Frostbite

Two

My car pulled into the gravel driveway, and we stopped outside the house. Tony was carrying Morgan toward the house but stopped and stared at us as we all climbed out. His demeanor changed, knowing we all wouldn't have just shown up without a reason.

I led the other three to the steps, Tony and Morgan meeting us there. Morgan's face lit up at the sight of Steve and I.

"Aunt Lanie! Uncle Steve!" she cried excitedly. I grinned at her and reached out for her. She nearly jumped into my arms, hugging me fiercely.

"Hey sweetheart. We've missed you."

Steve flashed her a wide smile, ruffling her hair next to me. He hadn't said anything yet. He was tense, nervous to see Tony after all these years.

"A little warning would have been nice," Tony huffed at me wryly. I made a face and shrugged.

Tony tapped Morgan's shoulder, "Go inside and see if your mom needs any help with lunch."

Morgan pouted as I set her on the porch, but she did as she was asked. As soon as she had disappeared inside, Tony motioned for us to follow him onto the porch. We waited as he brought out some glasses and a pitcher from inside, setting them on the small table in the corner of the porch.

Scott began explaining everything that had happened to him and what we wanted to pull off. Tony kept quiet the entire time he spoke, pouring the liquid into each glass. I took one from him and sat in one of the wicker chairs, the only one comfortable here.

Scott finally said, "Now, we know what it sounds like..."

"Tony, after everything you've seen, is anything really impossible?" Steve glanced up at him with a knowing smile.

"Quantum fluctuation messes with the Planck Scale, which then triggers the Deutsch Proposition. Can we agree on that?" Tony shook his head.

"No idea what you just said," I mused, cocking a brow at him. The other three looked just as equally confused. Tony handed Steve a glass, and he murmured a thank you.

"In Layman's terms, it means you're not coming home."

That's what I had feared. If Tony didn't think it was possible, or even remotely safe then he wouldn't do it.

"I did," Scott reminded him cheerfully.

"No, you accidentally survived. It's a billion to one cosmic fluke. And now you wanna pull off a... What do you call it?"

"A time heist?" Scott told him proudly. I almost laughed at the expression on Tony's face at that.

"Yeah, a time heist. Of course, why didn't we think of this before? Oh, because it's laughable? Because it's a pipedream?"

"The stones are in the past. We can go back and get them," Steve tried to reason.

"We can snap our own fingers. We can bring everyone back," Natasha added.

"Or screw it up worse than he already has, right?"

"I don't believe we would."

Tony gazed at Steve and said, "Gotta say, sometimes I miss that giddy optimism. However, high hopes won't help if there's no logical, tangible way for me to safely execute said time heist. I believe the most likely outcome would be our collective demise."

He took the other chair, rubbing his temples. I took a long sip of my drink, unsure how to convince him that we needed to do this.

"Not if we strictly follow the rules of time travel. That means no talking to our past selves, no betting on sporting events-" Scott began to ramble, growing closer to him.