(Y/n) placed the last piece on the built in shelves in the room. Fury had promised to have her old home packed up and sold for her. Her favourite items shipped to the compound, while the rest were put into storage for a later date. So, at least she had something; something that made the previously bare and cold looking rooms, feel more homely.

Finally, she took a seat and admired her handy work. On the walls, on the shelves were some of the things that she had collected over the years. Items from each culture and peoples that she had come across, lived with and loved, throughout her many, many lifetimes. Each piece having a special part of her heart. Each piece taking her back to a place, a person or moment in time. Yet as much as she loved them, as much as they meant to her, there was nothing more important than the photographs that she kept in an old box. The immortal just wishing that she had more of them. More pictures to help her remember things that had long since vanished from the world.

"It's a very simple piece, but I like it.............when did you get it?" A voice suddenly said. The immortal not having to look up from the old photo in her hand to know who was talking to her.

"You've seen that before, Howard. You've asked me about it before. I bought it in a market in Pompeii, not long before the catastrophe............."

"Oh yes, I remember it now. You know, there isn't a museum in the world that wouldn't kill for what you have here.............."

"You've said that before too. So did Fury when he came to talk me into this. Now, why are you really here............?" The immortal enquired, as she brushed her fingers over the slightly faded image in her palm.

"What? You want me to leave............?"

"I didn't say that. But............."

"Rogers..........he wasn't convinced............."

"Of course, he wasn't convinced. That was one of the reasons why Erskine and I believed him to be the best candidate; he questions things. Looks at a problem for a different angle." (Y/n) interrupted, as she thought back to the flagpole incident.

"It might have helped if you hadn't beaten him and Barnes in a fight..........." Howard continued. The immortal sure that she could feel him sit down next to her on the sofa.

"Yes, I know. But I can't help myself. I was never one to back down, you know that........."

"He will go to Fury next to see if he can push him a little more........"

"Yes, you're right. But I don't think that he will get anything from the director. Fury wants to keep me here. Said that he will leave it up to me to choose whether or not I tell them............."

"And what about Tony..............?"

"What about him.............?"

"You like him................"

"Of course, I like him, he's a Stark; I don't seem to be able to keep away from Stark men. You have this strange hold over me, which I just cannot explain. So much of him already reminds me of you; but it is what makes Tony, Tony and not you, which really draws me in. I can already feel that he is a good man, a decent man. And what he has been able to achieve...........you should be very proud of him........."

"Of course, I am. He is my greatest creation. A creation that should have been ours................"

"But he isn't, Howard. Despite everything we tried to convince ourselves of, we knew that it could never be. It was the right thing to do to send me away after Erskine's assassination; I don't even want to think about what Hydra might have done if I had fallen into their hands. And it was the right thing for you to find a woman that you could have a real life with. A woman that could give you everything I couldn't. A woman that you could grow old with. But that doesn't mean that I still don't wish that it could have been different............"

"Is that why you still have the ring.............?"

"You know, I am going to stop looking at pictures of you, if every time you do, you come back to ask me questions I don't want to answer............"

"(Y/n)............"

"Alright, yes. You are the one man that I have never truly been able to break away from. And now, meeting your son, I feel as though I am already going to feel that way for him too." (Y/n) explained, as she placed the photo of a smiling Howard over her heart.

"Then tell him who you really are. What you really are...........let him get to know the real you.........."

"And how do you think that would work out..........? By the way, Tony, I am an immortal and was your father's lover for a number of years. He actually asked me to marry him, and I still wear the ring around my neck. Its not something you just slip into a conversation casually............."

"If you don't tell him now; don't tell Rogers, when you do want to tell them, you could find it more difficult. They could both come to resent you........."

"I know. I don't want to hurt either of them. I don't want to deny the captain that link that he seems to want. I don't want to feel for Tony as I did for you, then have to tell him what happened between us. I am between a rock and a hard place, and I don't know what to do for the best.........."

"You'll figure it out, sweetheart. You always did. You are the smartest, most beautiful immortal that I ever met.............."

"Oh, and how many other immortals did you meet, Mister Stark.........?"

"None......that is why you are the smartest and most beautiful one. Now, I think that you should put the photographs away. You have a visitor.........." Howard replied, his voice softly drifting away, as she placed his picture back in the box. The immortal covering it and wiping a tear from her eye, as a knock came to her door.