A conference on refugee relocation in Rome presented a good reason for Sam to bring Maria and Sharon with him on the trip. Sam did not have much experience with diplomacy and argued he needed assistance. Nick agreed, so the three traveled to Rome. While there, Sam delivered a speech, socialized with world leaders, pissed off the US delegation by reiterating his disapproval of the Sokovia Accords, and raised awareness of the plight of the impending influx of climate refugees as well as those still needing to be re-homed after the Blip.

Sam was exhausted.

"You awake back there, Cap?" Maria's voice carried her amusement from her seat in the cockpit of the jet.

"Do I have to be?"

Sharon appeared in the doorway of the cockpit so she could see where Sam had been sleeping in the main cabin. "It would be useful, since we're about to enter Wakandan airspace, and we need you to get us clearance."

It had been easier than Sam anticipated to bring Sharon in as part of his team. And after he'd heard what Sharon had been going through, he was glad to have given her the opportunity. He had known Sharon's career had taken a hit after she helped Steve and the rest of them following Berlin, but apparently the news that she was related to Peggy Carter brought accusations of nepotism despite the fact Sharon hadn't revealed the relationship until after her great-aunt's death. Even in the wake of the Blip, Sharon's return to her position at the CIA was perceived as favoritism. According to Maria, Sharon had been unhappy, but too professional to let it affect her performance. However, that also meant she jumped at the chance to be a diplomatic liaison for the new Avengers team. She'd been invaluable in Rome, but Sam worried whatever they learned in Wakanda was going to be a bigger challenge than a bunch of bureaucrats.

After Sam delivered the correct clearance codes, he remained in the cockpit with Maria and Sharon to witness their reaction as they flew through the Wakandan shield barrier.

"Wow!" It took a lot to impress Maria. And Sharon was practically pressed up against the windows as she looked all around them. Sam smiled, proud that Wakanda earned such reactions from these accomplished women.

Sharon finally tore her gaze from the landscape and looked up at Sam. "Was the Battle of Wakanda your first time here?"

"Yeah."

"But not your last."

It wasn't a question, but Sam answered it anyway. "No."

Maria exchanged a glance with Sam as Sharon mulled over her next question. With preparation for and attending the conference, there had not been the opportunity to catch Sharon up on the situation with Steve. Now that they were behind Wakanda's protective shield, they could talk candidly. However, Sam resisted opening up that conversation.

Sam was still struggling with the part of being Captain America that involved need-to-know information. He trusted Maria completely, but that was largely because he'd been working with her from the very first day he'd joined up with Steve and Natasha back in DC. Sharon had helped them in Berlin, to the risk of her personal and professional safety, but she'd been loyal to Steve. This was part of the Captain America role that Sam still had problems with. He was comfortable taking action, whether it be with his wings, the shield, or a pararescue jump kit. And he'd always been a good judge of character. His new role made him feel like he could not trust that judgment, though, like he needed permission to make a call on personnel or strategy or distribution of intel. He needed to get over that, he thought, and so he asked himself if he trusted Sharon. The answer: he did. He'd go with his gut.

Sharon finally asked, "So, why did the first battle with Thanos happen here?"

"Because Steve brought us here."

"And he could do that?"

"He'd been a frequent visitor." Sam breathed deep and took the plunge. "This is where Barnes was recovering."

"And is he?" Sharon spoke sharply. "Recovered?"

"Yes," said Sam. "Princess Shuri oversaw his treatment herself."

"Doctor Banner speaks of her with great reverence," Maria added. "If anyone could remove the triggers, she could."

Sharon nodded curtly, then returned to looking out the window as they made the final approach to Birnin Zana.

After they landed, they were escorted to the royal residence. Sam, Maria, and Sharon joined Bruce where he was talking with Shuri in her lab. Sam enjoyed watching the wonder play over Sharon and Maria's faces. Maria agreed with Sam that Sharon needed to be made aware of Steve's actions and the fact he was alive, but they were waiting to find out what had caused Shuri to call them to Wakanda. Sharon was confused, but her excellent skills as an intelligence agent covered any discomfort, and she was clearly ready to deal with whatever came her way.

Although Sam himself wasn't sure what they were walking into. Code Purple was Shuri's playful way of indicating something she thought could be a Thanos-level event. When Sam had laughed at the suggested name, he knew neither of them had ever expected a reason to use it.

The Dora Milaje led all of them to the throne room, the location heightening Sam's apprehension even more. He noted Wanda and Vision were present already. T'Challa greeted the new visitors individually before asking them all to be seated, and he ascended his throne. "Our gratitude to those of you who came to Wakanda for this meeting and to those of you who have been working on this area of concern the past few weeks. Vision?"

Vision stood up, and Sharon gasped quietly. Sam would not have heard her if she hadn't been seated next to him. He couldn't blame her for her surprise, of course. She had never seen Vision in his human form.

"As all of you know, I died six years ago. I was struck down by Thanos for the Mind Stone, to complete his Infinity Gauntlet. I died before the Snap, and therefore I was not among the Dusted nor was I brought back to life when Doctor Banner used a new gauntlet to restore fifty percent of life in the universe."

Bruce blushed and ducked his head, as he always did when reminded of this deed.

Vision continued. "Doctor Cho and Princess Shuri then worked to restore me, using what Shuri had learned while trying to remove the Mind Stone from me during the battle. They were successful. I am here. I have my memories. I have my life back." He reached out to squeeze Wanda's hand as he said the last.

"I was curious to see if any of my memories were missing in the transfer, so with Shuri's help, I compared my onboard storage, which was completely offline and dead during the Snap, to a current memory bank. There are subtle discrepancies."

Bruce perked up. "How subtle?"

"Very. No actions in this timeline were actually altered, except for some minor time delays in which those actions occurred."

Bruce followed up. "When did these discrepancies manifest?"

Vision responded. "1950."

Bruce nodded, as if it made sense to him. "So, right after Steve decided to stay in the past."

"Excuse me?"

The shock in Sharon's voice only solidified Sam's conviction that she had not known about the presence of Steve in her aunt's life. Sam and Maria had previously discussed how this conversation should play out, with Maria breaking the news to her colleague and friend.

Maria modulated her tone so it was factual, clinical. "After he returned the Infinity Stones, Rogers stayed back in 1949. From what he's told us, he married your great-aunt Peggy Carter, they had two children, and he lived a comfortable life as a house-husband."

Sharon shook her head. "That's not true. Aunt Peggy was married to Daniel Sousa. I remember him."

Sam said, "Not according to Steve."

"I refuse to believe it." Sharon was visibly upset, a far cry from her usual collected demeanor. Sam knew this must be tearing her up inside. "If that's true, then Aunt Peggy didn't just keep secrets, but was a liar. Who either lied to her family or made them lie. That isn't the woman I knew."

"I'm sorry, Sharon." Sam tried to be as straightforward as possible, not betraying his own anger. "Steve told us this himself when he showed up as an elderly man after returning the Stones."

"You both knew about this?" Her eyes flickered rapidly from Sam to Maria. "Steve is alive, and you didn't tell me?"

Bruce jumped in. "Fury's orders. I know Sam and Maria wanted to tell you before this."

"And we needed a place to discuss it where we wouldn't be monitored."

Sharon understood the gravity of Maria's tone. "Who else knows?"

"Rhodey, Secretary Ross, a few others with top secret compartmented security clearance, Pepper because the platform was on her property… and Barnes."

Sharon pointed to their surroundings. "And Fury gave permission for the government of Wakanda to know?"

Sam said, "That was me. I found some of Steve's things here while…." He carefully tapered off before mentioning the Bucky and Steve's living quarters. "His decision to stay in the past didn't add up to me, and I felt T'Challa and Shuri deserved to know that because of their generosity to Steve."

Sharon shot Sam a look which informed him he'd be hearing more about this later. He responded with a grim smile to show her he understood.

Vision continued with his discussion of the discrepancies. "Captain Rogers never appears in the timeline himself, which seemed unlikely for a man who had remained in the past, considering there were two Steve Rogers in this timeline. So, Wanda and I used Shuri's updated time-travel platform to travel back to 1950 to investigate in person."

Maria leaned forward in her chair. "You used a time-travel device? Who authorized that?"

T'Challa spoke for the first time since this discussion began. "The nation of Wakanda does not require external authorization to use any of its technologies."

Maria settled back in her chair. "My apologies, your highness."

After T'Challa acknowledged Maria's apology with a nod, Shuri rushed to assure everyone. "I do promise you, we used it only because of the discrepancies. There have been no other trips to the past."

Wanda now spoke up. "I used my powers, and Viz used his shapeshifting abilities to get close to people at SHIELD, or the SSR at the time, I guess. Including Peggy Carter. Steve was not there."

"Not at SHIELD?" Sharon asked.

"Not in the timeline." Wanda allowed red tendrils to form between her fingers. "I could not sense Steve's mind at all, other than the troubled dreams of the man beneath the ice."

There was silence in the room at the confirmation that Steve had been aware at some level for the decades he was frozen.

After that uncomfortable moment, Sam said, "So, what were these minor alterations to the timeline?"

Vision replied, "They appear to stem from Peggy Carter herself. Her appointment to director of SHIELD was delayed by approximately one year, as were her marriage to Daniel Sousa and the births of their children."

Wanda turned to face Sharon. "Your birth was delayed by six months."

"Oh my god." Maria placed her hand on Sharon's arm. "Remember your birthday lunch this year?"

Everyone looked at Sharon.

Sharon explained. "Maria and Pepper took me out for lunch as a birthday present. We were sitting out on the patio on a beautiful sunny day, and I mentioned how it felt weird to not have it be cold on my birthday." She folded her arms protectively over her chest. "But my birthday is in July."

Wanda explained. "It used to be in January."

"So, there have been noticeable ripples in the time stream." Bruce was unhappy.

Vision nodded. "But nothing so major that large historically important events were affected."

But Sam knew they would not all have been called to Wakanda if something else hadn't been discovered. "So, what caught your attention enough to invite us here today?"

Vision took on a contemplative tone. "The delays in Director Carter's life occur after a request to infiltrate a Soviet military installation in Vladivostok in 1950. That did not happen in our original timeline."

Maria was curious. "What did the infiltration find?"

Vision shrugged. "Nothing. After consideration, her request was denied, and Carter received a minor reprimand for wasting time and resources. Everything else stems from that one action."

Maria said out loud what everyone was thinking. "So, the real question is, what was in Vladivostok?

"I was."

Everyone turned to face that voice.

Bucky, having entered the room somehow unnoticed, was leaning on the wall near the door. He wore a soft long-sleeved shirt, pinned where he had removed his prosthetic arm. Sam guessed he had been in Wakanda for several days before this meeting. Bucky pushed his long hair away from his face. The motion gave him an excuse to look down as he said, "They kept me there in the early days."

Sam felt a sense of relief. This made Steve's actions more in line with his character. "So, Steve told Peggy Carter about Barnes."

Vision said, "We don't know that for sure. This is all conjecture, of course."

"No, Steve told Aunt Peggy." Sharon's face showed she was deep in her memories. "The Wall of Valor."

"At the old SHIELD headquarters?" Maria asked, "What about it?"

"I always wondered why Barnes was the first name there. He had never officially worked for the SSR or SHIELD, but Aunt Peggy made sure he was listed as their first casualty. She said they at least owed him that." Sharon looked at Bucky with an apology in her eyes. "She knew."

This whole situation still not not make sense to Sam. "So, why didn't Vision and Wanda find Steve?"

Bruce replied. "I don't know."

Sam wasn't satisfied with that answer. "I was there when this happened. Bruce, I heard how alarmed you were when the data showed Steve overshot his earliest time goal. Did you notice anything else that was weird or unplanned?"

"No."

Maria added, "No obvious machine malfunction?"

"No."

Sharon asked, "Did Steve tell you the order in which he was going to return the Stones?"

That was a great question. Sam nodded his approval at Sharon.

Bruce shrugged. "Kinda? He definitely knew which he would do first and which he would do last."

Now, they were getting somewhere. Sam asked the follow-up question. "Which was the last?"

With complete certainty, Bruce said, "The Soul Stone. We were concerned it would require a sacrifice."

Sharon hadn't been briefed on Vormir. "A sacrifice?"

Sam was glad she asked, because he still wasn't sure he understood what happened on Vormir. Bruce explained, "Apparently the Soul Stone requires a sacrifice of something you love in order to take possession of it. We weren't aware of this until Nat..." Bruce choked up momentarily, as everyone in the room felt the pain of Natasha's loss again. "We were hoping it wouldn't need one to return the Stone, but Steve was willing to sacrifice his life, if that meant returning all of the Stones and ensuring the integrity of this timeline."

Vision wanted clarification. "So, Captain Rogers had been fully briefed on the importance of maintaining the timeline?"

Bruce nodded. "Absolutely."

T'Challa spoke next. "Bucky, did Captain Rogers tell you he was going to stay in the past?"

Sam was surprised when Bucky did not reply right away and grew concerned. Bruce must have felt the same way, because he asked, "You reassured me it was his choice?"

Shuri stood and walked over to where Bucky leaned against the wall. She grabbed his hand in both of hers. "What did Steve say to you?"

In the quiet and gentle fashion Sam now associated with him, Bucky said, "The night before the mission, he asked me if there was anything I would change in the past if I had the chance. We talked about Peggy. I really thought he was going back to her."

Sam pointed out, "And he obviously did go to her. The question is, did he stay there and hide out for decades?"

"Aunt Peggy did not lie to our family for decades." Sharon was adamant about that.

And Vision appeared to agree with her. "There is no evidence Peggy Carter was married to Steve Rogers. Daniel Sousa is listed on their wedding certificate and the birth certificates of their children, in both databases."

Maria emitted a growl of frustration. "Why would Steve be lying about this to all of us?"

"He isn't." Bucky's eyes filled with fear. "Steve went to Vormir last, as planned, and he didn't come back."

A stunned silence filled the room. Sam walked over to where Bucky had slumped against the wall. He and Shuri grounded Bucky by touch, trying to offset the unwarranted guilt obviously flooding through him. Bucky was trembling and curling in on himself. Shuri gripped his hand tighter, and Sam threw an arm across his shoulders.

"God, I'm so sorry." Bucky breathed heavily. "I should have gone to see him. But I couldn't. This is on me. I would have been able to figure this out."

Sharply, but not unkindly, Sharon said, "Barnes, I'm pretty sure nothing that's happened in your life since 1945 has actually been your fault."

Sam was reeling. As much as he wanted to believe Steve would not have abandoned his family and team, he had talked to Steve since he returned. Older, yes, but the form of his gait and the cadence of his speech were Steve's.

But as Sam thought back to their few conversations over the past year and Steve's participation in the meeting with Secretary Ross, he realized nothing had been mentioned or implied that could not be gleaned from the record number of biographies in existence of Steve Rogers. And Maria and Rhodey had noticed that, too.

Sam's arm tightened his grip around Bucky's shoulders. "So, who the hell have we been dealing with this past year?"

Sam's words seem to break something in Bruce, who started wringing his hands. "Oh, shit."

That can't be good, Sam thought. "Bruce, what aren't you telling us?"

Bruce looked around the room. "None of you were with us in New York, and we've kept it quiet, so you haven't found out about it, have you?"

A sinking feeling in his gut, Sam asked, "Found out about what?"

The response from Bruce was not what anyone wanted to hear. "We need to contact Thor. I think we might have a Loki problem."