Tony clapped his hands as he called out. "Chow time!"

He wandered over to the small tent set up in the large space in front of their cabin home near the outdoor tables and well within view of the ever-concerned eyes of the woman in the kitchen.

"Ash," he hummed, sitting on a miniature chair in front of the tent. "Ashley M. Stark, you want some lunch?" He tried again, remembering to use her full name like her mother did to ensure he had her attention.

A little girl popped out of the tent, wearing a blue and gold Iron Man helmet and a fake red Iron Man glove.

"Define lunch or be disintegrated."

Tony smiled. "Okay." He held his hand up before lightly chiding her. "You should not be wearing that, okay? That is part of a special anniversary gift I'm making for mom." He kissed the helmet and pulled it off, straightening the girl's brown hair so it didn't cover her bright green eyes—much like her mother's before she'd encountered the Tesseract. "There you go. You thinking about lunch? I can give you a handful of crickets on a bed of lettuce."

"No," the girl whined with a crinkle of her nose.

"That's what you want." He picked back up the helmet. "How did you find this?"

"Garage," she replied innocently.

"Really? Were you looking for it?" He pressed.

"No. I found it though."

"Hm." Snooping then. Jess won't be thrilled when she's the one who placed the garage out of bounds. "You like going in the garage, huh? So does daddy." Tony scooped her up and smiled. "What do you think? Think she'll like it?"

"Uh-huh," the girl beamed. "Does it go fast?"

"Oh, yeah," he chuckled, but his smile dropped when he reached the front porch to find a number of people he didn't want to see stepping out of a car in the drive.

He stepped up the stairs, gave them a look, but turned away before shooing Ashley off to join her mother while he listened to what they had to say.

"No. We know what it sounds like," Scott Lang said, after his brief explanation of what they wanted to try and do.

"Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" Steve pressed as Tony jumped in.

"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck scale which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?" He questioned, knowing neither one probably understood a word he'd just said and not really caring.

He was just glad Jess was still inside, or she might have something to say. I'll have to make sure I keep my voice down.

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

"I did," Scott argued.

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

"Uh…" Scott struggled to come up with a name as Tony passed out drinks. "A time heist?"

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

"The stones are in the past," Steve cut in, trying to help convince him. "We could go back, we could get them."

Natasha agreed. "We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everybody back."

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

"I don't believe we will."

"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," Tony said, sitting back down. "I believe the most likely outcome will be our collective demise."

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

"I'm gonna stop you right there, Scott," Tony said, losing his patience a little. "Are you seriously telling me that your plan to save the universe is based on Back to the Future? Is it?"

Scott scoffed. "No."

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

"Tony," Natasha spoke up, voice tight, desperate. "We have to take a stand."

"We did stand. And yet, here we are."

"I know you got a lot on the line," Scott said. "You got a wife, a daughter, but I lost someone very important to me. A lotta 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," Tony said, cutting off the man as he started to raise his voice. "I can't."

The door opened and Ashley stepped out, climbing into Tony's arms.

"Mommy told me to come and save you."

Tony gave a brief glance at the door, but no Jess followed yet, allowing him a small breath of relief.

"Good job, I'm saved," he murmured to his daughter, looking to the others as he stood. "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," Steve stopped him, taking his arm briefly. "I get it. And I'm happy for you. I really am. But this is a second chance."

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

"And Jess?"

Tony's eyes narrowed. "You leave her out of this."

"Tony, she has just as much of a right to decide as you."

Tony fought to keep a tight hold of his anger, knowing his daughter was right there. "And you don't know how long it took me to put her back together after this mess happened. I did lose somebody that day, you know. I lost her. All our progress, everything was gone all because of those stupid stones and her fighting for everyone else instead of herself. That's why I'm doing this. To keep her from having to go through that all over again."

Ashley tightened her grip around his neck, forcing him to calm down with a long breath before speaking again.

"If you don't talk shop, you can stay for lunch," he offered.

One last peace offering before he headed inside. Natasha huffed a bit, understanding but frustrated as they made to head back to the car.

"Well, he's scared."

"He's not wrong."

"I'll talk to him."

The group froze, turning around in surprise to see Jess leaning on the porch railing, having expertly dodged her husband and daughter's reentry into the house and slipping out the side door.

"Jess," Natasha breathed, relieved that at least she was on their side.

"He doesn't want you to," Steve pressed, not wanting her relationship with Tony to end up on the rocks because of their stubbornness.

"Since when was he the boss of me?" She challenged, standing upright and wiping her hands with a small towel to clear them of debris from cooking.

"Jess," he lightly chided, and she looked at him.

"Right before Strange showed up, we had a talk about wanting a kid. Getting a cabin in the woods and living life on the slow and safe side. My only worry was whether I'd end up the same kind of parent my dad was. That's it. Had nothing to with Iron Man or the Avengers or the dreams of the end of the world. And I know, even if this all changed, I'd still be willing to give him that. He had to convince me again anyway after that stupid breakdown I had."

Steve's eyes widened and she shook her head.

"Stress, Steve. Nothing serious. Too many 'what ifs' that I didn't have answers to. I spent a week in his garage making a timeline chart of all the possibilities," she chuckled. "You can have it if you want. It almost reaches the end of the drive."

"Uh, no thanks."

"The thing is, nothing ever gave me the answer I wanted. The answer I needed was that I did everything in my power that day to help. We all did. And sure, we lost, but people out there are missing their Ashley's and their Tony's and their moms and dads. And Tony's scared of losing this life we have, but I'm more scared of losing him. Have you seen him? He's going grey, Steve. What am I supposed to do with that?"

Steve cracked a small smile, having missed Jess's sarcastic humor around the Avengers headquarters.

"He won't admit it, but he's bored. He's become idle and stressed and scared, and that's not Iron Man. That's not Tony." She placed the towel down on the railing and gave them one final smile. "I've got to help him somehow, and I know saving those people will help me do it the best."

"But your daughter…"

"I'll get a babysitter," she waved off. "She'll be thrilled to stay with Aunty Pepper for a while while we sort this out." Her expression fell though. "She's safer with them than getting dragged into this with us."

"Thank you, Jess," Steve murmured, knowing this was hard for her.

She nodded, lifting her hand in a wave. "I'll call you tomorrow morning. Tonight, if you're lucky."

They bid their farewells, but Scott was still a little worried.

"What do we do until then? We'll need as much time as we can get. We can't just wait."

"No, but I wanna do it right," Steve said firmly. "We're gonna need a really big brain."

Tony finished up the dishes, a bit frustrated with the hose that sprayed his face before his eyes caught on a picture frame of him and Peter. His heart ached and for a moment, he wondered what he was doing. Acting like this was the perfect life. He couldn't even do the dishes properly and Jess took care of most of the housework. Not that he wasn't capable, but… she had more experience in that than he did, even if it was only because of her slob of a father. She didn't seem happy though, not to him. She put on a smile and accepted it easily when he showed her the cabin he'd bought and the setup of the place. She was still hesitant around Ashley a bit, but he'd been helping her. It just felt as though… she was doing everything for him, and he didn't want that.

He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck and moving to the table where he'd set up a hologram of what Ant-Boy had suggested. He couldn't help but be curious if the theory would work, but at the same time, he needed to make sure Jess wasn't around to see it. He knew she was suspicious at dinner and he'd managed to wave her off with half-truths, but if she saw what he was working on, he had no doubt she'd want to get involved.

"I can run one last sim before we pack it in for the night," he mused. "This time in the shape of a Mobius strip, inverted, please."

"Processing," Friday replied as the image shifted into what he wanted.

"Right. Give me that eigenvalue. That particle factoring in spectral decomp. That'll take a second."

"Just a moment," Friday confirmed.

"And don't worry if it doesn't pan out. I'm just kinda…" He was mostly convincing himself but talking to Friday helped when Jess wasn't around.

"Model rendered," Friday said, the result coming in and causing Tony to sink into his chair in shock at the "model successful" that flashed on the hologram.

"Shit," he breathed, only for a childish echo to startle him.

"Shit."

He whipped around, spotting a smirking Ashley sitting on the stairs. He brought a finger up to his mouth, shushing her, but the cheeky little girl just smiled.

"What are you doing up, miss?" He hissed under his breath, checking the stairs to make sure Jess wasn't around or they'd both be in trouble.

"Shit," she repeated.

"Nope. We don't say that. Only mommy says that word. She coined it. It belongs to her."

"Why are you up?" Ashley asked curiously.

"I've got some important shit going on here, what do you think?"

She shot him a disbelieving look—got that from her mother—and he huffed.

"Okay. I-I got something on my mind. I got something on my mind."

"Was it juice pops?" Ashley asked innocently and Tony couldn't help but smile.

Definitely her mother's daughter. "Sure was… That's extortion. That's another of your mom's words. What kind you want?" He asked, getting up and taking her hand. "Great minds think alike. Juice pops exactly was on my mind."

He gave a look back at the hologram, before turning it off to go get Ashley back in bed with her finished juice pop. Jess would have complained about him giving her snacks before bed, but it was better than her finding out about their little girl learning the "s" word. Or my project. He wiped Ashley's mouth with his shirt sleeve before pushing her back down onto her pillow.

"Tell me a story," she fussed.

"A story? Uh, once upon a time, Ashley went to bed. The end."

"That is a horrible story."

"Come on! That's your favorite story!" He countered with a cheeky smirk, leaning in and kissing her forehead. "Love you tons."

"I love you 3,000."

"Wow. 3,000. That's crazy," he breathed out, taking that in before leaving. "Go to bed, or I'll sell all your toys. Night, night." He spotted Jess downstairs, reading on the couch and smirked. "Not that it's a competition, but she loves me 3,000."

"Does she now," Jess hummed, not really looking up from her book.

"You were somewhere in the low six to nine hundred range."

Jess rolled her eyes as Tony glanced at the table nearby, chewing on the popsicle stick.

"Whatcha reading?"

"Oh, you'd like it, I think," Jess hummed. "Bit sci-fi. Written by this guy, David Deutsch."

Tony stiffened, whipping around in shock, only to find Jess eyeing him with a raised brow, lifting a remote and popping up his hologram.

"Having fun?" She asked, and he winced.

"You were listening?"

"Oh, I was doing more than that," she replied, getting up and coming up beside him.

She reached out, but hesitated, dropping her hand away from his tense shoulders as he refused to look at her.

"I figured it out, by the way," Tony muttered, moving away from her and to the hologram. "Time travel."

"I knew you would," Jess replied softly, eyeing his back as he leaned on the table with a heavy sigh. "We got lucky, you know."

"Yeah, I know."

"Lots of people didn't."

"I can't help everybody, and neither can you. Your therapist spent a lot of effort trying to get that through your head."

"Tony," Jess said, a bit shortly. "That's who you are. You're Iron Man. You're Tony Stark. All you've ever done your whole life is try to help people. Everyone, as much as you can. You're not doing that here."

"I'm helping us," he snapped, turning around with a glare. "I'm putting a pin in this right here. I'm stopping. I have stopped!"

"And you're not happy!" Jess shouted in return, being quick to lower her voice. "I'm not stupid, Tony. This?" She gestured to the hologram. "This proves that. You're bored, Tony. You're doing chores to try and keep busy, locking yourself in the basement just like before. You need to do this, to help."

"And what about us? I go back in time, I change everything, preventing Thanos from doing this and then what? All this will be gone, Jess! Don't you get that! No house in the woods, media everywhere, no Ashley? Do you want that?"

"N-No, but Tony—"

"No, you do, don't you? You never wanted this. This, this house, a kid. I get it. You did it all for me. That's why you're so willing to throw it all away," he scoffed, and Jess opened her mouth, closing it and pursing her lips, unable to get the words out. "See? You can't even deny it."

"I love Ashley," Jess got out.

"Do you? I've not once heard you say that to her. I'm always the one telling her stories, playing with her, putting her to bed, and now you want to just throw this life away? Throw her away?"

Jess teared up, gritting her teeth and clenching and unclenching her fists in a vain attempt to keep her emotions in check, and Tony did feel guilty about what he was saying, but he was scared. He was afraid of losing everything because of this decision and to him, it looked like Jess wasn't even the slightest bit worried.

"I-I'm doing my best," Jess croaked. "I-I don't know how to handle kids, and my father was—"

"Your father's dead, Jess! When are you going to stop letting him hover over your shoulder and dictate your every move!"

"And when are you going to stop doing the same!" She shouted back, making him flinch.

It was a low blow and he knew it. He'd been there when Jess finally got the courage to visit her mother's grave only to see her father's right beside it. He'd watched her turn from that strong, ever confident woman into a trembling mess at the sight of the man's gravestone. She'd finally been working past her father's hold on her, and he'd just brought it all back. And it felt like he was putting their relationship back to square one with this fight. It just didn't feel worth it. He was afraid of losing her the most. He didn't want to risk that. Not again.

"I don't want to lose you," he murmured, finally reaching out and taking her hand, hating that she flinched when he did. "I don't want to lose either of you."

"But I'm losing you," she breathed, voice cracking as her other hand reached up and pressed harshly against her teary eyes. "I-I love Ashley and you, a-and this house is really nice, but… but it's like you're wasting away. I'm wasting away. I look out that window and wonder what we're going to do when Ashley has to leave our house and go out into a world that's struggling to move past what Thanos has done. I-I'm scared something else is going to happen and we won't be there to stop it. I don't want us to just, just be trapped in this house hiding from everything when there's a way we can fix it."

"We don't know if we can fix it," he pressed, trying to get her to see the dangers he knew were there.

"We can still try, a-and if it doesn't work out, then we'll try this again. It… It might not be the same—"

"It won't."

She winced and he bowed his head with a sigh.

"But you're right. We should try. We owe it to Ash to try." He reached out, brushing his fingers over Jess's cheek as she grimaced. "I'm sorry."

She let out a stuttering sigh, leaning into the touch, before moving in and hugging him tightly. "I'm sorry, too," she murmured into his chest and he held her tight, kissing the top of her head.

"You coming too?"

"…Do you want me to come?"

He smiled, pulling away and tipping her head up. "I wouldn't be able to do it without you."

The car sped down the road, tires screeching before pulling up just before Steve, who stared in blatant confusion. The car backed up a bit, before Tony got out of the passenger seat, leaning on the roof of the car.

"That is the last time I let you drive."

Jess huffed, climbing out of the driver's side. "You said we were in a hurry because they could rip apart space-time or some other nonsense."

"It wasn't nonsense! It was a real possibility!" Tony argued, before looking to Steve. "Why the long face? Hold on let me guess. He turned into a baby?"

"Among other things, yeah. What are you two doing here?"

"It's the EPR paradox," Tony drawled, stepping around the car as Jess rolled her eyes.

"He's been spouting words like that the whole drive. Then, you ask him to explain and he just rambles on about a dozen books I need to read to understand it." Jess shot him a look. "Please tell me you have coffee."

Steve cracked a smile, glad to have her back. "Of course. You forgot to call, you know."

"Tony took my phone. Said he wanted it to be a surprise."

"Uh, weren't we talking about time travel?" Tony interjected as Jess shot Steve an "I told you" look. "Instead of pushing Lang through time, you might have wound up pushing time through Lang. It's tricky, dangerous. Somebody could have cautioned you against it."

"You did," Steve reminded him, though it was obvious Tony was just trying to guilt him, and Jess grabbed him by the ear.

"Ow! Jess! We talked about this! My ears are sensitive!"

"And I told you that we came to help, not guilt-trip everyone. Show him."

"Show me what?" Steve asked and once Jess had let go of Tony's ear, he held up a device on his hand.

"A fully functioning time-space GPS," Tony explained, cracking a smile to match Steve's. "I just want peace."

Jess cleared her throat and Tony sighed.

"And Jess wouldn't let up until I agreed."

Steve raised a brow and Jess shook her head.

"I had the same problem with Ashley's name."

"How was it a problem? I still think it's cute," Tony huffed, moving to the trunk of the car.

"It was until you explained to me after I signed off on it that you wanted to call her Ashley specifically so you could nickname her Ash."

"I don't understand," Steve questioned, and Jess shot him a look.

"It's a pun because I'm the Phoenix and have fire powers that turn things to ash."

"Still, it got you to laugh." Tony smiled innocently as Jess grumbled with another shake of her head.

Steve couldn't help but chuckle as well, clapping Jess on the shoulder. "Well, it's good to have you both here to help."

"Hey, hands off the wife," Tony chided Steve, who held up his hand in mock surrender. "And save what we lost is the plan, but I want to keep what I have and preferably not die trying."

"Sounds like a plan," Steve answered, only for Tony to pull out his shield from the trunk. "Tony, I don't know."

"Why? He made it for you and honestly, I have to get it out of the garage before Ash takes it sledding."

Steve took it and smiled. "Thank you, Tony. Jess."

"Will you keep that a little quiet," Tony muttered. "I didn't bring enough for the whole team. We are getting a whole team, yeah?"

"We're working on that right now."

"Then, it's a good thing I came," Jess replied, tapping her laptop under her arm. "Seeing as I'm the only one who knows where everyone is."

Steve cracked another smile. "We've gotten a hold of most, though some are proving more stubborn than others."

"Again, aren't you glad I'm here? If I can handle him, I'm sure I can deal with stubborn," Jess snorted, nudging Tony who wrinkled his nose.

They stepped inside as some of said people landed, including Nebula, Rhodes, and Rocket and Jess let out a soft sigh as she lifted a hand in greeting to those in the kitchen getting tacos.

"Hey, Rhodey."

"Hey, Jess. Good to see you… well, you know, not arrested."

"That's been sorted," Tony said, eyes sharp. "Needless to say, Secretary Ross is no longer in charge."

"Oof, politics," Rocket grumbled, hopping up next to Jess. "Who're you again?"

Jess lifted a brow, giving him a once-over. "Jess… Since when were aliens raccoons?"

"Since when were raccoons only an Earth thing?" Rocket challenged, making Jess smirk.

"Touché."

Rocket gave her a toothy grin, before looking over to Nebula. "I like her."

"Oi, we're married, rat," Tony huffed, shooting him a warning look.

"You? With her?" Rocket turned back to Jess. "How'd you end up with this lump?"

"I know. Shocking, isn't it?" Jess joked, shooting Tony a teasing grin as he rolled his eyes. "So, we're missing Clint, Thor, and that Marvel woman, right?"

"Carol said she was going to be helping other planets for now," Natasha replied. "And Clint…"

Jess let out a low whistle. "He's been busy."

"Jess," Steve chided, making her wince.

"Sorry. Nerves. I'll, uh… I'll run a program to see if there's any pattern to the people he's choosing. In the meantime, I've got an idea on where Thor is. Who's going to join me?"

"You're going?" Steve questioned.

"Again, I'm used to dealing with the stubborn and it's been a while. He might want a spar."

Steve sighed and Jess cracked a small nervous smile.

"Sorry. What I mean is, he might need someone to knock him about a bit and… I think I understand the most what he's going through."

"You'll be okay?" Steve asked and Tony scoffed, coming up beside her.

"Course she will."

Steve nodded, moving away to go talk with some of the others and find out who else would go with her, giving her a chance to speak with Tony.

"It might be a while."

"Yeah, well… it's just like you to run off with an overgrown Viking," Tony teased, making her snort and kiss him lightly.

"I'll try to get back as soon as I can. No fighting, please."

"No promises," he hummed, getting in another kiss as she lightly slapped his arm. "And I'll do my best too, by the way. To get the machine up and working."

She smiled. "I know you will. You're Iron Man, after all."

"And you're a Stark too, so I know you'll do your best too."

Jess wrinkled her nose. "Still weird. Jess Stark?"

"I think it sounds perfect," Tony purred, only for Rocket to interrupt.

"Oi, lovebirds! Let's go!"

Jess pat Tony's arm, getting him to reluctantly let her go. "Love you 3,000."

Tony beamed. "Love you more."