Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel comics or characters or movies, and am making no money off of this fic.
AN: Written for the October 16th Whumptober prompt: bedridden.
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Invincible by luvsanime02
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Steve Rogers knows that she's been getting older. He's tried not to think about it, of course. Tried to put her very existence out of his mind, to be honest, and maybe that makes him an awful person, but he can't bring himself to think about Peggy Carter very often anymore.
She's still getting older, though. Time stops for no one, not even himself, not for forever, and she's been aging for so much longer than Steve has. She still always somehow seems invincible in his mind, though. Peggy Carter can't be beaten down, can't be defeated. She is immortal in his thoughts.
She's also now bedridden. Has aged so much that she cannot walk anymore. She's nearer to death than Steve has ever been, and he wants to cry. Peggy can't die. She just can't. Steve is the one who is going to die first.
Sometimes, Steve wonders if he will ever be allowed to die, or if he'll just go on forever, eternally fighting this damn war.
Not Peggy, though. She's nearing her end, and part of Steve envies her for that. Most of him is honestly still in a state of disbelief, though. He'd never thought that she would age even more than the last time that he'd seen her. Thought that she would just go to bed some night, and never wake back up again. Softly slip away, peacefully. It's what Peggy deserves.
Not this drawn-out affair, where she's getting more and more feeble by the day. By the hour. By the minute. How has Peggy's life come to this end? How can someone so strong be reduced to this? A frail, brittle shell that can't possibly house such a strong spirit. It's no wonder that her body is slowly shutting down.
Peggy can't work any longer, either, and that must be killing her mind as surely as her body is withering away. She must be afraid now. How would that feel, honestly, to never be capable of walking again? To be bedridden, to know that your body has failed you at last, and that means that the end cannot be too far off now.
Is she scared? Steve can't imagine Peggy being scared. Then again, he could never imagine her becoming old before, either.
She wants to see him. Has written to him, when she said before that she didn't want to ever see him again, but that was then. She feels different now, Steve assumes. This is her getting to say another final goodbye to him. This is Peggy wanting to hold his hand one last time, to maybe die with a smile on her face, content that she saw him again, still relatively unchanged by the hands of time.
Steve throws the letter away, and remembers how Peggy used to laugh, and thinks that he'd rather cling to those memories than face the reality that has brought her down so low. No, he doesn't want to say goodbye to Peggy. He wants her to live forever.
He doesn't go, and doesn't call, and in the end, Steve never sees Peggy Carter again, but in his mind, she's always there. Smiling and laughing and invincible.