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The Remembrance Day programing on CBC got me again. Gave in and Captain American is now in the A Touch of Smith and Jones ficverse. Hasn't been check and it's not done (need to get back to the NaNo story) but since I'm posting everything I write this month, I'm posting this here! :)
Warning- vague mention of m-preg
Steve Rogers was glad the cemetery that Nick had chosen was small and a little out of the way. He was still getting used to all the changes that had happened since the war; and although he would have liked to have gone to the Armistice Day ceremonies at Arlington like he had done with his father when he was a boy, he wasn’t quite ready to deal with the crowds that he knew would be there.
He was still getting used to the fact that the war had come to a close more than six decades ago. It had only ended six months ago for him.
Stepping out of Nick’s Shelby Cobra, Steve looked around at the quiet French countryside for a moment, then at the cemetery. There were quite a few people already there honoring family or friends. Some looked up and smiled at Steve and nodded their heads in his direction. Steve returned the smiles and the nods, then followed Nick to the trunk of the car to retrieve his shield.
As he swung the shield over his shoulder and followed Nick, who was buttoning up the collar of his SHIELD dress uniform as they stepped past the gate leading into the cemetery, Steve asked, “Why here?” Feeling a moment of uncertainty-- his memory was still a little shaky after being frozen for so long-- he felt the need to add, “Or is this someplace I should remember?”
Nick shook his head. “Nah, don’t think you were ever out this way.” He nodded his head towards a memorial plinth at the top of a small hill at the center of the cemetery. “One reason’s because my old man‘s here. Only reason he made it home to raised a family was because of some partisans that rescued him after his biplane crashed a few miles out from here. When he found out his rescuers hadn’t survived the war, Dad had that commissioned so they‘d be remembered. Mom decided he should be buried here too.”
“Ah. And the other reason?”
“I‘ll tell you that in a minute.”
As they paused to read the names inscribed on the plinth, Steve heard a grinding wheezing sound. He glanced over his shoulder at the parking lot and was startled to see a blue box slowly forming next to Nick’s car.
“What--” Surprised, Steve looked at Nick. “What is that?”
Nick just shrugged his shoulders. “It’s called a TARDIS. It travels through time and space,” he said in a matter of fact voice.
Stunned by that answer, Steve exclaimed, “We can travel through time now?”
Nick shook his head. “No, not yet.” He pointed at the man in a pinstriped suit that was leaning out of the blue box and waving at them. “But he can.”
Steve watched the man lean back in to the box. “Got it in one!” he shouted.
“That’s only because you weren’t the one piloting,” a familiar voice shouted back.
Steve gave Nick another surprised look. “Is that Jack?”
Nick rolled his eyes. “You saw me shoot him in the head that one time.”
“Yes, but…” Steve was beginning to wonder if the crowds at Arlington might have been easier to handle.
He watched the man whom he assumed was the Doctor back up and step out of the way as Jack herded two young children-- a boy with a handful of paper poppies, and a girl who had her arms wrapped around a wreath half her size-- out of the box. He was followed by a young man with white hair and a slightly dazed look on his face, and then by another man who was carrying a sleeping infant in his arms.
“How big is that thing?” Steve asked.
“A hell of a lot bigger than it looks,” was the answer he got.
The Doctor leaned back in. “Need some help?” he called out.
“No, we’ve got it,” a woman’s voice answered. The Doctor moved out of the way again, and this time Colonel James Rhodes and a woman Steve didn’t recognize stepped out. Behind them came a grinning Tony Stark, who was holding the hand of the slightly unsteady toddler walking beside him.
The Doctor locked the door once Tony and the toddler passed him, then followed the group as they slowly made their way up to the plinth.
“What, you brought the whole family, Jack?” Nick said when Jack‘s group reached them.
“It was easier than finding a sitter,” Jack answered. He then turned to Steve. “Good to see you again, Steve.” At first glance, Jack looked the same as he had the last time Steve had seen him, but in his eyes Steve could see the time that had passed since then.
“Your family, Jack?” Steve asked.
Jack grinned at him. “Yep.” He pointed at the boy and the girl standing in front of him. “This one’s Jamie and this is Estelle. That,” he pointed at the man holding the infant, “is Ianto Jones and our son Owen.” He leaned back slightly and put an arm around the shoulders of the young man with the white hair, pulling him forward. “This is my great grandson Ryou Bakura, and…’ He pointed back at the man in the pinstriped suit. “That’s the Doctor back there. He’s Jamie and Estelle’s father.”
Puzzled by Jack’s phrasing, Steve glanced at the woman who had stopped to watch Tony and the toddler. “And is she Jamie and Estelle’s mother?” he asked.
He caught Estelle giving him a curious look. When he looked down at her, she said, “No, dad is.” She looked up at Jack and asked, “Why would he think Doctor Cuddy was our mom? We don‘t look like her.”
Jack smiled and rested a hand on her head. “Ah, yeah, um…” He looked at Ianto, who rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“We already agreed you were going to be the one to explain that when it came up,” Ianto said firnly. Ryou, standing between the two men, bit his lower lip as if he were trying not to laugh.
Jack raised an eyebrow at his great grandson. “Okay, that‘s not helping much here, Ryou,” he said.
“Hey, I’m still getting used to you not being uncle Jamie, Jack,” Ryou said as he tilted his head down and tried to hide his amused expression behind a shock of white hair.
Steve turned to Nick. “It’s a long story,” Nick said.
Steve nodded bemusedly. “Obviously.”
“You know, it would be easier if you just carried him, Tony,” Steve heard Rhodey say. Looking past Jack’s family he saw Tony look up and shake his head.
“No way! This is cool,” he said. “I’m gonna enjoy this as long as I can.”
Nick checked his watch. “Just pick him up, Shellhead,” he said. “You can walk him back afterwards.”
Tony gave Nick an exasperated look. “Fine, spoil my fun.” He swung the toddler up in the air, eliciting a giggle of delight, then settled the child on his hip as he joined the group.
“Cap’in Amica!” the child crowed as he leaned towards Steve, his arms outstretched.
“Hey, that’s right, that’s Captain America!” Tony said. He turned a proud look at Dr. Cuddy, who just smiled indulgently back at Tony.
Rhodey leaned towards Cuddy. “I take it he’s been sending a few toys over?”
Dr. Cuddy rolled her eyes. “A few,” she said, emphasizing the ‘few’.
Tony just laughed.
“Right.” Nick said before looking down at Jamie and Estelle. “You two ready?” he asked.
They both nodded as the boy said, “Yes uncle Nick.” They then glanced up at Jack as if waiting for his confirmation that they were ready. Jack nodded and stepped around them and past the memorial plinth.
As Jack led the children towards another part of the cemetery, Steve had to ask, “Uncle Nick?”
Ianto leaned towards him as he passed, “Yeah, and you’ll be uncle Steve by the end of the day,” he said.
Steve smiled at the comment and at the boy in Tony‘s arms who was trying to keep him in view as Tony walked by. As Rhodey and Dr. Cuddy passed him, he raised a hand and gave the boy a little wave. The boy smiled then hid his face against Tony’s shoulder, suddenly shy.
Steve could just heard Tony’s low chuckle of amusement.
When Steve started to follow the group, Nick rested a hand on his shoulder and stopped him. Steve raised an eyebrow in question but Nick simply shook his head.
The Doctor paused as he walked by. He gave Steve a solemn, understanding smile and said, “Time doesn’t heal all wounds, but it does make them easier to bear, Captain.” Steve met his gaze, and felt a touch of awe and fear at what he saw there.
The smile grew slightly as the Doctor shifted his gaze to Nick. He nodded his head. “Colonel.”
Nick nodded back. “Doctor.”
The Doctor spun on his heels and hurried off towards the group.
Steve took a deep breath. The Doctor came to a stop just behind Tony and started making faces at the little boy. The child’s, and the Doctor’s, laughter drifted up to where Steve stood.
Nick took a deep breath of his own as Steve watch the two and then said softly, “The other reason we’re here is so you can say goodbye to Bucky.”
He turned to stare at Nick. “What? I thought--”
“Bucky did survive the accident that ended up freezing you. He was with us when we came through here on a mission in December of ‘44.” Nick looked away, past the cemetery into the rolling countryside, a distant look on his face. “He made sure the mission was a success, and hell, for all I know, saved the whole damn world going by what Jack said later, but he paid the ultimate price.” Nick turned his gaze down to the group at the edge of the cemetery. “We buried him here. After the war, the French government sent his body home to be interred at Arlington. They set a marker here where he was buried in his honor.”
A shockingly deep sense of loss swept through Steve and he closed his eyes. He knew Bucky was gone as soon as he had awakened from his frozen sleep, but had assumed he had died during that last mission when the plane had exploded. It was possible Nick had told the doctors who had checked him out and monitored him those first two months not to tell him what had happened unless he asked. He wasn’t sure if he should feel grateful or not for that.
He felt Nick rest a hand on his shoulder, squeezing tight enough to be felt through the mail of his uniform.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He knew Nick would see through that lie, but said it anyway.
Time doesn’t heal all wounds, but it does make them easier to bear, Captain. Steve opened his eyes and looked at Nick; and though he could see Nick felt the same loss as he did, time had clearly made it easier for Nick to bear.
A movement out of the corner of his vision pulled Steve back to the present. He found the Doctor helping an elderly couple over to the gravesite and he realized the men and women he had seen when they had entered the cemetery had slowly been making their way over to where Jack and the others stood. The oldest down there had probably been born not too long after he had; children of those who had survived the Great War.
“And there’s the reason why we went through all that,” Nick said as they looked down at the people gathered below. “And why we still put our lives on the line. To protect the ones we care for.”
“For friends and family.” Steve drew in a deep breath. He held it for a moment, then slowly let it out. “What time is it?” he asked quietly.
“Five to eleven.”
Steve nodded and started down the hill.
(I'll figure out the rest once I finish the NaNo story and a few others.)
Disclaimer: None of them are mine-- I'm just borrowing them for my own entertainment and no profit is being made off this fanfic.
Warning- vague mention of m-preg
Steve Rogers was glad the cemetery that Nick had chosen was small and a little out of the way. He was still getting used to all the changes that had happened since the war; and although he would have liked to have gone to the Armistice Day ceremonies at Arlington like he had done with his father when he was a boy, he wasn’t quite ready to deal with the crowds that he knew would be there.
He was still getting used to the fact that the war had come to a close more than six decades ago. It had only ended six months ago for him.
Stepping out of Nick’s Shelby Cobra, Steve looked around at the quiet French countryside for a moment, then at the cemetery. There were quite a few people already there honoring family or friends. Some looked up and smiled at Steve and nodded their heads in his direction. Steve returned the smiles and the nods, then followed Nick to the trunk of the car to retrieve his shield.
As he swung the shield over his shoulder and followed Nick, who was buttoning up the collar of his SHIELD dress uniform as they stepped past the gate leading into the cemetery, Steve asked, “Why here?” Feeling a moment of uncertainty-- his memory was still a little shaky after being frozen for so long-- he felt the need to add, “Or is this someplace I should remember?”
Nick shook his head. “Nah, don’t think you were ever out this way.” He nodded his head towards a memorial plinth at the top of a small hill at the center of the cemetery. “One reason’s because my old man‘s here. Only reason he made it home to raised a family was because of some partisans that rescued him after his biplane crashed a few miles out from here. When he found out his rescuers hadn’t survived the war, Dad had that commissioned so they‘d be remembered. Mom decided he should be buried here too.”
“Ah. And the other reason?”
“I‘ll tell you that in a minute.”
As they paused to read the names inscribed on the plinth, Steve heard a grinding wheezing sound. He glanced over his shoulder at the parking lot and was startled to see a blue box slowly forming next to Nick’s car.
“What--” Surprised, Steve looked at Nick. “What is that?”
Nick just shrugged his shoulders. “It’s called a TARDIS. It travels through time and space,” he said in a matter of fact voice.
Stunned by that answer, Steve exclaimed, “We can travel through time now?”
Nick shook his head. “No, not yet.” He pointed at the man in a pinstriped suit that was leaning out of the blue box and waving at them. “But he can.”
Steve watched the man lean back in to the box. “Got it in one!” he shouted.
“That’s only because you weren’t the one piloting,” a familiar voice shouted back.
Steve gave Nick another surprised look. “Is that Jack?”
Nick rolled his eyes. “You saw me shoot him in the head that one time.”
“Yes, but…” Steve was beginning to wonder if the crowds at Arlington might have been easier to handle.
He watched the man whom he assumed was the Doctor back up and step out of the way as Jack herded two young children-- a boy with a handful of paper poppies, and a girl who had her arms wrapped around a wreath half her size-- out of the box. He was followed by a young man with white hair and a slightly dazed look on his face, and then by another man who was carrying a sleeping infant in his arms.
“How big is that thing?” Steve asked.
“A hell of a lot bigger than it looks,” was the answer he got.
The Doctor leaned back in. “Need some help?” he called out.
“No, we’ve got it,” a woman’s voice answered. The Doctor moved out of the way again, and this time Colonel James Rhodes and a woman Steve didn’t recognize stepped out. Behind them came a grinning Tony Stark, who was holding the hand of the slightly unsteady toddler walking beside him.
The Doctor locked the door once Tony and the toddler passed him, then followed the group as they slowly made their way up to the plinth.
“What, you brought the whole family, Jack?” Nick said when Jack‘s group reached them.
“It was easier than finding a sitter,” Jack answered. He then turned to Steve. “Good to see you again, Steve.” At first glance, Jack looked the same as he had the last time Steve had seen him, but in his eyes Steve could see the time that had passed since then.
“Your family, Jack?” Steve asked.
Jack grinned at him. “Yep.” He pointed at the boy and the girl standing in front of him. “This one’s Jamie and this is Estelle. That,” he pointed at the man holding the infant, “is Ianto Jones and our son Owen.” He leaned back slightly and put an arm around the shoulders of the young man with the white hair, pulling him forward. “This is my great grandson Ryou Bakura, and…’ He pointed back at the man in the pinstriped suit. “That’s the Doctor back there. He’s Jamie and Estelle’s father.”
Puzzled by Jack’s phrasing, Steve glanced at the woman who had stopped to watch Tony and the toddler. “And is she Jamie and Estelle’s mother?” he asked.
He caught Estelle giving him a curious look. When he looked down at her, she said, “No, dad is.” She looked up at Jack and asked, “Why would he think Doctor Cuddy was our mom? We don‘t look like her.”
Jack smiled and rested a hand on her head. “Ah, yeah, um…” He looked at Ianto, who rolled his eyes and shook his head.
“We already agreed you were going to be the one to explain that when it came up,” Ianto said firnly. Ryou, standing between the two men, bit his lower lip as if he were trying not to laugh.
Jack raised an eyebrow at his great grandson. “Okay, that‘s not helping much here, Ryou,” he said.
“Hey, I’m still getting used to you not being uncle Jamie, Jack,” Ryou said as he tilted his head down and tried to hide his amused expression behind a shock of white hair.
Steve turned to Nick. “It’s a long story,” Nick said.
Steve nodded bemusedly. “Obviously.”
“You know, it would be easier if you just carried him, Tony,” Steve heard Rhodey say. Looking past Jack’s family he saw Tony look up and shake his head.
“No way! This is cool,” he said. “I’m gonna enjoy this as long as I can.”
Nick checked his watch. “Just pick him up, Shellhead,” he said. “You can walk him back afterwards.”
Tony gave Nick an exasperated look. “Fine, spoil my fun.” He swung the toddler up in the air, eliciting a giggle of delight, then settled the child on his hip as he joined the group.
“Cap’in Amica!” the child crowed as he leaned towards Steve, his arms outstretched.
“Hey, that’s right, that’s Captain America!” Tony said. He turned a proud look at Dr. Cuddy, who just smiled indulgently back at Tony.
Rhodey leaned towards Cuddy. “I take it he’s been sending a few toys over?”
Dr. Cuddy rolled her eyes. “A few,” she said, emphasizing the ‘few’.
Tony just laughed.
“Right.” Nick said before looking down at Jamie and Estelle. “You two ready?” he asked.
They both nodded as the boy said, “Yes uncle Nick.” They then glanced up at Jack as if waiting for his confirmation that they were ready. Jack nodded and stepped around them and past the memorial plinth.
As Jack led the children towards another part of the cemetery, Steve had to ask, “Uncle Nick?”
Ianto leaned towards him as he passed, “Yeah, and you’ll be uncle Steve by the end of the day,” he said.
Steve smiled at the comment and at the boy in Tony‘s arms who was trying to keep him in view as Tony walked by. As Rhodey and Dr. Cuddy passed him, he raised a hand and gave the boy a little wave. The boy smiled then hid his face against Tony’s shoulder, suddenly shy.
Steve could just heard Tony’s low chuckle of amusement.
When Steve started to follow the group, Nick rested a hand on his shoulder and stopped him. Steve raised an eyebrow in question but Nick simply shook his head.
The Doctor paused as he walked by. He gave Steve a solemn, understanding smile and said, “Time doesn’t heal all wounds, but it does make them easier to bear, Captain.” Steve met his gaze, and felt a touch of awe and fear at what he saw there.
The smile grew slightly as the Doctor shifted his gaze to Nick. He nodded his head. “Colonel.”
Nick nodded back. “Doctor.”
The Doctor spun on his heels and hurried off towards the group.
Steve took a deep breath. The Doctor came to a stop just behind Tony and started making faces at the little boy. The child’s, and the Doctor’s, laughter drifted up to where Steve stood.
Nick took a deep breath of his own as Steve watch the two and then said softly, “The other reason we’re here is so you can say goodbye to Bucky.”
He turned to stare at Nick. “What? I thought--”
“Bucky did survive the accident that ended up freezing you. He was with us when we came through here on a mission in December of ‘44.” Nick looked away, past the cemetery into the rolling countryside, a distant look on his face. “He made sure the mission was a success, and hell, for all I know, saved the whole damn world going by what Jack said later, but he paid the ultimate price.” Nick turned his gaze down to the group at the edge of the cemetery. “We buried him here. After the war, the French government sent his body home to be interred at Arlington. They set a marker here where he was buried in his honor.”
A shockingly deep sense of loss swept through Steve and he closed his eyes. He knew Bucky was gone as soon as he had awakened from his frozen sleep, but had assumed he had died during that last mission when the plane had exploded. It was possible Nick had told the doctors who had checked him out and monitored him those first two months not to tell him what had happened unless he asked. He wasn’t sure if he should feel grateful or not for that.
He felt Nick rest a hand on his shoulder, squeezing tight enough to be felt through the mail of his uniform.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He knew Nick would see through that lie, but said it anyway.
Time doesn’t heal all wounds, but it does make them easier to bear, Captain. Steve opened his eyes and looked at Nick; and though he could see Nick felt the same loss as he did, time had clearly made it easier for Nick to bear.
A movement out of the corner of his vision pulled Steve back to the present. He found the Doctor helping an elderly couple over to the gravesite and he realized the men and women he had seen when they had entered the cemetery had slowly been making their way over to where Jack and the others stood. The oldest down there had probably been born not too long after he had; children of those who had survived the Great War.
“And there’s the reason why we went through all that,” Nick said as they looked down at the people gathered below. “And why we still put our lives on the line. To protect the ones we care for.”
“For friends and family.” Steve drew in a deep breath. He held it for a moment, then slowly let it out. “What time is it?” he asked quietly.
“Five to eleven.”
Steve nodded and started down the hill.
(I'll figure out the rest once I finish the NaNo story and a few others.)
Disclaimer: None of them are mine-- I'm just borrowing them for my own entertainment and no profit is being made off this fanfic.
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