Chapter 15

STEVE'S POV

I push open the door to the compound slowly. It's been a few weeks since I've been here last. I don't really know why. Time just slipped away.

It's not the same place it was years ago. Maybe that's why I don't like being back here. Any life it had is gone. There are no more explosions from Tony's lab, or America and Pietro racing across the grounds every morning, or arguments over which movie to watch. Thanos left behind a shell of what we used to be. The world has fallen silent, and I hate it.

I find Nat sitting at a desk, head in her hands, just barely keeping it together.

"You know I'd offer to cook you dinner but you seem pretty miserable already," I say, an ironic little smile on my face. It feels forced, because it is.

"You here to do your laundry?"

"And to see a friend." I lean on the bookshelf as she takes a deep breath and leans back in her chair.

"Clearly, your friend is fine."

I try to think of a way to cheer her up. "You know I saw a pod of whales when I was coming up the bridge-"

"In the Hudson?"

I nod and say, "There's fewer ships. Cleaner water."

She grins ruefully, but there's no light in her glassy eyes. "You know, if you're about to tell me to look on the bright side, um... I'm about you to hit you in the head with a peanut butter sandwich."

"Sorry," I say, thinking back to the depressing therapy session I just led. I don't know if they help anyone, to be honest. "Force of habit."

I toss my coat on the desk and sit across from her. She passes me part of her sandwich, but I'm not hungry. I cross my arms and exhale, feeling that I can be more honest around Nat than the others. It's always been like that.

"You know, I keep telling everybody they should move on and... grow. Some do. But not us."

"If I move on, who does this?"

"Maybe it doesn't need to be done."

She shakes her head the slightest bit and whispers, "I used to have nothing. And then I got this. This job... this family. And I was... I was better because of it. And even though... they're gone... I'm still trying to be better."

The heartbreak and loneliness etched across her pale face hurts me to look at. Neither of us speak for a moment until I break the silence.

"I think we both need to get a life."

Nat gives me a watery smile. "You first."

A notification pops up in front of us for camera footage. She swipes at it disinterestedly. A hologram appears and so does a familiar voice.

"Oh! Hi. Hi! Is anyone home? This is Scott Lang. We met a few years ago, at the airport? In Germany? I got really big, and I had my mask on. You wouldn't recognize me."

Scott Lang.

He's been dead for five years.

I stand slowly, staring at the hologram. "Is this an old message?"

"It's the front gate," she whispers. I don't miss the hope in her voice.

"Ant-Man? Ant-Man, I know you know that. I need to talk to you guys."

*

He won't stop pacing. It's setting both of us on edge. He also looks exactly the same as he did five years ago, which unnerves me.

"Scott, are you okay?" I ask.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He finally stops moving and looks at us sharply. "Have you ever studied quantum physics?"

Absolutely not.

"Only to make conversation," Natasha answers with a weird look on her face.

"Alright. So... five years ago, right before Thanos, I was in a place called the Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm is like its own microscopic universe. To get in there, you have to be incredibly small. Hope, she's my... She was my..." I can connect the dots for myself. Hope was Scott's Mer. He went through the exact same thing I did. "She was supposed to pull me out. And then Thanos happened, and I got stuck in there."

"I'm sorry," Natasha says. "That must have been a very long five years."

"Yeah, but that's just it. It wasn't. For me, it was five hours."

Nat and I exchange confused looks. Five hours? I don't know what he's getting at. I never understood complex sciences.

"See, the rules of the Quantum Realm aren't like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable. Is that anybody's sandwich? I'm starving." He walks over and picks up Nat's sandwich to the protests of no one. After five years, I don't blame him for being hungry.

"Scott, what are you talking about?" I ask.

He swallows before launching into an explanation again. "What I'm saying is, time works differently in the Quantum Realm. The only problem is right now, we don't have a way to navigate it. But what if we did? I can't stop thinking about it. What if, we could somehow control the chaos, and we could navigate it? What if there was a way to enter the Quantum Realm at a certain point in time but then exit at another point in time? Like... Like before Thanos."

Too many thoughts are swirling through my mind. I pick the question that makes the most sense right now.

"Wait. Are you talking about a time machine?"

Scott instantly shakes his head. "No. No, of course not. No, not a time machine. It's more like a..." He sighs. "Yeah, a time machine. I know it's crazy. But I can't stop thinking about it! There's gotta be some way... There's gotta be...some way... it's crazy."

"Scott," Nat says, "I get emails from a raccoon. So nothing sounds crazy anymore."

We could go back. Find the stones. Snap our fingers. Save everyone.

Save her.

"So who do we talk to about this?"

*

I pull into the long driveway, still hesitant about showing up here in the first place. Granted, it was my idea, but I had no other ideas, so I went with this one.

I shut the car door and glance around at my surroundings. Tall trees, a lake, and a rustic cabin. Like a getaway destination, almost. An escape. It's definitely peaceful around here, though.

I see him before he sees me. Tony walks across the yard holding a little girl and joking quietly with her. I don't know her name. This is the first time I've ever seen Tony's daughter. She looks just like him.

Looking at the two of them, my throat tightens. This was all I ever wanted.

He glances over his shoulder and his expression hardens when he sees us. I hold his gaze until he turns around and walks onto the porch. Scott, Nat and I follow.

The whole reunion feels just as awkward as expected, so I just stay back and let Scott explain the situation before I do something to mess it up. He ends his story with, "Now, we know what it sounds like-"

"Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" I ask. Nat glances at me, hearing the pleading in my words. We have to do this.

"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck Scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?" Tony asks, raising his eyebrows at us like we're supposed to know what that means. America would. But she's not here. "In Layman's terms, it means you're not coming home."

"I did."

Tony shakes his head as he passes us drinks. "No, you accidentally survived. It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull off a... What do you call it?"

"A... a time heist?" Scott grins cockily.

"Yeah, a time heist. Of course, why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?"

"The stones are in the past," I say. "We could go back and get them."

"We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everyone back," Natasha adds.

"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?"

"I don't believe we would." I think a bit of anger must flash through my expression, because he chuckles.

"Gotta say, sometimes I miss that giddy optimism," he jokes sarcastically before returning to the conversation. I don't find it funny, though. "However, high hopes won't help if there's no logical, tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist. I believe the most likely outcome would be our collective demise."

"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel," Scott points out. "That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott. Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back To The Future?"

He coughs, embarrassed. "No."

"Good," Tony says condescendingly. "You had me worried there. 'Cause that'd be horse shit. That's not how quantum physics works."

"Tony," Nat whispers, "we have to take a stand."

They look at each other for a minute. It's not just her who looks broken anymore.

"We did stand. And yet, here we are."

Scott shakes his head and tries again. "I know you got a lot on the line. You got a wife, a daughter. But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did." His voice becomes louder, and I see the same pain I often find in myself. Tony briefly glances up at me as he says this, but looks away. "And now, now we have a chance to bring her back. To bring everyone back. And you're telling me that you won't even..."

"That's right, Scott, I won't even. I got a kid."

The worst part is, I understand where he's coming from. I understand the desire to stay out of it all when you've got someone you love on the line. He doesn't want to risk them, but I don't even have someone to risk. This could change all that. Bring her back. Bring them all back. And he won't even try.

The girl, Morgan, runs out of the house and throws her arms around Tony. "Mommy told me to come and save you."

"Good job. I'm saved." He gives her a private smile, just for her, and hugs her before addressing us again. "I wish you'd come here to ask me something else. Anything else. Honestly, I... I missed you guys, it was... Oh, and table's set for six."

Scott and Natasha start to walk out to the car, but I hesitate. Leaning against the railing, I say, "Tony, I get it. And I'm happy for you, I really am. But this is a second chance."

Tony sighs. I know this is hard for him, because I bet he misses her, too. "I got my second chance right here, Cap. I can't roll the dice again. If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch."

I don't stay for lunch. I don't say goodbye. I just leave.

It's been a few days, sorry! Things are crazy with our musical, but it's the weekend, so yay! Vote and comment please, xo!