Come Back With Me

I Was The Winter Soldier

Lizzie had made a lot of food for breakfast because she wanted leftovers for the next day. Apparently the boys ate a little more than they used to and by a little more she means a lot more.

"Steve, you just ate 12 pancakes, how are you still eating?" Lizzie asks.

"My metabolism is a lot faster than normal people so I need to eat a lot more," Steve says.

Bucky stops eating because he realizes that all this food is probably expensive. They should be limiting how much they are eating.

"Wait, are you going to have enough money to cover the bills with the four of us all living here now?" Bucky asks.

He doesn't think that Steve and him could really get jobs with the whole world thinking they were dead and all.

He's thoughts are interrupted by Peggy's loud laughter.

"I think she can more than pay for all of us," Peggy says.

"Peggy," Lizzie warns.

"She's rich," Peggy says.

"I'm not rich," she insists.

Peggy looks at her with a sarcastic look.

"You make $45,000 a year now and you spend maybe $2000 a year. So I figure you have about $100,000 in the bank right now," she says.

She actually had more than that now because Howard helped her invest it and she's been gaining a lot of interest.

Steve's jaw drops at the number. When he first came out of the ice, he noticed that the cost of things were ridiculously high so he was curious about how much the inflation rate was. If he did the math right, she was worth well over a million dollars in 2023.

Bucky also remembers what was a lot of money in the 1940s and that was a lot of money. He knows from his research on her after he got away from Hydra that she never got her doctorate. Maybe she did and he just missed that information? But even so, doctors don't make nearly that much so where did this money come from?

"Stark is paying me way too much," Lizzie says.

Steve and Bucky both look at each other. Did she just say Stark?

"You know it's well deserved. Since you joined, the company has increased in profits ten times your salary. Not to mention the stocks for Stark Industries is at an all time high. You're also a department head and one of his best developers," Peggy says.

"Wait, are you saying you work for Howard Stark?" Bucky says in shock.

She completely forgot that she hadn't had the chance to tell them about her job.

"Yes, I'm the head of the biotechnology branch at Stark Industries," Lizzie confirms.

Steve and Bucky look at each other in slight panic. They know that this probably happened in the original timeline but the fact that it's a surprise to both of them makes them worry that they are on a different timeline.

Lizzie notices the exchange and gets suspicious.

"Why? Is it a problem I'm working for Stark Industries?" Lizzie asks.

They both hesitate, not knowing how to answer her question.

"I wouldn't say that it's a problem, it just complicates things," Steve says.

Lizzie knows that they are hiding something and she doesn't like it one bit.

"Uncomplicate it then," she demands.

They both know it's time to tell them so they bring them out into the living room.

"How do you want to start?" Steve asks Bucky.