THE GROUP all walked through the halls of the compound, none of them saying a word. It's not like it was necessarily an uneasy silence but it wasn't exactly a comfortable one either. Everyone was too focused on the fact they were back in the compound after two years.

Their old home.

When times were simpler, believe it or not.

Before everything went to utter shit.

Carson's attention was pulled away from the groups little bubble and he stopped walking, his eyes training on a certain door. The others noticed and all looked around at each other confused as to what he was looking at.

"Uh, you guys go." Wanda told them. "We'll catch up."

"Alright." Steve replied. "Don't be too long."

She left the group and walked over to him, reaching down for his hand. Once their hands touched he seemed to be pulled from his thoughts as he looked down at her, a small smile appearing on his face.

"You okay there?" Wanda asked.

He nodded in response and stepped forward towards the door he was looking at, pulling Wanda along with him. Carson slowly opened the door and stepped inside, Wanda noticed the small smile on his face forming on his face as he looked around.

It was his old room.

Nothing seemed to have changed in the past two years. In fact he was pretty sure that it was the exact same way that he left it, despite the bed being made of course.

Carson let go of Wanda's hand and started to walk around his room, tracing his fingers over his dresser as he walked past. Wanda watched from the doorway as he took in the features of his old room. From the picture frames, to the posters, to the stack of books on his shelf that still had the same faulty screw.

It was all kept the same.

Tony had kept it the same.

After all this time.

But that's when he remembered... He was gone.

Carson's smile slowly faded at the thought of the older man. Wanda instantly noticed the change in demeanour and walked over to him.

The compound never did feel the same without Tony being there. It wasn't complete.

"We need to find him Wands." He said quietly.

"I know dorogoy, I know." Wanda pulled him into a hug.

"I can't sit around and do nothing, it's not right. I don't care how difficult it is or how long it takes... I need to find him." Carson sighed. "He'd do it for me."

"We'll find him, I promise." She whispered. "Together."

Carson nodded and pulled back to kiss Wanda's head. "Together."

Wanda frowned a little when she felt something in Carson's inside pocket pressing against her shoulder. She lifted up her hand and pressed it down against his jacket, giving him a curious look when she felt something in there.

His eyes widened in realisation, remembering that he still had the ring box. He pulled back. "My phone." He told her.

"I thought you said you lost it." Wanda's brows came together in confusion.

"I did... yeah... I did say that." Carson scratched the back of his head as he thought of something to say. "But I guess I found it! So that's good, very good, yup, now I don't have to get a new one."

Wanda's eyes narrowed slightly as she tried to sus him out. She thought the whole thing was off but figured he was just tired or something, you know, considering the fact they were attacked by aliens. So she decided to brush it off.

"Alright then, weirdo." She chuckled lightly. "You ready to go back to the others?"

Carson threw his jacket down on the bed and took one last look around his room with a sad smile before turning to Wanda with a nod. "Yeah, come on witchy."

~~ ᗢ ~~

THE COUPLE re-joined the group at the bottom of the hall, watching as they all gathered around the entrance of one of the many conference rooms in the compound.

Steve gave them both a smile and once they were all ready, they opened the door and walked in, seeing Rhodey stood in the room along with a projection of Ross and his other team members being shown.

"Mr. Secretary." Steve greeted formally.

The projection of Ross stood in silence for a moment, clearly taken back by the entrance. He cleared his throat and walked over to the group of 'criminals' with a small scoff.

"You got some nerve. I'll give you that."

"You could use some of that right now." Natasha quipped, making Carson grin.

"The world's on fire, and you think all is forgiven?" Ross raised a brow then looked between the blonde and Carson. "Especially you two after the stunt you pulled." He mumbled.

"I'm not looking for forgiveness." Steve told the man. "And I'm way past asking permission."

Ross blinked a few times at Steve's response.

"Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight." The super solder added on. "And if you wanna stand in our way... we'll fight you too."

"I believe the term you're really looking for Ross, is thank you." Carson mumbled, earing a slap on the shoulder from both Wanda and Natasha.

Ross turned around and looked at Rhodey. "Arrest them."

Rhodey nodded. "All over it." The man turned off the projection of Ross and ended the meeting.

He looked around at the group with an emotionless face, and at first Carson thought he was actually about to go through with Ross' orders. But after a few seconds, Rhodey relaxed and smiled at them all.

"It's great to see you Cap."

"You too Rhodey." Steve walked down the steps and shook Rhodey's hand. Natasha followed behind and pulled Rhodey into a hug.

Carson caught Rhodey's eye and he looked down at the braces that were strapped to his legs, his face instantly scrunching up in distaste once he realised what caused it.

Him.

"Carson." Rhodey gave him a quick nod.

"James." He replied.

"Wow, you guys..." Rhodey looked around at them all. "You really look like crap. Must've been a rough couple of years."

Sam chuckled. "Yeah, well, the hotels weren't exactly five star."

"Uh, I think you look great." A voice came from further down the room.

They all looked up at the new addition to see Bruce stood in a doorway further down, fiddling with the sleeve of his jacket. Carson's brows instantly raised in surprise. He'd been completely off the radar for years and was now suddenly standing in front of them again? Today really was full of surprises.

"Um..." Bruce walked down the steps and further into the room. "Yeah, I'm back."

Carson looked down at Natasha to see her reaction and to make sure she was okay. The two never got the chance to talk about their complicated relationship. And despite the scientists absence, there was still a tension between the two due to the lack of communication at the time.

The blonde cleared her throat and spoke up. "Hi, Bruce."

Bruce shuffled his stance and cleared his throat. "Nat."

Carson and Sam both shared a look. "This is awkward..." Sam whispered.

"You're telling me." Carson responded.

~~ ᗢ ~~

AFTER getting reacquainted with one another, they all moved to one of the living rooms so they could talk about the situation at hand more comfortably.

Rhodey and Bruce were stood near the table, which was projecting an image of Proxima and Corvus. Natasha was stood near one of the bookshelves next to Sam, who had taken it upon himself to play around with a random football he found. Steve was leaning against one of the arm chairs, looking over at Wanda and Carson with a small smile, watching as the couple sat down on the couch together, hand in hand.

"So we gotta assume they're coming back, right?" Rhodey was the first one to speak up.

"And they can clearly find us." Wanda added.

"We need all hands on deck." Bruce said while looking intently at the projection. "Where's Clint?"

"After the whole accords situation, he and Scott took a deal. It was too tough on their families, they're on house arrest."

"Who's Scott?" Bruce asked.

"Oh that's Ant-Man." Carson told him.

"There's a Spider-Man and an Ant-Man?"

"Yep."

Bruce nodded. "Well, what about Vision? Where is he?"

"He's in medbay getting a check up." Rhodey informed them all. "But once he's done he'll join us."

"What?" Carson looked up. "Why?"

"Those little alien friends of yours, the ones that attacked you and Wanda in Scotland, a few days ago they found him while he was out." Rhodey sighed. "They got him pretty bad."

"What did they want?" Steve questioned.

"The stone." Another voice spoke up from the door way.

Everyone looked towards the sound, only to see said android stood in the door way, holding his stomach as he walked further into the room.

"Vis." Carson smiled. "You doing alright?"

Vision returned the smile and nodded as he sat down on the couch across from the couple. "It's great to see you Mr. Swan, all of you. Truly. And I'm recovering, it's just taking some time to heal that's all."

Carson chuckled at how formal Vision spoke. "It's just Carson, you know, you don't have to call me Mr. Swan. We're friends right?"

"Oh! Yes, of course." Vision smiled widely at the realisation. "Sorry about that Mr S— Carson. Thank you."

"Listen, Thanos has the biggest army in the universe. And he is not going to stop until he gets..." Bruce paused for a moment. "Until he gets Vision's stone."

Natasha shrugged. "Then we have to protect it."

"No, we have to destroy it." Vision countered.

Everyone snapped their heads towards the android, looking at him in disbelief at his idea.

"I've been giving a good deal of thought to this entity in my head, about it's nature. But also it's composition" Vision started to explain. "I think if we were to expose it to a sufficiently powerful energy source... something very familiar to it's own signature, perhaps... it's molecular integrity could fail." He turned his attention towards the two youngest Avengers.

"Yeah, and you with it." Carson shook his head. "I know what you're thinking Vision and we aren't having this conversation."

"Eliminating the stone is the only way to be certain that Thanos can't get it."

"Like Carson said, we aren't having this conversation." Wanda dismissed the android's words. "It's too high a price Vis."

"Only you have to power to pay it." Vision looked at Wanda. "Thanos threatens half the universe. One life cannot stand in the way of defeating him."

Carson turned to Wanda and whispered, "So, you're telling me, that the fate of the universe is in the hands of a walking and talking grape?"

Wanda bit down on the inside of her cheek to stifle a laugh. She moved her hand onto his thigh and tapped it lightly. "Shhh, the adults are talking baby."

"But it should, Vision." Steve spoke up with a shake of his head. "We don't trade lives."

Vision sighed. "Captain, seventy years ago, you laid down your life to save how many millions of people? Tell me, why is this any different?"

"Because you might have a choice." Bruce walked over to the super soldier and the android. "Vision, your mind is made up of a complex construct of overlays. Jarvis, Ultron, Tony, me, the stone. All of them mixed together, all of them learning from one another."

"You're saying Vision isn't just the stone?" Carson asked the scientist.

"I'm saying that if we take out the stone... there's still a whole lot of Vision left, perhaps the best parts."

Natasha moved to one of the chairs and sat down. "Can we do that?"

Bruce shook his head. "Not me, not here."

"Well, you better find someone and somewhere fast. Ross isn't just gonna let you guys have your old rooms back." Rhodey huffed.

"I know somewhere." Steve chimed in.

"Where?" Wanda asked the man.

"Wakanda." He answered. "It's..."

Before Carson could get a chance to listen to Steve's explanation, another other sharp pain like the others ran through his head. He groaned and gripped the bridge of his nose, along with his eyes slamming shut.

Wanda instantly shuffled closer to his side and placed a hand on his back. He knew she was saying something to him, along with other people in the room talking too but he wasn't sure what. It's like every other sound in the room was shut out and all he could hear and see was what was being shown to him.

Because this time, a headache wasn't the only thing he experienced.

As his eyes remained closed, he saw flashes of the same forest again. Except he wasn't alone.

He looked up, noticing his hands extended out in front of him, nothing but his red energy surrounding them. He could practically feel it buzzing in his palm, surging in his body, through his veins. Never in his life had he used this amount of power before.

And it was draining him.

Carson looked over his hand to see a large purple titan trying his best to push against his powers and get closer, using some sort of gauntlet to shield himself from getting hit.

He looked back over his shoulder to find none other than Wanda already looking at him, shaking her head as she tried to bite back her sobs. She was covered in cuts and scrapes, her clothes were ripped, multiple tears were falling down her face.

"I-I can't..." Wanda cried.

"Yes, you can!" He shouted over to her. "You can."

"No I... I'm not going to lose you!"

"You aren't going to lose me Wanda, I swear to you!" Carson gave her a sad smile. "We have all the time in the world, remember?"

"Carson, please!"

Carson was pushed back a little due to the titan starting to advance forward, he dug his feet into the ground to make sure he didn't lose his footing.

He looked back over at her. "WANDA GO!"

Carson's eyes shot open and he gasped for air, his head snapping around the room to see where he was due to the sudden change of scenery. He looked around at everyone, seeing them all having their eyes alrlocked onto him, concern written all over their faces.

His eyes then landed upon Wanda who was crouched down in front of him. The redheads face showed nothing but pure fear, her breathing just as erratic as his, eyes slowly fading from red back to their usual green.

She'd been inside his head.

Wanda had seen everything.

Once Carson realised what she'd done, what she'd seen, he moved forwards to reach out so he could try and comfort her but she stood up and moved away.

Wanda looked down at the floor, her jaw clenching ever so slightly. "You...lied to me?"

"Wands—"

"You told me, no, no, PROMISED me that you was fine! That everything was alright!"

"Please, let me explain..."

Wanda's head suddenly shot up and she narrowed her eyes at him. "How long?"

Carson scratched the back of his head. "What do you m—"

"Cut the bullshit!" She cut him off. "HOW. LONG?!"

"It started a week before we got to Edinburgh." Carson admitted.

Wanda blinked a few times at his words, taken back by the realisation of how long he'd been keeping this from her. 

"At first, I didn't think anything of it. The dreams I'd been having didn't start for a while and what I just saw then... that was the first time that's happened to me. It's never been like that before." Carson sighed and stood up. He reached for her hand again but she pushed him away. "Wanda I promise you, you have to believe me I—"

Wanda scoffed. "Believe you!? How can I believe what you say when all you've done is lie!"

"I had to!" Carson gripped the bridge of his nose.

Wanda threw her arms up in frustration. "I just, I don't get it! How could you sit there and pretend everything was perfect? AND LIE TO ME FOR WEEKS?!"

"Because..."

"GO ON, BECAUSE WHAT?"

"BECAUSE WE WERE HAPPY WANDA! WE WERE FINALLY HAPPY! I knew you'd worry and I didn't want to ruin everything that we'd built over the past two years because of something that wasn't that serious!"

"BUT THIS IS SERIOUS!" Wanda yelled back as she took a few steps closer to him. "REALLY FUCKING SERIOUS CARSON!"

"I DIDN'T KNOW THAT AT THE TIME WANDA!"

"Alright, alright!" Steve intervened, making the two break their stare with one another. "Let's all just take a moment to calm down, okay? We can just talk about this."

Wanda looked back at Carson, shaking her head and letting out an annoyed huff before storming out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

"Wow, real mature!" Carson shouted as he plopped back down on the couch, his jaw tightly locked.

The rest of the team all looked around at each other, trying to process what just happened in front of them.

"Well, uh..." Bruce cleared his throat and broke the awkward silence. "That was..."

"Entertaining." Sam mumbled, earning disapproving look from everyone else in the room. "What?"

Carson rolled his eyes and rolled his head back, looking up at the ceiling with a sigh.

"Carson, I love you and all, I really do, but..." Natasha began. "You really need to tell us what's been going on."

"Yeah, yeah. I know."

~~ ᗢ ~~

ONCE Carson had explained the general backstory of his headaches and dreams that he'd been having for the past few weeks to the rest of the team, he decided that enough time had passed and that he'd go to speak to Wanda. It had been over an hour so she would've cooled off by now.

Hopefully.

He stood up from his seat on the couch and excused himself from the room, letting everyone know that he was going to try and talk to her so they could make up, internally praying that she wasn't going to go all Sokovian on him.

Once again, hopefully.

As he made his way down the hall, he stopped outside of Wanda's old bedroom and inhaled sharply, mentally preparing himself before he made his presence known. He knocked lightly on the door and waited for a response. Which he didn't get.

After waiting for a few more moments he huffed and tuned into his hearing to check she was actually in there, and much to his surprise. She wasn't. His head craned to the side and his eyes landed upon his own door a little further down in the corridor, furrowing his brows at the fact that she'd decided to tantrum in his room instead of hers.

But nonetheless, he brushed it off and walked down the hall anyway until he was stood outside his own door, knocking once he got there.

And once again. No reply.

"Wanda." Carson let out a breath. "I know you're in there."

A small groan was heard coming from inside the room. "I don't want to speak to you. Go away."

Carson's rolled his eyes. "This is literally my room."

"Yeah, well, my room is full of boxes and equipment from the lab." Wanda complained. "Not all of us have the privilege of being Tony Starks 'favourite child'. Now leave me alone."

"That's not fair Wanda."

"It doesn't even matter anyway, I practically lived in this room, so it's just as much mine as yours. Some of my shit is in here too y'know."

He let out a sigh and rested his forehead against the door. "Wanda, please, you've been in here for over an hour, can we talk about this?"

There was silence for a moment before she spoke again. "Alright, fine."

Carson moved his head from the door in surprise at how easy it seemed to convince her to let him come in. "Really? I—"

"Nope, I lied." Wanda interrupted him. Carson let out a light scoff at his girlfriends pettiness. "Doesn't feel good does it hm? When your person lies to you."

"Are you serious right now?" He wiped a hand over his face in frustration. "Nope, nope, you know what? We're not gonna act like children, I'm coming in."

Carson put his hand on the handle but just as he was about to turn it, it suddenly jammed. He furrowed his brows in confusion and looked down at his hand, now seeing that the handle was encased in red wisps which stopped it from being able to be moved.

"Oh for the love of—" He clenched his jaw and let out a huff through his nose. "Just open the door."

No reply. All that was heard was Wanda shuffling around in the room, sounding like she'd sat down on the bed.

"Wanda. Open the door. Now."

"Piss off."

"Wanda, I'm not leaving until you let me in. So open the fucking door now." Carson said calmly, despite the word choice. "Please Wands, just let me explain to you my reasoning fully, alright? Because quite frankly, I'd rather not have to blast this door of it's hinges. And you know I will. So I'm gonna give you about five seconds to get your ass of that damn bed, and open, the door."

With a dramatic huff, Wanda got off the bed and started to make her way over to the door. Carson heard the movement and stood back, waiting for her to let him in.

But after a few steps all the movement from inside suddenly came to a stop after the sound of something dropping on the floor was heard.

Carson raised a brow after hearing Wanda let out a small gasp, along with her breath hitching in her throat.

He opened his mouth to say something, wanting to know if everything was alright but before he could, Wanda used her powers to open the door.

"Jesus, finally. Look I'm s—"

"Is this..." Wanda muttered, looking down at a small black velvet box in her hand.

The box.

~~ ᗢ ~~

cat's outta the bag ig 😏

[Not edited]