Instant Family

Return of Purgatory

“What do you mean”, Steve asked after covering Tony’s mouth so he couldn’t finish his swear in front of his kids. 

“I told you this exact thing would happen, I’ll see you in court on Monday”, Sharon reached out to the kids & took them from Steve. “10 AM sharp, don’t be late”. 

She quickly walked away from the trio, back into her house, leaving Steve alone & afraid of losing his kids. 

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Steve rose from his bed by the sound of his blaring alarm clock, almost smashing into pieces as he tried to turn it off. 

Sitting up, Steve’s eyes were still sealed. He threw his legs over the frame of his bed. Taking a few deep quick puffs of air before standing up & walking to his bathroom to take a shower. 

Steve couldn’t accept this was going to be the day he was stripped of his kids, his pride & joys. Everything was amiss at the moment & Steve was not prepared. 

The shower was lengthy, he consistently looked downward at his feet as steaming water rolled down his body. 

Everything Steve did that morning was sluggish & blue, taking much too needed time preparing himself even before he got dressed. 

After loosely throwing his suit on, he finally made his way down the stairs of his own home. Gazing the newly fixed & clean house, barring the bottles of whiskey, jack, rum, & jin set across the house. 

Trying to drink the night before away didn’t go as planned as Steve foresaw. But the splitting headache would have to be revenge from the demons in the bottles. 

Steve couldn’t even bother to make himself something to eat, he just shuffled to the door, looking back at the bottle filled room. 

He turned away in discussed, opening the door & trying to prepare himself for the troubles that awaited him in the courtroom. He waited to see only Natasha in the courtroom’s seating gallery behind him. 

The drive was miserable, the traffic bored & annoyed him. The consistent honking of horns between angry drivers worsened his headache. The constant stopping only made Steve car sick & nauseous. 

But once he finally arrived at the courthouse, he really felt like he needed to throw up. It was too much for Steve to bargain for nor accept. 

Before trekking into the courthouse with his shoulders hunched & back slouched, he gently rest against his car, breathing slowly, letting the cool morning air of New York calm him down before hell broke loose. 

“You got this”, Steve murmured to himself. 

Sunglasses shielded his hungover eyes from the beaming sun that seemed to be fixed on him. 

The squealing noise of the rubber doorstop scraping against the hard marble tile pierced Steve’s ears like a stun grenade. But the smell of coffee & paper was what drove Steve to the bathroom, forcing his tolerance to throw up over the edge. 

Steve kneeled in front of a discussing public toilet, throwing up. 

“Attaboy, keeping going, maybe you’ll feel better”, Tony said as he slowly leaned into the doorway of the stall. Steve rolled over to look as Stark, surprised to see his friend. 

“Stark”, Steve said, almost breathlessly. He stood himself up, flushing the toilet as he did. “I didn’t think you’d want to be here, hell, I don’t”. 

“We wouldn’t have missed it”, Tony said, leading Steve out of the bathroom & to the courtroom. 

Steve was shocked when the doors opened, the seating behind his bench was filled, with the Avengers.