Chapter Text
Exhaustion felt like being hit by a truck and then being forced to run a marathon. That’s how Penny felt this fine, November, morning. She didn’t know why she was so tired, she was getting as much sleep as she normally did.
OK, so that wasn’t a lot, but still, she was getting sleep! With Spidergirl and all the new responsibilities she was taking on at Stark Industries, she didn’t have a lot of time for rest.
She rolled over and stared at the empty spot next to her in her bed. Harry must’ve already left for work. She always got up with him when he left. Was she really that out of it?
Her stomach cramped as nausea crept built up. She threw her hand over her mouth as she raced to the bathroom, before puking the contents of her stomach into the toilet. This wasn’t the first morning that she’d woken up like this. She knew what these symptoms sounded like.
But she couldn’t be. Right? With the spider bite? It wasn’t possible with the radiation… right?
Penny took a shaky breath as she finally finished. Maybe she should go get a test… just to be sure.
One shower, one trip to the drug store, and a couple hours later found Penny in the bathroom pacing back and forth while waiting for the timer on her phone to finish.
Endless anxious thought ran through her head. She’d already tried to call Ned, MJ, and May. No one answered, which means they were probably at work. Which is where she should probably be right now.
The timer began ringing throughout the small bathroom, making her jump.
Instead of taking off the towel she’d used to cover the test, she tried Ned again.
“Hey Pen, what’s up?”
“Are you busy?”
“No, not really. Why? Aren’t you at work right now?”
“I think I’m pregnant.”
Silence.
“Ned?”
Nothing. Penny checked to make sure he hadn’t hung up.
“Ned, you ok?”
“You-you-you’re-you’re pregnant?”
“No, I don’t know if I am! I need to check the test thing, but I’m scared!”
“Ok, hold on. I can take an early lunch and be over there in fifteen.”
“Fifteen? How would you get here in fifteen minutes?”
“Cause I’m already on my way. I’ll be there soon, don’t do anything!”
Then he hung up. Penny laughed despite the anxiousness settling into her stomach. Ned was the best friend she could ever ask for.
He arrived exactly fifteen minutes later. They both sat in the bathroom, staring at the towel hiding the test.
“Can you look for me?” Penny asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Ned yanked the towel away from the test, but hesitated at picking the actual test up. “Didn’t you pee on that?”
“Use the towel to pick it up!” Penny said as her body began trembling in anxious excitement.
Ned grabbed the towel again and picked up the test, eyes widening. His face split into a smile and he showed it to Penny.
Her eyes widened as well. The friends jumped up and laughed with happiness as the news set in. They hugged and Ned said, “I’m so happy for you!” Penny couldn’t find any words so she just laughed and squeezed her best friend.
“I have to get back to work now, but tell me what Harry says, ok?” Ned said after they separated.
“I will. Thank you for coming over,” Penny said.
“Of course! Bye, Pen,” Ned said.
Penny brain-stormed ways to surprise her husband the rest of the day. In the end, she decided to surprise him at his office with a onesie she found at the store.
She walked into the building in giddy excitement. But after finding him pushed into the corner of his office with his secretary, that excitement died like a flame doused in water.
-
“I can’t believe you.”
“Penny-”
“Don’t, Harry. Just don’t.”
“Nothing happened, I swear!”
“Really? Cause you looked pretty comfortable with her!”
Harry winced at that as tears filled his wife’s eyes. “Penny, you have to trust me. Nothing. Happened. It’s just my dad causing trouble.”
The news hit the media right after Penny found out. If she would’ve gotten there any later, she would’ve found out through J. Jonah Jameson. It did strike her as odd that the news outlets got a hold of the story that quickly. But her exhausted, emotional brain couldn't think about that right now.
Harry took Penny's silence as encouragement and kept going. “Think about it, Pen. We both know my dad is furious that we got married. He hates that I won’t work for him. Don’t you think he would do anything he could think of to split us up?”
It made sense. Norman hadn’t approved of Penny when Harry announced their engagement. He’d tried to talk Harry out of several times. Harry loved Penny, though, and wasn’t going to let his dad talk him out of this. The final straw was when his dad didn’t come to the wedding.
Penny knew Norman wasn’t beneath trying something like this.
“But did you kiss her?” Penny asked, voice cracking.
“No, she kissed me, but I didn’t kiss back. I swear, Penny. I wouldn’t do that to you. I love you so much, nothing could ever change that.” Harry said.
Harry had never lied to his wife before or given Penny any reason to think he didn’t love her.
“I believe you.”
Harry’s face lit up, relief seeming to flood from his body. He wrapped his arms around his wife in a hug and she did the same. He placed a kiss on her lips.
An hour later, the couple curled up on the couch together while watching New Girl.
“I’ll be back. I have got to stop drinking so much Mt. Dew in such a short period of time,” Harry said. Penny scrunched up her face.
“TMI, love.”
Harry laughed as he left for the bathroom.
Penny scrolled through Instagram while she waited, but quickly got off when all that greeted her was the lying news reports.
“Penny?” Her husband’s tone made her look up with a frown. Then she saw what he was holding. In the chaos of everything that just happened, she’d completely forgotten why she’d gone to his office in the first place.
“Why was there a pregnancy test in the trash?” Harry asked, eyes wide and skin pale.
Penny stood. “That’s why I went to your office today. I didn’t mean for you to find out like that. Are-are you mad?”
“Mad? How-how could I be mad? We’re having a baby!” Harry said, laughing in shock.
Penny grinned, her whole body relaxing in relief. Harry hugged her again, this time peppering her face in kisses, making her laugh.
“We’re going to be parents, Penny!” Harry repeated. She squeezed him in a hug and kissed his lips. They were going to be parents!