Elara watches as the man who'd supposedly been snapped paces a hole in the compound's floor. He was muttering stuff under his breath as the other three wait for him to stop.
"Scott," Steve says, making 'Scott' stop momentarily but continued mumbling, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." He runs his hands down his face. "Have any of you studied quantum physics?"
"Only to make conversation." Natasha replies, Elara smirking proudly. Scott points at the Widow.
"All right, so, five years ago, right before... Thanos... I was in a place called the quantum realm. The quantum realm is like its own microscopic universe. To get in there, you have to be incredibly small. Hope. She's my, um... She was my... She was supposed to pull me out. And then Thanos happened and I got stuck in there."
"I'm sorry, that must have been a very long five years." Nat shows her sympathies.
"Yeah, but that's just it. It wasn't. For me, it was five hours. See, the rules of the quantum realm aren't like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable. Is that anybody's sandwich? I'm starving."
"Scott. What are you talking about?" Steve asks.
"Were you not listening? Time is different there, five years is five hours. Getting a bit slow in your old age, Capsicle?" Elara teases.
Scott points to her, swallowing the bite of Nat's sandwich. "Hmm, I like her."
She grins like the Cheshire cat. "Insect dude 2.0 likes me!" She says to Nat who just shakes her head. Scott blinks at her a couple times before turning back to Steve.
"So, what I'm saying is... time works differently in the quantum realm. The only problem is right now we don't have a way to navigate it. But what if we did? I can't stop thinking about it. What if we could somehow control the chaos and we could navigate it? What if there was a way that we could enter the quantum realm at a certain point of time but then exit the quantum realm at another point of time? Like. Like before Thanos."
"Wait. Are you talking about a time machine?" Steve asks Scott after his ramble finishes.
"Cool!"
"No. Not a time machine. It's more like a... Yeah. Like a time machine. I know it's crazy. It's crazy. But, I can't stop thinking about it. There's gotta be... some way... It's crazy."
"Scott. I get emails from a raccoon," Elara snorts, "so nothing sounds crazy anymore."
"So, who do we talk to about this?"
Elara grins again, knowing who they needed.
🌌🌌
Pulling up to Tony's cabin, and Elara's second home, the four of them exit the car to see Tony walking up to his door, Morgan on his hip. As soon as the child sees Elara, she wriggles out of her dad's arms and runs straight to Elara. "Lee Lee!" She screams as her legs move as quickly as they could. Pepper had deemed Elara with the nickname 'Ellie', but Morgan preferred 'Lee Lee'. Tony on the other hand gave her the nickname 'half-pint', something Elara didn't understand until she learnt it was for small people or children. She was not impressed.
Elara has to act fast as Morgan propels herself onto her. She lifts her up, pulling her into a hug. "Back so soon, half-pint. You miss me?"
"As if I'd ever admit that. Can't be inflating your massive ego now, can I?" She ditches the others and walks up to Tony, still holding Morgan.
Knowing that this conversation is one she doesn't want to be in, Elara heads inside with Morgan, the young girl showing her the new toy she'd gotten in the few days she'd been away.
🌌🌌
Pepper walks into the room after hearing her child gleefully talking to someone else. Seeing that its Elara, she smiles at the sight. Morgan had managed to get Elara dressed up in a princess outfit and they were now sipping tea out of plastic cups. "Hey, Ellie. You staying for lunch?" She doesn't question what Elara was doing here.
"Probably not. But I can't, in my right mind, say no to one of your sandwiches... and free food."
Pepper laughs at her answer. "A sandwich to go coming up."
As Pepper leaves, the two continue with their princess tea party. Luckily, Elara is saved by the sandwich as Morgan starts getting out the princess makeup set she had. "How about you go and save daddy, huh?" Pepper says to the young girl as she continues to try and plaster sticky lip gloss and blush on Elara's face. With that, Morgan rushes out with her princess gear still on. Elara follows, sandwich in one hand while the other tries reaching back for the Velcro that will release her from the very pink confinement.
As she walks out, she hears Tony say, "I'm saved." He turns towards Elara, a smirk on his face. "Looking good, Princess." Elara flips him off causing the father to dramatically gasp. "In front of my child!"
Elara rolls her eyes and turns to the nearest person, that happened to be Steve. She moved her hair over her shoulder with one hand, the other still clutching her sandwich. "Help, please." He undoes the dress for her. She hand him her sandwich. "Hold, please." Her sandwich slowly starts rising closer to his mouth. She slaps his hand in response. "No! Bad, Grandpa!" She steps out of the dress, folds it up, grabs her sandwich back and places the dress over the nearest chair inside. The others seemed to have continued their conversation, which obviously ended badly as the three were walking back to the car. "I'll be seeing you, Stark. Probably with our awesome time machine."
"I didn't agree."
"Hmmhmmm. Of course not. Have I ever said how amazing you are? Like, you are a genius."
"Flattery won't make me agree."
"Probably not, but your curiosity will." She pats him on the shoulder and kisses Morgan on the head. "Bye, Morgy."
"Bye, Lee Lee!" She shouts. "We can finish out princess tea party when you stay round next." Elara stands straight and salutes Morgan, making her giggle.
"Later, Tony. Thank your more amazing wife for the free food."
"Bye, Lara."
"Five seconds or we're leaving!" Nat yells out the car.
"Hold your horses, geez. I'm being polite and saying bye!" She gets in the car, next to Scott, and they drive off.
"I can't believe your eating again. You have an endless pit as a stomach."
Elara shrugs. "I'm a growing girl."
"You're 23. Which you love reminding us."
"Yes, but physically I am a growing teenager. And to most food establishments, I'm 12."
Nat rolls her eyes, "You're insane." Elara smiles, before taking another bite of the sandwich.
🌌🌌
Stuck next to what looks like the Hulk, but also Bruce, Elara feels extremely small. She has probably been staring way too long, to the point that is considered rude, but she had never seen the Hulk in person, or whatever version this was.
"Come on, I feel like I'm the only one eating here. Try some of that. Have some eggs." He pushes the bowl towards Scott, but it is intercepted by Elara and a utensil. She notices Nat looking at her, amused. Elara shrugs and mouths 'free food'. Natasha smirks at her.
"I'm so confused." Scott says in bewilderment.
"These are confusing times." He chuckles.
"Right, no, no. That's not what I meant."
"Nah, I get it. I'm kidding! I know, its crazy. I'm wearing shirts now."
"Yeah. what? How? Why?"
"Five years ago, we got our asses beat." Elara subconsciously places a hand to her stomach as she is reminded of all the pain, not just from her injury. "Except it was worse for me, cause I lost twice. First, Hulk lost, then Banner lost and then, we all lost."
"No one blamed you, Bruce." Nat reassures.
"I did. For years, I've been treating the Hulk like he's some disease, something to get rid of. But then, I start looking at him as the cure. Eighteen months in the gamma lab. I put the brains and the brawn together and now look at me. Best of both worlds." Elara continues to eat the various foods in front of her as Bruce finishes talking as a group of kids walk up to him.
"Excuse me, Mr Hulk? Can we get a photo?"
"100%, little person." He takes their phone. "Come on, step on up. Do you mind?" Bruce asks in Elara and Scott's direction, only Elara had sunk down so far in her seat that practically her entire body was under the table. She moved into a comfortable position, squishing past Bruce's legs and resting her head on Nat's thighs. The only movement Natasha made was moving her hand to run her fingers though Elara's hair. The younger woman looked up to see the Russian rolling her eyes, a small smile evident on her face.
Elara honestly wants to pull out her hair out to bring her some satisfaction from this very, very awkward interaction she could hear from under the table. Finally she saw the kids walking away. "Holy shit, I wish someone would have mercy killed me during that." Natasha kicks her in the side. "Ouch! Fuck, Nat. That's child abuse." She gets kicked again. In retaliation, and the first thing she can think of, Elara bites Nat's knee.
"Did you just bite me? Through my jeans?!" Nat exclaims. "Just get up here, you don't know what's been on that floor." She mutters. Thanking whoever was listening that she was smaller than average, she squeezes her way up on the seat, which was mainly Nat. "I meant to your seat!" Elara smirks, looking around the table to see Bruce smiling softly at her and Nat. Not knowing what to do, she grabs the bowl of sausages and starts eating one.
"Bruce, about what we were saying." Steve pulls the focus back onto the time heist.
"Right. The whole time travel do-over? Eh, guys, it's outside of my area of expertise."
"Well, you pulled this off." Nat states, arms wrapped around Elara's middle. "I remember a time when that seemed pretty impossible, too."
🌌🌌
Elsewhere, a young girl was sitting on the lower step, watching her father.
"Shit!" Morgan repeats her father's words.
"Only Mommy says that word."
Morgan looks at her father, confused, "Lee Lee said it before."
"Did she now?"
Morgan thinks for a moment, "Nooooo?"
Tony rolls his eyes at the blatantly obvious lie.
I'm back!