Our little family (sequel to Baby Captain Widow)

Chapter 16: I'm alright

Peggy stared at him, eyes wide, tears brimming, as she walked towards the door by the window and entered the office with him in. "Is it really you? After all this time?"
"Yeah, Peggy. It is." He whispered, smiling at her.
"You haven't aged a bit." She gasped. She leaned in for a kiss.

Steve moved away.

"Peggy, I can't."
"Can't what? It's just a friendly kiss. Oh! You thought..." She laughed, tears falling down her cheeks. Steve wiped them away. "I don't understand. You crashed the plane. How could you have survived?"
"I ended up getting frozen in ice for 70 years, Peggy."
"70 years? But that doesn't add up. That must mean..."
"I'm from the future. From 2023." Peggy continued to cry, but she was smiling. "Don't worry about me, Peggy. I'm fine." He held her hand in his, tightly. "I worked for SHIELD, I protect Earth, and at the moment saving the half universe. I have a beautiful girlfriend, Natasha, and we have a daughter, Lily, and we're expecting twins. I'm happy. And Bucky's alive! Well, at least he was. Something bad has happened, and we're trying to undo it."
"We?"
"I'm an avenger. So's Howard's son."
"Howard's having a boy?"
"Wait, Tony's not born yet?"
"No. They still have another month or so."
"Oh. Shit. Forget I said that."
"Bit difficult now. Is this girlfriend of yours an avenger too?"
"Yes." He pulled out his pocket compass and opened it up, showing Peggy to photograph inside it. "Here she is, and our Lily."
"Wow." She smiled wider, studying the photograph. "They're both very beautiful. You're a lucky man, Steve. Now go, save half the universe."
"Promise me you won't tell anyone about me being here or what I've told you." He said, his voice turning serious.
"I promise." She hugged him, handing him back the compass. "Now go." He walked over to the door he came in from, Peggy returning to hers. She picked up the file she had been reading, and smiled at him through the window, turning and leaving the other part of the office. "It's not lightning strikes we're looking at." She called to the man she had been talking to, and Steve couldn't see her anymore. He stared at where she had been, and then looked to the floor, turning the photo in his compass so that he could see it.

"So, where are you with names?" Tony asked his father. They were outside the SHIELD building at the barracks, walking towards Howard's car.
"Well, if it's a boy, my wife likes Elmonzo."
"Huh. Might want to let that stew awhile. You got time."
"Uh huh." Tony was still carrying Howard's things as well as the Tesseract hidden in his briefcase. "Let me ask you a question." Howard stopped as his car pulled in, Jarvis in human form driving it. "When your kid was born, were you nervous?" Tony was slightly taken aback by this question.
"Wildly." He answered.
"Yeah, well. Did you feel qualified? Like you had any idea how to successfully operate that thing?"
"I literally pieced it together as I went along. I thought about what my dad did." Tony noticed Steve give him a brief thumbs up.
"My old man, he never met a problem he couldn't solve with a belt." Howard said.
"I thought my dad was tough on me." Tony admitted, looking back at his childhood. "And now, looking back on it, I just remember the good stuff. You know? He did drop the old pearl."
"Yeah? Like what?"
""No amount of money ever bought a second of time"."
"Smart guy."
"He did his best."
"I'll tell you, that kid's not even here yet and there's nothing I wouldn't do for him." Howard walked away towards the car door, and Tony stood where he was, thinking. Steve nodded at him to hurry up, and Tony gestured to the briefcase in his hand, pointing at it with the other. "Good to meet you, Potts." Howard said, coming back to retrieve his things.
"Yeah." Tony shook his father's hand. "Howard. Everything's gonna be alright." Tony hugged him. "Thank you... for everything." He whispered, Howard giving him a strange look. "You've done for this country." He added, trying to smooth everything out.
"Jarvis." Howard said, greeting his butler and handing him his things. Tony smiled, and walked away. Howard watched him walk away. "Have we ever met that guy?" He asked him, pointing over at Tony. Jarvis looked over.
"You meet a lot of people, sir." He replied, as Howard entered the car, Jarvis closing the door behind him.
"Seems very familiar. Weird beard."