Chapter 26

A bonus-prize goes to anyone who got the obscure reference to Wolfram and Hart. No … this isn't going to turn into a crossover fic, but for those of you who know what that means…

Thanks for reading!

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Chapter 26

Things were subdued in the Stark Tower penthouse suite when he made his way up at 6:45 on the nose. A five-man band played jazz, the throaty hum of a tenor-sax adding ambiance to the room. Wait staff rushed about like ants, putting the finishing touches on the buffet. An enormous multi-tiered cake sat in the middle, similar to a wedding cake in construction, but with a red-headed Barbie at the pinnacle standing next to an action figure of Iron Man. On the layers below, action figures battled grey-skinned Chitauri. Including an action figure of him. Oh … great. The real reason Tony insisted he be here today … so he could brag he had the real Avengers at his beck and call.

The cake was … garish. An adolescent boy's dream, not a pretty cake with flowers as befitting a classy woman like Pepper Potts. And yet … his eyes were drawn to the red-haired Barbie with the little black stick in her upraised hands. A magic wand? Or a conductor's baton. The latter, he thought. For all Tony Stark's faults, when he had put the woman he loved in charge of running his empire, he had put her in charge with a capital 'C.'

"Where is everybody?" he asked a guard dressed as a butler.

"Everybody knows when a party starts at 7:00," the guard gave him a grin, "you don't show up until 8:00."

"Oh," Steve said, unaware of this strange rule of social behavior. "Tony said be here at 6:45."

"He's over there," the guard said. "By the bar."

"Figures," Steve muttered under his breath.

He paused over a subtle outline in the floor where the polished marble did not quite match. The tiles were square, but instead of ripping up and replacing each damaged tile, they'd been painstakingly cut to the exact shape of the hole the Hulk had pounded into the floor, leaving a clear outline of a humanoid form. Tony Stark wished to memorialize the exact spot where the Avengers had taken down the God of Lies. Steve suspected the only thing preventing him from drawing a white line like a crime scene photo was the good taste of Pepper Potts.

"Tony," Steve said stiffly to Tony Stark's back.

"Hey … Steve," Tony said, turning to gesture magnanimously into the room. "Thanks for coming."

"How long are you going to make me stay?" Steve asked, tugging at his bowtie.

"Until you get that phone number you came for," Tony said. He turned and hurried towards the door to greet some guests.

As a man who had come from a generation that wore a suit jacket and tie to church or just about any other function, the tuxedo felt natural. Life had been simpler in 1945, when every man owned one good suit, a handful of slacks, and a half-dozen button down shirts. If you were doing hot, sweaty work, you stripped down to your undershirt. When you were done, you showered and put on a real shirt to go out in public. Life had been simpler then.

Now the rules had changed. Undershirts came in different colors, with corporate logos plastered across the chest. Instead of owning one good suit, which became your trademark, wearing the same outfit to two occasions in a row was cause for ridicule. In fact, wearing the same casual attire was also cause for ridicule, he was finding out. At least the gang kids showed up wearing the same garishly-colored jacket, even when it was 90 degrees outside, and didn't poke fun at his closet full of identical khaki beige slacks and button-down Arrow shirts. Here in Tony Stark's world, Steve always felt out-of-place. He wondered if the attire Pepper had been kind enough to provide screamed 'rented tux.'

More guests began to pile into the room. Doctor Nyi made his way over to the buffet, as uneasy about schmoozing with the VIP's as Steve was. They made small talk, their conversation guarded as there were unauthorized ears who might be astute enough to translate obscure code words into their real meaning. Steve attempted to direct the conversation towards Bernice, but the brilliant engineer and physicist prattled on about all of the ideas she was helping him capture in visual form and not any information about how to contact her. Steve wondered if Tony had instructed him to not reveal Bernice's phone number the way he had reprogrammed all incoming calls to go to a voicemail that played a badly sung song about 'it's not easy being green.' Another joke, Steve was sure, although he had no idea what it meant. Without having the magical telephone extension code, Steve had been unable to reach Bernice at work.

Doctor Nyi spotted a group of scientists, awkwardly dressed in too-tight suits even Steve recognized as out of fashion. He was forgotten as the group began discussing the recent confirmation of the Higgs-Bosun particle. Steve had been smart even before Doctor Erskine had jacked up his IQ with the super-soldier serum, but discussion of the so-called 'god particle' was a little too much for even his intellect.

Pepper. Where was Pepper? 8:00 p.m. and there had still been no sign of the birthday girl. Steve wanted to wish her a happy birthday, get the phone number, and get the hell out of here before Tony Stark made him the butt of one of his all-too-frequent pranks. Thor strutted in wearing civilian attire, Jane perched proudly on his arm. Natasha arrived shortly after, without Clint, and made her way over to the group of engineers imbibing far more alcohol than was sensible and good-naturedly haggling over whose theory of physics most closely fit the unknown technologies posited by the Tesseract cube.

Nick Fury arrived, Maria Hill at his side and most definitely not a couple, followed by Clint leading a pretty blonde-haired woman on one arm. Clint had his arm around the woman's waist, but he kept glancing towards Natasha. Bruce Banner came in and was instantly caught up in the increasingly loud conversation the engineers were having about the practical applications of the newly confirmed god particle.

"It's show time," Tony Stark said, coming up beside him to order another drink. "I'll have two martini's. One extra dry, extra olives."

"When are you going to give me what I came here for and stop jerking me around?" Steve asked just low enough so the bartender would not overhear.

Tony took his drink and turned to face his guests, flashing his trademark grin and raising his glass. The bartender placed the second drink on the counter behind him.

"You've got to learn to loosen up, Steve," Tony said. "Go with the flow. How are you going to lead men if you can't relate to them?"

Steve swirled his brandy in his glass and then downed it in a single gulp, allowing the sting of brandy to give him time to contemplate a suitable retort.

"I drink with the regular soldiers just fine," Steve said. "It's you guys I can't make heads or tails of."

The bartender refilled Steve's glass, catching Tony's eye and making a subtle nod towards the row of empty bottles he had lined up at the table next to the bar.

"Drink is the operative word," Tony laughed. "How many of those are you going to pound down?"

"You know alcohol has no effect on me," Steve said.

"Yeah," Tony said. "But it does have an effect on my wallet. Sheesh! If you don't appreciate the buzz of a fine brandy, at least drink something a little less expensive. That stuff costs $800 bucks a bottle!"

Steve glanced over at the row of empty bottles. "Sorry. Wasn't keeping track. What would you like me to drink?"

There was a commotion near the door. The band switched tunes, bursting into a jazzy tune Steve recognized as one of Pepper's favorites. By the way Tony perked up and grabbed the second martini, the birthday girl was about to make her grand entrance.

"Pepper wanted to give you a present for her birthday," Tony grinned. "Her way of saying thank youfor keeping my sorry ass out of trouble. Don't screw it up."

Before Steve could figure out what Tony was talking about, his host strutted across the room and grabbed a microphone to make a speech in honor of Pepper's birthday. The birthday girl strolled in, the flowing gait of a woman at the pinnacle of her power, not even her lofty heels slowing the self-assured way she took command of the room with her entrance.

And then he saw her…

"Bernice," he whispered. It felt as though the brandy he had quaffed down earlier hit his system all at once. The quarry he'd been hunting for the last week strode in, not at all self-assured as she teetered across the floor in Pepper's wake wearing shoes far loftier than she was accustomed to wearing. Her gown was a silken cloud of royal blue, the same royal blue as his cummerbund and bowtie. Her black hair was swept up off her neck, her pale shoulders bare of all ornamentation. His present, he realized. Tony and Pepper had worked together to set this up…

The engineers buzzed around Bernice like bees to honey. A queen bee and her hive. Her beautiful lips turned up in a smile, a smile so much like Peggy's it made his heart hurt, but there was something else in that smile, too. A shyness Peggy had never been burdened with. The engineers demanded her attention, earning a stab of jealousy as he realized Bernice was not still single from lack of offers. Not all of the engineers were middle-aged, bald-headed nerds. Bernice appeared oblivious their attraction, showing off her fancy shoes the way a girl might show them off to a girlfriend. She looked up, her eyes locking with his across the room. Steve felt as though his heart were about to pound out of his chest.

Her regal glide would have been flawless had she not tripped on the hem of her gown, a retinue of adoring engineering friends there to catch her before she fell. She gave them an embarrassed smile and waved them off, oblivious to the disappointed looks she earned as she left her retainers behind. Steve shivered with a sense of déjà vu.

"Steve," Bernice said. "Pepper said she wasn't sure whether or not you'd come."

Steve glanced to his left, expecting to see his long-dead friend, Bucky Barnes, standing at his side to ask Bernice to dance.

"I almost didn't," Steve said. He noticed the hurt expression which crossed her face and realized he'd said something wrong. "I mean … I … um …"

Bernice looked back towards the engineers, several who were calling her ame. What the hell. If he was going to make an ass of himself, he might as go all the way. The worst that would happen was she would laugh at him and then never speak to him again, the way things were headed anyways if he didn't open his mouth and say something right.

"Tony said the only way he would give me your phone number was if I came to his party."

Bernice gave him a quizzical expression.

"But I gave you my phone number," Bernice said. "Didn't I?"

"No," Steve said. "You didn't." He pointed to where Tony had his arm around Pepper, who towered over him in those heels by a good six inches. "And I forgot to ask you for it. Your boss decided he wasn't going to let me get through the switchboard without making me eat crow."

Bernice looked over to where Tony Stark was making a long-winded toast to Pepper's good health. She burst out laughing.

"The music on my voice mail!" Bernice laughed. "I couldn't understand why my friends kept telling me their calls were being diverted to Kermit the Frog."

"Kermit … the frog?" Steve asked.

"He's an … uh … a puppet," Bernice said, giving him that quizzical look people always gave him whenever a popular cultural reference tripped him up. "Miss Potts said you two are always butting heads."

"We … uh …" Steve said. He glanced at Tony Stark, who raised his martini in his direction and gave him a knowing grin. "Yeah … we do that a lot. My old commanding officer had a saying about what happens when you have too many generals and not enough foot soldiers."

Bernice's laugh was fluttery, like the sensation in Steve's chest. Her eyes were an echo of Peggy's, but the tiny laugh-lines highlighted a sensitivity Peggy had lacked. Steve found himself mesmerized by the way her pupils dilated wide, taking in every detail even as she made small talk.

"I couldn't understand why they invited me to the party," Bernice said. "Miss Potts said Mr. Stark is trying to make a peace offering."

"To me?"

"She said Mr. Stark played one prank too many," Bernice said. "And now she wants him to play nicely with you."

"Prank … uh … yeah," Steve said. He decided not to enlighten Bernice about the specifics.

The music changed, not the modern songs the band had been playing earlier, but one from his generation. Couples shifted, the ones who had partners pulling them out to sway in a classic slow dance. Pepper glanced over Tony's shoulder as he whirled her onto the dance floor, her smile wide as she noticed they had found one another. She nodded towards the band, where the DJ was setting up to shift gears from jazz to modern music, and mouthed the words 'ask her to dance.'

Say what things he would about Tony Stark, the man sure had great taste in women…

"Would you like to … um … dance?" Steve asked, heat rising in his cheeks as he prayed he'd remember the few dance steps he'd taught himself back in 1945. If he didn't dance with her now, to music he could at least pretend he knew how to dance to, then he'd never be able to do it to the modern beat which was about to dominate the room.

Bernice gave him a tender smile, one gloved hand raised to take his as he led her out onto the floor. He tried not to stumble as he placed one hand around the small of her back, the other holding hers in a lead so he could swirl her into the whirling couples.

"I'm not very good at this," Steve confessed as he forced himself to make eye contact instead of staring at his own feet.

Bernice smiled through long black eyelashes, her eyes so like Peggy's, and yet not Peggy. Where the dream Peggy had always felt self-assured in his arms, almost leading him across the dance floor, Bernice followed his lead, accidentally stepping on his feet. Twice.

"The crowd I hang out with isn't really into ballroom dancing," Bernice said, her cheeks turning pink. "I'm sorry. I'm not very good at this kind of dancing, either."

They swayed to the throaty beat of the tenor-sax belting out Louis Armstrong's Moon River. She was tiny compared to his height, but unlike a dream, Bernice felt substantial in his arms. He pulled her closer, the way her body brushed against his igniting a pleasant tingle throughout his flesh. Her eyes were closed, her lips slightly parted as she focused on how it felt to dance with him and not just how it looked. The song should have ended, but a glance in Stark's direction revealed his so-called nemesis signaling the band to give the chorus another round.

He was so going to owe Tony Stark one whopper of a favor, but for the first time since he'd awoken 67 years in the future no longer the biggest game in town, Steve no longer cared. It wasn't about him, anyways. It never had been.

The band began what Steve recognized as the final refrain. Oh, how he wished he had the guts to indulge the urge to bend down and kiss those full red lips and feel what it felt like to kiss a woman for real, not just in his dreams, but he would not do so in front of an audience. Unlike his dream of Peggy, who he had loved long before he dreamed of kissing her, Bernice was her own individual. Someone he wished to get to know better and love for her, if that was what this feeling fluttering in his chest really was, and not her resemblance to a ghost from his past. He pulled her into his arms, nuzzling her upswept hair and pressing his lips against her ear.

"Thank you," he whispered, a feeling of hope igniting in his chest that he had not felt in a very long time.

The music ended. The partygoers clapped. The DJ thanked the jazz band for their music and announced it was time to tear up the dance floor. A bone jarring rhythm rattled the penthouse, the walls vibrating as couples made jerky movements that made no sense as they gyrated on the dance floor. He was not quite ready to leap into this future Bernice flowed so easily in … yet. But as she looked up from the circle of his arms, a question in her eyes, he knew what his answer would be.

"You're going to have to teach me."

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Note: here it is … the dance scene everybody knew was coming for the last 26 chapters. I hope it was as good for YOU as it was for ME…