In this fic Evelyn is 8, Elijah & Henry are 5, Jacob is Oliver is five months and Alexis is four months old

Natasha had not been feeling well for a few days, but she pushed it to the back of her mind and blamed it on the pregnancy; however it was getting gradually worse.

She hadn't had a great day; Elijah and Henry had been in trouble at school again when their arts & crafts session had gotten a little out of control and Alexis had been ill; so was restless and wanted to be held constantly. That evening she went to bed long before anyone else, leaving Clint to put their four kids to bed before he joined her. She was absolutely exhausted.

Several hours later she woke abruptly with a sharp pain in her stomach

"Clint?" ... "Clint!"

When he didn't stir she punched him swiftly in the arm which woke him up. He looked around in the dark, disorientated and confused before his eyes settled on his wife

"Nat? What is it?"

"Something's wrong"

"What's wrong? Nat is it the baby?"

"I don't – ouch! I don't know, it just really hurts"

She was pale and clammy, and even in the dark room he could see she was shivering

"Jarvis, where's Bruce?"

"Dr. Banner is in his lab"

"Come on Nat"

"No, we can't. The kids are in OW!"

"They'll be fine. They're asleep and Tony and Pepper are just upstairs"

"We can't just –" she winced in pain, closing her eyes to try and focus on anything else but the pain

"Jarvis, let me know if any of the kids wake up" Clint informed him, sweeping Natasha up in his arms. He felt her trembling slightly in his arms; she was coated in sweat and felt far too warm.

He rode the elevator down to Bruce's lab, where the small medical bay of the tower was located

"Bruce? Bruce are you here?"

"Clint, it's 3am what are you-" he froze on seeing Natasha in his arms. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know, she just woke up like this. She's really hot" he informed the doctor, placing his wife on the examination table

"M not hot, It's too cold" Natasha told him, weakly gripping Clint's shirt

"Here, Tasha put this thermometer in your mouth for a minute while I get some things"

"Agent Barton, Miss Alexis is crying"

"Damn it, I'll be right back!" he told Bruce quickly, before dragging him to one side and whispering "Bruce, Natasha is pregnant"

Bruce paled at the news, under normal circumstances he'd be thrilled for his friends. But right now this looked like anything but a healthy pregnancy, and all the potential diagnoses he was running through his head suddenly went out the window as a whole new set of them crept in.

He nodded, "hurry back"

The thermometer beeped, and the two men went back to their tasks.

Clint ran up the stairs to his floor, not in the mood for riding the infuriatingly slow elevator at the moment. Taking his four month old daughter into his arms she instantly quieted and he decided it would be best to take her upstairs to Pepper.

"Jarvis, please tell me Pepper is awake?"

"Mrs Stark is currently awake with Oliver"

"Oh thank God! Keep you eye on the other kids for me?"

"Not a problem Mr. Barton"

He took the elevator this time, out of breath from his previous trip, and knocked frantically on Tony and Pepper's door.

"Clint, what on earth are you doing?"

"Pepper, please can you take Alexis for a little while?"

"Sure, why what's up?" she asked, seeing the panic in his face

"I'll fill you in later, I just, I've really got to go"

"What about Evie and the boys?"

"They're asleep, Jarvis is keeping an eye on them"

"And Natasha?"

"Pepper, please" she read between the lines and decided to do him a favor

"Okay" she boarded the elevator with the two babies in her arms, and wasn't surprised at all when Clint hit the button for Bruce's lab. She exited on Clint and Natasha's floor and gave him a small smile, a silent promise to take care of their kids, and not ask what was going on.

Clint was truly thankful in that moment for his friends, and he made a vow to make sure they knew it more often.

Returning to Bruce's lab he found the doctor trying to get information from Natasha, but he wasn't able to understand much of it as it came out in a mix of Russian and other languages as the pain and the fever got to her.

"Clint, how far along is she?" Bruce asked, giving up with trying to communicate with Natasha

"Eleven weeks"

"Has Natasha had any bleeding?"

"No, I mean I don't think so"

"Headaches?"

"Yeah, a few over the past few days"

"Where is the pain?"

"Bruce, I don't know"

"Natasha, Nat listen to me, I need to know where the pain is"

Her hand hovered over her stomach for a minute before Bruce disappeared to get more equipment

"Bruce, Bruce what is it?"

"I don't know yet Clint, but I suspect the pregnancy is ectopic in which case I'm sorry, but there's nothing we can do to save the baby. And we need to act fast for Nat's sake"

Clint's face fell, just a few hour ago he and Natasha were talking about going to their twelve week scan, debating when they should tell the team, wondering what they'd tell their kids, and now it was all crashing down around them.

He grabbed his wife's hand as Bruce pulled her top up and used an ultrasound machine to perform a scan, a minute later a small smile appeared on his face; "it's not ectopic, the baby is fine"

Clint was relieved for less than a second, when his wife squeezed his hand and winced in pain

"So what is it?" he asked Bruce, stroking Natasha's sweat drenched forehead

"I don't know, I'm running her bloods at the moment and I'll give her some IV pain meds"

A short while later Bruce had ruled out most of his initial thoughts; her temperature was still spiking and she was tachycardiac, so he put up to IV antibiotics and went back to thinking. It wasn't anything pregnancy related; she wasn't miscarrying and she wasn't pre-eclamptic. It had to be an infection somewhere...

Several hours later, after Tony had been sent away from the lab on three separate occasions, Natasha was feeling a little better, her temperature had come down and although the pain hadn't gone, it was certainly more bearable.

And Bruce finally had his answer; "acute cholecystitis; you had an infection in your gall bladder but the antibiotics should clear that up soon"

"And the baby, it's okay?"

"They baby is fine Natasha, just concentrate on getting better, okay?"

"Thank you" she told him tiredly, squeezing his hand in a grateful gesture

Tony knocked on the door of the lab once more and Bruce sighed; "I'll go get rid of him so you can have some rest" he turned to leave, before turning back round;
"Oh and guys, congratulations" he smiled.