Chapter 7

The next morning, Danielle treated it like any other morning for her and Jamie. She made him breakfast, packed his bag, and drove him to Pepper's house. The only difference was today Happy was going to take Morgan and Jamie on an adventure to a safe house miles away from the Avengers facility for a few days.

Tony had of course built a bunker in the woods in case anything bad had ever happened to the Avengers compound. When Pepper told Danielle about the plan, she pleaded for Jamie to be taken there too. She and Tony may have disagreed in the past, but he was not the heartless genius he pretended to be when it came to children. He assured Danielle that Jamie would be safe with Happy and Morgan.

Danielle walked Jamie to the car where Happy, Pepper, and Morgan were waiting. He tried to race ahead to Morgan, but she held him back by his hand.

"Hold on, Jamie." Danielle squatted down to be eye to eye with him. "Now, you're going on a field trip with Mr. Happy and I need you to listen to everything he tells you, okay?"

"Yes, mama." Jamie replied, anxiously swaying back and forth, ready to see Morgan.

"I don't know how long our project will go today, so it may be a few days before I see you." She tightened the straps on his backpack. "I love you, Jamie."

"Love you, too, mama." He replied, looking her in the eye.

She smiled and drew him into a tight hug, forcing the tears out of her eyes, so he wouldn't be worried. As she pulled away she kissed his cheek and told him to go see Morgan. He sprinted across the driveway to Morgan and they started chatting excitedly about their trip.

Danielle joined Pepper and Happy. "Thank you for taking care of him."

"It's no problem," said Happy.

"I hope this works." Pepper said quietly.

"It will. I have faith in your husband and the rest of the Avengers." Danielled affirmed.

Pepper gave her a sad smile and nodded.

Happy knew it was time to leave. "Come on kids! Let's hit the road."

He walked to the car and helped the kids into their booster seats before closing the door. Danielle didn't need to see them drive off. It was hard enough to agree to send him away. She walked back to her car and got in quickly, leaving before Happy could get into the driver's seat. She avoided looking in the rearview mirror as she sped toward the Avengers compound. She didn't know what the day would hold, but she knew her world would be changed in one way or another.

—-

At the compound, the Avengers were donning their white quantum suits and making idle chit chat, avoiding any real conversation about their mission. For now, they could pretend everything was fine and life would continue as usual.

Danielle found Steve off to the side by himself, struggling with the glove on his left hand. She walked over to him and reached for his wrist.

"Allow me." She waited for him to offer her his hand and she turned the mechanism on the wrist until it locked into place.

She didn't look up to his face. After last night's conversation, she wasn't sure if he really wanted to speak with her.

"Is Jamie safe?" He asked, all business.

"Yeah, he's with Morgan and Happy in the safe house."

"That's good." Steve paused for a moment. "About last night–"

"It's okay," she met his eyes, "you don't have to say anything."

"I just wanted to say you were right. I shouldn't want to marry you to fulfill some obligation I set myself. I do love you, Danielle, but I'm not in love with you." He gave a slight smile, trying to ease the tension in the situation.

Danielle returned the smile. "Thank you, Steve. Be careful today."

"I always am," he teased.

"That's a lie." She laughed and stepped away to let him finish putting on his suit.

Walking across the testing area, she joined Bruce at the computer bay and watched him run the last diagnostics on the computers. He explained a few lines and readings she needed to monitor while they were in the quantum realm, and although most of it sounded like a foreign language, he gave her visual cues that she could easily track.

The rest of the Avengers team appeared in the testing area one by one. Natasha approached Danielle, the former assassin, easily the most confident of their plan.

"You know what you're doing over here?" She asked.

Danielle pointed to one of the screens. "Watch this line and keep it from turning red."

"I'm glad it's that simple."

"I know you have a more difficult task here. You have to travel with Clint."

They shared a laugh, but their jovial moment didn't last. Danielle pulled Natasha into a hug, knowing she hated public displays of affection, but not caring enough to stop. Natasha accepted the hug easily and squeezed Danielle.

Danielle released her. "Good luck."

"You, too." Natasha turned and joined the rest of the group on the platform.

"All right. We have a plan. Six Stones, three teams. One shot." Steve began. "Five years ago, we lost. All of us. We lost friends... We lost family... We lost a part of ourselves. Today, we have a chance to take it all back. You know your teams, you know your missions. Get the stones, get them back. One round trip each. No mistakes. No do-overs. Most of us are going somewhere we know. But it doesn't mean we should know what to expect. Be careful. Look out for each other. This is the fight of our lives. And we're gonna win."

"He's pretty good at that." Rocket said.

"Right?" Scott couldn't hide his excitement at Steve's speech.

Tony, annoyed by the fangirling, looked over to Bruce. "All right. You heard the man. Stroke those keys, jolly green."

Bruce pushed a few buttons and the platform began to whir to life. The gears and chains started rotating and pulling and the quantum realm opened on the floor beneath them.

"See you in a minute," said Natasha, smiling.

A flash of light passed over every member standing on the platform and they disappeared into the tunnel on the floor. Danielle watched the computer screens showing little dots vanishing into each branch of the timeline toward their dedicated stones. By all means she had the easy job of monitoring their progress, but the pit in her stomach begged to differ. She tried to remind herself they would only be gone a few minutes. With each tick of the clock she grew more anxious.

Then another flash of light blinded her view of the platform. When she looked back, the Avengers stood in the same spots they left from. She ran up to the platform to join them, amazed that their time heist had been successful.

Bruce was the first to speak. "Did we get them all?"

"You're telling me this actually worked?" Rhodey asked, incredulously.

They looked around at each other smiling and breathing a collective sigh of relief, until they noticed the space between Steve and Clint.

Bruce took a half step forward. "Clint, where's Nat?"

All eyes turned to Clint, who had dropped to his knees with a hollow expression across his face. They waited for an explanation, but in their hearts they all knew what had happened. Their Black Widow, their leader, their friend was gone.