Bring Her Home

1: 11

After Steve and Bucky had been missing for some time, they awoke in a 1940's hospital and heard a baseball game on an old radio. A woman walked into the room.

The Dodgers announcer said over the radio, "Curve ball, high and outside for ball one. So the Dodgers are tied, 4-4. And the crowd well knows that with one swing of his bat, this fellow's capable of making it a brand-new game again. Just an absolutely gorgeous day here at Ebbets Field. The Phillies have managed to tie up at 4-4. But the Dodgers have three men on. Pearson beaned Reiser in Philadelphia last month. Wouldn't the youngster like a hit here to return the favor? Pete leans in. Here's the pitch. Swung on. A line to the right. And it gets past Rizzo. Three runs will score. Reiser heads to third. Durocher's going to wave him in. Here comes the relay, but they won't get him." The door opened and an agent walked in.

"Good morning," the agent greeted as she checked her watch. "Or should I say, afternoon?"

"Where am I?" Steve and Bucky asked.

"You're both in a recovery room in New York City."

"The Dodgers take the lead, 8-4. Oh, Dodgers! Everyone is on their feet. What a game we have here today, folks. What a game indeed."

Steve and Bucky looked at her suspiciously. "Where are we really?"

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

"This game, it's from May, 1941," Steve said. "I know because he and I were there with a friend." He got up from the bed. "Now, I'm gonna ask again. Where are we?"

"Captain Rogers..." She secretly pushed an alarm.

"Who are you?" Bucky demanded.

Two soldiers in black uniforms entered the room and Steve knocked them through the wall. He and Bucky realized they were in a made-up set and ran out.

"Captain Rogers, Sergeant Barnes, wait!" the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent said before speaking into a comm. "All agents, code 13! I repeat. All agents, code 13!"

---

Steve and Bucky found themselves in 2011's Time Square. They looked around in shock. Numerous SUVs encircled them and Fury stepped out of one of the vehicles.

"At ease, soldiers!" Fury said. "Look, I'm sorry about that little show back there, but... we thought it best to break it to you two slowly."

"Break what?" Steve and Bucky asked.

"You've both been asleep. For almost seventy years." Steve and Bucky looked around him in shock. "You two gonna be okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah. I just... I had a date," Steve answered, the memories of his last conversation with Peggy playing in his head. He figured she was gone and that he'd never see her again. In a matter of months, for him, he'd lost his best friend and the woman he'd fallen in love with.

Bucky mentally cursed the world. He was ready to die, but fate was cruel. He'd woken up in a foreign time, not knowing how the world worked in the current day. At least he wasn't alone. He stared down at the dog tags still around his neck. How he missed her so. He clutched the star of David necklace and the dog tags and closed his eyes.

Bucky glanced at his friend, then Fury. "Save the world without me. I already did it once. Some peace would be nice."

Steve nodded slowly. "Take care, Buck. Keep in touch."

Bucky saluted his friend, then said to Fury, "I'm sure you'll be able to find me."

Fury nodded. "We will."

With that, Bucky walked away.

---

Steve was pummeling a punching bag in the gym and in anger, he knocked his punching bag off its chain, sending it flying across the room when Fury entered.

"Trouble sleeping?" Fury asked.

"You're here with a mission, sir?" Steve questioned.

"I am."

"Trying to get me back in the world?"

"Trying to save it."