A few minutes later, inside the Ritz London restaurant, Josh and Peggy Carter sat across from each other.
The Ritz Hotel was one of the most luxurious hotels in London of its ti, founded in 1904. It also had a sister hotel in Paris, also called the Ritz.
However, both hotels were now owned by Josh.
In addition to these two properties, Josh had also acquired luxury hotels in major cities throughout Europe and Arica with the intention of creating an elite international hotel chain.
Not only would this serve as a profitable business venture, but it could also serve as a network of intelligence hubs around the world.
Of course, this was sothing Josh kept to himself; there was no need to brag about it in front of Carter.
"By the way, I didn't thank you properly for helping out with Bucky," Peggy said after they had ordered so food. "Bucky was undoubtedly the person Steve cared about most in this world. He was always haunted by the thought of Bucky falling off that train. Sadly, Steve will never see him again.
"There's no need to thank ," Josh replied, waving her hand dismissively. "Not only was Steve my friend, but Bucky is a hero. As an Arican, it was just the right thing to do."
"That's true. After all, you're fellow countryn," Carter said with a slight smile, realizing that Josh, Steve, and Bucky were all Aricans, while she, being British, was technically the foreigner.
"Besides," Josh added with a knowing smile, "if we're talking about the people Steve cared about most in this world, Bucky might have been first, but I think there's soone else now."
Peggy smiled slightly but said nothing. She understood Josh's aning all too well. But what was the point of such feelings now? Steve was gone.
"By the way, you ntioned that you wanted to discuss sothing with about Steve. What is it?" Peggy asked, steering the conversation in another direction.
"Ah, right. My mory must be failing ," Josh said, reaching into his pocket as if to retrieve sothing. In reality, he accessed the system's inventory and took out an envelope, handing it to Carter.
"What's this?" Peggy asked in surprise as she took the envelope and opened it to reveal a key.
"It's the key to Steve's apartnt in Brooklyn," Josh explained.
"What? The key to Steve's apartnt? How is that possible?" Peggy asked in amazent.
"It's very simple," Josh replied casually. "The apartnt was a rental. When Steve enlisted, he paid the rent in full, but after news of his death reached Arica, the landlord planned to auction the apartnt at a high price under his na. I happened to hear about it and decided to buy the whole building.
"I was going to give the key to Bucky, but since I t you today, I thought it would be more fitting to give it to you," Josh added.
His explanation wasn't entirely made up.
In his previous life, Josh had read nurous fanfictions and stories about Steve Rogers, many of which described him returning to his old Brooklyn apartnt after his awakening.
However, based on the opening scenes of Captain Arica: The Winter Soldier, it was clear that Steve was living in Washington, D.C. Perhaps he moved there after the Battle of New York.
Out of curiosity, Josh had inquired about the supposed location of Steve's rumoured apartnt while he was attending a city council eting. He had even gone to see it in person.
It felt ironic for a Hydra Executive like him to visit the ho of Hydra's greatest nesis, but that didn't stop him.
Through his contacts in the Blackwater gang, Josh discovered that the apartnt had always been a rental, even during Steve's parents' ti.
Although Steve's father, Joseph Rogers, was a World War I veteran, he had not been the heroic figure Steve idolized.
Josh had learned that Joseph Rogers and his wife were Irish immigrants who ca to Arica in the early years of the war. They had lived in extre poverty, much like Vito's father, and couldn't afford to buy a house.
Joseph had worked as a labourer and at one point was involved with a local Irish gang. But when Steve's mother beca pregnant, Joseph enlisted in the military, hoping to earn more money to provide a better life for his unborn child.
Arica entered World War I in its final stages, and with a small standing army of only 300,000, the country hastily drafted over four million n and sent them to the front lines with minimal training.
Joseph arrived in Europe in early 1918, went into combat that May, and died soon after from mustard gas exposure. Steve was born after his death in July.
If a man with such a background—marked by gang affiliations, alcoholism, and a lack of military distinction—could be called a war hero, then perhaps the word "hero" has been overrated.
Steve's mother had deliberately created an idealistic image of his father in order to provide Steve with a role model.
Joseph Rogers' only contribution was to leave a pension for his wife and child.
But Steve Rogers probably never knew that this pension never actually reached his mother.
Why not? Because the U.S. governnt defaulted on its obligations.
Not only did it fail to pay many pensions to fallen soldiers, but it also tried to default on wages owed to World War I soldiers. Soldiers' warti pay remained unpaid, leading to the infamous Bonus Army march during the Great Depression.
In 1932, tens of thousands of World War I veterans marched on Capitol Hill to demand their paynts, only to be t with violent repression by the U.S. military. The crackdown resulted in the deaths of several veterans and two children (family mbers of the protesting soldiers), and thousands were injured.
To make matters worse, the U.S. governnt branded these veterans as criminals, accusing them of being communists.
A curious footnote in this dark chapter involves the military officers in charge of the suppression. Among them were three figures who would later beco famous in World War II: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, and George Patton.
Eisenhower and Patton were cautious about the use of force and initially refrained from violence. However, MacArthur, the senior officer among them, took a hard line. Disregarding President Hoover's orders, MacArthur ordered Eisenhower and Patton to lead troops in forcibly dispersing the veterans.
In a strange twist of fate, among the demonstrators that day was Harry S. Truman, who would beco Arica's first post-war president.
Truman, a forr World War I captain, joined his comrades in the protest while serving as a judge in Jackson County, Missouri. He narrowly avoided being crushed by tanks under MacArthur's command in front of the Capitol.
Thus the seeds of animosity between Truman and MacArthur were sown long before their later political clashes.
Because of the governnt's betrayal, Steve Rogers grew up solely dependent on his mother's hard work.
To make ends et, his mother took a job as a nurse in the tuberculosis ward—a position notorious for its dangers—and ultimately sacrificed her life.
Steve's childhood circumstances left him malnourished, resulting in a host of health problems, including asthma, scarlet fever, and rheumatic fever.
Under such dire financial circumstances, the idea of owning a ho was a fantasy.
Even a modest apartnt in Brooklyn's poor neighbourhoods would have been out of reach.
Without Steve's childhood friendship with Bucky, he might not have survived. Unlike Steve's struggling household, Bucky's family was solidly middle class—far from wealthy, but comfortable enough. (TL/N: He is mixing comic elents in this FF it seems)
This difference is evident in Captain Arica: The Winter Soldier, where their contrasting clothing styles in flashback scenes highlight their different socioeconomic backgrounds.
Steve survived his childhood thanks to the care and support of Bucky's family.
It was this brotherly bond that led Steve to care so deeply for Bucky.
By comparison, Steve's friendship with the Stark family—Howard and later Tony—was relatively superficial.
It's no wonder that during the Civil War, Captain Arica chose to protect Bucky, even if it ant hurting Tony.
People are selfish by nature, and when it cos to things they truly care about, even soone like Steve Rogers is no exception.
"Thank you, Josh. I never realized his childhood was so difficult," Peggy Carter remarked as she studied the key in her hand, a hint of emotion in her voice. "I'll find a way to pay you back for the apartnt."
Indeed, although Peggy was Captain Arica's lover and prided herself on knowing him intimately, she had never heard of these struggles from his early life until now.
It seed that aside from the brief period when he beca "Captain Arica," Steve Rogers had rarely had a truly good day.
"Talking about money ruins the mood," Josh teased with fake annoyance. "Or are you saying you don't consider a friend?"
Peggy chuckled and shook her head. "Fair enough. With your wealth, I suppose an apartnt hardly makes a dent. Then I won't argue. Besides, I'm heading to the U.S. next week, so it's one less thing to arrange."
"You're going to New York next week?" Josh asked, a flicker of surprise crossing his face.
He was aware that Peggy would eventually go to Arica—how else would S.H.I.E.L.D. be founded? But her imdiate departure took him by surprise.
"Yes. It's no secret. With the war over, the Strategic Scientific Reserve is being moved back to the U.S., and of course I'm moving too. This trip to Britain was to say goodbye to my family and my sister-in-law and nephew," Peggy explained. She stopped when she noticed Josh looking at her with a strange expression. "Is there sothing on my face?"
"Oh, nothing," Josh deflected with a laugh. "I was just reminded of sothing unrelated. I heard about your brother—he was a hero."
In truth, when Peggy ntioned her sister-in-law, Josh was struck by a mory from his past life of a long-standing joke involving Peggy and Sharon Carter.
In certain foreign versions of the Avengers movies, Sharon Carter was mistranslated as Peggy's niece. However, this created an amusing problem, Sharon was clearly in her twenties or thirties during the Avengers ti, while Peggy was well into her nineties.
Moreover, Peggy Carter had only one brother, who died during World War II, leaving behind a newborn boy.
So logically, Peggy could only have a nephew, not a niece.
So where did Sharon Carter co from as her "niece"?
Josh had pondered this anomaly for years before discovering that the confusion stemd from a linguistic problem.
In English, the word "aunt" can refer to any female relative of an older generation, including great-aunts.
With that realization, the mystery unravelled, Sharon Carter wasn't Peggy's niece, she was her great-niece.
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