Chapter Text
May 1941
The sun was beating down on the New York streets, an unusually warm spring day along the eastern seaboard. You both loved and hated when it began to warm up in New York. You hoped that you would be able to take a trip down to Jersey soon. You were lost in thought, daydreaming about being somewhere else, out of the heat of a New York summer. Suddenly, you were tumbling down, swearing under your breath as you hit the pavement and the books you had just picked up from the library scattering.
“Are you okay, miss?” someone asked. You looked up to see a man standing there. You took in his appearance. He was skinny, with blond hair and blue eyes, small in stature. You’d seen him around before, mostly with Bucky Barnes, who every woman you knew had their eye on.
“I think so,” you replied. He crouched down, helping you gather your books. You looked at your palms, finding them scratched and bleeding.
“You’re bleeding,” he said as he helped you up. You were taller than he was. But that changed nothing, you still found yourself thinking he was cute.
“Oh,” you said, looking down, taking in any other injuries.
“I have supplies at home...I mean. I’m not trying to,” he began stumbling over his words.
“If it’s not too much trouble,” you said. His face flushed red.
“I live one block over. Steve Rogers,” he said, offering up his name. You replied with your name. He extended his elbow out for you to hold on to. You were fairly certain if you were to fall down, you would take him with you, but still looped your arm through his. It didn’t take long to reach his place. You sat on the steps while he went up the stairs, shortly returning with a kit full of bandages.
“This might sting a bit,” he said as he set about disinfecting the cuts, checking for any debris that may have been lingering.
“You do this often?” you asked. He chuckled a little. You could get used to hearing that sound.
“My friend Bucky usually has to clean me up after I get into fights,” he admitted. You raised an eyebrow. Steve didn’t look like the type to get into fights.
“You get into fights often?” you questioned, curious about how he would answer.
“Only when someone deserves it,” he replied. It wasn’t long before he had you cleaned up. He returned the kit to where it belonged and soon appeared at the top of the stairs. He seemed surprised to find you still sitting there, waiting for him.
“I was wondering...if it’s not too much trouble, would you like to go to lunch?” he asked. You smiled.
“Like a date?” you asked, hopeful. His cheeks tinged pink again.
“It, it doesn’t have to be. I--,” he started to say before you cut him off.
“I wouldn’t mind if it was,” you replied. With that, the two of you set off in the direction of a diner. It was one of the least expensive options in the city.
The day stretched into an afternoon spent together. It was your day off from work. You were a nurse at a local hospital, much to your mother’s annoyance. She hated that you worked at all, and that you had moved out on your own. It was becoming more common, young women moving out on their own.
“This is me,” you said, gesturing to the building in front of you.
“I’d like to take you out again...if you’d uh, like that,” Steve said, before looking down at his shoes. You smiled.
“I’d like that,” you replied. You kissed his cheek before heading inside, turning once more at the door to see him standing there, watching to make sure you made it inside safely. You felt like you were floating on air. Steve Rogers was a one in a million kind of guy, you decided. You couldn’t help but to start daydreaming about a future with him.
May 1943
You glanced at Steve, a soft smile on your face as the pair of you sat side by side on the front porch swing your father had made for your mother so many years ago. You were from a well off family, one that hadn’t suffered much when the market crashed and the economy went into a spiral. Your father hadn’t come from wealth himself, nor had your mother. You thought it was part of why they both approved of Steve.
You had pretended you hadn’t overheard the conversation he’d had with your father about asking you to marry him. You knew it would be a while yet before he did. Steve Rogers may not have been the biggest guy around, or the most physically strong, but he had stolen your heart. You knew he wanted so desperately to join the war effort. You hadn’t yet been called away to the war. They still needed nurses at home, even with the war raging overseas.
“I got you something. Two things, really,” Steve said. He pulled a locket out of his pocket. The back had an inscription on it, your initials intertwined. You turned it over in your hand.
“Oh, Steve,” you said. You didn’t want to think about how much it must have cost him to get the locket and have it engraved.
“I’ve been saving up. Wanted to get you something real pretty for our anniversary,” he said as he ducked his head a little bit.
“It’s beautiful,” you told him.
“Open it, doll,” he said. You gasped when you did. You had never seen the photo of the two of you that rested inside. The other side was empty.
“Where did you get this photo?” you asked.
“Buck’s sister took it that day at the fair in Jersey,” he explained. You remembered that day well. It was from two years prior, when you and Steve were only a few months into dating. Steve had still been in disbelief that you wanted to be with him, that you weren’t more interested in Bucky.
“I remember. You held my hair back when I got sick after Buck talked us into going on the Zipper, even though you weren’t feeling well yourself,” you recalled. The photo was of the two of you on a bench, sharing a drink in the hopes of settling your stomachs. It had been a couple years since the fair happened with the war going on.
“Maybe one day we’ll be bringing our family,” he said as he shifted. You watched as he stood, before he got on one knee in front of you. You could barely process what he was saying as you felt the tears filling your eyes. You were nodding and heard yourself say yes. It took everything in you not to launch yourself at him.
June 1943
You stared at Steve in disbelief. You had only just been recruited to a project at Camp Lehigh, though you had been working alongside Peggy Carter for some time. A highly classified project that your fiance was evidently now part of. You didn’t even know the specifics. Only that what they were planning on would transform a person, if it worked.
“Steve, whatever this is, they don’t even know if you would survive it!” you yelled. You rarely raised your voice. Steve had no idea what you were talking about. You knew they hadn’t fully explained to him what it was they wanted. Dr. Erskine was like that. He had known before he even approached Steve that he was your fiance.
“Sweetheart. Please, this is my chance to do something,” he said.
“I know. But Steve. You have no idea what they’re asking of you,” you replied, tears stinging your eyes.
“I promise you. I will be fine. I have to be. Still gotta marry my best girl,” he said, wiping the tears away from your eyes. You weren’t sure how much time had passed. Steve was due at Lehigh in the morning. You already spent a considerable amount of time there.
It seemed like it was all too soon that they were preparing to go forward with the experiment. Steve had shown up some of the others in his training. He’d toppled the flagpole, managing to catch a ride back with you and Peggy after doing so. It had further proven that he was the ideal candidate.
“He’ll be fine,” Peggy assured you as she squeezed your hand. You had been working with her for some time, and she had become a good friend. She had only met Steve after he was recruited. It was the nature of your work.
“I hope so,” you said. The next sequence of events were a blur that ended with a suspected HYDRA agent dead and Steve being signed up for the USO. As the nurse attached to Project Rebirth, you were traveling with him. It wasn’t all bad, you supposed. As the days passed, you saw his frustration grow.
“It won’t be like this forever,” you said as you leaned against the door frame of the dressing room Steve was in.
“You don’t get it,” he said as he set the wooden shield down.
“I can’t say I’m not happy you’re here and not out on the front lines. But I know that’s where you want to be,” you told him as you moved to stand behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder. He reached his hand up to take yours in his.
“This is why I want to marry you, as soon as this war is over,” he said as he placed a kiss on the back of your hand. You rested your chin on the top of his head, the two of you taking in the moment.
November 1943
Steve was on the front lines, but not in the way he wanted to be. You knew how much it bothered him. You followed him through the camp and stood there with Peggy when you both learned that the men in the camp were what was left of the 107th.
“No,” you whispered. Peggy looked between you and Steve. You knew where this was going. It felt like things were moving in a blur as Steve prepared to head behind enemy lines, alone.
“Come back to me safe,” you whispered.
“Still gotta marry my best girl,” Steve promised.
You spent the night tossing and turning. Philips had been livid when he learned Steve had gone on what he deemed a suicide mission. You prayed he was wrong. You sat with Peggy in silence the next morning, toying with the locket that rarely left it’s place around your neck.
“He’ll be back,” Peggy said. You said nothing. You stood up, intending to head to the medical tent, but something drew your attention. Over the hill, Steve appeared, with a group of men behind him. You took off running toward him. He barely had time to react before you had your arms around him. You heard Bucky’s laugh, turning your head and seeing him there.
“Good to see you, Buck,” you said, your voice soft. He gave you a small smile, before he drew more attention to Steve.
January 1945
The Howling Commandos were in London, along with you and Peggy. You were officially the nurse attached to their unit. Steve wouldn’t hear of you being sent off to another front in the war. You knew he worried about you. He had tried to talk you into returning home more than once. You had stood your ground.
“I don’t know how you two aren’t married yet,” Dugan said. You looked at Steve, who looked right back at you.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a war going on,” you replied.
“Doesn’t mean you two can’t make it official,” he told you. Which was how the two of you ended up in front of the chaplain two days later. It wasn’t legally binding, no. But there was a feeling in the air of something coming that neither you nor Steve could shake. So, on the 31st of January, in the midst of finalizing their plans for the next day, you and Steve exchanged vows, alongside the rings Bucky had managed to fashion out of materials he had found.
You were staying behind with Peggy. The two of you had other work to do. Work that Steve assuredly had no idea about. You hated keeping secrets from him, but it was necessary with how much he worried about you. The pair of you had barely returned yourselves two days later when Steve and the others returned. You did a head count and then did it again. You felt a pang in your heart when you realized Bucky wasn’t among them. They had completed the mission, but at the cost of one of their own.
“Steve?” you asked, your voice soft. He spoke no words as he pulled you close. You felt him shaking in your arms as a sob tore through him. Peggy and the others made themselves scarce as you stood there, holding on to your love as he mourned the loss of his closest friend.
Steve slept fitfully that night. You stayed up, watching over him. You had become adept at functioning on low sleep.
The next couple days were once more a blur of events. In the wake, you were left, a widow in all ways, except legally. You found yourself sitting with Peggy and the remaining Commandos, each of you lost in your own thoughts.
“What comes next for you?” Morita asked. You shrugged.
“I don’t know,” you replied as you took a sip of your drink. News of Steve’s death had broken around the world. People knew he had been engaged to be married. People knew about you. And you knew the moment you returned to New York, people would find you, ask you questions you didn’t want to answer.
October 2011
“Prepare yourself. They found him,” Nick Fury said as you sat across from him. You could feel the tears stinging your eyes already. You had always hoped, but didn’t dare let those hopes linger long.
“Is he...is he alive?” you asked. You wouldn’t have believed it to be possible if you hadn’t experienced it yourself. Two years after Steve went into the ice, Howard hypothesized that it was possible he was still alive. It had been an idiotic and dangerous proposal. You had been so consumed by your grief still that you had gone along with it while Peggy was out of town.
The only synthesized version of the serum was given to you and you were frozen, hidden away until Tony Stark discovered you in late 2010. Peggy had been unaware for so long of where you had vanished to. You remembered her cursing Howard’s name the day you walked into her room at the facility she was living at. Time was cruel, you had decided. Her memory was starting to fail her. Doctors told you she had a few years left at the most.
“He’s alive. He’s not awake yet. We don’t want to startle him,” he replied. You stifled a laugh.
“With all due respect, Director. He’s not going to react the way you think he will,” you replied. It wasn’t long before Fury got the call that Steve had awoken and made a run for it. You were waiting when he was returned to the building where they’d been keeping him.
“So, I heard you’ve been on ice for the last sixty some years,” you said as he was brought in. He whispered your name.
“How?” he asked. You sighed.
“It’s a long story. I suppose I should start with what happened after you crashed,” you said before you launched into the two years between his supposed death and you yourself going on ice.
Fury backed out of the room, unnoticed by the two of you. Phil Coulson stood waiting in the hallway.
“Sir?” Coulson asked.
“Give them a moment, Coulson. They’ve waited long enough for it,” Fury said as he headed back toward his office. He knew the two of you wouldn’t have long before your lives would be upended by the chaos that hummed around the world. But for now, the two of you sat, blissfully unaware of the battles to come, reunited after so long apart. A love story that was just beginning it’s next chapter.