LEGACY (T.Stark's Daughter)

CHAPTER ONE

Prologue.

[ 2023 ]

Pepper Potts was so terribly, horrifically worried that the result of her pregnancy test would be (Gods, forgive her) positive. She could write off her sudden wave of morning sickness as guilt regarding Tony's death, and the swelling of her lower stomach could easily be blamed on stress eating and overindulging.

She couldn't be pregnant. She wasn't. Of course not, how silly of her for thinking such a thing!

But it didn't hurt to try a test. Just in case. Just to ease her nerves and the ever-looming fear of having to singlehandedly raise a second child despite the fact that she was already struggling to raise Morgan.

Curiosity killed the cat.

It also killed all hopes of her not actually being pregnant, because the first test came back positive. Two lines. Positive. Yes. She was pregnant.

She took another test. And another. And another—each and every one of them showing the same result.

Pepper had been so overwhelmed by the shock of this unsuspecting (keep telling yourself that, Pepper) pregnancy that she forgot her husband's death altogether and rushed into the basement to inform Tony of the exciting news. She sat at the bottom of the basement stairs for hours and wept.

Constant crying and endless depressive states were something of a daily occurrence.

After recomposing and reluctantly dragging herself off of the floor, she trudged back up to her bedroom and fumbled about with her phone, dialing Natasha's number that she knew by heart.

There was no reply, so Pepper called her again. No reply.

The second wave of realisation hit her head-first like an unsuspecting deer in the blinding headlights of grief and she broke down again, only this time in the somewhat comforting tangle of her own bedsheets.

Happy found Pepper tear-stricken in her bedroom four hours subsequent to Morgan calling him on Tony's old phone and telling him, "Mommy might be dying."

He had, of course, made his way to the Starks' home as quickly as possible, and was glad to have found Pepper in a pool of tears rather than blood.

That night, whilst Pepper slept soundly on the living room couch, exhausted, Happy happened across the pile of positive pregnancy tests in her bathroom.

Happy had known Pepper for—he couldn't remember for how many years he'd known Pepper, but it was a great amount, certainly more than he could count on his fingers. He knew that the passing of Tony was still suffocating her, and with it having been only a few months since his death, Happy inevitably decided against discussing the baby for a while.

A month later, when oversized sweaters and hunched shoulders were no longer concealing her protruding belly, he deemed it an appropriate time to address her regarding the elephant in the room (Elephant in the womb, actually).

After many frantic discussions and lengthy conversations with Laura Barton about whether or not she was keeping the baby, and if she wanted to raise it or not, Pepper contacted Dr. Helen Cho, who began to coach her through the pregnancy and helped her with any of the added psychological affects of grief whilst bearing a child.

The months following were tiring and painful for Pepper, but the pregnancy was a distraction from the constant reminder of Tony, Steve, and Natasha's deaths, so she continued to plough onwards. By the time that she had entered her second trimester, she was back at work for Stark Industries, picking up where she had left off five years ago—prior to 'the snap.'

It was throughout the fifth month of her pregnancy that she really found herself getting back onto her feet. She was visiting Tony's grave every day and leaving fresh flowers that Morgan—who had started pre-school and having playdates—had hand-picked along the way.

When the sixth month rolled around, Pepper looked far too pregnant to hide her baby-bump from Morgan anymore, so she hosted a baby shower at home. Peter and Morgan wore matching 'big brother' and 'big sister' shirts, which Peter had skipped school to make last-minute.

He'd insisted.

Everybody that was anybody to Pepper or Tony was invited to the shower, with the exception of Carol Danvers who was still in space, fighting crime and keeping the universe as safe as she possibly could.

Rocket had requested being the one to reveal the gender, and he did so by stealing Bucky Barnes' arm and spray-painting it pink. At the party, Bucky reluctantly rolled his sleeve up to officially let everybody know that it was a girl.

The seventh and eight month flew by with Groot, Quill, Drax and Rocket crashing in the basement to go on grocery runs and help Pepper around the house (Mantis had stopped accompanying the Guardians after Thanos' death and instead worked in hospitals to aid in the Blip Recovery Act). Peter Quill even let the baby listen to his Mixtape, which is generally unspoken of.

On the 24th December, 2023, Stevie Natasha Antonia Gamora Stark was born.

Quite a hand-full of a name, I must say. She was named for the fallen loved ones of the Stark family, and of course, after her father. Quill insisted that Gamora should be added in, and Drax had even suggested naming the baby 'Thanos,' but the request was quickly denied for obvious reasons (see: purple mass murderers).

Stevie entered the world with dozens of people who loved her and looked after her, but she would soon grow to learn of her father—or lack thereof—and she was bound to one day realize that he could never love her as he did Morgan or Peter. It was only a matter of time.