A/N: The timeframe for this AU/Tag is after The Avengers, and before Captain America: Winter Soldier. There may be spoilers.

Namaste,

Sunny

"Just take my hand and let us dance under a chandelier of starlight."
― Trevor Driggers

Captain America

The Peggy and Steve Show

Take My Hand

As Steve reached the third floor, he saw Peggy's nurse, Mary coming out of the room carrying a bundle of clothing, and a tablet. The quiet click told him that Peggy was asleep. Mary turned, and smiled. "Good evening, Captain Rogers." She looked him up and down. "You look good in uniform."

"Thanks." He returned the smile, nodding over her shoulder. "How is she?"

"She has her good days and bad days. Today was more in the middle." Her eyes dropped to the duffle bag in his left hand, and back to him. "You can go in, if you like. Sit with her until she wakes up. It won't be long."

Steve waited until Mary had padded down the hall to the nurse's station to open the door and slip inside. Only the bedside lamp provided illumination. He set the box on the floor, and went to the window, parting the curtains just enough to be able to see the sky. The moon was a little more than half full, and just rising above the roofs of the taller buildings. Stars twinkled as if dancing to a tune he couldn't hear.

The curtain dropped back into place, and Steve sat down, letting his eyes roam around the room. Something was missing. He just couldn't put his finger on what it was.

Peggy's hands lay on top of the covers. Her snow-white hair had been done in a forties style. Instead of a frilly cotton nightgown, she had on a red dress that resembled the one she'd been wearing the night Steve introduced her to Bucky. Due to her medical condition, she sometimes thought the war was still on, forgetting the intervening years. His presence didn't help. He was a reminder of a time when Hitler and Schmidt tried to take over the world, often killing those who got in their way.

Many times, Steve's visits were cut short by Peggy falling asleep, or suddenly not remembering who he was. On those occasions, she would insist they didn't know each other, and demand that he leave her room. He looked down at the duffle bag. Tonight, it would be different.

He opened the bag, and lifted out a crystal chandelier. Its design featured curved arms, with decorative carvings, and dangling crystal accents. Unlike those Steve had seen in stores, Tony had used real crystal in order to get the desired effect. It also featured four bulb holders, each of which held a flame-shaped bulb. Tony had created it after catching him about to order a cheap imitation online.

Steve removed the overhead light fixture and bulb, and set them aside. Calling Tony's instructions to mind, he inserted the chandelier into the socket, and tightened it. The remote in his pocket would turn it on. He set his phone on the table by the window, and waited.

A few minutes later, Peggy's eyes fluttered open.

"Peg?" Her smile immediately brightened his world.

"Steve. You're here. It's so good to see you. General Phillips tried to tell me you were dead."

"The General was mistaken." He sat on the side of the bed, gently taking her hand. It looked so frail compared to his. "You promised me a dance, Peggy, and I'm here to collect." He shut off the bedside lamp, and used the remote to turn on the chandelier, and the music. Getting to his feet, he waited for her to fold the covers out of the way, and swing her feet over the side.

"Oh dear. I seem to have lost my shoes." Steve went to the closet, and came back with a pair of black heels. He crouched in front of her, slipping on one then the other. Standing, he took her hands, and helped her up. She swayed, and nearly fell, grabbing hold of the sleeves of his Army uniform he'd borrowed from the museum exhibit, with the permission of the curator, of course.

Peggy smiled up at him. "You always look so handsome in your uniform, Steve."

One side of his mouth turned up. "Had to look good for my best girl. Ready to go dancing?"

"But you don't know how to dance."

"A friend taught me."

She smiled knowingly. "It was Howard, wasn't it? That man cut quite a few rugs in his time."

His dancing teacher had been Tony, not Howard. But the who wasn't important. All that mattered was making Peggy happy. "You got it."

Moving slowly out to the open area at the foot of the bed, he held Peggy in the classic dance pose, swaying side to side as Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade filled the room.

The crystals reflected the light in ever-changing patterns. Steve remembered the song had been one of Peggy's favorites. In the pub where the Howling Commandoes had spent much of their downtime, he once saw her standing in a corner with her eyes closed, moving her head to the beat.

As the song ended and the next one started, Peggy stumbled, and he held her against him so she wouldn't fall. She lay her head against his shoulder, and he could feel her trembling from fatigue.

Steve picked her up, still holding her close. Her arms went around his neck, and her head onto his shoulder. Dooley Wilson's smooth tones swirled around them as he moved around the room as if they were on the dance floor.

It's still the same old story

A fight for love and glory

A case of do or die.

The world will always welcome lovers

As time goes by

Oh yes, the world will always welcome lovers

As time goes by.

The last note faded away, and Steve shut off the phone as he carried Peggy back to the bed. When he made to put her down, she tightened her arms. "Please hold me a little longer, Steve. I'm not ready for you to leave just yet."

"How could I decline such a charming request?" He sat in the chair with her curled in his lap, her warm breaths hitting him on the side of the neck.

She shifted position, and was still again. And just when he thought she'd gone to sleep, she whispered, "Do you love me, Steve?"

"You know I do, Peg."

"When did you know?"

The conversation was long overdue, yet Steve found himself reluctant to verbalize his feelings. For her sake, he did. "When you punched Hodge in the nose for being a…"

"Jackass? I remember." Peggy's chest expanded and contracted where they touched. "I knew on the ride back to HQ in the back of the jeep."

Though she couldn't see his face, Steve held down the sentimental smile that tried to come out at her admission. The flag incident happened a few short days before he'd been given the serum.

Then, the night before the procedure, he'd been lying in his bunk with the lights out, unable to sleep, thinking about everything Dr. Erskine had told him.

Steve was alone in the medical barracks when Peggy had startled him by suddenly appearing. She pulled the privacy curtains closed, and sat on the side of his cot, their hips touching. He jumped when she touched him on the cheek, and leaned down to kiss him, pulling away before he could respond.

"I want us to be together tonight, Steve." His eyes had gone wide when she stood, and her fingers working loose the belt tied around the waist of her Army-issued raincoat. She had pushed the material off her shoulders, and it fell to the floor in a khaki green heap. Underneath, she wore only a skimpy satin nightie that stopped at mid-thigh. She kicked off her shoes, and he looked down at her feet. Her toenails had been painted bright red. He found it oddly erotic. Not just the color, but that she would take the time during a war to give herself a bit of pampering.

Steve mentally rolled his eyes at the memory of his reaction to a nearly-naked Peggy standing beside his bed. He propped himself up on his elbows, looked her up and down, gulped, and blurted out, "You sure you're in the right place, Agent Carter?"

She'd leveled a sexy, smoldering gaze on him, and smiled. "Absolutely."

"Really?"

She moved closer, standing with all her weight on one foot, holding out her right hand. "Really. Take my hand, Steve."

Steve had done as she asked, and when he was rousted awake the next morning, Peggy was gone, the events of the night a blur. Her scent, Evening in Paris, lingered on his sheets, and skin. Later, in the cab, he'd been nervous about the procedure, and about being this close to her after their night of passion. Though he'd been instructed to shower, he hadn't. He wanted the reminder of their time together to stay with him just in case the experiment failed.

Though she was being discrete, Steve still heard her sniffing the air. And when he looked over at her, she had smiled knowingly, making him blush.

Getting to his feet, Steve carried Peggy to the bed, and this time, she didn't stop him. He lay her down, removed her shoes, and pulled the covers up to her chest. She took his hand, and urged him to sit next to her again.

"I'm sorry it took so long for us to figure it out, Steve." She brought his hand to her lips and kissed the knuckles. "We should get married when the war is over."

Stunned, Steve almost bolted, but managed to keep the movement to a shifting of his feet. "If that's a proposal, Agent Carter, I accept."

"We'll have two children. A boy named after my father, and a girl named after your mother."

Steve clasped her hand with both of his, smiling with happiness, hoping Peggy wouldn't see the underlying sadness that none of this would come to pass. "I have a counter offer. Two boys, one named after your father, and the other named after Bucky, and a girl named after my mother."

"Deal." Peggy brought her free hand up over her head to adjust the pillows, and Steve jumped up to help. When it was done to her satisfaction, he resumed his seat on the side of the bed, and held her hand until she'd gone to sleep. He lay her hand with the other on top of the sheet, and stood.

He packed the chandelier in the duffle bag, replaced the old fixture and bulb, and switched the bedside lamp on.

Steve stood there watching Peggy until a light knock on the door jolted him out of the past, and back to the present. He picked up the duffle bag, and opened the door to Mary's smiling face. "We talked for a while. She's gone back to sleep."

The nurse stepped past him into the room and went to the dresser. "That's fine. When she's ready to get dressed for bed, she'll let me know.

Mary opened the second drawer, and pulled out what Steve assumed would be another of those cotton nighties she favored these days. However, that was not the case. In her hand, Mary held a small bundle of folded satin in the same midnight blue color that she had worn their one and only night together.

Covering the mild shock by rubbing the end of his nose, Steve stepped out into the hall. "Let her know I'll be back in a week or so."

"I will, Captain Rogers. Watch yourself out there."

"You do the same, Mary."

Steve pulled the door shut, taking a moment to collect himself before rushing down the stairs, out the front door, and across the parking lot to his car. He tossed the duffle bag in the back seat, got in, and left, his mind churning.

At home, he set the bag on the floor by the bedroom door, and went to get a beer from the kitchen. He popped the top, tossed it on the counter, and carried the bottle and the bag into the bedroom.

Setting the bottle on the dresser and the bag in the chair, he opened the top drawer, and took out the box that contained all his medals and awards. He plucked out the dog tags lying on top. Rubbing his thumb over the raised letters, Steve looked at himself in the mirror, and sighed.

The End

Moonlight Serenade is an American swing ballad composed by Glenn Miller with subsequent lyrics by Mitchell Parish. It was an immediate phenomenon when first released in May 1939 as an instrumental arrangement.

As Time Goes By is a song written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931. It became most famous in 1942 when part of it was sung by the character Sam (Dooley Wilson) in the movie Casablanca.