I Dreamt We Had a Kid

Chapter 4

Tony leaned over Nebula's control panel with great difficulty to type in the coordinates of the avengers facility.

He knew he was not going to be able to remain conscious for long after they arrived, so he prepared himself for a mad dash to the hospital wing. The ship took longer to land than Tony had wanted it to, the nausea of the landing made him almost puke on the floor.

He held Peter close to him as he stumbled out of the ship and to the office.

"Mr. Stark," a desk lady said to him, looking slightly star struck.

"This is no time to be star struck," Tony managed to cough out, along with some blood. He passed out on the ground.
When Tony came to, he found himself in a hospital bed with an IV and big bandage around his stomach.

"Your awake," a woman with blonde hair and a lab coat on said.

"You seem pleased by that," He replied, voice dripping with sarcasm.

When he said this, he saw a look of familiarity in her eyes, almost like she knew someone as sarcastic and annoying as him, but it was replaced by a brief look of sadness.

"I'm Dr. Christine Palmer," She said to him while placing a glass of water next to him. "I was the lead surgeon in repairing your severely damaged stomach. We took a skin graph from your intestine to rebuild the torn wall."

Tony vaguely knew what that meant, whatever drugs they had given him blurring his thought. He felt his chest to grab for Peter's bag and didn't feel anything. He sat up quickly, earning a sharp course of pain through his whole body.

"Where is he?" Tony spit out, starting to get out of bed.

"Stay down, Stark." She gently pushed him back down on the bed and handed him a vile with a string attached to it. Ashes were inside of it. He gladly took it and placed it around his neck.

"Everyone seems to be wearing one these days." Her face was grim.

"I don't see one on you." Tony said, sounding slightly rude but not meaning to.

"A friend, I don't know where he is or if he is OK." She paused. "Not that it's any of your business."

Tony nodded in agreement, it wasn't his business.

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After a few days in bed, Tony was done. He had to leave the hospital, so he got up to go to his lab. Out of the blue, a horrible thought crossed his mind.

Pepper.

He fell toward the bed when he realized why she hadn't come to visit him. Why he hadn't heard from her when he landed on earth. The drugs had blocked his thoughts, but now they were here in full force.

Tony pulled on clothes as calmly as he could and started walking to his lab.

"Mr. Stark," a voice came from behind the desk, "We need to show you something."

So Tony was lead to a conference room and asked to sit down. A woman approached him with a paper bag and handed it to him, a sad expression on her face.

Tony slowly unwrapped the bag to find another necklace. It had a "P" on the side.

He twirled the necklace in his hand, watching the ashes fall from one side to the other. He placed it around his neck with shaky hands, and rubbed his face. He reached once more into the bag to make sure one of his other friends ashes were not inside, instead he found a USB. Tony carefully placed the USB into a nearby laptop. He heard the familiar voice of the woman he loved, scratchy and breaking up.

"Tony, oh my god are you alright what's going on?" Her voice said.

"Yeah, I'm fine I just think we might have to reschedule our 8:30 res."

"Why?"
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Tony remembered the call, his last conversation on the phone with Pepper. Her voice was already breaking up.
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"Just cause, I probably won't make it back for a while."

"Tony, you're not on that ship." Her voice pleaded.

"Yeah," Tony replied.

"No please tell me your not on the ship-"

"Honey I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I don't know what to say."

"Come back here Tony, I swear to god you come back here right now."
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Tony heard the static of his voice cracking out. This was where he lost her signal, but the call kept going.
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"Tony," her voice pleaded with no answer, "Tony no please, I need you."

Tony felt his stomach clench and tears threatened slip out.

"I need you-" Her voice was a whisper as she paused to catch her breathe, "to be there for our child." She cried out. "You're going to be a dad Tony."

"I love you."

The call went black.