Just A Mistake

Chapter 2

Maria was lounging on her couch as she stared blankly at the screen. Sharon had delivered the news of her pregnancy, shocking her to the core. She couldn't quite understand what her friend was telling, or rather, she just couldn't comprehend how she was pregnant when all that happened was just a stupid mistake of a misfired science experiment.

Natasha had stood next to her, equally shocked with the way her arm fell from Maria's body and slowly wrapped around herself. Maria couldn't bring herself to look at the women she loved, just staring straight ahead as Sharon spoke about some nonsense, decisions to be made, who the father of the child was. Would it be Clint or Phil. A shuddered ran through her at that thought. It wasn't that they were bad guys or anything, it's just that they would not be really who she'd choose to have her child with if given the chance to choose an ideal male.

Maria had sighed and watched as DNA samples were taken from Clint and Phil, as well as Natasha, as Maria had commented bitterly under breath that Natasha was in the beam with it if was mixed with all their genetics? It had caused Sharon to pause and look thoughtful before shrugging and grabbing a sample from Natasha, if only to humour them at the basically impossible chance that the child would be both hers and Natasha's. It was long after that that Maria made a beeline for her apartment, deciding to take the rest of the day of. A once in a lifetime event according the agents whispering as they watched her leave.

She sighed as she went to automatically pour herself a coffee before pausing. Pregnant women couldn't have coffee, could they? She wasn't really sure, for once in a very long time, she wasn't sure what she was going to or how she would go about a situation.

Maria exhaled deeply through her nose and decided to settle for tea, surely that was better than coffee, right? She gently padded her way back to the couch, deciding that she was going to curl up and lie on the couch until work demanded something of her. Maria switched on the tv, absently switching to a familiar movie she likes and watching without really taking anything in. She was still mulling over everything that was going to happen or could happen.

Maria really needed to talk to Natasha, she decided.

She glanced at her phone, lying lazily besides her, uncaring that it was a few millimetres out of her reach. Maria scowled as she inched herself closer and closer to it, not really trying if she was being honest with herself. How exactly would she bring it up with Natasha, would Natasha even want a child right now? Would she be jealous that the child was her girlfriends and potentially best friends baby?

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Maria was pleased to see, and say, that after many years of hard work, working as and agent and deputy director and the last two years as Natasha Romanoff's girlfriend, she didn't flinch, jump or yell out (or hit) at the sudden noise. Instead she leaned back into her previous position gracefully and raised an eye at her girlfriend, Natasha.

"Did you forget I had a key again?" Natasha teased her, a small smile on her lips as she came to rest next to Maria. Natasha automatically open her arms and stared expectantly at Maria. Maria wasted no time in cuddling up with her girlfriend, clinging tightly to her form. The two of them were quiet for a while, content to hold each other in silence as they attempted to gather their thoughts.

"You know, you totally ignored my questioned, just cause you got yourself knocked does not mean you can ignore me young lady." Natasha mocked, poking Maria in her side, pulling her out of thoughts

Maria rolled her eyes at Natasha, "I was just contemplating stuff, and was not intentionally ignore you, my sweet pumpkin." Maria mocked back, using an overly exaggerated pet name.

"I'll repeat my question them, my little honey-coated strawberry, penny for your thoughts?" Natasha joked back, keeping up with the light banter that they had going.

Maria scrunched her nose up, "your little honey-coated strawberry? Terrible Nat. I was just thinking about the situation, you know, getting myself knocked up as one does when walking through the science division." Maria replied sarcastically.

"I've got to say, that must be a first for S.H.I.E.L.D history. Another S.H.I.E.L.D first on your belt Maria, do you just plan on collecting them?" Natasha joked, a small smile on her face.

"Can you take this seriously please?" Maria snapped suddenly, pulling herself from Natasha's hold so that she can face her girlfriend.

Natasha blinked, a good cover for her shock, it wasn't often that Maria raised her voice at her, especially outside of work. It was generally a major sign that Maria was stressed or worrying about something. "Worrying isn't good for the baby." She replied softly, gently pulling Maria's hand into her own. "I am taking this seriously, I just thought that I would get you talking about something first because discussing this. You're stressed and worrying about this whole pregnancy thing. Thought I'd ease you into it." Natasha explained with a shrug, gently stroking her thumb over the back of Maria's hand.

Maria felt a bit guilty, she tends not to snap at Natasha for anything, always favouring to deal with every situation in a calm and appropriate manor. Is it too early to blame the hormones? "Sorry Nat. I did not mean to snap at you. I'm just worried...about you think. Of the whole situation, you know, a potential mini Clint or Phil." Maria said quietly.

"Babe, really? I'm happy that you're pregnant. I might not be mine, but it's one of ours. Not that it matters, we have briefly discussed adoption, but you know, I'm not opposed to a mini Hill walking around with the matching sharp blue eyes and the jawline that can cut throats." Natasha said, smiling again at Maria.

"Yeah, we've discussed adopting, but not actually having children, like having one very hormonal women in the house carrying a developing human for 9 months whilst still attempting to work. Then what about afterwards? I love my job, Nat. I don't really want to give it, I don't mind giving it less time, maybe finally listen to Fury about delegating. But giving up my job all together? I don't think I could do that, not even for my own child." Maria rambled, running a hand through her hair, stress evident on her face.

"We'll deal with that. I'm on Stark's payroll right now, apparently due to being in the Avengers. I could lessen my hours, do less missions. I could technically quit S.H.I.E.L.D. Plus we have Clint, Phil, heck I'm sure May would even watch the little cherub for us if need be. My point is, Maria, you don't have to give up everything, just a little. We can make this work. We can think more about it when it comes it, but I feel like your first decision should be whether or not you want to keep it." Natasha reasoned for her, in her usual calm voice.

Maria paused. "I... I didn't realise I had a choice." Maria said quietly, looking down with a slight frown.

"You've always got a choice, babe." Natasha said softly, pulling Maria back into her arms. "If you want my opinion," Natasha continued, sensing that this was what Maria was looking for, "I think we've been given a good opportunity, maybe not the best of times. But still a good opportunity to have our own kid, raise it. It will have a billion of crazy aunts and uncles. Plus Barton has kids a few years older than our kid, so tiny little cousins as well."

Maria opened her mouth to reply, but quickly cut off by the repetitive screeching of her phone. "This is Hill." Maria answered, pulling the phone to her ear.

"Maria, hey! So, I have some information for you, and Natasha, if you wanna come down?" Sharon asked, seeming rather nervous on the phone.

"I'd rather not. We're in the middle of something." Maria responded, looking down at her current attire. She honestly could not be bother changing again.

"Ew, are you guys having sex? And you answered the phone?!" Sharon yelped into the phone, causing Maria to roll her eyes.

"No, I'm not you Sharon. We're discussing options." Maria said.

"Ah. Right. So...you want this information over the phone then? It's about the paternity test." Sharon asked, making sure her friend was okay doing it this way.

Maria sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose but nodded, quickly relaying that to Sharon, realising that she couldn't see her nodding.

"Well, put me on speaker." Sharon said.

"Okay." Maria replied, complying with Sharon's demands.

"Hey Sharon." Natasha lazily said.

"Hey Nat, so congratulations Nat, you're the father." Sharon deadpanned, though the image of a smirking Sharon was clear in both their minds.

Maria and Natasha looked at each other skeptically.

"Funny Carter, who is the father? Phil or Clint?" Maria asked, getting impatient with her friend.

"Maria, I am being 100% serious right now. Natasha is the other parent. Clint and Phil DNA doesn't match the baby's at all. Which is why I suggested coming down to see for yourself." Sharon said, her tone switching from joking to serious as she tried to convey to her friends that she wasn't messing them around.

"Shit." Natasha said softly, leaning back into the couch. Maria mirrored her position, not quiet sure how to process this.

"I'll send the information over. Give you guys times to look over it and process this. Come down to the base tomorrow and we'll have a chat then. Okay?" Sharon said quietly.

Maria mumbled a confirmation of the plan and put the phone down after ending the call. At least she's made up her mind now. There was no way she could get rid of this child. Natasha told Maria about how the red room prevented her from having children, she would never get to see a child that had her genetics. It had made Natasha so sad, it was the first time that Maria had seen her genuinely upset about something. This was an opportunity for Natasha to have a child of her own. Whilst she might miss out on the chance on carrying the child, she still got one.

Maria was not going to take this away from her, this was more likely than not their only chance to have a child that would be theirs. Not Maria and a sperm donor or Natasha (somehow) and a donor, but Maria's and Natasha's. The thought brought a smile to her face. A mini Nat, running circles around them, playing hide and seek, doing the school run, getting them into a hobby, because hobbies are important. Would their child like martial arts like themselves? Or would they prefer music, dance like her mother? Ice skating, like her aunt may? Maybe their child would be into fixing cars and could spend time with Phil, fixing up Lola when no one else was allowed to do that.

A smile spread across her face. All this time she had been thinking about the negatives and the 'what if' situation. Natasha was right, they would work something out, they had friends that love children but would not have children of their own due to personal reasons. Heck, even the thought of her own kid mixing with the Barton Bunch made her smile. A mini Clint and Natasha duo would be a nightmare, but no doubt cute.

"Shit, I think I have baby fever now." Maria mumbled, running a hand through her hair again, but a smile slowly appearing on her face. "Nat. We're going to have a kid together."

Natasha turned and looked at her, breaking out into a smile as well. "We're gonna have a kid together."

Maria just grinned at her girlfriend and leaped onto her, forcing Natasha to lie flat on the couch as she easily straddled her hips. "We're gonna have a little baby Natasha, with bright red hair and the lovely green eyes that her mother has, maybe my jawline, because we both know I have the best in the world. She'd have the amazing ability to pick up everything, just like her mother. She'll learn both Russian and English growing up and then we will branch out to Chinese next like her Aunt Mel and then we'll expand on hobbies and we're going to do so much for her and if she doesn't want to do anything, that's okay, because we're going to support her no matter what." Maria gushed, revealing all her thoughts to Natasha as she leaned down close unless she was whispering into Natasha's ear.

"Oh yeah? We're going to be the best parents" Natasha said, distracted by Maria.

"Mhm." Maria confirmed, moving her head down, placing small kisses across Natasha's jawline, before reaching up and pressing her lips firmly against Natasha's pushing her body closer. Their lips moved seamlessly against each others, Natasha moving her hands automatically to Maria's hips, sliding over to grip her ass.

Maria laughed against Natasha lips and teasingly grounded her hips, causing a mocking groan from Natasha, before abrudtly pulling back. "You are okay with this then, yeah? Having a kid? Not carrying it?" Maria asked suddenly, realising that she had just assumed that Natasha would be okay with it.

Natasha rolled her eyes "Maria if I wasn't okay with it, I'd be long gone by now. Of course I'm okay with. I might not be carrying the kid, but it's still going to be my kid, Maria, our kid." Natasha stressed, looking at Maria.

"Okay good, it's just I got so caught up in this image I had in my head, I didn't even stop to check if you'd be okay with this or how you felt about the situation or even the fact that you're able to have child-" Maria rambled, being cut off eventually by Natasha.

"Babe." Natasha said with a mocking stern tone, "you're so cute when you ramble. This is another first, a rambling, cute deputy director of S.H.I.E.L.D." Natasha teased, leaning forward and pecking Maria's lips. The mood had been cut off, but Natasha did not mind. Right now they were celebrating.

"A first and a last, I promise you." Maria said, falling back into her usual demeanour but a smile still ghosted across her face.

Natasha gave her a pout "and here I thought I've already lost you to the pregnancy hormones."

"Haha, very funny Nat." Maria said with a roll of her eyes. She nestled back into the couch, their playful banter coming to a quiet finish as they sat together, taking in the situation.

"We're going to have a baby." Natasha whispered softly, her features looking calmer and more at peace than Maria has even seen on her before.

"Yeah." Maria whispered in agreement.

"They tried to take this away from me. This happiness that we're feeling right now." Natasha continue.

"Yeah. Assholes." Maria agreed, not quiet sure how to find the right words to comfort her girlfriend.

There was a silence before Natasha burst out laughing, "Fuck me, Maria. The Red Room is a mess. Seems everything they do to you, seems to have an expiry date apparently." She joked, grinning at Maria.

Maria looked into Natasha's eyes, to make sure that she was truly happy right now and wasn't about to have a small break down over the situation. Maria saw no trace of sadness, just pure joy.

"Fuck the Red Room." Maria said, grinning.

"Fuck the Red Room." Natasha echoed, the two of them falling back into a laugh, a pleasant quietness falling over them again.

It was a moment of reflection for both of them. For both of them went through different hardships through out their lives and lead dangerous lifestyles, for them to come to a point where they felt happy with the chance of having their own child, was insane. Maria knew that she did not need children in her life to make her happy, and she was fine with that idea when she was younger and did not want children but once she started contemplating that type of future with Natasha, something become missing from their lives that was soon about to be filled.

"Lets go to bed, Natasha." Maria said softly, glancing at the clock. It had been an exhausting day and she was ready for a night filled with receiving cuddles from her favourite person and watching movies. It was a good way to end the night, she thought as she looked at Natasha smiling.

A good way indeed.