In this fic; Evie is nine, Elijah and Henry are six, Alexis is eleven months old, Cecelia is two weeks, Jacob would be five and Oliver is one
"Tasha, I need to talk to you!"
"Pepper, you rang me at 3am?! This better be important"
"Is Clint awake?"
"No, why?"
"Good, meet me on the communal floor?"
"Pep, it's 3am, Cecelia is going to be up for a feed in like an hour, can't it wait til then?"
"Please Nat?"
"Alright, give me five minutes"
"So Pepper, what's so urgent?"
"Tasha, I need you to go to the doctors for me"
"Why?"
"I need you to find out if I'm pregnant"
"What? Pepper, you're gonna have to start from the beginning"
"I might be pregnant"
"Might be?"
"I did a test and it was positive, but then I did another and it was negative, I need to know for sure before I mention it to Tony"
"And I come in where?"
"I can't go to the doctors in case Tony finds out, so I need you to go"
"And what if Clint finds out?"
"You just tell him it's negative"
"Why can't you just do that?"
"Because if Tony gets the idea in his head he'll want another child; Tasha I can't have another baby, i'm not ready"
"Pepper, Clint is already obsessing on the idea; we already have five kid, and Cecelia is just two weeks old! I can't afford to encourage that train of thought"
"Dammit"
"Sorry Pep"
"No, you're right. I'm sorry Nat"
"Pep, you really don't want another baby?"
"Not right now, I'm just so busy. And Tony is never here. Jacob is finally settling in at school, and Oliver has started walking. I don't feel like I get to spend enough time with them, and I miss spending time with your kids too, I just can't find time for a baby in my life right now"
"What about Tony?"
"Tony wants a girl, he loves your girls so much! He'd never admit it but he's always wanted a daughter"
"Couldn't you ask Bruce to run a test in the lab? No records, no trips to the doctors..."
"I guess I could ask, I just really don't want Tony to find out until I know..."
"Pep, if you were pregnant, what would you do?"
"I don't know Nat"
The next morning Natasha helped Pepper convince Tony to do the school run with Clint so the two women could corner Bruce in the lab without interruption.
Hesitantly he agreed to run the test and not to tell Tony.
Printing out the results he handed them to Pepper and left her to look at them in private.
"You want me to leave?" Natasha asked
"No, can you read them?"
"Right okay... Pep, it's negative... You okay?"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine"
"You sure? You're not even a little disappointed?"
"No. No it's okay, it's better this way. Come on, let's go"
"You going to speak to Tony?"
"I don't think so; there's no need"
"Okay Pepper, but I really think you should, he'd understand. And it'd make you feel better"
"I'll think about it, now let's go get some vodka!"
"Pepper, it's 8.30 in the morning"
"Oh yeah. Damn"
That night Tony found Pepper sat alone on an empty floor of the tower (with a little help from JARVIS)
"Pep, whatcha doing?"
"Just thinking"
"About..?"
"Tony, do you really want a daughter?"
"Pepper, what's this about?"
"I thought I was pregnant for a while... I'm not; but it terrified me. I'm not ready to be a mom again Tony"
"Pepper, I don't need any more kids to be happy. We have two fantastic sons, and I have the greatest wife in the world. If we want a daughter we'll borrow one of Romanoff's and give them back when we've had enough" he smiled, taking his wife in his arms feeling like the luckiest man in the world.