"It's Italy," Sim pointed out. "Although Switzerland was better, it was easy to mail stuff back to the States and get some American TV."

"Switzerland?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow. "What were you doing in Switzerland?" He set his tablet down, turning his attention to her. This seemed like it would be interesting.

Sim paused for a moment. Right, they didn't know about Switzerland. Okay, how to proceed...

"I was there for a month," she said after a few moments. "Helping out a lovely couple."

"Volunteer work?" Bruce asked. That didn't sound bad. But he'd noticed her hesitation, and that made him wonder.

"What were you doing?" Tony asked, jumping straight to pressing for details.

"They paid me to be a surrogate," Sim said with a little shrug, though she didn't look at either of them. "They were really quite lovely. They didn't ask me to stay there for the whole pregnancy, they came and visited, and I still get letters and pictures from them. They did offer to let me stay with them permanently, if I wanted to."

That threw them both for a loop.

"What?" Tony asked. Bruce, however, was a bit quicker to recover his wits.

"I see," he said, swiftly burying the sudden rush of posessiveness he felt. There was no reason for him to feel that way, and he knew it. He put a hand on Tony's knee, under the table. He knew the Alpha was feeling it, too, and Tony had a habit of exploding first and thinking later.

Sim shrugged. "I needed the money, they were really nice, it worked out fine," she said. "I mean, I could have stayed with them, it would have worked out pretty nicely for me, but I knew they wanted more of a stay at home house Omega, and that's just not my style." She shrugged again. "Besides, that was back in college, way before I met you two."

That was about the point she realized she was rambling and shut up, still not quite looking at them. She didn't want them to be angry, especially not at her, but they did need to know.

"So someone paid you to have a kid for them?" Tony asked. Bruce could feel the tension building in the Alpha. That wasn't good. Gently, he nudged Tony towards the other room. The genius needed a bit of time to cool off and think before the situation turned bad.

Sim stayed quiet at that. Now wasn't the time to get into an argument over it, and she knew that. She just let Bruce get him out of the room and sighed, giving them both a bit of time and heading outside to let them adjust.

Once Bruce was sure Tony wasn't going to throw a tantrum, and he himself had gotten a few minutes to get his head on straight, he went outside to find Sim. He needed to let her know they weren't angry with her.

Sim had found a spot out under an olive tree to just sprawl for a while. She did look up when she heard someone approaching. That was faster than she'd thought.

Bruce sat down next to her when he found her. He didn't immediately speak, but he was visibly calm.

"Give Tony a little while to actually stop and think," he said after a few moments. "He needs to sort out what he really feels and what his Alpha instincts think he should feel."

"Yeah, I figured," Sim said quietly. "I just figured you two should know, sooner rather than later. And there's no good, tactful way to say it, really." She shrugged, shifting uncomfortably. She was still very aware that she'd upset both of them.

"Thank you for telling us," Bruce said. He lapsed into silence for a little while, just thinking. "You said you still get letters and photos?"

Sim nodded. "At least twice a year, my birthday and his." She shrugged. "Sometimes more, sometimes less. Depends on the year and how busy they are."

"A son, then?" Bruce asked, stamping down a bit of lingering jealousy. Now wasn't the time for it and besides, it was in the past. His instincts were being irrational.

"Yeah. A little boy." Sim couldn't help but smile a bit. "He's grown up a lot since I last saw him in person."

"I'm sure," Bruce replied. "Does he know who you are?"

"Not yet. He's still too young. They'll explain to him when he's a little older." Sim didn't mind, not really, because she had had the chance to stay and be their Omega and raise her son herself. So it was her fault he didn't know her, in the end.

Bruce nodded a bit and lapsed back into silence again. He did, however, move a bit closer to her and put an arm around her waist. He felt a bit better like that. The Hulk had been rumbling in the back of his mind ever since the subject had been raised, and the physical contact finally made the rumbling ease. He did make sure Sim could move away if she wanted, though.

Sim didn't, instead just leaning against him a bit. The contact was nice, and her own instincts were calming down some now that she was sure her Beta at least wasn't mad at her.

Bruce sat there with her for a while, holding her. The contact was good, and if he was subtly leaving his scent on her in the process, well, nobody could blame him.

"So where's Tony?" Sim asked after a while, still not making any move to get up or move away from him. She was comfy, after all.

"At a guess? The garage, probably," Bruce said, still holding her. "He tears apart cars when he needs to really think. Just give him some time."

"Wasn't planning on going after him," Sim muttered, scooting a little closer to Bruce.