America's Sweetheart (Steve Rogers) - 1

6

Present day

Steve remembered that day clearly. He'd lost a friend and almost had lost her. His eyes went back to the film reels that replayed over and over on the small screen from where he'd simply been looking at the Smithsonian floor. Sam still beside him. He knew to not ask questions, but still wanted to support him. Steve was thankful for that.

The grainy black and white footage zoomed in on the pair of them, walking away from her plane in deep discussion. Half of the time Steve had never realised just when he had someone walking around with a camera documenting his journey, most of the time his mind focused on which Hydra base was their next target, how they were going to plan out their moves tactfully to ensure that it was destroyed properly. But he'd never anticipated just how much footage and photographs had been taken of himself and Mo. It seemed as though as hard as they'd tried to keep their relationship from prying eyes, people had some idea that something was going on.

He was grateful, because as painful as it was to watch, she still lived on through the exhibition. Remembered and honoured like she should be.

"She never got to have a life. It was over before it had really even begun." He now said out loud and Sam looked across to him. "I only got two years with her..."

Two years of sneaking around, stealing kisses when no one was watching, late night rendezvous where she'd slip away on the evening's that Peggy was out or working and spending the night before returning to her own cabin before dawn. This was the woman who he'd wanted to spend the rest of his life with, and yet the cruel reality was that he'd had his second chance, and she'd never got to carry on. She hadn't wanted to.  

"I'm guessing you know the amount of theories about the crash that have been thrown around?"

Steve nodded. Mo's death had been subject to a hell of a lot of speculation and conspiracy theories, and yet still to this day – no one really had any real answers. The pictures of the plane that were on display showed that no one could have walked out of it alive. It should have been a routine surveillance flight, however some believed that she'd deliberately crashed out of grief, some said she'd faked her death, others claimed that she'd been targeted by the Nazi's for being Captain America's girl, that they'd shot her down from the skies. The theories were endless. As for the circumstances, they remained unclear. According to some sources, the wreckage had burned for days, leaving no trace of a body or anything to be recovered.

Peggy and her family had been distraught. When Steve had learned of her fate he'd walked around in limbo for days, weeks on end refusing to believe that she'd left the earth just a mere month after he had.

"Yeah, I know of them." He finally answered Sam's question.

"What do you think happened?"

Steve bowed his head. That last conversation that he'd had with her over the radio still lived in his mind. It would never leave. He'd never even got to finish asking her the question that he had started and could only imagine the pain that she'd experienced on losing him. It was what he'd been experiencing every day since learning about what happened. "She wasn't shot down that's for sure – she was too much of a good pilot. But if I had to hazard a guess...I'd say she had one last mission for herself – to take that plane up and to bring it down intentionally. It hurt to even think that, but when Mo had a plan, she would stick to it. Reckless or not.

Sam nodded to himself and stood up. "You know where I am." Knowing that now was the best time to let his friend be alone.

"Thanks Sam." Steve said and turned back to the footage now recalling what had happened after soon after Erskine had died and Hydra had become known to them all.