Alba followed Steve into a quieter side of the compound, away from all the doctors, guards, and even reporters camped out a few miles away at the main gate.

"What is this place?" She asked quietly, almost afraid to disturb the silence surrounding them. They strolled along a long corridor with a glass railing on one side and solid wooden doors peppered throughout.

"These are the living quarters. Its pretty quiet around here most of the time." Alba looked at all the doors with renewed interest. There was no movement or sound coming from anywhere. The walked up a set of stairs, which opened into what looked to be a large common living space, complete with a living room, updated kitchen, and modern lounge area.

"Where is everybody?"

"They're being debriefed or treated. Sam took a nasty fall when the explosion sent shrapnel through one of his wings. He's going to be okay, though." Alba nodded slowly, unsure as to how to carry herself around this foreign space.

He led her past a red lounge area and through one of the doors to the right, shutting the door behind them with a quiet click. Alba turned around the large bedroom slowly. It looked like his bedroom at the tower, except this one looked more lived in. There was a large, sleek desk pushed up to the far side facing the windows that looked over the complex. She wandered over to it and inspected all the clutter on the surface of the workspace.

"All this stuff is yours?"

He nodded. "After Sokovia, Natasha, myself, and a couple other Avengers made this place our home."

Suddenly, little pieces of information started making sense. "Your house…I assume it's not far from here?" Steve grinned.

"No. It's close by, actually." There was another awkward silence that Alba decided to fill by inspecting the room. She had about a million questions, but the only one she could be bothered to ask was:

"Why am I here?"

He opened his mouth to say something and then snapped it shut, thinking better of it at the last second. With a pained expression, he motioned to his tattered clothing and then to the ensuite bathroom in the corner of his bedroom.

"This is not how I pictured this conversation happening." He held up a finger. "Just give me two minutes."

They weren't together anymore, so she couldn't think why else he wanted to speak with her privately.

Unless he wants to be together again…

Sang a little voice in her head. Alba wasted no time silencing that silly thought. Things were the way they were, and no amount of daydreaming on her end would change that.

A small cardboard box at the end of his bed caught her attention. She walked over to it slowly and discovered what could only be called Steve's keepsakes. His treasures…the things he hadn't lost to time.

She spotted his old dog tags, enlistment papers, and other personal effects. In the upper corner of the box rested an old compass that hadn't been clasped shut. Something in it caught her eye.

Alba picked up the old instrument and stared at the newspaper clipping photo of a young woman. She had beautiful, short, perfectly styled waves that ended just before her shoulders, and brightly painted lips that conveyed a confident grin.

This must have been the woman Toby had talked about.

His first love.

Like a tidal wave, all of the insecurities Alba had been holding back crashed to the surface. How was she supposed to measure up from a woman that was ripped away from him decades ago? She set the compass on the bed gently and stared at it for a long moment. If Steve hadn't of gone down in the Arctic, this would have been the mother of his child. Not her.

Alba didn't know why the thought hurt as much as it did, but it was enough to make her gather her belongings and rush to the bedroom door. She needed some air.

She turned and nearly crashed into Steve, who had been leaning on the bathroom doorway, observing the scene.

"S-Sorry. I didn't mean to go through your things. I think it's just better if I go." Steve crosses the room in four strides and wrapped his hand around her wrist, coaxing her around slowly until she finally turned to face him.

"I never told you about Peggy. I was so busy trying to build a new life, that I buried my old one." He murmured regretfully. Alba studied him slowly. Part of her wanted to call it quits, go home and hole herself up. But Steve had never made her feel like she wasn't good enough, and she knew he wasn't about to do that now. She owed her future child this moment. She sensed that Steve was trying his best, and she respected that. She faced the man slowly.

Alba turned her hand in his until their palms were resting together, then gave him a weak grin. "There's still time to talk."

Steve took a deep breath. He grasped her fingers gently, almost scared she would change her mind and run away. He led her to the bed and took a seat at the end of it, giving her a grateful fleeting grin when she decided to join him.

"When the war broke out stateside, I knew I had to fight. I had to serve somehow. But…I was a scrawny kid with every type of disability on the book. Bucky trained me for weeks, not that it worked." He recalled amusedly, gaze lost in the distance as he recalled the events of his enlistment.

"I faked so many enlistment forms I thought for sure I was gonna get arrested, but I didn't care. On his last day in New York, Bucky and I had a…disagreement. He thought I was doing it because I felt like I had something to prove."

Alba hummed. "Was he right?"

"Partly. I felt more useless than anything else. We were in art school when the war broke out. Did I ever tell you that?" Alba shook her head. She had never taken Steve for the artsy type.

"So, here was Bucky with his enlistment papers ready to lay his life down on the battle field and I was…drawing pictures. Everything I did felt so insignificant compared to the men that were dying to defend our country. I was always frustrated with how sickly I was growing up…how many limitations I had to live with. But trying to stand up for you think is right and being turned away because of my sickliness…that crushed me."

Alba looked at the man before her with new eyes. She knew Steve was small and scrawny, she'd read his bio, but hearing him say it was a different story.

"Then what?"

"Then, on my last illegal enlistment attempt, Erskine found me." He chuckled at the memory. "I thought for sure I was going to get arrested. But no. Erskine saw something in me that even I didn't see. He gave me a chance, and that was all I could ask for. Just like that, I was a private headed off to bootcamp." He picked up the compass and placed it in Alba's hands, encouraging her to open it. She did as he asked and looked at the photo of the woman once more.

"That's where I met Peggy. She worked for an organization called the SSR back then. The first time I ever say her, she laid out a soldier."

Alba gaped. "She punched him?"

Steve grinned. "Yeah, she did. He deserved it too. Talked down on her because she was a woman. Back then, a lot of people looked down on her because she was a woman. Strangely enough, it was that very reason I felt she understood me better than most. A lot of people in the military looked down on me. They just saw Erskine's pet project."

He scooped the compass out of Alba's hand and turned it over carefully. "I can count on one hand the number of people that believed in me, and Peggy was one of those people. She saw the potential I had instead of the failure that chased me."

Alba almost felt jealous. Steve was so lost in his memories, he didn't notice the way Alba studied his starstruck face. His eyes shined with affection, a proud smile etched into his face. When he turned to meet her eyes, Alba realized that he was giving her that same look. The same look that he had on his face when he thought about Peggy. She started feeling hopeful. Maybe there was a chance for them, after all.

"Is that when you fell in love with her?" Steve arched a brow. He never expected Alba to be sitting here, calmly asking about his past love. It felt like he was talking to his best friend.

He thought about her question for a moment. "No. It was after. The USO took me on tour to sell war bonds after the experiment was a success. I was overseas when I ran into her again. She reminded me why I had signed up to even be part of Erskine's experiment, and it wasn't to be a circus monkey. If it hadn't of been for Peggy giving me a push that day, and believing in me the way she did, the Captain the world knows today wouldn't exist."

"She sounds like a wonderful woman." Alba murmured. She could only wish that her impact on Steve's life would be just as good. Their love sounded like it was one for the ages, not an accidental pregnancy, she taught to herself.

"Believe it or not I didn't bring all these things out here to walk down memory lane." He grinned "They're here because I'm putting them into storage, along with a few other things."

Alba inspected the pile with renewed interest, cautiously meeting his gaze. It was hard to ignored him while he still clutched on to her hand, the heat from his palm making her crave his touch.

"...why are you putting it in storage?"

He walked over to the box and studied the mementos again.

"When I was taken out of the ice, this was all I had. My home as I knew it was gone, I had no family, and my friends were all dead. Well, most of them, anyway. Not to mention the woman I loved was ninety-one and couldn't even remember who I was anymore." He closed the compass and walked towards her again, standing so close to her that she could feel the heat coming off his body.

"Over time, I made new friends. I found a new home. I had an odd family…of sorts. But I never imagined being lucky enough to find a girl like you."

Alba froze, ignoring the sudden flurry of nerves in her stomach. "Steve, I'm a hot mess that ended up getting pregnant by accident. There's nothing lucky about me." She snorted.

He didn't believe her for a second. "You are one of the kindest women that I've met. You're smart and strong as hell. You make me happy. Really happy. I used to just be a soldier, an Avenger. You…make me want to be Steve again. Just...plain old Steve." Alba swallowed thickly and tried to blink away the blurriness in her eyes. God. This was not the moment to tear up…

"Before I met you, I told Tony that a family just want in the cards for me anymore. That I was someone else. I've never been so happy to be wrong in my whole life." She grinned despite herself. Steve took her silence as permission to continue.

"I talked to Peggy last week. She helped me realize that I made some mistakes as far as we're concerned. I wanted to apologize."

Alba stared up at him, confused. "You want to apologize for breaking up?"

"No. I wanted to apologize because I made some calls about our relationship that should have been our decision. Together. I took the choice away from you because I thought that it would keep you safe, and for that I am sorry."

"I know I don't deserve another chance, and if you don't want to try again, I would understand. But I-I'm ready to give it my all, Alba. I'll admit, I've been keeping my distance. Because I...I thought this was too good to be true. That I would wake up one day, and it would be stolen from me." Like the last woman he loved, Alba thought sadly.

"But I'm ready. I've made my peace with the past, with all of the things I can't change, and for once, I'm actually looking forward to what's in front of me and not behind me." He finished, taking a sigh of relief as he got everything off his chest. In retrospect, Steve should have done this a long time ago. He glanced down at his girl and gulped. This was the moment of truth. Everything he had done during their time apart had been leading into this moment, and he hoped more than anything else that she would give him another chance.

Alba cleared her throat. "I…I want to try. But Steve…I'm almost four months pregnant. So I need you to be sure. I need to be able to count on you. Because if we go south again, I don't think I'll find the energy to try again. This is it."

Steve released a giant breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. He placed a soft kiss on the back of Alba's hand and clutched it like a lifeline.

"You can count on me. I'm not going to hide behind my fears anymore."

Alba gave him an impish grin. "And no making decisions on your own. We're a team now."

Steve pulled her in close. "Does that make us Team Cap?" Alba rolled her eyes, but giggled at his joke anyway.

"It makes us Team Herrera-Rogers. Hyphenated."

Steve chuckled. "Oh, so you're a modern gal. Man, that is going to be a mouthful when you become my wife."

Alba froze in his arms and turned to look at him slowly with wide, owlish eyes. She tried not to hyperventilate as she echoed:

"Did you just say 'when I become your wife'?" He nodded, eyes sparkling with warmth.

"That's the plan...one day. Is that ok with you?" She couldn't contain herself as she threw her arms around his neck and planted a kiss on his lips. He groaned quietly as he leaned down to deepen their kiss. It had been too long.

"That's perfect." A soft knock on the door interrupted their reunion. Natasha Romanoff poked her head through the door a moment later and gave the happy couple a wave.

"I take it the couple has made up."

Alba grinned at the red-headed woman. It had been a while since the last time she'd seen her. "Something like that. Long time no see."

Steve looked between both women, brows furrowed. "Wait, you two know each other?"

"She's a friend from work." Alba joked. "If anyone had to look at lawyers and lawmakers during the SHIELD overtake, it was Ms. Romanoff."

"Please, call me Natasha. We're going to be family now." She nodded at Alba's rounding abdomen with a warm expression on her face. "Congratulations, by the way."

Alba ran a hand over her little bump and gave the woman a warm smile. "Thank you." She glanced between the assassin and her now official boyfriend. There was obviously a conversation that had be had between the both of them.

"I'm kind of thirsty, I'll be in the kitchen when you're ready Steve." As Alba left the room, Natasha turned to give Steve an inquiring glance from the open doorway.

"So? Did you tell her everything?"

"As much as I could without having her fall asleep during my history lesson." He joked. Natasha rolled her eyes.

"See? I told you. Honesty is the best policy. Aren't you glad you listened to old Romanoff?"

Okay, so they're finally on the road to recovery! I think this conversation went really well and they have a good few chapters ahead of them. This one was a little shorter than usual, but I feel like this scene needed to be the focus of the chapter. And it's a day early. Also I totally pictured Natasha giving Steve some dating advice because we all know Tony can't be trusted...lol

BTW, can you guys pls send me your favorite StevexOC fanfics? I've read a few but I need new material. So if ya'll have some recs PLEASE send them my way.