Familiar strangers. [Closed]

[withmyshield]

 By the time she reaches the observation deck, Sharon's heart is racing.  Early in her career the panic might have threatened to bring on tears, but Sharon has matured a lot in the ten plus years she's been professionally putting herself in harm's way, and her control is much better now.  She needs to get some clarity, though, and fast, before she forgets how tough and mature she is.  Apparently her poker face hadn't been that great, because one look at her had prompted someone to send her to the room they liked for stargazing.  

It's a good suggestion.  The sight of that vast emptiness should make her feel insignificant and alone, but instead it makes her feel like a kid, learning the constellations in her back yard.  A  little more grounded than she'd been a moment before.  She's aware that there's already someone in the room [wouldn't be much of an agent if she lost all her training under stress, would she?] but she gives herself a minute and some deep breaths with one hand on the window before she thinks about dealing with him.  

You've been though way worse than this, honey.

Time to get moving, at least figuratively.  She turns around to suss out the room's other occupant.  There had been a truly stunning array of characters at the hub, so she braces herself for anything that might be staring back at her.  

Anything but him.  Apparently there's a billiard ball stuck in her throat, and all her deep breathing is instantly undone. 

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[theycallmecap]

Steve has been sitting in the observation room, staring intensely into space. He's on a bench, his elbows propped on his thighs, fingers loosely linked together. Until someone walks in, at least, and he watches the woman as she walks straight to the window, without a single look at him.

A new arrival, he guesses, partly because he hasn't seen her before, partly because of the way she ignores him and is staring at the stars. So he leaves her to it, although he stands, so that he's ready for her when she turns around, stepping forward and holding his hand out in a friendly manner.

"Steve Rogers," he introduces himself warmly, before the look on her face registers, and his smile dims, fades into a concerned look. "Are you alright?" he asks, his outstretched hand turning slightly as if to offer assistance of some kind. Any kind, really, whatever she needs.

[withmyshield]

Choice scenes from the past few months flash through Sharon's mind. Mostly the knock-down-drag-out fights they'd had before she went undercover, and the crushed look on his face when she'd jerked away at the rally, told him to get out of her life. Even if not for the mind control, it had been the mission -she couldn't abandon it for...

The fact that he introduced himself she chalks up to not getting a good look at her before he spoke. As for the second part, the truth is she's absolutely not all right. She's been through the most confusing ordeal of her life, and seeing Steve again is too much.

She doesn't even bother to ask what the hell he's doing here, just rushes forward and wraps her arms around his waist, pressing her face into his shirt.

"I've never been so happy to see anyone in my entire life." It's true, even with all of the guilt and shame that comes along for the ride.

[theycallmecap]

Granted, Steve has had to get used to getting some odd reactions since he became Captain America, a lot of them from female fans. But he's still taken by surprise when the woman hugs him, with more dire relief than warmth, and he awkwardly pats his hands on her shoulders, for lack of anything else to do.

"There, there," he tells her, because she's a woman, and she's in distress, and - well, he's never been good with women past the rescuing them stage. "It's all going to be fine, ma'am."

[withmyshield]

Stupid girly idiot!

Sharon jumps back, totally alert now and more than a little ashamed of herself for being so quick to seek comfort. Of course this couldn't really be Steve. She'd just embraced a copy, or a robot, or worse. She reaches reflexively for her sidearm, which of course isn't there, so she tenses to run or defend herself, if need be.

"Who are you? Cause you sure as hell aren't Steve Rogers."

[theycallmecap]

So not only does she know him, but he is expected to know her, Steve figures. Not just an adoring fan, to use Erik's phrase. He can tell what she's looking for at her side, though, and he raises his hands in a placating gesture.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he assures her, earnest as he gets. Not unless she makes him, but she hasn't tried anything yet. "And I am Steve Rogers, but you might know me from later in my life, you wouldn't be the only one here. The station isn't picky when it comes to timelines."

[withmyshield]

Whoever coached or programmed this guy did a great job, because he's got Steve's irritatingly trustworthy tone of voice just right. She almost wants to believe him. This is the first she's hearing about skewed time lines, but other worlds had seemed logical enough. It could be true.

"What year is it?" Her insides flatly refuse to settle, as well. Robot though he might be, Steve's face is giving her the guilt gut she so richly deserves.

[theycallmecap]

"Where I come from, it was 2012," he answers with raised eyebrows, the very picture of earnestness.

He can understand her distrust. She seems like a very sensible woman, after all.

[withmyshield]

The timeline story doesn't wash, then. If he knows her in 1996, he knows her in 2012, whether he likes it or not. If this really is Steve, someone's been fiddling with his memory. Actually, that's probably a lot more likely, if past experience had taught her anything.

"Steve, it's Sharon. You really don't remember me at all?"

Whoever had done this to him had surely had a hell of a time digging her out of his brain.

[theycallmecap]

"I'm sorry," Steve tells her with a small shake of his head, because now he feels like he's disappointing or failing her in an odd way. There's something about her that is almost familiar, but he can't quite place it, although he tries very hard. "When do I know you from?"

[withmyshield]

"We-"

Sharon hesitates for second. Part of her wonders if he isn't better off this way. IF he never knew her, she could never hurt him or make him miserable, which is about all she's done lately.

"We work together. I'm with SHIELD."

[theycallmecap]

"You're an agent," Steve acknowledges with a nod, thinking of Agent Hill. He can see the same sort of steel in Sharon. Perhaps that's where the familiarity comes from, although it doesn't feel like it. "But you didn't answer my question." She had made it sound as if... "Am I supposed to know you already?"

[withmyshield]

Am I supposed to know you already?

It stings, somehow. Maybe it's just not a phrase she wants to hear from someone she's seen naked. Actually, it makes her want to smack him, just a little.

"Yeah. We've known each other for a long time now." She should probably bail and regroup before she says or does something she'll regret.

[theycallmecap]

"I haven't been around to know for a long time now," Steve answers, frowning a little expectantly. Like maybe he knows her from the forties, maybe she jumped through time as well, because he doesn't see how else it could work - never mind that he doesn't remember her.

It would be really nice to have somebody around who's gone through the same thing. Somebody who gets it.

Okay, so maybe he looks not a little expectant, but a little hopeful.

[withmyshield]

She frowns and stares him down for a few seconds, hoping to read new information in his eyes. Or expose a duplicate, which she still hasn't totally ruled out.

"Steve," she's at a bit of a loss, trying to make this all line up. "By 2012 you'd have been awake for nearly forty years since the ice."

[theycallmecap]

Now the hope is all gone from him, and there's only confusion. "What? No. I've only been awake for a few months. They didn't find me until... No," he says again, more firmly. He knows what his memories are.

[withmyshield]

Sharon knows better than to argue with that face. It's his "I-know-what-I-know" face, and she takes it seriously, even though it was once used to defend vanilla as the best flavor of ice cream ever invented. She loves that face, as a matter of fact. Which makes it all the more important that she leave.

"Listen, forget I said anything, ok? I'll see you around."

Even if she wasn't heartbroken that he didn't know her, trying to tell someone they're brainwashed is like waking a sleepwalker. Most of the time it's just safer to leave them alone.

[theycallmecap]

Well, now it's his "you-just-kicked-my-puppy" face, although he doesn't realize that. What he does realize is that she knows him and nothing is making any sense and now that she's dropped these bombs in his lap, she intends to walk out on him, and that apparently warrants the "you-just-kicked-my-puppy" face.

"Sharon, please," he calls out as she turns to go. He doesn't know her last name, or he might have called her Agent Something, but she's calling him Steve, anyway, so he figures he can call her by her own first name. "We need to understand what's going on." As he says that, the kicked puppy gives way to the determined, in-charge face. She's a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. She ought to see that.

[withmyshield]

The phrase 'Sharon, please.' makes her twist a little. He's probably right, she can't leave him like this. He's the only person she knows for millions of miles, anyway, so where's she going to go?

"I don't know how to make you understand without making this worse," she admits with weary honesty.

[theycallmecap]

"There has to be an explanation," Steve says, and walks back to her. "Something that isn't that my memory's been wiped. Maybe we're from different worlds, and I'm not the Steve Rogers you know."

He likes that explanation much better than the brainwashing one that lies so heavily and threateningly on his mind. "Tell me more about me. Anything, everything you know."

They would figure this out.

[withmyshield]

He's so intent, she feels bad for laughing. But it just started to tickle and wouldn't be forced down -she was too fried to fight it.

"If this is just a ploy to get me to outline all your noble qualities, your sense of humor's come a long way since I saw you last."

[theycallmecap]

He frowns when she laughs, because that's when it hits him. Her smile. Her smile looks so much like Peggy's, and that's what he's been trying to pinpoint, that thing about her that seems so familiar. Her remark barely registers, because all he can think of now is Peggy.

"Do you know Peggy Carter?" he has to ask, that close to blurting out 'you smile just like her'.

[withmyshield]

Sharon sombers fast, chewing the inside of her cheek to kill the laugh.

Oh great.

This is going to be even more fun than it was the first time around, she can tell. But since he's so confused about timelines anyway, maybe it'll be more helpful than harmful. She takes one more steady breath and just goes for it.

"I do. She's my aunt."

[theycallmecap]

"Oh."

Very eloquent, but for a few seconds he doesn't have any words. All he can do is think back to those last few moments in Schmidt's plane, and her telling him not to be late.

"That would explain it," he adds, after a few seconds tick by, and he sounds almost distracted, like there isn't your usual Steve Rogers behind the words. He blinks, and forces himself to get back to the here and now. "You look - your smile."

He's not choking up. Really, he isn't.

But he's damn close.

[withmyshield]

It's a messy, disgusting, brawl of emotions fighting for control of Sharon. Aunt Peggy is basically the best woman who's ever lived, and Sharon's never been sure whether she's jealous of their relationship or just angry to be left out of the club of her two favorite people. She's finally convinced that he isn't a dupe, though.

She also sort of buys that he just woke up from his big sleep, because clearly the mention of Peggy stirred up some fresh emotions. Even if it's not what he needs, she can't just watch that face. She takes his hand.

"Told you I'd make it worse."

Got a talent for that when it comes to you, Cap.

[theycallmecap]

"No," he says, and then he remembers to really put himself behind his words again, and he frowns intently as he meets her gaze, and squeezes her hand - not with all his strength, diminished though it might be, here. "No." Something clears on his face, like maybe he understands her issues with telling him things, and the kind of relationship they might have had (actually, he doesn't have a clue), and there's the beginning of a smile on his lips, like an offer for a new friendship. "Thank you. Sharon."

[withmyshield]

She lets his hand drop, suddenly remembering how guilty his smile is going to make her from now on. If the Peggy revelation is this hard, how's the rest of the truth going to sound? She decides not to find out, at least for now.

"On the upside, you missed the 80s. You really hated them." She smiles, determined to snap herself out of this. "So. Where would a girl go for a burger around here?" Of course, she'd like a drink even better, but she doesn't want to make retro-Steve uncomfortable.

[theycallmecap]

"Ha," the question takes him off guard, but that means that between that and her quip on the 80s, he lets the topic go along with her hand. "You haven't picked a room yet? Each has its own replicator, but good luck getting it to give you what you actually want."

He smiles, a little hopefully, a lot earnestly, all of it very Steve. "I can show you around, if you like. And you can tell me about the 80s."

[withmyshield]

"That sounds perfect. Lead on, Captain Tourguide."

Wondering where to start with the history lesson, she remembers his ranting and comically judgmental looks about a Guns N' Roses t-shirt that she insisted on wearing around her apartment, and her smile becomes much easier.

God help her, she really is glad he's here.