I did not want to go home. At all. I tried to be cheerful with Steve as we boarded the flight in Nice, although I felt like choking on the Plan B pill.

"Are you okay?" he asked, rubbing my shoulders as we stepped into the private jet's cabin.

I gagged as I swallowed the pill, remembering what it was like the last time I took it. "I'll be fine if I can just sleep through this whole damn flight."

"What is it?"

"I just took the Plan B pill," I said.

His expression hardened. "Dani, you said you were going to take that three days ago!"

"There's a seventy-three hour window," I said. "Wanna see the package?"

"I've read the label, but it's more effective-"

"I get really nauseated when I take it," I said. "That's a side-effect. And I don't enjoy it!"

"Hi," Erin said, coming out of they galley. "Welcome aboard! Can I get the two of you anything to drink?"

"A Stella Artois," Steve said.

"I'll have the same," I said, getting the blister packet for the benadryl out of my purse. "Can you set up the bed? I want to sleep through the flight to New York."

"I'll be happy to," Erin said. "Right after takeoff."

"Thank you."

"Dani," Steve whispered as she disappeared into the galley. "If the morning-after pill makes you so sick, why didn't you tell me?"

"In the heat of the moment, I wasn't going to make you go get a condom."
"We'll be better about it, and we'll both have them around at all times" he agreed.

"I'm on the pill anyway, and I am so careful about taking it," I said to sooth him. "I bet we'll be fine."

"If anything happens… please tell me."

"I will."

After we had our beers and I took my Benadryl, we laid down to take a nap. Erin woke me up when we landed in JFK, (Steve woke up and watched Raiders of the Lost Ark again without me while I slept). I felt like a deflated balloon as we caught a cab to his apartment for the night. The nausea was hitting me from the pill.

"Hey, what's going on?" he asked, stroking my hair in the back of the cab.

"I'm nauseated," I admitted.

"I'm sorry," he kissed my temple.

"I'm getting vacation hangover, too," I muttered. "I have to go back to regular life."

"I know you wanted to stay there-"

"I'd be okay with regular life if you were there to come home to," I sighed. "But, you can't relocate to DC, and I want that degree. I'm to transferring and starting over. GWU was my dream school, and I'm proud I got in. I'm adamant about that."

"That'll be fifty-two-fifty," the cabbie said as he pulled up in front of Steve's building. He handed over his card.

"I know, sweetheart," he said. "Timeline. Right?"

"Right."

We got out of the cab to lug our suitcases upstairs. Steve took mine and wouldn't let me touch it. We took the elevator up to his apartment.

He immediately ran a bath for me, and we discussed what tomorrow's ride home for me would look like while he kneeled next to the tub to wash my hair for me. "How's the nausea?"

"I don't want to live," I mumbled.

"Don't say that. I'm making up the bed so you can just try to sleep it off."

"It'll be fine in a few hours," I mumbled, remembering the last time I took it. "But I'm going to make a batch of koulourakia for Tony Stark before I go back to DC."

"Okay. Do you want something? Like anti-nausea medication?."

"That would be great," I admitted. He got up to dry his hands and make the call.

I got out of the tub and got dressed when I heard the door buzzer. I took the anti-nausea medication and did some reading for school. Within an hour, I started to feel less dizzy, but it was getting dark out.

I wanted to get started on a batch of koulourakia for Tony Stark first thing in the morning. Luckily, we hadn't stayed in Europe long enough for our (my) circadian clock to reset. I collapsed in bed, exhausted from all the energy I had expended from the nausea.

I woke up to the door shutting, the morning light was just starting to rise.

"Steve?" I called.

"It's me."
I sat up in the bed.

"Feeling better?"

His impressive form darkened the doorway to the bedroom. "Yeah, I am."

"Good."

"Where did you go?" I asked, looking at the clock. It was five-forty in the morning.

"For a run. And I bought a few things at the pharmacy."

"Like what?"

He sat down on the bed beside me and dump out a small paper sack. There were two boxes of our favorite brand of condoms came out. "I'm so proud of you," I teased.

"I didn't order them on Amazon this time, either."

"Wanna try them out?" I asked.

"Well, if you insist." He leaned in for a kiss, but I pushed him away.

"Morning breath!"

"Hey!"

"Not you, me!" I cried, tossing the covers back.

"See, I love you enough that I'd kiss you even if you did have it and not say anything," he said, standing up to take off his t-shirt.

"And I love you enough to not subject you to it," I said, my words muffled with the toothbrush in my mouth.

"That means I love you more!" He was getting out of his athletic pants and shorts, so I knew he didn't want to waste time.

I almost gagged myself with my toothbrush, brushing the back of my tongue. "No, I do!"

"Hurry up!"

I spat and rinsed my mouth. "You are so impatient!" I cried, wiping my mouth off. Since he was already naked as a jaybird laying down on top of the covers, I had to get out of my clothes, too. "Dork," I added in as I mounted the bed.

We kissed for a few minutes, hands roaming each other's bodies. A part of me panicked that the magic of Monaco wouldn't carry over. I wanted it to. His fingers found my nipples and pinched lightly, and I felt it deep in my pelvis, arousal building.

"Steve…" I whispered between soft kisses. "Let me." I stroked his hardness, alternating finger-light ghosting the sensitive juncture his thigh to his hip. He bit his lower lip and threw his head back, eyes shut, sighing.

I kissed my way down his chest, down his cut abs, and kissed along the line of his pelvis. Steve's hand stroked my hair. "You make me happy," he said softly. "You're so good."

"Lay back," I said, and he obeyed. I pulled my hair back with my hand and took his cock in another. Loving him with my mouth came naturally, now, I used to hate doing this, now I loved it. At least on him. I ran my fingertips up the juncture of his hip and thigh as his cockhead hit the back of my throat, and I felt the ripple of pleasure strike through him, and heard it. He wriggled a little under me, and I stroked under his balls as I started moving my head up and down, winding my other hand like a corkscrew around the base of his cock. I was ready to make him cum right into my mouth, I sped up my movements. He didn't disappoint. I loved his strangled cry when he came, and I drained him.

"Sweetheart," he said softly, sighing.

I got up from the bed to spit and rinse my mouth out in the bathroom sink.

"You're coming back to bed, right?" Steve asked from the bed.

I swished some water and spat. "Of course." I dabbed at my mouth with the hand towel. As I climbed back onto the bed, he sat up and grabbed me by the waist and tossed me onto my back.

"Your turn."

My worries about the magic of Monaco evaporated.

The next morning, I went down to the market down the street and got some eggs and butter to take home and get started on koulourakia while Steve went running. By the time he got back, I had started on moulding the little cookies and baking. I realized I didn't have Tony Stark's mailing address, and I couldn't very well just waltz into Stark Tower and drop them off. And honestly, around koulourakia, I didn't trust Steve not to steal a few (or ten) for himself. I retrieved my phone and dialed Pepper Potts.

"Pepper Potts," she answered briskly.

"Hi, this is Danielle Conyers," I said.

"Oh, Dani! Hi! Good to hear from you! Did you have fun in Monaco?"

"I had a great time, send Mr. Stark my thank-you for letting us stay in his place. It was a trip of a lifetime. Very eventful."

"I'm glad to hear it," she said. "What can I do for you?"

"Okay, so do you know the deal in how Steve managed to procure that apartment for a week from Mr. Stark?"

There was a long pause, and I wondered if Pepper was trying not to laugh. "Yeah, I know," she said, a smile in her voice.

"Well, I don't feel like that was a fair bet, so I'm making a batch of koulourakia and I don't trust Steve to deliver them. Could I send them to your office and you make sure Mr. Stark gets them? I don't have a proper mailing address for him."

"Of course. That is really sweet of you. And I promise, I won't steal any for myself, I don't have time to squeeze in another pilates class to enjoy them guilt-free this week."

"Thank you."

"So, I'm curious, you said it was an eventful trip?"

"In a few ways, yes."

"What happened?"

I blushed. "Well, Steve managed to win a million dollars at the casino one night."

She laughed. "No kidding? Playing Blackjack, I bet."

I laughed. "Yeah. And um… No, I don't want to be unprofessional with you."

"Unprofessional? Please. We all need a girlfriend to unload on sometimes, we're kind of a sisterhood, dating superheroes."

"Well… Steve told me he loved me."
"He did?" Pepper cried, excited. "That is great news! I'm so excited for you two! I take it you feel the same way?"

"I do."

"Aww! I'm so happy for you!"

"We almost ran out and got married. We found out the hard way we can't and have it count in the US."

"What? Did you-"

"No! No, we did not! We're not engaged even or… we have lot of things to work out before we even get engaged. He's going to meet my family over Easter."

"You think he's ready?"

"Nothing can prepare him, you haven't met my family," I joked.

She laughed. "I'm sure they're not that bad."

"They aren't, but it's been so long since we've been together and he hasn't met them in all that time. And… I just couldn't get married without my family being there. And it kinda bites for Steve because..."

"Yeah, yeah… I'll be honest with you, Dani… The Avengers are Steve's family. He's kind of the old man of the group, but you bring out the young man. But deep down, he's a sweetheart and I think he's waited seventy years for a woman like you. We'll be seeing each other a lot now, I suppose."

"Yeah, I think so," I agreed.

"You know I hate sending you off like this," Steve said as we walked through Grand Central Station together. We had dropped off the koulourakia at Pepper's office with a hand-written thank you note from me for Mr. Stark, even though she was in a meeting, and had gone to the train station.

"I wish you were coming with me," I sighed. "They say DC's nice in the springtime. I hope my allergies are better in DC."

"I forget what allergies were like."

"Don't rub it in."

"Okay. Give Lourdes Marie my love and we'll see each other a week from today, right?"

"Right," I agreed. I stood up on my toes and kissed him good-bye. "I love you."

"I love you more."

"Not possible."

"You two get a room!" some New Yorker shouted at us.

"Barf," I muttered.

"This is just New Yorkers," Steve brushed it off. "Send me a text when you get to DC."

"I will."

The train ride home was sad to me. I had had an amazing time, one of the best vacations I had ever taken. But what if the magic of Monaco wore off for us? Would things be as intense?

When Alissa came to pick me up, she had a surprise for me with Lourdes Marie: a trio of red roses from Steve sent to me in care of her were strapped into the backseat of her car.

"Are you kidding me?" I laughed, getting into the car.

"You're glowing," she said.

"I'm sunburned."

"No, you're not. You know what I mean, just your face when you saw the roses. Man, he's making Joel look bad!"

I opened the card.

You are the entire world to me. I didn't know I could love a woman like I love you…. Morning breath, too.

I laughed.

"What does it say?"

"Okay, you can never tell him I showed you this," I said, showing her the card.

"Oh, he's a keeper," she said, her eyes scanning the words, grinning.

"He bought me these while we were in Nice," I said, indicating the sapphire earrings. "And the jeweler brought up engagement rings, his eyes lit up. I shut him down, though."

"They're beautiful! Are they real sapphires?"

"Yep," I admitted.

"So you texted me that the two of you almost ran out and got married. What the hell!"

"We didn't. We were just excited, but we realized there were a lot of things we hadn't discussed. And also, a marriage outside the US doesn't count unless you have a legally binding on in the states.

"Oh. That sucks. So he bought you earrings, why not a diamond ring?"

"You know how we discussed the stages of a relationship in Marital Life Cycle? We haven't been through the stages properly, and there were a lot of things we haven't gone through or discussed yet."

"Like what?"

"Like meeting my family. And now that he's got money in the bank, we need a prenup."

"Oh, being practical?"
"I guess. I'm no fun."

The earrings sparkled in the sideview mirror, and I admired them. They brought out the green in my eyes and I grinned. That glow was not just love.

"I like him a lot for you. If you came back engaged, I wouldn't have been surprised."

"I started feeling guilty that my family wouldn't be there."

"Hmm. I didn't think of that. Yeah. When Joel met my family, I was afraid he wouldn't want to marry me."

"Oh please!" I cried. Joel was crazy about Liss.

"My stepfather and my mother acted like they were so normal and cool, but I swear to God, she lost her shit when he left their dog in the kitchen with the oven cracked and Scooter managed to eat the entire pumpkin pie. I was so embarrassed that Joel and I hid in the guest bedroom while he bitched him out."

"That happened?"

"Yes. He didn't break up with me after that trip, though, so… I guess it worked out." She shrugged. "We still laugh about it today, especially when I yell at him."

She pulled into the guest parking space and we got my suitcase out.

"Why didn't you marry him there?" Alissa asked.

"I told you he won a million dollars playing Blackjack one night in Monte Carlo, right?" I asked. "It would be nice to be married to him, that money's enticing. But if we're talking about getting married, that means I'd be moving to New York, and I'd have to drop out of GWU and apply at other university to see if I could transfer. Steve and I haven't really talked about that. Not at all. I didn't work this hard just to become a housewife."

Alissa nodded as we hiked up the stairs to my apartment. I unlocked the door and brought things inside. I let Lourdes Marie out of the carrier box once the door was shut.

"I used to think being a housewife was great, but as I grew up, I discovered it was a lot harder than it looked," Alissa agreed. "And… if he lost his job for any reason… we'd be screwed. So, yeah. I get it. If Steve got hurt in combat…"

I nodded. "Yeah. We've got to think about that. That's just one thing we need to talk about. Above a million others. I didn't want to discuss those things on vacation. So, we just walked up and down Nice and through the Old City, and talked about dreams, like moving to Nice one day," I said, getting her souvenir out of my suitcase. "Here's for you and Joel, a thank you for all the times you've cared for Lourdes Marie."

"Oh, thank you!" she cried, opening it. I had gotten her some magnets for her refrigerator from Nice and Monaco. "Perfect for my collection! How did he manage a trip to Monaco, though?"

"He pulled in some favors, mostly," I said, flopping down on the bed. "And he wouldn't let me pay for anything, either. But seriously, it was incredible to be in the Côte d'Azure. Oh, when he bought me these earrings, the jeweler brought up engagement rings, and his eyes lit up."
"Okay, I'm happy for you," she began. "And I'm not trying to be a buzzkill, but don't you think the two of you are in a honeymoon phase right now?"

"You're right, of course," I said. "I shut him down when the talk of engagement rings came up."

"But you made him get the earrings, at least?"

I laughed and twirled around. "Yep!"

The next few weeks I was working like a dog to make up for the vacation and to stay on point at school. Steve came to stay when he wasn't on call. We had a good time together in bed, but got a lot of things accomplished when it came to studies, too. We went out one night with Mia and her new boyfriend, and when I drank two vodka sodas, I got sick from it, and I caught a cold. My period was light that week, at least. It was probably from the Plan B pill, when I checked with the campus clinic. I read the website and literature, and that was correct, so I didn't panic, I was within the symptom limits. It was enough flow to have to buy a box of tampons, though. I was coughing and sniffling for the better part of the week, and it was a challenge to keep my hands clean at work. Barry enjoyed it a little too much from behind the cook's line.

"New something salty on your throat, Dani?" He asked and burst into devious giggles.

My jaw dropped.

"Barry, I need to see you in the office," Ron said sharply.

"Hey, I was just kidding!"

"Tell Dani that."

"Dani, it was just a joke."

"And?" Ron prompted.

"And…"

"You're sorry?"

"Yeah, sorry Dani. I was just kidding."

"Thanks," I mumbled, and backed out the swinging doors into the dining room.

That evening, as I was counting down my tips, Ron sat down across from me. "Hey, you know how we've been short-staffed?"

"Yeah."

"I know you're in school and all, but how would you feel about taking over as shift manager once-in-a-while?"

I lit up inside. It was a steadier paycheck and a form of a promotion. If I did well enough, I could get promoted, a better, more steady paycheck. Possibly paid days off? "I'd love to!" I said.

"And listen, if the kitchen staff gets too rowdy and inappropriate, you have every right to say no-"

"I'll do it. I can handle myself."

"You're a lifesaver, Dani. I'll start training you tomorrow during the slow part of your shift. Just promise you'll take a Tylenol cold or something before hand."

After tipping out, I changed in the women's room change into a pair of leggings and a t-shirt in the restroom when the door opened and Barry was pushing a mop and bucket in. "Whoa!" I cried. "Excuse me, changing clothes here!"

"Alright, sorry!" he cried. I expected him to giggle and tell me it was nothing he hadn't seen before as I hopping into my leggings. Once dressed, I grabbed a wad of toilet paper to dab at my runny nose. "Hey, I wanted to talk to you," Barry said as I exited the women's restroom.

"There's nobody in there," I said. "It's all yours."

"No, I wanted to tell you something."

I rolled my eyes and turned around to face him. He came on too strong on a regular basis with me. And a few other servers and hostesses. "Yes?"

"I think of you as a friend. And you know, I tease my friends the way I teased you tonight. I thought you'd find it funny."

"Did Ron put you up to this?"

"No, I really do consider you a friend, Dani."

"I have a boyfriend, you know," I said, sniffling. "He's very old-fashioned and wouldn't be too happy to hear about the things to say to me."

"I was only kidding. Guys talk like this when girls aren't around."

"Steve doesn't."

"Oh, you only think he doesn't."

"Trust me, he doesn't."

"Come on, it was a joke. You tell all your girlfriends about his cock and what a dumbass he can be, don't you?" He winked at me and my skin crawled.

"No, I don't tell them those things because he's not a dumbass. We're a different couple."

He laughed. "It's cute that you think that. The truth bomb's going to hit you like Hiroshima, girl."

"If only you knew," I said, wiping my snotty nose and walking out the door.

I had a hot whiskey toddy waiting for me with Lourdes Marie.