Chapter Text
Stephen’s legs were missing. Okay, logically, he knew they weren’t missing, but they felt that way. Groaning ever so slightly at the sensation of needles in his arm, he struggled to open his eyes.
The first thing he saw was Toni, of course, one hand frozen over a tablet as she stared at him, the other pressed to his shoulder. His first instinct was to smile at her, but his head hurt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it, so he didn’t.
“Stephen?” Toni called softly. “How are you feeling? You know where you are?”
He stared at her blankly. “I don’t... I... Can’t... Who are you?”
Toni’s eyes widened. She bit her lips, shifting away from him. “What?” She asked weakly.
He stared for a few seconds, then smirked the tiniest bit. Immediately, she jabbed a finger into his side. “That was not funny,” she snapped.
“Sorry,” he mumbled. He took a closer look at her. She looked tired, but somehow lighter. Like there’d been a load taken off her shoulders. “How long have I been out?” He asked. “What have I missed?”
Toni slumped slightly. “It’s been four days. You didn’t suffer any serious damage. Torch caught you. You have a few burns over your chest. And a concussion. But that’s it. Thankfully.”
“What about Clint?” Stephen remembered seeing the archer fall. “Is he okay?”
Toni made a ‘more or less' motion with her hand. “He hit the opposite building pretty hard before Levi caught him. He’s spectacularly bruised, but nothing broken. And... The explosion was too close to him. So, there’s sixty percent hearing loss. He woke up two days ago. He apparently already knows ASL. I’m just...” She showed him the screen of her tablet and he observed the designs for hearing aids. “Stark Medical got to it as soon as they could.”
“Good.” Stephen sighed in relief. “What else?”
She blew out a loud breath. “Uh, Maximoff has been kindly escorted to Kamar-Taj. Wong came to take her off my hands. They decided to put permanent binders on her powers. Until she learns to discipline herself. They’re not too optimistic, though.”
“You know, when Thanos arrives- whenever he does- we’re going to need her fighting,” Stephen pointed out.
Toni nodded. “I know. Can’t be helped. But it’s a start. Let’s hope we have time. Moving on, Ross is under arrest.”
“Everhart came through?”
She hummed appreciatively. “Oh yeah. Every thing she collected was iron-clad. There was a trial, of course. But it was more a sham than anything. He’s in for life.”
“That’s one vulture out of the way,” Stephen muttered.
Toni smiled, a little nervous, a little giddy. “I, ah, released the footage.”
Stephen stared at her. “You mean... You did it?”
She nodded. “They’re all under questioning. James has been pardoned, I vouched for him, and Matt was defending him anyway.”
“So, what are we looking at? As a guess?”
“Both Rogers and Wilson will definitely be stripped of their ranks, honorary and otherwise. Romanoff will probably be put under house arrest. Most likely, they’ll all have restraining orders from all of us and any properties under any of our names. Of course, as with Maximoff, none of that will hold when we’re under fire... But...”
Stephen found her hand had somehow made its ways into his own and he gripped it as tight as he could. “But what?”
Toni focused on him. “I'm okay,” she said, in a voice of wonder. “I mean, I even told Rogers about... About the baby. And I’m okay.” She smiled incredulously.
“I'm glad you are,” Stephen chuckled.
Toni tilted her head at him. She looked serious again. “Can I ask you something? How long have you loved me?”
He raised an eyebrow, taken aback. “What?”
“Just tell me. Please.”
He studied her face, taking in the guilty expression. “I don’t know. I realized it right after the New York battle. But I don’t know when it started.”
She looked away, up at the ceiling. “Stephen... I’m sorry.”
He frowned. “What for?”
She sighed, guiltily. “I never realized,” she mumbled. “I never realized it was that long.”
Stephen shook his head. “I never wanted you to know. You loved Rogers, I didn’t want to make things complicated. Don’t apologize for that. Where is this even coming from?”
She didn’t reply. “You know, that first night we spent together? Back when we first met?” She waited for him to nod. “When I woke up the next day... I didn’t want to leave. For one crazy second, I wanted to stay in bed with you, wake up with you and see where it went.” She huffed a laugh, self-deprecation at its best. “Pathetic, right? One night together and I was thinking about a relationship.”
Stephen could hear the concealed plea to be told she was wrong. So he did. “I don’t have any room to tell you you’re pathetic,” he informed her seriously. “That first night? Your disappearance was on the news the next day and I genuinely considered tearing that entire desert apart to find you. Wong can attest to this.” He gave her a crooked grin. “If you’re pathetic, I’m right there with you.”
Toni still looked unsure. “There’s something else you need to know,” she murmured. “If you had told me... Or if I hadn’t been so blind... If it had ever come down to a choice between you and him...” She met his eyes with determination. “It would have been you. No contest.”
Stephen felt a pressure ease off his chest that he hadn’t even been aware of. “Even back then?” He asked breathlessly.
She nodded. “Even back then.”
“So... Let me get this straight,” Nebula said, holding up a hand for a pause. “You guys have revolutionized Earth technology to contain Infinity Stones, deal with invasions and undergo space travel?”
The man named Rhodes shrugged. “Well, space travel is something that only a few of us can do so far, and that’s in theory. Infinity Stones are handled by sorcerers and a complicated android. But invasions... Yes. We’ve already dealt with one as a team. And we’re mostly prepared for Thanos.”
Mostly seemed to be an understatement, but nobody mentioned that out loud.
Gamora watched the interaction with a keen eye. She was slightly conflicted. Most of her felt a sort of hopelessness because no matter how much they prepared, no matter how much they tried, Thanos was so much stronger than any of these Terran people could ever imagine. But a part of her also wanted so desperately to hope.
With Drax engaged in an arm wrestle with the metal-armed man named James, she decided to turn her attention to the discussion between Rocket and the woman named Toni.
“This was a pretty advanced model for something that you say you made in a cave,” Rocket was saying. He was bent over a hologram of a cold reactor. “What did you say was wrong with it?”
“Well, that particular model was a little too slow, cycles per second were too low,” Toni said. “The long term problem was the palladium. It was poisoning me.”
Rocket shot her a dirty look. “And you figured this out after thinking it was a good idea to jam it into your body?”
Toni narrowed her eyes at him. “Rich, coming from a raccoon with electric nodes implanted in his back. Didn’t you know that an accidental overload from the control remote could kill you?”
There was a silent stare down between them.
“I didn’t ask for it,” Rocket finally admitted. “And I neutralized it, when I broke out.”
Toni relaxed, nodding. “I didn’t have much of a choice, either,” she muttered. “And I fixed the problem later.”
Both of them shook themselves loose of the morose tone and turned their attention to the two children, Harley and another boy also named Peter, who were trying to converse with Groot.
“How much of that can you actually understand?” Rocket asked, indignantly.
“The nuances are tough to get,” Harley admitted, looking up. “But the gist is easy enough to understand.”
“It helps that he can understand us,” the young Peter added.
“Teenagers,” Toni sighed, shaking her head. “They have a whole different language, I’m telling you.”
Peter, who’d been looking for an opening, jumped in. “Oh, they’re your kids?” He asked.
Toni nodded. “Yep.” She sounded proud and Gamora felt a familiar pang of jealousy. Those boys would never find themselves lacking for love, that was sure.
“Gotta say, parenting seems to be a great look at you,” Peter complimented with a cocky grin that made Gamora roll her eyes. Really, if the fool didn’t spend every other second trying to make her jealous, he’d notice that she began returning his affections long ago. “You look way too young to be a mom.”
Toni, to her credit and Gamora’s endless satisfaction, seemed very amused and unimpressed by this. “That would be the result of an engineered biochemical I was injected with while dying,” she replied cheerfully.
Peter floundered for a few seconds. “Any other side effects?” He asked, waggling his eyebrows ridiculously. “Because I’m definitely down to help you do the research-”
His voice cut off. Everyone in the room turned to the scene as Peter tried to speak, confusion and a little fear creeping into his features.
“My apologies,” the wizard spoke smoothly. “I was showing Mantis an example of my magic. That’ll fade away in an hour or so.” He paused delicately. “Lucky for you, I didn’t attempt anything more powerful than a silencing spell.”
Peter’s panic abated, replaced first by annoyance, then false bravado as he caught Gamora’s eyes. She simply smirked at him, laughing internally as he noticed the look passed between Toni and Stephen.
Oh, damn, his eyes seemed to stay and she shook her head in exasperated wonder.
“I still can’t believe you’re wearing white,” Toni teased.
Pepper glared at her, forgetting her nervousness for a minute. “It’s tradition, Toni,” she sniped.
“Relax,” Toni laughed. “Hey, you look great. You look beautiful. Happy’s not gonna know what hit him.”
Pepper gave her hesitant smile. “Thanks, Toni,” she whispered.
Toni swooped down to kiss her cheek. “Congratulations, Pep,” she murmured.
The entire ceremony went without a hitch. Toni and Rhodey couldn’t stop smiling in immeasurable happiness from their places behind Pepper and Happy respectively. Toni deliberately avoided looking at Stephen, knowing she’d do something ridiculously sappy if she did.
But the time for the first dance was upon them and at Pepper’s request, Toni seated herself at the grand piano. It had been decades since she’d played for an audience, but her fingers moved like silk over the keys.
She kept her eyes on the room as she played.
The Guardians, invited mainly as courtesy, were standing a little apart. Carol was with them. With the Guardian’s ship fixed, they’d be leaving after the party, Carol accompanying them for a short distance, before splitting off to do her own recon.
Hope had managed to pull Rhodey into a dance. Christine had targeted Stephen, who was blushing slightly as Christine seemed to be teasing him. Laura and Clint were spinning enthusiastically near them, as much as possible with Clint’s lingering injuries.
Harley and the Barton kids were engaged in some sort of game, while Peter kept himself busy with a camera. May was sitting with them, having volunteered to look after Nathan and baby Michael.
Jessica, Ben, Richard, Susan and Wong had hit it off somehow.
The few business associates and long-time acquaintances were scattered around the room, as were select members of the press.
Johnny was trying to set Matt up with one of the reporters, with Danny and Luke egging him on.
Happy and Pepper took centre stage, swaying slowly, foreheads touching and their eyes closed
It was a beautiful scene, Toni decided. Literally all their extended family, all in one place.
In her musing, she didn’t notice Stephen until he was standing right behind her. Her silver dress left her shoulders bare and, even through his gloves, Stephen’s fingers felt like a brand on her skin. She tilted her head back to smile up at him.
“What the hell did Christine say to make you blush?” She asked with a smirk.
He rolled his eyes. “Bunch of stuff about how I look like I’m on top of the world,” he muttered.
Toni laughed.
“Dance with me?” Stephen asked, quietly.
She raised an eyebrow. “I thought you didn’t like dancing?” She challenged.
“Not when it’s with you,” he replied softly.
Heart beating erratically at the casual declaration, Toni signalled for FRIDAY to take over the music and let Stephen pull her to the dance floor.
“Pepper wanted me to tell you,” he started. “She and Happy are about to leave for their honeymoon in a few minutes. And since we’re about to leave for Italy for our vacation, she wants to see us break the news before that.”
Toni, having closed her eyes as she leaned into Stephen’s chest, opened them again to look at Pepper a few feet away. “You sure?” She mouthed.
Pepper nodded, grinning supportively.
Toni looked back at Stephen. “Are you sure?” She asked. “I don’t mind waiting for some time more. Because once we do this, they are not going to let it rest for months. So, really, it’s okay if-”
“I love you,” Stephen cut her off.
Toni stared at him. In the next few seconds, she was aware of Christine Everhart’s smug smile, the anticipatory whispers from the half of the press that weren’t focused on the wedded couple, and most importantly, the complete adoration in Stephen’s clear eyes.
She nodded and Stephen smiled brilliantly, before pulling her into a kiss.
For the second time that evening since Happy and Pepper had completed their vows, the room erupted into excited cheers and murmurs. In the back of her mind, Toni could probably predict exactly what all the headlines and social media sites would say tomorrow. She was also, in a way, dimly aware of the sound of a portal opening behind her, and Stephen walking her backward through it.
But all she could think about was Stephen’s warmth, his styled hair getting mussed under her fingers and the smooth slide of his tongue against hers. And the promise of more.