It's Now or Never

Part 15

5 Years Later

It's been five fucking years since half of the world was snapped away. It's hard to move on when you feel responsible for losing all the people you care about. Steve and I ended up getting our own place in Brooklyn to try and move on, but we both know that's gonna be hard. Steve does this support group thing, but I couldn't be less interested in it. I would spend my days with Nat sometimes over at the Avengers Compound. Steve didn't like me too, but I knew it was my way of coping and getting out of the apartment. It's just felt so empty everywhere. It's like everyone just stopped living their lives and it was hard not to follow suit. I hadn't seen Steve in a couple of days since I was helping out Nat with some "Avenger" issues. I did miss Steve, but I didn't want him to see how upset I still was after 5 years.

Today at the Avengers Compound, Natasha was talking to holograms of Nebula, Rocket Raccoon, Okoye, Danvers with a tomboyish haircut, and Rhodes. I sat next to her with my feet on the desk.
"It was an infectious garbage scowl." Nebula said.
"So, thanks for the hot tip." Rocket responses.
"Well, you were closer," Carol says.
"Yeah. And we smell like garbage." Rocket says.
"You get a reading on those tremors?" Natasha says to Okoye.
"It was a mild subduction under the African plate." She response.
"Do we have a visual? How are we handling it?" Nat says.
"Nat, it's an earthquake under the ocean. We handle it by not handling it." Okoye says back.
"Carol, are we seeing you here next month?" Natasha says.
"Not likely," Carol says.
ROCKET then seems to realize that she got a new haircut.
"What, you gonna get a new haircut?" Rocket says.
"Listen fur-face, I'm covering a lot of territories. The things that are happening on Earth, are happening everywhere, on thousands of planets." Carol says irritated.
"That's a good point. That's a good point." Rocket mumbles.
"So you might not see me for a long time," Carol says.
"Alright. Uh, well. This channel is always active. So, anything goes sideways... anyone's making trouble where they shouldn't... comes through me." Natasha says.
"Okay," Okoye says.
"Alright," Carol says. One by one, the Avengers cut off their calls one by one.
"Good luck," Carol says and then cuts off the call except for Rhodey. Nat sighs exhausted and sits down. I notice Rhodey is still on the line and call out to Nat pointing at the hologram. She then notices Rhodey
"Where are you?" Natasha says.
"Mexico. The federal found a room filled with bodies. Looks like a bunch of cartel guys. Never even had the chance to get their guns off." Rhodey says.
"It's probably a rival gang," I say back.
"Except it isn't," Rhodey says, looking at Nat as she realizes something.
"It's definitely Barton. What he's done here, what he's been doing for the last few years... I mean, the scene that he left..." Rhodey says.
I look over at Nat as she starts to show signs of sadness as gradually tears up.
"I gotta tell you, there's a part of me that doesn't even want to find him," Rhodey says.
Natasha sits there and starts to eat a sandwich, ignoring the pain I see written all over her. I stand up and walk over to the hologram.
"Will you find out where he's going next?" I say to Rhodey.
"Hayes..."
"Please. For Nat. She needs this." I say pleadingly.
"Okay." Then Rhodes cuts off.
Nat starts to cry as she tries to hold back her tears miserably. I go and sit next to her and place my arm over her shoulder, pulling her into a sideways hug. I let a few tears fall as I close my eyes and rest my head against hers.
"You know I'd offer to cook you two dinner but you guys seem pretty miserable already." Out of nowhere, Roger appears and slumps over a bookshelf. Nat wipes the tears off her face as I do the same.
"You here to do your laundry?" Nat says.
"And to see a friend," Steve says. "I knew Hayes was gonna be here and I've been avoiding this place, so why no stop by."
"Clearly, your friend is fine," Nat says.
"And you?" Steve asks looking at me.
"Never been better," I said looking down at my hands.
"You know I saw a pod of whales when I was coming up the bridge."
"In the Hudson?" Nat asks.
"There's fewer ships, cleaner water," Steve says.
"You know, if you're about to tell us to look on the bright side, I'm about to hit you in the head with Nat's peanut butter sandwich," I say as I get up from my seat and walk over to him, pulling him into a hug. I jokingly smile into the hug, as Rogers does the same and Nat lets out a little giggle.
"Sorry. Force of habit." Steve says looking at Nat and then me. He then looks back down at me,
"Hi." He whispers to me.
"Hi," I say back. We pull away and he takes his jacket off, throwing it on the couch. He then sits down on another chair, while I go back over to the chair I was sitting in before.
"You know, I keep telling everyone they should move on and... grow. Some do. But not us." Steve says.
"If we move on, who does this?" Nat says.
"Maybe it doesn't need to be done," Steve says.
"I used to have nothing. Then I got this. This job... this family. And I was... I was better because of it. And even though... they're gone... I'm still trying to be better." Nat says.
"We all need to get a life," Steve says.
"Do you really want that Steve?" I asked him.
He looked at me and then shook his head.
"Something always draws me back here." He says.
Then camera footage popped up in front of us, showing Scott Lang with a Van behind him.
"Uh... Hi. Hi! Is anyone home? This is Scott Lang. Did we meet a few years ago, at the airport? In Germany? I got really big, and I had my mask on. You wouldn't recognize me." Scott says.
STEVE shoots up.
"Is this an old message?" He asks.
"It's the front gate," Natasha says as we both stand up too.
"Ant-man? Ant-man, I know you know that. I need to talk to you guys." Scott says.
"Let's let him in," I said.