A/N: And here's the second part.
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Years and a heartbreak later, in a new world, Steve looked around London. This had been where Peggy lived, where the Secret War Room had been, where he'd gotten his last letter from Clara, telling him she'd gotten married to a self made man, Frank Parker, originally from Tennessee, having immigrated to New York during the depression, and that they were going to name their sons Benjamin and Richard (if they had sons, that is), and the delightful couple living next-door to them, the Williamses, Amelia and Rory, originally from England. Now... now it was full of stain glass high raisers and cars, with barely any signs of the war that had been fought there, of the bombs that had blown up pubs and homes and shops alike.
The world had moved on from the war that had been Steve's yesterday. Well, not literally, he'd been thawed and awake for two years already, eighteen months since the invasion of the Chitauri and the battle of Manhattan and the formation of the Avengers. But the world was still strange and new to him. He liked some things and hated others and was confused by many. Like, why did everyone need their own car? Especially when they lived in a city with good public transportation? In his time (not his time anymore, this was his time now, Stark didn't have a time machine) cars had been a status symbol, a show of wealth, but if everyone had money for a car, it wouldn't work anymore. Stark had tried to explain it to him, tried to explain why he had a dozen different cars he didn't use just laying around and gathering dust. Banner, Barton and Romanov had been there, laughing at Stark's explanation the whole time, but hadn't joined the conversation.
And now they were in London. The mission had ended yesterday, and now UNIT, the global governmental defense against aliens (SHIELD was a daughter branch, firmly centered in the States), was going to provide them with a guided tour of central London (and some UNIT bases).
Steve looked around. Stark was doing something on his phone (hopefully not planning some childish prank on the tour guide), Barton and Romanov were chatting about something (what did super assassins talk about with each other?), Thor was stuffing as many french fries (sorry, chips) to his mouth as he could manage, and Banner was reading a book as they waited in the entrance hall of the Tower of London.
Finally two women approached them. The first one was tall and blond, her hair in a bop cut, curling behind her ears. She was in her late forties and was dressed in a dark pantsuit, her heels clipping on the floor. Behind her was a familiar looking woman that couldn't possibly be there.
"Thank you for your patience," the older woman said and for his peace of mind Steve concentrated on her. "Your tour guide is finally here. Her driver isn't all that precise, we're lucky he got her here on the right day. This is Clara Oswald and she was chosen to be your guide because she has experience with the time displaced-" she nodded to Steve, "the genii-" she gestured to Banner, who'd closed his book, and Stark, "the emotionally complicated-" a glance at the master assassins, "and the alien," she finally looked at Thor.
"Most of the time in the same package," the other woman laughed. "But you know, Kate, the Doctor isn't going to like that you called him emotionally complicated."
"He'll only know if you tell him," answered the older woman, Kate Stewart and head of UNIT Scientific Research. "I'll now leave them to your competent hands." Then she turned and walked away, leaving the young woman alone with the Avengers.
Steve had hard time looking at her as she looked so much like his Clara, the same brown hair, the same smile, the same face... even their clothes were similar, if one could compare the late 1930's style to the modern clothing. She had a creamy, just above knees length dress, an orange belt enhancing her waist, and orange shoes and cardigan and a hair band kept her hair from falling to her face. Her smile was professional, like one might see on a teacher, and warm, but it showed she didn't recognize them from anywhere else but the news.
"Hello, I'm Clara, as you heard from Kate," she introduced herself. "I'm otherwise extremely ordinary, but every Wednesday my best friend picks me up and we travel all over time and space. I of course know all of you, so, shall we? Do you have any preferences on where to start? Personally I think the National Gallery would be great, as there is a UNIT holdings there, the Under Gallery, and I have a personal story about it. Do you want to take a taxi or should we take the underground?"
Most of the day was a blur for Steve as he worked on autopilot (a good word he'd learned from Stark), trying to find differences between this Clara and the Clara back in the 1940's. There weren't many, mostly some minor things that could be attributed to the time she grew up in (such as her slightly more independent personality), but much was the same (like the teasing flirting she did with all of them, even Romanov). Clara chattered on and on about the things they were visiting, telling stories Steve would have called bull shit if he hadn't met aliens and superior technology before. Something about some aliens being stored in a stasis cube for centuries, another story about living plastic that somehow connected with the London Eye, and the last one was about the Battle of Canary Wharf, where her best friend apparently lost the love of his life.
From the other Avengers' reactions he knew the stories were told well and were really good. Tony had cried bull shit more than once, saying that no one had time travel because he hadn't invented it yet and he'd be the one to invent it as he was the most brilliant genius on the planet. (Clara laughed and emphasized that he was the most brilliant genius on the planet but that there were other races out there that had had time travel since long before humans had even started walking on two legs. Besides, what would it matter when time travel was invented? When it was invented, it could be taken to any point in history.) Barton and Romanov were obviously more interested in the weapons the other invading species had had and how they'd been stopped (Clara admitted that her best friend was a pacifist and loathed weapons and that she didn't know much of alien technology). Thor was very interested in Clara's best friend and after hearing the man's name, he had proclaimed him a great hero known to the Asgardians. And Banner had been interested in the people Clara had met on her adventures, fixating on the fact that Queen Elizabeth I had been married, and t an alien at that. Also he'd asked about the physics behind time travel to which Clara had shrugged that knowing it would have taken all the fun out of it.
On the way back to the UNIT guest house Clara turned to Steve.
"So you've been quiet all day. What's up?"
Steve jumped slightly at being addressed and turned to her with wide eyes. "Oh... nothing. Just... London has changed much..." he lied. Well, not lied as it was true, but not giving away the real reason for his silence.
Clara nodded understandingly. "Yeah, tell me about it. I've been all over space and time, but adventures in London are always the most exciting to me as I can see how it's changed. Victorian London was fun, as was London in 3490. Well, it was New London by then, the old one having been destroyed in the fifth World War. And Londinium, both in the first Roman Empire as well as in the New Roman Empire."
"So... time travel?" prompted Steve.
Clara laughed. "Yeah but the Doctor can't take you back as you've already been made aware of you absence during that time. Taking you back now would damage the timelines. Funny thing is..." she looked at him closely, "you remind me of something. Something I think I've met before..." she trailed off, her face scrunching up in concentration. Then she relaxed and laughed again. "Oh, well. I've lived a million lives! It'd be a wonder if I hadn't met one of you before. After all, you're all incredibly important, changing the world."
"A million lives?" wondered Steve aloud.
"Hmm?" hummed Clara, turning her attention back to him. "Oh, yeah, I scattered myself across the Doctor's time stream to save him, and I was born all over the universe in different times. I can sort of remember it, but it's all very hazy in my mind. I know I was a Dalek once, that was strange. Then I was bar tender in Victorian London pretending to be a governess. Then there was one life in which I was a cave woman. It was a nice life, but I died of a cold in that one."
"So... you could have been in 1930's New York then?" Steve guessed.
Clara nodded. "Very likely as the Doctor has had his fair share of adventures there. Did you know a Clara then?"
Silently Steve nodded, his mind whirling with the information. It was the same Clara, only... not. She was apparently the original and the one he'd known before had been an imitation of her.
"Tell me about her?" she asked.
"Well, she was much like you, from what I've seen, though slightly less independent and more... marriage oriented. When we met, she was supposed to be my friend Bucky's date and her friend Bonnie was supposed to be my date, but... apparently she liked me more than Bucky. That was the night I got recruited to the Army and to the super soldier program, two weeks later I was shipped off to the boot camp. We sent letters throughout the war and in her last letter she told me about the man she'd married, Frank Parker, the names of their future sons, Benjamin and Richard, and their new neighbors, Amelia and Rory Williams."
"Wait, Amelia and Rory Williams?" asked Clara with a small frown.
Steve nodded. "That's what she said, Amelia and Rory Williams, originally from England, though Amelia had a Scottish accent."
Clara's smile was blinding. "Thank you for telling me about Amy and Rory, they were traveled with the Doctor before me but got stuck in a paradox in New York and the Doctor couldn't get them back. This should make him rest a little bit easier." She was quiet for a moment. "How long are you going to stay in London?"
"Well, SHIELD wants us back in New York as soon as possible, but we can in fact operate from anywhere-"
"Great!" grinned Clara. "In that case you can crash at UNIT for a a while longer. After all, London is pretty big and you've only been to The Tower, National Gallery, London Eye and the Memorial of Canary Wharf so far. I want to show you Baker Street, Kensington Gardens and Buckingham Palace, maybe get the Doctor to introduce you to her Majesty, and see a West End production."
Steve just smiled and nodded. It seemed this Clara was just as forward, though in a more subtle manner, than the one he'd known before. Besides... he'd always liked Clara, and had often wondered what might have happened if he hadn't been recruited right after meeting her.
Now he had a second chance to find out.