Chapter 1
Without looking up from her unending paperwork, Peggy Carter ignored the thump of something hitting her desk. "No. I'm not going anywhere with you Stark."
The faint smell of his piney aftershave heralded his arrival.
"Please?! Jarvis refuses to go this time. Besides when was the last time you took a proper vacation?" Howard Stark leaned on the desk, his body threatening to undo all the precious piles that were neatly stacked.
Peggy signed and put down her pen and waved him off her desk into a proper seat, like the hard back chair that was 'Howard's', much to his annoyance, but he had to keep in Peggy's good book somehow.
"Every year you go to Nebraska for beef, which I know from your reports are probably delicious, and how Ana raves about it. But going to Nebraska for two weeks or more is not my kind of vacation."
Howard stared at his friend, who after a shot of dating after Steve Rogers died with Daniel Sousa, who was a decent sort, fizzled out after a year and a half as Peggy wanted to focus more on her work than the marriage hints Sousa had dropped once or twice near the end.
Personally Howard thought Peggy never got over Steve Rogers, not completely. She did love Daniel for himself and the shared custody of their little one was proof of that, but Peggy threw herself into her work when she wasn't devoting herself to her almost one year old son, Micheal, Mike after her brother.
She needed a break, a long one and with the vacation time Howard knew she hadn't touch past what she needed to for Micheal's sake. Howard had a hand in that, or as he stared down the board of his company, 'Do you know how hard parents work? They need breaks, and such we'll give it to them.'
Needless to say the joint 'parental leave for family, sick and kids' was grudgingly put down, but was a raving success as his workers at Stark Industries and S.H.E.I.L.D. seemed less stressed and had a better work ethic.
As Howard thought of the changes he had made in mind for Carter that helped hundreds, he slammed his hand down on her desk, making her papers wobble dangerously. "Carter I am ordering you with the backing of Phillips, you are going to Nebraska with me. We'll get there around November 10th and leave the day after Thanksgiving."
Well that put a damper on her work through the holidays Peggy was hoping to do. "Fine. It's a good thing that Daniel and Violet have Mike or you'll be stuck with a baby for that time frame."
Howard grinned at her and threw his hands up in celebration, the slight air movement toppling over her piles. He took one step towards the door, before Peggy's voice barked out. "Not one more step Howard, you will help me redo all of this."
Howard slumped but turned around. "I promise you won't forget it."
***
A long slightly sappy farewell was being made in Shelbyville, Indiana much to Winifred Barnes's amusement. Daniel Proctor, despite the wariness of her son's James, Jimmy to the family, Bucky to the world, turned out to be a decent man, loving father and devoted husband. Winifred closed her eyes and counted to twenty. She peeked through her eyelashes and saw her daughter was still kissing her husband good-bye. "It's only going to be for a week or so. It's not forever."
"You take care of yourself and our little one." Daniel said ignoring the cold as it worked it's way through his sweater, his only source of warmth the cracked open front door.
Sometime later as Becca and her mom drove towards Nebraska for a mini-vacation. Becca because she was worn out from chasing around her first born, now going on five years, and Winifred finally decided to visit her old school friend who after a long career of teaching the New York school system, decided to move back west, not to Indiana but to Nebraska of all places.
"Where exactly are we going mom?"
****
"Holt County Nebraska is were Howard Stark and rumor has it Peggy Carter is going to be going for a few weeks." The HYDRA Commander saw a flicker of familiarity cross the Winter Soldier's face at the names. Biting back a cry of annoyance, the HYDRA commander flatly commanded, "Longing," "rusted," "furnace," "daybreak," "seventeen,"
"Ready to comply." To be sure, the Winter Soldier was wiped twice more and then successfully got his mission details.
After receiving word that the Winter Soldier had made contact with his support in the States and had made his way successfully to Holt County, Nebraska, the Commander voiced his concerns. "I do not like this plan. There are two many variables in play. Arnim Zola better be right about this. Dr. Johann Fennhoff has our full confidence though."
"What could go wrong?"
*****
Holt County, Nebraska
Six miles out from Ewing, NE.
June 18th 1949 6:35 pm
Hattie Sage nee Rosebud 67 liked her privacy. After the blizzard of 1888 that took her brother, Otto who was only 9 and his best friend, Peter Pogo, also 9, their family could not set down roots. Her younger sister Ellie thought she was nuts to go and marry a farmer in Nebraska after teaching for several years in New York. She hadn't had a good relationship with her parents after that. Her only son, John died when he was young.
But Hattie was stubborn and her will to live gave her a spark that even with the loss of her lower legs, made her a firecracker. Hattie was the one to suggest to her teacher that they should start out just after she dismissed the older students, just in case. That suggestion probably saved her life if they started out later, Hattie knew she wouldn't have made it. It was very close call as it was. She still couldn't stand the cold and kept her house stocked up like a blizzard could come any moment during the winter months.
The sound of a loud clap of something like thunder and a crash through her semi-new barn made her sigh in frustration. Grabbing her shotgun and swiftly moving her automatic wheelchair, aka Howard Stark's invention. She was amused and exasperated to be the 'guinea pig' of Howie's inventions. She had sparked his interest in engineering and invention when she taught him so long ago. Surprisingly he kept in touch after her marriage and move.
Somehow she was very lucky to land a job in New York even if it was terribly not amputate friendly. There she met the brightest but exasperating child she ever met. So she gave him a run for his money or lack of.
Once a year around November through Thanksgiving Howie showed up with things to help her around the house. Her husband Mark was at first thunder stuck and wary but they had bonded over the tractor engine repairs. Hattie missed him horribly.
Hattie suspected that Howie used his time in her house as a 'working vacation' since he claimed he came for beef. Right and a new Stark product just happened to arrive just in time for the Christmas sales.
Eyeing the round almost perfect hole that was at the end of the hay loft roof, Hattie raised her wheelchair up the ramp Howie build long ago. The sight of a young woman was not what she was expecting. Leaning down she checked the air flow. The woman was out cold. The squawking chickens and rooster she ignored since the usual occupants of the barn were out grazing.
She was grateful that the young lady decided or not decided to come during the summer months, and not say November. Hattie wondered who Howie his companion would be this time. Hattie hoped for the Jarvis couple again, they were nice. Getting these woman to the house would be a pain and a half.
A few hours later, Hattie was sweating like a horse in heat and the young lady have been moved to her room until she could get up the stairs herself. Thank heavens for Howie. Never thought she'll say that again.
As Hattie quickly and efficiently stripped the strange form fitting, or would have been formfitting black uniforms off of the woman, gave her a sponge bath and dressed her in something else since the uniform, as both were bloody, Hattie hoped she haven't stumbled upon something out of a spy novel. Reading about it was fine, real life, not so much. She had enough of that during the war.
Two days after she died, Natasha Romanoff woke up to the sounds of a rooster and the smell of pancakes. For a split second she thought that she was with the Bartons, but the unfamiliar feel of the bed sheets and the lack of young laughter determined that wasn't the case.
A chill went down Natasha's spine at the sight that greeted her. Either she time traveled or 'God' thought her version of heaven and/or hell was a 1940's guest room in a farmhouse. She was leaning towards time travel because she hurt all over and she stilled when she discovered something that was impossible as she went to get out of the bed.
A voice snapped Natasha out of her thoughts. She didn't even hear the woman coming and she was in a wheelchair. "I see that you're awake. No need to be shy about your monthlies. We all get them, some way sooner than others. Clothes and such are in the bathroom. Feel free to shower and change and comedown to breakfast. You been asleep for over 48 hours."
Natasha's only thought that went through her head as she automatically did as she was told, since there was no other option, was 'What the heck was going on?' That and why was a bath attached to a bedroom in the 40's?
Meanwhile six months in the future, her little sister Yelena Belova was freezing. Ok so that might be a slight exaggeration but to be fair, Yelena Belova didn't expect to be in the past, the far past aka the late 1948's in New York. As she waited for Bucky Barnes or in this case the Asset, her thoughts went back to how she ended up waiting outside a bus stop in New York for the Winter Soldier.
Yelena woke up to the sight of Peggy Carter aiming a gun on her while she was on a wooden floor with a nice rug, Yelena's still pointed Russian accent voice gave her away, ok so the futuristic uniform also gave her way but still.
"Seriously?! First Barton then you? Who ever you are. Ok so I did try to kill Barton so yes, that's on me." The gun clicked off the safety at the Yelena's sudden movement of alarm. "Do I smell macaroni?" Yelena's face drained of color or seemed to. "Crap it's burning!"
Peggy Carter blinked as the clearly Russian agent panicked at the thought of burnt dinner but let the young woman get up and rescue her forgotten dinner after she heard the crack of thunder and that weird blue sparking semi-familiar symbols. Guess it showed something else than murder and mayhem. Unlike Dottie Underwood.
Peggy despite herself had to suppress a grin as the Russian agent rushed around to save the over-boiling pan of pasta muttering to herself in Russian. Peggy had been in the middle of grating cheese when the thunderclap sounded. Granted it had been raining lightly for a while so a sudden thunderclap was unusual, the thump and Russian swearing put her on alert to grab her gun. She'll never get the burn marks out of her living room floor.
Yelena ignored the close of the door and the clear sign of the lock being engaged as she focused on saving this version of her favorite meal. As she went through the motions of dumping the poor remains of the first pot of pasta and starting a new pot, the gunslinger's name popped up in her head. "Peggy Carter, first director of SHEILD, the love of Captain America's, has a niece named Sharon, Agent 13."
Yelena didn't know exactly why she was sharing information that probably didn't happen yet, but she had an inking it was all Steve Roger's fault, because according to Barnes, Steve went to live with his lady love, she only knew that because after a intense firefight were she ended up losing her papa (that one still hurt) and got a blood transfusion from Barnes, Yelena asked about what Rogers was like when he was small while they were stuck in the hospital.
"Steve's dead." Peggy said flatly, not happy that this woman brought him up. She was still learning her way back to her career after her dalliance with Daniel Sousa which lead to a child, Micheal. Daniel's new wife, his Violet was very understanding. Daniel honestly didn't deserve her.
"So you say." Yelena eyed the grater. "I don't know how to use that. Can you finish so we can eat it while it's still hot. It's not like there's a microwave nearby that's handy."
Peggy didn't move. Yelena sighed loudly. "Fine, fine. I'll unarmed of weapons, but my arms, because I kind of am attached to them." Yelena snickered at her own joke as she started to put her weapons while stirring the pasta so it wouldn't stick.
Peggy carefully set down her gun on the small pile of weaponry that threatened to topple over that was on one end of her kitchen table.
The two women worked in silence for a few minutes. It was just after the mac and cheese was done and they both were just about to eat, the young very colorfully dressed young lady said, "I'm Yelena Belova former Red Room, now a former Thunderbolt I guess. I usually don't tell anyone anything but I got this unshakable feeling that I'm stuck here. Stinking Rogers."
Peggy ignored the Steve Rogers comment and hummed in satisfaction. She did love a good mac and cheese. The niece comment would be discussed later. The sound of a small bottle opening, (where did she even stash it?) and the amount of hot sauce Yelena poured on her dinner made her quip. "Do you even have any taste buds left?"
The genuine laughter that Yelena ended up hiccuping solidified in Peggy's mind that this young woman was extremely dangerous but clearly didn't have any love for what had been. Or at least up to a point.
That was a while ago. Today was November 12th, it was cold and 'Elena White' was waiting for HYDRA's greatest asset weapon outside the main New York airport next to said bus stop in Queens. After the Winter Soldier landed, they would drive. Why? No clue. Yelena mentally voted the bus, but if he had a metal arm well, that might ping a few things. Driving it was. Ugh.
Yelena had a hard time after a three month probation period to get Carter to even think HYRDA was still out there, but after Yelena, grumbling about missing good researching sites, bless her, dug into newspaper archives, selected newspapers with evidence, Peggy was on the warpath, but very quietly. She didn't know who to trust besides Sousa, Phillips and Howard. But Phillips was nearing retirement, Sousa was out for obvious reasons, and Howard was Howard. AKA Dottie Underwood and her antics.
Yelena was self-serving when she offered up HYDRA on a platter, if she could get HYDRA off of the map then the Red Room could go as well. So Peggy was stuck with a person from the future and that was it. It surprised Yelena that Peggy, yes they were on first names now, could get behind time travel more than Bucky Barnes brainwashing, which was strange because of the Red Rooms origins. Sadly it was open for business at this time. Probably because it was easier to think he was dead than what he had turned into, not by choice.
Still Yelena almost missed this version of Barnes when he stopped by her and said in a painfully fake but slowly becoming real Brooklyn accent. "Ready to go darling? I hope you haven't been waiting for long, the traffic is horrible."
Yelena almost swallowed her tongue at the sight of Bucky Barnes all clean shaved and way too good looking for his own good. Still Yelena was an excellent actress and adopting a Nebraska accent, "I can't wait to show you my home town in Nebraska, it just looks like it sings like a bird. Ready to go?"
Yelena mentally groaned at the horrible code words they had to exchange. Honestly she and Nat came up with better ones when they were young.
The first few hours were quiet in the 1946 Ford Super Deluxe Tudor Sedan V8 and Yelena was still getting over the lack of speed limit signs in some of the county of New York. At the moment they were going a steady 45 miles per hour, that's after they already traveled at 35 miles in New York State!
At the rate they were going it'll take at least a week or more to get to Nebraska.
"If we go any faster then our mission would be compromised." Barnes or heck even Jimmy, she refused to call him John after his cover name.
"Fine Jimmy."
That lead to a "It's John" "Jimmy" argument that somehow lasted a good ten minutes which during that time they ended up speeding up ten miles per hour! Yeah! Until they came to a town and had to drive 20 miles per hour.
"It's either that or Barnes." Yelena ignored the flinch of pain at Barnes's last name. Guess HYDRA scrambled his brain to the point of even his last name being painful to hear.
Barnes was quiet. "Jimmy sounds right. Much better than John. After all we need to keep this mission on track and 'Jimmy' I think would have a faster reaction time to that name than 'John'."
Yelena mentally sighed in relief and turned on the radio sick of the silence until Jimmy snapped of the knob of the radio. "We don't need this."
Yelena took out her coded diary and started to write down this lovely back in time for memory's sake. It'll be a long, long trip.
'Jimmy' concentrated on the road and ignored the pounding that had started when 'Elena' called him Barnes and shot of intense pain that didn't lead up but increased when the war-time song started. How the asset knew it was a war-time song, he didn't know, but quiet helped ease his mind.