THREE

"Steve." Peggy said softly, eyes filling with tears. When Howard told her that Steve was back and that he came from the future, Peggy thought her friend had gone completely bonkers. She didn't know what to expect then, standing outside the door while Howard tried to break into his own house, but it wasn't exactly Steve Rogers in the flesh. He was gone. They'd all accepted it. She never forgave herself for giving up on looking for him in the ice, and she knew Howard didn't.

But he was right there. And he was okay. And he came from the future? That one was a bit hard to swallow.

Before she saw it coming, Steve's arms were around her, lifting her a little off her feet as he hugged her.

Today was real, and Howard was telling the truth and he hasn't gone out of his mind yet. For what seemed like an eternity, they stayed in each other's arms, Peggy not believing the twist of fate she found herself in and by the time Steve put her down, her face was wet with her own tears.

"How is this possible?" Peggy asked him, brushing the back of her hand against his cheek.

He was as beautiful as she remembered him. His strong demeanour and his kind presence unchanging.

Then as if a switch had been flipped somewhere, they backed away from each other, remembering that the last time they saw each other, Steve was about to jump into the jet. They kissed, but that was just one kiss. What if it didn't mean anything?

Steve coughed, "I-I don't know. I just woke up one day and I'm here."

Peggy nodded, unable to wrap her mind around it. "So uhm...will you tell me? About what happened, I mean. Howard said about finding you in the ice seventy years after the war."

"Oh." Steve nodded, "You want to uh...take a walk? Howard's estate is really unbelievable. And uh, that story's a long one."

"Huh, you should see his other houses. This is one's more on the modest side."

Steve suggested going to the garden, but Peggy thought of something better. There was a park just a block away from the house that will be fairly empty that time of day. Peggy found it peaceful and had dubbed it her favorite spot in all of New York when she stayed in that house for a short time.

He agreed, telling her to wait for him as he went to his room to grab a coat.

That's when he saw the door to Natasha's room slightly ajar. Natasha. He realized he hadn't seen her since she opened the door to Peggy, and he felt bad forgetting about her completely. Steve didn't even realize she was gone. He slowed down and knocked before going in, a heavy feeling settling at the pit of his stomach.

"Nat?"

She was in the middle of changing into a light blue dress with the back part wide open. Natasha immediately caught his eye in the mirror's reflection, only nodding in response.

"Do...do you need help with that?" Steve offered. It was too late to pretend he didn't see anyway. And they were past being shy about each other's bodies anyway.

"Sure." She said quietly, her words coming out dry. He knew right then that something was off.

Steve finger's gently pulled on the zipper, lightly grazing her skin as he did. "I was uh...I was wondering where you'd gone. I didn't see you go up."

Natasha turned to face him when he finished, so close she can see the trace of wrinkles forming on his brow, or the specks of green dotting his blue eyes. For a moment she let herself get lost in it-maybe it was the time travel and maybe she had gone soft, but if she was beginning to recognize the feelings she's always had for Steve then so be it-realizing a possibility she had never considered before. Waking up in the wrong year, Natasha always thought they were going to go back together, just like every mission. Because all along that's what she thought of this little side trip to the past-a mission. That all this will be a funny story they tell their friends over pizza and maybe a chance to lecture Tony not to meddle with the laws of science too much.

It's always been him and her against the world. Even when they had no one, they had each other. Apart from Clint, there wasn't anyone else she'd trust her life with. Natasha thought that was the one thing in this life she can always count on. She kicked herself for even thinking that. She was a spy, for heaven's sake. A killer. She wasn't supposed to depend on anything or anyone other than herself.

Now looking at Steve through a different perspective, Natasha realized how much he belonged here. Like he was a missing piece of a puzzle.

Steve took a deep breath and backed away slightly, "Peggy wanted to take a walk outside, show me around. Do you uh...do you wanna join us?" he asked awkwardly, looking down at his polished shoes instead of her.

Natasha scoffed, "Do you want me to join you?"

His brows furrowed, his eyes meeting hers. "Of course I do, Nat."

She shrugged, "I'm kidding, Rogers. No, you go ahead. I'll be fine." Natasha turned back to the full-length body mirror, pretending to be interested in the dress she wouldn't be caught dead with in 2018, hoping her stint was believable.

Are you sure?-Steve wanted to ask but knew better than to pry. "Oh...okay. I'll just...well, we won't be long. Jarvis promised more breakfast, so..." He walked away, reminding himself not to forget his coat in his bedroom.

"Hey Steve?" Natasha called out just before he could close her door, "When you get back, we'll figure this out, right? Going home, I mean. We're going home. Right?"

"Yeah. Of course, Nat." He said with his champion smile.

She smiled, half-heartedly. Then she moved to the tall window, from where she watched Peggy still wiping the happy tears from her face. It didn't take long before Steve joined her, quick to offer his arm like the gentleman that he was. For a moment the pair just stood there and Natasha kept on watching, thinking how Peggy Carter was perfect for him. How could she not? Peggy was everything she wasn't. No dripping red ledgers. No ugly past.

Steve deserved someone just like her.

"Oh hey, Agent Romanoff!" Natasha thought Howard looked extra wired today; his face a lot like Tony's when he comes up with a brand-new multi-million dollar idea. She's been nothing but be amazed by the similarities. Oh she had a lot of stories to tell Tony when they get back, but not without kicking his ass for sending them there first. "You know..." Howard stopped right in front of her, a mischievous smirk playing in the corner of his mouth. "...you keep looking at me like that and I might ask about the things you know about me. Stories about me, all wonderful of course?"

Sure, Natasha thought. Except for getting assassinated in the dead of winter, sure.

"You can try." She raised her brow, flirting along because of course papa Stark was a charmer. "But remember I'm a spy. One of the best. I can keep a secret." Natasha said in her foolproof sultry voice, because even him shouldn't be immune to her subtle advances.

"Ooh." Howard hissed, "I bet you are."

"They don't call me the Black Widow for nothing."

"Black Widow?" Howard dropped the flirting, the words ringing a couple of bells in his head. "...why do I think I heard it before? Oh nevermind, onto the matter at hand. I think I figured out what happened."

"That was quick." Natasha smiled, "So, are we going home soon?"

"I think so." Howard sighed, "But you know the tech's not as advanced as the one that sent you here, and I need time to build something similar, so first thing I need is your patience." They started walking towards a steel door that should be where all the work was being done.

"That's good enough." Natasha just wanted a way home, fast. Because she thought that the longer they stayed there, the higher her chance of going back alone. And she can't let that happen. "Thank you, Stark."

"Don't thank me yet." He squared his shoulders, "This is...way above me." then he frowned, realizing something he never even considered before. "Man, it feels bad not knowing what to do. I don't think I'll ever get used to being the slow one."

Natasha rolled her eyes, walking through the door and into a large room that looked a lot like the one they had back in the compound. Except that one was white from ceiling to floor and the screens were holographic, and smelled like engine fluid. This one looked like a vintage mockup of an old warehouse you find in history museums. At the central wall, Steve's shield, or a replica of it, hung there along with other World War II memorabilia. Box computers lined the walls, and on one corner there were just metal scraps and crates of different fibers stacked on top of one another, on the other corner barrels of what Natasha believed to be gunpowder.

"Neat, huh?" Howard winked at her. "Made a lot of money selling weapons to the government during the war, and when the government could not keep track of my weapons, some ended up in the wrong hands. Blamed me for it." He sighed, "If it wasn't for Peggy's help I'd still be on the run. A one woman army, that one."

Oh I know about the legend of Peggy Carter. Too well, she thought. "Why don't you stop weapons manufacture?"

He scoffed, like she just told him to ask cows to stop producing milk. "And let the other countries get the upper hand? We might not be at war right now, but when a time comes that we will be, we'll be prepared. I'll make sure of it."

Natasha wanted so bad to protest, but knew better. They have to let history run its course while they were here. "You're right. So this machine you're building, can you show it to me?"

"Oh, my pleasure." Howard takes her outside a smaller room with glass walls on all sides. Inside it were an enormous computer buzzing with life, connected to a glass capsule that should be the machine. "That's the thing."

"Did you build this overnight?" Natasha circled the room, studying the tech. It wasn't 21st century grade but it was impressive. "Looks to me like you're almost there."

"Not really. I had the other equipment, I just had to improvise." he shrugged, keeping a modest front. "But trust me, I'm not nearly there yet. This could take a while. There's still a lot of things I can't figure out."

Oh no. That's not good. But what else could Natasha do? Make him do his job faster? And she was a spy, not a scientist. She can't exactly help Howard pick up the pace.

"So, you and the Cap huh?" he said after a while. And he had the curious yet all-knowing grin she knew so well from Tony.

Natasha cleared her throat, "What about it?"

"You and Captain Rogers, what's going on between you two? I don't mean to pry but, oh hell who am I kidding. Of course I'm prying." He chuckled, and leaned against a desk stacked with sketches and diagrams and calculations of stuff Natasha can't interest herself with.

"We're friends. We work together. Is that it?" She hoped he would just drop it. But if Howard was anything like his son, she already knew that he wouldn't. "He's...he's a friend."

"No, no...that's not it." He shook his head, unconvinced. "Come on, Agent Romanoff. Don't hold back. What happens in the 40's, stays in the 40's. That's an actual saying here."

She sighed. What else was there to say? There wasn't anything going on between her and Steve. They work together and save each other's lives and oh there were years when all the company they had were each other and Sam, and sure, there was obvious physical attraction in the beginning but that just kind of faded into background the longer they spent time with each other because they started seeing each other as Steve and Natasha and not Captain America and the Black Widow. Yeah, there's all that but there was nothing else.

There's nothing else, right? Natasha asked herself. If there was nothing else, then why did she feel like throwing herself out the window when she saw him with Agent Carter? Keep it together, Natasha.

"Well, whatever it is that you two have, it's more than just friends. I didn't know him that well before; we were fighting a war and he didn't make it to see us win, but I know Steve doesn't take these "matters of the heart" lightly. You have no idea how many women threw themselves at him when he became Captain America." Howard said after a long silence. Natasha turned to look at him, "But he had one woman in mind and he wasn't going to compromise that for something that didn't matter."

"Peggy." Natasha found herself saying before she had the chance to hold her tongue.

"Margaret Carter." He grinned, feeling a bit nostalgic to the old times.

Then realizing the weight of his words, he looked at Natasha with apology written in his eyes. "Oh I'm...I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. It was a long time ago, you know? A completely different lifetime...especially for Steve and-"

"Don't worry about it," Natasha turned her back and hurried to the door.