Her hand moved to open the saloon type doors, pausing as the glowing light nearly consumed her. She turned her head, taking one final look at the picture on the wall. It was Steve, his smile still as radiant as she remembered. She knew the photograph was only a figment of imagination, placed there by the Watcher, as if to soothe her.
It only ignited a fire that He would wish had never been lit.
“It’s time to go, Captain.” She stared back to the Watcher in defiance, despite all that He had given so each universe could still exist. He sighed, his large glowing eyes somehow softening with compassion. “You’d rather return to another time.”
“Haven’t I earned my happy ending?” There was no bitterness, only a desire and the hope that she would wake in a bed, seventy years before this very moment.
A sigh left him, before he shook his head. “Trust me, that world, that time, needs Captain Carter.”
Her dark brows pulled together, before her gaze moved to Natasha. They had become reflections of each other, to some capacity - they both would not leave the bar without a fight, without some plea for another time. “You can place me there, but you cannot keep there,” Peggy finally replied, moving to fully face him. “I am not asking for you to move Heaven and Earth - like you did to place us here in the first place. I only want a simple and quiet life, just for a moment.” She could feel the burning in her throat, the desire to not be seen as weak, no matter the bravery she had just displayed against Ultron. “If you will not grant me that, then you will never have my shield again.”
The Watcher stared at her, half in shock, half in thought - she stared right back, unphased by his seemingly limitless power. His large hand moved to his chin, then to his head, running his hand over it in a stressed manner. “I cannot keep changing..” he began, sighing and still the hand on top of his head. “I will strike a deal with you.”
“Anything,” she responded all too quickly.
“If I place you there, you will be able to live the life you want, to have whatever your heart desires - but you will be called back to this very moment at whatever time your death would be. You will have your life, but the timeline will remain intact, as if you never left to join him,” he proposed, his hand extending to her, “and you will live all those years without him, as it was intended to be.”
Peggy did not immediately take it, turning her back to the robed man and back to the framed photo of her lover. She could bear going back for a time, even for a life that would never exist. She could do it to see him again. With a deep breath, she spun back around, their hands meeting. “DEAL.”
As quickly as the word left her lips, the glowing light found her.
BROOKLYN, 1949
When she opened her eyes, she stood before a gym, the smell of fresh paint still in the air. She looked down, finding herself in a dark blue blazer, a soft, pink blouse, and a dark blue skirt to match. Looking down to her hands, she found her brother’s watch, one that had been long lost in the time she had traveled to all those years ago. Her fingers ran over the face of it, her lips curling into a smile.
All things that had been lost would return to her.
She opened the door to the gym, her eyes scanning the room - there was only the sound of her heels and a repetitive WHOMP! ringing in the air.
Walking closer, she saw a tall figure, blonde and almost… out of place. His hands were wrapped in something that looked to be an old shirt, and his concentration had yet to move from the object in front of him. Something about him was familiar, the curve of his nose and the way his eyebrows pulled together as he hit the punching bag.
It couldn’t have been….
“Steve?" Her voice trembled and she felt the weight of the world fall right off of her shoulders. He was not the Steve she remembered, but taller and more filled out. He wouldn’t have fit in the Stomper now if he tried. And despite how impossible it seemed, he was just as handsome as the day she left him behind.
He paused, huffing as his hands moved to hold the bag in place. He did not turn his head immediately, closing his eyes and whispering something she couldn’t make out. When he finally faced her, she felt as though the floor could open up and swallow her whole. He stared at her, mouth agape and shaking his head. When he finally spoke, it was in a soft voice, as if he were afraid. “I don’t believe it.”
“Oh.” The word fell from her lips and she already felt disappointment running rampant through her - perhaps the Watcher had been right. Perhaps things should have stayed the way they had always been. Or… things might have changed for him, as he had become a new man in the time she had been gone. “I don’t have to stay, if you don’t want me to.”
“No, wait!" He hesitated, taking a step closer, his breathing grazing her cheek - she could reach out to touch him if she wished, but she waited for him. She could see the small look of uncertainty pass over his features before he must have decided against them. His hand touched her arm, his fingers giving a light squeeze before he exhaled in relief, a small smile touching his lips.
He pulled her into his arms, wrapping her as close as he could to himself, his chin moving to rest on top of her head. If she were not a super soldier herself, she might have sworn the embrace was crushing her bones. She held onto him just as tightly, her hands curling into his white shirt. “I just thought you were a dream… they always start out something like this.” He pulled back to look at her, his eyes searching her face, as if he were taking in every detail of her face. They were nearly eye level now, with him remaining a mere few inches taller than her. “You may still be a dream… but I’ve never been able to hold you in them, so I’ll take what I can get.”
With all the bravery she could muster, she managed, “Believe in this then," before she took his face into her hands and pressed her lips to his. He paused for a moment before he kissed her back, as if he had been waiting for her return for many years now.
In some way, they both had.
When their lips parted, his hand found hers, his thumb running over her knuckles before kissing them gently. His eyes closed when he did so, a sigh leaving his mouth afterwards. “How are you here? You.. you disappeared years ago. Howard tried everything to get you back.”
Her other hand lifted to his cheek, brushing away the light sweat that had covered it and her lips curled into a smile. “I made a deal with fate - it will come for me eventually. But until then, I could care less.”
He smiled too, a soft chuckle escaping him. “That sounds like the Peggy I remember.” Despite the light-hearted comment, she could hear the pain in his voice - she shared it more than he could have ever known, never having found him again after all those years.
“While I remain the same, how are you…” she began, trailing off when she realized her question could have soured their meeting.
Steve laughed more fully this time, his broad shoulders raising and falling with him. She would be used to it eventually, but he was still the man she had fallen in love with in ‘43. “Is it the hair that looks different?” he retorted, shaking his head. “When we couldn’t find you, they needed someone to take your place. The serum they pumped into me was less… stable, at first, but it did the trick. Howard worked with the best to finish out the serum, though he’s told me more than once that I have to come in for monthly blood tests and physical tests.” He shrugged, sighing slightly before continuing. “We lost a lot of men before it was all over, but Hitler killed himself in ‘45 and we ended the war pretty soon after.”
Peggy’s hand fell from his cheek to find his other hand, her heart swelling with pride for both Howard and Steve. He had become the super soldier he was always meant to be, just as she always hoped that he would. Though she would be lying if she said she had not wanted to see the rest of the Axis fall.
“If it makes you feel better, the Commando’s only half listened to me because they thought you’d want them to. Getting Dum Dum to keep in line was probably the hardest thing I did in that damn war - I never knew how you made it look so easy.”
It was her turn to laugh, her forehead moving to press against his. “It never was, he just knew I’d toss him to the Russians if he didn’t.”
“God, I missed you, Peg - more than you could ever know.”
“I think I have an idea of just how much.” And it was her turn to kiss his hands now, basking in the rays of sun that spread along the floor and from the man in front of him. She could live in such a light all day, for so long as the Watcher would let her.