Charlie's POV:
We stand in the lab. Bruce talks shop and how to build the time machine. Maggie has a small play area fenced in with toys. Steve and I both constantly look over to her. She's very content with her play area. I look over to Steve smiling, and see a bumbling drunk, and very badly dressed Thor walk in. His appearance is completely disheveled, hair matted together, making an almost dreadlocked look. Sunglasses covering his blood shot eyes. And almost looking like he just woke up and stumbled out of the bed. He pops open the tab of a beer as he bumbles over to us.
Tony walks in behind Thor, carrying more supplies, "You're drifting left. One side there, Lebowski. Ratchet how's it going." He calls up to the raccoon, leaving Thor stumbling behind.
"It's Rocket. Take it easy. You're only a genius on Earth, pal."
Thor releases a huge belch from his mouth. Clearly drunk. "Thor you could try to have manners."
Thor turns too quickly, causing him to slightly lose his balance until he spots me and Steve, "Lady Charlie!" He floppily tries to run towards me and acts like he's going to pick me up.
"Uh, maybe don't lift her Thor." Steve cautions him.
"Why? She's not exactly expecting another baby. You know, I felt that...that...is this the baby? Has it been so long?" He looks down at Maggie who returns his gaze. Smiling at him and quickly blinking both eyes, her daddy tells her she's winking. "She looks like you." He points a floppy finger towards Steve.
"So, we've heard." I roll my eyes, picking Maggie up so he can get a better view. Thor places the glasses on top of his head, so he can see her.
Maggie's hand goes to Thor's cheek. She wiggles around on his beard, "Thor is sad."
"No...no I'm not. Why? Why would you say something like that little one? I am the mighty Thor, God of Thunder. I don't get sad." He fumbles around his words, but never raises his voice to the little girl.
"It's okay. Daddy make it better." She coos up at him.
He gives her a faint smile. "I'm not sad. You can't go around telling people that." He whispers only wanting Maggie and myself to hear, "You're a special one, just like your mama." He ruffles her hair and Maggie's chubby legs kick around as she giggles up at Thor.
"She likes you." I tell him softly, grabbing for his hand.
"And I very much like her. If she doesn't tell my secrets. Rogers, make it better, the little lady said you could. I guess she didn't know that beer makes Thor very happy."
"No." Maggie pouts at him. "No more."
"Demanding little one. Nevertheless, I must go, see what's going on. Farewell, lady Margaret." Thor stumbles off not wanting to make eye contact with Maggie again.
My attention goes over to where Bruce, Rhodey, and Scott are. I see Clint watching them. They're preparing for a test run, "Come on Maggie James, let's see what's going on." Steve sees where we're going and nods his head. I stand beside Clint; he looks down at Maggie for just a moment before looking back at the other three.
"Alright. I'm not ready for this." Scott says.
"I'm game." I hear his voice beside me. I slowly close my eyes, knowing why he wants to go back. He wants to see them, one more time. "I'll do it."
They dress him in the special suit that was designed for the time travel, and he takes his place waiting, while Nebula checks everything once over. "Clint, now you're gonna feel a little discombobulated from the chrono shift. Don't worry about it," Bruce tells him. He sounds surer of himself than the other day.
"Wait a second. Let me ask you something. If we can do this, you know...go back in time, why don't we just find baby Thanos? You know, and..." He uses his hands to gesture strangling a baby Thanos.
Maggie looks over at him with wide eyes, "Rhodey..." I tsk at him.
"First of all, that's horrible. Even Maggie didn't like that."
"It's Thanos." Rhodey shrugs.
"And secondly, time doesn't work that way. Changing the past doesn't change the future."
"Look, we go back, we get the stones before Thanos gets them...Thanos doesn't have the stones. Problem solved." Scott says, Rhodey and I both shake our heads in agreement. A little Maggie shakes her head no with a giggle.
"Bingo." Clint agrees with Rhodey, Scott, and myself.
"That's not how it works." Nebula explains.
"Well, that's what I heard." Clint responds.
"Wait, but who? Who told you that?" Bruce asks.
"Star Trek, Terminator, Timecop..." Rhodey starts listing movies. "Time After Time."
"Quantum Leap." Scott adds in.
"Wrinkle in Time, Somewhere in Time." Rhodey continues listing movies.
"Back to the Future, Hot Tub Tim Machine." I add in. Maggie looks over at Bruce and then Nebula. I'm beginning to think my child understands time travel better than we do. Bruce returns Maggie's look and they both shake their head.
"Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Basically, any movie that deals with time travel." I think Rhodey's favorite movies must involve time travel.
"Die Hard. No, that's not one." Scott answers himself.
"This is known." Rhodey answers.
"I don't know why everyone believes that, but that isn't true. Think about it. If you travel to the past...that past becomes your future...and your former present becomes the past...which can't be changed by your new future."
"Exactly." Nebula says.
"Yep." Maggie's little voice agrees.
"This is hurting my head." I look down at my toddler.
"So Back to the Future is a bunch of bullshit?" Scott whispers asking himself.
We walk back out into the main room. Steve meets us as Maggie reaches for him, "Your daughter understands time travel better than I do." I tell him, handing the little girl up to him.
"What?" He asks confused
"Or she could just want to agree with whatever the green guy says." I say turning to look at Bruce, he smiles at Maggie.
"That's because we're best friends, aren't we Maggie James?" She nods her head at him. Bruce tinkers around with some buttons, Thor comes and stands beside me with headphones on.
"You know big guy; a shower would do you good. I'd let you hold Maggie."
"I'll think about it Lady Charlie. But don't insult me. I am a mighty god." Maggie looks over at him and says, "Thor." He returns her smile, and puts a finger to his mouth shushing her.
"Alright, Clint. We're going in three, two...one." The machine fires up and Clint disappears.
Seconds pass before he's back in front of us. He's on the floor on his knees, screaming "Lila!" I run up to him, pulling his head up to look at me.
"Hey, look at me. You, okay?" I help him up and Nat comes running to the other side of him. The rest of the team are up on the platform looking at him, hoping for good answers.
"Yeah. Yeah. It worked." He hands Nat a baseball glove, and we both look at it completely speechless. "It worked."
Tony's elated. He claps his hand once. "Let's get this brainstorm going. We have to find the stones in their time."
We walk into the lab, where there's screens displaying each of the stones. Our job is to remember where each of them are in time, and the best time to intercept them. "Okay, so the how works. Now, we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter...with at least one of the six infinity stones." Steve tells us. Him and Tony stand in front of the room.
I'm listening. Trying to rock a tired Maggie to sleep. "Or substitute the word 'encounter'...for 'damn near been killed' by one of the six Infinity Stones."
"Well, I haven't, but I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about." Scott tells Tony.
"Don't worry, I've never been in contact with one of the stones either." I tell him. My brain has been on hyper speed trying to recall if I had in fact been in touch with any of them. The time before living with the Barton's is almost nonexistent to me.
"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round-trip each. And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history." Bruce says walking around the table.
"Our history. So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in, yeah?" Tony adds.
"Which means we have to pick our targets." Clint interjects.
"Correct." Tony agrees, walking behind me and placing a hand on my shoulder.
"So, let's start with the Aether. Thor, what do you know?" Steve asks. We all turn to look at him. His hand is resting low on his stomach, and even partially in his pants. He doesn't move. Doesn't respond. Pretty sure he fell asleep before Maggie did.
"Is he asleep?" I ask.
"No, no. I'm pretty sure he's dead." Rhodey responds.
"Hey big guy, we're needing some assistance from you." He jerks and stands up quickly walking over to the screen with the Reality Stone on it.
"Uh, where to start? Um..." he takes his sunglasses off and squints his eyes, trying to adjust his vision to the bright lights. "The Aether, firstly is not a stone. Someone called it a stone before. Um, it's more of an angry sludge sort of a thing..." Steve furrows his brows at him. "So, someone's gonna need to amend that." He leans his head back and adds drops to his blood shot eyes. "And stop saying that. Here's an interesting story, though, about the Aether. My grandfather, many years ago...had to hide the stone from the Dark Elves. Oooh. Scary beings. So, Jane, actually..." Nat and I share an annoyed look and the looks coming from everyone else around the room is much the same. My poor sweet Thor.
He fiddles around with the screen before a picture of Jane appears, "Oh, there she is. Yeah, so Jane was an old flame of mine. You know, she stuck her hand inside a rock this one time...and then the Aether stuck itself inside her..." Steve looks up at him with a confused look. "And she became very, very sick. And so, I had to take her to Asgard, which is where I'm from..." He looks at me nodding his head proud of his home. "And we had to try and fix her. We were dating at the time, you see...and I got to introduce her to my mother...who's dead, and, um...Oh, you know, Jane and I aren't even dating anymore, so..."
Bruce glances at me, hoping I can get Thor to just stop, "Yes, these things happen, though. You know? Nothing lasts forever. The only thing that..."
"Why don't you come sit down?" Tony tries to take him back to his seat. "Charlie? Some help."
"Let him finish. He needs to talk about it."
Tony glares at me, "I'm not done yet. The only thing that is permanent in life is impermanence."
"Alright Charlie, we've heard enough." Tony casts to me.
"Big guy, me and you can continue this conversation later, but we really should move on to the next stone. SIT."
"Don't cast your words Lady Charlie." He complies and walks towards his seat.
"Awesome. Eggs? Breakfast?" Tony claps.
"No. I'd like a Bloody Mary." Thor answers. "No. You need to slow down the drinking." He huffs at me but sits down.
"Quill said he stole the Power Stone from Morag. "
"Is that a person?" Bruce asks Rocket.
"No, Morag's a planet. Quill was a person." He tells Bruce.
"Like a planet? Like in outer space?" Scott asks. He asks everything that I want to know, but I'm too chicken to say anything.
Rocket is very patronizing towards Scott, but he doesn't seem to mind too much. "Oh, look. It's like a little puppy, all happy and everything." He pets his hair. Maggie looks over at him and squeals, "Puppy!" Steve takes the baby out of my arms to hold her for a while. "Do you wanna go to space? You wanna go to space, puppy?" Rocket sarcastically asks Scott. "I'll take you to space."
"Rocky!" Maggie squeals. Steve and I both let out a giggle before everyone else joins along with Maggie, "Rocky!"
"It's Rock-et, kid." Rocket emphasizes the et.
"Rocky!"
His eyes narrow. "I liked her better when she just said da-da." But he still softens his face towards her before sitting down.
"Thanos found the Soul Stone on Vormir."
"What is Vormir?" Nat asks taking notes.
"A dominion of death...at the very center of celestial existence. It's where Thanos murdered my sister."
We all stare at her before looking down. I look over at Scott who's now beside me on a couch. "Not it." I cast at him.
"Wait, you can do that to me too?" Steve looks at him, realizing what I did.
"I can do that anyone who lets me in, just not everyone can answer back." He nods his head, and tries to answer back, but just makes his face scrunch up, and he looks at me asking with his eyes if I heard him. I shake my head no.
"I was telling you, 'Not it.' too." I smile at him.
Steve pulls me up by my arms, and I reach down to grab Maggie from Clint, "We're going to bed. It's been a long day and my girl is tired."
"You guys actually going to sleep?" Nat smirks up at us.
"What else would they do?" Scott asks confused.
"They're the horniest people I know." Nat laughs out.
Clint groans. "You know Romanoff, I really didn't need to hear that."
"Goodnight, Captain, night princess!" Nat calls sweetly as we walk away.
"Wait, they're into that sort of thing." Scott asks.
"You have no idea."
"Stop talking about us! Maggie repeats things."
"Cap!" Maggie shouts up at Steve. He scoops her up in his arms before throwing her up in the air. "That's daddy to you little one."
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Steve's POV:
Charlie cuddles up to me, laying her head on my chest. I rub on her arm that's draped over me. I know she's emotionally drained. Trying to keep Thor in some form of function. He hates every time she uses her powers to straighten him back up. Scott and her seem to get along fine, mostly because they connected with not having any contact with the stones.
"What are you thinking about?" I ask her.
"If we can actually pull this off. How is it going to affect...everything? Not just our bubble, but the world." She sighs.
"We'll worry about that when we get there." I tell her. We lay in silence for a few minutes. "You're thinking about him, aren't you?"
She leans up to look at me, "You always want to go back to him, don't you? Can't we just lay here peacefully?"
"I just want to know if while you're lying on me, if you're thinking about someone else."
"Are you thinking of her?"
"It's not the same, she's not coming back, if we reverse the snap."
"Do you not think I'm happy Steve?"
"Honestly?" She nods. "I think on the surface you're happy. I think you have too many unanswered questions with him. I think him dusting away in your arms messed you up. I think I screwed up before I ever gave us a chance, when I thrust you in his arms. I think that all this that we're doing is stirring up a lot of pent-up emotions concerning him. With everything going on, you trying to understand everything, you're trying to control Thor, you're watching our daughter, you're trying to keep me happy, you're trying to reconnect with Clint, you're trying, and trying, and trying. It's overwhelming you."
She lays back down on my chest and I feel tears fall down on me. "You don't always have to be perfect Charlie. You can let your walls fall down."
"The last time I did that I was on a jet with you and Bucky after we left the airport going to Siberia."
Silence. I remember that time. "That's the day, I actually lost you." Again silence. I saw then the pull she had to Bucky, the unmistakable and uncontrollable pull they both had to one another. She wasn't satisfied with being with just me. "I'm not mad about it. If I'm going to be mad, I have to be mad at myself. In Vienna...I never should have pushed that."
She tilts her head back to look at me, "Do you regret it?"
"Sometimes, but it's hard for me to regret any time I've had with you. We're here. We've made it. We have the most beautiful and amazing daughter. She understands people's emotions, she may look just like me, but she's your daughter." She smiles her sweet and gentle smile at me. "How come you never talk about your time as a child? I've only really heard you talk about your time with the Barton's."
"I don't really remember."
"I thought you didn't come to live with them until you were like sixteen or something."
"Yeah. We were in a car crash. I woke up miles away from the wreck, in front of a police department. I don't really remember how I got there, they said I must have hit my head, and was able to walk there."
"Hmm...Nat and Clint look into the wreck?"
"Yeah, found nothing really. Why? What is your theory, Rogers?"
"No, theories. If Nat and Clint looked into it and are satisfied that's enough for me." She gives me a kiss on my forehead before kissing my lips. "Let's get some sleep princess."
"Okay Captain." It was one of the first times she's called me that, and it didn't make me go weak at the knees. We fall asleep, entangled in each other's arms.
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Charlie's POV:
Earlier that morning Steve and I met Pepper to take Maggie. She fussed over us. Told us to stay safe, protect her husband, and bring us all back. She said that Happy would be there in case of an emergency as well. We feel safe with her having the girls both far away, just in case.
"Alright we have a plan. Six stones, three teams, one shot." Steve tells us. "Suit up."
We all get our time suits on. Steve lingers around me fussing over getting my new suit on and the time suit over it. "You understand the plan? You have to follow orders. I have to bring us back to Maggie James, Charlie. I have to."
"Steve, I understand. I understand all that's riding on this mission." I place a kiss on his lips, and he brings me closer and lets the kiss linger. "Don't." He looks at me odd. "Don't kiss me like that's going to be the last time."
"I love you, no matter what."
"I love you too, Captain."
We walk into the room where the time machine is. I feel my anxiety pulsing through my veins. We're doing this for the universe. Thanos took so much, from so many. All of us are silent as we walk up to the platform.
Steve grabs my hand, and addresses the team, "Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends. We lost family. We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams. You know your missions. Get the stones. Get them back. One round-trip each. No mistakes...no do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. That doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives...and we're gonna win. Whatever it takes." Tony glances at Steve with a smile, and Steve returns the look, gently squeezing my hand. "Good luck."
"He's pretty good at that." Rocket looks at me, and I smile.
"Right?" Steve's biggest fan, Scott, agrees.
"Lady Charlie. Can you...could you...?"
"Clear you mind?" Thor nods. "Clarity." I cast over to him. He smiles his thanks to me.
"Are you sure you don't want to come to Asgard with me? You could meet...um...my mom, she's great. You would love her?" Thor asks.
"Thor, we already have our plans. And we need to keep interaction between people to a minimum. Charlie's coming with me."
"Sorry big guy," I grimace over to Thor.
"I would just have loved for you to have seen Asgard in all its glory." He acts as if he's going to say more, but stops and gives me a weak smile. A smile that never reaches his soft eyes.
"Alright, you heard the man. Stroke those keys, Jolly Green." Tony calls down to Bruce who's readying the machine.
"Trackers engaged."
"You promise to bring that back in one piece, right?" Rocket asks looking over at Clint, who's looking at the miniature Milano that's in his hand.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I'll do my best." He answers.
"As promises go, that was pretty lame." He responds shrugging.
"See ya in a minute." Nat smiles looking around at everyone while her shoulders do a little happy dance. Steve and I smile back at her. He drops my hand as the machine circles around us.
We all close our masks over our face. Looking up at the machine. The feeling is exhilarating and nauseating at the same time. We shrink down and go into the quantum realm. Momentarily we all fly next to each other. Each team begins to break off and go into separate locations. I land in New York 2012 with a sickening feeling in my stomach from the journey. I shake it off and Steve walks over to me.
We both nod, seeing we're okay. I look over and see the first time the Avengers fought together as a team, smiling at myself. "Alright, we all have our assignments. Two stones uptown, one stone down." Steve stalks to the edge of the street looking around, remembering the time he was here. "Stay low. Keep an eye on the clock."
A crash happens behind us and we all flinch turning to look at a not so tame Hulk, thundering about screaming, and smashing. He picks up a car, smashing one of the Chitauri, before jumping up and down on the vehicle itself. I turn to look at Bruce who is beyond mortified of the former Hulk. He hides his face as Steve looks at him, "Maybe smash a few things along the way."
"I think it's gratuitous, but whatever." Bruce rips off his tank top and growls softly. Making off facial expressions and gestures with his hands.
"That's believable." I whisper to Scott. Bruce, randomly hits a taxi and throws a motorcycle, clearly not enjoying this charade.
"Come on Hunger Games, to the roof. You got this." I look up at Stark tower and shrug, hopefully I've got this. "I can fly you up there if not. Up high, you'll be fine."
I push at the stars on my bracelets and pull the gauntlets over my hands. Be pissed off at Thanos. You can do it. I feel the vibrations come out of my hands and I bend my knees propelling myself up. I don't quite make it to the top, but I'm able to land on the building and continue propelling myself up until I reach the top. Tony flies down and lands beside me, "Not bad, Charlie. Now we wait."
I tap the nano tech behind my ear to release the glasses. "Better hustle Cap. Things look like they're just about wrapped up here." Tony says through coms.
My glasses zoom in on the Avengers in the room standing around. "Got it. I'm approaching the elevator now."
"Alright Hover Girl, let's quietly hover over there."
I roll my eyes. "I can't hover from this height." I release the wing suit and glide over the busted window, sneaking in before Tony even reaches it. Tony removes his suit.
"If you get caught, you're the hot, lost intern okay." He whispers over to me. I stifle a laugh and nod.
"If it's all the same to you...I'll have that drink now." Loki says. This is such an odd experience, staring at them, it's not the people I know now.
"Alright, get him on his feet." 2012 Tony says. "We can all stand around posing up a storm later. By the way, feel free to clean up."
My eyes glance over at Steve. I can't help but smile. Tony scoffs, "Mr. Rogers, I almost forgot that that suit...did nothing for your ass."
I slap Tony's arm. "I love his ass."
"No one asked you to look, Tony."
"It's ridiculous." He responds still staring. I am too, but that's my fiancé.
"I think you look great, Cap. As far as I'm concerned, that's America's ass."
"I concur. Although, I may argue that it's my ass." Steve chuckles through coms.
"Who gets the, uh, magic wand?" 2012 Nat asks.
"S.T.R.I.K.E. team's coming to secure it." The past Steve tells her.
We hear the elevator beep, and Tony looks over with a worried expression. He pulls me back into the shadows with him. The S.T.R.I.K.E. team comes through.
"We can take that off your hands." Sitwell tells Nat. Rumlow brings over a case for the staff to be loaded into. These people. Rumlow tried to kill Steve.
"By all means." Nat hands the staff to Sitwell. He checks out the staff, touching it. "Careful with that thing."
"Yeah, unless you want your mind erased. And not in a fun way." Clint adds.
"We promise to be careful." The jerk Rumlow tells him.
"Who are these guys?" Scott asks.
"Ass-hole, Hydra agents, pretending to be part of S.H.I.E.L.D." I tell him.
"We didn't know that yet." Tony tries to explain.
"Seriously? You didn't? I mean, they look like bad guys."
"You're small, but you're talking loud." Tony tells him.
"On my way down to coordinate search and rescue." past Steve talks into his coms.
Loki changes into Steve and exaggerates his mannerisms and speech, "On my down to coordinate search and rescue." He shifts back to Loki, "I mean, honestly, how do you keep your food down?"
Thor places a device over Loki's mouth, "Shut up." Oh, thank God.
"Ooh. Alright, you're up, little buddy. There's our stone." Tony points at the past Tony who's securing the Tesseract.
"Alright. Flick me." Scott squats down and Tony flicks at him. He lands on the box, and crawls up Tony's hand.
"That's our cue. See you in a bit." He flies down the side of the tower. I find a private area and change into a skin tight black ensemble, place the suit in a briefcase, add some stilettos, and put on some glasses. I have a thigh holster with a pistol just in case, and still have my bracelets. I pop my neck and go to the stairs, ready to meet up with Steve.
"Alright, Cap, I got our scepter in the elevator...just passing the 80th floor."
"Charlie, you ready, distraction?" Steve asks.
"Ready."
I slip off my shoes and begin running down the stairs. "This would be a lot easier, if this dress wasn't so damn tight."
"You're the distraction." Tony tells me. I stop on a lower floor and wait outside the elevator.
"Tony, head to the lobby." Steve tells Tony.
"Alright, I'll see you there."
The elevator dings, and I walk in with the S.T.R.I.K.E. team. "You lost?" Rumlow asks. In the reflection I see him checking me out.
"A bit. I'm the new intern." He hums and shuffles the case around.
"Evidence secure." Sitwell says.
"You men, must be pretty important." I smile, biting my lip, trying to flirt with them. It makes my skin crawl how Rumlow is biting the bait I'm putting out.
"You could say that. We work alongside the Avengers, so..."
"We're EnRoute to Doctor List. No. No hitches at all, Mr. Secretary." Sitwell turns to look at me with an odd look in his eyes, I smile and turn my attention back to Rumlow.
"If I spend more time around here, I may have to get you to show me around."
"I could definitely arrange that." The elevator dings. Everyone's attention turns to whoever is standing outside. I turn and it's Steve. He looks around and sees how close Rumlow is but steps in the elevator calmly.
"Captain." Sitwell acknowledges him. "I thought you were coordinating search and rescue."
"I was, and then the intern got lost. So, I had to come fetch her. I understand the place is big, but you've got to keep up if you want to work here." Steve looks at me.
I sheepishly nod, refusing to meet his face. "Hey Cap." Rumlow steps closer to me.
"Rumlow." He responds. I look down and see someone reaching for their gun. It's too quiet in here, but I don't what else more I can say, so I stand and follow Steve's lead.
"Before I got in, I got a call from the secretary. I'm gonna be running point on the scepter."
Sitwell turns to look at him, briefly looking at my face again as well lingering. "Sir? I don't understand."
Steve shifts around, looking at the man behind him, "We got word there may be an attempt to steal it."
"Sorry, Cap. We can't give you the scepter." Rumlow leans over me, pushing me into Steve.
"I'm gonna have to call the director." Sitwell tells him, grabbing for his phone.
"That's okay. Trust me." Steve leans into Sitwell and whispers, "Hail Hydra." Sitwell looks up at Steve shocked, to me, eyes lingering too long before looking at Rumlow, nodding.
The elevator opens. "Let's go. And this time, keep up." I follow Steve out the elevator. We both smile with relief. "Did you get an odd feeling about Sitwell with you?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, he stared at you a bit too long. Like he knew you." Steve says as we continue our walk to the next location.
"I was at the farm in 2012 and never met Sitwell. And I wasn't with you guys in Lagos, so how would either of them know me?"
"I don't know. It was just a gut feeling. And Rumlow took your bait. He kept looking at your ass." He gives me a little smack. "Go change."
I come back out from changing, discarding everything else, when I hear distress from Tony. I walk out to meet Steve and we continue on our mission. "Tony, what's going? Tell me you found that Cube."
I look out in front and pause. "Dammit." There's the past Steve, all dressed up, and ready for a fight.
Steve sighs, when he sees, "oh, you gotta be shitting me."
"I have eyes on Loki. 14th Floor. He has an accomplice." Past Steve says through coms.
"I'm not Loki..." He sets the case down slowly. "And I don't want to hurt you. If anything happens, grab this and run to the rendezvous." I nod, stepping out of the way.
The past Steve braces himself before my Steve charges after him. They crash their shields into one another, before spinning and kicking around. Each move is almost matched perfectly. Almost like they're the same person...past Steve throws my Steve over to my side. He pushes himself off the floor.
"I can do this all day." Past Steve says.
"Yeah, I know. I know."
"It's annoying hearing someone else say it, huh, Rogers?" I chuckle at him.
He throws the shield at past Steve, and he returns the throw to my Steve. They meet and do a hand-to-hand combat. The case is knocked off the stairs. I touch the stars on my bracelets pulling the gauntlets over, and slowly drift down. As I'm drifting down both Steve's come crashing down, falling down several floors. I expand the wingsuit and glide down, keeping my eyes on the scepter.
Once I find it, I pick it up. Both Steve's are on the floor in a pile of glass. Past Steve picks up my Steve's compass, the one with Peggy's picture in it. Past Steve puts my Steve in a headlock before slamming them both down on the ground. When I land, I hear my Steve gasp out, "Bucky is alive." Past Steve loosens his grip, he pauses long enough for my Steve to punch him, I hand him the scepter and he places it on the past Steve's chest.
My Steve picks up the compass stuffing it into his pocket, he stands looking at his passed out past self. "That is America's ass." He chuckles.
I giggle, "You got that right Captain." I grab at his ass, and he stops me, holding his hand in mine and deeply kissing me. "Come on old man, we've got to meet Tony and Scott." We run off to our rendezvous point.
We arrive to see Tony and Scott in very irritable moods. "Sorry guys, we got a problem."
Scott scoffs. "Yeah, we do."
They explain how they lost the Tesseract. "Well, what are we gonna do now?" Steve asks.
"You know, give me a break Steve. I just got hit in the head with the Hulk."
"You said, that we had one shot. This was our shot. We shot it. It's shot. Six stones or nothing. It was six stones or nothing." Scott says pacing around.
"You're repeating yourself; you know that? You're repeating yourself." Tony tells him.
"You're repeating yourself. You're repeating yourself."
"Dude. Come on!"
Steve shakes his head angered at the whole situation. "No. You never wanted a time heist. You weren't on board with the time heist." Scott and Tony continue arguing.
"I dropped the ball."
"You ruined the time heist."
"Is that what I did?"
"Yeah."
"Enough you two. You're not helping." I tell them both, finally having enough.
"Are there any other options with the Tesseract?" Steve asks.
"No, no, no, there's no other options. There's no do-overs. We're not going anywhere else. We have on particle left. Each. That's it. Alright? We use that...bye bye, you're not going home."
"Yeah, well, if we don't try...then no one else is going home, either." Steve's voice raises a bit.
"I got it." Tony says. We all look over to him. "There's another way to retake the Tesseract and acquire new particles." He walks over to me and Steve, but only looks at Steve. "Little stroll down memory lane. Military installation, Garden State."
Steve looks off into the distance. "When were they both there?"
"They were there at a time...I have a vaguely exact idea."
Steve gives him an exasperated look while Scott and I look at one another, "How vague?"
"What are you talking about? Where are we going?" Scott asks. They ignore him.
"I know for a fact they were there."
"Who's they? What are we doing?" Scott is still trying for answers.
"And I know how I know." Steve nods his head but looks around. He looks down at me, taking my hand in his. He's scared.
"Guys, what is it?" Scott is continuing to try and get some form of answers.
Steve looks back down at me, bringing my chin up to look at him, "Looks like we're improvising. Great." He pulls me over to the side to get the tiniest bit of privacy.
"What are we improvising?" Scott asks.
"Do you trust me?" He asks. I nod my head, still looking confused. "Use your words, princess." He smiles.
"Yes, Captain, but what are you doing?"
"Scott, you and Charlie get this back to the compound." He hands him the scepter.
"Wait. No, no. You mean you're going without me?"
"You said you trust me."
"Where you go, I go."
"Princess, if this doesn't work, and you're with me, our daughter is without either of her parents. That can't happen. I need you to trust me on this, please."
I feel the tears well up in my eyes, "Tony, you bring him back to me, do you understand?" He gives a weak smile and nods, "No, you promise me, you will do everything to bring him back to me. And you back to Morgan and Pepper."
"Charlie, I promise you I will...we will do whatever it takes to make it back to you."
"Just don't do anything stupid." Steve walks over and kisses me. Unashamedly we make it a passionate kiss. "I love you, Rogers."
"Love you, too."
"Suit up." Tony tells him.
"What's in New Jersey?" Scott asks. I tap his arm, wanting him to hush and when they leave, I can vaguely explain.
"0-4, uh 0-7. 1-9-7-0.
"Excuse me." Scott still tries to interject.
"Are you sure?" Steve asks him one more time.
"Cap? Captain? Steve? Sorry." Tony and Steve finally acknowledge Scott. "America. Rogers. Look, if you do this...and it doesn't work, you're not coming back."
"Thanks for the pep talk, piss-ant." Tony tells him. "You trust me?" he looks at Steve.
"I do." Steve responds.
"Charlie?"
"I do, Tony." I answer.
"Your call." He looks at Steve.
"Here we go." Steve looks at me, forcing a smile. They tap their watches, making the time suits appear, and then their bodies, disappear.
"Care to explain to me what the hell is going on?" Scott turns to me trying to figure out everything.
"Uh, they're going to a military base in New Jersey. Hopefully they go in the time when both the Tesseract and Hank Pym were there."
"Wait what? That's genius. Captain America, saving the world."
"You know, you should really just call him Steve."
"How many names do you have for him?"
"Ahh, but have you ever seen the man naked?" Scott's face falls flat. "I even made a baby with him. Now Tony better bring him back to me."
___________________________________________________________________
Steve's POV:
New Jersey, 1970. Tony and I arrive at the Camp Lehigh Army Base. We find some clothes and dress up according the times. The base's sign informs us that this was the birthplace of Captain America.
"Clearly you weren't actually born here, right?" He asks me.
"The idea of me was." I respond. He's dressed in a suit, while I have on an army uniform.
"Right well imagine you're S.H.I.E.L.D. running a quasi-fascistic intelligence organization..." He starts looking into windows, hoping to find where the Tesseract and Pym Particles may be, "where do you hide it?"
My eyes drift over to the bunker, the same bunker where Nat and I found Zola's computer brain. "In plain sight."
Tony looks over to the building, seeing what I see, and he taps on his glasses using F.R.I.D.A.Y. to have an x-ray vision of what's behind the door. Once he realizes I am right we go into the bunker and make our journey down the elevator. We're on board with a woman who is staring both Tony and myself down. I'm trying to keep a low profile because my face is very recognizable. I keep my face looking down and away from hers as much as possible.
Tony recognizes her eyes lingering on me too much and steps in front of me, blocking her view. She looks back down at her file, as the elevator dings open and it's Tony's floor, "Good luck on your mission, Captain." He tells me.
"Good luck on your project, Doctor." I respond to him. My face drifts awkwardly back at the floor, before I look back to see Tony as the elevator doors close.
"You new here?" The woman asks me with a smile.
"Not exactly." I'm not the best at lying, so keeping my answers vague work out best.
She looks back at her file, before studying me a bit more unconvinced. One I get to the floor Tony told me Hank Pym would be on, I make my exit from the elevator quickly. I see where his lab is, but he's in there, so I'm going to have to improvise. I go into the next room over and call Hank.
"Hello." He answers the phone.
"Doctor Pym?" I ask.
"That would be the number that you called, yes." He deadpans, clearly irritated he was drug from his work.
"This is Captain Stevens from shipping. We have a package for you."
"Oh, bring it up."
"Well, that's the thing, sir, we can't."
"I'm confused. I thought that was your job."
"Well, it's just...Sir, the box is glowing...and to be honest, some of our mail guys aren't feeling that great."
"They didn't open it, did they?" He asks, worry filling his voice.
"Uh, yeah, they did. You better get down here." He slams the phone down and I wait for him to leave his lab.
Once he runs around the corner, I go in. I look around the crowded lab, hoping to find Pym Particles. Once I spot them, I notice there's more than enough. I only need two, enough to get me and Tony back to the present, but something comes over me. I have a sneaky suspicion that if we are able to bring everyone back, it's only a matter of time before Charlie and Bucky actually end up exclusively together. I'm okay with that, but if they're going to be together, shouldn't I be able to live the life I want? Just in case. I grab up four of the Pym Particles. It can be my secret. For now.
I make it back into the hall and ahead of me the woman from the elevator is walking around with security. This can't be good, again, I'm having to improvise. I turn back to go the way I was just coming. Any way to keep her eyes off my face. I can't mess this up again. But instead of walking back I turn to the door beside me, and walk in.
The room is dark, and I look around trying to figure out exactly where I am, and my eyes go to a picture frame on the desk. It's me. I pick it up, realizing it's a pre-serum me. I look around, trying to figure out exactly who's office this is. I look back at the door. Margaret Carter. This is Peggy's office. My mind races, and I feel my heartbeat speed up.
In the distance I hear her voice. Peggy Carter. She's here, so close, and yet so far away. I can't let myself be known to her, but my desire to be closer to her is unmatched. Through the window I see the office next to hers, and she's there. She's got to be in her forties, and she's perfect. Beautiful, just like I remember her. I watch with complete awe, unable to move. Without a doubt I realize how much I've missed her. How much I have longed for that dance. How much what I must do will hurt Charlie and Maggie, but it's something I have to do. I will be doing everyone a favor with this decision. If we're successful with our mission.
I walk closer to the window, wanting to soak up every bit of Peggy I can. Just in case our mission is completed. I need for it to be completed. Being this close to Peggy feels right. I am supposed to be with her. Even if we fail the mission, I don't know if I can stay. As much as I need Charlie at times, I want Peggy. I want every part of her. I won't have to pretend with her. I won't have to go through the motions with her.
When she walks out of the other office and out of my eye sight I feel as if a part of me just left. That's how I know that I'm supposed to be there with her. I don't want to be a man out of time, I want to be a man with her. I am happy with Charlie, but both of us have never allowed the other to be first. We've said it multiple times to each other, we're selfish. I'm sure if we fail, I would be the truly selfish one. So, for both of us, we can't fail.
I walk out into the sun feeling a bit defeated. My desire to stay behind to be with Peggy has changed me. I stand off to the side, waiting on Tony. We need to go back before I don't have the strength to. Tony spots me, and I give him a thumbs up so he knows that I was successful in retrieving the Pym Particles. He motions that he has the Tesseract as he continues to speak to a man, his father.
We load up, punching on our watches to send us to the current time. "Cap, everything okay?" He asks, clearly seeing the distance in my eyes.
"Yeah, just ready to get back home." I respond.
"In three...two...one."
We race through the quantum realm, meeting up with the rest of our group, and land back on the platform. We all look around, hoping that everyone was successful, "Are you telling me this actually worked?" Rhodey asks, holding the Power Stone in his hand.
I glance around smiling, and I hear Charlie gasp, Clint falls to his knees and she rushes over to him. "Clint?" She pouts down at him, looking over his face. He can't meet her eyes.
"Clint, where's Nat?" Bruce asks behind me.
My body is again frozen. I look over to the pair, speechless, hoping that what he's going to tell me isn't bad news. Charlie's hands go to his face, trying to get an audible answer, hoping that she is wrong in her assumptions. Clint's eyes finally look up to me, and I know that everyone's theories of Nat's absence are correct. I go over to Charlie and help her up. She wraps her arms around me and cries, "No, no, no." In my chest. I try to calm her, but there's nothing to say. Nat was like a sister to her. Her best friend.
Bruce falls to his knees and punches the platform. I shuffle around trying to get Charlie out of here. She resists at first, "Charlie, princess, come on...I need you to move. Let's get some air."
"I can't." She weakly lets out.
"Lady Charlie, can I ask your service one more time?" Thor walks over to us. "Could you please follow me outside, and help me." We both look up at Thor, and she agrees to follow him. I mouth a thank you to him, and we follow him out to the dock.
"What is it that you need help with Thor?" She asks, barely a whisper.
"I just wanted you to get some air." Charlie looks at him, with complete broken sadness in her eyes, and she allows the tears to cascade down her cheeks.
I wrap my arms around her shoulders and rest my head on hers. Her arms snake around my waist as we just hold each other for a bit, breathing. She's gone. She's really gone. Thor shifts around a bit, before he too wraps his arms around the both of us. Once we pull a part Charlie walks to the edge of the dock looking around at the compound, Nat's home. Her purpose was here. Soon the other members of the team follow us down to the dock.
Charlie squats down in front of Tony, holding her knees to her chest. I come and sit behind her on a bench, wrapping my arms around her shoulders. She begins tracing circles on my forearm. At this moment we both need physical touch, even though I'm sure we both long for someone else's besides who's touching us.
"Do we know if she had family?" Tony asks when we are all present.
"Yeah." I whisper. "Us." Charlie finishes.
Thor stalks closer to where we are. "What?"
Tony looks at him confused. "Huh?"
"What are you doing?" He asks facing directly to Tony.
"I just asked him a question." He calmly responds, he knows Thor's ego is badly bruised, and his depression runs deep.
"Yeah, no, you're acting like she's dead. Why are we acting like she's dead? We have the stones, right? As long as we have the stones...Cap, we can bring her back. Isn't that, right? So, stop this shit. We're the Avengers. Get it together."
"Thor." Charlie calls up to him, giving him a sympathetic look. He shakes his head looking away from her.
"We can't get her back." Clint finally speaks since our return.
"What's he...? What?" Thor comes closer to Clint.
"It can't be undone. It can't." Clint looks over to Thor, pleading for him to understand.
Thor has a crazed look in his eyes before he laughs. "Look, I'm sorry, no offense, but you're a very earthly being, okay? And we're talking about space magic. And 'can't' seems very definitive. Don't you think?"
"Yeah, look, I know that I'm way outside my pay grade here. But she still isn't here, is she?" Clint is oddly remaining calm.
"No, that's my point." Thor tries to reason.
"It can't be undone. Or that's at least what the red floating guy had to say." Clint's voice finally cracks as he tries to hold back his tears. "Maybe you wanna go talk to him, okay?" His voice completely raises as he screams at Thor, "Go grab your hammer and you go fly and you talk to him."
Thor is silent. Defeated. Tears flow down my face. Charlie turns, looking at me. Even in her grief she wants to make sure I'm okay. Her little hands caress my face and I bring my forehead to meet hers. "It was supposed to be me." Clint says, Charlie closes her eyes as tears continue to fall down her face. "She sacrificed her life for that goddamn stone. She bet her life on it."
Bruce grunts and picks up a bench throwing it over the lake. Charlie flinches and brings her face to my thigh and I brush her hair out of her face. "She's not coming back. We have to make it worth it. We have to."
I pull Charlie up to her feet as we both stand. She leans her back up against me, still wanting to feel my touch. "We will." I answer. Charlie whispers out a "We will."