A/N: Back to Earth!
Janet felt like she had been existing in a state of perpetual confusion ever since she'd left the Quantum Realm. She had understood the process that had returned herself, Frigga, and Pietro to their own realm, and a little bit about why Peggy was younger and stronger than she remembered. However, she had no idea where, or even when, she was after they had left the Quantum Realm. Except for Peggy and Wanda, all the people she met had been Americans, so she felt it was safe to assume they were somewhere in America. The time period, however, was a different story.
Just from what she could see in the room around her, Janet wanted to guess that she'd been trapped for a long time. The technology was incredibly advanced, like something out of Star Trek.
Oh god, Hope. How old was she now? Janet wanted to believe that she wasn't physically younger than her own daughter by now, but she was almost afraid to ask what year it was.
She had gained nothing by listening to her fear, though, so Janet forced it down and turned to the strange purple man who'd known her face. "Do you know what year it is?"
"It is 2015," he said softly, as if that would lessen the blow. "Twenty eight years since you were reported missing in action."
The floor dropped out from under her. Twenty eight years. Hope would be all grown up by now, an adult of thirty six. Would her daughter even remember her? What had Hank told her when Janet had gone missing all those years ago?
Something of what she'd been feeling must have shown on her face, because Peggy wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her in, tucking Janet's head beneath her own. Janet hugged Peggy back, feeling like the other woman might be the only stable thing in the room.
"I'm so sorry, darling. You must be so confused right now," Peggy murmured, running her hand up and down Janet's back. "Let's go get you some tea, and when Steve comes back you can talk to him. He has experience with a similar situation."
Janet nodded and pulled back enough to give Peggy a tentative smile. "That sounds good. Are you going to be okay, Pietro?"
Pietro snorted. "I am not the one who has been dead for twenty eight years."
"Agent Barton, we will require your services as well," Peggy said. "Neither of us knows the way to the kitchens."
Barton sighed and stood. "Suppose if I don't you two will just get into trouble. Steve's told us enough stories about you Director Carter."
"I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about," Peggy sniffed as she winked at Janet.
Wanda waved to them as they left Pietro's room from her perch on her brother's bed. Her purple friend nodded solemnly.
"Hey Friday," Barton said once the door closed behind them. "Which way to the nearest kitchen?"
"Take the next left, and the third door on your right is a communal room with an attached kitchen, Agent Barton," said a female voice from the walls.
Janet blinked in mild surprise. She was still shocked and reeling from learning that it had been twenty eight years since she had fallen into the Quantum Realm, and she didn't think there was anything else that could startle her, not even a voice from the walls. "What?"
"Is Friday one of Anthony's AIs, Agent Barton?" Peggy asked a little fondly.
"Yeah," Barton answered. "How do you know about them?"
"I was old, not dead," Peggy retorted. "And besides, I loved to hear about his work whenever he came to visit me."
"Wait, by AI do you mean Artificial Intelligence? And Little Anthony's made more than one?" Janet asked. "Right, it's been twenty eight years. Tell me, is there an American colony on Mars yet?"
"From what I recall, the funding for the space program has dropped drastically since the USSR disbanded," Peggy responded.
"NASA's getting more money from the government now that we know that aliens are out there and hostile," Barton clarified.
Janet nodded slowly as she digested the new information. The Soviets were gone, and aliens were real. Okay. She could do this. "I think I'd like that tea now."
Peggy placed her hand on Janet's shoulder, and they walked in silence to the communal room. She guided Janet to sit down on one of the couches. Barton sat down next to her and did his best to explain some of the things that had happened since she disappeared while Peggy made tea. After it was done, she handed Janet a steaming mug and sat down on her other side, much like she used to during Janet's training, when she had been too exhausted to do much more than crash afterwards. Peggy had been a constant then, and she was a constant now. Janet didn't know what she'd have done if her mentor wasn't here.
Agent Barton shifted in his seat from time to time, but aside from that the only sound to pierce the silence that had settled over the room like a warm blanket was that of three people drinking their tea. It was soothing in its own way, letting Janet adjust to simply having a body again, after so long existing as something else, something she struggled to wrap her mind around even now. She concentrated on her breathing, on the heat of the bodies next to her and the mug in her hands, on the cushions beneath and behind her, and ignored everything she had learned about the future in the past couple of minutes, coming to a tentative peace of mind.
It was shattered when another woman walked into the room, a familiar redhead whom Janet had nearly captured or killed countless times, who had in turn nearly killed both herself and Hank on multiple occasions, who was, without a doubt, the deadliest enemy Janet had ever faced. It was the Black Widow.