=== AVENGERS: ENDGAME SPOILER WARNING ===

A/N: My exploration of what could have happened during that 1970s sequence and the subsequent result of it, as an attempt to rationalise and synchronise a bunch of things throughout the movies and bring them in line with my Steve/Peggy-loving heart. Can be seen as connected to my other fic, "The Date."

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When the door shut behind him, Steve looked around the room, wondering if there was a spare uniform or some other clothes that he could use to change his disguise. That woman had evidently noted what he and Tony looked like. If he could change clothes or at least throw on a coat, it would help…

He stepped forward and then the picture on the table stopped him dead in his tracks.

It was… Him. The real him. His old, scrawny self. But why? Who…?

Steve looked at the name on the door.

MARGARET CARTER

DIRECTOR

Of all the rooms in the building, he'd walked into Peggy's personal office.

Sounds of movement in the office beyond drew his attention. And then there she was – the love of his life. Peggy was speaking to another man as they flipped through some files.

He couldn't help drawing nearer to the window and risking a closer look through the blinds.

She looked older than she had when he'd gone into the ice, but she was still his Peggy. Still so beautiful. Still radiating that confidence. A far cry from the Peggy he'd buried not so long ago in his timeline.

How odd it all was. He had "died." Peggy had lived on. Then he'd come back. And then Peggy had died. Now he was seeing her, alive, at a point in between his "death" and hers.

Was her husband here, somewhere around the building? He hadn't done much research on Peggy's husband. She had managed to find happiness after he was gone, and so far as he knew, her life had been a good one. For that he was extremely glad. But Steve was human enough to feel as though he didn't want to or couldn't face knowing all the details of the man who'd been fortunate enough to be by her side.

Watching Peggy now, he realised that he never could forget her. Never had. Everyone had tried to make him forget. Bucky and Sam had both dropped comments in passing. Natasha had tried the hardest. For a short time, there had been the woman called Sharon Carter. Knowing she was distantly related to Peggy had been strange to him and slightly off-putting for a while. He'd gradually come to find her attractive, attractive enough to consider the possibility of a relationship with her. But… She wasn't Peggy.

Sharon was of the new world in which, even after almost a decade, he'd never felt a hundred percent comfortable. He'd spoken of his discomfort before to Bucky, who'd pointed out that the Avengers headquarters had been more or less home to Steve – at least before he'd been forced to go underground along with Bucky.

Steve had struggled to articulate his feelings on it, finally settling on, "Yeah, but it's… It's like a home away from home, y'know? It is home – now. Because I can't have the home I wanted."

In a way, being forced to disappear with Bucky had been good because while in hiding, no one could pester him into blind dates or ask him how things were going with Sharon. He hadn't felt the slightest inclination to contact her while they were on the run. He'd felt a twinge of guilt once or twice, but otherwise… Nothing. He'd been far too busy, and in his downtime, he found himself gathering comfort more from the faded picture of Peggy in his old compass than anything else.

Someone else came in and called for "Director Carter." Peggy looked up, gathered the papers, and left again with the other man.

Steve moved away from the window and resumed his observation of Peggy's office. There weren't any other pictures of her family in the room. There was just one group picture, of herself and Howard Stark and what was evidently a small group of SHIELD colleagues. Perhaps these were the first staff members of SHIELD.

The picture of himself nagged at his mind. Why keep a picture of him at all?

Perhaps it was just a point of inspiration, the way some people kept pictures of celebrities or figures like Lincoln around. Yes, that was probably it.

A sudden spike in the sounds of chatter in the corridor brought him back to his mission. He felt for the Pym particles in his pocket. All right, they were still there. Back to the main question: was there anything around he could use as a disguise?

There didn't seem to be anything, except a coat draped over a chair. That was probably Peggy's. He couldn't go out in that…

The door to the office beyond clicked open. Steve whirled round, horrified, and attempted to back into a corner. There was nothing to hide behind in that room – the best he could do was stand very still, squeeze into the darkest spot, and hope Peggy didn't notice him. If she saw him, two outcomes were possible: she'd yell involuntarily from fright or (more likely) she'd whip out a gun and hold him at gunpoint. Both versions would draw attention to him and that would be the end of the mission. And how would he explain the whole situation? He hoped Tony at least could get away. But no… Tony didn't have the Pym particles! Oh, good Lord, this was a terrible, terrible situation.

Peggy turned on the lights, dropped a few sheets of paper on her desk, and looked up.

She neither screamed, nor pointed a gun at him. She let out a little yelp, and clutched at her chest.

"Steve!" she hissed. "Don't do that! You know I don't like surprises of this sort."

What?

That was… Unexpected.

"Cat got your tongue?" Peggy asked.

"I…" His mind raced. What was happening? Why wasn't she threatening to call security? Why wasn't she more surprised to see him – alive?

"Why are you here anyway? Did Howard ask you to come down?" She frowned at him. "And why are you wearing that uniform? You know better than that!"

His dazed mind seized hold of the familiar name and used it. "Well, no, just uh, thought of playing a joke on Howard…"

"A joke on Howard." Peggy echoed his words disbelievingly. "What sort of joke?"

"It was a bad idea," he said, desperately trying to find a way out of this bizarre situation. "I changed my mind."

She raised her eyebrows. "Are you all right?"

Steve nodded, willing every particle of himself to present a calm, cool appearance. He couldn't fathom it but somehow, Peggy was not at all fazed by the sight of a living, breathing, talking Steve Rogers.

Peggy went over to a cupboard at one end of the room, pulled out a drawer and tossed him a coat, saying, "Here's your spare. You'd better put that on before you go out. We don't want anyone thinking Captain America's suddenly come back from the grave. Honestly, Steve. What's gotten into you?"

He slid on the coat just as someone knocked at the door. Peggy opened it and greeted the woman.

"Ah yes, thank you, Mary. I'll look these over right away. Just give me a minute; Grant dropped by unexpectedly but he's leaving shortly."

The woman named Mary glanced at Steve. He felt like he should smile, and he did.

"Hello, Mr. Carter," she said. To Peggy, she said, "Just buzz me when you're done with the documents, Director."

Peggy turned to Steve again once Mary had gone. "Darling, it's always lovely to see you but perhaps try not to pick such a busy day to drop such surprises on me?"

"Sorry…" He hoped he looked penitent rather than confused.

"Do you need to go find Howard? Or shall I see you out?"

"Nah, I don't think I need to see Howard now," he said. "But I wouldn't mind the other option?"

Even though his mind was spinning with the ramifications of everything Peggy was saying and doing, he could still see that having Director Peggy Carter escort him out would be perhaps the safest way to escape.

He also just wanted to have a little bit more time with her.

"Come on then, you baby," said Peggy with a smile.

When she'd deposited him at the main door with a kiss on the cheek and a reminder that "dinner with the neighbours is at seven," Steve made his way out to the gate, feeling absolutely staggered.

... ... ...

Steve finished his retelling of his jaunt to 1970 and sank back into his chair. It was a relief to finally talk to someone about it. He'd refrained from mentioning Peggy and the extremely confusing incident in her office to anyone earlier, meaning to only think about it after the Thanos issue was dealt with. It had been put on the backburner immediately after because they'd all needed to recuperate, treat their wounds, and then mourn Tony Stark.

And now, a few days after Tony's funeral, he'd found time to confide in his oldest friend. Bucky, the sole recipient of his incredible story, let out a long, deep breath, and asked, "Are you serious?"

Steve nodded. "I swear, Buck, it was – it was unbelievable. She behaved like it was normal to see me there. Even said I should put on a coat and cover up the uniform so that people didn't think 'Captain America's suddenly back from the grave.'"

Steve put his face in his hands for a moment. Then he straightened up in his chair and ran a hand through his hair. He said, "I can't figure out what it means."

Bucky tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair and looked thoughtfully at Steve. The Glenn Miller song that had been playing on Steve's phone faded into another classic by Bing Crosby. Bucky smiled involuntarily at the music. Steve might now be in the 21st century, but his music tastes were still quite old school.

"Are you sure you can't?" he asked. "'Cause I can think of one explanation, at least."

Steve looked at Bucky, cautious and solemn. "The only explanation that even kind of makes sense, and it sounds borderline crazy…"

"… Is that you should go back to our time – back to her," finished Bucky.

Steve's shoulders dropped again. He sighed. "Doesn't it sound crazy to you?"

"I lived in a secret, hidden, high-tech city for several years. Tony Stark developed time travel GPS watch things and you lot jumped around time to grab a bunch of shiny, magic stones. You swung the enchanted hammer belonging to Thor, God of Thunder, and for a moment, you pretty much were the God of Thunder. I walked through a portal in Wakanda and straight into some sort of apocalyptic wasteland full of aliens. I don't think you going back in time to live out your life with Peggy sounds any crazier than all that." Bucky thought for a moment, then added, "Plus, a talking raccoon asked me for my prosthetic arm."

Steve had to laugh. "Good thing he seems to have forgotten he ever wanted your arm."

"What would a raccoon even do with it anyway?" Bucky mused, stretching out his false arm and flexing the fingers.

"Sell it? Vibranium is pretty good stuff."

"He can sell someone else's arm. I happen to like mine. It's useful. And I don't think T'Challa's going to give me a new one free of charge without good reason."

They laughed again, their chuckles filling up Steve's living room. As the laughter faded, silence descended, apart from the music coming out of Steve's phone. Steve fiddled with the little compass that was so precious to him, running a thumb back and forth over the brass cover. He recognised the song playing as I Had the Craziest Dream. How appropriate for their current conversation.

"Steve. Buddy. I think you gotta go back."

He looked sharply at Bucky. "I don't have to. And it might mess up the timeline."

"Or maybe you going back is exactly what has to happen, and it's all part of the timeline."

Steve said nothing, so Bucky continued, "You said yourself that you've never really looked into her family background beyond a cursory glance. But I've looked into it."

Steve gave a start. "You did what?"

"Even if you weren't curious, I was. I've looked it up – or rather, I asked Natasha to do so. There's nothing beyond a name and some very basic info. No picture. Just name, date of birth, place of birth. But you know as well as I do that all that can be faked. His name in the files, however, was Grant Carter."

Steve's eyes widened.

"Quit thinking of it as something crazy and impossible," said Bucky. "If you put it all together, doesn't it actually make sense?"

"But…"

"You've got a chance here. Take it. You deserve it."

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THE END

A/N (2): And we all know what happened at the end of Endgame... :)

(If you're reading this fic, I'd like to think that you probably loved the movie's ending as much as I did! It is my hope that you enjoyed my idea of how things played out in the lead-up to that ending too.)