Chapter Text
Together
Before the Battle of New York, Steve found the old files of his comrades from the war. ‘DECEASED’ the dreadful faced-red stamp he kept seeing across all of them. All of them but one. The ache in his heart transformed into the shocking hope of the prospect to see her again. Peggy was still alive. Still alive. The words didn’t exactly registered in his brain but his eyes were already scanning the document to find an current address. There was none. Nothing since 1958. No MIA mentioned, no transfer. It’s like she vanished. Fury came along to offer him a mission the following day.
After saving the world from the Chitauri attack, Steve went back to his Brooklyn apartment with one single thought in mind: find what happened to the woman he loved.
With the help of Natasha and, for some reason Tony, he went on a ghost chase. Tony hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D. servers and they found recent information of a mission Peggy had supposedly worked on just a month from then. She should be over 90 years old. How? How was it possible she was still working for S.H.I.E.L.D.? With enough evidence Steve confronted Fury and the man finally caved to reveal a tale Steve was having a hard time to believe, even after seeing the sky open to pour an alien army on Earth.
She was indeed still alive but furthermore was experienced on by HYDRA and now aging so slowly she barely looked 35 years old. Fury didn’t even have a chance to say more when Steve stormed out of the room, her location written on a piece a paper and started running through Manhattan to stop in front of a fancy building in the Upper East Side.
When she opened the door, she practically was the spitting image of herself back in 1945. Her face, her body, her hair, her hands, everything was the same and Steve remained silent in shock when she offered him to get inside. Her eyes though, her eyes were different. Something harder was darkening them.
She didn’t seem surprised to see him here, barely taken aback.
‘You knew I was back.’ He said as he stood in her living room but it wasn’t really a question.
‘I knew.’ She answered calm as water and strong as iron.
‘Why? Why didn’t you came to find me?’
‘I’m not the same woman you knew. I’ve changed. I’ve had 70 years to change and to mourn you. I couldn’t barged into your life.’
‘So this is it? This is you telling me you moved on?’
‘Oh no I haven’t moved on. Never.’ A sad smile appeared on her face.
‘Then why?’
‘Your responsibilities go beyond your country now, the world needs you. I cannot interfere.’
‘This is bullshit.’
He took a step to close the space between them, grabbed her waist with both hands and pulled her against the full length of his body. He could see her harden features break and her breath catch as she swallowed hard. When he kissed her, Peggy’s body went almost slack in his arms and her moans sounded like pain and relief.
Two weeks later she still refused to see him again after their painful reunion. But the arrival of another ghost of their past forced them to team up to fight together. Everyone said the Winter Soldier was a legend but the look on her face when Fury briefed them after the first reports of his attacks came in told Steve she knew more.
She didn’t have to reveal his identity, Steve found out when he fought him on the highway. Coming back from the fight he stormed in her office, in the lower basement of the Long Island S.H.I.E.L.D. facility.
‘You knew.’
‘I wasn’t sure.’ She barely lifted up her eyes from her computer.
‘You should have told me!’ He smashed his hand on her desk and it startled her briefly before her composure came back to her stoic self.
‘If I had told you, you would have run head down to him. And he is dangerous. Like I said, I can’t interfere.’
‘Well, whether you want it or not Fury has asked us both to find him. To bring him back.’
‘It’s foolish. We’re both way too emotionally involved in this case.’
‘Don’t fucking refer to him as a case! And emotionally really? Are you sure you’re still capable of that?’
It was a low blow, even in the light of how their relationship was right now. She looked up straight in his eyes.
‘You know nothing about what I had to go through during the last decades. This is as much my fight as it’s yours.’
He remained silent trying to read through her but she was right. He had no idea who she was anymore. All he knew was that she had intel, a lot more than he thought initially and she certainly wanted to find Bucky as much as he did.
‘We have to do this together.’
‘I know how to be a professional Steve. This is my mission too, I’ll help you the best I can.’
‘That’s not what I’m talking about Peggy. This is— this is different. It’s Bucky.’
He heard his own voice breaking when saying his name and he hated himself to appear so weak in from of her. But it changed something in the way she looked at him. Her eyes soften and he swore he saw hurt and tenderness in them.
‘Steve—’ She paused and walked around the desk. ‘I failed him too. In 1958 I discovered he hadn’t been killed on that train. I discovered he was held by HYDRA. Experimented on. I tried to go and save him but I failed. I got caught too.’ She stopped as her breathing was getting labored. She dropped her head to the ground.
Steve put his hand on her waist and looked down trying to look into her eyes.
“Peggy… it’s not your fault.’
‘It could have been me.’ She suddenly said locking her eyes with his with raw honesty this time. ‘I could have become this monster too. If it wasn’t for that woman from my past— it could have been me. She worked in the red room. I still don’t understand why but she saved me. She extracted me before they could brainwash me and turn me into a killer.’
Steve pulled her into his arms and she welcomed the embrace without a fight.
‘Let’s save him. You and me. We’ll save him.’ He whispered in her hair.