in the shadows ? steve rogers

010 ? shadows of the past

"I don't know..."

"He hadn't always been like that," she muttered, her finger tracing her mother's smiling face. "He loved me and Howard, but... he loved her more."

"He can't hurt you, Grace," Steve said, sitting beside her and linking her fingers with his. She looked at their intertwined hands. "Not anymore."

Grace looked down at the ground. "You know, even though he was a horrible person, he certainly set the standard for the kind of love I always wanted. Not the 'beat your daughter because she looks too much like the woman I love' thing, but the way he always managed to put a smile on her face. Even when they had nothing, they had each other. And Howard has... well, he has the hundreds of women he has visit him every year. But me? What do I have?"

"You have me."

As the brunette looked up at his words and found her lips meeting his in a soft, but sweet kiss. She was surprised but quickly deepened the kiss. When they separated, she leaned her forehead on his.

"I guess I do have you."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐕𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐌 had begun their destruction of Hydra bases and Grace was distracting herself by continuing to make weapons that could be of use to the troop. Relations between Grace and Howard were still tense given that her brother had finally learned of the full events that she had been through with their father, but they were at least speaking to one another.

Peggy was monitoring the group's progress on the destruction of bases, consistently replacing Hydra flags with Allied ones.

Grace received letters from Steve whenever he could send them, though communications between the two were frequent given that she had supplied them with their communication devices. Peggy always smiled whenever she saw Grace light up from hearing Steve's voice; she was ecstatic that her friend found someone she truly deserved.

Steve and his Howling Commandos, as they became known across the world, took out bases in France, Belgium, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and many more.

Grace now found herself sitting in a room with Peggy and Colonel Phillips, watching footage from their fight against Hydra. The camera moved past Falsworth and Dernier drinking to Dugan. It then panned to Steve and Bucky who were looking at a map when the footage zoomed in on Steve's compass.

"Is that...?" Peggy asked, narrowing her eyes at the sight. Phillips glanced at the inventor with a small smile.

Sure enough, inside the compass was a picture of Grace. But it wasn't any picture, no, it was a drawing of Grace that Steve had done the last time he had returned to the base. He and Grace went star-gazing and when she wasn't looking, he pulled out his sketchpad, perfectly capturing the happiness she had whenever she looked at the constellations.

"He is quite the artist," Peggy commented while Grace turned red in the face from everyone looking in her direction.

Howard stood in the back of the room and his gaze shifted from the screen to his younger sister. She had a soft smile on his face while watching the footage and he felt a twinge of guilt in his chest. Maybe he really was good for her.

In his mind, nobody was ever going to be good for his baby sister, but even he had to admit, he had never seen her this happy. Not about a man before.

I guess it could be worse, he thought, shrugging to himself. She does have good taste, I suppose.

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

𝐉𝐀𝐍𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐘 𝟏𝟗𝟒𝟓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐀 date that would be remembered by a select few, but an important few. The Howling Commandos had spent the past year taking down several Hydra bases and Johann Schmidt was frustrated.