Driven Mad (Book 1 in the MAD Series)(An Avengers Fan Fiction)

EPILOGUE: T'Challa

T’Challa sat at the foot of the bed as he stared at his beautiful wife. She may have been nine months pregnant with quintuplets and ready to pop, but she was still absolutely beautiful in his eyes. She was propped up against the headboard of their bed, her hand resting on her enormously swollen stomach. She looked as if she were struggling to stay awake, since she’d not really gotten a full night’s sleep in about two months.

He knew that it wasn’t long then. Not too long until five beautiful babies entered this world. Until he could finally reach out and touch his five beautiful children, his four sons and one daughter. He was desperate to have them, though Ororo was still pretty nervous. She wasn’t too fond of being so huge, but she was afraid to actually have the children, like any mother. Only there was one difference between her and any other mother. She was going to have to give birth to her children at home.

There would be doctors, of course. Dr. Banner, the other Dr. Banner, Dr. Pym, Dr. Sampson, and even Stark would be there. But she couldn’t go to any sort of hospital for this. There weren’t any hospitals in New York City that even accepted mutants there, so they were on their own for this. That made both of them quite terrified about having their children. Even though they were in capable hands, they were going to have to trust a man and a woman who could turn into enormous rage monsters and Tony Stark to deliver their five children. That was enough to make anybody uncomfortable. The sad part was that it wasn’t so much the Hulks they were worried about, but Tony. He was more terrifying than the Banner’s.

The past eight months had been relatively quiet. They’d been having a relatively normal life for the majority of the past year, despite the fact that they were living with the Avengers. Ororo’s pregnancy had been relatively normal, affairs in Wakanda had been settled, and there was little excitement in their lives, which had been good. After the battle against the Mad Thinker, all that they wanted was a little bit of peace and very little excitement was good.

But that, of course, was over.

There weren’t going to be any more peaceful nights. There weren’t going to be any more days where they could relax and not have to look over their shoulders. T’Challa was going to have to fight and, though Ororo would be weakened after she had the children, she was eventually going to have to fight too. They were going to have to constantly be on edge, constantly have an eye out, especially once the children were born. Once the children were born, their defenseless infants would be easy prey for someone like the Mad Thinker.

“T’Challa…” Ororo whispered his name sleepily.

“Yes, beautiful?” T’Challa replied, running his hand across the skin of her leg.

“Will you give me one of your famous foot rubs? My feet hurt really bad…”

“Of course I will.”

T’Challa shifted on his side and lifted his wife’s foot gently onto his lap. He turned to her as she closed her eyes, like she was trying to get to sleep. He smiled and began to gingerly press his fingers into her swollen feet and ankles. He gently began massaging her feet as she drifted off into a daze, like she was in that place between sleep and being awake.

As T’Challa rubbed his wife’s feet, he stared at her and smiled. Not long until their children would finally enter the world, every second bringing them closer to the world. Yet every second that those five children stayed inside of his wife seemed like another second that they should’ve been in his arms. He desperately wanted to hold them in his arms, to be able to protect them…

“T’Challa.” Ororo muttered.

“Yes?” T’Challa replied, not looking up.

“Come here.”