In Another Universe

TWENTY TWO

"Mommy?" Riley's voice comes out timid as his puppy-dog eyes stare up at Anastasia.

Her bloodshot gaze shoots to Steve, the war going on within her being too much for him to bare witness too. He knows she has to go home with her kids, Just as she knows it too. Even if that home has to include Bucky for the time being.

He also knows it isn't fair for her to have to choose.

So he makes the choice for her.

Mustering all the strength in his body, His lips form a tight lined smile as he nods.

"I'm glad he's okay." His voice barely a whisper as he pries himself from her piercing eyes that scream 'Don't leave.'

He reaches out and places a tender kiss upon her head before turning on his heel and striding off, Refusing to turn back as he makes it through the hospital wing' doors.

An awful pang of guilt lingers on his tongue as he hurries out of the hospital without so much as sparring a glance at any of the other patients or staff that he passes along the way.

Has his return only worsened the lives of everyone he loves?

Why was he cursed to return to a world where his daughter believes him to be a stranger, The love of his life stuck in a borderline abusive marriage, And where his own best friend... Hates him?

His grip tightens around the steering wheel once the engine of his pickup has roared to life, Speeding out of the parking lot with no idea of where he intends to go.

"Why can't you be alive, Nat?" He asks himself aloud, tears threatening to blur his vision so he blinks. "You'd know what to do. You always knew exactly what to do."

His heart breaks remembering the way Clint described her final moments.

Natasha was— is, Has always been, And always will be— The most fearless of them all.

The wisest.

The bravest.

The strongest.

The soul of the Avengers family from the very beginning, helping them learn to work together from their very first mission of defeating Loki.

God, That mission seems like a dozen different lifetimes ago to him now.

What he wouldn't give for an enemy he could knock senseless with his shield.

An enemy not tied to him by the blood and adoration of their own children.

An enemy not forged from the cause of his death.

An enemy not inhabiting the body of his best friend. Of his brother.

He can't go to Bruce, Not again.

Not when hearing about Anastasia's unhappiness only hurts him too. There's no reason they both need to be miserable today.

But he also can't fathom returning to their townhouse, To the empty blanket fort just awaiting their return.