Steve was old. The revelation was shocking, as it felt as though just yesterday he was 21. He felt ostracised.
They said he had been frozen, for 70 years. He almost couldn't believe it. The world outside the walls he had woken up inside told a different story. They had tried to help him settle back into a flow, doting on his every wish. The more they did it, the more he felt uncomfortable. The knowledge that he was alone in a world he used to know but couldn't recognise weighed heavy on his mind. After the shock wore off, the realisation hit him hard.
He hadn't made it to his date with Peggy. Bucky, Howard, his best friends, the Howling Commandos, were dead. The thought made his hands shake and tears pool into his eyes, no matter how hard he tried to stop it and focus on other things.
The war was over, that's another thing he was told. They said that Germany and the Axis powers had surrendered, that he was a major help in the end. He should feel elated, overjoyed, but all he could feel was the losses the war had caused, waking up at night with terrors that left him drenched with sweat, face wet with tears, throat sore from screaming and a tremor in his arms that took hours to fade.
Steve was tired. War torn. Alone.
He wasn't surprised when doctors told him he had PTSD. Once the grief started passing over, his thoughts kept returning to an unlikely ally he had made during the war. They had been with him on the plane when he fought the Red Skull and crashed into the arctic ocean.
Steve had rushed to Fury after that. In his adrenaline fuelled state, his mind was suddenly alight with the hope that maybe, just maybe… they were alive, that he wasn't alone anymore.
His hopes were crushed when Fury revealed that he was the only body found in the plane wreckage.
Within minutes, Steve had gone from a young man excited to see a friend again back to a weathered soldier who had lost their purpose.
As time flew by, Steve had accepted his fate, but that didn't mean he didn't feel remorse for what could have been.
As he picked up his shield that had been with him through it all by his side for the first time in over 7 decades, he felt nostalgia. It felt the same after all those years, and just like when he first held it he felt empowered. He felt that after all this time, he was, once again, Captain America.
It was like a door had been opened, there he stood, once again ready for the world, even if he still didn't understand it.
**Hello, if you don't know me then hi, I just wanted to say that I have been reviewing my stories and fixing up some errors. So if you've already read these chapters then you don't need to worry about any major changes. With that said, please leave reviews as they really help me and motivate me to keep going and I hope you enjoy my content.:)**
