Forever Captain: “The Scenic Route”
Jan. 18th, 2024 08:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
breakinglight11Forever Captain:
“The Scenic Route”
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~
Summary: When Uatu takes Captain Carter back to her own universe by the scenic route, she gets a chance to see if there is some timeline out there where she gets her happy ending.
~~~
When Peggy said to take the scenic route, she hadn’t expected this.
When Uatu had agreed to take her by the long way back to her own universe, she’d expected there to be work for her to do. Perhaps intervene in a few injustices, or save a timeline from pointless annihilation. But now, they seemed to be rapidly descending into what appeared to be, of all things, an ordinary suburban neighborhood, of the kind she had occasionally visited in the United States. She even less certain on when than where; Peggy wasn’t an expert on the periods between the Second World War and her arrival in the twenty-first century. But she caught a glimpse of a car with a boxy, all-steel body, and heard an automatic sprinkler ticking away on somebody’s lawn. Probably just past the mid-century in America, then, maybe the 60’s or the 70’s, in an otherwise thoroughly ordinary housing development.
“My goodness.” She couldn’t help but laugh a little. “When you said scenic, I was expecting… oh, I don’t know, at least the Grand Canyon, or the other side of the universe, or something.”
“I might have thought you’d had your fill of the cosmic scale,” Uatu murmured. “That you might enjoy something a little closer to home.”
His phrasing, closer to home, struck her. “What do you mean?”
He pulled them deeper into the new reality, passing through the trees and power lines like the breeze. A shingled roof rose rapidly towards them. “We can’t stay long. But trust me, this is worth the detour.”
In a moment they’d slipped through into a bedroom, warmly lit by the light of a few incandescent bulbs. The décor had an old-world feel, with dark antique furniture and simple, classic upholstery. A woman in a slip sat at a dressing table with her back to them. Freshly removed hot rollers lay spread out before her, and she was putting her dark hair up in a chignon.
Peggy’s brow creased in distaste. She looked up at Uatu. “Is this the best use of your all-seeing power? Peeping on women getting dressed?”
She couldn’t be sure with his lack of pupils, but from his expression Peggy gathered he rolled his eyes. “Yes, such things are fascinating to cosmic beings. Look a little closer yourself.”
She sighed and turned back, focusing on the woman’s face reflected in the vanity mirror. Her breath caught in her throat. Dark eyes, heart shaped face, red lips. It was her— the woman was her.
Not precisely her, of course. Another version of her, from another strand of the multiverse. This Peggy didn’t appear to have undergone Project: Rebirth, remaining petite and curvy as she had once been. And, upon closer look, she was older than Peggy was now, with a more mature cut to her jaw and cheekbones, and the slightest bit of crinkling under her eyes.
It did indeed seem to be somewhere in the 1970’s, judging from how her counterpart wore her hair a little bigger, and the eyeliner she was applying had a hint of a wing. So this version of her must have been around fifty. She was humming as she put herself together, finishing up her eyeshadow, stepping into a dress of a particularly flattering deep blue. She seemed contented, confident, happy. Margaret Elizabeth Carter as she might have grown into, had her path gone another way.
“So a normal future was possible,” she murmured. “Imagine that. Well, nice to know one is aging well.”
She could feel the universe rumble with Uatu’s laugh. “Do you think that’s all there is to it? How many wrinkles you have? Keep watching, Captain.”
As she turned back there was a knock at the door, and then a voice— young, male, somewhat petulant –calling from the other side. “Mo-om! Are you decent?”
“Mum?” she echoed, as Other Peggy smiled to herself in the mirror.
“Hmm, decently so.”
A boy pushed in then, shaggy-haired in Converse shoes, galumphing his way into the room. As she looked at his face her heart could have stopped— those dark locks, those big brown eyes, that shape of the chin and jaw, they were all her writ small in a young boy. He could have been her brother Matthew in their youth. He could not have been more hers if she’d made him— which, of course, she had.
At the moment, however, those features he’d borrowed from her were screwed up in frustration. “Does Beth have to be the one in charge tonight?”
“I’m afraid so, darling. She’s fourteen now, so it’s high time she took a little responsibility around here.”
The boy gave an exaggerated groan. “But does she have to be responsible for me? She’s just gonna order me around all night!”
“Don’t worry, dear,” Other Peggy said, as she clipped on one of a pair of earrings that matched her dress. “If you promise to behave, I’ll make sure the most she orders tonight is a pizza.”
The boy still looked skeptical, but he turned and left the bedroom while managing not to slam the door too hard. Other Peggy smiled and shook her head, then returned her attention to the vanity table.
From her vantage point with the Watcher, Peggy could feel her throat going tight. “Me… a mother,” she gasped. “I never thought I’d see it.”
She swallowed hard. “I used to think that I would, someday. And then, after everything that’s happened… I knew it wouldn’t be possible.”
“All things are possible,” Uatu said. “In some reality out there.”
She looked to the door where the boy had left. “What are their names?”
Uatu paused a beat, with a small smile. These were not questions he usually answered, but in this moment he was generous. “The boy is James, and the girl is Elizabeth.”
Peggy marveled, turning them over in her mind. Elizabeth, like her own middle name—her girl, her daughter, named after her. Where had James come from? She’d known a few Jameses in her time, including no fewer than three members of the Howling Commandos, Jim Morita, James Montgomery Fallsworth, and James Buchanan Barnes. And now, James the boy that looked like her, that needed her and called her mother.
She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “Thank you for this, Watcher. It… means a great deal.” She breathed deep to pull herself together. But when she looked back up at him, he paused her with a raised hand and a small smile.
“Not quite yet. There’s still one more thing I hoped to show you.”
And that was when he appeared. He came from around the corner of the bedroom, as if from a closet or a master bath. He wore a tuxedo, all done up except for the collar, over a frame that filled the space with the breadth of his chest and his shoulders and his long, long legs. And he was handsome, all golden hair and brilliant blue eyes and heroic chiseled jawline. She had fallen in love with a Steve who was sickly and small, and she had kept loving him in all the forms he’d taken across the cosmos. But the sight of him now took her breath away— a perfect vision of a man, so strong and healthy and happy it made her soul ache. And the way he was looking at her— this universe’s version of her —like she was everything in the world… it melted her to her core.
Leaning against the wall, he held up a loose black bowtie and cocked his head. “Mind giving me a hand with this?”
Other Peggy smiled over her shoulder at him. “If you’ll give me a zip.”
Slinging the tie around his neck, he came up behind her and obliged, laying a kiss to the back of her shoulder. “You nearly ready?”
“Have patience, dear.” She handed him a necklace to clasp on for her. “All this doesn’t happen in an instant.”
Steve shook his head fondly. “I just don’t want to be late. It’s a very important occasion.”
Other Peggy hummed her assent. “I suppose it isn’t every day your colleagues recognize your accomplishments with an entire award,” she said. “I remember when I had to fight not to be sent out to make the coffee.” She stood, turned, and reached up to tie Steve’s bow tie around his neck.
“Even then, they couldn’t stop you. You built a whole intelligence agency from the ground up. You made SHIELD a force for good across the world. Nobody could stop you.”
Steve beamed softly. “I’m so proud of you.” He pulled her in close as she finished off his tie. “Congratulations, Director Carter.”
They held each other a long moment, swaying slightly. Then they stepped apart as a thundering came down the hall outside the bedroom. The door swung open again to reveal a teenaged girl, tall and fit for her age, with a mass of wavy golden hair and the same dark eyes as her brother. “Mom! They’re here! Uncle Edwin, Aunt Ana, Uncle Howard, and Aunt Maria!”
Other Peggy’s eyes widened. “All of them?”
“They’re in a really long car.”
Other Peggy looked to Steve in amusement. “Oh, dear. I suppose Howard’s gone all out.”
“Like I said. It’s a special occasion.” He reached out a hand to her. “Madam, your chariot awaits.”
She took it, and together they followed their children out of the bedroom.
Peggy and Uatu remained there, as their voices receding down the hall. Her hand flew to her mouth as she stood there, rooted to the spot, the feelings overwhelming her. She glanced up to the Watcher and tried to find her voice, but no words came.
His expression said that it was all right. “I know it doesn’t mean the same as living it,” he said. “But… perhaps seeing it— knowing that it is possible —might be of some comfort.”
She nodded, tears springing to the corners of her eyes.
“There will be more battles for you to fight,” he went on. “More struggle for you in the coming days. Perhaps it will brace you to know… there is some universe where you get your happy ending.”
Her family around her, her work respected and honored, and her soulmate by her side. Somewhere out there, she got it. They both did.
Peggy drew herself up and breathed deep. “Thank you,” she said at last. “That means a very great deal.”
She nodded, and the Watcher waved a hand. The world around them swallowed up in the light.
~~~
The End
“The Scenic Route”
By Phoebe Roberts
~~~
Summary: When Uatu takes Captain Carter back to her own universe by the scenic route, she gets a chance to see if there is some timeline out there where she gets her happy ending.
~~~
When Peggy said to take the scenic route, she hadn’t expected this.
When Uatu had agreed to take her by the long way back to her own universe, she’d expected there to be work for her to do. Perhaps intervene in a few injustices, or save a timeline from pointless annihilation. But now, they seemed to be rapidly descending into what appeared to be, of all things, an ordinary suburban neighborhood, of the kind she had occasionally visited in the United States. She even less certain on when than where; Peggy wasn’t an expert on the periods between the Second World War and her arrival in the twenty-first century. But she caught a glimpse of a car with a boxy, all-steel body, and heard an automatic sprinkler ticking away on somebody’s lawn. Probably just past the mid-century in America, then, maybe the 60’s or the 70’s, in an otherwise thoroughly ordinary housing development.
“My goodness.” She couldn’t help but laugh a little. “When you said scenic, I was expecting… oh, I don’t know, at least the Grand Canyon, or the other side of the universe, or something.”
“I might have thought you’d had your fill of the cosmic scale,” Uatu murmured. “That you might enjoy something a little closer to home.”
His phrasing, closer to home, struck her. “What do you mean?”
He pulled them deeper into the new reality, passing through the trees and power lines like the breeze. A shingled roof rose rapidly towards them. “We can’t stay long. But trust me, this is worth the detour.”
In a moment they’d slipped through into a bedroom, warmly lit by the light of a few incandescent bulbs. The décor had an old-world feel, with dark antique furniture and simple, classic upholstery. A woman in a slip sat at a dressing table with her back to them. Freshly removed hot rollers lay spread out before her, and she was putting her dark hair up in a chignon.
Peggy’s brow creased in distaste. She looked up at Uatu. “Is this the best use of your all-seeing power? Peeping on women getting dressed?”
She couldn’t be sure with his lack of pupils, but from his expression Peggy gathered he rolled his eyes. “Yes, such things are fascinating to cosmic beings. Look a little closer yourself.”
She sighed and turned back, focusing on the woman’s face reflected in the vanity mirror. Her breath caught in her throat. Dark eyes, heart shaped face, red lips. It was her— the woman was her.
Not precisely her, of course. Another version of her, from another strand of the multiverse. This Peggy didn’t appear to have undergone Project: Rebirth, remaining petite and curvy as she had once been. And, upon closer look, she was older than Peggy was now, with a more mature cut to her jaw and cheekbones, and the slightest bit of crinkling under her eyes.
It did indeed seem to be somewhere in the 1970’s, judging from how her counterpart wore her hair a little bigger, and the eyeliner she was applying had a hint of a wing. So this version of her must have been around fifty. She was humming as she put herself together, finishing up her eyeshadow, stepping into a dress of a particularly flattering deep blue. She seemed contented, confident, happy. Margaret Elizabeth Carter as she might have grown into, had her path gone another way.
“So a normal future was possible,” she murmured. “Imagine that. Well, nice to know one is aging well.”
She could feel the universe rumble with Uatu’s laugh. “Do you think that’s all there is to it? How many wrinkles you have? Keep watching, Captain.”
As she turned back there was a knock at the door, and then a voice— young, male, somewhat petulant –calling from the other side. “Mo-om! Are you decent?”
“Mum?” she echoed, as Other Peggy smiled to herself in the mirror.
“Hmm, decently so.”
A boy pushed in then, shaggy-haired in Converse shoes, galumphing his way into the room. As she looked at his face her heart could have stopped— those dark locks, those big brown eyes, that shape of the chin and jaw, they were all her writ small in a young boy. He could have been her brother Matthew in their youth. He could not have been more hers if she’d made him— which, of course, she had.
At the moment, however, those features he’d borrowed from her were screwed up in frustration. “Does Beth have to be the one in charge tonight?”
“I’m afraid so, darling. She’s fourteen now, so it’s high time she took a little responsibility around here.”
The boy gave an exaggerated groan. “But does she have to be responsible for me? She’s just gonna order me around all night!”
“Don’t worry, dear,” Other Peggy said, as she clipped on one of a pair of earrings that matched her dress. “If you promise to behave, I’ll make sure the most she orders tonight is a pizza.”
The boy still looked skeptical, but he turned and left the bedroom while managing not to slam the door too hard. Other Peggy smiled and shook her head, then returned her attention to the vanity table.
From her vantage point with the Watcher, Peggy could feel her throat going tight. “Me… a mother,” she gasped. “I never thought I’d see it.”
She swallowed hard. “I used to think that I would, someday. And then, after everything that’s happened… I knew it wouldn’t be possible.”
“All things are possible,” Uatu said. “In some reality out there.”
She looked to the door where the boy had left. “What are their names?”
Uatu paused a beat, with a small smile. These were not questions he usually answered, but in this moment he was generous. “The boy is James, and the girl is Elizabeth.”
Peggy marveled, turning them over in her mind. Elizabeth, like her own middle name—her girl, her daughter, named after her. Where had James come from? She’d known a few Jameses in her time, including no fewer than three members of the Howling Commandos, Jim Morita, James Montgomery Fallsworth, and James Buchanan Barnes. And now, James the boy that looked like her, that needed her and called her mother.
She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “Thank you for this, Watcher. It… means a great deal.” She breathed deep to pull herself together. But when she looked back up at him, he paused her with a raised hand and a small smile.
“Not quite yet. There’s still one more thing I hoped to show you.”
And that was when he appeared. He came from around the corner of the bedroom, as if from a closet or a master bath. He wore a tuxedo, all done up except for the collar, over a frame that filled the space with the breadth of his chest and his shoulders and his long, long legs. And he was handsome, all golden hair and brilliant blue eyes and heroic chiseled jawline. She had fallen in love with a Steve who was sickly and small, and she had kept loving him in all the forms he’d taken across the cosmos. But the sight of him now took her breath away— a perfect vision of a man, so strong and healthy and happy it made her soul ache. And the way he was looking at her— this universe’s version of her —like she was everything in the world… it melted her to her core.
Leaning against the wall, he held up a loose black bowtie and cocked his head. “Mind giving me a hand with this?”
Other Peggy smiled over her shoulder at him. “If you’ll give me a zip.”
Slinging the tie around his neck, he came up behind her and obliged, laying a kiss to the back of her shoulder. “You nearly ready?”
“Have patience, dear.” She handed him a necklace to clasp on for her. “All this doesn’t happen in an instant.”
Steve shook his head fondly. “I just don’t want to be late. It’s a very important occasion.”
Other Peggy hummed her assent. “I suppose it isn’t every day your colleagues recognize your accomplishments with an entire award,” she said. “I remember when I had to fight not to be sent out to make the coffee.” She stood, turned, and reached up to tie Steve’s bow tie around his neck.
“Even then, they couldn’t stop you. You built a whole intelligence agency from the ground up. You made SHIELD a force for good across the world. Nobody could stop you.”
Steve beamed softly. “I’m so proud of you.” He pulled her in close as she finished off his tie. “Congratulations, Director Carter.”
They held each other a long moment, swaying slightly. Then they stepped apart as a thundering came down the hall outside the bedroom. The door swung open again to reveal a teenaged girl, tall and fit for her age, with a mass of wavy golden hair and the same dark eyes as her brother. “Mom! They’re here! Uncle Edwin, Aunt Ana, Uncle Howard, and Aunt Maria!”
Other Peggy’s eyes widened. “All of them?”
“They’re in a really long car.”
Other Peggy looked to Steve in amusement. “Oh, dear. I suppose Howard’s gone all out.”
“Like I said. It’s a special occasion.” He reached out a hand to her. “Madam, your chariot awaits.”
She took it, and together they followed their children out of the bedroom.
Peggy and Uatu remained there, as their voices receding down the hall. Her hand flew to her mouth as she stood there, rooted to the spot, the feelings overwhelming her. She glanced up to the Watcher and tried to find her voice, but no words came.
His expression said that it was all right. “I know it doesn’t mean the same as living it,” he said. “But… perhaps seeing it— knowing that it is possible —might be of some comfort.”
She nodded, tears springing to the corners of her eyes.
“There will be more battles for you to fight,” he went on. “More struggle for you in the coming days. Perhaps it will brace you to know… there is some universe where you get your happy ending.”
Her family around her, her work respected and honored, and her soulmate by her side. Somewhere out there, she got it. They both did.
Peggy drew herself up and breathed deep. “Thank you,” she said at last. “That means a very great deal.”
She nodded, and the Watcher waved a hand. The world around them swallowed up in the light.
~~~
The End
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