Consultation Bonus

Title: Consultation Bonus
Author: Saydria Wolfe
Series: Consultation
Series Order: 3
Fandom: MCU
Genre: Rule 63 (Clint Barton)
Relationship: Clint Barton/Tony Stark
Warnings: Hint of past non-con
Author Note: Yeah, its got an official series page now. Oops?
Word Count: 1,804
Summary: For every action…

 

 

“You don’t have to go, you know.”

Clint smiled up at Tony. “I kinda do. Promised the kiddo that we’d do planting and harvesting together this year. If we don’t go back soon, there will be no planting and no harvest.

She watched Tony start and cancel three different counter arguments before he gave up. They were both firmly opposed to breaking promises to PJ for their own reasons and there were work arounds available to enable that, but she wasn’t going to ask him to alter his Tower for them. He would if she asked but… The Tower was his home, his safe space, designed to meet his every whim. She couldn’t ask him to change it.

“You’ll come for Christmas?” He tried instead. “And New Year’s. The team’s family, right? PJ deserves big family holiday.”

She nodded her agreement and let him pull her into his arms. “You guys can come to Iowa next year. I’ll have a barn converted for more guest room to fit the whole team. We can do snowmen and sledding. A country Christmas. The whole nine yards.”

Tony shot her a jokingly horrified look and she snickered.

“I’ll have FRIDAY tell you when we’re home.” She grinned when Tony spluttered. “You think I didn’t notice the Iowa State construction permits you slid into my pile of reports? Just ‘cause everything was already filled out, doesn’t mean I wasn’t going to read it all.”

“And…you don’t mind?”

“I figured I was signing up for some kind of monitoring, climbing into bed with you.”

Tony squinted at her. “And you’re not mad about, you know, the invasion of your home and privacy?”

“I thought about it.” Clint shrugged. “But then I talked with FRIDAY and she admitted that it was her idea, so she could watch over me. Help me with the kid. I think it’s kinda cute how far you’ll go to enable your electronic offspring.”

“Alright,” he pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll let you go. But I expect to see you here no later than December…fifth.”

“Tony,” Clint rolled her eyes. “The twentieth.”

“Tenth.”

“Fifteenth, final offer.”

He sighed like she was such a trial. “Accepted.”

“If Cap gives you any trouble, I expect you to call me,” she reminded him. “Either of them. Or Lefty. And I’m all in for the next alien invasion so you really better fucking call me.”

“I’ll call you,” he promised. “Probably more often than you want but that’s all your fault anyway.”

“That’s victim blaming, Tony.”

He scoffed. “Go rescue Nat from your kid before she murders me for extending her babysitting hours without notice. JARVIS will warm up your ‘jet.”

 

Two Months Later…

 

“Fuck!” Clint stared down at the little test on her counter.

How the fuck had this happened to her? She’d done everything right. Got the implant, waited more than the necessary time, she took no meds that could interfere with her birth control, and—while Tony definitely had a great cock—it had no magical fertility properties unlike some assholes she could name.

Fuck, Tony. What was Tony going to think? He’d trusted her.

“Hawk Lady?” FRIDAY called her attention.

“Oh, my god, FRIDAY. What am I going to do?”

“What do you wanna do, Hawk Lady?” The AI asked softly.

“Cry,” she admitted. “Scream. Hit something. This almost killed me last time, but I can’t— I can’t.”

“You haven’t slept with anyone but the Boss.”

“Jeeze, FRIDAY. I need a friend right now, not a babysitter.”

“I am your friend, Clint.” And fuck it all if the AI didn’t sound like she meant it. “But I don’t agree that you don’t need a babysitter. I’ll call the Morrisons, you take PJ to them and I’ll have the Boss here when you get back.”

Clint thought about it. She had no idea what to tell Tony but—well, Tony was a scientist. “Have him bring his own test. As many as he wants, I’ll take them all.”

“Martha has agreed to take PJ for the day,” FRIDAY said by way of an answer. “Start your coffee before you go.”

“Thanks, FRIDAY.”

-*-

The Suit was standing outside her house in a guard position when she got back from the neighbors. She knocked on her on front door because it didn’t matter that this was her house, one did not startle an Avenger if they wanted their house to keep standing. And she did. Her kid lived there.

Tony had a white plastic bag dangling from one hand. His eyes were wide and unfocused.

He looked terrified.

“Hey,” she tried.

His eyes snapped into focus and zeroed in right on her. “Hey. Where’s PJ?”

And if she wasn’t already sure she could love him, she would know it now. “With the neighbors.”

“Is that…safe?”

“They, uh— They’re ex-SHIELD. SHIELD-SHIELD, not Hydra-SHIELD. She was superintendent of the Academy. He was head of Academy Medical. Their daughter was Academy Range Master before… She didn’t survive the— She didn’t survive Hydra’s raid on the Academy.”

“So, they adopted you instead?”

Clint shook her head. “I moved them out here before that. He’s the only doctor I go to, delivered PJ.”

“That’s why you have no medical records for your…uh. Last time.”

Somehow, she found it endearing to know he’d hacked to find her medical records to learn about her last pregnancy. She knew he did it in an effort to prepare himself and help her with what was coming, and it made her a little choked up to think about it. Clearly, there was something wrong with her. “I— Well, you can probably guess what I have to say.”

“If you wanted to say it anyway, I’d like to hear it.”

She stared at him. If she didn’t know better, she’d say he looked…grateful? Or maybe she was projecting? Whatever. “Tony, I…” she huffed. “I took a pregnancy test this morning and it came back positive.”

“You couldn’t have just said Tony, I’m pregnant?” He smiled at her in a weird way she didn’t understand.

“False positives happen,” she defended herself. “I figured you’d want to run the test yourself.” She nodded to the bag in his hand.

He looked down at the bag in his hand and blinked at it in surprise.

It was an honest-to-god Walgreens bag and she wondered if she owed Pepper an apology for the crazy that was going to come her way if anyone had gotten a picture of Tony Stark going to a pharmacy and buying a pregnancy test in his Iron Man suit.

“I’m not gonna let you watch me pee—I, just, no—but FRIDAY can monitor that, and you can hold it the entire time it’s cooking.”

“Okay,” he nodded and followed her upstairs and right to her ensuite bathroom.

She closed the door in his face before he could actually enter. “FRIDAY, you here?”

“I’m everywhere, Hawk Lady.”

“Smartass,” she muttered. “I could send you home with Tony, you know.”

“I am home and I am with Boss,” the AI sassed back, and Clint felt her shoulders relax. “I’m also in the Tower and over a dozen other places. I’m even in space. Are you jealous?”

“So jealous,” Clint admitted, and she mostly meant it. She read the back of the box. “Instructions say fifteen minutes.”

“The timer is set. I’ll start it when you put the cap on.”

“Thanks, Fri. You can let him in when I start washing my hands.”

When FRIDAY let Tony in, he was holding a cup of coffee out to her, but he only had eyes for the test. It was almost a relief.

Clint took the coffee gratefully and walked to the far side of the room to stare out her back windows. She could see the Morrison’s roof from where she stood. Specifically, she could see the archery targets Martha had had a bunch of local boys put up on her roof last year under the guise of Christmas decorations but never took down.

Martha was the worst sort of enabler and never accepted Clint’s vow to never touch the bow again, to never be an Avenger again. She knew the woman was proud of her for the training and coordination she’d given the team for months and months this year.

She thought Phil would have been proud too, if he’d been alive to see it. Those were his lessons she’d been paying forward.

She glanced over at Tony. He was perched on the edge of her stupidly indulgent bathtub, focused entirely on the EPT in his hands. She wasn’t sure either Martha or Phil would be proud of her for this.

“Time’s up, Boss.”

Tony didn’t move immediately. Clint found she couldn’t watch but she couldn’t look away, either.

Eventually, Tony stood, set down the test, and straightened and buttoned his suit jacket. He looked directly at her and his face was stone, total poker face and it settled like lead in her stomach. Then he walked across the entire bathroom and bedroom.

She was prepared for anything. Whatever he wanted to do, that was fine. She would be fine—

Then he hugged her.

Tony fucking Stark hugged her.

He picked her up and spun her even.

“What?” she demanded as he set her down.

“Clint,” he took her head in both hands. “Clint, we made a baby!”

“…and you’re happy with this?”

“I don’t know what I am. I’m not mad? I know I’m not entitled to anything but— What do you wanna do?”

“Do?” She asked and he nodded. “You mean like, keep it?”

“Do you want to?”

“I mean, I can’t abort, Tony. I tried with PJ and…I can’t. I just can’t and I’m not going through that safari of self-discovery again. I refuse.”

“I know.” Tony nodded. “I figured we wouldn’t have PJ if you could, but we do have PJ and PJ’s great. I mean, do you want to keep it, keep it. Or I could keep it. Or we could keep it. I can’t allow the adoption thing. No kid of mine would ever be safe in the system…but I think we could do great by them together and I’m willing to try if you are.”

Clint thought about that. “I— You know PJ and I are a unit, right? You get both of us or neither of us. There’s no compromise there.”

“BOGO, I love it. Let’s do it.”

Tony didn’t immediately jump to asking about marriage for which Clint was grateful…but also kind of disappointed. “We’ll figure it out,” she said.

“We’ll figure it out,” he agreed.

“Tony,” she started because, well, he did ask for it.

“Yeah, sweetheart?”

She cleared her throat. “Tony, I’m pregnant.”

Tony laughed and caught her up in another hug. It felt…good. Kinda like home. She could get used to it.

 

 

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