Chapter Two

Sharon awoke the next morning to a sticky note on her bedside lamp and a single yellow daisy in a cup on the nightstand.

She smiled, the doubts she'd harbored about her relationship with Steve seeming insignificant in the light of day with the note in his handwriting and the happy flower he left staring back at her.

She picked up the flower, gave it a sniff, and then wondered how much trouble Steve was going to be in when her mother realized he'd cut a flower from her garden.

Good thing he's already gone jogging, she thought as she read his note and pushed her blankets aside. She grabbed her phone, activating the app to track the GPS on his. She got dressed, watching the little blue dot of her boyfriend move around on the map of her parents' neighborhood.

She pulled on her shoes and, quietly as she could, snuck out the front door and stretched before taking off to intercept the dot as it circled toward the house.

Taking a deep breath of morning air, it felt good to run the same paths she'd run as an athlete growing up. Though she'd always been active in school sports and had met the physical requirements of SHIELD, she'd never considered herself particularly fast or strong.

Not until six months ago, that is, when she received four pints of Steve's blood in a life-saving transfusion.

While her dad, a doctor like her mom, didn't believe Steve's blood had any lingering effects, Sharon had never felt better in her life. She wasn't up for sprinting a two-minute mile with Steve or even an endurance match with Bucky but she'd definitely outpaced her personal bests at the SHIELD track.

Henry assumed Steve's blood caused a placebo effect - that Sharon was only faster and stronger because she thought she should be faster and stronger.

She didn't really care to argue with her dad and simply enjoyed the effects, which she did as she increased her speed. According to the GPS, she should have caught up to Steve by now but so far she hadn't seen anyone save old Mr. Jenkins out walking his Bull Mastiff Trixie. She was just about to pull her phone out again when someone fell into step beside her.

"Going my way?" Steve asked as he matched her pace.

"If your way is around the block back to my parents' for breakfast, yes," she answered, smiling over at him as they ran.

"I do enjoy your mom's cooking," he said. "Think she'll make pancakes?"

"I make you pancakes all of the time," Sharon reminded him.

"Yes, but you use whole grains and seeds — your mom uses Bisquick."

At that, she bumped his shoulder with hers and sped up with no real hope of outpacing him. "I guess you don't have to worry about eating particularly healthy," she said when he easily caught up to her again. "But one of us does."

"I like your pancakes, too," he pouted. "But your mom's are just like my mom used to make."

Since he mentioned his mother, Sharon refrained from saying "full of trans-fats" and instead told him there might have been a bag of chocolate chips sitting on the counter just for him.

"In that case," he said, turning to her. "Race you!" And he shot off at a remarkable speed she of course couldn't hope to match. The good news was that she didn't have to, knowing the neighborhood, and took a shortcut through Mrs. Jeffries' backyard that only had her trailing him by a couple of minutes.

After Steve got his fill of chocolate-chip pancakes, he and Sharon headed back to DC. While it was geographically a two-hour trip by car, Sharon knew the weekend traffic could just as easily turn it into a six-hour nightmare and they wanted to see Bucky and Sam before they left for Italy. They'd been asked by local law enforcement to assist with what they perceived as a potential Hydra cell. From the intel, it seemed like a job Falcon and the Winter Soldier could handle on their own while Steve was busy with other obligations.

With the music turned low and Steve behind the wheel, Sharon went through his itinerary for the week, including updates he'd missed while he'd been off with Iron Man.

"A team of Stark techs will be around starting Tuesday to update our computers and security system," she reminded him as she finished with Monday's schedule and Steve maneuvered them onto the freeway. "They'll be in my way more than yours but they will have access to the entire building. They'll be around for a couple of days every week for the next three weeks. They'll also be updating our comm systems, which will be nice when you boys are in the field."

"Our communications seem pretty good to me," Steve said.

"Yes, but aren't you're just happy not to dial the Operator to make an outgoing call?"

"Funny," he deadpanned. "What else you got?"

"You have your usual mystery phone call at ten Wednesday morning followed by a twelve-thirty meeting on Capitol Hill with Senator Stern's newly elected replacement. I know he wants to offer you his deepest apologies for his predecessor but Aunt Peggy always warned me never to trust elected officials - here or in England. Be careful not to make any promises we can't keep. "

"Should you go with me for that?"

"I can but I'll have to shuffle a meeting with Maria Hill. She says she's got some leads she'd like you and Sam to follow that she can't."

"Shouldn't I be in on that meeting?"

"Not unless you want to go dress shopping afterward."

At Steve's sidelong glance, she explained, "She needs a dress for her sister's wedding and I've been tasked with helping her find something that doesn't make her look like like an idiot - her words."

"You're going to the mall with Fury's former second-in-command?"

"Apparently hooking up with you has raised my stock and I'm no longer a faceless and nameless Level 6. Carter legacy or not, I think Hill only called me 'Agent 13' because she couldn't be bothered to remember my name."

"Well, she's always struck me as very...focused."

"Since her current focus is using us to accomplish what she can't through Stark Industries, I'm willing to go along. I think we have her to thank for Pepper Potts outfitting our endeavor to begin with."

"I believe the person we have to thank for that is you, Sharon." Knowing she was just going to dismiss the praise, as was her way, he reached his hand over to cover hers. "I mean it. We wouldn't be in the position we are, to defuse Hydra and other threats, without you."

"It's a team effort, Steve. Without you, Sam and Bucky to run the actual missions, I'd be analyzing wiretaps at the CIA. Instead, I'm leading the glamorous life of office manager and personal shopper."

"You know you're more important than that, right? How much you mean?"

She had a sinking feeling they suddenly weren't talking about her position on the team and wondered if Steve had heard her conversation with her mother. "I know I'm valued," she finally said.

"Try invaluable, Sharon." He squeezed her hand lightly. "I mean that."

It wasn't exactly what she wanted to hear from him but it would do for now. Instead of answering, she lifted his hand to her lips for a soft kiss and moved on to Thursday's schedule.

Despite heavy traffic on the Beltway, Steve and Sharon arrived at HQ just in time to see Bucky and Sam before they headed to the airport.

After watching his teammates pull away, Steve grabbed his bag from the back of Sharon's car and headed for the elevator. As he rode to the fourth floor, he contemplated the turn his life had taken since the fall of SHIELD.

He'd spent two months in Europe with Sam Wilson, a retired pararescueman he'd just met, trailing leads and rumors to find the mysterious Winter Soldier, otherwise known as his oldest and dearest friend James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes. While Steve had thought Bucky lost during a mission in 1945, it turned out that Hydra had found and warped him into a weapon responsible for nearly 50 deaths over the course of seven decades.

It wasn't until they returned to the states that Steve learned that Bucky had gone into hiding with Sharon Carter, niece of Peggy whom Steve had harbored strong feelings for during the war. Sharon and Bucky had retreated to her family's cabin in the mountains where she helped him battle the demons that seventy years of brainwashing had caused.

By the time Steve and Sam arrived, Bucky and Sharon had formed a bond he'd been jealous of. His best friend - his brother in every way but blood - didn't remember him but protected and trusted Sharon, a woman whose loyalty Steve had questioned.
Steve had a difficult time trusting Sharon at first, finding out she was a SHIELD agent and Peggy's niece both unpleasant surprises for him, but he, too, came to care for her - more than he'd thought possible.

Then an attack on Sharon during their stay in the mountains reminded him that Hydra and its agents were still a threat and Captain America couldn't afford to be off the grid any longer and had to do something about it.

Of course, when he'd returned to DC, Steve hadn't really known what that something was. It was Sharon who came up with their current set-up, securing space, resources and funding for his support team.

Using her aunt's connection with Stark Industries, Sharon met with the CEO of Stark herself, Pepper Potts, and brokered a deal that gave the Captain and his team everything they needed to monitor and defend against Hydra's threat, including a living wage, accommodations, equipment and vehicles.

While Steve had very little to do with the arrangements Sharon made with Stark Industries, he had his own connections to the corporation through its late founder, Howard, and his son, Tony — otherwise known as Iron Man.

When Tony had heard about the plans Pepper and Sharon were making, he dubbed them "Team America: World Police" and laughed at his own joke whenever he said it — which Steve didn't get and only seemed to amuse Tony more.

In only a few week's time, a former Stark warehouse used to store munitions in DC was converted into a garage, office, gym and living quarters — complete with Stark tech and and fully furnished by Potts.

While the decor was more modern than Steve cared for, his apartment had begun to feel like home and, again, he had Sharon to thank for that. When he'd disappeared in 1945, Howard Stark and Peggy Carter had preserved the contents of his Brooklyn apartment. As Peggy's health began to fail, her children sold those items to the Smithsonian and Sharon had managed to get most of them returned to their rightful owner.

As he let himself into his apartment, he was greeted by the careful blending of his old life and new. The books on the shelves were a mix of the ones he'd collected since waking up in the twenty-first century with the ones his father had kept in their old living room in the 1940s. A picture of his parents on their wedding day sat on the mantle next to a picture of Steve and Bucky in uniform, taken during the war and reproduced and framed by Sharon, as well as a picture of Steve and Sam taken only weeks ago downstairs in the gym.

There were similar touches throughout the apartment.

A blanket made by his grandmother and given to his mother was laid over a chair in the bedroom - too delicate in its age to use but a reminder of the comfort he'd felt wrapped in it as a child - and his mother's hope chest sat at the end of the bed.

The kitchen even had some of his mom's old pots, pans and serving ware. They, too, were for display only but the sight of his mom's cherished lead-glass pitcher and goblets reminded him of the happier memories from their Brooklyn apartment.

He and Sharon had also done some antiquing outside of Baltimore, in Catonsville and Ellicott City, to pick up wall art and other items that reflected his old life.

Dropping his duffel bag on the bed, he sorted dirty clothes into light, dark and super hero - he'd learned the hard way that it was a bad idea to wash his civvies with his Captain America uniform - and stacked the baskets by the door for later. As he carried his toiletries into the bathroom, he thought that she should have an extra set for as much as her been traveling g lately. He'd mention it to Sharon and they could pick up the necessary items when they went shopping.

He looked up at the clock - picked up at a flea market because it reminded him of the one in his old apartment - and decided he had enough time to sort through his mail, what little there was. Steve Rogers had only been on the grid for two years and didn't live any one place long enough to even get much junk mail — excluding the random things Sam, Tony and Clint Barton signed him up for because they thought it was hilarious. Captain America had a separate post office box that mostly contained cards and letters from children and the occasional "thank you" note from someone he'd saved. He made a point to go through that mail on the first week of every month, an appointment Sharon set up in his calendar for him and arranged with the post office.

He leaned against the kitchen counter as he sorted through the week's worth of mail someone — probably Sam since Sharon had been at her parents' for the reunion — had picked up. There were two credit card offers (finally building some credit history), a letter from Life Alert (ha ha, Tony, he thought), an ad from Rogaine (you're killing me, Hawkeye), a Victoria's Secret catalog (Sam...or Black Widow) and, finally, a bagged periodical at the bottom of the stack.

He tore the bag, pulled out the magazine, and immediately shoved it back inside like he'd released a poisonous snake. Of course, in his haste, the bottom of the bag ripped and the magazine - as well as its scandalous inserts - spread across the floor.

As he bent to pick up the spilled contents, he heard the door open behind him.

"Steve?" Sharon called. "Are you ready?"

"Just a second," he answered, sweeping furiously to collect the evidence before his girlfriend saw it.

"I know I'm early but there's no food in my apartment and I'm -" Sharon trailed off as she rounded the corner and caught sight of her boyfriend crouched on the floor with fistfuls of Playboy.

"Did I interrupt something?" she asked, she fisted her hands on her hips but the smile she couldn't contain belayed the stern stance.

"I was just reading my mail..." he said, obviously flustered.

"And since when do you get nudie magazines?"

"Since Tony subscribed me to them." He looked up at her, his ears red in frustration and embarrassment.

Sharon knelt down and helped him gather the magazine inserts, despite his protests. "Naked women don't bother me, Steve," she laid her hand over one of his. "I'm sorry we bother you."

"They don't...I mean...You don't..."

"It's okay," she said. "Let me help you clean this up and then I'll buy you dinner."