Like a Brother

New Jersey

"First rule of going on the run is, don't run, walk" Natasha said as I stood in the middle of her and Steve. We were at the mall to use one of the computers here. We had gotten a change of clothes so now I was wearing glasses, jeans, sneakers, with Steve's sweatshirt. I guess I didn't have that much of a change. The only thing I added was the glasses.
"If I run in these shoes, they're gonna fall off" Steve said making me laugh as we entered a Mac store to use one of their computers.
"The drive has a level six homing program, so as soon as we boot up SHIELD will know exactly where we are" Nat said.
"How much time do we have?" I asked as Steve put his hands on my shoulders to blend in. He has no idea how to act like a dad. I don't see him being a dad in the future. I wonder if he has a special someone in his life.
"Uh...about nine minutes from..." she said as she pops the flash drive into a MacBook Pro, "Now." Nat looked at the awkwardness of Steve putting his hands on my shoulders.
"Seriously? Put her on your back. It'll blend in more" Nat said as Steve nodded and bent down. I climbed onto his back and wrapped my arms around his neck as he rose to his feet. He held my legs so I didn't fall.
"Fury was right about that ship, somebody's trying to hide something. This drive is protected by some sort of AI, it keeps rewriting itself to counter my commands" Nat said.
"Can you override it?" Steve asked.
"The person who developed this is slightly smarter than me. Slightly" Nat said.
Me, Steve and Natasha continue to try and find out what's on the flash drive.
"I'm gonna try running a tracer. This is a program that SHIELD developed to track hostile malware, so if we can't read the file, maybe we can find out where it came from" she said.
"Can I help you guys with anything?" asked an employee.
"Oh, no. My husband was just helping me with some anniversary destinations" Nat said smiling.
"Right! We're married" Steve said smiling as I hugged him. Steve turned back to me and smiled a fake smile.
"Congratulations. Where do you guys thinking about going?" He asked. Steve looks at the monitor and sees the signal traced to somewhere in New Jersey.
"New Jersey" Steve said.
"Oh" he said as the employee looks at Steve for a moment, "I have the exact same glasses."
"Wow, you two are practically twins" Nat said.
"Yeah, I wish. Specimen. Uh...if you guys need anything, I've been Aaron" he said walking away.
"Thank you" Steve said.
"You said nine minutes, come on" Steve said.
"Shh, relax. Got it" said Nat as we find the signal is coming from Wheaton, NJ, "You two know it?" Steve jumped so I could go up higher so I didn't fall off his back.
"We used to. Let's go" Steve pulls the flash drive from the computer and they walk out of the store.
"Standard tac-team. Two behind, to across, two coming straight at us. If they make us, I'll engage, you two hit the south escalator to the metro" Steve said as two agents are coming straight towards us.
"Shut up and put your arm around me, laugh at something I said. Steph, look like your sleeping and make sure you hide your face" said Nat.
"What?" Steve asked as I buried my face in Steve's neck. My warm breath probably tickling his neck.
"Do it!" Nat said as Steve quickly puts his arm around Natasha and laughs while I pretend I'm sleeping on Steve's back.
As we are going down the escalator Natasha spots Rumlow on the escalator next to them going up, she turns to Steve.
"Kiss me" Nat said.
"What?" Steve asked.
"Public displays of affection make people very uncomfortable" I said.
"Yes, they do" Steve said as she quickly pulls down Steve's head and kisses him making Rumlow look away as he goes past them on the escalator. I tried not to laugh.
"You still uncomfortable?" She asked.
"It's not exactly the word I would use" Steve said. Maybe Nat and Steve should get together but I don't think I see that happening. I think she likes Banner.
I sat in the back on the truck Steve hot wired and I looked out the window to see a sign that says "Welcome to New Jersey!" It's been a long while since I've been here.
"Where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" Nat asked.
"Nazi Germany" Steve said.
"Mm" she hummed.
"And we're borrowing. Take your feet off the dash" Steve said as Nat takes her feet off the dash with a smile.
"Alright, I have a question for you, of which you do not have to answer. I feel like if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know?" Nat asked.
"What?" Steve asked.
"Was that your first kiss since 1945?" She asked making me snicker.
"That bad, huh?" Steve asked.
"I didn't say that" She said.
"Well, it kind of sounds like that's what you're saying" Steve said making me smile. I tried so bad to hold in my laughs.
"No, I didn't. I just wondered how much practice you had" She said.
"I don't need practice" Steve said.
"Everybody needs practice" I said.
"It was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm ninety-five, I'm not dead" Steve said making me laugh.
"Nobody special, though?" She asked Steve chuckles.
"Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience. The only one with the same experience is Steph and she's 14 almost 15" Steve said.
"Well, that's alright, you just make something up" Nat said.
"What, like you?" Steve asked.
"I don't know. The truth is a matter of circumstances, it's not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I" she said.
"That's a tough way to live" Steve said.
"It's a good way not to die, though" She said.
"You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is" Steve said.
"Yeah. Who do you want me to be?" She asked.
"How about a friend?" Steve asked as mom laughs softly.
"Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers" she said.
Moments later we pull up to outside an abandoned military base where the signal led us to. It's been years since I've been here.
"This is it?" Steve asked.
"The file came from these coordinates" Nat said.
"So did we" Steve said as I jumped out of the truck with Steve's help. Later that night as we walk around the base trying to pinpoint where the signal came from.
"This camp is where I was trained" Steve said as I looked around remembering watching Steve do push ups.
"Changed much?" Nat asked.
"A little" he said as I jumped from a platform and followed Nat. I looked back at Steve as he looks around nostalgically.
"This is a dead end. Zero heat signature, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off" I said as Steve notices a building ahead of us.
"What is it?" She asked as as we walk over to the building.
"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards from the barracks" I said as Steve walked over.
"This building is in the wrong place" Steve said as he opens the lock with his shield and we enter inside, when Nat turns on the lights I notice it's a SHIELD office. I remember being here with Peggy and Howard.
"This is SHIELD" I said looking around the dusty area.
"Maybe where it started" Steve said as we enter a room where they find old framed portraits of Howard Stark, Peggy and Col. Chester Phillips.
"There's Stark's father" Nat said.
"Howard" Steve said.
"Who's the girl?" Nat asked making me smile but Steve doesn't reply and turns away to walk further down the room and stops by a massive book shelf. I found a file and I put my flashlight in my mouth and looked through the file. I was just seeing what they had. Nothing much. There was a file about me which made my scoff at the picture.
"If you already working in a secret office..." Steve said as he pushes the books shelf and slides open to reveal an elevator behind it, "Why do you need to hide the elevator?"
We go down the elevator which takes them to a room with old looking computers.
"This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient" I said suddenly Nat notices a small flash drive port, she places the flash drive in it which then activates the ancient computer in the room.
"Initiate system?" asked the computer. Nat types using the keyboard.
"Y-E-S, spells yes" She said as she smiles as the old computer starts to cranks up, "Shall we play a game? It's from a movie that-"
"Yeah, we saw it" he said suddenly we hear an accented voice speaking.
"Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984. Stephanie Barnes. Born, 1925" said the voice as we see an old camera moving above us as it analyzes us.
"It's some kind of a recording" Nat said.
"I am not a recording, Fräulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am" said the voice as the computer screen shows an old photo of Dr. Arnim Zola.
"Do you know this thing?" Nat asked.
"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years" Steve said as I glared at the computer.
"First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive" he said, "In 1972 I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body, my mind, however, that was worth saving on two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain."
"How did you get here?" I asked.
"Invited" he said.
"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic values" Nat said.
"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own" he said.
"HYDRA died with the Red Skull" Steve said.
"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place" he said.
"Prove it" I hissed.
"Accessing archive" the computer screen shows them old footage of Johann Schmidt/Red Skull, of the how the original SHIELD founders, "HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed."
"That's impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you" I said.
"Accidents will happen" he said as the computer screen shows them HYDRA had killed Howard and Maria Stark making it look like a car accident along with the recent death of Fury.
"HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum" he said in anger Steve suddenly smashes the computer screen making me jump a little.
"As I was saying..." Zola said appearing on another screen.
"What's on this drive?!" Steve asked.
"Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm" He said.
"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Nat asked.
"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it" he said suddenly the elevator doors starts to close, Steve tries stops it by throwing his shield in between it but he's too late. They closed.
"Steve, I got a bogey. Short-range ballistic. Thirty seconds, tops" Nat said.
"Who fired it?" Steve asked.
"SHIELD" me and Nat answered.
"I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain" he said as Nat quickly takes the flash drive out of the port and I ran over to Steve, "Admit it, it's better this way. We're both of us...out of time."
Steve notices a small opening on the ground, he throws the metal door aside, he grabs ahold of me and just as the place explodes he throws himself, me and Nat into the hole and protects us with his shield but a piece of rock fell down and hit me in the head making my world go black.

Flashback
"You'll do fine, Stevie" I said smiling as I picked up his metal shield for the show. He walked out of the bathroom wearing the costume. I couldn't contain my laughter. It all spilled out and I couldn't control it. He was wearing his superhero costume.
"That's a confidence builder" he mumbled.
"I'm sorry but I've never seen you in tights!" I said laughing as Steve placed a hand on his hip tired of me picking on him about wearing tights. We were backstage and I was helping Steve get ready for the show as Captain America. The Star Spangled Man with a Plan!
"I can't believe I'm wearing tights" he said running his hand through his hair.
"Believe it, Blondie" I said smiling as I handed him his red, white, and blue shield.
"For a 10 year old you are very sarcastic" he said messing up my head of blonde curls with a big smile on his face.
"I get it all from you and Bucky" I said wiggling away from him while laughing. We walked out of the dressing room and out towards the curtains. Brandt's Aide was waiting there for Steve.
"I don't know if I can do this" Steve said to the Aide.
"Nothing to it. Sell off a few bonds, bonds buy bullets, bullets kills Nazi's. Bing bang boom. You're an American hero" he said.
"It's just now how I pictured getting there" Steve said.
"The senator's got a lot of pull up on the hill. You play ball with us, you'll be leading your own platoon in no time" he said.
"Take the shield" I said handing him the shield as as Steve puts on his head mask the Aide pushes Steve onto the stage. I walked out from backstage and took my seat in the front row to watch Steve. This'll be a fun show to watch.

I sat next to Bucky at the bar while Steve talked to the other guys to see if they wanted to be apart of his team. I took a drink of the water I was given. "I'm sorry I missed your 11th birthday" Bucky said.
"It's fine. You were held in a Hydra facility unable to get out so... That's as good as an excuse that I'll get" I said smiling as Bucky took a sip of his beer. Bucky pulled me into a small hug and kissed my head. Steve entered the bar area and sat down on the other side of Bucky.
"You ready to follow Captain America into the jaws of death?" Steve asked smiling.
"Hell, no! The little guy from Brooklyn who was too dumb not to run away from a fight. I'm following him. But you're keeping the outfit, right?" Bucky asked.
"You know what? It's kind of grown on me" Steve said as the singing stopped for a brief moment making us look over to see Peggy in a red dress. She looked absolutely amazing. She could probably make any guy drool.
"Howard has some equipment for you to try. Tomorrow morning?" Peggy asked. "Sounds good" Steve said as Peggy turns her head to listen to the men singing in the bar.
"I see your top squad is prepping for duty" Peggy said making me smile.
"You don't like music?" Bucky asked. Don't even try it Bucky.
"I do, actually. I might, even when this is all over, go dancing" she said.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Bucky said. Peggy looked at Steve and smiled.
"The right partner" she said making me smile even more, "Oh-eight-hundred, Captain."
"Yes, ma'am. I'll be there" Steve said as she turns to leave.
"I'm invisible. I'm...I'm turning into you. It's like some horrible dream" Bucky said referring to the rejection he got from Peggy about going dancing with him.
"Don't take it so hard. Maybe she's got a friend" Steve said grabbing Bucky's shoulder in a friendly way. These two are the best brothers I could ask for. One of them may not be my real brother but he sure acts like one to me.