Enemy Lines (Steve Rogers) - 2

1

The sounds of shell explosions, gunfire, cries of command from her fellow soldiers and friends all ran through her mind, each scene playing out in her head one by one. Elizabeth Carter shut eyes tightly, trying to block out the echoes of raging warfare that still lived on, clear as the day she'd been there.

But she was no longer there.

No.

She was in a different place, a different time. And the trauma of exactly what she had been through was setting in.

"Lizzie..." She didn't even hear the voice that was now trying to coax her out of her current mental state. "Lizzie! Look at me!"  The voice urged her and her hands that had been wrapped around the mug of coffee in her grasp shattered it to pieces, the drink long since having cooled down from where she'd made it just hours earlier.

Then she'd sat at her favourite spot. The window seat. Just like a ghost.

She was a ghost. She didn't even recognise herself anymore. Out of time and place. She had no identity left.

"Lizzie..." His voice always brought her back eventually and now she looked down at her caffeine stained robe, hands bleeding from where the shards of the cup had sliced her. "Come back to me."

Her eyes met those of the man who was now her husband and she shook herself back to reality. "Sorry...I...oh bloody Nora." She realised just what she'd done and quickly jumped up.

"It's alright, let's focus on those hands first." Steve said, leading her over to the kitchen sink so as they could clean her up. All the while she was shaking.

"I still underestimate my own strength..." Mo ran her hands underneath the water, feeling the sting, however come tomorrow there would be no trace that she'd ever had the wounds. They'd be healed. She supposed that had been one blessing of what she'd become, but it didn't change the fact that she was still scared. Zola had enhanced her, and yet it hadn't even kicked in until she'd been woken. Bruce had done all the tests, she was a super soldier, and the reality of just how close Hydra had come to unleashing their version of the serum had hit home. .

Mo barely recognised herself anymore. Her appearance changing a little in order to fit in with the era that she was coming to learn and know more about. Even now after months of being back, she still felt disconnected from the world. Her body was different. She was different. The nightmares were frequent.

"You're dreaming of it all, gunfire, shells exploding." Steve now said, sitting her gently onto a chair at the kitchen table, before getting the first aid kit to bandage her hands. Outbursts and nightmares like this happened a lot, and he'd learnt to be prepared. She was adjusting to her surroundings slowly but surely, and one of the first things he'd done to help her feel a little more stable was to marry her – just as he'd promised. It had been quiet. no one else knew apart from just them. It was nice. "Happened to me when I got out the ice too..."

"Does it ever leave?"

"Not entirely, but it gets better within time." He'd never really seen her cry before. Even during the war she always kept her emotions guarded – well, until she'd spoken to him through the radio when he was taking the plane down. "Let's get you some water."

Mo shook it off. "I'm fine, really..." It was a lie. She wasn't fine. Everything was catching up to her. The future was just too damn overwhelming for her to even wrap her head around.

"Lizzie..." he scolded but got her a glass of water despite her protests.

As much as she hated being called Lizzie, only Steve was allowed that privilege, purely because when he said her name it didn't sound as bad as when her parents used to call her it. They were gone. They had been for years. She'd learnt that her mother had died ten years after she had – the grief of losing her youngest daughter and eldest son becoming too much for her. Her father had lived to the ripe age of 90. 

There was only Peggy left, but even now the thought of seeing her sister old and unwell scared her.

"I'm sorry..." She muttered, toying with her wedding ring on her finger.

He kissed her hair and got up to put the first aid kit back, "It's ok, just drink up. I'll make us something to eat."

Steve could see that living in DC was doing no favours for her. She didn't need the overwhelming sounds of the city, the high rise buildings or fast paced life that surrounded them and their apartment.

She needed solitude. She'd grown up in that, a quiet location. After looking around, he'd located a home, away from everyone. Surrounded by trees and down its own quiet road. Away from everyone and everything. It was the perfect place to start, and the perfect house to perhaps raise the family they wanted.

The house itself was beautiful, built in the traditional cape cod style with a garden that she could tend. Mo liked being in the garden, and said that it always reminded her of home. Especially hydrangeas.

Just as well outside those bloomed in hues of pinks, purples and blues from the bushes wrapping around the porch.

It was perfect.

And he'd received confirmation only yesterday that it was theirs.

He couldn't wait to show her, but for now it was his secret.

Steve watched his wife as she sat sipping the water from the glass, her mind looking as though it would wander once more. Her hair was down now with natural waves, longer than it had been back in the war. There were aspects of modern fashion that she despised. Shorts, crop tops. She found them a little scandalous that they should be worn outside. Instead she would mainly wear dresses and cardigans, occasionally she'd wear skinny jeans, but these days she much preferred a dress. Especially with the hot summer that they were having.

"I want you get dressed and then we're going out." He announced

Mo looked a little scared now. "Where are we going?" She asked quietly.

"There's somewhere I want to take you..." 

"What?" She frowned

He smiled and kissed her. "I have something to show you. Now go get yourself ready."

With a nod, she disappeared into the bedroom. 

He watched her go. She had to know how special she was, how people had remembered her achievements during the war just as much as they did with his. And now was the right time for Steve to show her the exhibition.