Sorry to disturb you like this, a man at the funeral told me you were here, and I used to live just round the block so I thought I'd come visit you. I say 'used to', you were probably still alive and kicking when I lived there, I think it's a restaurant now. Anyway, the man at the funeral, Thompson I think he said his name was; we got chatting about the old days, he was a vet too, he mentioned you and said I could find you here, so I came. You probably think I don't remember you, everything was a bit of a mess back then, but I do. I remember you running over that land mine to get your Lieutenant out of the blast like it was yesterday, mostly because I remember thinking to myself that it was exactly the kind of stupid thing I would do. You were heavier than you looked from a distance, and you bled all over both of our uniforms. I would have taken you to the field hospital myself if I could, you deserved it after what you'd just done, but I had to hand you off to the medics. I went round the hospital when it was over, it took me ages to find you. You were a mess, drenched in sweat, out cold, and with a mangled stump where your leg should have been. I don't know why it wasn't bandaged up, maybe they'd run out of supplies. The doctor told me you were a lost cause, they'd hung your dog tags over the bed post, and he asked me if knew your family, so that I could pass them on. I told them that they weren't to give up until you did. I'm glad to see you didn't.
It says here you were in SHIELD, I'm glad to see that too. We had to tear it down last year, Hydra had infected everything, there was no alternative. I hate the thought that all the good work people like you did in the beginning, work to make the world a bit better, had to end the way it did. Things are pretty different now anyway, even when you were last here the weirdest thing out there was still probably me, now there's all sorts of folks about. Men that turn into monsters, aliens with magic hammers, and Howard Stark's son is flying around in the middle of it all in a metal spacesuit. Sometimes I wonder how Howard didn't think of that one himself.
I'm getting distracted, I didn't come here to bother you with all my problems, Peggy would tell me I'm being overdramatic again. I came here to thank you, if you can hear me. I want you to know that I'm grateful for what you did for Peggy, you gave her the life I never could. I wanted her to move on, and the first time I went to visit her after they thawed me out I was so relieved to see a photo of her with her grandchildren by her bed. She deserved that. I would have been content with anyone who made her happy, but when I found out it was the man who ran over a mine to save someone else's life I knew she'd been in good hands. I would have liked to have spoken to you, even back then, but I was transferred on before you woke up, I never even knew if you made it. I think we would have been good friends, the man at the funeral spoke highly of you, as did Peggy before she left to be with you again.
It's getting late here, and I'm going to have to go back into these arguments again soon, things were a lot simpler back when all the people we didn't agree with were sitting on the other side of a field. I just wanted you to know, Agent Sousa, that you have my sincerest thanks.
This idea appeared in my head after watching Agent Carter the same day as Captain America: Civil War, and wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it. It's a lot heavier (and shorter) than what I usually write, so I would love to hear what people thought of it.