𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑒~ 𝐵.𝐵𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑠

FIFTY ONE

"Aunt posie." I smile at my young niece as she runs to me, I lift her up into my arms, "still can't say Rosie huh?" I ask as she giggles and shakes her head, I bet she could and her dad  was just putting her up to it. "You're lucky I love you." I say tickling her grinning as she squirms around whilst laughing wildly.

"Alright go play." I say letting her down, "hey." I nod, "little man is out back." Tony tells me, "you know his aim is abysmal, something he got from his mother no doubt." I scoff and push Tony's shoulder, "I have terrific aim." I defend as he laughs, "sure you do, I still remember the time you almost turned me into an icicle vividly." I can't help but laugh in disbelief, "you're still not over that?" That's was like ten years ago, "I apologised." I say after he shakes his head, "and you were supposed to but you didn't." I murmur, "you say something there?"

"How was he?" Tony shrugs, "fine, other than the awful aim, you can leave him here overnight you know? Pepper and I do know how to look after a child." I nod, "I know pepper does  but I don't like being away from him." I say watching in amusement as he registers what I just said, "I can too." I shrug with a small smile, "that's debatable."

Just then Pepper enters the room, "lunch time, wash your hands and come sit at the table." The little boy stood besides Morgan pays no attention to her words as he spots me, "mommy!" He yells running and jumping onto me making me laugh. "Dean, I've not been gone that long." I say as he wraps his arms around me, he had a bit of separation anxiety but what could I say, I was the same way.

"Come on munchkin, aunt pepper made you guys lunch, go wash your hands and sit at the table." I tell him kissing the top of his head. I smiled as I watched his retreating figure, the last five years had been hard but having Dean made things easier. He was a mixture of my brother Dean and his father literally, he even had one green eye and one blue.

• • •

"Thank you." I say hugging both Pepper and Tony as we get ready to leave, "thank you for having me uncle Tony and aunt Pepper." Dean echos, "no problem little man, next time we'll continue to work on the football." Tony says ruffling his hair as Dean beams at him. "See you guys later." I say before lifting Dean up into my arms. "You have fun today?" I ask him as I make sure he's strapped into his car seat properly. I listen with a smile as he excitedly tells me about the day he had with Morgan and Tony as I drive us home.

• • •

"How are you?" I ask Nat yes I still stayed here at the compound with Nat I didn't really know where else to go. This was my home and I didn't want to leave Nat alone so we lived together with Steve visiting.

"I uh." I nod and hug her Nat was really struggling with all of this, we all were but Nat felt very lost. Steve had his support group Tony had his family and I had Dean. Nat didn't really have anything well she had us but I still didn't think that it was enough and Clint had gone off the rails making Nat even more worried and depressed and let's not even get started on Bruce.

• • •

"Honey I'm home." I joke as we arrive at the compound, "Uncle Steve!" Dean exclaims running into the older mans arms making my eyebrows raise, Steve didn't drop by the compound that often. "Hey buddy, how's your day been?" He grins making me smile as I watch how he holds his godson to him and they converse. "We went to the park and mommy pushed me on the swings." Steve fakes a look of shock, "the swings? Wow you're nearly a big boy now." Dean smiles, "I am a big boy."

"You're here why?" I ask, "you could be a bit happier to see me." He chuckles, "I am but laundry?" I ask with a laugh once he nods. I take Dean from his arms, "where are you taking him?" Steve pouts I swear sometimes I couldn't tell who the child was, "it's his nap time." I say watching Dean rub his eyes with a small yawn, "I'll put him down." He offers taking Dean back in his arms, Steve loved spending time with Dean, it was one of the only things that would make him smile.

"Nat." I sigh noticing she had been crying, "I know." She says as I sit across from her, "peanut butter jelly?" I ask noting her half eaten sandwich, she nods, "and you didn't think to make me one?"
I joke hoping she smiles which she does.

"Oh! Hi. Hi! Is anyone home?" My eyes widen at the camera footage that pops up that was Scott, scott Lang he was supposed to be gone. "This is Scott Lang. We met a few years ago, at the airport? In Germany? I got really big, and I had my mask on. You wouldn't recognize me." Of course I recognised him, we sat across from each other in that ocean prison.

"Is this an old message?" Steve asks "It's the front gate." Nat says standing, "Ant-Man? Ant-Man, I know you know that. I need to talk to you guys."

"Scott!" I grin hugging him as he enters the compound, "you're here." I say happily, he grins, "you remember me?" He says honoured, "what are you talking about of course I remember you, you got fired from Baskin Robinns because Baskin Robinns always find out." He nods along happily, "ok quick question then, would you say that we're friends?"

"Scott. Are you okay?" Steve says right as I'm about to answer, "Yeah. I'm fine." He says looking back to me as I nod, to confirm our friendship.

He then remembers what was on his mind, "Have you ever studied Quantum Physics?" He randomly asks, "Only to make conversation." Nat answers as I shake my head, "Alright. So... five years ago, right before Thanos, I was in a place called the Quantum Realm. The Quantum Realm is like its own microscopic universe. To get in there, you have to be incredibly small. Hope, she's my... She was my.. She was supposed to pull me out. And then Thanos happened, and I got stuck in there." Oh that sounded awful. "I'm sorry. That must've been a very long five years." Nat says and I nod along it must've been lonely.

"Yeah, but that's just it. It wasn't. For me, it was five hours." Five hours? I look to Steve and Nat to share a quick bewildered glance. "See, the rules of the Quantum Realm aren't like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable. Is that anybody's sandwich? I'm starving." He strides over to pick up Nat's sandwich, and bites into it. "Scott, what are you talking about?" Steve asks him confused.

"What I'm saying is, time works differently in the Quantum Realm. The only problem is right now, we don't have a way to navigate it. But what if we did? I can't stop thinking about it. What if, we could somehow control the chaos, and we could navigate it? What if there was a way to enter the Quantum Realm at a certain point in time but then exit at another point in time? Like... Like before Thanos."

"Wait, are you talking about a time machine?" Steve and I ask in unison, "No. No, of course not. No, not a time machine. It's more like a... Yeah, a time machine. I know it's crazy. But I can't stop thinking about it. There's gotta be some way... There's gotta be...some w... it's crazy."

"Scott, I get e-mails from a raccoon, so nothing sounds crazy anymore." Nat tells him, "So who do we talk to about this?" I guess the person would be tony but I doubt that he would be willing to even humour it. He moved on and he was happy with his life he wouldn't want to do anything to jeopardise that and I understood, I wouldn't want to do anything that would put any risk to Dean.

If we went back in time to fix things would it mean I wouldn't have him? I mean that shouldn't be likely since I was already pregnant with him during the whole battle against Thanos.

"Mommy?" I turn to see my tired little man stood there with a sleepy smile on his face, "what are you doing up already mister." I ask as I pick him up, "I had a nightmare." He mumbles nestling into me, "a nightmare that's not good, was it cause uncle Steve put you to bed, seeing his face would give me nightmares too." I say making him giggle, "no, don't be mean to uncle Steve." Steve smiles over at me smugly, "yeah you tell her buddy." He says making Dean giggle again.

"Mommy who's that man?" Dean tries and fails miserably to whisper, "that's my friend Scott, you remember I told you about him." Deans face lights up as he looks at Scott, "ant-man?" He asks excitedly making me nod and Scott look close to tears. "So cool." He says making Scott actually beam it looked impossible for him to smile any more than he was.

I mean I'm not completely sure about this so tell me what you think haha, I mean I think it works but idk?