Hidden Memories - A Steve Rogers Lovestory

Family life and other troubles

It's been five years since Steve and I became parents. Emily is a bright and curious child and amazes us every day. So far she has shown no sign of unusual ability. She definitely doesn't seem like me, her body gets by entirely without the supply of human blood. Steve and I are both not sure whether we like this or not. On the one hand, her life should be easier without special skills. A life as a completely normal child. On the other hand, we both know only too well how horrific the world can be, maybe special skills wouldn't be so bad after all. Although the others took Emily into their hearts immediately, when she turned three, Steve and I decided we wanted to move out and make our own home. To have some privacy as a family. Tony had the hardest thing to let go of us. Therefore, he gave us a lot of help and bought a property not far from the Avengers headquarters and gave it to us. Our entire Avengers family helped us with the renovations and is constantly coming and going. I never dared hope that I would have this calm, relaxed and harmonious family life. We are sitting together at breakfast, Emily is deliberately dawdling today. If she continues like this, she'll miss the school bus. "Sweetheart, please hurry up? The school bus is coming in twenty minutes," I say before I take a sip from my coffee cup. "I don't want to go to school today," grumbles Emily to herself and pokes at her soggy cornflakes. "And why don't you want to go to school today?" She purses her lips and avoids my gaze. "Because Uncle Loki promised me that he would show me some magic tricks today." I have to giggle. Loki and Emily are almost inseparable. Which is really amazing when you consider that Loki is actually a loner. "He's welcome to do that. But not until this afternoon. Now please get ready, will you?" I kiss her forehead. "Okay" she jumps off her chair and goes to her room. I clear the dishes from the table and in the dishwasher and check the clock again. "Don't stress, honey. I'll drive her to school. I have to do something in town anyway," says Steve as I get impatient because she's still in her room, whatever she's doing there for so long, and the time that the School bus is coming, getting closer and closer. When Emily comes out of her room, the school bus has already left. I shake my head in amusement, why am I still trying to get her to be on time for the bus? She often deliberately dawdles because she knows that her father will then drive her to school. They both love those short trips to school and what kind of monster would I be if I took that away from them? Steve wraps his arms around my waist from behind and presses a kiss on the back of my neck. "Ciao baby" he whispers against my skin and where his breath touches my skin there is a gentle tingling sensation. "Ciao" I say as I turn around to kiss him on the lips. He smiles at me as he goes to the cloakroom and hangs Emily's school bag over his shoulder. "Bye Mommy" Emily hugs me just before she follows her father out the front door. I watch them get into the car, laugh at something and drive away. I still can't believe that I actually got everything I ever wanted in life. A life with Steve and the family we both created together. A few years ago it all seemed impossible. While Steve is out I use the time to bring the house up to scratch. I clean, wash and, when I have some time left, I go shopping for groceries. I was just putting away my last groceries when I got a message from Steve. "Change of plan. I'm already on my way home. Tony and Dr. Strange are on their way to see us. Sounded urgent." What must the two of them discuss with us so urgently? I barely finished my thoughts when I heard a car come up the driveway. I go outside and see one of Tony's Audis who is just coming to a stop on the second parking space in front of our garage. "Good morning guys" I say as the two of them come up to me. Both look kind of worried. "What is the honor of your visit?" I try to lighten the mood a bit. "I wish the circumstances were different. I'm afraid we have bad news," admits Tony, barely able to look me in the eye. What the hell happened? When neither of the two says anything else, I tell them to come inside. I lead the two of them into the living room and ask if they want something to drink. "Is it too early for whiskey?" asks Tony and I know this time it's no joke. I get a bottle of whiskey he gave us to move in and a glass from one of the cupboards in the living room and hand him both. "I would prefer a cup of tea if that is not a hassle," says Strange. "No problem Stephen. I'll be right back." I go into the kitchen and brew a cup of tea for him and me, then go back to the living room and hand him his cup. He thanks me with a smile. "Ok, do you want to tell me why you need to talk to us so badly?" I ask the two of them who just look straight ahead. "I think we should wait until Steve arrives" says Strange before sipping his tea. As if on cue, I hear Steve's key in the front door. He greets the two of them, gives me a kiss and sits down next to me. "So Tony, what's wrong?" he asks and comes straight to the topic. Tony hesitates before answering. "We lost the last two Infinity Stones. The Time Stone from Strange and the Mind Stone from Vision. This means that Thanos now has all the Infinity Stones together. We have to find a way to destroy the Stones before he does what he wants with them - to eliminate half of all life. To be honest, I'm surprised he didn't do it right away." "Does that mean vision is ...." I can't finish the sentence. Suddenly a thought occurs to me. Thanos has all the Infinity Stones, he could have wiped out half of humanity and we wouldn't even have noticed. I could have lost my family and wouldn't even have known why. "Vision is fine. We had found a way to remove the stone beforehand" Tony pulls me out of my thoughts. "And what exactly do you need us for now?" Steve asks and squeezes my hand gently as he notices me getting angrier. Why didn't they inform us earlier? Together we might have prevented Thanos from getting the last stone. "I've seen different outcomes of this fight and we can't win without you two," Strange says, looking explicitly at me. "And why the hell are you telling us all this now?" Steve also sounds annoyed now. "We had everything under control so far. But now we can't do it without the two of you" Tony lowers his head as he says this. "Thanos has all the Infinity Stones. That doesn't sound like everything under control to me," I say through clenched teeth. "We wanted to keep you out of this as much as possible, because of Emily. After all, she needs both parents," Strange says again and still looks at me as if I know exactly why we are so important now. While Steve and Tony argue that we should have been told what was going on earlier, I try to read Strange's mind. But as always, I only see blackness. Strange is the only one who has to consciously let me into his thoughts so that I can read them. I never see anything without his permission. For this I can communicate with him without words. It's almost like I can reach his mind through mind reading skills so that we can communicate silently. So that nobody hears us. "Show me what you saw" I ask him. "I've only seen one outcome where we win. But not everyone will survive. To be honest, everyone but one person will survive," he quietly replies to me. I know what's going to happen before he shows me his vision. It takes a lot of strength not to show anything. Even if Steve and Tony can't hear Strange and me talking, they could see when I physically react to it. "And there is no other way?" I ask and feel the lump in my throat getting bigger and bigger. "No. I've played it through over and over. But that's the only way that at least the rest of humanity can have a world they can live in. Otherwise everyone will lose everything," says Strange. "Baby everything ok? You don't say anything about all of this?" Steve pulls me out of my thought talk. "Yeah um .. everything's fine. I was just in thought," I say and give him a short smile. "By when do we have to make a decision?" I ask Tony. "The faster the better," Strange replies. We accompany the two out. Strange and I both agreed that we would keep the outcome to ourselves. If the others knew how it would end ..... they would never accept it. When we go back inside, Steve informs me that Tony has offered to pick Emily up from school and take Emily with him and the Avengers so that Steve and I can discuss things in peace. "We're not going to fight," says Steve before I even had a chance to think it over again. "Steve we have to. They wouldn't have come here if they could do it without us," I reply. "Maybe. But I won't risk our family for this cause," Steve countered, suddenly looking angry. "But that's exactly what will happen if we don't fight," I say angrily now. "They will find a way. I will not risk our future, the future of our daughter, for it." "If we don't do anything, her future is already lost!" I scream. "We're not going to fight. End of discussion" Steve turns and starts to leave. "You will not make this decision for me Steve! Do what you want. I will fight. For our daughter's future." "So do you put what you want above our family? Do you even love us?" asks Steve. He can't possibly mean that seriously. How can he seriously doubt that I love our family? Doesn't he understand that I'm only doing this to protect our family? "You know what? Fuck you Rogers! I'll fight because I love you both. If you haven't understood that yet, I'm sorry for you" I scream, I'm so angry all of a sudden. Without giving him the chance to say anything else, I run into the bedroom and lock myself in it. I let myself fall on the bed and let my tears run free. What have I done to fate that it torments me so much? A moment ago I was totally happy and now I am devastated. I stand before the end of mankind, at least half of it, and must actually be reproached for not loving my family enough just because I want to protect them. Still, even if Steve will hate me for it, I know I'll fight no matter what. I've seen the future and I know that otherwise we will lose.