"Okay, hold on just one damn second, buttercup, weren't you the one who was pissing-your-pants-excited about moving out of daddy's house once and for all? With that creepy as fuck FRIDAY thing watching everything all the time, you can ride the flag pole only so many times before it just gets weird...and not in a good way, know what I mean?"

"Do you know what you mean, Wade?"

"Nah, that just sucks the fun out the convo, baby. I like to keep you guessing."

"Mission accomplished."

All Wade could do was sputter out some sort of agreed celebration, his mouth now stuffed with almost every pancake that was on his plate in one nauseating bite. He reached out to get a high-five, his hand held in the air and waiting for your acknowledgement that would never come; you sat still and stared at your friend, a grimace of disgust on your face as you watched him practically choking on his meal. "Come on, don't leave me hangin'!"

"You know, I agreed to buy you breakfast so we could catch up for a bit, not so I could find out if I remembered the Heimlich maneuver. You have time to eat like a civilized person."

"Then why the hell did you invite me? If you wanted civilized, sugar lips, anyone would have been better."

"I've got that," you sighed, leaning back against the back of the booth, unable to look away from the spectacle in front of you as he continued to shovel the last of his pancakes into his mouth with a sickening fervor.

"So," Wade swallowed thickly, "when is Daddy getting home?" When you didn't reply fast enough for his liking, he held his fork steady just at the threshold of his mouth and looked to you with a tiny hint of a smirk, "I mean Captain Daddy, not Iron Daddy."

"Thanks for the clarification, asshat."

"You're welcome. You gonna eat that?"

You looked down at your plate and felt absolutely no urge to eat any of it, unsure if it was just the time of day being too early or if your stomach was finally beginning to turn from your hormones; either way, you had no attachment to it, pushing it his way to his excited squeals. "All yours," you offered, again watching him with awed repulsion. "Anyway, they're supposed to be back tonight, right after the kids are done at the Sanctum."

"I thought they graduated from Hogwarts already?"

"Oh my god, don't you dare ever call it that around Steve," you warned, "he'll try to find his wand again and it took me forever to find a place to hide it."

"Shoulda asked me. I've got a place he'd never look," Wade chuckled, tipping to the side on his seat with a firm slap of his hand on his butt. "At least I don't think he would. Although, I know you don't believe me, but I swear to you, I caught him staring. The leather heats up under those baby blues, I'm telling ya."

"Didn't you say that Pete was going to stop by?" you deflected, leaning to look to the sky through the café window.

"Am I too much for you to handle alone?"

"You wish."

"You wish," he scoffed, now reaching across the table to grab your drink without asking for permission, taking it down in one long swallow and slamming the glass down again definitively. "So, okay, you've got the little soldiers off at Sorcery day camp with Doctor Cumberbatch while Daddies one and two are out saving the world, and you have to stay behind because you're all knocked up again? I thought you guys were done baking babies?"

An audible gasp came from an older woman who was unfortunate enough to have taken the seat behind him, turning to look at the two of you in the hopes that she had misheard him.

"I'm sorry, ma'am," you offered, "he's a lot to take. Just tune him out." When she returned to her own meal, you sat quietly for a few minutes to let the moment pass before you took the risk to move on to the next. "Yes, we're having another one. Yes, we were done. She wasn't exactly...planned. Our girls seem to be the sneaky ones of the family."

"Get it from you," he coughed slyly into his napkin.

"Do not!"

"Oh, puh-leeeze! To this day, does Tony know that you and I dated for almost two years? Two years, (Y/N)."

"He...does not..." you answered, shifting in your seat uncomfortably.

"See? That's professional fucking sneakery right there to keep us on the low from a goddamn Stark for that long. I'm not surprised at all that the little zygote is doing whatever she damn well pleases in there." Wade leaned in closer, clumsily pushing the plates in front of him aside with his body as he pushed forward, his voice uncharacteristically lower, "I used to do whatever pleased you too, if you recall."

"Seriously, no Pete, huh?" you choked out, your throat feeling suddenly dry in the uncomfortable air around you. Dating Wade was something that was a rebellious couple of years of fun and not caring about consequences, knowing that he was one of the last people that your dad would ever approve of. It was never meant to last, and you definitely had never considered that it would have given you a lifelong friend out of the deal; Steve never had a problem with your relationship with Wade now, but even though he couldn't hear him, the comment left you feeling like he would somehow know. "I uh...I think I should go..."

"No! I'm sorry, (Y/N)," he backpedaled, "please, I was just screwing with you...I mean...I was just playing. Don't go."

"Why not? Because it leaves you with the bill if I bail first?"

"How rude!" he huffed, grabbing his chest in shock. "How dare you try to use my own trick against me, (Y/N)?! I thought you were better than that. I thought...I thought you were different," he whispered with a sad shake in his voice, hanging his head heavily. After a few mere seconds of silence, he stood quickly and darted around the table, pressing a chaste kiss to your cheek before running out the door and out of sight without a look back.

~~~

The scheduled time for the quinjet to bring the team home had come and gone, without any word from them as to why they were delayed. FRIDAY had no information to offer either, surprisingly quiet as if she were purposefully blocked from telling you anything. You finally decided that watching the hangar doors was doing you no good and only making your anxiety worse, so you spent the evening watching movies with the kids and reassuring them that their dad was probably just running late. After you put the trio to bed for the night, you continued your usual routine to get yourself ready just as you would any other night, trying to keep yourself optimistic before the worst sleep you had taken in a long time.

Two more days came and went this way, and now it was all that you could do to keep yourself from a full-blown panic attack. They had never been this late before without at least some communication as to why, and you knew that something had gone seriously wrong. No one was returning your texts or answering your calls, and you were now completely convinced that they were all dead; what other reason could there be but the worst possible outcome that you could imagine? You had one more hope to find someone who could tell you anything, and if the team had told him to keep quiet, you hoped that your years of history together as his protégée would override their orders.

"Nick, have you heard anything?"

"No, darlin', I'm sorry. FRIDAY clammed up?"

"Yeah, she's not telling me anything, and I think that's scaring me more than them being late."

"I can pull a few strings, see if anything's been heard on the underground networks if you want?"

"Thanks, I'd appreciate that," you agreed readily, with a heavy sigh. "Nick...you're not lying to me, are you?"

"Come on, (Y/N). You know me better than that."

"That's why I asked," you chuckled softly, "I know you."

"Touché."

The sound of the hangar doors opening caught your attention, even from your room on the entirely other side of the building; between your enhanced hearing and your desperate need to hear that sound, you weren't about to miss it. "Nick, I think they're here, I've gotta go!" You tossed your phone onto your bed without a care and hurried to the stairwell, taking the steps as fast as you could; you weren't sure if your feet even touched them on your way down.

Throwing the doors open and bursting into the hangar, you stood and waited as the jet door lowered, almost agonizingly slow in its pace as if it knew how badly you needed to see them. Steve exited first and made his way to you immediately, lifting you from the floor and into his arms, the pressure of his embrace taking your breath away. He nuzzled his face into your neck and breathed you in, and as he held you there, you could feel that something was wrong but he wasn't about to tell you willingly.

"Steve, just tell me."

"I'm sorry that we're late."

"Steve..."

"(Y/N), I promise you, we're not giving up, okay?" he finally answered, setting you onto your feet hesitantly, though not letting you go just yet. He had meant to turn you away from the jet so that you didn't see first what he was supposed to tell you, but in his need to get to you he had forgotten. One by one, the team exited and made their way towards you, but the glaring absence was one that they couldn't keep from you; you had felt it long before your eyes took it in.

"Where's my dad?"

"Try to stay calm, doll-"

"Where's my dad, Steve?"

"W-we don't know..." he answered, his voice failing. "We looked for two days, but he wasn't there-"

You pushed away from Steve, not wanting his arms around you anymore; you didn't want anyone to touch you as the room began to close in and suffocate you. Natasha hurried forward from the group and tried to take your hand but you swatted her away, your eyes still never leaving the jet's door as if Tony would miraculously appear from some sick joke they were playing on you. Sam was next to try to calm you, simply standing at your side and waiting for the moment that you would need him.

"Why did you come back without him?"

"Sweetheart, we looked everywhere-" Steve tried to reply, but you didn't get the answer you wanted; there was only one and no one was offering it.

"You didn't, or he would be here!" you began to cry, feeling the attack about to take over your senses. Your heart was going to burst out of your chest, but you didn't care; your mind wasn't allowing this to be real, and all it wanted was to shut down. "If you didn't find him, then why did you come back?!"

Sam took a quick step forward, pushing in front of Steve when he saw your knees begin to weaken and your stance start to wobble. "Woah, honey, let's sit down. Let's breathe," he said gently, taking your arms in his hands to guide you to the floor, letting you lean against him for support. "We're not stopping, (Y/N). I promise you, we're gonna find Tony. I won't let anyone stop until we do."