Everything's Going to Change

The Aftermath

Steve's POV

"She's gone."

"No." I said firmly "She isn't gone, we're going to-"

"STEVE, CHARLIE'S GONE!" Bucky screamed "THANOS KILLED HER AND THERE'S...there's nothing we can do." He ended his rant with a sob as he buried his head into his hands. I took a shuddering breath, trying to calm down.

"There's always something we can do." I assured myself "We promised Charlie that she'd be OK and we're going to follow through on that promise."

"How can Charlie be fine if she's dead?" Bucky whispered.

"How do we know she's dead?" I snapped "We don't. Everything about this is new and unknown. Nothing is certain about what's happened, so until I see our daughter's body, I'm going to keep searching for her and not give up. Are you going to follow me?" Bucky smiled slightly and stood up with me.

"Hell yeah."

---

"Daddy! Daddy are you OK?" I looked over from where I was sitting alone on the ground and my heart tightened as I saw Charlie staring at me in confusion. The war was over, Thanos was defeated, and everyone had started coming back, but I didn't expect the light of my life to come back so soon.

"Charlie?" I whispered. "Sweetie, is that you?" My little girl smiled brightly and nodded, her eyes still holding that same spark from when I'd first met her.

"I missed you Daddy, and Папа too." she said, her voice sounding like it was coming from miles away.

"We missed you too Sweetheart." I insisted, moving towards her quickly to hug her. Before I could, she had back-pedaled away just as fast, her face tinted with sadness. "Charlie, it's OK." I promised "We're all fine, and no one can hurt you ever again. Can you please come back home?"

"No." she said softly "Not yet. Not now." Tears were pooling in my eyes as I reached forward to brush her hair out of her face, but my hand went right through her.

"Charlie, I can't do this without you." I choked out "Neither can Bucky. We need you to come back home."

"I can't yet." she whispered "Because- STEVE! Would you wake up?!"

I bolted upright in a blind panic, straight into Bucky's arms in our temporary room at T'challa's mansion. He watched me sadly as tears cascaded down my face and dripped onto my shirt.

"She was there." I whimpered. "I asked her to come home, but she couldn't." I rested my head on Bucky's chest as he pushed my damp, sweaty, hair back and kissed my forehead.

"Hey," he soothed "you said it yourself. We're going to get her back and when we do, we're going to be the best goddamn family in the whole world."

"Promise?"

"Promise."