Author's note: Thanks for the reviews, PrimeReader and ninjarider1! And to answer a question, Natasha Romanoff will indeed be entering this story eventually!

Chapter 7

Aunt Peggy's daughter, Aunt Sarah, came to meet Sharon at Southampton Airport. Sharon spotted her easily as she emerged into the baggage area: a tall, blonde woman who was surprisingly robust for someone her age; not so much as a hint of a stoop in her shoulders, although she must be in her 60s now. She moved toward Sharon and eagerly hugged her, a smile turning her blue eyes into twin arches.

"So glad to see you, darling," Aunt Sarah said warmly, holding her at arm's length to get a good look at her. "Well, you don't look very agent-y at the moment, do you?" She had an American accent, having lived most of her life there, but she and her husband had moved to England 20 years ago when her parents had. Sharon was glad; it was good that Aunt Peggy had family nearby to keep her company.

"I'm on vacation," Sharon answered, glancing down at her jeans and floral top, although she instantly felt guilty at the half-truth. She was glad for the chance to visit, but she wouldn't be here now if Fury hadn't sent her. "How are your kids?" It had been quite a while since she'd seen them, although she had fond memories of spending time with her cousins during her family's visits to England.

"Oh, fine, fine," Aunt Sarah said. She kept up a steady stream of chatter as they retrieved Sharon's luggage and took it out to the car, updating Sharon on all the family news.

"How is Aunt Peggy?" Sharon asked once they were on the road.

"As well as can be expected, for a 90-year-old," Aunt Sarah said. "She gets around all right, but she's started to experience a memory lapse here and there. If it happens, don't let her see that you're worried. It's the early stages of Alzheimer's, but most of the time she's still with it, mentally. You should get a good visit with her. How long are you staying?"

"Not long," Sharon said regretfully; Fury would be waiting for her report, and just thinking about all the work that Agent Li was going to pile up on her desk while she was gone made her feel anxious. "But I really wanted to spend some time with Aunt Peggy. Who else is home?"

"Dave, of course, although he's booked up with patients today." Dave was Aunt Sarah's husband. The four of them all lived in the same cottage, just on different floors. "And your Uncle Mike is visiting, although he didn't bring Tien or any of the kids this time."

Aunt Peggy's family had always been very close-knit. Even though Uncle Mike and Aunt Tien had stayed in America to be close to their grandchildren, Sharon knew there was a lot of travel back and forth for visits.

"And Great-Uncle Grant, too?" she asked.

Aunt Sarah's smile faded. "Not this time, I'm afraid. He's visiting a friend in San Francisco. I took him to the airport this morning. You two probably passed each other in the air."

Sharon was sorry to hear it. She had assumed she would finally get to meet him on this trip, now that both he and Aunt Peggy were getting along in years and no longer jetting around the world. Aunt Peggy was likely to be upset when she heard the news Sharon had come to deliver; it would have been better for her to have her husband there to support her. But at least Aunt Sarah and Uncle Mike would be there.

They had arrived in Winchester. Aunt Sarah parked the car and insisted on being the one to bring Sharon's suitcase into the cottage, although Sharon warned her repeatedly about how heavy it was, since she had brought gifts for the family. But Aunt Sarah had no trouble bringing it in, and she left Sharon sitting in the front room with the suitcase parked beside her while she went back to fetch Aunt Peggy.

Sharon waited in a comfortable chair, trying not to jiggle her leg from the nervousness. She distracted herself by looking around. The cottage was on a comfortable-sized lot with a beautiful English garden, and everything inside was neat and pretty as always, and much as she remembered it from earlier visits. There was something about the wall decorations that seemed somehow off to Sharon, though, the longer she looked at them. Some of the framed arrangements were asymmetrical, like there should have been more frames than there were. Maybe they were in the process of cleaning or replacing some of the photos.

Footsteps sounded in the hallway, and a few moments later Uncle Mike arrived. He paused just inside the doorway, his hands clasped over his belt buckle, his broad shoulders filling the door frame.

"Well, well, well." His deep voice was resonant, and his lips quirked up into a smile. "If it isn't Agent 13."

Sharon rose and gave him a quick hug. Uncle Mike was a head taller than her, and his back muscles felt firm against her palms as she embraced him. She had seen him more recently than Aunt Sarah, so she wasn't surprised to see that much of his hair was still dark, although it was silvering at his temples.

"So how goes the anonymity?" he asked, his dark eyes meeting hers with a teasing smile. "Get used to being called by a number yet?"

"Getting there," she answered, smiling; Uncle Mike knew better than anyone what it was like, since he too had served as a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative under a number — Agent 45 — wanting to be judged on his own merits and not his mother's. It was where Sharon had gotten the idea. Aunt Peggy was as lovable as could be, but she did cast a long shadow over them both. If Sharon could end her career even half as successfully as Uncle Mike had — S.H.I.E.L.D. had insisted on him remaining as a trainer for their agents long after he had retired from active service — she would count herself lucky.

More footsteps were shuffling closer, and Uncle Mike stepped aside as Aunt Sarah led Aunt Peggy into the room.

Aunt Peggy was walking slowly, holding Aunt Sarah's arm, wearing a loose dark blue dress. Her hair, fully gray but still long and full, tumbled down over her shoulders in loose waves. Her eyes met Sharon's and she smiled, her expression as lively and her eyes as warm as ever, despite the fine web of wrinkles crisscrossing her face.

"Aunt Peggy," Sharon said gladly, reaching out. Aunt Sarah kept a hand on Aunt Peggy's elbow to steady her as she hugged Sharon.

"So good to see you, Sharon," Aunt Peggy said, pulling back and clasping Sharon's hands in her own. Her hands were cold and shaking slightly. "How are your parents, darling?" She still had her crisp British accent, despite living half her life in the States, and Sharon never tired of hearing it.

"They're doing fine," Sharon answered. "Keeping busy, but they came to D.C. to visit me last Christmas."

Aunt Sarah helped Aunt Peggy slowly ease down onto the chair beside Sharon's, and then she took her own seat on the nearby couch, side by side with Uncle Mike. The two of them made a contrasting picture, he with his dark hair and she with her light, their shoulders touching with the natural intimacy so common between twins.

"And your grandmother?" Aunt Peggy continued.

"The same as always." Sharon didn't need to elaborate, as Aunt Peggy knew the situation all too well. Her grandmother Irene had been devastated when Aunt Peggy's brother, Michael, was killed in action during World War II, leaving her alone with their unborn child. She had eventually remarried and had two more children, including Sharon's father Richard, but according to family rumor she had never really recovered from the death of her first husband. When her marriage to her second husband — Sharon's grandfather — had fallen apart, she had changed her surname back to Carter, along with the surnames of all three children... and never again remarried.

Even though the name of Carter had complicated Sharon's career choice, she was proud to carry the name anyway. No one on the Carter side had ever differentiated between Aunt Karen, who was related by blood, and Sharon's father Richard and his brother Mark, who were only related by marriage. They were one family.

The four of them sat there chatting for a while, catching up on all the news, but eventually Sharon took a deep breath, knowing it was time to carry out her assignment. As soon as there was a pause in the conversation, she dove in.

"Can I talk to Aunt Peggy alone for a few minutes?" she asked, glancing over at Aunt Sarah and Uncle Mike.

"No," Uncle Mike said simply.

Sharon blinked several times, recognizing instantly that he wasn't joking, although normally Uncle Mike had a wonderful sense of humor. All three of her relatives were looking at her seriously, and a strange tension had suddenly invaded the atmosphere in the room. But why? They didn't know why she was here.

"It's... S.H.I.E.L.D. business," she said reluctantly, with a fresh stab of guilt. "Aunt Peggy's eyes only."

"If it's S.H.I.E.L.D. business, then it's our whole family's business," Uncle Mike said firmly. "Whatever it is you have to say, the three of us are going to hear it together."

"I... I can't," Sharon said, confused and uncertain as to why Uncle Mike was doing this. "It's my job on the line. You know how it is."

"What Fury doesn't know can't hurt him," Uncle Mike said coolly.

Sharon hesitated for a long moment. It was better for Aunt Peggy to have her children here in the room, but this was sensitive information. Then again... there was no chance that Steve Rogers' return would stay a secret forever, Sharon realized. Sooner or later Fury would put him on duty. You don't waste a one-of-a-kind asset like that. And someone with Rogers' talents would attract attention in any case. He would be almost as useful as a symbol as he was as a bona fide super soldier, just like he had been back in the day. How much would it really hurt if Aunt Peggy's children knew a little sooner than the rest of the world? They were trustworthy, Sharon knew. It seemed to be the defining feature of this family, in fact.

"This can't leave the room," Sharon said firmly, looking all three of them in the eye, especially Aunt Sarah. She had never worked for S.H.I.E.L.D., opting instead to become a doctor, but surely she knew the importance of controlling sensitive information. "You have to promise me."

"I think you'll find that we're very good at keeping secrets in this family," Aunt Sarah said.

Sharon unzipped her suitcase and pulled out the file she had brought. Sitting on the edge of her chair, she held the file tight against her chest for a moment. She'd spent a lot of time on the flight thinking about how to approach this.

"Aunt Peggy," she started, "about a year ago, Director Fury decided to reopen an old investigation from your time at S.H.I.E.L.D. I'm not exactly sure why — it seems to be above my security clearance — but we had..." She took a deep breath. "We had a search team traveling a grid up in the Arctic, around Greenland, looking for plane wreckage."

She knew Aunt Peggy would know what that meant. Howard Stark had had his people searching that same area off and on for several years, although he ultimately came up empty-handed. And yes, Aunt Peggy's eyes had widened slightly in recognition, although she didn't say anything. To the side of her, on the couch, both Aunt Sarah and Uncle Mike shifted position, leaning forward, more alert. Sharon pressed on.

"After a couple of months," Sharon said, "they found a Hydra parasit fighter, one of the flying bombs that Johann Schmidt meant to deploy from his bomber plane, the Valkyrie. The pilot's body was still in it, frozen. It was a big breakthrough. The search team used the position of the fighter to make new calculations of the Valkyrie's flight line, along with everything we know now about the ocean currents and weather patterns in that area, and they narrowed down the search area quite a bit. Our search team even enlisted the help of other people in the vicinity — ships, planes, research stations, everything — and offered a reward if they would keep an eye out.

"Finally, about a week ago, a Russian oil tanker spotted something unusual in an ice field. It looked like a man-made structure where there shouldn't be one. They informed S.H.I.E.L.D.'s search team, and when they went to investigate..."

"It was the Valkyrie," Aunt Peggy finished softly.

Sharon nodded. "It was the Valkyrie." She watched Aunt Peggy closely, trying to evaluate how she was handling this. Her expression looked a little distant, her eyes a little moist, but she seemed okay so far.

"What did they find inside?" Aunt Sarah asked. Her jaw clenched tightly and suddenly she reached out over the arm of Aunt Peggy's chair and held her mother's hand.

"The plane was mostly intact," Sharon said. "One of the wings had snapped off, but they think the fuselage just slid along the surface of the ice field until it came to a stop. Everything inside was still in one piece."

"Aunt Peggy..." she said then, as gently as she could. "They found your friend, Steve Rogers."

Aunt Peggy paused for a long moment, and then she simply nodded, as silent tears overflowed her eyes and slid down her wrinkled cheeks.

"We looked for him for so long," she said tearfully. "So long." She looked small, hunched in on herself, heartbreak in her eyes. "He waited so long..."

"He couldn't have been found any sooner than this," Uncle Mike said firmly, looking at his mother. "We know that."

Sharon nodded, eager to comfort Aunt Peggy on that point, too. "I'm sure Howard Stark did everything possible, but he just didn't have the resources he needed."

"It was meant to be," Aunt Sarah said, gently squeezing her mother's hand. "You've said so yourself."

"There's more," Sharon said. "And this part, Aunt Peggy... it's a little strange." She took a deep breath. This was the part of the explanation she had been dreading the most, because of its sheer impossibility. Aunt Peggy must have braced herself long ago for the day when Captain Rogers' body would be found — within days of his disappearance, she must have known in her heart that he was dead — but she simply could not have anticipated what had happened next. No one could have.

"When S.H.I.E.L.D. brought him back to New York," Sharon said slowly, "they intended to perform an autopsy. But then they noticed some things about his body that confused them. They found-" There was really no other way to say it, and so she simply said it. "-they found signs of life."

Sharon had expected shock. Disbelief. Confusion. But to her surprise, Aunt Peggy simply nodded again, brushing away another tear with the back of her hand.

"He was sleeping," she said, her voice cracking a little. "Only sleeping."

"Yes..." Sharon said slowly, surprised that Aunt Peggy had come to the conclusion so readily.

"And they woke him up?" Uncle Mike asked. Like Aunt Sarah, his jaw was clenched, radiating tension across his face.

"They did," Sharon said. "They revived him. He's... he's healthy and strong. It's like nothing even happened. The doctors can't really explain it, but... he's back with us, alive and well."

Lowering the file she was clutching down to her lap, Sharon pulled out a photograph and handed it to Aunt Peggy. "This was taken several days ago."

Her aunt's hand trembled a little as she looked at the photograph. Captain Rogers, his expression serious, was looking straight into the camera, wearing modern clothing. His handsome face was marred somewhat by a kind of stunned look in his eyes. The kind of look people got after they'd witnessed something horrific. A thousand-yard stare.

Seeing it, Aunt Peggy's shoulders shook, and quiet sobs began to rack her body. Sharon reached over and put one of her hands on Aunt Peggy's, who clung to her tightly.

"He must be so frightened," Aunt Peggy said tearfully. Reluctantly, she handed the photograph to Aunt Sarah for her to see.

"They're taking good care of him at S.H.I.E.L.D.," Sharon assured her. "Doctors, a therapist... Fury himself is overseeing his recovery. I'm sure it's been a shock for him, but they'll get him settled in eventually. He'll be fine."

She glanced over at Uncle Mike and Aunt Sarah. They were both weeping silently, sitting side by side looking at the photograph, which struck Sharon as a little strange. They had grown up hearing the stories of Captain America from Aunt Peggy, she had no doubt, but he could not have been anything more than a bedtime story to them.

"He won't know anyone," Aunt Peggy said a little breathlessly. "Anyone or anything, in this time. He's just... alone." Her voice broke on the last word.

"I'm sure if you asked to see him, Fury wouldn't turn you down," Sharon said.

There was a long pause, and Aunt Peggy voice was strained when she finally answered. "I think I had better wait until he's ready to see me. I'm not... as he remembers me anymore."

"Whatever you think is best," Sharon said.

Aunt Peggy wiped her eyes with a handkerchief, and gradually she grew calmer. Finally, she looked up at Sharon with that old determined look on her face, the one that must have given her agents back in the day the instinctive urge to jump to her support, whatever was needed.

"You'll watch over him for me, of course," Aunt Peggy said matter-of-factly.

Surprised, Sharon hesitated a moment. "I don't think so, Aunt Peggy. I'm not going to be working with him. I haven't even met him. He's in New York, I'm posted at the Triskelion. Fury just sent me to inform you."

"You'll keep him safe," Aunt Peggy said firmly. "You'll protect him."

Had she heard and understood what Sharon had said? Was this a mental lapse she was seeing, like Aunt Sarah had warned her about? Sharon forced a light laugh. "If everything I've heard about him is true, Aunt Peggy, he hardly needs protecting from someone like me."

"But you will," Aunt Peggy said. "Promise me. Promise me that no matter what happens, you'll be on his side."

"I..."

"Promise me, Sharon."

Sharon smiled a little ruefully. "You know I can't tell you no, Aunt Peggy."

Aunt Peggy reached out a wrinkled hand, and patted Sharon's hand with a sad smile. "I know."

TO BE CONTINUED

Author's note: What do you think of this chapter's developments? I'd love to hear your feedback, so leave a review!

Also, if you are curious to learn more about the backstories behind Peggy's children, check out my story "The Third Life of Steve Rogers," which I am also actively updating.