"'Cause you are the piece of me I wish I didn't need

Chasing relentlessly, still fight and I don't know why

If our love is tragedy, why are you my remedy?

If our love's insanity, why are you my clarity?"

~ "Clarity" by Zedd

. . .

The sound of JARVIS' morning wake-up call woke her, but she really didn't want to move. A lot of mornings were like this. The first three months had been the worst. Although she didn't get the stereotypical morning sickness, her first trimester hit her head-on with immense fatigue. She was in her second trimester now, but she had been pushing herself too much the last few days.

"Morning," Tony whispered sleepily. He moved closer and kissed her temple. They'd been spooning and she'd yet to turn to face him.

"Is it the weekend yet?"

"Big day today," Tony reminded. "Big week…"

And he was right. There was a lot going on and a lot that would be happening over the next several days. Pepper rolled over to face him. She scooted closer and wrapped her arms around him. She was so glad that they were able to wake up each morning like this. Even when she felt too tired to get up, Tony always reminded her of how beautiful their life was and it was enough to get out of bed.

"I can't believe how your body does this," Tony said in amazement as his hands settled on her tummy. It was only when she was naked that she really showed at all. It was how her other pregnancies had gone as well. She looked fairly normal until she hit six months and then it was like the baby belly grew overnight. He looked up at her face. "Boy or girl? What do you think?"

Pepper just smiled at him. She looked the look on his face, there was so much love...and pride...and wonder. "We'll find out soon enough," she told him with a small laugh and then leaned in to kiss him. "Be patient."

"I'm just really looking forward to this."

She grinned at him. Today was her twenty week appointment and the ultrasound where they'd hopefully learn the gender. "We could always be surprised," she teased.

"Those hormones make you talk crazy sometimes," he replied good naturedly. He leaned in and kissed her. "I know that the most important thing is for the baby to be healthy, but I kind of like to know what to expect."

"A child that's brilliant and too headstrong for everyone's own good?"

"Sounds oddly familiar," Tony said with a grin. After a moment, he sighed. "Come on, long day...though you know I wouldn't mind staying in bed all day."

Pepper continued to grin. "Go start the shower and I'll be there in a minute." He got out of bed and she watched him go. A moment later, the sound of the shower could be heard. Slowly, she got up and reminded herself that things were about to get easier on her.

When she'd been pregnant with her first child, she'd worked right up until she went into labor. She'd been absolutely exhausted and had suffered some complications because of the stress she'd been under. After that, she and Tony made an agreement that all future pregnancies would have her work as long as she wanted up until her twentieth week. After that, she'd step down as CEO of Stark Industries for the remainder of her pregnancy and postpartum time. It was silly really, Tony had always insisted she take the CEO job title, but they both did the same workload.

Pepper padded across the bedroom and joined Tony in the warm shower. They took longer than normal, just enjoying the water and each other. Since neither of them was going into the office they could take their time, just as long as they were on time for their appointment. Pepper hated being late, she preferred to be early whenever possible.

"You could have a spa day," Tony suggested as they finally exited the shower and wrapped up in the plush towels. "Do something relaxing."

"Maybe next week-"

"Pep-"

"It's not like I can do it today," she explained as she moved to retrieve her clothing choices from the closet. "We have the ultrasound."

"That takes an hour."

Pepper sighed. "We still have to do certain things before I'm officially on leave, you know."

"I know that Wednesday is your official last day, but that doesn't mean you can't do something fun before."

"There's still so much to do."

"Do I get a list?" he asked as he walked towards her, he was already partially dressed in his suit.

She smiled. "I always have a list for you." Pepper buttoned up her blouse and wondered if they'd get through the list before Wednesday. It really didn't give them much time. "We still have all of that paperwork that's on my tablet, we have that presentation for the board to complete and go over, we have to pull the boxes out of storage, we have our appointment today, and you promised me that I could take one more flight as Rescue until sometime next year."

"Pepper-"

"Don't argue!" she countered quickly. She knew exactly what he was going to complain about. "You promised!"

"But you're five months pregnant," Tony argued anyways.

"You know I just want to fly around for a little bit," she told him. "You promised." Pepper already knew the armor would still fit and she'd had a feeling that Tony would throw a fit about this promise.

"Be reasonable!"

"Keep your promises!"

Tony sighed. "Can we do it tomorrow? I'd like Rhodey nearby...just in case."

"That's fine," she agreed with a grin. Pepper sat down on the bed and slipped in to her heels. She really wouldn't be wearing these much for a few months. She would miss them though.

Tony was sitting on the edge of the bed with a tablet and she just watched him for a moment. She could tell he was deep in thought. He'd learned some things as well since they'd gotten married. Pepper got up and disappeared into the bathroom to do her hair and makeup quickly.

"Okay...so, tomorrow we'll take the suits out," he called. "This weekend, I'll pull out the boxes and other stuff from storage. Monday we finish paperwork...and then that'll just leave the board presentation."

"Sounds good," she told him as she secured her hair up and back into a bun. She was far too hot with her hair down, but had been avoiding cutting it short. So, it went up at all times to keep her from overheating. Pepper loved it when Tony was organized and it wasn't her job to keep everything together. It let her breathe and it tended to mean that he'd stick to it if he was the one who organized things.

. . .

"Are you sure you want to know?" the doctor asked.

Pepper nodded. With Sophia, it had taken three ultrasounds before she'd cooperated. "If the baby is letting you." She turned to look at Tony. "You want to know, right?"

He was smiling big and bright. "I'm happy either way as long as the baby is healthy," Tony told her. "I'm pretty sure that Sophia and Charlie are expecting to know the gender though."

And he was right. They'd promised to inform their other children once they finished with the appointment. "I want to know," Pepper told the doctor. If she was going to be taking off of work, at least she could spend the time preparing the nursery. It was nice having a colorset and gender appropriate clothing. She had Sophia in dresses almost every outfit when she was a baby.

"I like being able to figure out names without having a girl, boy, or neutral set," Tony told the doctor.

"What have you come up with so far?" the doctor asked as he moved the wand around.

"Nothing yet," Pepper said. "We were waiting. We did that with Sophia since at one point she didn't seem to want to let us know she was a girl until she was born."

"I think we found out about a month before Pepper delivered," Tony said.

The doctor smiled and pointed to the monitor. "There's your son," he announced. "He looks healthy. The correct size. Everything looks normal, I found all of the organs and limbs."

"That's all that matters," Tony said before dropping a kiss on Pepper's forehead.

She smiled up at him and squeezed his hand. Pepper was so happy to hear that their baby was healthy, but it was nice knowing what direction to go in as far as names and nursery themes went.

"I'll have the nurse hand you the DVD and pictures once you're ready to head out," the doctor said. He left the picture of their son on the screen and headed for the door. "Take your time."

And they took a few minutes. It was just this amazing moment where it was almost like they got to meet their son. "You know we could do Tony Jr.," Pepper teased.

"You say that every time," Tony pointed out. "And not Howard or Edward either…"

She smiled, as much as she enjoyed carrying down family names it never was a priority of Tony. "We have time to find the perfect name…"

"How about Jarvis?"

Pepper sighed, but couldn't hide her smile. "You wanted to name the dog that."

"It's still a good name."

"It's still a name that would get confusing," she pointed out. The last thing she needed was to be calling their son and having the AI respond.

Pepper got up and fixed her blouse. She moved over to Tony, who already was holding her coat and she slipped into it before picking up her purse off of the chair.

"Robots for the nursery?" Tony tried.

"You say that every time."

"You shoot me down every time," he pointed out.

She smiled and put her hands on his upper arms. Pepper leaned in and kissed him. "Maybe," she promised.

"Is that the maybe that means 'no' or actually means 'maybe'?"

She just smiled at him. "You'll just have to find out." She was so happy and though she knew it was going to be hard giving up working again. Pepper was just so used to it and it never seemed like ramping down was possible with their jobs. It would all be more than worth it though.

There were times when she strongly considered being a stay-at-home mom, but then she realized that they'd never see Tony and he'd be overly stressed when they did. There was just too many things that stood in the way of being able to do it. Plus, she'd been working like crazy all her life, she didn't know if she would really remain sane being a stay-at-home mom.

"Do you want to tell the kids or should I?" Tony asked. "Or should we torture them and make them wait until we go out to dinner?"

"I didn't know we were going out," Pepper told him. It wasn't often that they all went out together. They'd struggled to keep the kids out of the media and public as much as humanly possible. She was always their advocate on needing to have 'normal' lives since Tony really didn't understand the meaning of the word.

"I made the reservation when we found out the date of the appointment," Tony informed her. "The place closes to the public today at five and our reservation is at seven."

"You didn't have to do that," she told him. When they did go out, they normally just made sure that they had a private room and only went to places where they could get one.

"I did it for Charlie," Tony said.

Pepper rolled her eyes as they exited the room. A nurse handed them a DVD and a couple of copies of the ultrasound pictures. "Thank you," Pepper said sweetly.

"Congratulations," the nurse told them both as she escorted them down the hall to the side door where Happy would be waiting.

"Thank you," Tony replied with a smile. He took her arm with his as they walked.

She smiled at him and teased. "Charlie might end up getting a bit jealous."

"The baby's not even here yet."

"Just preparing you."

. . .

"Happy already knows," Sophia complained as they got out of the car at the restaurant. "Why do we have to wait?"

"Don't you know that I have to know everything?" Happy teased.

Charlie grabbed onto Happy's jacket. "Uncle Happy is coming to dinner too, right?"

"Of course he is," Pepper said. When Happy looked surprised, Pepper turned to Tony. "Why is Happy always so surprised to be included? Were you being mean to him again?" Pepper teased. Charlie obviously didn't understand that she was merely teasing Tony because she heard a gasp from her child.

"Dad! Be nice to Happy!" Charlie said.

Tony looked over at her. "Are you trying to start a mutiny before dinner?"

Pepper smiled brightly at him as Happy started to walk the kids in. When she was first pregnant with Sophia, Happy had complained about having to shuttle a five year old around to ballet and soccer. Happy actually complained now if he didn't get to see enough of the kids and he protected them as if they were his own. Pepper moved to Tony's side and wrapped an arm around her husband before they followed. "You know it can never be boring for us."

"That doesn't mean you have to start a fire."

"Are you sure you can handle having a third child?"

"We're done after this, right?" Tony asked, mostly serious.

"Doctor had said unless we tried right after I have this one that it probably wouldn't be a great idea. There would be a higher chance of complications," Pepper told him. In truth, she really wasn't sure how she felt about having a fourth. Their lives were so busy and even though they had a great life, she was thinking that having three healthy children was more than enough to ask for.

"We have time to talk about it," Tony told her as his arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her around to face him. "But not tonight."

Pepper leaned in to kiss him. Though it was good to bring these things up early rather than later, tonight was to celebrate their healthy baby boy that they'd be welcoming into the world soon enough.

. . .

Pepper woke up excited and had been fully looking forward to her day out. This would be her last time out as Rescue for at least a year. She didn't mind, but she wanted to go out and just fly before the hiatus. "Tony," she whispered and shook him a bit. Rhodey wasn't going to be there for a few hours still, but she wanted to get the day rolling.

"I really don't think this is a smart idea," Tony grumbled.

She sprang from bed and padded to the shower. She wasn't going to let anything or anyone keep her in bed or distract her from her plans for the day. Pepper had thought that Tony would join her in the shower, but he never did. Instead, she found him still in bed once she emerged. She wondered if he thought that maybe she'd change her mind if he moped and pouted enough.

That wasn't going to happen.

After she was dressed, she found both of her red-headed children eating breakfast with Happy. They were both pretty self-sufficient, even at six and ten. "Do you both have everything?" Pepper asked as she approached.

Charlie patted the paper next to the bowl of cereal. "Dad said he'd help me with the science fair, but he didn't sign my permission."

Pepper took the pen that was already set to go and signed the form. She knew that Tony was more than happy to use it as a new excuse for tinkering with Charlie. She knew it would be good for the both of them especially with the new baby on the way. Charlie needed to know that things weren't going to drastically change.

She moved to retrieve fresh fruit, yogurt, and granola so that she could have breakfast with her children. She didn't normally get to do it since she was normally leaving for work when they were getting up. It would be nice to be able to do that and spend more time with them for the next few months. "What are you reading?" she asked as she finally sat down.

Sophia and Charlie were vastly different. Sophia took more after Pepper and it showed. She dressed quite feminine and always wore bows or something sparkly in her hair. She was always either reading or playing sudoku. Charlie, on the other hand, was a lot like Tony. This morning Charlie was dressed in overalls with robot pins and loved to be down in the workshop with Tony.

"Jane Eyre, unabridged," Sophia responded as she continued to eat and read. "Mr. Allen said that there would be some benefit to reading some books that are more age appropriate, but they'd be really easy." Sophia looked up at her briefly. "You know I don't like easy books."

Pepper smiled. None of them liked anything that was too easy. "I know, but perhaps Mr. Allen has a valid reason."

"It might kill brain cells," Sophia countered.

Happy shook his head. "I swear...these two are ten and six and already smarter than I am." He took a bite of toast and then spoke up again. "I'm not going to be able to teach them anything."

"They don't know how to drive," Pepper pointed out.

"I understand the motions," Sophia offered without looking up from her book.

Happy pointed to Charlie. "That one's going to have a car with JARVIS driving it. Or it'll fly…or something else that's way too smart."

"I don't really want to learn how to drive," Sophia told him. "I prefer you driving us around."

Pepper could tell that wasn't quite what Happy wanted to hear. She really wasn't sure what to tell him that would make him feel better. She and Tony had made sure that Happy had been included as much as possible because he really was their family.

"You have to teach me to karate chop someone...just in case I need to save Sophia from a bad guy," Charlie spoke up.

"It's not karate that I know, but I can definitely teach you how to defend yourself." Pepper wasn't sure about that and glanced Happy's way. "When your mom says we can do that," he added slowly.

"The last thing we need is you expelled for fighting," Pepper said as she eyed her youngest child. "I already get called about you talking in class."

"Sometimes the teacher is wrong," Charlie complained.

"I agree," Sophia spoke up as she turned the page in her book.

"And most of the time it's easy and boring," Charlie went on.

"Agreed," Sophia said again. She closed her book and looked across at Pepper. "Can we please be home schooled?"

Pepper just stared at her children. "Have you been talking to your father again?"

"No," they replied in unison.

It was odd, but Pepper knew it was true. They got bored in school, but their teachers and counselors were afraid of advancing them too much. There were social things that they'd only learn in circles of their own peers. She sighed and looked from their blue eyes over to Happy. "Help me out here," she practically begged.

"Hey, I'm on their side…" Happy told her. "No school means no dating," Happy pointed out. "I think that alone is worth home schooling them."

"Thanks, Happy," Pepper muttered.

"Mom?" Charlie spoke up.

"Yes?"

"Can the baby brother like sports and not robots please?"

Pepper stared at Charlie. "Your brother can like whatever he wants. Your father and I will still have just as much time for all of you."

"We'll see," Charlie said.

. . .

"Are you sure about this, Pepper?" Rhodey asked.

"Yes," she said. "And if we run into trouble, we're not far from home and I have you two."

"I still don't like it," Tony grumped before his faceplate snapped into position.

"I'll be fine," Pepper repeated before both hers and Rhodey's snapped shut as well.

They set out and headed out and away from the mansion and Malibu. It was such a nice feeling, being free to just fly. Pepper always felt extremely relaxed when it was like this… No world to save, no company to manage, just the sky…

They'd kept it over the Pacific Ocean, which was fine. It was beautiful and there were less flights for them to be mindful of. The water was beautiful and it was just that much more peaceful.

"Time to turn around, Pep," Tony said.

She knew he was right. She'd been playing music that matched her flight experience, calm and quiet. "I know," she replied a little reluctantly. She'd miss this, but it wouldn't be forever…like everything else that would be put on hold. They turned around and started to head back.

. . .

TBC…