It really hits him that the woman up there is Peggy Carter as the hot water runs over his skin. It's not his Peggy Carter, but still. He feels the soap drip off his broad shoulders and he thinks back to the story she told.

He got shot— Howard built him a machine— never got to tell him either-

And that's the part that makes his lungs struggle to breathe in air.

Not only had this Peggy Carter gotten the serum and turned into a more powerful incredible person than she already was, but she had loved him. Not him, the super soldier who was tall and could throw a tank. But him, the scrawny scrappy guy who didn't back down from a fight.

His throat was tight with disbelief. He'd never been fully sure his Peggy had loved his skinny self, although he thought she might have. But here was irrefutable proof that she'd loved him just as much then as she might have now. And it left a terrible longing ache in his chest.

Even here in this universe they'd been separated.

Was that their fate in every universe? Was there a universe out there where Steve made it home or was found or where the portal didn't wait 70 years to drop Peggy back where she belonged? Where they reunited and finally spoke their feelings and they danced?

His fist clenches against the tile wall and he hopes.

He hopes so.

Somewhere somehow he hopes so. For their sakes.

—-

"So you gonna hit that?"

Tony looks up in surprise as Natasha leans over the counter and waggles her eyebrows at Peggy.

Instead of responding in embarrassment or annoyance, Peggy slowly turns towards the red-head and glares. "If you think, this cosmic joke, of having the man I loved and lost dropped on my doorstep, only to then have to return him home, with no hope of a future together, means I would put my heart and body on the line by sleeping with said man, simply because I can and it might be my only opportunity, you don't know me at all." Natasha just blinks in surprise and Peggy straightens, "joke about that in front of him and you'll find all your weapons crushed into the shape of my fist."

She stalks out of the room and Tony looks to the widow, who for one of the very first times he's ever seen, looks caught off guard. Natasha looks at him, and instead of being chastised or annoyed, genuine sadness crosses her gestures. "Damn. She must have really loved him."

His eyes trail to the door she'd disappeared into, "yeah… I guess so…"

—-

After picking the glass out from underneath his skin, he slips on Clint's shirt and pants, and it is quite snug, but thankfully the material gives a bit, so while it's tight, it's still moveable.

He exits the room and the archer stares up at him, "it's not fair. You don't even have to try. You just look like a freaking Greek god without any effort."

Steve laughs, "I spent 20 plus years as a struggling asthmatic. I've only technically been a super soldier for—" he pauses counting back, "maybe less than 4 years. I haven't forgotten what it's like." He stretches his shoulders and he tilts his head, "and I'm sure Peggy's told you guys of the cons."

The blonde looks up, "huh? Cons?"

Steve stops, "yeah. There's a ton of cons."

Clint stands and looks at him, "like what? What could possibly be a con?"

He tilts his head, and confusion fills him first before concern that… "she—" he stops, not wanting to trample on this new Peggy's privacy. "Maybe it's different for me. Our starting points were very different for the serum…" he's trying to rationalize it in his mind, "maybe we don't experience it the same."

But Clint here, just like in his universe, only acts like an idiot. He is in fact, incredibly intelligent and perceptive, "what cons?"

Steve scrubs at the back of his neck, choosing one of the lighter ones, "I mean… I have to eat… so much food. It's downright disgusting. And it never ends. You could feed a small city with what I have to eat. And a big city if Thor and I are together—-" he pauses, "did you guys have Thor?"

Clint smiles, "yeah, we did, Chiaturi?"

Steve frowns, "yep, Loki's a piece of work."

"No arguments there." Clint smirks at him, "it's crazy how similar the timelines are. Just…"

Steve nods, feeling solemn, "just us."

Clint waves him to the door, leading him back to the common room, "what other cons?"

—-

Tony hears the elevator ding and he looks up along with Natasha and Peggy who had returned shortly after her pointed speech to Natasha.

Clint steps out with a fresh and clean and fully dressed Steve Rogers behind him.

Except now, instead of being annoyed and vocal that they're playing some joke, he seems much more quiet and reserved, almost nervous.

"Hey Steve." Natasha starts, "what do they call you back home?"

"What?"

"Like, am I Black Widow there?"

Steve nods, "yes, and Hawkeye—" he points to Clint, then to Tony, "Iron Man."

"And you go by?"

Steve grins wryly. "I prefer Steve or if we're out on a mission I prefer Captain or Rogers, but…" he wrinkles his nose, "my public name is Captain America."

They guffaw and Tony shakes his head, "why?"

And Steve tells them, about how after Erskine, Phillips had been against him going to the front lines and how Senator Brandt had made him the face of the war bond sales. Then he'd eventually traveled with the USO to Europe, and he briefly retells flying into enemy airspace with Howard and his Peggy before bringing Bucky back from behind enemy lines.

Tony is in shock at his dad while Peggy just smiles, "that's when I met Barnes actually, after Azzano, and when you first came on the scene. We became a team that day."

Steve smiles back, "yeah, us too."

Tony notices that Steve has gone from staring her in the eyes and yelling that she's an imposter to only glancing up and back at her semi-nervously. And he wonders about that very much.

"I'm surprised you're not drinking yourself under the table."

Tony looks up to see Steve looking at him with an eyebrow raised. He furrows his brow, "uh what? Why?"

Steve chuckles, "come on, every time we discover something maddeningly outside of your field of knowledge, you get yourself black out drunk and then solve the problem in the morning." Steve seems to pick up on the surprise on their faces, "do you.. you don't do that here?"

Tony tilts his head, "I can only think of one time where I got so drunk I couldn't walk, that was… geez, I think maybe my 21st? But I don't really drink much…"

Tony watches as something strange crosses Steve's face. "Did you and Howard…" he winces as if expecting the question to hurt, "have a rough relationship?"

Tony laughs, and then realizes he's serious, "what? No— I mean, no way, we had our parent child squabbles and he always expected more of me than I felt was fair but… no, he was a great dad." Something is calculating behind Steve's eyes and Tony feels uneasy, "what is it?"

"Back home, he—" he grimaces, "he really struggled. As a dad and with work life balance." Steve swallows thickly, "he spent a lot of years wasting his time searching for my plane and me, and he didn't—-" Tony can read how uncomfortable Steve feels as he speaks, "he didn't do a great job showing his love to you, and you grew up hating my guts. Fairly so."

Tony's not sure how a person stuck in the ocean can be at fault for another person's actions but he doesn't comment.

"In Howard's files, it mentions that he did have a hard time at first," Peggy starts softly, "that when I disappeared he did everything he could to try to bring me back. But Steve— my Steve," Tony notices that this Steve winces at that, "he and Barnes convinced him that it wasn't his fault, and to let it go." She laughs, "I mean, he didn't completely, or I wouldn't be here, but… I think they helped keep him afloat… and it sounds as if he didn't have that back in your home."

Steve looks at her, "he had you, and you really tried, but he felt it was his fault for losing me and thought you'd blame him, so it wasn't the same."

Tony feels very wobbly as he sinks into a counter stool. "Geez. So, I'm a drunk?"

Steve laughs, "you've grown out of it, mostly." Then he shakes his head, "do you all really not have the Hulk here?"

"The what?"

"Dr. Bruce Banner—"

"You've mentioned him several times, what does he have to do with anything?"

"He started messing with the serum and tried to recreate it, but instead of Vita-Rays, he used Gamma and it turned him into a giant monster, but he goes back and forth, it's kind of dictated by his emotions. But he's real helpful in a fight. And a super nice guy when he's not a giant green rage monster." Tony sees a quirk of his lips as if he'd told himself a private joke.

"My dad here really tried to lock down any and all serum research, so maybe he never had the chance."

Steve nods, "yeah, maybe… that's wild. This is…" his eyes dart to Peggy and then back down, "wild."

"I think I need some food." Natasha says quickly, "come on Clint, let's go." She yanks the archer forward and then snags Tony's shirt, "you too, old man."

Tony yelps, "hey! Watch it!" But Natasha's giving him the 'don't mess with me look' so he obeys, allowing himself to be led to the elevator where they step inside. The last view they get is two very tall, very muscular, very powerful, people looking very terrified.

—-

The very unsubtle disappearance of the other three leaves them suddenly, and very terrifyingly, alone.

Every bit of his 95lb nervousness around this particular woman comes rearing back. Even with the confirmation that she loved this universe's him. He's not him. And he's not sure what to do or say.

"I guess we should just buck up and talk about it, shall we?" She offers, "are you hungry?"

He is. He's always hungry. But he can't even think about food right now. Except it does remind him. "Do you have to eat a lot?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"I was talking to Clint about the cons of the serum and he seemed surprised. So I thought maybe you don't have the same issues I do. I have to eat truckloads of food, and even more when I'm injured… do you not?"

Her nose scrunches, "I do… I just do it in private." She smirks at him and he feels a bit of the tension ease.

"Oh, okay." He's not sure why he's relieved, but he is. "Is everything crazy loud?"

Her laugh rings through the common room. And she reaches up, pulling dampeners out and showing them to him. "Do you wear some?"

"I do, just don't have them with me."

"And your sense of smell?"

He nods, "overwhelming a lot of the time. Touch?"

"I had to tell Anthony to use different fabric for my uniforms or that I would have to fight in the nude. It was so itchy."

He feels his cheeks go red at the mention and his ears get hot.

Suddenly she's standing right in front of him, her hand brushing against the skin and the softest smile on her lips, "even now, all strong and healthy and the mouth of a sailor you're still the same man, aren't you?"

He stares at her in surprise for a bit, before wrinkling his nose, "mouth of a sailor?"

"Jarvis?"

A screen lights up and he sees himself land in the lab, leaping up and looking furious, "Damn fucking Tesseract!"

It goes blank and he winces, "I— would you understand if I said I was having a really bad day?"

She laughs softly and looks back at him, "we're in quite the situation, aren't we?"

"When are we not in quite the situation?"

And at this she smiles sadly.

—-

"What are you looking at?"

Tony startles and flips his phone face side down. "What? Nothing."

But Clint's quick, snatching his phone and looking at the screen. He grins, "ohh you're spying!"

Natasha gasps, but she doesn't admonish him, she peers over Clint's shoulder. 'What's happening?"

"Just talking so far, apparently Carter eats a ton of food. Who knew?"

"Steve mentioned that!" Clint exclaims, eyeing Peggy on the screen closer. "And he mentioned other things about the serum that Carter's never mentioned and I never thought of. Not great stuff."

They don't have time to ask what because their attention gets taken by Peggy suddenly moving incredibly close to Steve and brushing her fingers against his cheek.

And maybe they'd be making fun of her or teasing amongst themselves if she hadn't already laid out the gravity and sadness of the situation.

—

Steve follows Peggy to the couch where she sits, one leg up on the cushion to face him better. He mirrors her position and their knees touch. He looks down and knows he should scoot back. To put distance between them, but he doesn't and when he looks up, she seems unwilling to move as well. So he stays.

"So," she begins, "tell me about yourself, I sort of assume everything up until the serum is the same?"

He recounts bits and pieces that are important to his childhood and she nods along, already knowing. He learns that her brother had also died in that universe and her exploits up till the SSR were the same.

"But you're trying to tell me that Schmidt tried to pull in a tentacled monster to make the earth submit to his will using the Tesseract? And you fought it with your shield and a sword?"

She laughs, "indeed."

"That's way more exciting than me." He says, eyes on the couch.

She leans forward, her perfume, different than he remembers but still warm and inviting fills the space, "Steve, you crashed that plane knowing you were giving up your life. I had no idea what was on the other side of that portal. And I was only fighting him for a few hours before I came back out, I—-" she stops and her hand rests on his knee, "I can't imagine what you went through, and I'm ever so sorry for my counterpart that she lost you. Maybe we weren't exactly the same, but if she and you shared any interest then I'm sure it was true." He can't speak over the knot in his throat, just nods. then she smiles a pleased with herself smile as she continues, "I asked Barnes, one day, once I'd returned and he was having a good memory day, if my Steve had ever…" she looks at him with a sort of embarrassed expression, "if Steve had ever dipped his toe back into the dating pool after I was gone and he looked at me like I was insane. 'Carter—' " she mimics, "'I never saw a man so set on being alone. I asked him if he thought you'd want him to be sad and lonely and he glared at me. 'I had the right partner', he said, 'and maybe it wasn't for as long as I would have liked. But she was mine. or I hope she would have been. It's not right of me to try to find another woman. My heart wouldn't be in it, and it wouldn't be fair to her'."

Steve looks up in surprise at the crack in Peggy's words. Her jaw is set tight, fighting against the emotion and Steve reaches out without thought, resting his large hand over hers, "I know he meant it. There was no one better than you Peggy."

She gives a wobbly laugh and covers her eyes, "oh I wish so many times I would have just thrown decorum out the window and kissed him." Steve makes a surprised sound and she looks at him, "what?" A small half smile tugs on the corner of his lips. "Steve, what?"

"When Phillips was driving us in Schmidt's car to catch up to the Valkyrie, I was about to take the leap and you— she pulled me down and kissed me, right there in front of Phillips." Her wide eyes and 'o' shaped mouth make him want to laugh, "I can't ever say how grateful I was for that. Gave me a lot more courage than I had on my own."

Her eyes soften and get sad, "well, at least you have that. More than I have."

The sadness at that makes him frown, "I'm sure if he was anything like me he wanted to. And he should have. Like you said, decorum be damned. It was war, we should have known that nothing was certain."

She nods, "thank you. It's good to hear it even if I'd thought that was true. Confirmation from the source is nice." She gives him a cheeky grin and then it sort of freezes on her face.

"Peggy? What is it?"

"I've just realized that we will know each other is out there. Forever. And not be able to even talk to each other." Her eyes hold the almost century worth of sadness. "I've so loved having you back as a conversation partner. You- he was the best to talk to about anything. If I needed to go over plans, or briefings or if I needed someone to distract me. I always went to Steve."

He grins, "not Dum-Dum?"

She laughs, "only if I wanted a stiff drink."

His eyes widen, "you can get drunk?"

"No, no." She says quickly, her curls bouncing as her head shakes, "but I enjoyed pretending it might be possible."

He laughs and nods. "I do a lot of that." He sighs. "Pretending to be normal."

She eyes him curiously, "such as?"

"Pretending I can't hear their heartbeats change when they see people they love or when they lie. Pretending I don't hear them whispering, trying to have a conversation in private but somehow I can still hear. Pretending I can't tear through that wall if I wanted to," he points, gesturing to the thick wall that leads to the hallways. "Pretending that the future is so much better—" he pauses, looking At her seriously, "don't get me wrong. Some of the things they've done are phenomenal—"

"The food."

"The food!" He laughs agreeing, "absolutely, the food. And the race relations, I remember the shit they would always give Jim or Gabe and now—" he frowns, "well, still lots of work to be done but it is better. And the technology is nice. But there's a lot I miss as well. But sometimes I wonder if that's just tied to the people…"

Her eyes search his face, "are the avengers not your friends?"

He shrugs, "I mean, we've fought together, and that's great. And Bruce is nice and Thor and I have a lot in common surprisingly. But my Natasha keeps everyone at arms length. And Clint is Clint." She laughs, "and Tony hated my guts at first. And honestly the feeling was mutual. We're… okay now. But it's not like the commandos. No one has even half an idea about what we can do and what we lived through. Not that they haven't had their own rough times and bad childhoods. They all have, but my specific case is so isolated. Not only in scenario but it's a whole other generation. It's just… It's very…" he lets his eyes close as he tips his head back, resting it on the couch, "it's lonely."

A hand rests on his cheek and then she's suddenly beside him, shoving his leg out of the way and sliding under his arm, pressing her cheek against his shirt and listening to his heart.

The heat from her body warms him and he has to keep his eyes closed so the emotion doesn't show. He does allow his arm to drop around her, pulling her snuggly against him.

She "hmms" for a second before speaking, "while they're not the commandos, the team here have become like genuine friends… Tony was most welcoming and Natasha and I bond quite a bit about the highs and lows of female espionage. And so, while I miss touches of home or certain aspects of back then, I don't think I'm quite as separated as you are." He just listens, her voice soothing even if her words are painful to hear, although he's glad she's having an easier time. "You could stay."

He looks up, unsure if he heard her correctly, "what?"

Her fingers trace a circle on his shirt and she looks at the couch stubbornly before looking at him in the eyes and nodding, "you could stay."

"Don't." He whispers, "don't say that. Don't offer that."

"Why not?"

He frowns, his throat getting tight again, "because I would. I would do it in a heartbeat. If you wanted me to stay, if you asked me to stay and fight by your side, I would."

And he means it. To have a second cosmic chance at a life with Peggy isn't something he thinks he's strong enough to turn down a second time. Not that the first was very voluntary, but still.

She stares at him for a moment and he can see her mind working, then she sighs, "I know. I know you're right. They need you there as much as I hope I'm needed here."

"You are." He affirms. "I can tell."

"I think the universe has it out for us."

He laughs, a painfully sad little laugh, "it feels that way doesn't it?"

She nods, and he feels anxiety shiver through him as he gets an idea.

"Peggy?"

"Hmm?"

And it takes more courage for him to ask this question then it took to fight Schmidt or the Chitauri or any other battle.

"Would you be upset if I kissed you?"

She slowly looks up and is speechless for a moment before her eyes get sad, "won't that just make parting more difficult?"

"Yes." He admits, "it will. But—" he thinks back to himself, lying in that godforsaken metal pod as Peggy looked back at him, hesitant to leave his side. Well here, in this universe, she'd blatantly refused. Sticking in the room and saving his life in the process. "— I owe it to him. To the Steve of here. He'd want you to know he loves you. Because I want you to know he—" he pauses, "I love you." She opens her mouth but he stops her, "I know we're not them. Each other's others. But we are us. And I loved and do love Peggy Carter. And that's you. And I'd be a damned fool to waste the one opportunity the universe gives me to show you."

She doesn't respond, but she does nod, tilting her chin up a bit and letting her eyes flutter closed.

He doesn't hesitate. He leans forward, pressing his lips to hers and bringing his hands up to cradle her face. Gently holding her and brushing her cheeks with the soft pads of his thumbs while he does everything in his power to emanate love and comfort into this one kiss. She never got to kiss her Steve. And his other self was a fool to not take advantage. But she deserves to be loved. So he can pick up that slack. Even if it's just for one kiss.

He begins to pull back but she snatches his shirt, not allowing him to escape and kisses him back fiercely, her strong hands running through his hair and settling around his neck as her lips move against his.

When she finally breaks from him, resting her forehead against his, her laugh is breathy, "I think if I'd tried that with this Steve he would have had an attack."

Steve laughs, holding her tightly against his chest, "he wouldn't have minded."

"Inhalers." She says softly. "Inhalers are good."

He kisses the top of her hair and nods, "yeah. The future's got some things right."

—

It's lonely

They hear Steve say, and they glance at each other. The sadness in his voice evident.

But their attention goes back when Peggy drops a bomb.

You could stay

Natasha looks at Tony and he winces. He can't imagine how painful this situation must be. She'd just snapped at Natasha for the fact that he had to go home, and here she was, going back on her word.

But Steve surprises them. Letting Peggy know it's the only thing he wants to do and the one thing he can't.

And when Steve asks if he can kiss her, Tony hits the power button. Neither Clint or Natasha protest.

"It's not fun when it's sad." Clint pouts.

Tony just nods.

Natasha's phone rings and she looks at it, sliding to 'answer' and listening to the recording.

She grimaces. "Fury needs her and I on a mission stat. Their reunion is going to be cut short."

—-

They sit there for a long time. Mostly in companionable silence. They don't kiss again, but she doesn't try to leave his embrace and he wouldn't let her anyway.

"It's so funny." He says without any humor at all. "I've been wishing. You know… hoping and holding out these random ideas that somehow things would go back. Or time would reverse, or maybe this was all just a bad dream. A funny prank the commandos were playing or Howard accidentally got caught up on one of his machines and it knocked me into a coma where I imagined the future." She looks up at him with an eyebrow raised. He winces, "I know. Not at all dramatic." She snorts but he continues. "I've just been…" he sighs, "the Tesseract has taken so much from me, and when Tony kept messing with it, somehow placing a value on it, I just got so annoyed. Then he goes and blows himself and his lab half to pieces and there that damn thing is. Sitting in the middle of the floor, mocking me. And I just grabbed it, wishing I could—" his voice cuts off as his mind connects the pieces.

Oh.

He feels his pulse quicken and she looks up, "Steve? What is it?"

"I think I know why I jumped."

"What? You do?"

"It's a portal right? An incredibly powerful portal. But it can be used, or adjusted or manipulated right? Schmidt here did with his monster, and Zola did with his weapons, and Loki did with the chitauri, and before Loki, Selvig said it was behaving and reacting as if it was alive. A powerful force of will. But—" he looks at her sadly, "I think my will was equal to its."

"What do you mean?"

"When I picked it up in Tony's lab, my last thought, before the cube picked me up, was going to be "is it too much to ask for something good to come of that damn cube?" He puts a finger under her chin, "and maybe that cube is smarter than I give it credit for because it brought me here. I didn't even know I was wishing for you. But of course I was. I always wish for you. I bet I wish for you in every universe."

Her eyes slip closed as a tear exits one of the corners. He cradles her face again, wiping the tear away with his thumb and feeling a sense of finality at that statement.

He knows it's true.

"Steve." She whispers out, her voice hoarse and broken. And he can't listen to her talk like that or he will break. So he leans forward and presses a kiss to her forehead, and then her nose, and just briefly on her lips.

"I love you, Peggy Carter. He loved you. And not that it's fair to say but I won't ever stop. Take care of yourself here, you promise?"

She nods, her eyes sad but determined. "And you," she starts, "you'll find someone to remind you of home. Promise me?"

Their foreheads rest against each other. "Promise."

—-

Tony's not sure what they'll find when they exit the lobby to the common room, but Steve and Peggy cooking something in the kitchen, while a Glenn Miller record plays Sunrise Serenade should have been higher on his guesses list.

"I bet anything it was friendly fire." Steve is saying as he flips something in a pan. "No way Germans or anyone else shot him that far away from their enemy lines."

"You're accusing the British of shooting down America's Golden Bugle Boy?"

"Or the French. That's where he was headed, you know."

She laughs and Tony realizes that he's never heard her laugh quite like that before. And he just gets sad all over again.

"Hey guys." Clint says, pretending to alert them to their presence as if their super hearing hadn't picked them up probably 5 floors away.

"Hello," they both respond way too cheerily for their situation.

"Steve knows how to get home."

They stammer to a halt, "what?"

The man nods, "at least I think I do. It's just a guess… but I'm usually right." He winks at Peggy who laughs and serves up a huge stack of French toast onto two plates.

"We will feed him and then send him home."

"Whew," Natasha says stepping forward, causing the two soldiers to look up in surprise. Natasha stops, "not like that!" She smirks, "Fury sent us the location of that ship, the Lemurian Star? And he wants us heading that way stat. But I really didn't want to be the one to uh—" she pauses and Peggy smiles.

"Not a problem. We eat fast." Steve laughs and they walk to the table, setting down their plates and talking, as if they weren't about to lose each other. Again.

—

Steve stands in the center of the lab, just where he fell.

Tony hands him the Tesseract and he feels the energy thrum.

He looks over to where they all stand but his eyes are on Peggy.

"Peggy."

She doesn't answer, just waits.

"Don't forget. In every universe, I'd wish for you."

He looks at the cube and expands his will, feeling their energies intertwine in a way that was strange before but is familiar now. And he closes his eyes.

Time to go home.

And when cube gets hot, bending to his will, he looks up one last time to see her staring at him with such intensity that he can't decide where the heat is actually coming from.

And then the world gets too bright and she's cut from his vision.

—-

Peggy's about to step out of her door to meet Natasha for DC when something catches her eye. She steps over to her bed and sees a pair of pajama pants folded neatly with a note on top.

He left these in my room. And as comfy as they look, I think they're more your size.

-CB

She gently lifts the pajama pants and runs the soft material through her fingers.

I'd wish for you in every universe

She hopes he knows that she wishes for him too.

—-

He drops down and lands gracefully on his feet. Able to anticipate the jump this time.

The lab looks clean.

Which surprises him. He thought he'd jump back to the same time.

Dread fills his stomach at the thought of having skipped more time. But a quick trip to his floor shows no change. All his stuff is still there, and someone, probably Tony has placed his Shield on his bed.

The shield.

He slaps his forehead, he never even asked if she'd had a shield! He wonders what it would have looked like as he takes the elevator to the common room.

"JARVIS?"

Yes Captain Rogers?

"How long ago did I disappear from the lab, and how much are they losing it?"

Amusement is present in the AI's voice.

Just over a day sir, and they've lost it quite a bit. The rest are quite angry at Mr. Stark.

He exits to find a very solemn room and his is and isn't surprised to find that JARVIS did not want them he was back.

"Hey guys." He calls, as their eyes swivel to the elevator.

"Steve!" Comes the chorus of voices. They gather around him and Tony leans in, "are you hurt? What happened? I—" then the man pauses and Steve is surprised to see genuine guilt on his face, "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have— you told me and I—"

"Tony." Steve says firmly, cutting him off. "It's alright."

Tony's eyes go wide, probably expecting a lecture.

"What happened?" Clint asks, curiosity clear on his face.

"I don't remember. I was here and then gone and then I was here again."

They stare at him, "you've been gone for over a day!" Natasha asks.

"But I'm back now." He states calmly.

And Clint, ever the perceptive, looks at him with observant eyes, "you're lying to us."

Steve nods, feeling a smile on his lips. He's a terrible liar. He should've known. "Yes. I am."

"So you're just not going to tell us what happened?" Tony asks incredulously.

And her face flashes in his mind's eye. Youthful and strong and vibrant and every bit the woman he remembered.

"No." He says with a smile. "I'm not."

They scoff and look annoyed, but they don't try. They know him well enough to know it would be pointless.

"Well fine." Natasha says, "I hope you're up for another trip because Fury called you and me back to DC. We need to go find a Shield ship that's not where it should be."

And disbelief fills him. He raises an eyebrow, "The Lemurian Star?"

Natasha looks up, "how the hell do you know that!?"

Steve smiles. "Just a guess." They stare at him like he's grown another head. But truthfully it's his heart that's grown. Since arriving in the future, it had been suffering. Shrinking like that ridiculous movie Tony had made him watch at Christmas. He'd… he'd lost his way a bit. His purpose.

But now.

Knowing she's out there. Fighting the same fight. Thinking of him.

He's got something to fight for. His universe. And hers.

Theirs.

"Come on." He says to Natasha, "meet you at the helipad in 10."

—