April, 1970

In which we see things through the other side of the window...


Peggy let out an exasperated sigh. She'd finally gotten Wilkins and his appalling mess of paperwork sorted out, though she suspected she would have at most half an hour's peace before the man came back with another question. What H.R. had been thinking, pulling in someone from Accounting to cover the job of Assistant to the Director while Rose was on vacation…She shook her head. They had said something about him being good with details, but if this was a sample of his usual work, Peggy was seriously starting to consider running an audit of the Accounting Department and shuffling Wilkins somewhere less dangerous, like the mail room.

Still, she had a little bit of quiet now, and there was still water in the kettle on the electric ring in her office, and a nice cup of tea would be just the thing before her meeting with Dr. Pym. Still feeling a little irritated, she marched back to her office, groaning internally at the sight of someone standing by her desk. Could she not get a moment's peace?

Drawing in a breath to start berating whoever it was that thought it was alright to skulk about in her office in the dark while she wasn't there, her brain finally registered who it was standing by her desk, and several thoughts exploded through her mind all at once.

The first was happiness at seeing Steve, because it always brightened her day when he came by the office, and the second was confusion as to why he was standing there in the dark. The third thought was to wonder why he didn't call ahead—he usually did, in case she was in the middle of something—followed rapidly by the fourth thought that he probably had called and Wilkins had misplaced the message.

Screaming in on the heels of the first four thoughts was a fifth one that made her notice the odd red and white jumpsuit he was wearing and the large metallic case by his feet, and all the pieces fell into place just in time to stop her hand grabbing the doorknob and make her whirl over to the side out of view of the window.

Giving herself a few seconds, she drew in a breath and peered carefully back through the blinds. Though he certainly didn't look it, the Steve waiting for her back home was nearly sixty. This one…This was Steve from twenty-two years ago, on his way to return all the Infinity Stones to where and when they'd come from. Dear Lord, he looked so young! So young and so scared, and Peggy's heart broke at the pain in his eyes.

He was standing there, not moving, staring down at a photo he'd picked up off her desk. It was the photo of him from Camp Lehigh, scrawny and skinny in his pre-serum days. Most people at S.H.I.E.L.D. kept their desks fairly bare of personal items—there was something about working for a covert organization that made one want to keep one's family separate. But Peggy had always had that photo on her desk, even when Steve had been 'dead'. There was something incredibly inspiring about that small version of Steve, something that kept her going whenever she felt like giving up. And, in the days before she became the Director and had to be more strategic in how she presented herself, it had also been a way for her to keep a picture of the man she loved without appearing to give in to sentimentality.

Steve had told her about this, that he'd first seen the picture when he'd accidentally hidden in her office in the middle of stealing the Tesseract. Then he'd seen her through the window, which had been all of thirty seconds ago for her—how odd time travel was! Seeing his photo on her desk twenty-five years after he was meant to have died had started him thinking that perhaps she hadn't let go of him, just as he'd never been able to let go of her. It was then he'd started thinking that there might be a way for him to come back to her after all. He'd realized that he could and decided to do it, though he'd told no one but Bucky before he left. But he'd gotten cold feet, started second-guessing himself and wondering if he really had seen what he thought he had and if it meant what he hoped it did. And so, when he came to put the Tesseract back, he hadn't been able to stop himself from ducking into her office again to check.

Steve had told her all of that, but it was one thing to hear it and another to see it. Coming fresh off of the losses of the fight with Thanos, his eyes were still lined with pain, a great weight putting a slump in his shoulders. His hands held the photograph gently, as if he was afraid it would vanish, and his face…oh, his face! He was so hopeful, but Peggy could see him forcing it back down, afraid of how much it would hurt if such a huge hope was shattered. There was fear there too, and in his eyes, such a desperate longing as he stared down at the photograph and everything it represented that it took everything Peggy had not to burst into the office and fling her arms around him and assure him that everything was going to be alright. "Oh, darling," she whispered sadly, as he blinked back the moisture in his eyes and set the picture reverently back on the desk.

He straightened the photograph and the pen that he'd moved when he reached for it, then drew in a deep breath and nodded to himself. He picked up the case at his feet and took one more look around the office, as if committing it to memory, wondering if he would ever see it or its inhabitant again. Then he pressed a button set into his glove and a helmet materialized over his face and he vanished into the Quantum Realm.

Peggy stepped carefully into the office, staring at the spot he'd been in for a moment. Then she grabbed up her coat, hit the lights, and left the office, locking the door behind her. She passed Wilkins' desk on her way to the elevator, scribbling a hasty note that she'd had to leave early and taping it to his lamp, where he ought to see it. He could tell Dr. Pym that she'd have to reschedule—and since today was evidently the day Pym was going to discover his lab had been robbed, he wasn't going to want to talk about gear for the Cairo op they were planning anyway.

When she got home, she smiled when she opened the door. She could hear the soft strains of something jazzy drifting down the hall from Michelle's record player, and she could smell the mouth-watering aroma of Steve's pot roast wafting in from the kitchen. "Hello?" she called, shutting the door and shedding her coat.

"Hey!" Steve greeted, smiling as he stepped in from the hallway. "You're home early. Everything okay?"

"Everything's just fine," she said, stepping forward and flinging her arms around him, kissing him soundly. "I just really wanted to see you."

Steve smiled down at her. "Sounds like a good reason to come home early to me."

She looked up at him, studying his face. There were streaks of silver in the hair around his temples, and there were a few more lines around his eyes than there used to be, but they were from the smiles and laughter of a happy life, not pained like she remembered them once being. Really, he didn't look all that different from the younger man she'd seen today. Tall and strong and handsome, with that jawline she loved to plant kisses along and that hair she loved to run her fingers through. Those eyes that sparkled like they did when she first met him, and that smile that still sent butterflies trilling through her stomach. He'd aged some, certainly, but really the only thing that was terribly different about him was how at peace Steve was now.

She kissed him again. "You know," she said. "It really isn't fair just how well you're aging."

Steve laughed. "Thanks?"

Peggy smiled. "Dance with me?" she asked, taking his hand and leading him towards the living room. Steve started the record player, then put his hand on her back and pulled her up close against him. Peggy rested her head on his chest, sighing happily.

"Hey," Steve said, kissing her forehead and letting go of her hand to reach up and thumb away the tear she didn't realize had fallen down her cheek. "You sure you're okay?"

She nodded as they continued to sway to the music. "I am. That was a happy tear."

Steve smiled. "Okay."

"You know what today was?" she asked. Steve shook his head. "Today was the day that Steve Rogers broke into my bunker and stole the Tesseract. Fortunately for my job and the universe in general, today was also the day he brought it back about ten seconds later."

Steve blinked down at her in surprise. "That was today?" He hadn't known what the exact day was that had happened, only that it was sometime this year.

"That was today," Peggy said.

"But how did you know it…You saw me?!" Steve asked in astonishment.

"I saw you," she confirmed. "When you came into the office after you brought the Tesseract back. And, oh…" She reached up a hand to brush his cheek. "You were so young and so scared," she said sadly. "It killed me a little bit to have to just stand there. I just wanted to grab you up and tell you everything was going to be alright and never let you go." She smiled a little bit. "But, you know, fate of the universe and all that."

Steve smiled back and leaned down to kiss her. "Even so," he said softly. "If I had seen you—actually gotten to see you and talk to you…I don't know if I'd have been able to leave."

"Lucky for the universe I've got such good self-control," she said with a smile, and he laughed and kissed her again.

They kept holding onto each other, moving with the gentle music and just being close to one another.

"I forget sometimes how lucky we are," Peggy whispered. "It seemed like a dream for so long when you first came back, and now it's beautifully, wonderfully normal. How fantastic is it that I can just expect you to be here and know you will be?" She nestled her head against his shoulder. "That's why I came home early. Because seeing that young, scared Steve, oh, my heart hurt for him, and it made me think of all the things that almost never were." She wrapped her arms around him tightly, feeling him return the gesture, pulling her in close against his chest. "And I needed to see you," she whispered. "I needed to hold you." She felt him press a soft kiss to the top of her head and she sighed happily. "I love you so much, darling. Have I told you that lately?"

Steve kissed the top of her head again, and there was a smile in his voice when he replied, "Not since breakfast."

Peggy tilted her head up to look at him. Those beautiful blue eyes of his were shining with happiness, looking down at her that way he did that made her stomach do a flip, like she was the only thing that mattered in the world. "Well then," she said slowly. "I love you." She kissed his neck. "Steven." Another kiss. "Grant." Kiss. "Rogers." Her kisses travelled up his neck until she reached the bottom of his ear. "I love you." Another kiss, moving down his jawline now. "Mr. Carter." She kissed him again. "I love you." Kiss. "James and Michelle's father." She planted the next kiss on his mouth. "I love you," she whispered before she kissed him again. "Captain America." She kissed him long and deep. "You came back to me," she breathed. "And I love you so…" Another quick kiss. "So much."

Steve's arms moved around her, suddenly picking her up off the ground with enough force to elicit that involuntary squeak from her that she knew he liked so much. "I love you too, Peggy," he said, punctuating his words with a series of kisses along her neck and cheek. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back and didn't realize they were moving until they were falling down onto their mattress. "And every pain." He kissed her again. "Every war." Another kiss. "Every fear." Two more kisses. "Every year I travelled…" His kisses were desperate, echoes of the frightened young man who'd searched through time for her, but gentle at the same time, the soft, tender touch of the man who'd lived his life with her. "It was all worth it," he told her. "Every little bit. Because it brought me back to you. And you are the love of my life. Always have been." He kissed her so deeply and passionately that her knees would have given out from under her if she wasn't already lying down. "Always will be," he breathed.

"Thank you for coming back," she whispered, joyful tears brimming in her eyes.

"Thank you for being here," he said just as softly.