Disclaimer: Characters contained within do not belong to me.

Author's Notes: Thanks so much for sticking with the story. It should start to pick up a little bit now;) Enjoy!

As Time Goes By

by Kristen Elizabeth

Despite a high chance of early snow flurries in the area, Steve decided to take his motorbike to Hartford, even though he had several of Stark's cars at his disposal. Connecticut was only a couple of hours away and he figured that if his mind was on the road, he wouldn't have a chance to talk himself out of going.

He hadn't told anyone about his impromptu trip. Not even Natasha knew that he was going to meet Peggy's husband, the elderly, but very much alive Paul Stanton. Part of him felt like he should have called ahead, to see if he'd even be recognized or welcomed, but it had taken all of his nerve just to look up the address.

Set back from the road a good hundred feet or so, the Stanton house was more like a mansion. Steve sat on his bike for several minutes, staring at the house where Peggy had spent her marriage. He could see her there, Steve decided. The brick house looked strong, but elegant. Sturdy, but beautiful. Exactly the sort of place he would have expected her to love.

Swinging leg over the bike, Steve kicked the stand into place and smoothed down his wind-blown hair. The weather was much colder in the country than it had been in the city, but with his enhanced constitution and his leather jacket, he barely noticed the cold as he walked up the driveway to the front porch.

There was a white, wooden swing hanging at the far end of the veranda. Had Peggy sat there with her children while they were growing up? Or maybe just by herself, rocking while she read or listened to the radio.

He shook his head to clear away the image of Peggy tucked up on the swing and reached out to ring the doorbell.

After a full minute without a response, Steve frowned. As he'd come up the walk, he'd seen two cars in the open garage. Someone was at home. He tried again, this time knocking on the door as well, in case the bell wasn't working.

He had almost given up when suddenly the door opened. An old man with wisps of white hair covering his head stared up at him with accusation.

"If you're here about Jesus, young man, you can turn right around and go find him yourself!"

Steve blinked. "Um...no. No, sir. I'm not here to..." He stopped. "I'm Steve Rogers." He gave the man a second to recognize his name before added, "Um...you might know me as Captain America."

The man's eyes, which had been narrowed in grumpy annoyance, flared open in a moment of recognition, before falling back into their previous state of irritation.

"Captain America," he repeated, like the words tasted bad in his mouth. "Captain America."

Steve nodded. "This is a lot to believe, but if you're Paul Stanton..."

"I am," the man cut him off.

"Then..." Steve hesitated. "I knew your wife, sir. During the war."

"Wife?" Paul looked down, shaking his head. "Knew my wife..." He glanced up. The anger in his expression was gone, having been replaced by a look of confusion that made Steve's stomach twist with sympathy. "Where's my wife?" He stumbled back from the door. "Peggy? Peggy, where are you?"

"Grandpa!" All of a sudden, a woman appeared; she came around in front of Paul, and all Steve could see was her dark ponytail.

And rather shapely backside.

"Grandpa, it's all right," she soothed, as if she'd done it a thousand times before.

"Peggy?" he heard Paul ask the woman, his granddaughter, apparently. Peggy's granddaughter. "Captain America wants to see my Peggy."

Steve was about to start apologizing when the woman glanced over her shoulder, giving him a good look at her face for the first time. He frowned for a second until he realized who she was.

"Agent Hill?"

Nick Fury's right-hand woman sighed. "I had a feeling you'd show up here eventually." She gestured at him. "Come inside, Captain. It's going to start snowing any minute."

Before she closed the door to his bedroom, Maria Hill took one last look at her grandfather. It had taken almost twenty minutes for him to forget what had just happened downstairs; she had no idea when he would remember it again. If he would remember it at all.

Captain America was waiting right where she'd left him. As she came down the stairs, she saw him standing by the fireplace, looking at the framed pictures that decorated it. She would have been embarrassed (not many people outside her family had ever seen her high school graduation photo), but Rogers only had eyes for one picture in particular.

Her grandparents' wedding portrait.

"They met in New York," she said when she reached the bottom step. Rogers turned around, a faint blush on his cheeks, like he'd been caught rifling through an underwear drawer. "Grandpa was working for Howard Stark. Weapons development. There was a big party. Grandpa always said he knew right away. She was the one."

Approaching the muscled man, Maria slipped her hands into the back pockets of her jeans as she went on, "You know the worst thing about Alzheimer's? He can't remember seeing her across that ballroom. Most days he can't remember her at all. That's why I try not to bring her up. It only upsets him."

"I'm really sorry," Rogers said. "I didn't know." Maria waited for the question she knew had to be coming. "So, you're Peggy's granddaughter?" he eventually asked. She nodded. "On the heli-ship-thing...when we met...you didn't say anything."

She shrugged. "Most people don't know. My grandmother left very big shoes to fill at S.H.I.E.L.D. I'd rather be judged on my own merits."

"And that's why you changed your last name?"

"Just my first. My father's name was Hill."

Rogers frowned. "What was your first name?" She shook her head. "I'm learning the internet; I can look it up," he informed her.

Maria sighed. "Sharon. Sharon Carter Hill."

"Sharon's a nice name."

She cleared her throat and crossed her arms. "Look, I don't mean to sound rude, especially to one of Earth's superheroes, but if Grandpa wakes up again and sees you still here..."

He nodded. "I don't want to upset him any more than I have. I just..." He trailed off.

"Needed to find her?" A moment passed. "From the way Grandma talked about you, I figured you were more than just someone she knew during the war. Then when I was studying up on you a few month ago, I saw the newsreel...the one with you carrying around her picture."

"Your grandmother was...important to me."

"To me, too." There was a noise from upstairs. Maria closed her eyes for a second. "You should go, Captain."

"Steve," he corrected her.

"Do you have a phone with you, Steve?" Maria watched him fumble with the zippered pocket on his jacket in order to produce the latest and most expensive phone on the market. No doubt it was a gift from Tony Stark...and she couldn't help but wonder if Captain America had figured out how to use it.

Taking the phone, Maria added her number to his contacts. "Call me tomorrow. We can meet somewhere and talk."

His smile was sad. "It's a date."

TBC

A/N: Okay, okay...I know this is a little unorthodox, combining two characters like Maria Hill and Sharon Carter. But there was something about the way Maria looked at Steve on the bridge of the Helicarrier during the movie; it caught my attention. I'm just offering up one explanation, and I hope you'll give me the benefit of the doubt;)