Superfan: As I have said multiple times by this point, no, I am not doing Homecoming.
The Watcher: Respectfully, I'm going to say no. Even if there was a sexual/romantic relationship between Steve and Natasha, which there is no evidence to say there was, Age of Ultron established that Natasha cannot have kids.
Cap fan: Oh great, it's you. I'm gonna say this once and only once, you are not gonna pull the same crap you did on Aragorn on me. Despite what you seem to believe, it is not my job to cater to your demands and it's not Aragorn's job either. Our job is to write a story, our job is to have fun doing it. Either accept that or don't, I really don't care. You can throw a temper tantrum the way you did on Aragorn's story and stopping reading for all I care, I have no patience for obsessed shippers like you.
Watson Smith: No, what would be the point when it has nothing to do with the Infinity Saga?
Agent N: I have no idea if you're still reading and, given your behavior, I'm not sure I want to. But I'm going to respond anyway. As Guest2 has pointed out, Cap fan has a history of hounding authors and then throwing a temper tantrum, threatening to quit reading said story when they do not cater to his/her demands. The Water, at this point, has given me no indication they are anything but an over enthusiastic fan, so I can't say anything bad about him. But, quite frankly, you're not acting much better than what Cap fan if someone pointing out Cap fan's history is all it takes for you to quit reading this story.
Guest1: Yes, I know, but there wouldn't have been any reason for the viewers to recognize him.
Guest2: It's fine, I completely understand your frustration. But, while Cap fan deserves it, at this time, The Watcher only seems to be an overenthusiastic fan.
Guest 3: Blond Santa. *Laughs* Thank you for that. Let's just say he won't take it well.
Avengers Tower
Night
Strange led the group down the hall silently, each of them lost in their own thoughts. As they walked down the hall, each of them realized how tired they felt. These recordings had taken more of a toll on them than they had thought, it seemed.
Strange led them into the kitchen, where five people were waiting for them. Barton and Fitz weren't a surprise, but there were also two woman in their mid to late twenties and a man who appeared to be in his late twenties or early thirties.
Upon seeing them, the three of them got up as The Avengers eyed them curiously.
"Wow," the man said as he eyed them, specifically Tony.
"I'm sorry, who are these people?" Tony asked what they were all thinking, although Clint, Scott, and Natasha had a nagging feeling of familiarity about the two women.
"What's the matter, don't recognize me without a onesie Mr. Stark?" the man joked with a glance towards Peter.
"No way," Scott said as they all look from Peter to the man.
"Are you…" Peter trailed off as the man unbuttons his shirt, revealing a spider symbol underneath.
"I'm you Peter…give or take twelve years," the older Peter said as he buttoned his shirt back up. "You can call me Parker."
"Wow, this is so cool," Peter said as he walked over to Parker. "You're me? What about Ned? Do we ever ask out Liz? Where's May?"
"Was I really this bad?" Parker asked as he looked over at Barton, who was struggling to contain his laughter.
"Much worse," Barton said, laughing at the look on Parker's face.
"Hey," one of the women said as she walked over to Scott.
Scott studied her for a moment before his eyes widened as he noticed some facial similarities.
"Cassie?" Scott breathed and she nodded. "…You're so big."
Cassie laughed, remembering with a hint of sadness how he had said the same thing when he'd returned from the Quantum Realm. She pulled him into a huge as Scott, in a state of disbelief, returned the hug.
The other woman walked over to Clint, who studied her for a moment and his mouth went dry.
"Lila?" he asked lowly and she smiled.
"Hi Dad," Lila said, happy to see him like this again.
Less weighed down by loss and guilt and a feeling of failure. In a lot of ways, it felt like part of her dad had jumped off that cliff with Natasha. And what happened to Wanda shortly after Thanos had certainly not helped, Lila mused.
"I-I don't understand. What are you doing here? Not that I'm not happy to see you," Clint said confused.
"Well, we retired," Barton said as Clint looked over at him. "Someone had to carry on the Hawkeye mantle."
"You're…" Clint trailed off as Lila flashed a mischievous smile.
"You okay with that?" Lila asked after several moments of Clint standing there stunned.
"Well, I wish you'd chosen a career that involved a lot less of people shooting at you," Clint admitted. "But, if this is what you want, yeah, I'm okay with it. Proud of you Hawkeye."
"Thanks Hawkeye," Lila smiled.
"So, what are you guys doing here?" Rhodey asked.
"We're actually here to see him," Parker said as he jerked his head at Barton. "We have a mission in a few days and Cap wants his opinion on the plan."
"You-you're an Avenger?" Scott asked stunned as he looked at Cassie.
"You retired a few years ago. Someone had to carry on the family tradition," Cassie said with a smile.
"I'd be happy to help you out, but I think there's someone even better suited to help you out," Barton said with a glance at Natasha. "What do you say Nat? Feel like helping the kids out?"
"We're not kids anymore," Parker, Cassie, and Lila said in sync.
"You'll always be kids to me," Barton said, smiling as they groaned and he waited for Natasha's answer.
"I'd be happy to help." Natasha said, seeing the look on Lila's face and wanting to spend some time with her.
"Good, we'll show you the plan after dinner," Parker said as they started to sit down as Barton moved to get the food.
"Who knew Clint could cook," Tony said as Barton brought out the food.
"I can't," Clint said and Barton shrugged as his younger self shot him a look.
"I had time to improve my skills," he said vaguely and Lila winced.
Something Steve, Nat, and Clint noticed. There was a story there, they realized. But now was not the time to push it.
"So Parker how's the wife?" Fitz asked as they all sat down.
"Wife?" Peter asked taken back and Parker glared at Fitz.
"Yeah, I've been married for about two years," Parker said and Peter looked awestruck. "She's good. She's helping Pepper with their newest project at Stark Industries."
"So she works for Pep?" Tony asked interested and Parker nodded.
"Yeah, Pepper actually gave her a job once we graduated college," Parker explained.
"Okay, I think that's enough," Strange interrupted. "We may be changing the future, but maybe they shouldn't know everything."
"Come on man," Scott protested.
"No, Strange's right," Barton said after a moment. "We may be stopping Thanos, but we shouldn't tell you too much outside that. Otherwise, what's the point of living if you already know everything good that will happen in your life?"
"They're right," Steve agreed. "We were brought here to prevent Thanos and save the world, not to endlessly rewrite our futures."
"Cap's got a point," Sam muttered and, eventually, they all agreed to drop the subject of the future.
After dinner, Strange offered to show everyone to their rooms as Parker, Lila, and Cassie all but dragged Natasha to the mission room, eager to show their plan to the best of the best. However, there was one surprise.
"Clint," Barton called out as he remained seated, stopping his younger self as he was about to walk out. "I'd like a word."
Clint glanced back to the others, shrugging before gesturing at them to go on without him. Although they didn't look thrilled, they nodded and left the two alone.
"What's going on?" Clint asked as he sat down across from Barton.
"I wanted to talk to you privately. I wanted to do it earlier but," Barton stopped, knowing giving away what happened to Natasha was not going to help right now. "There's something you need to know and I don't want any of the others to know it. So you can't tell them."
"Why?" Clint asked wearily.
"Because it's about Wanda," Barton said and Clint gave him his full attention. "And the others, they'll treat her differently if they knew. And that won't help her; it'll just make her feel isolated and alone. She doesn't need that. You need to make sure she knows you are there for her."
"She knows I'm there for her," Clint said although a voice in the back of his head that sounded suspiciously like Loki said that he was lying to himself.
"That's the lie I told myself for too long, because it made it easier for me to let Steve and Nat handle her," Barton said with venom that surprised Clint. "I'm not gonna let you make my mistakes. I' not gonna let you fail her the way I did."
"What are you talking about? How did we fail her?" Clint demanded, fear filling his heart at the look on Barton's face.
"Like I told you, even though we beat Thanos, it still felt like we lost. Wanda, she lost more than most of us," Barton said as he thought of Vision, Nat, even Cap going back in time. "I…she seemed fine after it was all over. So I went back to retirement, to Laura and the kids. It wasn't until it was too late that I realized my mistake."
"What happened?" Clint demanded, his heart pounding with fear.
"Not long after Thanos, Wanda had a psychotic break," Barton said and Clint froze. "When she did, her powers went out of control. She created an alternate reality, one where Pietro and her parents were still alive, where people she'd lost were still alive. Wanda convinced herself that it was all a horrible dream, that this new reality was real."
Barton paused, putting a hand to his mouth. It was difficult for him to talk about clearly. Not that Clint could blame him, he felt sick to his stomach just hearing about it. And he had a feeling that this wasn't even the worst of it.
"Strange eventually figured out what was happening," Barton said after getting a handle on his emotions. "He found Wanda and tried to get through to her, to convince her that none of this was real and made her see the damage she was doing. When Wanda accepted it wasn't real, she put things back to how they were…and I almost wished he'd let her stay in that fantasy world."
"Why? What happened next?" Clint almost whispered, not wanting to know but at the same time, knowing he had to.
"After she put things back to how they were, Wanda went into a sort of catatonic state," Barton said with eyes full of pain. "Medically, there wasn't anything wrong with her, but she just…she didn't seem to register anything happening around her. She didn't eat, she didn't talk to anyone, she didn't move. She just…sat there and waited to die."
"But she's better now, right?" Clint asked desperately, almost shouting in victory when Barton nodded.
"Yeah. Strange called The New Avengers – the team that was formed after Thanos was beaten- and they brought Wanda to the new home base, where they could keep an eye on her. One of them sat by her side for months; he talked to her, about what was happening, about his past. It helped her I think. Bit by bit…Wanda came back to us. You have no idea how relieved I was when I walked into the kitchen one morning and saw Wanda talking to him as they ate breakfast," Barton said, trying not to break down, his younger self in a similar state. "Wanda rejoined the team after a few months of therapy. Eventually, she stared a relationship with that member and they got married a few years later. Their son celebrated his fifth birthday a few months ago."
"So she's happy?" Clint asked and Barton nodded.
"Yeah, she's happy, I see her a lot. Her son calls me Grandpa," Barton said in a mix of amusement and affection before he frowned, the somber expression crossing his face again. "By the time I realized my mistakes, it was too late for me to help her. But it's not too late for your Wanda. There's still time for you to change things."
"What do you want me to do?" Clint asked after a moment.
"Wanda had her psychotic break because she felt like everyone she loved had either died or abandoned her, including me," Barton said and Clint winced. "You need to make sure that Wanda knows that, even if you can't always be right there with her, you will always be there for her. I'm not sure she ever stopped to grieve what she lost: Her brother, her home, everything. She pushed it all aside to help The Avengers, to make up for her sins. And then everything with Lagos and The Accords, the media and politicians saying how she was a monster who should be locked up…looking back, Wanda's breakdown was a long time coming."
"So what am I supposed to do? I'm not her father," Clint said feeling helpless.
"You say that, but I see a father's love whenever you look at her. It's the same look I get when I look at my Wanda," Barton said and smiled at the look of shock that crossed Clint's face. "It took me until her breakdown to accept how I felt about her to. Coming up, you'll see the two worst events in your life, your two greatest loses…but seeing Wanda like that and unable to do anything, it comes as a close third," Barton said and it was silent between them. "She'll try and push you away at times, tell you she doesn't deserve your love or forgiveness after what she's done. That's when she'll need you the most. When she pushes you away, push back even harder. The more you do, bit by bit, she'll let you in."
Barton then looked at Clint with a look that made him look like he had aged a thousand years. Clint wondered just how much suffering his future self had endured.
"You have a chance here Clint, a real chance, to do right by right by her in a way I didn't. I failed her. Don't make my mistakes," Barton warned him.
Barton then stood up and walked out of the kitchen, leaving Clint alone with his thoughts.
Later, in his room, Scott was lying down on his bed, looking at a picture of Cassie when someone knocked on his door. Scott pocketed the picture and sat up as Cassie walked in.
"Hey, am I interrupting?" She asked.
"No, god no," Scott said as he threw his legs over the side, looking at her. "Sorry if I'm staring. I just can't believe you're you."
"Must be a lot to take in," Cassi smiled.
"So…You're the new Ant-Man? Or I guess Ant-Woman?" Scott asked.
"The new Wasp," Cassie added after a moment, smiling at his look of confusion. "You'll understand tomorrow."
"So, I retired?" Scott added.
"You and Hope decided it was time," Cassie said and Scott perked up.
"So, me and Hope?" Scott asked hopefully.
With a smile, Cassie pulled out a picture and handed it to him. Scott took it and looked at it in amazement. It was of an older him and Hope, a boy that looked to be around his Cassie's age between them.
"Is that…" Scott trailed off.
"Henry Pym Lang, my baby brother," Cassie said with affection. "Don't tell Strange I showed that to you."
"You're secret's safe with me," Scott promised as he handed it back to her. "So, Hope and I?"
"You worked it out, after a lot of mistakes and miscommunications. Just try not to screw it up when you get back," Cassie said with a smile.
"I'll try," Scott promised before patting the spot on the bed next to him. "So, come, sit and tell your dad about your life."
Cassie laughed but did as he asked, sitting down next to him as she began to tell him as much as she could.
In the briefing room, Natasha was going over the mission plan and looked back at Lila, who was looking at her like she expected her to disappear at any moment.
"Sorry, am I bothering you?" Lila asked as Natasha looked over at her.
"No," Natasha said as she put down the plan. "Your dad, he told me. He didn't tell me what happened, but I know I died."
"Yeah, you did," Lila nodded, looking like she was trying not to cry. "It really hit us all hard when dad told us. It was really hard for…a long time."
"I'm sorry," Natasha put the plan down and walked over to Lila, putting a hand on the younger woman's shoulder.
"Dad said you did it for us, for everyone. But it didn't make it any easier. I missed you so much Auntie Nat," Lila said, some tears falling from her eyes.
Natasha silently wrapped Lila up in her arms, the way she used to when Lila was a child until hugs had become 'uncool'. Lila returned the hug, burying her face in Natasha's shoulder as she sobbed.
Missouri
Same time
In a rather modest looking house, Wanda poked her head in through her son's door. Stevie was sleeping, out cold from when she and his father had put him to bed earlier. Wanda smiled before closing the door quietly.
Wanda then made her way down to the stairs and into the living room; where her husband was sitting in a chair. He was reading a book as she walked in, not seeming to notice her presence. But Wanda knew better, he had heard her coming before she even entered the room.
"How's the book?" Wanda asked.
"Not bad," he said as he lowered it, putting it on the table as he looked over at her. "Remind me to thank Laura for the recommendation. How's Stevie?"
"Out like a light," Wanda said with a smile.
"Well, he's nothing like me as a kid," her husband chuckled. "Clearly, he takes after you."
"We sure that's a good thing?" Wanda asked with a frown.
"Hey, don't be like that," he said as he stood up and walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her. "What's going on, you haven't talked like this in a while?"
"Clint called, he wants me to head over there tomorrow," Wanda admitted and he nodded.
"What are you worried about?"
"I've worked so hard to pull myself out of the hole I found myself in after I lost Vision. I'm…worried that I'll find myself right back there," Wanda admitted and her husband was silent for a few moments.
"You are strong Wanda. You didn't break because you're weak, you broke because you have been through more hell than most people can even imagine. The fact that all the pain and loss you suffered didn't turn you into a monster but made you a hero instead shows how strong you are. Seeing someone you used to love isn't going to change that," he said and Wanda smiled up at him. "If you want, I can come with you."
"I know you would, and I love you for it, but…you're right, I can do this. I guess the thought of seeing them again just brought out some old issues I thought I'd put to bed. But I have the New Avengers, I have Clint, and I have you and Stevie. I'll be okay," Wanda said as she stared up at him. "I love you James Barnes."
"I love you Wanda Maximoff-Barnes," Bucky said before he leaned down and captured her lips in a kiss.
If anyone needs to put a face to a name, Parker would be portrayed by Timothée Chalamet. Cassie is left up to reader's interpretation, it can be Emma Fuhrmann or it can be someone completely different.
Yes, Parker is married. I do plan to reveal who his wife is at one point, but I've also given a hint to those who are familiar with the Spider-Man mythos.
People go on and on about the father/son relationship between Tony and Peter (a relationship that I personally find to be toxic). But much less attention is given to the father/daughter like relationship between Clint and Wanda, which I personally love because it's much deeper and I find it beautiful.
Yes, Wanda's husband is Bucky. Wanda/Bucky is a relationship I was introduced to around the time I started this story and, stopping to think about it, I think it could be a healthy relationship for both of them. They can understand each other both being victims of Hydra and having done things that they are ashamed off in service of Hydra. Both of them are broken people and I think they need someone who understands that before they can heal. And, as for the age difference, by IW, Wanda would be in her early twenties, at the least, so there's nothing creepy about it on that angle.