Hello! Thank you so much for your follows, favourites and reviews, I really wasn't expecting such a great response for just one chapter!
I love writing, and tend to write scenes as I think of them rather than chapters, often not in any logical order, so I apologise if this story seems a little disjointed. I honestly have so much written for these characters already, I'm just trying to figure out how best to publish them. It'll probably end up as an ongoing series of fun little one-shots :)
One month earlier
Steve was starting to adjust to life in the 21st century.
It had been a month since he woke up in that shambles of a facade, and he'd just about managed to get his head around how much time had actually passed. Fury had given him an apartment in New York not far from where he'd grown up, so he still felt vaguelyat
home despite how different everything now looked.
One thing Steve hadn't quite gotten over just yet, however, was Peggy.
When he sat down to read the next book on his list of things to catch up on, he jumped when his phone rang. It was Fury.
"Sir?"
"Rogers. May I see you in my office please, at your earliest convenience?" Fury said somewhat brightly. Steve frowned at his tone, but nodded tohimself.
"I'll be right in."
"Thank you."
Fury hung up, and Steve sat frowning for a moment before shutting his book and standing up. All but two minutes later, he was on his bike heading to SHIELD HQ.
When he got there, he went straight to Fury's office, and knocked twice.
"Come on in."
Steve opened the door, and went to sit in front of the desk. Fury seemed to smile when he saw him.
"Captain Rogers."
"Sir."
"I'll bet you're wondering why I wanted to see you on such short notice."
Steve nodded. "A little."
Fury just nodded.
"Life in our times treating you well?"
"I suppose so."
"Good."
There was silence for a moment, before Fury sighed and leaned over his desk.
"Look, Captain, I don't want to waste your time because I know it's precious to you, but the reason I called you in today is because we have something in our possession that will be of great interest to you. I don't expect you to hold your composure whenyou
hear what I have to say, so don't worry about maintaining your tough guy status," he said smoothly. Steve frowned.
"What are you going to tell me?"
"A little story," Fury chuckled. Steve watched as he opened a drawer and pulled out a file, which he placed carefully on the desk between them. Steve noticed how thick it was. "About a girl called Lily. Prepare yourself- it's not pretty."
Steve nodded gravely, on his guard but admittedly a little curious. Fury opened the file and pushed it slightly towards him. Steve's eyes landed on a photograph of a scene that seemed to be an accident, with a truck on its side with another one dentedbeside
it.
"In 1960, on her way home from school, this girl was crushed by an out-of-control truck that collided with another vehicle. She was killed instantly, as everything below her third rib was completely destroyed. The doctors had to practically scrape heroff
of the road," Fury began pointedly.
Steve frowned as he picked the image up and looked at it closer- he could just see a mass of brown hair and the girl's outstretched arms poking from behind the wheels. Internally, he shuddered. Fury didn't notice, and continued on, taking another photographfrom
the file and sliding it across.
"This is the man who did the scraping. Dr Edwin Thomas, the SSR's longest serving and most experienced medical practitioner. I'm sure you will have met him at some stage."
Steve looked at the image, and realised that he did indeed recognise the man in it. He was a kindly old soul, and Steve had always been grateful for his cheerful attitude after coming back bruised from a difficult mission. He nodded once.
"Now, the most important part of this story is that Lily was, in essence, reduced to a torso and something resembling her lower limbs. That means it was a huge operation to get her off that road, and taken away safely. The SSR would not have been quiteso
meticulous if they hadn't had other intentions for her. And they only had intentions for her because this girl is Peggy Carter's daughter," Fury said smoothly, emphasising the last three words. Steve felt his heart skip a beat.
Fury simply continued on.
"Now, Dr Thomas here was a very gifted scientist. And, like every other gifted scientist of the time, he was interested in you.He wanted to be the one to recreate super serum, so badly that he knew he'd need to take a real risk to get anyfurther.
And by that I mean a subject on which to experiment."
Steve felt a little sick as he realised where Fury was going with this, and his brow twitched.
"Up until now Doctor Thomas had been loathe to carry out his studies on a person, because it could easily have been very disastrous. However, there was a chance that his theory would be correct, and he could save a life, even prolong it- the closest thingto
Super Serum since Captain America himself. Lily Carter was very dead, and had no hope otherwise. I suppose you could say the only way was up for her. She was the perfectspecimen," Fury said carefully, his tone suggesting his usual indifferencealthough
his eyes watched Steve with curiosity, and perhaps a little sympathy.
Steve just shook his head, not sure whether he couldn't believe it or deep down he didn't want to.
"Specimen," he spat. He shook his head again. "Why go to all this trouble? Peggy would never condone experimentation on any person, especially not her own child, surely?"
"Captain Rogers, Lily Carter is not just Director Carter's daughter. Even you must know that a child cannot be born without two parents."
Steve just stared at him. Fury sighed.
"She was fourteen when she died. That makes her a forties baby. Do the math, Cap. Do you really think Director Carter was married when her daughter was born?"
"Are you saying Lily Carter is..."
"Lily Rogers? Yes I am. Congratulations."
The revelation hit Steve in the chest like a punch from the Hulk. He had a daughter. With Peggy. He smiled to himself as he came to terms with it.
His smile vanished as he realised that Peggy had raised this child alone, and that she was pregnant when he crashed that plane. The guilt started to well up, and he looked down at the photograph of the accident again.
Seeing the pain in his face, Fury sighed.
"I knew this would happen," he muttered, sifting through the pages of the file and pulling out another photograph, slightly smaller than the others. He looked at it himself for a moment, smiling slightly, then placed it on the desk and slid it acrossto
the very shaken Captain.
Steve melted as soon as he saw it.
A young, freckled girl smiled up at him from the image, her long, thick hair falling in tight chocolate curls. She was clearly young, and her ice blue eyes gleamed with what would certainly have been intelligent curiosity. Steve's broken heart seemedto
both swell with joy and break a little more at the sight of her, and the first thing he could think was how perfect she was.
"She looks like Peggy," he murmured. Fury smiled.
"She does indeed. Talks like her too. But I must say, this girl is more like you than any of us would care to imagine. Just look at those eyes," Fury chuckled. Steve's gaze snapped up to him, startled by his choice of words.
"Is? You mean she's still around?"
Fury pursed his lips.
"My, you are more observant than you take credit for, Cap. Your daughter has been held in a dormant state for fifty-something years, being fully reconstructed and configured by Dr Thomas' team. Director Carter had her transferred to the British facilityalmost
as soon as she moved back to live over there herself. She's there now, and I received information from Thomas' grandson this morning that says they hope to have her awake within the next month. I personally thought you would like to know,"he
said simply, somewhat kind. His lone eye remained steadily on Steve, who tensed his jaw as he tried to come to terms with it.
He had a daughter. She was alive. She was in Britain. And she was waking up soon.
"Thank you, sir," he said quietly. Fury smiled a little.
"Not a problem. Coulson has offered to arrange transport for whenever you want to get over there. Dr Gale at the facility has offered you a room to stay in. Just say the words, Cap."
Steve nodded, brushed his fingers across Lily's photograph. He gave a smirk as he looked at Fury and nodded.
"Will Coulson do same-day delivery?"
Fury chuckled at Cap's use of modern humour.
"I'm sure he will, for his favourite customer."