I'll Keep This Secret For You

Epilogue

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I love the fact that Sam ended up with the shield in the MCU and I think that that was the perfect choice for that story line, but I think that for the way that I have written this story, a different recipient is better suited and makes more sense here.

Five Years Later...

Luke's POV:

Isla, Theo and I sit on the picnic blanket and lean back against the trunk of the large tree behind us while we watch mum and dad in front of us as they dance slowly to the tune playing on our little radio in the moonlight near the waters edge. Mum's head rests on dad's chest, no doubt her eyes closed and a content smile on her face while dad rests his chin atop her head and stares at the crystal clear reflection of the moon on the water as he sways slowly back and forth.

Just off to the side of us Lilly and Blue laugh and shriek excitedly as they play rough and tumble games with each other. Lilly always dominates Blue of course, but Blue does have the smarts to give her a challenge; despite that virus he got when he was just a newborn, we found out that he still kept his super intelligence, it was just the physical enhancements that he lost.

Today is the five year anniversary of Steve Roger's death. This is how we have spent it every year so far. On the first year, dad decided that he wanted to get away from it all, just pause for a moment and take a break to reflect on everything and how things have changed since Steve has been gone. Ever since then it has turned into a sort of family holiday tradition of sorts where we come out and stay in this cabin in the woods near this lake. Dad was the one who showed it to us, said he'd spent some time here a while back and thought that if we all gave it some TLC that it could become the perfect little holiday house for us. So after spending a few weekends out here doing renovations, it did.

We still get sad and think about him all the time of course, but we try to make this time of year as happy and positive as we can because that is what Steve would have wanted. He deserves for his happiest memories to be remembered, not for us to be wallowing in grief about everything awful. This just helps us remember him that way more.

On the second year anniversary of Steve's death, dad re-proposed to mum like I remember he always said he would after he was brain washed.

"I want to be able to remember the happiest day of my life. But right now I can't." He said.

That's one of the few memory's that he can't seem to get back at all. He has some like that still, and some that have been contorted completely beyond recognition.

"Plus, I want to remember this date as a good one, the start of something new, not a bad one."

At first Peggy and Sarah and Eliza used to come with us on these holidays. There was no way we could leave them alone at such a hard time of the year for them! Plus, I think dad and Peggy have some sort of pact to do with everything that has happened about sticking with each other and helping each other out.

But slowly their little family found their own coping mechanisms and ways of dealing with their grief. Peggy has been so strong throughout the whole ordeal, soldiering on for her two daughters. There's no doubt that Steve would be so proud of her.

She met this guy recently, called Daniel Souza.
He genuinely does seem like a really nice guy. Howard employed him to work at S.H.I.E.L.D but there is only so much he can do due to an old war injury that causes him a bad limp so that he needs to use a crutch. He's so kind and down to earth and really what I personally think Peggy needs in her life. He treats her like a queen, only wanting what's best for her and can read her so well - well, after she laid a few ground rules first of course, in true Peggy Carter fashion; knowing what she has been through and the kind of life she leads so that he can give her space when she needs it or be there for her if that's the case.