Which was ridiculous. And self indulgent, because she understood perfectly well that what he meant was: we're here right now, and in this moment, this singular moment that consists of you and me, we are together again, and in the past, that has always meant we're something close to unbeatable. What he meant was we're touching, see? Whatever else is going on, Nat, we can still touch each other, and that means we haven't run out of time.
But we have, she thought. We have, and I didn't get to tell you goodbye, and even when we got on that goddamn platform, I didn't look at you one last time because we were all arrogant enough to expect we'd be coming back.
If James had been furious that it hadn't wrecked her, he ought to crack her head open and peer at the inside right now - maybe it would have settled him. But if she could do this with Tony, and James, if she could do it with Clint, and Carol, she could get through this. She couldn't pawn it off on someone else. She breathed, and she opened her eyes, and she dropped it bluntly, because she couldn't make it soft anymore. "It's five years later, where I'm from. Tony figured out a way to buy the snap back, but - making it work meant - I died, Steve. I couldn't let it be Clint. You know I couldn't let it be Clint. I showed up here, where you are, because where I'm coming from, I hit the end of the line. I left you. I'm sorry. I left you."