Steve was wide-eyed and flabbergasted. Tony! The Tony Stark, was HISson! Not just his, His and Peggy's son!
It was A LOTto take in.
Steve was having a hard time wrapping his head around this, Peggy must have seen it too, because she suddenly took his hand.
"Steve, he deserves to know the truth." she looked pained as the words left her mouth, her eyes pleading for something Steve wasn't sure of.
"He doesn't know does he?"
Peggy sighed and shook her head sadly. "God, Steve I miss him. But he doesn't even know who I am. I can only watch him from afar." un-shed tears filled her sharp brown eyes-the same eyes, Steve realized, Tony had.
"I'm sure he does remember you. When I said your name he was racking his brain for a while, so I have no doubt your somewhere in his memory, he just can't connect the dots." Steve assured her with a gentle squeeze of his hand.
Peggy smiled at bit at that but the tears still there. "Maybe, but Steve, he's been alive a very long time, if there is any memories of me in there, there over shadowed by Howard and Maria." She gently wiped the tears away. "How old is Tony Steve?"
Steve was caught off guard by the question, his mouth hanging open a moment to long not having any words come out.
Peggy rephrased, "How old does he look, Steve?"
Blinking, the blond answered, "In his 30's, 35 at least."
Peggy smiled, "It's been 71 years since you disappeared, he's been alive for 67 years. His ageing very's every year. And I know...I know he felt it, the way he was different from others. I know it took a toll on him. He must have felt I didn't care, or that Howard didn't care." Tears were following slowly now. "But I didn't know what to do, you can't give a baby who can barely talk a 3 year old birthday-nor can you give a 5 year old a 14 year old one."
Steve really didn't know what to say, Peggy was feeling guilty; but for what exactly he didn't know. He wished he could have been there for them. God, why did he have to be frozen for so long?
Peggy settled down some, "I never told him-how could I? How do I tell a baby there dad had died in the war, or that their dad was Captain America?" She smiled slightly, just slightly. "He did admire you though. He use to have a small Captain America doll he would sleep with growing up, and God knows Howard never stopped talking about you."
Steve grinned a bit, that was an interesting fact. Tony Stark had a doll of him. He still tried to wrap his brain around that, it wasn't Tony who had a doll of him-it was his SON! That was diffidently going to have some getting use to...
"How come no one said anything? How could he never have found out? Surely there is some kind of record of-" Before he could finish Peggy cut in.
"Every record of his birth was destroyed. The only records that remain are that he was born of Howard and Maria."
Steve's eyes grew twice in size, clearly alarmed and he'd have to be lying if he didn't say hurt. "Why?"
"If word got out he was yours Steve he would have been taken away in a heartbeat. The world still wanted-wants, the super serum. If they found out it runs in his blood he would have been taken to the labs. Howard and I both knew that, so he had everything burned and gone from excises."
That made since, Steve felt his heart clinch at the very thought of a young Tony being taken to be experimented on.
"But even with the serum in his vain's, the only effect he got from it was his ageing and brain-other then that he's as normal a me and Howard himself."
Steve smiled softly and kissed her hand, "I'm sorry Peg, I'm sorry Tony had to grow up without me, and you without a husband." he wished with all his hear he could go back in time and find some other way to bring that plan down without him freezing.
Peggy shook her head. "It's not your fault Steve; besides-" she smiled a bit bigger, "He was so much like you. He has a good heart. Always wanting to help people, wanting to see what Howard was working on and offered his assistants." the memory made her brighten up. "It wasn't until he began living with Howard and Maria that he started to take on a new person. Howard being a drunk, and a playboy rubbed off on Tony. Growing up thinking they were his real parents, he just kinda followed into there foot steps. I no longer saw your reflection in him, and instead saw Howards." the smile left her soft face. "I never even got to say I loved him before he left." And there it was, the guilt she felt. To her Tony didn't know she loved him, didn't even know her. It was as if she just gave him away-and it was killing her. Steve wondered if that filling had haunted her, her whole life.
Steve looked into her eyes, the same eyes he had loved some many years ago-that to him was only yesterday. The true love of his life had bared him a child, a child he was now living with. He leaned closer to her, she mimicked his move, there lips ghosting over each other before they pulled apart.
"Thank you..." He breathed. Peggy wiped another tear and smiled. "Take care of him Steve...I've seen enough of the world hurting our baby boy-please, take care of him."
Steve nodded and kissed her on the cheek. "I will, I promise."
Peggy asked Steve to help her to bed and told him she loved him with all her heart and to let Tony know she had always loved him. Steve sat by her bed for a while longer as her eyes closed and a small smile ghosted over her lips. Steve wasn't dumb, he knew she would never open those sharp, yet soft eyes again. He brushed some of her brown, now gray, hair from her face and kissed her one last time before leaving-he didn't want to think about how he noticed she was no longer breathing.
The walk home was long, but only because Steve was dragging his feet. What was he suppose to say? By the way Tony, Howard wasn't your dad, I am.?
How could he tell Tony something he was still having problem's believing himself?
And to top everything off Tony and him had...
Steve stopped where he stood, his brain of the following night playing in his head. His eyes felt as if they could pop out of his head at any moment. He had...he had slept with his SON!
There was a lot Steve knew was different from his time, but he was damn sure incest was still a huge taboo.
Now he really didn't know what to do. Not only did he have to tell Tony he was his birth father, but he had to brake up with him!
Somehow that thought in it self just made the whole thing even more real-and even more chaotic...
He began to hurry home, if anything he could get the brake op out of the way-the news would be more shocking to at least avoid a sulking Tony.
'Anthony Rogers' Steve thought for a moment, 'Ya, it had a nice ring to it."