Unconventional

The whole building was very, very white. It smelled almost too clean. Thor didn’t like it. Surely there was a better place than this for Jane to go. But it was too late. The deed was done. He still felt shame that he had not been able to accompany her during this time, but Lady Pepper, who had been with Jane the entire time, assured him that everything had gone well and Jane understood his need to be in Asgard. Still, he vowed to make it up to his future Queen someday.

“Come on, big guy,” Man of Iron clapped his shoulder before leading him down a hall, both ignoring the gaping of the surrounding people. “Pep said it’s down this way.”

He followed his fellow warrior down a winding hallway until they reached double doors with small windows to peer inside. Lady Pepper stood to one side with the Lady Widow. Both women looked up as the Man of Iron pushed open the doors and waved the God through.

“Thor,” Pepper smiled reached for his arm to lead him down the hall, leaving the other two behind. “Jane’s been asking for you.”

“Thank you for staying with her, Lady Pepper,” Thor murmured, feeling shy and nervous.

“No problem,” she smiled again, stopping outside of a door to press a kiss to his cheek. “She’s just in here. Good luck.”

Thor nodded and waited for Pepper’s footfalls to fade before taking a deep breath and entering the room. The large square space was mostly taken up by the bed in the middle of the room that immediately stole Thor’s attention, making him blind to the rest of his surroundings. Jane lay amongst the pillows, tired but happy, smiling down at the bundle of pink blankets held in her arms. Her eyes flicked up at the sound of the door opening and her smile broadened.

“Thor.”

“Jane,” he whispered in awe, drawing near to press a kiss to her forehead. “How are you?”

“Tired,” she chuckled. “But good. We’re both good. Here. Meet your daughter, Astrid.”

Thor carefully took the tiny baby into his arms, staring with wide eyes at Astrid. She snuffled, snuggling closer to her father. Tears of joy prickled at his eyes as he bent his head, pressing his lips gently to what little hair she had and nuzzling her plump little cheek.

“She is beautiful,” he murmured, glancing up to find Jane had fallen asleep. Smiling, the God of Thunder settled into the chair pulled up beside Jane’s bed, cuddling his child to his chest.

Tony never had a very good relationship with his father, so when Pepper had told him she was pregnant, the first thing he did (after Pepper had fallen asleep that night) was go binge drinking. How the hell was he supposed to be a dad? He didn’t even know what one looked like! The next morning, after downing a few painkillers for the hangover he decided the first thing he needed to do was stop drinking. That probably wasn’t something a kid needed to see. During the whole pregnancy, though, Tony continued to work himself into a panic about his imminent fatherhood. It hadn’t taken long after Pepper, exhausted from bringing a life into the world, had handed over the little pink baby that Tony had finally understood. He’d be a better dad than his father, simply by being there.

“Daddy!” a tiny voice called out, making him smile. He turned to see his little three year old son charge into the lab, toy hulk held tightly to his chest.

“Hey, buddy,” he chuckled as he tossed the boy into the air the way Pepper hated. “What’s up? I thought Aunt Natasha was supposed to be taking you shopping.”

The little boy wrinkled his nose in distaste but didn’t comment. It wasn’t unusual. Actually him not talking ever wasn’t unusual. According to the doctors, the little progress he had was impressive for Autistic children. Tony didn’t care one way or another, as long as he was happy.

“Okay, so no shopping,” he grinned at the beaming smile on Parker’s face. “Wanna help daddy piece together the engine to the jag again?”

Parker nodded enthusiastically, taking off towards the cars the minutes his little feet touched the ground. He seemed to have a natural instinct to taking electronics apart and putting it back together perfectly, something Pepper blamed Tony for naturally. It’d been a few months since Tony had allowed the little boy to help with the bigger machines, much to Parker’s delight.

The elder Stark made his way after his son, peace enveloping his lab as usual when the boy was present. They may still have a few problems, Tony was far from perfect after all, but he thought he made a pretty good father. Better than his own, anyway.

No one was surprised when Clint and Natasha got together. Even fewer were surprised when the Widow became pregnant. They were, however, quite shocked to hear that they were expecting twins, Nikolai and Anton. And even more shocked a few years later when Natasha announced that she was pregnant. With twins. Again. And Clint was “going to take care of the problem if he ever wanted to have sex again”. They named their twin girls Danika and Karinna and Clint was no longer able to reproduce.

“Niko! Anton!” Nat yelled from the door way, holding one year old Dani while Karinna held her free hand. “Get back from that ledge! I don’t care if your father likes to hang out out there or not!”

“Yes, mama,” they intoned regretfully before both five year olds sulked back to their mother’s side.

“Speaking of which, where is your father?”

Both boys giggled before looking up. Nat sighed and twisted her head around to look up at the very top of Avengers Tower. Sure enough Clint was perched in his usual spot overlooking the city, looking like the big bird he was named for.

“Clint!” Nat smirked when Hawkeye visibly flinched, almost falling off the ledge. All four of their children giggled at the sight. “Get down from there!”

Half a beat later her husband stood sheepishly before her, his sons attempting to scale their father. They were far too similar to Clint. At this rate she was sure to have a heart attack before their sixth birthday.

After he was woken decades away from where he should be, after Peggy died, Steve was sure he would never feel what he had for her ever again. And then he met Sarah. She was sweet and caring and a little naive. According to Tony, she was exactly like Steve himself.

He was in over his head before he knew it, and he couldn’t be happier. It wasn’t until a few months after dating that she invited him over to her home, a nice little apartment not far from Broadway, where she worked as an actress/singer. He was shocked, to say the least, to find that she had a six-year-old son named Tommy. After the initial shock wore off, however, and Steve got to know Tommy, he wasn’t ashamed to say he loved the little boy as much as his momma. Quickly, Steve became the only father figure Tommy had, his biological father having given up all parental rights.

“Looking good, Tommy,” Steve grinned, helping the now seven year old boy fix his tie.

Hazel eyes slanted up to study the much larger man. It wasn’t uncommon for him to study Steve like that, so the Captain ignored it, knowing the boy would say whatever he needed eventually.

“Do I have to call you dad?” a small voice asked finally.

Kneeling down, Steve cleared his throat, “Listen Tommy, I’m marrying your mom today, but that doesn’t mean you have to call me dad. I’m fine if you want to keep calling me Steve, okay?”

The boy blinked at him, “But what if I want to call you dad?”

Steve choked up, tears coming to his eyes as he hugged his not-so-distant-future son, “I’d love that. But only if you want to.”

He felt him nod, little arms circling his neck, “Okay, Dad.”

Betty had always wanted a child. So they had tried. Against his better judgment he had agreed to try for a child, because that’s what she wanted, what made her happy. She didn’t care that the baby may end up like him. End up a monster. It would be theirs and that’s all she cared about.

She was so excited when the test came back positive, and even Bruce had to admit, he was really happy. For once everything seemed to go their way. The entire pregnancy was normal, absolutely no problems whatsoever. It wasn’t until the due date approached that trouble reared its ugly head. The baby, a girl, didn’t survive the birth. Betty almost didn’t make it either.

After that they stopped trying, unable to cope with the idea of something that tragic happening again. Bruce rarely left the lab, sequestering himself off from the world until finally Betty came down, large packets of paper in her arms and a plan.

Mere months later (Tony helped push their applications through) that Bruce and Betty brought their new daughter into Avengers tower to be welcomed by their friends and their families.

“What’s your name?” Niko, always straight forward, asked the shy two year old clinging to Bruce’s leg.

After glancing up at her new daddy, the little girl answered, “Carly.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Niko,” he smiled. “This is my brother, Anton and our sisters…”

Bruce turned away from where Niko was introducing the rest of the “baby Avengers” to Carly. Betty met his eye and he grinned. Maybe they had lost a child, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have family.