This is a post-Endgame, pre-11:59 and Future's End what if story.

A huge thank you to KJaneway115, for her help, beta-work and encouraging words!

No copyright infringement intended.

1996 – Shannon's apartment, Houston, Texas, Earth

Shannon O'Donnell stood at her stove in the corner of the old-fashioned kitchen, preparing herself a late supper. It was only a light soup and she stirred it dispassionately while her thoughts wandered back and forth through her life. The life, her life, that hadn't turned out the way she expected it to.

From the moment she'd sat on her parents' carpet, stunned into silence by what she saw on the TV screen, she'd had a clear goal. She wanted to do what the men of Apollo 11 did; she wanted to go out into space where no other human had gone before and set foot on another planet or moon. She knew the odds were against her, even if it would become possible to travel further than the moon. But a woman in space? That was unthinkable.

For her, however, it became a path of life and she did everything she could to make this dream come true.

In high school, she had studied so hard it made her an outsider, and many of her fellow classmates had made fun of her. But she'd never said a word because she knew exactly why she was working so hard. What made her life really difficult at that time was that even some of her teachers smiled at her love for science and they told her very early, and very thoroughly, that she should think of another field. Women didn't go into science and study astrophysics. Shannon didn't listen to their words, though. She was sure she would make it if only she worked hard enough, so she gave her best and more to accomplish her goal and show all those skeptics that she could do it. She graduated from high school at the top of her class and began to study astrophysics despite her teachers' words. The years that followed were exhaustive and for the first time she questioned her decision but in the end she accomplished it and she was proud of herself and very happy.

The day that was the happiest day of her life, however, was when she was accepted at NASA's astronauts training. On that day, she knew her hard work had been worth the effort and for months she did what she always had dreamed of. She trained to be an astronaut and to go into space.

She began to smile while she stirred her soup though the memory of those happy days led her involuntarily to the worst day of her life, and her smile faded as quickly as it had appeared. Not wanting to go down that road again, she decided that her dinner was ready and turned off the stove and filled her bowl. She sat at the table and turned on the TV, which she usually didn't do, but today she was in the mood for distraction. She ended up switching from channel to channel while occasionally taking a spoonful of soup. She grunted with dislike, seeing nothing significant or made for an intelligent person, until the spoon stopped halfway to her mouth as a news channel got her attention. Displayed on the screen was a flying object over Los Angeles and Shannon's skilled eyes could easily see that it wasn't a plane or aircraft she knew.

As the footage repeated, she narrowed her eyes, trying to identify whatever it was, but she had never seen anything like it.

"This cannot be true," she whispered, stunned, as a thought occurred to her.

Mesmerized, without taking her eyes off the TV, she grabbed the phone to call her best friend who worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and she didn't have to wait long until he answered. "Cooper? This is Shannon."

"Shannon!" he said happily despite the late hour call. "How are you?"

"Turn your TV on."

"What? Why?"

"Just do it."

She heard him shuffling and turning the TV on. She didn't need to tell him which channel she meant as she heard him gasping. "What's that?"

"I don't know. Could it be the reason for the rumors I heard?"

"Rumors?" he asked but she knew him too well to not notice that he was being evasive.

People had talked about an unidentified object in orbit at work but she hadn't taken them seriously. Until now.

"You know what I mean. The rumors about an object in orbit."

He didn't answer right away. "Yeah, I heard them too," he admitted finally with a sigh.

"Do you know more about it?"

"People here say that Jamie's friend who works at the Griffith Observatory has found something in orbit. It's nothing more than a rumor, though," he added quickly.

The broadcast began to show various UFO sightings of the last twenty years. Shannon rolled her eyes at the clearly faked footage and turned the TV off. "Can you ask her about it?"

"No. Jamie's off work since yesterday."

Shannon's eyes lit up. "Could it be that she was ordered to stay at home?"

"Why?" he asked incredulously.

"Because she knows something we shouldn't know."

Cooper snorted. "I doubt it. And the footage is probably a fake… like all the others." She heard him turning the TV off as well.

"Probably."

"Why does it interest you so much?"

"Don't know…," she sighed and rubbed her face. "It's just…," she said tiredly.

"Hard day?" Cooper asked gently.

"Hard day? More like a hard month."

"I'm sorry. You're still in Houston?"

"Yes."

"When do you have to go back to Alabama?"

"In about four weeks."

He heard the sadness in her voice and paused for a second. "You know, people are pretty excited and nervous here," he said just to cheer her up.

"You don't have to say this only to cheer me up," she said. Nevertheless a small smile tugged at her lips.

"It is true," he said firmly, not knowing why he tried to convince her. "It's possible that something's going on! And it could be the object we just saw."

Shannon stared at the black TV screen. "You really think so?" she asked absently.

"Yes!" he said a little too exuberantly.

She stayed quiet, contemplating the last few minutes.

"Shannon? Are you still there?" Cooper asked after a moment.

"Yes." She shook her head, clearing her mind. "I'm here." She took the little moon orbiter in her hands her father had given her back in the 1960's and looked dreamily at it. "Wouldn't it be exciting if it's real?" She smiled. "If that… object is some kind of ship there are so many questions…"

"We don't know anything for sure," Cooper tried to stop her even though he was glad that she sounded happier now.

"This could be the moment we've been waiting for our entire life."

"You, maybe."

"Come on, it's great."

"We don't know anything," he repeated, already feeling guilty that he had tried to cheer her up by lying.

"Yeah, but we could find out. What do you say? Are you up for a spontaneous visit?"

"You're always welcome at my casa," he said, a wide smile evident in his voice.

Shannon laughed. "Give me a couple of days."

"I'll be waiting for you."

"I'll call as soon as I know when I'll be there."

"Great. And Shannon…" He tried again. "It's probably nothing."

"Probably," she agreed. "It's a welcome distraction, though."

"I understand. See you."

"Looking forward to it."

She hung up the phone, laid the orbiter to the side and rubbed her hands together. She had a trip to plan.

She had no idea why, but this… whatever it was didn't leave her mind. Not the next morning when her boss granted her a few days off, not when she sat in her car, hanging the orbiter on the rear mirror, and certainly not on her way through the United States hot west.