Steve woke in a hospital room feeling completely rested. He noticed that it was midmorning and wondered how long he had slept. He heard a baseball game coming from the radio in the corner, but something was off.
"Good morning, Captain Rogers," A pretty, young woman said while walking into his room. "Or should I say, 'Good Afternoon?'"
"Where am I?" Steve asked.
"You're in an infirmary."
Steve glanced at the radio, "Where am I really?"
"I don't understand."
"That baseball game, it's from 1941. I know. I was there." The woman's eyes widened at this. "I'll ask you again: Where am I?"
The woman looked sad and sighed as she sat down in a chair in front of his bed, with her head down. "I'm not supposed to tell you. We wanted to break it to you slowly, but it doesn't look like I have any other choice." She looked him straight in the eye. "You've been frozen for almost 70 years, Captain. It's 2012."
Steve look incredibly shocked. He stood and ran to the wall. He crashed through and ran out into the streets of New York.
The woman sat there, shocked into silence. So it was true. This really was the famous Captain America. After a few minutes she stood, dusted off her 1940's nurse's outfit and carefully stepped out of the hole Captain Rogers had made. Then she heard something come from her earpiece.
"Miss Campbell, we need you to come to the meeting room," Colonel Fury said.
"Gotcha," she responded. "This is gonna be one hell of a day," she said as she started walking toward the meeting room.
When she arrived in the meeting room she was fairly surprised to see Captain Rogers sitting in a chair at the table. She offered a small smile to him, "Hello, Captain Rogers," She thought about adding a teasing comment but he looked pretty shaken so she decided against it.
"Hello, Ma'am," he responded quietly.
"We have a mission of sorts for you, Margaret," Fury said.
"Maggie," Maggie responded. Fury continued.
"We want you to take care of Captain Rogers here. Reintroduce him to the world. Explain the new technology to him."
"I get it now. It makes sense why you would want me here and not a better trained agent."
"Correct."
"Well, it's good to know S.H.I.E.L.D. still finds me of use. Tony won't be too happy about this though."
"I'm sure he'll understand." Fury said with a mischievous smirk as he got up and left.
"Well," Maggie began, "I guess I should properly introduce myself. My name is Dr. Margaret Campbell."
"Steve Rogers, Ma'am."
"I'm a miss, not a ma'am. It makes me sound old. 'You're not old just old-fashioned', that's what my grandmother used to say to me. She always said I would've been better off in the 40's living with her. I disagree. I love the technology we have now, I just hate the way people act."
Steve stood in silence.
"Oh! Sorry! I tend to babble when it comes to my grandma. She died a few years ago and I guess this is how I cope."
"Oh, I-I'm sorry to hear that."
"Don't worry about it. She met you before, you know. A long time ago. You gave her this," Maggie said while pulling a star necklace out of her shirt. It had red, white, and blue diamonds on it. "She said it was something you gave out at shows. She would've loved to see you one last time."
Maggie smiled at Steve and looked around at the briefing room. And then at her clothes, she was still wearing the white shirt and black skirt from earlier. "Well, first thing's first, I need to change. I guess I can change when I get home. You'll be staying with me, so whenever you're ready we can leave."
"I suppose I'm ready when you are," Steve replied nervously.
"Alright. Then let's head out," Maggie paused, "If you have any questions about anything, feel free to ask me. I'm here to help you." And with that, they walked out of the briefing room and into Maggie's car. "Cars are a lot different now, huh?"
"Yeah," Steve responded, perplexed at the new features of cars.
"A lot of these things you can't actually find in a normal car. There are a lot of gadgets that a friend of mine added in. He likes to make me his guinea pig for his new inventions."
"You have an inventor as a friend?"
"Yep. Tony Stark, owner of Stark Industries," Maggie said while starting the car.
"Stark?! Like Howard Stark?"
"Yep," Maggie said while backing up. Then she turned and gave Steve a somber look. "Howard actually passed away in a car accident almost 20 years ago, leaving his son Tony to take over."
"What about Peggy?" Steve asked urgently.
Maggie's eyes saddened visibly. "She passed away a few years ago."
"Oh," Steve looked out the car window as they pulled out of the parking garage.
"I'm sorry. I can't imagine how bad you must've already been feeling then to have more piled onto you."
"It's not your fault. I guess I was just kind of hoping… that there was someone… left…"
Maggie reached her hand over and lightly squeezed Steve's hand. "Sorry."
The rest of the drive was quiet for the most part. Steve asked very few questions about what he saw around him. Only questioned about what happened after the war.
"Here it is," Maggie said as they pulled up to her house. It was a two story average-sized house, painted white with a pasty green trim. It was about 25 miles from Manhattan, out in Port Washington.
"Wow. I wasn't expecting house," Steve caught himself and stuttered, "Not to insult you or anything! I was just thinking, a dame like you-I mean woman! A woman like you, alone in a big house...Sorry. I'll just stop now."
Maggie giggled. "You don't need to apologize. I actually inherited this house form my grandmother. It was supposed to go to either me or my aunt, but she was perfectly comfortable down in Boston and offered it to me instead. It's all paid off and easy to live in."
"Is all your family on the east coast?"
"Yeah. It didn't use to be that way though," Maggie said while unlocking her front door. "I grew upon in Washington state with my parents. We only came here to visit few times. When I was about 19, my parents passed away in a car accident. I had been living with them so I didn't have any place to stay. My grandmother paid for a one way ticket to Manhattan and picked me up. I had been living in an apartment for about 3 years when she died."
"Wow. You've had a hard life."
"Not really. Just a few years of hardships is nothing compared to many of happiness."
I'm ending it here. This has gone on way too long. I had to make it over 1000 words because that's what I like to read. I hope you guys enjoyed the first chapter! Lots of questions, none answered. And don't worry, Maggie gets better, a LOT better. The babbling isn't a trait you'll have to deal with for too too long. It's pretty important and not in the way you may think.
I hope I can get the next chapter written and up soon. I'm pretty motivated and I have an entire weeklong break next week. Hopefully I can write more during then. Wish Steve and his sexy butt luck living in the present!
I'm kind of nervous about posting this because I'm afraid I'll end up ditching the story and becoming my worst nightmare, someone who can't finish stories. But I figured I'd give you something to look forward to.
