Scott could never decide if he liked being Ant-Man or not. On the one hand, awesome suit, awesome powers, awesome way to help out the world. On the other hand, he had to fight people. This normally wasn't too bad, because he was decent at fighting. His girlfriend had filled in the gaps in his fight knowledge that prison had left open, and basically the two of them together were fantastic. They would probably win every fight.

"Hey, you! Stop burning the freaking buildings!" Oh yeah. Someone had gotten ahold of some leftover alien tech and was trying to capture a small city with it. Normal Tuesday, but the rest of the Avengers were dealing with similar matters all around the globe. They really should have cleaned up from the fight with Thanos a little faster, because apparently someone had gotten to the scene and stolen stuff and sold it to all the terrorist-wannabes around the world.

"Make me," one called back.

"If you don't stop, we'll have to make you stop," Hope added as an aside to him from her own three-against-one fight. She was coming out on top, no doubt about it. He had the coolest girlfriend ever.

They bantered through the battle, mostly just ouch and are you okay and I think that man has a mullet and Scott that's a woman and wow I did not get that. Is it weird to be glad that not all the villains are male and yeah that is kind of weird and I figured it was but I had to ask and Scott that man has a grenade, get out of the way now and—

Explosion.

When Scott managed to get his head to stop spinning long enough to look around and consider standing, the first thing he saw was the bad guys collapsed in a shaking pile. Apparently, the alien tech really hadn't appreciated the grenade.

The next thing he saw was Hope, sprawled out ten feet away. He crawled to her side, alarms going off in his head, blaring almost as loud as the ringing in his ears. He got to her side and pulled her into his arms. He could barely hear himself begging her to stay with him. Finally her eyes flickered, just slightly.

He acknowledged that he was yelling just as the police appeared. "Stay awake, Hope! Come on, baby, you're gonna be okay, it's okay, it's not really all that much blood. Open your eyes, Hope." Her eyes opened all the way before squinting closed again against the light. "Hey, baby, we're gonna get married, okay? When you get all patched up. We're gonna get married this time." She snorted before flinching away from her own head. He kept mumbling as his own head started to throb.

"Scott, the ambulance is here," a voice called in his ear. "Let me have her, okay, buddy? Come on, Scott." He turned just enough to let Paxton scoop Hope up, following them into the ambulance in a walk that resembled nothing so much as a drunken stumble.

He was pretty sure his head was going to explode, but Hope was okay. She was going to be okay. Paxton pushed the actual EMTs away and pulled oxygen masks over both of their faces. Blood was soaking the pillow beneath Hope's head. Her eyes were closed again, but her hand was squeezing his back.

And that was the last thing he remembered before he disappeared into darkness again. He really hoped that Paxton or someone caught him before he hit the ambulance floor. That would suck.

He woke up in a hospital bed, an IV in his arm, with one question in his mind. "Is Hope okay?"

Paxton stood at the foot of his bed, arm around Cassie. Cassie pulled out of his embrace and threw herself on top of him. "Cassie…" Paxton tried. Scott squeezed Cassie back as tight as he could, mentally begging Paxton to just go ahead and tell him. He got the message. "Scott, Hope's in that bed over there. She's got a really bad concussion, but they say she'll be fine."

Cassie immediately pulled away and pointed toward the bed. "She's fine, Daddy, see?"

Scott ripped his IV out—Cassie and Paxton started to protest but stopped almost immediately—and he stumbled over to Hope's bed. Of course, his arm started bleeding. "My arm's bleeding."

"You pulled the IV needle out, buddy. That's not how it works." Paxton handed him a wad of tissues and he pressed it to his cool new wound. Just kidding. It wasn't cool.

What also wasn't cool was the fact that Hope had almost died. "Did any of the bad guys get away?"

"We got them. They're in jail until they heal enough for trial."

Scott nodded, still not taking his eyes off Hope's face. They hadn't gotten all of the blood out of her hair. Cassie sat down next to him. "She's gonna be fine, Dad. She looks so much better already."

He nodded again. It really didn't help the fact that she had tubes in her nose and IVs for blood and what he guessed was pain management. "How much blood did she lose?" He really didn't know why he was asking. Oh, right, masochism and guilt complex. That was why he was actually an Avenger, it was like a prerequisite to joining the team.

"Not much, that's just a precaution. The explosion was barely two hours ago, so she hasn't had it long."

Just as Scott leaned down to kiss her forehead, disregarding the presence of daughter and daughter's step-dad, Janet and Hank burst in. "How is she?" Hank asked gruffly.

"She's fine," Paxton said, moving to get in between Hank and Scott. Scott made a mental note to do something nice for Paxton when he and Hope were freed. "Just a bad concussion."

Cassie stood and hugged Janet before Janet sat down on the bed next to Scott. "Oh, my baby," she whispered. With those three words Scott noticed all the little scratches on Hope's hands and the fact that she was still paper-pale. "I know what you're doing, Scott. Stop it."

"It's not your fault, Scott," Hank said. Scott took his eyes off Hope and stared at her father.

"What did you say? You're not murdering me for letting Hope get hurt?"

Hank snorted and Janet sighed. "Like you could have stopped her from doing what she wanted."

Scott exhaled sharply. "You have a point." The room started spinning and he almost fell over—maybe he had a concussion too, that would be cool, he hadn't had one of those since the second week of prison when he mouthed off and got knocked out—so Janet helped him back to his own bed. The rest of Janet and Hank's visit was a blur, and when he woke up again Maggie was standing over him. "Hey, Mags."

"Hey, Scott." The bright lights got him for a second and he closed his eyes again, but Maggie shook his arm until he opened his eyes again. "Jim said that you have a concussion and the doctor sent me in to wake you up."

He did the smallest nod possible. "How's Hope?"

"Maggie got me up first," a voice rasped from the corner. Scott jumped up and Maggie helped him over to Hope's bed. "Apparently I'm more hurt."

"I'm glad you're okay," Scott whispered into her palm. He tried to ignore the aww from Maggie a few feet away.

Hope almost shrugged. "It was my fault, I was the one who didn't want to wait for anyone else to help. When can we get out of here, Maggie?"

"The doctor says later today, probably. You're both fine aside from the concussions and Hope's stitches, which Jim can probably take out instead of coming back here. Cassie's going to stay at your place for a while to keep you both awake."

"It'll be like when we're old," Scott muttered. "Cassie taking care of us, giving us our meds, making sure we don't fall and break our hips." Hope sighed her annoyance at being babysat but squeezed his hand. They just stared at each other for a minute, both of them glancing each other over for injuries.

"I'll leave you two alone, then. The doctor'll come in for a final check-up and discharge paperwork soon." Maggie stepped out the door but almost immediately ran back in. "Oh! Jim said that you proposed!"

"What?" Scott and Hope said in unison. Then Scott's memories came back. "Oh." He turned to Hope and grinned.

"It doesn't count if I don't remember it." He tried to interrupt her, but she held a hand up. "New rule. You're not proposing when we're in the hospital. Or when I'm hurt. No deathbed proposals."

Scott and Maggie sighed. But Scott really couldn't care; at least she was alive. He instantly hated that deathbed proposal phrase. He leaned forward and kissed her to get that image out of his head. Just before Maggie left the room, she said, "I expect to be there for the actual proposal!"

They sat there for a moment in silence, Scott's thumb tracing over Hope's knuckles. Finally Hope spoke. "Why is your ex so enthusiastic about us?"

"…Who knows."