Stars Stripes and Metal

Time Stands Still For No Man

2018-2023

Avengers Compound, New York. September 2018.

23 Days had passed since Thanos snapped his fingers, wiping out half of all living creatures in the universe. The Avengers returned to the Compound a few days after The Snap. Clint Barton arrived with Samual, devastated. Natasha filled Clint in on the events causing The Snap while Pepper took care of Samual for Steve. Steve had neither eaten or slept since Ana vanished. Even though she's gone he sees her everywhere. She haunts him continuously, especially in the face of his son. He shaves his beard off, cuts his hair and stashes away his suit. Putting away reminders of his wife's death.

Tony Stark returned from space after 23 days, frail and barely alive. He took the news of their loss and Ana's vanishing particularly hard. With the help of Carol Deveres, Captain Marvel, the remaining member's of the Avengers came up with a plan to find Thanos and reverse The Snap. Upon finding Thanos at a place called The Garden however, they learn that he used to the stones to destroy the stones. Removing temptation and making The Snap permanent.

Steve had been holding onto the hope that they could use the stones themselves to reverse The Snap. He could hardly function for days, too consumed by his own grief to care about anyone or anything else now that any chance to bring Ana back was gone. He had to grieve and carry on with his life. First Peggy and then Ana. It took months for the anger to ware off. He was mad at Ana for being there, mad at himself for not protecting her and for not doing everything he could to stop Thanos. Natasha tried to reason with him at first, stating his anger unjustified. No matter where Ana was she would have Snapped, at least she died in his arms. That gave him no comfort, the love of his life was gone. He wanted to be gone too.

As time wore on the Avenger's went their separate ways. Steve and Samual moved to a small apartment an hour outside of the compound, where Steve raised his son as a single father. Tony and Pepper went off the grid, finding a small cabin in upstate New York. They had gotten married and eventually Pepper gave birth to a sweet faced baby girl with brown hair and green eyes. Tony named her Morgan, after Ana. Thor went off to establish New Asgard somewhere off the northern coast of Norway, a small town for those remaining Asgardians to call home. Natasha took over running the compound and what is left of the Avengers, trying to find any solution to reversing The Snap. Rhodes, Nebula, Rocket and Carol all helping in her fruitless task. Clint went rouge after losing his wife and three children in The Snap. Natasha was hell bent on trying to find him, Clint didn't want to be found and was constantly evading her and leaving a trail of dead bodies in his path.

New York, 2021.

Steve began running a support group for people left behind after the Snap. He found trying to help survivors process their grief helped him over come his own. Eventually he started going back to the Compound, and checking in with Natasha more often. Samual was 4 now, and starting to ask questions about his mother. Steve struggled with those conversations, and took Natasha up on her offer to talk to Samual for him. During on of the trips to the compound, Steve tells Nat that he met someone, sort of.

A sweet blonde with big blue eyes and a thick southern twang. She was his waitress at a local diner, and when she smiled at him Steve felt something stir in the recesses of his heart. Natasha encouraged him to take a leap of faith and ask the woman out. He took her advice and after a week of visiting the diner everyday he worked up the courage to ask Miss Melanie Pine to dinner. She accepted with a warm toothy grin, and soon the two spent all their free time together.

A few months after their first date, Steve moved Melanie into his apartment. He got a high from being around her, she made him not miss Ana so much. She felt the same, having lost her long time boyfriend in the Snap. Melanie was great to Samual, filling the shoes of his deceased mother quickly. Before Steve knew what happened he had a family again. It wasn't until the first time he laid with Melanie however that the guilt of moving on from Ana tore him to pieces. He took off for three days after that.