AN: Hello everyone! It's been a hot minute since I've posted a story, but I've had this one in the works for a while. I'm hoping to have it be about 10 chapters or so. I'm going ahead and posting the first chapter to see what everyone thinks. Let me know your thoughts!

March 2019

You would think even after half the world gets snapped out of existence, there'd be less foot traffic in Times Square, she thinks to herself as she jogs in place on the sidewalk, trying to keep her momentum going as she waits to cross the busy intersection. She can't hold back her wince when her mind goes that direction, because that's pretty bitter, even for her. It feels like a lifetime ago that she was anything other than that. It's been a hard few years.

As she waits for the light to change, her eyes catch sight of a billboard across the street announcing the opening of a memorial, Remembering The Fallen, in just a couple of days at Madison Square. Free to the public. The sight of it makes her heart ache.

Even after almost a year later, it's still so hard to believe that so many people were just…wiped out of existence in what people are calling The Blip. A silly name for something so traumatic. She shivers, remembering watching people from her window in her secluded apartment in Berlin, where she'd been hiding out at the time, just vanish into ashes. She remembers immediately rushing outside to see what she could do to help only to realize that there wasn't anything she could do. Even now, their terrified screams still haunt her dreams, begging for her to help them. Like so many of the other survivors, ever since that horrible day, she's constantly asking herself why she'd been spared of that nightmare.

According to the experts, there wasn't any scientific reason why the people who disappeared were chosen. It was just dumb luck.

After witnessing the terror that was watching life as she knew it crumble around her, her first instinct was to go home to the States. She might not could have done anything to prevent the disaster, but she was damn well going to see what she could do in the aftermath and that meant going home and facing what she'd been trying to run from for so long. It was no secret that she'd been on the run from having helped Steve, Bucky and Sam escape from the U.S. Government in the aftermath of the Accords.

Not to even mention her avoiding her godfather, Tony Stark. She'd known that the Winter Soldier killed Tony's parents and, like Steve, hadn't told him. No excuse in the world would be big enough for that and she knew it, so she added him to the list of people to avoid for the foreseeable future.

Except, that didn't exactly work out because within weeks of her going abroad, Tony had eventually tracked her down. She hadn't thought he wouldn't, but she can't say she wasn't a little surprised to see him when she walked in from going to the grocery store to find him on her balcony of the apartment she'd been squatting in in Rome. There was a lot of shouting, a lot of name calling, a lot of hurt that went on in that particular conversation.

That had been 3 years ago. Needless to say, they aren't on good terms, or any terms. Not anymore.

As for Steve, they'd both tried to keep in touch, but after a while, it became too hard to communicate. They'd both had a lot on their plates at the time so it was only natural that they lost touch.

Fast forward to the aftermath of The Blip. It took about a week before she was even able to get a flight out of Berlin, what with the world being in complete chaos. It would've been a hell of a lot harder for someone who didn't have friends in high places. More specifically, if Steve hadn't intervened, which she found out as soon as she got off the plane at JFK.

She had been prepared to be greeted by armed police officers waiting to drag her to prison as soon as she stepped off the plane. What she hadn't been prepared for was Natasha. The spy leaning against a wall like she owns the place, holding up a white sign with her name on it as soon as she exited her gate with no sign of any trained agent or guard waiting to escort her to a cell. Sharon had looked around the airport in confusion, because well, she was technically a fugitive, for crying out loud.

"You really think I'd let them take you to prison?" Natasha's raspy voice is a welcome sound after being on the run for so long. She merely raises one eyebrow at Sharon and shoots her a classic Natasha smirk. Sure, the agent and the spy had been in contact over the years, but there was nothing like actually talking with your friend in person. Sharon can't help but look her friend over, instantly noting the difference that a few years have made. Her hair's no longer blonde, back to its familiar shade of bright red and it's longer than she's ever seen her have it. It's also abundantly clear that she's still got the devil may care attitude that she's had, well, forever, so she's still the same as she's always been on the surface. For anyone else, they'd never know something was wrong. Sharon, however, is the exception.

Even from several feet away, there's a darkness lingering behind her friend's eyes, behind that smirk, that makes Sharon's blood turn cold. She'd known when she came home it wasn't going to be easy, for any of the ones that survived, but knowing that and seeing that are two completely different things. Shaking her head, Sharon pulls herself out of her musings and merely shrugs, a relieved smile on her lips as she makes her way to her friend.

"So, besides you, who do I need to send the edible arrangement to for keeping my ass out of prison?" She comes to a stop in front of her and instantly rolls her eyes when Natasha flips her sign over to read "future Mrs. Rogers." She scowls, not at the thought but at Natasha's dramatics, "Put that away, some people might actually think you're serious."

"Oh, I'm completely serious. You and Rogers are going to happen. I just know it. Call it a gut feeling. Besides, it's him you can thank for keeping your ass out of prison," Natasha says, wiggling her eyebrows, "if you need other, normal suggestions, other than your weird obsession with edible arrangements, on how to thank him, I can think of at least 7-"

Sharon can't help it. She laughs for the first time in a long time, interrupting the dirty thought that was bound to spill out of her friend's mouth. She pulls Natasha in for a hug, "I don't need any of your suggestions, thank you very much. Besides, there's nothing wrong with a good edible arrangement." She tries to end the hug quickly, knowing the spy isn't exactly a fan of touching, but it's Natasha who tightens the hold, surprising the former SHIELD agent. She returns her tight grip, concerned when she realizes that Natasha seems to have lost weight, "Nat?"

"God, I missed you." Natasha mutters, another shock to Sharon that she'd openly admit feelingsout loud, much less in a public space, "but, we'll talk more on the way. We should get you home." Natasha squeezes her once more before letting her go. Sharon's eyebrows furrow when she gets a better look at her friend. The dark circles under her eyes and the way her cheekbones have sunken are both clear indicators that Natasha's beyond being a mess. "Come on, you smell like a pig. Where the hell were you again?"

As if she didn't know. Just like that, Sharon rolls her eyes and they make their way out of the airport.

A sharp car horn brings her back to the present. She blinks and she's suddenly back to staring at the street. She watches as a minivan almost collides with a taxi before they both easily manage their way down the street. She shakes her head at the sight, having never gotten used to the crazy driving in the city. She returns her attention back to the stop light and lets out a long sigh. The song she'd been listening to ends and another upbeat pop song fills her ears through her ear buds. A shiver runs down her spine as a cold chill blows through, and she wishes the light would hurry the hell up already. As she waits, she looks at the people walking by.

Almost every person she's come into contact with has lost someone in the Blip. She, on the other hand, counts herself lucky, because really, she doesn't have anyone left to lose. Sure, there's Natasha and a few of her Shield academy friends, but Nat's really the only person she'd consider family at this point. She makes a point to push Tony and Pepper's faces out of her mind when they suddenly pop up in her brain against her will.

Well, apparently she's determined to be a in shit mood today. Even on her day off. Shaking her head to rid herself of her dark thoughts, she looks up in time to see the crosswalk sign finally change from a hand to a walking person. She still looks both ways before running across the crosswalk in time to the music playing through her headphones. She doesn't stop running until she gets close enough to her destination that she can slow down to a walk. She tries to tell herself she hadn't planned on it, but the truth is she'd been looking forward to a nice warm drink on this cold, spring morning.

She's breathing slightly more normal by the time she makes it to the coffee shop entrance. She enters the shop, the heat welcoming her feeling good at first then suddenly a little suffocating. Sweat drips down her face as she quickly pulls her phone out of her jacket pocket and pauses her music. She takes out her earbuds and stuffs them in her pocket as she stands in line, staring up at the board that's on the ground ahead of her, showing the special of the day.

After deciding that a pineapple Matcha sounds absolutely disgusting, she zones out, choosing to go with what she decided what she wanted as soon as her feet hit the cold floor of her crappy apartment earlier this morning.

"Look, lady, you want to order something or not?" The rude barista's voice finally filters in through her haze.

She startles out of her day dream and apparently she zoned out too well, because while she had been day dreaming the line had moved exponentially. She glances behind her, thankful that she's now the only person in line before stepping up to place her order.

"One cheese and ham omelet and a large vanilla latte, extra whip cream, please."

She quickly pays and moves over to the side to wait on her order. Unable to help herself, she pulls out her cell phone to check on things at work. Even though it's her day off, she always feels the need to check in a few times, just to make sure things are running smoothly. Once she's checked in and reassured that everything's ok, she scrolls through Twitter, though she knows there's never anything on there that she's even interested in. She's watching a video of a kitten playing piano when a familiar voice interrupts.

"Sharon?"

AN: Let me know your thoughts!