Nine months later.

WANDA WAS perched on the steps that led up to the her house, looking down at the mug in her hands with a blank expression as she traced her finger around the rim.

Her eyes drifted over to her hand and came to a stop when she looked at her ring. The same one Carson gave her the night he asked her to marry him. She smiled softly at the sight but after a few seconds, the momentarily wave of happiness soon faded away. Being reminded that he wasn't here with her. And that at this point, she sometimes wondered if he ever would be.

But no matter how many thoughts flooded her brain, she held onto the last amount of hope she had for him. For them. Because he promised that he'd come back to her.

And Carson always kept his promises. Always.

She let out a sigh and looked over her shoulder at her house. The house that was supposed to be theirs. Wanda thought back to the day she found the blueprints of the house in one of Carson's draws a few weeks after the Westview situation had ended. They were placed neatly in a black box, a thin red ribbon wrapped neatly around it.

He must've been planning to give it to her as a surprise. Before Wakanda, before Thanos, before all the shit that happened. When it was just the two of them in their own little world.

She found a place not too far away from the compound, yet secluded enough so that they wouldn't be bothered by any unwelcomed guests. And with her magic, Wanda built their dream home within the blink of an eye. Exactly how Carson had planned.

At first she found it stupid of her to do something like that so impulsively. But as strange as it sounds, in her eyes, it was a way to feel close to him. A way for her to still have the life that the two of them had planned. And when he would eventually wake up. They could do it together. Because for her, it really was the perfect house. It had everything that they both wanted, each of their likings mixing in with the design.

The only thing that was missing was him.

[ for reference gals & pals. if it's not to your liking i'm sorry luvs but you can just picture whatever type of house you like ]

The sound of the kettle whistling from the inside of the house caught Wanda's attention and she got to her feet, walking back inside the house to pour herself another cup of tea.

She lightly blew against the hot drink for a moment to cool it down before placing it on the counter as she knew it would still be too hot to drink. Wanda looked up at one of the shelves on the wall, her eyes landing on a certain picture frame.

With a small sigh she picked up the item, her chest tightening as she looked down at the picture of her and Carson. Wanda moved her hands up towards the frame and gently traced her fingers along Carson's face.

She suddenly paused and placed the picture back down on the shelf, closing her eyes and letting out a huff through her nose as she felt a pair of eyes burning into the back of her head.

"I can feel you staring at me." She muttered under her breath. "Stop. It's creepy."

Wanda turned around and leant against the counter as she picked up her mug again, looking straight ahead at who she was talking to.

The astral projection of Wanda's Scarlet Witch form, raised a brow at her curiously, her attention now being taken away from the Dark Hold that she had been studying for the last few hours since Wanda had allowed the astral projection.

The witch glanced over at the photo of Carson that Wanda had put back on the shelf and her facial features softened, a visible frown forming on her face. Wanda looked over her shoulder to see what she was looking at and she swallowed the lump in her throat before turning her attention back to... well, herself.

"I know..." Wanda said quietly. "I miss him too."

~~ ᗢ ~~

Avengers Compound.

One week later.

FROM THE sound of machines beeping in the same steady rhythm, raindrops falling against the glass of the window, the faint chatter coming from a few rooms down, hell even the buzzing of the light. For the past nine months all Carson had known was nothing but darkness, silence, endless nothingness.

But now he hear it. He could hear it all, feel it all.

He felt the mattress of the bed that he was laying on, the soft pillow propping up his head, the oxygen mask that was resting on his face. His finger slowly raised up and his hand began to move around shakily while he tried to lift it, his breathing picking up as he got frustrated at himself for not being able to move his body as he normally would.

Carson's eyes fluttered open, his body phasing in and out of consciousness. Despite his vision being slightly blurry he still managed to spot the faint outline of someone sitting in an armchair in the corner of his room. He tried to sit up to grab their attention, but due to his body only just powering back on he was too weak.

They were sat comfortably in the armchair, an apple in one hand, a book in another. their attention focused on the page they was reading.

"Wan..." Carson's voice was quiet. Too quiet to be audible.

He blinked a few times lazily as he focused on staying awake. Carson took a deep breath and used all his strength to lift his hand up to his face, in attempt to take the oxygen mask from his face, letting out a few groans in the process.

And this seemed to finally catch the person's attention. Carson saw from the corner of his eye the outline of the person lifting their head lifted up. The apple fell from their hand and dropped to the floor, the sound of the impact ringing in Carson's ears and making his face scrunch up in distaste.

They quickly got to their feet and rushed over to him. "Holy shit. Carson, hey, hey, look at me." They spoke, putting their hand on his shoulder as they took in his dazed state. "Can you hear me?"

Carson mumbled something but they couldn't quite catch what he said. They watched as he continued to attempt to take the mask of his face and when they realized what he was doing, they helped him out and took it off for him.

Carson plopped his arm back down on the bed, the action tiring him out already. He turned his head to the side and squinted as his vision became clearer, Carson's eyes travelled down to the metal arm that was resting on his shoulder.

Bucky.

He let out a breath, knowing that he was back at the compound and safe and not at the SWORD facility he was previously being kept at.

"I need... wa..." Carson panted.

"Water?" Bucky fumbled around in a hurry and picked up his bottle of water, handing it over to Carson. "You want water?"

Carson shook his head and inhaled sharply as he tried to speak again. "Wan..."

"Shit, shit, I gotta get the others. I'll be right back okay just— Just stay awake. No more sleeping. Understood? No more of that." Bucky rambled as he rushed out the med bay door.

"Yeah... okay..." Carson whispered to himself.

His body relaxed and his leant back down into the pillow, taking another deep breath as he got used to the feeling of being awake and present again. His hearing picked up the sound of numerous footsteps sprinting up the stairs and his face contorted again at the sound due to his enhanced hearing seeming to be a bit sensitive while his body re-adjusted.

Carson let out a sound of discomfort and pushed up each side of his pillow against his ears, his eyes slamming shut. The more he came around, the more it was noticeable to him that everything in his body seemed to be heightened. Something about him felt different, his powers, his abilities. Whether that was because his body was dormant for months or not, he didn't know.

The feeling practically sent shivers down his spine. The blood bumping through his veins, the energy, the power surging throughout his whole body. He felt like some sort of ticking time bomb, just waiting for it to burst, waiting for him to let go and pull the pin.

A sharp pain in his head caused his hands to fly up to his scalp, his hands gripping his hair tightly as he groaned in pain. He opened his eyes and looked ahead at his reflection in the glass, the red glow in his eyes standing out to him. Carson shook his head and clenched his jaw, watching with wide eyes as the sight of his veins lighting up was shown in the reflection.

He let out a yell and slammed his hands down onto the bed harshly, the action causing a wave of powers to exit his body and collide with whatever was in his way. Chairs were thrown, machines were destroyed, the glass in the mirrors and windows all smashed.

But surprisingly, it actually made him feel better.

The pain in his head went away, the drowsiness, his senses returned to normal. It was so bizarre to him. Because now he actually felt perfectly fine. Carson exhaled and looked down at hands, watching as a small cut from where one of the shards of glass must have hit him healed up. At least now his healing was working like it usually would.

Took it long enough.

"Well, shit." A voice spoke up from the doorway. "This is gonna be a pain in the ass to clean up."

Carson's head shot up at the sound and he looked over to the doorway.

"Tony." He let out a relieved sigh.

Tony laughed and walked over to him, pulling him up and into his arms. Carson smiled and returned the hug, falling into a fit of happy laugher with the man.

"I'm glad you're awake." Tony told him. "You don't know how much we missed you, bud."

Carson nodded and patted his back. "I'm glad to be back too."

"I don't know how this... we wasn't sure if you'd wake up." Tony looked down at him. "What do you remember?"

"Everything." Carson responded. "I remember everything."

His eyes picked up as he noticed more sets of footsteps coming to a stop in the door way.

Carson looked over and his smiled instantly brightened. "Natasha."

Tony pulled away so he could have his reunion with the others, stepping aside and watching with a full heart as Natasha ran over to him and threw her arms around him.

Carson let out a grunt at the impact, the air slightly being knocked out of his lungs. He chuckled and wrapped his arms around her nonetheless. "Jesus Nat, you trying to knock me out again?"

She moved back and punched his arm, narrowing her eyes at him. "That's not funny."

"Alright, alright." He rubbed his arm. "But that kinda hurt."

"Shit, sorry." Natasha apologized before perching herself on the side of his bed.

The rest of the team and others made their way inside the room to talk to him, to see him. Sam, Yelena, Bucky, Clint, Bruce, Pepper, even Morgan. And although he was thankful to see them and be able to catch up. He couldn't help but think about the absence of two people.

"Hey," Carson spoke up as he put down his glass of water on the bedside table. He had insisted that he could get up and leave the med bay earlier on, but the others were persistent that he take a little more time to come around. So he agreed. Not that he'd have much chance to do anything about it anyway considering it was nine against one.

"Yeah?" Natasha asked from her spot on the armchair she was now sat on, it still slightly damaged due to Carson's powers. But she didn't really care. It was comfy enough.

"Where's the old man?" He questioned, his brows coming together in confusion when he noticed the exchange of looked between everyone.

"Sweetie." Pepper walked over to the bed where Morgan was sat with Carson. "Why don't we go to the kitchen and get your brother drink, hm?"

"Okay." Morgan nodded enthusiastically. The young girl wriggled out of Carson's arms and hopped off the bed.

Pepper gave Carson a sad smile and kissed the top of his head before taking Morgan's hand and walking out the room with her.

Carson looked around at them all in concern. "What? What is it?"

"Steve, uh..." Bucky began. "Steve isn't here."

"What do you mean he isn't here?"

Tony let out a huff and ran a hand over his face. "We wasn't planning on telling you this early on. We wanted to give you time to recover first."

"Listen, um... A few days after the battle with Thanos, the stones had to be returned. Steve was the one who volunteered." Natasha explained sadly. "He did do it. The stones are back in their original time line. But in the process, he took a few detours. That's how I'm here... when he returned the soul stone back to Vormir, he made a deal with Red Skull. Bringing me back in exchange for the stone."

Carson nodded along slowly as he listened to the story.

"But when he came back. A few things had changed." Clint informed him. "He... uh... Steve decided it was his time to... retire."

"Oh, right." Carson said quietly. He understood what he meant.

Carson looked down at a random spot on the floor as he took in the information. He understood why Steve did it, he really did. The man hadn't seemed to catch a break ever since he was taken out of the ice. He had been robbed of the chance to ever have a normal life so Carson couldn't blame him for taking it up when he had the chance. But he'd by lying if he said it didn't hurt him a little.

Because he was happy for Steve, he really was, but throughout the years, the super-soldier and him always had a strong bond. He was like another father figure to him too.

"But he left a letter for you." Natasha informed him. "Before he left."

"I'll read it later." Carson replied.

He looked over at the doorway, his brows coming together as there was still one person missing from the room. The one person that he wanted to see the most.

"Where's Wanda?"

~~ ᗢ ~~

Two days later.

WITH A SIGH, Wanda walked through the back door and made her way inside the house, a certain book clutched tightly in her hand as if it were her own child. She shuffled her way into the kitchen and came to a stop when she looked around at the mess covering the counter tops. Unwashed dishes, plates, cups, ingredients from the food she had previously made still out.

It wasn't usually like her to be like this. Because if there was one thing that Wanda couldn't stand more than anything, it was a messy kitchen. Anybody who knew her would easily be able to answer that. But the thing is, for the past few months Wanda had been anything but herself.

When the others came round to check on her like they'd do every so often she always felt guilty. Guilty that she wouldn't interact with them, talk with them like she usually would. And even though they never said anything, the team could see it too.

The dark bags that sat under her puffy eyes, how she'd zone out in conversations, the dull tone in her voice. They knew that it wasn't her fault, that she really did try to be more enthusiastic. Because that was true, she actually did try.

But when all she could think about was Carson, how could she? She was just so exhausted. Even the most mundane of tasks seemed like such a chore for her to do. It had just gotten to a point where she didn't know what to do with herself anymore.

Wanda ran a hand through her hair and placed the Dark Hold down on the countertop. She made her way over to one of the cupboards. But when she was greeted with empty space considering all the plates were still unwashed, she rolled her eyes and closed the cupboard doors, resting her forehead against it as she huffed in annoyance.

The sound of the doorbell ringing made Wanda's head quickly snap upwards and she instantly looked over her shoulder, her eyes landing on the book that was still sitting on the counter.

"Uh." Wanda cleared her throat. "I'll be one minute!"

She hurried over to the other side of the counter and grabbed the book, rushing through into the back room where she kept it. Wanda placed it on it's usual stand and with the flick of her wrist, the book was concealed like it was never there in the first place.

Wanda closed the door behind her and let out a small relieved breath. It's not exactly like she was doing anything wrong by studying the contents of the Dark Hold, per say, it's just that she knew the rest of the team wouldn't want her to be using it because of the state she was in. And she just couldn't be bothered listening to their lectures.

So for now, this would just be her little secret. I mean, they were her powers so she had every reason in wanting to improve her abilities, right?

The doorbell rang once more and she looked over, a strange yet familiar sensation fuelling her body. Her brows came together in confusion and she shook her head to brush it off, starting to make her way over.

Once her hand came into contact with the handle, the feeling rushed through her body once more, sending shivers down her spine. She paused for a moment and slowly took her hand away as she looked up at the door, starting to debate whether she should actually open it or not.

"I can literally hear you on the other side." A voice spoke up. "Hurry up, I'm freezing my ass off out here."

Wanda's eyes went wide as she listened to the person on the other side talk. She quickly placed her hand back on the handle, fumbling with nerves to try and open the door as fast as she could.

And when she did, the sight was enough to take Wanda out right there right then. That smirk, those eyes. She thought she'd never see them again. But here he was. Right in front of her.

"Hi, witchy." Carson grinned widely. "Did you miss me?"

~~ ᗢ ~~

END OF BOOK ONE!

PLS I FEEL SO BAD ENDING IT LIKE THIS BUT I MEAN DW BECAUSE YOU'RE GONNA GET PLENTY OF WANDA & CARSON IN BOOK 2 OFC OFC

speaking of... make sure you read the next chapter rn for more info ;))