A long time ago, Sharon used to think that her life and her work were different things. That she could go home and take off the holster, or that she and Steve could make dinner together and watch a movie (that they rented from Blockbuster, way back in the day) and exist like two normal people in love doing the things that 'normal' people do. But whenever they got busy, whenever the world was in crisis, it was that time together and those moments that were the first to go, not because they didn't care about each other but because the missions always came first. Their relationship always second. Eventually it stopped feeling like a sacrifice.
Eventually, she figured out that they could never be normal. That settling down to a dog and a white picket fence just wasn't going to be in her future no matter how often she thought she wanted it. Her life and her future was SHIELD, the Avengers, and protected the world with Steve, as much as she could. Her life, and her future, ended in a sacrifice -- and her death so that Steve could keep fighting and keep doing what he needed to do. She'd lost a lot, her dreams, her child and her life in the pursuit of making the world a better place and keeping it safe. And she didn't regret it. Even if it wasn't what she wanted, she'd still managed to make a difference in the world and that was a lot more than a lot of people could say.
But now she was here, getting what might be a second lease on life. She could have done anything she wanted with it, but it didn't take her long before she fell in with this world's SHIELD, with Nick Fury and his brand of treason, with the Howling Commandos and with Steve -- always Steve.
"I know Dum Dum, back in my world." Sharon admitted, "So it's good seeing -- you know, a version of him. And fighting with the Commandos after all the stories I've heard over the years from Nick? It's like a dream."
She used the edge of her fork to tap a piece of sliced salami towards the mustard at the corner of their cheese plate, looking down at what she was doing as she spoke, mostly to avoid eye contact. "Just tell me, Steve. How much does your being here have to do with Bucky?"