Peggy didn't have to think. The music was playing, and here was Steve Rogers standing right in front of her. She allowed herself to be pulled into a hug that transformed into Steve leading her in a slow dance around the living room.
James' voice filled the room, "You'll never know how many dreams/I've dreamed about you/Or just how empty they all seemed without you"
It felt good, safe, warm, her face against Steve's shoulder, her body against his massive chest, his heart beating against hers. She closed her eyes for a moment.
Steve held her close, his right hand held her left, his fingers stroked hers, and as he touched her simple engagement band, she sighed in contentment.
"Maybe this was what I'd been waiting for?" she mulled over in her mind, "Daniel's wonderful, and we do have a good life, but Steve is- well, Steve" she smiled, looked up, and kissed him.
Her mind drifted back to all the adventures she'd had, from Steve's becoming Captain America, to nearly the end of the war, what was later known as World War Two. "Four years" she thought, "four years was quite a long time" her mind wandered back to when she'd first fallen for Steve
Chester Phillips had his heart set on making Gilroy Hodge the next super soldier, and tested Hodge and the rest of the recruits by throwing a then-unknown-to-be dummy grenade into the mix of exercising troops. Peggy remembered that she'd no idea that the grenade was nonlethal, and had raced forward to fling it away at best, or should she have to, lay down her life to stop the explosion. Unfortunately, weak, minute, Steve Rogers had beaten her to it. He'd flung himself onto the grenade and yelled for the other recruits to stay back, lest they were injured by the imminent shrapnel.
She'd looked at him, smaller than she was, certainly not weighing any more than scarcely a hundred pounds, soaking wet, and knew then, that this man, this was the sort of man she could see herself being happy with.
Now, Peggy sighed, but felt that the strapping man who towered over her couldn't possibly know how it had been to be that tiny, nearly emaciated man who'd stolen her heart.
Of course, it hadn't only been that moment, in trying to bodily stop a grenade from going off, that had won Peggy's heart.
Steve kissed her back now, in the present.
Peggy's mind was a flurry of thoughts, "It's an indescribable feeling, when you want something so much, and here it is, and yet, even though it feels so good, so right, as it should be, you can't help but wonder about it. So, you second guess yourself, and then you second guess your choices."
"I missed you" she finally spoke, looking up at him
"I did, too" he smiled
"But, I can't do this" she sighed, and pulled away.
"It's him" Steve meant Daniel
"No" she shook her head, not trusting herself to speak more.
"Then what?" Steve frowned, his voice was slightly, ever so slightly, firmer. He wasn't angry, or upset. He simply wanted to understand, to know.
"I was in love with you" she explained at last, "I mourned your death. I grieved, and not a moment went on after the day, that I lost you- not a moment, that you weren't a part of me, a part of everything I do, of everything I've done"
"I'm back, doesn't that matter?"
Harry James had finished singing. The only sound coming from the record player was the turntable spinning scratchy revolutions.
"Of course it does" she hugged herself. Part of her wanted to be back in his strong embrace, yet another part of her wanted some distance, some mental quiet, to think.
"Four years" she said aloud, explaining, "I've had four years with you, saving the world, as it were" she went on, "but I've had four years without you, and I'm still doing everything I can to save the world"
"We could – we could do that together" Steve countered gently
"I've told you, I've explained, about Daniel, and how he makes me feel, how he reminds me of you"
"You don't need to be reminded of me, I'm right here" Steve sounded self explanatory
"You're here" she sighed, "and you look very nice" she smiled momentarily before it faded from her face, "dressed up in my fiance's clothes, but what about while you were gone from my life? I didn't have anyone to save me, and I certainly didn't need any one, no man of course, to rescue me. I could do quite a good job, thank you very much"
"Peggy, I'm not here to rescue you"
"Then what do you call this? Showing up, expecting me to run straight into your arms as if all the past four years didn't matter? As if the rest of my life didn't matter?"
"That's not what I'm saying" he began
She didn't let him finish, "It most certainly is what you're saying" she was firm, "I suppose you think that I simply waited for your arrival until this very moment?"
Steve barely opened his mouth to respond. Peggy didn't let him get a word in edgewise, "Steve Rogers, you may be a lot of things to a lot of people, but to me, you were always the man who did the right thing. The person who put others first. You were a man with great morals dealing with very real physical hardships"
Steve wanted to explain himself.
Peggy put up her hand to stop him, "When I was merely an agent in the SSR, my gender was considered a disability. In the greater world, here, it is still considered that. Right now, I'm working something much greater than the SSR"
"Yeah, I know" Steve finally exhaled
"And yet you don't seem to be dealing with any physical hardships right now. You've all but forgotten who that man in Camp Lehigh who used his brains more than any other candidate there"
"Just because I'm different on the outside, doesn't mean I've changed inside"
"Steve" Peggy sighed sadly, "Tell me, honestly tell me how you could possibly know what it's like to be that man who I loved, the one who understood how difficult things are for someone like you. How could you still be that man now that all those obstacles have gone away?" she shook her head, "you can remember those times, but you can't be that man ever again. Your life is completely different now"
"What about this Daniel? What are you going to do with him?"Steve countered
"I don't know, Steve" she sounded fed up with his line of questioning, "I really don't. Perhaps we'll embark on a fabulous love affair, or we'll realize we're bad at domestic chores and we can't compromise on who washes the dishes" she frowned, "but at least I know that he understands. His lot in life is like mine, unchanging. I can't go from being a woman in a male dominated society. He can't magically grow another leg, despite whatever fanciful declarations that Howard Stark makes"
Steve's scowl faded. He looked crestfallen, "Where that does that leave us then?"
"I'm not sure" Peggy spoke the truth. She had no idea, not really, "You hurt me" she finally continued, "all you had to do was give me your bloody coordinates. I could have found you in hours, days perhaps, instead of after four long years"
"Seventy" Steve corrected her
"Seventy" Peggy repeated, understanding
"I should've" Steve apologized, "and I'm sorry that I didn't give you the coordinates. I thought- I thought that I was doing the right thing"
"That's" Peggy's voice broke with emotion, "that's why you and I – we – this couldn't work" she crossed the room to the fireplace and mantle, held the photo of Daniel, "you asked what would I do with Daniel?" she gazed at the photo for a moment, "You wanted to know why I'm even with him" she replaced the photo on the mantle, "At least with Daniel, he'll listen to me, especially when he knows that I care about him, that I'm concerned for his safety. That's more than you've ever done"
Steve wanted to continue. He wanted to say something to reassure her that he could be that man, a man who listened to her, who thought the world of her, like this Daniel fellow did.
He wanted to say all of that and more. Except that just then, the front door opened up.
"Peggy" Daniel called, his back against the opening door. His crutch tapped on the hardwood floor. "I had to borrow this cart to get everything home again. Maybe we can drop it off tomorrow" he leaned on his crutch and walked backwards, pulling a small wagon filled with groceries behind him.
He turned around, and saw Peggy standing there with Steve Rogers.
"Oh, you've got company?" he smiled.