Steve is painfully, absently quiet when they return to base. His eyes are dry, and his back is straight, but it's clear he's still reeling by the distracted way he scans his surroundings as he walks. He's barely paying attention, and if there's one thing Peggy's learned about Steve, it's that he's absurdly observant. If Steve isn't taking note of every sound, every little detail… something is very off. He's clearly still somewhere in the Alps just now.
She allows him to drift as she sets one hand in the small of his enormous back, and steers him gently toward the barracks. Guides him up the stairs, down the hall, and finally sits him down on the edge of his bunk. Steve barely seems to notice where he is or that Peggy is still with him. He simply falls down onto his bottom when the backs of his knees hit the edge of the mattress; dropping more than sitting. She stands against the wall, just watching him for a few moments, and waits.

Peggy will probably pay for this visit. She knows at least a few people saw them coming in, and their stares certainly lingered. That there is something between herself and Captain Rogers is already fairly well known throughout the SSR. Word travels. But this is the first real hint of 'inappropriate' behavior she's allowed to be witnessed.
She had held her head high and studiously ignored the knowing smirks as she latched the door to Steve's small private room behind herself with threatening finality. That certainly won't stop them, though.
She already knows there will be gossip and whispering. It was inevitable from the moment she brought him here. There will be rumors flying across the base, and she'll probably be known as The Captain's Whore by lunchtime tomorrow, at the latest. It's just that, frankly, she couldn't care less at this point what anyone thinks of her, or her reputation. Agent Margaret Carter has always been a woman who tolerates no disrespect from her male subordinates, and has been known to speak sharply with her superiors on occasion. Peggy has never been exceptionally popular in a military full of over-inflated men and their fragile egos. She hasn't the time for coddling.
Honestly, when have tongues ever not wagged senselessly about her? Might as well give them something new to chew over so they don't have to go to the trouble of inventing their usual nonsense.

"Steve?"
He looks up at her, apparently startled; then seems to rally and consciously draws himself up. So he had forgotten that he wasn't alone. She'd suspected as much. At least now he appears to be listening.
"We have a briefing with Colonel Phillips in a few hours." she tells him gently. "Are you-"

"Yes." Rogers interrupts; falling abruptly and apologetically silent a moment later. "Sorry… Yes. I'm… I'm up to it. I'm fine."

"You most certainly are not 'fine'." Peggy tells him flatly, crossing her arms loosely over her chest. "You are also, quite frankly, a dreadful liar. However, I am willing to believe that you are up to this, so I'll tell the Colonel to expect you."

He nods, apparently lost in thought for a moment. Looks up only as she moves to the door to leave him alone.
"Peggy?"
She pauses, turning back.
"...Thank you."

"Rogers, please don't thank me for being a bare minimum of a decent human being." Peggy sighs. "It makes me feel rather hopeless about the rest of humanity. Besides, I helped put you all here in the first place, if you recall. Hardly something to thank me for." She looks quickly away as a sharp stab of guilt strikes her, thinking unhelpfully of Barnes.

She simply can't help thinking that she ought to have pushed harder to get him to go home - resistent little prat though he was. That she ought to have made the SSR send him, if he wasn't willing to be persuaded. This mess was all but inevitable with him here on the front lines, especially as rattled as he'd been. ...Now he's dead and Steve's an utter wreck as a result. Two good soldiers, ruined forever by this stupid bloody war and their own stupid bloody-mindedness.
This is precisely the sort of thing she'd been dreading, and now here it is, blindsiding them just when things had been going well for the team.
She thinks of the blood already staining her hands, and wonders how much more there will be before the war is over.
"Honestly, I'm one of the very last people you ought to be thanking just now... don't you think?"

Steve shakes his head. His voice is rough, but his eyes are finally steady on her. She resists the urge to squirm. "I don't … I don't think I thank you near enough…" he murmurs, almost to himself. He's clearer when he continues.
"You liked me -just me- even before the serum, even when I was nobody... and you've been watching out for me ever since." She opens her mouth to protest this, but the look on his face prevents her. It isn't as if she hasn't tried to do that…. she just made a terrible job of it.
He hesitates for just a second, sniffling and scruffing discretely at his cheeks. "Bucky-" he winces, "-Bucky used to watch out for me." Steve's mouth twists around the words, and she thinks for a moment that he'll dissolve again, but he keeps going, "Guess …. I guess I always needed it, even if I never said. ...He'd be real glad somebody else took over for him…" A small, bitter laugh slips out and she can almost hear him shattering again inside of it. "He always said I'd be the death of him…" Steve takes in a jagged breath, like he's just keeping himself in check. "Just… never thought he meant literally."
Peggy's heart breaks a little at the catch in his voice, but he soldiers stubbornly on before she can make up her mind if she ought to comment on it. He's looking intently into her face again, something weary and regretful etching itself over his own; like acid on steel. "So, like I said... thank you." he says, forcing out a weak, miserable little laugh. "There's a lotta me to hold up, if I'm gonna lean on somebody…"

"Don't be ridiculous." Peggy says softly, aware that her eyes are getting just slightly misty, and now may be an excellent time to make a strategic retreat before she sets him going with the tears again. "I swear, I've carried mission reports heavier than you, Rogers." She glances back at him as she quickly opens the door to let herself out. The expression on her face could almost be a smile, if it weren't so weighted down with all the things she hopes he can't read in her face.
Steve is watching her, expression inscrutable.
"I can certainly take a little leaning."

A/N: There will be another short delay in the updates for a little while. I haven't got any more chapters ready yet, and I won't have time to write them until next week at the earliest. Don't worry, updates will come eventually!