8Realized I never put in an author's note in the first chapter, sorry. Also this chapter is mostly dialogue. It's going to hopefully get more action then two people talking :)
I usually do not write or read alternative universe stories. This one would not leave me alone until I wrote it. It's inspiration comes from two things, the song A million dreams from the greatest showman and an interview I saw with Scarlett Johannsen where she said she'd love to do some kind of alternative storyline where Bruce and Natasha got to be together. Also it's my NaNoWriMo project :)
They had Bruce's lab to themselves, he'd even shut the blinds and locked the doors. He didn't want her to be any more nervous then she already was, even if she wouldn't admit it. Natasha Romanoff did not admit to being scared or nervous ever but Bruce knew her well enough to see behind her walls, at least some of them. He wasn't sure even Clint had seen behind them all.
"First test is easy." He handed her a narrow white box. "Just take that into the bathroom, do as the instructions say, and wait for to change colors. Blue is positive, pink is not."
She took the box without a word and did what he said. "Takes about five minutes," he called after her.
Natasha shut the door behind her. She looked at herself in the mirror. "Give it up, Romanoff. This isn't going to happen and you know it. This happens to ordinary people with ordinary lives and relationships, not you." she told herself before ripping off the plastic of the white box. "It isn't even possible." she muttered as she read the instructions. "Pee on a stick. A person actually needs instructions for that?"
Bruce waited outside, impatiently. He resisted the urge to knock as he was pretty sure that would not earn him any points with his girlfriend. She was already on edge as it was. He'd already set up a doppler, he thought she might react better to that equipment then a full ultrasound.
Natasha leaned against the narrow sink and waited. She closed her eyes so she wouldn't have to see her watch. She was sure Bruce was just outside the door, squirming impatiently. She couldn't face him yet, couldn't even begin to face the fact that it could be real. How it could be, she didn't know. Bruce would probably come up with some scientific answer eventually.
Five minutes seemed to last an hour while she struggled with her thoughts. Unsure of what to do if the impossible became true, unsure she and Bruce even should have a child, it wasn't like they were ordinary people with ordinary jobs. An assassin and the Incredible Hulk, yes, perfect parent material, she mused. They weren't Clint and Laura, they weren't going to set up house in the middle of nowhere and settle down. She shook her head. It didn't matter anyway. It wasn't going to happen. It couldn't, she knew that. It was the entire point of the graduation ceremony after all.
The timer on her watch went off. Natasha opened her eyes and sighed. Time to face it one way or another. She wasn't even sure what she wanted it to say anymore.
It was blue.
Bruce and Natasha sat together in the lab, silent. Everything pointed toward the impossible.
"How?" she broke the silence.
Bruce had been thinking about this. "If we were ordinary people in an ordinary relationship, would you be asking that?"
"Of course not. It would be possible then."
"Exactly. So um, I've been thinking on it. I don't know exactly what the ceremony did physically to you, but most sterilization isn't 100 percent guaranteed. And then um there's me. Or rather the Hulk. I don't know what the gamma radiation could do to me or to you regarding fertility. I would think it'd render me infertile for sure but I didn't plan on the Hulk either so I'm not, "
" So you're telling me this now? That you're like supercharged because of gamma radiation? What could that potentially do to a baby, Bruce? " she interrupted, getting angry.
" Well. I don't know. I never thought it would matter to tell the truth." Wincing inwardly he realized now the folly of that thinking.
" For how long we've been together and you never once even considered this? " she wasn't yelling, afraid they'd be overheard, but was struggling not to.
" You said you couldn't get pregnant, remember? Why would I have? " he pointed out.
"So it's all my fault? Seriously, you're going to play that card, like we're a couple of teenagers?" she scoffed at that excuse.
Bruce sighed. "No, I'm not playing that card. I'm just saying I had no reason to believe it could happen and neither did you."
"I know. What do we do now?" she buried her head in her hands.
Bruce pulled her closer to him. "What do you want to do? Since we're not a couple of teenagers, I don't have a ring or anything."
"Seems like a dumb reason to get married anyway." she mumbled into her hands. She looked up at him. "Bruce, if, and this is a big if, if you can make sure everything is all right and it's not like, a mini Hulk, or something, I want to keep it. I'm probably going to be pretty lousy at the parenting thing but I want to keep it."
"Nat, I'll do my best to make sure it's as healthy as can be. No mini Hulks or anything." he promised her.
"This is insane." Natasha leaned into him. "We're sitting here discussing having a baby like we're normal people with normal lives."
"Clint has three." Bruce pointed out. "He has the same kind of job."
"Laura doesn't. I'm not going to be a stay at home housewife like her, you know that. Besides, Clint retired." she retaliated.
"I could retire. Let you be the Avenger, I'll just be a scientist." Bruce wished it could be that easy.
"I guess we have a lot to figure out." Natasha had no idea where they were supposed to go from here but at least they'd do it together.
Dinner at the compound was something of a loud affair when everyone was home. There was nearly everyone this night except for Tony, Pepper had insisted he had to attend meetings in the city, which he hated. He much preferred to be at the compound, living that superhero life with everyone else. Rhodey too had been called by the Army for official business, which he also would have preferred being with everyone else.
Vision was cooking. It was odd how he liked to cook since he couldn't eat. Sam was helping him although it seemed more like annoying the synthoid. Steve and Wanda were already at the table, the latter setting the table using her telekinesis powers much to Steve's amusement.
Natasha stopped right before the doorway and turned around. Bruce went after her. "It's dinnertime, Nat, not a warzone."
"I don't want to tell them yet."
"Okay. Then we don't have to. But we do need to eat dinner."
"Steve is going to want to know why you were looking for me earlier. What am I supposed to tell him?" she asked.
"Whatever you want. You're a spy, surely you can come up with a simple lie."
"Bruce, in the past half hour my entire life as I knew it has turned out to be something of a lie so I'm not really thinking right now." Natasha was on the verge of a bit of a meltdown.
"Okay, okay. Tell you want. I'm going to text Steve, tell him we decided to go out to dinner. That's why I was looking for you earlier. See? He'll believe it, everyone will." Bruce pulled his phone out of his pocket. She watched him text a short message and put the phone away." There. Now let's actually go out. We could head into the city if you'd like. " He put his arm around her.
" Pizza. Then tomorrow we're taking a quinjet." she told him as they headed outside.
"Why? We going somewhere?"
"Yes. To the farm. I have to tell Clint first. I don't want him to hear from anyone else." she explained.
A/N 2 I've just seen I have FOUR alerts for this story. Very cool. Thanks!