"We'll have the band play something slow. I'd hate to step on your to-"
Click. Static filled Peggy's ears.
"Steve?" Peggy said, the lump in her throat growing bigger by the second, her voice rising.
"Steve?"
Her words dissolved into tears. She placed her head in her hands and poured it all out. She didn't know how long she stayed there. She didn't really care. After what might have been an eternity, she felt a strong hand on her shoulder. She turned her tear-streaked face up.
"Yes?" she asked in her crisp British accent. She was looking up into the face of Colonel Phillips, the person she least wanted to see at a moment like this. She knew she should greet him in the proper military way, with a salute, but at that moment, she didn't care. She didn't care if everyone in the divison knew that she could have sat there and cried all day. She didn't care if Colonel Phillips punished her for not saluting him. She really didn't care if they threw her out of the army.
"Agent Carter..." He paused and let out a small sigh. "The radio needs to be used for other purposes," he said, gesturing to the radio set in front of her.
Peggy nodded and slowly pushed herself up out of the chair. Colonel Phillips glanced off, feeling the need to give Peggy some privacy. Peggy forced herself to walk out of the radio room, where she emerged on a room filled with Captain Rogers' closest fellow soldiers. She thought she'd die. Jim Morita cast her a sympathetic glance. "Dum Dum" Dugan seemed to have tears in his eyes. Gabe Jones stared at his shoes and James Falsworth clasped her hand in his. Peggy managed a very weak smile, gulped down the lump that was rising in her throat again, and pushed past them, past everyone, outside into the cold wind.
"Steve!" she called, hoping somehow, somewhere, Steve was alive, that he could hear her, even though she knew it was impossible. The wind stole her words away-they barely made a sound.
Everyone meant well.
But they weren't helping.
Nothing could help now.
He was gone.