By the time Sam had told Tony about Dean taking the painkillers because of an injury, and Tony had run through the huge house to tell Steve, Dean was having a hard time staying conscious.
"Dean I need you to wake up for me darling." Steve was shaking the teen's shoulder, hard. All he got in response was a groan and a pinched face.
"Dean? Dean, sport, we really need you to wake up to make sure you're okay!" Tony was hovering above the teen, almost scared to touch the feverish boy.
"Dean wake up!" Steve shouted, beginning to panic.
"Steve," Tony's voice was shaking as he rested a hand on his husband's shoulder. "I think we need to take him to the hospital. Who knows what could've happened? All Sam said was that Dean got hurt and that's why he took the pills. He could be bleeding internally, or broken a bone or-"
"I know." Steve interrupted. "Call Dr. Cho and start the car." The burly man carefully picked the teen up from his bed and cradled him close to his chest.
Tony nodded and started dialling, racing to the garage to do as he was told.
"Where are you taking Dean?" Sam appeared seemingly out of nowhere as the two men made it to the landing of the stairs.
"Dean needs to see a doctor Sam, don't worry, he's gonna be just fine!" Steve reassured the boy as Tony finally got through to the hospital.
"Doctor?! What's wrong with him?" Sam demanded. "Is he really that hurt?"
"We don't know Sam. That's what we're going to find out." With an apologetic smile, Steve raced past the boy to follow Tony into the garage.
"I'm coming too!" Sam called out, running after them.
"Sam I think it would be better if you stayed here, we're not sure how long we're going to be." Tony was already behind the wheel of a 2018 Rolls-Royce, watching Steve climb in the backseat, still cradling the half-responsive boy.
"No!" The outburst got both of the adults to pause and look at the normally soft-spoken boy. "Dean is my brother and he's not going anywhere without me!"
The men looked at each other in the rearview mirror briefly.
"Climb in the passenger side," Tony responded. Sam raced around the car and as soon as the boy was buckled, away they went, breaking several traffic laws along the way.
The three waited for it seemed like hours while Dean was whisked away by scrubs-clad professionals. Tony's personal doctor met them at the doors and immediately took charge of the situation, commanding the men and boy to 'sit. I'll tell you when there's news.'
Steve was the only one who actually sat in the offered chairs. Tony was pacing and talking to the kids that they had hastily left back home.
"We don't know anything yet Bruce, as soon as we do— no Clint, this isn't an excuse to get out of doing your homework, I know you have an English project due and— don't do that to yourself, Nat, I almost guarantee it wasn't you that caused it, the fever didn't start until the next day and— oh my god thank you Thor. You're being a huge help right now and your papa and I really appreciate it."
Sam, on the other hand, was curled up on Steve's lap, silent. The man had a strong arm curled around the boy and stroked his hair with the other, the pinnacle of calm amidst the storm of chaos around them.
"Steve?" Sam whispered with his face pressed to the man's chest. "Do you think Dean is gonna be mad at me?"
Steve could almost hear his heart breaking. "What? No! Of course not! Why would you think that?" Steve pulled away from Sam just far enough to see his face, to try and figure out what was going on in the young boy's mind.
"I told on him." Sam's head was hung low, his bangs hiding most of his features. Steve ran his hand over the boy's hair, pushing the strands out of the way.
"Sam, sweetheart, I promise you did the right thing! Who knows what could've happened if you didn't tell us!" There were tears starting to pool in the boy's eyes as Steve spoke.
"You love Dean." Steve continued, Sam nodded. "Sometimes when we love someone, it means that we have to do really hard things that they may not be happy about. And that's a good thing! For example, I'm going to tell you a secret." The man whispered. "When Tony asked me to marry him, I said no."
Sam audibly gasped. "What?"
Tony finally joined the two, alerted by the commotion.
"That's right." Steve reached for his husband's hand as he continued. "He asked me and I said no."
Tony ah'd in understanding. "Yup, straight up stopped me cold."
"I told him the only way I would marry him is if he got his addictions under control," Steve explained. "Don't get me wrong Sam, I was with him every step of the way, I never stopped supporting him, but I knew that marrying him at that point wouldn't have been the best decision for either of us. So instead, I made a really hard choice and it ended up with Tony sometimes really angry with me, but he's sober now."
"And I couldn't have done it without that decision." Tony chimed in. "Is this about you and Dean?"
Sam nodded. Tony ruffled Sam's hair and gave a small smile.
"Then yeah. This is exactly like when I asked Steve to marry me the first time."
"The first time?" The boy asked, confused.
The men chuckled. "Well, we did get married!" Tony flashed his wedding ring with pride. "I proposed again the day I got my one year chip with AA."
"Which, coincidently was a year and a day after his first proposal." Steve smiled lovingly at his husband while Tony in return took hold of one Steve's hands and kissed his knuckles softly.
Sam, somewhat more satisfied with the situation, rested his head once again on Steve's chest. He smiled when he felt the man return his arms to wrap around his son and start swaying slightly, comforting the boy.