Truth is... I'm a Stark

Oh no

It seemed to be an unspoken agreement between the two that they wouldn't mention the day that Pepper woke up in Tony's bed. And Pepper was silently grateful, she didn't need him reminding her everyday how she gave him her virginity, her dignity, how she became like all the other girls Tony had met. Pepper was just glad that things weren't awkward between the two of them; she didn't need anything distracting her from her work. Unfortunately, awkwardness or embarrassment wasn't what was affecting her performance.

A few weeks after 'the incident', as she liked to call it, Pepper started feel more tired than usual - just a general fatigue. At first she put it down to lack of sleep, but when this fatigue graduated to headaches and nausea, she decided that she would do something that she had never done in her life. Take a day off work.

It may seem silly to most that taking 3 days off work, which she was very much so entitled to, was such a big deal to her (that's because it was silly), but Pepper prided herself on being punctual and having perfect attendance. Even in her school days, Pepper was on time to every lesson and was proud to say she had only missed one day of school in her entire life (she was less proud to say that this was because her father had to literally chase her down then drag her back inside her house, kicking and screaming, into bed, because she had a burning fever.) So when Pepper called the receptionist that morning, saying that she would need to take at least 3 days off work as she was feeling ill, she felt ashamed. But when she promptly ran to the bathroom to empty out the contents of her stomach, she soon forgot about it.

_________

When Pepper was able to stand up and not collapse due to dizziness, she walked over to her apartment's living room and got her laptop to search her symptoms.
Cancer - no {AN: is it just me but when you search up your symptoms a bunch of ridiculous stuff comes up. Like all because I have a sore throat doesn't mean I have Oesophageal cancer🙄}, pneumonia - no, Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis {AN: it's real look it up} - no. Then one caught her eye and her searching came to sudden halt; she wasn't, okay maybe she had had, but it was her first, no she definitely wasn't. Pepper quickly dismissed the thought and kept scrolling, common cold - yes, that's what she had; that made so much sense, she definitely wasn't...

The next day, when Pepper felt up to it, she went to pharmacy to get some medicine, paracetamol, ibuprofen, some antibiotics, then she saw a - No she wouldn't need it, she was certain and then she walked down the aisle, before running back. But what if she did, maybe she was - No she wasn't, so she walked down the aisle, before running back. This dance continued for a good 20minutes before Pepper realised she'd probably looked like a fool, running up and down the aisle like she was. So she made her decision: it's probably a waste of money, but with her new job at Stark Industries she had a lot of money to spare, and it would definitely come out negative, but she'll take it anyway because what if she actually was -

__________

As Pepper sat on her bathroom floor, she anxiously lifted what she bought from the pharmacy, then she dropped it in shock. She was - no she couldn't be. The redheaded woman blinked repetitively, as if to clear her eyes, and looked at it again.
As she stared at the clear result on the pregnancy test she had only one thought: 'Oh no.'
{AN: so how was that chapter, if you liked it don't forget to vote and comment! By the way, who's reading this story in quarantine?}