5. epilogue

.

Those who worked for the fledgling SHIELD never knew what became of Peggy Carter. After a few days of flailing panic, Howard Stark seemed to inherit some of her stiff upper lip, pulled himself together, and moved forward. Perhaps he was becoming hardened to losing members of his inner circle, some of the girls in the typing pool speculated, and felt their opinion proven true when winter turned to spring with no mention of a new summer expedition to search for Captain America. Others shrugged and assumed Agent Carter just never meant that much to him in the first place. After all, everyone knew how interchangeable and easily replaceable he found women to be.

Colonel Phillips was as stone-faced as ever, irascible and impatient enough that even the most daring were afraid to examine his emotions too closely. Not that a lack of close observance prevented the die-hard gossips from speculating, of course. But there was one thing all the agents could agree on: neither man would permit anyone to forget about Agent Carter and her role in forming SHIELD. Her vision and beliefs were the underpinning of everything they did; they were thoroughly taught during training, and constantly reinforced thereafter.

Some years later, there was a junior agent who claimed he saw Colonel Phillips and Howard Stark one night, leaning back in desk chairs in front of SHIELD's memorial to Peggy Carter, reminiscing and sharing a bottle of Scotch. And, he insisted, there were tears in their eyes.

But he had a reputation as a bit of a prankster, so no one ever really believed him.

.

.

It was idyllic, at first. There were so very many things to discover and learn. She settled easily into a job as the Avenger's liaison with SHIELD, and with Natasha and Pepper she enjoyed her first genuine, honest friendships with women since primary school.

And through it all there was Steve. The two of them grew closer and closer so comfortably and naturally that his proposal, when it came four months after her arrival in 2013, was as easily agreed to as it was thrilling. She could honestly say she'd never been so happy in her life.

Everything was wonderful… until it wasn't.

He just didn't seem happy about their marriage. It made no sense. How could a man who cried when she accepted his proposal now become so distracted and distant at any mention of their wedding?

Finally, after yet another failed attempt to select a date, she couldn't stand it any longer. Better to know the worst than to wonder, she thought, and forced herself to say flatly, "You know, we don't have to get married if you don't want to."

He looked shocked. "No, I do!"

Peggy released a breath, more relieved than she was willing to allow to show. "I don't understand then, darling," she continued more gently. "Why have you been so unhappy?"

"I haven't…" His voice trailed off at her expression and he began again. "I want to marry you more than anything, Peg, I swear. I could never be unhappy about that." He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably. "It's just… I've been thinking a lot about Bucky. I always figured if I ever got married he would be my best man." His fleeting grin was a mix of nostalgia and grief. "At least, he always said I would be his. Back then I didn't think there ever would be a girl who would want to marry me, but I knew if it ever happened…"

There was a long pause.

"Right," Peggy said crisply, and took his large hand in hers. "Come with me."

.

.

"You want to use my time machine to do what?"

Steve hadn't known what his brilliant fiancée was going to ask Tony, but once past the first shocked seconds he eagerly leaped into the fray. "He's a fantastic sniper, Tony, best I've ever seen. We could really use him, especially when Clint is away."

"So, what, we're going to build an old person brigade now? The Young Avengers and the Wheelchair Club?" He glanced up at Peggy and smirked. "No offense."

She crossed one perfectly healthy leg over the other and smirked back. "None taken."

"But seriously, we can't just use the time machine for whatever we feel like; we have to be more responsible than that," Tony said, and Steve clenched his jaw so hard that for a moment Peggy expected to hear a tooth crack.

"You—you used it to go see dinosaurs!" he finally exploded.

A fleeting smile crossed Tony's face. "Yeah. That was fun. Still wish Bruce would have gone with and brought Big Green out to play, but you can't have everything. But!" he pointed his pen at Steve, "there was no chance of that messing with the time stream. We can't… no matter how much we might want to, we can't go back and save everyone."

Steve paused at the falter in Tony's voice, then pressed on, "That's the thing, though, don't you see? It wouldn't mess up the time stream at all, because he… he was Missing in Action, Presumed Killed. They never found his body, but they changed it to Killed in Action, after the war." His voice had dropped close to a murmur, but he continued stoically, "I checked. After I woke up."

Peggy squeezed his hand and agreed. "General Phillips sent men to look, once the area was out of Axis hands. But the fall was so great; even though they found nothing there was no hope he'd survived."

Steve's mind was deep in the memories he usually tried so hard to block out. "He fell, and I tried, I… but I couldn't catch him. We just need to figure out a way to catch him without hurting him. We can't do it close to the train or I would see it, but we can't let him fall too far—"

Tony interrupted, waving his hands. "Wait, wait, wait. So what you're saying is, I can wear the suit?"

Steve opened his mouth to reply, but Peggy spoke smoothly over him. "You won't be able to wear your usual suit. Visibility was very good that day. You'll need to build a special one, one which can't be seen against the snow. And the rocks, and I believe there was a river, wasn't there, darling? So yes, definitely a different suit." She turned her attention fully back to Tony and raised a doubtful eyebrow. "If you think that's something you're able to do?"

Tony stared at her for a long moment before snorting. "Lady, you are speaking my language." He began to pull up various screens and displays, tweaking the images while he continued distractedly, "Don't think I didn't notice you manipulating me, because I did, I absolutely did, but this is juuust the kind of manipulation I like."

Peggy sat back and watched him in satisfaction, while graciously pretending not to notice Steve snickering into the side of her head.

.

.

The mission (that Tony insisted on calling "Save Capsicle's BFF!" despite everyone else's groans and eye rolls) was successfully carried out ten weeks later. The team dispersed after their return to the tower and Pepper had a meeting, so Tony wandered down to his lab, pondering modifications to the suitcase suit. There had to be a way to make it smaller…

His mind was so busy that at first he didn't notice the man hunched over one of the far tables paging through a notebook. But as soon as he saw him he was swamped with nausea - he reached wildly for something to hold onto - so dizzy - something was wrong, something was very, very wrong –

Then a moment later, a literal blink of the eye, and the disorientation was gone. He felt good, great even. Was it normal to feel so good?

He twitched and dismissed the odd thought - he had more pressing matters to deal with, like seeing if there was something wrong with the time machine, or maybe something wrong with the shawarma he'd had for lunch. But first things first: "Pop, what are you doing down here? Does Mom know where you are? You know she's gonna kill you if she doesn't."

Howard glanced up from the page, waving an age-spotted hand dismissively. "Eh, it makes her happy to plan all the ways she's going to kill me."

Tony rolled his eyes and threw his arm gently over his father's stooped shoulders, guiding him out of the lab and towards the elevator. "Come on, old man. If Mom lets you live you need to be rested up for dinner; got another old friend for you to see."

A/N: And that's it! Two one-shots coming eventually: a Natasha POV of Bucky's rescue which is mostly written, and a Howard POV of Peggy's disappearance which is still in the notes stage. No promises of when they'll show up as life has been hugely stressful the past year or so, and stress unfortunately makes my already slow writing get even slower, but I can promise they will be posted. So if you're interested, follow me or this (I'll update this when I post them - wish I could make a series on here like I can on Ao3) - and as always, thanks for reading!