With your eyes closed, and your head tipped back to allow the sunlight to gently warm your skin, you couldn't think of a better day. The sounds of the Mall in Central Park were always active and chaotic, but today, it was as if the world knew that you needed this moment of serenity and it readily provided; you never would have thought that a park bench in the middle of one of the busiest spots in New York would be where you would find the most peace.

The air was sweet with the scent of spring, and new flowers blooming nearby; new life growing to color the world with its hope and promise despite the dangers and pain that you knew lurked around every corner all too well. But today that wasn't a concern to you. Today was about sitting on this single bench, with Steve and your three children playing in the grass, their sounds of laughter and squeals of delight being the only music you wanted to hear.

You opened your eyes and raised your hand to allow them to adjust to the shift in brightness around you, for the first time noticing a brilliant white light illuminating the end of the path towards the city. It was so bright that you couldn't see the skyscrapers beyond it, and your curiosity to know its purpose became a question as intense to you as the light you were seeing. Turning to look at your family, you saw that they had moved to a small playground a short distance away but still within your sight. Tony had joined them now, pushing a swing that held a small girl that you couldn't immediately recognize; his smile was wide and full of life, a pure joy on his face that you had seen so rarely, and that you cherished so much.

But that light...it was almost blinding now, and urging you to go towards it.

~~~

The team sat in an observation suite above the operating room, where Vision was sitting eerily still next to you with Brooklyn at his side, allowing her to share the energy that he could provide. They had a hard time finding sterile gloves that would fit her tiny hands, but they managed to find some that would work so that she could hold her hand against your chest and over your heart, doing everything she could to not look at the terrifying and gaping hole that was made by your surgeon. Tony's part was already done and thought to be a success in clearing the shrapnel, leaving your life literally in your daughter's hands.

As Wanda looked on, she felt a shift around her that she couldn't identify; cocking her head to the side in curiosity, she closed her senses to the sounds around her and the voices that filled the small room. "Anthony," she whispered to the boy at her side, "I need to seek an answer to something, and I would appreciate it if you could please not allow anyone to try to speak to me so that I can concentrate."

"Sure, Aunt Wanda," he answered readily, straightening in his seat to attention, "you got it. Grant and I have you covered."

"Thank you," she smiled faintly, glancing up at Steve to see the immense worry on his face, mirrored by Tony only a few steps past him. If she was right in what she thought she was feeling, she had to hurry, and she had to be convincing. It was hard to argue with the bright lure of a peaceful eternity.

~~~

You pushed yourself up to stand, looking to your family to be sure that they were still happy and enjoying this time, even without you at their side. It was a relief to see that none of them had noticed you begin to walk away, allowing you to find the answer to why this light was so bright and why it was speaking to you without causing them any upset. It only took a few steps to get close enough to think you could touch it, reaching out only to stop yourself when you heard your friend calling out to you with a desperation in her voice; it was a painful and sharp contrast to the tranquil and joyous scene around you.

"(Y/N)!" Wanda called out, standing at the bench you had just vacated, though it seems so much farther away somehow. "(Y/N), please, come back! I need to speak with you!"

You groaned quietly, stopping to look to her and back again at your target, trying to decide which way to turn. "Can't it wait a minute?"

"No, please, (Y/N), it has to be now."

With a heavy sigh of disappointment that you wouldn't have your answers yet, you turned on your heel to walk back to her, feeling the light behind you dimming without your attention. It was a strange phenomenon, and you promised yourself that the second that she was done, you were going to find out what it was. "Wanda, what is it that's so important that it can't wait a few minutes?"

"Can you sit by me?"

"Sure," you shrugged, allowing her to take your hands in hers.

"I need you to stay away from that light," she warned softly, her thumbs grazing over the tops of your hands to both soothe you and hold your attention. "Once you take too many steps towards it, all that you know and love here will be locked away from you forever."

"That doesn't seem right," you muttered, glancing back at it, "but there's something about it that I just can't ignore." You turned to her again, and just over her shoulder you had noticed that your family had moved to a new playground even farther away. "Look, they're fine without me. I have time to take a quick look and they won't even notice."

"Your mind is playing this trick, (Y/N). If you go there, your family will never fully recover. Is that what you want?"

"Of course not."

"Then just please...stay here with me. Let's just sit for a while longer."

"I don't know..." you whispered, your hands pulling from hers. She tried to hold a firmer grasp, but her fingers slipped through your skin and bones as if you were already a ghost to her. Her attempt to hold you back became desperate, her hands reaching out and passing through you like they were nothing; all you could feel was the calm breeze coming from the light as you took another step. "How can this be bad?"

~~~

"What's she doing?" Clint asked Sam with a nudge of his elbow, pointing at Wanda as she sat perfectly motionless with her eyes tightly closed. "She's freaking me out. She hasn't moved in like an hour."

"She's probably trying to not hear you," Sam scoffed, leaning back in his chair with his focus only on Steve. "Man, I don't know how he can stand there so calm like that. I can barely handle this, and I'm not the one married to her. He hasn't looked away from (Y/N) once in the six hours she's been in there."

"His daughter's down there too, don't forget. He's not gonna look anywhere else until this is done, one way or another. Hey," Clint's expression brightened into a wide grin as the door to the room opened, "there's my girls."

Natasha wore emotions that were in a harsh contrast to his, sitting heavily at her husband's side and allowing him to take Allie onto his lap without argument. She barely had the strength to keep herself moving, much less to provide anything that her daughter would need from her. She leaned into Clint with a shaky sigh, feeling herself slipping into a despair that was eating away at her soul and leaving her with a darkness that she hadn't known in so many years; it was a darkness that used to be her friend, that she used as a benefit, but now it was a curse that she feared would never release her.

"Steve!" Wanda gasped and cut through the silence around her, her body jolting and sucking in air like she hadn't taken a breath once during her trance. "Steve, give me your hand!"

"Wanda, what is it?"

"We have to hurry," she urged, reaching out for him, "please, sit and close your eyes. Clear your mind so that I can get in."

His eyes widened, though still holding his hand out to her trustingly as he took a seat, "so you can get in?"

"It's (Y/N). She won't listen to me anymore...the light...Steve, she's leaving us and you have to stop her."

Tony rushed across the small area and to the pair's side, your two little boys rising to stand with him; the trio watched anxiously as Wanda pulled Steve into her trance, entering his mind to pull him along with her as she desperately searched for you again. She felt each second tick by like hours at a time when she couldn't join you right away, fearing that she was too late.

"Wanda," Steve broke into her thoughts, "focus. You'll find her if you calm down."

"What if I've missed her?"

"Then she'll be at peace," he answered softly, not believing his own words as they left his lips. He wasn't letting you go as easily as it sounded, but he needed something to hold on to if they really had missed you.

The two stood at the bench where she had last seen you, your family no longer anywhere to be found either. Her heart fell into her stomach like a rock, and her knees weakened at the thought of her failure; how she failed so many by making the mistake of leaving you even for a moment. "No," she muttered, "come on, (Y/N), please..."

"There!" Steve pointed enthusiastically, grabbing Wanda's hand and all but dragging her behind him as he ran towards you. The light was still surrounding you, but it wasn't nearly as bright as Wanda had remembered, and as the pair approached you, it became clear why. "(Y/N)..."

You didn't answer him immediately, your gaze to the ground and your body stilled in front of another who was holding you in place, unwavering in his determination to keep you from taking even one more step towards eternity. "Captain," Stephen replied, "she promised me that she would not try again until she could talk to you."

"This is so weird..." Steve mumbled, looking at the surroundings that you had built in your mind, finally shaking his head back into the moment at hand as he felt time slipping away. "Why are you here?"

"I owe her this for failing her in the past. I've fulfilled my promise, (Y/N), now fulfill yours," Stephen commanded gently, turning you to face Wanda and Steve before fading away into nothingness as the pair watched. Wanda looked back and forth between you, wanting to stay and help convince you, but this was no longer her fight, and not her place. She would help him stay with you here, but she faded from your view and left you alone, standing in the middle of Central Park with no one in sight, next to a completely empty city.

If this was how it was going to end, of course there could be no one else.

It was always Steve.

"Doll," he began so softly that even in the silence around you, he was nearly inaudible, "I won't stop you if this is what you want...need...to do. I've had years of my life with you, and I would be a selfish fool to expect more than what I've already been given. I didn't deserve the years that I had, that's for sure." His voice cracked under the strain against the lump in his throat, his attempts to cough it away completely useless. "But I don't want you to go," he whimpered, refusing to look up at you because he was ashamed of the tears that were falling so readily. He wanted to be so strong, to be the Steve that you wanted him to be, but he couldn't. "I don't...I don't know how to be me without you."

"You do," you answered gently, touching a hand to his cheek, "you'll be the man that I love, no matter who you choose to be, Steve."

"Please..."

You glanced over your shoulder at the incessant glow that brightened once more, it's warmth covering you both; when Steve finally forced himself to look up at you, the glow around you sent a terror through him. It struck him down with a realization of finality that dropped him to his knees in front of you, grabbing you desperately to keep you with him just a few minutes more...just a few seconds even.

"I have to go."

He felt his heart banging against his chest, and he would have ripped it out and given it to you in that moment if it would keep you there. Steve said that he wouldn't stop you, and when the words had passed his lips he thought that he had meant them; but now, as you pushed from his grip and turned away, the words were a sick joke that meant nothing.

"(Y/N), wait!" he called out to you, rushing forward to grab you but just as it had done for Wanda, his hand passed through you with ease. He jumped out ahead of you so that you would see him, closing his eyes to allow the feeling of you passing though him, but it didn't happen; instead, when he opened his eyes again you were there, seemingly unable to continue with him in your way. Steve saw his opportunity, his last chance and his last hope; he took your face in his hands and held you there, pressing his lips to yours gently as if you would break, searing this memory into his mind because his heart was too broken to hold it.

~~~

There was something in your hands.

Not knowing what it could be, you held as still as possible, your eyes closed and trying to gauge if you were in danger, as your training always told you to do; Steve would bitch at you for hours if you gave yourself away because you didn't follow protocol. Again.

Slowly and hesitantly, you opened one eye and then the other, barely just slits that allowed enough light in for you to see that you were safe to open them fully. The room around you was dark and silent, except for the sounds of breathing all around you. You weren't alone.

Looking to your left without moving your head, your entire body relaxed at the sight and the realization of what you were holding; it was Tony's hand. He was perched in an uncomfortable chair, curled up tightly and sleeping for what you didn't know was the first time in nearly a week. Looking to your other side you found Steve, his hand also in yours, and also sound asleep. Trying to decide which to wake first, you finally turned your head to see Steve fully, coughing the dryness and scratching pain from your throat before trying to talk to him.

"On your left."