Things are Rarely How They Appear
-Steve Roger's life is looking up. He's finally starting to accept his place in this time, mainly because he's fallen love. He's decided it's time to confess he's not as he appears, but he's about to get a rude awakening of his own.
*Captain America is owned by Marvel Comics. I claim no right to any and all Captain America characters with the exceptions of the ones I've created.*
Steve had issues. Hell, his issues had issues. Once upon a time he knew exactly who he was and what he stood for. Not today, no today he should be an old man sitting on a front porch with his wife drinking lemonade...or so he thought.
Instead life had thrown him curve ball like no other. He was not in his time and there was not a damn thing he could do about. The people here were more technological and more cynical. He just didn't fit; or so he thought until he met a young woman named Celine.
Celine was an enigma. If a woman could be tall dark and handsome, she was. Her black hair was cropped short when he met her a month ago; it now was starting to add about an inch. Steve couldn't wait to see what it would look like half-way down her back. Her dark green eyes were alluring and held a kind of innocent happiness he could only dream about.
What Steve could not figure out is how this, this housekeeper, kept him so obsessed, enthralled even. He hid the attraction from the Avengers. He didn't want her in any danger, showing just how much of a relic from the past he was; he wanted to protect her, his Celine.
He could still smell the coffee that had stained his shirt three months ago. Her apologetic panic had reminded him of days past. At her insistence he allowed her to buy him another cup. They sat together and talked.
She told him how she had migrated from southern Europe to the United States, but he remembered thinking her French accent sounded strained as if it was dying from lack of use. Celine seemed to avoid the subject of her family so he left it at that. He told her the truth about his childhood and service to his country but left out that it had occurred decades before she was even born. He did not mention the super-soldier program or what it had did to his life. He did not want to say how scared he was that the program had continued and ruined others' lives.
His life, however, was looking up. For the twelfth week in a row at exactly 10:15 in the morning he was going to have coffee with, what he considered, the most beautiful woman in the world. If she had a father he'd probably already be having a man to man talk about the future. Celine was a woman who made her own decisions and rules. He wondered how he'd propose, how she'd say yes, and then how he'd tell her the whole truth.
Those were not thoughts for today. For at the little out of the way corner coffee shop he frequented sat the woman of his dreams at a metal picnic table sporting a red umbrella. She wore what could only be referred to as surgical scrubs and today the color was lime green. She had once told them they were easiest to clean in because they washed well in addition to being light and comfortable. The little bit of extra hair she had was tucked behind her ears, which refreshingly sported no holes.
Celine gave a warming smile as he approached. It was a smile that reached all the way to her eyes. "You're late today, isn't that usually my role?" She left her seat as he approached the table and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
Celine understood Steve and for some reason she couldn't fathom his old fashioned sensibilities. That meant she had to wait; he would be the first to give the non-chaste kiss and she was beginning to think that is wouldn't take place until he married the woman. She hardly saw a military man as muscled up as him as chaste, but she believed he was trying to be a gentleman with her.
Steve woke Celine from her thoughts with his own smile, a gift rarely bestowed. "I was just enjoying the walk and thinking about a variety of things."
She did her best to look shy. She was teasing him of course because the woman was anything but shy. "Anything involving me?"
"All my thoughts seem to involve you lately, Celine. It could drive a man mad." He took her hand and signaled her to sit as he took the bench across from the one she had just left. Holding her hand Steve just stared at it, imagining a ring on it...his ring.
"Is something wrong? You look troubled." Steve could see the worry in Celine's eyes and couldn't help but smile. Someone worried for him, someone who didn't have a monetary investment. More importantly, she cared.
Steve gave Celine's hand a slight squeeze. "My dear, I haven't been completely honest with you. I feel the time to tell the truth is now or never so please just listen." Celine gave a slight nod of her head indicating him to go on.
"A long time ago I was part of a program. A program that changed me from a sickly boy into the man I am today. It was a dangerous thing though, enough to make a man go mad and some did. I more or less contracted my life to the government. I've fought wars not of this time, I still fight. I may never be able to give you everything I'd like, but I have to give you the truth and if you walk away knowing it all the better. I am Captain America."
Steve heart contracted as he saw the concern in Celine's eyes turn to worry. "How do you feel about the other super-soldiers?"
"I tolerate Wolverine, but he was in a different program based in a different country. Black Cat should not have happened, but what is done is done. I don't know of any others in the U.S. off the top of my head." His eyebrow rose as another thought occurred to him. "How did you..."
He never got to finish the sentence. A car, yes a car, flew through the air right at them. He looked hard at Celine before grabbing her and flinging them both about ten feet from the table onto the sidewalk. He then thought to shield her, putting his body over hers. After all, Steve Rogers was a super-soldier, a hero; he should be able to protect the woman he loved.
Steve was grabbed from behind by something with claws. He knew because they cut through his worn brown leather jacket and stung his skin. He turned his head to see a monster, a chimera of lion and snake. Its venomous head was moving toward his neck. He could already feel its main touching his skin and at the moment there was only one thing to do...lose his favorite jacket.
Steve slipped out of the sleeves and fell to the ground. His black fitting tee had shreds in the back. Celine cried when she saw his skin, but self preservation kept her hiding on the sidewalk. Her hero only gave a glance before her grabbed a shard of metal from nearby and ran at the monster. The fight was fast and furious and he got a few good blows in before the beast grabbed him by the torso and he was stuck.
"Run!" He screamed at Celine. He'd survived war and the Avengers; he did not want to die in front of the woman he loved. He closed his eyes accepting that there was no way out for him. He couldn't really move and the Avengers didn't know where he was. He wished he'd told Celine he loved her when he had the chance.
Steve opened his eyes when the grip of the beast started loosing. He first saw a hand gripping the beast's arm, and then he followed his gaze up the arm of his savior. Only to see Celine, but not Celine.
"You are not going to kill the man I love today." She said this with a fierceness he thought only a warrior could possess. He kept his gaze on as much of her form as possible as her hair turned from black to blond, her eyes from green to blue. Finally her clothes melted on her pale skin until she wore long black boots topped by a mid-thigh split skirt. The top formed a loop behind her neck leaving her back open but the rest was covered. At the bottom right hand corner of the skirt in light blue was the word Ceres.
He watched her in fascination and horror as she snapped the creatures arm. She gave it a quirky smile that could have easily been construed as a grimace. "Uncle Sam playing with genetics again? Pity. Sorry, honey, but it's not time to come out and play." There was no climatic battle, no blood or gore past the severed limb. She simply pressed her thumb to its forehead. It shimmered and the shimmer spread to the beast, soon it stopped and the creature was gone.
"What..." Steve managed. Eyes narrowing and suspicion rising.
"I'm so glad you're alright, Steve. I guess it's time I come clean too. Twenty years ago the final attempt to create a super-soldier was done in the United States. It was called the Ceres program and I am its result, a GEAL. Genetically engineered artificial organism. I am made of various mutant D.N.A. strands and nanites beyond their time. I'm not human Steve." Tears were in her eyes.
"I can't deal with this." He turned and started to walk away.
"If you can't handle this now then you never will Steve. Are you willing to give me up forever just because you're a coward?"
"You're a monster." And SHIELD will dissect you if they find out.
"Then so are you. I'm sorry I ever loved you." She turned and her clothes, hair, and eyes returned to normal. Celine walked away before she had to watch him walk away. Either way her heart broke.
He whispered as he watched her go, "I'm not." He turned and headed back to headquarters knowing he just threw away his one chance at happiness in this time, but in doing so he protected the woman he loved...his Celine.
I'd like to do a spin-off on Celine alone, but I don't know. I write a lot, but never put anything out there. Let me know what you think of this please. I do think I took some liberties with Steve Rogers and despite being a Marvel fan I do not know his whole story. I've only read the Ultimate version.