That would be a no • Steve Rogers [6]

Part 9

Four years later—

I opened my eyes to the sound of the door open. "Mommy wake up!" I heard her voice.

I turned to face her, "Hey lils." I said.

"Daddy said you should wake up. He's going." Lily said.

"Did he say where?"

"No. But he said I shouldn't he left alone with Aunt Nat."

"He's kind of right." I got out of bed.

"Are you gonna teach me how to fight today?"

"Lils, we talked about this."

"Look at me," she posed with her fists over her face, "I'm ready to fight."

"You're five!" I laughed.

"So what?"

We walked downstairs and Lily ran to Nat, "Auntie Nat!" She jumped into her arms.

"Hey little PW." Nat said.

"Morning." I said pouring myself coffee.

"I have a meeting in five minutes."

"Steve?"

"Out with the boys."

"Lils go upstairs and watch TV okay?"

"I wanna say hello to Rocket." She said.

I looked at Nat. "Okay." We went to the study room before Carol, Rocket, Nebula, Rhodey and Okoye went up in a hologram.

"Hey little creature." Rocket said to Lily.

"Mommy look!"

"I'll never get old of this." Rhodey said.

"Okay, Lils, go upstairs, okay? Stay there." She left the room.

"We boarded that highly suspect warship Danvers pinged." Rocket said.

"It was an infectious garbage scow." Nebula said.

"So thanks for the hot tip." He said to Carol.

"Well, you were closer." Carol said.

"Yeah. And now we smell like garbage."

"You get a reading on those tremors?" Nat asked.

"It was a mild subduction under the African plate." Okoye said.

"Do we have a visual? How are we handling it?"

"Nat. It's an earthquake under the ocean. We handling it by not handling it."

"Carol, are we seeing you here next month?" I asked.

"Not likely."

"What? You're gonna get another haircut?" Rocket joked.

"Listen, fur face. I'm covering a lot of territory. The things that are happening on earth are happening everywhere. On thousands of planets."

"Alright. That's a good point."

"So you might not see me for a long time." She said to me.

"All right. Umm... well, this channel is always active." I said.

"If anything goes sideways... anyone's making trouble where they shouldn't... comes through us." Nat said.

"Okay." They said and left.

Rhodey stayed on the screen, "Where are you?" Nat asked him.

"Mexico." He said, "The federals found a room full of bodies. Looks like a bunch of cartel guys never even had a chance to get their guns off."

"It's probably a rival gang." I said.

"Except it isn't. It's definitely Barton." I sighed and looked at Nat. "What he's done here... what he's been doing for the past few years... I mean, the scene that he left... I gotta tell you there's a part of me that doesn't even wanna find him."

Nat was with tears, "Will you find out where he's going next?" She looked at him desperate, "Please."

"Okay." He said and looked at me before he hung up.

"Nat..." I said softly before she burst out with tears and I sat next to her with my hand on hers.

"You know I'd offer to cook you dinner but you seem pretty miserable already." I said.

"If you're about to tell me to look on the bright side... I'm about to hit you in the head."

I chuckled, "We keep telling everybody to move on and... grow. And some do, but... not us." I scoff, "For god sacks I called my daughter after a seventeen year old kid who died."

"If I move on, who does this?" Nat said softly.

"Maybe it doesn't have do be done." I said.

"I used to have nothing. And then I got this. This job. This family."

"Yeah, I... I know what you mean."

"It made us better didn't it?" She looked at me, "And even though they're gone... I'm still trying to be better."

"I love you, you know that?"

A beep on the screen, Nat opening it and it's the front gate. "Is anyone home? This is Scott Lang." he said. "We met a few years ago at the airport. In Germany." Steve walked in. "I was the guy that got really big. I had a mask on. You wouldn't recognize me."

"Is this an old message?" Steve asked.

"It's the front gate." Nat said.