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𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐔𝐏 𝐓𝐎 the bar in the hotel and smiled tightly at the bartender. "Hi, a martini, please? Thanks." She leaned against the bar top and fluttered her lips. She smiled thankfully at the man and took hold of the toothpick, sliding the olive off the skewer.
"I thought you said you'd given up drinking martinis."
Grace turned her head at the voice and saw Colonel Phillips standing next to her. She shook her head and played with the olive on the skewer. "I have never said that," she replied, glancing at him. "Besides, I get a pass for today."
Phillips pressed his lips together and sat down beside her, looking at the bartender. "I'll join her. A whiskey."
"Since when do you drink?" Grace asked him.
"You don't know everything about me, Stark," he said and she chuckled lightly as the drink was placed in front of him. "Two years today."
She nodded, swallowing the drink. "Two years..."
"Grace, you know he wouldn't want you to continue living in the past," he said and she looked at him. "He'd want you to... live your life."
"I know he would," she agreed with a nod. "I know... But he was the only one who seemed interested in the fact that I wanted to do something with my life. Everybody else just... expects me to be a housewife and a mother."
"Well, don't you?" he asked.
Grace nodded. "Of course I do." She looked back at her half-empty glass. "I want nothing more than to be a mother. But I want the option. And... I wanted it with him."
Phillips sighed and dug in the pocket of his coat, pulling out a photograph. "I thought you might like this. I took it from his file at the end of the war, but you had already left before I could give it to you."
Grace looked over and he held out a small photograph to her. She gently took it and smiled softly at the sight of Steve - before the serum. "Oh, he was so skinny..."
"I thought Erskine had lost his mind," Phillips said and she laughed softly. "I never thought he would become what he became."
Grace shook her head. "I did," she replied quietly and he looked over at her. "He always had that heart. Even before he became Captain America. People just recognized it when he became nationally famous."
"He loved you," he said and she pressed her lips together. "You need to know that, Grace. And because he loved you, he'd want you to move forward. You don't have to forget..."
"I can't." Grace sniffled and looked at the colonel. "I can't. And it's not just because everything that I ever wanted should've been with him... But I actually can't." She let out a breath. "I got into an accident a few months ago on the way to Howard's lab."
