invisible string

by hallieCB3

Summary:

A perspective on Scott Lang, as he drives about three thousand miles to the Avengers complex, while he has flashbacks of his past as he looks for help to bring those who were gone with the Blip five years ago... especially her.

Notes:

I've been thinking about my favourite MCU couple and I just wanted to write something about Scott and how he was pivotal on bringing everyone back from the Blip, even when it took all the Avengers working together as a team and really painful sacrifices as well.

Here's me just seeing Scott as he navigates on his journey we saw in Endgame, having flashbacks of when he interacted and met the other characters.

Fic Title is from Taylor Swift "invisible string" from her album folklore.

Chapter 1: time, curious time

It was a long, long drive.

There was a time back in the day where he would be partial to road trips, especially back in his wild university days, driving down to SoCal or crossing the country to Florida or even upstate or even to Canada.

As years passed and then a lot of things happened, road trips was not one thing he would be into a lot, for a number of reasons.

But any time he had a chance to make a trip, he loved looking the different places, the changing landscapes he would look at on his way to a specific destination. He liked to notice the subtle changes from luscious green to arid sandy brown; from mountain to valleys and then dunes.

However, this time it was totally different.

Part of him was completely focused on making it as soon as possible to his destination.

Also, it was noticeable how things had changed during the last five years around, at some point the landscape looked quite eerie he didn't want to even dwell too much into it.

He was still so confused and it was frustrating to think that he had missed so much from her daughter's life since he had been locked in jail, and now he has missed five more years due to things he couldn't even understand why. At least this time it wasn't his fault.

And all those feelings were driving him crazy, because he knew what he could do at least to try to bring all those gone back.

But to leave Cassie again was a hard choice to make, after realizing he had missed so much time from her life now - he had literally been away half of her age, counting the time he had been locked and the time he'd been in the quantum realm. Even if he was going to take a shot to try to reverse what Thanos had done.

A few days had passed and he wasn't still used to the fact that his daughter was a teenager now, almost at his same height.

It was as if a few weeks ago, she had helped covered for him when the FBI arrived looking for him, as he arrived in the nick of time.

 

"Hey" he said as he saw Cassie walking into her attic bedroom, where he was sitting in the floor right by her bed, "thanks for covering for me."

The little girl kept walking towards him.

"Sure" she assured, as she bent and sat on the floor, by his side.

"So, how long you've been Ant-Man again?" Cassie casually asked, as she bent her knees and placed her hands on her knees, her hazel eyes looking at him.

"Not long," he smirked sadly and moved his head, "it just sort of happened."

She extended her legs as he added: "I'm sorry for lying to you, I'm sorry for risking everything..."

Cassie crossed her legs as she interrupted him, assuringly: "Daddy, it's okay..."

"That's not..." he sighed, disarmed by the understanding attitude of his daughter, "I do some dumb things and the people I love the most pay the price, mainly you."

"Trying to help people isn't dumb" she corrected him, leaning back to her bed, looking adorable with her long hair loose and wearing a hairband with little flowers on top.

"Well," he admitted, placing his hands in his face in acknowledgment, "I screwed up just about every time."

He fixed his gaze towards his feet, as Cassie added: "So maybe you just need someone watching your back. Like a partner."

Scott smiled sadly. "She's made it clear that it's about the last thing she wants."

"Who?" his daughter asked him, frowning.

"Hope."

He looked by the side of his eye and saw Cassie's little face pouting suddenly.

"What, who do you think?"

"Me." her face lighted up.

"You?" he chuckled.

"Don't laugh" Cassie's face was clearly saddened and mortified at his response and she added: "I'd be a great partner."

"Aww, peanut, you'd be awesome." Scott comforted her. "And if I'd let you, I would be a terrible dad."

"Fine. Have Hope be your partner. She's smart." Cassie seemed convinced.

He looked aside, with tenderness.

"She reminds me of you." 

"You're gonna go help her? I think you should help her."

"I wish I could, but..." he paused, "I don't know how to help her without hurting you."

"You can do it. You can do anything. You're the world's greatest grandma."

He was moved by the wise words of his daughter, and smiling, he hugged her.

 

Five years later, he was facing a similar dilemma, right before taking the van and driving like three thousands of miles just to get to the Avengers facility.

A place he had visited before - though unbeknownst to him, it was the Avengers facility and not an old SHIELD deposit - when he had fought and met Sam.

Even if she had physically changed and grown up, Cassie was still the same and she convinced him to go, after spending a few days with her and trying to catch up as much as he could with what had happened in these five years.

One morning, he was sitting by himself by the kitchen, with a cup of coffee thinking about what he could go, and especially what he should do.

"You're gonna go help her? I think you should help her."

She heard Cassie, five years older, but using the very same words she did back then before leaving to rescue Hope and Hank from the FBI.

"Oh, peanut..." 

He sighed, looking intensely to his cup of coffee.

"I don't even know if it's going to work... and I've lost five years of your life... I felt like I'd be hurting you if I leave."

She took a seat next to him.

"Dad, I'm so happy to have you back. When I thought you were gone, it was terrible and you don't know how much relief I felt seeing you again after all these years, after thinking you'd be gone for good. It was like a dream come true" she said with her eyes full of tears, but blinked full of determination, and continued: "but if you can help others to have a chance to recover their loved ones, you should go for it. And even more, if you can get her back."

She reached for his hand, adding: "She is your partner, remember?"

He did the trip in five days.

Had he not stopped driving, he would have made it in less than three days, but he needed to stop and get some rest.

Cassie had filled him with what happened. The Avengers had fought an alien mad titan named Thanos, who blipped half of the existence into dust.

If only Cap had called them both, him and Hope to fight this time.

But Steve had been in the run after Germany, along with Nat, Sam, Wanda and Bucky. Hope was still a fugitive and he had just barely regained his freedom a few weeks before. Scott kinda understood that if it had been something that happened quite fast, they didn't even have a chance to contact him, or perhaps they thought he would not fight this time.

Would he have fought this time? Especially with the risk of going back to prison?

Looking back in hindsight, he totally would.

His mind took him back to Dr. Pym's van, where him and Hope had been getting ready to look for the lab inside Ghost's hideout.

 

"Look at us," he told her as they were suiting up, "teaming up twice in one day."

"Makes you think, huh?" it was Hope's casual reply, without looking at him directly, as she kept minding her business.

"About what?" he replied, in a teasing mode.

"Germany" Hope lifted up her gaze towards him.

"What do you mean?" he questioned her, though he suspected what she meant.

"We were working together, training together" she started elaborating, "other stuffing together..."

"If I'd asked you, would you had come?" Scott asked her.

"I guess we'll never know" she replied honestly, but then added: "But I do know one thing"

"What?"

Her green eyes were fixed on his. Unlike earlier that day, this time she was looking at him with certain glint of softness.

"If I had, you would've never been caught." 

And with a cocky smirk, she put on her helmet and shrunk, and left the van flying to the outdoors, as Scott felt warming inside, as he smiled to himself, before being told by Hank to stop daydreaming with his daughter and get to work.

 

He turned on the radio as an attempt to drown his thoughts. Perhaps listening to some classic rock would help him.

Memories of her were painful at this time. Especially because he refused to think of her as someone in the past who was no more.

For him, this had happened just a few weeks ago. It felt like yesterday, even when everything was telling him that five years had passed ever since.

Truth was he missed her so much.

He knew that two years had passed where he would keep thinking of her, and wishing there was a way to fix things between them, whatever that was going on between them. But back then it wasn't the same, because he knew her and her dad were on the run, whereas this time...

He didn't even want to think about it.

It was so unfair. When things were just getting better, when she and Hank had finally gotten Janet back after thirty years of being apart, Thanos happened.

But he still had hope - pun intended - that the remaining Avengers somehow would find the way to use the information he was taking to them to fix what happened.

"Scott, wake up!"

He woke up in the van, after stopping in a rest/stop area for the night, as he had been dreaming back when Hope rescued him from drowning, as becoming Giant Man made him faint and risk himself to get drowned.

He remembered that he regained consciousness, and the first thing he saw was Hope's face, who broke into a wide smile seeing him awake, and immediately kissed him.

It was still early, but he decided to get ready to keep driving to his destination, getting an extra-large cup of coffee and Red Bull cans to recharge for the remaining trip ahead.

He was fortunate that the van didn't break up in the way to upstate New York, and that he finally made it.

But then, as he was driving to the main gate of the Avengers complex, doubts started assaulting him.

What if there was nobody home?

As he had found out, some of the Avengers had been wiped out from existence. As far as he knew, Cap had survived, but what if he hadn't gone back to the Avengers complex? What if he didn't remember him? The one who had introduced him, Sam, had been dusted as well.

He was such an idiot. Had he driven so far to realize the people that might help him was not even there?

Well, he was already here, and he'd better get moving.

It wasn't that late, so he buzzed in the front gate.

He heard a beep and started talking:

"Oh, hi, hi! Uh, is anyone home? This is, uh, Scott Lang. We met a few years ago at the airport... in Germany?"

He didn't hear a response from the other side of the speaker, so he kept on talking.

"I was the guy who got really big. I had a mask on. You wouldn't recognize me. Ant-Man? I know you know that!" 

No response yet.

"I really need to talk to you guys."

The gate opened and he drove to the entrance, where he recognized Cap, wearing civilian clothes, like back when he met him.

This time, Steve was wearing a black long-sleeve shirt and jeans.

Other than that, he looked exactly the same as back in that Germany airport, where he met him.

 

He had been dozing off affected by the jet lag, when the sound of the sliding door being opened woke him up with a jolt.

"...but he should be good" he heard Clint's voice.

When he stood up and walked out of the vehicle he'd been waiting in, he asked him:

"What time zone is this?"

"Come on, come on" Clint said, closing the door of the vehicle as he saw Steve in front of him.

"CAPTAIN AMERICA!" he shook his hand, as Cap greeted him back: "Mr. Lang."

"It's an honor. I'm shaking your hand too long. Wow! This is awesome!" he turned around to see the young woman standing next to Clint.

"Captain America. I know you too! You're great!" he told her, as he recognized her as Wanda, one of the Avengers, and she smiled back at his compliment.

Scott turned back around to face Cap, and he was so excited about being in front of one of Earth's mightiest heroes, that he even took the liberty of grab Steve by his shoulders as if to check if he was real for a bit.

"Jeez! Ah look, I wanna say, I know you know a lot of super people, so... thinks for thanking of me."

Steve nodded, thought Scott realized he pretty much changed the words in the midst of his nervousness at meeting Cap.

"Hey man!" he greeted Falcon, who was standind a couple of yards behind Cap.

"What's up, Tic Tac?"

"Uh, good to see you. Look, what happened last time when I..."

"It was a great audition, but it'll never happen again." Sam assured him.

"They tell you what we're up against?" Steve asked him.

"Something about some psycho-assassins?" Scott tried to remember what Clint told him.

"We're outside the law on this one." Steve warned him, "so if you come with us, you're a wanted man."

"Yeah, well, what else is new?" Scott replied with sincerity.

"We should get moving" the guy that was behind Sam and Steve told them.

"We got a chopper lined up" Clint informed them all.

At that moment, an alarm started sounding as a PA announcement started in German.

"They're evacuating the airport" the other guy (who later he found out was named Bucky) translated for all of them.

"Stark." Sam told Cap.

"Stark?" Scott inquired. He could still remember Hank going off about him being cautious about giving his technology away to the Starks.

"Suit up." Steve commanded them all.

 

Steve was truly surprised to see him, and as he invited him to get inside the Avengers complex, he told him what Scott already knew, that everyone thought he had been blipped too.

Nat was inside - truly different from when they had met, seven years ago, in Germany.

Then she was Black Widow, dressed in a black fight suit, with her red hair in loose curls.

 

"Look, I really don't wanna hurt you" he told Black Widow, who he had to face to help Cap and his friends.

"I wouldn't stress about it" she replied to him, amused.

And immediately, he knew why, as she kicked him in the shins. He groaned with the pain, and she pulled him from his left arm and as he tried to throw a jab at him, he recovered from the initial surprised and shrunk, as he pulled her down to the floor from her gauntlet. As he was holding her forearm, to bend it behind her back, she activated a shock emitter from her wrist and threw him away towards the surface of one of the airplanes nearby.

 

Now her hair was disheveled, with her red hair growing out the blonde she had dyed it, wearing a gray cardigan with a black top and jeans, her eyes looked red rimmed as if she had been crying though her face showed visible surprise but a soft smile after finding out he was alive, though they had been fighting in opposite sides back in Germany.

Nat and Steve were looking at him, while he was pacing and muttering to himself, unsure of how to explain it all and trying to find the right words.

"Scott."

He stopped and looked towards Steve.

"Are you okay?" Steve asked him, with his arms crossed.

"Yeah" he replied, while he covered his face with his hands and inhaled deeply, before adding: "Have either of you guys ever studied quantum physics?"

"Only to make conversation" Nat admitted honestly, with her hands on her pockets.

"Alright, so..." he pointed at her, "five years ago, right before.... Thanos, I was in a place the quantum realm. The quantum realm is like its own microscopic universe. To get in there, you have to be incredibly small."

Nat and Steve kept listening to him, attentively. He continued:

"Hope. She's my, um... she was my..."

He felt as if his chest felt heavy and oppressed first by having to use a past tense about her, and not even being able to mention what she meant for him.

Focus, Scott. A fleeting thought of her telling him "Now's not the time!"

He could deal with that later, he needed to explain these guys first what was going on, so he kept talking:

"She was... supposed to pull me out. And then Thanos happened and I got stuck in there."

He was glad that both Steve and Nat expressions indicated they understood what had happened to Hope without him having to say it aloud.

"I'm sorry, that must have been a very long five years." Nat told him with an understanding tone.

"Yeah, but that's just it. It wasn't. For me, it was just five hours."

Natasha frowned at his response.

"See, the rules of the quantum realm aren't like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable." he added as Steve looked towards Nat, both analyzing Scott's words.

"Is that anybody's sandwich? I'm starving!" he suddenly asked, as he walked towards the table and took a bit, as Steve questioned him:

"Scott, what are you talking about?"

"So..." he tried to keep explaining as he was chewing the peanut butter jelly sandwich in his mouth, "what I'm saying is... time works differently in the quantum realm. The only problem is right now," he started pacing around, "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, what if there was a way that we could enter the quantum realm at a certain point in time but then exit at another point in time? Like, like before Thanos."

Scott noticed he had been gesturing with his hands, with a half of a sandwich on one of them, but he didn't mind.

"Wait."

Steve told him, gesturing with his hand and adding:

"Are you talking about a time machine?"

"No. No, of course not. No, not a time machine. This is more like a... yeah, like a time machine."

He knew it did sound crazy.

"I know, it's crazy. It's crazy." he stammered, but kept talking: "but I can't stop thinking about it. There's gotta be... some way. It's crazy"

"Scott," he heard the voice of Natasha, in a reassuring mode, "I get emails from a raccoon so nothing sounds crazy anymore."

"So who do we talk about this?" he inquired them.

Steve and Nat exchanged a look between them, and Natasha said a name.

Scott's mind took him back two years ago - wait, seven years - when he was imprisoned at the Raft and he saw him, walking by his cell, after having a loud exchange with Clint.

 

"Hank Pym always said you never can trust a Stark."

"Who are you?"

"Come on, man."

 

Scott thought perhaps Hank wouldn't be so happy that the next one he would ask for help was going to be Tony Stark. But Scott thought that, if he needed to do that in order to bring him and Janet, and especially Hope, back, he didn't mind at all.

Chapter 2: time, mystical time

Summary:

Scott, Nat and Steve meet with Tony, then with Banner, all to find out if the time heist is somewhat possible.

Notes:

Yep, I wanted to have a perspective from Scott POV of the events of Endgame, and how this events would bring back certain memories and how he would feel about having the chance and looking to make it work.

And of course here's me bringing back small scenes from other movies he's been lol. Hope you like this chapter!

They arrived to a location in the woods, and as the car Steve was driving got into the gravel driveway and stopped, as they were getting out of the car they saw him walking toward the house by the lake, with a little girl in his arms that reminded him a lot of Cassie when she was younger.

As Tony invited them to take a seat, he couldn't help but remember one of his interactions back in Germany.

 

Scott jumped from the exploding arrow as he landed over Iron Man's suit, and he slid inside the armor.

"Friday?" Tony asked as his hand shooter stopped working properly.

"We have some weapon systems offline" the A.I. voice system replied.

"What?"

"Oh, you're gonna have to take this into the shop." Scott told him as he kept creating a mayhem inside Tony's armor to hinder his attack against Cap's team.

"Who's speaking?" Scott heard Tony's voice, asking irritated.

"It's your conscience" Scott told him as he jumped from a electronic board to another and unplugged one connector, "We don't talk a lot these days."

"Friday?"

"Deploying fire suppression system." was Friday's reply.

"Uh, oh" and Scott dropped the connector aside and tried to find his way out of the armor, away from the fire suppressant that was about to push him away from causing more damage.

 

He wished his willingness to find a way to bring Hope back, to reverse what had happened, was enough to cover all the unknowns about how to make it happen.

But truth was that his knowledge was limited. Scott wished he knew more about quantum physics that he did, so he could understand the verbage Tony was using when he was telling him about how he had ended up stranded in the quantum realm for five hours that were five years in real time.

"No, we know what it sounds like" Scott stammered as Tony was pouring some refreshments for them.

"Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" Steve intervened.

"Quantum fluctuations messes with the Planck scale which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition..." Tony started.

Scott had no idea what that meant, and he guessed his face showed the same confusion than Nat and Steve faces, because Tony added:

"In layman's terms, you're not coming home."

"I did." Scott promptly responded.

"No. You accidentally survived." Tony sighed. "It's a billion-in-one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull a... What do you call it?"

"A time heist?" Scott indicated as if posing the response as a question.

"Yeah, a time heist. Of course. Why didn't we think of this before?" Tony sniggered, "Because it's laughable. Because it's a pipe dream."

Scott wished he was actually's Tony's conscience - as he had joked back in that airport in Germany - to get him a little bit more optimistic about the idea.

At that moment, Steve intervened and Scott was truly grateful that, even if he might think the chances of make it happen were slim, Cap seemed to be on board with his idea.

"The stones are in the past. We could go back, we could get them."

"We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everybody back" Nat added as well, which Scott also appreciated.

"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?" Tony countered.

"I don't believe we would" was Steve's affirmation.

Tony gestured towards his old friend-turned-enemy-turned-friend again: "Gotta say it. I sometimes miss that giddy optimism. However, high hopes won't help if there's no logical, tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist."

As he reclined back on his chair, Tony added: "I believe the most likely outcome would be our collective demise."

Scott thought it was a proper moment to intervene.

"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel. All right? It means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events..."

"I'm going to stop you right there, Scott" Stark gestured his hand and added: "Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back to the Future? Is it?"

He chuckled. "No."

"Good. You had me worried there, 'cos that'd be horseshit. That's not how quantum physics works."

Again, Scott wished he knew more about the topic to contradict him or understand what he was saying.

Back in his mind, he could hear Hank's words saying: "This is not some cute technology like the Iron Man suit, this could change the texture of reality."

Perhaps this piece of knowledge was above of what Tony Stark possessed.

"Tony. We have to take a stand" Nat said with a grave expression in her face. She might not entirely understand how this could be done, but she was willing to try anything to make it happen.

"We did stand. And yet, here we are" Tony replied to her.

Scott had heard how things went between the Avengers fighting against Thanos five years ago. It seemed that most of the ones fighting each other in Germany joined their forces but they'd lost.

But if you fall, you need to stand back up, Scott thought. And even more considering what they could achieve this time.

An ever-present image in his memory - a pair of green eyes with a smile that always took his breath away - inspired him to add:

"I know you got a lot in the line. You got a wife, a daughter. But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did. And now, now we have a chance to bring her back, to bring everyone back, and you're telling me that you won't even..."

"That's right, Scott. I won't even. I can't."

Tony's eyes showed him that he wasn't willing to risk what he had, even if it meant to save all those who were lost with Thanos' snap.

A set of footsteps approached as the door opened and closed, and little Morgan walked towards her father's arm, telling him:

"Mommy told me to come and save you."

Tony hugged her, replying: "Good job. I'm saved."

Truth was that he partly understood Tony.

Seeing him holding his daughter made him think of Cassie and how full of despair he felt when he found the memorial stones with the names of the ones lost and he looked frantic, really hoping her name wasn't there.

He loved his daughter so much, and part of him wished he had stayed back in San Francisco with her, taking into account he'd already lost so much time away from her.

But he wasn't lying when he said Hope was very important for him, and that he would do anything to bring her back.

"I wish you were coming here to ask me something else, anything else. I'm honestly happy to see you guys... oh look, the table's set for six..."

Tony's words were an attempt of him being sympathetic, but Scott found little consolation on them.

Steve cut him off, telling him: "Tony, I get it. And I'm happy for you. I really am. But this is a second chance."

"I got my second chance here, Cap. Can't roll the dice on it."

As they were walking back to the car, Nat admitted she thought Tony was scared.

Steve replied: "He's not wrong."

"Yeah, but, I mean, what are we gonna do? We need him. What, are we gonna stop?"

For a minute, Scott was afraid all the miles he had driven across the country had been in vain, but the part of him that was totally a Captain America fanboy told him he wouldn't let him down.

Steve turned around and assured him: "No, I wanna do it right. We're gonna need a really big brain."

"Bigger than his?"

 

It was a rainy morning.

Scott checked the weather and it was supposed to clear up and the rest of the day would be partially cloudy.

He added some creamer to his cup of coffee. It was still early, and even if Nat and Steve were early birds, this was still early.

As he was looking at his cup, he couldn't help but remember that Hope liked her coffee black, with no creamer.

He covered his face with his hands, breathing, and trying to distract himself thinking that today they would meet with Bruce Banner to ask for his help regarding the potential they had to make a time heist to undo what had happened.

He hadn't meet him before in person, since by the time they fought in Germany, Hulk had left and was missing.

And what a surprise he found himself upon.

He thought they would meet Dr. Banner in his human form, but truth was that the individual in front of him was a huge green-skinned version of Bruce, taller and bigger, but wearing clothes and glasses.

He was so confused.

Dr. Banner (or should he call him Hulk?) started explaining how did he manage to put together his two personas and now he had mixed the best of both: brains and brawn.

It seemed that he was well known by then, since three kids approached to him for a photo with their cellphone.

Professor Hulk asked him to take the picture, and again, in one of those episodes that Hope would say his mouth worked faster than his mind, he asked the kids if they wanted a photo with him, since he was Ant-Man.

Again, five years had passed - though for him it seemed like a few days - but regardless, kids had no idea who he was.

He had fought with the Avengers and fought other superheroes but kids didn't know that.

Hulk and the kids, seeing his frustration, were trying to be sympathetic and insisted, but now he was opposed to the idea.

Part of it was caused by the realization that the kids might have been Cassie's age or younger, but then he realized Cassie was five years older now.

The positive outcome of meeting Dr. Banner was that he agreed to help them, even if quantum physics was outside of his scope of work.

The not so positive outcome was that Dr. Banner literally passed time through him, while he was running a test using the quantum tunnel on Luis's van.

He was suddenly a boy again, then an elder guy, then a baby, and fortunately came back to his current age.

With Tony's arrival, he was more optimistic that their plan would be successful, and Cap mentioned that they would bring the whole team to be part of the time heist.

Natasha had left to look for Clint, who he had met back in Germany.

 

"Buckled in?" Clint asked him, readying his arrow.

"Yeah. No, I'm good. I'm good, Arrow Guy. Let's go!"

 

He remembered him from when they went to Germany. From what he knew, he had also made a deal to be in house arrest for a bit, though it seemed that his sentence was slightly longer than his since he had been part of the Avengers and had helped Wanda escape the Avengers complex.

From Nat's expression, it seemed things hadn't gone right as well for him. His whole family had disappeared with the Blip.

Scott thought of his desperation looking for Cassie's name and running like crazy to Maggie's house to find his daughter. He could understand how hard it could have been for Clint to witness every member of his family disappearing.

Steve had mentioned Professor Hulk would go looking for Thor. Scott was looking forward to meet him.

As he was ready to take his lunch outside of the Avengers complex, suddenly the contents inside his taco shell went flying by as a space ship landed nearby.

It seemed that Nat wasn't joking when she told him that she received emails from a raccoon.

There was a walking raccoon - a raccoon in appearance but standing in his rear legs and wearing a black practical outfit - in the landing platform, as he was still holding his empty taco shell.

Then a blue skinned alien that looked like she had robot parts walked by him, dismissing him like an idiot as he overheard her calling him so when paging Rhodey.

Oh, and then Rhodey landed in his War Machine full gear right in front of him, scaring the shit out of him. It seemed he was still holding a grudge against him for throwing him away when he became Giant Man in Germany.

Fortunately, Professor Hulk was kind enough to give him two of his tacos, which was a nice gesture, but still a little bit confusing, considering the idea he still had in his mind about Hulk behaving in a totally opposite way.

As the rest of the team arrived, even when Tony got working with Rocket (who even if he was a raccoon, he was a genius), Banner and Nebula to develop the quantum tunnel and the suits for all of them.

But even then, he was freaking out since even with all their geniuses together, none of them were aware of how to make more Pym Particles so he knew they needed to be really careful about using them.

That was why he got easily irritated when Hulk was handling the vials carelessly and worried that they messed it up somehow. Nevertheless, that didn't prevent him from wasting one trial by accidentally shrinking himself.

He was relieved when Clint volunteered to do the test run. As he saw him coming back from it, holding a baseball glove from one of his kids, Scott and all the rest were happy to hear it worked.

For a moment, Scott wondered what if he had gone instead.

He wasn't sure he would have resisted seeing Hope again, and try to do something to prevent what happened.

Since they had figured out the how to go back, now they needed to work in the details.

According to what they told him, the plan was to go back to undo what Thanos had done. And what Thanos had done specifically was to snap his fingers wearing something called the Infinity Gauntlet that had the six Infinity Stones.

Apparently, everyone on the team but him had been in contact at least with one of those stones. He felt like an outsider when they were brainstorming about the stones and where they could travel back to get them loaned for a bit to gather them all and bring everyone back.

Since Loki had released mayhem in New York with all those alien ships and monsters that were defeated by the Avengers, Scott suspected that the universe was bigger than just Earth but he had never before interacted with aliens and heard about planets he had no idea they existed. He was even mocked by the raccoon, who called him a puppy while he was eating his chow mein.

They were almost ready to go ahead with the time heist. After long hours discussing each of the stones - or pretty much everyone else discussing the stones and he just listening - they had determined the appropriate course of action where to travel back in time via the quantum tunnel, wearing the suits and the quantum GPS wristlets, and grouped everyone in teams. 

"Six stones, three teams, one shot." he heard Cap's voice saying, as the plan was ready.

 

And so far, all this time, Scott had found himself having a hard time trying to sleep.

He would open his eyes and for a moment, think that he would find her looking at him, but she wasn't there.

Often his mind would bring back the memories of the first time they met, where he woke up on a strange bed to see her standing in front of him.

 

She was standing there, cellphone in hand, wearing a sleek pant suit with her bob haircut.

"Hello?" he said, tentatively, at her unaffected attitude, focused on typing in her cellphone.

"Who are you?" he tried again, since his greeting had given no response from her.

"Have you been standing there, watching me sleep the whole time?" he tried for the third time.

"Yes" was her response, without lifting her gaze from her phone.

"Why?"

"Because the last time you were here you stole something." she responded, crossing her arms.

"Oh, hey... whoa!" he looked around, recognizing which house he was in and when he tried to stand up, he noticed there was a sea of ants in the carpet.

"Paraponera clavata. Giant tropical bullet ants, ranked highest on the Schmidt pain index, they're here to keep an eye on you when I can't." she informed him, adding: "Dr. Pym is waiting for you downstairs."

And then she left him in the room, without paying attention to him asking her next whose pajamas were the ones he was wearing.

 

Then during that year after - when they were "other stuffing" together - and after bringing back her mother from the quantum realm, Scott had grown used to seeing her by his side, sleeping when he woke up.

But now she wasn't. But hopefully she would come back to him.

All that caused him trouble sleeping, so most of the times he would sneak to the kitchen of the Avengers complex to have a snack or if it was close to dawn, get himself a cup of coffee to nurse his thoughts.

This had been one of those times.

He woke up, suddenly, and looking at the clock on the wall it was still early in the morning, then a look at the window showed the first rays of sun filtering through the dark sky, and as he lifted his head he saw Natasha rummaging through the cabinets.

"I wanna make some pancakes" she told him with a smirk, and he appreciated that she didn't make a big deal about him falling sleep there by the counter.

"I can help you" he offered, as he stood up.

She chuckled, admitting that within her spy skills, cooking was not included on them, but she at least was willing to try and help him as much as possible.

As he diligently mixed the ingredients and prepared the batter, he elaborated on how his daughter loved his pancakes.

Natasha smiled softly at the mention of Cassie. Once she had stepped by the kitchen when he was having a FaceTime call with his daughter while he was cooking dinner and she said hi, which made Cassie get all nervous and excited about meeting the one and only Black Widow via videocall.

It was incredible considering that the first time they had met they had fought each other, but now they were on the same team.

Scott started blabbing about how he would prepare pancakes for them whenever Cassie stayed with him, and how Hope would be reluctant to admit that she liked hers with chocolate chips. He sighed as he realized he kept talking about Hope in present tense. He still refused to let her go. 

As he was cleaning the spatula, he noticed that Nat had been silently paying attention to him and suddenly, she told him:

"You really love her, don't you?" 

Scott knew she was talking about Hope.

Nat elaborated: "She might be really special for you if you're willing to do the impossible, to travel through time to bring her back."

His mind took him back to the night before the Pym Tech heist.

 

"Hey, look, I wanna thank you for..." he started, but she cut him short.

"No, please don't - we're doing this for reasons bigger than anyone of us. I'm just glad that you might have a slight chance of maybe pulling this off."

"Hey - thank you for that pep talk." he chuckled.

"The honest truth is that I went from despising you to almost liking you." Hope admitted.

"You, you really should write poetry."

She smiled, and told him: "Get some sleep, Scott" before walking to the door, not without looking back at him before closing the door after her, with that certain smile that made him feel fuzzy and warm.

 

Truth was that Thanos had the worst timing ever.

Truth was that both him and Hope were dancing around their mutual feelings way before the moment Hank stepped into them kissing in the hallway, and him flying away to Germany without telling her didn't help a lot with his case.

Truth was that he spent those two years in house arrest trying to do the most with his time - learning close-up magic, improving his cooking skills, reading as many YA novels he could get his hands on, passing Rock Band in Expert mode - to stop thinking that he had ruined his chances with Hope, and missing her so much. 

Truth was that he was sorry he didn't tell her about Germany, considering that she was the most capable fighter of them both, and that he felt warmth flooding inside when she told him that had she gone to Germany, she wouldn't let him get caught.

Truth was that the words of Cassie encouraging him to break the rules and go rescue her and Hank made him understand he both cared for his daughter but also for Hope.

Truth was that when he regained conscience after fainting in the bay, seeing her face full of relief and then her kissing him was one of the moments he cherished the most, as he realized she also cared about him.

Truth was that even without knowing the guy, he knew he hated Thanos so much for what he did, for snapping his fingers when he had just been free for a few weeks, and had reunited with Hope, who also had just reunited with her mother after thirty years of being apart.

Truth was that he was nervous and excited about them all having a chance to bring everyone back, that he barely was able to sleep at night.

Truth was that he didn't care if sleep wouldn't come, as long as they had a shot to make it happen.

As long as he could see her deep green eyes looking at him again, as if he was the only one who could tear up her walls, he would endure whatever.

And if that meant being in a place where he was constantly reminded of how just a normal, random guy he was, and even could be considered an idiot out of place in the midst of gods, super-humans and aliens, he would gladly pay the price to bring her back.

After holding the bowl with the batter and stirring it with the spatula for what it felt like an eternity, while he was immersed in his thoughts, Scott told her:

"First she was my partner. Someone who had my back. We were working together, training together... she taught me how to punch and kick properly! But she's not only that. She's way more than that. She is the one I love and I refuse to believe she is gone for good. If there's a chance, as slim as it might be, I'll do anything to bring her back."

Nat smiled softly at him, her eyes full of understanding.

He continued, as he cleaned the spatula again:

"I know I'm a little bit out of my element here, with all of your lot of superheroes, aliens and wizards, but I don't mind doing whatever it takes to bring her back."

"You are too hard on yourself, Scott. You are a superhero too." Nat was eager to make him feel better, he could tell.

He sighed, and Natasha elaborated:

"Tell me: Who helped create a huge and effective distraction to allow Steve and Bucky to get to the Quinjet?"

"Well, I had the suit..."

"But you got the quick thinking and you were willing to help. Believe me, I am no supersoldier, no god, no wizard or alien, I am just a highly skilled spy but I have no superpowers other than my willingness to fight for what is right."

She reached for his hand, and smiled to him, adding:

"Scott, we are here fighting to bring them back, if there is a chance that we can make it, we will take it, like you said, whatever it takes. And please, don't doubt yourself. You have a lot of skills to bring to the table, especially your courage to do anything possible, even travel through time, to bring back those who are important to you."

Nat's words took him back to the moment when Hank asked him to become Ant-Man.

 

"So, what do you want from me?"

"Scott, I believe that everyone deserves a shot at redemption. Do you?"

"I do."

"It's too late for me, but not for you. This is your chance. The chance to earn that look in your daughter's eyes. To become the hero that she already thinks you are. It's not about saving our world. It's about saving theirs."

"Damn, that was a good speech."

"Scott, I need you to be the Ant-Man."

 

As he moved to check on the stove to start pouring the batter, he nodded with a smile.

"Thanks."

Scott appreciated Nat's words, and he noticed how she had taken this leader role over the remaining Avengers before the time heist, trying to do as much as they can to help a convoluted world after what Thanos did.

 

They went ahead with the time heist the next day.

As he was walking along the Avengers and other associates, he couldn't help but remember his exchange inside the helicopter when he was fighting Darren Cross wearing the Yellowjacket:

 

"Did you think you could stop the future with a heist?"

"It was never just a heist!"

 

He thought this time it was somehow similar: they wouldn't be doing this time heist just for the sake of traveling back in time and collecting some stones; they were doing it with a reason. To bring back those that were lost.

And pretty much, based on what Banner and Nebula emphasized, nothing they did on the past would change "their" future, and Scott thought all those time-travel movies were just a bunch of crap.

As they were all standing in a circle over the quantum tunnel surface, Captain America said some words before proceeding:

"Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends. We lost family. We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. No mistakes. No do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know, that doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives. And we're going to win. Whatever it takes. Good luck."

Rocket was impressed with Cap's speech, and Scott of course knew Cap would encourage them in a way like that, to give them all the inspiration to make this work.

As they were getting ready to start, he breathed and for a brief moment, he remembered that moment years ago in Hope's car, when she was encouraging him to learn how to control the ants. 

 

"You have to clear your mind, Scott. You have to make your thoughts precise. That's how it works. Think about Cassie. About how badly you want to see her. And use that to focus."

 

He had her smile tattooed in his memory, and he would do whatever needed to see her again.

Last he heard, before everyone got their helmets on, was Nat's voice as she looked towards Cap and told him: "See ya in a minute."

Next thing he knew, he found himself in a wrecked New York City street back in 2012, in the middle of the Battle of New York.

Back then, he was already in San Quentin, and he hadn't met neither Hank nor Hope yet.

They split and he went along Tony Stark to focus on recovering the Tesseract, which was like a blue shining cube, but it was one of the stones they were looking for. Captain would retrieve Loki's scepter, which contained another stone on it.

"Mr. Rogers, I almost forgot, that suit did nothing for your ass." Tony mentioned via their earpiece to Cap.

"No one asked you to look, Tony." they heard Cap coming back at him.

"It's ridiculous."

Scott, always the Captain America fanboy, didn't doubt about giving his opinion about it.

"I think you look great, Cap. As far as I'm concerned, that's America's ass."

Everything seemed going according to the plan. He jumped to the 2012 version of Tony Stark, and at the moment when some Secretary would try to take away the Tesseract from their hands, he would unplug something from Tony's chest to give him a mild cardiac arrest.

However, it seemed that Tony forgot that Hulk was sent down via the stairs and he threw him away, as he reached the bottom of the stairs, which caused the Tesseract to fly out of the suitcase and fall near Loki, who took the chance to escape with it.

To say that Scott was mad was an understatement. He was pissed.

And this time, it was not his fault because he wasn't anywhere nearby the place to consider all the potential risk scenarios.

He was ruminating to himself, sitting at the back of a car, as Cap returned to the alley with the scepter on hand.

"Well, what are we gonna do now?" inquired Steve.

"You know what, give me a break, Steve. I just got hit in the head with a Hulk." was Tony's reply, who was still nursing a headache.

But Scott couldn't care less about him having a headache. They were so effin' close!

"You said that we had one shot. This! This was our shot. We shot it, it's shot! Six stones or nothing! Six stones or nothing." he told Tony, as he paced around the alley.

"You're repeating yourself, you know that? You're repeating yourself. " Tony replied, with his typical sarcastic tone.

"You're repeating yourself! You're repeating yourself! You never wanted a time heist. You... you weren't on board with the time heist." 

"I dropped the ball."

"You ruined the time heist!"

"Is that what I did?"

"Yeah."

Scott kept ranting because he knew they had no more Pym Particles and they would be one stone short, considering everyone else made it work.

However, when Cap asked if there were any other options with the Tesseract, as he kept ranting that they weren't and repeating on and on that each of them had only one Pym Particle to go back, he noticed that Tony had an expression on his face as he had realized there was a place and a moment in time where they could get both the Tesseract and extra Pym Particles to return back.

Part of his concerns were eased at seeing Steve trusting Tony with his crazy idea. Also, seeing Professor Hulk coming back with the Time Stone helped him feeling confident that their chances were still good.

Shortly afterwards, he was back in the circle around the quantum tunnel.

"Did we get them all?" Hulk asked as everyone was taking off their quantum suits.

"Are you telling me this actually worked?" Scott heard Rhodey's voice with a hint of enthusiasm, as he smiled looking around him and found that the six stones were back with them.

However, his joy was short-lived when he saw Clint's face, as he fell on his knees, with tracks of tears on his face.

"Clint, where's Nat?" Hulk asked Clint.

Nat hadn't made it back.

Notes:

I really wanted to imagine how things would be in the Avengers complex from Scott POV, from literally an outsider who see these superheroes with admiration without realizing he is a superhero too - even when he jokes and thinks kids will want pictures with him. I thought he might have thought he was an idiot, and I wanted to have someone as approachable as Nat who give him some reassurance and friendly advice, as well as helping him realize he is in love with Hope.

Chapter 3: time, wondrous time

Summary:

After losing Nat, they use the stones to bring everyone back and Scott wonders how fast can he go to San Francisco, but Thanos had another plan.

Notes:

Now we look at the last bit of Endgame from Scott POV, and the battle against Thanos.

It was truly a bittersweet moment.

They had gotten the six stones, after going to different places in time and space, and even with certain hiccups - no thanks to you, Tony - they had made it.

But the price had been quite steep.

Natasha had sacrificed herself for them to get the Soul Stone in Vormir.

Scott recalled the words from Nebula, when she said that her sister hadn't made it back, but back then no one knew exactly the reason why.

Now they knew.

The remaining five of the original Avengers went to the lake as a way to mourn their fallen friend and comrade.

He was sitting by the kitchen, absentmindedly scrolling through the photos he had saved in his cellphone and it seemed that time has frozen for a bit, since the last photos he had were from the last few weeks before he got stranded in the quantum realm, photos of him, Cassie, Hope, his friends and such. He still remembered that evening watching movies with Cassie and Hope, and how things seemed to be improving after two years of him being in house arrest and what had transpired between him and Hope after Germany.

The others were on their own at the complex too. It was this weird sensation of having accomplished something, but being unsure on how to proceed after since they had lost Nat. She had been nothing but kind and understanding towards him.

"Oh, look, it's like a little puppy, all happy and everything."

He couldn't help but think of the quips and jabs from the other members of this crazy team-up they had concocted due to the circumstances. Even Rocket, who was always ready to throw a snarky comment, was silent. His face was clearly saddened, and for a moment Scott missed his customary self of joking and making fun of him.

It was hard to believe they had exchanged a brief conversation with him as he was helping her to make pancakes for the rest of the team. If he could go back and tell his old 2012 self that he would be teaching Black Widow to make pancakes, the same cool spy heroine Scott had watched in the prison mess hall screens as the news about the Battle of New York were shown, he wouldn't have believed himself.

After what it seemed appropriate, they had decided to focus on the remaining task at hand to place the Infinity stones on a gauntlet to bring everyone back.

A lot of emotions were flowing through his veins as he and the rest of the team were witnessing Rocket and Tony working on the gauntlet to place the Infinity Stones they had acquired at such a high price. His mind kept thinking of the first name he called after coming back from the quantum realm, on that dusty deposit. “Hope?” Such a fitting name considering it was exactly the driving force of his actions, the hope to see her again, to see that shy smile of hers, half-biting her lower lips as if she was trying to hide her feelings.

Looking back to that moment, Scott thought again that Thanos had the worst timing.

As he heard Clint answering his cellphone and saw the number of birds flocking towards the little garden inside the Avengers complex to increase, Scott didn't even have the chance to get to his cellphone that he left back at the bedroom he had been sleeping on all this time to call Hope.

Everything exploded and he was glad he reacted so fast shrinking to avoid getting hurt by the explosion.

Later he would find out who had caused it. If you mess with time, time will mess with you. It had been Thanos, the Mad Titan, but not the one who had snapped Hope and half of the living creatures - it was the Thanos from 2014, who God knows how found out about the time heist and followed them to the Avengers complex, destroying the quantum tunnel they had managed to built.

Again, this crazy alien had the worst timing ever.

All those nights he couldn't sleep while they were preparing to run the time heist, he tried not to dwell too much on what he would do if their plan worked - but as optimistic as he was, he couldn't help it. He thought if everything worked out as expected, he would trick the walking raccoon to fly him immediately on his ship to the West Coast to see her again.

But perhaps, that might had been such an optimistic perspective.

There was no time to fret - as soon as he heard the calls from his fellow mates asking for help, he fought hubris and water to go help them. Small as he was right now, it was easier to move through each crevice as small as he was to go help them, jumping and propelling himself from surfaces and as soon as he reached to where they were, the easiest way was to grow as Giant Man to save them all from the destroyed building that could collapse and crush them any minute.

But while he was doing that, he could hear in his earpiece the voice of The Falcon, calling Cap.

As soon as him and the rest were safe from the rubble, he realized not only Falcon had arrived to help.

A huge contingent of fighters were standing aside Cap and the others, while he noticed some more were still joining from some kind of sparkling yellow circles appearing out of thin air.

He shouldn't be surprised - hadn't they just came back from traveling in time? - but he couldn't help to be awed at the sight. Scott understood then how Sam and others who had been fighting in Wakanda at the time they were snapped were now able to join the fight from another continent - and hope lighten him up at the thought San Francisco wasn't that far as Wakanda. Would any of the ones conjuring those teleporting people have thought of bringing Hope? He looked around in the midst of the roaring noise, thinking of how Hope and her parents might have materialized on the top of that building, with the quantum tunnel and him gone.

Scott tried calling her name - but all the fighters shouting in unison drowned the sound of his voice.

As he heard Cap's voice calling them to assemble, he focused on the enemies to fight ahead and then he would immediately look for her during the battle and make sure they both survived.

The contingent of heroes ran and flew against their foes. All types of alien monsters were running towards them, coming from huge extra-terrestrial whale-shaped ships to fight at the command of Thanos. Huge as he was, Scott ran and punched one of those space ships, throwing it down to the ground, as the other heroes would shoot, kick and punch those freaky aliens he had been told had been part of Thanos army five years before in Wakanda.

Scott knew he had to be cautious and not strain himself staying huge, but the heroes needed all the help they could get. His size gave him an advantage, as he stepped on one monstrous alien that had attacked Iron Man minutes before Spider-Man - that kid he had fought in Germany - saved him.

He was looking down, trying to recognize the figure of Hope wearing her suit fighting like she would fight. But would it be possible that she was here? What would she be thinking? Up until a few minutes ago, she had been gone, and was coming back to a world where five years had already passed.

He remember that couple of glorious weeks when he was a free man and even when she and her parents were still on the run, they managed to rekindle things as she was getting used to have her mother back after thirty years, and he remembered how Janet was graciously adapting to a reality that had evolved in so many ways from the one she had left. How would it be for her daughter?

Suddenly a conversation through his earpiece took him away from his thoughts, as he heard Clint's voice panting as if he was running:

"Cap! What do you want me to do with this damn thing?"

"GET THOSE STONES AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE!" cried Cap, as he used Thor's hammer to knock a foe down, as Professor Hulk interjected:

"No! We need to get' em back where they came from!"

"No way to get them back. Thanos destroyed the quantum tunnel."

As he heard Tony's voice, Scott shrunk back to his normal form, as he intervened:

"Hold on! That wasn't our only time machine," he said, as he lifted his hand and pressed the alarm key chain with his thumb.

Of all the places where "La Cucaracha" had been heard, perhaps this was the most bizarre.

"Anyone see an ugly brown van out there?" he heard Cap's voice asking everyone.

For a minute he thought whoever had made possible that all these fighters joined had been really thoughtful making sure each of them had an earpiece.

"Yes! But you're not gonna like where it's parked!"

Scott couldn't recognize whose was that female voice from, but he moved to have a better view and yeah, it was parked in the middle of hostile forces.

"Scott, how long you need to get that thing working?" Tony asked.

"Uh, maybe ten minutes" he replied, as he felt her materializing by his right side, and felt the touch of her hand in his arm.

"Get it started. We'll get the stones to you," Cap indicated, as Scott tried to pay as much attention as he could, distracted by her presence.

As if on cue, he heard her voice replying:

"We're on it, Cap."

There was a quick flashback on his mind of a moment between them in a school's store room, him having issues with his regulator and her looking at him with a grin telling him: "if only Cap could see you now".

Scott could only managed to look at her and softly smiled. They have more urgent matters to attend at the moment, and her smile showed she understood the assignment too as both put on their helmets and shrunk. It was too noisy and too crazy out there to call on the ants, so she grabbed his arm and they flew together towards the van.

The following moments went fast, as they made it to the van from a broken rear window and they grew back to their normal size.

"It's a mess back here," she pointed out as she looked into the rear seats, probably confused that the last time she had seen this van the seats had been at least decent compared to the current state, full of empty fast food containers, candy wrappers and Red Bull cans.

However, they seemed to have worse problems than a dirty van. 

"It's dead," he said as he realized the vehicle would not start.

"What?"

"It's dead. I'll have to hot-wire it," he started pulling cables to make sure the quantum tunnel could be started as promised to Cap, though part of him just wanted to wrap Hope in his arms for a long moment, just to make sure she was real.

But time was of the essence, so they would have to wait.

The battle was raging on as they made the tunnel start up, as he opened the back doors, Hope left to join the fight to help another fighter that had just arrived - he later found she was Captain Marvel  - he thought they were so close to make it.

But before they had to bring the stones to the tunnel - and as he was guarding the tunnel, he could see her with a group of other heroes - Scott thought she was a natural and even worthier to be an Avenger more than him.

She effortlessly shot her blasters in a coordinated attack with other two fighters and they helped distract the Mad Titan from his quest to grab the stones.

Unfortunately, it wasn't enough - he managed to throw his weapon and destroy Luis's van with the tunnel.

There was no time to wonder and worry - aliens were still around them so he kept fighting, crossing fingers the most powerful of their lot were able to stop Thanos.

And they did.

Suddenly, as he was punching another enemy, it disintegrated as if it was made of dust, blown by the wind.

So this was it.

Was this how it happened five years ago?

However, the only ones standing where those fighting with the Avengers.

They had won.

She grew back a few meters from where he was standing, and he just ran towards her, wrapping her in a hug.

He had so many things he wanted to tell her, but inexplicably, he couldn't manage to say anything, just smile at her as if it was a dream, and he still thought it wasn't real.

The feeling of her lips in his made him realize it was real. She was kissing him in the middle of the battlefield, as cheers of victory were heard around them. His hands moved on her back as he returned the kiss, and she circled his neck with her arms. His crazy idea of running a time heist to bring her back had actually worked out. 

However, not everyone was celebrating.

They moved closer to the place where Thanos had been finally defeated by none other than Iron Man, and they could see Cap and the others mourning Tony.

Even after the first time they met - back in Germany fighting each other - his respect for Tony had grown tenfold for being part of the team who made his crazy idea possible, regardless of what they were risking.

First Natasha and now Tony. They had sacrificed their lives so many people would recover their loved ones, lost five years before, and he was one of those recovering the one he loved. His true partner.

"Scott," he heard Cap's voice, as him and Hope had been standing silently mourning Tony.

"Cap, I would like to introduce you to Hope van Dyne."

"Miss van Dyne, my pleasure," Steve Rogers extended his hand towards Hope, as he added: "we've heard so much about you. It's an honor having you fighting with us. Thanks to your and your parents' research, this was possible."

"Thanks, it's been an honor, Cap. Thank you all for not giving up on us."

"We owe it all to Scott - he was the one driving across the country to ask for our help to bring you back. Also, I personally owe you and Dr. Pym an apology for Germany - I was the one who asked Scott for help."

"It's all in the past, Cap. Thank you," she smiled nervously as Steve nodded respectfully and kept walking to check on the other fighters.

"It's all in the past, Cap? Seriously" he mocked her later, as they were seating on rubble and she playfully punched him in the arm.

"Did you seriously drive across the country to run a time heist and travel through time to bring me and my parents back?" she asked him as the sorcerers  - the ones conjuring the sparkly yellow circles - helped transport people, first moving the injured ones so they were waiting to be transported back to San Francisco.

"I just gave them the idea. And your dad's Pym particles and technology," he honestly assured.

Part of him wanted to scream: yes I did it because you're my partner and I love you, and I would do it again but he just managed to smile like an idiot, thinking of all those nights he couldn't manage to sleep, thinking of all the time he had wasted because of Germany, and afraid he would not be able to see her again. But then he thought that for her, it had been barely a couple of weeks since they had rekindled things, so even if for the rest of the world five years had gone through, he didn't want to make her get all stressed.

She just looked him with her sweet green eyes, those eyes he was afraid would not see anymore.

"I love you, Scott."

And he kissed her again, thinking how he had refrained from telling her his feelings, though his actions might have spoken louder.

"I love you too, Hope. I couldn't imagine living in a world without you," Scott finally admitted it as one of the sorcerers walked to them, asking if they were ready to go.

Days had passed, with all the changes and adaptation expected after half the population of the planet suddenly reappeared. However, the general mood was of celebration, of joy, of fireworks in the night as he sat with the two most important people in the world for him outside looking at the night sky. Even if he hadn't been snapped, it felt like he had skipped five years of his daughter's life, and he would struggle looking at her now fifteen year-old face when just a few weeks ago they had shrunk a car and she was ten years old, having popcorn in the backseat while he and Hope lovingly looked at each other. But Cassie's eyes were the same, giving him the same look of admiration as if he was still her hero who helped others in need.

Nightmares would still torture him from time to time but his sleep was definitely better. Especially because he would wake up and see her sleeping by his side. As he saw her sleeping, he thought of that quote from the Dracula movie: "I have crossed oceans of time to find you." Back when he saw that movie, he thought it was cringey, even cheesy and corny without the movie context, and that he should have gone watching an action flick instead.

But setting aside vampires and monsters, he thought he'd done pretty much something like that for her. He had traveled through time for her to come back to him. And if he was faced with the choice, he would do it again, in this or any other reality.

Notes:

I had fun picturing what Scott would think when finally seeing Hope again. I am really looking forward for Quantumania and just wanted to write this I had in mind for our favourite shrinking idiots in love.

And yeah, been watching What If...? so really excited how everything we're watching will play into their lives!

Notes:

Hope you like it! Kudos and comments are truly appreciated.