Sharon stayed behind when the Avengers went to Wakanda to fight the galactic threat that was Thanos. She wanted nothing more than to join her team in the fight. But unfortunately, a nine-month-old baby could not be brought to a battlefield, and a nine-month-old baby could not stay at the compound all by herself.
Eleanor Sarah Rogers was born July 4th, 2017, she shared a birthday with her father. She shared her father’s eyes and his smile. And she had stolen her parent’s hearts since the moment they met her.
Raising a child while hiding from the government, as well as being a part of a secret superhero initiative, was not easy. But somehow they made it work. Steve and Sharon would take turns staying at the facility when it came to missions. Ellie was their baby, their responsibility, and they would not force anyone on the team to watch or stay with her, that was unless someone volunteered. Natasha Romanoff and Sam Wilson were the designated Godparents, after all, they were the two pushing factors that led to the child’s parents together.
Sharon was not going to argue with Steve about who should go and fight. She loved Steve Rogers, but the world needed Captain America, and she was not going to leave her child with a stranger. So she stayed behind at the Avengers Compound, watching the news, and trying to help whatever way she could from the base.
Sharon had just put Ellie down for a nap. She had gotten herself a drink when the devices started going off. She put the drink down with a sigh, making her way to a monitor, and pulling up the live footage. She stood for a second or two in horror as she watched unknown people disappear, fade away as if they were dust. It was haunting. She quickly ran to the room where she had left her daughter.
For a moment everything was okay. Ellie was still asleep, and she was right in front of her. But then her baby started crying. And Sharon immediately picked the little girl up. “Shush. You’re okay, you’re still here. I’m still here. It’s okay.” She cooed as she rocked the baby.
But as soon as those words left her mouth, it was like she damned them all. Sharon’s eyes widened as she watched her daughter fade away, and disappear from her arms. Her arms were soon missing her child and filled with a blanket of dust.
She stood silent for a moment before a horrid scream left her lips. The blonde collapsed to the ground as tears fell from her eyes. She pulled the blanket closer to her chest as she sat frozen.
“ She was right here… She was right here…” She continued to repeat the words to herself until she felt numb and her voice was too coarse to go on. Sharon was so shaken by the loss of her child that her mind did not dare think of the other people she could’ve possibly lost. This . This was more pain than she could deal with.
One moment she was there. And the next she was gone. Her baby was gone. Her baby was gone. She watched her baby disappear from her arms. And she couldn’t do anything to keep her from disappearing, she couldn’t do anything to keep her in her arms.
Sharon felt like she had been sitting there, alone, and helpless for hours when Steve and the others had made it back to the compound. She could hear Natasha and Steve shouting her name throughout the compound. But she could not find the voice to respond.
“STEVE! I found her. Sharon’s okay!” Natasha made her way into the bedroom that Sharon was in. Where her child had been.
Okay was relative. And Sharon was certain she was nowhere near okay. Sharon’s brown eyes were red and puffy as she looked up at Natasha. “ Oh, God. ” The redhead said quietly as she bent down to Sharon’s level. She wrapped her arms around her friend. Offering her the best thing she could.
It didn’t take Steve long to find them. “Sharon, I was so-” he stopped talking as he saw the state of the women, and took note of the lack of a baby, his baby, in the room. He collapsed to the ground. He had watched Bucky disappear, he couldn’t find Sam. And he feared, he feared that he would lose both Sharon and their daughter. When he heard that Natasha had found Sharon, he assumed that meant Ellie was okay as well. He could feel the pain, this unbearable pain that no parent should go through. The pain of losing a child. But he pitted Sharon, for Sharon had been forced to watch their little girl disappear.
Steve couldn’t protect them.
He couldn’t protect them. How cruel and unfair that was.
Sharon pushed herself out of Natasha’s arms and crawled over to Steve. His arms went around her as soon as she leaned into him.
Her voice was harsh and worn down when she spoke. “She was right here. And she was okay. I thought she would be okay…” She sobbed into him. “ She was right here. She was right here.” Steve nodded his head rocking her in his arms as he cried along with her.
It was a recurring nightmare for the couple for the first few weeks. Sharon would wake up sweating, and would then sob. She was reliving the memories, over and over again. Sometimes the memory would be deformed, she would be running towards Ellie, but in her dreams, she would never make it to the little girl with blonde hair, before she disappeared. She would wake up, seeing Steve sitting beside her. He would just stare at the wall. It was easier for him to stay awake, and torture his mind with his thoughts, instead of allowing his dream to play out the fears that had already come true. And even if they found Thanos, and they got the stones and reversed the deaths and disappearances, it would not reverse the damage that the parents had gone through.