Steve let out a tired sigh, easily letting himself into the house and tapped in the security code before the alarm went off before he reset it, his eyes already drooping from exhaustion. He'd been away for a week and he was relieved to be back. He'd missed Lizzie and Adam, missed the warmth of his wife next to him at night, and even had missed the wake-up call the boy gave nearly every morning by jumping on top of him, of course always not jumping on his mother, who always just kept her eyes closed, a grin sliding across her face.

He yawned and scratched behind their dog Captain's ears as the dog wandered over sleepily excited, and he smiled at the licks he got. "Hey Cap" he whispered quietly, then pushed him back gently "off to bed again, I'll see you in the morning, okay boy?" the dog yawned, and Steve waited for him to head off to his bed in the living room but instead the dog trotted upstairs and he heard his and Liz's room door being nudged open and he sighed, before just rolling his eyes with another yawn, because she did it every time he went away. He rubbed his eyes as he made his way into the living room, dropping his shield and duffle bag on the couch, his eyes drooping once again. He had been intended on getting himself some cereal or something because it had been a while since he'd eaten but probably longer since he'd slept. He dropped onto the couch, his eyes closed over and he quickly drifted off to sleep.

It only felt like seconds later that he felt a small hand on his shoulder and he thought he heard a voice whisper "Dad?" he gave no reply, still pretty much asleep and wondering that if he ignored it would it go away? "Dad?" the voice tried again and Steve frowned, turning his head away then there was an impatient sigh of annoyance before the voice pretty yelled "Dad!" Steve's instincts acted first, his brain still half asleep but awake enough that he grabbed the boy, pulling him into his hold to protect him from whatever he was yelling about , only to have Adam let out a loud whine and struggle "Dad! Lemme go!" His brain was taking a while but his exhaustion eventually faded enough for him to realise it was Adam and that there wasn't any danger and released him, Adam slipping to the floor with an annoyed sound "I just came down to say welcome home, you didn't need to do that"

Steve sighed heavily and sat forward, rubbing his eyes "I'm sorry Adam" it still hadn't registered with him that he'd been called Dad, maybe it was just his exhaustion but he hadn't noticed. "I'm tired, I haven't slept in a while, you shouldn't have yelled like that, you shouldn't actually be awake"

Adam's annoyance faded and he looked down "sorry, I was just excited that you were home, I heard you come in, I was waiting for you"

His brows furrowed and he looked down at him "no one knew when I would be back"

"Mom kept saying soon so I stayed up, you always get back really late from work"

Steve fell silent for a moment before smiling softly and stood, lifting the eight year old with him as he did "come on bud, back to bed, and actually sleep, I'll tell you what I can of Japan tomorrow"

"Okay" Adam's arms wrapped around his neck and his head rested on his shoulder sleepily as his eyes closed over. Steve had to smile at the warm breath against his neck and he yawned, making his way out of the living room and up the stairs to Adam's room, using one hand to tug back the covers on the boy's bed and tucked him in with another yawn, resting his hand on his head for a moment.

"Night son"

"G'night Dad" Steve's eyes widened for a second as he finally realized what the boy had called him and he debated with himself over waking the boy up again to ask him about it but he was already asleep. He swallowed slightly then turned, making his way out of the room towards his and Lizzie's, the door already open from the dog nudging his way in. Once inside he tried to remain as quiet as possible, smiling at how Liz had her arms around the dog, said dog who was barely able to lift his head before of that but he didn't seem to mind, simply letting his head drop back down after a moment to drift back off to sleep.

He rolled his eyes, undoing and tugging off his trousers, followed by his shirt then made his way over, nudging Lizzie's grip from the dog, then the dog away so he could slide into his place, smiling once more at the feel of her pregnant stomach pressing against him as she moved closer to his warmth, letting out a tired sigh. Captain, after shooting his owner what Steve could only describe as a glare, wandered down to Lizzie's feet, and curled on top of them, his head resting on her thighs, eyes on her.

Steve's hand came to rest on her stomach, thumb stroking gently and he sighed again, shifting in closer to him "Hey" she slurred sleepily and he pressed a kiss to her head.

"Hey" he whispered back, hand reaching up to brush her hair back "sorry it took so long for me to get back"

"Don't worry 'bout it" she slurred, refusing to open her eyes, instead tossed an arm weakly around his waist.

He woke to an empty bed the next morning and his eyebrows furrowed tiredly before he looked to the clock, realizing with another tired sigh that Adam would be leaving for school in twenty minutes. He pushed himself onto his feet and made his way out and down the hallway, pulling a t-shirt over his head as he went, smiling as he heard Adam rummaging around inside his room and made his way downstairs where Liz was in the process of pouting milk in Adam's cereal before sitting it on the table then turned, rushing to finish getting Adam's lunch together, her shirt already starting to get a little small because of her growing stomach. She pushed her hair from her face with a tired sigh as he stepped into the kitchen. "You should've woke me" he murmured quietly and she scoffed.

"You got back a couple hours ago, I'm not that mean Steve, I can handle this, just like I've done nearly every day since you left for that mission, don't worry" he slid onto one of the stools, rubbing his eyes again.

"Adam was waiting for me yesterday, he uh, he called me Dad" her eyes snapped up to him wide and just as she opened her mouth to question him Adam wandered into the kitchen, dropping his schoolbag on the floor and then jumped up on the other stool, Steve helping him without even thinking then looked to Lizzie who motioned silently for him to say something, only for him to give her a firm shake of his head in no. She just gave him a look then smiled at Adam.

"Morning honey, I heard that you were waiting up for Steve last night" the boy looked up and gave a single nod, lifting his spoon to his mouth and she looked to Steve for a moment before back to him "and I also heard that you called him something"

"Oh, yeah, well, my friend Matthew's parents don't live together in the same house, he lives with his Mom and his Dad lives in Portland but he calls his Mom's husband Dad instead and I guessed that was kind of like us so I just thought I could call Steve Dad"

"And that's great, really, but uh, didn't you think of asking Steve how he felt about you calling him that first?" Steve shot her an annoyed look but Adam glanced up with a pout of thought.

"Huh… no, I didn't ask, I just thought it would be okay" he went back to his breakfast for another couple seconds then looked round to Steve "is it okay?"

"Yeah, course it is, but remember, it's only if you want too" Adam gave him a nod and a smile then turned happily back to his breakfast leaving Steve to look round to his wife, both of them shrugging, both smiling as well. She had been going to make him coffee but probably remembered that she expected him to head back to bed, at least when she left to take Adam to school so she didn't bother, instead picked up Adam's bag to put his lunch box inside of it.

Captain made his way over, yawning as he jumped up, his back paws still on the ground while his front ones were on Steve's lap and the man grinned, scratching behind both the dog's ears "hey boy, good to see you awake too" Steve couldn't help the next yawn that left him and as he covered his mouth he felt Liz press a soft kiss to his head and murmur to him quietly.

"Go back up to bed okay? I'll only be like twenty minutes in dropping him off, then when you wake up, and only when, we can talk" she sent him a grin and a wink that said they'd do more than talk but with Adam right next to them she wasn't gonna actually say it. Adam looked up, eyebrows furrowing slightly before he just shook his head and looked back down to his food "come on honey, you gotta speed up, otherwise you're gonna be late"