AN: I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who has been on this ride with us: all of our pre-readers, our beta, our banner maker, and all you readers. And a big shoutout to all the groups that allowed us to post teasers and chapter links! But most importantly, I want to thank Alex for taking me on this journey. She and I had a simple conversation the devolved into the basic idea for this story. We stood up for ideas we believed in and really wanted; sometimes we caved to the other person. But ultimately, we wrote something together that we're both proud of and we're still friends! I love you, Alex! Happy Birthday!

Enjoy everyone! Thank you for sticking with us!

Epilogue

SPOV

It was a pain like nothing I'd ever felt. Even going through the change to become a super-soldier didn't hurt as much. I could feel every cut and wound on my body healing and closing, bones knitting back together, and flesh becoming whole again.

Bella was by my side and I was grateful for the calmness of her presence, and I kept thinking back to the previous night and our conversation.

"You'll get hurt. You could get hurt really badly, Steve. I don't think you understand."

"So change me if that happens."

She whips around to face me. "Are you crazy?"

"Crazy about you."

Bella rolls her eyes at me. "You don't understand. Just because I bite you doesn't mean you'll be like me. You could want to hunt humans, and it could be ten times worse than what I've been like. I'm an exception."

"Bella, none of that matters because all I want is to be with you, and I know you'd keep me on the right path. It means we'd both be immortal. We haven't talked about me getting older but I know it's something you think about. I think about it too."

She folds her arms and stares me down. "It will be an absolute last resort. Do you understand?" Finally moving to me, Bella wraps her arms around me.

"Bella."

I know if it were possible, she'd be crying. I might be shedding a few tears of my own.

"Bella. Look at me." I lean forward and kiss her forehead, and then cup her face. "70 years ago, I thought I'd met the love of my life … and then after I woke up, I met you."

Her amber eyes go soft.

"Steve …"

"Sssssh, I'm trying to be romantic."

She laughs softly. "Please, continue."

When I go down on one knee and produce a small velvet box seemingly out of nowhere, she shakes her head. "You're crazy."

"Crazy about you." I send her a wink. "Marry me, Bella. When all of this is over."

Bella bites her lip but sends me a grin. "Of course, I'll marry you."

I stand up and slide the ring onto her finger. "I love you so much, Bella."

She pulls me down by my neck to kiss me. "I love you too."

When I woke the day following Edward's defeat, we weren't sure what I was to become, but Bella was prepared.

Her steel resolve kept me grounded as we realized that my metabolism and the serum coursing through my veins burned out the venom before it really had time to take hold.

"Bella?" I croak out her name as she leans over me and smiles.

"Welcome back, soldier." She presses a kiss to my cheek.

I sit up in the bed a little and look around to find the only other person here is Thor. "How many days?"

"Just one. How do you feel?"

"Tired and hungry." I look over at Bella and smile a little sadly and a little ruefully. "For a cheeseburger and fries. Maybe a milkshake."

BPOV

After Edward's death, Steve was anxious to meet Charlie, especially before we organized getting married. I was anxious, to say the least, especially now that I was a vampire. I wasn't worried about hurting Charlie—we'd established that I could be around humans without wanting to eat them—but I hadn't even seen my dad since I moved to New York, and now I was going to see him looking like a completely different person.

"Do you think I need to wear contact lenses?" I ask Steve just before we leave.

"Why?"

"Well, the last time I saw my dad, I had brown eyes … and now they're not."

"Of course, he'll notice. He's your father." Steve pulls me to him. "Besides, you said he knows the legends."

Charlie did as Charlie always has—opened his arms and gave me a big hug and welcomed me home. He never falters; he's steady. That's the nice thing about Charlie, and the thing I love the most—he doesn't ask questions. If he noticed anything, the only comment he made was, "You look good, kid."

He then proceeded to grill Steve about fishing and whether half the stories about him were even true, but he wasn't at all bothered by Steve being Captain America, the same way he didn't really care that Uncle Tony was Iron Man. He spoke to Steve more in half an hour than he ever had to Edward in six months, and I took that as a pretty good sign.

Steve and I got married not long after. Charlie flew to New York and both he and Uncle Tony walked me down the aisle. We were lucky to be surrounded by the friends and makeshift family we had. It was a simple ceremony, without the pomp and circumstance that some people thought would be necessary for an Avenger but a quiet affair for Steve and me.

We celebrated with everyone and had a great time doing it, but we were unprepared that it would be one of the last gatherings between the Avengers' team for the foreseeable future.

Things didn't get any better after that. Between the fall of SHIELD and Hydra's re-emergence into the world, to the Sokovia Accords and the inevitable divide that was created between Uncle Tony and Steve.

Steve didn't feel like he was worthy enough to lead the entire team, but when the government wanted to take away the choice in leading entirely, it made the whole point of the Avengers initiative a moot point.

Tony believed that having everyone signing the accords would make it easier; Steve completely disagreed, and well, that just left me stuck in the middle.

Then there was the Bucky thing.

After the events in D.C., Steve was like a dog with a bone when it came to tracking down his best friend and figuring out what happened. I would spend days scanning CCTV footage looking for him, and when I finally found him in Bucharest after the UN bombing, Steve, Sam, and I went immediately.

"Why aren't you on my side?" Steve says with exasperation.

I fold my arms. "Your side? What are you talking about?"

"Bella, you know exactly what I'm talking about."

"Just because you and Tony completely disagree with this? I'm not even an Avenger! And you cannot for one moment expect me to choose between the two of you because that is exactly what you're asking me to do."

This was the biggest form of contention in our partnership. I couldn't turn my back on Uncle Tony and those members of the Avengers who had sided with him because they were my friends, but Steve was my mate, and I would always be on his side.

When it came down to the bottom line, Steve was sorry for the thing that had happened and the feelings that were hurt; but it didn't change the fact that he did what he thought was right.

When he left to take Bucky to Wakanda, I went to visit Tony at the Avenger compound.

"What are you doing here, kiddo?" Uncle Tony is sitting in an office of all places and doesn't seem pleased to see me.

I take a seat in a chair opposite his desk. "Can't I come to see my favorite godfather?"

Tony rolls his eyes. "I'm your only godfather, and you're married to a fugitive who broke two people out of a supermax prison."

"He's good, right? You've gotta give him some credit for that."

The silence that looms between us is uncomfortable, but I can literally sit here all day.

"I miss you, Bella." He looks over at me with a pained look. "I miss Steve too. But I can't … I can't forget."

"We miss you too, even if he hasn't admitted that yet. I understand that you can't forget, but can you forgive?"

"I thought you were Switzerland?"

"I am, but I want my husband and my father to be able to go fishing. I want to be able to go places with Steve. Now, we're just hiding. Steve still believes in helping people and doing the right thing. You don't have to forget, but you need to forgive each other."

I pleaded with Tony for a few hours as he sparred with me, but I realized quickly that I wasn't the one who needed to convince him.

When I left that afternoon with a hug from my godfather, I had a plan.

Steve had returned from Wakanda and our reunion was long overdue. When I tell him about visiting Tony, he scoffs but was genuinely curious to hear how Tony and everyone else was fairing.

"It's time you reached out, Steve."

We're lying in bed, and I prop my head up on my hand to look down at him.

"I want to, but I'm not sure what to say or how to do it." He brushes some hair away from my face and smiles.

"I do. I bought two prepaid cell phones. You send one to Tony and you keep one." Sitting up, the sheet falls away and Steve's eyes wander. "Eyes up here, soldier. Write him a letter and tell him the truth. You've already told me that you'd be there in a heartbeat if he needed you. Tell him. Offer him a sign of good faith."

"You're smart," he tells me as he sits up. "Do you think he'll ever call?"

"Well, let's hope there's never a need for him to."