Not Without You: Book 1 (Canon-Divergence Stucky Fix-it-Fic)

Eleven

"Okay, here we go!" Bruce announced, "Time travel test number one. Scott, fire up the uh... the van... thing..."

Gazing over the breakers and making sure the generators were good to go, if need-be, Steve crossed the lab to where everyone else was. Bruce was pushing a lot of different buttons while Scott stood in his Ant-Man costume in front of the Quantum Tunnel.

"Breakers are set," Steve informed, "Generators are on standby."

"Good," Bruce assured. "'Cause if we blow the grid, I don't wanna lose Tiny here in the 1950s."

"Excuse me?" Cassie asked, defensively crossing her arms along her chest as she looked startled for her father.

Scott attempted to reassure her, "He's joking," even though it was easy to see that he wasn't too sure either.

Natasha rushed in hushed tones as she reprimanded, "You can't say things like that!"

"Just... It was a bad joke," Bruce poorly lied. So much so that even Steve rolled his eyes at him.

Worried, Cassie crossed the distance to Scott and wrapped her arms around him again. Considering how she had just gotten him back, Steve couldn't imagine what she was feeling now. Scott was brave.

Or stupid.

"You were kidding, right?" Steve quietly questioned, keeping his gaze on the Langs. Feeling personally responsible for whatever was about to happen to them.

Whispering, Bruce confessed, "I have no idea. We're talking about time travel here. Either it's all a joke, or none of it is."

Steve didn't like that answer. He didn't like it one bit. It caused his stomach to sink at the possibility that if this was to go wrong, it'd be his fault. Again. And Cassie didn't deserve that. Scott didn't either, and Steve knew that if Scott was lost, he'd never be able to forgive himself.

"We're good!" Bruce loudly exclaimed. Enthusiastically giving Scott a big thumbs up while Cassie moved until she joined the trio behind the control panel. He instructed, "Get your helmet on, Scott. I'm gonna send you back a week, let you walk around for an hour, then bring you back in 10 seconds. Make sense?"

"Perfectly not confusing," Scott sarcastically commented, jitterily moving around.

"Good luck, dad," Cassie encouraged.

"Thanks, Peanut," he smiled at his daughter.

"You got this," Steve added with a nod and a grin.

"You're right," Scott agreed, "I do, Captain America."

The Quantum Tunnel whirred even louder, the lights shining brighter, and in a blink of an eye, Scott was gone. For a moment, Steve's heart jumped into his throat as he watched the man just disappear. And although his first reaction was to jerk and flinch, he decidedly didn't do that. Instead, he dug his fingernails into the red sleeves of his Henley cladded arms and stood as still as the other three, all because he didn't want to cause the one anymore anxiety than necessary from watching her father poof away in front of their very eyes.

"On the count of three," Bruce started, flipping switches as he counted down, "Three, two, one!"

Pressing the button, everyone let out a breath of relief when a body was standing in front of them. However, that relief didn't last when it was very obviously not the man they were all expecting. No, instead a young teen stood there.

"Uh, guys?" The boy questioned.

"This isn't right," Cassie commented, eyes wide as she looked at the person in front of the Quantum Tunnel.