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Pepper came straight to Stark Tower after work. She knew she had to talk to Natasha. And to Tony. And probably, if she was realistic, to everyone else resident there. She was honestly, truly happy that she was going to be a mother. It was all the rest of it which she dreaded.

She wasn't scared of what Tony would do. Different from what the tabloids would guess, she was positive he would want to be a part of their baby's life, but she was also sure he wouldn't try to push. No, she was not afraid of Tony.

She was terrified of Natasha's reaction. She didn't think she would be angry, but she wasn't sure how she'd react. She was quite certain Natasha wanted children, but would it matter that it was this way? Natasha and Tony always seemed to get along surprisingly effortlessly, but that did in no way mean she wanted to raise his child. With him, to top it off.

How did you breach a subject such as this, anyway? Where did you start? Well, maybe she'd do the crass thing and have Jarvis leave a succinct message to Tony. Though that thought made her smile, she knew she couldn't do that. She had been behaving strangely, too, and she needed to address that as well. No part of this was going to be easy.

Tony was working in his workshop. Or, he tried to work. During the course of the afternoon, it seemed every Avenger currently in the country had migrated into his workshop. They were making any sort of focus unattainable, as they were all insisting on conversation. He pretended to hate it, and on a busy day, he might do. As it was, he had finished five new prototypes yesterday and was perfectly happy to look busy and chat with his fellow Avengers.

Natasha was still silent and brooding, worrying about Pepper. He had also started to worry about Pepper, truth be told, but he was holding off from checking her internet history, at least for now. He had little doubt he'd hack it eventually, but for now he was holding firm. He was still concerned about her though.

He was probably not the only one, not after the last few days of Pepper avoiding all of them, so that might be the explanation to the lab suddenly going silent as Pepper entered. She looked a bit resigned at finding all of them there, but decided. Even Tony could see that she was a woman with news. No matter what people might think, he did know people, only not as well as he did machines. Because of that, he also saw that she was a woman who had kept a terrible secret, and now wanted to get something off her chest. There was something which might be profound relief, as well, but in the circumstances, that only made him more nervous, not less. "Pepper?" He asked encouragingly, frowning as she merely stood there, looking at them.

As if his voice had broken a spell, she stepped forward. "I have something to tell you all. Well, mostly Tony and Tasha," she amended, "but it somewhat concerns all of you, so maybe it is better that you're all here."

"Are you alright, Pepper?" Banner and Steve asked at the same time, both sounding troubled on her account.

"Well, I wasn't. I mean, I was afraid that..." Suddenly, Pepper was smiling. "I had a doctor's appointment this morning - I have been feeling poorly, and I feared I might be ill." Tony turned his head at the gasp that came from Natasha at those words. It was highly unusual for her to react so strongly, and to show it at that. Pepper turned to her as well and gave her a guilty smile. Tony had a lot of experience with those, so he could more than recognise one. He was not used to see Pepper wearing one.

"I am fine, I promise... but... I am so sorry Tasha!" She bit her lip, looking down. It was not normal behaviour for Pepper in any way, and they all stood frozen, lost for words.

It was Steven who finally touched her arm gently. "Pepper? Are you alright? What happened?"

Still looking into the floor, Pepper admitted, because there was no good way to say this. "I am pregnant. With Tony's baby."

Tony felt his stomach drop into his shoes at that statement. Not because he didn't want to have a baby with Pepper, but because of everything else. "What?! We haven't had sex in like... a year! Well, six months, at least! You'd be able to tell! Or, have had the baby or... something!"

"Well, you wouldn't remember," Pepper's smile was very bleak. "It was the night we broke up. You got very drunk not an hour afterwards... I am in month five."

"Oh, okay." Tony blinked, but he did not doubt Pepper. And he had gotten so inebriated that night that he hadn't even been able to even remember what he'd had for lunch. "Well, not that I wouldn't love being your baby daddy, but... you and Natasha - I won't get in your way."

"It is your baby," Natasha's voice sounded mechanic, "if you two wanted to try again I would not get in your way." Pepper looked as if she was about to be sick at this, and was entirely silent. Her despair at this situation couldn't have been clearer. Nobody had anything they felt they could say. Everyone jumped as a spanner suddenly landed heavily on Tony's workbench. As they turned around, many with superhuman reflexes, they caught Claire rolling her eyes.

"Seriously?! There is nothing wrong with traditional, but why do people insist on it in cases where it will not work?! Pepper," she turned to the CEO, "you liked it here in Stark Tower, didn't you? You could live here again?"

"Well, yes, I suppose," Pepper conceded, clearly not sure what that had to do with anything.

"So, move back in here, there's an empty floor next to Natasha's, right?" She looked at Tony, who nodded.

"Right. Both of them, in fact," he confirmed.

"Good," Claire continued. "Then build a kids' room at Pepper's floor eventually, and for now put a nursery at the common floor and move the moses basket for the baby to whomever will be up at that night and make sure he or she sleeps! I mean Pepper is the only real parent material here, and there's a lot of prospective aunts and uncles available! So what if there's three parents? I dare say the baby won't care!"

It was hard to say who looked the most relieved; Pepper or Natasha. And then it was impossible to say who looked the most delighted; Natasha or Tony. They spoke at the same time, Tony saying, "Month five, then there's pictures, right?" and Natasha asking, "Do you know yet if we will have a Девочка or мальчика?" At that point, Pepper finally looked happy, too. It was Dumm-E who was the first to beep a heartfelt thanks to Claire.

Девочка - baby girl

мальчика- baby boy