Author's note: Thanks to those who have left reviews: Guest, dissatisfied user, LaneFlames2014 and also SJS300 (your story sounds different from mine, let me know when you start posting and I will check it out!). I appreciate the feedback from everyone!

1965

Mike and Sarah's teenage years flew by in a flurry of homework and football and cheer and their first tentative attempts at dating, and before Steve and Peggy knew it, they were sitting in the audience for the twins' graduation ceremony, fighting back tears as they watched their children walk across the stage to accept their diplomas. Mike had finally grown into his height, looking less like a gangly teenager and more like a man, to the point that if it weren't for the difference in hair color, Peggy admitted she could hardly tell the difference between Steve and Mike from behind and at a distance.

Sarah, who had always acted older than she looked, had finally found some equilibrium in that respect. She was beautiful enough that Steve worried about how she would be treated by the young men around her now that he would no longer be able to keep a close eye on her, especially since she had retained all her gentleness from her childhood years, but she also had a good dose of practicality that she'd inherited from Peggy, and he repeatedly reminded himself that she would be fine. At the end of the summer she was bound for George Washington University in Washington, D.C., determined to pursue a medical career. Mike had plans to go to American University, just 5 miles away from her, to study international affairs as a stepping stone to becoming a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.

But those plans went out the window the day he was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War.

The day they saw him off for his Army training, Mike was much more subdued than normal, and looked as though he would rather have skipped the whole farewell routine completely. He had always hated serious moments, and his tendency was to lighten the mood with jokes and good-natured teasing, but he had taken one look at his sister's silently stricken expression from the moment she had come downstairs that morning and had been visibly restraining himself ever since. The result had been a strangely quiet and awkward ride to the train station for the whole family.

They walked him to the platform, but when it was time to part, the tears Peggy had been valiantly holding back all morning started to spill down her cheeks.

"Mom, I'll be fine," Mike said swiftly. "You taught me how to shoot as well as you do, and I learned hand fighting from the best soldier in the world, remember?"

Peggy didn't say anything, but Steve knew from the look on her face that she was thinking what he was thinking: that in the chaos of a battlefield, sometimes even the best of soldiers got unlucky... and despite all the physical advantages Mike had, he wasn't immortal anymore than Steve himself was.

"This won't be the same kind of war your mother and I fought," Steve reminded him. "You'll be an outsider, stuck in the middle of a civil war. Both sides are locked in the conflict, and neither one is going to give up easily. Your commanders aren't looking to take territory and hold it. They just won't have enough numbers for that. You'll be constantly falling back and moving back in. Make sure you watch your squadron's backs at all times... and that they know to watch yours."

"I know, Dad," Mike said with a touch of impatience. "I remember everything you told me."

"Well, it makes me feel better to say it again."

"You have a unique opportunity, darling," Peggy said, a little calmer now that she had dabbed the tears away with a handkerchief. "Sometimes, in the course of a war, a soldier can be so focused on surviving in the moment that he can lose sight of the larger picture. He can teach himself to believe the propaganda about his enemies, to forget what's wrong and what's right beyond the needs of the moment. You'll have your objectives to fulfill, and many of them will be good and right, and maybe some of them less so. Be sure to think about every order you're given, and show restraint when you can. Don't ever forget that the people you're fighting are still people, just like you. Perhaps your example can help your comrades remember it, too."

"I'll make you proud, Mom," he promised quietly.

Peggy smiled through her tear-filled eyes. "You already do," she said, reaching up to lay a hand against his cheek. Then she hugged him fiercely and didn't let him go for a long time.

Then it was Steve's turn to embrace him. "I love you," he said in Mike's ear. Those words had fallen from his lips to his son so many times over the years that they should have been shopworn by now, but somehow they were every bit as potent as they were the first day he had spoken them to Mike: the day Peggy had told him she was pregnant, and Steve had placed his hand on her belly in awe that something so small could already be so precious to him.

"Love you, Dad," Mike said, hugging him back swiftly.

Then Mike turned toward Sarah. She was holding her eyes open wide, trying desperately not to cry and, for the moment, succeeding.

"Bye, Mike. I'm sorry I ruin half your jokes by being so serious all the time," she said.

Mike laughed. "I'm sorry I ruin half your serious moments by being such a clown all the time."

They hugged each other, her blonde head in striking contrast against his dark hair, and then Mike rested his forehead on hers and murmured something quietly that only Sarah could hear. She nodded silently, and then turned and kissed his cheek.

"Love you, sis," he said, kissing the top of her head in return.

By the end of the summer, Mike had completed his training as a helicopter pilot and was deployed overseas, and Sarah left for college. Steve and Peggy's once-bustling house sat empty and quiet.

Sarah would come home for visits, of course, and Mike would eventually come back home too - or so he and Peggy fervently prayed every night before bed - but Steve knew things would never really be the same for their family. The director of S.H.I.E.L.D. was prepping for retirement, and Peggy was focused on making sure the transition to a new director would go smoothly. Her hands were more than full. She had declined to hear anything about her future career path, but Steve knew the Council would soon choose her to lead S.H.I.E.L.D. With everyone else in his family moving forward into a new phase of life, Steve came to the decision that it was time for him to make a change, too.

He started by shaving off his beard. He no longer feared recognition, in part because time had changed him enough over the years — he was 60 now — and partly because Captain America simply no longer loomed in the public consciousness. Sales of the old wartime comics and trading cards featuring Captain America had long ago dwindled to a trickle, relegated to a nostalgic trade among a handful of collectible enthusiasts. And Steve was fine with that. Let the past stay in the past.

Inspired by Sarah's example, he filled out the required paperwork, registered for classes, and began attending college, too. He still had a lot of good years ahead of him, and he wanted to do something worthwhile with them. He knew that by the time he finished his certification as a counselor, the Vietnam War would end and the veterans, weary and broken by combat, would finally come home to a less-than-warm welcome. There would be no shortage of people in need of support.

He still made the time to continue working on his project to record the Avengers years. By now his comics sometimes depicted events that Peggy hadn't yet asked to know about, and although he didn't show them to her, she knew where he kept them, and they were never locked up. The trust between them was complete; he would withhold nothing from her, leaving her free to make the choice for herself.

1967-1970

Mike finally came home safe and whole in body, but in his eyes he looked like he had aged 10 years instead of three, although after a time some of the old merriment and mischief came shining through again. He had mastered Vo Binh Dinh, served with honor, and had several medals pinned to his uniform, but he seemed to treasure much more the regular letters he received from Tien, a young Vietnamese woman who had served as an interpreter for his squadron. Mike had quietly explained to the family that she had witnessed his rescue of several men after an ambush, and without question knew that there was something different about him. Peggy and Steve both became concerned at that, but Mike had coolly reassured them that Tien had promised not to say anything to anyone, and that he trusted her.

Mike began attending classes in D.C., as he had originally planned, although both Sarah and Steve had gotten a head start on him and graduated with their bachelors degrees as he was finishing his first year. In a way, Peggy graduated that year too, as the Council named her the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. One of her first acts was to hire an ex-Army officer by the name of Hank Pym as a consultant, recognizing the potential in his cutting-edge particle research.

By then Sarah was immersed in medical school, while Steve had started work as a counselor, and even when his time was filled with important day-to-day tasks, his old friends in the Avengers were never far from his thoughts. In fact, he kept a close eye on his calendar these days, because exciting things were starting to happen.

Bruce Banner was the first to be born, just a few weeks before they rang in the new year of 1970. The twins were home for Christmas, and Steve made a cake, putting a liberal amount of green food coloring in the frosting. He wrote "Happy birthday, Bruce" in purple icing, and they took a Polaroid of it, with the family gathered around the table, grimacing and flexing their muscles. Steve put in a scrapbook labeled "Birth of the Avengers" - the first of many entries to come - and eagerly looked forward to the day he could show it to the Avengers. After all, what was the good of being a time traveler if he couldn't have a little fun with it?

Before long Peggy had to recuse herself when Mike applied to become an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., but he passed the agency's tests and was quickly installed as Agent 45. His surname was known to only a few and was kept out of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s records, since Mike was determined to make it in his career on his own merits, and not as the director's son.

Ironically, he was almost immediately given a mission Peggy could not have trusted to anyone other than her own son: to stand guard over the vault where the Tesseract was kept on a day when it was crucial that the Tesseract not be guarded.

Steve had often wondered at the ease with which Tony had strolled out of Camp Lehigh with the Tesseract - and the ease with which Steve himself had later been able to return it - especially now that he knew that Peggy had known all along the true nature of the Tesseract, and therefore kept it as secure as she possibly could.

Long ago, Peggy had chosen to learn about the Infinity Stones. However, she had also declined to learn more when he offered "rhetorical questions" about future apocalyptic events, which meant she still knew nothing of Thanos and his twisted mission. That made it a little tricky, but Steve respected her wishes and managed it by telling her that the Avengers had invented the time-traveling device to retrieve the Stones for an important reason... without explaining exactly what it was.

"The time-hopping treasure hunt," Mike quipped once Peggy had enlisted him to be the guard on duty during the crucial moment. "One of my favorite bedtime stories." He smiled broadly. "I never thought I'd actually get to help with it."

"All you have to do is turn off the alarms and stay of Tony Stark's sight," Peggy emphasized, and then added, "and keep away anyone else who might wander down while he's there."

"Not anyone," Steve said quickly. Peggy looked at him curiously, and he explained: "Tony bumped into Howard that day."

Peggy looked shocked. "His own father? Well, that seems a little problematic, doesn't it?"

Steve shrugged. "It's already happened. No stopping it now. It isn't as though Howard could recognize him. He hasn't been born yet. And honestly-" He paused. "Tony seeing Howard that day... it was a blessing. A mercy."

Peggy immediately understood what he meant. "It was his last chance to see him, wasn't it?" she asked softly. She had known from the beginning that Tony would one day be killed in action; Steve had found it impossible to hide his grief from her in those early days when it was still fresh.

"Wait. But Howard isn't even supposed to come in tomorrow," Peggy suddenly objected. "He told me he promised Maria he would go with her to her doctor's appointment." She paused for a long moment. "Unless..."

"Unless you call him into work instead," Steve finished.

Peggy looked unhappy. "Oh, I hate to do that. Maria will be upset." She had tried to befriend Maria ever since her marriage to Howard, but their personalities simply didn't mesh; Maria was the daughter of an oil tycoon, born with the proverbial silver spoon in her mouth, and although she was well-meaning, there wasn't much in her life experience to help her understand the perspectives of those who had been born to a harder life. "But I suppose I must. Tony's need is greater."

"What about you, Dad?" Mike asked. "Is there something special I need to do to help you when you return the Tesseract?"

Steve shook his head. "I just walked in moments later and put it back. Nothing complicated. After you see me leave, you'll have to replace the locking mechanism that Tony cut through with his lasers. Hopefully no one else will ever know the Tesseract was even gone."

"And what about the Pym Particles?" Peggy asked. "And don't you dare tell me what you wanted them for," she quickly added. "I don't want to know anything about Hank's future."

"I remember," Steve said patiently. "Just make sure no one but Hank is in his lab tomorrow."

"This is wild, Dad," Mike said, shaking his head in disbelief. "Tomorrow there are going to be two of you there at once? And the third one here at home, and a fourth one sleeping in the ice?"

"It was a busy day for me," Steve said mildly.

"I'll say."

"I wish I could see you, too," Peggy said wistfully.

"That's not a good idea," Steve said.

"I know," Peggy said, although she sounded a little sad. "If we had seen each other, you would have been terribly confused about why I wasn't confused to see you. I suppose it would have spoiled everything, wouldn't it?" She sighed. "I'll stay away from the vault and Hank's lab tomorrow, and just keep close to my office. I promise."

Steve held his silence. He had agreed not to keep important secrets from Peggy, and he had stuck to that vow, but for some reason he found himself jealously guarding that moment when he had seen Peggy through her office window. It had managed to be one of the happiest moments of his life and one of the worst, simultaneously, and he felt strongly that it was for him alone. The moment was too precious for him to even be able to draw it, at least not so far.

The next day Peggy and Mike came home from work and reported that all had gone well; the Tesseract had been taken and returned without incident. The only thing left to do was for Peggy was put on a convincing show of investigating the two intruders reported by one of her people - the suspicious woman from the elevator, Steve had no doubt - and Hank Pym was, predictably, furious over his missing vials. Mike, on the other hand, was giddy with excitement over getting to catch glimpses of both Tony Stark and the younger version of his own father down in the vault.

As Peggy animatedly explained everything that had happened that day, Steve found himself gazing at her, transfixed. She was wearing the same blue dress, her hair just the way he remembered it, her beauty just as perfect. And this time, she really was his. She had been all along.

Slowly but surely, the bittersweetness of his memory of this day was draining away, leaving nothing but the sweetness behind. Knowing that his own son had been watching over him... that Peggy had been smoothing his path before him, though he hadn't known it...

He hadn't been nearly as alone as he had felt.

1973

Sarah earned her medical degree, specializing in epidemiology. She had hardly started her residency when she met a young man by the name of David who was training to be a geneticist, and before long Peggy and Steve discovered the joys and stresses of planning a wedding for a child.

After thoroughly vetting their future son-in-law, the family brought him in on the family secret. He had a right to know, given that any children they might have would be affected by the serum. Fortunately, Sarah had chosen her partner well, and Dave treated the responsibility of keeping the secret with all the gravity it deserved. He was obviously very much in love with Sarah, and he was going to make a fine addition to the Carter family, although Steve could admit to mixed feelings at the thought of giving his daughter away. She had grown into a beautiful young woman, in many ways resembling Peggy despite the blond hair and blue eyes she'd inherited from him. She was tall for a woman, and she still had her gymnast physique, all toned muscles and graceful movements, although she spent more time at the hospital than the gym these days. She had chosen a demanding profession, and she seemed happy with her career choice and elated over the upcoming wedding, yet Steve and Peggy had become aware of a subtle restlessness that was growing inside her, too.

One day as she and Dave and Steve and Peggy were sitting around the kitchen table addressing a stack of wedding invitations, Sarah suddenly confessed what she was struggling with.

"People are coming into the hospital sick and dying, and we're giving them medicines and trying all these different treatments, but half the time they don't work," Sarah said, not hiding her frustration.

"That's life, honey," Steve said gently. "You can't save everyone."

"But that's just it," Sarah said. "We know of a medicine that does work, for all kinds of things. The serum. I can't help but think that a lot of my patients would be helped with nothing more than a simple blood transfusion from me."

"The effect would only be temporary," Peggy said. "The SSR researched along those lines, using extracted white blood cells from your father. Those cells would only stay in their system for a few days, and then they'd be right back where they started from. Your blood isn't a medicine, darling. Even if it were, you couldn't exactly mass-produce it, could you?"

"Maybe it could be a medicine," Sarah said. "If we could isolate the serum somehow..."

"Every single researcher who attempted to replicate Dr. Erskine's formula ended up with an unstable super-soldier on their hands," Steve said emphatically, alarm suddenly shooting through him. He didn't want his own daughter playing around with that particular fire. And it wasn't only because of the danger of creating another Abomination or Red Skull, although that was worrisome enough. Both Dr. Erskine and Howard Stark had died for their research. Or rather, Howard would die, along with his wife. And now Steve knew why Howard had struck out on his own for that particular project, rather than working through S.H.I.E.L.D. Knowing the consequences as well as Steve did, Peggy was steadfast in refusing any suggestion from her researchers that they take another crack at the serum research. There were just too many avenues for abuse.

"I don't want to make more super-soldiers," Sarah said firmly. "I don't need to make my patients strong enough to tip over a truck. I just want to cure their diseases."

Dave suddenly spoke up. "There's a lot happening in the field of genetics right now. We're finally starting to catch up to things Dr. Erskine must have already known. It sounds to me like the serum was a multi-faceted vector for genetic change. It affected the nervous system, the immune system, the cardiovascular system... everything. If we could separate the strands of what changed which system, maybe we could figure out a way to cure disease without also turning the test subject into... well, Captain America."

"What do you think, Daddy?" Sarah asked, looking at him hopefully.

Steve thought for a long minute. He didn't want to throw cold water, and yet...

"You would be working with technology decades behind what General Ross had for his research," he pointed out. "Both of you are smart and hard-working, but you're still just medical residents. The Army had entire teams of the best-educated scientists in the world working to recreate Erskine's formula."

"We won't always be students, Daddy," Sarah said, glancing at Dave.

"This is going to be a long-term project," Dave agreed, meeting her eyes. "We know that."

"But we also have something no one else had, Daddy," Sarah continued. "We have an infinite supply of fresh blood samples from you, for one thing. And with me and Mike we have three stable super-soldiers to study instead of just one."

"What difference would that make?" Steve asked.

"I don't know," Sarah admitted. "Maybe nothing. Maybe something. But Dave can map out our family's genes and find out."

"And there's another advantage we'll have," Dave added. "We'll be able to track the effects of the serum generationally. I mean, right now, we only have two generations. But maybe, sometime soon..." He trailed off, his ears suddenly turning pink.

"Making plans, are we?" Peggy teased them, with a dimple popping out.

"It isn't only us, Mom," Sarah said with a smile, although her cheeks were turning pink, too. "Mike and Tien are getting awfully serious, you know." After years of saving up money and cutting through red tape, Tien had finally managed to make her way to America and had immediately registered as a student in the university nearest to where Mike was living while she worked on earning her citizenship. Neither one of them bothered to make any pretense about her reasons for leaving Vietnam. Everyone in the family knew by now that it was only a matter of time.

"Before we know it, we'll have all kinds of test subjects toddling about the house," Peggy said briskly.

"The things we do for science," Steve said in mock sorrow.

The day of the wedding came. It was a bittersweet moment for Steve, giving Sarah away, his daughter looking luminous in her wedding dress with the light of pure joy radiating from her eyes. He knew he wasn't really losing her, that a wedding was more of a beginning than an end, but when Sarah kissed his cheek after he had walked her down the aisle and then went to stand by Dave's side, he couldn't help but tear up anyway. Sarah Natalie Carter had become Sarah Natalie Capecci. She was no longer wholly theirs, and she never would be again.

But the day's strangest moment by far came when Howard Stark brought his wife and son to the reception in their backyard that night. Steve had been careful to stay far away from S.H.I.E.L.D. social events, and given that Peggy and Howard were on-again off-again friends, Howard must have thought it strange that Peggy never introduced her husband to him. The Starks' visit to the reception was thankfully short and Steve was able to stay out of sight of Howard and Maria by lurking behind the trellis set up by the table where the desserts were displayed. It was too much to hope for that Howard would not recognize him, even after so many years.

As Steve watched the Starks in the distance, talking to Peggy and the happy newlyweds, a young boy ran up to the dessert table and stood on his tiptoes, trying to reach a particular piece of cake. He looked to be around 4 years old. There were other plates within reach, but he was obviously determined to get the biggest piece of cake there was. He just wasn't quite tall enough to reach it. Steve took pity on him and stepped forward, grabbed the plate, and handed it to him.

"Thank you," the kid mumbled in a hasty perfunctory way, shaking his head to get his mop of dark hair out of his eyes, and he picked up the cake with his hand and took an enormous bite, leaving frosting all over his lips. He had an adult-sized wristwatch on his arm, worn loosely over his suit's sleeve, and there were scratches all around the edges of the watch, as if the cover had been taken off and on many times for tinkering purposes.

"You're welcome, Tony," Steve said, fighting a grin.

Little Tony shot him a surprised look, no doubt wondering why a stranger knew his name. Then he shrugged, stuffed another bite in, and ran off.

As soon as the Starks had left, Steve returned to the reception line, where Peggy was talking to a man who was in his early 30s, with brown hair and a lean but muscular frame. He was accompanied by one of the most beautiful women Steve had ever seen. She was wearing a pleated dress of the kind so popular in this decade, and had perfectly shaped lips, a round feminine curve to her cheeks and feathery waves of blond hair framing her face and tumbling down over her shoulders. More than a few of the wedding guests were doing double takes after glancing in her direction.

"Oh, Grant," Peggy said, spotting Steve and breaking off her conversation with the man to wave him over. "Here's someone I want you to meet. This is Hank Pym, one of our consultants at S.H.I.E.L.D. Hank, this is my husband, Grant. An old Army man like yourself."

They shook hands. Steve was immediately struck by Hank's eyes, blue and intense, and not watery and hidden behind glasses like they had been the first time he had met the man. In fact, Hank looked strikingly different, and not only because he was now decades younger. That weary expression and cynical attitude that Steve had been able to detect with moments of their brief meeting in the future was gone, replaced by an active, curious gaze.

"Nice to meet you," Hank said. "And let me introduce Janet Van Dyne, my... date." He almost seemed afraid to say it, looking simultaneously proud and self-conscious. "Janet, this is Peggy Carter, director of S.H.I.E.L.D. She's been overseeing my research."

"Wonderful to meet you," Peggy said, shaking Janet's hand warmly. "And how did the two of you meet?"

"Hank approached me at the Stark Expo last month, after a presentation I gave about a project I'm working on," Janet said. "He claimed he wanted to know more about my research, but somehow he ended up walking away with my phone number instead." She shot Hank a teasing glance.

"I'm very interested in your research, Janet," Hank quickly assured her, but he couldn't quite conceal the eager nervousness in his body language that made it clear there were other interests in play, too.

Janet laughed. "I can't think what particle physics has to do with entomology, Hank, but if you want to stick with that story, it's all right with me." She linked her arm through his and beamed at him.

"You study insects?" Peggy asked with interest.

"She's doing groundbreaking work exploring the mechanisms behind pheromonal communication between ants," Hank put in.

"Ants are remarkable creatures," Janet said, her eyes lighting up with the change in topic. "They're communal, cooperative; they work as a team to accomplish things a single ant could never do on its own. I think it might be possible to develop a device that humans could use to speak to the ants pheromonally."

"For what purpose?" Peggy asked curiously.

"I have a few ideas for applications," Janet said. She dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "But most people find the topic unspeakably boring." Her eyes slid shut sleepily as her head drooped to the side and she pretended to start snoring.

Hank laughed, his eyes bright with amusement. "Come on, Janet," he said, shaking her "awake." "Let's go give our well-wishes to the bride and groom."

The pair moved over and started talking to Sarah and Dave. After a few minutes, though, Peggy caught Hank's eye and silently beckoned for him to come over. He excused himself from Janet's side and came back over to Peggy and Steve.

"Hank?" Peggy asked in a low voice. "What are you thinking about the ants?"

Hank glanced over at Steve questioningly, and Peggy quickly added, "You can speak in front of my husband."

Hank leaned forward and spoke quietly, and Peggy and Steve leaned in close to hear. "The cameras we were able to miniaturize with my particles," Hank whispered. "All the drones we've built to carry them have been too noisy or too clunky to be of use for surveillance. What if we strapped a camera onto the back of an ant? If Janet can learn how to reliably control them, we could get them anywhere we needed them. It would be a lot quieter and less conspicuous than a man-made device; no one would think anything of an ant or two crawling around a room."

Peggy looked intrigued. "Maybe we should bring her in on the project," she said thoughtfully. "I'll have Mitchell Carson run a background check on her." She suppressed a smile, making her dimple pop out. "If you wouldn't find it too much of a burden to work with her. She is very pretty, Hank."

"Yeah, she's too good for me," Hank admitted, but a smile was creeping across his face.

"You'd better get back to her, then," Peggy said, giving him a gentle nudge. Hank rejoined Janet, who was admiring Sarah's wedding dress effusively, and Steve watched them both with a lingering smile.

"I know that look," Peggy said to Steve in a low voice.

"What look?" he asked.

"The same look you got the day I came home and told you I had hired Hank Pym as a consultant," Peggy said. "That smirk of yours that says all too clearly, 'I know something you don't.'"

"You said you didn't want to know specifics about your career," Steve said. "And you told me that includes information about any proteges you might pick up during your time at S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Should I rethink my decision?" she asked him, tilting her head up at him curiously.

"It's up to you."

"But it has to do with Janet Van Dyne," she guessed.

He raised his eyebrows. "Do you really want to know?"

"I don't know," Peggy said with a short laugh. "At least tell me if I should hire her or not."

"You've already decided to," Steve said matter-of-factly. "You don't need me to tell you that. Everything's going to work out the way it's supposed to, whether I tell you anything more or not. That's the beauty of it. It's just a question of whether you want your curiosity satisfied. And honestly, Peggy... I don't know very much, anyway."

It was the truth. He had met Hank only briefly after the battle with Thanos, days before returning to the past. Almost everything he knew about the Pyms had been learned secondhand from Scott Lang. And while Steve knew something of where the Pyms' research would lead one day, having used the Quantum Tunnel himself, he knew Hank's exploration of the Quantum Realm was decades away. First he would have to master becoming Ant-Man, and so far he had not been able to shrink a live subject.

"But there is something you need to know," Steve said, turning to face Peggy fully and speaking slowly for emphasis: "You are, by far, the most beautiful woman at this wedding reception, Peggy Carter." He put his hands on her elbows and looked her over admiringly.

"I'm absolutely certain that isn't true," Peggy said drily, giving a pointed look over at both Janet Van Dyne and their own daughter.

"You don't know what you do to me," he said softly, smoothing back a strand of Peggy's hair. His longing for her had been powerful enough to pull him away from his life and his friends in the future to be with her, and he had never once regretted that decision. And after all these years together, she had no less of a hold on him now. If anything, he loved her more.

Peggy's cheeks flushed with pleasure at the compliment, just as a new song began to play over the loudspeakers, "My Eyes Adored You." They looked over to see that the bride and groom were swaying together on the grass, smiling sweetly at each other. Sarah was barefoot, so as not to be taller than Dave. The wedding guests were joining in the dance, Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne among them.

"What do you think?" Steve asked her with arched eyebrows. "Should we dance at our daughter's wedding?"

"I think we should," Peggy agreed, taking his hand.

TO BE CONTINUED

Author's note: Let me know what you think of this chapter, and if you have any guesses or expectations for what will happen next!