It had been nearly a month since the battle of Wakanda. A month since half of the world was snapped away. Nearly a month since Elizabeth last saw Bucky and everyone she loved. A month since they had all died.

The word itself was hard for her to say. When someone died you managed to keep a piece of them, you managed to bury them, to have closure. You were able to say goodbye, as if they were going on vacation and you'd see them soon. But instead of that it had all happened so fast, with just a snap of his fingers, they were all gone.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Elizabeth lifted her head up and looked around Sam's room. She brought her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them as she sniffled softly. She didn't dare touch anything in the room, afraid that he would one day come back to find all his stuff in the wrong place. She knew he hated that.

Lifting the sleeves of the large sweater up, she wiped at her moist eyes. As she brought her hand back down to rest in her lap, she saw there was a damp patch on the dark red fabric. Elizabeth frowned at the sight, not wanting to cover Bucky's sweater in her tears. She didn't want to risk it losing his scent.

She didn't realize Steve had entered the room until he knocked on the open door frame. He was dressed in a plain white t-shirt with faded blue jeans. He looked at her with a pitiful gaze as he crossed his arms in front of his chest. He had shaved, she thought to herself as she squinted at his face in the moonlight coming through from the large windows.

"Hey," Elizabeth says with a forced smile. "What's up? Are you okay?" She asks Steve who leaned against the doorframe. The man taking a look around the room with a nostalgic look, a soft sigh coming from him.

He shook his head at her with his hands stuffed into his pockets. "I just caught you crying alone in the dark and you're asking me if I'm okay?" Steve smiled up at her sadly as she wiped her tear stained hands on the duvet.

"I just meant to ask if you needed help with something," She cleared her throat to get rid of the scratch in her voice. "Or if there's anything I could do," she added as she played with the fingers in her lap.

He sighed and made a move to sit beside her at the edge of the bed. "Lizzie, we lost." Steve stated. It felt painful to say it out loud. They had lost. They lost the fight, they lost friends, they lost family, they lost everything. "There's nothing to be done now."

"I could get rid of it," she whispered, making Steve confused at her words. "I could get rid of that horrible feeling I know you have inside. I can do it." Elizabeth nodded her head when she recognized what Steve felt deep inside him.

"The emptiness and pain," She stated heavily as she felt her eyes begin to water once again. "The grief and sadness that keeps coming up again and again, no matter how many times you try to knock it down."

Steve closed his eyes at her words and squeezed them tightly until he saw shapes and faces that he knew weren't real anymore. The faces behind the sadness that he felt. He knew what she was offering but she couldn't accept. "Lizzie-" he tried to stop her but she started up again.

"You know, I tried." Elizabeth's voice cracked at the end, making her wince. "I tried so hard to try and change how I feel, like I do for others." Steve listened by her side with a down turned gaze, hearing the strain in her voice.

She brought her eyes up and stared at the closed bedroom door. She remembered all the nights she stayed up late, desperate to change how she felt inside. The days after her parents died and her brothers left were the most draining. But none of them compared to when Bucky went back on ice. Wanting to feel something other than the emptiness in her heart. Then she lost him for real, she lost everyone. And that felt like a bullet to the brain.

"But it never worked." She turned her gaze to see Steve looking at her sadly. She reached a hand up to her cheeks and realized they were damp once more. Wiping them with the back of her hand, she continued. "No matter how hard I tried and begged, it would never work like it did for you all."

He saw her frown to herself with her head hung low. The hands in her lap trembled as she lifted them to wipe at her eyes once more. Steve genuinely didn't know what to say, so he sat silently. Offering nothing but his presence for her to rant to.

Elizabeth took a deep breath, remembering to breathe between her silent cries. "And I know what I'm going to say next is selfish," She began. "But sometimes it's just too much. It's like there's too much to feel and not enough space in my body. Not to mention that we all lost someone."

"So those feelings would pour out of you guys and into me. And again I know it's mean," Elizabeth raised a hand to acknowledge Steve. "But if I make you feel better then I'm also making myself feel slightly better." Getting overwhelmed was so easy for her, that it was practically second nature to make someone feel better just for her sake.

"That's why I'm asking, I guess." She shrugged tiredly before leaning back on her hands. "Right now, I'm asking if you want me to make you feel better."

Steve contemplated on what to say in the situation, weighing out which answer would be best for them both. "As crazy as this sounds," he started, "No, I don't want you to make me feel any differently."

She squinted at him confusedly, about to ask why but he spoke first. "It's not fair that I get to have break and you don't," he explained.

Staring off into a spot on the wall, a memory came back to her. "You know, we were supposed to build a life together," Elizabeth told Steve with a sigh as she thought about what Bucky had said to her mere hours before he died. "I know it's probably stupid of me to think this, but I really thought we deserved it. That we deserved a happy ending."

She genuinely thought they would get it. That they would finish the fight and go home. Just like how they always had. Now, she thought, it was all just wishful thinking. Like some sort of fairytale that would never come true.

"You two deserve it, you two really did." He corrected himself with his past tense. "We all did," he thought aloud.

Elizabeth grimaced at his words, noticing the change in them. "Well, it doesn't look like people like us get happy endings do we?"

He let out a bitter laugh and nodded his head at her words. "I guess not," he agreed before the two of them sat in sad silence once more. Elizabeth winced lightly when she felt the wave of anger and sadness coming from the room beside the one the two sat in.

"How's Wanda?" She asked Steve as she pressed her chapped lips together tightly. "Is she doing any better?" Turning her head to the side, she looked at the white painted walls as she heard a curse coming from the other room.

If this whole thing was some sick competition of grief, Wanda would win. The past nights Elizabeth would hear the screams of the redhead from the other room, the walls shaking as things were thrown around.

While most of them were too tired or too sad to do anything, Wanda was filled with rage. The only times she ever came out of her room was too ask about coordinates and maps, trying to figure out where Thanos had teleported Vision's body too. If anyone of them were going to be able to get the chance to bury their lost ones body, it would have Wanda.

Some days Elizabeth would go to bed seeing Wanda by the library and waking up to see her in the same spot. Eyes red and books scattered all over the floor. No one wanted to be the one to tell her that Vision's body could have been anywhere in the entire universe, that it was hopeless. Pietro had tried once, it didn't end well. He didn't try after that.

Steve took in a deep breath as he thought about what to say about Wanda. "Wanda is," he trailed off slowly. "Doing better," he finished with a shrug. "Pietro's been helping her."

"Any luck on Vision?" Steve shook his head at her question as he hung his head low. "Natasha?" Elizabeth asked about the older woman.

Bringing a hand up, Steve rubbed it over his face tiredly. "Still not talking to anyone," he answered. The tone of his voice informing her that he had tried on multiple occasions.

The minute they had all returned to the compound after The Snap, Natasha had rushed to the phone. They all watched as she dialed the number of the Barton household, expecting someone to pick up. But each of them saw as her face fell and the phone dropped from her hand.

Bruce had tried comforting her but Natasha merely escaped his advances and walked past all of them with teary eyes, muttering about how she promised Clint and how she always keeps her promises. The rest of them watched as Natasha stalked right up to the jet before it took off, heading back to the Barton farmhouse only to find it empty and lifeless.

She came back two days later, walking in on them as they ate breakfast in the kitchen. Natasha nodded to each of them curtly before storming straight into her room. The loud slam of the door following close behind her.

Elizabeth placed her head in her hands as she shut her eyes tightly. "And Thor?"

If there was anyone that could match Wanda's rage it would have been Thor. Unlike Wanda, where she was filled with rage towards the mad titan, Thor had nothing but anger reserved for himself. Thinking that it was all his fault and that he had let them all down. 

"Stop asking about other people," Steve shut her question down with a shake of his head. "You don't have to worry about us, we'll be okay." 

She didn't believe him and he knew it. Elizabeth saw and felt firsthand how almost all of them had changed, each one of them losing a piece of themselves.

At this point the only ones who managed to smile during the days were Pietro, Rhodey and Bruce. But that didn't stop her from feeling their sadness underneath the smile. Rhodey more worried from his best friend that they hadn't heard from. She didn't know Rocket enough to tell if he was acting normal, but she doubted that sitting under tables with a box of Chinese food had been in his routine for the past five years.

Despite not believing Steve, Elizabeth nodded her head at his words slowly. Too tired to argue and too depressed to want to prove to him that she was right. So all she did was pat him on the arm with a sad smile. "Thanks," she said quietly.

"Anytime," Steve told her with a friendly smile on his face. He bumped her shoulder with his before standing up from his place beside her on the bed. Before he could even take the first step toward the door, there was the loud rumble from above them.

Elizabeth both locked eyes and thought of the worst. Thanos was back for the other half. The two of them ran up to the window and peered out into the dark night, seeing the large field across from them.

There was no sign of any movement but then a bright yellow light came down from above. The yellow light looked no bigger than a speck as a spaceship was carried above it. The yellow speck set the spacecraft down and they watched as the yellow speck stood around waiting for someone to come up to them.

"Is it..."Steve trailed off, not wanting to finish his sentence in fear that it may be who he thought.

"No," Elizabeth mumbled when she felt no hostility from the speck. Changing her focus to those in the ship, she let out a quiet gasp when she recognized the owner of one of the two sets of emotions . Tony. "He's back," she informed Steve before racing past him and out the door.