The first thing Steve did when he was through with his little chat with Fury was head to the S.H.I.E.L.D. mess hall to rustle up some grub for himself and the sleeping Lucy. Military food was only fractionally better than prison food, but at least S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ was better staffed and stocked for meals than some of the military camps Steve had been attached to in the past. He'd garnered a little attention in the mess hall, mostly in the way of furtive glances and whispered remarks, but no one seemed daring enough to approach or challenge him, and it wasn't long before he was making his way back toward the quarters he was temporarily sharing with Lucy until morning.

The meal of the evening was something called a Sloppy Joe, which consisted of ground beef and onions in a tomato sauce served on a hamburger bun, along with French fried potatoes, and boiled green beans. There was also hot coffee and an unidentifiable dessert Steve thought might be brownies. All of this was balanced on a tray that Steve set on the small table inside his room, the scent of cooked food quickly filling the room. He hadn't been gone more than an hour and a half, and it appeared that while he was gone, Lucy hadn't budged. Steve frowned at her as he set the tray down, unsure if he should wake her or go ahead and eat dinner without her.

There are some things that even the weariest person can't deny, however, and one of those is the smell of hot food. As Steve set the tray down, Lucy stirred in her coccoon of blankets and sheets, curling tighter as she sniffed the air. A moment later, her arm emerged, sweeping the constriction of the blankets away to her waist as she rolled onto her back, stretching with feline grace in one long, slow undulation before her dark eyes blinked slowly open. She'd been asleep just over an hour and a half, and felt fresh as a daisy, especially when her eyes fell on Steve. Her lips curved in a warm smile. "You survived, then."

He smiled in return, saved from making the choice between whether or not to wake her, and relieved to see she seemed in good spirits. And why shouldn't she" She seemed rested and he'd returned bearing gifts. He left the tray where it was and made his way to the bed, where he took a seat at her side, reaching over to brush her sleep-mussed hair away from her face. "Miss me?" he asked as he leaned close to kiss her cheek.

"Mmmm, heartbroken without you," was her lazily murmured answer as one arm rose to loop about his neck, drawing him down into a slightly less than chaste kiss, given how very unclothed she still was. It didn't last too long, however, after her stomach growled, necessitating a break from his lips before she laughed into his mouth. "I smell food."

He returned the kiss, which at least momentarily reignited the heat of desire, but he resisted for the moment. There would be time for that after she ate and he shared what he'd learned from his little chat with Nick Fury. "It's not exactly the Ritz, but it's better than some of the stuff that passes for food." He moved to his feet, knowing that if he lingered on the bed too long, the food would more than likely go to waste. "Better get it while it's still hot."

"You're always hot," was her teasing response, but like him, she was more concerned with food right now. As he moved away, she pushed herself to sit up, leaning over the side of the bed to grab his discarded t-shirt and boxers from the floor. A little wriggling under the sheets later, and she crawled out, smoothing her hair back from her face, to stand upright, swamped by his clothing but decent enough not to be too distracting. Her eyes focused on the tray. "What on earth is that?" she asked in amusement. He smiled over at her as he waited by the table for her to join him, thinking she looked adorable in his t-shirt and shorts, as baggy as they were. He pulled out a chair for her, like a proper gentleman, eyeing the sandwiches and other fare with amusement. "What's the matter, Doctor" Has no one ever introduced you to a Sloppy Joe yet?"

"A what?" Lucy laughed as she moved to join him, folding herself down onto the chair with one knee drawn high against her chest comfortably. "That sounds decidedly rude, Captain. I hope you're referring to the food, though, and not some randomly kinky sex game you'd like to try." If he'd hoped she was going to stop being quite as blunt, it was a vain hope. Blunt was something Lucy was quite at home with.

He laughed at her reply, leaning over to brush a second kiss against the opposite cheek before moving to the chair across from her. Though he had yet to sleep, he seemed in good spirits - a far better mood than the one he'd been in before he'd left to talk to Fury. "It's a sandwich. I think it was invented in Iowa or somewhere. I haven't had one in..." In years, he thought to himself. "Not in a long time." He wrapped his hands around the sandwich, smiling playfully over at her. "The real trick is eating it without the filling ending up in your lap."

His renewed high spirits - higher than she'd seen yet, to be honest - were refreshing to her still tired body and mind, revitalising her as she watched him settle into a seat opposite. "Should I wear a bib, do you think?" she asked, her lips parting in an enchanted grin at the sight of his playful smile. It really suited him, she decided. He didn't smile enough. Reaching out, she made a creditable attempt at wrapping her own, much smaller hands around her own sandwich, already dropping filling back onto the plate as she lifted it. "Oh lordy ....I should eat this in the shower so you can hose me down when I'm done."

"You get one drop of tomato sauce on that shirt, and you're in big trouble, missy," he teased with a tiny smirk on his face and a playful twinkle in his eyes. What the hell had Fury told him that had put him in such a good mood" Not all of it had been good news, but just having some answers seemed to have relieved the tension. "We can do that later," he teased further, the smirk widening a little, as he picked up his own sandwich, leaning over the plate and taking a bite. As soon as his much bigger hands squeezed the roll, a dollop of meat mixture hit the plate with a plop, and he couldn't help but chuckle.

She paused as her foot tucked back beneath her chair, knowing what she had distracted him from asking her. And the truth was that, yes, she was curious, but at the same time, she wasn't sure she wanted to know what he'd learned from the Director. She lowered the last part of her sandwich, reaching for the cup of coffee he'd set out for her. "Yes, I am going to ask," she said after taking a slow sip, lifting her eyes to his once again. "How did it go with One-Eye Snooty?"

"Name calling doesn't really become you, Lucy," he admonished mildly. He had a feeling Lucy and Fury were never going to be close friends, but that didn't mean they couldn't at least show each other a little respect. She might be Tony Stark's sister, but that didn't mean she had to emulate him. "It actually went pretty well. He asked me to remind you that feeding him his eye patch could be hazardous to your health." He couldn't help but smirk just a little as he told her that, picking his sandwich back up with the intentions of finishing it off.

Something flared in her gaze for a moment when he scolded her, however lightly, rebelling against being told off in whatever form it came. But that was just a part of her fierce nature, and for his sake, she knew she'd try to keep her petty moments to a minimum. "All right, all right," she murmured, lowering her eyes to her food as he went on. The warning passed on through Steve actually made her laugh, one hand hurriedly going to her mouth to keep him from seeing the mouthful she was trying to chew at the same time. "Oh my God, the man has a sense of humor!"

He smiled at her realization, only having just realized the same thing a short while ago. "Apparently, he's as human as the rest of us. He also told me the sooner we're married the better and made sure I understood he was talking about you and not Agent Croft." He finished off his sandwich and took up a French fry, using it as a utensil to scoop up some of the sauce that had dripped from the roll.

She blinked, somewhat thrown by that last comment. "Why would he think you thought he was talking about Croft?" she asked in no little confusion, licking her fingers clean before she, too, turned to the rest of the contents of her plate, chasing sauce around with fries rather than go for her fork. "Did he say anything about being able to call Liv?"

"Even better," he replied, hoping to give her the good news before he gave her the bad news. "Croft is escorting us to the portal so we can go fetch your sister and her boyfriend for the wedding, but before we go, we have to decide on the details." Church, guests, if any, and whatever else went into arranging for a wedding. He realized suddenly that he hadn't given it all that much thought and didn't even have a ring.

The smile that rose on Lucy's face was Liv's smile, the softer, little girl smile that only ever rose when she was promised the company of or in the presence of her twin sister. "We can go and get her ourselves?" she repeated, genuinely pleased with this prospect. "No big men in dark suits going to scare the hell out of her first, just us?" It was difficult to fake pure pleasure, and Lucy was positively glowing with delight at the thought of being able not only to tell her sister everything in person, but of being able to introduce Johnny to Steve and watch him go fanboy. "What sort of details does he want?" she added curiously. "I mean, I assume this isn't going to be a big deal. All we need is a venue, a priest, a pair of rings, and somewhere to have the wedding night." The more personal details, such as clothing, she thought she could handle on Rhy'Din.

He mirrored her smile, pleased by her reaction to at least this bit of news before he got to the more serious stuff. "Yeah, we can leave as soon as we're rested and ready to go." It seemed Director Fury was not as much of a tyrant as he at first seemed. "He wants us to stay the night, make sure we're rested and recuperated before we head out. Your things are being sent to my apartment in Brooklyn. Croft is going to be our chaffeur." Since Steve had left his bike back at his apartment, and he wasn't planning on taking it through the portal this time around.

He shrugged his shoulders as she continued. "It can be as big a deal as you want, Luce." He didn't really care either way. He had no family and he just wanted to be married, but he also didn't want to cheat her of a big white wedding, if that's what she wanted. It was ironic how now that it came down to it, the question of a wedding wasn't as simple as it had at first seemed. He idly ran a french fry around his plate, chasing a bit of elusive meat mixture. "I just want us to be together, that's all."

"I don't need a big white wedding," she told him, hard on the heels of his assurance. "But I'd like to do it properly." She hesitated for a moment before going on. "You know, you can get almost anything made in Rhy'Din at short notice. I think all we really need to ask S.H.I.E.L.D. for is the church, the priest, and a hotel for Liv and Johnny. Everything else, we can do for ourselves." She paused, reaching across the table to curl her fingers around his wrist. "But only if you want that, too, love," Lucy said firmly. "It's your wedding, too."

"Fury suggested using S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ for the wedding, but I think we should get married in a church. Is that too old fashioned?" he asked, though from what she said, she seemed in agreement. He lifted his hand as her fingers reached for his to twine them with hers, repeating what he'd said only a moment before. "I just want us to be together, Lucy. I know marriage is probably an old-fashioned notion, but I want to do things right. I want to make you my wife."

She smiled gently, squeezing her fingers between his. For an old-fashioned fellow, he didn't seem to mind the fact that his fiancee was wearing his underwear and little else, and was pretty set on spending every night in his bed with him before the wedding and after it. "It's only old-fashioned to the people who don't have something special to share," she said softly. "And you're right, we should get married in a church. If Fury wants us in a S.H.I.E.L.D. installation, then he can build one and have it consecrated."

His thoughts drifted for a moment to his own family. He hadn't become an orphan til he was a teenager, but his father had died when he was still a boy, and his own childhood had been less than happy. Still, he'd had his mother and without a father or any other siblings, they'd formed a tight bond. He couldn't have imagined growing up without her, but at least the twins had had each other. It was better than being alone. "Yes," he replied simply, wasting no more time, telling her everything Fury had told her about her mother and father as gently as he could, leaving nothing out. He studied her face as he unravelled what he knew of the mystery of the twins' past, pausing when he thought she needed a moment, holding her hand so that she knew she wasn't alone and would never be alone again, so long as he was living and breathing.

She listened in near silence, letting him pick apart the weave of the story that had brought her to the beginnings she remembered until it was laid out in front of her. Part of her was furious, predictably enough, flaming mad with a man who had been so concerned with just one of his children that he had left two newborn babies to the mercy of a grandmother who really hadn't wanted anything to do with them. But mostly she was saddened, aching for the mother who had died through no one's fault, and the influence of her grandmother's generation that had made herself and her sister something to be ashamed of, rather than loved. Her fingers wrapped tightly into Steve's as he came to a close, hands unwinding from their grasp on her own legs to hold onto him like an anchor in a storm. And when he was done, she sighed, shaking her head a little, utterly failing to hide the sheen in her eyes. "Tony must be something special," she said eventually, though her tone was just a little bitter. "One in a million."

He saw the tears in her eyes, but he'd come too far to stop now. The story needed to be told, and she needed to know the truth - or at least, as much of the truth as he'd been told. He hadn't mentioned anything Fury had told him about Peggy, that she'd been told he had been found alive. None of that was relevant right now. What was important was that Lucy knew what had happened to her mother. "Your father was making plans to bring you and your sister to America when his plane crashed." He wasn't sure which would hurt more - a woman who was so ashamed of her own daughter that she had rejected her own grandchildren, or a man who had dallied with a woman half his age and died before being able to provide for them. Both of them had been at fault, but the real tragedy was that of Elizabeth and the twins. "This isn't about Tony, Luce. Tony didn't know. He was just a kid at the time." He wasn't trying to take sides, but he wanted her to see that none of this was Tony's fault.

"No, I know." And to her credit, she accepted that. She felt stretched under the weight of her family history, even knowing that this was only a fraction of it, but even she couldn't blame Tony Stark for his father's weaknesses. Drawing Steve's hand to her lips, she kissed his knuckles slowly, reminding herself in the most basic way that he was there with her. He wasn't going anywhere. Her eyes lifted to his. "Thank you for telling me, Steve. I know it can't have been easy." She swallowed lightly, dropping her gaze to their entwined fingers as the sadness that had borne her and her sister sank into her slowly.

"You have a right to know and so does your sister," he explained, knowing that as hard as it was for them both, he'd done the right thing. Maybe now, she could put the past behind her and move on, knowing that it hadn't been her mother's fault and that her father had been trying to do the right thing before his own life had been cut short. It probably wouldn't make up for the pain of her past, but at least, it would explain it. "My dad died when I was a kid," he continued, shaking the thought from his head. Though his own story didn't really compare to hers, he wanted her to know that he understood a little of the pain she was feeling. "I'm sorry, Lucy. I'm sorry life has been so hard for you and your sister. I'm sorry for what you've been through, but all of that's over now. You have Olivia and you have me, and we both love you. You're not alone."

Slowly, this sank in, too, urging her out of the contemplation of her mother's predicament and the grandmother who hadn't wanted any of them. She lifted her head, smiling a little at his constant reassurance. "I'm glad," she told him softly, uncurling one hand to stroke his cheek, wondering vaguely when he had moved so close. She hadn't noticed, too caught up in the sorrowful litany. "Thank you for asking him. And I should thank him for telling you sometime, too. Even if he is a pain in the arse." There was a flicker of her usual humor in her eyes as she said this, a determination to set what she had been told behind her. It didn't, ultimately, reflect on who she was and where she was going, after all. "I can't promise I'm going to play happy families with Tony," she confessed quietly. "I don't know if I can separate him from his - our - father. But I'll try."

"He doesn't know, you know. You're going to be just as much a shock to him as he was to you." He wasn't trying to play devil's advocate exactly, but he wanted her to see it from Tony's point of view, as well as her own. Maybe if she could do that, they could make peace with each other someday. "From what I've been told, Howard wasn't exactly the most attentive father. I don't think Tony's childhood was much happier than yours. At least, you had Olivia. When his parents died, he had no one." Steve could certainly relate to that, being an only child himself. He'd taken his mother's death hard, but life had gone on. "Tony's not the easiest person to get along with, but down deep, he's a decent guy."