𝐷𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑚𝑒~ 𝐵.𝐵𝑎𝑟𝑛𝑒𝑠

Introduction

It's night, and whilst the world sleeps one man is unable to, instead he finds his way to a gym, where he's stood beating a punching bag in the gyms dim lights, alone in the floor, lost in the fight.

The gym is old, as old as the man inside, Captain America, or Steve Rogers. He beats the bag harder, like physically hurting it will repress the memories. Unfortunately it does not and so each punch gets harder, until he punches the bag, easily a hundred pounds, across the room with one swing snapping the metal chain and pummeling it back a dozen feet, sand spilling out from where he cracked the fabric. He stands up, breathing hard, and grabs another bag, resuming a more normal routine as another man enters.

"Trouble sleeping?" Steve looks to the older yet younger man stood before him, "I slept for seventy years, sir. I think I've had my fill." He responds, Fury  nods in understanding. "Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world."

Steve stops his punching and walks over to the bench, unraveling the tape off his hands. He sits down. "I went under, the world was at war, I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost." Fury nods for a second time, "We've made some mistakes along the way. Some very recently." Steve's eyes snap to the Directors, "You here with a mission, sir?" He sounds almost eager, ready to get rid of some of the built up energy. "I am."

"Trying to get me back in the world?" Fury shakes his head and hands Steve a file, "Trying to save it."
Steve glances in the file his eyes flashing with recognition. "Hydra's secret weapon."

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think, the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs." Fury explains, "Who took it from you?" Steve asks curiously, "He's called Loki. He's not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you already know."

"At this point, I doubt anything would surprise me." Fury shakes his head with a small knowing smile, "Ten bucks says you're wrong. There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at your apartment, you ship out first thing tomorrow, need you to pick up a new recruit."

Steve's eyebrows furrow as he looks to the director, he barely knew anything of the modern world was he really the best person to pick up this recruit? "Uh I hope you don't mind me asking but why me sir?" Fury sends yet another knowing smile, "everything you need to know is in your debriefing package." Steve nods, "also fair warning she doesn't know that she's being recruited and can be fairly difficult when she wants to."

• • •

I grin out to the children sat across from me enjoying the way their eyes are alight and following the small bird made of material in my hands. I had always loved to entertain people and this was the only way I was able to do so anymore, pop up puppet shows everywhere and anywhere I wanted it to be.

My eyes leave the small stage for a moment as I observe a man he's stood pretty far away and he's watching me, that wouldn't be strange but his stance seemed off to me, he was too rigid, too alert he had his guard up. He also had a cap and shades on to hide his face from me the only thing that was throwing me off was the small smile on his face.

I hurriedly finish off the show, wanting to get away from his lingering stare. Smiling at the kids who pout at the fact I'm leaving and want me to stay and put more shows on, I pack my things as fast as humanly possible before I run.

Expertly losing the strange man in the crowd I make my way back to my crappy apartment and hurriedly begin to gather my things, I guess it was time to leave.

"You in a rush miss Miller?" The deep voice that comes from behind me makes me tense, "who are you?" I question my voice strong as I reach down for the gun I keep under my pillow. "I think the real question is who are you, miss Holly Miller or was it Amy Davis? Quinn Fabray maybe Sarah Blake?" Quietly pulling the gun from its hiding spot and making sure to hide it with my body, I listen quietly as he lists off some of the many aliases I had used over the years.

"What about Rosalie? It is Rosalie Burns right?" My blood runs cold, no one knew that name, they couldn't I had done everything I possibly could to ensure it. I turn and hold the gun up at the intruder, "what do you want?" I question through gritted teeth, he doesn't even flinch at the sight of the gun instead he sends me a smile, "come on Rosie that's no way to greet a friend." I hold the gun tighter as he moves his hands up to his head ready to cock it, I mean something about him seemed familiar but all the adrenaline running through me made it impossible to think about it.

My gun drops with a clatter as I stare at the man stood before me, "Steve?" He smiles again and nods as he looks at the shock on my face. "What are you doing here you died?" He let's out a laugh, "what am I doing here? What are you doing here? You're supposed to be dead or in a home by now." I let out a laugh as he echos my question, "you always knew how to charm a lady didn't you." I giggle as he pulls me into him, "god I missed you." I sigh melting into his embrace.

I suppose for you to understand I should probably start from the beginning, and this most definitely was not the beginning.