Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Marvel franchises or characters (more's the pity), but I do enjoy playing with them. This work is for entertainment purposes only with no intention of copyright infringement.
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Steve Rogers/Sharon Carter; Romance, Adventure

Chapter One

Sharon wasn't entirely sure how she found herself outside of her old high school auditorium on the night of her tenth class reunion but, here she was, sitting in the car and hoping no one would notice while she debated going in or not.

It wasn't that she hadn't enjoyed high school. She'd been active in sports and student government and enjoyed her classes. She'd gotten along well with her teachers and a good majority of her classmates. She had fond memories of all of the typical teenage rites of passage.

She just didn't see why she had to relive them every five years.

Sharon had attended the previous reunion and it had been perfectly fine. She'd been in medical school, with top marks at the end of the semester, and had been dating the fourth-year med student who'd accompanied her.

She couldn't claim such accomplishments this time around.

She'd quit medical school in the middle of the following semester, dumped the fourth-year, and transferred to the SHIELD Academy. As far as her friends and former classmates knew, she'd gone from being Sharon Carter, future doctor, to Sharon Carter, agent of...insurance. Yes. That had been the glamorous cover assigned to her when she joined SHIELD and that was the cover her alma mater confirmed when they sent her a save-the-date to the reunion last fall.

Of course, last fall, Sharon had been an agent of SHIELD and her cover story had been solid. Since then, SHIELD had fallen in the discovery that Hydra had been grown within the agency for for decades. With the dissolution of SHIELD and its assets, many things — including Sharon's cover, job and apartment — had disappeared overnight.

She'd thought she'd landed on her feet, being recruited by the CIA almost immediately, but that lasted about a week before circumstances had her eventually joining Captain America's support team, helping the super soldier put out the fires that had erupted in the absence of SHIELD.

Sharon couldn't tell any of her classmates that, however, as it jeopardized the safety of her teammates. And she couldn't tell anyone who she was dating, mostly because no one would believe that she was dating Captain America himself.

It was stupid, and she knew it, but it was mostly Steve's absence that made going to the reunion such a chore. He was off somewhere with Iron Man, saving the world or something, and she was stuck flying solo, surrounded by people she'd thought she'd left far behind.

"There you are," a voice pulled Sharon from her internal debate.

"Here I am," said Sharon. She pushed the door open and stepped out of the car. "You look great, Mollie."

Her friend twirled in the bright green dress she wore. "I do, don't I? Hank's either gonna eat his heart out on his own or I'm going to feed it to him."

Sharon wasn't quite sure what to say and so she just gave a thin smile. Mollie was the reason she'd even made it as far as the parking lot to the reunion. She'd begged Sharon to be her wing-woman since she'd only recently divorced her high school sweetheart who would also be in attendance.

"Let's get inside. I don't see Hank's car yet but I know he's coming and I know he's bringing her with him."

Sharon allowed Mollie to pull her toward the entrance, listening again to how she was the reason Mollie hadn't been able to sucker-punch Hank with the divorce papers she'd drawn up with her lawyer a month ago.

"Now that bonehead thinks he's leaving me when I was going to be leaving him. I just know he did it to spite me," she continued as she dragged Sharon through the doors.

They stopped at the front table to pick up their name badges, Sharon's complete with her less-than-flattering senior picture printed on it. Why did I ever think bangs were a good idea? she thought.

"Why did I ever think bangs were a good idea?" Mollie asked as she pinned her own badge on. "Of course, why'd I ever think that about Hank, right?"

Sharon refrained from reminding Mollie that she and Hank had been happy - and the envy of most of their classmates - for more than ten years, seven of those married and the last five raising their twin boys.

Looping her arm through Sharon's, Mollie forced a bright smile. "Look at us, a couple of single gals out for a night with people we kind of wished we'd never see again."

Again, Sharon only nodded and as she and Mollie were swept up in the crowd.

It didn't take long for Mollie to ditch her wing-woman. Sharon watched from the table of marching band members she'd been welcomed to as no fewer than four former classmates vied for the affection of the head cheerleader.

The attention was probably just what Mollie needed, Sharon thought. No matter what her friend said, she knew it hadn't been an easy decision going to the divorce attorney when therapy had not worked for her and Hank. Then to have Hank announce that he'd not only been talking to an attorney, too, but also involved with another woman...well, Sharon could understand Mollie's bitterness.

"And what are you up to, Sharon?" asked Amy, former drum major, current mother of three and manager of a local bank. "I heard you lost your job a couple months back. Tough break."

"It was just as well since it gave me the opportunity to go freelance," she answered vaguely, massaging the facts to stay as close to the truth as she could.

"And how's that working out for you?" Jen asked, herself newly unemployed and using the reunion as a networking opportunity.

"It's good," Sharon answered. "Setting up a new office, building up a new client base, that sort of thing."

"Are you seeing anyone?" Jeff, recently divorced construction foreman and former sax player, asked. "My mom says you haven't dated anyone since that Josh guy you brought to the last reunion."

Sharon gave him a benign smile, knowing from her own mother than Jeff had been serial-dating since that divorce. "Starting a business from scratch is pretty time consuming. Dating's not really a priority right now."

"That's really disappointing," a familiar voice said behind her. "After I flew all this way."

Sharon turned and looked up, surprise and pleasure on her face at the sight of her boyfriend, Steve Rogers — otherwise known as Captain America — standing behind her.

"You're wearing a suit," she said, ignoring the stares and whispered "Is that..?"s behind her.

"Tony insisted...," Steve answered and politely accepted the seat one of her table-mates offered as she moved over. "I'm not sure why he cared — or even how he knew your reunion was tonight — but he insisted on dropping me off here instead of taking me back to DC."

"Whatever his reasons, I'm really glad to see you." Sharon leaned over and kissed his cheek then, for Jeff's benefit, planted another on his lips.

A throat was cleared behind them and Sharon smiled at Steve as Jeff asked if she was going to introduce her friend.

"Right," she said, turning. "Everyone, this is Steve. Steve, this is Amy, Jen, Jeff and Sarah."

"Hello," Steve said, smiling politely. "I never made it to my high school reunion. This seems nice."

"I think you just missed your seventy-fifth reunion," Sharon said.

"So you're really him then?" Jen asked, her eyes wide. "Holy crap. Share Bear's dating Captain America."

"Share Bear?" Steve asked at the same time Sharon groaned.

"An unimaginative nickname I really hoped everyone would have forgotten by now," Sharon explained.

Steve laughed. "My life's literally an open book so I feel like this is going to be a very enlightening evening." He leaned over the table toward Sharon's classmates and asked, "What else can you tell me about Share Bear?"

"I don't think I ever told you how terrific you look tonight," Steve said as he walked with Sharon up to her parents' door.

"You look pretty terrific yourself," she said, leaning into him. "I don't think I've ever seen you in a suit, at least not in this century."

"Tony not only insisted but he apparently picked it out and had it sized for me."

"Like a fairy godmother getting you ready for the ball," she said, smiling as she went up on her toes to kiss him. "I'm really glad you were there tonight. I really didn't want to be, especially without you."

"Your friend Mollie seemed to be doing okay."

"I think she will be. She's riding a good head of mad to get over the hurt. I don't know if it's healthy but it seems to help. And I'm glad Hank didn't show up until well after she'd already been hit on by at least a dozen guys. That probably helped, too."

They stopped at the front stoop so Sharon could fish her keys out of her purse but the door was pulled open before she had a chance.

"Steve!" Henry Carter said excitedly. "Angela said Sharon was bringing you home tonight. I didn't realize you were going to the reunion."

"It was kind of last minute," Steve explained as he shared a small smile with Sharon at her father's obvious enthusiasm.

She gave him a gentle shove, pushing him down the hall after her father while she closed the door behind them. She knew her dad would keep Steve occupied for a while — and Steve was just too darn polite not to let him — so made her way upstairs to change out of her fancy clothes and into her pajamas.

Her mother found her a few moments later in the hall closet.

"I see your dad cornered Steve," she said. "What are you looking for?"

"I'm grabbing blankets to make up the guest bed for Steve."

"Did you two have a fight?"

"What?"

"Why else would you be making up the guest bed?"

Sharon was quiet a moment. "Mom, we don't sleep together."

"But the last time you were here —"

"I'd been stabbed and Steve insisted on sleeping on the floor so he could keep an eye on me."

Angela looked surprised and then thoughtful. "I assume the separate bedrooms are not your choice?"

"Not exactly." Sharon sighed, grabbing an extra pillow, fresh sheets and a blanket. "I don't want to push him and risk pushing him away but..." She bit her lip, shutting the closet door and heading toward the guest room across the hall from her old bedroom. "It's not a big deal. Right? He's from a time when they just took things slowly."

Angela touched a hand to her daughter's shoulder as they entered the spare bedroom. "Honey, are you trying to convince me or yourself?"

Sharon dropped the armload of linens on the bed and turned to shut the door behind her mother. "Honestly, Mom," she said quietly, "Sleeping together isn't the only thing I'm waiting for."

Angela waited, maternal sympathy on her face.

"He hasn't used the 'L'-word," Sharon said softly. "Again, I know courtship was different seventy years ago but I just love him so much and I'm afraid to tell him..." Sharon squeezed her eyes shut, trying to keep back the tears that suddenly welled. When she opened them again, two fat tears rolled down her cheek. "I'm afraid he doesn't feel the same and if I say it..."

"Sweetheart," Angela took her daughter into her arms, patted the back of her head as it laid on her shoulder - much as she used to when Sharon was a little girl. "Anyone can plainly see Steve cares very deeply for you. You shouldn't be afraid to tell him about your feelings."

"I know he cares, Mom, I do. A part of me just worries it's not enough."

Standing in the hallway, Steve let out the breath he'd been holding. He hadn't meant to eavesdrop but he'd been looking for Sharon and couldn't help but overhear the tail end of her conversation with her mother.

He had no idea Sharon was unsure about their relationship, about his feelings for her. She meant the world to him. She'd helped him find his lost friend. She'd given him a purpose and the resources to fulfill it. She'd returned pieces of his past to him. She gave him a reason to be happy about the future.

He backed slowly down the hall, the conversation he shouldn't have heard turning away from him to other topics, thankfully.

He needed some air, to think. He made his way down the back steps toward the kitchen, thankfully avoiding Henry, and out the French doors to the deck.

The evening was cool, the air fragrant from Sharon's mom's garden. He'd spent a lot of time at this house in the beginning of their relationship. After Sharon was hurt by a Hydra agent, she'd come here to rest under her doctor parents' watchful eyes. And his. He'd rarely let her out of his sight, so worried about her and the effects of his super-serum-infused blood as it coursed through her veins.

How could she doubt her place in his heart?

Obviously he hadn't told her enough what she meant to him, hadn't demonstrated, and he needed to fix that.

The only question was how.