Two days later, Brooklyn leaned against Steve's side as he helped her up the stairs to his third-floor apartment. He could see she still walked bow legged, and he cursed himself for smirking whenever he imagined being the cause of her distress. Knowing she was going to be fine helped ease Steve's worries, and in hindsight, he couldn't help but admit he enjoyed himself.

There were worse ways to flush drugs out of his system.

When they reached Steve's floor, Brooklyn huffed loudly, "Why couldn't you live on the first floor?"

"Doctor said stairs are good for you. Plus, now that you're here, you don't have to leave." Steve pulled out his keychain, but also stooped to lift up his mat. When he stood upright, he faced Brooklyn with a cheeky grin, "I got you a present to keep you busy while you rest."

"Is it a puppy?" Brooklyn asked excitedly, and Steve's smile fell. He didn't realize she wanted a puppy. He would have gotten her one of those, too.

"Uhh, no." He said slowly as he unlocked the door, "Hopefully this is just as good though."

He pushed open the door and allowed Brooklyn to enter his apartment, looking around expectantly. Steve gazed around, realizing there was nothing there. Brooklyn turned to him curiously, crossing her arms, "Okay?"

Steve's eyes caught movement behind Brooklyn, and he took a step back as the taller woman wrapped her arms around Brooklyn and squealed. "Surprise!"

Brooklyn's eyes shot open in panic, but she relaxed at the sound of her little sister's voice. "Dallas!"

"Brooklyn!" She yelled back, whipping her sister around to give her a proper hug, "Steve said he broke you with his dick! Congratulations!"

Steve's cheeks began to burn in embarrassment, and Brooklyn smashed her palm against her face, "Not something to be congratulated on, but okay. What are you doing here?"

Dallas turned to Steve, looking over the shorter sibling's head, "Did you bash her head against something while you were pummeling her?" Steve just stared blankly, unsure what to say as the woman fluffed her pixie cut away from her eyes and looked down at Brooklyn, "I'm here to see you! Because you were in the hospital! And because I love you and actually know what you do for a living now."

Brooklyn turned to Steve, who just opened his mouth to speak, but Brooklyn turned back to her little sister and took the reins, seeing as Dallas had thoroughly traumatized her boyfriend, "So Steve called you?"

"Well, SHIELD obviously isn't going to call me, because they don't know I exist." Dallas crossed her arms and smirked, "Steve took wonderful care of me. Had me picked up by this nice man and flown in a private plane."

"A private plane?"

"Yeah, I got to ride in the Stark jet." Dallas said proudly, lifting her chin high. "When I arrived, Black Widow picked me up and drove me here. I feel like an honorary Avenger."

"You're not." Brooklyn deadpanned, finally turning to glare up at Steve, "You know I'm trying to keep her a secret right?"

"And I know that the Avengers already know she exists, so I called in a few favors to do something nice for my girlfriend, whom I love, and whom I caused a lot of trouble for." Steve answered sternly, crossing his arms to match her frustrated demeanor, but he was happy with his surprise, even if Brooklyn was a little panicky.

"So, uh, what exactly did he do to ya?" Dallas drawled as she leaned against Steve's bookshelf. She stared between her sister and Steve curiously, waiting to see who was going to explain what went down in Miami. Brooklyn pursed her lips and dragged her sister farther into the apartment, away from Steve. She yanked Dallas down to her level and whispered in her ear, looking over at Steve conspiratorially as Dallas gasped, "Ouch! That's not supposed to be able to happen!" Brooklyn shrugged and pulled away, staring down Steve with a knowing smirk as Dallas hummed thoughtfully, "Must be impressive.

Steve's jaw clenched as he saw Dallas's gaze fall to his crotch and Brooklyn smacked her sister hard against the arm, "Eyes up, bitch! I'm not sharing."

"I'm only human." Dallas hissed back, and Steve wondered if this was common banter between them or if they were truly upset. He didn't have any siblings to compare this encounter to. Even Bucky with his two little sisters was never so harsh, but it was a different time. "Umm, I'll take your things to the bedroom."

Steve left the two women to speak alone, taking his time in the bedroom to avoid Dallas's questioning. She had every right to be curious about how her older sister ended up in the hospital, but Steve didn't want to talk about it. Maybe he should have gotten her a puppy.

"Honey?" Brooklyn's voice wafted from the living room and Steve sprinted out to see what was wrong. He stared at her expectantly, finding her sitting on the couch with Dallas. The younger woman looked like she was holding back laughter, but Brooklyn was unfazed by his quick appearance. "Steve, could you get me some water?"

"Of course." Steve answered, looking to Dallas, "Would you like anything?"

"What do you got?" Dallas said casually, looking him up and down, "Aside from a tall drink of water."

"Legs. You got legs, go get your own drink." Brooklyn spat back, and Dallas squeezed her sister tightly.

"I'm so happy I get to come hang out with my favorite sister and her super boyfriend." She crooned as she slung her shoulder over the couch to get a better look at Steve past Brooklyn, "Seriously though, I'm fine. Thank you for inviting me. You won't even know I'm here."

The corner of Steve's mouth pulled up into a shy smile, and Dallas gasped dramatically and turned to her sister, "He's the cutest thing. Are you sure we can't share him?"

"No." Brooklyn deadpanned, but Steve saw her own smile grow as he walked away to get her water. He listened closely from the attached kitchen, trying to eavesdrop on their conversation in an attempt to understand their dynamic better. After a few moments, he heard Brooklyn ask, "How's New York? How's your residency going?"

Dallas took a deep breath and Steve watched her bob her head as she answered, "It's going well. It's hard, but I didn't expect Med School to be easy. We've had some tough times after the incident." Steve lifted his head to get a better look at the woman as her voice became more strained. He decided to fill her a glass of water as well. "I don't know if it was the dust, or radiation, or something else, but we've lost a lot of kids."

Steve reappeared with two glasses of water, handing one to Brooklyn and the other to her sister. Dallas thanked him and sipped it quietly, waiting to hear what her sister had to say. Brooklyn twisted her mouth to the side, chewing the inside of her cheek as she held her water, "I'm sorry Dee. I'm sure that's been really hard."

"It's part of the job." Dallas murmured, looking up at Steve, "It could have been worse. We all could have died then and there."

Steve moved to sit in his brown leather chair near his record player, popping open the top and replacing the record with a new one. Soft jazz played as he turned it down to play in the background, but Brooklyn swayed to it, nonetheless. Dallas watched her sister attentively, leaning against the couch and finishing her water before setting her glass on the table beside her.

"You happy, Bee?" Dallas asked softly as she reached behind her sister's neck to rub it. Steve tilted his head curiously, realizing the thing he found so much comfort in came from Brooklyn's sister. Brooklyn reacted to it much like Steve did, by letting out a sigh as her whole body relaxed.

She nodded and looked to Steve, "Yeah. I have the two most important people in my life in one place. I'm home."

Her words made Steve's heart swell. All he wanted was to make her happy and safe, and the content expression on her face was one he didn't see often. There was always a fear and stiffness to Brooklyn. Her mind was always working overtime, worrying about the few people she loved. Steve could see that having her sister beside her in his home washed away those worries, if only for a moment.

They sat together like that for a long while as the saxophone whined from Steve's old record player. Around dinnertime though, Dallas began to fidget and look over her shoulder towards the kitchen, a silent, but clear sign she was hungry.

"I can order something in. Or I can cook." Steve offered, but Brooklyn shook her head warningly at her little sister, causing Steve to gasp, "Hey! My cooking isn't that bad."

"You should take her out somewhere. Show her the sights. This isn't a very fun trip if she spends the whole time hiding up here." Brooklyn explained slowly, looking to her sister, "Plus, I want you two to get to know each other."

"We can do that with you around." Steve argued and Dallas almost choked from holding back her laughter.

Brooklyn blinked slowly, unamused by Steve's attempt at avoiding her sister. "I know you can. But she doesn't bite. Take her for a drink. Bring me back some takeout. To be honest, I'd kill for a bubble bath and some time to read my book."

Dallas snorted, "I came all this way, and you don't even want to spend time with me?"

"I've been sitting next to you for the last four hours, for the love of God, please go amuse yourself." Brooklyn teased before quickly raising her finger, "Steve will escort you to have fun. You will not amuse yourself with my boyfriend."

"That was a close call. We almost had her blessing." Dallas winked and Steve smirked, shaking his head at the young woman's antics.

Steve took Dallas to a bar within walking distance of his apartment. She dressed up for the occasion, wearing a short black dress and red high-top sneakers. She sidled up to the bar and ordered a martini before turning to Steve expectantly, "And for you?"

"Just a water." Steve answered as he slid onto the seat beside her. He stared at the bottles lining the shelves behind the bartender, reading all the labels as Dallas waited for her drink to arrive. The bartender asked for her ID and she shoved it forward for him to read.

Steve looked down at the license, raising his brow in surprise, "Dallas Wells?"

"Yeah." She said cautiously, eyeing Steve suspiciously, "Why do you sound so surprised at that?"

"Why don't you have the same last name as your sister?"

"I don't?" Dallas asked, sincerely confused about this revelation. "What is her last name?"

"She goes by Hayes." Steve told her, feeling his heart sink. He didn't even know his girlfriend's last name. He didn't realize she was still keeping secrets from him. He did, however, notice how Dallas nodded at the information, as if it made sense.

"That was our mother's maiden name." Dallas explained as her drink arrived. She raised the martini glass to her lips and took a small sip, then set it down and slipped her license back into her wallet. "Makes sense. Then nobody can trace her back to me."

"It's really important to her that nobody realizes she has a sister. Back in May, she told me her boyfriend was visiting." Steve explained and Dallas laughed loudly. She snorted and quickly covered her nose and mouth, squinting as she tried to catch her breath. Steve looked around, noticing a few patrons looking her way, but the woman didn't seem to care. Steve drew his baseball cap farther down on his head, hoping nobody would realize it was Captain America with the loud woman, "What's so funny?"

"She- she told you she was dating somebody else? That's… oh boy, that's funny. You're funny, you know that? Look at your cute little face! I can't with you. I swear, I'll regret that Bee found you first until my dying day, you really are just perfect."

Steve's mind was racing to catch up with what Dallas found humorous about the situation, because for Steve it was traumatic. "I don't understand."

"She hasn't shut up about you since before Christmas last year. Every time she called it was 'Steve did this' or 'Steve said that' and 'Dallas, you should see him, he's perfection'. When I arrived in Manhattan and asked to meet you, she practically broke down in tears and said that you were upset with her." Dallas explained as she leaned her cheek against her knuckles, "You really didn't know? That she was in love with you? She told you she had a boyfriend?"

"She told me her boyfriend was visiting the first week of May. Well, she told our boss her boyfriend was visiting. She never said anything to me until I overheard her conversation with him." Steve mumbled and Dallas raised her hand to the bartender.

"Get this man a scotch, on my tab." She said as she pointed to Steve, then leaned her arm back on the table, "So, why do you love my sister?"

Steve shifted, wanting to tell Dallas he couldn't get drunk and she was wasting her money, but she seemed determined, so he just nodded at the bartender and showed his fake ID that Brooklyn had made for him. "She took the time to get to know me. When she's around I feel calm, and I feel home. That's a lot coming from somebody who slept for almost seventy years."

When the scotch arrived, Steve tipped it back and drained the glass, clearly impressing the younger woman. "Yeah, I bet it's been hard." Dallas said softly before ordering another martini and another scotch for Steve. "So, you two talking wedding bells? Kids? A house and a dog?"

"Your sister mentioned today that she wanted a puppy. It was the first I'd heard of it." Steve replied.

Dallas let out a knowing 'ahhh' at this, nodding a little as she stared past Steve. "I don't really know how Bee does relationships to be honest. She moved away when I was twelve. Didn't hear much from her after that, but when I did hear from her, she was very loving. Almost as if she were scared to let me go. When I turned eighteen and started Med School, she called several times a week, just to make sure I was okay. Now I know why."

"She was really cautious. She pushed me away." Steve admitted as he grabbed his glass and raised it, "I tried to ask her out last Christmas, but she turned me down."

"That's so dramatic. It's on brand." Dallas groaned, "She's crazy about you, but she's scared. After the whole alien thing we talked a lot about her life. What she does. It's weird, thinking of Bee like that. Someone who kills people." She dropped her voice and pushed back her short hair. "It's really dangerous, isn't it? What she does? I mean, I saw you in New York. You seem pretty… sturdy. Her, not so much."

"She doesn't do what I do. She's more undercover. She infiltrates and extracts information. It's much tamer work than mine." Steve assured Dallas, but she didn't seem convinced, so he added, "There's obviously risks involved, but I wouldn't worry about her. She's one tough cookie."

"Except when it comes to you." Dallas hummed as before punctuating her confession with a drink. Steve raised his brows and she sighed, "She's got a soft spot for you. She's guarded. That means she's nervous, which means she thinks it's serious. She's never spoken about a man the way she talks about you. She even told Aunt Jenna she had a boyfriend. That's huge because they don't really talk."

"What should I do?" Steve asked honestly, and Dallas must have been caught off guard by his question, because she scrunched her brows and tilted her head. "I don't want to mess this up. What do I have to do to keep her happy?"

Dallas shrugged, tossing her credit card on the bar top, "Whatever you're doing now is working fine. Just try not to bang her to death, please. As her sister and a future OBGYN, she shouldn't make a habit of snapping a government-grade IUD in half while it's inside her uterus."

Steve blinked rapidly, trying to understand what Dallas had just told him. He wasn't a doctor, and Brooklyn spared him the details about the things she rightfully assumed he didn't want to visualize. This, however, struck him as odd that he hadn't heard about it. "Excuse me?"

Dallas's hazel eyes grew into saucers as she seemed to realize she said something she shouldn't have. "I, uh, forget I said anything. It isn't a big deal. She's fine. Doctors took care of it. And apparently, she's on the pill too, so she's being doubly safe."

"What happened?" Steve said, more sternly this time, and Dallas began to gape at him, opening and closing her mouth like a fish as her eyes darted around the room for some answer to his question, "Dallas, I'm gonna need you to elaborate."

"I'd rather not. Not here." Her voice was laden with disgust as she gestured around casually, "Plus, this is between you and her. I didn't-" She paused, taking a deep breath, "I didn't realize she hadn't told you what had happened. She was so casual about it."

"I still don't know what happened." Steve clenched his fist and Dallas stared at it with unrestrained fear, leaning away from him as he shook out his hand, "Brooklyn keeps things from me, especially when it comes to…" Steve grimaced and slammed his eyes closed, "all of that. But I need you to explain it to me. In great detail."

"In the bar?" Dallas groaned loudly, looking around at the crowded space, "Can we at least go somewhere private? It isn't exactly dinner talk."

"Dallas."

"Listen, if she didn't tell you, she didn't want you to know. She said she's fine, and I trust her. Maybe just drop it." Dallas answered as she slid off the barstool. "How about we pick her up something before we head back?"

Steve didn't like that Dallas wasn't telling him what he wanted to know, but he had ways to figure it out on his own. He had the internet now. "Alright, let's go."

While Dallas ordered Brooklyn's food from a café near his apartment, Steve googled this IUD thing Dallas had told him he'd broken. By the time she returned, he was pale as a ghost.

"You looked it up, didn't you?" She sighed and Steve just swallowed, turned, and led her back towards his apartment. "Steve! She's fine! She said she's fine, leave her be."

"Why didn't she tell me? This happened days ago." He whipped around to Dallas, "What's gonna happen to her?"

"I don't know. We didn't talk about it much, she just mentioned you broke it while you two were… dealing with whatever." Dallas threw her head back in frustration, "Please don't tell her I told you, she'll kill me. Literally, I know she knows how to do that."

Steve rubbed his hand over his face as they reached his apartment building, looking up at the windows, "I think we have to talk about it. I could have really hurt her."

"I mean, you did, because internal bleeding. But, like, I get the feeling you didn't break anything she was planning on using."

Steve took the stairs slowly, forcing himself to go slow enough for Dallas to keep up with him as she rambled on about how angry Brooklyn would be for blabbing about it, and how Brooklyn shouldn't have sent them to hang out alone if she didn't want her sister to talk about her, and how Brooklyn would probably punish her by stabbing her in the…

"Dallas." Steve snapped as he whipped around to look down the stairs at the young woman, "I get it. I'm thankful you told me, and I know you thought you were doing a good thing. I'm not going to let her be mad at you. I promise."

"That isn't a promise not to say anything."

"I'm always honest. Even when it's hard." Steve mumbled as he unlocked his door and held it open for Dallas to pass under his arm.

Brooklyn was still sat on the couch with the fireplace going when they appeared. She smiled back at them as Dallas rushed forward and handed her the takeout they'd ordered, "I got you a burger, is that okay?"

"That's perfect." Brooklyn answered, eyeing the two, "How was your evening out?"

"Fun! We went to this cool bar down the street. I got Steve tipsy, it was great!" Dallas squeaked and Brooklyn turned to Steve to see if he'd confirm or deny her sister's claim, but he chose to do neither. "Well," Dallas said as she clapped her hands together, "I'm going to use the restroom real quick. Don't talk about anything too crazy without me!" She laughed nervously.

As soon as Dallas was out of sight, Brooklyn sighed deeply and looked up at Steve, who was frozen just inside the doorway with his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket, "What did she tell you?"

"About the IUD."

"Of course, she did." Brooklyn retorted with a roll of her eyes. "Did she give you her doctor's opinion about the matter?'

"Actually, she assumed I already knew. Which I was surprised that I didn't." Steve admitted as he finally broke from his spot to sit beside his girl, "Sweetheart, why didn't you say anything?"

"I knew you'd feel bad. It snapped and cut some lining, but I'll be okay, we just have to take it easy for a few weeks. It isn't a big deal."

Steve shook his head, dismissing her claim, "It's a huge deal. You could be-"

"I'm not. It's the first thing the doctors checked." Brooklyn answered quickly and Steve cocked his head, unsure of what she was talking about. She seemed to realize this too and she inhaled slowly, "What were you going to say?"

"I was going to say you could be seriously hurt." Steve responded slowly, "I get the feeling that's not what you were referring to."

Brooklyn leaned forward and kissed Steve quickly to distract him, but he was too focused on the mission of getting to the bottom of what happened to his girlfriend. "Brooke, we aren't just dropping this."

"What is there to say? You were drugged. I didn't want anyone else to take care of it, so I fixed it myself." She told him sharply, narrowing her eyes, "There are a million ways to get hurt and killed in this job, trust me, some broken hardware is the least of my worries. I'm on the mend. Let's just drop it, okay?"

Steve nodded as he dropped his head, causing his shaggy blonde hair to fall in front of his eyes, "Okay."

"Now," Brooklyn groaned as she pushed herself to her feet, holding her lower stomach as she winced, "I'm going to check on Dee. See if she fell in or if she's just hiding from my wrath."

"You should have told me. It isn't her fault." Steve called over his shoulder as Brooklyn moved to the bedroom. "I promised her I wouldn't let you be mad."

Brooklyn snorted, grabbing the door, "I'll still kill her."

The next thing Steve heard was a panicked screech, followed by muffled begging and eventually laughter that was very clearly Brooklyn's.