Summary: A look at Captain America and Peggy Carter's last and unfinished conversation. Steve/Peggy. Inspired by Jason Walker's song, "Everybody Lies."

Status: Oneshot. Complete.

Notes: Lyrics/fragments from Jason Walker's song "Everybody Lies" are inserted throughout the story. Also, I may have overused the Italics. Just to let you know, the Italics are either thoughts, emphasized words (whether it's the character doing the emphasizing or me), lyrics, or Flashbacks/Memories. Feel free to point out any errors so I can correct them!

Inspirations: Captain America movie, and a video on you tube where Tom Hiddleston (Loki, Thor & Avengers Movie, 2011 & 2012) talks about what the word "Compassion" means to him. A music video on Loki (Thor movie) paired with the song "Everybody Lies" by Jason Walker (go check it out!) in you tube.

Disclaimer: I neither own Captain America (Comics/Movie/Whatever), Peggy, or the song. CA and Peggy belong to Marvel & "Everybody Lies" belongs to Jason Walker. Not mine.

P.S.

Feedback would be greatly appreciated. :-)

The Only Truth

• •

We do what we have to when we fall in love.

We say what we need to get out when it's not enough.

"Steve, is that you? Are you alright?" she pushes the other man away and takes his place. The waiting was finally over.

"Peggy! Schmidt's dead," he replies. She feels a wave of relief and excitement, but the heavy feeling in her stomach has yet to leave her.

She pushes it away expertly. "What about the plane?"

"That's a little bit tougher to explain," he replies. She resists the urge to roll her eyes, focusing instead on a way to bring him back to her.

"Give me your coordinates, I'll find you a safe landing site," she orders him. The feeling of being useless while he's in danger is nauseating, and she loathes it, but she swears to herself that she'll do her damnedest to bring him back.

"There's not going to be a safe landing. But I can try and force it down."

She tries to control the panic that sets in when he says that there won't be a safe landing. The words leave a very bitter taste in her mouth.

It almost sounded like that lie. That promise.

The promise that countless soldiers all over the world would give to their sweethearts and their other loved ones before they left and―

"It's going to be dangerous. But I can try ―no, wait, not try― I will come back to you," her brother murmurs, expression tender and strained all at once. The question 'Why do you have to go?' is on the tip of her tongue, but he answers before she can even ask. "It's my duty, Peggy."

―never returned.

She swallows down the bile that rises to her throat at the memory and blurts out the first thing she can think of. "I-I'll get Howard on the line, he'll know what to do." She doesn't know who she's trying to reassure, but she has a feeling it's herself.

"There's not enough time. This thing's moving too fast, and it's heading for New York," he answers back.

There's silence for a moment, and all she can hear is his heavy breathing. She's knows that he's considering his options, but which set of options, she doesn't quite know.

Was it the same options her brother had struggled with? Duty over desire? She knows that the other people listening in only see one set of options, but for her, it's so much more than preventing the physical threat looming over New York.

"I gotta put her in the water."

"It's my duty, Peggy."

She can hear the double meaning, literally.

She feels so proud and broken-hearted all at once.

Two voices, two people dear to her heart making the same choice. She swallows again and tries to prevent the onslaught of tears that threaten to spill over. She's better than that.

"Please, don't do this. We have time. We can work it out," she pleads frantically. It's a last ditch effort, she knows that, but she refuses to give up. Not again.

"Right now I'm in the middle of nowhere. If I wait any longer a lot of people are gonna die," he replies. There's silence for a moment, filled only with heavy breathing. The tears are blurring her vision even as she listens for his voice.

"Peggy," he murmurs. She can hear the mournful and pleading note in his voice. The unspoken request of 'please understand' and 'I'm sorry' in it. She inhales sharply. She knows what's coming, and yet―

"This is my choice," his voice pierces the silence.

―and yet…foreknowledge does nothing to stop the pain and the weight of defeat that seems to crush her all at once. Her shoulders slump before she lets out a small sigh and takes a long blink to clear the tears in her eyes away. On the other side of the radio, she can hear him moving around. Doing his duty.

She waits patiently to hear his voice again, the sound of nothing is nearly deafening.

After a long moment, his voice finally pierces the silence again.

"Peggy?" he asks softly. She can hear the sadness and the fear in it, even as she feels her heart break.

"I'm here," she reassures him, her voice calm and soothing ―his anchor in the turmoil of the storm. Inwardly, however, she's in as much turmoil as he is. The words "I'm here," reverberate loudly in her skull because ―in truth― she's not really there.

Not with him, where she's needed. She's stuck, miles away from him, helpless, while he does his duty to the war-torn world. The knowledge tears her heart apart.

"I'm gonna need a rain check on that dance," he says to her. The laugh she wants to give get's stuck in her throat, and all she can do is smile bitterly through her tears.

She swallows once before replying to him. There's no more time left to waste. Not for them.

"Alright. A week, next Saturday, at the Stork Club," she replies.

"You got it," he promises, though, they both know it's a lie.

But they hope for the best, anyway.

"Eight o'clock on the dot. Don't you dare be late," she smiles sadly as she makes her challenge, making no move to wipe the tear on her cheek away. "Understood?"

We do what we have to when we fall in love.

We say what we need to get out when it's not enough.

Whether it's to yourself, or lookin' at someone else.

Everybody lies, lies, lies.

It's the only truth sometimes.

"You know," he says, "I still don't know how to dance." The attempt garners another small smile from her, as he'd probably intended.

"I'll show you how," she promises desperately, smiling and crying at the same time because there really was nothing else left for her to do. "Just be there," she pleads softly, shakily, and barely audible. Nothing like the strong woman he'd first met.

The desperate "Don't leave me, please," and the "I love you" is left unspoken, but she knows that he can hear it, even in the silence.

"You'll have the band play somethin' slow," he replies, despite the knowledge that they're most likely planning a date that'll never happen.

She knows why they're doing it, though.

The desperate thought that, perhaps, if they hope enough, love enough, and smile enough, fate might just let it happen and might just give them that chance. That happy ending.

"I'd hate to step on your―" the line cuts off abruptly, the sound of static filling the room.

"Steve? Steve?" she calls out, eyes closing in pain as she fights the urge to double over.

There is no answer.

'No. Please, no! Please, please, please!' her thoughts are jumbled and desperate. She knew that it was coming, but the knowledge hadn't prepared her for the sheer mind-numbing terror and pain that crashed into her, gnawing hungrily at her resolve and her soul like starved animals going in for the kill.

"Steve?" she calls out one final time, voice breaking as her tears fall.

There is nothing but static and the sound of her own ragged breathing.

He's gone.

He's done his duty.

It's over.

He's gone, she knows it.

The word "goodbye" is on the tip of her tongue, but she swallows it harshly. There's no one to say goodbye to. Not anymore.

She's alone.

So, she let's her head rest despondently on the cold metal of the radio controls as she listens to the sound of static.

There's nothing to do but let her tears fall and remember.

Remember his choice to stop the war and save them all. Save her.

And to remember what could've been and to―

"Peggy, this is my choice."

―remember him. The hero. The Captain...the man.

Steve Rogers, the kid from Brooklyn.

Everybody lives, and everybody dies.

[The End]

1/31/13 - Republished.