In this chapter; Evie is seven, Elijah and Henry are five, Jacob is four, Natasha is two months pregnant and Pepper is four months pregnant
Being pregnant was harder than Pepper remembered, but Jacob was excited, Tony was thrilled and Pepper had learned to relax (a little).
One evening Jane was taking her nieces to the movies with Darcy and Thor, they offered to take Evie, Elijah, Henry and Jacob along too.
Two sets of exhausted parents hastily agreed, thanking their friends for a quiet night in.
Bruce cooked everyone dinner, Steve and Natasha tidied up, and Tony provided alcohol. He rarely drank anymore, not since Jacob had been born, but occasionally he let himself go; and he was always a bad influence on Clint.
An hour later and Pepper had taken the scotch off Tony, a few drinks more and Natasha banned Clint from drinking any more either.
"Hey Widow, how come you're not drinking?"
Natasha's cheeks flushed red as all five sets of eyes darted towards her. Although Tony was by far the drunkest (infact everyone but him and Clint were completely sober), he was the only one to notice Natasha's abstinence of the alcohol him and Clint had been gulping down.
"I'll tell you why; it's because we're pregnant!" Clint all but shouted proudly.
"WHAT?!" Tony gasped, spilling the remaining bit of scotch left in his glass.
Five sets of eyes flicked to Clint momentarily, before returning to look at Natasha who signed and nodded, confirming her drunk husband's confession.
Natasha tried to be angry at Clint, but she just couldn't. He was absolutely beaming; he couldn't wait to become a father again. She could hardly blame him for being excited, and the look he gave her in that moment; one of sheer happiness, could melt her heart.
"Congratulations!" came several voices, as Pepper got up to hug her friend.
"You know what, you two should really stop sleeping together. I mean, you make cute kids, but I don't think the tower can cope with anymore mini yous running around!" Tony slurred, laughing slightly at his joke.
"There's about to be another mini you running round too Tony. A mini you has gotta be worse than a mini me" Clint answered back
"Yeah, but your mini yous are mini Tasha's too. That's two times assassin-y trouble in one little person. And you already have three!"
Natasha was not quite sure who was drunker, and felt this conversation could go on for a while...
The four sober adults left them on the sofa arguing, and went into the kitchen to get some coffee.
"So Tasha, how long til baby Barton is here?" Bruce asked, pouring himself a cup of decaf.
"About six and a half months yet, we were going to tell you guys next month when I reached the second trimester"
"Wait, is this why you were taken into hospital last week?"
She nodded, taking a drink of her own decaf
"You told us it was anemia which made you collapse" Steve sounded hurt that he'd been lied too
"I know, I'm sorry. We just wanted to make sure everything was okay first"
"And it is? Everything's okay?"
"Yeah everything's fine" she smiled
"Our kids are going to be so close in age" Pepper smiled, the moment she'd found out Natasha was pregnant too she'd felt more at ease. Someone else would be going through the same things as her. The first time Pepper had found out she was pregnant was just after the twins had been born.
"Yeah, they'll only be about a month and a half apart"
"That'll be nice for them" Steve smiled, seemingly forgiving Natasha for keeping this secret from him.
Tony appeared in the kitchen;
"Hey Widow! Your husband's asleep. But also, I was thinking, are you guys gonna need a bigger floor now? Cause I can build you another bedroom but how many more are you planning on having exactly?"
"Goodnight Tony! Night guys!" Natasha said, before exiting to drag her husband to bed. She guessed she'd be putting the kids to bed when they got back...