Chapter 3 [Dreamscape]

Steve rolled over and muttered something incoherent. His hand touched the surface immediately to his left. Immediately his eyes snapped open. "Now what?" His senses immediately jumped to full alert. He sat up and looked around. He found himself sitting on a careworn brown blanket. Grasses billowed in the warm breeze for all directions. Overhead, clouds chased each other across the bright blue sky. High overhead, the sun shone down on him.

The residual sleepiness muddied his thinking. He struggled to consider Philips' challenge again. "What did he mean by living a balanced life? I'm happy." He surveyed the empty blanket and the meadow again. "Maybe there could be something to eat though?"

Hunger sang a sharp note from his stomach.

He peered down at his waist. "If I'm dead, why am I hungry? That shouldn't be happening." He wondered again about his previous guide and if said-entity really had been his former superior officer or not. Everything told him that he shouldn't have any needs really if he had passed on.

Yet he'd already experienced drowsiness, hunger, warmth and cold….

"Why indeed, Captain?"

His ears perked at the welcome voice. For a moment, his mind pushed his struggle for survival back. His heart skipped a beat. He stood quickly and turned around.

Peggy smiled at him from about ten feet away. Rather than the withered elderly woman he'd become reacquainted with after his return to society, she stood before him in her full youthful splendor. She wore a white button down blouse and a modest blue skirt. Her chocolate brown locks rustled in the breeze. Her dark eyes glistened in the sunlight and sparkled at him. Instead of the ruby-shaded lipstick she worn in her agent days, she'd left any make up off on that day. Her smile soothed his anxiety over the situation. In her hands, she held a wicker picnic basket. At her feet rested a small wine bottle "Hello, Steve. Hope you don't mind some company?"

"Mind? Of course not!" He rushed over. "First allow me to help with that." He went to do just that.

"I can get that, Captain." She arched the expectant eyebrow at him. "I was hoping for something else first?"

"Something else? I…." He considered her words for a couple of seconds. Then he realized her intent. Frankly Desire burned within his chest. Despite wanting to be considerate, he wanted to sweep her off of her feet and kiss her passionately. His heart cried craving contact with her to feel complete. "You don't mind?"

She rolled her eyes. Her arms encircled his waist and yanked him toward her. Her lips whispered Amor's sweet notes across his. Much like a drenching rain across a parched plain, the moment nourished her soul as well. Her skin tingled. Her heart skipped giddily as if playing a round of hop scotch. Her lungs burned but she wouldn't stop. She hungered as well for that moment since that ill-fated day in the Alps.

Instinct pushed an equal and romantic response from him as well. He swept her toward him in his arms. His lips smashed back onto hers returning the connection she'd established with him. He floated on that wonderful ecstatic wave.

When they'd finally come up for air, she shrugged. "Does that seem like I mind?"

"Uh no," he stammered. Even if she'd kissed him prior to his jumping onto the Valkyrie, the experience warmed his soul like nothing else had before that. His head spun. His knees wobbled. He gasped sucking in much needed breath. "Wow."

Around the blanket, green shoots popped out of the earth. They budded and then blossomed into a ring of vibrant purple flowers. Their scent relaxed and frankly intoxicated the couple's collective nerves.

"I see that got your attention." She smirked. Her eyes shot an impetuous spark into his. "Now see what happens when you enjoy yourself once in a while?"

"I've always enjoyed our time together, Peggy. I…just didn't know how to talk to you," Steve admitted. He rubbed the back of his neck. Then he picked one of the flowers and sniffed deeply of its bloom. "I remember these from France. Do you know what they are?"

"Of course. They're lavender. Lovely and restful, aren't they?" she supposed. "May I?" She accepted the picked blossoms from his willing hand. Her nose smelled deeply of the flower. She closed her eyes and savored the relaxing effect of its scent. "You see what simple enjoyment does? Now this, Captain, is just that." She slipped the blossom in her top buttonhole. "Now I'm prepared for that dinner. Wouldn't you say?"

"I never imagined you allowing a guy to pin his colors like that. Thank you but…." He raised an eyebrow at her sentiment. He never thought she'd relent to doing that. Put on a uniform and do her duty. Definitely. But to willingly take his colors like that?"

"You're doing it again," she chastised.

"Doing what?" he asked struggling to get her gist.

"You're doubting yourself." She opened up her picnic basket. From it, she set out a pair of fine china plates. Beside each of them went stainless steel silverware and what seemed like the most delicate wine glasses she could've found. "Well you're worth it, Steve. And you know why? Because you've never treated me like a piece of meat. I'm with you because I choose to be not because anyone making me."

He blushed shyly; the bashful shade of crimson coloring his cheeks. "I've rarely had a woman take me seriously the way you have."

"It happens more often than you think. Do I have to remind you of that private in Howard's lab? Perhaps we can speak of my niece or Ms. Romanov? Steve, you're a good man. Bloody hell! You're a better person than you give yourself credit for." She reached again into the basket and somehow brought out a platter with several sandwiches on it. Another reach netted a small bucket of homemade potato salad. A final grab pulled forth a pie.

"You have an orchestra in there too?" he quipped with a bit of wry humor.

She rolled her eyes. "No but that could be arranged. As long as it meets the purpose, I can acquire it if I wish. Can you get the bottle?" She motioned toward the small green bottle and the corkscrew beside herself. She set out a sandwich on each plate. Then she spooned the potato salad.

"You can get it? How's that?" he queried. Once again, Bliss' pleasures raised his internal alarms. He wanted to get back to the battle against Thanos. Duty entreated him with her siren call back to the outer world.

"Anything so that you learn your lesson, Captain." She snorted. "Ironically it's a lesson you taught me."

"And that is?" He poured a glass gingerly before setting it beside her place. Then he poured his own glass.

She sighed. "That there's more to life than winning all of the battles." She squeezed his hands in her own. "That there's happiness if you know where to look for it."

He nodded. While it was true that he'd battled to overcome odds and obstacles at every turn, there'd been the good as well. He could well imagine the neighbors in Brooklyn. They'd console him after a bully's beat down. They'd sit him at their table and feed him….

…Perhaps it wasn't the richest food but it was a banquet fit for royalty as far as he was concerned…..

In between World War II's firefights, he recalled the Howling Commandos' feast at Rowley's on London's East Side. He could almost smell the freshly fried cod and fried potato chips with malt vinegar. He tasted the ale from a recently downed pint again.

"Hey, Rogers! You going to sing this time or what? Come on!" Dum Dum urged.

Steve blushed. "Colonel, I don't…."

"There you go again!" Bucky cut him off. "Not this time you don't. Come on! Live a little…."

Steve breathed heavily. His mind snapped back to the current situation. "I don't feel comfortable singing."

"You don't like letting your hair down, Captain." She looked pointedly at him. "Between losing my parents and then you, I went into just as deep of a freeze as you. I was numb. I didn't want to interact with anyone. Proving myself at the SSR and later at SHIELD only drove me further into that shell. I was quite fortunate to have a friend in my fellow agent, Daniel Sousa. He made me realize that it was all right to feel again. I could trust and live despite you being lost. It didn't mean I didn't still love you. Of course I did and always will." She raised her glass. "I learned to live a little between the wars."

"Guess I just never had the chance," he assumed gloomily.

"You had opportunities, Captain. You just never took them. Your mind was always on the fight around yourself. If anyone understands the struggle to survive, you know I do. Still one does need to enjoy themselves once in a while." She pointed to a little sprig of dark green leaves sprouting to the left. "See that?"

"I see the plant," he noted.

"Look at it. To the lavender around it, it's just a weed. It's an unwanted competing sprout. Focus on it. Consider it a test," she urged.

He really didn't see the point. Still he could empathize with the plant's struggle to survive. He looked at it for more than a minute. He felt intrigued by it. "What is it?"

"Nurture the opportunity and see," she bade. She smirked and motioned again toward it.

He rolled his eyes but followed her cryptic lead. "Wish we had some water. That ground's baked." He turned to see a big glass next to himself. "Where'd that…?"

"It's part of your task. You ask. You receive," she told him.

"I ask, I receive…." He poured the water onto the soil at the sprout's base. Then he looked at it again.

"Now watch," she directed.

The sprout quivered. It sprouted several other growths extending into twiggy vines. The wooden snakes shot out in all directions. More green leaves popped forth from them. Buds on their tips appeared. Then tiny white blossoms emerged from the buds' cocoons. A fragrant aroma distinct from the lavender's filled his senses. He smiled. "This is familiar for some reason. I kind of remember this. I was really young and…." Then he snapped his fingers. "The New York Botanical Gardens! Father must have taken us there."

She chuckled at his realization. "There is hope for you yet." She motioned to the plant. "Your mother loved that. It's called jasmine." Seeing the questions forming in his mind, she shrugged. "She told me."

"She what? Peggy, how did you meet my mother? She died years before I enlisted," he doubted.

"She sought me out after I arrived up here. She wanted to thank me for giving her special boy a push in the right direction," she explained. "She's quite special you know."

"Oh I know." His heart lightened. He picked a couple of jasmine sprigs and held them up to the light. "And you? Do you? Do you jasmine?" His eyes twinkled into hers.

She smiled almost impishly. "Why, Steve! Are we actually enjoying ourselves?" She accepted the offering and sniffed deeply of that flower as well. "And yes, I do like this as you can tell. See what happens when you nurture an opportunity? We can experience life as a whole rather than in part."

"That's why you survived?" he supposed.

"I had my husband, Reginald, and our children. Still I was able to open up and live as I hadn't before. That's what you need to grasp if you want to move on." She grasped his hands again. "Let me show you what I learned. Let me show you this dance."

"You still want that dance? I'd thought you'd…." he assumed.

She snorted. "Oh I have a good mind for rainchecks even if the bloke is egregiously late in presenting them." She arched her eyebrow. "I'll teach you that dance. First though…" She motioned toward his plate. "You should eat."

He rubbed his famished stomach. "I best do what the Agent says, huh?"

She looked at him expectantly. "I always did have your back, Captain. Do remember that."

"I'd never say otherwise." He bit into his sandwich. As he did so, the flavors from his mother's kitchen swept through his mouth, palate and stirred the memories again. He chewed it slowly savoring every motion of his teeth before swallowing the biteful. Then he took another bite to repeat the experience. "Mmm!"

"Takes you back, doesn't it? As I said, your mother's a wonderful teacher. I don't know if my meatloaf's as good as hers but…." she supposed.

"It's different but it's as unique," he assessed. "You have some spices in there that she didn't have. Then again, we didn't have the money. Still it was special just because she made it. And this is special because you made it."

She nodded. "Well now, we're figuring out how to talk to a woman. Aren't we?" Her smile beamed with Approval at him.

"Just recognizing the simple things. That's what Mother and Father would've said," he noted. "And you crafted this from your heart. I know people in that new postmodern-whatever age. They just pay for things in the rapid eat places and don't care. You made this for me. That's what makes it special." He took a big biteful for emphasis. "You're a hell of a teacher, Peggy. Don't knock yourself."

"I won't if you won't, Captain," she proposed. She raised her glass. "To being better and more complete."

"To being with others and completing each other. May we be stronger standing together than by ourselves," he replied before touching his glass to hers. "May we complete each other."

"May we do so indeed. And soon we may, my Captain." She leaned forward toward him. Her lips whispered Amor's passionate notes across his.

And then a bright light swept him away yet again…..