Helen Cho was professional and politically neutral. So, once she entered the shelter and saw Steve Rogers along with Natasha Romanoff, she did not say a word, only nodded towards them. She then instructed her team, who did not show any signs of surprise, where are they supposed to prepare the provisional operation theatre. She then approached Tony and started reading the numbers on the computer, discussing something silently.

When one doctor entered the room, Steve turned around to see the cradle built up behind him, and it reminded him of the time when Barnes was hurt, and Helen explained that it can heal almost anything.

"We can start, doctor," informed Helen and she nodded.

"The thing is," she started and addressed Steve, "that we cannot be sure whether the person inside is still alive. If she was frozen as well as you were," (Steve could feel running a chill through his spine)," then we can operate and heal her spine. However, we can't bring back dead." There was silence after this statement.

"When do we know?"

"When we thaw her out. When she was frozen well, her heart would be able to start beating again. I mean… Howard Stark was a genius at that time, but this was the first and the only person he let freeze. Do you trust him that he did not do it in a hurry? Do you trust him that he had it under control?" she sounded critical.

Steve thought. He knew Howard better than he knew Tony. Howard was unpredictable in his doings and impatient as well. When he wanted to present the flying cars, he did so many mistakes, but he did not wait until it was without mistakes to present it to the world. He was a show-off and he thought that he had everything under control. True, Steve did not know him after the war, but he thought that nothing had changed with him afterwards… However, he knew, somewhere down deep, that he would not have experimented on Peggy. He did not like to think about it too much, but he knew, that in a way, Howard loved Peggy. And that he would have done anything to keep her safe.

When he woke up, and when he met Tony, for the first time, after he saw his eyes, he thought, for a while, that Tony was Peggy's son. The same colour, similar shape…

But even though they did not end up together, he knew, that Howard took care of her. He nodded and Helen Cho nodded back at him. Then she turned towards the monitor.

"Let's start," she exhaled and pushed the "thawing" button.

Everyone held their breath. And then… nothing happened.

Steve's heart started pumping so loud that he could hear it in his ears.

"What's going on?" Asked Tony nervously.

"Wait… it's a slow process," explained Helen. "It should not be done in a few seconds as the freezing.

"Why not?" asked Tony.

"Have you ever tried to put frozen fruit into a microwave oven?"

"Uhm, yes?"

"And did it keep its structure?"

"Ok, understand." He nodded.

"So, how long do we wait?"

"I do not know; your father created this machine."

"Isn't there any cut down on the monitor?"

"There is not."

"So how do we know that it works? That the button was not broken?"

"Be patient, Mr Stark. Your father must have thought about everything before putting her in."

"I have my doubts…"

The relationship between Tony and Howard must have been complicated. They were both geniuses, they competed. And they were not given the opportunity to reconcile.

The capsule suddenly shuddered, and the upper lid moved aside. They all gathered around it.

And there she was. Peggy Carter was lying there, without any sign of life. Steve could not draw his gaze from her face. She was pale, but she was as beautiful as he remembered her.

"Shit," Helen barked. Steve moved his eyes to spot what she was looking at. Peggy was lying in blood.

"What does it mean?" Asked Tony.

"It means that during her years in this, it must have stopped working for at least a few hours so the blood melt. I need to lift her and put her on the table. There is no time for the stretchers, just pick her up." She did not talk to anyone, but Steve acted himself. He bent over and carefully tried to lift her up into his arms. She did not move, and he could not feel her heartbeat, but he did not let himself panic. He put her down on the operation table, which was part of the cradle, and moved aside to let the doctors do their jobs. Helen was attaching Peggy to different machines, still monitoring the one which showed only a straight line.

Helen lifted her eyelid, pointing a flashlight into Peggy's eyes. "There is a reaction," she whispered. "Come one, girl. You can do it… I just need your heart to start, come on," she sounded urgent, but Steve appreciated that she tried to talk to Peggy.

But there was silence.

And silence.

And nothing happened.

But, suddenly, the line bent a little bit, and the sound of a small beep cut the silence.

"Here we go!" Helen looked at all the doctors.

"Let's start. We need to scan the wound, her spine and her brain. Are you ready? Great! We need to act quickly." Everyone in the room put their masks on. Steve could feel a hand on his shoulder and let Natasha lead him outside the room.

Now, it was up to them.

And he had to wait.

Until now, he was a patient person.

But now, he did not know what to do with himself.

The love if his life was fighting for her life, not knowing that she was frozen approximately seventy years ago, that she is fighting for living in a world she does not know and will not understand, that there is only one person she knows…

And suddenly, Steve thought to himself, that he feels towards Peggy something which is not reciprocated by her. That maybe she is not in love with him. God! She was living for years without him! And how does he know that she did not fall in love with someone else?

He shook his head.

First things first.

He clapped his hands in prayer, but after so many years of not talking to him, he did not know how to talk to God anymore. He remembered his mother teaching him a few prayers, but he could not understand why all the people say the same words. She smiled at him. "When you do not like it, then tell him what you want by your own words." But he did not know how to formulate what he had in mind. So, he repeated only one word during the whole time the doors were closed.

Please.

Please.

Please.