Authors notes:puts on broken record: thank all of you for continuing to read this story even though I only update it as often as the comet Nyrathotep enters our solar system. I promise that next chapter will be longer and more action packed, but I thought that Cap deserved a happy little interlude from all the angst (least I could do after I KILLED him in Avengers: The Nail). Enjoy and let me know what you think! Nothing but love for you guys.

Interlude:

It wasn't every day that Captain America walked down your hallway.

Cap smiled at the dumbfounded expressions of the people in the apartment building as he passed. He had forgotten that he was in full uniform, which was kind of silly considering that he had gotten here by leaping from rooftop to rooftop. That only convinced him of how distracted he had been by the entire situation. Despite the distraction, he found himself looking right at his objective. Bernie's front door, and all he had to do was knock. Maybe he should have called first, maybe he shouldn't have come in costume, but here he was now. Despite that fluttering feeling in his stomach, despite the nearly uncontrollable urge to chew his nails that was only dissuaded by the fact that he was wearing gloves, he was determined to follow though with this… and no one should ever underestimate the power of Captain America's determination.

He knocked one… twice… three times… but there was no answer.

"Maybe…" Cap thought out loud, but only closed his eyes and shook his head.

As he was walking away he heard a creak in the floorboards and the knob turning. The door barely opened a crack, and the chain was still engaged. He slowly turned around to see the furious, red rimmed eyes gazing out at him. He could see little else.

"You always knock the exact same way… shave and a hair cut for two bits." She said quietly, the slightest whiff of bitterness wafting out.

"Bernie…" Cap began.

"Oh, you remember my name!" She said with mock surprise.

"Why wouldn't I? What's wrong, Bernie?"

"What are you doing here?" She asked with a tremble in her voice.

"I… think this is better discussed in private." Cap said, noticing people viewing the proceedings up and down the hall.

"We've had this discussion before… nothing you do is private." Bernie pointed out.

"I thought that you would be happier to see me." Steve admitted with genuine puzzlement.

"I thought that you would actually keep your promise. What was it this time, Steve? War in the Kree Galaxy? Hydra got the cosmic cube? Red Skull kidnapped whoever your REAL girlfriend is? I really want to know."

"This was all your idea." Steve pointed out, trying not to yell. "Do you think that it was easy staying away?"

"There are a lot of things that you make look easy." Bernie almost whispered.

"Will you let me in, Bernie?" Cap asked with kindness.

"No." She said, shaking her head furiously "I can't keep doing this."

"I'm here to keep a promise I made to you." Cap said "If you don't want me here… I'll go."

They were both silent for a moment, avoiding each other's gaze.

"I don't know what I want." Bernie admitted.

"We can talk about it."

More silence.

Bernie slammed the door.

For a moment Steve thought that she was going to undo the door chain, but the door didn't open.

"Bernie?" Steve said.

There was a shuffle behind the door.

"Go away, Steve."

"Bernie!" Steve shouted, wanting to pound on the door.

Silence stabbed him like an ice pick.

Steven Rogers, wrapped in Captain America's uniform, burned with humiliation. He had the strength in his arms to make toothpicks out of the door. He had words in his heart to make all things well between them, but his mouth just wouldn't say them. He almost quivered with the frustration of it, feeling his mouth open and close again. Struck speechless and stung with rejection, he turned and walked away.

Falcon turned around when he heard the door open, turning away from a sky that he had been scanning for threats. Redwing soared down from where she had been circling to land on his arm as he regarded Captain America, looking more crushed than he had ever seen him.

"Steve?" Sam asked, but Cap only shook his head in dejection.

"I'm sorry, man. You and Bernie… I always thought…"

"No." Steve said.

"What?"

"No." Steve shook himself out, his shoulder's straightening and his chest pushing out. His hands formed into fists and he turned on his heel like a soldier executing rear march.

"Steve, man, wait…" Sam tried to stop him.

"Its not going to end like this." Steve almost vowed.

"There are some fights you can't win with your fists, man." Sam spit out, realizing that it was something that Steve had once said to him.

"I don't fight with my fists." Steve said, disappearing back down the stairs "I fight with my heart."

Bernie was supposed to be at work.

The work that she and Matt had been working on together, a legal challenge to the government's mandate to the Avengers, had been an uphill battle. She had been spending as many as sixteen hours a day on it, and still was getting nowhere. She had been telling herself that she was only going to stay at home for ten more minutes for three hours now, and Steve's visit had knocked her on her heels. She was refusing to let herself cry, but she felt like there was a creature behind her eyes trying to push the tears out. She tried to pour herself a cup of coffee but it seemed to go everywhere except the damn cup. It seemed to her at that moment that love was worse than crack, because a physical addiction could do such things to your body… but love could cut your to your very soul.

As she wiped up the mess she ignored the pebbles pinking against her window. Again and again, the tiny rocks struck her window with pinpoint accuracy. There was only one spot of dirt on the window where they kept striking. Bullseye couldn't have done any better. She remembered all the times that Steve had done that in the days when he had not wanted to be seen. At first she thought it was just her memory playing tricks on her, but as she realized it was real she had been ignoring it by force of will. She shouldn't have done that, because by doing that she was underestimating the force of Steve Rogers' will.

She gasped as a star spangled disc shattered her window, bouncing around her apartment like pac man until coming to rest at her feet.

"You… you bastard!" She gasped, looking down at the shield.

"Will you talk to me now, Bernie?" A voice echoed up from the street, three stories below. In New York traffic noise that might as well have been 20 stories, which showed more than anything the strength of the voice that was hollering.

Bernie picked up the shield and chucked it out the window. Instead of making the clean whistling sound that it always made when Steve threw it it kind of made a wobbling metal noise as it plunged toward the street. It was only after she threw it that the potential for lawsuits began to swim in her head and the image of a little old lady being beaned by the falling shield exploded in her brain. But as she ran, in a panic, to the window it was truly no surprise to see that Steve had caught the shield.

"I might sue you now you!" Bernie screamed.

"Good! At least then I could see you in court!"

"I'll call the cops! I'll get a restraining order!" She screamed down to the street, but just as soon as the words left her mouth; when she saw Steve standing in a crowd of admiring onlookers and stopped traffic the absurdity of the words struck her.

"I just want you to listen to me, Bernie!"

"What could you possibly have to say that would change anything!"

Even from three stories up, she could visibly see Steve's chest puff out as he took the ultimate deep breath.

"Don't you do it." Sam Wilson muttered to himself as he looked down from the top of the brownstone, horror gripping him "Don't you damn do it!"

Captain America began to sing, words straight from his heart.

"How can I just let you walk away… just let you leave without a trace… when I stand here taking every breath with you… you're the only one who ever knew me at all…"

"Oh, God…" Bernie blushed, a hand covering her mouth.

"How can you just walk away from me… when all I can do is watch you leave? Cause we've shared the laughter and the pain… and even shared the tears… you're the only one who really knew me at all."

Sam put his hands over his face.

"So take a look at me now… there's just an empty space… and there's nothing here to remind me… just the memory of your face…"

With no effort, without missing a note, Steve leapt on top of a van, sprung to grab a streetlight, and catapulted himself onto a power line strung right in front of her window. To her horror, she realized that the people on the street were joining in the song.

"So take a look at me now… there's just an empty space… and you coming back is against all odds that's the chance I've got to take."

Bernie could feel the tears flow as she looked in his earnest, honest blue eyes and heard a voice untouched by any embarrassment at humbling himself like this.

"Come here." She finally moved her lips, but no words came out. As he leapt through her broken window, she knew that the words had not been needed.

She threw her arms around his shoulders and started to sob as she heard the crowd cheer from the street.

"You big fraud." She sobbed and choked "You don't even like Phil Collins… you listen to Coltraine… Nat King Cole… Big Band music…"

"I sang it for you." He said softly "I remembered every word."

It had been playing softly in the background the first time they made love.

"Thank God you didn't sing Bryan Adams…" She laughed through her sobs.

"In the summer of 69 I was frozen solid… it didn't seem to fit the mood." Cap smiled.

"You bastard… you star spangled bastard… why do you keep doing this to me?" She asked his chest as her head rested against it.

"I came back here to keep a promise."

"You already broke your promise." She said "Our first date was on Christmas. That was our anniversary."

"You asked me to… wait…" Steve said "I'm sorry that you misunderstood… I thought that it was still done the way it was in the old days."

"What?"

"I counted our anniversary from the first day I met you… February of the year before… the day I fell in love with you."

"February?"

"February 7th… today." Steve said, holding up the ring he had kept tucked in his costume. "So what do you say, Bernie… will you marry me?"

She couldn't answer him because she was too busy kissing his lips.

Sam Wilson smiled as he looked down from the lip of the roof, but couldn't help but shake his head. He could see from the crowd's reaction that this attempt had gone much better than the subtle approach. Every time he thought he had Cap figured out the old man found another way to surprise him. This display had really been over the top, though.

"How touching." A voice came from behind him, causing him to whirl around with his fists up as a flash of crimson intruded on his peripheral vision.

Sam almost punched Daredevil in the face, but the red clad vigilante dodged it without even changing his impassive facial expression.

"I think that we should give the kids a little alone time before I swoop in with the bad news." Matt Murdock thought aloud, not even acknowledging that Sam had swung on him.

"Daredevil! What are you doing here?" Sam demanded.

"Are you kidding? I could hear that a mile away." Matt replied with a smirk.

"What bad news you got?" Sam asked as he punched his own palm.

"All in due time… this is their moment." Murdock said softly "There will be plenty of time later… to give the devil his due."

Next:

The Secret Revealed! The Crimson Cowl Exposed! The Mystery at an end!

Tune in next week, true believers!