TWO. AVENGERS ASSEMBLED

"YOU LOOK HEALTHY."

Delilah stared at him from where she leaned against the back of the couch, shoving her clammy hands deep in her pant pockets. "You look tired."

Steve chuckled softly. It was just the two of them in the room now, as Joaquín and Koda had excused themselves in order to give them some privacy (and so they wouldn't embarrass themselves). "Yeah, well, it hasn't been easy."

A sigh was expelled from Delilah's lips. She didn't exactly know what the right response to that was. All she could say was that she understood. She lowered herself onto the couch and pursed her lips in a half-assed attempt to smile. "So, what brings you here, Cap?"

He lingered by the table for a few seconds, hesitant to join her. She was so different now - she'd found herself. He remembered what she was like before the snap...she had no direction, no motivation. All she wanted was to do something good. Now, here she was, her degree pinned to the wall with some blu-tack and a progress chart for her PhD stuck beside it.

Delilah felt her stomach churn as she watched on. She was sure he could hear her heart beating across the room, though if he did, he didn't say anything. "Steve?"

"I think we've found a way to bring them back," he wrung his hands in front of him, trying to rid stress from his body like water from a dirty rag. 

It took a second for his words to sink in. Delilah sat there, trying to make sense of what he'd just said. "What?"

Steve slowly made his way over, and knelt before her. It felt exactly like it did five years ago, when he helped her wash away what was left of her mentor. One of his hands rested on her knee. "I made a promise to you. Let me keep it."

She reached forward, her arms wrapping around his neck. She pulled him into a wordless embrace, burying her face in his shoulder. She had no idea what there was to say. "Steve..."

He held her for a while. "I can't do this without you."

She pulled back, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. Staring into his baby blue eyes, she managed something resembling a smile. "I gathered."

He chuckled softly, but there was a twinge of sadness to it. "Look, I'm not asking you to use your powers. I just need you to be there. You're still a part of this team."

She dipped her head. "You and I both know that's not true."

"Hey," he tapped her leg. "You're a fighter, and you're a good person. Those two things look pretty good on an Avengers résumé."

She breathed out a laugh. "What do you need me to do?"

★☆

"Welcome back, Little Wilson," James Rhodes embraced Delilah tightly when he saw her walk through the doors of the Avengers compound. While she'd already had her reunions with Natasha, Bruce and Clint, it was the most comforting to see the Colonel who had been with her when Sam vanished. "You've gotten old."

"I could say the same about you," she chuckled, pointing to the gray whiskers around his mouth. He smacked her hand away, but grinned all the same. It may have been years since they'd last seen each other, but she could see that his kindness remained the same.

"Delly? Is that you?" 

Delilah nearly lost her footing when she heard a familiar voice from a nearby room. The compound was far too fancy and complex for her taste, so she had no idea where he actually was. She looked at Rhodes, jaw slacked slightly. "Is that-?"

There was a crash and a bang in the distance, followed by panicked yells. Then, Scott Lang appeared in all his disheveled glory. The middle aged man threw his hands in the air as if to say 'surprise!', and grinned broadly. "Guess who survived the snap?!"

Delilah couldn't believe her eyes. There he was, as if he hadn't been missing for five years. He looked the same as she remembered him - ridiculously optimistic and like he'd forgotten to shower that morning. 

"I got ditched in the Quantum Realm," he explained after giving her a hi-five and a hug. She could hear a sadness in his tone, but he'd never been the type to let himself get downtrodden. She could definitely take a few lessons from the man. Regardless, his attitude still made her smile. "Sucks, right? So, what have you been up to, huh?"

"I'm in the middle of my PhD," she smiled sheepishly at his impressed expression. Shoving her hands in the pockets of the hoodie she'd stolen from Koda, she followed him and Rhodes through to the room where most of the group was seated. "I, uh, haven't done any superhero stuff in a while."

"I don't blame you, kid," Rhodes hummed, taking a seat. It just so happened that his actions coincided with the moment Tony Stark barged in. Delilah smiled at him politely, but he barely noticed her. They'd only met once or twice, and she had a feeling he didn't like her all too much. Probably because she survived the snap, and Peter Parker didn't.

"To pull off the time heist, we each need understand how this works," he tapped on the surface of the table in the centre of the room, pulling up visuals of each infinity stone. Delilah didn't remember much about them - she had only ever seen the Mind stone, and what it had done for Vision and Wanda. Other than that, all she knew was that there were six of them, and it was going to take a whole lot of effort to get them back. 

"Time heist?" she leaned over to ask Scott under her breath.

"I cracked time travel, because I'm a genius," Tony turned around, having overheard her. He clicked his fingers, preparing himself as Steve walked into the room with Thor ambling in afterwards. She was quite surprised at the state of the God of Thunder, but didn't say a word. "It's good to see ya, little Wilson."

She lifted her hand in an awkward wave. "Hey, Mr. Stark."

"You're not a teenager anymore, call me Tony," he muttered, and she quickly nodded, watching him turn around to quietly confer with Steve, who turned around to address the group. 

"Okay, so the how works," he began. "Clint's test run with the Pym Particle proved that Tony's machine can operate fully. Now, we gotta figure out the when and the where. Almost everyone in this room has had an encounter with at least one of the six infinity stones."

"Or substitute the word 'encounter' for 'damn near been killed' by one of the six infinity stones," Tony added. 

"Well, I haven't," Scott said. "But I don't even know what the hell you're all talking about."

Rocket snorted from Delilah's right side. She was glad the novelty of teaming up with an alien raccoon had worn off, otherwise she'd be far more concerned with her current company. 

"Regardless, we only have enough Pym Particles for one round-trip each," Bruce piped up. "And these stones have been in a lot of different places throughout history."

"Our history," said Tony. "So, not a lot of convenient spots to just drop in, yeah?"

"Which means we have to pick our targets," said Clint. Tony nodded in agreement. 

"So, let's start with the Aether," Steve tucked his hands in his pockets and turned to the corner, where the God of Thunder was nursing both a hangover and a new bottle of beer. "Thor? What do you know?"

Everyone turned to look at the man, whose face was hidden behind a pair of dark sunglasses. Natasha clicked her pen. "Is he asleep?"

Rhodes scoffed. "No, no. I'm pretty sure he's dead."

★☆

uhh hey gang 

thank you for the lovely response to this book! i don't intend for it to be more than 20 parts, so there won't be super long and brooding angsty chapters considering there isn't heaps to work with :/// but I'm gonna try my best to churn out chapters for you!!

basically i'm really unhappy with my writing at the moment, so hopefully i can find it in me to publish whatever i can conjure up!! 

thank you for reading xxxxxxxxx