Work Text:
Natasha Stark Rogers freezes when she notices that her period has stopped.
She barely pays attention to her own health, but sometimes in the middle of work binges, there would be brief, fleeting moments of recognition. These usually happened when Steve wasn’t around to remind her to eat, and suddenly she was on the verge of passing out after going 3 days without food.
This time, though, is new, because suddenly she is all too aware that she’s 3 weeks late.
And then she starts wondering when the last time she and Steve had sex.
It takes a while for her to get off the floor after her legs nervously give out, too overcome with anxiety to confirm the overwhelming dread building up inside of her.
They hadn't ever really planned it out, her and Steve. They knew that they both wouldn't mind kids, but it wasn't something they really dedicated time in their relationship to talking about. It certainly wasn't something they were trying to do.
However, beneath all the terrors of the possibility, the weight of responsibility, a small, tiny part inside of her rejoices. She remembers Peter’s small body the first time she hugged the teenager. She remembers Harley’s even smaller face the first time the boy giggled at something she said. She remembers the gentle, feathery feeling of fondness at seeing children grin at Iron Woman for the first time.
She remembers looking at her mother with awe. She remembers her first female superhero.
After standing up on trembling, wobbly legs, she tilts her chin up as if preparing to walk onto the battlefield.
“Friday?”
“Yes, Mrs?”
“We still have some of those pregnancy tests lying around, right?”
“There are 3 in the cabinet of the Master bathroom, Mrs.”
Like a hero stepping into battle, Natasha Stark Rogers walks her legs to the elevator and into their bedroom.
She chokes up the first time she sees the positive sign on the test. She doesn't cry until she’s gotten the same results twice more.
“Friday? When will Steve be home?”
“Approximately 6 hours.”
“Tell him to be here in 4.”
By the time Steve gets back to Malibu, he doesn't hesitate to rush to the workshop where Natasha resides. He figures something must be seriously wrong for him to have to book it home faster than usual.
Bursting into the workspace, he sees Natasha sitting at her desk, staring down at nothing in particular, seemingly lost in space.
“Tasha? I got here as fast as I could, I-” He pauses at seeing her turn to him, her eyes red-rimmed. She looks a little terrified, scared, but also… accepting. It's an odd look on her, something he hasn't seen before.
“Sweetheart….? Is everything alright?” He asks softly, walking over. Natasha gets up shakily and nods, before a hysterical ripple of laughter bubbles out of her throat, which she quickly tries to recover from. Steve’s eyebrows knit in worry as he approaches her.
When he reaches her side, he takes her elbows in his hands, searching her face as she chews her lip, looking past his shoulder.
She feels like she’s going to burst. A thousand things are going through her head, but she can't bring herself to ramble.
“Natasha…?” Steve asks softly. “C'mon, what is it? You’re scaring me-”
“I’m pregnant.”
Her voice breaks, and it's a hoarse whisper as she speaks it to the floor, too terrified to meet Steve’s gaze. Any unenhanced person would have asked her to repeat it because they surely wouldn't've heard what she said.
The abrupt thud and roll of Steve’s heart is the only thing that prompts him to ask again.
“Wh-What?”
“I-I’m… Steve, I’m pregnant.” She says, looking him in the eyes. Her lips wobble nervously, afraid to smile, awaiting Steve’s reaction.
He chokes and coughs slightly. He swallows, clenching his jaw several times before he shifts and nods sharply, inhaling quickly.
“Oh…. Okay-” His voice drops into an anxious, giddy laugh at the end, his eyebrows raising, still trying to search for her emotions through her unfamiliar expression alone.
“Is-Is that-Is this good? I-” He’s cut off by Natasha’s widening grin, another little giggle bubbling out of her throat. Steve is eventually laughing anxiously with her as well.
“If you-If you want it to be good-” She says wetly.
“Oh God, oh God, yes, darling, doll face, yes. Yes, this-this is wonderful, oh my God-”
And suddenly they're both crying and giggling and holding each other, because when Steve woke up in this era the last thing he would have expected to have was his own family. Not just the Avengers, but a wife and… and a baby.
And the last thing Natasha Stark Rogers ever thought would happen to her, the fantasy she never let herself even dream of, was being able to birth and hold and raise her own baby with the love of her life.
They name him James. Bucky and Rhodey fight over who it was they named the kid after first.