Liv's smile reappeared, the tease giving her confidence enough to at least begin moving toward the imposing building, her hand wrapped securely in Johnny's. "I think Steve told her about you," she offered hopefully. "Not too much, though, I hope. I'd like to see her face when you start showing off." She rose up onto her toes to touch a kiss to his cheek, as proud of his delight in being what he was as she was proud of the direction he'd chosen to take those unique talents of his.

"What do you think I'm going to do, a striptease for the ladies in the nursing home?" He chuckled at the thought, but had no intentions of doing such a thing. Old or no, they'd probably try to pinch his rear. "Anyway, this is about you and your aunt. Not me." He smiled at the kiss, though his own stomach was starting to twist into nervous knots the closer they got to the building.

Panic flared briefly in the soft brown eyes he knew so well as he laid down the law for the visit, realizing a little belatedly that he was probably intending to leave her to it if it looked as though the two women weren't going to come to blows. "You are going to come and say hello, at least, aren't you?" she asked nervously, stretching out a shaking finger to ring the doorbell.

"Yeah, of course I'll say hello. We're married now. Your family is my family." He frowned a little, wanting her to know that no matter what happened, he'd always be there for her. "Liv, I'm here for you, no matter what, but I have a feeling you're the one she really wants to see, not me. You're as much a piece of her life, as she is of yours. All these years you've wondered about your family, and now you're about to find out."

"So why do I feel like I'm standing outside the Headmaster's office, waiting to be suspended for something Lucy's done?" Yet another little insight into the mischief of the twins' childhood and adolescence for him to ponder, thrown away as an illustration of a point and nothing more. Liv took in a deep breath, and abruptly jumped as the door was opened, a tired but smiling care assistant beckoning them inside out of the wind.

"Stop worrying so much," he whispered in her ear as he followed her inside. "Or I'll tickle you," he warned with a smirk. He'd do it, too. He wondered what the inhabitants and caregivers of the nursing home would think of that. The place probably needed a little laughter anyway.

"Don't you dare," she whispered back to him, blushing at just the thought of embarrassing herself with a loud guffaw of laughter that would, no doubt, resonate throughout this edifice of a building. But she was beginning to relax a little, reassured by the warmth and cleanliness of the place, by the sight of a family sharing some private time in the little tea room to the left as they walked in. Her hand squeezed Johnny's tightly as the carer spoke.

"Peggy's been asking about you since before lunch," the woman shared with a warm smile. "She even had the time written down for her, and she's still asking!"

"See?" Johnny beamed a grin, encouraged by the information shared by the care-giver. "She's excited to see you, and she's probably just as nervous as you are." He wasn't sure why, but he had a good feeling about it. He was a little worried what Steve's old flame would think of him, but that really didn't matter. He didn't need her approval, but Olivia did. "It's going to be fine, Liv. You'll see."

It didn't seem nearly long enough between stepping in through the front door and being ushered to the door of Ms Margaret Carter's private room - not long enough for Liv, anyway. With an encouraging smile, the carer left them to it, not even glancing back. If she had done, she would have seen the nervous young woman suddenly frozen stiff, brown eyes wide, genuinely unable to even raise her hand and knock on the door. Liv's eyes pleaded with Johnny - he was supposed to be her hero, shouldn't he be protecting her from the heart attack she was absolutely certain was coming"

Johnny returned the carer's smile with a friendly smile of his own. He was, after all, mostly outgoing and friendly, even if he was a little unsure of himself. He could have stepped in and knocked for her. He could have taken charge of the situation, but he thought it would do Liv more good if she did this herself, if she proved to herself that she could do it. Even if she didn't believe in herself, he believed in her, and he knew others did, too. "Go ahead, Liv," he leaned in to whisper, encouraging her onward. "She's not going to bite."

His petrified wife looked almost hurt by his encouraging insistence upon making her knock, drawing in a quietly shaking breath to try and at least calm herself down. She hadn't been this nervous in months. Swallowing, she gripped Johnny's hand tighter than ever, and forced herself to knock on the door. A strong feminine voice answered almost immediately with, "Come in!" And those panicky eyes turned back to Johnny, needing another push to get her feet moving.

He heard the voice from inside the room and felt a little nervous tension in the pit of his stomach, but it was too late to turn back now, and he knew how important this is to Liv. He nodded his head in encouragement to her, wanting her to open the door for herself. "Go on. You can do this." Because I believe in you and I love you.

Another brief flash of panic made itself known before Liv put forth a monumental effort to pull herself together, reluctantly withdrawing her hand from her husband's to gently push the door open.

Peggy Carter looked up from her journal, lowering her glasses from her eyes, and felt herself beam with excited delight. She had been anticipating this visit ever since Lucy had promised to bully her little sister into making it, and four weeks was a long time for someone her age to wait. But finally the youngest of Beth's girls was here. "Well, come in, Olivia, don't just stand there with your mouth hanging open," she declared almost cheerfully, assuming that Liv was more like Lucy than she had been told. What she got in answer was a gulp, and one faltering step.

"I, um ..." Liv flailed behind herself to catch hold of Johnny's sleeve and drag him into the room with her. "This is Johnny."

Johnny stepped into the room behind Liv, unable to hover in the hallway even if he wanted to as Liv tugged him in behind her. He smiled warmly, albeit a little shyly, which was unlike Johnny, but he knew how closely he resembled Steve and that made him a little nervous. "Hello," he said, as he looked the woman over.

"Dear God ..." Peggy stared at the young man who had been pulled bodily into her room, a little nonplussed by the nervousness and more than a little thrown by the startling similarity of appearance between Steve Rogers and the man she assumed to be Johnny Storm. It took a moment, but she managed to clear her mind. "I do hope you are feeling hot and bothered, Johnathan, I believe there are a few of the girls who wouldn't mind a demonstration of your more family-friendly gifts. And, I daresay, the doddering ninnys would enjoy it, too." She fixed him with a look that might have been intimidating if she hadn't been almost smiling in the same instant. "I hope you're teaching my niece all the very best parts of being a wife, young man."

He wasn't generally given to blushing, but a pink flush did rise to his cheeks at her initial reaction to seeing him. He assumed she'd been warned about his resemblance to Steve, but being told and seeing for herself were two entirely different things. He made no comment on the similarity, relaxing a little as she quickly seemed to move past it. "Family friendly?" he echoed. "I'm not so sure they'd appreciate me playing with fire. I might set off a fire alarm." And just as he was starting to relax, she commented on what he assumed was his love life and he flushed a shade darker. "I'm doing my best, ma'am."

Reassured by the older woman's touch, by the carefully chosen words that bolstered her flagging confidence, Liv felt a tiny smile work its way onto her face as she held her aunt's gaze. "I ....I really don't know what to say," she confessed uncertainly, glancing in the direction Johnny had taken himself. "It's one thing to know you have family, after thinking for long you didn't, but ....actually being here, seeing you ..." She shook her head, a self-conscious little huff of laughter escaping her lips. "Please ....call me Liv. Or Livvie. Or anything you like, really. We ....we're family."

Peggy felt the full force of the girl's nerves hit her head on as the rambling speech came to a close, unable to keep herself from smiling, amused by how very shy of her Liv seemed. She was an elderly woman, barely able to stand upright for more than ten minutes without support, and this little slip of a woman was frightened of putting a foot wrong, when she had a superhero for a husband who would, Peggy had no doubt, have little trouble leaping to his wife's defense if the need called for it. Her grip tightened on her great-niece's hands warmly. "You are right, Liv," she agreed, softening herself further, seeing how delicate this one's feelings were, how poorly protected, in comparison with the decidedly more robust elder twin. "We are family. And I see so much of your mother in you. I saw her in Lucy, too, but it is you, I think, who inherited Beth's gentler nature."

"Really?" It was a wonder to behold the way Liv's entire being seemed to light up with this simple offering. The weight seemed to lift from the younger woman's shoulders, her chin rose, and for a moment, she mirrored her twin's confidence and clarity of motion. But even then, you couldn't mistake the differences. Lucy had been elated when she had been told of her similarities to father and mother, but it was touched with a sense of superiority, a sense that she had known already. Liv, on the other hand, lit up from inside, the frail hope transformed into sweet delight at the sudden realization that she had something inside herself that connected her with the mother she had never known on a level no one could ever take away from her. She glowed, and her hands twisted in Peggy's grasp, folding about the older woman's hand with warm tenderness.

"Really." Peggy nodded, enchanted by the sudden transformation in the quiet woman, feeling the protective tug that no doubt Lucy had always felt toward her younger twin. But unlike Lucy, she knew where that sense of innocence came from, where Liv had gleaned the sweeter nature of the pair, and though she would never admit it to either girl, it endeared Liv to her more quickly than she had come to feel something for Lucy. It was a joy to see and know that something of Beth, something so intangible and impossible to describe, still survived in a world that had outgrown her and tossed her aside. "She was shy and nervous of people, especially in crowds, but there was no one better at the profession she chose for herself. And when she was with Howard ..." She trailed off for a moment, willing herself to swallow the lingering anger with the man for the sake of his little girl who sat with her, her expression forming into a fond smile for her memories of Elizabeth. "He was her world for too short a time. I can see that in you, when you look at your husband. And in Lucy, when she looks at hers."

For a moment, Liv faltered, wavering between pleasure at the comparisons being handed out, wanting to hear more, and sympathetic pain at the understanding of what Peggy had lost in coming to terms with Lucy and Steve's marriage. As always, her own feelings lost the tug of war, and she leaned in closer, stroking her fingers against her great-aunt's delicate skin. "It's all right to be angry, you know," she said softly, hoping to give Peggy the permission she seemed to need to feel her own feelings and work through them in her own time. "They don't expect you to be fine with it. No one could. You ....you don't have to pretend everything is exactly as you want it to be. Not with me."

Not with me. The message was clear enough. Liv was a safe pair of ears, a safe confidante. She would never divulge, even to her beloved twin sister, anything Peggy told her in confidence. Peggy understood the purpose behind the offer. If she could vent a little to the younger, talk out some of the frustration, the hurt and heartache, then she would be more warmly disposed toward the elder. And though she was delighted to have both Beth's girls back in her life, Peggy had to admit that Lucy's association with Steve made it harder to warm to the elder twin. Some part of her old heart still saw the girl as a love rival, one to whom she had lost the war, and associated that sense of towering resentment with Lucy, unfairly. Perhaps if she could do as Liv seemed to wish, she would not love one better than the other.

"It is very difficult to put into words," she tried to explain to Liv, acceding to unspoken plea that she get at least some of her pain and resentment off her chest. "I love Steve. I always have, and I think I will go to my grave loving him. But our chance was taken away from us; there was no other choice he could have made. He would not have remained the man I loved if he had let all those people die, just for the chance to dance with me. I never thought I would ever see him again, and yet suddenly here he is, the same man I knew. The same age as when I knew him, when I'm a crabby old woman who'll be lucky to see next winter in good health. It is too late for me, but somehow I cannot help thinking that if he had been free, he would have kept up the pretense of loving me until I died. And a part of me - the selfish, bitter part - resents that I won't be able to enjoy the illusion."

"He does love you, Peggy," Liv offered, her voice quiet but earnest. She hadn't truly expected her aunt to open up to her so soon, so honestly, but if these words had to be spoken, she was glad they were being spoken to her. Steve would only feel guilt and pain, and Lucy would get angry to cover her own guilt. No, Liv was the only possible choice to hear these words, and she was glad to do it. Anything to bring them closer, rather than let old memories drive a wedge between them. "Not the way he did before, but that doesn't make his love any less powerful or moving. You're his only link with a past that no one can help him reconcile. You are his best friend, Peggy, and friendship runs deeper than romantic love or attraction. Friendship can overcome anything, and be stronger for the struggle."

"Oh, I know," the old woman chuckled, and to her surprise and delight, it was a genuine laugh, something she had not quite been able to give either Lucy or Steve during their visits. "His friendship is the most precious thing I could possibly hope for, from him, at least. But there will always be some part of me that is disappointed that I will never have the romance I hoped and grieved for."

"Is ....is it better or worse that he married Lucy?" Liv dared to ask. She had to know the answer, and both women knew that if Lucy asked her sister about this specific question, she would be given the answer. It would be unfair, unthinkable, to leave such a lingering ignorance in place.

Peggy paused, considering her reply, understanding why she had been asked and knowing she could not lie to this sweet girl who only wanted to bring her family as close together as she could before time inevitably tore it apart again. "In some ways, it is better," she said finally. "In others, worse. It is difficult to describe in full. I feel angry at him that he could forget me so soon - it has only been a year for him, after all - and yet, I am happy for him that he has found a love that fills up the emptiness inside him. I feel resentful on her behalf that he was drawn to her for her likeness to me, but again, I am happy for them both in the same moment. I can see how happy they make each other. If I had been in a position to make the choice for him, for her ....I would have chosen to push them together myself. With him, she is not so alone as she might have been. And with Lucy, Steve can be the man he was born to be, with a woman who adores him just as he is. It is ....complex to work through."

"I can understand that," her great-niece agreed with a faint nod. She was frowning just a little, sympathetic to the ache and upset, but also to the joy and relief. "And I think they do, too. Steve doesn't really talk to me, but ....well, Lucy does. She wants so much to know you, Peggy, for you to love her. I know it seems sometimes as though she couldn't give a toss about what anyone thinks, but your opinion really does matter a great deal to her. It's been just us for so long, and ..." It was her turn to trail off, trying to find the right words to make sense of the longing in her own heart. "We don't want you to be alone any more."

"But I am not alone, not any more," Peggy reassured her, the smile rising on her beautiful, aged face as warm as any Liv could have hoped for. "I have Beth's girls driving their husbands to distraction with pleas to come and visit me, and I have a friend who lived a little of what I lived so very long ago returned to me. And I am sure your Johnny will deliver more than enough diversion the better we get to know one another." She studied the face before hers, seeing Elizabeth in the soft eyes and hopeful smile, seeing Howard in the strong jaw and intelligent gaze. Seeing, for the first time, how beautiful the love that had created the twins truly had been, and feeling sadness for how cruelly it had been taken from them all. Her free hand rose, gentle as she stroked her arthritic fingers against Liv's cheek. "Why do you feel so alone, Olivia?"

And Liv did, holding nothing back despite knowing that Lucy had already shared so much of this tale herself. She told Peggy about their childhood, their adolescence, the good and the bad; the friends and enemies that had shaped them, the mistakes they had both made that had brought them to where they were now. The young woman was unsurprised to find that her great-aunt already knew about Rhy'Din, though she had never visited the place, but what did surprise her was the declaration made when their talk began to wind down that Peggy had already made up her mind to get herself transferred - "bag and baggage" - to America, to New York. To be as close to her girls as she could be in the last months and years of her life.

"I won't hear any argument," she insisted, holding up a hand to prevent Liv's protests. "I'm a crabby old woman and I'm putting my foot down. I'm not hurting for money - the S.S.R. gave me a sizable pension, which S.H.I.E.L.D. maintains. Fury isn't stupid enough to cut me off without a penny. As you've said, Lucy is in New York. So is Steve. It is a matter of days and expense for them to visit me here, though I'm sure they could cut through your Rhy'Din if they truly wanted to. But I don't want to expose the baby to that sort of dimensional hopping, and I don't want you feeling guilty for visiting them and not being able to visit me in the same trip. So ....I will come to New York, and we can make Nick Fury and Tony Stark's lives hell, all three of us."

Liv felt herself snicker softly at this announcement, blushing as she did so only to grin wider at the answering cackle that came from her aunt. Peggy, it seemed, had a sense of mischief to match Lucy's. She was going to have to make sure both women knew it, though Steve was likely to be the one most teased by them. Still, he was going to have to learn eventually, just as Liv was doing, that loosening up a little was the only way forward.

There came a rap at the door to announce Johnny's arrival back at Peggy's room precisely one hour and ten minutes later. You didn't really think he'd be on time, did you? He didn't wait for permission, but pushed open the door and peeked his head inside as if to see if the coast was clear. "Everything okay in here"' he asked, glancing from one to the other.

The scene he looked in on couldn't have been more different from the one he had left. Lucy and Peggy were sat side by side, their hands folded around one another's, and the smiles he got in welcome were as close to identical as any family could produce. "Oh, I don't know, Johnny," Peggy said, dropping her formal use of his full name as Liv giggled again. "Perhaps you should go out and come in again, so we don't drown you in sentimentality."

Johnny arched a brow at Peggy's reply, though he was pleasantly surprised and relieved to find the two women seemed to be getting along fine. Better than fine, even. "You say that like it's a bad thing." He wasn't overly fond of the thought of drowning, but there wasn't any water involved - it was only a figure of speech.

"I think we could give Peggy a run for her money with sentimentality if we really tried, couldn't we, sweetheart?" Liv suggested, the gently playful aspect of her tone proving more than anything that something had passed from woman to woman that had negated all her fears as they were arriving. She held her hand out to her husband, wanting him close by to share in the comfortable wrap of emotion that still enveloped the familial pair.

Peggy chuckled again, relinquishing her niece's hands warmly as she settled in her chair. "I take it your pyrotechnics have been a showstopper with the old fogies?"

"I didn't set anything on fire and no one had a heart attack, so yeah, I'd say it was a success," he replied cheerfully as he reached for Liv's hand and pulled a chair close to sit with the two women for a while. He hadn't had much of a chance to get acquainted with Peggy and was trying hard not to overwhelm her with questions about what it was like to be an agent for the S.S.R. He was curious what Steve had been like and whether everything he'd read in the comics was true, but much to his credit, he thought those memories might be a little too painful, all things considered, for him to delve into. "We just got back from our honeymoon," he explained, with a smile to Liv. It was no secret how much he'd enjoyed himself there. He'd felt like a kid again. "We should have brought you some Mickey Mouse ears!"

"I wish I could have seen the two of you married," Peggy smiled, pleased by the way she still felt included, even as Johnny and Liv resumed their united front. But then ....that was a part of what she had been telling her niece so fervently an half hour or so before. "It sounds as though you had a lovely time, though ..." She paused, eying Johnny with intelligently teasing eyes. "Was it really necessary to set that poor man's wig on fire?"

There was a pause as Liv called up that memory, and Johnny's wife burst out laughing. She wasn't going to forget the sight of Gaston, from Beauty and the Beast, ripping off his fake chest hair and throwing it into the log flume water nearby after making a little too free with his license to be a lech.

Johnny's jaw dropped open, eyes wide when it became obvious that Liv had blabbed that little incident to her great aunt. "It was an accident!" he exclaimed, defensively. That wasn't entirely true, but he was sticking with that explanation for now, just as he had at Disney World. He was innocent! "Besides I've got real hair on my chest and..." he blurted, breaking off as he realized he'd said too much once again. He cleared his throat and tried to change the subject, going back to Peggy's initial statement. "Did she tell you how she tried to surprise me?"

On cue, Liv blushed, her natural habit of downplaying her own role in anything - even her own wedding - having conveniently excluded that particular detail during her storytelling. Peggy glanced at the young woman, one brow rising as she felt herself smirk a little at the sweet-natured embarrassment. "If this were Lucy, I'd be concerned you were about to tell me about some kind of fiendishly deviant sexual practice, Johnny," she said, compounding the embarrassment quite deliberately just to hear Liv giggle again, even if the sound was muffled behind the girl's hand. "What surprise would this be?"

"She tried to throw me a surprise wedding!" he explained, with an amused smile as he looked fondly at Liv and gave a too-warm squeeze of his hand to hers. "I didn't suspect anything until she insisted I wear a suit." He remembered her New Year's surprise and his smile softened. "She's full of surprises." The love he felt for this sweet-natured woman was all too obvious from the look in his eyes.

"So I am beginning to see," Peggy murmured, old eyes looking between the young couple with envy for the obvious joy and affection they had in each other. But it was envy touched with happiness for them, and with the increasing comfort of knowing that just a little of that affection belonged to her, too. "You certainly make a fine match. And thank you, Johnny. Thank you for loving my girl." It was said with such quiet fervor that Liv felt her throat constrict, her eyes turning to her husband almost uncertainly once again, deeply touched that the old woman even considered saying such a thing, much less felt it so keenly.

Johnny's smile widened further, and he felt a rush of sudden affection for this woman who'd taken to his Livvie so quickly and thoroughly, seeing the same qualities in her that had attracted him to his wife and made him fall in love with her. "You don't have to thank me. Livvie's the best thing that ever happened to me....besides becoming the Torch," he added with a playful grin.

Beside him, Liv's smile reappeared, soft and touched and not quite so disbelieving as he was used to seeing in moments like this. She squeezed his hand, leaning close to kiss his cheek. "I'm very glad you didn't turn out to be a frog," she told him fondly, knowing this was likely to go straight over Peggy's head.

And almost as if on cue, Johnny did his best frog imitation, which admittedly wasn't very good. "Ribbet!" he said in a voice as deep as he could go. Even his voice held a similar timbre to Steve's, but the two men were as opposites in personality and demeanor as Liv was to Lucy. "If I was, would you kiss me and turn me into a prince?" he asked with a smile, leaning in for said kiss, not really aware how ridiculously silly and sentimental he was being in front of Peggy.

"I thought I already did that," Liv giggled as she leaned toward him, brushing her lips fondly to his. Like Johnny, she'd temporarily forgotten that they were not alone, but if it hadn't been for the hour spent alone with the elderly woman now tactfully examining her own fingertips, she wouldn't have been able to forget so easily. Something very important had changed in that hour, something that might well set them all on a newer, steadier course.