You never enjoyed seeing your husband angry, no matter what or who was his intended target, and you knew that he enjoyed it about as much. Steve wasn't one to hold grudges for too long, and his temper had mellowed greatly over the years, but when you were the one to betray a trust or even if he perceived it as such, all of that progress faded away as quickly as his mood shifted and his skin flushed with the telltale red of rage. You weren't scared of him by any means, but you still feared his anger because it made everything unbearable; when you were the one to make him mad, you took the brunt of it and for longer than anyone else. What the worst of it was, beyond his anger, was the hurt in his eyes when he looked at you, and the betrayal that he never would have expected from you. Anyone but you.

"So, how long were you going to keep this from me, (Y/N)? After ten years...would you ever tell me if I hadn't have found out on my own?

"I didn't see any reason to tell you, no."

"Are you kidding me?!" Steve gasped in complete shock. He threw his hands up in frustration, and you took a step back in misjudgment of the action. You knew better than to think he would strike out, but he hadn't been himself lately with everything changing within him, and you no longer trusted that old guarantee. "How could you not see a reason? (Y/N), you're carrying a power that could be dangerous, and we need to understand it."

"Why? Why do we have to if I never use it and nothing has happened in all of this time? All we're doing is bringing attention to it when I didn't want any-"

"Then you shouldn't have used it on Buck!"

"It wasn't on purpose!" you yelled back. Within a mere few sentences, your argument was quickly growing so loud that you could count the seconds before any one of your teammates would show up to stop it. "Steve, it just felt like what I had to do. I can't explain it any other way."

"And that doesn't scare you? That you're acting without your own intent? (Y/N)," he paused, hands on his hips as the Cap persona took over Steve's, "if you're not in control of this, you know that I have to quarantine you to the compound until we know more."

"You're joking."

"Not at all."

"What about Becca? She'll be home tomorrow. What about her connection to the stone?"

"She has that because of you, (Y/N). You're the catalyst that we need to halt before this goes any further."

~~~

Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry.

If tears fell now, they would be filled with rage and not pain; you told yourself that as you tried to keep them at bay so that it was easier to do. You understood what Steve was doing, and that he was keeping the team safe, but it still hurt that he didn't see that you were doing the exact same thing by keeping this from everyone. You had never lost control of it before, and the episode with Bucky was helping him. All that you were doing was your best to not scare everyone, especially the kids. You were certain that they would immediately associate you with Thanos if they knew, and there was no way that anything good would come of that. There was too much trauma still left over from that day, even so many years later. How could he not understand that you were doing what you thought was right, and that you didn't want this? If you could get rid of it, you would do so in a second.

"Hey, Dad, you got a minute?" you asked, peeking your head into the kitchen with your best attempt at a smile. He would never buy it as real, so you weren't sure why you even bothered.

Tony lowered his tablet with a returned smile that quickly dropped, his expression changing to concern. "For you, I've got all the minutes you want. What's up?"

"Steve's an asshole."

"Uh oh, what now?"

"He's putting me on house arrest until he gets more answers about this power from the stone. He thinks I could be a threat if I can't control it, since we don't totally understand it yet."

"Well, sweetheart...he's right. I just haven't pushed it with you."

"You too now? Really? Well, that's just great," you scoffed, dropping heavily into a chair across the table from him. "Vision saunters around here with a glowing forehead all day long and no one bats an eye. Stephen has the damn time stone around his neck like it's nothing. I get a little residual power after getting stuck in the soul world for a few minutes and everyone loses their shit."

"(Y/N), come on, think about this logically for just a minute, alright? Think about it if it were anyone else but you. Wouldn't you react the same way that Steve is now?"

"I don't know...maybe. Yeah...probably. But this isn't someone else, Dad. He knows me. You know me. I'm not going to let anything happen."

"You can't be sure that you'll always be in control of whatever this can do."

"I think my ten-year track record says otherwise."

"You really thought you'd get away with that, huh? Around here nothing stays secret forever."

"It stayed a secret that you knew about it. It stayed a secret that you were my Dad for years. I kept it under wraps that Wade and I were together for two years. Your argument is crap, sorry," you smirked weakly. "But seriously, I was only doing what you guys do. I was protecting everyone from something that didn't need to become anything. If I hadn't been around Buck it would still be a secret."

"Buck? What did you do?"

"I got in his head...I saw his memories. I was able to push his past aside, so he could stay present, but I'm really not sure how it happened." You stood up with a shake of your head, feeling his eyes follow you as you moved towards the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water. The air in the room felt suddenly heavier, and you expected endless questions, but nothing came. "I hate to even think this, but it looks like he's getting forgetful, reliving old memories."

"Like Alzheimer's? Shit."

"Yeah, shit."

"But your sparkle fingers stopped it?"

"I don't know what I actually did, but I was able to hold his mind steady."

Tony's eyes widened just enough for you to notice, and the familiar uneasiness swirled around in your gut as your mind raced with every terrible decision he had ever made in the past. He had that look on his face that meant trouble, but it also meant that he was already so far gone in whatever idea he was creating that there was no use in trying to stop him. He raised his hand to his chin thoughtfully, staring forward as if he were staring right through you. "Hmm...let me think on this...soul stone...life and death..."

"Dad? Whatever you're thinking-"

"It may be nothing," he waved dismissively, "but I need to do some research. Sorry, sweetheart, but you're on your own with Cap. I think it looks like you're grounded."

~~~

As Steve neared the catering shop, he was trying to think of how he was going to explain away your absence to Anthony and Esihle. The two of you were going to help them with choosing what would be served for dinner at their wedding reception, but with the new revelation that Steve had just learned, he had to hold his ground and go without you.

"I wonder what's keeping Mom and Dad?" Anthony asked under his breath, staring out the shop window. "They were supposed to be here like a half an hour ago."

"Call your mother," Esihle offered, "we still have some time."

"It's weird, I know they wanted to be here." Taking her suggestion, Anthony pulled his phone from his pocket and began to dial your number, but the chime of the door halted his fingers. He felt an immediate relief at the sight of his father, replaced just as quickly with confusion and concern when you weren't with him.

"Hey, guys! Sorry I'm late."

"It's okay, but where's Mom?"

"Long story for another time, but she's at home, and she's fine," Steve reassured. "She'll make the next trip, and that's the important one anyway, right? Picking out the dress? You know how I can eat, so I'm great with this catering stuff. This probably worked out just right."

Ant set his jaw and tried to seek you out, to get a sense of what you were feeling, but he couldn't get a good read on you. You must have been blocking him, which only convinced him more that he was right, and something was wrong. "Okay, sure," he agreed hesitantly, "let's get started then. They've set up a bunch of things for us to try, and honestly, I'm not sure what half of these are."

"Wow, whatever they are, they all look great," Steve clapped his hands in anticipation, "I'm not sure where to start." His eyes searched each item in front of him until he finally decided on a group of finger sandwiches, taking two and making short work of them with a grin. "Yep, definitely need a bunch of these. I could eat this entire plate on my own."

Esihle gave her future father-in-law a chuckle and marked his selection on the sheet in her hand. "Anything you want, Captain."

"I want you to call me Steve."

"Of course," she smiled nervously, "so then, what's next...um...Steve? Are you alright?"

"Dad?"

Steve coughed a few times, harshly with a soft wheeze under his voice. The veins in his neck began to protrude, and his face flushed to a deepening purple with each passing second. "Not sure...w-what's in these?"

"Hold on, Dad, I'll ask," Anthony hurried to go, but Steve grabbed his arm to stop him.

"I think...I'm allergic to whatever...it is..." he gasped, dropping himself down quickly to the floor, resting on his knees and trying to expand his chest with each breath.

Esihle had run towards the kitchen for help, as Anthony hurried to dial 911; it had been seconds, but Steve was barely breathing now, and he could no longer sit up on his own. Anthony gently lowered him to the ground and tried to prepare and remember the steps of CPR through his terror. "Dad, just hold on, okay? We're getting help."

"Stand aside," Esihle commanded, charging forward and reaching out to tear the seam apart on the thigh of Steve's pants. Anthony watched in awe as his fiancé calmly took control and stabbed a needle into his father's leg, plunging epinephrine into him to stop the reaction that his body was suffering through. "I need another!" she yelled behind her, and one of the workers set the next syringe in her hand.

"That's all we have!"

"I called for an ambulance," Anthony added, still watching both of them, wide-eyed and terrified. There was no way that you weren't connecting with him now; this was powerful enough to reach you from across the universe. "Dad, is it working? How do you feel?"

Steve gasped and coughed again, but this time the air was moving easier in his throat and into his lungs. The wheeze was quieting, and his skin was fading from the deep purple of struggle. The heaving expansion of his chest settled into calmer breaths, and his muscles began to relax as Anthony helped him to sit up. "I think...better...maybe. Thank you, Esihle. You saved my life...I owe you."

"Of course you don't."

"We can agree to disagree," Steve relented softly. "You can cancel the medics, Ant. I'm okay."

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely. But I'm gonna need you to take those back off the list."

"Done," Esihle smiled cautiously, "let's get you into a chair if you think you're feeling well enough." She reached down and took one hand while Anthony took the other, slowly easing Steve up from the floor and into the closest seat. The young couple stood steady and watched him for several minutes, still feeling uneasy despite what appeared to be a complete recovery from the emergency that nearly ended in disaster.

"Don't tell your mom, Ant."

"What? Why not?"

"She has enough going on, and I don't want her to worry any more than she already is."

"Dad," Anthony argued, "no matter how much she has going on, she's gonna want to know this. She'll be pissed if she finds out that you hid it from her, you know that."

"Ant, seriously, she has enough on her mind. I'm fine." Steve gave his best attempt at a look of authority, but he should have known that it would get him nowhere. If anything, it would only spurn his son on to challenge him more.

"Okay, you've said that twice, that she has a lot going on. What's happening? Is mom okay? I can't seem to connect with her and it's been bothering me, so all you're doing is making me worry more." He didn't get a reply fast enough to his liking, only the answer of his father looking away to avoid the true topic. "Dad?"

Steve took a deep breath and raised his head to meet his son's eyes, not wanting to do this here, but being thrust into it with no choice. "Why didn't you tell me about her connection to an Infinity Stone, Ant? She said that you've worked with her to test its power. Do you realize how irresponsible that is? People...you could be hurt. The two of you...if anything went wrong...Ant, you know I can't let that happen."

"Dad, tell me where Mom is right now."

"She's fine. Your grandfather is keeping her company at the compound. It's the best way to protect her."

"Are you serious?!" Ant yelled, making Esihle jump at the sudden out of character outburst. "That's how you see it? As protection? It's internment, Dad. This isn't going to go the way you planned, and you're an idiot if you can't see that she's the one who's been protecting you. If this hadn't have happened with Becca, the plan was for you to never know, and maybe you need to take a step back and ask yourself why that is."