"I promise," Steve choked out as Kayla held him tight. He was more than content to do the same as long as it took until he heard her crying turn to too shallow-sounding, breathy sobs. Worried she was hyperventilating or at least on the verge, he took a step back and took her by the shoulders.

"Shhh, baby. Just take it easy. Slow, deep breaths, Sweetness. C'mon now," he said as calmly and firmly as he could. Moving his hands to hold her face, stroking her hair back as he looked her in the eye, Steve saw and felt her breathing even out but also that she was a few shades whiter than usual and swaying slightly on her feet.

"Whoa, just hang on, baby. Easy. Easy now. I've got you."

Sitting down with her on the lawn near some trees, not up to finding the closest bench and seeing no one around to notice them anyway, Steve rubbed Kayla's back, reminding her to breathe as she curled up in his lap, leaning against his chest.

"That's it. Just breathe easy, baby. You're alright," he soothed. Once she sounded and felt steadier against him, with a smirk, Steve reached into his suit pocket for a Kit Kat bar, then proceeded to wave it in front of his wife's face.

"What the- "

"Something sweet for my Sweetness."

"W…what made you think to-"

"My eating more than my half of the omelette this morning, baby."

Still snuggled against his chest, Kayla lightly laughed, snatching the chocolate out of his hand.

"My hero," she said softly.

"Hey, less talking and more unwrapping. You gotta get that blood sugar up," Steve said, adjusting his patch.

Nodding, doing as asked, Kayla nibbled at the chocolate but felt her husband's eye on her the entire time. Breaking off a piece, she offered it to him, but he shook his head, adjusting his patch.

"Steve…"

"You okay, baby?"

"The chocolate's helping."

"Kayla…"

When she didn't answer and went watery-eyed again, Steve sighed heavily.

"I never wanted to, but I knew I had to tell you, Sweetness. No secrets," he shrugged as Kayla swallowed hard, setting the candy back in the wrapper.

"Talk about lousy timing though. After everything, dropping it on you like I did. Today was the wrong-"

"Shh, stop, Steve. Please, just stop.." she begged. Taking a breath and a beat and his hand in hers, she looked up at him tearfully.

"There was never going to be a right time. There just comes a time when you don't have a choice. I saw the look in your eye when you told me. You…you didn't have a choice."

"I wish I did, baby," Steve rasped, looking down and away from her. "The look I saw in your eyes. I broke your heart, Sweetness."

Shaking her head, shushing him, Kayla shifted closer and tilted his chin up, needing him to look at her.

"It doesn't matter," she choked out. "Not if I have you here to fix it."

Nodding, Steve pulled her back into his arms.

"You have me. I'm right here with you, baby. I'm not going anywhere."

Nodding, pressing her lips to his shoulder, Kayla clung to him tight.

"You…you said you talked to someone. You can talk to them again though, right? If…if you need to-"

"Got their card in my wallet, Sweetness," Steve assured. Letting out the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding, Kayla nodded, pulling back.

"Are they from the hospital? I just wonder if I know them or if Marlena…"

"ISA issue, baby. Pretty insightful though. Said based on what I said about you, sneaking into your corner of heaven early would get your Irish up enough to get us both kicked out."

When she shook her head and sniffled, didn't even give him an eye roll, Steve reached over and rubbed her shoulder.

"Kayla, I-"

"It's just too soon. It's all still just too-"

When she trailed off, kissing the side of her head, Steve kept rubbing her shoulder as she let out a slow breath, squeezing his hand.

"I'm so sorry, baby," he murmured against her hair.

"I just don't know what I would've done if I got back and found out that you'd…"

Squeezing her eyes shut against tears, she shook her head, trying to shake off the thought.

"You don't have to think about it, Sweetness."

"I thought about what I'd do if you'd left Salem. Or if you were in a cell."

"Apple pie with a file in it?" Steve asked with a smirk as Kayla nodded, managing a soft smile.

"Mm-hmm. If you'd moved, I'd bring one as a housewarming gift," she said, getting a chuckle out of Steve as she reached for the chocolate. "Except the file would be a lock pick in case you didn't answer the door, and I had to break in."

"You know the last time you were standing at our door determined to see me, you didn't knock or need one of those little kits to get inside."

"Because I had a house key?" Kayla asked quizzically.

"No, baby. Our last anniversary when I was-"

"Going through our wedding album?" she asked, getting a nod.

"I was crashed out on the couch after a few beers, but something made this eye crack open, and sure enough, when I looked over..."

"Steve..."

"You were standing right there at our door, wearing white. You looked so beautiful, Sweetness."

"Even with the puffy cap sleeves?" Kayla asked with a laugh as Steve shook his head.

"Different dress, baby. The one you wore at our first Valentine's wedding, it looked more like that. And when you kissed me wearing it, felt like that one, too," he said suggestively as Kayla rolled her eyes.

"Leave it to you to dream on our anniversary about our wedding night," she said before smirking. "Leave it to me, too."

"I wasn't dreaming, Sweetness."

"What do you mean? You just said-"

"I said I saw you, baby. At first I thought it was some boozy fantasy but then you got a little resentful of that, told me you were real, and kissed me," Steve said with a smirk.

"And it felt pretty real, baby."

"Okay, time to get your blood sugar up," Kayla frowned, handing him the Kit Kat.

"I'm not making this up, Kayla."

"I'm not saying that you are! I...look, just humor me, alright?"

Taking the chocolate, Steve rolled his eye.

"I think you're the one who's humoring me, baby," he scoffed. "But trust me, on our anniversary I stood there holding you in our living room. You were talking to me about the Good Place and my sister, how you needed my help."

"The Good Place?"

"Yeah. According to you, though, it wasn't so good, baby," Steve shrugged. Finishing up the chocolate and getting to his feet, he pocketed the wrapper, then took out his harp before sitting down and sprawling back against a nearby tree. When he started riffing on the harmonica, Kayla shook her head, getting to her feet and approaching him.

"So, what? You're just gonna leave me on a cliffhanger?"

"You saw me finish off that candy, baby. My blood sugar's up now. I'm really starting to think now it was all just a crazy story I was making up."

"Well, tough. You got me hooked," Kayla said stubbornly, sitting next to him as he went on to discuss Nick Fallon being the devil's errand boy.

"So you're telling me that I showed up at our condo, told you I may have accidentally signed away my soul, and that I needed you to somehow rescue me from the devil who was disguised as Nick Fallon."

"No, Nick Fallon was disguised as Adrienne, Sweetness. And he was only the devil's right-hand dude," Steve corrected. "But yeah, that was the gist of it."

"You know that sounds absolutely insane."

"Kayla," Steve sighed. "You still have a headstone on a little patch of lawn over there even though you're sitting right here shooting the breeze with your Patchman. If that's not just as-"

"Okay, point taken. Point taken," Kayla muttered, shaking her now spinning head as Steve nodded for her to move closer. Obliging, she curled up on his shoulder as he slipped his arm around her, then started playing the harmonica again to soothe their frayed nerves. It was enough to make Kayla want to shut her eyes, but before she had the chance, Steve stopped, putting the harp back into his pocket.

"Why'd you stop?" she asked curiously.

"You looked like you were ready for a nap, baby. "

"Well, that hasn't stopped you before," Kayla said. "I remember when we were in quarantine, you played. Whenever I felt like I was slipping further away, I'd hear it or hear your voice. And it brought me back," she said softly as he held her tighter.

"Had to return the favor somehow, Sweetness. After all the times you talked me back from the brink."

"Except for the time I didn't," Kayla said bitterly, shaking her head.

"You know how many times I thought if I'd just stayed in the room that day and just kept talking to you. If I hadn't listened to the doctors or Marcus or Jack or Bo and let them kick me out, keep me standing in the hall. If I'd acted like a nurse. Not just your wife."

"Kayla-"

"When you were in the coma, I sat with you and held your hand and talked to you, and you came back to me. I know if I could've fought my way past everyone, if I'd just gotten in there to talk to you, maybe it would've-"

"Shh, hey. We're talking now, baby," Steve reminded as she nodded and wiped at her eyes.

"And you feeling bad about not being able to get past everyone to talk to me. I think you made up for it getting past the pearly gates the way you did."

"Steve, we don't know that's what that was. I don't think we'll ever know what that all was."

"It was you telling me you were still out there, Sweetness, and that there was still something I could do to help you. I didn't care if it was the night before I was supposed to say goodbye to you. I knew I still had some work to do; either get the son of a bitch that took you, or get you the hell away from them. And you did the work for the both of us, baby," he said as Kayla shrugged.

"I tried to. I...I think I owed us that," she scoffed.

"Owed us?" Steve repeated.

"C'mon, Steve. All the times you saved me, waited for me. Fought back against your own brain to know me and love me."

"Baby, if you've been trying to keep score all these years-"

"It's pretty difficult not to!"

"Well, for not being difficult you've done a pretty lousy job, baby. You wanna talk about who's owed who for what? If you hadn't found and saved and fought for me, I'd be in this cemetery, Kayla, but not-"

Regretting his words as soon as he heard them, Steve apologized, bracing himself for her to shift away only to have her in onto him tighter. Not sure which hurt worse to see from her, he opted to hold onto her just as tight.

"Sweetness. I owe you everything, don't you know that? Our whole life, everything, baby. You got us our start."

"And you kept us going," Kayla insisted, pulling back to look at him.

"Kayla, sixteen years leaving you lonely , then tacking on however many more. That's not keeping things going so much as stalling them out. And that did a number on you, baby. I know it did. I know I did," Steve said guiltily.

"But you did everything in your power to fix it, Steve. To make up for lost time, make things up to me. Yes, with you comes chaos. But I was so caught up in trying to avoid it all, I avoided you. You're the one who kept fighting. I'm the one who was content to give up."

"But you didn't, Sweetness. Compared to that phone call I made which is the dictionary definition of giving-"

"Stop," Kayla cut in. "I… it's not the same. It's…"

Trailing off, she bit her lip before speaking again.

"You have the number if you need to talk with your…right?"

"I do, baby," Steve reassured, squeezing her hand before kissing it.

"Listen to me though, alright? You listening?" he asked as she nodded.

"Mm hmm."

"After everything we dredged up here, we're still sitting here together, baby. We're still holding each other. And it doesn't feel like either of us gave up, or like we're going to," he said as she nodded in agreement, then leaned in to kiss him.

"Not now. Not ever."

Kissing her back, until remembering where they were, reluctantly Steve pulled back, giving his wife a soft smile.

"So you ready to go home, baby? I don't know about you but I think I left everything here I wanted to-"

"Just, wait. One more thing, please?"

"Sweetness, put the sad puppy dog face away and just tell me," Steve said as she nodded.

"I know I keep asking if you… talked to someone."

"And I'll tell you I did as many times as you need to hear it, baby," he assured.

"If you don't want to answer me you don't have to. I just…I know you said it was through the ISA and that your guy tipped Kimberly off. I was just wondering-"

"Your sister referred me to someone, Sweetness," Steve answered. "She said if I felt like she was the only one I was good with talking with she'd make it work, but we agreed going outside the family was a good idea," he said as Kayla nodded.

"I can give you the guy's name, baby. Anything you want to know about him."

"No, it's alright. I…I mean I'm curious, but-"

"Wanna see if you know him? If he meets Marlena standards?"

"As long as he meets Steven Earl Johnson's standards, that's all I need to know."

"He does. And he'd meet yours too, Sweetness. I know if you wanted to sit down with him he'd be more than happy-"

"Sit down with him to what? See if he's qualified to work with you?"

"More like qualified to work with you, baby," Steve said, taking both her hands in his.

"Steve-"

"I'm not trying to push you into anything, Sweetness. I just think after everything the past year, it wouldn't hurt for you to think about...maybe..."

"I know, Steve-" Kayla cut in, looking down at their twined hands as she bit her lip. Trying to figure out the best way to tell her husband she'd done more than think about it and that, for weeks now, she hadn't let him in on her thinking at all.