"Steve she is...exactly how they said she was." Nat said as she and Steve looked back at Mo from where they sat on the couch. She was sitting, sipping on a cup of tea, with Tony as he was trying to explain about Jarvis to her (she'd screamed when the AI had said hello and it had taken Steve a good ten minutes to calm her down). "How's she coping?"
Steve turned away and reached for his coffee. "Not good, but she perked up a bit when I showed her the house yesterday. I think it'll help her a lot." He sat back and sighed, "she needs something to distract her - when I came back I had you guys but on first getting back into the real world? It was like I had nothing for me - plus all the guys I knew were dead."
"She's lucky to have you." Nat smiled, "honestly she's just how I imagined her to be - except she's more British than expected." She cocked her head with a knowing smile, "and the way you look at her? Well, you're smitten."
"Doesn't take a lot for me to be when I'm with her. She didn't want 'Captain America', just the guy from Brooklyn. It said a lot - before her? No girl had taken a chance on me."
Nat glanced back at Mo, "has she been to see her sister yet?"
Steve shook his head, "No...still trying convince her on that one." He understood why his wife was holding off a reunion, mainly for the sake of Peggy's health, but it would do her some good to see her.
"Do you think she will?"
He nodded at this, "In time, but our focus is on her first, I spoke to Helen when we arrived - she's gonna give her some pills to help her with her sleep."Nat listened as he explained about the PTSD and other things. "She's still not accepted what Hydra did. Just yesterday morning she smashed another cup in her hands."
"She'll come to accept and get used to it, but she's been through a hell of a lot, Hydra, losing you and then going to Stark as one last resort?."
Steve sank back into the couch and crossed his arms, "She's been through too much, more than I can say that I have - but I just don't know what else I can do to help her."
"You're doing everything you can - and that's enough. You stepped back from us, put her first, what more can you do other than love her?"
"Guess you're right on that one Romanoff." He sighed, "at least I know that she'll be safe here while I'm gone."
"Steve! I'm just borrowing her!" Tony called over as he and Mo appeared to be making for the door, "back soon."
Nat smirked, "seems that Tony's warmed to her as well."
"Like father, like son." Steve replied and took another sip of coffee. "I know if she'd have stayed behind then Howard would've taken care of her." He'd always known that Stark had been in love with Mo. His infatuation with her hadn't exactly been well hidden, but she'd always turned down his advances, even going so far as kicking him into the Thames river when he'd tried to kiss her once.
At first Steve had been conflicted, wondering whether to let Stark just have her, but Mo had other ideas.
Her eyes had only been for him.
Tony stepped aside and let Mo into the lab where he'd taken her to. She ventured in slowly and looked around the room. "It all looks rather intimidating." Her admittance made him laugh a little. "Not exactly on par with dads but it does the job."
She looked at him. "I see so much of him in you Anthony, I'm sorry about what happened to him and your mother."
Tony punched in a code and unlocked a cupboard, pulling out some files and a few other things. "So I read your file dad made on you..." he started and flipped through the notes. "Weekly monitoring on you right up to the week before he died..."
Mo swallowed. Howard had taken care of her for that long? Ensuring that everything was ok while she was under. "I didn't realise he did that..."
"Neither did I until Bruce and I had a bedtime reading session." He hoisted him onto the lab table and swung his legs back and forth, hands clasped while watching her curiously. "Moving away from that for a minute - he said you were the only woman to ever turn him down, why?"
She paused, "your father was the biggest playboy I ever knew, and yes he could've swept me off my feet with romantic gestures, but I wasn't about to let him get into my knickers. I didn't want to be another notch in the bedpost, and unfortunately that was how it would've ended up. I chose to have some respect for myself."
Tony smiled lightly. "I can see why he liked you." And then picked the files back up. "Oh, and he knew by the way..."
"Knew what?"
"About your whole enhancement thing." Tony gestures to her with a flick of his hand. "April 1945 - says here about how blood samples of yours compared to one left over of Steve's are similar...upon further investigation, seems serum formula is practically the same but with slight differences...so yeah, he knew you were Cap - Hydra edition."
Mo grabbed onto the lab table to steady herself. "He knew...and he never told me..."
"He did you a favour, and perhaps the rest of the world." Tony slid off the table and placed a bag on the table. "Left this behind in case anything happened and you woke up. Take a look..."
She unzipped the bag and pulled back the opening slightly, the glint of metal catching the lights of the lab. "Bloody Nora..." she muttered as she pulled out what was now exposed as a shield. The same vibranium used as Steve's but instead of the iconic star within its middle, it bore the stripes and colours of the Union Jack.
"I took the liberty of redoing the suit he'd made for you," Tony told her, grabbing a locked case and opening it, pulling out a suit. "Very patriotic."
"Tony..." she shook her head. "I've already said that this isn't what I want. I'm not even a Captain anymore..."
No sense of purpose, that was what Steve had said he'd felt like when he had come back. It was the same feeling for her too. Her rank she'd worked so hard for meant nothing to anyone now. Planes these days were more advanced in their technology and she was sure she wouldn't be able to be in the air again.
That hurt the most.
No longer having wings. It was as though they'd been clipped.
Some days she had wondered whether it would have been a better choice to stick with her original plan? Taking the plane up, before bringing it back down. Then the guilt hit for thinking such a thing. It would have meant that Steve would have been left to deal with that grief when he had come out of the ice.
Tony now nodded. "I know, but at least keep them - just in case. Dad made them for you - and I'm pretty sure there's a letter here from him too. Read it when you want, but just keep the stuff. If it comes to it then you can donate it to a museum or something." Passing Mo a sealed envelope. "I'd advise not telling Cap about this - last thing I want is another lecture."
"Yes, Steve is very good at those." She smirked. "Thank you Tony - for, understanding..."
"I admit, the way he'd go on about you and Steve. I wanted to hate you. Of course I hated Steve more but you? For some reason I couldn't."
Mo glanced at the envelope in her hand and then at Tony. "I know you and Steve don't see eye to eye at times, but he cares about you Tony. It's like he has a duty to Howard to protect you. He was a good friend to him, and I know that he'd beat himself up if anything happened to you."
Looking over at the shield that was staring back at her, she swallowed. "I cannot hide this from
Steve..."
"So don't." He shrugged, "but this was all dad and his hope for you, not me."
"It's a wonder Howard still had any left after I was gone."
"Technically you were the property of him and SHIELD. If he'd still been here when you woke up then he would've been able to explain it fully."
Mo put the letter into her cardigan pocket and looked around. "So, erm...how do I get back to Steve?"
"I'll have Jarvis make you a map for when we're gone. You'd have loved him, a Brit, just like you." Tony began to explain as they went back up to join the others
Later that evening, Steve watched his wife as she got ready for bed. "How'd things go with Tony? You've been quiet all afternoon? Did he upset you?" He asked with some concern. It didn't take much for Tony to upset someone, but with Mo? She could be triggered by anything.
She froze, and then pondered on whether to tell him. She had to, she couldn't just keep a suit and shield from her husband. He wasn't stupid.
"Lizzie..." Steve pressed when he was met with silence.
"Howard knew that Hydra had given me the serum..." She finally told him.
"What?"
"I know...and he left me some things, 'in case of emergency'." Mo now got up and opened the closet door, pulling out the shield and suit. "Seems he had a back up plan in case I woke up and he wasn't here..."
Steve took the shield and looked at it. Vibranium. How the hell Stark had managed to acquire more was beyond him, but he had. "What will you do with them?"
"They won't be used. I'll just put them away and at least in years to come I can whip it out and have something 'cool' to show the grandchildren."
He smirked and beckoned her to him with a small "C'mere". She walked into his arms and kissed him. "You sure you'll be ok while I'm gone?"
She nodded. "May take me a while to get used to Jarvis, but I'll be fine. Just come back to me darling..."
He buried his face into her hair, breathing in the familiar sweet scent. "Trust me...I'm never leaving you again."
"Remember back when I told you not to make promises that you can't keep?"
"Well I'm keeping this one." He told her and brushed his lips over her own again, hands slipping under the satin strapped nightie she'd changed into. She was always so responsive when it came to him. "and we're gonna be taking this off..."