Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Marvel Studios, Disney, Warner Bros. Entertainment, and/or their otherwise respective owners.
Author's Notes: Hi, everyone! Welcome back!
This chapter has a little ending note at the end for something that is revealed in this chapter. It's not problematic or anything, but I just wanted to give some clarification, if that makes sense. :)
Chapter title comes from Only You by Ellie Goulding.
As always, I hope you enjoy. Until next chapter,
~TGWSI/Selene Borealis
~the black and gold 'verse~
~black and gold~
~chapter 5: only you~
Bruce was on him in a second, his tall and strong and handsome and dark husband rushing over to him before he could even think of getting out of his hospital bed (not that it would've been easy, considering he was hooked up to two different machines) and wrapping his arms around him. "Omega," he said, pressing his nose into Tony's dirty and greasy hair, inhaling his scent, his chest rumbling. "Tony. Tony, Tony, Tony..."
Tony laughed through his tears. He tried hugging him back, but it didn't work because of the IV line and the wires, so he just let himself go boneless in his alpha's arms. Absolutely boneless. "It's me, Bruce," he whispered. "I'm here. I'm here."
Then he started to sob. This was one of the moments he had been waiting for for so long, and now it was finally here. Like he'd said, he was finally here.
Bruce traveled down, going to his mating gland so he could take in his scent straight from the source, and in the process Tony got a whiff of his. The alpha's scent was immensely bittersweet, an equal mixture of agonizing sadness but also happiness. Relief.
"They found you," Bruce marveled. "They finally found you. You're alive. I knew you were because our bond hadn't severed, but – "
"I know," Tony soothed. "I know."
He peeked over Bruce's broad shoulders when he heard the sound of footsteps, and saw that his best friend was walking over to the door. Rhodey nodded at him when he saw that he was watching him before he left the room, giving the married couple the privacy that they deserved.
Bruce let go of him for the most part at the sound of the door closing, though he still held onto his arms just beneath his shoulders. His brown eyes raked over his form. "What did they do – ?" he began to ask. Then his eyes caught on the blue light. "Tony, what's that?"
Tony did his best to smile reassuringly. "It's a miniaturized arc reactor."
"What is a miniaturized arc reactor doing inside your chest?"
The omega had a feeling he was going to be doing this for a while when they got back home. "It's keeping the shrapnel that's still inside my chest because it couldn't be removed from entering my heart."
Bruce made that same noise that Rhodey had, now letting go of him completely and falling into the chair on the other side of his bed. "What?"
"It's a long story," Tony admitted, reaching out for his alpha's hand and squeezing it. "And I'm going to tell all of it to you, I promise. Once we get on the plane and we're heading back to Gotham. But there's something I need to tell you first because the doctor and nurse here already know and might have some additional things to say about it when they discharge me. And I know it's going to sound impossible, but it's true. And I need you to know, it...it wouldn't have happened if there was any other way." His voice cracked.
Bruce, ever the most amazing husband, shuddered in a breath and said, "Okay. But whatever it is, we're going to get through it. Together."
"I know." I hope so.
He took in a deep breath himself.
Then:
"Bruce, I'm pregnant."
They didn't get a chance to talk about it any further until they were on the plane.
Bruce's face slackened. He became pale, ashen, looking like he was going to be sick as his mind was jumping to all the conclusions that Tony didn't want him to. "Tony, how – ?" he breathed. He shook his head wildly. "Please, no..."
That was the second that Nurse Patel came in. They didn't speak as she went through the process of discharging him, mentioning his need to follow up with his obstetrician as well as his regular doctor – and oh, he could see how that made it all the much more real to Bruce, that he was telling the truth. She made Tony get into a wheelchair, not giving him a choice otherwise, and Bruce pushed him along until they got to the plane. Tony was saluted once again by all of the soldiers that were present, and this time he did think that he was going to hurl. But he didn't; Rhodey and Bruce both helped him up the stairs to the plane, and they all sat down once they were inside, alpha and omega sitting across from each other in two of the seats and Rhodey a few seats away, but still within earshot of them.
Bruce reached out for his hands immediately, clasping them together in his hands. Tony thought that this was a good thing.
They remained silent until the plane was up in the air, the door to the cockpit remaining firmly closed. The pilots wouldn't be able to hear them.
Bruce kept his first words simple: "Tony, how?"
There was no judgment in his voice. But he made it known nevertheless that he needed answers. He deserved them.
"There was another person being held captive with me," Tony started, slowly at first. "She, um, was the one who performed surgery on me when they first captured me, got all the shrapnel out of me that she could and made the hole in my chest to keep the rest of it away from my heart through an electromagnet hooked up to a car battery. She helped me with the plan to escape. I built a metal suit – something that could be powered by the arc reactor and have enough fucking power to wipe them all – "
Bruce smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Tony." He massaged Tony's left hand with his thumb.
"Right. Sorry," he said, wincing. "Anyways, she told me her name was Anahita. She was a theta. She was with me at all times. We were prisoners together. Then one day...I went into heat. I didn't know why at first. Like, it's not even been a year since Edward and Gemma were born, right? That's not the way biology works! But...it was happening anyways. And she explained to me why.
"Her name wasn't just Anahita. She was the Anahita. Aredvi Sura Anahita, the Iranian goddess. I didn't want to believe it at first, but...the evidence was staring me right in the face. And I guess it's not like we haven't seen and been through more unbelievable things." He sniffled, thinking back to the January of 2002, when their mate-bond had temporarily been broken. When Bruce had died, then come back to life via the Lazarus Pit. "Anahita said she was captured centuries ago by another group than the people who took me; they took her and their name from them. The leader of the original group put a set of cuffs on her that repressed most of her powers. Most, but not all. While she was wearing them...any omega or beta woman who spent a long enough time around her would go into heat, and their heat wouldn't end as long as they were around her. And since our captors weren't keen on separating us...
"She gave me a choice. She couldn't...end my heat with her powers, but she could reverse the tubal ligation. And then..."
Bruce was still.
Bruce was very, very still.
"Did she rape you?" he asked, his voice bordering on a growl. "Did any of them rape you?"
He looked his husband dead in the eyes. "No. I didn't necessarily want to do what I did, but I did what I did in order to survive. She and I both did."
Bruce nodded at his words. But there were tears in his eyes.
For the first time since Harvey had died and Rachel had been mutilated by the Joker, he looked like he was going to cry.
"Wait," Rhodey spoke up. They both turned to glance at him. "Sorry to interrupt your moment, but she was claiming to be a thousands-year-old goddess?"
"Not claiming, she was," Tony corrected him without any real heat. "She was called as such, anyways. She and eleven others crash-landed here thousands of years ago. Yes, they were aliens," he added as Rhodey looked ready to freak out even more. "They were infected with the virus that caused the secondary genders, but due to their genetics as a different species it gave them long lives...and powers. They were eventually called the Djinn, and they liked the name, so it stuck. After...after my heat ended, she gave me this." He held up his right wrist, where the bangle was now resting. Bruce and Rhodey both stared at it and its softly glowing purple detail which, seemingly as Tony thought about it, brightened in its intensity. Both the alpha's and beta's eyes widened. "It only glows like that when it senses DNA from her species. So...yeah."
His throat tightened. "I'm sorry, Bruce. I was going to tell you when I got back that I wanted an abortion, but then she told me that the other Djinn are all gone. She was the last of her kind...and now they are." He pulled a hand away from Bruce's to splay it on his belly. "And I don't think...I don't think I can now. I don't know. I don't know what to think. I just...I'm sorry. I never should have gone to Afghanistan! And if there was any other way for me to have gotten out of there, I would've! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm – "
"Tony. Omega," Bruce instructed. "Breathe."
Tony took in shallow gasps.
"It's okay," his alpha told him as he did, though the tears were now streaming down his face. He brought Tony's hand up to his mouth, kissing it. "There's nothing to forgive. You – you did what you had to do. And I promised you: we're going to get through this."
"Yeah," he whispered, nodding weakly.
Then, if (this was not a hypothetical statement, however) he'd had any slivers of doubt remaining, Bruce leaned forwards and kissed him. It was a hungry kiss, hungry and desperate, conveying just how much he'd missed him over the past two months, just how sorry he was for everything he'd gone through, just how much he still loved him.
"I love you, Omega," Bruce said when they at last came up for breath. He cupped Tony's face in his hands. "Nothing is ever going to change that. In sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for better or worse, as long as we both shall live."
Tony melted. There was no other word for it. "I love you too, Alpha."
Bruce scooped him up in his arms, carrying him over to one of the couches on the private plane. He set him down on it, then took out a blanket from one of the overheads and draped it over him. "You need rest," he informed him gently. "Sleep, Tony. We'll still be here when you wake up. This isn't a dream."
"Yea'," he slurred as Bruce took his glasses off for him, his eyelids already drooping shut. "I know."
Now that his body knew he could, there was no point in trying to fight the pull of unconsciousness. He was out like a light.
But before he fully fell asleep, the last thing he saw with fluttering eyelids was Bruce sit down on the chair next to the couch and hold his head in his hands. The last thing that he heard was his alpha beginning to sob.
Like the flight to Afghanistan, the flight back took roughly twenty hours in total. Tony slept for eighteen of those.
When he woke up, his mouth tasted like cotton and his entire body hurt, but his entire body had been hurting nonstop for the past two months, so that wasn't anything new.
He opened his eyes and saw the blurry form of Bruce still sitting in that recliner next to the couch. The TV they were facing was going, but it was on a low volume.
Bruce went into action the instant he noticed that he was awake. Plucking a small plastic cup of water from the end table right next to Tony's head, he held it up to his lips. "Drink," he said softly.
Greedily, Tony drank until he'd finished the entire cup.
Bruce chuckled tiredly at this. He'd changed out of the military camos sometime while Tony had been asleep, now dressed in clothes that Tony could only tell were darker and more fitting to his style without his glasses on. Before the omega could ask where exactly his glasses were, however, the alpha pulled out two objects from the inside of his jacket – a glasses' case and the necklace that Bruce had given him for his birthday all those years ago, because Tony hadn't realized until the plane had already been over California that he'd forgotten the necklace at home. Now he was glad for this very much, because he just knew that Zadran and his cronies wouldn't have allowed him to keep it. His eyes became watery all over again just at the thought; he blinked away the tears.
Bruce handed them to Tony. "I brought a new pair of glasses with me because I knew you would need them," he explained to him. "And, of course, your necklace."
Tony opened up the case, revealing a pair of horn-rimmed glasses that were nearly identical to his old pair, save for the coloring. His previous pair had a brown and light brown frame; this one's was black and gold. "I love these. Thank you." He put them on as well as the necklace and batted his eyes at Bruce. "How do I look?"
Bruce gave him a genuine smile. "Beautiful. As beautiful as the day we got married."
He giggled. "You sap."
He was relieved Bruce still loved him. So many alphas would've thrown him away like yesterday's trash at the revelation he'd had sex with and been knocked up by someone else, the sex being kinda-consensual or not. But not Bruce.
He really did have the most perfect husband in the entire world, although...yeah, they were definitely both going to need therapy after this, his previous (and continued) reluctance over everything having to do with doctors aside.
But, speaking about his husband and their family, even though he kind of had to pee right now...
"How are the kids?" he asked.
It was a fair question to ask. Two months he'd been away from them, and now their flight plan said they had less than two hours until they arrived in Gotham.
But strangely, Bruce's entire face gave a considerable jerk. "They're fine," he said.
His reaction and response, combined with Rhodey's, did not paint a pretty picture. "Bruce," Tony spoke slowly, keeping his voice even-tempered because his best friend was knocked out on the other side of the small plane. "What's going on with our kids?" At Bruce's lack of immediate verbal response, he put in for good measure: "Whatever it is, I'm going to find it out anyways when we get back. There's no point in hiding it from me."
Bruce inhaled deeply. "I know." He ran a hand over his face. "Well, first thing's first: Jason presented."
Oh.
Oh.
"As an alpha?" he questioned hesitantly.
"No, as an omega. Two days after you were kidnapped," Bruce told him quietly. "It wasn't like with Dick, either. It was completely unexpected besides him not feeling well starting the day you left."
Oh, no.
Tony knew better than anyone else how it felt like to present as an omega when you expected to be an alpha, when you felt like it was expected of you to be an alpha (by Howard in his case, HYDRA's in Jason's). He and Bruce had always made sure to instill in their kids that it wasn't wrong to be any of the designations, regardless of what your primary gender was, that it was society that was wrong to have the expectations of omegas that it did and not the other way around, that omegas could be every bit as strong and powerful as an alpha, but he knew that Jason had always expected to be an alpha. He knew that that had to hurt.
He wetted his lips. "How has he been taking it?"
"Well, he got suspended for two weeks after getting into a fight with another kid at school," Bruce responded blandly. "And he stole one of Dick's older Robin suits."
"What?" Tony cried. "He stole one of the Robin suits? Why?"
"Because he remembered that you had told him that he would be allowed to be a vigilante once he presented."
Tony groaned. "I didn't promise him that! He extrapolated!"
"I know," Bruce assured him. They'd talked about this many times.
The omega's eyebrows furrowed. "...Wait? So there's been two Robins running around Gotham?"
Bruce shifted in his seat. "Not exactly."
He tried to decipher what his husband meant by that. "What, has Dick taken to dressing up as you since you've been gone?" He had no idea how Dick would be able to manage that, since Bruce was six-foot-four and Dick was five-foot-eleven, that was almost six inches of a height difference between them, and that wasn't even mentioning the weightdifference, but still. He knew his adoptive son.
"No."
Tony sighed exasperatedly. "Well then, what? What's going on? What aren't you telling me?"
Bruce sighed himself, before:
"...Tony, you're not the only one who's pregnant right now. Dick is, too."
. . .
. . .
"What the f – ?"
Happy and Pepper were waiting for them when they landed in Gotham, along with an ambulance and EMTs. "Are you kidding me with this?" Tony scoffed at the sight of the latter. He pointed Rhodey over to them. "Get rid of them!"
Rhodey didn't even bother trying to argue with him. Bruce did say, "Tony," exasperatedly, but he kept it at that.
Tony headed over to Pepper and Happy. "Your eyes are red. A few tears for your long-lost boss?" he teased her.
"Tears of joy. I hate job-hunting," she shot back. Then she crumpled, coming over to hug him. "Oh, I'm so glad you're back, Tony."
He patted her back comfortingly. "Yeah, well, vacation's over." He eyed Happy. "Are you crying too, Hap?"
"No, I'm not," the alpha man replied, but he was clearly lying. They all got into the car. "Where to, sir?"
"Take us to the hospital, please, Happy," Pepper requested.
"No," Tony said.
The beta woman was baffled. "'No?' Tony, you have to go to the hospital!"
"No is a complete answer."
"The doctor has to look at you!" she protested. She looked between Rhodey and Bruce. "Why aren't you two agreeing with me?"
"You know just as well as I do that we're not going to get Tony to do something he doesn't want to, Pepper," Bruce commented wearily.
"I don't have to do anything," Tony agreed. "I've been held in captivity for two months. There are three things I want to do: I want an American cheeseburger, I want to see my kids – " and have a serious talk with Dick, so perhaps that makes four " – and I want you to call a press conference now."
Pepper frowned. "What on Earth for?"
"Happy, drive. Cheeseburger first," Tony ordered. "And don't worry, Pep. We'll inform you on the way."
And they did. Pepper was pretty much a spluttering mess by the end of it and Happy wasn't much better, but they all quickly regained composure when they arrived at Stark Industries Headquarters in New York City. Tony had undergone a costume change on the plane, so he was now wearing a suit that hid the arc reactor from view and made him look somewhat presentable. He figured that the press wouldn't be able to blame him too much this time around since he had been held in captivity by a terrorist organization for two months.
There was a flash of cameras as he entered the room where press conferences were usually held. He smiled through all of it, though he knew his smile probably looked more like a grimace, Bruce remaining at his side the entire time as they made their way to the stage.
Obadiah was there. "Look at this! Tony!" he proclaimed. He didn't clap his shoulder like he knew he would've, had Tony been an alpha or a beta. Lower, under his breath, "We were going to meet at the hospital."
"Yeah, well, I didn't need to go," Tony said.
"You didn't let those bastards grind you down, eh? Tony Stark, everybody!"
The journalists all gave their applause, putting on the show of conforming to societal norms before they would strike like sharks in a frenzy.
Tony was given a microphone. He tapped it, making sure it was on, before he looked out at the crowd of reporters. In the background, he noted Pepper and that Mr. Agent Phil Coulson guy talking, but he didn't pay much attention to them.
"Hey, would it be alright if everyone sat down?" he inquired instead. It earned him several weird looks from the press – and Obadiah as he sat in front of the podium. Bruce didn't even question it, sitting down right next to him. "I'm sorry, I just feel like sitting down. That way, you can see me, I can see you, and everything can be a little less, uh...formal..."
The reporters all slowly sat down, looking every bit as baffled as Dr. Langley and Pepper had.
"I never got to say goodbye to my father," Tony began without preamble. And it felt weird, referring to Howard as "his father" out loud, just as it always did, but for extra reasons this time. It didn't help that he actually didn't feel all that bad about never being able to tell Howard goodbye. But, "There's a lot of questions that I would have asked him. I would have asked him what he felt about what his company did. If he was conflicted. If he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch the man we all remember from the newsreels. I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons that I created to defend them and protect them. And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero accountability."
One of the reporters raised his hand. "Dr. Stark?"
Tony recognized him easily enough. He would never admit to it, but the beta man was one of his favorite reporters. "Hey, Ben."
"What happened over there?" Ben asked.
"I had my eyes opened," Tony answered. He stood up and moved to go behind the podium. If he was going to do this, he needed to be every inch of the strong and iron-willed omega that he so often projected himself as being, even when he sometimes didn't really feel like he was. "I came to realize that I and my company as a whole have more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing of Stark Industries," doing what I should've done a long time ago, he tacked on silently as there was a clamor, all of the reporters rushing to their feet while Obadiah not-so-subtly froze right next to him, "until such a time as I can decide what the future of this company will be and what direction it will take, one that I'm comfortable with and is consistent with the highest good for this country as well. I will be taking no further questions at this time, but thank you all for showing up regardless."
"Tony – " Obadiah started to say.
But Tony ignored him, linking his arm with his husband's. The two Stark-Waynes walked out of the building together, along with Rhodey and Pepper, under the flashing light of cameras and the dozens of questions that the journalists threw at him anyways, because even with the memo they couldn't help themselves.
Obadiah ran after them – well, "ran" wasn't the proper word to use. He hopped on his Segway and wheeled after them. "Tony," he panted – did he seriously use up that much energy just from riding a Segway? – when he caught up to them in one of the halls, no reporters or other employees around. "Tony, do you know what you just did?"
Tony stopped in his tracks, only partially turning around. "Did I just paint a target on the back of my head?" he inquired nonchalantly.
Next to him, Bruce tensed.
"Your head? What about my head?" Obadiah cried. Bruce must've given him a look, though, as he hurried to correct himself. "I'm just worried about you and the company, Tony. We're a weapons manufacturer. We make weapons. What we do keeps the world from falling into chaos."
"Not based on what I saw. We're not doing a good enough job. We can do better. We're gonna do something else. And I'm saying that we are, because it's my name on the side of the building," Tony said.
Obadiah hesitated. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. And like I told the reporters, I'm not taking anymore questions. Have a nice day, Obadiah. I'll be back to work soon."
With that, he, Bruce, Rhodey, and Pepper left the COO in the dust.
When they got back to Gotham, back to the Glass House, Tony's palms became slick with sweat. He stared up at the house as he wiped his hands off on his pants, nervous.
Bruce had forgiven him, but what about their kids? What were they going to think about him having been gone for two months, kidnapped or not, when he was right in front of them? And oh God, what was he going to say to Dick? Jason, too?
"Come on," Bruce said, helping him out of the car gently. "They've been anxious to see you. Everything's going to be fine."
Once again, Bruce always seemed to know what he was thinking.
Rhodey walked in front of them to open the door for them, because he was still leaning on Bruce for support, and they walked the few steps that it took to get to the archway of the living room.
"Omi!" several voices screamed.
Tony laughed as Lili, Harley, Peter, and Bea all tumbled forwards, crying in just the same way he was. He crouched down so that he could hug them all, sniffling and pressing kisses into their hair. "My – my babies!"
"You're back!" Harley crowed.
"You're home," said Peter, voice small.
"Yes, I'm back. I'm home," he soothed them. Two shrieks startled him; when he looked up, he saw Taryn holding Edward and Gemma, the youngest Potts sibling smiling wetly as his twin children reached out for him. "Oh, Edward, Gemma, Omi didn't forget about you!"
"Omi!" they wailed in unison.
His breath caught in his throat, but he pulled them both into his arms to give them the same treatment he had his other biological children. "It was their first word," Bruce confirmed his suspicions to him gently.
"Did you think that calling for me would bring me back?" Tony crooned. "It's okay, I'm here. I came back. Omi's home." And I'm going to protect you, I promise. All of you.
Speaking of his other two children, he let Bruce take Edward and Gemma before he walked into the living room, making a beeline for them, because they hadn't come over with the others for whatever reason. Probably because they were teenagers and they thought they should be above that. Jason was closest, so he was the one to get roped into a hug first. "Oh, tesoro, I'm so sorry I wasn't here for your first heat," Tony apologized, inhaling the boy's scent, noting how it had changed into what it was meant to be all along.
He could practically hear Jason rolling his eyes. "You were kidnapped, Tony. 'S not your fault," he said. "Dick helped me through it like you did him. But...I did miss you." He sniffled. "I'm glad you're home, Omi."
This was not the first time that Jason had referred to his adoptive parents by their parental names, as he'd done it with Bruce back during the Joker fiasco. But it nevertheless made Tony's heart turn into a pile of goop. It was like the biggest "welcome back" gift ever, even though he'd never needed Jason to call him "Omi" to know that was how he felt about him.
"We'll have a talk later, okay?" Tony told him, brushing a tear that was trailing down the younger omega's cheek. He didn't have to say what he was referring to for Jason to understand; the fourteen-year-old boy nodded.
That just left Dick.
Tony turned from Jason to his eldest child, the one that was only ten years younger than him but he still saw through that lens anyways, and he knew Dick saw him through the lens of him being an omither as well. The eighteen-year-old omega was sitting on the couch, wearing what looked like one of Rebecca's hoodies. It was a little large on him, but his bump was still noticeable to the trained eye. He had to be somewhere around four months along.
He was looking at Tony with a smile on his face, but it was a shaky smile. His eyes were uncertain, with dark bags underneath them. "Hi, Tony," he spoke.
He sounded like he was expecting Tony to be mad.
He was acting like he was expecting Tony to be mad.
...And, just like that, Tony knew that he couldn't be mad. He'd never been mad at all. He'd only thought that he'd wanted to be, but even then, he didn't.
If Dick was four months pregnant and had been practicing safe sex with Zatanna – because Tony didn't doubt that it had to be hers – then that meant he'd probably only just found out or started suspecting that he was pregnant when Tony had gone off to Afghanistan. At the time when he would've needed his adoptive omither the most after presenting, Tony had been kidnapped. He hadn't been able to be there for him. So he couldn't be mad at him for this.
Besides, being mad at Dick for being a teenage omither would be like the pot calling the kettle black. Tony had been younger when he'd had Lili than Dick would be when he gave birth. Yes, he'd already been married for nine months at the time, but that didn't really mean anything when you really got down to it. And it wasn't like him being mad would change what had already happened, either, because it wouldn't.
"Oh, bambino," he sighed, holding out his arms. "It's okay. I'm not mad. Everything's going to be okay, I promise you. We'll figure it out. Come here."
...And also just like that, Dick launched himself off the couch, sobbing just like one of the younger kids, no doubt due to the hormones. "Omi!" he cried.
Dick collided with him, and then all of the other children were hugging him again, and so was Bruce. Tony basked in his family. He'd finally done it. In spite of all the odds and everything else that had yet to come his way, he'd done it.
He was home.
Word Count: 5,262
Next Chapter Title: ...baby one more time
Ending Notes: So...there's that reveal lol. Another baby! I promise though, these are some of the last babies for a while. As in, once this fic and its two companion pieces are completed, there shall be no more pregnancies/babies for multiple fics and in-universe years. How much...I'm not gonna say lol, but like I said, a while. I shall be staving off my incessant baby fever through other endeavors
Anyways, yeah, that's all I got. See you on next Saturday!
