It Has to Be Fake
The next few weeks were actually pretty eventful. The team wasn't kidding when they said they had Peters back.
The room that used to be Visions was turned into a nursery. Peter insisted it be painted navy and the team spent the next few days painting the room. A crib was assembled shortly after. Steve and Bucky said they had it handled but Nat ended up building it. The little wooden crib was adorable. A dresser that had a changing table on it matched the crib.
The room ended up taking on a space theme when Peter found a planetary mobile he liked. Steve even sketched some planets so they could be framed in the room. Bucky helped Peter put up some shelves and Sam helped him install a moon lamp on the wall. Vision installed the baby monitors. He loved the room theme the most but wasn't very good with the creative stuff. Wanda had made sure his room was a safe place by putting some kind of protection on it.
As an olive branch, Tony gave Peter a rocking chair that had been in May and his apartment that Tony had been saving for a first apartment present.
“This was Ben's chair. May and I always joked that he was an old man for loving this chair. Thank you, Mr. Stark”. He smiled solemnly.
“You're welcome kid”. He patted his back and left the nursery.
I was happy that everyone had a much better reaction than I thought. There was something about a new life in the house that brought some kind of joy to everybody's lives. It took away from the darkness that they had experienced in the past. It was a kind of hope I think they all needed. I will say I forgot that nobody knew past the walls of the tower when Clint came to visit.
I came down in the morning. Up before anybody as per usual these days and there he was sitting at the island drinking a cup of coffee.
“Hey Clinton. What are you doing here?”. I asked curiously.
“Don't call me Clinton and I'm just visiting. What are you doing up so early? Every other time I've come over you are up about 10”. He hadn't turned around and I had gone to the cabinet to grab a mug so he hadn't seen me fully yet.
“Well when you have something the size of a head of lettuce pressing on your bladder and constantly moving, it doesn't leave much time to sleep”. I said turning around.
The mix of emotions that appeared on his face in the past 10 seconds would have confused even the most attuned empath.
“Ok are you pranking me or something cause I know you can change your appearance at the drop of a hat. Like this has to be fake”.
“It's not fake”.
“I- No I refuse to believe it”.
“Ok”. I shrugged and continued to make my tea.
A little while later Nat came down and also asked what Clint was doing there.
“I can't come and visit my friends”. He replied.
He then proceeded to sign something to her that I didn't quite catch.
“Yes Clint she is pregnant and no that's gross”. She said,
“What?”. I asked.
“You don't want to know”. She said, rolling her eyes.
“Who's the dad?”.
“Peter”.
“As in Parker? The human spider?”. The mix of emotions returned to his face.
I nodded. I don't think Clint left his spot in the kitchen for a while after that. When Peter came down Clint pulled him aside and talked with him but Peter never told me what they talked about. A similar situation happened when Scott was called for a mission.
“Hey, dudes and dudettes ready to get our mission on”. He said strolling into the room suit already on.
“Hey what's up man?”. Sam stood and did the whole bro hug thing.
“Nothing much. How about you?”.
“Same old same old”.
“Hey Scott”. I said from the couch.
“Hey, Iris. Are you coming on the mission?”.
“Cant. I'm on a very strict no mission policy since I'm very pregnant”.
Scott's eyebrows knitted together in confusion, “Really?”.
“Yeah. I'm about 25 weeks along”.
“Wow um huh”.
“While you're still in shock, I'll just add to it. Peter is the father, it's a boy, and I'm signing away my parental rights when he's born. So in other words congrats you're going to be an uncle. Or would you prefer Aunt Scott”? I winked. Sam laughed and Scott gave me a fake laugh.
“Really? You and Parker?”. Scott said.
“I know it's random but it was a one-time thing and we were both very drunk”.
“Makes sense. I mean I always thought you guys had some sort of weird flirty relationship anyway so I'm not entirely surprised.”. He shrugged.
“You are the first person who has said that to me”.
“I thought it was obvious”.
“Well anyway your reaction was better than Clint. He sat in silence for a while and didn't believe me”.
“I mean I get it. His kids aren't much younger than you and I'm sure he immediately thought about them and if they were ever in this situation. I mean if Cassie came to me here in 5 years and told me she was going to have a baby I wouldn't know what to do”.
“Cassie is a good kid. I don't think you will have to worry about that”.
“So are you. Just because you made a mistake doesn't mean you're a bad person. And it seems to me you are doing a pretty selfless act by even having a baby you aren't even going to raise”.
“Thanks, Scott”.
“Anytime”.
I smiled and started to walk away but turned around, “He said, goodbye aunt Scott, by the way”. Then I turned around to head back to my room.