Complicated

Part 67 - I'm not strong enough for this, Steve

He nods and turns toward Bucky again.

She grabs his arm before he walks away. "Hey is everything okay?" She asks. "Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" He gives her a soft smile.

She lets go of his arm, she feels like there is something he's not telling her.

She looks at Sam with a puzzled look, wondering if he noticed, he furrows his eyebrows and shrugs.

Steve gives Bucky one last hug. "Gonna miss you, Buddy." Bucky whispers.

"It's gonna be okay, Buck." He smiles and walks toward center of the portal.

His Quantum suit comes on. "Woah!" Noah says impressed, making everyone smile.

"How long is this gonna take?" Sam asks.

"For him? As long as he needs. For us? Five seconds" Bruce responds.

"Ready, Cap?" Bruce asks Steve nods, picking up Mjölnir from 2013. "Alright. We'll meet you back here, okay?" Bruce says.

He looks at Sam then Mya, "See you in a bit" she says with a half smile still feeling uneasy. Steve doesn't respond, only giving her a soft smile.

"Going quantum. Three, two, one-" Bruce counts down and Steve disappears into the Quantum portal.

"Returning in, five, four, three, two, one–" Bruce counts down again and pushes the buttons. They all look toward the portal, Steve isn't appearing.

Mya rubs her arms feeling like something is off and furrows her eyebrows. She gulps feeling a lump forming in her throat.

Bruce looks around the controls, confused.

"Where is he?" Sam asks, now worried. Mya looks back at Bruce. "Bruce, what happened?" She asks, her heart starts racing.

"I don't know. He blew right by his time stamp. He should be here." Bruce says looking at the keys.

Bucky turns away from them knowing he isn't coming back. He steps to the side and looks into the distance with Noah.

"Bruce, you need to get him back!" Mya says with panic in her voice.

"I'm trying." Bruce continues pressing the buttons.

"Get him the hell back!" Sam yells.

"Hey, I said, I'm trying!" Bruce says.

Mya turns running the hands through her hair worried and notices Bucky is calmly looking away. Too calm for someone who's best friend just went missing. She walks toward him.

"What did he do?" She asks him, he doesn't respond, still looking toward the lake. "Hey, what did he do?" She asks again, walking closer to him.

She follows his gaze and sees a person by the lake. "Ucle Steve?" Noah says pointing at the person. Mya gasps and covers her mouth.

Sam continues arguing with Bruce. "Sam..." Mya says. Sam turns and walks toward them. They see an older man sitting on a log by the lake.

"Go ahead." Bucky says to them. Both Sam and Mya slowly walk closer to him.

She walks toward him and immediately recognizes him. It's Steve, or at least he looked like Steve, but his face looked timeworn and wrinkled. His hair white as snow and combed back as usual.

"S-Steve?" She says softly.
"Cap?" Sam says.

"Mya!" He looks up with a smile. "Hello Sam"

Mya's eyes fill with tears. "What-" she can't even put words together at how confused she is. She just saw him a minute ago and now he's older, much older.