Life After the Fall

Chapter 1

A/N: I did try to be okay with Natasha's death in Endgame. I even wrote stories how I imagined her friends would deal with their grief (it's entitled, The Aftermath). But it turns out, I am not okay because I still spend my brain cells thinking of alternative endings for Natasha (and Steve). And as I continue to browse Avengers fanfictions lately, I am so happy to see that there are other writers out there 'fixing' what happened to Natasha. So I was motivated to finally put my 'fix' on paper and share it here. I hope it makes sense to you and that you like it! Thanks!

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Steve knew war so he perfectly knew what victory could cost them. But still, nothing can ever prepare a man for a lost that hit close to home. Tony's death broke his heart but Natasha's death shattered it and broke him everywhere else, cracked his spirit and bore deep in his soul.

He was relieved to see the world finally reunited with its half. And while reunions differed from person to person, at least there was no other way for everyone on Earth but forward. This time, people can finally and truly move on. In Steve's case, he knew it was easier said than done. He barely and hardly moved on when Natasha was still alive, how much more now that she was gone.

When Scott and Bruce finished a new quantum tunnel so they could return the stones to their timelines, Steve did not hesitate to volunteer because unlike him, everyone else had lives to pick up, to resume. Besides, he needed to see the war to its end and returning the stones was the last phase of that war; the war that Natasha fought those five long years while everyone else, including him, coaxed themselves into thinking they could and should move on.

The idea of staying in the other timeline and getting more than just a dance with Peggy did hit him. But as he pondered on it he realized it was not right, it was not even what he wanted anymore. As much as he loved Peggy, he was not that Peggy's Steve. That Peggy's Steve was still frozen in a glacier somewhere. Also, and the biggest realization he had was, he was not even the same Steve who fell in love with the Peggy in his own timeline. So, yeah, it did not feel right.

That was why after returning the stones, he would come back. He promised Bucky that. He would come back to the timelime the woman he loved died for;the world Natasha sacrificed everything for to make whole again. He would live the rest of his life in it and would never stop making it better.

After he placed the Tesseract exactly where Tony extracted it from, Steve discreetly walked to Peggy's office. He stood behind that glass wall again to see her for the last time. Then as a farewell gift, Steve wrote on a piece of paper a set of coordinates and placed it near his photo on her desk. He whispered his goodbye to her and suited up for his last stop.

When Steve appeared in Vormir and saw the mountain, he immediately felt a sharp pang of grief. He made his way up the mountain with a heavy heart, realizing that he was re-tracing Natasha's last steps. And there he suddenly felt he could not do it, he felt his courage ebb away. But he controlled himself and refused to cry. He would have plenty of time to do that later on. Right now, he needed to focus on his mission so he could go home. Although, he admitted he was not quite sure how to go about this one. All Clint said was talk to the Guardian.

Now that Steve was face to face with the Guardian, he wondered why it didn't cross Clint's mind to tell him who the Guardian was. He found it hard to believe that Clint did not know who the Red Skull was, not after what happened to SHIELD. But here he was, slightly gaping at his old nemesis.

"Steven, son of Sarah," the Guardian greeted him.

"You've got to be kidding me. You just can't die, can you?" Steve mocked.