[ her lesson has been a particularly painful one -- during that event, the one she'd just referenced, peggy relived over and over the memory of trying to talk him down from the skies. the words changed but the outcome never did. each time, she lost him. and each time she felt the full weight of what it meant to respect him and his choices. his principles.

she can see them on display again right now -- she knows him just as well as he knows himself, she thinks. he's an intractable sort. she loves him for it. ]

Someone else signed you up for it. They did the moment they thawed you out of the ice. [ peg answers. ] That doesn't stop it from still being your fight. I understand that much. Hell, I empathise with it.

[ shield isn't hers -- not yet -- but she feels an ownership for it. ]