Even After Everything | Steve Rogers

Chapter 48

FIVE     YEARS     LATER

"My name, is Cora Wilder. Cora Rogers, if you will. Some may know me as Oceana, or more widely known as part of the Avengers. I want to apologize for our silence. Many of you have gone through these past five years, not knowing why or how this happened." I sighed, looking to the news reporters, and the camera lights flashing in front of me. "A threat bigger then any others, Thanos, had a plan. A plan to destroy half of the universe. And when I say universe, I mean it. Millions of other planets, life, destroyed. When this first came to light, the Avengers fought this threat. But... but he was powerful. And we failed. This weighs on my heart, the death of half the universe is on my shoulders. On behalf of the rest of the team, I-"

"How can you expect us to just forgive you?" A female reporter stood up, pointing her mic towards me, "You were supposed to be Earth's mightiest heroes. Yet it doesn't seem like you are."

"Um... I-"

The rest of the reporters jumped to their feet, all asking questions at once. I immediately felt overwhelmed, and two men who stood behind me helped me out of the room. I leaned against the wall, sighing in exhaustion.

*          *          *

A few hours later, I drove through New York City, which was seemingly abandoned. It was extremely eerie, but after five years of this, I was no longer bothered. I pulled up to a small building, where I was picking up Steve.

I walked in, and stood around the corner of the room, not wanting to disturb the meeting.

Once I leaned against the wall, I heard Steve, "To try and become whole again, try and find purpose. I went in the ice in '45, right after I met who I thought would be the love of my life. Woke up seventy years later. You gotta move on. Gotta to move on. But when I woke up, I met a woman who changed my life forever. She was-" He paused, and I heard him let out a sigh, "she was with me, by my side, even after everything I've been through. She showed me that light can come from the darkness. We just have to look for it. The world is in our hands. It's left to us guys, and we got to do something with it. Otherwise... Thanos should have killed all of us."

I smiled to myself after hearing this- not the Thanos part- but the part about him and I. Steve was the most amazing husband you could ask for. Sure, we had our fights like any couple had, but at the end of the day, we loved each other.

Steve walked in front of me when the meeting was finished, and I was pulled into a hug, "How'd the press conference go?" He asked into my shoulder.

I pulled away, looking at him sadly, "Exactly how I thought it would. They just blamed us for the snap. Maybe they should."

Steve lifted up my chin so he could meet my eyes, "But you went up there, you gave the information they needed. I know I couldn't have done that."

I smiled, giving him a kiss, before we walked out to the car. It was already planned that we were going to visit Natasha. We moved out right after we married, to a house on a lake. The lake was my idea. We didn't want to leave Natasha, but we knew we needed our own place. It was two stories, plenty of room for kids. Steve and I had talked a lot about wanting kids, but we didn't know when the right time was. Maybe there was no right time.

We pulled up to the compound, walking into the living area. I saw Natasha with her feet on a desk, her head in her hands. When she looked up, I saw tears streaming down her face. I looked at her sadly, as I sat in the chair across from her.

Steve leaned on the bookshelf near me, "You know I'd offer to cook you dinner but you seem pretty miserable already."

I gave a small laugh, "Yeah, he's not great at cooking."

Natasha gave us a small smile, "You here to do your laundry?"

"Finally, no. To see a friend," Steve said.

"Yea, sorry about that by the way," I pointed between Steve and I, "Washing machine just got fixed."

"Well, clearly, your friend is fine," Natasha looked to her hands.

"You know we saw a pod of whales when we were coming up the bridge," Steve pointed out, siting in the chair next to me.

Natasha cocked her head, "In the Hudson?"

"There's fewer ships," I shrugged, "cleaner water." Finally it was getting cleaner. The water pollution was killing so many of the fish and nereids living there. 

"You know, if you're about to tell me to look on the bright side. Um... I'm about you to hit you two in the head with a peanut butter sandwich." She jokingly smiled at us, though I could hear the pain in her voice.

Steve shrugged, "Sorry. Force of habit. You know, I keep telling everybody they should move on and... grow. Some do. But not us." Steve sighed, looking to me.

"If I move on, who does this?" Natasha asked.

"Maybe it doesn't need to be done," I said.

"I used to have nothing," Natasha sighed, "And 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."

"I think we all need to get a life," Steve smiled sadly, and looked down to his hands.

"I think you two already have one."

"Oh! Hi. Hi! Is anyone home?" Suddenly the front gate footage came up, and I saw a man waving his arms towards the camera, "This is Scott Lang. We met a few years ago, at the airport? In Germany? I got really big, and I had my mask on. You wouldn't recognize me."

Steve immediately stood up, "Is this an old message?"

Natasha and I stood along with him, "It's the front gate," Natasha said quietly.