Hello Captain (Steve Rogers)

Graduation

Sarah's POV

My parents had left already, so we went upstairs to get changed. I put on a light summer dress and tamed my hair again. I put on a little bit of makeup and a squirt of body spray and pulled my shoes out of my bag. I went downstairs to find Steve waiting for me, looking at the pictures my parents had of me everywhere. I came up next to him and put my arms around him. He had found a particularly horrible picture of me wearing a late 90's neon pink wind suit. I'd thought it was the coolest thing ever at the time – now, not so much. He set the picture down and wrapped his arms around me. His breath tickled my ear when he finally spoke.

"You know, being adopted doesn't change anything. They're still your parents."

"In my heart, I know that. In my mind, I just gained another dad. I still need to talk to them, though. I want to know more."

"There's always going to be more to know."

"That's not a bad thing. Ready to go?"

"Sure. I haven't been to a graduation since my own." I slipped on my cute flats. I hated heels with a passion – they were hard to fight in. We walked out to the car and got buckled in.

"And when was that?"

"1936."

"They probably haven't changed much. I've had three of them already and they were all pretty much the same." Steve backed the car out and headed to the high school.

"You really are an overachiever, aren't you?"

"What can I say? I guess I take after my old man." I laughed. "That is still so weird to me!"

"So do I need to ask Tony if I can date you, too?"

"Nope. Not unless you're going to record it so I can hear his response. Steve, did you seriously ask my dad if you could date me?" I looked at him incredulously.

"Of course."

"What did he say?"

"Quite a bit, actually. But yes, he gave me his permission to date you. I'm going to do this the right way, Sarah."

"So we're going to go on a real date? Do I have to wear a dress?"

"You look very nice in dresses." He smiled, giving me an admiring look.

"I've never been on a date unless you count the undercover stuff I did at Ops."

"I'm not counting missions since you were pretending to be someone else. I haven't been on a date since 1943."

"Did you go on a lot of dates back then?"

"Only whenever Bucky wanted to see a girl that wouldn't go out without a friend along, so I guess so. They were what you would call an 'epic fail'. They usually ended with both girls clinging to Bucky's arm by the end of the night. The rest of the time the girl would take one look at me and tell her friend to go without her."

"Oh, Steve. Why?"

"You've seen what I looked like before Project Rebirth. I was 90 pounds and 5'4. I couldn't talk to a pretty girl to save my life and once they met Bucky, they didn't want anything to do with me. Women don't exactly line up to dance with someone they might step on."

"But you must have danced." I said, my heart hurting for little Steve.

He shook his head. "I don't know how – never learned. Asking a woman to dance always seemed so terrifying and then the war happened and it didn't seem to matter that much. I figured I'd wait."

"For what?"

"The right partner."

"I feel like we've had this conversation before, maybe in another life." I reached over and squeezed his hand. He quirked his lips at my dramatics, but he wasn't having a meltdown, so I took that as a positive.

He pulled into the parking lot at the school. We were still pretty early, but if we were going to get good seats we had to be. We walked slowly towards the gym, hand in hand. That was the only place large enough to hold that many people, according to Jace and Chloe. "Something similar happened when you talked to Jace today, didn't it? There was a strange expression on your face and you got quiet."

"Yes," said Steve, exhaling loudly. "He said something I'd said to Bucky in 1943, right before he shipped out. I knew he looked like Bucky from the pictures you showed me... I just wasn't ready for him to sound like Bucky or act like Bucky, though. He and Peggy got along well enough, but they were never that close, not like she was with some of the other Commandos – definitely not like you and Jace are. Seeing you two together was how I had wished it had been. I can see he means a lot to you."

"He does." I smiled, "Probably as much as your Bucky meant to you. There's almost nothing I wouldn't do for him. He's going to be joining Shield, you know. He leaves for Ops in two weeks."

"That's good. He'll be a good agent from what I've seen of him so far."

We reached the gym lobby and I grabbed a program and took a moment to look around and find section C. I spotted Jace's parents and pointed them out to Steve. We made our way over to them and I saw my folks were sitting there already, too. I introduced Steve to Jace's parents and we took our seats between them and my parents. They hadn't met him earlier when we were at their house, so they chatted while I made sure I had a clear shot so I would be able to get good pictures of Jace and Chloe crossing the stage. My dad and Mr Barnes had a lot of specific questions for Steve about WWII and Bucky. The twins and I listened while I watched the gym slowly fill up. We were actually seated pretty close to the stage, so I guessed it was by alphabetical order, since Chloe's parents were on the other side of the gym and a little farther from the stage. I glanced through the program, but there really weren't any other names that I recognized other than a couple of Jace's sports buddies that I had heard Jace talk about over the years.

Finally, the music started and the ceremony got under way. Jace's speech was surprisingly good; a little funny, a little optimistic, with a good portion of my own speech at my Shield graduation being re-purposed. I got excellent pictures of both of them, which was good since I was pretty sure Mrs Barnes was crying happy tears well before Jace crossed the stage. Mr Barnes beamed with pride and the twins whistled and hooted loudly as their big brother's name was called.

It took a while for the gym to empty and James and Grant took advantage of this uninterrupted time with Steve to continue pelting him with questions and tried to convince me that they should ride back home with us. I managed to wiggle out of committing to that, much to Steve's relief. We finally got out of the gym and headed to the car, skipping the receiving line.

"So was it like you remembered?" I asked Steve.

"It's a little more sentimental than I remember. The speeches – it's more of a stepping off point. Not everyone graduated from high school in my time. Most stopped going to school after 8th grade. I was a sickly scrawny thing, so my mom made me stay in school. I even went to a year of art school. I was good at drawing, thought maybe I could get a job as a sketch artist."

"Do you still draw or paint?"

"I haven't since I was thawed, but I think I will soon. I'd like to draw you, if you wouldn't mind."

"Sure. I'd like that. It would be neat to see some of your drawings sometime. I can't draw to save my life."

"I haven't done it in so long I'm not sure how it will turn out." he gave me a self depreciating grin and we got into the car.

We stopped over at Chloe's grandparent's house first so I could drop off her present and say hi to her family. Gramps was pleased to meet Steve. He had seen Steve's USO show as a kid and it had made an impression on him. We didn't stay long, more of Chloe's relatives were arriving and it was time to get back over to Jace's. I had said we would be back so Steve could catch up with everyone.