Hope Is All There Is

Summary: Steve Rogers, the great Captain America has been frozen for over seventy years after saving New York from all those bombs heading its way. Now that he's woken up he knows he never got to keep that date no matter how much he hoped he would be able to make it. Now, Elena Margaret Carter is Peggy Carter's granddaughter, she goes to wait for him at Paley Park where the Stork Club used to be with her grandmother. What happens when Steve Rogers finally comes to meet Peggy for their date nearly seventy years late.

ENJOY!

Oh! Almost forgot!

Disclaimer: I own nothing because if I did Captain America would be mine because I am absolutely in love with him...but I don't own him...Unfortunately.

Just so everyone knows: I re-uploaded this chapter because I found mistakes that I missed. I changed Alyssa's name to Elena cause I like Elena better for this. I felt like doing that while I was correcting the mistakes...don't know why I just did. AND I wanted to add in a better explanation to how Elena and Tony are "cousins."

"Peggy."

"I'm here."

"I'm gonna need a rain check on that dance."

The tears were threatening to spill over but she kept her voice calm as she responded, "Alright. A week next Saturday at the Stork Club."

He stared at the ice and the ocean as it got closer and closer as he forced the plane down, "You got it." A few seconds later he heard her voice come over the transmission.

"Eight o'clock on the dot and don't you dare be late. Understood?" Her voice didn't dare to betray the hope she felt in her heart when her thoughts told her otherwise.

He stared down at the ice as the frozen land grew bigger as he got closer to crashing, "You know I still don't know how to dance."

Peggy closed her eyes and took a breath, "I'll show you how. Just be there."

He was going to be late. Both knew it even before she made him promise to meet her at the Stork Club for that dance. They knew it before he finally went down and hit the ice that he might not survive and see her next Saturday.

"We'll have the band play something slow," He told her although the band wouldn't play anything slow for them, not for a long while. He was close to impact and he knew this was the last time he would get to speak to her, "I'd hate to step on your fee—"

Static was all that she could hear over the line after he was cut off. She tried futilely to call his name knowing he wasn't going to answer her over the white noise her voice finally loosing its calmness, "Steve? …Steve? Steve?"

The tears started to spill knowing that he was going to be very late. Somehow she knew that he was still alive, how could he not be? He was Captain America, the man she fell in love with…Steve Rogers. He had to be alive, he just had to be. Even now almost seventy years later, Peggy Carter still believed that Steve was alive somewhere.

A few years after Steve disappeared though she met a man named Andrew who kept persisting on going out on a date. Eventually she gave in order for him to stop hassling her. Andrew knew that she was in love with Steve, she told him so and that even if she dated him or eventually married him if he was crazy enough to ask she'd still go to the club every Saturday at eight and just wait for him to arrive. Andrew must've been crazy because he accepted that and kept asking her out getting her to have fun and eventually proposed when she fell for him. Even though she loved him Peggy also still loved Steve, and for some odd reason Andrew accepted that, was it because he loved her? That must have been the reason, he even accepted the fact that she wanted to keep her maiden name when they married so that Steve would be able to still find her if he came back.

That was why every Saturday she went to the Stork Club to wait for him to come and keep his promise. Every Saturday of every month of every year she went to wait for him. Even now that it was Paley Park, she sat and waited for him at one of the tables of the pocket park.

When she had her son in 1951, Michael Steven Carter, she would bring him along. By the time he reached his teen years he distanced himself from the park more and more so that she would once again be going alone to wait for Steve to come back to her. Every once in a while he would join her but he always tried to get her to stop.

Peggy never stopped waiting or hoping that she would get to see Steve again and although Michael always told her it was pointless to wait around especially when she had his father around. Michael seemed to resent the fact that his mother was still in love with a man that would never come back for her. Not knowing or understanding what happened to Steve.

Even years after he met his wife, Adrianna he still didn't seem to understand how she was in love with Steve as well as his father. That without him there was a part of her that was missing. Peggy never neglected her family in any way she loved her husband and son dearly and even his wife. When their daughter came along at the end of 1991 she loved the child just as much. She could hardly believe that in the first few years that Elena resembled herself greatly in looks, though her features were a bit different because of Adrianna's Hispanic heritage.

In 1993 Andrew had died by a heart attack when he reached the age of seventy. Two years later Michael and Adrianna had died in a car accident leaving behind their five-year-old daughter, Elena. Michael was Forty-five and Adrianna was only Thirty-seven years old. Neither really had, had the chance to live and raise their child. The hole in Peggy's heart—and her soul—only grew bigger before being filled for the most part with the time she spent with her granddaughter.

Every Saturday at eight o'clock on the dot they were at Paley Park sitting at one of the tables. Elena would sometimes run around and play with some of the other kids that were occasionally there. Every once in a while Tony Stark would come to visit her. She had been there for Tony when his parents, Howard and Maria, had died. Tony in turn had been there when Michael and Adrianna had passed. Tony had been good friends with Michael and also given the title of Elena's Godfather while Peggy had been named her Godmother. When Tony would visit he would play with Elena at her request wanting to make sure that the young girl stayed happy, and she insisted that they were cousins.

One cool Saturday night, a seven-year-old Alyssa looked up at her Grandma Peggy who was gazing around the Park as if she was looking for someone. She admired her grandmothers beauty with her light gray curly hair held half up with a clip and her full lips lined with red lipstick. Every Saturday night she couldn't help but notice that her Gran would pretty herself up a bit before they came to the park.

"Grandma Peggy?"

"Yes, sweetheart?" Elena couldn't help but feel the warmth in the old woman's voice that still held its beautiful British accent and she smiled up to her when Peggy glanced down with a small smile to Ellie before looking back around the park.

"Why do we always come here? Are we waiting for somebody?"

Peggy looked down to Elena, who looked so much like her although her nose was cute and button like, and her thick chocolate curls that were a bit more curlier than her Gran's own small waves and her lips that were only slightly fuller. The young girls eyes were also a darker brown like dark chocolate, but were just as deep. They were subtle differences that someone wouldn't notice if looking at a picture of a young Peggy comparing it to Elena.

"Yes, little one. We are waiting for a friend. He may not come tonight but he will someday soon."

Elena just nodded once watching as her Grandmother went back to searching, "He's taking a long time to get here."

"Yes. He is very late. He has good reason to be though," Peggy said after a small laugh.

At that moment by what her Gran had said she wondered if her Gran's friend was in the same place that her parents and Granddad had gone to; but the look in her Gran's eyes made her believe that wasn't the case, "I hope he comes one day."

"I do too Elena. I do too," After all hope was at that there was for her that she would see him again soon. It still grew and diminished over the years but that same hope was always there.

Every Saturday of each year she would go with her Gran to the park to wait for her Gran's friend. Elena always loved going because it seemed so serene and she liked to people watch every once in a while. One time she had asked her Gran what her friend was like, even his name.

Peggy explained about Steve from before the procedure that Dr. Erskine had conducted that had transformed him into Captain America. "He was always a strong—though not physically—and brave person even before the experiment, which only allowed him to show how strong he truly was."

Peggy showed Elena an old picture of a small skinny boy wearing a white shirt and dog tags. She told her about how they had met. Steve Rogers was a small boy with a lot of heart that was full of courage. He never backed down from a fight and never ran away even though he'd always get beaten up. Elena could hardly believe that his was the Captain America her Gran had told her about. That this was the man that they were waiting at the park for. Peggy continued to tell her granddaughter more about Steve Rodgers, his courage, and his strength. She went on to continue with the explanation of his becoming Captain America and how he grew physically to match his strength so rapidly by the tests that Dr. Erskine had developed to create a new breed of super-solider. Elena found the story fascinating and smiled brightly when Peggy let her keep the old photograph for safekeeping. Peggy never told her the ending though and hoped that she never would have to.

As Elena grew into her teen years she still went to the park with her Grandma Peggy, trading in nights out with her friends for the serene time spent with her Gran at the park waiting each Saturday.

It broke Elena's heart more and more as she got a bit older seeing the pained look in her grandmothers eyes every time Steve didn't show up that night or the next or the one after that. At one point she tried to get her Grandmother to go on vacation to visit Tony and his assistant Pepper Potts, which Elena was sure that he had deep feelings for, and get away from the city for a while. Peggy wouldn't hear of it though and always told Elena that she didn't want him to think that she had given up on him if he by chance came one night she wasn't there to meet him. Ellie just sighed and continued to go with her Grandmother slowly growing angrier and angrier with Steve Rogers for putting her grandmother through such pain.

Ellie even expressed her anger to her grandmother one Saturday night. Peggy only told her that she shouldn't feel that way about Steve.

"I can't believe your standing up for a man that's been standing you up for sixty-five years now! How could you let him put you through so much pain? Why do you still come here and wait for him?" A now sixteen-year-old Elena yelled out to her Gran in frustration, not caring if others in the park looked at her strangely.

Peggy just sighed as she patted the seat next to her for the angry teen to sit back down and after a few moments she did. The very reason that Elena pointed out about Steve not coming was the same reason that Michael stopped coming, or at least another one of them. She never told either of them of her last conversation with Steve, now it was time that she at least told Elena, "Sweetheart, he hasn't been standing me up. The last time I spoke to Steve...heard his voice. Was through a radio transmission. The aircraft he was on couldn't be landed safely because it was loaded with bombs; the plane was heading to New York. His only option was to bring it down. I made the date and told him not to be late. We both knew that he wasn't going to make it. He was telling me he still couldn't dance and that we'd get the band to play...something slow. He was telling me he didn't want to step on my feet when the transmission was cut off. Howard, Tony's father, kept searching the bottom of the ocean for a few years. He didn't want to give up. The only thing he found was a cube that Shmidt had stolen and used as a weapon but no wreckage on the sea floor. In my heart I know that he isn't dead though, but something has stopped him from coming. One day I just know he'll come in an attempt to keep that promise, because that's just how Steve is. So please Elena don't hate him. I can't stand the thought of you being angry at Steve."

At the end of Peggy's explanation both girls were crying slightly. Peggy for her lost love and Elena for the truth behind her Gran's pain and the sacrifice that Steve had to make when he had to take down the plane. Losing a chance at love and his own life all to save millions of people. Ellie just wished it didn't turn out that way for him.

Somehow Elena believed that Steve Rogers was alive too, maybe it was because she believed it as a little girl and that belief stayed in her heart, or if it was something more than that. It was probably because when she was younger she had developed a small crush on the boy in the picture her Gran had given to her. Elena wasn't sure anymore but after that day she didn't hate him anymore.

Three years later Elena, now nineteen years of age, walked into the house after spending Friday night and all through Saturday afternoon with her best friend Mia who loved to call her a different variation of the nickname Peggy since her middle name was Margaret. PegLeg. It was because after a small bout of Elena's clumsiness she sprained her ankle and had to move around with crutches for two weeks. PegLeg only usually came up when she had a klutzy moment like last night she fell and banged her head on the floor causing an instant headache while they laughed at her inability to keep strait all the time.

She placed her overnight bag on the floor next to the coat closet as she called out into the house, "Gran are you ready to go? It's almost seven. If we want to get to the park with plenty of time to spare, we have to leave now."

Elena stood strait as she looked around confusion quickly knitting into her features. Her grandmother couldn't have left yet, she would've left a note on the door, or maybe it was on the fridge. Peggy only occasionally left early when she thought she was going to be late. Ellie started for the kitchen.

A sick feeling started to settle in her stomach. Elena tried to tell herself that it was probably the sour milk that she had with her cereal that morning it did smell kind of funky to her. "Gran?" The sick feeling intensified as she turned the corner into the kitchen. She wanted to puke when her eyes settled on her Gran lying on the kitchen floor, "GRAN!"

Elena kneeled down next to her Grandma Peggy feeling only slightly better when she saw she was breathing, albeit shallowly. The brunette stood up and grabbed the phone dialing 911 with shaky hands. She could hardly keep herself from crying as she told the dispatcher she needed an ambulance for her grandmother.

Fifteen minutes later Peggy was on the stretcher and being rolled out of the apartment. She had woken up when the EMTs arrived, Peggy was very weak and she seemed to look ill. Elena was about to get into the back of the ambulance with her Gran when the she stopped her, "No, go to the park. Please."

"Gran, no! What if he doesn't sh—"

"Please. I don't want him to think I've given up hope. If he shows up bring him to me. Please Elena."

She knew her grandmother wasn't going to give up and agreed to her grandmothers pleading after a few heartbeats, "Alright, but don't you dare leave me before I get there." Elena knew that if she waited at the park her grandmother could take a turn for the worse. It scared the nineteen-year-old girl as she went back inside to grab her jacket and a few things to put in the overnight bag. Then again maybe her Gran would get better, but all she could do at the moment was hope.

He didn't show up, she kind of knew that he wasn't going but that for some odd reason it wasn't because he didn't want to he just couldn't at the moment. Ellie stood up and grabbed her bag not wanting to leave her Gran waiting any longer. A quick familiar bus ride and short walk later she reached the hospital.

Elena stood outside an open door that she was directed to by a nurse that was sitting at her station. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly before entering the room. Her grandmother was sleeping on the hospital bed looking somewhat peaceful yet ill and fragile at the same time. Ellie sat and stared at Peggy's sleeping form, she had not once thought of her grandmother as old while she was growing up. Right now she was scared, her grandmother was the only family she had left in the world besides Tony who was a bit busy keeping the world safe as Iron Man.

She wasn't sure when but at some point she fell asleep leaning against Peggy's bed. When she woke up it was to her grandmother running her hand trough Elena's hair like she always did whenever she was sick. Ellie smiled as she sat up and looked at her. The slight disappointment in her eyes was evident when she glanced around the room not seeing a man in his late eighties smiling at her with his warm blue eyes.

"Sorry Gran. He didn't come."

Peggy looked to Elena and smiled lightly, "Its quite alright. I can't hold it against him. Could I have a piece of paper and a pen sweetheart?"

Elena nodded and pulled her writing book out of her bag. The sides were gilded a metallic blue and the cover was blue and red with a single silver star that Peggy had gotten made special for her one birthday and grabbed before handing it to her, "Here Gran. I'm gonna go to the bathroom. I'll be right back."

Peggy just took the book and opened it to a fresh page and just started writing, her hand flying across the page. Elena wondered as she closed the door what her grandmother was writing.