Steve knocked and poked his head in the room, smiling when Bruce waved.

"How's he doing?" Steve asked and entered, the others following him and taking up their usual spots around the room, Clint propping himself in the corner, Thor standing at the foot of the bed, and Natasha going to the head of the bed on the far side where she could keep an eye on the door and everyone in the room at the same time. Steve stood at Bruce's side and laid a hand on his shoulder. "How are you doing?"

"I'm good," Bruce said. He looked tired, but no more than usual post-change. "Tony's good." Then he tilted his head. "Well, he's Tony. Which means when he's conscious, he's kind of whiny, but—"

"We only need to worry when he's not," Steve said affectionately. He squeezed Bruce's shoulder.

"I am taking that as a compliment, even though I know you didn't mean it that way," Tony mumbled, then blinked his eyes open and squinted into the dim room. "What'd I miss? Are we fugitives?"

Steve shook his head. "No, Tony, we're not."

"Damn. I had the remote island picked out and everything."

"You may actually want to buy it anyway," Clint said, chuckling.

Tony's eyes widened and he pushed to sit up, hissing, but letting Natasha and Bruce help him. "Why? Oh god, what happened?" He sounded more excited than concerned, though.

"The committee offered us provisional status while they debated how to incorporate us into the existing chain of command," Natasha said.

"They didn't," Tony breathed, then looked to Steve. "You told them to take their chain of command and shove it, right?"

Steve opened his mouth, but Clint answered with a snort. "Basically."

Steve felt a flush climb his cheeks. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'd rather not make it possible for them to decide we need to go solve all of their problems overseas." Especially the ones they'd caused by interfering where they weren't wanted or needed.

"You totally did, didn't you. Oh my god, I can't believe I missed it!" Tony said, sagging back against his pillow and slamming his fist—the sprained one, of course—on the mattress. "Ow!"

"You can get the video footage, I'm sure," Steve said, patting his calf.

"At least tell me that Stern had an aneurysm. Please, Steve, make a sick man's wish come true and tell me that much."

Steve smiled wryly. "No."

Tony deflated. "Aww."

"But it was a close thing."

Tony's smile returned, bright and brilliant.

"In the end, it was Steve's impassioned speech that turned the tide," Natasha said. She was smiling that tiny smile that he thought meant she was proud of him.

"Naturally," Tony said, beaming. "Naturally."

Steve turned to stare at Tony, then looked away before he could get caught. He didn't know if he should be flattered or concerned that Tony was apparently proud of how he'd handled the Senate committee. "You make it sound like it was my words alone that convinced them."

Natasha's eyebrow arched, Thor tilted his head, and Clint said, "Well us being beat all to hell probably didn't hurt, but, yeah, I think that was mostly it. I mean, you made Tony sound like a damn martyr."

"Ohhhhh, I bet Stern just loved that," Tony said with glee.

"So they're still deciding what to do about us then?" Bruce asked.

"Well, ish," Clint said. "For now leaving us alone seems to be their plan. Probably because Brit from Tech pulled a you," he said with a nod at Tony, "and hijacked their screens to show them the chase."

"She did?" Tony sounded delighted. "I'm giving her a raise."

"She doesn't work for you," Natasha said.

"Then I'll headhunt her first! Stop spoiling my fun."

"They saw all of the chase?" Bruce said, paling a little.

"Oh, yeah. Don't worry, Doc," Clint said. "I'm 98% sure they're far more terrified of Steve's driving than your little episode."

"Oh, here we go again," Steve said with a roll of his eyes. "They wouldn't let me drive to or from the Pentagon," he said to Tony.

Tony blinked, as if waiting, then said, "Right. No, that makes perfect sense."

"What?!" Steve said.

"What do you mean what?" Tony said. "I mean, it's not that you weren't absolutely badass on the road yesterday, I think we can all agree on that." He swept the room with a glance and they all nodded. "But it was a little…"

He barely had time to pause before Clint was finishing it. "Terrifying. Pants-shitting. Heart-attack inducing. I think I found Jesus in New Jersey and that's a sentence that I honestly would never have thought could cross my lips."

"He doesn't cope well with being a passenger during high stress driving," Natasha said.

"I would never have guessed," Tony said, and if you didn't know him, you might believe he was serious.

"I think our Captain did a fine job."

"Thank you, Thor," Steve said, glaring at Clint.

"And I must apologize for my previous comparisons to Tony's driving."

"That's very nice of you," Steve said.

"But I think I would prefer to ride with Tony in the future."

Tony burst out laughing and Clint just started saying, "See? See?! I'm not the only one!"

Steve's eyes widened and he sputtered incoherently for a moment.

"I don't know, I thought his driving was pretty impressive," Bruce said.

"Thank you!" Steve said, then eyed him warily. "Wait, impressive how?"

Bruce turned his head up to look at Steve and said, "No, no, I mean that in a good way. You were very in control given the situation. I appreciate that."

"Oh," Steve said. "Thank you."

"I never said your driving wasn't impressive," Natasha said. "In fact, I found it very impressive. Frankly, Cap, I never thought you had it in you."

Steve huffed. "I did learn to drive under wartime conditions, you know. It's not like the roads were all perfectly paved—or even intact with all the artillery flying around."

"Not that," she said. "Your language."

"I swear!" Steve said. "I swear all the damn time!"

She gave him a look that said clearly that she was calling him on that lie. "You do swear, but not like that, and I have never heard you so much as raise your voice while driving. I was beginning to think you weren't human."

His eyes narrowed and his jaw clamped shut, but before he could retort, he saw the glint in her eye. His anger leaked out like air from a balloon.

"You're teasing me." He looked around at them all, his shoulders drooping as they relaxed. "All of you are teasing me."

"We are," Tony said. He waited a beat and added, "We're serious about the driving though. I think I lost ten years off of my life and I'm not a young man anyway." That got a murmur of agreement—and a slightly more vocal response from Clint.

"I am never doing that again. Ever."

"Shut up, Clint," Natasha said. Then she turned to Steve. "Thank you for saving our lives."

"Yeah," Tony seconded. "I never want to see you behind the wheel again, but I'm glad you were there today."

"Indeed!" Thor said, clapping Steve on the shoulder. "Many thanks, my friend."

"Thank you again," Bruce said, reaching out to shake his hand. "As bad as it was, it could have been worse and that is because of you.

Clint grunted and Steve turned to see Tony poking him repeatedly in the side.

"Stop it, dammit, or I'll take that finger off!"

"Do it and you're explaining to Pepper what happened to her favorite finger."

Steve rolled his eyes and Natasha, Thor, and Bruce chuckled with varying degrees of embarrassment. Clint just pulled a face.

"File that under things I really never needed to know, oh my god." He wiped a hand over his eyes, then said, with a genuine smile. "Thank you for not getting us dead, Cap. Even if I think they should revoke your license."

Steve gave a wry smile. "You're welcome, Hawkeye, but I think you should tell everyone here who's responsible for giving me that driver's license."

Clint gave an offended squawk and just like that the rest of the team turned on him.

Steve smiled, but it was mostly because of the warmth bubbling up in his chest. It wasn't 1945 anymore and this sure wasn't Brooklyn or even France, but for the first time since waking up he finally felt like he was home.