Broken Remains || Bucky Barnes

I'm Happy For You

Tony's POV

I walked out of the house and looked on the lake as I walked over to her little campsite.

I clapped a couple of times as I came closer. "Chow time!" I called out. "Maguna." I sat down in the small wooden chair outside her tent.

I looked at the little teddy bear on the ground. "Morgan H. Stark, you want some lunch?"

She walked out of the tent in Pepper's suit. "Define "lunch" or be disintegrated."

"Okay. You should not be wearing that, okay? That is part of a very special anniversary gift I'm making for Mom." I kissed the side of the helmet and took it off her small head. "There you go. You thinking about lunch?"

I helped her get her brown hair out of her face. "I can give you a handful of crickets on a bed of lettuce."

"No."

"That's what you want. How did you find this?"

"Garage." She told me.

"Really? Were you looking for it?"

"No. I found it though." She messed with her hair.

"Hmm. You like going in the garage, huh? So does Daddy." I picked her up and walked to the house. "It's fine, actually. Mom never wears anything I buy her. So, I'm gonna..."

I stopped when I heard the sound of car doors.

I saw Steve get out of the drivers seat, his sad eyes looked over my house. Then Nikita came out of the passengers seat, her hair had grown back to it's natural brown color and was cut to her shoulders. Nat got out of the left seat in the back, her hair was a red-blonde ombre color pulled back in a braid. And who I'm guessing was Scott Lang.

They all looked so different from the last time we saw each other.

I walked up the stairs of my porch and turned around. I looked at Nat and she nodded.

***

I poured the drinks as Scott explained a ridiculous plan to me.

"No. We know what it sounds like."

"Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" Steve said.

"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck scale...which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?" I handed Steve a drink.

"Thank you." Polite as ever.

"In layman's terms, it means you're not coming home." I told them.

"I did." Scott said.

"No. You accidentally survived. It's a billion-to-one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull a...What are you calling it?"

"A time heist?" Scott questioned proudly.

"Yeah, a time heist. Of course. Why didn't we think of this before. Oh, because it's laughable. Because it's a pipe dream." I looked between Nat and Nikita.

"The stones are in the past. We could go back, we could get them." Steve said.

"We can snap our own fingers." Nikita said.

"We can bring everybody back." Nat finished her sentence.

"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?"

"I don't believe we would." Steve said.

"Gotta say it. I sometimes miss that giddy optimism. However, high hopes won't help...if there's no logical tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist. I believe the most likely outcome will be our collective demise." I told them all.

"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel. All right? It means no talking to our past selves...no betting on sporting events." Scott sat down.

"I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott. Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe...is based on Back to the Future?" I asked. "Is it?"

"No."

"Good. You had me worried there. 'Cause that would be horseshit. That's not how quantum physics works."

"Tony. We have to take a stand." Nat said.

"We did stand. And yet, here we are." I told her.

"I know you got a lot on the line. You got a wife, a daughter. But I lost someone very important to me. A lotta people did. And now, now we have a chance to bring her back...to bring everyone back, and your telling me that you won't even..." I cut him off.

"That's right, Scott. I won't even. I can't." Seeing the disappointment in their eyes was the worst thing ever. But then I heard the doors close and Morgan run out.

"Mommy told me to come and save you." I picked her up and set her on my lap.

"Good job. I'm saved. I wish you were coming here to ask me something else. Anything else." I turned back to the group. "I'm honestly happy to see you guys, I just...Oh, look, the table's set for six." I tried to invite them over.

"Tony. I get it. And I'm happy for you. I really am. But this is a second chance."

"I got my second chance right here, Cap. Can't roll the dice on it. If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch."

*Nikita's POV

We all walked back to the car.

"Well, he's scared." Nat said.

"He's not wrong." Steve said as well.

"Yeah, but, I mean, what are we gonna do? We need him. What, are we gonna stop?" Scott stuttered.

"No, I wanna do it right. We're gonna need a really big brain." Steve said getting back in the drivers seat.

"Bigger than his?"