Chapter 38 - Vegas
Steph's POV
When I reached the cockpit, I settled into the empty co-pilot seat next to Steve, buckled in, and drew my feet comfortably up onto the seat.
"What's going on? I figured we'd be working all night back at base, combing through data, and generally trying to make sure we had gotten them all."
"We never get them all," Steve said. I would have been worried about that statement, except his tone didn't sound depressed. Instead he sounded as though he was just being realistic. I was reassured in that assessment when he continued with, "but we dealt them a very large blow today. We may have actually completely crippled them this time. I'm not aware of anyone who isn't absolutely confirmed dead who is anywhere near the skill level of Rumlow or Ward. And yes, there is a lot of work to do to wrap everything up, but it can wait until tomorrow. I think we've earned a night of celebration. Revels, as Thor often calls them."
"So you hijacked the team jet and didn't tell anyone where we were going?"
"Oh, they all know, I just asked them not to tell you before I did."
"Huh," I said beginning to build up a whole head of mad.
Before I could let Steve have it though, he said, "remember that question I asked you earlier today?"
"I seem to remember you not asking me a question," I shot back at him.
Steve chuckled deeply next to me, and I sighed at the way the sound always made me melt. When Steve met my gaze with his own, he had a knowing expression on his face, but he didn't comment. Instead he tilted his head to gesture back out the windshield, and when I turned to look, he asked, "Stephanie Plum, will you marry me?" right as the lights of Las Vegas lit up the sky in front of the jet.
I couldn't help it, I laughed and then looked over and said, "well, since we're already here, might as well, right?"
"Might as well." Steve agreed. After a few seconds of comfortable silence he said, "I used to call myself the world's leading authority on waiting too long. And when I decided I wanted an actual life and to be happy, I promised myself I wouldn't make the same mistake again. But Steph, if this is too soon, we don't have to do it."
"I, Stephanie Plum, will happily take you, Steven Rogers, as my lawfully wedded husband," I said slowly. "As soon as you land this jet. Where are you going to land this jet?"
"Stark owns a casino," Steve said. "Under some other name, but, regardless, he owns it and he's cleared us to land on top. He's also set up an appointment for us at the chapel. All we have to do is let him be there."
"You'd have let him be there anyway," I told him.
"You know that, and I know that. I think Stark maybe even knows that. But he's doing something nice for us by giving us a place to get married, and he hates admitting that he does nice things, so we're pretending that it's a trade."
I snorted and looked over at Steve, fully expecting him to be joking. When I saw that he wasn't though, I realized that kind of fit what little I knew of Tony already, so I just nodded my head in understanding.
I waited patiently sitting in my seat as Steve landed the jet and went through the post-flight routine. When he was done, he stood and then knelt in front of me so he could examine my shoulder injury. It wasn't something he'd told me he wanted to do, but I'd easily been able to guess he would. So I had left my jacket off and my skin bare to him after Daniel had examined it earlier.
Steve pressed a gentle kiss to the spot, and I told him, "I did it all myself!"
"I heard," Steve grinned up at me. "Good job."
He stood and helped me to my feet, and we walked over to the lockers together. Steve handed me a bottle of antiseptic and some gauze before moving to undo and fix my hair. Once I'd wiped all the blood off that I could easily reach, I pulled on a fresh uniform shirt and jacket, and grabbed Steve's hand in mine as we walked over to where the rest of the team was waiting.
Without saying anything, Steve jammed his fist into the button to lower the ramp, and we waited in a silence broken by Darcy telling me, "this is like public relations and social media heaven. you're already trending and now we get to add a wedding on top of it."
"What do you mean, I'm trending?" I asked her.
Reading off her tablet, Darcy replied, "there's news articles and then people reacting to them. For example, 'while giving a statement to press outside of a successful mission today, the newest Avenger, Joule dodged a lethal sniper's bullet, taking it in the shoulder instead of the chest. She then calmly asked her team for medical assistance and continued to speak to the press while applying pressure to her wound. The action seems to have put an immediate end to harsh criticism and speculation about how she became an Avenger and the involvement of her relationship with Captain America in that decision.' My two favorite hashtags right now are #JouleIsBadAss and #IWantToBeJouleWhenIGrowUp."
"That second one sounds adorable," I conceded.
"That's what I thought at first. I figured it would be full of cute little kids saying that or something, and there is some of that. But it's even more fun than that because celebrities are in on it as well. And there's video of the whole thing, Steph, and it's gone viral. Which, I mean gross, but… it also manages to be addictively fun, especially since I know you're okay. People are overlaying it with all kinds of music."
Clint was giggling over his phone, and when I raised my brow he said, "I just made one."
"What song did you use?" Natasha asked with a laugh.
"Damn It Feels Good to Be A Gangsta," he crowed, accepting Darcy's fist pump.
"I picked Titanium," Natasha told him. "I mean, come on, 'shoot me down, but I won't fall, I am titanium.' It's perfect."
That, of course, caused a raucous debate to be started up as we exited the jet about what the best song was, and I just slipped my arm around Steve's waist, taking in the moment. As I ran my hand over the material on the side of his uniform, I said pensively, "I'm more than happy to do this in my uniform, so long as you're okay with the fact that everyone is going to know that we got married within the hour, probably. We'll be recognized."
In response, Steve pressed a kiss to my head and murmured, "works for me. But maybe you should call your dad and grandma first so that they don't hear through the news?"
Nodding, I stayed leaning into him but pulled out my phone and dialed grandma's cell phone.
"Hey Baby Girl!" she answered enthusiastically. "You doing alright? I saw you get shot live on the news!"
"I'm fine, Grandma. It looked worse than it was," I fibbed, feeling Steve poke me in the side. "Well, actually, it was pretty bad, but I'm going to be just fine. I'm actually in Vegas right now-"
"Are you going to get one of them shotgun weddings to that handsome man of yours?" she asked excitedly.
"Well, no one is threatening him with a shotgun, and I'm not expecting. So I wouldn't call it a 'shotgun wedding', but yes, we are getting married," I told her. "Eloping."
"Ain't that a pip! You know, Stephanie. After the disaster that was Dickie, and then the entire thing with Morelli, I didn't think I'd live to see the day where you were happily married. I've never been so happy to be wrong. You tell that boy to take care of you, and make sure he gives you the good lovin' all the time, but tonight especially."
"Yes, ma'am!" Steve called out, smirking at me when Grandma giggled in response.
I rushed her off the line and then had a similar, though much less awkward, conversation with my father. Never a man for many words, he did manage to tell me he was glad I was alright (apparently he switched from the sports game to the news when the ticker at the bottom mentioned an Avengers mission, so he'd seen me get shot as well) and he was happy for Steve and me.
By the time I ended my second phone call, Steve was guiding me into a chapel where Tony and Pepper were waiting for us, the latter looking like she was about to burst out of her skin with happiness. As soon as she saw us, she rushed me with a small bouquet of blue and white flowers and handed them to me then crushed them against me with a hug.
"Congratulations!" she whispered.
From behind me Steve said, "thanks for letting us use your casino, Tony."
Tony waved it off and said, "happy to, though I honestly was hoping you were going to be using it for something much more interesting than a wedding. Are you sure you don't want bachelor and bachelorette parties before you do this? Seems like an awful waste of an excuse to do questionable things in Sin City."
Thinking back to my first bachelorette party, I hastily declined the offer, but looked back at Steve and said, "you can have one if you want though."
"What I want is to be married to you," he told me. "I don't need some crazy party to celebrate the end of my single status or whatever the reason is behind those."
I couldn't resist, I leaned up and gave him a kiss, ignoring the heckles from our teammates as I did. Turning back to the front, I noticed an officiant (thankfully not dressed as Elvis) waiting discretely at the front. Holding onto Steve a little tighter, I started walking to the front, deciding to forgo all fanfare of walking down separately.
Instead of taking seats, the team crowded around us, and the officiant looked about to protest until I noticed a faint red glow drifting from Wanda into the man. I snickered a little, but didn't say anything as he started talking. It was short and sweet, and about two minutes later we were pronounced husband and wife. A chapel employee was waiting in the back with paperwork for us to sign that Tony and Pepper had already filled out for us. Steve chose Bucky as his and I chose Wanda as my official witness.
Much to my surprise, when we finished all the technicalities up, Natasha and Bucky proceeded to ask if there was time for another wedding. When the chapel employees agreed, and Bucky told Steve, "can't let you beat me down the aisle when I've been with Natasha for longer, and this way we can help each other remember our anniversary."
"I already did beat you, Jerk," Steve teased. "It'll be by at least ten if not twenty minutes by the time you get finished up."
"Punk," Bucky retorted.
Natasha and I exchanged a look that clearly pitied the male gender before the process was quickly repeated for Bucky and Natasha. When they finished, Tony turned to the rest of the group and asked, "anyone else?"
Clint looked down at Darcy, and she just reached up, slapped her hand over his mouth, and shouted, "NOPE!" Thankfully, Clint looked amused more than hurt at the gesture, and wrapped an arm around her waist before the two took the lead out of the chapel. We wandered downstairs and, at Pepper and Tony's insistence, stopped at the restaurant for a celebratory dinner in their fine dining restaurant.
No sooner had we stepped up to the hostess's station than the restaurant fell completely silent. There was an awkward pause before a man in a table near the entrance started clapping, and slowly the rest of the restaurant joined in. Steve let out a barely audible sigh then tightened his hand that was resting on my hip and we quickly walked around offering our thanks and autographs to people who asked for them. It took about half an hour, but it was worth it because when we sat down, Tony and Pepper had the table laden with food and we were left alone for the duration of dinner.
"Are you sure we can't put you lot up in suites here for the night?" Pepper asked us as the meal was winding down.
"There's still a lot of work to do making sure too many HYDRA rats don't scatter into the cracks," Steve told them.
"You can't honestly tell me you're going to work on your wedding night," Tony sounded completely appalled.
"I didn't say that," Steve said, hand tightening on my thigh. "But it would be easier to already be at the base tomorrow morning when we wake up."
Thinking of the bed debacle and the fact that I was sure even Tony's casino didn't have a reinforced bed, I quickly agreed. "It'll be nice to be at home tonight."
Tony opened his mouth as though he was about to protest, but the rest of the team made sounds of agreements and Pepper elbowed him in the side so he decided not to say anything more. Instead he nodded his head and started leading the way back to the private elevators that would take our group back to the roof.
Tony's silence didn't last long after the doors shut, and he began offering Steve wedding night advice.
"Believe me, Steve doesn't need any advice about pleasing me," I thought, only to flush bright red when the looks I received clearly told me I hadn't kept that thought inside my head.
Approaching the plane, Natasha stole me away from Steve and hustled me into the pilot's seat. Then she plopped down next to me, "you need more hours" was her only explanation.
I was startled and tense for the first few minutes of the flight, trying to decide what I had done to piss Natasha off.
"Relax," she finally said sounding exasperated. "You've done nothing wrong. But even if neither of our guys needs any advice on keeping us satisfied in the sack, they've got issues, and I figured that they could use a few minutes to talk things out. Not to mention you looked like you're the most alert out of all of us. Damn you and your energy absorption."
Laughing I reached a hand out to touch her on the arm, transferring a bit of energy over before Natasha gently smacked my hand away. "Keep your hands on the controls, Plum." I grinned over at her, and she made a show of rolling her eyes like I often did and added, "and your eyes ahead. I know what'll make you pay attention…"
She trailed off and reached over and smacked the jet into super sonic mode and I felt my eyes widen, afraid to so much as blink as FRIDAY took over.
"Just breathe," Natasha said. "It's not so bad."
I'd actually never been up in the front where I could see outside when we were flying at those speeds and I whispered, "it's so pretty."
Natasha snorted out a laugh and said, "it is. Plus that means we get home sooner and have more time to spend with our new husband before yours invariably drags us all out of bed way too early tomorrow morning."
"What's it worth to you if he doesn't?" I asked.
"I'm sure I can think of something," she replied. "But I don't know if you can do it."
"Challenge: accepted," I told her focusing back on the flight as FRIDAY shifted us into regular speed for our approach to base.
As soon as I cut the engines, everyone else bailed and I felt Steve settle behind me, hands on my shoulders rubbing as I ran through all the final checks on the jet. By the time I got to the last one, he was nibbling at my neck and whispered in my ear, "you know I could hear you talking to Natasha, right?"
"I suspected you might be able to," I told him as I stood and pulled him into me. His mouth met mine for a deep kiss that ratcheted my desire up another notch. "Do you have a problem with it?"
"With you tiring me out so much with sex that I don't wake up first thing in the morning? No," Steve gave me a grin and reached down to hook his hands under the back of my thighs and lift me up into him. "I wasn't planning to go to sleep anytime soon anyway. Though I have to point out, sex with you often results in me being energized and not needing sleep!"
When we reached our room, I put a hand behind me and pushed open the door. He carried me through the doorway then set me on my feet gently so we could start ripping each other's uniform off quickly. I pulled away slightly and looked down at myself when Steve had me mostly naked and winced at the dried blood that was trailing down my body from where I'd been shot and hadn't been able to reach with clothes earlier.
"Definitely need a shower first," I blurted out, with Steve easily agreeing. We started kissing again, and I had to be grateful for his coordination. If it was left for me to navigate, I was sure we would have had an unmitigated disaster on our hands before we made it through the tangle of clothes on the ground and into our bathroom.
Once inside the shower, I quickly grabbed my shower gel and loofa and immediately started scrubbing. At first, when Steve's hands waded into the mix, I thought he was going to help. But when they shifted down to my waist, I realized that cleanliness wasn't really his top priority. One of his hands slowly started toying with my clit, so I redoubled my efforts.
"Steve," I shuddered out, unable to find the words to ask him for what I wanted because I didn't know what it was. I just wanted more.
When I finished with the soap, I leaned forward and reached for the shampoo. Steve took advantage of the position to slide a finger easily inside me. I gasped and rested my head against the wall momentarily until Steve leaned over me and ordered, "hair."
Knowing he was right, I held my wits about me long enough to open the shampoo and dump it in my hand. Steve worked a second finger in with the first, and when I leaned forward suddenly his other hand came up to catch the suds before they got in my eyes. Laughing, he pulled his fingers out of me and then grabbed his own body wash from the wall.
"Tease," I spat out petulantly.
"Hey, can't have you blinding yourself," he argued. "Now focus, the sooner you finish up, the sooner I can take you out to our bed and make you glad you married me."
I was already glad I married him, but hey, if he felt the need to prove his prowess, who was I to argue? Taking advantage of the head start I'd gotten on cleaning up, I quickly rinsed out the shampoo then grabbed my conditioner and put that in as well. Without it I'd look scary in the morning.
I latched onto Steve's erection as I rinsed off the final time, causing his movements to stutter momentarily. When I let go he made a sound of protest, and I just raised my eyebrow to tell him that turnabout was fair play. Steve bowed his head in acknowledgment then gently steered me toward the exit to start drying off as he began rinsing off.
I had barely grabbed my towel when he was pressing up behind me reaching for his own. We did a haphazard job of drying off before Steve picked me up, threw me over his shoulder and raced out to the bedroom. He dropped me down onto the bed with a thunk and I couldn't help the stupid grin on my face as I looked up at him.
Thankfully he had a similar look on his own as he pulled me to the edge of the bed he was standing next to. Without preamble, he slid slowly into me and I closed my eyes briefly to savor the moment. The combination of the emotion of knowing this was the man I'd pledged to spend the rest of my life with and the need to verify that we were both okay after the day's mission sent me over the edge embarrassingly quickly.
Steve didn't seem to mind though, just slowed his pace. He leaned down and kissed me at the same, almost drugged speed until I recovered and found myself interested in the action once more. When he realized I was on board, he stood back up and started up a fast pace once more. It wasn't until his hand moved down and started rubbing at me that I orgasmed again.
We went a few more rounds, and I wasn't even aware of falling asleep until I caught myself waking up an unknown stretch of time later with Steve's hands spanning my hips. He'd slid a couple pillows under my hips and had his legs on the outside of mine, waiting for me to wake up and let him know it was okay. I groaned and looked back at him then nodded.
"Oh, crap, Steve," I hissed out.
"It's still morning," he told me. "I thought you were going to keep me occupied…"
I simply nodded my head once more before lowering it back down to the mattress so he could cover me from behind. Every time he pressed forward, he'd press on my g-spot and he was moving so slowly and deliberately that it was driving me crazy. He kept at that pace for what felt like forever until I was shaking with need. Taking a deep breath, I started shoving myself back at him hard with every thrust, satisfied with the almost feral grunt he gave me in response.
After that things started moving more quickly and when he realized he wasn't hurting me, Steve's thrusts picked up both speed and intensity. When I orgasmed, I was aware of him driving even more strongly into me, but completely missed any other indicators there may have been of impending disaster. At the same moment, Steve's cry of pleasure was mixed in with a crashing noise, and then our angle changed abruptly causing him to push into me deeper. Hard. It send me tumbling even harder over the edge before I'd even finished, and I closed my eyes as I caught my breath.
"Steve," I finally gasped out.
"Yeah, Sweetheart?"
"Did we just break your reinforced bed?"
"I think you mean our reinforced bed, and yes, we did." Steve didn't seem inclined to move either, so we cuddled in the awkward position we found ourselves in for a few more minutes once he'd instructed FRIDAY under no uncertain terms to not allow anyone else in and to tell them we were fine if they heard the noise.
Finally I started snickering, then it turned into a full on belly laugh that had Steve pulling back from me carefully, then dragging me across the destruction to lay on top of him on a clear patch of floor.
"I can't decide," I gasped out. "If that is embarrassing or impressive."
"Tony swore there was nothing I could do that would break that," Steve said. "So I'd say impressive. Though in my defence, I don't think that was just super strength. You were glowing a little right before."
"Huh," I managed to say, not really sure how to react. "Hadn't lost control of my powers like that in a while."
"Well, we only get one wedding night, right?"
I nodded with my head on his chest then propped my chin on my hands and looked up at him. "How did I get so lucky as to meet and get to marry you?"
"I think I'm the lucky one," Steve insisted. "But I knew I would fall head over heels for you the second you agreed to help me without really knowing anything about me."
I rolled my eyes and said, "Steve, you're Captain America. Of course I'd help you. I don't understand why that's such a hard concept for you."
I felt his big shoulders shrug under me as he replied, "I still think I'm that kid from Brooklyn a lot of the time; sometimes I'm surprised when I look in the mirror and see this body."
"I'm in heaven every time I see that body," I reassured him. "And no offense to Skinny Steve, but there's no way he could have broken that bed with me."
"You are right about that," Steve said. Then palming my ass he stood and said, "what do you say we get cleaned up and then head out so that someone can come in and replace this bed for us? Plus, I had a text from Ranger asking us to be in the cafeteria at noon, which is in about ten minutes."
We were back in the bathroom at that point, but the morning's shower was quick and no nonsense. Ten minutes later my hair was in a nice clean ponytail and I was dressed in my uniform boots, pants, and the thin shirt I wore under my uniform top as Steve told me odds were good we'd have to head back to Trenton at some point that day. I watched in the mirror as Steve braided my hair and said, "that's quite the set of hickies you left there."
"Mmmmm," Steve hummed in response as he concentrated on tying off the end of the braid. "Seems to me you could just heal them if you didn't want them there."
I turned my head and smiled over my shoulder at him saying, "true." Then looking at the ceiling I asked, "FRIDAY, does the world know we're married?"
"I have located at least one story for each major news organization on your marriage. Would you like me to read them to you?" FRIDAY quickly supplied.
"No, thank you," I hastily told the AI. To Steve I said, "seems like Captain America can have given his wife some hickies on her wedding night."
"Well in that case," he agreed before burying his head in my neck. When he pulled back, he said, "That one was looking a little light."
Examining it in the mirror I mock scolded, "there wasn't even one there before!"
"I know; it was an oversight," Steve grinned at me before grabbing my hand and tugging me toward the door to the hallway.
As we walked into the common living room, I noticed that only Natasha and Bucky were there. Knowing no one else was going to overhear and learn of the bargain I'd made with her, I looked at my watch and asked Natasha, "that late enough? What do I get?"
Natasha laughed and said, "yep. As I understand it, we're behind schedule now and Steve doesn't look like he even cares. Well done. For your prize, Bucky and I promise not to tell everyone what we heard come out of your room twenty five minutes ago."
Shaking my head, I said, "nope, the bed is a lost cause, which means workers are going to have to come in and replace it, and people are going to find out. That doesn't count."
We reached the cafeteria doors, but before Steve could open them, Natasha smacked her hand on it and turned to me, "how about I make sure Grandma Mazur never finds out."
I was pretty sure the pallor on Steve's face was reflected on mine as I eagerly nodded in agreement.
The "Baby Girl!" that was yelled out as soon as I entered the cafeteria made it abundantly clear why that was immediately relevant.
Grandma Mazur rushed me for a hug and as soon as she pulled away, my father wrapped me in a hug of his own. "Congratulations, Steph," he whispered in my ear before letting me go.
"Aunt Steph, Aunt Steph!" I heard as I felt Valerie's two oldest girls rush into me and wrap their arms around me.
"Hey, girls," I said. "What are you doing here? Don't you have school?"
"We have the day off so that the teachers can make our report cards," Angie told me. "Grandpa told Valerie he'd watch us since she had to work, then he told us he'd take us on a fun field trip if we promised not to tell mom or Grandma!"
I looked over at my father and he shrugged and said, "Ranger called to say he could bring us into see you if we wanted to wish you congratulations on the wedding. And he thought the girls might like to meet his daughter."
I blinked in surprise, then looked over where a larger group was waiting patiently and saw her. "No way that's Julie!" I called out, watching as a grin split her face. I turned to her completely and opened my arms, laughing when she studied me for a moment with a look that was purely Ranger before deciding I wasn't kidding, turning into a kid again, and running into my hug.
When I pulled back, I wrapped my arms around all three girls, and turned to Steve. "Steve, these are my nieces Mary Alice and Angie, and this is Ranger's daughter Julie. Girls, this is my husband, Steve Rogers."
Steve knelt down on the ground next to us and solemnly shook each girl's hand before breaking into a smile and telling them how happy he was to finally meet them.
Of course, Mary Alice completely floored me and ruined the moment by saying, "so your baby will be due in nine months then?"
I made a high pitched squeaking noise as I said, "what? no! Why would you even think? No!"
"Your Aunt Steph and I aren't quite ready for kids of our own yet," Steve said calmly. "We've got lots of bad guys to catch first. Why did you think that?"
Ever the willing snitch, Angie said, "Mr. Lester told us you were late because you were putting a baby in Aunt Steph."
I made another choked noise before turning and yelling out, "Santos!"
He jumped and looked at me, saw how angry I was, and tried to run. Of course, I reached out with my energy and wrapped him up in a force field so snug he couldn't so much wiggle his arms or his legs.
"Mats," I told him. "I don't care if you don't work for us, you're supposed to be my friend! So mats just as soon as I get some of that wedding cake!"
The End
A/N: So that's where I'm going to leave this one, but make sure you're subscribed to me because I plan to pick it up for a full-length sequel a few months (or a couple stories, whichever is longer) down the line! Now, if you'd like to leave a review/comment, you can vote on which will be the next medium-long story pairing: Steph/Bucky or Steph/Thor! I have outlines for both, but probably won't post until I have a significant buffer of chapters ready to publish or the story completely written. And, finally, as always, a huge shoutout and thanks to my beta!