Letters

Worth Dying For

"You can't stop me from going."

"I'm not trying to." Peggy replied shaking her head at him. "I'm giving you perspective Steve." He clenched his jaw as he tightened the straps of his glove. "The HYDRA Base is in the Alps and you're going in there armed with a shield and brute strength."

"It's all I've ever had before." Steve replied. Peggy frowned.

"But you hadn't lost Bucky yet." Steve stopped moving. He hadn't talked much about it. In fact, in his mind, Steve refused to believe it had actually happened. Bucky wasn't gone. That was simply impossible. He would walk in at any moment, a smile on his face and say,

"Pegs? Are you trying to scare the living day lights out of him?" And then everyone would laugh. Bucky would be here, everything would be fine and Steve would have kept his promise to not only Bucky but Willow. Steve had received her tear stained letter just two days ago.. He hadn't the heart to reply yet. But he was going to start writing soon.. Especially if it might be the last letter he would ever send.

"Nothing's changed. HYDRA still needs to be stopped. I have to go after Schmidt." Steve muttered.

"You can't blame yourself for what happened you know."

"To hell I can." Steve snapped at her. Peggy just stared at him. "He was under my command, he joined the Howling Commandoes because I asked him too.." Peggy cut him off.

"It was his choice to accept your offer. He had an honorable death Steve, don't take that away from him." Steve looked away. It's what everyone had been trying to tell him for nearly two weeks now. It wasn't his fault. There was nothing he could have done. Steve could have tried harder, would have stopped those soldiers sooner. If he had, Bucky would still be alive. "He believed in you and in this cause Steve. Don't throw your life away because he died."

"I'm not throwing my life away. I'm ending this. It has to be done. I'm the only one who can stop him."

"And what if you die Steve?" Peggy demanded. "Willow, she still needs you. You love her."

"Please don't use her against me." Steve said, tightening his jaw.

"I can't help but not use her." Peggy sighed. "You need a better plan Steve. Let us help you come up with one." Should he allow them to help? He didn't want to endanger anyone else. Steve didn't want to see another of his comrades die. He wanted to send these men home to their families. Then he thought of Willow. If he went in without a plan, he was certain to die and Peggy was right. She needed him and he desperately wanted to see her again. Sighing, Steve turned to Peggy.

"What did you have in mind?"

----

"It's heavily fortified. Tanks, men, guns and Schmidt has this blue glowy thing that makes things go boom sometimes." Stark said, pacing back and forth.

"So what are we suppose to do?" Dugan asked.

"It's not like we can just knock on the front door." Morita replied. Steve shook his head

"That's exactly what we're going to do." Steve said confidently, crossing his arms. Stark furrowed his eyebrows.

"You're gonna go in there all gung-ho guns blazing?"