Title: Family means no one gets left behind
Author: [Bad username or site: “krilymcc” @ livejournal.com]
A Gift For:cybermathwitch
Rating: T
Warnings: No warnings (Off screen injuries and talk of a medical procedure
Prompt used: AoU scene "rewrite"/change-one-thing where the Red Room *didn't* sterilize its agents, and one of the children is biologically Natasha's (complete with team reactions to both that fact and the overall poly/family dynamic)
Summary: After Clint gets injured during a mission Laura, Lila and Clint come to stay at Stark Tower. (AoU au)
Author Notes: I used the Russian pronunciation of mama through out this, which the internet says is MaMa, so that's what is up with that. And if you speak Russian and I used it wrong please let me know and I will use it right. Also I’m sorry this is late. A sinus infection has had me out of commission for the last few days.

---

Clint wasn’t the most graceful person, so hospitals were a place that Natasha had become comfortable with. But this time things were different.

“Clint’s injuries are more severe than we had originally assumed. He has massive internal--”

As Doctor Cho explained the damage that Clint had experienced and the types of surgeries that they were going to perform Natasha could feel the room begin to spin and everything begin to dim. She had to get out of there.

“Look,” she said interrupting the Doctor, “If it will save Clint, then do what you have to do. We aren’t going to stop you.”

And with that Natasha left the group, searching for a quiet corner. She had to call Laura, do the thing she promised she’d never have to do. No, first she had to call Maria and set up a way to get everyone here, Laura shouldn’t have to do that. She’ll have to much to worry about.


---

It was well past midnight when Natasha heard the elevator doors open to the penthouse. She knew it had to be Laura and the kids, Steve had promise to stay with Clint until the morning and the rest of the team was asleep.

Laura was the first to walk in, followed by Cooper who was trying to carry in all the bags by himself and then by Maria who was carrying a sleeping Lila.

“Oh thank god you’re here,” Natasha said as she wrapped her arms around Laura.

“Have you heard anything?” Laura whispered, trying not to let Cooper see that anything’s wrong.

Natasha shook her head and then whispered back, “Steve’s going to call as soon as they tell him anything.”

“And you,” Natasha said as she took the sleeping child from Maria “Thank you for taking care of all of this.

“Don’t mention it,” Maria shrugged. “Just you know, name the kid after me and we’ll call it even.”

“They haven’t told you?” Laura asked, “It’s a boy.”

Maria shook her head, “Traitor.”

Lila let out a tiny groan and buried her head into natasha’s shoulder. “MaMa?”

“Hey monkey,” Natasha kissed her head.

“What are you doing here?”

“Just go to sleep, we’ll talk about in in the morning. “

---

Natasha had forgotten how early mornings came when children are around. It felt like one minute she was curling up with Laura and then next she was opening her eyes to find Cooper and Lila’s faces right up against hers.

“Hi MaMa.” Lila giggled while Cooper asked, “What are we doing here?”

“Woah,” she said running her hand over Lila’s face, “Good morning you two.”

“What are we doing here momma?” Cooper asked again.

“I was lonely,” Laura mumbled into her pillow. “I missed your dad and momma so I brought us here.”

“Now, who’s hungry?” Natasha asked sitting up “Because I am in the mood for some pancakes.”

“Pancakes!” Lila exclaimed jumping off the bed.

“Here’s my phone.” Natasha slid the cold metal into Laura’s hand “Give Steve a call find out how everything went last night and then take a long well deserved shower. I got the kid.” She leaned in and kissed her forehead before crawling out of bed.

“Pancakes!” Lila exclaimed again.

“Pancakes!” Natasha exclaimed right back at her.

Later in the kitchen, after the kids had eaten and Natasha had them occupied, she and and Laura were huddled in the corner discussing Clint’s condition.

“So they put him in a coma?” Natasha whispered

“They say that it puts less stress on his body and it’ll help him heal.”

“How long?”

“I might only be a few days. Could be a lot longer. They really don’t know at this point.”

“Shit.” Natasha looked at the kids. “We can’t tell them. Not yet.”

“I completely agree. But what are we going to do? We can’t keep them inside all the time.”

“I’ll handle them. You see Clint, I will take care of the kids.”

Just then they heard Jarvis greet Bruce from the hallway and Natasha’s

“Good morning...small children.” Bruce said looking back and forth between Natasha, Laura and the kids.

“Morning Bruce.” Natasha smiled and Lila looked up from the picture she coloring.

“Hi.” she smiled. “Would you like a pancake? MaMa makes really good pancakes.”

“I’m fine.”

“Bruce!” Tony called out from down the hall. “I had a thought! What if we tried--” He came to a halt as he entered the kitchen and saw the new faces at the table. “Hello.” He turned to Natasha, “Who’s this?”

“This is Laura. Clint’s wife.” Natasha said and then took Laura’s hand in her own, “And my girlfriend.”

“Hi,” Laura gave a slight smile, “I know who you are.”

“Well, welcome to Stark Tower. I would have invited you here sooner, but I didn’t know you existed.” He turned to the kids, ”And I’m guessing these mini-agents are Clint's.” He paused “I’m really sorry about--”

“Alright!” Natasha exclaimed “they need to go get ready so I can take them to see the town.”

“Really?” Lila asked jumping up from her seat “Where are we going?”

“If I told you it wouldn’t be a surprise,”

“Is Mommy going to?”

“I’m afraid not pumpkin. I’ve got some things I need to take care of okay?””

“Okay.”

As soon as the kids were out of earshot everyone turned and looked at Natasha and Laura. “Well,” Bruce said taking a seat at the table. “That was unexpected.”

“Is anyone not going to say anything about how I didn’t make a peep about the girlfriend comment?” Tony asked. “It physically hurt me to keep quiet. I had so many--”

“Tony, stop.” Bruce cut in and then turned to Natasha, “Clint has kids and you two kept that from us?”

“We have children.” Laura told him, “Natasha, Clint and I have kids.”

“One of those was yours?” Bruce asked.

“Lila. Cooper is Laura’s. But they’re ours. The three of us are their parents.”

“So, do they--do they not know what’s going on?”

“Not yet,” Laura said. “We’re waiting to see how Clint does.”

“Not a word about Clint to those kids until we say so okay? Both of you.”

“You have our word.” Bruce told her. “I promise.”
---

The next few days Natasha took Cooper and Lila around the city to every museum and kid centered location in the city. And while Lila enjoyed every minute of it, Cooper seemed to feel the opposite.

“What’s wrong?” Natasha asked as they watched Lila ride on the carousel.

“Are mom and dad splitting up?”

“What?”

“I’m not stupid. Dad’s no where to be seen, Mom’s constantly gone. Are they getting divorced?”

“No. Coop listen to me. Your parents are not getting divorced.”

“Then what’s going on?”

Natasha paused. When it came to the kids any big decisions were always made together as a family. But right now it was just Natasha. She she made the choice that felt right in her heart.

“Your dad is in the hospital. They had to operate and then they gave him some medicine that put him in a coma.”

“Is he going to be alright?”

Natasha sighed and took his hand. “We don’t know.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

“Because your mom and I were scared. If anything happened to your dad what did that mean for us? For the two of you.”

“I can’t keep this from Lila.”

“I know. She’s your sister and I never want you to feel like you have to keep things like this from her. But wait until I talk to your mom. Please?”

“Fine. But you own me. Big.”

“Name it.”

“I want to go find that spider guy the internet is talking about.”

Natasha sighed as Lila ran up to them, smiling from ear to ear, “Let me make a few calls.”


---

Natasha got back to Stark Tower and sent the kids off to play with the Bruce and Thor respectively and then headed up to her room where Laura was curled up on the bed.

“Hey.” Laura yawned. “Where are the kids?”

“Bruce is helping Cooper with a science kit he bought today. And Lila is watching hair tutorials on youtube and practicing on Thor.”

“Did they have fun today?”

“Yeah.” Natasha paused and then added, “Cooper knows.”

Laura sat up in bed, “What?”

“He thought you guys were getting a divorce, so set him straight.”

“How did he take it?”

“Surprisingly well. But he basically told me to tell Lila or else he will.”

“Well, if all goes well we can break the news tomorrow.”

“Clint came out of the coma?”

Laura leaned back, “He’s not talking, or reacting to people but his reflexes are normal and they say that is a really good sign.”

“Alright. So lets plan on tomorrow.”

-----

The next day after talking to Doctor Cho and getting her approval Laura and Natasha got the kids in the car and drove them to the hospital where Clint was staying.

“Why are we at the hospital?” Lila asked, her face pushed up against the car window. “Mommy are you having the baby?”

Cooper sighed catching Natasha’s reflection in the mirror.

“Lila honey,” Natasha turned around to face the kids. “I need you to look at me okay?”

Lila slowly turned forward and looked at her mother, “What’s wrong?”

“You know how MaMa and I explained to you that lying is bad unless you’re doing it to keep someone from being hurt?” Laura asked and Lila nodded her head. “Well that’s what we were doing when we told you that dad was out of town.”

“He was here?” Lila’s bottom lip began to quiver and Cooper reached over and took his sister’s hand.

“It’s okay.” he whispered.

“Your dad got really hurt and the doctors had to fix him.” Natasha said, her heart melting as she watched her daughter's lip begin to quiver. “But he’s getting better and the doctor said that he can see you guys. He really wants to see you.”

“He does?”

“Yeah.” Laura smiled, “And I don’t want either of you to worry okay? Because we will be with you the whole time okay?”

“Promise?”

“We promise.”