The Vanished
Author's note: Hello, Wow I'm so impressed with Endgame. As you're here reading this I hope you were impressed too because I have a lot of spoilers in this. I gotta say Scott Lang is pretty much solidified as my favourite Avenger now. There was just a couple of plot niggles I gotta sort out and I choose to do so through the medium of fanfic.
This is set just after Tony's funeral ceremony at the wake I'm assuming was held at Pepper and Morgan's house. Be further warned I must be in a mood because this will be angst ridden.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I'm just venting some post Endgame energy.
…...
"Hello there, I don't think your mother would want you standing so close to the water. Why don't you take one big step backwards huh?"
Morgan looked up at the big friendly face smiling down at her. The man had been the one that had made her daddy angry when they'd come to the house before. He'd been with Captain America and Natasha, but he hadn't fit in with them. They always stood so straight and their edges were always sharp, like someone had drawn them with a marker. She'd thought this man looked pretty scruffy compared to them. His edges were more like crayon. Not today though, today everyone had come in black suits with marker edges, even this man. Morgan didn't like it. She wanted everything to go back to the way it was before.
She squinted up at him and his smile got bigger in encouragement. The tilt of his head made a lock of his hair escape the sweep of his hairstyle to fall over his forehead. His eyes swung up to look at it and he blew air up trying to shift it back, his face scrunching up weird and lopsided as he did. Morgan smiled. The man's big smile returned and he waved at the errant hair with a what can you do shrug.
"My cup fell in," Morgan explained, pointing out over the lake. Scott Lang bent so he was leaning on his thighs and peered out over the lake's surface. A blue plastic cup was floating about a meter from the shore. Half submerged, it bobbed up and down upright with the brim clear of the lake surface.
"Fell in huh?" he asked, in a way that made Morgan feel guilty. Had he seen her throw it in?
"Yes," she lied solemnly. Scott nodded just as solemnly.
"It's weird how it's floating upright like that," he said. He met her gaze, a thoughtful look in his eye. "You know, I bet you a quarter I can throw a stone into it."
"No you can't," Morgan replied in that automatic contrariness all four year olds develop.
"So you'll pay me a quarter if I do?" Scott asked.
"Sure," Morgan said with a shrug. She could ask her mom for one.
Scott made a show out of searching for the right pebble, muttering about aerodynamics and rejecting at least four stones before declaring he had the winner. He then made another show out of lining up his shot, testing the wind, estimating the distance.
"I hope you weren't saving up for anything," he said and chucked the pebble which landed an inch too short with plop.
"Now you give me a quarter," Morgan said.
"Whoa whoa," Scott replied holding up his hands in protest. "That's not what we agreed. I tell you what, how about who ever gets the pebble in the cup gets the quarter?"
"Do you have one?" Morgan asked doubtfully. Scott patted his pockets and hummed.
"Darn it, I knew I had one," he muttered. "Where is that thing? You know it's always running away from me like this."
"The quarter?" Morgan asked in confusion.
"Yes!" Scott exclaimed. "It doesn't like me, says I'm a stinky boy and it prefers girls. So rude. Hey, you're a girl. Is it in your pocket?"
"No," Morgan said, smiling a small shy smile.
"Do me a favour just check," Scott said.
"I don't have pockets," Morgan said pointing at her black mourning dress.
"Huh," Scott frowned. "So where? Oh! There it is." He pointed at her ear and with the tiniest flick a quarter appeared in his hand from nowhere. Morgan gasped and a laugh bubbled out of her. It was quiet and ended before it had really started but Scott thought it was one of the sweetest things he'd ever heard. "This thing, I tell you," he complained. "You'd be doing me a favour if you win it. I'm sure it'll want to stay with you, you're not stinky at all."
"Oh God, I remember that," a voice said behind them.
"Hey Peanut," Scott said. He straightened up and gave the teenager behind him a sad smile. "Oh sorry, I know you're too old for nicknames now. I just forget."
"I'll never be too old for you to call me that." Cassie replied, her eyes pinching slightly as she remembered how hollow the ache of his absence had felt for five years. Everyday she'd wished she could hear his voice calling her that nickname again and one day, miraculously, her wish came true. She looked at the sad little girl at the shore's edge and her heart broke in all kinds of ways for her.
"Is that the quarter that doesn't like stinky boys?" she asked brightly, shaking off as much melancholic nostalgia she could. She wouldn't dare to hope that Morgan might get the same miracle she had, but she could at least help make today easier. She nodded at the coin in her father's hand. "Did it escape again? You know it'll keep doing that."
"It already did, but Morgan here is going to take it off my hands, if she gets a pebble in that cup," Scott explained. His grin widened as he pointed at the cup in the lake, which had floated slightly further away by now.
Scott let his attention drop from Morgan so he could focus properly on his own daughter. He didn't like thinking about what Cassie had been through as one of the left behind after the snap. How long had she spent wondering where he was? Waiting for him to be the hero he was supposed to be. How long had it been before she'd accepted he wasn't coming? He'd wanted to wipe that all away so badly. It had been a battle accepting that the past couldn't actually be changed and he'd spent a long time worrying that the years he'd missed might have crushed his bright little girl's heart. So, seeing her here with him now, playing along with one of his games as if they'd never been apart? It made him unbelievably happy, no happy was too small a word, joyus, no that was just as small. Ecstatic? It made his heart swell larger than Giantman's to see her smile at him again.
"I'm rooting for you kid," Cassie said enthusiastically to Morgan.
Morgan's character was such that she took everything seriously. Play hard, work hard, play hard some more, her daddy had been fond of saying and Morgan was her daddy's little girl. The Langs watched with amusement as she studied the pebble selection carefully, chose her stone, set her stance and threw. The stone sailed nicely through the air but sadly didn't have enough power falling about half way.
"Hey practice shot," Scott said quickly. "Go again, I need you to take this annoying… it's gone again. Hang on, I know where it is this time." He waved his hand in front of Cassie's nose. "Sneeze," he commanded. Obediently Cassie sneezed and the quarter fell into Scott's other hand.
"Thanks Dad," Cassie said rubbing hard at her nose. "It was about to get stuck I think." Morgan gaped in amazement and laughed again. This time she picked a stone much quicker and chucked it at the cup, her aim not as careful and sending the stone way too far to the right.
"So close," Scott exclaimed.
"Try again," Cassie encouraged.
….
"Oh Happy, what did you do?" Pepper asked as the large man struggled into the house laden with bags of fast food.
"Morgan asked me to get her a burger," he replied. "And these heroes didn't look like they were planning to make a move anytime soon. At least the space people and Thor have gone. I mean I know this is a wake but it's your house. Anyway I thought, since I was going anyway, I'd get enough so you wouldn't have to worry about feeding everyone."
"That's sweet, thank you Happy," she smiled.
"Anytime. Anything," he replied as if reciting a moto. "Where is Morgan?"
Pepper frowned looking around and cold wash ran over her skin as she struggled to remember when she had last seen her daughter.
"I don't know," she exclaimed. "Do you see her?"
"Don't worry we'll find her," Happy replied. "The house is full of superheroes. She'll be fine."
Pepper nodded in agreement but didn't waste a second before looking for Morgan. She saw Happy go back out the front door so she looped around the side of the house to the back, calling for Morgan and attracting concerned enquires from everyone she passed.
"She's just down there," a calm smooth voice announced. Pepper turned abruptly and saw Janet Van Dyne smiling at her. The older lady pointed further round the house. "See where my daughter is standing? She's that way," she explained.
Pepper muttered her thanks over her shoulder as she hurried away. The shrill cry of a child sent her breaking into a run just as her heel snagged inbetween two planks of the deck.
"Hey, watch your step," Hope Van Dyne said as she caught Pepper's elbow. "You OK?"
Pepper didn't answer her, she was too busy scanning the garden for her daughter. Morgan was jumping up and down on the spot next to an older girl as a man attempted to heave a large stone into the lake but mimed tripping on nothing and ended up dropping it back exactly where he'd picked it up from.
Pepper slumped slightly as relief flooded her. Her daughter was playing with Scott Lang and his daughter. The cries she'd heard weren't distress, or at least not the kind she had been imagining. They seemed to be playing some game by the water and Morgan was half irritated at it not going her way and half delighted with the antics of her playmates.
Hope had been watching them for a while and had seen the game progress from the initial skill based challenge to chucking large rocks into the water in a effort to splash the cup and make it sink. They were making a moderate amount of noise, which in the sombre atmosphere of the wake had become pretty jarring.
"I'm sorry," Hope apologised to Pepper grimacing. "Scott can be a dummy. I'm sure he thinks he's helping."
"He is," Pepper said, her eyes glassy. "God look at her, she's having fun. I've been trying to keep her away from everything. I didn't want to weigh her down with my grief but I…" Pepper didn't finish her sentence, her words disappearing into a puff of breath filled with uncertainty and regret.
Hope looked around desperately but everyone seemed to be giving them some space now Morgan had been found. So comforting the widow was up to her? She hadn't even met Pepper Potts before today.
Her eyes fell back to the little group of vandals pulling up ornamental rocks by the lake. Morgan's story was starting to sound just like her own, but maybe she could help change the way it went from here. She watched as Scott threw a stone so hard it flew past the cup by a good meter and a half. Morgan and Cassie took great pleasure in yelling at him about his ineptitude. At least Morgan didn't have to wait through lonely decades for the rogue goofball to show up.
Scott was always teasing her about her aloofness, an aloofness that she had carefully constructed as a shield around herself, and one that Scott Lang had steadily eroded away with every moment she spent with him. Even still she often found herself holding something of herself back. The first time she had truly felt the wall come down was when she and Scott had finally had a chance to talk and just be together after the battle. The battle, God, never once in her entire existence had she ever thought she'd be in the middle of something like that.
When they'd first come back into existence, what a concept, and the explanations were flying around, the only thing she'd been able to properly take in was that Scott was with Captain America and Tony Stark fighting Thanos. He wasn't trapped in the quantum realm. He'd managed to escape on his own again. It wasn't even a decision when the plan was laid out. She'd hugged her parents goodbye and launched through the portal with the rest of their army, terrified she wouldn't find him in the chaos. Thankfully her Scott was the size of a building and she couldn't miss him if she tried. Seeing him she'd felt too happy to even roll her eyes. So, what should the new open and relatively carefree Hope say in this situation?
"You just have to be her mom," Hope said quietly. Pepper looked at her in surprise. "I don't know how much you know about us, but I spent most of my life on my own thinking my mother was dead and that my father was too selfish to spare time for my feelings." Pepper's eyes widened and Hope gave her a rueful smile.
"She sacrificed herself to defuse a bomb when I was seven, and dad thought she was lost forever in the quantum realm so he told me she died in a plane crash and sent me away to boarding school while he tried and failed to find her."
Pepper's face crumbled a little more and Hope quickly moved on cursing herself for not being better at things like this.
"He didn't tell me the truth for decades, not until Scott showed up, he helped us feel like a family again and then he helped us find my mom, so he literally made us a family again. But all those years before, they were lonely and painful. I knew dad wasn't telling me something and all I felt in response was hurt that he didn't have enough faith in me to share it. Look I don't know you but I don't think you need to worry about doing the right thing. I can see how brave and clever she is. You've obviously done a great job as mom up till now. Just keep being her mother."
Pepper stared at her, and then her eyes filled with tears and Hope prayed internally that she hadn't massively overstepped and got them thrown out of the wake.
"Thank you," Pepper said.
"Sure," Hope replied in relief. "I'm jus-"
Cassie's scream cut through Hope like a knife. Everyone jerked around towards the lake shore, hands and fists reaching for weapons none of them were carrying, before they all froze in utter horror.
Scott's hands were dissolving. He was staring at them, an expression of shock frozen on his face, oblivious to his daughter as she wailed and begged him not to go. He stumbled back a step and his eyes came up and met Hope's, terror and confusion shining bright and striking at her soul, then she was running.
"No, no, no," she chanted, her feet feeling like lead, the distance feeling far too far. She had to reach him. She was vaguely aware of her father shouting and someone else yelling Cassie and Morgan's names. She reached him at full speed, driving him backwards as she clung to his shirt, his jacket, anything she could grab onto. Scott let out an oof and somehow they stayed standing. She looked desperately at him and saw her fear reflected right back at her. What now? What could she do? There had to be something.
"No," she said again, as if he was just being an idiot and she was scolding him like she'd done a hundred times before.
"Dad!" Cassie was next to her, her own hands reaching out to grab onto her father. The two of them attempting to hold him down through their strength of will alone.
Scott stared at them both, his gaze clouding over as he smiled. "I love you," he said dreamily, then his face went slack and his eyes rolled back into his head as his body went limp.
"No! Scott!" Hope called out to him.
"It's Ok Miss. I've got him," said a young strained voice.
Like an elastic band snapping back Hope suddenly became aware of the world around her. Peter Parker was holding Scott up from behind, his arms around Scott's chest as she and Cassie leaned against him. Pepper was talking soothingly to Morgan. Rhodey, and her parents skidded to a stop next to them, questions already flying. The Hulk, Happy and the rest of the Avengers she hadn't met yet were watching from a short way back. Everyone had deeply concerned looks on their faces. "Sorry could you...?" Peter asked. "I think I should put him down now."
"Oh, right," Hope said, feeling slightly embarrassed. She stepped back and Cassie stepped to the side so Peter could gently lie Scott down on the ground.
"It's happening again," Cassie sobbed, her hand fluttering over his missing hands before settling on his upper arm. Hope reached out to grip the girl's arm in support, unable to think of anything to say. Memories of seeing her parents disappearing before her eyes danced through her vision and merged with the image of Scott lying still on the grass. How long had it been, hadn't it happened quicker than this before?
"Hope," Cassie gasped suddenly. She looked down and saw Scott's hands had returned. She grabbed one and held on tightly, relishing in how solid and warm it felt.
"What happened?" Pepper demanded next to them. She had picked up Morgan who buried her face in her mother's shoulder.
"Did he just?..." Rhodey asked. "I mean you saw that right? He was disappearing."
"Scott, Scott," Hope called shaking him, but he didn't respond. Her hand was at his throat and she didn't need to press hard to feel his strong pulse beat against her finger tips. She groaned in relief even as she shook him again.
"Let him sleep sweetheart," her mother said. She reached a hand out, the soft orange glow of quantum energy already at her fingertips. Hope rocked back to give her space, ignoring the surprised and questioning muttering from the onlookers and watched as her mother ran her hand over Scott's arm and onto his face. The concerned look she gave her father didn't make Hope feel good. She knew better than to ask what was wrong in front of all the other heroes though. "Let's get him inside," Janet said and Peter and Rhodey jumped to follow the order, holding Scott up between them.
"He was disappearing," Rhodey repeated doggedly. "Like before, is everyone else-"
"It wasn't like before," Pepper cut in, her arms tight around her daughter. "There was no black dust it was more like… like…"
"He went fizzy," Morgan said her head twisting to look at the heroes around her.
"Fizzy?" Janet asked.
"Like my LOL mermaid surprise," Morgan said nodding.
"It's like a bath bomb," Pepper explained. Janet and Hank shared another concerned glance.
They reached the main house and Pepper directed them to a wide sofa in front of a fireplace, while she handed off Morgan to Happy and went to find Tony's medical scanner in the lab.
"Friday scan the house," she commanded out loud as she left the room.
"There are no hostiles," Captain Marvel declared, interrupting the computer AI as she passed Pepper on her way in. "Bucky and I have done a sweep. The site is still secure."
"At ease," Fury said entering behind her. "Someone want to tell me what happened? Everyone is freaking outside."
"We're freaking in here too," Peter said.
"What's happened?" Bruce Banner yelled as he thumped into the room like a dinosaur, furniture and people shaking.
"Bruce, calm down," Steve added as he also came in. "People are saying Thanos is back, but we know that's not true, right?"
"I think the Pyms and Van Dynes were about explain it to us," Nick Fury said. The now sizeable crowd of heroes all turned to the group nearest to Scott, who didn't notice because their heads were all close together as they had a whispered conversation. "Hank!" Fury called out. Hank Pym gave him the briefest of glares before returning to the conversation.
Pepper came back in at that moment, Tony's scanner in hand, and motioned for people to get out of her way. She ran the scanner over Scott and looked up, a mix of relief and confusion in her face.
"He's fine," she said. "Heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory all normal. He's just asleep."
"After the airport in Germany didn't he sleep for like three days straight?" Steve reminded them. "Sam thought he'd got a head injury but he said it was something to do with going big. Is this because of the battle. Had he ever got that big before?"
"He was bigger at the battle?" Hank asked Hope severely. "You never told me that."
"We didn't have time to measure him," Hope snapped back.
"Did he go large from normal size or smaller?"
"I don't know I wasn't there."
"He saved us before the building could collapse on us," Bruce offered. "We didn't even realise he was there, then he shot up and burst out of it like Godzilla."
"Dad?" Cassie called out, the sound of her voice ending the discussion going on over her head.
"Cassie?" Scott's tired voice asked back. His eyelids were fluttering and slowly opened before widening in surprise at the assortment of faces looking down at him. "What's going on? Why is everyone looking at me?" He looked around in confusion, noting his position on the sofa. "Was everyone watching me sleep?" he asked. Hope coughed out a laugh and kissed him firmly on the cheek. He gave her a surprised but pleased smile. "Did I do something heroic?"
"No, you were a total damsel," she replied her voice sounding watery as she smiled. "The kid had to catch you." Scott looked up at Peter who gave him a wave.
"So," Scott asked levering himself up into a sitting position. "What happened?"
"What do you remember?" Hank asked.
"I was playing with Morgan and Cassie and then…."
"Then?" Hope prompted.
"Then... I think I saw a flash… of the Quantum Realm? And the world went fuzzy… I couldn't feel my hands…." They all saw the moment he remembered appear on his face. "Oh, oh wow." He held up his hands and turned them over. Thankfully all his fingers were accounted for. "It was a bad dream right? A daymare."
Cassie hiccupped a sob and he reached out to tug her into a half hug at his side. Somehow managing to snag the hem of Hope's jacket so she moved closer to them too.
"Not a daymare then," he said sadly. "I'm sorry Peanut. I didn't want you to go through anything like that again."
"Just don't go again Daddy," she begged.
"I won't," he promised but his face gave away the lack of confidence behind his words.
"We have a theory based on the limited information we have so far," Hank said. "We'll talk back at the lab."
"Hey," Bruce said. "We can help. I want to help."
"So you have the equations for relative quantum ratios memorised and know how to apply them to extrapolated real world sizes against electromagnetic constants and atomic field forces under the Pym particle constant?" Hank asked snidely.
It wasn't everyday you saw the Hulk shrink away from someone, but Hank had made Bruce deflate like a old party balloon.
"Oh man," Scott groaned. "I really wish I hadn't paid so much attention to you guys. I think I get it."
"You do? From that?" Rhodey asked in disbelief.
"I over stretched the coil," Scott said. Hope flinched and Janet and Hank looked grim.
"Right well, this is our business," Hank declared, the authority in his voice making even Captain Marvel step back. "This is a side effect of the suit, of my work. We will deal with it at our lab. This has nothing to do with any of you."
Scott met Hank's eye and then looked over the serious faces on Hope and Janet before resting on Cassie. She still looked distraught. The only thing he wanted was to get her back home. He nodded.
"Yes, let's go to the lab and sort it out," he agreed standing.
They left Pepper and Morgan's house in single file. Quick goodbyes and good lucks handed out quickly as they walked. Hope and Cassie only fussing over Scott a little as he could walk unaided, apparently back to normal for now.
"Dr Pym."
Hank turned with a barely controlled growl of frustration.
"What?" he asked. Nick Fury stepped slowly down from the porch and made a point of looking over Hank's shoulder at Scott. "Are you done posturing Nick, because we have an emergency we need to deal with," Hank snapped.
"If you need-"
"We don't."
"You don't have to cut yourself off again Hank. The world is different now, Shield is different. It's not even Shield anymore." Fury said sternly. "We're here if you need anything, don't let your pride stop your associate getting the help he needs."
"My assoc-.. pride? How dare you?"
"Hank," Janet called out. She pulled him away towards the car where Scott, Cassie and Hope were waiting.
"Thank you for the offer Mr Fury," she said gracefully, although no one missed the edge to her tone. "We will be just fine. There is no need for you to worry about intervening." She saw Pepper and Rhodey exchange surprised looks. Janet wasn't surprised though. No matter what intergalactic time travel crisis may appear some things on earth would never change. Nick Fury and his sense of authority over any perceived threat was clearly one of those things.
"I'm glad to hear it. I hope your man is OK, but you will notify us if the situation becomes more than you can handle," he stated his body language removing any doubt his words were less than a command.
"What else would we do?" She replied smartly and turned away to join her family.
"I'm sorry we never got a chance to work together in the old days Miss Van Dyne," Fury called after her. She could see Hank's hands were already in tight fists so she just rolled her eyes and didn't turn to look back.
'There they go closing ranks again," Fury muttered to Hill as she stepped up beside him. "It's always the same story with Pym."
"Oh yes, nobody else here behaves like that," she commented. Fury gave her a raised eyebrow and she shrugged.
"I don't actually work for you anymore," she said. "I don't have to play nice."
"You used to play nice?"
As Scott levered himself into the back of the car the Hulk was still trying to offer his help. Scott felt bad, they had become sort of friends while they worked on the the quantum time machine together. Although the big guy would always be intimidating there was also a nice guy under all the green, but Scott had knowingly placed his fate in the hands of Hank Pym years ago and he wasn't about to turn away now.
"Scott seriously, I can help, I understand a lot more about this quantum stuff than I did before," Bruce said.
"It's OK Bruce, I've got the only three experts in this stuff on my side. We've got your number if we need it," Scott replied.
"Is Mr Lang going to be OK?" a small voice asked. The Hulk shifted to the side and revealed Morgan. The sad serious expression Scott had worked so hard to get rid of was back in place.
"Oh hey," Scott greeted. "Yeah I'm fine, here I am. See?" He thumped his chest. "Solid as rock. I'm sorry I scared you."
"That's OK," Morgan said.
She carefully reached up as he leaned down and she hugged him around the neck. He gave Pepper an embarrassed smile which she waved away. Morgan let go and gave him a serious expression that said you better not be lying to me. It was a look she had no doubt inherited from her mother, who said their goodbyes and gently led her daughter away back to the house.
A distant exclamation of a little girl's excitement reached them just as Hank closed the car door and Scott smiled thinking that if slipping a "magic" quarter into a four-year old's collar ended up being his last act in this world, then it wasn't such a bad way to go. Then he looked up and saw Cassie, silent tears streaming down her face and he cursed himself.
…
Bruce shambled up to where Peter Parker and Rhodey were standing.
"Man, that was…" Rhodey murmured.
"Yeah," Bruce agreed sadly. He felt too big under his skin. He wanted to help but he was just standing here like a useless green mountain.
"For minute I really thought," Rhodey continued, his voice sounding distant, like it was stuck in the past with his memories.
"Yeah we all did," Bruce agreed.
"But could it be? We don't know how this works. Maybe he was always supposed to go but the snap didn't find him in the quantum realm and only just caught up to him," Rhodey half asked worriedly.
"Dr Banner reversed it," Peter said.
"No I didn't," Bruce explained sadly. "Tony didn't want to risk Morgan so I just made everyone who'd gone come back."
"Oh."
"But Pym seemed pretty confident it had to do with their tech," Bruce added. "And Pepper said something about it looking different didn't she?"
"You think he'll be OK?" Peter asked.
"I don't know," Bruce admitted.
"Did you get that thing he said about the coil?" Rhodey asked, needing answers and feeling agitated without them.
"Something in his suit?" Peter guessed.
"I think he meant like a spring," Bruce said.
"Huh?"
"If you overstretch a spring too quickly it never goes back to the way it's supposed to be. You just have to get another," he explained sadly.
"Oh."
"His tech works by affecting the space between atoms right?" Peter asked.
"Something like that, yeah," Bruce sighed.
"Damn."
….
Hank got into the driver's seat and started the engine. No one said anything. The car remaining silent as they drove down the wooded road and joined the highway. Not taking his attention from the road he started running through the growing list of tasks they needed to get done. Randomly his brain also pointed out to him that his entire family, all the people he cared about, were riding in the car with him, and that was only a remarkable thought because it included Scott Lang and his daughter. Well Hank supposed he had gotten used to having the irritating idiot in his life and he wasn't losing another person to the unknowns of his own discoveries. Scott had become his responsibility from the moment he'd tricked him into breaking into his house and he wasn't letting him disappear on them and especially not on Hope, not when his daughter was relaxing and smiling in a way she never had before. Janet gave his arm a squeeze and glancing over he recognised all the same thoughts behind her eyes.
"So am I dying?" Scott asked.
Hope's control shattered. She closed her eyes and slumped down, her head thumping against his chest. Scott's arm slipped around her and she prayed that holding onto him would be enough to ground him to the world with them.
"No Scott you're not dying," Janet said kindly. "You've just over taxed your body. We're all here because you didn't give up on us so we're not giving up on you until we figure this out."
"First thing we have to do is get you back in the suit," Hank added.
"The suit?" Hope asked. "Oh, and shrink him, yes that would help."
"Second thing we have to do is validate and standardise the equipment in the lab for assessing your condition," Hank went on. "Third we have to adapt Ava's old chamber for you just in case we need it, although maybe we can use it as a framework for the scanner, so we can combine that into the second task…"
"Dr Pym's making a list like Pep Pep" Cassie whispered to her father, although they were crammed into a small car so everyone heard her anyway.
"I taught him that," Scott whispered back with overinflated importance.
Hank glanced in the rearview mirror in annoyance but kept his mouth shut when he saw Cassie was finally smiling again. Janet leaned over and gave his arm another squeeze, amusement and concern both dancing in her eyes.
"We're all going to sort this out together."
….
Author's Note: Well all through Antman's time in the MCU we keep hearing about how dangerous and taxing the suit (and the quantum realm) is on a person. Scott is the only person canonically to spend extended time Giantman size and to grow to Giantman from Antman size, so where's all these side effects everyone else keeps talking about? We've never seen them impact Scott in any meaningful way, even after his collapse as Giantman in Antman and the Wasp he was up and fighting within minutes. The inconsistency and plot convenience-ness kinda got to me is all so I used this fic as some therapy. It makes sense to me that his atoms and molecules would start to loosen and the image post Thanos made for a nice bit of drama for everyone. Don't worry even though this is a one shot I'm sure they'll save him, Bill and Ava will come and help and everything ;) Here's hoping they pick up some of these past comments in the next movie (if there is one :S). Thanks for reading.
Scott Lang: She's right, Hank. I'm not your guy. Why don't you wear the suit?
Dr. Hank Pym: You think I don't want to? I can't. I spent years wearing it. It took a toll on me. You're our only option.