(2) Bring Me Home (T. Stark)

Chapter Eight

Tony holds to Trinity's hand as they walk through a row of Christmas trees. Trinity practically vibrates at his side with her excitement. Her pink coat swishes and swirls with her. Tony smiles watching her point to tress and then giggle to herself. He loves seeing her this happy. To be fair, she is usually always this happy, like it's her permanent default setting.

"What about this one?" Tony asks motioning to the tree at his side, Trinity shakes her head.

"Taller" she mumbles then motions with her hand.

"Not big enough?" Tony asks Trinity who shakes her head. They both look up at the tree, Tony hums and then looks to his daughter. "You do realize that me and you are going to have to decorate it" Tony reminds the girl.

"Uncle Happy help" Trinity states turning around to look for Happy, he's never far away though, just a few paces behind them.

"What do you think?" Tony asks. "This our tree?"

"No" He answers seriously. "She's right, it's not big enough"

"Not big enough" Tony mumbles and nods. "You guys are going to kill me" he mumbles warmly. "Okay, bigger trees...this way" he leads Trinity towards a larger batch of trees. Happy pulls his cell phone from his pocket as it pings away, quickly skimming the text on the screen.

"Boss?" Happy states and holds out his cell phone to Tony who glances down at the text from Pepper. Tony's smile fades slightly as he reads the text. 'Spencer's waters broke'. He looks up and he shares a look with Happy.

"I can't miss it again" Tony whispers, almost pleading with Happy, because he missed Trinity's birth, he doesn't want to miss the twins' too. He wants to be able to say he made it to at least one. "But I can't let her down" he looks to Trinity, he promised her a tree. Happy turns thoughtful then nods.

"Alright" he turns to Trinity. "Think you can see the one for your living room from up here?" Happy asks as he lifts Trinity up onto his shoulders, she laughs and holds on.

"Can you see it?" Tony asks looking around. "Can you see our tree?" he looks to his watch and closes his eyes. He wants to be on the road but she doesn't want to disappoint his daughter. It's going to be hard on Trinity with the twins coming and they need to make sure she still feels loved in all this.

"That one" Trinity points to a white-topped tree three rows over. Happy pulls Trinity down and sets her back on her feet.

"Now go on," Happy tells them. Tony lifts Trinity up to his hip and looks to Happy. "I've got the tree" Happy states. "Go meet the twins...and...Congratulations" Tony nods and smiles before hurrying away with Trinity. Happy shakes his head. "It's gonna be fun to watch" he comments to himself, imagining Tony dealing with three children under 5.

.............

Tony almost rushes past Spencer who is sat in the hospital waiting room. Just sitting there staring at a poster about hemorrhoids. Trinity is the one to see her first.

"Mommy" Trinity calls out causing Tony spins and looks for her.

"Spence" he whisper moving towards her. "What are you doing sat out here? Why aren't you in there?" he motions to the maternity unit. "You know....pushing," he asks her as she stands, she shrugs a little and sighs readjusting her jacket around her bump.

"It was a false alarm" Spencer grumbles. She really hoped that this would be it. That it would happen. But it's not. They're staying in there. Tony deflates a little and moves to her. He wraps his arms around her and she sighs against him. "Really thought it was going to happen..." she whispers. "Turns out I just peed myself" Tony bites his lip, she sighs. "Go ahead" she grumbles, Tony starts laughing, a real deep belly laugh that has him shaking against her. Spencer can't help but laugh with him.

"Oh, Beautiful, that is priceless," he tells her pulling back, he strokes her cheek and smiles. "But I am glad I didn't miss it"

"I would have held them in for you, baby" she coos. He chuckles and kisses her warmly. "Just sucked 'em back up..." she mumbles against his lip, he laughs harder and shakes his head.

"Let's go home" he offers warmly. "Curl up and eat cookies" he cups Spencer's cheek. "I love you," he tells her, brushing his thumb over her skin. "Where's Pepper?" he asks.

"She went to get some tea" Spencer answers. "She was pacing and it was driving her crazy" she whispers softly. "She should be back any minute" she looks back over her shoulder, Pepper stands a little way away from them and waves. "Or now..." Tony snorts and nods.

"Right, let's go" he states loud enough for Pepper who nods. "Hey, Pepper" he starts. "Did you know that my wife..." Spencer smacks his chest.

"What are you doing?" she hisses at him.

"Telling the world of the hilarity that is my wife" he teases, she rolls her eyes.

"Yes, she knows..." Spencer points out. "I'm mortified so can we please....not talk about this, ever again"

...................

Spencer presses a hand to the small of her back as she walks into her home, she's exhausted and she just wants to lay down. She takes a deep breath and then yawns, her feet coming to a stop as she stares at the sight before her. Her yawn drops out and she cocks her head.

"Tony?" Spencer asks, he hums walking in behind her with Trinity.

"What's wrong?" he asks her back, she shoots him a look and then turns forward. "Oh yeah" Tony sees the problem. "Trinity picked out a tree," he tells her. "It was going to be a surprise" Trinity giggles into his shoulder.

"It's great" Spencer assures them both. "And a very nice surprise..." she takes Tony's free hand in hers and squeezes, he leans closer to her.

"I know you like Christmas" he whispers, she nods. "And you were worried about this year because of how close it is to the twins' due date so I wanted to take some of the pressure off" she sniffles a little. "Do you remember our first Christmas?" he asks her, wrapping his arms around her.

"I was pregnant and you...." her eyes search his. "Turned up when you didn't have to" she whispers. He nods and touches her stomach, wrapping his hand around her. "Maybe we can put a hold on any more babies after these" he raises an eyebrow at her.

"Oh?" he turns her to face him. "You want more?" she shrugs a little.

"Maybe...but give my body a break...plus we should wait until they're all older so it's not full on"

"Totally agree" he leans closer to her. "We can enjoy being a family for a bit before making it even bigger" he nudges her nose aware that his little princess is tugging on his hand, he turns his hand and looks down at her. He smiles as Spencer heads further into the house.

"Lights," Trinity asks of Tony. He nods.

"Yeah, we'll decorate the tree, don't worry, just have to find them first" Tony admits.

"Looks like Happy did that too" Spencer comments looking down at a box of decorations, she looks to Tony and smiles. "You don't deserve him" she points out, he nods and leads Trinity to the box.

"Go take a load off," he tells his wife. "Maybe put some plastic down in case you...you know, pee yourself again" she shakes her head rolling her eyes as she walks away, Tony chuckles and smiles to himself.