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[onlyforthedream]

Teaching helps me keep my mind off of the past few days. Since the 11th, every morning's been a trial. They haven't gotten easier, the way I'd expected them to. The events of that day, that Bucky and I were trapped in, what came after- they follow me around as much as the actual events ever did. The first week I was unbearable to be around, and I

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[ihadfaith]

One night and morning she'd been on this island, and Peggy could still hardly believe it. She hadn't slept at all, though fatigue had begun to wear her down shortly after dawn. She'd spent hours upon hours detailing their strike on Schmidt's fortress, hours preparing to move forward and fight the actual battle, only to arrive here and spend more time learning about the new land she'd inexplicably arrived in. She'd registered with the council, discovered she had indeed arrived in a tropical paradise, met some of the residents and made use the facilities, though the clothes were not to her taste and she ended up wearing the outfit she'd arrived in. All were, of course, ways to put off the one thing she truly wanted to do.

Just like the last few months of her life, it always came back to Steve Rogers.

It wasn't hard to believe he was alive and well here, and even teaching; Steve would thrive no matter where he was sent, and if anyone deserved a vacation, it was surely him. She'd been warned, of course, that he may be different, that

[onlyforthedream]

Damn. I stop and lift my head, determined to be at least polite, and find myself stopping short.

Her face.

I don't recognize the woman, exactly. She's beautiful- even if there wasn't something hauntingly familiar about her, I would see from a mile away that she's beautiful- but there's something about her mouth, and the shape of her face, her nose.

She looks so much like Peggy. Her hair is a different color, a different cut. Her eyes are a warm soft brown, not the startling, clear blue that Sharon inherited from her aunt, but coloring aside, the women could be sisters.

They could be twins.

And she knows me.

I know I'm staring, peering at her like a puzzle, like I'm being faced with something I can't remember being either real or dreamed up. Slipping the nub that was my sketching pencil into my pants pocket, I turn toward her and take a few steps across the room.

"Yes?"

[ihadfaith]

He hardly needed to answer her for Peggy to know it was Steve. From his shoulders and the blue of his eyes to the careful way he looked her over, as though trying to figure her out without having to ask.

That he had to think about who he was talking to had her pause a moment. She wasn't sure what she expected; heartfelt reunions weren't the way she went about things, but there was a part of her that very much wanted to close the distance between them and simply kiss him.

"I don't know what to say," she admitted and finally looked away, unable to take that inquisitive gaze any longer. Either he was her Steve Rogers or he wasn't, and it seemed he was leaning toward the latter. She felt ridiculous. "Do you remember me?"

[onlyforthedream]

I feel like a crazy person. The equation can't be that simple, because there are exceptions- Pepper, Thor- but Peggy Carter's eyes are blue, and this woman's eyes are brown. She's English. Her poise is different. This is not the woman I fought beside.

Which doesn't meant she's not-

"Peggy?" I ask softly.