Cara stared mutinously at the doctor as she steadfastly refused to talk about how she got pregnant. She should've been quicker on the draw and lied her way through the after mission examination when they took her blood after cleaning up her grazed arm.

She should've known and now SHIELD would know. Well, they would if she was going to let the doctor say anything. And they couldn't do anything as long as she didn't say anything. The vindication she got for them making her spend the night in observation sank in and she couldn't bring herself to care that she shouldn't be this happy about being difficult.

But hormones, what were you gonna do?

And the alternative reason she wasn't saying anything was because then it would make what had happened when she was being mind-controlled real and she was fine with it just being a horrifying nightmare. Not that she…got nightmares about it of course, Cara thought quickly.

"There's nothing wrong with me." Cara said through her teeth. "So you have nothing to put on the SHIELD report." Even she knew that these doctors were bound by confidentiality.

The doctor let out a longsuffering sigh, which Cara didn't find at all unfounded as he had spent the better part of the night trying to convince her to let this information be known. Well, the woman had her own doctor to get her check-up from tomorrow so she didn't need to now right now and had shot down his argument. "Very well Agent Barton." He said before leaving the room through the sliding glass doors.

The blonde woman her head back on her pillow and frowned to herself. She had to keep this hidden, she just had to. And no, it wasn't because of shame or anything like that, it was mostly about fear. Fear about what would happen if anyone found out about this kid and because of the things she'd seen in her time with SHIELD, a million different scenarios ran through her mind, each one more terrifying than the last.

And she wasn't about to let an innocent baby be a part of it, even if it did mean for 5 months, if she was lucky and didn't start showing earlier, she would have to lie to her teammates and SHIELD she was okay with that. It's not any different from any other operative mission, and this one was very personal.

And all this meant was that she had to be even sneakier about what she did.


Cara tapped her boot on the clean tiles of the waiting room and ignored the receptionist's dirty look as she waited for her name to be called. She had managed to sneak in and out of the Tower and took her motorcycle here, though it wasn't a very hard thing to do as none of the others were aware of when she was supposed to be back.

"Cara Barton?" A nurse called and the woman stood from her seat and walked over to her.

"I'm Cara." She said and the nurse nodded before gesturing for the blonde to follow down the hall.

"Just wait in here, the doctor should be along in a moment." The nurse said as Cara sat down on the chair in the room and heard the door close.

Cara felt her gauze start to ache uncomfortably, not because of the wound, but because of the adhesive clenching her skin. She raised one hand to her jacket covered arm and tried to smooth it out, but that didn't really work. She huffed and heard the door open and a middle-aged woman came in, giving her a cordial smile.

"Hello Miss Barton, how are you today?" she asked.

Cara tried to smile back, she really did, but all she felt was the corners of her mouth turn up awkwardly. She really hadn't had much use for smiling in her line of work unless she wanted to terrify someone, and more than not it was mostly an accident on her part. "I'm fine, aside from the whole…" she looked down at her stomach and suddenly felt self-conscious.

She wasn't used to having to rely on others with personal matters, and despite how long she'd known Natasha, she couldn't say anything to her either about this. It surprised her how much she'd managed to function in the real world as it was when she wasn't on a mission to occupy her time with.

The doctor's expression didn't change as she nodded. "I see, and do you have a time frame from when you might have conceived?"
Cara surprised herself by not shuddering as she knew exactly when this could have happened. "It would be about," she paused for a moment, "almost a month."

The doctor nodded again as she wrote it down on a clipboard. "And, have you begun to experience Morning Sickness?"

The blonde nodded. "Yeah, but yesterday I was feeling nauseas all day." She reframed from mentioning that she had also been nauseas on the team's last mission and it had resulted in her arm getting grazed, but she couldn't say that of course. "Is there anything I can do for it?"

"It varies from each woman, but saltines and ginger ale will help." The doctor replied and Cara nodded for her to continue. "No alcohol of any kind and you may experience tiredness, mood swings, a craving for certain foods or a dislike for them, headaches, and swollen or tender breasts. You will also need to go to sleep earlier and eat small frequent meals."

Cara made sure to commit each symptom to memory and decided to go to the drugstore in the hospital to pick up the ginger ale and crackers. "Right, and the weight gain doesn't start happening until the fourth or fifth month, right?"

"Well, like I said, the process varies from each woman, but that generally is when it starts." The doctor replied and Cara rose from her seat. "And if you experience anything out of the ordinary, feel free to call."

The blonde nodded. "Thank you." She said as she left the room and made her way out of the waiting room, one hand fumbling through her pocket for her money and the other reaching for the handle to the door, only to glance up as it was opened by someone else.

Cara froze as she recognized the woman from New Mexico. "Thank you." She said quickly as she walked around Darcy.

The other woman paused and looked back at her suddenly. "Hey, you're that chick! The one from New Mexico!"

Cara didn't freeze, but she only turned half-way to avoid being seen again and tried to lower her voice. "No, you must have me mistaken for someone else." She said before hurrying on.

Darcy though wasn't giving up that easily as she let the door to the waiting room close and followed Cara down the stairs and she tried to get another look at the blonde's face. "No, seriously, you are that chick." She said nodding, looking assured of her own conviction. "And from the news when the Avengers were kicking alien ass."

Cara paused. "People saw that?"

"Ah ha!" Darcy exclaimed. "See, it is you." She said triumphantly. "Hey, what's with you, why are you all pale?"

Cara felt her hands start to shake as she now realized that if people were watching that, then others might recognize her too and she suddenly felt nauseas again. "Is there a washroom around here?" she asked and managed to keep her voice calm.

"Yeah, over there." Darcy replied as she pointed to the tags on the door under the stairwell. "Why-hey!"

Cara didn't stick around long enough to reply unless the woman wanted her shoes ruined. She pushed open a stall and through up what little she had managed to eat during the day. She grimaced as she held her stomach and flushed the toilet, hearing the door to the washroom open and when she walked out of the stall, she saw that Darcy had followed her in.

"Dude, what was that about?" she asked as the other woman went over to the sink and started rinsing out her mouth. Darcy's face showed some form of realization. "Are you pregnant?" Cara started choking on the water before spitting it out.

"What? No!" she retorted hastily.

"You are, why else would you start throwing up, or come to a doctor's office anyway?" Darcy questioned, but Cara had an
explanation ready.

"I ate something and wanted to make sure about what to take." She replied coolly.

"Right." Darcy said as she rolled her eyes. "And what did the doc recommend, more sleep and taking it easy?" she smirked when Cara hesitated for the briefest of moments. "So what are you going to call your mini-Avenger?"

Cara grimaced again. "Don't call it that, and that's not me admitting to anything either." She retorted. "And you can't tell anyone that I was here."

"Aw, why not, don't your teammates already know?" Darcy questioned and when the blonde didn't reply, the dark-haired woman's expression turned to surprise. "They don't know?"

"And neither will anyone else." Cara said threateningly. "Got it?"

Seeing the utter seriousness on the blonde's now stone-cold face, Darcy nodded. She didn't want to end up shiskabobbed after all. "Got it." She replied and the woman walked around her, but she couldn't help but add, "You'll have to tell them eventually you know."

Cara didn't pause as she made her way to the door. "If I play my cards right, no one else will know…anything about this."