Hi! Sorry it took me so long, I was travelling, but now I am back :) I have already written the end of this story, but there is still a long journey ahead of us :) I hope you will not be disappointed by this story and thanks for all your support :) Do not hesitate to leave comment or favourite this story, it makes my day :)
They had been driving for hours. Peggy, finally able to sit for a few hours, was sitting next to Steve. She felt weird. All the time since she was woken up, they were on the run. But now, they had a destination where they were supposed to meet the son of one of her dearest friends. She had heard a lot about Tony Stark and was recommended to make her own judgment about him. The fact was that even if Steve had a few bad experiences with Tony, Tony had helped Peggy with everything so far. From the thawing to the coded phone through which Steve could have contacted Helen Cho when they needed.
She was watching the surroundings they were passing by, a little shocked by what had happened with the America she knew.
"You ok?"
"Yes, Steve, you don't have to ask me every few minutes."
"It's been hours since I asked and since you spoke."
"I am just thinking."
"How do you feel about this century?"
"I feel… overwhelmed. I have a constant headache, and I have no idea how to catch up on all the things that I missed. I… I miss my friends." Steve exhaled deeply but said nothing.
Tony was waiting for them in front of a dilapidated building. It seemed ready to fall down at any moment, but he didn't seem nervous about it.
Steve got out of the car and looked around.
"Nobody's there, Captain," said Tony, unimpressed by Steve's lack of trust.
Peggy, meanwhile, opened the car doors and, with her crutches, made it to a standing position even before Steve rounded the car to help her. He closed the car, and with Peggy next to him, he approached Tony.
"Peggy, this is Tony Stark," he said unnecessarily.
Of course, Peggy knew who this man was. And Tony had seen Peggy in the lab. But they were never introduced. And Steve refused to give up on good manners, even though he was currently running away from the law.
Tony nodded and looked her over with his eyes.
"Still in need of crutches?" he raised his eyebrows. He did not wait for an answer, turned on his heel, and disappeared into the building. Steve exchanged nervous glances but followed after Tony anyway.
Tony waited for them in the lobby, leaning against the only doors. When he saw that they were in and that the entrance doors were closed, he squeezed the doorknob with his hand, and it opened automatically, without his push.
"Welcome to my secret office, kids," he grinned at them. "Do you need anything? Coffee? Tea? JARVIS?"
Peggy's heart jumped in her chest.
"Jarvis? Is Mr Jarvis nearby?" she asked with hope but then realized that he would have been over ninety years old.
"Mr Jarvis? No, he certainly is not," Tony smirked.
"How can I help you, Mr. Stark?" asked JARVIS.
"Jarvis, I need an alarm if anyone approaches this building."
"Of course, sir. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"What is it? It doesn't sound like Mr Jarvis," Peggy almost shouted.
"It is my AI."
"And did you think that it would be funny to call him after the living person?" Peggy did not understand herself, did not know why it made her so upset, but she couldn't stand the idea that someone was using the name of her friend for a… robot!
"It was not supposed to be funny at all. I knew Jarvis, Miss. He raised me up. He was much more of a father than Howard ever was. You and Cap knew my dad. What type of father do you think he was? Have you given any thoughts about it?" Tony turned and showed them his back. He did not want to continue in this conversation.
Peggy paused. She spent a lot of time thinking about how Howard was as a father, as a husband, and how he was after she disappeared. They leaned on one another too much sometimes. He and Mr Jarvis were the ones who she would have called her friends without further thinking. But they were both gone. She knew that they do not have time to open the topic of Howard right now, and she decided that she would let it go. For now.
They approached a computer. Tony sat in front of it and, without a word, extended his hand towards Steve, who handed him the device. Tony looked at it, frowning.
"It's not only old, as you called me. It's my father's. He created it."
"Can you read it?"
"Of course, I can." Tony sounded almost offended. He put the device into a box and started typing something on the computer. Peggy exchanged looks with Steve. Tony was so deep in the work that he ignored them when Steve dragged another two chairs. Peggy sat down, trying to ignore the starting migraine and the back pain. She was looking around herself. There was no window, only artificial light. The light of this century seemed too strong for her. Her eyes sometimes started to water, and she could not help it. Everything was too much in this century.
"Got it!" Tony almost shouted and clapped his hands above his head. "So, kids… let's look at it, shall we?"
Peggy and Steve stood up and went behind Tony's chair. Tony clicked on the folder. Nothing happened. He clicked again. A tab with numbers appeared.
"What is it?" Tony almost whispered, unprepared for another complication.
"It's a code," Peggy exhaled.
"JARVIS? Can you decode it?"
"I will try, sir," said the AI.
Peggy found paper and a pen and started to write something on it. Tony wasn't paying any attention and was surprised when Peggy gave him a paper with numbers and letters on it.
"You should rename the folder like this."
"What… how do you know it?"
"I know the cypher. It is written in there."
"JARVIS?"
"I have never met a cypher like this, sir. I am working on it."
Tony looked at Peggy incredulously. "Do you want to tell me you are quicker than my AI?"
Steve was bursting with pride. "She was the best codebreaker in the US. She was…"
"Ok, enough, enough, Captain. We are not here to swap CVs," Tony interrupted Steve's speech annoyed. Until now, he did not expect anything else from Peggy than to be Steve's girl… and a deposit box for Howard's messages. Even though he read a few reports about Peggy, he did not take it seriously. Women of the 40s were all the same, were they not?
He reluctantly renamed the folder. Immediately, a new folder opened on his window. There were a few text documents. When he opened it, he realized that they were also written in a cypher.
"So?"
Peggy sat down next to Tony, writing something on another paper.
"Those are names."
"What names?"
"Wait, there is a note from Howard."
Peggy was writing for a few minutes, but then she stopped and looked at the message. There was a long pause.
"So?" asked Tony again impatiently.
"Those are names of agents of SSR that… that according to Howard's speculations were working for Hydra."
"But it must be ancient."
"It's from the year 1951," Peggy nodded.
"So he must have inserted this into your forearm when you were already frozen."
"Yes. Howard writes that… that he hopes that he had to do it and that he hopes that he did not cause any damage."
"So there were no power outages. Howard defrosted you intentionally."
"How do you know I was defrosted?"
"Helen Cho said so. She is the one who performed the surgery on you. But it does not matter, what does Howard say about those names?"
Peggy was full of questions, but she knew that they can wait right now. Right now, she must explain what she found out, and then… then they may leave and find any accommodation where she can lie down. She felt a little desperate with the thought that it would take hours before she will be able to rest.
"Howards writes, that after he had me frozen, he realized that someone had to infiltrate into SSR. These columns are plans which went wrong. And here he has ten names with suggestions who behaved awkwardly during all those events. He writes that he could not do anything about it because there was no one to be trusted back then."
"What are those names?"
"Do you realize that we are talking about people around 80 years old right now?" asked Steve.
"Yes. And we can check all the people that they recommended or accepted into SSR. This is something that we have in our documents. Carter, can you tell me those names? I can let them check."
Peggy swallowed hard but read those names. There were seven names she did not know. Gabriel Stone, James Wells, Frederick Burns, Michael Albey, Alexander Reynolds, Benjamin Turner, Steven Mitchell. Then she stopped.
"Those are seven names. What are the next three?"
Peggy's hands started to shake. "Rick Ramirez," she whispered, "Jack Thompson, and," she stumbled.
"Peggy?" Steve put his hands on her stiffened shoulders.
"Daniel Sousa," she whispered so quietly that they almost did not hear her.
The next chapter will be uploaded sooon (the draft is already written :) :) :) )
