Nowhere to Go But Up✓

That Was The Moment I Knew

They had been home for a month now. Steve had gotten back to normal but he wasn't spending quite as many nights at home. Apparently he was having Sharon stay with him on the nights he wasn't with me. I didn't know this until I had had lunch with Sam, who I was slowly becoming best friends with. He had mentioned it in passing on one such lunch date. I had choked on the salad I had been munching on. "Are you fucking kidding me? Does he not see how that looks or is he just that foolish?"

"I honestly think he doesn't realize. Steve would do anything for a friend, I think we both know that. I mean I went to prison because of it. He feels guilty that she had to go on the run after the whole Accords situation and then with him being on the run, and then the snap, she kind of got lost in the mass of other problems. Plus then there's the fact that she's Peggy's niece so there's some weird sense of responsibility there too."

"Why does it always come back to Peggy? He had the opportunity to go back to her, why didn't he take it if she's going to be the foundation that he makes every big decision off of?" Sam looked away sheepishly at this comment. "What do you know Sam? Or maybe, what don't I know about this?" Tears were starting to form in the corner of my eyes and I was blinking furiously trying not to let them come.

"I shouldn't be the one to tell you this."

"You're right, you shouldn't be. But I've been with Steve for almost a year now and he refuses to bring it up. The most I've gotten is that he realized when he was back there that it wasn't a smart choice and he came back."

"After he took back the stones, and Thor's hammer, he did go back to her. But he found her with another man, the man who was her husband. It reminded him of the life that she had had, and he couldn't take that from her. So he came back, gave me the shield and then proceeded to shut himself off from the rest of us. We didn't see or hear from him for months. When he finally came out of his self-imposed isolation he had gone through EMT training and was moving here to join this station."

"That's horrible that he had to make that decision, again. But I'm selfish enough to admit that I'm glad he did, because then I wouldn't be here." We got back to eating and talking about happier things when Steve walked in with Sharon. Sam waved them over and Steve smiled, realizing I was with him.

"Hey you. I feel like I haven't seen you in a while," he said, kissing me on the cheek. I smiled before sitting back down again. Sharon taking the seat across from me, next to Sam.

"How're you feeling Sharon? I know you were pretty banged up the last time I saw you." I asked, attempting to make polite conversation.

"I'm much better now. Steve's been doing such a good job making sure I'm ok and that everything is healing right." She said, looking over at him before turning back to me, giving me a hard look. Ok what the heck was that?

Steve had come back with their food and sat down next to me. I had moved over so I was sitting across from Sam and Steve was across from Sharon. Conversation shifted to catching up, apparently Steve hadn't seen Sam in a while either. But that was mostly because Sam and Bucky were cleaning up the mess from Madripoor. The new Captain America had showed up and things had gotten pretty messy.

Steve had asked me how Lucy was doing and I was in the middle of telling him about the amazing picture she made the other day in preschool of the three of us at the beach from last summer, when Sharon interrupted me.

"I just wanted to thank you again Steve for all the help you've been giving me and letting me stay with you." She briefly looked over at me and raised her eyebrows, as if in a challenge. Was she trying to make me jealous? Steve didn't seem to notice as he gave her a small smile and insisted that it wasn't any trouble.