7

The choir sang a dirge as Peggy Carter's casket was carried into the London cathedral. Steve Rogers was the lead pallbearer on the right. He guided the casket to the front of the sanctuary, and the pallbearers set it down on a pedestal next to a large photo of Peggy and wreaths of flowers. A vicar, waiting in the pulpit, paused while everyone got to their seats, then welcomed them with a brief prayer. When he had finished, he said, “And now I would like to invite Sharon Carter to come up and say a few words.”

Sharon reached the podium, and Sam, sitting on Steve's right, nudged him. Steve had been looking down, lost in thought. Now he looked up and realized that he recognized Sharon Carter. She was the undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who had revealed herself when the Winter Soldier shot Nick Fury in Steve's apartment two years before. She'd posed as his friendly neighbor to keep an eye on him at the time. How come nobody had told him she was related to Peggy?

Sharon took a moment to collect herself. “Margaret Carter was known to most as a founder of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” she began. “But I just knew her as Aunt Peggy. She had a photograph in her office: Aunt Peggy standing next to JFK. As a kid, that was pretty cool. But it was a lot to live up to. Which is why I never told anyone we were related.” She looked directly at Steve as she said that. “I asked her once how she managed to master diplomacy and espionage at a time when no one wanted to see a woman succeed at either. And she said, ‘Compromise when you can. When you can't, don't. Even if everyone is telling you that something wrong is something right.’ ” She caught Steve's eye again, and he felt like she was speaking directly to him. “Even if the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty to plant yourself like a tree, look them in the eye, and say, ‘No . . . you move.’ ”

Steve waited for Sharon by himself in the beautiful stained-glass sanctuary. Natasha walked up to him. He was glad to see her, even though the question of the Sokovia Accords was the elephant in the room that neither of them wanted to talk about.

“When I came out of the ice, I thought everyone I'd known was gone,” he said, looking at the photo of Peggy as he remembered her. Young, with beautiful dark hair swept up in a wave, gaze steady and strong. “When I found out that she was alive, I was just lucky to have her.”

Natasha understood what he was getting at. She'd been torn out of her previous life, too. She'd had to leave people behind. “She had you back, too.”

He was grateful to Natasha for taking a personal moment with him, but it was time to get down to business. “Who else signed it?” he asked. He already knew Natasha had.

“Tony, Rhodey, Vision,” she said.

“Clint?”

“Says he's retired.”

If Steve had a family, maybe he would do the same thing, he thought. But seventy years on ice had put an end to that possibility. “Wanda?”

“TBD,” Natasha said. To be determined. Steve wondered why Wanda was wavering, after what she'd done in Lagos. He wanted to ask about Banner and Thor, but he knew they were in the wind—nobody could ask them.

“I'm off to Vienna for the signing of the accords,” Natasha said. She paused and added quietly, “There is plenty of room on the jet.”

When he didn't answer, she kept trying. “Just because it's the path of least resistance doesn't mean it's the wrong path. Staying together is more important than how we stay together.”

He couldn't agree with that. “What are we giving up to do it? Sorry, Nat. I can't sign it.”

“I know,” she said.

“Well, then. What are you doing here?”

“I didn't want you to be alone. Come here.” They hugged. Steve wondered what it would be like if they ever really had to confront each other because of the accords. Natasha was wondering the same thing. Both of them knew what was coming, but both of them hoped it wouldn't be as bad as they feared.