AN: I am adding this chapter because I have been working on this again recently. But please understand this story has some more work in store for it, and my updating it does not equal a promise that it'll get finished any time soon if ever.

Today they were lounging together on the beach underneath the shade of two huge umbrellas. They'd started the day talking while watching the ships sail by on the distant horizon.

The conversation had quickly turned to baby names.

"Tony, how much do you like the name Morgan?"

"I don't know." he said with a shrug, then took a long sip of his drink before he asked, "Why? You don't like it?"

It was her turn to shrug, "Well, I like my uncle and I think his name fits him."

"But?"

"But I don't know if I want to give our son or daughter his name."

"Daughter?"

"Yes, daughter. You do realize that Morgan is a girl's name too nowadays, right?"

"Oh, right. Yeah, I know it's a girl's name too but I guess I didn't think of it in that way because in my dream we had a son."

"Well, it's possible we might have a girl... and anyway back to the topic. I want to know how much do you like the name? On a scale one to ten with ten being the highest?"

He thought about it a second, sipping his drink again, "I don't maybe a seven or eight?"

"So which one is it? A seven or eight?"

"Eight I guess. You?"

"Six for me."

"Only a six?"

"Yeah, sorry. Like I said, I think the name is great for Uncle Morgan-"

"But you're not sure you want to name our kid after him."

"Yeah."

"Well, I guess we could talk about other names if you want."

"You're okay with that?"

He nodded, "Sure why wouldn't I be?"

"Oh, I don't know? Maybe because of your dream? When you first told me about your dream and every time you've mentioned the name Morgan, you sound like you're already in... I don't know love with the idea of there being a little Stark being named Morgan."

"I did love my dream. It's one of the nicest, realest dreams I've ever had in my life, and yeah, I did like the name Morgan. But you know what I liked... loved even more than his name? It was the fact that we, as in us, have a kid together! A kid! Me with a kid! A guy who pretty much thought he'd never want to have one in this lifetime now wants to have… one!"

He'd almost said a higher number, like ten, but stopped himself because saying such a thing would only have caused them both further pain. He knew no matter how much he wanted it, he wouldn't even be here when their only child was born.

"What changed?"

"Huh? What?" Tony asked, snapping out of his thoughts when he realized his wife had spoken."

"I asked, what changed? What's changed to make you change your mind about wanting to have a child?" Pepper suspected she already knew the answer but she wanted to hear his answer anyway.

"I need a refill," Tony said, standing up before walking towards the outdoor minibar, "Want me to grab you another water?"

"Yes, please," she replied, forcing herself not to say that's what he should have too.

When they started dating years ago, Tony's consumption of alcohol dropped a lot down from what she knew he usually drank in a day. In those days sometimes, it dropped so much that she was sure the only time he had any was when they ate dinner together and he'd had a glass of wine with her.

Then after Killian and especially after Ultron, she noticed he was drinking more with each day that passed until sadly the increase in his drinking had been one of the prime factors of their break.

Now that he... might have need of pain medicine any second of day now, they were trying to limit his consumption to any kind of alcoholic drinks to one a day. He hadn't even been having a drink every day but Pepper hasn't failed to notice that today he'd had just finished his second one.

A bottle of water appeared in her field of vision.

"Here you go," he said as he resumed his seat beside her, twisting off the cap on his own bottle of water, drinking, and looking at her, "Honey, are you okay?"

She quickly opened her own water, "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"Oh no reason. You were just staring at me like I had grown another head or something."

"Was I?"

"Yeah, you were."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to stare."

Tony gave her a look that said he wasn't quite sure why she continued to stare, shrugged, then opened his own bottle of water, "So where were we?"

"I believe I just asked you to tell me what changed your mind about wanting to have a kid?"

"I was?"

"Yes."

He didn't answer her question for so long, electing to look at the horizon that Pepper was quite certain he wasn't going to answer her. She opened her mouth to tell him that he didn't have to when he shrugged again and quietly spoke an answer.

"You. Peter. You're both the reason I want to be a... I want to have a kid."

"Me?"

"Yes, you. I can't imagine another woman I'd ever want to have a kid with. More to the point, I can't imagine any other woman in the world who'd want to have a kid with someone as screwed up as I am."

"You are not screwed up, Tony!"

"You did not just totally say that!"

"Well you're not!"

"Look me right in the eye and say that with a completely straight face."

Pepper turned her head, looked him right in the eye as he said, "You are not screwed up, Tony." Eye contact continued between them until she felt the corners of her mouth began to turn upwards, then finally lost it when he crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out at her.

"Aha! See I told you! I am screwed up and your laughing says that you agree with that statement!"

"No, it does not!"

"Yes, it does!

"No, it doesn't!"

"Yes, it does!"

"No, I say it because it is true, Tony. Don't you know how much it hurts me when you keep talking about yourself in a way that says you don't deserve to be loved? Because that is what you're really saying when you say you are screwed up, and it's not true! You deserve every ounce of love you can get from every last one of us who loves you."

She sighed, and reached out to run play with the hair at the nape of his neck, "I swear, Tony, it's a good thing the Time Stone was destroyed or I'd be calling up Doctor Strange now!"

"First, of all, I doubt Strange would let you use it if it were still around but let's say he surprises me and does. What would you want to use the Time Stone for?"

"So I could go back in time and blast your father into oblivion!"

"Well, it's really a good thing the Time Stone is gone because you know, honey, if you did that I wouldn't be here anymore right? You'd erase me from existence."

"Actually I wouldn't erase you because I wouldn't go back far enough in time for that to happen!" She withdrew her hand, and used it to pick up her bottled water.

Tony smiled at her, but it was a smile that didn't reach his eyes, and she decided it was sad. Maybe she shouldn't have brought his father up? She was about to ask what was wrong when he spoke.

"I saw him."

"Saw him?"

He nodded, "My Dad. I saw my Dad."

"Oh my... where? Or I should say, when did you see him?"

"It was while we were trying to stop Thanos, and we were doing all of the jumping around different time periods."

"Did he... did he see you?"

Tony nodded, "Yeah, he did... but he didn't know who I was. He didn't recognize me as being his son."

"Tony..." Pepper was forced to stop there because of the sudden, huge lump that formed in her throat, and she reached forward to touch his face.

Taking her hand, he kissed her knuckles,and gave her a watery smile, "It's okay, Pep. I think I was just a baby in the time period we stopped in. There was no way he could have recognized me."

They both knew it was only a partial truth because for years Tony had heard the remarks about how much he looked like his father, and she had seen the pictures. Surely if the man had really looked at the future version of his son, Howard would have recognized who Tony was.

Right?

She thought about pointing that out but when she looked at him, and could see he was now tired on top of the sadness, she dropped it. Instead, she moved her hand to caress his hair, murmuring, "Why don't the three of us go take a nap together?"

He hesitated as though he were considering it, "A nap with the three of us together sounds just like what I need right now."