This is set immediately after Chapter 78, "Sketchbook Show and Tell" in Roots and Anchors.

"Trip, it's so good to see you again," Peggy said as she hugged him. "You look well."

Steve smiled to himself as he watched the pair, the fondness they felt for each other evident to everyone.

"I'm working my dream job, Aunt Peggy. I couldn't be happier," Trip said.

"I assume you're filling Steve in on Gabe's life after the war?"

"Actually, I've been finding out what a prankster Gramps was. You held back the good stories when we were growing up."

Peggy smiled and sat back down, her gaze landing on Steve for just a moment. "I hardly think your parents would have approved of me corrupting you too soon. Will you be a dear and fetch me some more water?"

After Trip left to do her bidding, Peggy looked around as if she were looking for someone. "Grant, where did your father wander off to? I wanted to introduce him to Steve."

Steve felt like he'd been punched in the gut and clenched his fists at his sides.

Grant answered smoothly, "He got called in to work at the last minute, remember? They've been short staffed lately with four agents out with food poisoning."

Peggy frowned, then nodded. "Drat my memory."

"Don't worry about it, Peggy," Steve forced himself to say, mimicking Grant's matter of fact tone. "I'm sure Daniel and I will be able to chat on the phone as soon as he's free to call. I understand the importance of his work."

"Lady Margaret, I see that my warrior brother is trying to monopolize you time once again," Thor said, appearing at Steve's elbow. "He has been remiss in introducing us. My name is Thor. Did he ever tell you the story of our first meeting?"

Peggy shook her head and Thor pulled out a chair to sit near her. "Steven, step outside and take some time to collect your thoughts," Thor said softly before taking Peggy's hands in his and giving her his full attention. "It was during the time my brother Loki visited Midgard and summoned an army of Chiutari fighters…"

Steve took the opportunity Thor gave him to slip away from Peggy and beeline for the nearest exit. "Jarvis, rooftop terrace, please," he asked in a shaky voice. He'd known Peggy had memory problems. She'd warned him herself that it was going to happen. Seeing it first hand was a different matter entirely.

Steve leaned heavily on the stone wall as he looked out at the city, blurred as it was by his tears. In one hand, he clutched Bucky's dog tags, trying his best to be grateful that Peggy was at least alive, if not well. In his other hand he held his compass, his thumb tracing the lines of the curved case. He'd known she'd lived through the decades he'd been frozen in the ice, but it was different to see the passage of time with his own eyes. Even the skyline, blurry as it now was, had changed from the one that he remembered. Not that he had many chances to view it from this angle. Poor Brooklyn boys didn't spend much time atop Manhattan skyscrapers.

He choked on a sob and bowed his head. He needed to pull himself together and get back to the party. The Peggy he had known would have scolded him for how he was behaving.

"It doesn't get any easier, but at least it stops being a surprise," Caroline said as she came out onto the terrace. "They call Alzheimer's the long goodbye," she added as she joined him at the wall. Leaning on her forearms, she glanced down at his left hand, which was closest to her, and saw him holding the compass in his fingers. "Did Mom ever tell you how she found out about you having her picture in that?"

Steve shook his head, unable to look Caroline in the eye. Even brushing away his tears was an effort that was beyond him. Surely, though, she hadn't expected to find him standing out here smiling.

"She acted like she'd been mortified, but I know she was pleased. She'd been sitting next to Colonel Philips while a bunch of propaganda movies were being previewed for approval. The cameraman had apparently noticed the picture and zoomed in on it. Mom said Colonel Philips gave her a look that would have curdled fresh milk."

Steve huffed in amusement as he handed the compass to Caroline so she could see it for herself. "I was on the receiving end of that look on occasion. Bucky and I figured he practiced it in front of the mirror."

Caroline studied it, then carefully closed the case before passing it back to Steve. Her fingers were warm as she closed his hand around the metal case. "To me, he was just Uncle Chester. I think he must have mellowed once he left the service. I know he was proud of you. Even as young as I was, it was obvious how highly he regarded you. Mom told me once that your death broke something in him."

"He was a good man." Sighing, Steve put his compass back in his pocket. "The last time I saw Peggy, right before I jumped aboard the Valkyrie, she was so alive. Now, she's fading away."

"There are times I pray she'll get pneumonia or die of a heart attack in her sleep before she's so far gone she forgets who I am," Caroline confessed, her voice soft and filled with pain. "I know that day is coming. When she's tired, she already mistakes Grant for Dad and Tony for Uncle Howard." Caroline wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand. "Last night, Mom said she'd give up her remaining days in an instant if it meant Cynthia could have that time."

"She'd do it, too, if she could."

"I know. That's who she is." She nudged Steve with her shoulder. "By the way, thanks for kicking my dumb brother in the butt and making him come clean last night."

He nodded once. "It was just a nudge. You should be with him."

"I don't think Cynthia or Grant would much appreciate extra company right now, given what they're up to at the moment." She smiled as she grinned to herself. "Their game of footsie over breakfast this morning was hardly subtle. When I left them just now, they'd convinced Mom she'd benefit from a nap but I don't think she was the one who was intent on getting into bed."

Steve laughed. "Jacques would approve."

"Uncle Timothy would probably bellow a toast."

"Did he ever give up wearing a bowler hat?"

"Are you kidding me? If it weren't for him taking it off indoors, I'd have sworn it was surgically attached."

"I miss them."

"They missed you. You were never forgotten. We Howler kids all grew up hearing stories about what they thought you and Uncle Bucky would have thought about the current topic of the day. Mom made a point of checking in on Rebecca now and then. They lived their lives, in part because they felt they owed it to the two of you to keep going and make sure your sacrifices weren't in vain."

Steve nodded. "I'm glad for that, I am. With so many reminders everywhere, I'm never really able to forget how much time I lost. Seeing her, more than anything else, makes the passage of time more real somehow."

Caroline put her hand on his forearm. "This has to be harder on you than any of us can imagine. At least Rip Van Winkle had his children to welcome him home." She huffed slightly, amusement in her voice. "In another life, you'd have been my father and yet you're younger than either of my boys."

Steve shook his head. "It's not that. I already made my peace with the road not taken. Megan's my future and I wouldn't trade that for anything. But when I think of who Peggy was, how she lent her strength of all of us… No one who knew her back then would have been a bit surprised she was the first director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Her mind was like a steel trap… nothing got past her. And now? She can't even remember that her husband is dead. It hurts to see that change. I know you've been dealing with it, so it's not like I'm discovering anything new…" He bowed his head as his voice trailed off. "I guess it caught me off guard."

"I'm not surprised. The change is more abrupt for you than anyone else. The rest of us have watched her grow older and seen her transition into retirement and grand parenting. Even so, it was a kick to the stomach to realize she's getting old. She was always my hero, and I let myself believe she was invincible. It's been hard to come to terms with that." Caroline straightened up. "Enough with the moping," she said, tugging on Steve's arm so he'd follow her to the chairs nearby. Sitting down, she waited until he was seated before she said, "Tell me about Megan. How did you meet her? And I'm asking for more than what you told the press."

Steve rubbed the back on his neck, feeling a bit sheepish. "I was eating lunch in the S.H.I.E.L.D. cafeteria, by myself as usual. Out of nowhere, she showed up and asked if she could join me. Next thing I know, she's making fun of the cafeteria food and telling me about a horrible PowerPoint presentation HR was showing new hires to keep them from bugging me for autographs. And then she admitted she was a new hire, a shy introvert, and coping with her first cafeteria lunch by inviting herself to dine with someone who looked more miserable than she felt."

Caroline laughed, clearly having interacted enough with Megan to imagine how that scene had played out.

"Next thing I know, we're swapping books to read and she's teaching me to cook without boiling all the flavor out of food." Steve smiled to himself, not even bothering to wipe the tears from his cheeks. "Megan got me to start living again. Before… I'd been coasting and thinking I was doing okay. She saw right through that, past the uniform and the press, and offered me her friendship. Her mom and stepdad… it's like I have parents again. I never even knew my father, but Greg's shown me what Dad and I could have been like if he'd come home from the war."

He was a bit stunned at how open he was being with Caroline Maybe it was her similarity to Peggy. They both had a way of getting him to open up when he least expected it. Still, it unnerved him. "Your mom said you were in the army for a time," he said, changing the subject away from himself.

"That's dad's fault. I never knew the details until last night, but a part of me always thought he might have kept his leg if he'd had better care sooner. I wanted to give someone else the chance I thought my dad never had."

"He didn't."

"But if not for you and your team, he would have died, so I was a bit off the mark. So I became a surgeon and joined the army. I was even deployed in Vietnam, but I wanted to be at the front, working in the golden hour. Instead, I was kept back and protected due to my gender. Worse, I was disillusioned by the way the fighting was managed."

"From what I've read, it was a real mess."

"Yeah, it was even more of a mess than the books admit. Anyway, I got tired of fighting for equal treatment and tired of fighting in a system that didn't value its soldiers. So despite my determination to forge my own path, I ended up at S.H.I.E.L.D." She ducked her head shyly. "Mom was right that it was a better fit for me. My deployments were shorter. I had lots of chances to do field medicine in third world countries where even a simple vaccine changed a life. I loved it, and I was home enough that I was still able to raise my boys. My husband Robert got almost as much grief as my dad did about playing second fiddle to an ambitious wife. But he's never resented my career, only supported me. He told me once that the world would be a better place if we let people follow their passions, not box them into gender roles. He's a homebody, through and through."

"What does he do?"

"He's an author and until he retired, he was also a high school history teacher. Those poor students used to lament how he was so picky about their essays and term papers. Robert double majored in history and English. He had no patience for students who were sloppy about their writing. Now, of course, he writes full time. I like to tease him that he really married me to get access to my parents."

"He writes about World War Two?" Steve asked, already guessing the answer from Caroline's amused expression.

"In the form of historical fiction. Most of his books are directed at young adults and use fiction to educate them about that period of history. But he's always been interested in understanding the effect the Howling Commandos had on the overall war effort." She nodded at Steve's expression. "Ironic, I know. It took him a long time, but he finally wore Mom and the others down and got them to agree to give him the real stories. The deal was that nothing would be published until Mom and all of the Howlers were dead. He's been working on that for years, trying to interview everyone, then research how their memories and unclassified reports overlap with the rest of the war's progress. With Mom's health failing, he put it together into a cohesive narrative that weaves the Howlers' story into the larger tapestry of the war effort. Everything is meticulously referenced. He was getting ready to have his agent shop the manuscript around to prospective publishers when you showed up in New York."

Steve winced, appreciating what his miraculous return from the dead meant to Robert's promise.

"It's annoyed him to no end to realize he'll probably never get to publish that book now, but he's also desperate to get the facts straight and wants you to look at the manuscript for his own peace of mind. He's been dithering for weeks about approaching you about it."

"I'd love to read it. Actually, Megan's been insisting I need to write a memoir of sorts, using my sketchbooks, telling more of the personal stories I remember. She mentioned it to Michiko yesterday and now they're both riding me about it. I'm not a writer and Megan doesn't have the time, especially with her new job at S.H.I.E.L.D. Do you think that's something Robert would be interested in helping me with?"

"We may have to negotiate custody and visitation privileges so I get to see him on occasion."

"I can work with that." He didn't add that it might provide him a welcome distraction on the nights when sleep was elusive or interrupted by nightmares.

"Just from what you shared this morning, I promise that you'll break several publishing records. So you need to think about what you'll want to do with the profits."

"Everything can go straight to the fund set up in my parents' names."

"The Howlers would approve of what you're doing for those kids, Uncle Steve. Damnit," she muttered and hid her face in her hand. "I knew that was going to happen."

"I don't mind. Michiko already told me. I'm glad the Howlers stayed a family even when the fighting was done. It helps, knowing that."

Caroline nodded. "Are you ready to head back in? I'll introduce you to Robert. He's been spending most of his time with the veterans, trying to get more stories out of them, I think."

Steve was surprised to realize he was actually feeling alright. Caroline had talked him down from the ledge. Just like Peggy used to do in another life. "You're a lot like your mother, and there's no higher complement than that," he said as he stood up. "Thank you." For understanding. For caring. For reaching out when I needed you. He hoped everything he was leaving unsaid came through in his expression.

Caroline just smiled knowingly and took the hand he offered to help her to her feet. "Saturday evenings are off limits. Ever since Kevin was born, Saturday nights have been date night."

"I promise I won't take any calls from Robert on Saturday evenings."

"Don't give him your cell phone number unless you like early morning conversations."

"I'm usually out running before the sun comes up so he'll have to leave a voice mail. I'll get back to him after work."

Her eyebrow shot up as they stepped into the elevator. "You're going to make him wait all day?"

"Even longer if I'm out on a mission." He shrugged with feigned helplessness.

The corner of Caroline's mouth turned up slightly. "He's going to hate you."

"He may be grumpy, but at least you'll get to see him."

"I can work with that."

"Peggy was always a master at managing the men around her, so you learned from the best."

Many thanks to H., for excellent editing.