Steve's Diary

December 18, 1945

Dear Diary,

It had been about an hour, my time, for me to do everything I said I was going to... Then, I made a few pitstops along the way.

First, I took the Tesseract back to New Jersey, 1970; then, the Orb to Morag, 2014; the Aether to Asgard, 2013; the Scepter and Time Stone to New York, 2012; and, lastly, the Soul Stone to Vormir, 2014.

I... saw the Redskull there, too, and that was kinda weird, but I also got to see Natasha again, which was cool. Then, I took a trip down memory lane and headed back to the '40s.

—————

I knocked on the door, the address was listed in the yellow book and it was exactly where I needed to go.

When she came to the door, she was in complete shock.

"Steve?" she asked, just to be sure.

"It's me, Peggy. Really me."

"But... you're dead- I heard you die a few months ago," she started tearing up as she let me in.

"I didn't die, Pegs. I got frozen in ice... for 66 years," I explained. "I don't wake up until the year 2011. You're still alive then, and I visited you a lot, but- anyway... Bucky's alive, too."

"I- don't understand..." she looked at me confused.

I explained everything. Time travel, 2023, Thanos, Sokovia and the Accords, HYDRA, Bucky, the Avengers, Ultron, Wakanda, the Infinity Stones- I left nothing out. She believed me, too, and said she wouldn't say anything of it, either, because, well, that's just like her.

"And, as I finished returning the last stone, I realized, I had to see you one last time," I admitted. "I mean, you are my best girl."

She smiled. "Does this mean I get my dance before you leave again?"

"It sure does," I assured her with a smile in return.

She placed a record on the turntable and approached me. The song that filled the air happened to be It's Been a Long, Long Time by Harry James and Helen Forest. How fitting.

I took her hand and her waist, realizing now that I really had missed her. She had been my confidant, my friend. She was always there for me when no one else was.

We began to dance, and that ethereal look about her began to glimmer in her eyes like nothing I'd seen in years.

"I really did miss you, Steve," she said, looking up at me.

"I missed you too."

"You said- you'd mentioned Bucky was alive," she went on. "Are you... finally getting your happily ever after?"

"I think we are," I replied with a smile. "And, you will too, you know. Living in the future has its privileges... at least when you travel to the past, anyway- for example, I know you get married in a few years."

Her face lit up as she smiled at me again. "Thank you," she answered. "But who, exactly, do I-"

"Well, I can't tell you too much about your future," I chuckled. "McFly and Doc made that one thing very clear about time travel."

"Who?"

I laughed, remembering it was 1945. "You'll get it in 40 years."

She smiled and placed her head on my chest and we swayed there, simply taking in that old jazz song and the moment together. I rested my head upon hers and closed my eyes. This was almost the life I had and I knew it, too. Almost me and her and another dame and Bucky all together like this all the time.

That really would've been something, huh?

She pulled back and looked up at me and I could see it written across her face the same as I had it written inside my head.

We both smiled and it felt so perfect like this, so simple. I leaned down and placed my lips on hers and melted into the moment, realizing that this had to end the same way it did last time.

First, a kiss, then a death defying stunt that would bring me some-large-amount-of-years into the future un-changed. It was the same now as it had been last time... except now, we both got that little something extra we needed to move on from the loss of a friend.

I pulled away from her mouth as the song ended and noticed tears in her eyes just as they'd been in mine. The record stopped and we knew it was over.

"Thank you, Peggy, for this," I said.

"Of course. And, thank you... for thinking of me," she added.

"You know I never forgot about you, don't you?"

She smiled. "And I, you."

I made my exit just then, realizing it was a lot harder to leave willingly and continue living without the other than to be presumed dead and have to carry on anyway.

As she shut the door behind me, I geared up and went back to the future, never to see her again.

—————

But, I suppose that's how it was truly meant to be.

~ S. Rogers