Steve Rogers's heavy boots thundered against the porch steps with conviction. He climbed them swiftly, cutting the journey of four steps to two with ease, as he reached the front door in a hurry. He could hear his heartbeat thumping loudly in his ears, seeming to pulse with the rhythm of a beating drum. Echoing in the deepest crevices of his mind, as it took over the entire sense of sound he had. But it was even worse to feel the palpitations of his racing heart constrict his chest, as the fear rose up inside of him. It felt as though he was drowning on dry land. Terror filling his aching lungs like water, suffocating him from the inside out. 

Steve's hand twisted the door handle to the side harshly, enough so that he nearly ripped it from it's socket. But it didn't faze him as he threw the pale yellow painted front door open, listening to it bang roughly against the outside wall. He stepped over the threshold, as his eyes bounded around the dim living room he entered. Hesitation evident in every weighted step he took as he sauntered slowly over the warm carpet. 

He could feel it the second he stepped into the house. The coldness, the baroness that had swept across the structure. It was like a thin fog that had descended upon the once warm and active household. Bathing the rooms in a darkness that was unusual to the normally light and happy atmosphere the filled the small spaces. And the feeling was one that sent a shiver down Steve's spine, making goosebumps arise over his skin and his hands tremble faintly at his sides. The feeling of emptiness that engulfed the house, made him more than weary. It made him fearful that he was indeed too late.

As he walked past the coffee table that lay feet away from a television set, with crayons and half-drawn on coloring pages strewn across the warm wood, his eyes landed upon the picture frames that decorated the pale cream walls. Shadows drifted across the photographs that stared back at him, as though the eyes of the people in them could speak. And he felt the water rising in his lungs, causing each breath he tried to inhale burn that much more. As he looked deeply into the eyes of his precious girls. The house felt as though any trace of life had been completely erased, like no one had ever lived there to begin with. But as Steve gazed intently at the bittersweet photographs that graced the walls, he knew there had been such a happy family here.

A sound broke him of his heavy gaze and thickening thoughts, and his head snapped to the screen door that was left open a crack. Beginning his careful steps again, Steve walked over to the sliding door that lead to the large fenced in backyard. He had put the fence up himself, taking him only an hour or two to complete the project. It would've taken him less time, but he had a special little helper that enjoyed handing him each and every nail he hammered into place. 

Sliding the door with a shaky hand, Steve felt the warm breeze float against his face, as he stepped out into the backyard. The grass was a deep rich summer green, and it blew in the gentle breeze. His footsteps sounded loud as they walked across the wooden porch that led down to the long grass, but his eyes were focused on the sight of the pink and purple princess castle he had built. It stood in the middle of the large yard, and his heart ached at the instant memory of his daughter's face the moment she saw the finished palace. The light in her eyes and the magical sound in her voice. It made everything tingle in his body with sadness as he gazed upon the brightly shaded structure. But the noise that had coaxed him out of the house in the first place, sounded once again. And Steve found himself clearing his throbbing head of the grief ridden clouds, and heading towards the noise as he had originally come outside to do.

The sound that was once a loud bang against the girly playhouse, had fallen to a softer high-pitched whisper. As though a soft voice hidden within the long bladed of grass. And it slowly began to grow louder as Steve rounded to corner of the house, and his eyes landed upon the source of the noise.

"When's mommy coming back with my lemonade daddy?"

And suddenly, all of the water that had been filling his lungs, drained. Leaving them empty as air couldn't seem to fill them. He was at a loss for a breath, completely. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't think straight, his head spun as his chest burned for oxygen. 

But as a set of sparkling blue eyes lifted and met Steve's wide and uneasy gaze, air flooded his lungs. Even as it felt like he had been hit with the largest boulder to his gut, Steve could finally breath again. And he exhaled a soft breath in disbelief as his legs began to bend on their own, bringing him to his knees in the long summer grass. He was at eye level now, with the beautiful honey blond, pig-tailed six year old. That wore denim overalls with grass stains over a shirt that showed off her favorite Disney princess. She looked at him with innocent eyes that seemed too big for her small frame, but they were the most beautiful sight for his pained eyes. It was as though the world had left her completely unscathed. She was just as she had always been. Carefree and innocent. Adorable and adventurous. He eyed the plastic shovel and pail she had been banging together, as she dug through the small dirt pile behind her princess castle. And even the way her clothing was smudged and stained with her playful excursions, was exactly the same. 

Here she was... Steve's precious daughter... unharmed and alive before his very eyes. 

"Daddy?" His daughter squeaked softly once more, as her father had never answered her question. 

Steve blinked his eyes that began to burn with tears, and swallowed a breath as he let out a breathless chuckle. It wasn't that anything in this moment was humorous, but that it was so extraordinary, that it was the only action Steve could produce in that minute. A smile found it's way to his lips as he gazed upon his daughter that still looked up at him with waiting eyes. 

"She was bringing you lemonade?"

Her thin shimmering pig-tails bounced as she nodded her head exaggeratingly, and he laughed softly at the pure sight. 

"The pink kind," She informed him with a serious glimmer in her eyes, as it was a request that she believed couldn't afford to be heard wrong. "and with one of the swirly twirly straws that Uncle Tony gave me."

Steve nodded his head, "I'll go get you some sweetheart. But first, I need you to give your daddy a big hug."

She instantly smiled at the request, and lunged forward into his opening arms. And he felt everything inside of him completely come apart as he wrapped his arms tightly around his little girl's fragile body. He felt as though one of those rockets that hit the atmosphere at the wrong angle, bursting and coming apart in midair. Tears pierced his eyes and welled in the depths of his throat, but he swallowed them down the best he could as not to let his daughter in on the sorrow that filled his heart. He would have to tell her at some point, soon preferably, that mommy wasn't coming back. But he decided for now, what he needed most was to hold his daughter in his arms for as long as he could. And deliver on her very important request. 

Feeling her squirm slightly in his grasp, he released her after pressing a tender kiss to the top of her head. Smelling the faint scent of watermelon on her blonde hair from her new favorite shampoo. And squeezing his eyes shut before having to completely let her go, he reopened them as she dropped back into her spot in the grass and went back to digging a small hole in the Earth with her plastic shovel.

Slowly, Steve rose to his feet. And his legs felt like gelatin, wobbly as he began to head back towards the dark and quiet house. Turning his head as his feet reached the sliding door, he looked at his daughter from afar. And her soft hair shimmered like the sun rising over a horizon, and even with the distance, he could see the smile that graced her perfect face. And it slowly began to stitch up the bullet holes that had torn through his bleeding heart. 

He reached the kitchen that sat cold and abandoned, and looking around, he knew this was the last place his wife stood. For the pitcher of pink lemonade sat on the counter next to his daughter's favorite cup and her requested curly straw. He knew she was here because he could still smell her perfume in the air. Notes of soft jasmine swirling around him as he reached the marbled countertop. His heart had warmed from the sight of his daughter he thought for sure he had lost, but there was still a coldness that resided in every inch of his soul at the loss of his love. 

Feeling a single tear roll from his eyes down to the bushy hair of his grown out beard, he wiped away it's acid like trail with the back of his hand. Pushing the rest of the tears down and away from the surface, as he erased any trace from his face. And carefully, with his trembling hands, he filled the cup up and lifted it from the counter. Watching the straw twirl with each step he took as he began back towards the yard. 

Steve's empty hand slid the door open, and shut it behind him before he turned around to continue forward on the wooden porch. But the beautiful sight he had left behind him for the mere minutes he disappeared to the kitchen, was gone. The spot in the summer grass where his daughter once sat with her legs drawn under her, was empty. The plastic pail still lay on it's side and the shovel stuck up out of the fresh dirt, but the little girl that played with them had vanished. 

Pink lemonade splashed across Steve Rogers's shoes and splattered against his pants, but he couldn't register a single thing. His boots snapped the curly straw in half as he bounded fiercely down the steps and the cheap plastic that must've cracked in his tightening grasp, had sliced across his thumb. But nothing, no feeling nor action, could be registered in Steve's brain in that moment as he ran the short distance through the deep green grass. 

He screamed his daughter's name at the top of his lungs, turning around and around as his eyes searched with pure terror once again drowning his lungs. He prayed with all his might that she was just hiding, waiting for her father to seek her as he always did. But as the sinking sensation of dread rose in his tight chest, he knew that probability was slim. 

His eyes fell upon something that twirled up into the air a ways away from him. It was thin, as though pieces of thin wafer paper or a mixture of dust fluttering up into the air. There wasn't much of it, as it began to dissipate the second it blended into the cloud line, but Steve watched as it blew from the grass where his daughter had once been seated. And lifting his fingers up, a single piece brushed against the tip of his calloused finger. And it felt like a lightning bolt had shot from the sky straight into his finger, for the sensation sparked a feeling he knew all too well. It was a feeling he learned that early May morning his daughter had been born, and when he had ran his fingers through her hair on nights nightmares plagued her bedroom. He knew what his daughter felt like under his tender touch, and even as the dust just barely brushed against his skin, he knew it was her. His daughter... reduced to ashes fluttering up into the sky. As though she was nothing.

Once again, Steve's knees bent on their own and brought him crashing down to the ground. The Earth below him seeming to shake with the pressure in which he landed. His head bent back as he gazed upward towards the sky that seemed to be sucked clean of any remnant of color. And Steve Rogers watched with tears flowing from his eyes, as the very last piece of his daughter blew away.

A/N: Oh my goodness... I had no idea how good this one was going to end up!! Wow, I'm so shocked with myself right now and overflowing with pride.❤ Seriously. I found this Gif of Steve and an idea hit me. I wanted to see what I could do with it, but I never expected to end up writing something like this. It is definitely one of those moments when I have surprised myself with my own writing. I am so in love with this angsty and heartbreaking one shot! I hope that you all loved it as much as I did, and I apologize for any tears. I know I shed a few.💙