Chapter Thirteen
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Steve didn't notice at first. He was busy putting the oxygen mask away and chatting quietly with the silent girl in the bed in the vague hope she would hear him. To be fair, he had hardly slept at all since the pseudo funeral days earlier, and even the super-soldier wasn't impervious to exhaustion.
"... He's tracking down some leads for me right now. You'd like him; he's a daredevil with those wings..."
Steve wound to a halt, heart suddenly skipping a beat as he stared at her face.
"Peggy?"
Her name tore from his throat without his own volition. She hadn't moved, but her eyes were open, looking up at the ceiling. At the sound of his voice, vague confusion appeared on her forehead. She blinked slowly, long lashes brushing her cheeks.
Then she turned her head and saw him.
He stopped breathing altogether as hope and fear battled in his heart. She stared back, eyes slowly widening. If Steve had been watching, he would have seen the silent blip on her heart rate monitor speed up, but he only had eyes for his girl.
"Steve?"
Her voice was rough from disuse, barely audible, but it was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. Heart banging raggedly at his ribs, Steve took his place at her side in a rush, automatically reaching for her hand. "Yeah," he tried to say, but his voice came out all strange and his face hurt from smiling.
She stared at him for a long moment, throat working, lips parted slightly in disbelief. Then her dark eyes overflowed with sudden tears, spilling down her cheeks. "Steve," she whispered again, and the dawning shock and joy in her face was almost more than his battered heart could bear. "It's been so long…"
"I know, I know," he choked fervently, fumbling out his handkerchief with his free hand and offering it to her before realizing she was too weak and uncoordinated to take it. "I know, but I'm here now." Tenderly, clumsily, he wiped away her tears, never noticing his own. He felt her hand move in his, returning his grip as tightly as she could.
"...thought you were dead," she whispered brokenly, trying to raise her head, trying to sit up, but unable to muster the strength.
Steve was entirely unprepared for the swamping wave of emotion that crashed over him. He had waited and hoped and prayed for so long, and now the burden of his loss and the strain of the past weeks had lifted, leaving him reeling. With a half-smothered sob of mingled joy and well-worn grief, he bowed his head. Peggy reached for him, unused muscles quivering with the effort as she touched his wet face, and he leaned helplessly into her touch, letting her draw his head down against her shoulder. She was warm and alive, and he felt her fingers twist through his hair as he struggled for self-control.
"So did I," he finally gasped. "Oh, Peggy."
They had never been so close before, but for a long time neither one could bear to draw away. Steve clasped her hand tightly, and she held his head, running her fingers through his hair over and over, as if still not quite convinced he was real. The need to comfort her was very strong, and he turned his head more deeply into her shoulder, whispering her name as she trembled with suppressed tears.
"Dugan?" she finally asked, trying to regain her composure. Her fingers slowly left his hair and swept down his cheek, but she didn't relinquish her grasp on his hand.
Steve reluctantly sat up. He wanted - oh, how he wanted - to gather her in his arms and hold her, but the amount of tubes and wires still attached to her body made it impossible. Instead, he leaned as close as he dared, folding her hands in his, and shook his head. It was so like Peggy for her first thought to be for the welfare of others. "He didn't make it. I'm so sorry, Peggy."
Closing her eyes briefly, she tightened her lips and nodded, steadying herself against the devastating loss of their old companion. The war had taken so many of their friends, but each new death hurt as badly as the last. "Howard - tell Howard I'm all right."
"Stark knows," Steve pacified his conscience by using Tony's last name, though he hated himself for it. He couldn't tell Peggy now that everyone she had ever known was dead. She was still disoriented, still incredibly fragile. The burden of that knowledge would need to be his alone for at least a little bit longer.
"Steve..."
Her eyelids were fluttering but she stubbornly tried to keep them open, fighting to keep looking at him. He pressed her hands and smiled reassuringly. "Get some sleep now, Peggy. I'll still be here when you wake up."
A trace of affectionate amusement flickered across her face, and she raised her eyebrows challengingly, "Can't give me orders…" she trailed off sleepily. He choked on the reply to their old, old joke, scarcely able to believe that this precious part of his old life was back.
"Who says I can't? I'm a captain, remember?" His voice shook and broke, and he suddenly wasn't sure if he was laughing or crying. Possibly both.
She huffed a sleepy laugh, and her eyes finally slipped closed, but she didn't let his hand go, anchoring him to her even in her sleep. He held her hands just as securely, needing the contact, the physical evidence of her fingers laced between his to prove that she had indeed woken, and the whole thing had not been just another dream.
Peggy was awake. Awake and, despite Bruce's carefully veiled cautions, she was still herself, with memories and personality intact. She knew who he was, and the great wonder of it all was that she was still glad to see him. A great thanksgiving welled up in Steve's heart, almost painful in its intensity, and he mutely bowed his head in gratitude over their entwined hands.
The whole exchange had taken only a few minutes. For as long as he lived, they would be held among the happiest, most sacred moments of his life.
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When Tony found out, he almost threw a fit.
"Wait, what? Sleeping Beauty woke up and you didn't call us? On that note," he paused and waggled his eyebrows suggestively, "how did you finally wake her?"
Steve blushed like a tomato at the insinuation, so Tony made obnoxious kissing noises until Pepper stepped hard on his foot with her stiletto heel and stayed there, masterfully ignoring his startled yelp.
Bruce was professionally and personally fascinated. "Full cognitive recall, facial recognition, language mastery - how were her motor skills? Could she move much? Asking after Timothy Dugan and Howard Stark suggests she remembers the events leading up to the crash, since they were the last people she interacted with…."
Steve threw an anxious glance at the clock as Bruce rattled on. The medical staff had put Peggy on a light sedative, and were currently working to remove most of the systems that she had been connected to. The last thing they wanted was to have her waking up more fully and becoming frightened at the amount of unfamiliar machinery hooked up to her body. While they worked, Steve had reluctantly come down to the surveillance room at Tony's insistence for for a few minutes to touch bases with the team and update them on Peggy's situation.
That had been a half hour ago, and now he was desperately trying not to fidget with the assorted clutter on the desk, eager to return to her side.
Thor noticed his preoccupation and divined the cause. The millennia-old prince, while not terribly artful with words, had been exposed to too many subtleties at his father's court not to recognize one when he saw it. A glance at the rambling Bruce made up his mind, and he took things into his own hands. Giving Steve a friendly slap on the back that would have crushed a lesser man, he beamed cheerfully. "I am delighted to hear of your lady's awakening. Surely you wish to return to her side?"
Gratefully, Steve agreed and turned to the door, almost quick enough to avoid Clint's next questions. "So, when do we get to meet her? Does she know what year it is?" He and Natasha had been taking turns overseeing the building's security, and it was Clint's turn to watch the cameras, which was why they were all meeting in the surveillance room.
Steve paused and faced his friends, shoulders sagging a little under the weight of responsibility. "I haven't told her yet," he admitted ruefully. "She was still disoriented and sleepy. I'll probably tell her the next time she wakes up." He'd sworn to himself that he would not lie to her, but she had been in no condition to learn the staggering truth and he had made the decision to wait.
Natasha nodded gravely. "Do. Now that she's awake, she needs to know so that when SHIELD tries to come for her, she'll be aware of the situation and able to speak for herself."
"If they want her, they'll have to go through me first," Steve swore, his eyes level with purpose.
"They'll have to go through all of us," Bruce agreed, deceptively mild, and heads nodded around the room. For the thousandth time, Steve wondered what on earth he had done to deserve such wonderful friends.
Pepper broke up the meeting as she finally lifted her heel off Tony's foot, to his immense relief, and crossed the floor to Steve's side. "You go back to her now. When she's well enough to talk, I'll call SHIELD and set up a conference. Oh, and let me know when she's ready to get up and around. I have some things that might fit her."
"Thank you," Steve started, but Tony, limping dramatically, broke in. "Yeah, that's code for 'I stole her measurements from Tony's scans, and have a whole wardrobe already purchased.'"
The CEO pursed her lips and talked over him. "It's hardly a whole wardrobe, Tony. Seriously, I just picked up a couple things."
Clint grinned in anticipation of the upcoming altercation, and leaned back in his chair, winking at Steve as the soldier finally reached the door. The sound of the couple's affectionate bickering followed Steve down the hall as he slipped away, back towards Peggy, bounding up the stairs four at a time with a heart as light as his heels.
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Finally! The chapter we've all been waiting for! I think I've spent more time on this chapter than nearly any other, except maybe the ending.
By the way, don't run away now that she's awake! There's still lots more to happen - this isn't the end.
Thank you all so much for the lovely reviews. I hadn't expected nearly so many, and they made me very, very happy.
On that note - Thoughts? I love hearing what you're thinking.