A/N: The ending of Captain America broke my heart! No joke - even my mum (who is like really unemotional) said it was sad! Hence I felt the need to write something. I'd love to know what you thought, so please leave a review. I hope you enjoy it.

Dancing Alone

Peggy Carter sighed as she sat down. Why she was even doing it, she didn't know. It wasn't as if Steve would simply walk through the door and apologise for being late. Steve would never walk again.

It was terrible. Her heart was in pieces and she could still hear the static of the radio as she waited for the reply that would never come. Peggy felt even worse than when Steve had disappeared behind enemy lines after going to the rescue of the 107th infantry. Then she'd had faith that he would come back to her. Now she had nothing. Howard Stark had searched the ocean high and low, finding nothing but that godforsaken Tesseract.

Still, despite the absence of hope, she'd pulled out the navy blue dress that she'd hidden away in her wardrobe for a special occasion and donned it with a fur coat before setting out for the Stork Club.

She was there by half seven and standing miserably in the midst of happily dancing couples, oblivious of the fate of their hero.

So she waited. By herself. In the middle of the dance floor. Willing Steve not to be dead and to calmly walk through the door to meet her for their date.

"Care to dance?" a young man asked, offering her his hand.

"No, sorry, I'm waiting," Peggy replied politely.

"For what? You've been stood up."

As the man walked away, she murmured to nobody, "The right partner…"

A single tear rolled down her cheek as she brushed past an elderly couple waltzing. The night air was chilling, but with the thick fur pulled tight around her, Peggy barely felt it. The cab she'd hailed drove down the street and stopped before her, parking in a skew-whiff fashion so that the tail end was sticking into the road.

"Where to?" the driver asked, turning to inspect her.

Peggy gave him her address and settled back into the seat, crossing her legs.

"Been dancing?"

She nodded as she stared out the window, trying not to think about whether Steve had been beaten up in that particular park or alley.

"Where's your partner?"

Peggy didn't answer.

"You weren't dancing alone, I hope," the driver commented.

Giving him a wry smile, Peggy diverted her attention from the buildings they were passing and saw the shock on his face.

"A beautiful dame like you?"

A soft sob escaped her lips. Steve was the only person who'd ever called her a dame. Luckily, she managed to pass the noise off as a laugh, and was only too eager to pay the driver a handful of dollars when they arrived at her apartment.

It was military accommodation – everyone in the building either lived with someone who worked in the forces or was a part of them themselves.

She threw her coat over the back of her armchair and picked up the revolver she'd left on the side table. There were still three bullets in it. Without hesitation, she fired them all, not caring if she left holes in her walls.

Damn Steve for making a fool of her. Never before had she fallen for someone on the job. It was a ridiculous thing. And then he'd come along and he was kind, determined and naïve where every other man she came across scoffed and thought of her as a bimbo. None of them respected her and none of them thought she was any good at her job. She'd finally let go of her inhibitions and allowed herself to feel something for someone and it had backfired on her. She wasn't meant to be that girl who went weak-kneed at the sight of a man, nor had she ever been so incapacitated by grief, but there was something about Steve that had been special. Something that had drawn her to him. And something that meant she missed him terribly. The fact that they'd never even had one dance was a source of grief to Peggy. They'd never even had a chance to really be together before he was taken away from her.

Peggy wasn't stupid. She knew she would have other suitors and she would be idiotic to refuse them.

As the last bullet left her gun, she made a promise to herself and resolved never to dance alone again.

A/N: So? How did I do?