You had been gone from living in the compound for just barely a year, but the welcome home that Tony was giving you made it look as if it had been decades. An obscene number of balloons and decorations filled the lounge and living room, just waiting for guests to arrive at the party that he insisted on having; it was becoming quite obvious that even though he had said that he had been too busy to be lonely, this past twelve months was harder on him than he had let on.

You had arrived with the kids first on the day you were moving back in, getting them settled into their old rooms, but they took to it like they hadn't missed even one day. The sounds of their voices laughing and yelling to each other down the hallways filled the building quickly, but this time now joined with the squeals of delight from Allie when she finally had them there to play with her every day.

"You have no idea who happy I am to see you," Nat practically giggled, running to you across the living room to pull you into an overwhelming hug. "I don't know how you do this mommy thing with three, but just that one girl has me constantly on the run. How are you going to do it with four?" She pulled back from the embrace to look down, her hand just barely touching your abdomen, "how are you feeling, anyway? There isn't even a bump yet."

"Yeah, I don't feel any different. Ant caught on to it so early that tests don't even show a change yet. I think I might tell that boy to go into medicine. He'd be set for life."

"No doubt," she nodded. "So, quite the surprise, huh?"

"You're telling me. This was definitely not in the plans. We were done, and between you and me," you looked around the room cautiously and pulled her in a little closer, "I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, Nat. I'm not excited. Is that bad?"

"Oh, sweetie, no, that's not bad," she reassured with a gentle hand over yours, "it's a shock. You've barely had time to get yourself back to being healthy, much less time to stop and think about what's going on. It's not bad at all, (Y/N). Give yourself a chance to let it sink in."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right."

"I'm always right," she snickered with a raised brow and her signature smirk. "Okay, down to business. When do the guys get here?"

"Steve said they should be here with the trucks any minute now. They had their customary argument over who was going to drive, so you know that took up way more time than it should have. I got so fed up that I almost did it myself."

"Honestly, I'm a little surprised that you didn't."

"Excuse me! How dare you say hello to anyone else but me first?" Tony huffed, making his way quickly down the hall from his office and towards you. Before he fully wrapped his arms around you, he stopped, holding you at arm's length and practically studying what you looked like as if he hadn't seen you in years. "You look like you," he sighed in relief, "are you feeling okay?"

"Dad, I talked to you on the phone an hour ago and you already asked me that four times today. I'm fine, and you need to calm down."

"Right, like that's gonna happen," he smiled, finally grabbing you for the hug that he had been waiting all day for, "you know me."

"I've been out of the hospital for two weeks, I think I'm out of the woods. If I didn't have this new little problem for the next eight months, I'd be on the next mission in a heartbeat."

"Like hell," Tony scoffed, pulling back from the embrace, "team policy says you'd be out for at least a month, minimum. You know that."

You rolled your eyes as you remembered how he loved to quote that stupid Avengers manual that Steve had written when it suited him and helped him to win an argument. Any other time he would just as soon burn every copy on the compound lawn in front of its author, no matter how many tears the Captain might shed. "What's the point of being married to Steve if I can't even get that damn book destroyed? Come on, you know it would be doing us all a favor."

"I'll help if it gets rid of the 'no drinking 24 hours before a mission' rule."

"Dad, you're not supposed to be drinking at all."

"No, you gave me that superhero liver and now I'm set for life. Give me a few more spare parts and I'll never die."

"You're not allowed, ever," you answered with a point and a sharp poke in his arm to make it clear. "I'll give you whatever parts you need just to be sure. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," he smiled, turning towards the door when he heard Steve making his way in with Sam, Bucky, Scott and Clint in tow. "Hey, guys," he greeted, "you know that we could have just hired movers to do all of this, right?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Sam argued. "You know how much we just looove watching Cap and Buck get all pissy over who can lift more. Can't think of a better way to spend an entire damn day than that."

"It's me, by the way," Steve whispered in your ear with a dark chuckle, wrapping his arm around you. Since the minute that he had joined you at your side in the hospital after your accident, barely a moment had passed when he wasn't in physical contact with you. Even just the short time that it took for him to drive from your place in Brooklyn to the compound without you was nearly too much for him to wait. He would still have dreams about seeing you walking towards eternity without him, and you knew that keeping contact with you was to reassure himself that you wouldn't slip through his fingers again as you did then.

"Of course it's you, honey."

"Thanks for that, doll. I knew I could count on you."

"Always."

~~~

Later that evening, once dinner had been long since finished and the kids had all been put to bed for the night, the few guests that Tony had invited to your welcome home party had arrived and were just waiting for you and Steve to come down to join them. Tony kept staring at the time as each minute passed by, growing more and more impatient until he finally asked FRIDAY to check up on you; he had texted you so many times himself that you had given up on answering him now.

"The Captain and (Y/N) are in their room, boss. I've reminded them that the celebration has already begun."

"What did they say?"

"Well," she began almost timidly, "they said that they'll arrive when they're damn good and ready, to paraphrase, of course."

"That seems a little ungrateful," Tony grumbled, making his way towards the bar, "kid's only been home a few hours and already the attitude."

Upstairs, while Tony was taking his first of many shots as he waited for you, you and Steve were sitting quietly on your bed, fully dressed in semi-formal wear that did nothing for you but make you feel uncomfortable before the night could even begin. The room was silent around you, leaving you both able to hear the hum of the guests and loud music a few floors below; neither of you wanted to be there, but being the guests of honor, it was all but required.

"Do you think we could just make an appearance?"

"You're kidding right?" you scoffed. "Dad won't let us leave until it's over. He's been too excited for this to let us sneak out early."

"But I'm so tired," your usually freakishly energetic super soldier whined, dropping back to lie on the bed with a heavy sigh, "I just want to sleep."

"I know, me too." Knowing that it was a terrible mistake, but not caring enough, you scooted over to lay next to him, curling yourself up and allowing him to bring his arm up to welcome you into his hold. "When did we get old, Steve?"

"You're not old, sweetheart, trust me, I'm an expert on this one. For me I think it all started going downhill when they hit thaw on...the...microwave..." he yawned, taking the risk of closing his eyes for just a few seconds.

"Open your eyes, Steve."

"No."

"If we don't go down there, he'll just come up here to get us."

"So lock the door."

"I did, but he'll have FRIDAY open it."

"No, he won't," Steve argued sleepily, "it's in the manual. I wrote several pages on privacy guidelines."

"You've got to be kidding me. I'll never get rid of that damn book," you groaned, rolling over to sit up before you let sleep take you as Steve was. "Steve, don't fall asleep. We can make an appearance and come back. Come on."

"Noooooo," he whimpered, rolling away and grabbing your pillow to hold over his head. He fought you when you tried to pull it from his grip, only to find yourself being taken down to lie next to him again. "Fifteen minutes. Just give me fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes," you finally relented, pushing yourself up, but this time hurrying to your feet to avoid the trap that he was setting for you. "I'm going down there, and if you aren't by my side in fifteen minutes, I'm sending Natasha to fetch your lazy ass."

"Mmm hmm," he mumbled, already falling into his slumber as if he dared to not believe your threat.

~~~

Fifteen minutes later, and there was no Steve to be seen anywhere in the group of party guests, you had sent Nat on her recovery mission just as you had promised that you would. She seemed strangely all too eager to go after the Captain, and you worried that maybe you had sent the wrong teammate to do the work; that was, until you saw him emerging from the elevator, his face slightly flushed and his hair a little messier than you had last seen, with his hands bound behind his back as she pushed him towards you.

"Nat, you can untie him," you smiled, giving him an empathetic shake of your head as he neared. "I'm sorry, honey, I didn't think she'd take it quite this seriously."

"He fought me."

"Steve, seriously?"

"I woke up with her sitting on my chest with my arms pinned," he argued, "what was I supposed to do? She should've known better."

"He enjoyed it," she scoffed, taking the restraints from his wrists, "he hasn't had a fight like that in the last year. He was smiling like an idiot the whole time."

"Really?" You stood silently and watched the two of them bickering back and forth, a few other teammates taking a stand at your side to listen in. If Steve had actually enjoyed a minor scuffle with Nat that much, he must have been starving for a good fight. "Guys, I think I have an idea for a welcome back gift for Cap, but you might not like it."

"What's that?" Clint asked eagerly, but when you only answered him with a coy smirk and a little shrug, he knew all too quickly where your mind had gone. "No, (Y/N). You're asking us to willingly get our asses kicked just because he's in a drought? Thanks, but no thanks. We'd have to let him win and that usually means a night in the infirmary."

"Speak for yourself, Barton," Thor retorted, "I shall not allow him to claim victory over me, no matter if it pleases him or not."

"Nor will I," T'Challa agreed.

"Do I get to wear the suit?"

"I get to go as Hulk, right?"

"Of course, Bruce," you laughed aloud, "I would never send you up against Steve otherwise. Okay, so I'll head down to the gym and get things ready-" you stopped suddenly at the sound of an alarm overhead, followed by the telltale red emergency lights flashing around you. "Hmm, well, maybe Cap is gonna get his fight after all. Looks like you guys are off the hook."

"Fine by me," Clint said with a loud clap of his hands in satisfaction, "he can do all the fighting on this one as far as I'm concerned."

Steve and Nat's spat ended immediately and he rushed to take your side and your hand in his, his eyes wide with excitement; it was a glaring contrast to how the rest of his team was feeling. His previous complaints of fatigue were readily dismissed at this new opportunity. "Are you okay if I go? I know we just got back, but I'd really like to-"

"You're damn right you're going," you agreed, "look at you. You're like a kid at Christmas."

"This is better than Christmas, doll," he practically squealed, "thank you! I'll let you know when we're on the way back!" With a quick kiss and a tight hug, he hurried to follow the rest of the team to the mission room to gather their gear, leaving you to stay behind and send the partygoers away and to wave your friends goodbye from the hangar bay as the quinjet departed.

You stood in place there for so long that you had lost track of time, staring at the closed doors in front of you, trying to quiet the urge to find a way to follow them. You understood how Steve had been feeling because it had built up in you as well, and as easy as you had made it sound to let him go, it was one of the hardest things you had done in a long time. You silently cursed the situation, and felt an embarrassing anger towards a child that hadn't even been born yet, and had no choice in being an obstacle to you now. When your mind wanted the mission more than her, you gasped at the horrible turn that your thoughts had taken against your will.

"Stop it," you whispered to yourself, closing your eyes tightly in shame, "you don't really believe that. Stop it, (Y/N)." Finally turning to leave, you made your way to the door and stopped, taking one last look back to where the jet had been sitting a short time ago, allowing the last pangs of jealousy to have their moment before blocking them out once and for all.