Chapter Three: Folie a Deux

"You had me assigned to his case?" Audrey had the phone balanced between her shoulder and her ear as she struggled with a basket of clean laundry. It was two in the morning, she was exhausted, but she couldn't sleep. On the other end of the line, Peggy Carter was humming to her.

"Of course, my darling," her mother answered. "I'm not in charge of SHIELD anymore. You're one of the people I would trust to handle a case this important. And it's important that he knows you."

"So you just...called in a favor? To Fury?"

"Exactly."

Audrey yelped as she banged her fingers between the doorway and the ledge of the basket.

"What was that?" Peggy asked, her voice beginning to grow gravelly, the way it always did before she began a coughing fit.

"It was nothing, Mum. Don't worry about it. I love you."

Peggy began to sputter out an " I love you too" only to break out coughing, and to have the phone taken from her.

"We're going to start getting your mother ready now, alright dear?" the nurse notified her.

Audrey bit her lip. She wished that she were closer. Every day, it seemed like her mom was drifting further away. She swallowed these thoughts back down and buried them under something else. "Of course. Thank you."

Audrey had known about the Avengers Initiative since it was founded back in 2008.

What she hadn't known was that she was on the shortlist.

The day after she'd met Steve, Audrey woke up to a ringing phone and Caroline's hushed voice on the other end. "Aud, Fury wants to see you. I don't know why, and for some reason I'm not able to scare his new secretary into telling me, but I'd get down here quickly if I were you."

Which was, of course, a delightful way to kick off a Friday morning. Audrey stumbled around her apartment trying to get ready, and then booked it to the subway. She tripped over herself a dozen times just on the way to the train, and then a few more on the way inside the building. The retinal, fingerprint, and access card scans eventually unlocked the elevator for her, and she had time to catch her breath.

"Are you...okay?" someone asked. Audrey squeaked and jumped in her spot, and then mentally scolded herself, because really? A super soldier shouldn't get surprised that easily. When she turned to the voice, she found Doctor Foster's intern clutching three coffee cups in one arm and a three-inch binder in the other.

"Yeah," Audrey answered. "Sorry, it's been a… rough morning."

She snorted. "Dude. Same. I had to haul my ass out of bed at three a.m. this morning because my crazy scientist boss, who I adore and respect, but still, she wanted me to transcribe her notes for her because she and Erik got into a contest about who could publish a report faster, and they're betting all the pop tarts, which, like, we can buy more , but they lived in a trailer for eight months, so I understand the frugality, but still!" She let out a frustrated grunt. "Sorry. Too much info?"

"It's fine," Audrey assured her. She wanted to return the favor and explain why the past few days had been so hectic for her, but the woman's clearance badge only indicated a level two. And above that, a name. Darcy Lewis. Next to the block letters was an image of the brunette squinting into the camera. Audrey grimaced, because everybody seemed to get an ugly ID photo from SHIELD, except maybe Natasha Romanoff. In her own picture, Audrey was blinking, but for some reason only her left eye had shut completely. It seemed nobody was exempt, not even the former Director's daughter. "Do you need a hand?" she offered, noticing the way Darcy juggled the cups around in her arms.

"I'm—" Darcy started, just as the lid for one of the coffees popped off. "Typical," she muttered bitterly, then asked, "Yeah, if you wouldn't mind? My boss is like, right down the hall and to the left."

"No problem," Audrey said, even though her pulse quickened with every passing second. Fury might have her head for being late, but… uh… at least she'd go down knowing she helped someone out?

Yeah. Sure.

Find the bright side.

Those words had been Anna's, when Audrey had been struggling with her mother's latest field injury. "Find the bright side," she'd said, in her soothing voice and calm lilt, with a hand on the girl's shoulder to calm her down. "You're a bright girl. Always look for the positive."

So, Audrey decided, even though her mother was injured and frustrated about being benched from field work—at forty-five years old, still (literally) kicking, the two had more time with each other, more quiet afternoons where Peggy would brush back her daughter's hair and tell stories about Steve, or mornings where Audrey would read the newspaper out loud to Jarvis and Peggy. It meant that Anna and Jarvis had more time together since he didn't have to drive the getaway car for Peggy. That had been the bright side then. Now, the brightside to only brushing half her hair and furthering her tardiness was that she was helping Darcy out, and maybe this very coffee would… awaken the scientist into a new discovery. Or something.

She took two of the coffees into her own hands, freeing up enough limbs for Darcy to fix the lid on the third cup. The elevator doors slid open to reveal a pristine hallway. "First door on the right, it should be unlocked," the brunette called out. Audrey followed her advice, leaning back against the door to push it open. Inside, she found a decidedly not-pristine labspace, covered in pop tart boxes, machines made of at least 40% duct tape, and papers. Everywhere.

Before she could stop it, a small gasp escaped from Audrey's mouth. "Oh lord," she mumbled, the lord coming out like her mother would say it— Lohwd.

"Just put those on the counter, but near the sink, not near that contraption on the side," Darcy instructed, dropping the binder down onto the table, pulling one of Jane's hands away from a microscope, and setting the coffee into her grip. Audrey dropped the cups onto the granite by the faucet. "You're a lifesaver," Darcy thanked.

"It's not a problem," Audrey answered, eyes flitting up to the clock. "It was nice to meet you. I need to. Um. Go." She waved and then cringed, fleeing the lab and jumping back into the elevator. Once inside, she slumped back against the wall, closing her eyes for a moment to breathe. With the added exhaustion, her life felt like more of a pipe dream than it had yesterday.

Last night, before heading to sleep, she'd assembled a list of newfound discoveries. 1. Her dad was alive; 2. Physically, he was only, like, eight years older than her; 3. Fury wanted to see her, which never happened. He usually used Hill as a go-between so he could remain in his office doing… whatever he did in his office. Nobody went in there. Audrey considered the possibilities briefly. Did he nap? Did he crochet in secret? Was Fury's guilty pleasure online gambling? A mystery, indeed.

In her purse, her phone buzzed. Audrey slid it out of her bag to read the messages. Two—from Josh and from Steve.

The message from Josh read, dinner tonight? 8?

Audrey answered: 9 is better. work. Takeout?

The message from Steve read:

(April 17, 2012) Audrey,

Thank you for your offer to spend time with me today. I'm available any time after nine.

Sincerely,

Capn. Steve Rogers

She bit her lip to keep from laughing at the message. Did she want to mimic his style in a reply or go with something more phonetically casual?

Finding the happy middle, she typed out:

Hey, Steve! I had a work emergency this morning, so I'm not sure I can make it until around noon. We could have lunch at an Italian restaurant not far from your apartment and take a walk after. Is that OK?

Before a response arrived, the elevator doors opened once again, this time directly into Fury's office. Audrey took a hesitant step into the space, the heel of her pumps snip-snapping on the floor like scissors. She clutched the strap of her purse with white knuckles, suddenly feeling cold.

"Carter," he barked, rounding a corner with Caroline and an assistant at his side. Audrey's friend shot her a sympathetic look, giving the blonde's stomach reason to sink. She was in trouble. Probably. This was like being sent to a principal's office. She guessed. Audrey had never had a principal, except for the one year in London, and he was technically a headmaster. Still, she'd never had a problem with behavior, and had kept to herself for the most part.

"Director," she responded politely.

Fury dismissed Caroline and the assistant, a lanky man with a serious countenance. Then he turned to her and asked, "How is Captain Rogers doing?"

"Fine, sir," she answered. "I've been slowly introducing him to contemporary technology."

"You get to MP3 players yet?"

This felt like a trap. He was too conversational. Even so, Audrey answered, "Not yet, Director." Then, in a risky move she would regret instantly, she blurted, "Why am I here, sir?"

The calm visage slid from her boss's face. Fury glowered at Audrey. Well. Maybe he wasn't glowering, per se, but from Audrey's spot eight inches below him, it sure seemed like it. "I want to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative," he said. "More specifically, the Captain's place in it. And yours."

"My—? I thought that was scrapped?"

"It was. But with the discovery of your father, the World Security Council might be persuaded to reopen it."

Audrey frowned. Last she'd heard, an alien attack in Puente Antiguo had been the reason for the Avengers Initiative being tossed. The team of extraordinary people had always been an idea, first pioneered by Howard Stark, approved by Peggy, and passed down as a concept but never actually completed. After the attack, though, SHIELD had decided to move onto Phase 2—an armory. Something caught her attention, though. In his earlier words. "The Captain's place?" she inquired. " My place? What's my place?"

"You were on the list, Carter."

Wait, what?

(Audrey was suddenly overcome with deja vu. It seemed that wait, what was a common occurrence recently).

"I was?" She'd been on the list? How hadn't she known before today? Audrey remembered doing paperwork regarding the Initiative, but it never concerned her.

Fury turned on his heel and began to take long strides towards the conference table off toward the side of the room. Audrey felt compelled to follow, her shorter legs taking more staccato steps. When he reached the table, he picked up a remote and activated the screen. Four faces appeared on the screen—her own, James Rhodes, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton. Audrey knew of Natasha, and she'd met Clint once or twice in the break room after debriefings (where he'd hogged all of the coffee and pissed off Caroline). Rhodes had never crossed paths with her, but Audrey had seen him on the news a couple of times after Tony had almost blown something up in the process of saving the world, which was something that happened more and more often after the Iron Man reveal. Fury tapped a sensor on his keyboard and two more faces popped up on the screen: Steven Grant Rogers and Anthony Stark.

"These are the Avengers?" she asked. "I'm… an Avenger?" she asked, and the foreign words rolled around on her tongue like the time she'd tried alcohol for the first time, unfamiliar and stinging her the skin on the inside of her cheeks. She twisted up her face, because that was the oddest thing she'd ever spoken, which said something, because hello mom, how did the assassination go? had spilled from her lips a dozen times in her life. Audrey repeated the words, but differently. "I would've been an Avenger," she remedied. "If the Avengers existed, I would've been one of them."

"Yes," Fury answered with a nod. To Audrey's surprise and suspicion, he didn't seem hell-bent on terrifying her for once. Instead, with his hands folded behind his back, he turned to her seriously and uttered, "I need you to make sure the Captain's ready. If I need to call him back in, he needs to be prepared."

Audrey opened her mouth. "Ahm." She really didn't want Fury to be pissed off at her, she really really didn't want to say something to get him angry, but also, was he crazy? Her job was to adjust Steve Rogers to life in the twenty-first century. Not to prep him for another battle. "Is that a good idea?" she inquired, choosing her words carefully and still almost regretting them. "I mean, he just woke up. Shouldn't we give him time before throwing him back into a fight?"

"Those are orders," Fury answered, features deflating from something around neutral to a full-on scowl.

Audrey sighed. "Yes sir," she responded.

"Good. Dismissed."

Steve was not where Audrey had expected to find him. When she'd knocked on his apartment door for a few minutes and gotten no answer, she took out the app SHIELD installed to let her track his phone, which he thankfully hadn't ditched somewhere. A taxi ride and some mild confusion later, she found herself in front of an old boxing gym. The sign outside said it belonged to Lou Gibson, and as far as Audrey knew, Steve hadn't made acquaintances with anyone named Lou, nor had he made time to sign up for a gym membership. So.

She swung the door open—a real door, which a knob that twisted instead of a handle to push open, and followed a staircase to a basement level. As she passed the abandoned front desk, she really hoped that Steve hadn't gotten himself kidnapped. No offense to Captain America, or anything, but he seemed like kind of a trouble magnet.

As Audrey approached the rings, she heard a low thumping noise. It wasn't until the giant leather punching bag flew across the room and into the wall that she comprehended what was happening. "Holy crap!" she exclaimed before she could stop herself. "Jesus Christ," she added, for good measure.

Steve's gaze fell from the fallen bag, drifting over towards her.

"Hi," she said. "Uh, nice place you got here."

A beat passed, where he seemed to be analyzing her motives. Two steps forward, one step back. Steve nodded. "Thanks. I just bought it."

"You bought it?"

Her jaw hung slightly open, probably unprofessionally and definitely not empathetically. He'd just… bought a gym? A vintage gym. He'd just decided to spuriously treat himself to a gym?

Once she initial shock passed, Audrey was oddly zen about the idea. Okay. Fine . Whatever helped him. If destroying punching bags was going to be a therapeutic experience, she should encourage it. As long as he didn't get too intensive with the retail therapy, SHIELD wouldn't be bothered.

"That's… an interesting choice. Why'd you buy it?" she asked, poking at the new bag he'd hung up while she'd mulled the whole thing over.

Steve shrugged. "It feels familiar."

"That's a good reason." And it was. Familiarity was good. The fact that he was being honest with her was good . This was all good. Good. Good good good.

"What's good?" Steve questioned, giving her a funny look.

"Did I say that out loud?" Audrey asked. He nodded. "I do that sometimes. Sorry. Ignore me."

Steve shook his head, almost amused. "It's okay. You probably inherited that from me."

"I'm not sure it's a heritable trait," Audrey replied, taking a seat next to him on the bench and resting her hands on her knees. "But even if it was… you say stuff out loud on accident? That doesn't sound like a good skill for a World War II hero to have."

"Not me," he said. "My mom used to, though. Do you know anything about her?"

Audrey shook her head. "Not really. Mom tried to tell me whatever she could but she couldn't… find much. I think that was it. Your mom had a pretty thin file."

He avoided eye contact with her—not at all subtly, Audrey might add—but he began to tell her things about Sarah Rogers. Everything from, "She used to work in the tuberculosis ward, when nobody else wanted to," to "She saved up for a month to buy blue paint for our apartment, and it made her so happy." Audrey listened keenly to everything he said, about how she'd never stopped believing in him, even when he was skinny and sick, about how she'd sung Irish lullabies to him as a kid that he forgot the words to but sometimes remembered fragments of the tune.

Then, she told him about what Peggy was like as a mom. How she made up lullabies because she couldn't recall any of the ones her mother had taught her, and the woman herself had begun to lose her memory. How she never sacrificed being an agent or a mother, just accepted a little help. The more Audrey talked, the more Steve looked at peace.

The two settled into a comfortable silence of common ground for the first time.

Eventually Audrey stood up, jabbing lightly at the bag again.

Steve watched her for a moment, and then asked, "Who taught you how to fight?"

Audrey shrugged. "Same person who taught you."

"Peggy?"

"Yup." Audrey pivoted, delivering a swift kick to the bag with the top of her foot. It shuddered under the force of the blow. "I can box too, I mean, not like you were doing with the whole bag exploding and flying across the room, but I can box." She demonstrated by jabbing the bag again, not nearly as hard as she was capable of, but still using a decent amount of strength.

"Did she ever show you, the uh, the spin move?"

Audrey thought back to her mother's fighting, the lessons as a six-year-old (eighteen-year-old?) when she was being taught basic self defense. "The kick one, or the jump one?"

"The jump, I think," Steve replied. "Where she'd flip over in the air and spin to avoid being kicked."

"Oh! I remember that one, but I don't think I ever learned. I was too little to jump high enough."

Steve stood up and stepped into a fighting stance. "It's not too hard," he said. "As an afterthought, he added, "Not for people like us, at least." Audrey raised an eyebrow at the people-like-us comment, wondering if it meant he knew others like him, or if he'd started associating the two of them together at some point yesterday. "You just—" He grunted as he kicked his legs out so he was in a straight line suspended midair, then tucked his hands up at opposite shoulders in a strangely corpse-like fashion. As he did so, he spun around once, twice, thrice , before dropping solidly onto the mat with a thump, leaving Audrey both awed and giddy. The awe, of course, was from seeing someone else fight the same way as her mother, but the giddiness came entirely from it being her dad.

Audrey clapped her hands together in front of her mouth to hide her grin. "Oh my god. I wanna learn that." She stuck a hand out and he took it, pulling to his feet and looking a little surprised when the force of his weight didn't dislocate her arm.

He smiled back. "I'd teach you, but uh, another time. When you aren't wearing a pantsuit."

She scanned her outfit quickly, only just realizing the office apparel. "That's a good point. I had a meeting with Fury today." She wondered if she was allowed to tell Steve what Fury had told her, just to be honest with him. But then, it hit her that he probably wouldn't want to know. Or at least, his life would be significantly less stressful if he didn't. Instead of explaining what the meeting was about, she said, "That's why I'm in a suit." She couldn't help herself when the next words slipped out of her lips. "Do you think you'd ever go back to the field? Like, would you ever want to?"

Clearly taken aback, Steve broke eye contact and went back to fiddle with the hook on the punching bag. Audrey knew that she hadn't been in the right asking him, she wanted to swallow the words down and forget about them, cheeks tinging pink. "Uh, I'm not sure," Steve answered truthfully.

"Right. Sorry. I shouldn't have asked." Audrey bit her lips together again and they avoided eye contact for a few more beats. "I'm hesitant to leave you alone at the risk of coming home to find out that you bought a mall or something, but I'm gonna have dinner with Josh tonight, so we can hang out until around eight, but then I have to head back to my place."

Steve turned to her. "Okay," he affirmed, then started to scratch behind his neck. "Uh, you're not expecting me to… to meet him, or anything, right? Because I'm not… ready. For that."

"Oh god no," Audrey assured him, having not even considered him trying to introduce himself. Now that he'd stated his position as decidedly not in favor of that, she felt relief in waves. "I mean, you can meet him at some point if we're still together, but he doesn't… know about me. Being a SHIELD agent. Or a partial super-soldier. Or someone who qualifies for a senior discount."

At that, Steve frowned. "'If you're still together?'" he repeated. "It's not serious."

Well, this had gotten deep. "I mean—" Audrey hesitated, wrinkling her forehead. "How do I say this? Uh. I like dating him. He's a good guy and I'm happy with him, but we couldn't ever get married. He'd age and I wouldn't. I mean, even dating him for more than five years would push it, since he'd probably notice that I'm still… younger. I don't know. It's just complicated with the aging."

Steve's face was set into a deep frown and he nodded, but he didn't seem like his whole focus was on Audrey. With a quiet start, she realized that he might've been considering how he and her mom could've moved on after the war. The way he traced his ring finger lightly and bit down on the inside of his cheek. Even if the plane hadn't crashed, would they have stayed together? Probably. For a bit, because of her, but how would Steve have taken watching Peggy grow old and begin to succumb to the way it affected her brain? How would a traditional family have affected Peggy's career? Maybe not much—nothing could tear her away from the field, but if she'd had roots in Brooklyn would she have saved the world from Whitney Frost in Los Angeles?

The idea of having her parents together was appealing to Audrey, but she realized with a melancholic epiphany that even if they'd been able to stay together after the war, she never would've had a normal family. What's done is done. There was no point in dwelling on a hypothetical, no matter how tempting.

"He doesn't know you're an agent?" Steve asked her. Audrey shook her head. "He should know," Steve blurted, then gritted his teeth. "I'm sorry. It's not my job to tell you what to do. Forget I said anything."

"Sure," Audrey answered, "No problem." But his words remained an echo in her head. She only took them into consideration, though, because she knew they were true, she'd thought about it before, in the two months they'd been together. Her boyfriend should know that he was dating a secret agent. It was only fair that way. "Do you wanna take a walk? We can go back to your apartment, I printed out a timeline of events from 1945 to 2010, with annotations to things mom and I have done. And there's a bakery I want to stop at, they've got the best cupcakes in the world."

"Don't have much of a sweet tooth," Steve warned her. "Spent so much time eating rations in the army."

Audrey waved him off. "Just try them. Maybe you'll be surprised."

Five hours, a baker's dozen of red velvet cupcakes, and two movies later, Audrey found herself heaving off the floor and grabbing her bag. "I wish I could stay longer," she told Steve apologetically. "Tomorrow we've got all day. We can go to a museum or watch more movies, or like, go running or something. Hopefully you don't want to do that all day, but if you do, then uh, sure?" She made a face. "The point is, I have no plans for tomorrow."

Steve nodded, going ahead to open the door for her. "Sure. And, uh, maybe we could go out to lunch. And then a movie in the theater?" Sheepishly, he looked down. "I need something kinda familiar. And since everything I knew has changed for the most part..."

"Of course!" Audrey answered, too quickly and probably too eagerly. This assignment had morphed from a slightly more personal than usual recovery case to something she felt herself anticipating. She wanted to know who her dad was.

Audrey thought back to the attack hug she'd graced him with yesterday, something that happened out of left field and definitely hadn't been planned. She wished she'd seen his reaction, so she could decipher how he'd respond to her hugging him again.

Nope, she told herself. "I'll see you tomorrow, Steve," she said, patting down the jacket she had draped across her left forearm. "Have a good night," she waved, then stepped away and down the hallway towards the elevator. The door didn't click shut immediately so Audrey made sure to keep a straight posture. It was only when the elevator doors opened that she heard the door lock, and cast a look over her shoulder at his now-closed apartment. She pulled her gaze away as she stepped inside.

When Audrey threw her apartment door open a little after nine, she found Josh waiting on the couch wearing a grin and organizing the takeout boxes that littered the table. She dropped her purse on the floor with a thud and relaxed her shoulders as Josh stood to greet her.

"How was your day?" he asked.

"Long," she returned. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, and for a second, it didn't really matter that he didn't know who she really was. She felt safe.

But did she value safety over honesty? Could safety exist without honesty? Her stomach churned at the idea of her job putting him in danger, even if she never worked the field.

"Well, it's over now. I got fried rice."

Audrey smiled gratefully, but as if just to spite her, the phone in her bag rang at that very moment. " Almost over," she clarified, pulling away and reaching down to grab it. She lifted it up to stare at the number of the incoming call, which just flashed SECURE across her screen. When she lifted it up and greeted the other person with a "hello?" she got a very stoic reply.

"Agent Carter?" Coulson greeted.

"Speaking," she answered, as she'd been taught to when addressed.

"I need you to remain on stand-by. There's a possible emergency."

"What's happening?" she asked, confusion seeping into her voice.

"That's all I can release to you at the moment."

"Wait." Audrey's eyes slid over to Josh, who was giving her a worried look from the corner of her eye. "One second." Then, to Josh, she said, "I'll be right back," and dashed into her bedroom, shutting the door behind her. As soon as it was shut, she stepped away and in a low voice muttered, "Coulson, I've got higher clearance than you do."

"Fury doesn't want me to tell you what it is until he's sure we should be concerned. In the event that it is going to be an issue, we'll need to reach you immediately. Director's orders. I'm sorry."

Audrey blew out a breath, knowing that was the end of the conversation. No more protesting. "Fine. Update me as soon as possible."

Even as she sat on the couch and ate the dinner and talked to Josh, Audrey found her focus on the cellphone in her pocket. It wasn't until after one that she got another call.

"This is an emergency," Coulson said immediately, voice drowning in the sound of a chopper. "Barton and a dozen other agents have been compromised, and we've got issues with the Tesseract."

"The tessa what—?"

"Nat's in Calcutta right now, recruiting Banner, and I've got Stark. But you need to get Captain Rogers. This is the Avengers Initiative, and it's coming into play."

Notes:

holy crap everyone! The response from you guys is still blowing my mind, I love you all so much. Seriously. It's amazing. The Avengers timeline got bumped up a little to this chapter, because I was anxious to get to the plot. As always, feel free to check out the tumblr for more content! Shoutout to CatrinaSL on tumblr for betaing this and making it something understandable, as well as to Quinn for dealing out plot advice!

Please leave a review on the way out! They mean the world to me, and if you've got a fic you want me to check out, feel free to send it my way. 3

Chapter Four: For Posterity (and Tony Stark)

Well, Audrey thought to herself. It's not every day that your boss fanboys over your dad.