Enemy Lines (Steve Rogers) - 2

17

1940 - Hampstead, England

The two Carter sisters giggled as they wove their way through the guests that were currently taking up a majority of the garden. It was Peggy's engagement party and Mo hadn't been able to get to her sister until earlier that evening. 

"Look at you in your uniform!" Peggy grinned as she embraced her, "You have to tell me everything, but first - drinks!" 

"I couldn't have put it better myself!" She said and linked her arm through her sisters, making their way over to a free table. "So...where is this chap that you're marrying anyway?" 

Peggy looked around. "He's speaking with some friends..." and then turned back. "You never know, this could be you soon". 

Mo snorted. "I can safely say now that I don't plan on giving up my life just yet..." and then saw Peggy's face. "That's what it would feel like to me anyway. I've made Captain, I'm serving my country - I don't need a ring on my finger and to be stuck at home all day 'keeping house'". She told her. "I much prefer being free..." 

"Once day someone will come along and you will eat your words". Peggy smirked. 

"Yeah right, I'm not exactly the definition of a woman that men want, and I don't want to be either. If they cannot take me as I am then they are not worth the bother". 

Peggy sipped her drink. "Have you had any interest?" 

"I work with women Peg, and the men who I do meet all make snide remarks about my job, my rank...my sex.  I am very content with where I am right now, even if mother's not". She looked over to where their mother and father were talking to guests who Mo didn't recognise. It seemed the whole of Hampstead was congregating in their back garden - their mother's doing so it seemed. She'd invite the whole of England if it meant making the most of marrying one daughter off. 

"Peggy, there you are..." a man now walked over and took a seat beside her, smiling lightly at Mo. "Oh...you must be Elizabeth". 

"Mo, no one calls me Elizabeth". 

"Fred, a pleasure to finally meet Peg's infamous sister - she says you're serving?" 

Mo's false smile faltered. Already she wasn't too sure this man was right for her sister. Sure he wore the uniform, but he didn't look like a soldier". "I'm a Captain, I fly for the ATA". 

"Mo was telling me earlier that she's finally succeeded in getting equal pay for women pilots, isn't it great?" Peggy grinned and looked to Fred. 

"Hmmm, indeed. But a girl like you shouldn't really be in the air". 

Her face hardened and she stared at Fred. "So I have been told many times, and what exactly do you do again?" 

Fred sipped his drink. "I work for the home office. Don't get me wrong, it's marvelous what you and your brother are out there doing, but I'm glad our Peg isn't like that. She needs to keep her feet on the ground". 

"How very boring".

"Mo!" 

Mo shrugged, not caring. Men were out there laying down their lives and this one was sitting in an office all day. "Stuck behind a desk all day, I couldn't think of anything worse, could you Peg?" She shot her sister a look, knowing that she didn't want to be either. 

Peggy glared. "Mo...don't." She told her in warning. 

"See, even Peg agrees with me that a boring life is a privilege. I've certainly learnt that since the war begun." 

Mo stood up, "I think I need another drink", and headed away to find her brother, who was having a cigarette round the side of the house, away from the party. "So I just met 'Fun times Fred'" She decided to dub their sister's fiance there and then. "My god what a bore, I honestly have no idea what on earth possessed Peg to agree to marry him in the first place - the man sits behind a desk all day! He has no idea of who Peggy really is and what she wants to be! And she just sits there and hides it from him!" 

Micheal chuckled. "Calm yourself Captain." and then gave her a welcome hug, having not seen her. "Well done Moo-Moo." 

"Don't call me that, I'm not three anymore". She smirked and lightly whacked him across the chest. "How bad is it out there?" She finally asked. 

He stubbed out the cigarette on the ground with his boot and sighed. "It's bad..." he glanced at her. "I don't see it ending anytime soon". There was a pause. "You two should be our there together, your both as adventurous as the other...Fred? He's just holding her back". 

She nodded in agreement. "You're right there". 

"You two need to stick together."

"If you're trying to convince me to take the position that you recommended me for then I can't." 

Michael just nodded. "A shame, because I think you're destined for great things..." he planted a kiss on her head. "Never change Moo-Moo, not for anyone..." He smiled kindly at her. 

**

Present Day - London, England. 

Her brother's words that night would be those that would stick with her even now as the memories of him faded. 

They were both gone - and now she was the only one left. 

She arranged the flowers on the graves. Her parents, and her brother's. Glancing across she noted another. A top of it was the effigy of a Spitfire, and had stood there longer than the others. 

Her memorial. 

Having no body to bury, her parents had simply put another empty coffin into the ground and honoured her that way. 

If anything, Mo was dreading what to tomorrow would bring, because Peggy's funeral would be clarification that she was well and truly gone. She sensed someone behind her and looked around, Steve watching some way behind her. 

"You can come say hello, mother doesn't bite - anymore". She smirked and stood up, wiping her hands of dirt and staring down. He slipped his arm around her and held her close. "Her biggest fear wasn't me dying during the war, it was marrying an American". Now she had to laugh. 

He laughed along with her. "Whoops". 

"I think her view was that I'd be led astray". 

"You were, weren't you?" Steve smirked and kissed her head.

"She'd have liked you once she would've met you though. She was all for us marrying an honest and respectable man - I guess I can now see why she pushed me like she did. It wasn't because she wanted to annoy me or hurt me. It was because she wanted the best - just like any other mother would for her children". 

Steve's hold on her tightened, afraid that he would lose her once more if he let go. She'd been occupied with helping to arrange Peggy's funeral, and he was sure that she wasn't exactly getting enough sleep - but he hoped that after tomorrow and the reading of her will, she could have some closure.  

"Do you regret leaving things the way you did with her?" He asked about Amanda. 

She stared at the graves and then answered him. "Everyone has regrets, even me. I don't regret my decision to join the war effort, because it led me to you - but I do regret not attempting to make amends. After I "died" she just decided to give up, and ten years later was gone herself. According to Peg she was never the same..." 

The warmth of his body against hers made the anxiety inside of her calm as they stood there. 

They had each other, and that was all that she needed.