Bloom

11. Roots

"Caresses, expressions of one sort or another, are necessary to the life of the affections as leaves are to the life of a tree. If they are wholly restrained, love will die at the roots."

~Nathaniel Hawthorne~

•••

     Seb and I sit hand-in-hand on the stage, absolutely lost in our own little world, waiting for Scarlett and Robert to join us.

We're about to go live with Jimmy Fallon, a longtime supporter of Marvel and the Avengers. He's a good friend to all of us and was one of the first to celebrate Endgame's success and the engagement announcement. He even called to personally congratulate us.

Scarlett beams as she walks up onto the stage and makes her way to us, saying, "My sweethearts!"

We stand to hug her, and she warmly embraces us both, pressing a kiss to our cheeks.

"I'm so proud of you two!" She smiles as she sits down behind me. "And you're glowing, absolutely glowing!"

Robert grins when he sees us, and he quickly makes his way over to us.

He hugs me, and then he hugs Seb, saying, "You two look even more perfect together every time I see you!"

He takes a seat behind Seb. We just smile, sit back down, and snuggle close to each other.

"So, thoughts on the Russos' interview and tell-all earlier today?" Robert asks.

Scarlett nods as she says, "Yeah, I have a few. I'm surprised that they were upfront with their answers and didn't dance around anything."

"It was refreshing," Seb says.

Robert nods, "It was, and it certainly made history. They didn't leave anything out."

"I think that hearing it from Hayley really helped," Scarlett says. "Her explanation in the group message was one thing, but when they brought her in and she went in-depth, it was really something. It validated Steve's Endgame arc, Tony's sacrifice, and Natasha's sacrifice."

"Not that Natasha and Tony needed to be validated, but it cushioned the fact that they aren't coming back to Earth any time soon," I point out. "Natasha is the Stonekeeper, and Tony has passed on. His consciousness survived, even though his body didn't. I mean, we buried him. We were all there."

"I'm still not sure what they really meant when they said that the world believes Steve Rogers is dead though," Scarlett says. "He's old, but he isn't dead."

"It's his ticket to retirement," Robert tells her. "It's the only logical choice. And, remember, two Steves and two Buckys. It's likely that Bucky met Bucky 2.0 and Steve 2.0, and that Steve and Bucky 2.0 are retired and living completely off-grid. The only people that would know about the other-timeline duplicates are Nat, Steve, Bucky, and probably Sam. Nat, because she's the Soul Stone Stonekeeper. Steve, because he created the alternate timeline. Bucky, because there are two Steves now. Sam, so he doesn't think that the body snatchers are in town."

"That brings up something else, though," Seb says, "What the hell happens to Steve and Bucky now that there are the other timelines and other versions of themselves? Steve moves on with Bucky 2.0, leaving Bucky and Steve 2.0 behind. What then?"

"Sam is Captain America, and Bucky is the Winter Soldier," I explain, "Bucky knows Steve's plan as well as what he intends to do when he travels back in time to put the stones back where they belong. When Steve returns to them in the present time, he's wearing a wedding ring, because he married Bucky 2.0 in that timeline. We don't know what happened to Bucky 2.0 when he left that timeline, but we can assume that affects Bucky and Steve 2.0, even if we don't know how. I'd like to think that Bucky and Steve 2.0 get together to complete the circle, it would make sense, but I have no idea."