Chapter 10 - Girlfriend?

Steph's POV

I could hear the others protesting, but was relieved when Steve just grabbed my hand in his and started jogging with me as soon as we left the cafeteria. He didn't offer any platitudes or try to give me false hope, he just radiated confidence that bolstered my own.

When we reached the garage, we rushed over to the bike we'd taken the night before. This time, Steve didn't have his shield. "I'm going to make some calls on my way in," he said indicating his helmet even as he handed me mine. "I know someone who can make sure you have a good lawyer with no trace of Avengers affiliation. I'm also going to call Ranger and have him meet us. I hate to do this, but my hair isn't dyed and I'd rather not risk being recognized and have HYDRA-"

I cut him off saying, "that's fine, Steve. Just drop me off somewhere Ranger can get me, and I'll be fine. You don't need to hang around or anything- I'll call and let you know how it goes."

Steve interrupted me by smashing his mouth into mine in a wild, possessive kiss that had my panties soaked in a minute flat. When he pulled back, he said, "I'll be waiting for you in your apartment or at Rangeman. I'm not coming back here until I can bring you back with me."

"I know I still have files I need to-"

"Fuck the files, Steph!" Steve cried out in frustration. "I already care about you more than those files. If it wasn't for the fact that those files are what got you here, I'd hate them for causing this whole mess. I'm not leaving you to deal with this alone. Hopefully I'll just generally never be leaving you, but for now we can put qualifiers on it if it makes you believe me!"

I cut off whatever else he was going to say by throwing my arms around him and going for my own, equally heated kiss. A few minutes later, Steve pulled back and said, "Steph your grandmother-"

"Would totally be okay with me being a few more minutes late because I was kissing a hot guy like you. No joke, that's about how she'd phrase it, along with colorful, complimentary speculation about the size of 'your package' and your sexual prowess. But yes, let's go."

We climbed onto the bike and rode along at a fast pace. I tried not to think too much about what Grandma Mazur was feeling and experiencing, locked away for I didn't even know how long in either jail or an interrogation room.

I startled a bit, but thankfully not so much so that I overbalanced us when I heard Steve's voice loud and clear in my helmet. He started again after a pause, this time with, "I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you that we had a communication channel between the two of us. The team is ahead of us on the jet, is it okay if we join them? It will get us to Trenton in minutes rather than hours."

I nodded my head because I had been practically in tears before Steve had interrupted my train of thought, not thinking about the fact that he couldn't hear me. He must have felt it though because a minute later, he cut over to an access road and told me to hold on tight. A ramp and the back of the jet appeared out of nowhere and he easily drove us up and into the bay.

Bucky stepped forward to make certain I was sure-footed as I climbed off with the ramp still closing behind me. Steve simply swung off then picked me up and sat with me in his lap, yanking our helmets off.

"What's Grandma's first name?" Sam asked.

"Edna," I croaked out.

Steve started whispering encouragement to me, and when we approached Rangeman, Clint knelt in front of me. When I met his gaze he calmly said, "we have lawyers on the way, but they're going to take care of Grandma first. We want to make sure she doesn't get charged and has been treated properly. If they separate you for questioning or to arrest you, you don't say a word. Even if you think they're a friend, you might be being recorded or you might just be wrong about their loyalty."

I nodded, but Bucky pressed, "say it, Steph."

"I don't say a word without a lawyer present."

Before I stepped out of the jet, Natasha spoke up. "You're making someone nervous, Steph. It's a good thing, just keep your head. Even if you think we've taken too long to get you out of there; we're not leaving you behind."

When the jet landed and the ramp lowered, I stood and turned to press a quick kiss to Steve's lips. Then I righted myself and walked off the jet to the hoard of Merry Men standing there in their full combat uniforms waiting to accompany me in a show of loyalty that had me choking up.

I felt confident that in any other situation, the guys would have been poking fun at me about Steve. As it was, we went downstairs in silence. Ranger helped me into his Turbo and everyone else provided an escort for us.

No sooner had I walked into TPD than Dorsey stepped forward and said, "Stephanie Michelle Plum, you're under arrest for the kidnapping of Gus Chianni, officer of the Trenton Police Department." He proceeded to cuff me even though I was already inside the station, and over numerous protests from Merry Men as well as a few other cops. I was guided away as he was reading me my rights and processed for booking by Robin who I was fairly certain wasn't dirty.

Then they took me to interview where I sat for hours without saying a word. Eventually, Robin came in and silently took me to the restroom, not leaving me alone but giving me as much privacy as she could. When I got back to the room, there was water, but I left it untouched.

Anytime I managed to drift to sleep while I waited, Dembrowski or Dorsey would come in and question me. After their fifth time waking me up, I'd started to drift off again and in walked Morelli.

"I always knew you'd wind up here if you didn't quit your job, Cupcake."

I called more strongly than ever on my inner Ranger to remain blank faced. I was hoping this meant that they'd run out of time and were making a Hail Mary pass in an attempt to get me to talk.

"Where'd you get the money for the fancy lawyer? You never had money as a bounty hunter. You turning tricks now? Finally let Manoso turn you into a whore for himself and his buddies?"

I felt a little piece of me die inside at the realization that Morelli was that much of a prick, but I remained impassive.

Morelli leaned in close, mouth pressed right into my ear as he said, "what's it worth to you to get out of here? The boys do miss you."

I couldn't hold back the wince at that, and Morelli saw it. He pushed his hand into my hair and used it to yank my head back. "You were lucky to have me then, and you'll be lucky to have me again."

He mashed his mouth into mine and I tried to struggle away, feeling the bloom of blood in my mouth as my lip was cut on my teeth when I refused to open my mouth and he pushed harder. The door burst open what felt like a lifetime but was probably only a minute later admitting Eddie and a man in an extremely well cut suit.

No one said a word as the man in the suit helped me to my feet and Eddie undo my handcuffs. The stranger kept a hand firmly on my upper back, propelling me out of the station and, to my shock, into a waiting limo. When I slid in, I was startled to see Tony Stark waiting on the backward facing seat across the way from me with a strawberry blonde woman in impeccable clothing sitting next to him.

Yeesh. If that guy was a lawyer, he must have been expensive.

Unfortunately, I must have said that out loud because Stark burst out laughing. "If he wasn't a lawyer, what else would he be?"

As he spoke, the lawyer (which it seemed he was) shut the door behind me and the limo started moving.

"Maybe someone paying bribes? Though that also would have been expensive."

"We're not in the habit of leaving people who go out of their way to help the Avengers either on their deathbeds or in jail, Ms. Plum," the woman said kindly. "You've been cleared of any wrongdoing and records of today's false arrest have been wiped completely clean."

"Well, I appreciate that..." I trailed off looking at her questioningly and decided to try, "Ms. Potts?"

I received a smile and a nod before she said, "call me Pepper."

Mr. Stark pouted and said, "it's Mrs. Stark, actually. No, I don't like that. Pepper. Just call her Pepper. And I'm Tony, so don't you dare Mr. Stark me, Captain America's girlfriend doesn't call me by anything other than my first name, got it, Missy?"

Taken aback, I wasn't too sure where to start. "Got it, Tony and Pepper, thanks. I'd like it if you called me Steph. As far as 'girlfriend' is concerned, I don't know if Steve... I mean... We just started-"

Tony cut me off, "Cap clearly said 'girlfriend', are you calling him a liar?"

"Ummm, no? It's just that we only just met and started dating, so maybe he just called me that because it was easiest?"

"Trust me, Steph. You haven't seen Tony and Steve interact yet, and thankfully we'll be sparing you that today as Tony and I can't leave the limo because we don't want anyone to figure out who paid for your lawyer." She said the last part while pointedly looking at a pouting Tony, and I figured they'd had the conversation multiple times already that day. "Anyway, my point is, once you see them interact, you'll realize that dubbing you his girlfriend is the least 'easy' thing Steve could have called you. Even as urgent as things were Tony managed to give him a hard time."

Tony muttered something I couldn't quite hear, but thought might be something along the lines of, "not as hard of a time as she probably gives him," given how hard Pepper elbowed him.

Tony brushed that off and fixed me with an extremely focused gaze. "We got your grandmother out of jail first; it took so long because she was carrying illegally. In the end, they had to drop it because they kept her too long without actually booking her. They got too distracted and excited when you came in. From what I understand, your mother took her home. Now, that business is out of the way, tell me everything, Cap's Girlfriend!"

We pulled to a stop, and I looked out the window to see the Rangeman building, so I responded with, "I'm Steve's girlfriend, not Captain America's, but gee, look at that. This is my stop, gotta go, bye! Thanks for the lawyer!" I slid toward the door, but paused long enough to to say, "Tony? Everything wasn't your fault, okay?"

I hopped out of the car as quickly as I could while still being somewhat graceful, and waved at the driver who hadn't made it around to me yet. Then I hustled into the Rangeman lobby and with a quick wave at Cal behind the front desk, I dragged myself over to the elevator. No sooner had I stepped through the doors, than I was wrapped up in Steve's arms. I held on, and when I heard us reach our destination, let Steve pick me up to move me while burrowing even deeper into him.

"You still give really good hugs," I finally said.

"I still very much like giving them to you," Steve replied.

Stepping away just a smidge but staying inside Steve's arms, I straightened up to see a bunch of Avengers and Merry Men staring at us with various expressions of glee on their faces. I rolled my eyes and threw my hands in the air saying, "you could at least pretend to give us a tiny bit of privacy!"

"Ha!" Ranger laughed dryly, "I had to go check on Grandma Mazur when she came out. Do you have any idea how many times she pinched my ass?! I don't have to do anything more for you today!"

The Avengers laughed in surprise, but his employees just winced in understanding because Grandma was legendary. I'd hoped she'd leave Ranger be after the time she purposely walked in on him in the shower, but it had only made her worse. Natasha's phone beeped, and she pulled it out. "Pepper says 'I approve,' Steve, and Tony says that the ride was too short. He didn't learn anything other than yes, she is your girlfriend, which he already knew. He wants you to send her back out so he can question her more."

Steve's arms had tightened around me reflexively when Natasha said the word girlfriend and pulled me back into him hard. He laughed at the last part and said, "tell him there's not a chance of me doing that, so he'll just have to try harder next time."

Looking down at me, Steve asked, "are you okay?" while tracing a finger over my split lip more gently than I had realized he was capable of being.

I looked down at the floor, but Steve's big hand caught my chin and forced me to meet his eyes with mine. In them, I saw concern and fear, but no anger at me. Letting out a shaky breath, I nodded my head. Taking a resolute step back, I looked at the room at large. "How long was I in there?"

"Twenty hours," Clint answered apologetically. "It took longer than planned because they booked you right away and tried to move you to heavy duty, maximum security prison right off the bat. The lawyers had to fight that first then the very basis for the arrest warrant."

"Juniak got you a judge in the middle of the night," Ranger added. "One that stayed in and kept his staff there until the whole thing was sorted out. You must be exhausted, come on. Ella set up a spare apartment for you to crash in for hopefully at least a couple hours."

I trailed after Ranger, pulling Steve with me using a death grip on his hand to do so. Once Ranger opened a door for me, I murmured my thanks, noted the spread of baked goods on my way past the small kitchen, and pulled Steve straight to the bedroom. Inside, I merely pointed at the bed, walked into the bathroom, did my business, washed the ink off my hands, and pulled on the clean Rangeman uniform Ella had left me.

Walking back to the bedroom, I gratefully noted that Steve had placed his boots by the side of the bed and climbed under the covers so we were in the same layer this time as I climbed in. I snuggled into him, closed my eyes, and willed myself to sleep.

Steve's POV

Watching Steph walk off the roof with Ranger and his men, knowing she was almost certainly about to be arrested was one of the most difficult things I'd done. As soon as we left the lot, I'd been on the phone with Pepper pleading my case and spelling out exactly what I needed. Of course, she'd been with Tony when I'd called, so I had to explain the whole thing to him as well. But when they immediately agreed to help, with only minimal teasing on Tony's part, I was grateful.

Between the two of them, they had lawyers crawling over Trenton on Steph's behalf, and that of her grandmother, so quickly even Ranger seemed impressed. Still the process seemed interminably slow, especially because Ranger informed us that Steph had been arrested, not just taken in for questioning as soon as she'd stepped foot inside the police station.

By one of the cops who had kidnapped HER.

Within just a few minutes of that announcement, Natasha had been hacked into the police station's camera feeds. They no longer even controlled the state of off or on, Natasha did. At least I'd had something to watch while pacing the length of the giant conference room Ranger had set up for times when multiple agencies were involved in some operation he was working.

After a few attempts each, everyone had stopped asking me to sit. In return, I made sure to eat when they set food out for me. For the most part, Ranger and his men went about their business with just occasional updates on the lawyers' progress.

Finally we got word that the lawyers had been successful and were almost to the police department with appropriate paperwork, and I began to breathe a little more easily. I watched Steph begin to fall asleep again, and winced when the door burst open, as it had every time, waking her once more. A few Rangemen had stopped in for the news from the lawyers, and I went completely still when I heard them say the man who walked into her interrogation room to interrupt her sleep was Morelli, her ex.

You could have heard a pin drop in the room as he started talking. My gut rolled as he basically propositioned her in exchange for her freedom, but I was proud to see her not give anything away. Unfortunately, her fortitude only pissed the man off. Apparently when Morelli forced his lips to hers I made some sort of sound because almost every man in the room took a step away from me.

Bucky stepped forward and latched onto my arm to make sure I wasn't about to run over to the police station or something, and Natasha said, "you can't punch out or kill a cop, Cap."

Ranger spoke up from the sidelines, "not right now at least, and not for that. Hopefully you'll get the chance someday, but for now it'd just piss Steph off if you got arrested over that."

I breathed out a sigh of relief as two more people entered the room and Steph was released.

When I saw the cut on her lip, I knew I couldn't let it go, so I said, "I'm not going to punch him, but Natasha, I want you to anonymously send that video and pictures of Steph at booking and upon release to the Trenton PD's internal affairs division, the public safety committee, state troopers, and the FBI." Someone gave a low whistle so I shrugged and explained, "none of them will do much more than give him a smack on the wrist, but he'll be sweating for a while. Oh, and make sure her lawyers have a copy too."

I watched Ranger as he thought that over before nodding his head in agreement. Then he told Natasha, "give me a copy on a drive, and I'll make sure Congressman Juniak gets it as well. He considers Steph family, and he'll throw some more political weight around to make sure it isn't buried without any action."

Regardless of what I assumed was an experience even more stressful than exhausting, once she got back, Steph slept in my arms comfortably in the small studio apartment Ranger had supplied her for the purpose. I was unable to drift off myself until I heard the door click open just a little and watched a metal arm reach in and set my shield on the floor next to the exit. Knowing I'd be able to protect her now, I allowed myself to fall asleep, waking every hour or so when Steph started getting restless so I could soothe her back to sleep.

When Steph woke completely, her stomach growled and mine answered almost immediately causing Steph to erupt into giggles.

"Come on," I said, pulling her up with me. "Let's get some food in us so we can start the day."

"What meal is it even?"

I pulled out my phone and said, "we'll call it lunch- you slept about five hours."

"Yeah, they kept me in an interrogation room, and woke me up anytime I drifted off."

"I know, Sweetheart, Natasha got into their cameras. I kept an eye on you the whole time."

"You didn't-"

"Have to," I cut in, trying to keep my patience at her inability to accept how much I cared for her already. I was trying to give her space to come to the realization on her own, as she'd had shit taste in men before me- some of which I'd witnessed only a few hours ago. "And I know I wasn't obligated in some way, but, Steph, I really DID have to know you were okay. There's something inside me that was just fixated on needing to have that information."

"You told Tony Stark that I'm your girlfriend and you sat around for twenty hours watching me sit in a room that was empty other than me for the majority of the time. We're really doing this, aren't we?"

"Well," I replied slowly, "that's really up to you, but yes, I was hoping that we were. That we are."

My heart was in my throat as I watched Steph's face. Thankfully, it only took a split second for a wide smile to permeate her face and her to startle me by actually leaping into my arms while laughing. I was amazed by her ability to be so open and caring after the ordeal she'd been through, and I couldn't stop myself from pressing a firm kiss to her lips as I easily held her in my arms.

Although there was plenty of passion behind it, the kiss was mostly one of happy celebration. When I pulled back, Steph was still smiling widely, so I pressed another on the tip of her nose as I lowered her to her feet. Once she was steady, I rested my forehead on hers and said, "I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear earlier; I figured it was obvious when I brought you into the Avengers quarters. They're all the family I really have anymore, and I wouldn't have taken you there if I wasn't serious about this thing between us."

"I didn't want to presume, so I thought maybe you called me your girlfriend to make it easier to convince Tony to help." I let out a dry laugh when I heard that, and she giggled before continuing. "Yes, Pepper had pretty much the same reaction; I like her. And Tony too, actually, though Tony seems… energetic."

With a sigh, I simply said, "Tony is a lot of things, and yes, energetic is one of them. He seems enchanted by you though, wanted me to send you back down so he could figure you out more."

Steph shrugged and said, "maybe another time."

I had made the decision to pursue my own happiness weeks ago after my talk with Sam, and after meeting Steph, I'd done some self-evaluation and made sure I was ready for it so as to not lead her on. But hearing her say those words really hit home for me just how much time I was planning for us to have together, and it made me feel somehow lighter. While I'd been excited while anticipating a battle, and had some good times with friends since waking up, it marked the first time that I really looked forward to life in general since waking up after the ice.

Feeling a buzz in my pocket, I reached in to pull out my phone and saw a message from Sam asking if we were awake. I sent my answer as I started digging through the fridge to see what other than the pastries was available to us for breakfast. Steph was picking on one of the biscuits, but after more than 24 hours without food, she'd need something more substantial to gradually pick at and eat over a longer stretch of time as she could stomach it.

My phone alerted a second time, and I pulled it out and read it before walking over to where my shield was sitting by the front door. I picked it up, slid it onto my arm, then walked back to Steph. Carefully, I placed my shield-clad arm around her waist and pulled her into my side and started walking us toward the door. "Sam says that there's food in the conference room for us. Apparently Ella's been cooking up a storm since she found out you were back and hadn't eaten anything."

"I love Ella," Steph said as we stepped on the elevator. "I always ask her to adopt me, but I think she thinks I'm kidding for some reason."

"Something about her reminds me of Mary; is that why you calmed down during the Natasha incident when Mary talked to you?"

"I agree- they look nothing alike, but there's something soothingly maternal about both of them. It makes me comfortable," Steph said with a slight shrug. "And yes, I think that's why she helped me calm down a little."

"I know what you mean," I responded, leaving unspoken the fact that I hadn't gotten that feeling from the voicemail Steph's mother had left her and to which team had partially listened.

The elevator doors opened to the third floor, and we were immediately greeted by the sounds of excited voices coming from the conference room. No sooner had we walked in than Lester was calling out, "you know, Steph. The first time I met you, you said you didn't like getting shot, and you didn't like getting arrested. I told you that meant you didn't know how to have fun. Well, it looks like you finally figured out how to have some fun- you did both in just a matter of days, Beautiful!"

"Ha ha," Steph said dryly. "I still don't like doing either of those things!"

"Yeah, but you're getting good at it, and that's just about as important," called Bobby. "Plus, seems like you've found yourself a new batch of friends, and more, who know how to have TONS of fun."

"Alright, alright. Everyone get it out of your system," Steph called out.

The men all seemed to take her at her word, calling out various jokes and such one at a time, largely about Steph and I, but none of them overly offensive. It was only some friendly teasing. Steph just laughed and gave each one a hug in turn. When they were done, she nodded her head in satisfaction then walked back over to me and put her arm around my waist and leaned her head on my chest when I moved my arm back around her. She only stayed there momentarily, however, as she rushed over to help Ella when the woman arrived pushing a cart heavily laden with food.

Before I could move to help the women, several of the other men had, so I wandered over to my team. "Sit rep," I commanded.

"No real change, Steve." Natasha said from where she was casually leaning against a wall. "Steph's out, as you clearly know, and she appears to be doing much better after her nap. Not much more we can do at the moment, so I'd say we take her back once you've both eaten and she's feeling up for it. We've still got a lot more files to go through with her and research to do before we make any moves here, but it does seem like we managed to keep our presence in Trenton unnoticed, which is a good thing."

"And no one has connected us to the lawyers yet?"

"No," Bucky said. "Though some are questioning the money side of things like that last detective did. Most seem to assume Ranger funded the lawyers though."

An hour later we'd eaten, and Steph had made the rounds saying goodbye to everyone again, including Rex. I had a Rangeman duffle bag in each of my hands that Ranger and his men had provided for Steph filled with things from her apartment. As Steph walked up the ramp in front of me, Ranger called out to her, causing us both to stop and look back at him.

"Babe, you've been shot and spend a 24 hour period without food or enough sleep within a couple days of each other. I put some vitamins in the bag for you, please take them. It'll help your body recover more quickly by filling in some missing nutrients."

I looked back at Steph in time to see her execute one of the most exaggerated eye rolls I'd seen her pull off yet, but when she was done, she huffed out a breath and nodded. Looking back over my shoulder, I met Ranger's intent gaze and inclined my head to tell him that I would do my best to see that she did. At least for the next couple of days.