ANGST WARNING

HEAVY ANGST WARNING

I MEAN IT

~~~

"Dad, move your wrinkly old butt!"

"Ah, the lack of respect just warms the heart," Tony laughed as he approached the quinjet to meet you. "I remember a day when we had just a little bit left around here."

"Really? What day was that?"

"I think it was a Tuesday about five years ago."

"Touché," you smiled in return. You secured your own suitcases and turned to add Steve's to yours, clearing enough space to add Tony's as well, but he didn't appear behind you with them as quickly as you had expected him to. When you turned back around to see what the delay was, he was standing a few feet away, staring at his phone with a grumpy look on his face. "Dad, come on, we're gonna be late."

"Um, right...hold on."

"No. Dad, you promised, no work getting in the way. Pepper said that everything was taken care of with multiple back-ups so that you could both leave together. There can't be anything on that phone important enough to keep you here."

He lifted his head to look at you, and you immediately knew that it was a battle you weren't going to win. You gave it your best, but it was clear that you may as well just give up and not lose any further energy on the topic. "I just need a few hours, honey. It won't take long."

"I've heard that before."

"Yeah, but this time I mean it. I don't want to be late, either." Tony pushed his phone back into his pocket and set his suitcase aside, making his way up the jet ramp to meet you but stopping just short of it. It was probably safer to talk about this with a little distance between you, after all. "You guys go ahead, I'll just grab a jet from Stark and meet you in Wakanda in the morning. It's getting late anyway."

"Alright," you reluctantly agreed, "I'll let Ant know that you'll see him then. Maybe just shoot him a text too, so I don't take the full brunt of his reaction, please." He was just about to turn away to go, but you coughed with annoyance to get his attention; when he looked back, you were standing expectantly with arms extended and a look that dared him to keep walking away.

"Shit, sorry!" he hurried back and nearly toppled you with his force as he took your offer. "Fly safe, kiddo, I'll see you tomorrow. Love you."

"See you tomorrow. Love you too."

~~~

Natasha and Clint were the first to arrive in Wakanda with Allie and Nik, joined by Wanda and Vision with William, while Bucky, Sam, and Becca flew in with you, Steve, and your three. Now that you had offered some sort of recompense by saving her dad, Becca had apologized over and over about her outburst and things were getting back to normal between you. You felt fairly certain that her dads had quite a lot to do with her change in attitude, but the girl was a smart ten-year-old and you couldn't dismiss her intentions so easily.

Everyone else who didn't have the fortune of flying with such a full gene pool around them took their own jet in together, spilling out onto the launch pad like it was a rowdy family vacation. It wouldn't have been too far from the truth, actually, after so much had gone on and everyone had just faced the imminent loss of two of their own. This group had earned some time away, and the invitation by T'Challa and his country was readily taken without question.

"Hey," Scott approached, catching your attention, "where's Tony? I thought he was flying in with you?"

"He got called away to some last-second work, the usual. He's flying in with Pepper tomorrow morning."

"Gotcha. I was like, woah, Ant's gonna kick his butt when he sees he's not here. As much as I'd like to see that, I wouldn't want to ruin the wedding over it. I'm sure that Tony will do something to warrant it eventually anyway."

"I'll be sure to relay your confidence in him," you smiled. "But I'm sure you're right, Scott." You turned back to be sure that your family was making their way into the palace when you noticed Brooke still sitting in the jet. She looked like she was alone until you took a few steps back towards them to see that Grant was with her, and they looked to be in a very serious conversation.

"They asked to be alone," Steve offered quietly. "Do you know what this is about?"

"No, not a clue."

"Hmm, well, maybe one of them will offer up later," he shrugged. "Let's get our stuff in and settle for the night. I'm sure Ant is gonna have us all pretty busy tomorrow."

"Seriously? Steve, look around you. There's no way that T'Challa is going to let a single one of us lift a finger to help with this. He takes hosting very seriously, so please, don't be your charming and polite self and ask how you can help."

"That's gonna be a tough one, doll. You know I'm extremely charming and hard to say no to."

With a roll of your eyes that could likely be felt by the entire nation, you grabbed your last piece of luggage and started in towards the palace entry. He was quick to fall into step behind you, laughing to himself that he just might have gotten away with leaving you speechless. It was a rare feat that he actually kept track of in the name of posterity and would have to get this into his phone the second he got to your room. He was a stickler for accuracy, after all.

Steve took one last glance back at the jet to see his two kids still deep in conversation, and despite his strong parental need to fix everything, he managed to walk away.

"Brooke," Grant began, "I've been thinking a lot since the other day in the hall, when I tried to push you to tell me what was going on with you."

"Yeah, about that," she stopped him, "I'm so sorry that I snapped at you, G. I've been just moody and sick all the time, and with the worry about Mom and Dad it was all just crushing me, ya know?"

"I do, yeah. But even with all of that, it made me realize that I haven't been available to any of you for a long time. I've been in the city with my team and I don't check in like I should. I feel like I'm an outsider, sis. I don't want it to be that way with the three of us."

"I don't either," she emphatically agreed, sitting up to take his hand, "but believe me, we're so proud of you, okay? Anthony doesn't shut up about it, and he tells anyone who will listen that his brother Grant is off with the Fantastic Four, taking over for the 'great Johnny Storm' and saving the world over and over. Yeah, you're not here as much anymore, but Grant, that doesn't mean that we aren't here for you and that we don't love you just as much as we always have."

Grant closed his eyes, not knowing what to say and trying to gather his emotions before he lost his voice completely. She had some amazing ability to put him at ease; she always had ever since they were little, even though Anthony was the empath in the group.

"G, come on, you can talk to me."

"I don't..." he sniffled, "I uh...I don't want to lose you. Anthony got married, you're having a baby-"

"That you will be an amazing uncle to," she insisted, grabbing his chin gently to lift his face and force him to look back at her, "and you have a new sister-in-law now. Think of all of that time you get to make up in torturing her for a change? Finally, some of the focus is off of me!"

"Shut up."

"Will not."

"Of course not." Grant moved enough for her to release him, but the two siblings sat in silence and regarded each other, not sure of where the conversation was going to go from here. They would've preferred to leave it there, with levity hanging in the air around them, but he had one more question to ask of her. "Brooke, do you think I should leave the team and move back home? Grandpa said I'm always welcome to."

"Is that what you want?"

"I just miss you guys so much," he said. "This thing with Dad really scared me and I don't want to be left out of anything."

"Sweetie, if that's what you really want, then that's what you should do. But only you can decide this. We're here for you no matter what you choose. I promise. No one is going anywhere."

~~~

Even though Bruce, Helen and Shuri had given you multiple reassurances that the new serum had taken effect and that Steve was completely stable now, you couldn't help yourself from hearing that little voice in the back of your mind that caused worry. He had come too close, you had felt it when he began to die, and it was something that you just couldn't shake. Neither of you were going to live forever, you knew that life couldn't be that kind, but it was too soon; the nagging anxiety of impending doom wouldn't clear and it didn't take long for him to notice.

"You're staring."

"Sorry," you coughed away nervously, turning back to unpacking, "you're just so damn cute, I can't help myself."

"I know, but that's not what's going on."

"It's nothing, I'm fine." As if that were going to work, you continued on with moving your things, feeling the boring stare that he was giving you even when you weren't looking back. You went on with the charade for as long as you could, but he wasn't moving an inch, and he was stubborn enough to stand there for the entire night if he had to. "I just need a little time," you finally gave in, "it hasn't been long enough to let the worry go yet, I suppose."

"That's natural, (Y/N). I'm still worried too."

"You are?"

"Yeah, I was ready to not wake up again when I got onto that table. I had said my goodbyes and I looked back on my life to have no regrets. I thought of you and the kids, and then I put all of my faith in you to keep me going. But if it didn't work, then I was ready."

"Glad to know that someone was," you mumbled under your breath. You tossed the last of your clothes carelessly into the dresser and flopped down on the bed in a huff. You were simply going to sit down to talk to him more, but you couldn't stop your body from giving in and you were soon fully supported by it. The mattress was heaven and took the rigidity from your muscles like a dream. "Okay, I feel better," you sighed heavily, "this just fixed everything. Lay down, you've gotta try this."

With a wide smile he agreed, kicking off his shoes and dropping onto the bed heavily; so heavily that you bounced from the weight next to you, making you roll into him with the shift. He took advantage of it and wrapped his arms around you, pulling you as close as he could. "And I'm glad to know that all it takes is a good nap for you to forget that I just admitted I was ready to die."

"It doesn't work if you remind me, Steven."

"Sorry, hon..." he yawned loudly, closing his eyes with a contented breath. "If we stay here, we're gonna fall asleep."

And that's exactly what you did before you had a chance to agree.

~~~

The middle of the night came as if no time had passed, but you and Steve were still fully dressed and lying crookedly in the bed when the ring of your phone woke you both. It was disorienting and dark in the room as your eyes hesitantly opened to the nudge of your husband handing you the device. You took a second for your pupils to adjust to the shift in light and the brightness of the screen, barely able to tell who it was who was calling.

"Hello?"

"Who is it?" Steve grumbled, rubbing his eyes. "Don't they know what time it is here?"

But you didn't answer him, and you weren't saying anything to the person on the other end of the line. You were silent and listening intently to every word they were saying, but the comprehension just wasn't there when he looked at you again. He pushed himself up and turned on a light next to the bed, making the sting in his eyes that much worse.

"Mom! Mom, let me in!"

Steve jumped at Anthony's terror-filled voice on the other side of the door, rushing to it to let his boy in. "Ant, what's wrong? What happened? Is everyone okay?"

Your son pushed past him without a word and got onto the bed next to you, staring at you and begging you to say something, but you couldn't until the voice on the phone had finally stopped and you closed the line.

"(Y/N), what's wrong?" Steve urged, taking position on your other side. When you looked back at him, the vacancy in your eyes chilled him to his core, and he almost didn't want to know the horror that you were about to speak. "Tell me."

"That was Pepper," you answered blankly. "My dad's dead."