chapter fifty-two
this is not goodbye

𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐓 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 porch of the Barton's farmhouse and watched as Steve and Tony chopped wood a distance away. She tilted her head at Steve; seeing him with his usual tight shirt that accentuated his muscles.

"You're staring."

Grace looked behind her and saw Laura standing in the doorway. "Can you blame me?" she asked with a smile as Laura sat down next to her. "I'm sure you've been caught staring at Clint many times before."

"No comment."

Grace chuckled softly and looked over at Laura. "How is everybody?" she asked. "The kids seem happy. I take it that means there's been no trouble."

"None to report, ma'am."

She shook her head. "I'm not your boss anymore, Laura,' she said, patting her hand. "It's just Grace now. Who knew that SHIELD was the place to meet your future husband."

Laura shrugged. "Didn't you meet Steve while in the SSR?"

"Technically, I didn't work for the SSR," Grace said slyly. "I was employed by the US Military. But sort of."

"How about the two of you?" Laura asked and Grace looked at her. "Are you two thinking about settling down anytime soon?"

Grace shrugged. "We haven't talked about it. At least, not... not directly. Maybe indirectly in passing. He's just so busy with the Avengers and trying to find his friend. But I want it. I've always wanted that."

"You've lived a long life, Grace," Laura said, standing up. "If anybody deserves to live a quiet life, it's you. Complete with the kids and chaos."

Grace smiled softly as Laura walked over to the two men. She looked down when she felt her phone vibrate. "Hello?"

"You know Ultron is trying to tear us apart, right?" Tony asked as he and Steve continued to chop the wood.

"Well, I guess you'd know," Steve replied. "Whether you tell us is a bit of a question."

"Banner and I were doing research," Tony said.

"That would affect the team!" Steve argued.

"That would end the team," Tony corrected. "Isn't that the mission? Isn't that the 'why' we fight, so we can end the fight, so we get to go home?"

Steve broke apart a log of wood with his hands out of frustration and Tony looked at it. "Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts, innocent people die. Every time."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stark," Laura said, interrupting the two men. "Uh, Clint said you wouldn't mind, but, our tractor, it doesn't seem to want to start at all. I thought maybe you might..."

He nodded. "Yeah, I'll give her a kick." He looked at Steve as he started to leave. "Don't take from my pile."

Steve rolled his eyes and was about to continue chopping when he saw Grace walking across the yard with a distressed look on her face. Dropping his axe, he walked over to her. "What's wrong?" he asked and her head shot in his direction. "Are you crying?"

"No," she said, wiping at her eyes. "Well, I mean, I was, but—" She stopped and held up her phone. "It's Peggy."

"What happened? Is she okay?"

Grace shook her head and played with the phone in her hand. "Sh... She's declining quicker than the doctors originally thought," she replied, her voice breaking at the end. "They aren't really sure how much longer she'll be lucid anymore before she dies. So, I—I have to go. I have to go and see her."

Steve nodded and placed his hand on her cheek. "Yeah. You should go see her."

Grace started walking away before stopping and looking back at him. "I'm not ready, Steve," she said, tears starting to fall down her cheeks. "I'm not ready to lose her." Steve's face fell and pulled her into his arms. "What do I do without my Peggy?"

"I'm sorry, Gracie," Steve said, rubbing her back. "I know how much she means to you. But just know that she loves you just as much as you love her." She nodded against his chest. "I'll come with you."

"No." She shook her head and pulled away to look at him. "No, they need you here. You need to stop Ultron."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded, rubbing at her eyes. "Yeah. I'll be okay." She leaned into his embrace again. "After another hug. Another hug and then I'll be okay."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐋𝐊𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐏𝐄𝐆𝐆𝐘'𝐒 hospital room with heavy footsteps. She knocked softly on the door and smiled at the woman on the bed. "Hi, Peg."

Peggy looked over at the sound of her voice and smiled. "You came," she said weakly as Grace sat down on the chair beside her bed and took her hand in hers.

"Of course I did," Grace replied gently, giving her hand a small squeeze. "You know I'd drop everything for you."

Peggy rubbed her thumb over Grace's hand before letting it fall to the side and taking hold of a small silver object. "I want you to have this," Peggy said, dropping the object into Grace's hand and she looked down at it. "I've had it for nearly seventy years, but now it's your turn to wear it."

Grace turned it over and saw it was a locket with a cursive 'M' and 'C' intertwined on the jewel. "Peggy... I—I can't take this," she contradicted with a shake of her head. "Surely one of your children should have it."

"It was never meant for them," Peggy told her, looking at the brunette. "Open it."

"But—"

"Open it, Gracie."

Grace let out a breath and obliged, unclasping the locket and pausing at the contents inside; it was a photograph of her and Peggy during the war. She pressed her lips together, feeling her eyes fill with tears. "Peg—"

"I had it made when you told me you had an accident and stopped aging," Peggy said making Grace look at her. "I didn't want you to think that I didn't think you could do it, but I had it made in case you couldn't. You've been like a sister to me since we first met."

Grace wiped the corners of her eyes with her finger. "You just know how to make a girl cry, don't you?" she asked with a chuckle before sniffling. "It's been a pleasure knowing you, Peg. Thank you for being... well, for being my Peggy."

Peggy smiled softly and held out her hand once more which Grace took. "You have to promise me one thing, Gracie."

"Anything."

"Marry him," she said. "Marry the man you love. He's here, you're here, nothing can stop you anymore. Marry Steve, Gracie. Have a family. Everything you've ever wanted. And even if I can't be Aunt Peggy to your kids, just know I'll always be looking over them." Grace nodded, letting tears fall down her cheeks. "No, no crying. I've lived a long, good life."

"We were supposed to do that together," Grace said quietly and Peggy shrugged ever so slightly.

"But then you wouldn't get your chance at a life with Steve," she replied, rubbing Grace's hand with her thumb. "You were still Aunt Gracie to my children. Don't be sad for my death, Gracie. I won't be in any pain anymore."

Grace nodded, wiping her cheeks dry. "I love you, Peg," she whispered and Peggy smiled gently.

"I love you, too." Grace sighed as Peggy started to cough and she got her a glass of water. "Gracie! You're out of your room. Does that mean Howard found Steve?"

She closed her eyes before nodding. "Yeah, Peg. Yeah, Steve is coming home." She stood up and kissed the woman on her forehead. "Goodbye, Peggy."

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

𝐀𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐓𝐎 Steve in the Barton's dining room and looked up at the soldier. "Where's Grace?" she asked in a whisper.

"She..." Steve sighed. "She had a friend to visit. She'll see us back in New York."

"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time," Nick said, gaining the two blondes' attention. "My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of Vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing."

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked.

Nick nodded. "Ah. He's easy to track, he's everywhere," he said to the group. "Guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit." Adelaide quirked her eyebrow upward at the man's analogy. "Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans though."

"He still going after launch codes?" Tony asked.

"Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway."

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare," Tony said.

Adelaide nodded. "Of course you did..."

"Yeah, well," Nick sighed. "I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that."

"NEXUS?" Steve repeated, furrowing his brows.

"It's the world internet hub in Oslo," Bruce explained, looking up at him. "Every byte of data flows through there, fastest access on earth."

Adelaide clicked her tongue. "So what'd they say?"

"He's fixated on the missiles," Nick replied. "But the codes are constantly being changed."

"By whom?" Tony asked.

"Parties unknown."

Adelaide sighed and dropped her head. "Do we have an ally?"

"Ultron's got an enemy, that's not the same thing," Nick told her and she rubbed her neck. "Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is."

"I might need to visit Oslo, find our 'unknown'," Tony said.

Natasha looked up at the former Director of SHIELD. "Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that."

"I do," he said and Adelaide looked up. "I have you." She rolled her eyes. "Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. Here we all are, back on earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard."

"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk," Natasha said with a mischievous smile and Adelaide snorted.

"You know what, Romanoff?"

"So what does he want?" Nick asked.

"To become better," Steve answered. "Better than us. He keeps building bodies."

Tony nodded. "Person bodies. The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it."

"When you two programmed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed," Natasha told the two scientists, Adelaide nodding in agreement.

"They don't need to be protected," Bruce said. "They need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve."

"Oh, lovely," Adelaide sighed. "How?"

Bruce looked around the room. "Has anybody been in contact with Helen Cho?"

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

"𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖, 𝐈 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 you, you know that," Adelaide said, holding steady onto Steve as they jumped on the roof of a moving truck. "But why do I have to keep doing the scary stuff?" Ultron blasted the door of the truck and the two dodged away from the hit. "Oh, great, and now we've angered the robot."

"Addy, the commentary isn't helping all that much," Steve told her as he groaned, trying to enter the truck. "Come on, we have to try and keep him unhappy."

"Keep him?" she replied incredulously. "We have to keep the murderous, angry robot more unhappy? Oh, I hate this job..."

"You love this job," Steve contradicted as he was hit back with a blast and Adelaide held out her hand.

She shook her head. "No, no, see, I love Grace. I'd be perfectly fine working in a coffee shop or... literally anything else besides this."

"Well, I'll be sure to remember that the next time we have to fight an angry robot," Steve said as Adelaide pulled him back onto the roof.

"You know what's in the Cradle?" Ultron asked and Adelaide looked at him. "The power to make real change and that terrifies you."

Adelaide tilted her head. "Well, you know, a world run by robots has never really been my dream," she said, dodging out of the way of another blast from Ultron. "Exhibit A." She paused. "He's right. I do talk a lot..."

"Who?" Steve asked, trying to fight Ultron only for his shield to be blasted off the truck. "You know, how about we put this conversation on pause for a minute."

"I'm going in," Natasha said through the comms. "Addy, Cap, can you keep him occupied?"

Adelaide frowned. "What do you think we've been doing?" she asked as she and Steve were now fighting Ultron on a train. "Making small talk?"

"Well... yeah."

She rolled her eyes and swung around on a train pole, kicking Ultron in the chest and she winced. "Ow. Foot on metal is not a good combo." She looked over when she saw Pietro and Wanda had joined them. "Um... did I miss something? Are you guys good now? Change of heart?"

Steve looked up as Ultron flew away. "I lost him! He's headed your way!" He glanced at Adelaide who was still looking at the twins. "Civilians in our path." Pietro nodded and sped ahead of the train to clear civilians out of the train's way. "Can you stop this thing?" he asked Wanda and she shrugged.

Adelaide held on to the train as Wanda used her powers to make the train stop and the blonde fell to the floor at the abrupt end of the ride. "Well, that was the worst train ride of my life," she said, brushing off the dust from her pants. "And that's saying something. I once rode on a train with Tony."

She and Steve walked over to the twins, Pietro out of breath from his run. "I'm fine," he was saying. "I just need a minute."

"I'm very tempted not to give you one," Steve said and Wanda looked at him.

"The Cradle, did you get it?"

"Stark will take care of it," Steve told her.

Wanda shook her head. "No, he won't."

"You don't know what you're talking about," Steve contradicted. "Stark's not crazy."

Adelaide tilted her head and let out a sound. "You might want to rephrase that. Tony Stark is crazy. Grace isn't, though."

"He will do anything to make things right," Wanda said and Steve sighed, bringing a hand up to his comm set.

"Stark, come in. Stark. Anyone on comms?"

"Ultron can't tell the difference between saving the world and destroying it," Wanda said and the two blondes looked back at her. "Where do you think he gets that?"

⸻ ~~~ ⸻

an: this movie is a lot
more fast-paced than
I remembered... so the
next chapter is the last
of age of ultron...

and also it's very
centered on the avengers
which grace is not a part
of, so... there's that

peggy's death in civil war
is gonna destroy me to
write just fyi. I think I've
cried like 12 times just
thinking about it...