AUTHOR'S NOTE: In trying to come to terms with the devastating end to Cap's storyline in "Endgame," it's difficult to know what to think when you have the directors saying Cap went to a different timeline, and thus Peggy's story was not changed, but the writers are claiming it was the same timeline and Peggy's kids were always Steve's. Where does that leave Sharon? Did she know or not know that Steve was her uncle? If she knew, did she pursue a relationship with him anyway, and why? The same writers who claimed Steve was always Peggy's husband also claimed that they intended for Steve and Sharon to be living together in Infinity War. Most of my previous fanfics have approached that question assuming Steve travelled to a different timeline and was never married to Peggy in the primary timeline and thus was never Sharon's uncle in the movies. But what if he was always in the primary timeline as the writers claim? This fic attempt to address that, while also trying to reconcile Steve and Sharon's relationship in this universe. It is also worth saying that I hesitated to post this fic. Sometimes I write these things for my own catharsis, never intending for anyone to see them. I have at least 5 that I will likely never post. My other fics "The Tape" and "What Happens in Vegas" took some courage to post, given the subject material, though I felt "The Tape" was necessary after I heard what the writers intended to do to Pepper, which should have been my first clue as to what they would eventually end up doing to Sharon. That absurdity needed a fic to fix, hard as it was to post. This fic I almost didn't post, for the same reason, though most responses to my more difficult fics have been generally positive. Having said that:

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Chapter 1

Steve was still pretty spry for 183 years old, but he had to admit, sitting on that bench was murder on his joints. After he had handed the shield off to Sam, the other Avengers present had come over to stare at him in shock. He did his best to remember that, from their perspective, they had only seen him just about two minutes ago, young (though still 100 years old) and hale. They had seen him looking familiar to them and vigorous, and now here he was over by the lake, old and having lived an entire life in those two minutes. Bucky came up behind Sam and sighed, shook his head and half smiled. Steve knew his friend had known from the start what he had planned to do in volunteering to travel back through time to return the stones. In fact, Steve had only decided the night before to not come back from time traveling and returning the stones, and had told Bucky, who had not been surprised at his decision. And so Bucky was the one least surprised to see Steve, now elderly, standing by the lake only a few seconds after disappearing on the platform. To their credit, though, they said nothing. They understood in just a few seconds. He shook everyone's hand, something he had been waiting 80 years to do, answered a few questions, and then turned to walk back down the path towards the road. He thought they might follow him, pepper him with more questions, but they didn't and he was grateful. He didn't feel like answering them all, and it would take too long. Bucky followed only part of the way, but had simply waved and returned to the Avengers halfway down the path. Steve was grateful. He wasn't in the mood to explain right then. Not after what he had just been through the last several years.

He'd written them each a letter explaining it all, even one to Morgan and Pepper since Tony was gone, and they were all sitting back at home, his new home at the VA retirement center, with stamps and addresses, waiting to be dropped in the mailbox which he would do as soon as he got back. He finally came to the road, where the nondescript black car was waiting for him. He opened the passenger side door, and slid into the front seat. Sharon Carter, her hair pulled back under a baseball cap and large obnoxious sun glasses pulled down low over her nose, obscuring half her face, turned to look at him.

"All done?" she asked.

"All done." He nodded. "Finally. Now I can rest. We can rest."

She nodded and started the engine, but said nothing. She pulled out onto the highway, leaving the Avengers behind.

"Thanks for driving me, kiddo," he said.

"I was worried about you going alone,' she admitted. "It was bound to be emotional. After all this time I mean."

"Was easier than I thought it would be. I've had a lot of time to prepare. They haven't, poor kids," he said.

"How did Bucky take it?" she asked.

"Better than I thought." Steve shook his head.

"You told me yourself that he knew what you were going to do because you told him," Sharon said. "Why would he be surprised?"

"Yeah but he didn't know when I'd turn back up. And maybe he thought I change my mind or something," Steve said.

"He knows you better than anyone alive," Sharon said. "Almost as much as Aunt Peggy did."

"And you too," Steve said quietly, almost sadly. "I know this hasn't been easy on you."

She smiled. "Don't worry about me. I did what you needed me to do. I mean it was crazy weird, seeing you as young as you were, watching you living next door for S.H.I.E.L.D. while warning older you not to visit Peg because younger you was on his way, helping younger you with Bucky in Germany while pretending I didn't know how it would all turn out. Disguising you at your own wife's funeral so younger you wouldn't see you. Only time I had trouble was kissing my own uncle under a bridge. And...well, you know. Though it certainly helps that you were damn hot as a young man."

"Were?" He laughed.

"I've done worse in the line of duty. I once had to make out with a known Hydra agent to distract him during a S.H.I.E.L.D. mission. I promise, you were a lot easier. I mean I admit, I thought you were bonkers when you told me all this all those years ago. Took me a while to accept that it was true and my role in it."

"What convinced you?" Steve asked.

"9-11 mostly. You knew before it happened. You knew the results of the last presidential election. No way in hell I'd have believed that. And the two before that. Or that the Saints would ever win a Superbowl. But when you showed me the time travel suit, back about 12 years ago, right before I joined S.H.I.E.L.D. That was pretty much it."
Sharon glanced at him before turning her attention back to the road, heading back to the VA home. His grown son Edwin now lived in the house that had been Steve's home with Peggy for decades near Arlington. At the moment, his daughter Lily and her family were also living at that house, having lost their home during the Decimation to squatters. Sharon was temporarily staying in the apartment over the garage. It was going to be rough readjusting everyone to the world five years after they had all disappeared, including Sharon herself, though she had known it was coming, but at least they had a place to be. He had moved into the retirement home just the previous week, leaving the house to the younger generation of the family, deciding that his retirement would also mean removing himself from the world in which he had lived.

"Thank you Sharon. For everything," he said quietly. Sadly.

She looked like she wanted to say something, but hesitated, and then simply said "You're welcome Uncle Steve."

And she drove him home.

It took Bucky an entire week to show up at his door. Steve suspected his old friend had probably actually found him within hours, despite Sharon's prowess at flying under the radar. It was a testament to how good Bucky had been as the Winter Soldier to have followed them without Sharon knowing about it. She was nothing if not thorough. They had hidden his identity for nearly a century, first Peggy, then Sharon, from the rest of the world and it would be a damn thing indeed if he could be found out now at this point in his life. Not that he resembled Steve "Captain America" Rogers as he had appeared in USO posters anymore. That young fit Adonis of a guy had faded over decades, though slower than normal. By the year 1980, he had aged and gained some gray in his hair, lost some muscles tone and was moving slower, but still didn't look over the age of 50. But in the decade that followed, he had aged rapidly, catching up with Peggy rather steadily over the next 30 years, still looking fairly decent for someone who had maintained a presence on the earth for something like 150 years, even with a 70 year ice nap and time travel involved.

They couldn't take him to a doctor without giving away who he was and sparking a rush of scientists eager to get their hands on his blood and the serum that apparently prolonged life. The last word on the subject had been Howard Stark, only weeks before his death and the last remaining scientist on the Project Rebirth team. Stark had created the chamber that had blasted Steve with gamma radiation following the injection with the serum that activated it. Howard had suggested that the serum was breaking down as the gamma radiation effects began to abate over time. Rather like a rechargeable battery losing its charge. He had told Steve that another exposure to the radiation might reactivate the serum and de-age him, but Steve declined. Once had been quite enough and he was retired. After Howard's death, Steve had become something of a recluse, especially when Peggy had slowed down and gotten ill. Her death the first time around had hurt pretty bad, but experiencing it a second time damn near killed Steve after having spent a lifetime with her. It was actually something of a relief knowing the actual date. That hadn't changed, nor the fact that she had gotten ill with dementia. It gave him a timeframe of how much time they had left together. If it hadn't been for Sharon constantly checking on him and bugging him, he might have curled up and just waited to die himself. But he had known that he was far from done with his mission, The Plan as he and Sharon had come to call it over the years. There was no way he could do what needed to be done to ensure that Thanos would be defeated in this timeline without her help. It had hurt, but they had even kept much of it from Peggy. Steve had suspected that his wife had known for more than either of them had known, though.

Sharon herself had had to be convinced several times over the years to stay on the program. More than once, Steve had felt an overwhelming guilt over what he had required her to do over the years to ensure that the Avengers came together and that "younger him" did what needed to be done to set up for the battle that would end in Thanos' defeat. More than once she had angrily called him a bastard, stormed off claiming she was never coming back, even yelled at him to leave her alone and out of his schemes. He knew he deserved it. Which was why he was more than grateful when she got him settled in the VA home, and had ensured that The Plan was finally at a close once he had given Sam the shield. She had fussed over him, had taken time off from her new job as a private investigator, since no intelligence agency wanted to even talk to her after her situations with S.H.I.E.L.D. and the CIA helping his younger self had burned all her bridges, just to take care of him. She stopped by three times a week to make sure he had groceries, fix him a homemade dinner as a break from a constant string of deliveries or cafeteria food, and once a week they spent an evening watching Dancing with the Stars, now in its 20th season. It had been Peggy's favorite show and when Sharon had time, they had all watched it together at the nursing home as Peggy slowly faded away. Sharon had suggested that they keep up the tradition, so that weeknight, with Steve in his easy chair and Sharon on the couch, they'd watch celebrities dance and comment on the performance like they were professional judges or something.

When she had dropped him off at his place after he hand-delivered the shield to Sam, she had put a lasagna in the oven and waited until it was cooked, make sure everything was turned off and that he had a plate and was settled in for the TV, and then had to leave because she was working on a case.

"Working late tonight?" he had asked her.

"Yep. Another potentially cheating husband not living his best life. Joy. It's a dandy use of all of my training, I assure you."

"I'm sorry kiddo," he winced. "I didn't mean for all of this to impact you as much as it did."

She shrugged. "It was unavoidable. It certainly could've been worse. And I'm not mad. At least I get to catch up on my Audiobooks while I'm staking out. Speaking of which, I've got a run. I'll try to stop by this weekend."

He had squeezed her hand, and she had bustled out of the front door. That had been six days ago, and she had been the last person he had talked to. Now, at the knock at his front door, using a pattern that was somewhat familiar, Steve had arisen from his easy chair, checked to make sure the gun he always kept loaded in a drawer near the front door was where it was supposed to be, and peeked out of the peephole to see Bucky Barnes standing on the other side. With a sigh, Steve opened the door.

"So, it worked?" asked Bucky.

"So it would appear," Steve quipped back at him, standing aside to let his old friend enter the small living area.

Bucky walked in slowly, taking in the surroundings. There were not many photographs on the walls that were common in the rooms of the other veterans living at the home. The furniture had all come from Steve's house, though there was not much of it. It was clear he had not lived there very long.

"You just move in?" he asked Steve.

Steve walked past him to the kitchen to retrieve a couple of mugs for some coffee. He nodded. "My son and his family are living in the house. My daughter and her family are living there for the time being. They both used to live out in California, but when the Decimation happened, I was the only one left standing from the entire family. I had all of their stuff packed up into moving containers and brought here, and their houses sold. It was just as well, apparently there were some squatters in my daughter's house. I kept all of their stuff at our family home for the last five years, and when they returned, I knew they would need a place to stay. So I turned the house over to my son Edwin, and moved here. That's only been in the last couple of weeks."

Bucky was shaking his head. "I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that I saw you three weeks ago, you didn't look a day older than 38, you didn't have a wife and kids, and now I'm standing here in front of you while you talk about your grown children and grandchildren. I gotta tell you, this is weird man."

Steve chuckled. "I suppose it is. I imagine everybody has some questions? Especially Sam. Why didn't he come too?"

"He wanted to," admitted Bucky. "But I asked him to let me talk to you alone first. 'Questions' doesn't even begin to cover it. When you told me the night before that you were going to go back and stay, I honestly thought you might change your mind and come back."

"Why?" asked Steve.

"Because up until that point, you had spent more time with the Avengers and in this time than you did back with the Commandos in 1945. I mean hell, man, you were on and off with Sharon for two straight years, longer than with Peggy. And, oh man, Sharon? Did she always know about all of this? She had to have."

Steve handed him a mug of steaming black coffee, made from an ancient percolator similar to the one they used to have in the 1940s. "Why don't you sit down?" he said. "I probably owe you the whole story, but it's a long one."

Bucky wanted to keep firing questions, his mind a jumble of confusion that both he and Sam had already spent hours struggling over between themselves in the last week. But instead, he nodded and sat down in the nearest easy chair as Steve settled himself into one that clearly was his own favorite chair. Steve took a sip of the coffee, set it aside and folded his hands. Then he began to speak.