You Owe Me a Date |Steve RogersXOC

Chapter 40

Steve asked me to go to the funeral with him so, here I am in a black dress and heels in London with my almost boyfriend to go say goodbye to his ex-lover from seventy years ago. 

~

I sit next to Sam in the front row waiting for Steve to walk in with her casket. 

Funerals always made me uncomfortable. So did comforting people it was never my strong suit. But I have to be here for Steve. This is for him not me.

The sad music starts and Steve comes in with three other men. Even from a far I can tell he's been crying. I feel my heart drop at the sight.

They all place down her casket and he walks over to me with his head hung low. I can't even describe how much it hurts seeing him like this. He sits next to me grabbing my hand. I lean my head on his shoulder and kiss the back of his hand leaving a big dark purple kiss mark in it's place.

"And now, I would like to invite Sharon Carter to come up and say a few words." The priest starts the ceremony.

Steves old neighbor from DC walks up to the podium. I nudge him making him look up. I feel him tense next to me. She glances at us then our hands and back out at the crowd.

"Margaret Carter was known to most as a founder of SHIELD . . . but I just knew her as Aunt Peggy. She had a photograph in her office. Aunt Peggy standing next to JFK. As a kid, that was pretty cool. But it was a lot to live up too. Which is why I never told anyone we were related." She looks at Steve when she says this. "I asked her once how she managed to master diplomacy and espionage in a time when no one wanted to see a woman succeed at either. And she said, compromise where you can. But where you can't, don't. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right. Even if the whole world is telling you to move . . . it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in they eye and say, 'No, you move'." 

I can tell she intended for that statement to be for us, but who told her about the accords. No one we know talks to her.

~

After the ceremony I let Steve have a moment alone. I waited at the front of the church for him. Nat showed up to try and get us to come with her to Vienna. 

"How is he?" She asks.

"How do you think? He lost the first woman he every loved." 

"How are you holding up, I know comfort isn't your strong suit."

"I'm managing. I let him have his moment alone with her. But I don't think he should be left alone in his thoughts for long." I turn to walk back towards him with Nat trailing not far behind me.

"When I came out of the ice, I thought everyone I had known was gone. Then I found out that she was alive. I was just lucky to have her." He speaks.

"She had you back, too." I sigh.

I felt bad Steve had to go through this. Everything in his life is slowly disappearing and there's nothing he can do about it.

"Who else signed?" He asked, straight to the point.

"Tony. Rhodey. Vision."

"Clint?"

"Says he's retired." She smiles slightly.

"Wanda and Pietro?" 

"TBD, he signed. I'm off to Vienna for the signing of the Accords. There's plenty of room on the jet." Steve bows his head letting her know his answer, "Just because it's the path of least resistance doesn't mean it's the wrong path. Staying together is more important than how we stay together."