Aquila Cadman reached down, tucking the remaining end of her shoelace into her shoe before springing back up, the house keys jangling in her hand.

The door soon swung open the immediate blast of cold air doing little to bring her body temperature. After a brisk 45-minute run had failed to keep her from the constant drum of her thoughts, Aquila was at all loss of what to do.

"Hey, Wonderpup." Aquila greeted reaching down to scratch the nine-month-old husky puppy on the head.

Harley had been a sudden but thankful addition to a household that seemed all too quiet these days. Surely caring for such a rambunctious puppy could keep the pounding thoughts away?

"You wanna come with me to pick up Nat from the compound?"

A lot can happen in five years time.

New York City was somewhere that she had called home for years, but nothing was the same anymore. Abandoned cars were still strewn across the streets, empty boats filled the lifeless ports of the city.

Even five years later people still hadn't quite worked out how to continue moving forward when everything was so different, when everyone was gone.

Aquila still hadn't quite worked out what was good and what was bad. The only things she did know was that Harley loved driving in the car a little too much and that Aquila was forever grateful for the chance to get to wear that ring on her finger.

Pulling in the Avengers Compound brought on yet another wave of mixed feelings as she parked the car and began walking to the front door, Harley leaping across the gravel in front of her.

She quickly left her things by the front door and followed Harley towards the door to the ever so familiar conference room, while Harley scratched at it impatiently.

"There you go, girl." Aquila said opening the door only to see Natasha sitting at the large desk.

Natasha first looked down at the excited puppy rushing towards her before her tired eyes drifted up to the love of her life leaning against the doorframe.

"Oh, look who finally decided to show up." The voice of Carol Danvers echoed from across the room.

"I'm quite busy I'll have you know," Aquila replied.

"Doing what exactly? Puppy-sitting?"

Aquila bit back a laugh and she sent the middle finger towards her as Rocket rolled his eyes.

"As I was saying, we boarded that highly suspect warship that Danvers pinged-"

"It was an infectious garbage scowl-"

"So thanks for the hot tip," Rocket finished off, staring at Carol as she only shrugged in response.

"Well, you were closer."

"Yeah. And now we smell like garbage."

"You get a reading on those tremors?" Natasha asked turning towards Okoye.

"It was a mild subduction under the African plate," Okoye informed the two of them in return.

"Do we have a visual? How are we handling it?" Nat continued as Aquila's eyes widened slightly in concern.

"Nat, it's an earthquake under the ocean. We handle it by not handling it."

"Are we likely to see you here next month, Carol?" Aquila asked changing the subject, the flickers of concern still whirling around in her mind.

"Yeah, not likely."

"Let me guess you are going to go off and get another haircut?" Rocket commented.

"Listen fur-face. I'm covering a lot of territory. The things that are happening on Earth, are happening everywhere on thousands of planets. So you might not see me for a long time."

"Alright. Uh, well. This channel is always active," Natasha informed the team gathered in front of her. "So, anything goes sideways. . . anyone's making trouble where they shouldn't. . . comes through us."

Aquila kept a small smile on her face as one by one the team clicked off the call, their holograms disappearing as the meeting came to a conclusion. Nat sighed tiredly in her chair before realizing that Rhodey was still connected on the call.

"Where you at?"

"Mexico. The Federales found a room full of bodies. Looks like a bunch of cartel guys. Never even had the chance to get their guns off."

Aquila froze briefly at Rhodey's words, knowing exactly what he meant. She quickly slid into the seat beside Natasha, their hands intertwining perfectly as usual.

"It's probably just a rival gang-" Nat dismissed as Aquila looked over at her only to see Nat's eyes never leaving the sandwich that was sat on the table.

"Except it isn't. It's definitely Barton. What he's done here, what he's been doing for the last few years. . . I mean, the scene he left. I gotta tell you, there's a part of me that doesn't even want to find him."

Aquila's hand shook slightly as Nat gripped harder trying to stop the incessant shaking of her own hand. Neither of them wanted to believe that the Clint they all knew had completely disappeared but as more evidence was presented to them, the couple couldn't just pretend that it wasn't happening.

"Will you find out where's he's going next?" Natasha asked looking up, tears already pooling in her eyes. "Please?"

"Thanks, Rhodey," Aquila said quietly, nodding her head as his hologram also disappeared.

Aquila's heart ached painfully as her wife completely broke down in front of her. Pulling the woman into her arms, Natasha's tears dampening her shirt but she didn't mind in the slightest. Even Harley had sensed that one of her owners was upset and had hurried across the room to stick her head in between her owners' legs.

After all both Aquila and Harley were all too familiar with such a situation as Natasha routinely had the same reaction anytime any news about Clint Barton and his never-ending murdering spree over the last few years. Other than herself, Clint was one of the weak spots that Natasha still had, and as much as Aquila hated seeing her so upset there wasn't a lot that she could do.

"You know, I'd offer to cook you both dinner, but Nat seems pretty miserable already."

Aquila looked up from Nat over towards where Steve Rogers leaned against a bookshelf as Harley trotted off to see the newcomer.

"You here to do your laundry?" Natasha shot back at him, a few tears still slipping down her face.

"Mainly, to see my friends and their adorable puppy. But that too."

Steve moved forward, sitting in one of the seats as Harley eagerly followed, wanting to play.

"Well, clearly your friend is fine," Natasha replied, wiping the remaining tears from her cheeks.

"You know I saw a pod of whales when I was coming up the bridge."

"In the Hudson?" Aquila asked incredulously. "Really?"

"There's fewer ships, cleaner water. . ."

"You know if you're about to tell me to look on the bright side. Um. . .I'm about to hit you in the head with a peanut butter sandwich. . "

The three of them let out a small chuckle before silence drilled it's way into their very souls once again, a too familiar feeling in the last few years.

It was now too easy to fall into silence when half of their lives were missing, the people that were supposed to be with them, laughing with them, gone.

Some families had gotten lucky, others not so much. Keira and Tony had found each other again against all the odds, Natasha and Aquila still had each other but so many people weren't as lucky.

Aquila looked up at Steve as Quinn's name appeared in her mind, even after such a long time Aquila knew that she wasn't the only one who blamed herself for what had happened to her.

"You know, I keep telling everybody they should move on and. . . grow. Some do," Steve said looking up at his two closest friends. "But not us."

"If I move on. . . who does this?" Nat shot back at Steve, gesturing around the room.

"Maybe it doesn't need to be done."

Aquila was all too familiar with the conversation at hand, it was the discussion that Natasha and Aquila had had too often. Aquila had moved on, finding solace in reconnecting with the roots of her childhood, throwing herself into charity work, find new meaning to fill her days with. While Natasha stayed behind. The Avengers were still her home just as they were still Aquila's but Aquila knew that if the two of them were truly going to properly start a family, something they both desperately wanted, they had to move on.

"I used to have nothing. And then I got this. This job. . .this family. And I was. . . I was better because of it. And even though . . . they're gone. . . I'm still trying to be better." Natasha said, giving a light squeeze on Aquila's hand.

"Honestly, I think we all seriously need to get lives." Aquila joked.

A notification popped up on the screen in front of Natasha interrupting their conversation. Natasha quickly hit accept on it as camera footage from the front door of the compound began to play.

"Uh. . .Oh! Hi. Hi! Is anyone home? This is Scott Lang. We met a few years ago, at the airport? In Germany? I got really big, and I had my mask on. You wouldn't recognise me,"

The trio in the room froze, standing up from their seats, looking towards the screen with wide eyes.

"Ant-man? Ant-man, I know you know that. I need to talk to you guys."

"Surely this has to be an old message. Right, Nat?" Aquila asked quietly, her eyes never flickering away from the screen.

"It's the front gate."