Bruce ask excitedly. "He finally made a move?"
"I can hear you!" Steve called from the other side of the curtain. Tony moved over and opened it so the two men could talk.
"Hey Cap, Congrats." Bruce said, smiling. "Jennifer is a great girl."
"Yeah, you too." Steve returned. "You and Natasha- I stand by what I said that night. You both deserve to be happy, to have everything you wanted."
"Thanks." Bruce said with a small smile. He looked over at the Captain, who held the young doctor tightly. Then looked up at Tony. "They're precious."
"Aren't they?" Tony agreed, snapping a picture with his phone of Steve and Jennifer. Steve did not notice, as he had closed his eyes and was attempting to relax. Tony posted it to the Avenger's twitter, adding to their public interactions and PR.
Natasha came back in with a pair of Bruce's pajamas and the pillow from his bed. Bruce slipped the pants on under the covers then pulled his shirt on.
"Much better, thank you." Bruce smiled. He nodded over to Steve and Jennifer. "They look awfully comfy. Wanna lay with me?"
"More than anything." Natasha smiled, and Bruce scooted himself over to the rail of his bed, and Natasha climbed in, her head laid on Bruce's chest. Tony took two more warm blankets out of them warmer, and covered first Jennifer and Steve, then Bruce and Natasha.
"I'm going to tell everyone an update on the doctors, you all try and rest." Tony instructed, leaving his friends.
"Thanks Tony." Steve called after him with a yawn.
Bruce wrapped his arm around Natasha and she snuggled into his chest. He laced his fingers through hers and their hands rested on her stomach. For the first time in a long time, Natasha fell asleep without crying before she was able to drift off.
I hope everyone enjoyed that. There will be a bit more *action* coming up soon.
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Thank you for reading!