From the time you say goodbye,
From the time you say cheerio,
Will you take a handshake true
For your journey as you go?

Leave a prayer within your heart
That the time will surely fly,
To the day when we shall meet again
From the time you say goodbye.

From The Time You Say Goodbye (The Parting Song) by Vera Lynn

That evening was one that Emily would consider the most interesting of her life, which was saying a lot.

Erskine had shifted his chair to sit right beside her, his hand cradling hers as he scanned her face with a look of awe. After refreshing their glasses, he had prompted her to tell him everything about herself and her family. When she'd told him her mother's birthday he had let out a gasp of astonishment and looked towards the stairs.

"But that means that Ingrid…"

"Yes, but you can't tell her that she's pregnant," she'd gently reminded him. "Besides, if I interpreted your journal correctly, she already suspects and will tell you soon."

"You're right, of course," he nodded but there was an excited gleam in his eyes. "You said you have a brother? What about him? Doe he have children – do I have great-grandchildren?

"Tuck and Lauren has four kids – two boys and two girls," she smiled, thinking of her nieces and nephews.

"Their names?"

"Jessica and Jack are biological, and they adopted Brandon and Mackenzie."

"Adopted? That was very kind of them," her grandfather said, a smile flitting across his lips.

"They always talked about doing it. They'd only planned on adopting Mackenzie but when they found out that she had a brother who had a disability…it's harder for kids with disabilities to find permanent homes so Tuck and Lauren decided they couldn't be separated and went through the process to bring them both home. I wish I had a picture!"

"As do I. And yourself? Are you married? Do you have any children?" he asked.

"No," she said, flushing slightly. "I'm…well, I'm almost engaged. Steve tried to propose but it got interrupted and – " When she realized what had slipped out, Em nearly swallowed her tongue.

"This Steve," her Opa said, "is he good to you?"

"The best," she said, allowing herself to breathe again. "I know you would approve of him." He nodded, pulling his hand free of hers to rest on the journal again.

"Steve," Erskine muttered as though turning the name over on his tongue before chuckling. He was looking down when he said, "The man tonight had that name, but you knew that. Do…do you know how my experiment turns out?"

Emily took a breath and nodded. "I do."

He nodded slightly. "I don't need specifics but…does it succeed? Does the man live? Is he good, or have I unleashed another Schmidt upon the world?"

"He's the best man," Em quickly assured him. "He's smart and kind and driven, and he worries about whether or not you would consider him a good man for what he has to do."

The news seemed to cheer him, and he sat up a bit straighter. "So he lives?"

"He does," she nodded.

Erskine rolled his lips together for a moment before shaking his head. "You said he worries about if I would consider him a good man. It…I don't live long after the…"

Em pressed her lips together and hesitated before took a deep breath and shaking her head.

"R-right," he said, his voice faltering for the first time that evening. "I don't want specifics but…but is it quick?"

"From…from what I know, yes it was," she answered, debating how much more she could – or would – disclose. Steve had always been reticent to talk about what had happened to her grandfather, and the report from that day had been more concerned with the experiment and breach of security.

"Good," he said with a jerk of his head, "That's…that's all a man can ask for." After taking a steeling swig of his drink where Em could see his hand shaking slightly, he turned his fixed attention back to her and narrowed his eyes slightly. "So my daughter and grandson are settled, why haven't you, mein schatz?"

Em felt herself flush and ducked her head at the term of endearment. "I…Well…I was engaged before but he died. And then I moved to New York and met Steve and things, well they progressed slowly and he's kind of old fashioned and now wants to get married since we've pretty much been living together since he woke up – "

Her grandfather choked on his drink and sputtered, "Yo-you have been living together, unmarried?"

His reaction startled her, and Emily knew her face was bright red. While she knew Steve had had a few hang ups about their arrangement at the beginning, the vehemence of his reaction took her aback. "Well," she said slowly. "It's actually quite common in my time."

"It is?" he frowned. "But it's - "

There was a rattling down the hall of the front door trying to be opened, and Em jumped to her feet. "Damn! I was supposed to leave the key under the mat for Dottie." She shot down the hall just as Dottie started to knock.

"What happened to the key?" the other woman whispered before turning and waving to Jimmy in the idling car.

"I forgot - sorry," Em replied, stepping back to let her into the house.

"Hopefully for a good reason," she smirked, "if a certain millionaire was distracting you…"

"No, Howard was a perfect gentleman. He - "

"Good evening, Dottie," Erskine said as he stepped out of the kitchen.

"Oh! Hello, Dr. Erskine," she smiled, eyes darting between Em and the scientist. "I hope we weren't being too loud."

"No, of course not."

The three stood in an awkward silence for a moment before Dottie cleared her throat. "Well it's getting kind of late…"

Erskine's eyebrows twitched as he looked at the watch on his wrist. "Goodness! It's nearly midnight."

"And we should be getting to bed," Dottie nodded. "We have an early train to catch."

"You do," Erskine agreed, giving Em a slightly disappointed look. She gave a small resigned shrug.

"I'll meet you upstairs, Dottie," she said, gently pushing the other woman towards the stairs. "I need a glass of water." When they were alone, Emily turned back to her grandfather and sighed.

"You should get some sleep," he said, disappointment sneaking into his voice.

"I guess," she shrugged. "But then again, it wouldn't be the first sleepless night I've spent."

He chuckled and shook his head, "The pursuit of knowledge often requires that sleep is sacrificed."

"Exactly," she smiled. They just looked at one another for a long moment, realizing that this would probably be the only time that they could speak as frankly to one another as they had.

Slowly, he raised his hand as though asking permission to touch her. When she nodded slightly, he cupped her cheek and said somewhat reverently, "Meine enkelin."

"Opa." Tears were gleaming in his eyes as he leaned forward to press a kiss to her forehead.

He stroked her cheek as he pulled away, making sure that she paid attention to him. "My wife...my family survives all of this?"

"We do," she nodded.

"And you're all happy?"

"We are."

"And safe?"

"Yes."

"Good. And this Steve you're going to marry, he's a good man who will make you happy?"

Emily bit her lip and shook her head, debating with herself for a moment. But as her Nanna Harthorn always said, 'In for a penny, in for a pound.' "Steve makes me very happy, and I'll let you decide as to whether or not he's a good man."

"Me?" her grandfather frowned.

"My Steve is the man you met tonight - Steve Rogers."

"Steve Rogers? The little man from the Expo?"

"The very one," she nodded. "So I want to thank you for allowing me to find the man that I love."

"But how?"

"Let's just say that his experience with time travel was rougher than mine but made it."

"Is he...is he the man that makes it? Does he…?"

"Steve is everything you hoped for and more," Emily assured him. Standing on her toes, she pressed a kiss to his cheek before taking a step back. "That's all I can say about Project: Rebirth, but you should know that it works and that you picked the best man for the job. And because you did that, you've changed everything - not just the war but for my family - our family - and...and this is really surreal that I'm standing here and talking to you about this but -"

"But it is a blessing," Erskine finished for her. He quickly wiped away a tear before pulling her in for a hug and pressing a kiss to her hair. "Now, mein schatz, you have an early train to catch and I have a new project to research so we should be going to bed."

"New project?" she asked.

"I need to find a way to send you home," he smiled.

OOO

"Don't take Emily to Jersey for a the honeymoon," Natasha said quietly as they exited the mall and made for the parking garage. They were trying to keep their pace even, and Steve kept his arm around her as they passed the STRIKE team's idling convoy.

"Didn't plan on it," he replied, trying to look around for his former teammates without being obvious about it. Once they'd made it into the cover of the garage, they dropped the pretense and started to scout cars that could get them out of there. Nothing too flashy, but enough utility to get them the hell out of dodge.

"Any ideas of where you two love birds would go?" she asked as they hopped into a pickup truck that had been left unlocked.

"Not sure," Steve shrugged while reaching under the steering column and feeling for the panel. By sense of touch, he undid the screws with the nail clippers Nat had pocketed from some beauty store they'd passed.

"What about the wedding?"

"I'm thinking that maybe I should ask her before we start planning the wedding," Steve said, pausing long enough to look at her before turning his attention back to the car. Hot wiring had been a hell of a lot easier the last time he'd done this.

"True," Nat conceided before sitting back and crossing her arms over her chest. "So would it be in New York? Or her parent's in Massachusetts? Maybe Maine?"

"Or the courthouse," Steve let out a small huff of pride as the engine roared to life.

"Emily's not a courthouse wedding girl."

After twisting off the wires and kicking the plastic paneling off to the side, he pulled the truck out of the parking spot and they headed towards the interstate. They drove in silence for a while until Steve realized that Nat was staring at him. "What?"

"Where did Captain America learn to steal a car?"

"Nazi Germany. And we're borrowing it - get your feet off the dash."

Nat waited a moment before taking her feet from the dashboard, fixing him with a piercing stare the entire time. "Alright, I have a question - of which you do not have to answer. I feel like if you don't answer, though, you're kind of answering it, you know?"

"What?" Steve asked.

"Other than with Emily, was that your first kiss since 1945?"

Steve shifted in his seat slightly and cleared his throat. "No."

"Really? I thought you and Em had been together from the minute you woke up."

"We...uh...after New York…When I left..."

Nat raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying that you had a roadside hook up on your little tour of America?"

"No! I was at this bar and a girl was getting harassed by a guy so I stepped in and," he paused to clear his throat again. "She was a bit amorous with her thanks."

Chuckling, Natasha shook her head.

OOO

Emily drifted through work the following week, barely paying attention to what she was doing and really only kept her job because Martin kept covering for her. When he asked what guy she was mooning over, Em had let out a nervous laugh and lowered her head to concentrate on the dictated memo that Brandt was having her type up.

Truth be told, she was thinking about her grandfather. While at the time it had seemed okay to open up to him about what was going on, distance was making her question her decision. There was no way for her to know if having that frank conversation with him had changed anything and she wouldn't know for sure until she got home.

Still, she couldn't make herself regret it too much as she lay in bed at night and replay their talk. How many people were able to have a conversation with a deceased relative they'd never met? While she'd felt some small connection to him through his journals, actually sitting across from him and talking, feeling his hand in hers, his kiss on her forehead...it made her wonder what it would have been like to grow up with him. She wondered if she would have been Jewish - her grandmère had practiced the religion until her death and encouraged daughter to keep the faith alive with Em and Tuck, but Caroline had found herself swayed more towards Grandpère Black's staunch Catholicism.

"It was just easier," she'd explained once when Tuck had asked her about it over dinner. "Everyone I went to school with was Catholic, so going to Mass was normal. Going to Temple always felt like I was doing it for Maman. She was a bit more relaxed about my brothers and sisters being Catholic, but I think she felt like she owed it to my father to try and keep me in the faith."

Things would have been different. So very different.

Emily chose to look at those few stolen hours with Abraham Erskine as a blessing, as he had called them - a glimpse into what might have been, one that she would hold tightly to for the rest of her life.

"I was thinking I'd pick you up before getting the Senator tomorrow morning," Martin said as they were closing up the office on the second Monday back.

"I don't need a ride into the office, but thanks for the offer."

"Huh?" he frowned. "I was talking about getting us to the train station. We're heading up to Brooklyn tomorrow, remember?"

"We are?" Em frowned, glancing at the calendar on the corner of her desk. There was a small asterisk on the following day that she hadn't been able to work out the meaning of.

"Brandt wanted us to go with him to see," Martin glanced towards the closed office door but dropped his voice anyways, "the experiment."

"Oh," she said, her heart jumping into her throat as she lowered herself into her chair. "D-do you think I really need to go?"

"Of course you do," Martin said, happily closing a desk drawer and oblivious to her inner turmoil. "Who else is going to write up the report for him to distribute when we get back?"

"Couldn't you do it?"

He scoffed, "I'm his driver and assistant, doll. You're the secretary."

The next morning found Emily on a train back to New York with a typewriter under her seat and a heavy heart.

OOO

"What do you mean he couldn't find her?" Jane demanded.

"I thought he was supposed to be the 'All Seeing' or something," Tony added.

"Heimdall sees much, but not all," Thor countered.

"Great," Carter said, defeat creeping into his voice as he collapsed into one of the empty lab stools. "So where does this leave us?"

"What does he see, Thor?" Darcy asked, rubbing a hand on Carter's back.

"This means that Emily is not on Earth or any of the Nine Realms. Nor has she gone back in time."

"So she's disappeared?" Tony huffed. "Just vanished off the face of the planet?"

"Heimdall continues to look for her," Thor said, clenching his fists. "And should she appear, he will send word."

"Wasn't he not able to see me when I found the Aether?" Jane frowned.

"Yes," Thor nodded. "Which makes Heimdall believe this is similar. He thinks that Emily is traveling between worlds. This would move her beyond his sight and be within the capabilities of your machine."

Jane whipped around to examine the machine that she'd painstakingly built only to have taken apart by Tony. "It worked?"

"Focus Jane," Darcy snapped, feeling Carter flagging underneath her touch. "How do we get her back?"

"We'll have to reverse engineer what happened," she said, moving towards one of the white boards and picking up an eraser. Tony trailed after her, stroking his goatee.

"They will find her, my friend," Thor said softly, taking a step towards where Darcy was comforting Carter. "No human has ever managed what Jane has, and I have seen Tony's work in action. Together, they will bring her home."

"Thank you," Carter said. "I appreciate what you're saying, but I'll believe it when she's standing here again."

Author's Note: Oh my god, an update! Ok, so summer isn't really going how I pictured it and I've got way less time to write than anticipated. However, I have a free weekend so I managed to crank out about 6 pages tonight and thought I'd post. This was going to be a lot longer but it makes way more sense to group everything that happens during Project: Rebirth experiment and it's immediate aftermath into one chapter rather than stretching it over two.

In regards to the last bit with Carter et al., I wanted to get across that Em's in a parallel world/universe and I hope I did. I muddled a bit with what happened in Thor 2 to make it work for me, but hey, that's the nature of fan fic. Also, this is the last we'll see of the gang in Stark Tower until the closing of Act 1 of this fic (it's basically split into 2 parts in my planning).

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it!