"Jarvis, what's the status on the quantum renormalization?"
"Progress is holding steady, Doctor. My estimated time of completion is approximately one hour and fourteen minutes. Can I be of further assistance?"
"No, that should be all for now. Thanks, Jarvis." Bruce waited for the AI's affirmation before the lab fell quiet again, the only sounds the various ticks and beeps of the machines and the scratch of Bruce's pen against paper. He'd spent most of the past few days down here, alone in the lab and mostly avoiding the world outside, really only leaving to drag Tony out of his workshop and into bed (that is, when Bruce actually remembered that he too needed sleep once in a while).
It wasn't that this was out of the ordinary, him and Tony spending most of their day apart. In fact, it was pretty normal—they'd leave in the morning, spend most of the day working on their research or current project, then meet up for lunch or occasionally cross paths in the hall and share a kiss or two. So, yeah, being alone in the lab all day was normal. But not seeing Tony a few times throughout the day, the minimal words exchanged between them at night, the consistently neutral expression on Tony's face… that wasn't.
Honestly, Bruce didn't know what to do. Ever since Tony had talked to Pepper (or fought or whatever it was, Tony wouldn't say) a few days prior, he'd been quiet and seemingly bothered. And from the brief encounter Bruce had with her in the kitchen earlier than day, so was Pepper. He wanted to help, he really did—but was it really his place? He wasn't involved, and he didn't think he should force himself to be. It was Tony and Pepper's kid; Tony and Pepper's issue to work out. Not his, even if he was the awkward third wheel who was dating said kid's father.
Whatever. It would work out somehow, because if Tony and Pepper weren't going to find way, Bruce was going to have to.
"Doctor Banner," Jarvis' voice interrupted, pulling Bruce from his thoughts. "You have a visitor. Would you like me to let them in?"
"Yeah." Bruce blinked a few times, the scribbled equations on the paper in front of him finally coming back into focus. "Sure, go ahead. Thanks." He didn't take his eyes off the papers even when he heard the door slide open and then close again, figuring it had to be Tony—no one else ever bothered him down here. "Finally decide to talk to me again, did you?" he asked dryly.
"He's not talking to you either, huh?" Well, that wasn't Tony's voice.
"Oh." Bruce looked up and spun around in his chair, fixing his glasses so he could recognize the slender figure standing at the end of the table even if the red hair around her shoulders was a dead giveaway. "Pepper. Hi. I'm sorry, I-I thought—"
Pepper dismissed it with a simple shrug, leaning her hip against the edge of the table. "No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to just barge in here, I would have called first, but I guess I just wanted to…" She paused to gather her thoughts for a moment, "see how you were doing. So Tony's not talking to you?" she asked again with an incredulous raise of an eyebrow.
"No, not really. I don't know why, he won't talk enough to tell me." The corner of Bruce's mouth quirked into a tiny smile, and he continued to sit there and look at her for another moment before he realized that he was being kind of a terrible host. "Here, um… have a seat," he said, pulling himself off the stool and gesturing towards the rarely-used sofa in the back of the room. He knew it was there as a place to sleep during those long nights in the lab, but since Bruce usually ended up just crashing at the desk, the sofa still looked and felt like it was right out of the furniture store.
Bruce waited for Pepper to get comfortable before he took a seat beside her, leaving a few inches of space between them. He subtly searched for something to do with his hands while he tried to think of how to start this conversation, and eventually settled on fiddling with a stray thread at the end of his sleeve. "So will you tell me what's going on, at least?"
Pepper sank back into the cushions behind her, lips pressed into a bitter smile. Where to start? She wasn't sure how much he knew or what Tony had said before he apparently stopped talking to his boyfriend, so she supposed it was easiest to just start at the beginning. "Well, I found out that I'm pregnant, so I told Tony about it because it's obviously his—we must have conceived before we split up, I guess it took me a while to actually realize it—and he didn't seem to take it too well," she started, even though Bruce probably already knew that part. "Then he came to see me in my office a few days ago because he wanted to talk about it or 'work something out,' but somehow it turned into a conversation about how this is a 'problem he can't fix in the workshop,' and that didn't go well either and now he's not speaking to me. Or you, apparently."
"A problem he can't fix in the workshop," Bruce repeated, and the way he did reminded Pepper too much of how she'd done the same thing with Tony. "That is…" Bruce shook his head slightly before dropping it back against the sofa cushion. "That is so Tony. One hundred percent Tony."
"I know."
"I'm sorry he said that to you." Bruce turned his head to look at her. "I mean, it's not a problem—"
"No, it's not," Pepper said before he could go any further, "at least it shouldn't be. And please, don't be sorry. Look, I didn't—I didn't come down here to complain about Tony or ask for your sympathy, because that would be putting you in the middle and that's the last thing I want to do to you. I just want to know where you stand with this. Because as much as I would like for you to not have to get caught up in this whole… mess…" She sighed, pushing her hair behind her shoulder before she turned to look at the man beside her. "You're with him now, and he's going to be a father. You're involved, and you matter. So please just tell me what you think."
Bruce just sat there in almost-stunned silence for a few moments after she finished. He wasn't used to this. He definitely wasn't used to this, having people come to him for help, ask his thoughts on something that wasn't science or gamma-related. Clearly she was looking for his help here, or maybe just something that would make her feel a little less alone in this. "I think that he's just as scared as you are," he replied quietly, hesitating briefly after to make sure that she didn't take offense to being called scared. Even if she did, though, it didn't matter—she asked what he thought, and it was very obviously true. "Which is fine, I mean, anyone would be scared about this. I would be, I actually kind of am honestly, but… I think you'll be good parents once that baby comes and you figure it out. And I'll help where I can if you want me to, but I think this is something that you both deserve." He offered up a little smile afterwards, hoping it might help to reinforce his words.
"Deserve what?" Pepper asked, her eyes fixed on Bruce's hands as he turned them over each other in his lap. "The baby in general or all the problems she's causing?"
"She?" Bruce smiled a little wider. "It's a girl?"
"Yeah." Pepper couldn't help but mirror Bruce's little smile through the heavy weight of her thoughts. She looked down at the little bump in her middle, feeling Bruce's gaze follow hers. "I found out last week. Knowing that makes it more… real, I guess."
Bruce hummed quietly in agreement, his eyes still trained in a fond gaze at the little curve of Pepper's stomach, even if he wasn't really seeing it. What he was seeing was Tony with a little girl, a daughter with the same winning smile and big, inky brown eyes brimming with curiosity. She had some of Pepper in her too, of course, the same kind of brilliant beauty and confidence that just radiated effortlessly from her being. Bruce wasn't sure that he saw himself anywhere in that picture, or at least not enough to be noticed.
Still, it was a beautiful thing to think about, those two having a daughter—so Bruce wasn't sure he needed to be in that picture just yet.
"You two are going to have an absolutely gorgeous little girl, Pepper," Bruce said softly, finally lifting his gaze to look at her again. "That's what you deserve. That opportunity."
Pepper felt her heart swell at Bruce's words, and had to give herself a minute to regain her voice. In that moment she gave him probably the most genuine smile she'd had in days, and the little quirk at the corner of Bruce's mouth told her that he understood her silent thanks. "So you're okay with it?" she asked, just to be sure.
"Of course I'm okay with it." Wouldn't it be wrong for him not to be? Bruce supposed that maybe it would make sense for him to not be okay with his boyfriend having a baby with his ex-girlfriend, but it was clearly something that had happened before their relationship ever started. It wasn't as if Tony had cheated, but even if he had… well, Pepper was brilliant and powerful and gorgeous, and they had a history, and Bruce still had trouble with seeing himself as anything but ordinary. But he wasn't going to go there, not now. This wasn't the time. "You're my friends. I'm happy for you."
"I think Tony's a bit more than just your friend, Bruce," Pepper pointed out, a teasing smirk curling her lips.
Bruce chuckled. "He is," he replied, "and I really think that maybe you should try talking to him about this again and figure it out, so then maybe my more-than-friend will start talking to me again, too. You agree?" He smiled.
Pepper exhaled a sigh, but the teasing smirk still on her face gave it away as just another mockery. "So typical of you boys, making me do all your dirty work for you," she chastised, reaching out to pat Bruce's shoulder before she pulled herself off the sofa. Bruce watched her walk away for a brief moment before he too pulled himself to his feet, starting to wander back to where he'd left papers in disarray at his desk.
"Bruce?" He looked up when he heard his name, and turned his head to find that Pepper had turned around just before the door. "Thank you."
Bruce absently twirled his pen between his fingers, smiling slightly as he met Pepper's eyes over the distance between them. "You're welcome."