Cara thought that now since everyone in the Tower knew she was pregnant she didn't have to sneak around, and she didn't, although her first and foremost instinct was still too slink, but she didn't.

After retching after a 'bright and early' bout of morning sickness and rising out her mouth, she headed downstairs for first small meal of the day. She knew to avoid the fast food and caffeine, so that meant no coffee or fried things for breakfast.

Cara looked into the cupboard and took out the cereal box, deciding that eating this was safe, or so she hoped. She poured the cereal and milk before sitting down at the island and heard the sounds of approaching footsteps on the floor. She glanced up as she saw her redheaded friend enter. "Good morning, Natasha." The words came out easily since she wasn't worried about being awkward around her friend.

The woman nodded at her. "Good morning, Cara." She said before retrieving some of the freshly made coffee and sitting down on the side of the island beside the blonde.

Cara couldn't read people as well as Natasha could, but she did know when something was amiss. "Is there something wrong?"

"When you told me that you were seeing what you look liked pregnant before... I didn't think much of it as I knew you'd never let a man touch you," Natasha began and the blonde wondered where she was going with this, "clearly I have to sharpen my skills if I could not detect the slight change in your behavior as of late."

Cara blinked before shaking her head. "Natasha, I was hiding it, and how could you have known I was actually pregnant when you asked me that? Because like you said, I'd never let a man…" she trailed off and pursed her lips to keep herself from continuing. "Anyway," she carried on but with a touch of anxiety in her voice still, "your skills are great. And I fooled all of you, though all things considered I never expected it to be the Captain or Darcy who found out first, and about my behaviour…" she shrugged. "Well I really did look and act like I had a hangover all this time didn't I?"

Natasha's brow rose slightly. "Yes, you did." She replied before pressing on. "Darcy Lewis found out about you before we did?"

Cara nodded, embarrassment crossing her features. "Yeah, she opened the door at the doctor's office as I was walking out and recognized me from New Mexico. I tried to make her think I didn't know who she was, but she kept following me, and even into the washroom when I needed to…barf. I did make her swear never to tell anyone though."

"Then it can be assumed that your agreement is now moot as you told us after the Captain found out, correct?" Natasha questioned.

Oh, here came the awkward and guilty part. "Well you see, I kind of made the Captain give me some time to let me tell you all on my own. He gave me a week and the only reason I said anything was that someone caught our picture and plastered it on a tabloid."

"Cara, you are pregnant right now, so I can't hit you, but once that kid is born I'm going to." Natasha said seriously.

"What, why?" The blonde asked frowning. "I kept it from you all sure, but is hitting me really necessary?"

"You could have gotten a far worse injury than a grazed arm before and could have lost your child. Not to mention that fact you knewis too dangerous for you out there now. Especially since everyone now thinks you and Steve are a couple; what if someone decides to come after you personally?"

"Well at least you're being nice about calling me stupid." Cara said nervously as she failed to think about that bit. She'd have to get word out and nip it in the bud that she and Steve were not together and that he was just helping her. But of course saying that also implied about what kind of assistance he was helping her with.

If the public didn't know she was pregnant, they were going to figure it out soon enough. And that brought up another cheerful little detail she had to deal with.

"I have to tell Fury, don't I?" Cara questioned.

"Yes, you do, unless you'd rather he found out some other way." Natasha said dryly.

Sometimes Cara wished she could just have a do-over.


Cara made her way down the hall to the gym after changing into her t-shirt and shorts. Even if she wasn't on active duty didn't mean she could slack on her work out, and not until the doctor told her that she needed to stop the next she went in to see her would she stop with her heavy exercising.

She tried to open the doors, but they wouldn't even budge before trying the code on the key code, only to get the same response. What the hell? She thought as her frustration was starting to rise. "JARVIS, why am I being locked out of the gym?"

"Mr. Stark thought it best to not allow you access to avoid injury."

'Oh, someone's about to get injured alright.' Cara thought before speaking. "Where is Stark?"

"In the lab with Dr. Banner, Agent Barton."

"Thanks." Cara replied crisply before turning on her heel and heading for the elevator at the end of the hall that would take her to the lower level where Stark's lab was. She found Stark tinkering with something and hunched over a desk, but while he didn't notice her; Banner did and more importantly, he saw how stormy her expression was.

"Agent Barton; is there something wrong?" he questioned.

Cara took a deep breath as she tried to control her temper. She didn't lose it often as she was in good control of her emotions, but with her hormonal imbalance starting to show, it was much harder to do. "Just a little peeved at Stark, Dr. Banner." She said with a forced calmness.

Stark didn't even glance up from what he was doing. "How come a woman being angry at me doesn't surprise me?" he asked rhetorically and his carefree tone made Cara's temper rise.

"You told JARVIS not to let me into the gym, I might be pregnant, but I can still exercise you know." Cara replied.

"How am I supposed to know that? It's not like I've had to deal with a pregnant woman before." Stark retorted.

"With how many women you've been with I find that hard to believe." Cara deadpanned.

"Yeah, well a virgin like you probably doesn't know the wonders of contraceptives." Stark shot back.

Banner winced and Cara tried not to as her fists clenched. "You're right; I don't as Loki never bothered with any of that."

Only then did Stark straighten his back and looked at her. "Rape doesn't count." He said with a surprising amount of seriousness.

Cara felt her anger start to dissipate and her shoulders sagged. There it was; the word that left her with a strong sense of bitterness. "Damn you." She deadpanned.

"You're not the first person who's said that either, nothing new there." Stark replied cavalierly and hunched back over the object that Cara still couldn't see.

Cara saw that Banner was still watching her warily, looking tense and she sighed again as she headed back to the elevator. "It's okay, Dr. Banner, I'm not angry anymore." She said as she walked into the compartment and pressed the button to take her back up to the upper level.

She saw Stark glance back at her with an apologetic expression, though from the smirk on his face he didn't look apologetic at all. "Then I guess it's a good time to tell you that Happy accidently hit your motorcycle and it's been trashed. What an ironic twist of fate huh?"

Cara's eyes widened as a scream of rage erupted from her throat and her hands hit the elevator doors as they closed. "Damn you, Stark!"

Stark chuckled as he looked back down at the gizmo he'd been tinkering with. "I think she took that pretty well."