Out Of Time

forty-seven

Steve was angry. Angry at all the memories that were haunting him. The memories of the war. Life before he crashed into the ice. He continually beat at punching bags like physically hurting it would repress his memories. He was so in his head and focused on beating the bag, that Steve didn't notice Fury enter the gym. Fury watched as Steve punched the bag and it flew across the room. Breathing hard, Steve simply grabbed another bag and returned to his punching.

"Trouble sleeping?" Fury questioned, making his presence known.

"I slept for seventy years, sir," Steve answered, stilling punching. "I think I've had my fill."

"Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world."

Steve stopped punching, knowing that Fury wasn't going to leave him along, and walked over to a bench, sitting down to unravel the tape off his hands. "I went under, the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."

"We've made some mistakes along the way. Some very recently."

"You here with a mission, sir?"

"I am."

"Trying to get me back in the world?"

"Trying to save it." Fury handed Steve a file, filled with information on the Tesseract.

"HYDRA's secret weapon," Steve stated among seeing a picture of the Tesseract.

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you and Y/N. He thought what we think, the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That's something the world sorely needs."

"Who took it from you?"

"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."

"Ten bucks says you're wrong. There's a debriefing package waiting for you back at your apartment." Steve stood up, picking up an unused punching bag and headed for the door. "Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?"

"You should have left it in the ocean. But I'm pretty sure Y/N already told you that."

"About Y/N," that caused Steve to pause, "she was put in charge of watching the Tesseract. And we discovered something." Steve turned around to look at Fury. "I'm usually one to break things to people, but I think that this is something she should explain to you."

"I'll call her as soon as I get home." Steve turned back around to head out.

"She's actually not available tonight," Fury stated, knowing that Y/N was currently in the medical wing of the helicarrier being monitored for her head injury. "But I promise you'll see her soon."

~~~

Phil Coulson was never really one to hold a grudge. But as he entered Stark Tower, he couldn't help at be reminded of how Y/N looked after Tony's birthday party last year. Phil knew that Tony wasn't in his right mind, but that still didn't make any of what happened okay. Y/N was hurt from head to toe and, Phil had yet to tell her, she spent most of the night calling out for Tony and Bucky in her sleep. Phil sighed as he dialed Tony's number, patiently waiting for the elevator to move and for him to answer.

"Agent Coulson," JARVIS answered the phone, "I'm afraid Mr. Stark is unavailable at the moment."

"This is of extreme importance," Coulson insisted. "I need to talk to Mr. Stark."