On Purpose

Awake.

He wasn't in his room anymore. He was in a room with green walls. He was hooked up to some kind of machine. He looked up at the ceiling. The was a fan spinning around. There was no noise. Suddenly he heard quiet crying. He looked down to see a brunette haired woman laying in his chest crying. "Miss?" He asked. Her head shot up and she gasped.

His eyes grew and his mouth dropped. "Steve!" "Peggy." He gasped, unable to believe what he was seeing. She hugged him quickly. He wrapped his arms around her. Was she real? "Your awake!" She exclaimed letting go of their hug. "Awake? But I-I've been awake." He said confused. "What? Steve, you've been in a coma for 6 months. They weren't even sure you would wake up." She said slowly with tears in her eyes.

Steve thought for a moment. But the last 4 years that he had spent with the Avengers...what happened? He had woken up from the ice already. He was forced to get used to the new world, he joined the Avengers and SHIELD, took down SHIELD, had the Avengers Civil War over the accords, had found Bucky, and had gone to Peggy's funeral.

"But...then, where am I?" He asked. "Your at one of Howard's laboratories. Don't worry though, we just had you here to take care of you. Now that your awake, they'll need to run a few tests, but then you'll be free to leave." She answered. "But I was...what year is this?" He asked her urgently. She looked at him with slight caution. "It's 1947." Steve looked at her with a confused look. "But how-"

"When you crashed...everyone was devastated. They sent out a search party, and couldn't find any trace of wreckage," She looked down not able to look in his eyes. He watched her intently."...they finally declared you...killed...in action." She said struggling to say those words. She was staring at nothingness as if being taken back to that exact time and place. Steve frowned. She blinked and cleared her throat. She looked back up at him.

"When um, Howard found out he sent out a giant search party. By last summer he still hadn't found anything, except for the tesseract which he had found in December of 1945. The government tried to convince Howard to give up, but he wouldn't stop looking. 6 months ago in May Howard finally found the first trace of wreckage, it lead him to the sight of a plane crash. Your plane crash."

Her voice began to shake. "They...went inside and...found your body. You had...fallen out of the pilots seat and were on the floor. They took you to one of Howard's facilities." She paused and took a breath.

"While they were running some tests, they found out that you were actually alive. You had somehow gone into some sort of hibernation. Something that... had to do with the strum in your blood. Thats when they took you out of the ice and brought you here. The only problem was...they didn't know how to get you to wake up, out of the coma." She explained.

Steve blinked in slight realization. Was it true? Was all of that just a dream? "You mean...I was in a coma...all this time?" Steve asked wide eyed. He didn't know whether to be happy or sad. She nodded.

He looked down, his eyes shifting back and forth as he put all the pieces together. Those voices he kept hearing, he hadn't been hearing things. They were actually Peggy and Howard's voices that he had heard. It was a dream. All of it. He quickly looked back up at her. Her eyes were glassed over and she was looking at him intently.

He looked at her in disbelief and unexplainable joy. "Peggy..." "Yes?" She whispered. Her eyes were filled with tears. He smiled and spoke breathlessly. "I can't believe it's you." She smiled slightly and nodded. "It's me." She answered. "I can't believe it! Your here." He said just staring at her. Peggy was actually there. She was young, alive and well.

She tried to smile, but she broke down. "Oh, Steve!" She hugged him and cried. He held her tightly as if she would disappear any second. "I thought you were dead. It had been a whole year!" She said in his ear. "I know. It's okay." He soothed her. "Then when they found you...you wouldn't wake up. I already lost you once I-I couldn't loose you again...."

He pulled her away from him and looked into her eyes. "Hey it's okay. I'm here. And you won't ever loose me again. I promise." She stared at him. "Got it?" She nodded and smiled. She just looked at him. He smiled at her. "Peggy, I missed you." "Missed me? How could you have known it had been a long time?" She asked. "I-well...while I was on the plane....and knew I was crashing....I started to miss you." He explained. "Oh. Well I...missed you too Steve." They both just stared at one another.

She cleared her throat. "I um, better go get Howard and tell him your awake. He'll want to run some tests." She smiled. "Okay." She walked out. He looked around. He had never felt his happy before, in his whole life. He was actually home.