Promise Me

"You know, I still don't know how to dance."

"I'll teach you. Just promise me you'll be there."

"Peggy,...there's something that I-"

"Steve? Are you there? Steve! Steve..."

She sat there at the bar in her best dress, the one she had worn out only once before to meet Steve. It was short, red and very risque if she had to think twice, but she didn't much focus on her dress except for the place where she was anxiously clawing at it. She knew that hope was nearly futile, but she had to give him this one last shot. If he came in at eight like he promised, she knew things would be okay.

So, she sat down at the bar, every man in the place staring at her. It was seven thirty and she was getting anxious, so she ordered a martini to calm her nerves.

"He'll come." she said to herself aloud. "He has to."

She thought about Howard and his search parties all around the arctic all looking for him. Howard was bound to have found him by now. He really can't be gone. Too much money, time, effort, and...love was put into him. He couldn't just up and leave.

To calm some more nerves, she knocked back her martini and ordered another one. By the time she had polished that one off, it was seven forty-five.

"He still has time." she whispered under her breath.

Steve was never one for punctuality and had never played by the rules. He made up his own code, one that, in her opinion, was far better than the one in place. He was a man of his own kind, and he was always full of surprises. He was probably caught up in something important or his plane had left late or something. Howard knew how important it was that he be here. He wouldn't purposely hold him up.

Tired of sitting still, she got up and went to the ladies room. After checking her makeup and washing her hands until they pruned, she nervously went back to her stool. She was shaking as she set herself back down, completely distraught.

It was exactly eight and he wasn't there.

"He has to come, he has to..." she gasped, her eyes welling. "He can't really be...He wouldn't..."

She couldn't find the words to describe how she was feeling. She had been harboring this insane hope inside her heart to disguise the truth, but she couldn't accept it. She couldn't believe he was really gone. They had been together just a week ago and now she would never get to see him or hear his voice again. Most of all, she would miss his eyes, his laugh, and his complete innocence. He was the only man she had ever truely loved, and now he was gone, taking her heart with him.

She broke down, sobbing hysterically on the bar, knocking over her latest martini and causing quite a riot. Every person in the bar tried to console her, but she merely pushed them all away, sobbing and shaking uncontrolably. The bartender tried to call her a cab, but she refused, flailing around violently when he tried to grab her purse. He finally had to call the club owner over to come and get her. By that point, she had drunk herself into a mournful stupor.

An hour later, a familiar face came to retrieve her. Howard picked her up off the barstool, dismissing the bartender and owner. He helped her up as she cried into his shoulder. He looked just as terribly as she did.

"How could he do this to me?" she mumbled into his arm.

"He did the bravest thing I've ever seen. He did what he did to save the world." Howard said bleakly, but with admiration. He was trying to spare her feelings.

"But he left me...I loved him..."

"I know Peggy...I know..."

He ushered her out of the bar and into his car, remaining quiet the rest of the ride back to his home. She stayed there for weeks, the two barely speaking partially due to the fact that she almost never came out of her room. Finally, when she had gathered her wits about her, she rejoined the army to finish the war. Steve's team still operated, but very rarely, and the Captain America project had been officially closed. It was as if no one had ever even heard of Steve Rogers, everyone except the few strong enough to remember.

Still, every year on that Friday, Peggy made her way to the club at seven thirty and sat down in that same chair. She ordered the same martini and wore the same dress as if it were some ritual and she never once got up to dance, no matter how handsome the man. She denied every man, boy, child, and even Howard Stark a dance but at eight on the dot, she would toast to the one man she wished she could be with.

She had lost her perfect partner years ago, and she never even got to dance with him.

I sat down at what used to be and still was a really old bar table. I had been here once before, many years ago, back when things were normal. Of course, normal had been seventy years ago, but now a days, I didn't know what counted for normal. Was it the flat screens on the wall that showed colorful images? Was it the new styles and technologies? I could hardly believe it when SHIELD dropped me off in front of the building in this completely unrecognizable British town. I used to know these streets by heart, but now I was like a stranger in a strange land.

Still, I ordered a beer and placed my attention to the modern-day television. It was saying something about a new, unrecognizable war in the Middle East. I was so behind on the times that even Nick Fury's constant history lessons wouldn't help. I shot the beer down in seconds flat and ordered another one, the mug appearing in seconds. I polished that one off as well, glancing past the screen and falling into my own thoughts.

I wondered how Peggy felt after I crashed. This was something I thought about a lot. Was she still alive? Did she even come that Friday night we had a date? Did she ever move on? These were the only questions that ever occupied my thoughts. Not Nick Fury, SHIELD, or his new mission team, but Peggy.

I stayed there for hours, drinking and watching the new generations. They were all so much different than I was accustomed to. The whole world was a new place now, so different than I had left it. My mind felt heavy with questions, that soon I felt drowsy, my lids dropping. I couldn't remember the last time I had a good night's sleep...

Suddenly, I felt my head fall and I snapped it back up in a heartbeat, my mind alert. That was wierd. I never felt tired, especially not at eight at night. I put a hand on my chest to calm my heartrate, only to feel the familiar cloth of my army uniform. I stared down at the tan fabric, wondering how I got into it. I could've sworn I was in different clothes... I looked up and scanned the area until I found myself gaping.

I was back at the club, but not the one from today, but the one it used to be, the nineteen-forties version. The walls and lighting were dark and the records were blasting jazz and swing. Women in floral evening gowns attended to their soldiers and gossiped amongst themselves as a very handsome young man wooed them from afar. I could see my team playing a game of poker off in the side room, and right across from me, at the old bar, was a woman wearing a short red dress.

My heart immediately skipped a beat, knowing exactly who she was. I got up and quickly paced my way to her, needing to know if this was all real. I got to her and was about to tap her on the shoulder when I pulled my hand back. What if she doesn't recognize me? What if it isn't even her? A million doubts ran through my mind, but thankfully I didn't have to do anything. She turned around a moment later, startled at first, but then she was smiling at me widely. It was as if nothing had changed, nothing had gone wrong. Had I even had the accident? Was the future all a dream?

"Steve." she grinned at me, trying to hold her excitement in. "You're late."

I smiled awkwardly as I took a glance at the clock. It was eight-o-five. I was five minutes late to our date.

"I know. I got...caught up..." I tried to explain lamely without telling her I was a nut.

"Well, you still owe me a dance."

"Well, I still don't know how."

She smiled mischieviously. "Well, I'll teach you, like I promised."

She pulled me out onto the dancefloor, right in the middle, and held me close. She placed her hand on my shoulder and clasped her other in my right hand, indicating what she was doing. Then, she took my left hand and placed it on her hips.

"There." she said, looking quite accomplished. "And now all we do is move to the music."

"Really?" I asked, feeling very uncomfortable with my hand where it was.

She laughed, making my heart leap. "Oh, Steve. You still don't know a thing about women!"

And with that, she spun out and almost instinctively, I caught her, swooping her down low. I brought my face close to hers so that our faces were barely touching. I couldn't help but grin. Maybe this really was reality...It sure felt real to me.

"I don't know how you do it..." she whispered, her eyes flicking across my face.

"Do what?" I grinned.

"Be so amazing."

I smiled, my heart warming as my eyes locked onto her deep brown ones. They were like melted pools of chocolate.

"Well, I could teach you."

She laughed once more, bringing her face closer to mine. I could feel her eyelashes flutter across my cheeks and I could smell her hair, but our lips were kept strangely apart. Our faces were inching closer, her lips brushing mine, and the most wonderful sensation came over me as-

-CRASH!-

I startled up by the sound of shattering glass and suddenly was back in the modern day bar. I shook my head out, trying to go back to Peggy and my old life, but I was stuck in this life, one seventy years in the future. I clutched onto the bar table until I heard cracking noises from underneath. My hand had splintered the strong old wood.

I should've known! I should've known that my mind was playing tricks on me! I wasn't back in England in nineteen-forty-two with Peggy. She wasn't about to kiss me. No, I was stuck in twenty-eleven England with this dingey, greasy old bar table and bunch of oversized monkeys goofing off. No. Things were definately not what they used to be, and I was a fool to think it was all a dream.

I knew crashing the plane was my choice, but I thought I would die. If I had known that there was this life after death, one that left me wounded and confused, I would've figured out another plan to stop Red Skull.

I was so caught up in my own thoughts, that I barely noticed an elderly gentleman staring at me from behind the bar. He had come out of what seemed to be a tiny office door and was now rooted in place, his eyes fixed curiously on me. I looked up, and realizing he had been caught, he scooted away for a moment before changing his mind and scuttling towards me.

This man was very, very old, but also very familiar. I could've sworn I had seen him before. Then, it hit me. He was the club owner, the one I had glimpsed by in my daze flirting with the girls. It was amazing that he was still alive.

"We've been waiting a long time for you." the old man sighed, almost sadly as he eyed my stool.

"Excuse me?" I asked, genuinely confused. How could anyone be waiting for me? I didn't even know I was alive until a few days ago.

"Well, not me, just a very lonely woman. She'd come here every year for the longest time and sit at that very seat. She'd wear the same red dress, order the same drink and every year at eight-o-clock, she'd give a toast...to you."

"What?"

"It was very strange after the first year when she came. I never knew what she was doing here after she broke down. And she'd never dance either. She even denied that Stark boy a couple o' times. But she got married, had a couple o' kids, but she'd still come hear every year like clockwork, right at seven-thirty." he raised his brows and shuffled around a tad. "Of course, I was waiting for her to come this year, but she didn't. You should've seen the reaction in this place! Everyone was devestated, including me. She was the one constant in this club, coming even when she couldn't walk, even if it required flying here, she'd come, and this was the first time she never showed."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, she was very old. She probably passed some time before the day." he grumbled. "Well, good day to you lad."

"Wait!" I called, the story sounding vaguely familiar, though I hoped it wasn't but was at the same time. "The woman, did you know her name?"

"Why, I believed she was a military officer of sorts. An odd woman named Peggy...Peggy...oh what's her last name?"

The old man fumbled around for her last name, but I didn't need it. I knew who Peggy was and apparently she never got over me. I stood her up and she died waiting on me. I didn't know who to feel sorry for, myself or her. She spent her whole life secretly chasing after me and I let her by crashing the plane and then coming back a year after her death. I didn't know how to feel, whether to cry or rage or just let go, but the last seemed to be the more sensible. Let go like I did to Bucky and my team and Howard and everyone else in my past life except her. Maybe it was a good thing I lost my watch with her picture in it along the way. Maybe I was better off without ghosts in my life and the past to tie me down, but it didn't feel like it. Right now, I felt empty.

"I'll teach you. Just promise me you'll be there."

That line played over and over again in my head as I popped another beer, my tenth, eleventh, I didn't know. I couldn't get drunk.

Just one more thing I'd never get to do.