The Tower: Family

Balancing the Numbers

I didn't hear from any of my biological family anytime soon after that, and I just went back to my regular day-to-day life. The twins would be starting preschool soon and we were all taking the time to appreciate them being around, just as we were also planning to enjoy the time when they first started. I spent my time between them and the lab and I tried to put everything else behind me.

Wanda had well and truly started showing, while Natasha had just a very small baby bump. They were both extreme ends of what pregnant women could be too. Wanda had that glow everyone always spoke about. Her hair was rich and full, and her skin was clear and beautiful. She was tired a lot but she would take regular naps and she was loving being pregnant. Most of the time you found her wearing long flowing clothes that showed off her baby bump. Natasha on the other hand was irritable and moody. Her skin and hair were on the greasy side. She had a weirdly high amount of energy and kept freaking out about all the things we needed to do before the babies came and her sex drive went from 0 to 100 at the drop of a hat. She also was in sweats all the time and usually, the sweatshirt she wore was one of the guys so she was swimming in it.

It wasn't long after I met with my parents that we had a group ultrasound appointment. Natasha and Wanda were at sixteen weeks and doing the glucose test and were hoping they might be able to find out the sexes too, though it was at the very earliest they'd be able to tell. I was at eight weeks and it would be the first time we got to see this baby at all. Everyone was very excited and wanted to be there for it. Especially the guys who missed a lot of the first pregnancy. However, the examination room was only so big, and there were also the twins to worry about. So, a decision was made that the biological parents would be in the room while everyone else got to watch the ultrasound via a video in the living room. The others would get to come for future ultrasounds so everyone got a chance to be there too. For right now, Sam, Tony, Bucky, Natasha, Wanda, and I all sat in Doctor Schroeder's office going through questions and concerns. Wanda and Natasha had done their fasting tests and everyone was just excited to see the babies.

"Alright," Doctor Schroeder said when everyone was done with their questions. "Who's going first."

"Let's go with El," Wanda suggested. "We've seen the other three babies. We haven't seen this one yet."

"Alright, Elise," Doctor Schroeder said. "Underwear off and up onto the table, please."

I did as I was told, stepping behind a screen and taking off my panties before climbing up on the table. Tony quickly swooped in and took my hand as Doctor Schroeder prepped the wand.

"Alright," she said, nudging my legs a little further apart. "You're all going to be pros at this by the time these babies start arriving. Little pinch."

She inserted the wand and I flinched as it pinched and then she pushed it around trying to find the little embryo growing inside me. Tony kept tapping his fingers nervously on my hand.

"It's alright," I soothed as she kept moving the wand around. "Everything is going to be okay."

He didn't say anything and his hand tightened in mine. I saw the little peanut shape with its tiny fluttering heart appear on the screen and smiled. "And there's your baby," doctor Schroeder said, circling the little shape on the screen.

"That's them?" Tony asked, staring at the screen.

"Looks like a jelly bean, doesn't it, Tones?" Sam said.

"It's about the size of a bean too," doctor Schroeder added.

"Wow," Tony said. "Our little bean. They're okay, aren't they?"

Doctor Schroeder had moved on to doing measurements and she didn't answer right away. Tony's hand got tighter and tighter in mine the longer she waited, and he began to tap his feet. "The baby is the right size, the heartbeat is strong. Everything looks fine," she said and Tony let out a breath. "Honesty, of all three pregnancies this is the one I'm least worried about. Elise has already had one successful pregnancy. Twins where one wasn't even fully human. With you as the father and the fact you said Thor used his god powers to help conceive, I'm sure it's going to go just fine. We'll keep an eye on everything of course and I expect you to follow all the rules regarding diet and exercise, but I'm not concerned."