Chapter 2
Two weeks into August, Tony is woken up by his cell phone ringing itself off his nightstand.
“Yeah?” He asked, his voice low.
“Get up,” Pepper’s voice was commanding.
“It’s like three.”
“So I’m surprised that you’re actually sleeping.” There was a long beat of silence. “Mary’s in labor.”
“What?” Now Tony was definitely awake. “The kid’s not supposed to come for another few weeks.”
“Guess he’s never heard of a calendar.”
“This is no time for sarcasm, Pep,” Tony says, jumping out of bed and running into his closet.
“That’s rich coming from you.”
“I’m serious.” Tony grabs the bag he had packed from the top shelf. Pepper had made him prepare something for this exact scenario; Tony just thought he would be using this in September. When he was actually in New York, and he didn’t feel like he was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
“Alright,” Pepper says. Tony wonders how she sounds so calm. “Your plane is ready for you when you are. I hope you're changing right now and not standing in the middle of your closet, panicking.”
“Of course not,” Tony says, despite her describing the exact thing he was doing. His voice was tight. “I gotta go. Meet you there.”
Tony throws off his pajamas and pulls out the first thing he finds. A pair of jeans and a worn tee-shirt emblazoned with the SNL logo. He could change once he got to New York; the closet in his apartment was stocked, after all.
He didn’t waste time calling in Happy. The bodyguard would just meet him at the jet; Tony could drive himself.
“I told you to get dressed,” Pepper says disapprovingly when Tony steps out of his car. A flight attendant starts pulling his bag from the trunk. “But apparently what I say goes in one ear and out the other.”
“What are you talking about?” Tony says, looking down at his clothes. “I did get dressed.”
“And that’s what you want to be wearing the first time you meet your son?”
“Might as well let the little guy know what he’s getting into,” Tony retorts with a smile. “For instance, the fact that his father is a fan of quality late-night sketch comedy tv.”
Happy walks by and catches sight of Tony’s outfit. He snorts to himself and says, “I’ll have someone get you something new in New York.”
“Speaking of,” Pepper taps her watch impatiently. “The plane should have left ten minutes ago, and every second we're not in the city is a possibility you could be missing the birth. Come on.”
They all board the plane in anxious silence, and Tony spends the ride drumming his fingers on his knee and thinking about ways he could be making the engines run faster. He didn’t miss the occasional glances Pepper gave him when she wasn’t tapping away on her tablet, but Tony tried his best to ignore them.
Instead, he kept his eyes trained on the valley of cloud around them. There were 2,477 miles between Malibu and New York, and they couldn’t have crept by any faster.
Pepper was ushering Tony off the aircraft as soon as it had touched down. From there, they moved into a town car, and then they were zipping into the city. Pepper seemed to be texting someone the whole ride, and Tony hoped it was Richard telling them that they hadn’t missed it.
Tony didn’t know if he’d be able to forgive himself if he was late for this.
“Alright,” Pepper starts, “We have someone already at your penthouse and picking up a suit. Something presentable, but also one of your lesser-priced suits, so it wouldn’t be a disaster if you get baby barf on it.”
“Babies don’t care about presentation,” Tony says dryly, his head turned towards the window.
“Are you alright?” Pepper asks, “You know, besides the obvious things you should be concerned about.”
Tony doesn't respond, the building panic feeling as though it has its grip around his throat, and won’t allow any words to escape. Like it is moments away from strangling the life out of him.
“I’ve been in contact with Richard,” Pepper says softly, yet assertively, “We still have a while to go. The baby’s early, but taking his time. Tony--”
Suddenly, a loud honking from the car behind them has Pepper cutting her sentences short and Happy glares into the rearview mirror.
“God, can’t we go any faster!” Tony exclaims angrily, leaning forward to watch the car's inch by out of the front window.
“Tony,” Pepper says, her voice coated with warning. “Please--”
“Pep,” Tony cuts her off, practically pleading with the woman for her attention. “My son is premature. I-- I did all my reading, and… premature babies can be born with so many difficulties, and--”
Tony stops to take a few deep breaths as he can feel panic tighten its grip on his throat. No, not an attack. Not now. Please.
“Tony,” Pepper leans forward and places a hand on his knee. His eyes find hers, and he takes the tiniest amount of comfort in her calm gaze. “You need to listen to me; the baby is fine. Richard just told me. He has been healthy the whole way through, and he seems to be healthy now, despite the early entrance. The doctors are optimistic about a safe delivery.”
Tony continued taking shaky inhales through his nose.
“Tony,” the way she says it this time causes his heart rate to slow. Her thumb runs circles over his knee. “Everything is gonna be okay.”
Tony nods, and panic loosens its grip.
----
Tony marches into the hospital, Pepper and Happy close behind, other patrons parting for him like Moses and the Red Sea. Over half of them don’t divert their attention, their eyes wide as they are clearly in shock that Tony Stark just stormed through the front doors. The other thirty percent are either too distracted to care, or they simply don’t know who he is.
“Mary Fitzpatrick,” Tony spits out, hands gripping the counter of the reception desk tightly. “Or maybe Mary Parker, I don’t know-- has she married Richard yet? I don’t--”
“Mary Fitzpatrick,” Pepper confirmed and the frazzled looking nurse behind the counter nodded.
“I assume you’re family,” she says. The nametag clipped onto pale pink scrubs reads, Allison.
“Yes,” Pepper says as they start to follow Allison down a busy hallway. “He’s the father. I’m a friend.”
Tony wondered if Allison knew who he was. If she did, she was doing a stand-up job at acting like she didn’t. They turned left into a second hallway, this one narrower than the first, and considerably less crowded.
“Room 227,” Allison says. “Call the front desk if you need anything. I’ll be there all day.”
“Thank you,” Tony says, muttering his first words to the woman after a stretch of silence
Allison smiles. “Of course, Mr. Stark.”
Inside the room, Mary lays on the hospital bed, and Richard stands at her side. Mary’s hair is damp and curls stick to her forehead. Tony notices the shimmery engagement ring on her left hand while she squeezes the life out of Richard with a white-knuckled grip.
Richard holds the back of his fiance’s head and presses his lips to her temple, whispers escaping his lips that Tony couldn’t make out. If she was hurting him, he wasn’t letting anyone know.
The contraction that Mary must have been battling finally lets up, and she falls back with a huff. Her eyes find Tony and Pepper standing by the door, and a wide smile blooms over her sweaty face.
“Tony!” She exclaims, sounding out of breath.
“Hope we aren't catching you at a bad time,” Tony says a little sheepishly.
“Of course not,” Mary says, sounding cheerful and exhausted at the same time. “Right as rain over here!”
Richard scoffs with a little shake of his head. The grin that stretches over his lips makes Tony suppress a chuckle, but Mary ignores her fiance.
“Really, Tony,” she says, “I’m doing good.”
“She’s doing great,” Richard says and places a kiss on the top of Mary’s head.
Suddenly, Pepper’s phone dings and she checks it so quickly Tony wonders if she even read the notification. “Sorry, we have someone waiting outside to drop something off, so if you’ll excuse me…”
“Sure,” Mary says with a smile, “duty calls.”
“I’ll be back soon,” Pepper says to Tony, and then she’s gone.
Tony is left standing in silence. Mary watches him, the smile still in place. Richard observes the billionaire shuffle aimlessly, his grin faded slightly. He obviously still didn’t know what to make of the other man.
“Nice shirt,” Richard finally says, breaking the silence.
“Oh,” Tony looks down at his SNL tee. “Thanks. Um, limited edition.”
“Of course.”
The response was dry, and it dawned on Tony how absolutely unprepared he was for this.
----
As it turned out, Pepper never made it back.
Tony received a message from her that said, “Talking to people who will set up the nursery both here and in California while we’re gone. Don’t know how long I’ll be.”
Tony didn’t bother with a response, and his phone got tucked back into his pocket to be forgotten about. He hoped that her calls would be short and she would return soon, but that wish wasn’t granted, because not long after he received her text, Mary was delivering his son.
“Come on, push for us, Mary,” the doctor said.
Tony stood in the corner, his eyes on his feet, panic taking its hold on his once more. A faint ringing had filled his ears, and all other sounds slowly start to drown out. He thinks about how he’s too nervous to even stand next to the woman delivering his child. How he should be over there offering comfort, but his feet are cemented to the linoleum, and Richard already seems to be providing enough comfort to cover everyone in the room.
He thinks about how Howard was to him as a child. How Howard wasn’t even there when Tony was born; how it was just him and his mother for the beginning. A time Tony doesn't remember, but wished he did, because that was the only time in his life he didn’t know his father.
He is brought out of his thoughts when someone calls out his name breathlessly. “Tony.”
Tony’s head whips up to see Mary and Richard staring at him expectantly. Richard looks stressed, but Mary has plastered on a smile.
“Come here,” she says, and it was obvious by the way how tense everyone was that the baby would be arriving shortly. “Please.”
Tony doesn't disobey, and his feet shuffle quickly towards the bed. Mary takes his hand with ferocious strength, and Tony holds back a wince. This was nothing compared to what she was doing.
The doctor says something else, but it all goes over Tony’s head. He can tell when Mary pushes by how her grip increases and decreases in long intervals of time. Eventually, one sentence slips into Tony’s mind, and then he was giving his undivided attention.
“One more and then he’s here.”
Mary grunts, a new determination in her features, and pushed with all her might. Richard is cheering her on, and Tony watching the best he can without actually watching.
Finally, finally, a faint crying fills the room, and Mary falls back into her pillows with a happy sigh. Her hand lets go of Tony’s, but he doesn't notice because his eyes are following the squirmy, teeny tiny infant that is being wrapped up in a blanket bigger than necessary.
His son. Tony’s son.
That’s his boy.
When they try to hand him off to Mary, she stares at the child for a second before gesturing towards Tony. “All his,” she says, her voice hardly there.
Tony’s heartbeat picks up so quickly he was afraid of an attack, but before he could prepare, the baby was being placed in his arms. A small gasp of surprise leaves the man’s lips, and he stares at the child.
The baby was slightly purple, wrinkled beyond belief, and shifting in the blanket cocoon trying his best to get comfortable. There was a tiny bit of hair on his head; dark and messy because he had yet to be cleaned.
He was also smaller than anything Tony had ever imagined. It felt like he was holding nothing, and he knew that the doctors would have to take the baby soon to get him into the NICU, so he cherished the moments he was getting now.
“Hi,” Tony whispers so low he can hardly make it out himself. “Hi, baby.”
The baby raises an itty-bitty hand and waves it slightly. Like it was his own new-born way of saying “hello” back.
Tony could feel the tears bloom. He could feel them roll down his cheeks. He could feel his heart swell; like the Grinch at the end of that movie.
Tony didn’t realize it was this easy to fall in love until this moment.