Chapter 42: Sliver of Hope

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Nat's POV

As soon as Scott walked in, he had made a beeline for my stale peanut butter sandwich. Taking it right off of my plate, he munched into it while mumbling to himself. Wanda and I just watched him in awe while he paces the room, hoping that this is the first sign of a change to come.

I called everyone across the galaxies, to let them know what was happening, and Steve was there within an instant, apparently he'd just been working out downstairs.

"Scott, are you okay?" Steve questions as he enters, popping the hopeful bubble that was surrounding all of us.

"What? Yes." Scott replies, slightly shaking his head.

"Have either of you guys ever studied quantum physics?" He continues on.

"Only to make conversation." I jokingly mumble, while everyone just stares at me with quirked brows.

"Well, two years ago, just before this Thanos guy...I went into a place called the Quantum Realm. It's like its own microscopic universe. You can only get there if you're incredibly small. Hope, she's my...she was supposed to pull me out. But then Thanos happened. And I was stuck in there." He rambles on.

"I'm sorry. It must've been a long two years." Wanda mumbles.

"Okay, but that's the thing. It wasn't. For me, it was only two hours. The rules in the Quantum Realm aren't like out here. They're completely unpredictable." He excitedly proclaims, frantically waving his arms around.

"Scott, what are you talking about?" Steve questions the frantically paced man.

"Time works differently in the Quantum Realm." He confirms.

"Problem is, right now, it's chaos, there's no way to navigate it. But what if we could figure out a way to enter the Quantum Realm at a certain point in time...and come out in another. Like, before Thanos-"

"Wait...wait. Scott. Are you talking about a time machine?" I question the man, honestly confused beyond belief

"No, not a machine. More like a...
Yeah, like a time machine. I know it sounds crazy..."

"Scott, I get emails from a raccoon. Nothing's crazy anymore." I humorlessly chuckle out, while staring deeply into his soul.

"So, who do we talk to about this?"

"I think I might know someone, but convincing him's going to be a feat in and of itself." I sigh out, while Steve and Wanda share knowing looks.

Tony...

———

He was optimistic for about the first six months, but he quickly became closed off to the option of a remedy.

"No, Natasha! Give it up! We lost, there's no magical solution to our problems here.
Y/N's gone! We have to learn how to live with that."

"No, Tony!! We don't have to learn to live with that... Just because it was easy for you to write her off most of her life doesn't mean it is for the rest of us!"

"Really? Is it always going to come back to this? She forgave me, why can't you?!"

"Because I'm a realist, and you're currently proving exactly why she never should've forgiven you in the first place. You're a coward Tony, at the first sign of resistance you just throw in the towel."

"The stones are gone Natasha, I need to focus on what I have left, and that's Morgan. This conversation is over, I might be a coward to you, but I'm just trying to survive here.... Morgan deserves a present father, she's already lost her favorite person—we all have. It's time we work to move on."

I scoff, turning away from the man to look at the screen of our friends who don't exactly have the choice of moving on.

"She'd want you to move on." He sighs, as he walks out of the compound.

No fucking way that's happening...

———

I haven't actually seen him since he said those abhorrent words to me, only ever visiting the cabin for Morgan, and collecting her from Pepper.

I'd take her out to the lake at least once a month, where we'd always used to go with Y/N, and we'd enjoy a nice lunch with Wanda. This was one of the only times Wanda would really speak; she'd tell Morgan a crazy new story about Y/N, never really running out of something new to say.

———

"Auntie Wands, tell me a story about Auntie Y/N/N please." Morgan asked with a pout, while sat lunch up and I watched them feeding the ducks bread.

"What do you wanna know?"

"A silly story, Auntie Y/N/N was always silly."

"That she was, princess." I laugh out from the blanket, and she turns to smile my way, before running into my arms and taking her place in my lap.

"Well, there was this one time that I'd been up at 3am feeling sad. I'd been crying in the kitchen, and Y/N came to get a glass of water. It was silly, I'd ran out of paprika, and was just trying to make..."

"Your famous paprikash!" Morgan interrupts with her best guess.

"Yes, detka, my famous paprikash." Wanda giggles, while lightly patting her cheek.

"Anyways, Y/N tiredly pulled me in for a hug, then once she found out why she didn't laugh at me, or make fun of me. If it was Auntie Natty, or Lena, they would've but not Y/N/N."

"Hey, don't make me the bad guy." I whine, and Morgan turns to place a sweet kiss to my cheek before focusing back on Wanda.

Wanda rolled her eyes, as she continues the story, while I simply smirked her way, knowing she's not wrong—I would've laughed...

"She grabbed her keys, and went on a wild goose chase with me in the passengers seat. She ran into every store possible, and guess what."

"What?" Morgan questions, teetering in my lap as if this is the most exhilarating story she's ever heard.

"They were all out of paprika—every last store, I'd finally told her around 5am that it would be okay to just go home, that I'd figure something else out later. But she refused, wiping the sweat off her brow that had no business being there, then she drove us thirty minutes out of town. We finally found the next 24 hour grocery mart and she sprinted off into the store. Within five minutes she was back, grinning from ear to ear, and throwing a bag into my lap. I opened it to find at least fifteen bottles of paprika in there, and I was stunned."

"That's a lot of paprika." Morgan gasps.

"I know right? This was two and a half years ago and we still have like six bottles left." Wanda giggles out, then her face contorts into a sad smile, that I find myself matching.

"I miss her." Morgan solemnly says, while gripping onto her blue dino plush, that's definitely seen better days...

"Me too." Wanda whispers, as she lays her head to my shoulder

"Me three." I add, as I tighten my grip on Morgan, and lean down to kiss her forehead.

———

"Leave it to Wanda and I, we'll go to him, you two round up the green giant."

Steve nods, as he heads off to collect Bruce. I already called the guardians, Rhodey, and I even pinged Carol.

"Wands, you ready?"

She nods, and grabs my hand while I walk us out to my motorcycle.

First stop, Tony's, where we'll hopefully convince him to fight for her.
Next stop, collect Clint, and restore his fallen hope.

—————————————————————

We're about 10-12 chapters from the end 🥺

1,254 Words

❤️ Kaitlyn 🥺

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