Chapter Text
Steve was sitting in Helen’s office, she insisted on meeting in her office instead of the exam room in the med bay. Though she tried to encourage Steve to bring his husband and let him know that he’d been getting some tests done, Steve showed up alone. He had a feeling that he knew what the conversation was going to be like. He suspected the moment Helen had ordered additional tests and an MRI scan.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.” Helen walked in and closed the door. Closing the door, not a good sign.
“No trouble. I’ve got nothing planned.” Steve tried to brush it off.
“How’s Tony?” Helen asked.
“Just tell me.” Steve put his head down. Helen opened his file on her computer and turned the screen to Steve.
“What did you find?” Steve asked.
“After some research and some testing, it looks like along with the vita radiation you got when you got the serum, there was some gamma radiation that was involved. It looks like a bit of gamma radiation did give you a form of cancer.” Helen explained.
“So I’ve had it this long?” Steve asked.
“It looks like the serum has been fighting it off, but it’s now progressed. You’re now in stage four of cancer.” Helen frowned.
“So the serum will keep fighting it, right?” Steve asked. He looked at Helen and her sympathetic look told him that he was wrong.
“The serum has been fighting it. But this is why you’ve had a cough for the last month. The serum is becoming weaker. Your immune system is returning to a normal human. We need to discuss treatment plans.” Helen explained.
“So I’m losing the serum?” Steve asked.
“I don’t know. You’re the only super soldier from that batch of the serum. We had no way of knowing what the outcome would be or how long the serum would last. But it seems like the serum’s been fighting cancer for years. It’s starting in your lungs now.” Helen tried to explain as gently as she could.
“What’s my chances?” Steve put his head down.
“We should really discuss this more before we get into…”
“What are my chances?” Steve repeated.
“With treatment, a year, maybe two.” Helen frowned.
“And without treatment?” Steve asked.
“Six months to a year.” Helen sighed.
“Six months.” Steve repeated.
“This isn’t over Steve, we can fight this. The treatment might be what we need for the serum to pick up again. Help you fight this.” Helen tried to explain.
“No…I just…I need to think about this. I have Peter and Tony to think about.” Steve looked away, worried that he’d burst into tears if he looked at her.
“No decisions need to be made today. You should really talk to Tony about this. Look at your options. You’re both more than welcome to come and discuss the options.” Helen gave him a sad smile.
“Yeah, thanks.” Steve got up and left the office. He went walking through the halls, hearing some people saying hi or waving at him, but their voices sounded a million miles away. Like everything felt hazy. Time was moving slow while he processed the information he was just given. He saw a hand waving in front of him when he looked to his side to see that he’d stopped walking.
“You okay?” Natasha asked.
“Uh, fine…just…just tired.” Steve brushed it off.
“Well, I’ve been looking for you. Tony’s caught up in his lab again. He asked me to ask you if you’re able to get Peter from school today.” Natasha explained.
“Uh, yeah…yeah I’ll get him.” Steve nodded.
“You’re sure you’re okay?” Natasha asked.
“Fine. Really, I should go get Peter. Traffic and all.” Steve forced a smile and went off. He pulled out his keys, keeping his head down focusing on the keys in his hand when he bumped into someone.
“Woah, sorry.” Steve caught them and saw it was Sam.
“All good, you okay?” Sam smiled.
“Yeah, fine. Just going to get Peter. I’ll catch up with you later.” Steve forced another smile. He went off, looking at where he was going this time. He got in the car and took the moment of silence to just sit a minute before he started the car and started driving. Everything was on autopilot. He’d driven to Peter’s school so many times he could do it with his eyes closed.
He parked and waited. Getting lost in thought. What would Tony do? How’s he going to react to the news? Even if he does go for treatment that only gives him maybe another year. What’s he supposed to do in that year? He’s going to miss Peter graduating from school. He’ll miss his wedding if he ever gets married. Seeing Peter have kids and make him a grandfather. He’d miss it all.
Steve shook his head, blinking away the tears before anyone could see. He had to stop thinking about it before the news consumed him. He looked away, blinking the tears away again when Peter hopped in the car, tossing his bag in the back seat before buckling up. Steve asked him about his day and listened to Peter ramble on about the day's events. Hearing Peter talk so much and so fast on the ride home was always a challenge if you weren’t prepared for it, but today Steve welcomed his son’s stories to distract him.
“So you failed the lab today?” Steve asked.
“I mean, I would look at it as an absolute win. We did do the lab but it was just a bigger reaction than we predicted.” Peter grinned.
“But you exploded something.” Steve looked at him.
“Which was the goal, just not on that big of a scale and no one got hurt.” Peter pointed out.
“Oh okay. You can tell your dad about it and see if he agrees.” Steve laughed.
“Is dad in the lab again?” Peter asked.
“Yup, you can go see him if you’d like. I was going to the training room.” Steve pulled into the compound.
“Oh, I wanna train.” Peter bounced.
“Shouldn’t you be doing homework or something?” Steve asked.
“C’mon papa. Please?” Peter whined.
“Alright, c’mon.” Steve parked the car. He went with Peter to the training room where they started working on more of the fighting techniques that Natasha had been showing them. Since Peter was still a teenager, Natasha was teaching him a lot of the flips and stuff that she uses in a fight. Steve kept busy spending some time with Peter as they started sparring and Peter wound up on the ceiling more than once.
“You know it’s not fair, because I can’t reach that far up.” Steve looked up to the ceiling that was even out of reach for his jump.
“Exactly.” Peter shot a web and lowered himself back to the ground.
“C’mon, we gotta get some dinner going and remind your dad that food is a necessity.” Steve pulled Peter into a side hug.
Steve sent Peter off to shower while he went to his and Tony’s room to get some clothes and shower in their ensuite. He leaned on the counter and looked in the mirror as he let out a cough, trying to catch his breath from the training session. He showered up and got Peter to keep him busy while he cooked up some spaghetti for them.
“Dish out and start eating. I’m going to drag your dad from his lab.” Steve pointed.
“Okay.” Peter grabbed a plate and dished out some food while Steve went to the elevator and went down to the lab floor. Everyone else had to have gone home, he could tell when he stepped off the elevator to hear Tony’s music blasting. Steve followed the sound of the music, hearing it getting louder. He peeked in the lab to see Tony was busy at work moving some things around the hologram in front of him. Steve crossed the lab to the panel and pressed some buttons to stop the music. Tony looked around before he saw Steve.
“Honey, what are you doing here?” Tony smiled.
“Uh, dinner is ready.” Steve gave Tony a kiss.
“Is it dinner already?” Tony looked at his watch.
“Yeah, now before it gets cold, c’mon.” Steve put his hands on Tony’s shoulders walking him out.
“No, but wait…I wasn’t…” Tony protested.
“FRIDAY, save Tony’s work.” Steve smiled.
“I was on a roll, you know that?” Tony looked back to Steve.
“Yeah, well if I don’t drag you away now. You’ll starve to death before you finish.” Steve hugged Tony from behind.
“I would have eaten, eventually.” Tony smiled.
“Yeah? When was your last meal?” Steve asked. Tony was about to answer. “No, coffee is not a meal.”
“Well then the breakfast you cooked this morning.” Tony laughed.
“See, now go eat. I can’t have my husband waste away on me.” Steve let Tony go when the elevator doors opened.
“Alright fine Captain. What would I do without you?” Tony smiled. Normally Steve would have some comment to shoot back at Tony’s sarcastic attitude but now it was a reality. What was Tony and Peter going to do without him? Would he expect them to move on? Leave the responsibility to Peter to drag Tony from his lab? Remind his dad to eat on a regular schedule?
The questions kept racing through Steve’s mind while he dished out and Tony got talking with Peter about what happened at school and the lab incident. He watched as Peter and Tony talked about their day at their usual lighting speed. Steve stayed quiet a majority of the night, going along with what Peter or Tony chose to do before Peter went off to bed.
“Are you okay? You’ve been quiet all evening.” Tony started getting changed once Steve closed their bedroom door.
“Fine, uh, just something we should talk about.” Steve shrugged.
“What’s up?” Tony asked. Steve looked at Tony as he pulled off his shirt.
“We’ll talk tomorrow.” Steve surprised Tony by pushing him against the wall with a rushed kiss. Steve pulled away to pull off his shirt and he picked up Tony, getting Tony to wrap his legs around his waist as he brought them to the bed. Tony lifted his hips to allow Steve to pull off his pants, before Steve pulled off his pants climbing back on the bed to straddle Tony.
“What’s with the surprise? Not that I’m complaining.” Tony smiled.
“Just love me.” Steve started working kisses along Tony’s neck as he reached down to line himself up with Tony. Steve lowered himself onto Tony making Tony moan out. Steve broke his kiss on Tony’s neck to look at him as he started riding Tony.
“C’mere.” Tony rolled them to lay Steve back, being sure to not pull out. Steve wrapped his legs around Tony as he held him close while Tony started thrusting into him.
“Harder.” Steve moaned. Tony looked at him and gave him a kiss before he started to push harder. It was rare when Steve liked to have it rough, but when he did Tony was more than happy to give into his requests.
“Tony.” Steve pulled away and Tony stopped what he was doing to look at him. “Just fuck me…hard.”
“Anything you want.” Tony got himself comfortable and started his pace again. Thrusting as hard as he could into Steve, making him whimper with each thrust as his cock began to get covered in precum.
“Holy shit, Tony.” Steve tried to keep his voice down. His breathing rapid as he started panting, his lungs beginning to scream for oxygen as he fought off the urge to cough. Tony kept up his brutal pace as he smothered Steve in wet open mouthed kisses.
“Shit, Tony.” Steve held Tony close as he started spilling his load over his stomach, clenching around Tony’s cock as his thrusts became sloppy.
“Fuck.” Tony nuzzled his face into Steve’s neck as he started spilling his load into Steve. His hips jerked as he rode out his orgasm. They laid together, catching their breath before they got the energy to tidy up a bit before they got dressed.
“Are you sure you don’t want to talk now? Is everything okay?” Tony asked.
“It’s nothing, we’ll talk after Peter goes to school.” Steve cuddled close to Tony as they got settled for the night’s sleep.