Once upon another time
Decided nothing good in dying
So I would just keep on driving
Because I was free
"I love you."
"I love you."
"I love you."
She was holding him tighter than usual, and with his arm wrapped snugly around her shoulders, Steve could feel just how much tension Kayla was still carrying in her's. It made him wish they were on a Salem-bound private jet with a queen-sized bed where he could make that tension melt away. Remind his wife how much he loved her while brushing up on his patented massage skills. Show her with every touch how damn much he'd missed her all these months.
Instead, Steve had to settle for them being locked a world away from normal inside of a dingy goat-scented wine cellar, a hopefully temporary location he knew he'd have to find a way to make the best of, for both their sakes.
"Sweetness..." he singsonged as Kayla let out a soft hum, shifting slightly on his lap.
"You getting sleepy on me, baby?"
"Nope," she lied, fighting back a yawn as she sat up enough to look Steve in the eye.
"Even if I was, I don't want to stop looking at you."
"I'm not going anywhere, Sweetness," he assured, but the way Kayla was clutching onto him, looking afraid to even blink for fear he'd disappear, tore Steve's heart in half and kicked his rage into high gear.
He let out a slow breath, though, fought the urge to tunnel out of the cellar with the soup spoon and use it to beat the brainwash out of Bo's thick skull.
He focused on his wife, who was clearly exhausted but too wired to give in to it and determined to act strong for his sake, which only doubled Steve's determination to make her feel safe and help her to settle down. Anything it would take to get her to start opening up about what she'd endured so she could start to heal from it, and by extension, so could he.
Realizing that plan would involve some relocating on his part and him going back on his most recent words to her, Steve shifted in the chair and, reluctantly, shifted Kayla off his lap.
"So much for not going anywhere," she scoffed. Getting to her feet, she folded her arms, eying Steve curiously as he crossed the room to the wine cabinet.
"Steve..."
"Sweetness..." he smirked, reaching for a bottle of red.
"We discussed this. You have a head injury. Aspirin and water-"
"Are what you prescribed the Patchman. And I heard you, baby. Loud and clear," he said. Using his knife to uncork the wine, he handed Kayla the bottle.
"I just wanted to pick up this prescription for my wife."
"So she can drink alone?" she scoffed, setting the bottle on the table.
"Well, if Dr. Sweetness is off duty, maybe Kayla Johnson will let her husband have a swig or two."
"Steve..."
"It's heart-healthy, baby!"
"Well, so's this, last I checked," Kayla grinned. Walking up, she took hold of Steve's face and pulled him into a slow, sweet kiss. When he made it more passionate, it prompted her to pivot and guide them back toward the wine cabinet. With her back pressed into it, and her husband pressed against her, she kept the kiss going until oxygen became a necessity.
"Sweetness," Steve panted as Kayla smiled up at him, curling her fingers into his beard.
"You trying to give me the healthiest heart out there?"
"Maybe."
Her smile going softer, Kayla traced her thumb beneath the gash on Steve's temple.
"That's a pretty lofty ambition, too, baby. Were you and Beauregard comparing notes or-"
Regretting his words as soon as he heard them, and ready to kick his own ass seeing her eyes cloud over, shaking his aching head, Steve adjusted his patch as he stepped back, and Kayla stepped around him towards the table.
"Kayla-"
"I'm fine, Steve," she sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I mean, Bo's the reason we're here, right? We were just talking about him in here. We'll have to keep talking about him until he's deprogrammed or decides it's alright to act like a Brady again or-"
"Baby..."
Taking a gentle grip on her shoulders, Steve brushed his lips on top of Kayla's head as she reached for the bottle of wine.
"You know, he suggested we open a bottle of white."
"Before stashing us in this goat-scented gulag, Sweetness," he said as Kayla stifled a laugh and turned back towards him.
"You know I love your brother like a brother," Steve said. "But if you think I'm taking his wine recommendations or anything else he's saying to heart right now-"
"I know, I know," Kayla sighed. "It's just so hard seeing him here alive and well, knowing he's not even Bo right now."
"I know he's not, baby. But you know, even a broken, brainwashed clock's right twice a day, right?"
Nodding, Kayla lifted the wine bottle in a makeshift toast.
"To his doing right by us," she said, taking a swig from the bottle before handing it to Steve.
"You saying you're alright sharing your prescription?" he teased.
"I'm saying one sip. Alright?"
Nodding, but making sure the sip he was taking counted, Steve danced away from and dodged Kayla when she moved to grab the bottle away from him.
"Will you stop?! I said one!"
"Didn't say how long it had to be, baby!" Steve crowed.
When he handed the bottle back, with about a third of it gone, rolling her eyes, Kayla polished off the next third, getting Steve laughing in disbelief.
"You know, you keep this up and I'll have to break open another bottle."
"Well, what's stopping you, big boy?" Kayla asked as Steve stopped short.
Flashing on the last time he'd heard that term of endearment, he went stone-cold sober realizing his wife was teetering towards the opposite of that and still had God knows what in her system after her stint in that maniac's lab.
"You calling me big boy, Sweetness," he said roughly, reaching to take the wine from her. "C'mon now, I'm sorry I grabbed it in the first place."
"Well, I'm not," Kayla grinned, still holding the bottle.
"Baby, til we figure out whatever the hell went down with that witch Megan and her crazy bastard sidekick on that island and we get a doctor to check you out-"
"Last I heard, Dr. Sweetness is on call."
"Kayla-"
"Oh c'mon. This isn't a bottle of Ouzo, Steve," she scoffed. "Just pretend we're at home on the couch with some Merlot, watching the Bears lose."
"Baby, please. Just give me the bottle-"
"I'm sorry, I'll pretend. Since I'm not the one with the head lac and possible concussion and-"
"You're the one we just pried out of a fucking cryogenic coffin, Kayla!" Steve snapped.
When her eyes widened, guilt and tears flooding his own, Steve tentatively stepped closer, only for Kayla to look down and away from him.
"Baby..."
Setting the bottle back on the table, realizing her hand was shaking as much as her husband's voice, Kayla wrapped her arms around herself protectively, then picked a place on the cellar floor to stare at.
"Sweetness, I'm so-"
Shaking her head, swallowing hard, she kept avoiding Steve's eye, even after he stepped closer and gently stroked her hair.
"Baby..."
"I pried myself out, Steve," Kayla said after a beat, putting as much strength into her voice as she could as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
"Kayla-"
"I pried myself out. I picked locks. I escaped Rolf. I handled Bo. I left my necklace. I got in that boat. I called Stephanie, I...I-"
Hearing her voice crack and her breath hitch, after thumbing one tear off her cheek, then another, Steve gently tilted her chin, needing her to see and hear him as badly as he needed to see her.
"You did. You called Stephanie, and our Little Sweetness called me, and that got me to Greece, Kayla. That got me here to find your necklace on that beach, and find Bo because you busted out of that lab with him. The only reason that I'm here is because of the strongest person I know, baby."
When Kayla whimpered and shook her head, her gaze going to the floor again, choking back a sob, Steve kept his hand on her face.
"Kayla. I need you to talk to me now, baby. C'mon, now. I've gotta hear your voice."
"S…so I can tell you that you're wrong?"
"About what, baby? You not being strong?" Steve laughed mirthlessly. "Sweetness, if this old-one eyed dude can see it, why can't…."
Trailing off, Steve let out a slow breath and gently lifted her chin again.
"Kayla, everything you did, everything you just told me that you did-"
"After everything I did, I'm still scared, Steve!"
"Sweetness…"
"I'm still so damn scared," she choked out, going into his arms right as he moved to hold her.
"I thought once I got through all of it, I thought once I got to you…."
"Shhh, baby..," Steve soothed, pressing kisses into her hair and rubbing her back as she looped her arms around his neck.
"You did get to me, Sweetness. You've got me," he assured. "You've got me right here with you, and we're both gonna get through all of it."