Steve was still pissed that Sharon left for Madripoor, and Natasha's excuses for it didn't make him feel any better. Sharon had a job here to help him with Morgan until Tony returned with Pepper. It didn't help his frustration that Tony wasn't answering him at all, and it pissed him off even more when Natasha let it slip that Sharon had at least gotten a text back from him.

"Why are you forcing her to work anyway, she has a job here," Steve said on the morning Sharon was set to return. Natasha just rolled her eyes at him as she brushed past him into the kitchen. "I'm really tired of everyone giving me the cold shoulder."

"And we're really tired of you, my friend," she shot back. "This isn't the 1940s, she wants to continue to work. She'd prefer to continue to work in Madripoor but she's back here, so she's making due."

"As the Powerbroker," Steve said sarcastically and Natasha nodded. "You're telling me Sharon Carter is actually the Powerbroker?"

"Believe what you want, but the quicker you come to terms with the fact that she's been through hell and back and she's not the bright-eyed SHIELD agent who was posing as a nurse across the hall from you anymore, the better it'll be for everyone."

"The Powerbroker is a bad guy," Steve said dumbly and Natasha had to physically restrain herself from whacking him upside the head.

"I was a bad guy, Clint was a bad guy for a while, James too. It's not so clean-cut anymore," Natasha shrugged. "She's not as bad as the rumors make her sound, that I can promise you."

"She's killed people."

"We all have, Steve. Come on," she said and he sighed. "Maybe instead of blaming everyone around you for their choices, start to think about your own choices in life and how they may have affected someone."

"What did I do to Sharon?"

"Oh boy," Natasha barked out a laugh. "Maybe you should take James up on meeting his therapist. You sure as hell need someone to crack through that thick super-solider head of yours."

"We never officially dated," he muttered the excuse he tells himself daily as he started putting dishes away to busy himself. "She was gone with everyone else, and then I tried to have the life that was taken away from me. Which didn't work out, but still. Why is everyone allowed to have their own lives and I get blamed for trying to have mine."

"You're really something else lately, Cap," Natasha sighed as she handed him her empty bowl. "Sharon's landing in a half-hour. I'm heading to the airport to pick her up."

Sharon was grateful Happy sent the private jet to pick her up from Madripoor. She was able to sleep a bit before going through her messages and continuing to spam Tony with texts until he answered her again. She was shocked when her phone started ringing.

"You son of a bitch, leaving me to take care of Morgan with Steve fucking Rogers," she said immediately after answering. "And then ignoring all of us when we try to get in contact with you, what the fuck Tony?"

"I know, I'm sorry," he said, despair evident in his voice and written all over his face. Sharon felt herself soften as she saw how upset he was. "This wasn't the plan. I didn't think Cap would stay in the past to be a homewrecker after the battle. I figured we'd all hang out at parties and I'd make things awkward between the two of you. But more importantly, I don't trust anyone else more with Morgan than you two."

"Happy's pretty put out you didn't pick him."

"Happy needs to take care of my other baby and I couldn't have him do both," Tony said and Sharon nodded in agreement. "Listen, I didn't call for this."

"Of course not, what more do you need from me?"

"Any word on your side of the block about Extremis coming back, all mighty Powerbroker," Tony asked and she shook her head no. "My treatment for Pepper was the cure, at the time at least. I don't know what happened, I can't figure it out. I figured out fucking time travel, why can't I figure this out?"

"I have my people on the look out for the serum, but I can ask about any biogenetic weaponry or whatever."

"Your people," he smirked. "I love that you went to the dark side, I think Peggy would be proud."

"I don't know about that," she grumbled.

"Given the circumstances and the hand you were dealt, I think she would have been," he said sincerely. "I see you're on my jet. Couldn't stand playing house with Captain Perfect anymore?"

"It was a business trip. I'm landing in a few minutes, Natasha has been at the house with him while I was gone. Morgan misses you, maybe call her please? She asks about you and Pepper every night."

"I'm an awful father," Tony said sadly and Sharon quickly reassured him he wasn't. "I've turned into my own father, locked away in a lab or office trying to save something and ignoring my children."

"It's Pepper, we all understand. When Morgan is older, she'll understand too," Sharon said and he nodded, wiping at his eyes. "Thanks at least for taking my calls."

"You're a persistent one. Banner couldn't stand the constant buzzing from all your texts."

"You're with Banner," she asked and he nodded. "The two of you will figure out something, just please don't recreate Ultron."

"Lesson learned," Tony said with a smirk. "I really do have to go. I'll be in touch. I'll call Morgan tonight."

"You promise? Because I'm going to tell her you're going to call so you actually do it."

"I promise," he said seriously.

"If I hear anything I'll let you know," she said. "And I'm using your credit cards for everything."

"You're an authorized user, Steve isn't," he smirked. "Buy Morgan a pony or something."

"Goodbye Tony," she rolled her eyes.

Sharon knew what she walking into when she got back home. Natasha warned her he was in a mood and she already knew he would be without being told. Morgan was at least excited to see her, jumping into her arms and knocking them both to the ground. Moments like this made being back worth it.

"So, I spoke with your dad," Sharon told Morgan and smiled at the way her face lit up. "He misses you a lot and he's been very busy working, but he's going to call soon."

"Today?"

"He promised me he'll call you tonight," she said, and Morgan cheered loudly. "Have you been good for Uncle Steve and Aunt Nat?"

"She's been great," Steve said as he entered the room. "Good trip?"

"Everything is settled so I won't need to go back for a while, hopefully," she said as she stood up.

"You talked to Stark?"

"Yep."

"Any idea when he's coming back?"

"Nope," she said, popping the 'p' at the end. Steve's face hardened as he shook his head and walked past her.

"I think the calm before the storm is coming to an end," Natasha said as she stood next to Sharon and she hummed in agreement.

The rest of the night they continued to ignore each other. Sharon kept her smirk to herself as she watched him get angrier as the night went on. Tony called Morgan, as promised, and Sharon could see how much happier Morgan was after that. She tucked her in and glanced out the windows, watching Steve chop wood in the yard. She took a moment to admire the way the tight t-shirts he loved to wear highlighted his muscles before bracing herself for the fight that was about to happen. She asked FRIDAY to alert her if Morgan woke up before heading outside.

"Tony talked to Morgan, he promised her a pony. You might want to build a stable with all that wood," Sharon said. He paused, so she knows he heard her, but the continued to chop. "I start at the CIA officially next week. I was going to take over Pepper's office if that's okay with you." Still nothing, so she waited him out. "I can do this all night."

"I was just taking a page from your book and ignoring you. Didn't know when you decided you wanted to talk I had to obey," he said, his voice filled with snark. "Tony say when he's coming back?"

"No. He's nowhere near a cure. So we're stuck together indefinitely," she said and he nodded. "Might as well get the blow out done with now, it's been brewing and the longer it festers the worst it's going to get."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, striking down extra hard on it a block of wood.

"Sure you don't," she said, sarcasm heavy as she nodded. "I'm fine with continuing to ignore each other. I'm not fine with the attitude I get from you every day that just gets progressively worse. You're like a petulant toddler who hasn't gotten his way."

"Me? Like you're any better. You walk around with this giant chip on your shoulder and look down on all of us, especially me."

"Oh I can't imagine why I would be mad at the great Steve Rogers," she said with a laugh. "I guess I should be honored that you chose me as your sex toy while you were on the run."

"You're wrong. It wasn't like that."

"Oh, it wasn't? You mean you didn't only find me to sleep with me, and you didn't only stay the night because I had better safe houses than you and Sam could put together?"

"No," he said firmly, walking up to her to stare down at her. "It wasn't like that for me. You meant something."

"Yeah, I meant you'd get your dick wet," she said and he started to seethe. "If I meant more to you than that, you would have tried to find me. You would have helped me get a pardon with everyone else in the Avengers. If I meant more to you than that, you wouldn't have gone back in time to date my aunt after sleeping with me."

"How was I supposed to find someone who disappeared with the rest of the population that vanished because of Thanos? And then when everyone came back, yeah I tried to have a life that I always thought about, a life that was taken from me. Sorry for being selfish for once."

"For once," she scoffed.

"I went five years without you, Sharon. I had to mourn you, my best friends, everyone. It was the second time I realized I lost everyone I cared about," he yelled.

"Maybe if you tried harder," she said, trying to keep her temper under control but felt herself losing it.

"I went back in time to save everyone - to save you!"

"You went back in time because you're a coward, Steve Rogers," she snapped. "You returned the stones and then hid in the 1940s instead of facing the world you and your team created as a result of your fight with Thanos."

"You have no idea what that world was like, you were gone."

"I didn't disappear with everyone, Steve," Sharon screamed at him, feeling pride in the way he froze. "Yeah, I was in Madripoor the whole time. I would have been dead in a warehouse with a bullet in my head if the Snap didn't happen, so maybe I should be thanking Thanos."

"Sharon," Steve started to say but shook his head. He looked like he lost some of the fight in him after that. "I didn't know."

"Of course you didn't," she said with a cold laugh. "Because you didn't even bother to look for me. You never did. You didn't try after it happened, you didn't try when everyone came back, and you didn't try after Aunt Peggy kicked your sorry ass back to the future."

"That's not fair," he said quietly.

"Fair? I'm sorry, did you just say that's not fair? You want to know what's not fair? Being branded a criminal for aiding and abetting Captain America and his friends. Having to be on the run for years with very little help from you all, except when you felt like getting laid and finding me for that. No one had my back, Steve. I didn't have a team, I had myself. Don't you dare talk to me about what's fair and what's not."

"You know all about fairness, being the judge, jury, and executioner in Madripoor, right," Steve snapped at her and she smirked. "Yeah, Bucky told me, so did Nat. I think you've been doing alright for yourself."

"Is that all Bucky told you," she asked, her smirk widening at his confusion. "I did what I had to do to survive, I built an empire. I built a life for myself where I wouldn't be left to die again."

"That's a lonely way to live."

"It's the only way," she said, moving to head back in the house. "I wasn't always lonely, Bucky came to visit a lot."

She couldn't contain the grin that spread across her face as she watched Steve's face change once he realized what she meant. She shoved past him as she headed back into the house to check on Morgan, happy to find her still asleep.

She quietly shut the door and headed over to her own bedroom. She sat down and felt a tear slip down her face that she hastily wiped away. She wasn't going to cry over Steve Rogers, she was done crying over him.

happy wednesday everyone! we'll be back to our normal weekly updates now after this. i hope you all enjoyed the drama, lol.