The Captain and I's Final Love (Captain America Fanfiction) (6th Book)

Chapter Twelve: Time Traveling... It Sucks

Steve and I rode back to the Avengers compound together, neither of us able to believe we were able to convince Banner to help. Well, that Natasha convinced him to help. After all of this time it seemed there was still some sort of connection there, whether only platonic or not, he obviously had a soft spot for her. 

We would begin the tests tomorrow, I couldn't help shake the feeling that we would still need Stark's help. It didn't feel like we had all of the pieces together just yet, but we would have to make do. 

"Are you nervous?" I asked Steve, as he walked into our room in a pair of sweats, both of us ready to settle down for the night. I was in one of his big t-shirts, my metal arm already resting in the corner of the room. 

"Yeah, I am. If this doesn't work, what will we do?" 

"We can't think like that. IF that happens, we will deal with it tomorrow. Together," I assured him. It was still weird trying to keep things positive, that was usually not my area of expertise, but things had been so down lately that I felt like I needed to. 

"Who would have ever guessed you'd be our little miss sunshine," Steve joked, tickling me, as he scooped me up and put us both on the bed.

"Are you trying to say I'm grouchy? I resent that," I joked between giggles as his hands made their way to each of my soft spots. 

"No, you grouchy? Not at all," he pretended, nuzzling his face in my neck now, the stubble only making me laugh harder as it tickled my soft skin. 

I used my powers to softly force him off me, onto his back, I climbed on top now, my turn to torture him. 

I found his tickle spots, using my powers to keep him down so he couldn't overpower me. He was now in a fit of giggles. 

"See, I'm not grouchy at all, I'm a barrel of fun," I said, evilly laughing. 

"Okay, okay truce," he countered. 

I backed off as we both lay on our backs now, both of us looking at the ceiling. Although, I did keep sneaking peeks over at him as we lay in silence. 

"Do you ever think about how different it would be if we had never met all of those years ago?" I asked, wondering out loud now. Ever since the snap, it seems like I've been thinking a lot about fate and the way it works. How all of our lives were intertwined and how one little thing could make all of the difference. 

"No, I don't want to wonder what I'd do without you there to keep everything exciting," he said, I could hear the smile on his face now. 

But, I only let out a sigh. I think sometimes how much easier his life would have been like without me. Or, if I had just disappeared, when I knew what I did about my past. I could have saved him a lot of grief. But, I was always selfish.

"It could have been a lot easier you know," I told him, not going into any more details. We both knew what I meant. 

"I didn't, I don't, want easy," he told me sincerely. "I want you." 

That's when I rolled over, falling into him. He was there to catch me, like always. We stayed that way the entire night, wrapped in each other's embrace. It was until we heard a loud knock on our door that morning that woke us out of our trance. But, I wouldn't have traded last night for anything. Those small moments were all we had in our bleak new reality. 

"Get up lovebirds!" Natasha's voice rang through. "We have a lot of work to do." 

Steve and I both shot up, knowing we didn't have time to waste. We both quickly got ready, I put on my arm in a hurry and we joined Natasha, Scott, and Bruce in the big open lab where we would be conducting the experiments. Bruce must have been up all night working things because everything looked like it was set up and ready to go, we would just need to do the testing. 

"Well, we better get started. Are you ready Scott?" I asked, taking charge. 

"Yeah, totally. I've got this," he told us, seemingly trying to convince himself. 

"You sure do buddy," I called after him as he went to get changed into his suit. 

"Are we sure he's got this?" I whispered once he was out of earshot. 

All of us sort of looked around at each other for a moment, but before a solid answer was uttered, Scott was back and raring to go.

He stood in front of his van as we all stood around the control panel Bruce had created.

"Okay, here we go. Time travel test number one. Scott, fire up the uhhh... the van thing," Bruce instructed. 

Scott did as he was told and the portal opened instantly. 

"Breakers are set, emergency generators are on standby," Steve told us. 

 "Good. 'Cause if we blow the grid, I don't wanna lose Tiny here in the 1950's," Bruce replied. 

We all snapped our heads towards him in a panic.

"Uhh excuse me?" Scott asked, his voice sounding higher than normal. 

"He's kidding," Natasha said, loudly. Then she whispered to Bruce "You can't say things like that!" 

"It was just a bad joke," I told Scott, trying to keep him calm. I tried to keep the worry out of my voice as I told him. 

"You were kidding weren't you?" I whispered in Bruce's direction. 

"I have no idea. We're talking about time travel here. Either it's all a joke, or none of it is," he whispered back. Then he yelled loudly so that Scott could hear. "We're good! Get your helmet on, Scott. I'm gonna send you back a week, let you walk around for an hour, then bring you back in 10 seconds. Makes sense?"

"Perfect, it isn't confusing at all," he said with a thumbs up. 

"Good luck Scott. You've got this!" Steve encouraged him.

"You're right. I do Captain America," Scott replied, sounding more confident now. 

Then Bruce pressed the button.