How to tape up a broken family

Operation:Pops

~10 years ago~

Steve was a light sleeper, something that was both a blessing and a curse to any parent, so shortly after hearing the faint whimpering, coming from the baby monitor he was already trying to get out of bed, without waking up his husband, unfortunately, before he could execute his plan the whimpering had transformed into wailing, and he felt Tony's hand grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him back into the bed.
"Go back to sleep, Rogers, you're only going to make it worse."
The brunet said with a yawn as he stumbled out of bed.

As much as he hated to admit it, Tony was right about this. He'd been having trouble with the twins, in particular, Peter, who was going through a phase where he would refuse to be held by anyone who wasn't Tony, sometimes he could get around this if he was also holding Ben, but it didn't always work and if Peter cried it meant that Ben would cry too.
Both their pediatrician and Tony had told him not to worry about it, they had said that the reason behind this was probably, due to the fact that Steve was overseas during the twin's adjustment period, and that they just needed to get used to him, but that didn't really make him feel better, he remembered how his boys Would smile when he held them and how he even made them laugh before he left, he wanted to get back to that but it was hard when one of his boys would scream every time he tried holding him, add to that, the guilt he still felt for being forced to leave which meant that Tony had been, and was still doing, the heavy lifting.
Despite what his husband told him, he got out of bed and made his way to the nursery.
His timing seemed to be perfect, when he got there Tony was holding Ben, the stress and worried clear on his face, as he tried to calm the baby in his arms, and the one, who was still in his crib.

"It's okay buddy, I know, I know things are going to be okay."
He looked back at Peter. "It's okay, your brother is okay, no need to cry."
He said in a sleepy voice.

"What 's wrong?"
Steve asked as he took Ben from Tony.

"I think he has a fever, but I'm not sure if Peter also has one."
Steve looked down at Ben, his chubby cheeks were flushed a light pink, and his soft skin was hot to the touch.

"I'll get a thermometer."

After taking the temperature of the boys, and a call to the pediatrician they rushed them both to the hospital.
----

~Present day~

Peter's face felt numb from grinning so much, he couldn't keep his eyes off his dad, this was almost like a dream, except for the knot in his throat, that forbid him from responding more than two-word answers to all of Steve's questions.
He was nervous, and when he was nervous he would normally ramble off until his throat went sore, but right now he was silent, which couldn't be a good sign.

On a red light, his dad turned to him with a curious smile on his face. "Well, it sounds like you had fun". He reached out to ruffle his son's short hair.

"Tons!"
Peter nodded his head, swallowing dry.

Steve turned to him and gave him a long look, his smile dimming down as he arched his eyebrows."Are you really not going to tell me?"

Peter was visually confused by his Dad's question. He looked around the car as if the right answer was hidden in plain sight.
"Um...tell you what pops? ".

Steve looked ahead to make sure the light didn't change before turning back to his son.

"I'm your dad, I know when you hide things from me, you really think I wasn't going to notice?"