“How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.” Bucky’s voice, blue and defeated.
Steve turns, breathing heavily and starts to walk to his fate. Bucky retreats to the cabin, a wounded animal.
Upon watching this situation unfold, Sam stands in front of Steve, confronting him, “What are you doing?”
“What do you mean?”
“That sounded like a goodbye?”
Steve gulps, “that’s because it is.”
“Why? You have a life here! You have everything here!” Steve doesn’t reply, just looks down. “Let’s say, hypothetically, you do this, you’ll be all alone.” Again, Steve says nothing, his head hanging low, but lifts his eyes slowly up. “Okay.” Sam sighs and tuts at his mental assessment. “Okay.” He repeats. A pause. A silence. A disbelief of his friends’ stupidity. “So, you’re telling me, you’re going to give up your entire life, to go to the past, that would see me as a lesser human, it would have seen Natasha as not equal to her male counterparts. You and Bucky could never be together openly without discrimination and…”
Steve’s head spins instantly, his eyes burning into Sams.
“What does that mean?”
“Steve, you’ve basically just told me that you’re going to stay in the past, I just assumed it was because you’re scared.”
“I’m not scared of anything, I just really love Peggy.”
Sam laughed uncontrollably, shocking Steve. “With Peggy, this woman, you kissed once and never even dated. Who moved on, fell in love and had children. Grandchildren, for God’s sake. And then, after she died, you kissed her niece. Right … true romance. She’s lived her life, maybe you should live yours? ”
“Am I being stupid?” Sam didn’t respond, just looked upon the lake.
“I just think about how many have died, just for you to go back to what you once were. Just think, before you act ... For once. You can be happy here, your future can be here. It doesn’t mean that you have to continue to be the Captain, you can be Steve here too.”
Sam then walks away.
Steve, walks to the podium and Sam sighs in defeat. He tried at least and looked at Bucky who came out of the house and started looking wistfully at the lake.
“You thought I wasn’t going to come back?” Steve, out of nowhere said, half smirking, half-serious, shocking his companions.
“You are an enigma Rogers, I will never understand you,” Sam remarked.
“Well, you need to read me better, I’m an open book. All I am is a little guy from Brooklyn.” Bucky perked up at that. Sam walked over and hugged Steve and then left the other men.
“Who is too dumb to run from a fight?” Bucky murmured.
“Perhaps I am too dumb, but I want to try.”
“Try? Try what?” Bucky’s voice faltering.
“I want to try some of that life Tony was telling me to get.”
Bucky cocked his head, smiling, walking away. Steve looked at the lake and a bench, he might have sat on in another life and with one final look, turned and followed Bucky, as he has always done, to a future he doesn’t know what will hold.