I Thought You Were Different

Epilogue

You guys wanted it, so here ya go.

Two years. 

Two long years filled with tears of both joy and pain, belly laughs at stupid jokes, waking to hear him screaming in his sleep, confused glances from across the room, revelation within old memories, reliving days that had long since passed, and elation at his recovery brought you and Steve to this day.  It was a day that you had lived in another life; a day that had begun as the best of your life and ended as your worst. 

You were getting married. Again.

"Déjà vu is a bitch," you groaned, putting the finishing touches on your makeup and glancing at Natasha in the mirror behind you as she once again pinned your hair into place.  "I can't seem to shake this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach."

"Let me help you, darling." Wanda rested her hands on your shoulders, standing behind you with her eyes gently closed and a peaceful glow in her delicate features.  A warm red haze grew around you and enveloped you within it, and an immediate sense of tranquility was awash over you.  You could have stayed in this moment forever, allowing yourself to be lost in it until a knock on your door broke your connection to your friend.

"Am I gonna see anything if I come in?" Sam asked from the other side of the door, opening it only a small crack.

"Just a masterpiece," Natasha murmured quietly, turning to summon him inside but doing a double-take to be sure that your groom wasn't with him.

He pushed the door open fully and stopped at the sight of you, shaking his head in awe and maybe a just a hint of a little jealousy that he hadn't found this for himself yet.  "Wow, (Y/N), I didn't think that you could be more beautiful than last time, but you proved me so wrong."  You stood and made your way to him, but when you were close enough he held his hands out to stop you at arms length to admire you.  "No marshmallow fluff this time?"

"Crème puff," Wanda corrected.  "But no, Sam. We thought that maybe sleek and elegant was the way to go, don't you agree?"  She looked at you with so much pride in her eyes that you began to wonder if this meant as much to her as it did to you.  You took a small spin in front of him, the gentle waves of silk flowing around your feet as you turned.

"I thought about putting my thigh holster under this thing, but it made weird lines."

"I promise, there won't be a need for that today," he said in his best official tone.  "We've got a massive perimeter secured and every spare ex-SHIELD member that we could find watching your back.  This is gonna be the day that you guys were meant to have."

"You ladies have room for one more?" Tony asked as he peeked his head into the room.  "I'm here to pick up," he paused, casually pulling one of your wedding programs from his suit coat, "Mrs. Steven Rogers.  Hmm, you sure you don't want to throw a hyphen in there? Stark it up a little?"

"It's been two years, Tony. Let's move on."

"Yeah, okay," he relented. "Can't blame a guy for trying." The rest of the party left the room for the two of you to talk before he walked you out to Steve, but you looked at each other with expressions full of anxiety and worry; a far cry from how you should be feeling on what was such a happy day that you thought would never be realized.  "Shit, I might be more nervous than you."

"Not possible.  The last time we tried this, it didn't exactly go well."  Closing your eyes for a moment, you took a deep breath and stood straight, opening them again with a new resolve to not think about that day again and to enjoy this new one.  The last two years had been hell for both you and Steve, struggling to find anything that was locked away in his mind.  You had to rebuild trust and familiarity with someone that you knew as well as you knew yourself, facing the pain that he didn't know you at all.  You had both worked through hell for this, and you weren't about to let those memories taint it.