(Ok, so before I get back to the story, I have to mention a few things. First, after publishing the first chapter to this, I quickly realized I had no idea where I wanted this to go. So, if anyone wants to give me some ideas about the direction of this story, leave a review. I'll take it seriously. Secondly, I apologize for the painfully slow update speed. Between school and athletics, it's taken me way longer than I'd wished to finish this chapter.)

Anyways, on with the story.

Chapter 2 - The Meeting

(Song: Exhibit C - Jay Electronica)

Sighing, he looked back to his phone before pressing Accept Call.

"It's been a long time, Diana." Steve said, not knowing what to expect from the Amazon. He was hoping that she wouldn't be too angry.

"Yes, it has, Steve. I was the happiest I had been in years when I heard that you had been found. But we need to talk."

—

It was a little after one in the afternoon when Steve pulled in to the place he was supposed to meet Diana at, decked out in a black long sleeve shirt and some jeans. They decided to meet up in a small, retro-themed American diner in Brooklyn, making Steve a little nostalgic. He had grown up in Brooklyn before the war, after all, and the older aesthetics were a strange contrast from the rest of the outside world. Steve didn't really find it surprising that he would think back to his days before the ice. Then again, this whole deal was making him feel a little nostalgic, considering the fact that he was reuniting with a superpowered cohort from the forties.

After Steve sat down (table for two, of course), he took a few minutes to reflect on Diana. This was an Amazon princess who had lived among mankind for nearly a hundred years, who had seen some of the best and worst of humanity. How was she going to react to seeing a man whose death she had mourned almost seventy years ago?

He didn't need to wait long to answer that question. About five minutes after he sat down at the table with two seats, she strode in and glanced around, looking for him. He stood up from the table and waved, giving her the signal to come over to where he was sitting.

Diana calmly walked over to the table Steve was sitting at, yanked him out of his seat, and pulled him into a (quite literally) bone-crushing embrace before he could say or do anything about it. "I thought you were dead," she whispered into his ear, shakily. A couple of tears were streaming out of her eyes."We all did."

The stunned super soldier could only say "I'm sorry."

—

(Exhibit C is still playing)

They stood at the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, just overlooking the Brooklyn bridge. The weather had gone from bright to foggy, which was a fairly appropriate metaphor for Steve's mood at that point in time. At least Diana was happy that he was still alive, but he was conflicted. What now?

Now, they were talking about what happened after his "passing".

"So, what happened after I crashed that plane?" Steve asked. He was actually kind of curious. He knew that the war had ended not long afterwards, but he didn't know about the exact events that led up to the German surrender.

"A few weeks after you crashed the plane, Germany surrendered. They didn't see a way to keep going. Actually, Japan surrendered last..." Diana would have kept going, but Steve cut her off.

"I know that Japan surrendered after we dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima. I studied the 20th century a lot, since I had to get caught up," he said. "What I don't know is what happened to everyone except for Barnes."

Diana sighed before letting a long list of names roll off her tongue. As it turned out, the majority of Steve's old war buddies had chosen to retire after he crashed. A few others, like Dugan, stuck around, but she had lost contact with just about everyone roughly a decade after the war had ended. She could only assume that the majority of them had passed away; it had been almost 70 years after all.

On the other hand, Steve was disappointed but not surprised. Still, it was kind of tough to take, as evidenced by Steve holding his head in his hands for a few seconds. All of his old friends were either dead or in a retirement home somewhere, and he would never see most of them again...

"Steve."

Steve abandoned that train of thought in favor of staring at the beautiful woman in front of him. And he wouldn't lie, she really was stunning.

"What's happened has happened," Diana spoke, "and there's nothing we can do about that. All we can do is keep on moving forward until our bones collapse."

"Yeah... I guess you're right. It's still a little saddening though," Steve said.

"Let's not live in the past, Steve."

"Yeah, yeah, you're right, but wow, Diana. 70 years later, and you're still acting as a mentor figure to me."

"Everybody needs one sometimes. But enough about all that, what was it like fighting off an alien invasion?"

"Oh, that's a long story, and you might have to come to Stark's if you want the full story."

"Don't worry about that. I've got time."

(Ten Internet points if you caught the song reference Diana made.)

(Anyways, that's chapter 2. Steve and Diana finally meet up in the present, and now she's going to meet some of the other Avengers. Remember, this is pre-AoU, so we only have the original six right now.)

(What's going to happen next? Even I don't know.)