Chapter 16: "The Starks in Stereo"
Sadie had been up for over an hour, just sitting on the edge of the bed and breathing slowly. They'd already had a couple of false alarms, and the last thing she wanted to do was to have another one. So that was how Howard woke up to find his young wife sitting stock still and seeming to try to will it to go one way or the other.
"Sadie?" Howard asked in a voice hoarse with sleep as he quickly sat up and started to rub her back.
She cringed away from him just a little bit. "I'm okay." Her voice was quiet, almost a breath, but she was most certainly not okay. "Just … waiting."
"Do you need me to call Tyler?" Howard asked.
"I don't know."
"Okay, I'm going to call him," Howard said, reaching for his phone and quickly texting Tyler to let him know what was going on before he turned his attention back to Sadie, frowning and watching her carefully and almost holding his breath with her.
"He's going to get tired of that," Sadie said when she seemed to catch a decent breath.
"I'm pretty sure I don't care," Howard said. "You're my wife, and I care more about you than him. By a mile."
"Love you too," she said quietly, though she gave him a little smile.
Howard had to smile back at her and leaned over to kiss her cheek, though it wasn't long before Tyler arrived and frowned at what was going on — and then frowned even deeper when he put a hand on her shoulder and sensed what was starting up. "Sadie, how long have you been trying to ignore this?" he asked.
"I'm not trying to ignore it," she said with a little heat. "I was trying to see which way it was going."
"Well, it's happening," he said, offering her a hand up. "Let's get you downstairs. Do you want your parents there, or would you rather just break Howard? Because either way…"
"I don't want to wake up anyone that doesn't have to be bothered," Sadie said quietly.
"She means she wants her parents there," Howard said. He quickly texted his dad — who he knew would be awake anyway — and then looked up at Sadie and kissed her cheek quickly. "I'll grab them and meet you down there."
"I'll talk to them," Tyler corrected Howard. "You stay with your wife."
"Right, that," Howard said, pulling his arm around Sadie and steering her downstairs while Tyler headed down the hall to let the Howletts know what was going on.
Of course, her parents were up and out quickly, and they even split up so that James could help Malin in the suite (which really just amounted to the two of them watching movies in case the little ones woke up). But it was clear to Logan and K when they got to the med lab that Sadie was flat out trying to meditate her way through it from the expression on her face.
"Don't be surprised if that doesn't work, little zen master," K told her before she made her way over to give her a hug and a kiss on the temple. She turned to Tyler and gave him a pointed look. "You're going to give her some decent drugs, right?"
Tyler nodded. "Of course I am," he promised. "Only the best for my patients." He gave Sadie a warm smile. "We're just going to turn off the healing and let the drugs do their work, and you'll be fine, I promise."
"Inhibitor field, if you don't mind," Logan said.
"Already set up," Tyler said, gesturing to the device close by. "Had it set up the last time we had a false start. Just have to turn it on once I've got everything prepped." He tipped his head toward Sadie and gave her a smile. "Don't worry. You're going to be great. I can guarantee you that you'll do better than America. She cried, so hard, about everything," he teased. "And that was after the drugs."
"Okay, but now if I start crying, I'm going to have to kill you," Sadie said seriously.
Tyler smirked at that before he flipped on the inhibitor field. "You'll probably cry about something, but hopefully not everything," he said. "I'm not going to complain about the happy tears when this is over." With that, he loaded up the drugs and waited for her to relax so he knew the drugs were working.
But from there, it all seemed to happen pretty quickly. When things were far enough along that it was just a matter of working through it, all of them took turns sticking with her and giving her the encouragement she needed, and the way it all worked out, Tony and Pepper managed to arrive just about the time that little Maria let out her first real squeaky cry and Sadie very nearly crumpled against her father in sheer exhaustion while Tyler cleaned up the little one.
Logan gave Sadie a little squeeze and kissed her forehead, whispering quiet words of encouragement in her ear while Howard looked like he was either ready to float off or pass out. It was a hard call either way. "Howard," Logan said, finally getting to his feet when Sadie looked like she wasn't going to break down and fall to pieces. "Get over here before you hurt yourself."
"Yeah, yeah, okay," Howard almost breathed out before he nearly dropped into the seat next to Sadie — though when Tyler put Maria in Sadie's arms, he tipped over into more floating than passing out and leaned over to rest his head on her shoulder to look down at the little girl. "Oh. Yeah. She's gorgeous, Sadie. She totally looks like you. Princess Maria."
"I think it's a little too early to tell," Sadie said in a very tired voice, though she was just staring at the dark-haired little girl.
"No, no. I think we'd know if she looked like me. I'm all sharp corners, and you two are all… warm and soft and wow," Howard said, getting softer and softer as he stared down at Maria.
K and Logan made their way over, and while Logan gave Sadie another kiss on the forehead, K took a chance to make sure Howard wasn't just blown entirely away. "Hey. You gotta breathe too, bud," she told him before she gave him a little kiss on the cheek. "Congrats."
Howard beamed at her before he simply wrapped his arms around her in a hug, and K could tell he was still very much trying not to pass out with how much he leaned on her. "I can't believe it," he whispered.
K pulled him tight and just held onto him for a moment. "Welcome to the family. You're super stuck, little Stark."
"I'm pretty sure I'm okay with that," he said.
When the hug finally ended, Sadie was handing Maria to Logan, who sat down on the bed with her — facing her as he looked the little girl over. "I dunno, kiddo. He might be right. She looks a lot like you did." He looked up at Howard and tipped his head for him to come over. "You ready to hold her, or are you gonna pass out still?"
Howard quickly nodded and all but slid over to Logan, his eyes wide as he took Maria up into his arms. "She's so light," he said, glancing up at Logan with honest concern, since he really had no frame of reference outside of Elin and Chance's tiny kids — and those were twins.
"Her mother's not really an Amazon," Logan pointed out. "All of ours were little."
He nodded at that and then sat down close to his own parents with Maria pulled up to his chest so he could kiss her forehead, and Pepper leaned over to see the little one and immediately started to very quietly cry over the teeny girl.
"Good job," Tony said — which was a big indication of how emotional he was, too, since that was as much as he got out before he fell silent too.
K and Logan shared a look, and a moment or two later, she'd taken out her phone and snapped a few pictures … a beat after Tony glanced up to see what she was up to. "Nothing."
"Nobody believes you, K," Tony said, shaking his head.
"No one is going to argue with me," she said. "Unless … you want it to be something …"
"You should hold her, Tony," Pepper said before Tony could get himself in trouble on his grandbaby's birthday.
"I-okay," Tony said as Howard gently tipped Maria into his arms - and then shocked the heck out of Howard when he started crying too. It didn't even look like he knew it was going to happen or that he was doing it. It just sort of… happened.
K and Logan shared a look - and then couldn't help but kiss, though she had been sure to snap the last picture before the tears started up.
Howard watched his parents for a moment before he glanced at Sadie and then seemed to startle. "Oh. Hey! We need to get James and Kari down here!"
Logan looked over at Tyler and let out a low "hey" that had the tall blond at least looking his way. He reached over and hit the switch to turn off the inhibitor. "Go get James and Kari."
Tony let out a little snort when he saw that Tyler ran upstairs to get the two kids, and he shook his head Logan's way. "Got him trained up."
"Gotta start 'em young," Logan replied, straight-faced.
"It's just so funny to see a Creed running errands for you," Tony said, grinning even wider.
Logan raised an eyebrow. "He ain't the first one."
Tony snorted again, shook his head, and looked back down at Maria. "Hey, Howard, Sadie, I'm kidnapping your kid. You can have her back in eighteen years," he told them.
"Probably not a smart move, Mr. Stark," K said, barely holding back the smirk. "That one's under protection."
"True story," Howard said, grinning her way outright.
To illustrate her point, K made her way over, crouched down, and took the little one out of Tony's arms. "You're going to pass out if this keeps up, Stark-mallow."
"Which one?" Pepper asked with a little smirk.
"Yes," K said, taking the seat next to Pepper so the two of them could say hello to Maria without the boys in the middle.
Pepper smiled as she leaned over K's shoulder to see Maria and ran the back of her finger down the little girl's cheek. "Our kids did so well," she said softly.
"They did," K agreed before she lifted her up a little to give her a kiss then hand her to Pepper. "I think she's got your chin. Little dimple."
Pepper flushed with pleasure as she looked down at little Maria. "And your cheekbones."
"Lucky kid," K said with a smirk as she watched Pepper biting her lip and trying not to laugh outright.
By the time James and Kari came down, both of them looking a bit tired, Pepper had given Maria back to Sadie once she got a little fussy. And Kari let out a little noise when she saw the scene, her hands clasped to her mouth.
"So … I'm sure you figured out why we had Tyler drag you out of bed this early …" Sadie said, drifting off as she looked down at the little girl.
"You want me to throw them out?" James asked, thumbing over his shoulder at Tony. "I know he's a problem."
Howard smirked and shook his head. "No, we want you to come hold your goddaughter," he said. "You and Kari are up to the job, right?"
"Oh, alright then," James said as he gave Kari a little smirk and headed over where Maria was still fussing and trying to get comfortable. Sadie tried to figure out how to get her to relax, but before she had any luck, she shook her head and simply handed her to her brother. He took a second, shushing her as he got her settled in, and a few seconds later, Maria quit squirming and settled right in with a sigh.
"Oh, you are so lucky my mom isn't here to make jokes," Kari said, looking over James's shoulder with a crooked grin.
"As if you're not going to go report to her," James said, shaking his head.
"Yeah, I totally am," she agreed, grinning at him with a look that clearly said she wasn't sorry about it in the least.
"You mean all of those jokes about hug magnets have a basis in fact?" Pepper asked, one eyebrow raised before she reached over to hit Tony. "You said it was a joke! It's real?"
"No," James and Logan said at the same time.
"Yes," Kari said a split second later.
Tony's mouth pulled up at one side as he tipped his head toward Pepper and gestured with one hand at James. "Maybe … little bit more than a joke. Secondary mutation? Genetic anyhow, looks like."
Logan and James both gave Tony a look that was absolutely not amused, but Tony only gestured between them. "Again. Genetic."
Kari giggled delightedly before she plucked Maria up for herself and gave her a little kiss on the forehead. "Oh yeah. She's going to be totally spoiled. I hope you're prepared for that, Sadie."
"I'm counting on it," Sadie said, though she didn't look to be quite as beat around now that she'd had some time with her healing working properly again.
"Knew we picked well," Howard said with a smile as he leaned over to kiss Sadie.
"You just picked us because we conspired to keep you breathing," James said.
"Exactly," Howard said without missing a beat.
James took the few steps over to Howard and pulled him into a quick hug. "Well. Congrats on both."
Howard grinned outright and returned the hug in spades. "Thanks. Seriously."
"No big deal," James said with a little smirk. "You're a brother now. I try not to let them die."
"Much obliged."
K and Pepper were sitting with their heads together, muttering quietly enough for Logan to hear and for Pepper to catch because she was so close, but Tony was definitely out of the loop. It was all fine and good until, of course, he realized it. "Wait. What's this?" Tony said, but the two of them just doubled down on their discussion until Pepper nodded very clearly.
"I'll make sure we're here," she said, looking like she was glad for whatever suggestion K had come up with; then, of course, she looked up to smile at James.
"Do I want to know what I've just been agreed to?" Tony stage whispered.
"You're going to love it, Tony," K laughed.
"And you'll be there," Pepper said. "Besides, we're staying here while Maria gets to meet the rest of her family, so you won't miss it anyway."
K was nodding along to everything. "We can send Kari to grab clothes if you need a change," she suggested. "I'm sure she'll dress you better than you're used to dressing yourself."
"I'll go with her," Pepper said with a smirk.
Kari glanced over at James and seemed to understand what was going on better than Tony did just by the look on his face before she disappeared in a poof of pink, though when Tony looked over at Howard, Howard just raised both hands. "Don't look at me."
"Aww," James said in a sing-song tone. "He's scared. That's so cute."
Pepper snickered for a moment before she leaned over to pull Tony into a kiss. "Why don't you relax and enjoy being a grandfather for a while and just trust me to know what I'm doing?"
"That…" Tony couldn't help but smile at her. "Yeah, that sounds like a great idea, Pep."
Logan made his way over to pull K up with him. "And we'll see you tomorrow," he said. "James can take you to a room to crash." He looked over at James, who simply nodded his head in agreement, and with that, the little party broke up to grab some sleep after being so happily awakened.
When James showed up at Sadie and Howard's room, he was sure to bring food with him for the new parents. "Hey," James said as he came into the room, shutting the door behind him quietly. "Don't get used to me playing room service. Special circumstances," he said, setting down a stack of the lingonberry-covered pancakes that he knew his little sister adored so much.
Sadie very nearly teared up, finally having let go of her emotions once she and Howard were alone with Maria. She was determined not to cry — and she'd done pretty well — but once she was safely in the privacy of their room behind closed doors …
"Best brother ever," Sadie said with a grateful smile as she took the plate from him and watched him silently set up his things. "I haven't seen Elin and Chance's pictures yet."
"I … gave them the book," James said. "And Elin's asked me to do the month-by-month sessions. I haven't shown her this month's yet, but …" He took a break in set up to bring her his phone. "I have some of it on a secured server so I can edit at the other lab when I need a break."
Sadie set down her fork and took a moment to look through the pictures James was done with. "You do know that taking a break for most people doesn't involve more work, right?"
"That's your interpretation," James said. "I need to keep moving."
She watched him for a long moment, sitting cross-legged on the bed. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," James said, looking confused as to why she'd even ask.
But Sadie shook her head slowly. "I don't think so," she said. She turned to Howard and gave him a little kiss. "Can you grab a few more things to snack on? I need a minute with my brother."
"Yeah, sure, of course," Howard said before he gave her a kiss.
"Don't worry, this will take a little while," James said. "You won't miss anything." He didn't even look Howard's way as he slipped out, but as soon as Sadie was sure he was gone, she opened her mouth to say something, but of course, James cut her off. "I'm fine, sis."
"You've been screwing around with that awful intern. I know," Sadie said. "You hate her. You're not fine."
"I don't hate her. I just don't like her."
"Then why are you screwing around with her? Even if you just don't like her, that's not like you."
"Just let it go, please," James said as he set up the very fuzzy blankets over the props to hold Maria in place while he took her pictures. "I promise I'm not going to be with her long-term at all. We're not even exclusive."
She narrowed her eyes and growled low at him. "Is that her idea or yours?"
James rolled his eyes and made his way over to her so he could look her square in the face. "Stop trying to big-sister me, little sister."
"Then stop screwing around with just about every girl that shows an interest," Sadie replied. "This could be a whole lot worse if it was you with a girl or more in trouble."
James let out a breath that sounded as if he's heard it before. "Your concerns are noted. Now, can I take some pictures now?"
Sadie frowned a little deeper and got up to make a rush for her brother. She threw her arms around his neck and squeezed hard, snuggling into him like she hadn't done in a very long time. "I can't be a good Mom without you sticking around to yell at me sometimes," Sadie told him. "I need my big brother."
James tossed the camera to the bed and wrapped Sadie up into a good, solid snuggle. "I'm not going anywhere, Sadie."
"Yeah, you say that now, but …" She cut herself off, her voice thick with emotion, and an instant later, James could smell the salt from her tears.
"Hey, you said I'm godfather too, right?" When she nodded, he let his shoulders relax. "I can't let her down either. And I'm not letting you down if I can help it." She nodded, and the hug continued for a moment before she finally loosened her grip a little bit and he set her down.
He took a step back as Sadie wiped her cheeks, and a few moments later, the two of them started setting up the shots. Naturally, James was sure to use the backgrounds that he planned to be a surprise first — so that Howard and the Starks wouldn't see them before he was ready to share them. So, the first shot of the little girl was a real mood-setter for Sadie as she helped her brother prop the tiny newborn on one of Tony's helmets. Not that he knew it was gone, of course.
"He's not going to be sure what to do when he sees this," Sadie said with a laugh as James took the last shot with the Iron Man helmet and very quickly stashed it.
"Good to keep him on his toes," James muttered. "It's not an active one anyhow. All the goodies aren't in it." He barely broke stride setting up the next photo, working just as quickly and watching the door halfway as he pulled out a very familiar yellow and black shirt, which only had Sadie grinning.
"Not as much of a rush if he's not showing up right away, right?"
"You got it," James agreed before he set up the little one again almost nestled into the yellow and black cowl. He was in the middle of snapping the last few pictures when he stopped and turned toward the door. Quick as a whip, he dropped the camera to let it hang around his neck and then scooped up Maria and shoved the uniform into a bag one-handed not five seconds before Howard and his parents came in. "Oh good. Assistants."
Sadie was finally biting back a grin, especially since it was apparent that neither Tony nor Pepper had really seen James doing his photography thing in this kind of detail before. But he moved seamlessly for all of the classic kinds of shots and then worked one by one with Sadie, Howard, and eventually both sets of grandparents — and just about every conceivable combination of the group of them.
By the time he was done, Pepper was nearly bouncing on her toes — something that never really happened. "How long before we can see them?" she had to ask.
"When I get done with them," James replied easily. "I'm editing in my down time … but … I'll try to get the best ones done first."
"Don't do it for them," she said with a little smirk. "Do it because I'm your favorite."
Of course, that got a little laugh out of James, but he couldn't even joke with her before Sadie busted him out. "He's planning to have at least something done and printed before you guys leave. He's like this. I thought you knew. He did Ariel's in a matter of a few hours, and Matty and Liliana's was just a little bit longer than that."
"So if we stick around for lunch …"
"You'll have a peek at the very least," Sadie said.
James gave her a dry look but simply went to picking up his equipment. "We'll see. It depends on if anyone's hanging around my room and pestering me while I'm trying to edit."
"We'll keep everyone away," Howard said, already anticipating what James was going to come up with.
In the meantime, that meant that the Starks got to play with the adorable little girl, though Howard wasn't the least bit surprised that Pepper was doing her level best to hog all of the time with Maria.
They did eventually go downstairs, if for no other reason than the fact that whoever wasn't holding Maria needed something to do.
Even though there were more adults than usual, no one was missing out on little kid snuggles — particularly since Elin was pretty open in sharing Matthew and Liliana. Both of her little ones seemed to enjoy the attention, but naturally, Maria was getting a lot of time meeting everyone. Everyone.
When James finally showed up, he had the album in his hand — black leather like the others — but when he knew they were waiting on him, he had to be at least a little bit of a pain. He stopped when he saw the gathered group and held it up for just a second before he held it to his chest. "I don't like doing this under pressure," James said. "So I'm not entirely sure I like how they came out."
His parents were smirking to themselves, knowing full well that he was full of it, and that if he was that unhappy, he never would have printed them. "Noted," K said. "Though I almost want to see if you even can disappoint."
For that, he made his way over and gave his mother a kiss on the cheek and slipped the album to Sadie. Which only had Howard's parents rushing to see what James had come up with.
And the first picture in the book was a perfectly lovely one with Maria wrapped up in a plush looking light pink fluffy blanket that Howard recognized as one of the last ones he took. There were all kinds of precious little poses, but Sadie simply stopped when she saw the two shots that James had picked of Maria with her grandfathers' suits. Or parts of them.
On one page, with no intro, was the one shot with the black and yellow cowl and striped uniform shirt. And Sadie laughed outright when she realized that the tiny girl had been stretching her fingers out when James snapped the shot so that it looked like she was flipping the bird. "Oh, that's fitting," she had to laugh before she turned it for her parents to see, giggling to herself at how well that had worked out.
"Is that a common thing?" Tony asked. "It's too bad there's no way to do the same thing wit-"
He stopped mid-word when Sadie turned the page to show the shot that James had picked with the baby leaning over the top of the Iron Man helmet, and by that time, James was just standing at the other end of the table, arms crossed and looking incredibly smug.
Tony sputtered through a few attempts at a response before he finally let out a hearty laugh. "I'm not sure if I should be mad or thrilled. My granddaughter looks great with the suit!"
"There aren't any goodies in the helmet," James promised. "I wouldn't take that out of the building. It's an old one that I gutted and rigged to glow."
"It's amazing," Pepper laughed, grinning wider than anyone had ever seen her do before.
"Figured it needed to be unique," James said. "Glad you like it. I'll give you a flash with everything once I'm done."
"Please do," Pepper said, leaning over Howard's shoulder with a solid smile to trace her fingers over the picture before she seemed to suddenly switch gears and seized James by the shoulders for a hug.
"You okay?" James asked, though he returned the hug.
Pepper just smiled widely and doubled down on the hug. "I've never been happier — except maybe when Howard was born."
"Then I'll make sure that I bring that drive with me next time I come in."
"You are such a good boy," Pepper told him quietly before she stepped back and quickly wiped her eyes — and then went back to gushing over the pictures with the new parents so that Tony could reach over to James and skew his hair with a crooked grin.
A/N: And that's all for this volume! Keep an eye on Canucklehead Cowgirl's profile for the next volume: "Put Your Heart on the Line"