Never | Steve Rogers x OC

Chapter Forty One

Grief was a horrible, painful, rollercoaster to be on. It had the ability to tear people apart. It had the ability to bring people together. You would be fine one second. The next, you would be on your knees while your body shook with sobs. You could be angry, but happy that you had the honor of knowing the person that passed away. You would laugh when a funny memory appeared in your mind. Then, you would cry knowing you would never get to experience that again. And heroes were not exempt from grief.

The world thought heroes were invisible. Brianna thought the same thing before she became one. No one could hurt her father. No one could kill a super soldier or a giant, green being filled with gamma radiation. Or a billionaire, with a metal suit. Or a woman who had been train to fight since she was a young girl. No, everyone died. Everyone was capable of losing. Even the Avengers. It was a lesson Brianna was starting to know too well.

Brianna thought she was fine until the day of Tony's funeral. When everyone gathered around Pepper and Morgan, she felt the emotions of grief hit her again. She stood next to Steve with her hand enclosed in his hand as Pepper laid a wreath in the lake in front of Tony and Pepper's house with his old arc reactor in the center of it. She gripped Steve's handing tighter as it floated away.

The day after Tony's memorial, they had a funeral for Natasha. Losing two people in one day was an awful thing. Going to their funerals days apart was even harder. There was no body for them to say goodbye too. Brianna hadn't been able to say bye to Natasha at all. Instead, they filled a casket full of things that reminded them of Natasha. Brianna had chosen a thigh holster Natasha had given her for her sixteenth birthday. She had given it to her in hopes she would become a SHIELD agent.

Brianna reunited with Laura and the kids only a few hours after the events that cost Tony and Natasha their lives. She had never hugged any of them tighter. Laura had thanked her for taking care of the house but jokingly scolded her for getting farm animals. The kids, of course, loved the animals and begged their parents to let them keep the animals. Laura and Clint offered to let Steve and Brianna stay with them until they found a place of their own, but they politely declined. They were fine with sleeping at a hotel for a few days.

Days after Natasha's funeral, it was time for Steve to return the stones back to where they belonged in order to not disrupt the timeline. They hadn't spoken much in the last few days which was odd since they were pretty much around each other 24/7. She supposed it had something to do with what they went through. It was still a huge shock and didn't feel real.

"Bruce wants us near the lake in an honor." Brianna said to Steve as she read a text message from him.

"Okay." Steve said as he stood in the bathroom. She noticed the way he was gripping the counter to the point where his knuckles had turned white. His head was hung low and he wouldn't look at Brianna.

"Steve?" She asked. "Everything okay."

She heard him sigh, but he didn't speak. Instead, he stood to his full height and turned to look at her. The distant, sad filled look he was giving her should have been the first indication that something was wrong. In the moment, she thought it was just grief. Oh, how naive that thought was.

"We need to talk." He said.

Brianna cocked her head at him and sat on the edge of the bed. "Okay."

He swallowed thickly, avoiding her eyes. "I'm not coming back."

"What?" She asked.

"I'm not coming back when I return the stones." He reiterated.

"I'm sorry, I'm just a little confused. How can you just not come back?" She asked. Then, the realization hit her. He was going to stay. He was going to stay in specific timeline with one specific person. "Oh. I see."

Steve watched as her eyebrows knit together as she connected all the dots. Then, she shrunk back.

"You're going back to Peggy." It didn't come out like a question. It came out like a statement.

"Yes."

She shook her head. "I don't understand. I thought...I thought you wanted to marry me. At least that's what you told me a few days ago. You told me...you loved me."

"I know." Steve whispered.

Brianna could feel tears burning in her eyes. It was a lie. All of it. She should have seen it before she even started dating him. She did though. However, she convinced herself that she could make him love her. That she could be his everything, but she wasn't. She was nothing to him.

"You're just going to throw away eight years with me? Eight years." She asked.

Steve took a step forward towards her. "Bri..."

"Don't call me that." She said as a tear fell down her face. "You don't get to call me that. Just...go."

"Brianna, please. Allow me to-" she cut him off.

"To what? To say goodbye as you break my heart? You have some nerve, Steve Rogers. I loved you. I loved you with every fiber of my being. You met my family. You made my family fall in love with you! And what am I suppose to tell them?"

"I know you." He said sincerely. "You'll figure out the right words."

She watched frozen as he reached to put his jacket on. He put his hand on the doorknob and took another glance at her. He could tell she was trying to keep herself from falling apart in front of him. "I did love you, Brianna."

"I wish I would have never met you." Were the last words she ever uttered to him.

Brianna didn't know how long she sobbed into the pillow on the bed. It had to be hours. She ignored every phone call and text message. At that point, Steve was gone and people were going to start wondering where the hell she was. They would know that something was very wrong. She wanted to scream, but she didn't. She was scared someone would call security on her.

Brianna had never had her heart shatter into a million fucking pieces, but that day, that moment Steve told her that he was leaving her, it did. She should have known. She should have known when he called her Peggy the night of their date. She should have known when she told him that she loved him, but he didn't return the words. So many warning flags. So many times she ignored them. She was an idiot.

There was a knock on her door that drew her away from her self pity. She didn't want to see anyone, so she ignored it. The knocking continued. And continued. She knew that whoever it was really needed to see. So, she pulled herself for half a second and got out of the bed that still smelled like Steve.

"Did you know?" Was the first words out Sam's mouth when Brianna answered the door.

The first words he should have been asking her was if she was okay, especially after seeing the state she was in. Her eyes were red, puffy and filled with tears. She had deep, purple bags under her eyes. Her hair clung to her face.

"Yes, I knew." Brianna muttered rather harshly.

Sam stared at her stunned. "You knew Steve was going to give me the shield?"

Brianna looked at him confused. That was certainly not what she thought he was referring too. She looked down at his hand that held a brown bag. "No...I thought you were referring to Steve telling me he loved me, saying he wanted to marry me and then fucking leaving me for Peggy Carter."

He felt like an asshole. He supposed that it didn't occur to him that by Steve leaving and returning as an old man meant that he had broken up with Brianna. "Oh, Brianna..."