Peggy was a few floors up in the gym, just like the receptionist had said she would be. Steve recognized the workout, and watching her brought back memories. "Peggy" Steve asked. It had been years since he had seen her last, but that person looked familiar. Her hair was a gray, and her face was wrinkles when she turned, but that was Peggy's routine. Her nametag was also a bit of a giveaway.
She slowly turned, looking straight at him. "Normally when you come for the dance, it's with cloths that you actually wore, not a hoodie"
"But I came here for real" He said, looking at her. He wasn't sure what he had expected, but this wasn't it. He knew that this was Peggy, and she had been so strong when they first met. She seemed so strong still, this wasn't a corpse come to haunt him. She was old, her hair white in mocking proof and even worse, she considered him a delusion. This wasn't the woman that he left in that plane crash.
"That's what they all say" She said sadly to him. "They pretend that they are real, but they never have any answers, never actually dance. You will be gone with the rest of them once my prescription changes"
"But I do have an explanation, Peggy" Steve said, fairly desperate, "I survived the ice, Shield found and rescued me. I was thawed out, and I have been out here ever sense"
"Don't be ridiculous, Steve" Peggy said, uncaringly, "I could have made up a better excuse than that"
"What about the Battle of New York? Didn't you see me on that?" Steve asked, referencing a screen that was actually playing footage of the battle. He thought that he had gained ground when she glanced at the screen, but she failed to recognize it.
"What?" Peggy asked, "Now you're making up evidence? Shame on you Steve, not that it would be your first time, pretending that you were looking for a special girl for one thing, and that never fulfilled dance were prime examples"
"But that was seventy years ago!" Steve exclaimed. "Why are you still holding it against me?"
"Ha, making up dates to now? It's been sixteen years, no more and no less" She said with absolute certainty.
Steve realized that she wasn't teasing him. She really thought… "You really can't remember, can you?"
"If it had been Seventy years, Steve, we would be on a porch surrounded by grandchildren, not back at the training facility with you unchanged" Peggy corrected gently. It was even worse than if she had snapped at him. She really thought that she was telling the truth about that.
"But if it had been sixteen years, your hair wouldn't be gray" Steve tried, finding no comfort in her forgetfulness.
"You drove me to stress, Steve, with your life stealing disappearing act" Peggy said. "You know what, I am demanding compensation" With that decided, she gave him a kiss full on the lips. She never would have reduced herself to such when he had been with her the first time. Still, Steve reciprocated.
Noticing that managed to snap Peggy out of disbelief. She looked at him with new eyes, and Steve couldn't help but hope for the best. His delusions were shattered as she blamed him for shattering hers. "You really have some nerve showing your face here! I have been waiting for years, decades, and you show up now of all times! When I am wrinkly and gray! How dare you…" She trailed off losing her train of thought. "I never wanted you to see me like this, Steve. Why did you come at all?"
"I wanted closure" Steve admitted shaken by seeing her and realizing how far gone her mind was. "A new work college is being courted, and everyone on the team understood or empathized better than me. I thought that if I could see you, I could understand it better myself. What happened to Howard after I left?"
"I don't remember" Peggy said, frustrated. "I don't remember much. He did have a child, though. Cute thing, but Howard never gave him the time of day. I think that he must have moved on at some point, but I'm not sure with how obsessed he was. I do have a niece though, if you want to move on. I am too old for marriage now, Steve"
"I never even thought…"
"Then you are even more a fool. Talk to my niece, I told her a lot about how you were, and it's the closest that I can get to Captain America now. Go," she demanded, "Lead part of my family into yours. Don't you dare come back for me though. Forget me. Move on. This isn't something that you can exist as. Move on"
"You said that already" Steve pointed out.
"Bah, I can't even know that much! Still, leave. I don't want you to see me like this, and I don't want to see you. It is too much of a reminder of how far I have fallen. I want to be the girl that got Captain America once upon a war, not the cougar who kept him. Go" she demanded pushing him away, "and do not return" she demanded. Steve practically fled, wanting away from this horrible reality.
The receptionist smirked at him on the way out. That made the forth fool that she had sent away in tears that month. Getting one up on a superhero, what would her mother think? She would ask her later today.
