Fluff to make up for the last chapter :)

Steve groaned as he tried to open his eyes. His head was pounding. Bursts of white and bright colored light flashed before his eyes, fragmented and choppy. He felt a terrible nausea, combined with a sense of dirtiness that made his hands clammy.

"Welcome back, Captain," Tony said nonchalantly from where he stood leaning against the cabinets in the small, white infirmary.

"Stark?" Steve said. His throat felt hoarse and he was suddenly parched, starved and sore all over. "What the hell happened?"

Tony poured a glass of water and released Steve from the bonds around his wrist that he hadn't really noticed were there. In his hazy state, he realized something terrible must have happened to him. He drank the entire glass of water Tony handed him.

"You've been a real dick, dude," Tony said, leaning his hip against Steve's cot.

"What happened?" Steve demanded, feeling a tight knot of panic begin to bloom in his chest.

"What do you remember?"

"I...I remember going to see that woman spy who tried to shut down SHIELD. And then...nothing," he said quietly, with dread building in him. If Tony didn't spill the details immediately, he was going to scream.

"She made you into a puppet, the way Loki took over Barton. She appears to have control of some sort of power source resembling the cube, but not the cube itself. She was using you to try dismantling the Avengers in order to get it," Tony said quickly, sensing the Captain's frustration and anxiety.

"How long...?"

"A week."

"Where's Jeanette?" he asked suddenly, new panic washing over him. If he had not been himself, he probably hadn't spoken to her at all. She probably thought he'd brushed her off. It made his stomach roll with dread. Whatever else happened, the Avengers could handle, but he could not lose her.

Steve realized Tony was hesitating to answer and his eyes widened in fear.

"Oh God what did I do?"

"You may have told her off, and then she may have hit you in the head with a frying pan," Tony said lightly, with a grimace.

"Oh God," Steve repeated, sitting up and swinging his feet onto the floor. He leaned his throbbing head into his hands. "That's what brought me back isn't it?" he mumbled dazedly. What had Natasha called it? Cognitive recalibration? God, she'd saved him three times now, and he'd told her off? Steve scrambled off the cot, stumbled to the sink and vomited.

"I feel you, friend," Tony said sympathetically with a pat on the back. "But, I gotta go make sure Thor got to the cube in time to protect it. I'll send someone up to take a look at you," he said as he jogged out.

As soon as Tony was out of sight, Steve slowly made his way upstairs, leaning heavily on the wall for support. He had no idea where his cell phone was, but he managed to locate a landline in Tony's living room. He dialed Jeanette's number, now memorized, but she didn't answer. He left a frantic message.

"Jeanette, it's me, Steve, the real me. I am..." Sorry seemed inadequate, but he wasn't eloquent enough to come up with a word that encompassed his horror, "so so sorry for what happened. Tony told me what I did and...God, I'm sorry. Please, call me back on this number if you can and let me explain." He hung up after a hesitation in which he debated pleading again, but decided it would do little good.

Five days later, Jeanette was still hiding out at the club. She hadn't gone home, too afraid to be alone with her thoughts, though they invaded her mind anyway as she wiped down tables and danced at night.

She'd gotten a total of twenty-two messages from Steve from various numbers. In each of them he was contrite, apologetic and increasingly panicked. She realized that he was afraid. But of what? Afraid of losing her? She wasn't anybody, why should he be so concerned? And didn't he have missions to go on and worlds to save, wars to end? He was a superhero. A. GODDAMN. SUPERHERO.

She understood, really she did. It wasn't him who dropped her like a hot potato, told her to her face to get lost and then threatened to kill Pepper. But that man had shown her what it would be like to lose the real Steve. She'd thought, not a week ago, that any pain would be worth having him for whatever amount of time he should choose, but now she was not so sure. Not hearing from him had crushed her. Then, hearing a few simple unkind words from his mouth had nearly driven her mad.

How would she handle letting herself fall even more in love with him, and then to lose him? Simple: she couldn't.

"Jean!" Desi said loudly at her left. Jeanette jumped, and then glared at her friend. She was in the kitchen taking inventory and letting her mind wander, as she was wont to do.

"He's here," Desi said softly. Jeanette's eyes widened, and darted about the room for a means of escape, but there were no doors that wouldn't lead her out into the club, where he was waiting and would surely see her.

"Tell him I'm not here," Jeanette whispered wildly.

"He knows that you are," Desi replied apologetically. "You have to go at least talk to him. Get it over with. Closure, right? Please?" Desi begged, having heard the full details of the incident and Jeanette's tortured ramblings when they had quiet moments together.

"Okay, fine, just give me a minute," Jeanette replied harshly, hating that her friend was right. She couldn't just keep hiding.

"No, go now. Jeanette, you will sit back here for hours putting it off if I let you. Don't bother, we both know it's true," Desi interrupted when Jeanette opened her mouth to protest. "Now go," she demanded, practically pushing Jeanette out the door.

Steve stood just inside the door of the club, looking anxious. He wore his brown leather jacket, and a green plaid shirt tucked into dark jeans. Jeanette nearly burst into tears on the spot. She'd missed him so much. His kind eyes, bright smile, and that general goodness about him that made her want to live up to it. She had no idea what she was going to say to him. He was staring at her, looking a bit shocked, as she was sure she looked as well.

"Jeanette," he began, and she closed her eyes in blissful torture at the sound of her name crossing his lips. "I can't even begin to properly apologize-"

"No," Jeanette said, stopping him. It was good to see another expression on his face other than pain, even though it was confusion.

"You don't have to apologize anymore, you've apologized thoroughly enough. I know that whoever said and did those things, wasn't you."

Steve let out the breath he'd been holding for five days. It had been agonizing, to be away from her. He'd barely slept. After learning that the cube was indeed safe, though Oksana was nowhere to be found, he'd called Jeanette, much to his and all of his friends' embarrassment, at least twice a day to beg for her forgiveness. He'd thought she'd be furious with him, and though he was happy that she was not, it begged the question, why hadn't she returned his desperate calls?

She was looking more beautiful than ever in a plum-colored, high waisted knee-length skirt that flared out gently toward the bottom, and a white lace blouse over a white camisole. Her lovely brown hair was playing about her shoulders in soft curls that made Steve's fingers itch to touch them. He was even enchanted by her shoes, cone-heeled T strap pumps in a dark forest green. She looked so perfectly out of the 1940s that his heart ached.

"But Steve, I don't know if I can-" she began to break his heart, but he couldn't let her finish. He crossed to her quickly and had her hands in his, gathered up by his heart.

"Please don't. I need you," he begged.

"You hardly know me," she refuted, startled by his sudden nearness, and the way it was making her breathless.

"I know you well enough, and I want nothing more than to know you better," he said sincerely, and a blush came into his face when he realized how absolutely intense he sounded. But he had to make her understand that she was the only thing that gave him hope. He would have lived his life, saved as many worlds as needed saving and been honored to do it, but she made him look forward to tomorrow, she made him feel like he was home again.

"I want to know everything about you," he said, and then he laughed because it was just so ridiculously unfair, for him to love another person so much that it physically hurt to have to restrain himself from touching her. "Just one more chance, Jeanette, please?" he begged.

Jeanette felt absolutely torn in two, and was sure it showed on her face. He clutched her hands to his heart, and she felt it beating heavily in his chest. The depth of his emotion startled her.

"I wish I could believe you," she whispered, drawing slowly out of his grip, training her eyes on his hands to avoid his broken expression. "But what happens a year or two down the road when it falls apart? You're a hero! No," she laughed, "a superhero. You're going to be flying all over the world, hell, to other worlds probably, to fight God only knows what. Not to mention the fact that every woman on the face of this planet wants to bear your children. What about that? There are five million reasons this won't work," she ranted as she paced, throwing her hands in the air in exasperation.

Steve was smiling and it was a bit disconcerting to Jeanette. He was smiling because her objection was that she thought he would leave her. That she would love him and he would hurt her.

"I can't say what'll happen. I will be in danger a lot of the time, but you're right I suppose, I am a superhero. I'm not as breakable as most men, and I've got a pretty incredible team at my back. And you're brave, you can handle that, you know you can," he said calmly, stepping toward her as one would a frightened animal. Her eyes shifted about the room, as if to dart away. Her could literally hear her heart pounding, and he knew he had her.

"And as for the other thing," he said, drawing ever nearer, as Jeanette retreated until her heels bumped against a barstool, "I will never, never, hurt you. You're the only thing I can see. And there's nothing I can do about it. If this falls apart, it'll be you leaving me, because," his breath hitched over the next words and he slid his fingertips along her jawline to cup her face, "I've fallen so hard for you I'm afraid there's no going back."

Jeanette would have melted into a puddle right then and here, but Desi sobbing from the kitchen brought her back from the edge, though just barely.

"I love you," she had but time to whisper before his lips crashed onto hers. A feeling seemed to explode in his chest then, and it seeped into every cell of him, calming his anxious nerves, making him feel warm and safe. Jeanette's arms wound around his neck and he pulled her impossibly close, wanting every inch of her against him as he kissed her.

When her lipstick had been kissed away, but her lips were red and swollen anyway, Steve trailed kisses along her jawline to her ear, where he hooked his chin over her shoulder and hugged her to him. She let out a shuddery breath into his shoulder, all the tension and anxiety she'd been holding inside for over a week drained completely away and her knees felt incredibly weak. She started to laugh, and the relief was so great that Steve laughed too. They shook together giggling until it subsided and he pulled away to look at her again. The sight of her grinning with bright eyes and well-kissed lips made his heart swell.

"Will you have dinner with me tonight?" he asked, holding her face in his hands as though she were the most precious thing he'd ever seen.

"I'd be delighted," she replied softly, and he kissed her tenderly again.

HAPPILY EVER AFTER!

Thanks everybody for reading :)