Stark Tower. The Avengers' Communal Kitchen
Steve paused while putting away the last clean dish from the dishwasher. From down the hall the clicking sound of high heeled shoes announced that he would have a visitor in a few minutes.
It was probably Pepper. Natasha was gone on S.H.I.E.L.D. business, and while he wouldn't put it past Clint to wear high heels on a dare, Natasha had taken him with her. A visitor wouldn't be coming in unescorted, since this was the Avengers' private kitchen.
He stretched, feeling good after his twenty mile morning run. He'd shaved a little off his best time: not as much as he was striving for, but he'd get there. He began to assemble the ingredients for his after work out smoothie. Bananas, spinach, protein powder, apple juice, blueberries and almonds were methodically dropped into the blender.
"Good morning, Steve," Pepper said as she stepped into the room, heading towards the coffee pot. She glanced at his white T-shirt and grey sweatpants, his running shoes. "Did you go for a run?"
"Pepper, good morning. And yes, I did a quick run. One of these days I need to go on a longer one, maybe fifty miles. Would you like some of my smoothie?" He added the last of the blueberries and pushed a button.
Shaking her head, Pepper poured herself a mug full of coffee. When he turned off the blender she said, "I have an early morning breakfast meeting across town. But thank you anyway."
"You look very nice," Steve said, filling a glass, and drinking half of it down in one go.
Crinkling her eyes, Pepper waved a hand down her fancy black suit and no doubt expensive shoes. "Tony has his type of armor, and I have mine. And speaking of Mr. Stark, I've been meaning to ask you for a favor."
"It's about Tony?" Steve asked, going on alert, transitioning from just Steve Rogers to Captain America. "Is there a problem?"
"No, well, yes, I suppose there's always something up in the air with our Mr. Stark, but this favor is for me, too." She smiled at him and he relaxed.
"Pepper, how can I help?" She held out the coffee cup and he took it from her.
She ran a hand over the counter top and then boosted herself up and crossed her ankles, her fancy clothes in contrast to her casual pose on top of Tony's marble counter. "Come with us to London the week after next?"
He raised his eyebrows at her, inviting her to explain, and handed her coffee back.
"Tony's the keynote speaker at the Tenth Annual Future of Robotics conference. But he's also promised to spend some time at the British Museum with me." She took a sip of her coffee, an appreciative look crossing her face.
"And what do you need me for, Miss Potts?" Steve asked, genuinely confused.
"Tony will have the best intentions in the world but if he gets caught up with arguing or working with other engineers and scientists, I'm afraid he'll forget he's supposed to do sightseeing at the museum. I'll be left high and dry." She rolled her eyes a little, but her expression was tolerant.
He gave Pepper a rueful smile. "You want me to drag Tony away from awesome science? Miss Potts, you are overestimating my influence on the man in question."
"No," Pepper said, amused. "Tony is Tony; if he gets an idea he's going to drop everything to work on it. So come with us and if Tony gets hijacked by science we'll go without him. I'd love to have an artist's viewpoint while touring the museum, anyway. Besides, Tony said you've been thinking of visiting England."
Steve thought back to a previous conversation and smelled a rat. A big shiny red and gold one.
"What I think is that you and Mr. Stark are in cahoots with each other, Miss Potts."
Pepper's small smile absolutely confirmed it, as far as Steve was concerned.
"Tony and I may have agreed that we'd love to have you join us, Steve. And if asking nicely won't work, I may have to resort to blackmail."
"Careful, Miss Potts. You're talking about blackmailing an American icon." Steve struck a pose and Pepper giggled.
"Well, if I must I must. Agree to come with us or I'll tell Tony that you only ever push one button on his blender." She took a sip of coffee and looked at him over the edge of the mug.
"I'm a simple kind of guy; I only need one button," Steve said mildly. The expensive looking bright red blender with chrome accents had at least twenty different settings, and Pepper was right. He pushed the same one each time no matter what he was making.
"If Tony hears that you're ignoring the full potential of one of his inventions, what do you think he's going to do, Steve?" Pepper looked like an red-headed imp at the moment despite her hair being in an elegant twist and dressed up in her fancy duds. She always managed to balance her ability to be organized and efficient and perceptive with this hint of a freckled-faced pony-tailed girl who liked to have fun.
"Mmm. Pout." He added thoughtfully, "and whine about it."
"I rest my case," Pepper said, concentrating on her coffee.
"I believe I'll accept your kind invitation, Miss Potts." He drank down the rest of his smoothie, and refilled his glass, drinking most of it.
"Steve?" Pepper looked at him seriously. "Tony didn't say why you were thinking of going to England, just that it was something difficult and personal. Is there anything I can do?"
Steve sighed. "Pepper, that's very nice of you, but I'm okay. I had a decision to make regarding someone I care about, and I've made it."
"You know you can talk to me, Steve. And I won't share it with Tony if you ask me not to say anything."
"Thank you," he said, meaning it. "It won't be necessary though, and there's no reason to keep anything to myself now." And yet, he still hesitated to tell her. Pepper quietly waited for him and after a few moments he gathered himself to explain. "There was a woman I met, during the war. I would have asked her to marry me, if things had turned out differently."
"Oh, Steve."
He nodded, acknowledging her concern. "Her name was Peggy Carter, and Tony knew her when he was a boy. She helped to found the organization that became S.H.I.E.L.D. She's alive, but her mind, well. She has Alzheimers. I didn't want to cause her confusion or bring up an old wound, so I hesitated about letting her know I was alive. She's not able to follow the news anymore, according to her granddaughter."
"She had a family then." Pepper reached out a hand and he held it gently.
"She married," he said softly, "and by all accounts had a good life."
"You've been thinking this over for months, then."
He gave her hand a light squeeze and let her go. "I have. I had to ask myself if I had the right to selfishly walk back into her life after all this time. But I've missed her so much. I just wasn't sure what would be best for her, for me."
"You've decided to see her?" It wasn't a question, what Pepper asked, not really.
"I have. I kept thinking of what Betty Ross told me." He paused, remembering a letter sent to him by the woman who'd been so kind to him when he'd needed to talk. "Well, Betty Sampson. She's married with a baby boy now."
"Betty Ross? Bruce Banner's ex-girlfriend?" Pepper's expression had turned uneasy.
"I went to see her about the video Tony produced, and I asked her if she wished that Bruce hadn't come back into her life," Steve said.
"You mean when the Hulk kidnapped her and took her into the Appalachian Mountains?" Pepper shuddered. "She must have been so terrified."
"Bruce saved her, Pepper."
"There's a monster in Bruce Banner, one that he can't control all the time," Pepper said, "I remember what Natasha told me, Steve. Doctor Banner couldn't stop himself from transforming on the Helicarrier."
"Betty Ross has never been scared of him." Steve looked Pepper in the eyes. "Regardless of his size and skin color, Betty sees Bruce."
"How can she?" Pepper sounded so disbelieving. "When he's the Hulk and filled with rage? he's killed people, Steve. He could have killed her."
"People have been killed by him." He knew how tormented Bruce had felt about that. "It's a terrible burden for him, but Pepper, they were people who attacked him."
"She might see the man inside the monster, but when I look at the man, I see the monster." Pepper's lips thinned down into a tight line.
Steve said earnestly, hoping that he could make Pepper understand. "Betty just sees Bruce, no matter what his form. I see a man who was lied to about the project he was working on. When he decided to run that experiment on himself, he thought he was working on research that would save lives. General Ross didn't tell him what the project was really about, that it was based on the same research that changed me, but he approved what Bruce did to himself and then covered up that approval. General Ross and his cohorts are responsible for the Hulk being born, not Bruce. It wasn't his fault, Pepper."
"I know that's true, but he's still a monster," she whispered.
"General Ross is the monster," Steve said evenly. "Don't judge Bruce by what he looks like when he changes; the Hulk just wants to be left alone. We asked him to fight with us, and he did. Bruce did. We owe Bruce."
"I know he saved Tony," Pepper said, her blue eyes wide. "I'm thankful for that, but Steve, we've talked about this before, and I still feel the same way. I'm sorry, but Bruce Banner scares me because I can't know when and if he's going to become violent, filled with mindless rage. I've seen the videos. The Hulk could have turned on the Avengers as easily as he helped you and Tony. I feel sorry for him, I do. Maybe he was a nice man before that experiment, but I can't trust him. Not like I do you and Tony and Natasha and Clint."
"I'm sorry you feel that way. Bruce deserves better, but unfortunately, too many people feel like you do." Good people, Steve thought, like Pepper. People who felt a primal terror at seeing the Hulk.
She gave him a somber look. "You're still coming with us to London, aren't you?"
"I think so, barring any crisis that I'm needed for." He swirled what was left of the smoothie in his glass and then put it down next to the blender. "You know, Betty said she had no regrets seeing Bruce again, although it was very bitter-sweet for both of them. They got the chance to say goodbye. See, she never knew what had happened to Bruce, and she was afraid he was dead. I just hope that Peggy feels the same way."
"She must have loved you very much," Pepper said, sympathy emanating from her. "If it was me, I'd want to know that you hadn't died."
Steve raised his chin. "It was one of the hardest thing I had to face, after I woke up, that I had lost her. The calender told me it had been decades, but for me, it was only days ago that we'd made that date to go dancing. Peggy Carter was special. Betty Ross sees Bruce whether he's the Hulk or the scientist. Peggy was the same. She saw me, whether I was that skinny small kid from Brooklyn or Captain America."
"She sounds like a wonderful person, Steve." Pepper smiled warmly at him. "I'd better get going." She drank the rest of her coffee and placed the mug on the counter.
"Allow me, Miss Potts." Steve carefully lifted her off the counter and set her down on the floor.
"I'll email about the details of the trip," she said, and smoothed down her dress.
"Pepper," he called before she stepped out of the kitchen. "I hope someday that I can change your mind about Bruce."
"Not as long as he can change into the Hulk. You know," she hesitated and then said, "I liked the man that I met here in the tower, but as long as the Hulk is a part of him, then I don't feel safe with Bruce Banner being anywhere near me or the people I love. I'm sorry, Steve, but that's how I feel."
"All right. Pepper, have a good day and tell Tony I said thanks for the invitation."
Once Pepper had left, he finished off the rest of the smoothie and washed out the blender. Pepper was their canary in the mine when it came to the public's opinion about Bruce. And judging from today's conversation, they still had a long way to go. He made a mental note to check with JARVIS about how the petition to give Bruce amnesty from past charges was going, and to see if the last survey showed which PR campaign was ahead, the Avenger's or General Ross's.
Soon, he would see Peggy, trace with his eyes the lines time had drawn on her face and on her capable hands. He remembered how she could take apart her Thompson rifle and put it back together quickly and efficiently. How she would cradle a metal cup full of tea. The way she would smooth back her hair.
Her granddaughter, Janie, had said that she might not recognize him. She might not welcome his hug, or feel comfortable holding his hand. If that happened, he would at least be able to tell her that he had brought her a message from Steve Rogers.
He loved you very much, Miss Carter.