The Final Straw (Steve Rogers/Nick Fury)

13.2K 344 31
                                    

Something that popped into my head on the drive to work last night. Based on the song Chocolate by Snow Patrol.

"At ease soldier."

This could be the very minute

I'm aware I'm alive

All these places feel like home

With a name I'd never chosen

I can make my first steps

As a child of 25

Steve Rogers, Captain America himself, spun around as he stood at the corner of 46th and Broadway in New York City, confused at the sights and sounds that surrounded him, completely different from the world he knew seemingly only moments ago. The city had always been loud and alive, but this was on another level. He recognized the street names and several of the buildings were the same, but the skyline was foreign to him now, as was the man standing before him, telling him that he was still home; that he had somehow survived the crash that was meant to save the city and meant to kill him in the process.

"You've been asleep, Cap. For almost 70 years," Nick Fury said, watching Steve cautiously for any sudden reaction, not knowing what such a long time in stasis might do to the man's mind, and what this realization could do to his emotions.

Steve looked down at his hands, the same hands that gripped the controls of the plane hard enough to turn his fingers white as he pushed it forward; roaring towards its final destination. His body was the same, still strong and healthy, the body of a post-serum version of Steve Rogers that had become his new self. This was still the body of Captain America, whether he wanted it or not.

This is the straw, final straw in the

Roof of my mouth as I lie to you

Just because I'm sorry doesn't mean

I didn't enjoy it at the time

You're the only thing that I love

It scares me more every day

On my knees I think clearer

"What about the war?" he asked, "did we win?"

"Hell yes. Unconditional surrender," Fury boasted, but Steve knew there was more coming; he knew that he was found for a reason. "Taking down HYDRA was a big part of that. But the world hasn't changed all that much. There's still a lot of work to be done. A soldier's work." Nick slowly reached into his pocket and removed something carefully, handing it to Steve as if it were fragile and priceless, and in many ways it was.

The Captain turned the small item over in his hands, taking several deep breaths, knowing exactly what he would find inside, hesitant to allow himself to look for the fear of opening wounds that could never be closed. The fear of looking at a past that still felt like the present, as he stood in the future that would never be as he had imagined it.

Steve opened the compass reluctantly, turning it so that her picture was straight and so that the paper wouldn't tear from it's age and worn corners. He ran his finger over the picture of Peggy, gently and slowly moving as if he were touching her skin, closing his eyes to try to remember the sensation that he would likely never feel again. It was a pain that made any battle wound pale in comparison.

"Where did you find this? How was it not destroyed in the crash?"

Nick smiled and pointed at the team that stood behind him, signaling them to return to their vehicles for departure, believing that Steve would join him. "I had a team reconstruct it for you; I have some idea of what it meant to you, and what it would mean to have it now, when so much is changing around you."

"Thank you, sir."

"You gonna be okay?" Nick asked cautiously.

Steve turned to look up and down the sidewalks around him, his senses bombarded with the sights of lit Broadway signs and the sounds of car horns, voices, and music filling the square. It was almost too much, too fast, too different; too far from what he had left behind.

"Yeah, it's just...I had a date."

Goodness knows I saw it coming

Or at least I'll claim I did

But in truth I'm lost for words

What have I done it's too late for that

What have I become truth is nothing yet

A simple mistake starts the hardest time

I promise I'll do anything you ask...this time

When he agreed to be a part of Dr. Erskine's experiment, this wasn't a part of the plan. This wasn't what he agreed to; a life alone, all of his friends gone, in a time and place that made no sense. 'All I wanted to do was protect my county, to serve', he thought as he pummeled the punching bag, doing anything he could to break the streak of insomnia that had gripped him since he woke from the ice. 'I have no place in the world. I don't recognize the man I've become'. His mind was racing but he couldn't stop it, and his fists matched the flurry of thought until the bag finally relented and burst open from his strength and anger.

"Trouble sleeping?"

"I've slept for 70 years, sir. I think I've had my fill."

Steve moved towards his bag, quickly removing the wraps from his hands that were reddened and sore from countless hours of hits that never felt satisfying to him. Fury wasn't there to check up on him, he was there to put him to work; only mere days after their first meeting. If Steve had felt more comfortable with the man, he would've told Fury where he could stick that file he carried towards him.

"When I went under, the world was at war," Steve said, "I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost." 'Yeah, like the life I earned, the life I deserved. The life we deserved together, dammit'. "Are you here with a mission, sir?"

"I am," Nick said, almost reluctantly, studying the Captain's face for hints of a reaction but found none.

Steve grabbed the file from him and studied the contents, feeling the heat rise from his neck into his face, anger taking over again. They wanted him to find the one thing that he had given everything up for so that it could be destroyed. After everything, he was back to the beginning.

'I was wrong', he thought, 'the world hasn't changed at all'.


Imagine If You Assembled the Avengers: Volume 1Where stories live. Discover now