Family Business

31.

| Never underestimate the pain of a person, because the truth is, everyone is struggling. It's just that some people hide it better than others | 

It felt like everything around Steve was crumbling down to the ground, every time he had happiness in the palm of his hand, it was taken away from him. He's left with all of these pieces left to pick up. 

It's been a few hours since Steve heard from anyone, they were all around him, but he felt miles away. He felt like everything was just too much, the pain in his heart was too much to handle. He hadn't seen Maria since her outburst, he couldn't even bring himself to see Natasha. Pay his due to his wife. How could he even look at her? He took her away from this world. 

"Steve," Steve barely recognizes Tony's voice. "I know you are...going through something," 

"Going through something?" Steve said bitterly. "I am not going through 'something' Tony! My wife is dead, the mother of my children. I thought she meant something to you too." 

"Of course she did," Tony sighed. "Nat was like my younger, annoying, pain in the ass, sister. But Steve, we still have a problem that comes in the form of a tiny little blonde." Steve didn't respond, he didn't know-how. How was he gonna handle Sarah? "Steve?" 

"Just... give me a moment," Steve muttered. 

"As much as I'd love to," Bucky said walking up to the pair. "We have a situation." 

"Because that's exactly what we need right now," Tony said bitterly. "What is it?" Sam is now walking up as well. 

"Bird brain over here lost Sarah," Everyone's head shot up. 

"Whoa, how is this my fault?" Sam question. Bucky made a face at the man. 

"You were supposed to be watching her!" 

"Oh, my bad for trying to contact my grieving wife!" Sam yelled back. Steve let out a big sigh and then stood up, he shoved down all his pain over his wife, it would most likely come back out sooner rather than later. 

"You all need to shut up. I am on my very last straw right now." He looked around. "Now we have to go find her before we deal with the rest of this world." They all nod, finally something they can all agree on. "Someone get in T'Challa, everyone who has any piece of tech, anyone who can help us find Sarah." 

|~|

"Nicole, I thought I asked you to leave," James muttered seeing her come back into his hospital room. He was being released, and he just needed to get out of here as fast as could. He needed to punch something, and if Nicole came here to stop him, he'd punch her too. James looked up surprised when a familiar younger face was looking at him. "Sarah..." 

"Hi James," She replied. Raising a soft hand. James could hear their parents talking, thanks to the super hearing. He wasn't shocked to see Sarah back alive, however, this doesn't mean that he could fully get over seeing her right in front of her. 

"What are you doing here?" James asked. He had almost a billion questions in his mind, it was confusing to understand and form sentences with all of the conflicting emotions he was going through.