5A/N: Here it is, the last chapter. I can't believe I've forgotten to do this until now, but thank you SO MUCH to the people who have read, followed, favorited, and reviewed this story. Nothing takes the wind out of a writer's sails faster than a no response, so I'm thankful that you all took the time. :) This chapter is happier than the last two, so I hope you like it.
His mind was tired, his body was beaten, and he didn't think his heart could take any more grief. They had won the war, but they had lost battles in the process, and even though Thanos was defeated once and for all, and they had done what they set out to do, the cost had been high. All that had kept Steve going was the knowledge that Natasha would have wanted him to, but that didn't make it easier.
So now, despite all the impatience he had felt in the hours after the battle, and all the visions he had dreamed of this moment, Steve was afraid to move. He was afraid that he would wake up in his cold lonely bed like he had so many times before. It had been so long, and there had been so little hope, how could this be anything but some trick of his mind? But he knew it wasn't. In his dreams, he ran toward Peggy. She smiled and laughed as he swept her off the ground and buried his face in her hair. The woman he saw through the door wasn't laughing or smiling, she looked heart-broken and confused.
Taking a deep breath, Steve knelt down and met the eyes of the little girl holding his hand.
"Evie, can you stay here for a minute? Daddy has to go talk to someone."
The child nodded quickly, her eyes lighting up with excitement when she asked, "Are you going to talk to Mommy?"
Steve's throat tightened, "Yeah sweetheart, I'm going to talk to Mommy. You can come see her in just a little bit. Would you like that?"
"Yes! Yes! Yes!" she cried, bouncing on her toes. He gave her a kiss and smiled, but felt anxiety brewing in his stomach. He stood up, his smile becoming uncertain, and he wished for the thousandth time that hour that Natasha were there with him. She would have rolled her eyes and shoved him through the door, reassuring him by telling him how ridiculous he was being.
But she wasn't there, so he had to steel himself, set Evie on a bench and make sure she would wait, and enter the room all on his own power. It was hard, but he did it.
Just the moment before Peggy turned, he had the briefest of hesitations. He wasn't even sure why, but he paused. Maybe he was worried about all the time that had passed, or maybe he was still afraid that it was a dream, but regardless of what it was, it vanished when her eyes met his.
In three quick strides his arms were around her waist and her face was buried in his neck. He held her tight and breathed in her scent, suddenly overwhelmed by the shear volume of her invading his senses. Unable to contain it any more, Steve started sobbing, and that made Peggy cry, though she wasn't exactly sure why. His knees nearly gave out but he managed to sink into a chair without collapsing, Peggy still clutched in his arms.
"Steve," she finally managed, "What happened? I mean, I know it's been five years and half the universe died and we all just got brought back, but what-" she was silenced by a kiss. If she hadn't already known how long she had been gone, that kiss would have told her right down to the second. In it she felt every miserable day and lonely night, all the highs and lows of the five years, three months, eighteen days, and seven hours that Steve had been without her. When they finally parted and reminded themselves how to breathe, she had only one question left.
"The baby, Steve. What happened to the baby?"
No one had been able to tell her what happened to the child she had been carrying, and as she tried to read Steve's eyes, they were just as useless to her. They were so full of every emotion that she couldn't make one out from the other. There was grief and joy, love and sorrow, excitement and apprehension. He stayed silent for so long that Peggy finally thought she understood.
"Oh, Steve!" tears began to form. "Did she- Was she-?"
"She's fine!" he answered quickly, realizing what his pause had implied. He smoothed a hand over her hair and sniffed. "She's fine, and she's perfect," he gave a wet chuckle, "and she's really ready to meet you. Do you want to meet her?"
"Oh yes," Peggy breathed. Steve smiled, tears still misting his eyes, and gave her one more quick kiss. Peggy slid off of his lap and got her own chair while he crossed to the door again and exited. She got a brief few moments to think about his face and the changes in it. He was older, she could tell, his worry lines had deepened and his eyes had more history in them. There was another change too; he had shaved his beard. She smiled. That was alright with her. She had always liked him better clean-shaven anyway.
Just then, Steve came back to the door. Through the window she saw him smile at her and then down at something else. The door opened and Peggy caught her breath as something small and brown-headed and blue-eyed entered the room.
All the hours she had waited for Steve, she hadn't really allowed herself to think of the possibility of meeting her daughter. In the moments when she had, there had only been a vague picture in her mind of a little tow-headed baby. This girl looked to be about five years old. Not even a toddler! Of course, it made sense, but still! She wasn't at all what Peggy had imagined.
But Peggy didn't have long to process her surprise, because no sooner had the little girl spotted her than she dropped Steve's hand and, much to the amazement of her parents, ran boldly up to the stranger in the room. She stopped right in front of Peggy and fixed her with an innocent stare. The woman and her daughter studied each other for a few moments, and Steve opened his mouth to introduce them, but Evie beat him to it.
"Are you my mommy?"
Peggy's found she couldn't speak just yet, so she nodded until she could choke out, "Yes."
The little girl's face split into a smile and, without any hesitation, she climbed up into her mother's lap and twined little arms around the woman's neck. "Daddy said you came back! I'm glad you're here."
Both Steve and Peggy were shell-shocked. Was this how meeting a parent for the first time was supposed to go? As Evie prattled on, seemingly unaware of how unusual the situation was, Steve and Peggy mutually and silently decided to just go along with it. They were here, they were whole, and that was what mattered.
Steve sat down by Peggy and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, simply marveling at the fact that she was there. Evie was clearly very much at home already, and crawled from Peggy's lap to Steve's and back again, talking animatedly the whole time. Peggy tried to stifle her tears, but they were the good kind, so she let a few slip out.
It wasn't a perfect scenario, there had been too much despair and too much death for it to be that. Steve knew there would still be many adjustments and growing pains, and that this hadn't been the last catastrophe they would face, but things were so much infinitely brighter than they had been.
A/N: See! I brought it home! I can't really bear to leave something sad without a resolution.
Speaking of something sad... Yes, I did decide to keep Natasha's sacrifice in my AU. I did play with the idea of her not being the one to jump, but, as heart-breaking as it was, her death was such an important part of her journey. From the very beginning, I think her struggle has been about finding something to believe in, and she finally found that in the people she loved. She believed in them and what they were doing so whole-heartedly that she was willing to give her life for it, and there's something beautiful about that. That being said, I do maintain the headcanon that she could have been saved once the soul stone was returned, and in this AU, I think Bucky would have volunteered to put the stones back instead of Steve. And guess who he would have brought back! Yep. WinterWidow has my heart. Even if I can never seem to actually write about them...