They stand in front of the school building, Katie half hidden behind him as she clings to his pant leg. Around the schoolyard there are about fifteen other five-year-olds that are doing the same thing, and fifteen mothers and fathers trying to coax their children out from behind them and toward the classroom door.

"Daddy I'm scared," he hears Katie admit. He bends down to her level, playing with her pigtail as he smiles at her.

"Why are you scared, sweetheart?" he probes gently. He's momentarily stunned when Katie throws her arms around him but doesn't hesitate to hug her back.

"I don't want to go to school," she whispers in his ear. "I don't know anyone. Can't I come with you? I want to play with you and Uncle Clint and Auntie Pepper and everyone." She pulls away and pouts at him.

"Katie, we talked about this," he reminds her. "Remember what you told me you wanted to be when you grew up?" She nods emphatically.

"Of course I do, Daddy," she giggles lightly. "I want to be a super-spy!"

"And do you remember what I told you?" Katie shakes her head no, but the small smile she's trying to hide tells him otherwise. "I told you that you had to go to school to learn how to be the best super-spy there is."

Steve stands and takes Katie's hand as he guides her toward the door. Katie sticks her free thumb in her mouth, something she had stopped doing a long time ago. She stops short a few feet in front of the door and tugs sharply on her father's arm.

"Daddy?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Do I have to go?" She looks up at him with those big pleading eyes and he's almost tempted to give in. He bends down to her level once more.

"What's this about, Katie?"

"I want Mommy to be here," she says, and he can see the tears welling up in her eyes.

"Oh, sweetie." He pulls her close, placing a kiss on the top of her head.

"You said we would get to see her again some day," she whimpers. "It's been a really, really long time now and I wanted her to be here. You said we'd get to see her again."

"Yes, I know I said that," Steve says, pulling back a little bit. "What I meant was that it would be a very, very long time before we got to see Mommy again."

"But it has been a really, really long time."

"It has," he agrees, "but we're going to have to wait quite a while longer."

"How much longer?"

"A lifetime, sweetheart. We won't get to see Mommy until we have to go to Heaven too, and hopefully that won't be for a very long time." He smiles slightly at her, but she just stares at him in confusion.

"But don't you want to see Mommy really soon? Why can't we go to Heaven to see her? I miss her lots and lots."

"Of course I want to see her," he says. "But I want to wait a little bit to see her. It's complicated, Katie. We can't go to Heaven to see her because once you go to Heaven you can't come back."

"But I miss her." She sniffles as a few tears roll down her cheeks. Steve brushes them away with his thumb and hugs her again, breathing in his little girl's scent.

"I miss her too, Katie. I miss her a lot. And I'm sure that she misses us too, but I know she knows that we love her."

The teacher steps out from the classroom then and greets the students and their parents. After a minute or two, she calls the kids into the classroom.

"Are you going to be okay?" he asks Katie seriously. She shrugs her shoulders noncommittally and gives him a forlorn look, and she looks so much like her mother that it steals his breath.

"I guess so." He gives her another smile and a kiss before he gently pushes her toward the classroom door.

"Go on, Katie," he urges. "You'll have fun, I promise." She nods and hugs him one last time before entering the classroom. As Steve turns away he has to fight back his tears; His daughter, his only child, was starting school today, and his wife couldn't be there to share this moment with them. And he'd had no idea that Katie was still missing her mother- she never asked about her or gave any other indication that she missed her. He hadn't known that Katie even remembered what he told her the night her mother died.

When Katie had said she wanted her mother to be there today, his heart had broken for the both of them. He still hasn't told her what happened that night, and he's not sure when he will. It still hurts too much, and Katie is still too young. She wouldn't understand it all and he doesn't want to put her through that just yet.

Bruce and Clint pick up on his somber mood right away, but they don't ask too many questions. He tells them that it's just been a bad day and they take his word for it, instead bringing him up to speed on the mission he's supposed to helping them with.

After Natasha had died, Steve had immediately requested to be taken off of active duty. Naturally, Fury had a fit and was about to deny his request, until Steve had explained his reasoning. He was the only parent Katie had left, and the last thing he wanted for Katie was for her father to be taken from her in the same way her mother had been taken. Fury had eventually agreed on the condition that Steve stuck around to at least help with Intel.

He spends the majority of his day worrying about his daughter, but as soon as he pulls up to her school at 3 he can see it was for nothing. She's standing under a tree with another little girl and she's actually laughing, despite the morning's rough start. As soon as she spots him she waves goodbye to the little girl and runs over to the car.

"Hi Daddy!" she chirps happily as he scoops her up into his arms. He smiles at her and tugs on her pigtail.

"How was school, princess?"

"It was really really good! My teacher, Mrs. Finnegan, is super nice and I made a new friends and her name is Arianna and she says she only had a daddy too and we played pretend at recess!"

"Well, you'll have to tell me all about it."