Don't read if you haven't seen Avengers Endgame. Spoilers ahead, you have been warned.

What was it about losing someone close to you that made you appreciate life so much more?

It wasn't that Cassie didn't love her dad, on the contrary, she loved him to the moon and back. But she didn't realize how important he was to her life until he was just gone.

There was no explanation at first. So many people just, gone. It had been eerie and unsettling to leave the house, the quiet had been stifling. Almost too much to bear.

It had been almost a full year before the public had received an explanation, Thanos had won.

Eventually things started being rebuilt. Not everything of course, but the important things. Hospitals and Schools were put back into action. Major roads and highways were cleaned and repaired. The world started slowly rebuilding itself.

Not the people though. People are a lot harder to fix. It takes time to heal an mend. To recover from loss. Cassie didn't know anyone who hadn't lost someone important to them.

She just hadn't realized how important some of those people were to her, and by the time she did, the only thing left to do was mourn them. And live for them.

She remembered all of their names and faces. Carefully filing those away in her mind.

Mr. Goode her science teacher. Ms. Garcia her next door neighbor with two sweet little wiener dogs. Her Nana who loved to dote on her and alway made a fuss about how skinny Cassie had gotten. She would always greet Cassie with a hug and kisses. Then she back up a little and look her up an down. She'd say:

"Let me get a look at my little girl." And then she'd tisk, "Maggie! Do you feed this girl at all? She's just skin and bones!"

Her mother would always reply. "Mom, she's fine. She eats plenty." And then her Nana would drag her to the kitchen or the nearest diner and see to it that she had a full meal. On days when Nana was coming Cassie would always skip breakfast so she could have enough room for lunch and dessert. She had missed her Nana so much.

More that anyone though, she had missed her dad. She had always been a bit of a Daddy's girl. But then she'd gotten sick, like really sick. And hospital bills weren't cheap.

Her dad had cared for her the only way he knew how, he stole. Then he went to prison and he and mom got divorced. Cassie didn't get see him much for a while.

Then he was free, and then he was Ant-Man, and then he was under house arrest, and then he was free again, and then he was gone.

She hadn't cried at first. The emotion too raw to really be felt. After it sank in she felt was devastated, and angry. Why him?! She'd sobbed for days.

Cassie hadn't reached out to him, hadn't spent enough time with him, and she was too late to do anything about it. The next few years were some of the hardest of her life.

Cassie struggled to find a sense of normalcy. To have a normal life, or whatever passed as normal anyway.

Looking back she realized what had hurt the most was the thought of how much he'd miss. He'd already missed her growing from a child to a teenager. He hadn't been there to threaten the first boy she tried to date. He hadn't been there for the school events. He hadn't been there on the weekends to come up with crazy ideas of things they could do together.

But none of that mattered now. As she leaned back watching the fireworks, she realized it didn't matter how much he had missed out on. He was here now, it wasn't too late. That was all that mattered.

He was home now, and she knew she was lucky. The Avengers had won, but not all of them had come home.

Cassie was grateful for a second chance. For the whatever came next. If a problem arose, they would figure it out together. It was a new chapter.

She smiled at her dad and he pulled her into a hug. This was better than a new chapter, this was a new beginning. She wasn't going to waste it this time.