I Love You, Man

Finally

"Have you lost your fucking mind, Steve?! Do you even realize how hard you hit?" you yelled, kneeling down next to your knocked out friend. "Chris?" you asked calmly now with a small shake of his shoulder, and then a few hard pokes to his ribs when that wasn't working. "Chris, wake up."

"Ma?"

"Oh my god, this just gets better and better," Anthony laughed, quickly aiming his phone at the scene in front of him. Sebastian tried to grab it away to protect his friend's dignity, or what remained of it, but he was too slow, just missing the target as Mackie hopped up onto a nearby table. He glanced over at Sam with an approving nod, pleased that he was covering the scene with his own device from across the room.

"Great, Rogers. You've made him a bigger idiot than he was before." You sat and extended your legs fully in front of you and pulled Chris' head onto them. He was slowly waking up, but he still looked utterly confused, and the bruise on his cheek was beginning to form with a warm purple hue. "Hey, Evans, tell everyone how stupid you are."

"I'm so fuuu...upid."

"Yes, Chris, you sure are. You've really outdone yourself this time."

"I looove...you, (Y/N)..." he slurred with a sloppy grin and a complete disregard for the shadow of a man towering over him. "You're...so purty."

Steve growled quietly and turned away, looking out at the group of guests without an ounce of apology or shame in his expression. With hands firm on hips and his jaw tightly set, he stepped up on the nearby stairs and commanded the attention of the room.

"Please, everyone continue on without me. It was nice to see most of you." He turned abruptly without so much as a look towards you and made quick work of the stairs, disappearing into an elevator before anyone turned back to you and the babbling mess on your lap.

"Nick," you summoned, and as he joined you he knelt at your side with CJ sleeping peacefully in his arms, wonderfully oblivious to the drama that his father and his namesake had created. "Would you mind it too much if I asked you to-"

"No need to ask, sweetheart. I'll grab some of his stuff and take a guest room for the night. Don't you worry about him for one second." He held your tiny son down so you could give him a quick kiss goodnight before taking him away and allowing you the freedom to try to put some of this mess together. You looked down to see Chris slipping in and out of a haze, not paying much attention to what you were doing. Slowly reaching your hand into his pocket, you grabbed his phone and searched for the one person that you knew would know what to do.

"Mackie, is this who I think it is?" you asked, holding the screen towards him to see the number you had chosen, beginning to enter it into your own phone.

"Yeah, but are you sure about that? He might never forgive you."

You smiled weakly with a sad laugh, "seriously? Least of my worries right now."

~~~

Nick slowly opened the door to your room, hoping that Steve hadn't gone there after the intense scene he had just witnessed, peeking his head in and looking for the entry to CJ's nursery. So far your room had stayed darkened as he entered and made his way to the next door, and he didn't hear any movement from the bathroom on the other side of the room. Maybe he had gotten lucky and Steve had chosen his favorite aggression methods in the gym.

"Alright, kid. Get in, get out, right?" Fury reached into the room and turned on the light, immediately jumping and clutching onto CJ reflexively, seeing Steve curling his massive form into the rocking chair next to the crib.

"Why do I always do that?" Steve asked in a small and almost whining voice.

Nick looked around the room as if hoping one of his colleagues had miraculously appeared and he was talking to them instead of himself, but his posture dropped at the realization that he was now expected to answer. "Well," he began, taking the few steps between them to set CJ into Steve's arms, "when you love something so much as you do these two, I can see how any thought of losing them could make you go a little crazy."