Things You Said With Too Many Miles Between Us
The signal was full of static; Peggy could hardly make out his voice as she sat in front of the radio. But he was there and that was what mattered.
"Steve? Can you hear me?" She knew better, knew that she should use proper language, be official, but with no one but Phillips in the room, she didn't care.
"Peggy— here."
Even through the static she could tell that his voice was different, heavier. "Is something wrong?" she asked, worry that she had no right to began to creep into her chest. Was he hurt? In danger?
His answer was garbled by static— damn portable radio, she'd have to talk to Howard about it—but she managed to understand the words "Bucky" and "dead." Peggy didn't need much more than that to figure out what had happened.
She pressed the button to speak and then let it go. What on earth could she possibly say that could make losing his best friend any semblance of fine? She couldn't and she knew it.
"Peggy, you there?"
In less than a second she was speaking into the radio, "I'm here, Steve. I'm here. Are you safe?"
"Yeah." Even from hundreds of miles away, Peggy could hear the heartbreak, the pain, and she would have given anything to be able to lace her fingers through his, to lend him any sort of comfort she could offer, though she knew nothing would be enough.
"Come back, Steve," she insisted. "Safely. Please."
"Yeah."
"I mean it, Rogers. Come back. I-" What was she going to say? She loved him? She needed him? None of that would help, especially not over the radio. "Come back."
"See you soon."
Peggy wouldn't sleep until he and the rest of the team had been safely installed back at the camp, until he was back at home in her arms.