A/N: I thought about extending this, but it didn't want to work and it took away from the "road trip" idea, so this is the last planned chapter, as Steve reaches California.

End of the Road

The Red Skull and Hydra couldn't defeat Captain America. Loki and the Chitari couldn't defeat him. But the map of the Los Angeles freeway system forced Steve Rogers to surrender. He called Pepper Potts and begged for help.

She laughed sympathetically. "Even native Californians get confused sometimes," she reassured him. "Where do you want to go?"

"Disneyland," Steve answered. "Everyone has said I should go there. And I really liked Mickey Mouse when I was a kid."

Pepper's mind boggled to realize Mickey had been around that long.

Steve had continued to talk about the genius of Disney — the first cartoon with sound, the first full-length animated feature.

He paused. "Maybe that sounds silly for a grown adult," he said, abashed.

Pepper quickly reassured him. "There are many, many adults who feel like that. You'll see when you go to Disneyland, but you can't go today. It's already after noon. You'll want to spend a whole day, and even then you won't see everything."

"Then I guess I need someplace to stay the night," Steve said.

"I can help you with that, too," Pepper promised. She gave Steve directions.

He took a deep breath before firing up his motorcycle and heading for the nearest freeway onramp. Fortunately, Pepper's directions were clear and the freeway signs were easy to follow — easier than a lot of surface streets.

But Steve began to wonder where Pepper's directions were taking him, when he passed through Los Angeles and headed for the coast. He wound up in a residential area so ritzy, he couldn't see any houses, just gates blocking long driveways.

When he found his address — 10880 Malibu Point — he found just such a gate with "Stark" worked into the wrought iron. Steve was about to dismount to press the intercom button, but the gate swung open.

"Welcome, Captain Rogers," a familiar voice said.

"Jarvis? You're here in California, too?" Steve exclaimed, then felt like an idiot. Anyone could have gotten to California in the time he'd meandered across the country.

"Of course, captain," Jarvis answered. "I am wherever sir needs me."

The front door opened when Steve stopped on the circular driveway. "Surprise!" Pepper said.

"You're here, too!"

"I had business here and Tony needed to get away from New York."

Steve heard anxiety in Pepper's voice. "Nightmares?" he asked gently, because he'd had a few himself.

Pepper nodded once, but didn't expand on Tony's anxiety attacks and flashbacks. It wasn't her place to tell virtual strangers, and Steve understood that.

"Should I leave?" Steve asked, because his presence could only remind Tony of the battle.

"No," Pepper said instantly. She put her hand on his arm as if to prevent him from drawing away. "No, Tony — both of us — could use a distraction. Just don't mention New York. Talk about your travels. He's been following you, you know."

"Tony! We have a visitor," Pepper said a little too brightly.

Tony looked up fro his work and flinched when he saw his fellow Avenger. Steve would have been hurt if Pepper hadn't warned him. The perceptive Super Soldier discerned many sleepless nights in the dark bags under Tony's eyes.

"Hi, Tony," Steve said, trying to put his friend at ease. "I didn't mean to bother you. Pepper tricked me. Instead of giving me directions to a hotel, she led me here."

"There's no point in you paying for a hotel room when we have all this space," Pepper scolded. "And you certainly can't go to Disneyland tonight."

"No, it's too late. You wouldn't have time to see anything," Tony agreed, relaxing when the conversation stayed firmly away from New York. "And you can't go tomorrow, either. The weekend is too crowded." Tony hesitated. "It is still Friday, right?" he asked with more anxiety than Cap expected from the brash billionaire.

"Indeed, sir, well done," Jarvis said dryly.

"I don't need sass from you, J," Tony said, pointing a screwdriver at the nearest speaker. And yet he seemed heartened by the snark. He began to look more like the self-assured engineer Steve remembered from New York.

He even offered his hand to the Super Soldier.

Steve had been carrying his motorcycle helmet under his right arm, to give Tony an excuse for not shaking hands, but he gladly shifted the helmet and gripped the outstretched hand warmly. When Tony shook his hand after Thor took Loki back to Asgard, Steve had seen it as a gesture of reconciliation for their arguments on the helicarrier. He only learned later that Tony didn't like being handed things or shaking hands. This was truly a gift of trust for Tony to offer his hand, and Steve took it gladly and with no small relief. He didn't have many friends these days and he would have hated to lose one.

Pepper was relieved, too.

"And I didn't miss date night!" Tony told Pepper triumphantly.

"You haven't missed it … yet," Pepper said, pointedly looking from Tony's greased-stained, tattered T-shirt to her summery cocktail dress.

Steve looked more alarmed than Tony. "I shouldn't intrude," he said, embarrassed to disrupt the couple's alone time.

"Nonsense," Pepper said briskly. "We'll all have dinner together and make plans for your visit; then you can go to your room and rest — you must be tired after that long ride — and Tony and I can have date night."

The smoldering look she gave Tony promised more than dinner and a movie, and made Steve flush bright red.

Tony laughed, seeming fully restored to his cocky self. "Watch out, Pep, you're offending the captain's virginal ears."

Steve's blush seemed to grow darker.

"They should have gotten one of your show girls to whisper sweet nothings over the radio. You'd have never frozen with a blush like that."

"Tony!" Pepper exclaimed, but Steve just laughed.

"If it happens again, you have my permission to try it," Steve said. "I'd rather be embarrassed than frozen again."

Tony clapped him on the shoulder and the men went to clean up before dinner.

Pepper had seen Steve eat before, so she made sure to put the lion's share of food on his plate, with the serving platters close enough for him to reach. Steve was embarrassed again — he hated to seem greedy. Pepper told him to eat as much as he wanted.

"There's more in the kitchen," she said, then she asked about Steve's road trip.

"I enjoyed seeing the Mississippi and the Grand Canyon," Steve said. "Those were both on my list."

"List?" Pepper asked politely.

Steve pulled a small notebook out of his back pocket.

Tony boggled. "You have an actual list — on dead trees! That's so old school!"

Steve was unashamed. "No one's more old school than I am," he pointed out.

"Point," Tony agreed, as he perused the small document.

"It started with things I always wanted to do … before the war," Steve said. "Then I've been adding things that people tell me I should do now."

"Like see Disneyland," Pepper said.

"Yes."

Tony saw that "Grand Canyon" and "Mississippi River" were crossed out as accomplished. He smiled at another entry. "We can take care of one of these right now," he said. "Jarvis, open the blinds."

The blinds began to retract, letting in blazing orange light. It drew Steve to his feet, before he realized that would be impolite, but Pepper and Tony followed him instantly.

"There you go, sunset over the Pacific," Tony said with a ringmaster's gesture toward the view.

With all the estates blocking the view from the road, Steve hadn't realized how close he was to the shore. The Malibu house sat on a cliff overlooking the Pacific. The setting sun turned the waves shades of orange and gold, while wispy pink clouds floated above. A flotilla of sailboats cruised past and a blue and yellow speedboat zoomed by towing a rainbow-colored parasail.

Steve's fingers twitched. He wished he had his sketchpad and tried to memorize every color for later drawing. When the brightest shades began fading into lavender and gray, Steve turned away from the window with a satisfied sigh. Without a word, he took the notebook out of Tony's hand and crossed out the notation "Sunset over the Pacific Ocean."

"That was beautiful. Thanks," Steve said. "But I should let you two get to date night."

"But we haven't talked about Disneyland," Pepper protested.

"Tomorrow will do, if I'm staying over."

"Oh, you're staying," Tony said. "Pepper has plans for you. She didn't get to be CEO by taking 'no' for an answer."

Steve left his hosts to their romancing. He went back to his room and got out his colored pencils.

The next morning, Pepper told Steve she was going to call Disneyland so he could get a personally guided tour.

"But I don't want special treatment," Steve protested.

"That doesn't matter. You need special treatment," Tony argued. "More importantly, the park needs to give you special treatment. Look, suppose you're standing in line at the Matterhorn and someone recognizes you. I know you're not flaunting your identity, but it's not exactly a secret, either. You were in all the history books."

"Sometimes people recognize me," Steve agreed.

"So, you're standing in line and a fan girl sees you and starts squealing," Tony said.

"Fan girl?" Steve mouthed at Pepper, who covered her smile.

"She runs over," Tony continued. "Suddenly people are swarming you, taking selfies, knocking grandmas to the ground and trampling small children, all the while blocking the entrance to the ride. It would be chaos. Disneyland hates chaos," he said firmly.

The reserved soldier paled. "Maybe I shouldn't go," he said.

"No, you can't live your life like that," Pepper said firmly. "You just have to take precautions."

"But I don't like special treatment," Steve whined. "It makes me feel like I'm taking money under false pretenses."

"Maybe we could trade," Pepper mused. "You could earn your favors."

"They have a parade," Tony suggested. "The Park visitors would love to see Cap in person."

"And he could spend some time — a designated amount of time — signing autographs and taking pictures with fans," Pepper said.

"Just like Snow White and Mickey Mouse," Tony chuckled. "But not all day. He needs to have some free time to ride the rides and have some fun. That's the whole point!"

"A couple hours in the morning and a couple in the afternoon. Indoors, in the hottest part of the day," Pepper suggested.

"Yeah, at Innoventions. We already have a Stark Industries display there, so it's perfect. Indoors, in the air conditioning, out of the smog. Anaheim can be uncomfortable in the summer," Tony confided to Steve.

"Though the weather report for next week is good," Pepper said. "So, trade a personal appearance for celebrity treatment."

"Cuts to the front of all the lines," Tony said in satisfaction. If there was one thing he hated, it was waiting.

"Still sounds like cheating," Steve grumbled.

"It's not cheating. It's necessary," Tony insisted, as Pepper called the Disneyland PR chief's personal cellphone. She knew he'd want to get right on this, even though it was Saturday. Even Disney execs didn't get a chance to meet Captain America every day. In fact, none of them had met Steve, so he'd be the first!

Bemused, Steve sat back and listened to his friends arrange his vacation — arrange his life — for him. It was funny. He'd taken his road trip to find himself, to learn about this new Buck Rogers future world that Steve Rogers had ended up in. And what he'd found was the same thing he'd left behind — good friends.

He blinked moisture away. Drat, he was making himself teary-eyed. Maybe Tony noticed, because he turned away from kibitzing Pepper's phone call.

"So there's a couple things I should warn you about. They might shock an old geezer like you," Tony said. "First, there's security going in. There's security everywhere since 9/11."

Steve nodded.

"Then there's the crowd," Tony said. "Like Times Square at New Year sometimes."

Steve nodded again.

"But the worst thing, the thing everyone complains about — are the prices!"

And then he began telling Steve horror stories about $3 cups of coffee and $6 ice cream sodas! Steve, who remembered 5-cent Cokes and full meals that cost less than $1, was aghast. Tony nodded sagely.

"Yeah, sometimes they even shock me," the billionaire said.

A/N: I got my picture taken with Captain America twice at Innoventions at Disneyland. Inventions is closed now. But one rumor says it may be all Star Wars and Marvel meet and greets when it reopens in November.