When Steve arrived at the Winslow's house, he entered to a full room, all of whom turned to him immediately.

"Hey, Steve," Carl said.

"Hey," Steve pouted softly. "I just came back for the baby. I don't think we'll be around for dinner tonight."

"Are you sure?" Harriette questioned. "It's almost ready. It doesn't look like anyone will be making you dinner at home."

"Yeah, what's wrong with Laura?" Carl asked. "Why did she slap you?"

Steve sat next to Estelle, who was holding Quinley. "I don't know!" he exclaimed.

"You don't?" Harriette challenged. "Did you two not talk at all?"

Steve looked down bashfully.

Harriette immediately understood that they did much more than talk, but she was the only one who caught it.

"We talked a little, but she kept saying she wasn't ready to talk, so I didn't get much out of her."

"Steve," Max scolded, "it's not that hard to figure out."

"It's not?" Eddie asked.

"It's not," replied every woman in the room in unison. Men were so dense sometimes.

"Steve, what did you promise Laura the night you got home from space?" Harriette challenged.

"That I'd never go again, which I haven't!" he cried.

Harriette nodded. "You haven't, but why didn't Laura want you to go back?"

"Because it's dangerous," he admitted guiltily.

"And so was what you did today. You should've seen the look on her face as she watched the news," Harriette said. "If you had, you'd never do anything like that again."

Steve looked down at his lap. He couldn't help but picture the look of distress on Laura's face.

"Now, hang on!" Eddie exclaimed. "Yeah, Steve took a risk today, but what he did was brave."

"Brave and stupid," Carl corrected. "There's a reason we didn't barge in before your act of heroism today, Steve. Confronting a crazy man in a hostage situation is dangerous for everyone involved. A lot of people could've gotten hurt today."

"You could've gotten hurt today," Harriette reminded him. "You could've been killed."

"I just wanted Quinley to have something to be proud of," he said softly.

"And Laura just wants Quinley to have a father," Estelle said.

Steve looked back up with anger in his eyes. Of course, he wanted Quinley to have a father too, but he was alive! She did have a father! Why was that something to be so upset about? "Look," he said standing, "I should get back to her. Thanks for the talk, guys," he said as he grabbed Quinley from Estelle and her diaper bag from Harriette. "We'll see you next week."

————————————————————

When Steve got home, he took Quinley out of her car seat and carried her inside. "You're proud of Daddy. Aren't you, Princess?" he cooed as he lifted her high in the air and blew on her tummy.

She giggled loudly in response, and that sound warmed his heart.

"Mama!" he called. "Daddy and Quinley are home!"

"I'll be down in a minute!" she replied.

Steve breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that. At least, they still got to spend time together as a family, even if they weren't working well as a couple today.

He turned as there was a knock at the door. He walked over with Quinley in his arms. He opened the door to a middle-aged woman he almost recognized. "Hello?" Steve said.

"Good evening, Mr. Urkel. My name is Aleida Lopez of the Channel 6 evening news."

"Oh!" he cried, pointing at her excitedly. "Yes, of course! You do all those fluff piece interviews!"

She scowled. "I don't consider them fluff pieces, but I suppose they are a bit more watchable than some of our programming."

Steve blushed as he realized he had insulted her. "Right. My wife and I like them very much," he lied. Whenever she came on, Laura always complained loudly about the state of information in this country before changing the channel.

"I'm glad," she said, putting her reporter smile back in place. "I was wondering if I could come in and talk with you for a moment."

"Sure," he chirped excitedly. This was it. They were going to interview him, and Laura was finally going to see what a hero he was. Maybe they'd even give him a key to the city!

"Thank you," she said as she stepped in. "This is my producer, Robin, and my cameraman, Donny."

"It's nice to meet all of you," Steve smiled as he closed the door behind them. He pointed to the baby in his arms. "This is my daughter, Quinley."

"Oh, she's adorable," Aleida smiled. "Is there somewhere we could sit and chat?"

"Oh! Of course! Pop a squat!" he suggested, pointing them to the seating area in their tiny living room.

Just as they sat, Laura came down the stairs. "Hey," she said softly, still mad at him. Then she saw the news crew. She immediately recognized Aleida Lopez and knew where this was going. "What's going on?" she demanded.

Aleida stood again and extended a hand. "You must be Mrs. Urkel. My name is–"

"Aleida Lopez," Laura interrupted. "From Channel 6. I know who you are."

"Oh, so you're a fan?" she asked excitedly.

"No," Laura answered bluntly. She was having none of this. "What's going on, Steve?" she demanded again.

"Well," Aleida replied, "I was hoping Mr. Urkel might be willing to sit down for an interview with us for our segment tomorrow night."

"Dr. Urkel," Laura corrected, "and he's not interested, so y'all can go."

"I'm not?" he repeated. "Of course, I am! Laura, I'm gonna be on the news!"

"Not for this, Steve," Laura growled.

"But, Laura–"

"No!" she barked.

"Mrs. Urkel," Robin interrupted. "I don't mean to butt in, but your husband is a hero. We'd love to tell his story and your family's story."

Laura turned to glare at her. "You wanna tell my family's story?" she sneered. "My family's story is that my husband, Quinn's father, almost died today. That's our story. Sure, it was a great story to the seventeen people he barely managed to not get killed, but our story is that we almost went from a two-parent household to a single-parent household. That I almost went from a wife to a widow. That Steve almost went from a father to an urn on my mantle! You don't have any right to tell that story," she finished.

"Laura," Steve said, "can I please speak to you privately for a moment?"

Laura gritted her teeth. "Yeah," she replied, following him and the baby upstairs. They paused at the top of the stairs to talk quietly.

Steve took a deep breath. He was devastated. "Laura, I wanna do this interview," he began.

"No," she answered immediately.

"Laura, you have to at least think about it."

"No, I don't. My answer is no. No, you're not doing it."

"Laura, if I wanna do the interview, that's my choice," he stated firmly.

"And if I wanna never have sex with you again, that's my choice."

"Laura," he complained, rolling his eyes.

"I'm not kidding, Steve! I don't want you doing this interview and walking away from it thinking you did some great thing! What you did scared me and hurt me! Why doesn't that matter to you?" she demanded, her eyes filling with tears.

"It does, honey knees. It absolutely does," he promised, placing a hand on her arm as he stepped closer to her. "I never wanted to hurt you. I wanted you to be proud of me, and I want Quinley to be proud of me. That's why I wanna do this interview, so that she can look back on this crazy, stupid, heroic thing I did and be proud."

Laura pursed her lips.

"Sweetums, can't you just give this one to me? Lemme do the interview. Don't you think you kinda owe me one?"

"For what?" she barked.

"For being the sexiest, cutest almost-bully when we were kids?"

Laura looked away guiltily. He almost never pulled that on her and usually dismissed it when she brought it up. This must have been incredibly important to him. "I did marry you and carry and birth your first child, but yeah," she grumbled. "Whatever. You can do the interview."

He smiled brightly and leaned in to kiss her.

She pulled back. "But I'm still mad, and I'm gonna stay mad until we resolve this."

"Ok," he agreed readily. "Thank you, my stubborn sturgeon."

Laura laughed against her will. "Isn't that like a really ugly fish?"

"Yeah," he chuckled. While she was still smiling, he snuck in a kiss. "I love you."

"I love you, too," she admitted, "but I'm still mad."

"Ok," he agreed as he began to lead her back down the stairs. He smiled brightly at the news crew. "Ok! I'm in!"

"Yay!" Aleida smiled. "And you, Mrs. Urkel? We would love to give off a family vibe. We'd love to include you and the baby."

Laura looked nervously at Steve. That wasn't part of the deal.

"Please?" he whined.

Laura looked back at the crew. "Look, I don't think you'd like everything I have to say. Steve and I… are not in agreement about what he did."

"We don't mind that. A little family strife can make for a great piece. I'd love to show how this act of heroism is affecting the whole Urkel clan."

Laura cringed. "I'm not sure I feel comfortable airing our dirty laundry on live TV."

"We'll do a rehearsal today," Robin explained. "If there are any questions you're not comfortable answering, we can ditch them. Then when we get to the actual interview, you'll know what's coming."

Laura looked at Steve. "It's up to you," she said.

"Do the interview with me. Please!"

Laura smiled softly and shrugged. "Ok," she agreed.

"Great!" Roberta replied. She and the cameraman stood and moved to the other side of the room. "Have a seat, please."

Laura and Steve sat as Aleida stood and moved to the chair to begin their practice interview.

"So," Roberta continued, "we'll give a quick summary of everything that happened and then Aleida will begin."

Aleida looked over at the cameraman. "I'm here now with local hero, Dr. Steven Urkel-"

Steve cleared his throat. "Oh, I tend to say Steve Urkel or Steven Q. Urkel. It flows better."

Aleida cocked her head at him, surprised to have been given a note. "Um… Ok." She looked at the camera again. "I'm here now with local hero, Dr. Steven Q. Urkel, his wife, Laura Urkel, and their daughter, Quinley. Good evening."

"Good evening," Steve chirped excitedly. "It's great to be here."

"Well, actually, this is your house, so maybe just welcome us?" Aleida suggest,

"Oh! Ok," Steve agreed. He bowed slightly. "Welcome," he said dramatically.

Aleida cleared her throat. "Ok, well, Steve, what were you doing at the drugstore yesterday?" she asked.

Steve focused again. "I was buying diapers. We were supposed to have dinner at Laura's parents house, which reminds me, Sweetums. I'm ravenous."

"I'm certainly not cooking for you," she snapped. "I'm still mad. You can starve."

"Right," Steve nodded. "So anyway, we went over there for dinner and realized Laura forgot to pack diapers."

"She's your baby, too," Laura reminded him. "You could've checked."

"Mrs. Urkel," Aleida smiled gently.

Laura nodded and let Steve continue.

"Ok, so we forgot to pack diapers," Steve said pointedly. "So I went to buy them."

"And where were you when the shooter entered?"

"Well, when I was in line to pay for my diapers, there was this young mom there who was a little strapped for cash, so I bought her baby supplies and mine. We paused at the door to sort out the items and exchange information. We were just leaving when the gunman entered. A few seconds later, and I would've been putting her in a cab and on my way home."

Laura looked down. A selfish part of her blamed that single mother for slowing him down.

"And what happened as he entered?"

"We were all forced to get down on the ground. I sent a text to Carl. Uhhh… Captain Winslow. He's my father-in-law. The robber went to the register and demanded all the money in it. He heard sirens before he could leave."

Aleida nodded. "That's when it turned into a hostage situation?" she asked.

"Yeah," Steve admitted. "I probably should've just let him get away with the money. There probably wasn't that much cash, but it was wrong, so I tried to stop it," he explained to Laura. "I didn't mean to make things worse."

Laura looked away.

"And then the robber found out that one of you had informed Captain Winslow, correct?"

"Yes," Steve grumbled, "because some idiot put that information on the news! Until then, he thought the clerk had tripped a silent alarm."

"I was that idiot," Robin admitted. "Sorry about that."

Steve glared at her and continued, "So that's when he tried to collect everyone's cell phones. When he got to Keisha-"

"Who is Keisha?" Laura growled.

"Hope's mom," Steve answered.

"Who's Hope?" Aleida asked.

"The baby!" Steve replied.

"Keisha's the single mom you bought the diapers and everything for?" Aleida clarified.

"Yes," Steve replied.

"Oh, so you and Keisha are on a first-name basis, now?" Laura challenged.

"Sweetums," Steve whispered, his eyes begging her to save all of this for later.

Laura took a deep breath and sighed.

"But when he got to Keisha," Steve continued, "she couldn't give him a phone because she didn't have one. He thought that was suspicious, so he assumed she was the rat. He pulled her off the floor, and I pulled the baby against me. She started to beg for her life, so I stood and admitted I had sent the text. I probably would've said that at that point even if I hadn't sent it."

"How chivalrous of you!" Aleida exclaimed.

Steve blushed. "Oh, no… I just… I couldn't imagine how much worse Quinley's life would be without her mother," he said, looking down at the baby lovingly. He looked back up at the reporter. "I couldn't let that happen to anyone else."

Laura grew even more hurt very quickly. "What about her life without her father?" she challenged. "What would that be like?"

He looked back at his wife determinedly. "It would be worse, sure, but it wouldn't be like losing you."

Laura looked away from him angrily. "Hope isn't your child," she reminded him. "While you were off playing superhero, your child was in my arms, and I was forced to imagine what our lives would be like without you."

"Laura," Steve said softly.

"No," she replied. "No, I cannot do this interview with you. You can do it if you want, but I won't be a part of it." She stood and took Quinley from his arms. "It's time for Quinn to eat, anyway. C'mon, baby." Without waiting for a response, she turned and headed for the stairs. Steve watched her go for a moment and contemplated exactly how much trouble he was in. Then he took a deep breath and turned his attention back to Aleida. "What was I saying?"