I'll Keep This Secret For You

Epilogue

At first she didn't know what to think. She felt guilty about moving on and wasn't sure if it was the right thing or if she was being selfish. But dad assured her that at one point or another it was probably going to happen, she deserves to be happy if this is what makes her happy. He told her that he seems like a really nice guy and he can guarantee that he would get Steve's tick of approval. That of course helped her make the decision and although they are taking things slow, so far everything seems to be going well and they seem really happy together. The girls seem to like him too and he's a natural with them.

Dad too is gradually learning how to move on from everything that has happened in his past and accept it as what it is. He's still got a long way to go and I don't know if that's something that he can ever truly, completely leave behind. But he's getting better at not blaming himself and feeling such a heavy burden on his shoulders all the time. He copes better with criticism now but also takes praise more graciously too.

A lot of that learning has come with the pressure he now has that comes along with being the new Captain America. A few months after Steve was gone Peggy called everyone to S.H.I.E.L.D for what she said was something important. Once everyone was there; our whole family, her whole family, Howard and his family, Sam and Nat, Howard handed Peggy Steve's shield, fully repainted and polished to look brand new. It wasn't buried with him because Peggy and Bucky wanted him to be remembered as more than just Captain America and thought that it could be memorialised in another way.

Everyone had watched confused as she walked straight across the room and handed it to Bucky with tears in her eyes and a sad smile. Everyone gasped, clicking on to what was happening, but dad took a while to get it.

"Steve might be gone but the world still needs a Captain America," she says sadly.

"What?" Dad frowns in disbelief and looks down in the shield that he now held loosely in his hands. "W-why me? Are you sure?"

Peggy nods. "He wouldn't want it to go to anyone else."

Dad shakes his head. "No, I-I can't. There's no way I'll be as good as him. A man with a past like mine can't be Captain America... what about Sam? You'd be perfect." He points at him and Sam's jaw drops.

"Man are you stupid? Nobody knew Steve better than you. I've only known him about a year. The person who the shield goes to needs to be someone who has known Steve their whole life... it needs to be you Bucky." Sam insists.

Dad looks around the room in shock to see everyone smiling and nodding at him encouragingly.

"Bucky," Peggy says quietly as she nudges the shield into his hands more. "I promise you there is no one better for this. Steve has told me on many accounts that if something were ever to happen to him, he would want you to take up the shield. There is no one else that knows the responsibility that comes along with it than you."

So ever since then, dad has been known as Captain America. If we thought our lives were crazy enough before that, they just got ten times more crazy. The publicity and expectation that come along with that title are something else. Not to mention the fact that everyone already knew at least bits and pieces of what had happened to dad in the past so all eyes were on him to see if he would crack under the pressure or rise to the expectation.

But on his first mission under the mantle, sporting a new and improved suit that is more suited to him, he infiltrated a Hydra base all by himself, capturing all Hydra agents present and freeing at least one hundred slaves. Ironically rather similar to Steve's first mission as well.