Title: Love, Truth, and Honour
Rating: PG-13/T
Originally posted: 10th April 2022
Originally written for: svgurl
Characters/Pairings: Steve/Peggy
Notes: for svgurl's birthday.

In the circumstances, she wasn't sure anyone could have judged her for such wanton behaviour. The war had changed everyone and everything. It had certainly changed Peggy. Losing Steve had been the hardest part, but now he was back. It occurred to her that she might lose him again and that simply could not happen without him understanding all that she felt for him.

She told him, she showed him, in every way possible, as he did the same. The vows were made and the union cemented so perfectly, the lack of a priest and a ring was nothing to Peggy. In her mind, she was as married to Steve as any woman had ever been married to any man in the history of the world.

Lying sated in her bed, his arms around her, her head on his chest, she was almost entirely at peace with the world. There was just one thing niggling at her, something she was sure was bothering him too, even as he kissed her hair and murmured contentedly one more time of his love for her.

"Tell me everything," she urged him softly.

"Everything?" he echoed, the slightest strain in his voice as she looked up at him. "Now?" he checked.

"Yes, I think so." Peggy nodded slowly. "You died, Steve, or at the very least, you were lost in a wasteland for quite some time," she said without pause, without hesitation, because the facts were what they were... unless perhaps they were not exactly facts at all. "I don't deny, you look the same, for the most part. You are Steve Rogers, the man I love and have loved since the first day I met you," she said, smiling as she met his gaze, the expression slipping even as she did so. "But there is more to this than meets the eye. Your heroic return to me, it has a price, as all miracles do. I'd prefer to know what it is now, rather than later. And I... I need to know where the pain comes from, the grief and the anguish behind your eyes. It was never there before, not like this."

When he realised how easily he was being read, Steve glanced away a moment. Of course, she knew something was wrong. She was the smartest woman he ever met in his whole life, and there had been some real contenders over the years.

"I was always going to tell you everything," he promised, one hand coming up to gently brush her hair back from her face. "It probably should've been the first thing I did when you opened the door but..."

"But I can forgive you that," she assured him, with nothing less than a saucy smile, though she was serious again within seconds. "Tell me now. What happened between that day when we had to say goodbye and now?"

Steve drew in a breath and let it out slow. "That... is a long story."

Pulling herself up to sit beside him, drawing the covers up with her as she better positioned herself to hear the whole tale, Peggy was the picture of curiosity and earnest wonder. "I'm listening."

So he told her.

It took hours. They had to take breaks so they could make coffee, throw together a sandwich, visit the bathroom, but eventually, he laid out the whole tale from beginning to end.

There were tears and laughter on both sides. Shock and awe from her, unexpected pain and joy combined for him as he relived the last few years of his life. The Avengers, SHIELD and HYDRA, Bucky, The Accords, Thanos and the Infinity Stones, the loss of at least two dearly departed, most heroic friends, and finally, his trip back to the past to reunite with her, his beloved Peggy.

There was no denying that some of it ought to seem completely unbelievable, but Peggy knew better than to doubt the word of Steve Rogers. Besides, she had seen some very strange things in her time already. She doubted not a word of the story she was told. She only worried about one part that didn't quite make sense to her.

"But coming back here," she said, frowning hard, "if you stay..."

"I am staying," said Steve definitely, taking her hand firmly into his and kissing it.

She smiled at the gesture and sentiment, but the worry wouldn't go away so easily.

"Won't it change everything?"

Steve shook his head. "That's not how time travel works... apparently," he added with a look, clearly having learned the part that came next parrot-fashion, because he barely understood it himself. "That time line, the world I left behind, it stays exactly the same. You and I, we can create our own future, a whole different life together," he assured her. "I mean, if that's what you want."

It was so strange, but beyond the muscles, the physical strength and stamina that belonged to Captain America, Peggy never failed to see sweet, vulnerable, tenacious little Steve Rogers. Even in such a moment, when he told her he had given up his whole world to return to her, no matter the cost, still he was nervous to think he might not be enough somehow.

"How could you doubt it?" she asked, her hand at his cheek, tears of both sadness and happiness filling her eyes at the same time.

She leaned in to him and he received her willingly into his arms, a kiss to seal the promise, as if a further sign of commitment were needed. It would have been so easy to sink back into a perfect lost afternoon of delight, but Peggy could not allow it, not while another man was playing on her mind, however innocently.

"There is one thing, however..." she said, tearing herself away and meeting Steve's bewildered gaze, "about Sergeant Barnes. With all that you know from this other life, this alternate future, surely, we can do something," she said, shaking her head as she tried to think of any kind of a plan. "You and I, and Howard, the Commandoes too. Together, we must be able to save him from so many years of torture and pain."

She had expected him to be quick to agree with her. It was almost frightening when he didn't move, didn't speak at all, for a full minute. Peggy was starting to worry that something was wrong, that this had all been some strange and wonderful dream that ended in that moment, with her dearest turned to stone, about to crumble away at her very next touch.

"Steve?" she said nervously.

"I'm sorry." He shook his head slightly as he spoke at last. "I'm just... Margaret Carter, you are the most incredible woman in the whole world. In all of time," he insisted, meeting her eyes once again and smiling widely. "I love you."

She smiled back without pause, hands at his face, drawing him closer.

"And I love you, Captain Steven Rogers," she promised faithfully. "Welcome home," she added, kissing him one more time.