A/N Thank you guys so much for the favorites, alerts, and reviews! I didn't have time to respond to the reviews individually (I'll try to do better from now on) so I'll just thank you guys here. :)

Okay so the first few chapters will be kind of broad overviews of the events of Captain America: TFA, Iron Man, and Iron Man 2 with some slight changes of my own. The story will pick up and become more AU once we get to the events of The Avengers.

BTW, I don't know the actual timeline for Captain America: TFA (and I can't remember if there were any specific dates or years mentioned in the movie), so I don't know what year it was when Steve entered the army, when he finally saw action, or when he crashed the plane. Therefore, I picked my own dates throughout this story. If any dates are wrong, just chalk it up to being AU. :)

Captain America

Steve slipped the letter he had just finished writing into an envelope and sealed it. He knew there was a good chance he wasn't going to be coming back from his mission. He knew the history and even in knowing it, he couldn't change it. After all, he had tried to change history with Bucky and he had still died.

Steve had met Bucky not long after he landed in that era. The machine that sent him there had done more damage than just displacing him in time. It had taken his energy, his muscle, and even some of his bone mass. Now, he hadn't been a huge, hulking person in his time, but he was of average height and was strong for his age. All in all, he was a typical eighteen year old boy. But after he landed in the forties, he was small, puny, and weak. He had all kinds of medical problems and allergies. Issues he had never had in his life were suddenly his constant burden. Truly, the machine had taken everything from him, his time, his father, and even his health.

When Bucky found him, he was on the streets. Steve had grown up all his life with his dad, he had never wanted for anything. He had never been on his own or even away from home. When he got thrown through time, he hadn't even gone off to college yet. He had no money, no experience providing for himself, and no knowledge of how that time worked. So he was living, or rather, slowly dying, on the streets.

Bucky found him one day and Steve didn't know what the man saw in him, but whatever it was, it made Bucky take a chance on him, and Steve was glad he did. He took Steve in, gave him food to eat, and a place to sleep. He helped him get a job and once Steve was bringing in some money, they split the rent. Without a doubt, James 'Bucky' Barns saved Steve's life. Steve just wished he could have returned the favor, but even knowing ahead of time what would happen, Steve still couldn't prevent it.

It was a terrible burden to know the future and even more so to not be able to tell anyone about it. Steve had been in the forties less than a year when the United States joined the war. The war that he knew everything about, all the important dates and names were stored away in his memory. It would be a gross understatement to say it was hard to keep from letting slip things that hadn't happened yet or accidentally blurting out future events. Steve definitely ended up perfecting his surprised face for anytime a major event occurred. 'Pearl Harbor was attacked? That's horrible!' 'D-day? We got France back? Really? That's great!'

Of course, once the United States joined the war, Steve started trying to enlist, even though he knew he wouldn't get in, not until The Stark Expo and Dr. Erskine. But first he had to lay the ground work. He had to try over and over to get in. After all, his father had always told Steve that that was part of the reason Erskine gave Captain America, him, a chance.

That wasn't the reason Steve tried to get into the army, though. He didn't do it because he wanted to be Captain America. Being Captain America sounded like a huge burden for any man, let alone an eighteen year old kid. He did it because he wanted to help people and, at that point, becoming Captain America was the only way he was going to be able to do that. Obviously, he had had to lie about who his parents were, and he took the last name Rogers, which just so happened to be his mother's maiden name. Steve knew it would be a bit hard to explain the last name Stark, especially once he met his grandfather.

Steve had heard the 'hover car' story from his dad but it was much funnier in person and it was beyond strange to watch Howard Stark on the stage and know that he was the grandfather Steve had never known, not to mention that said grandfather was not much older than him. Those thoughts brought forth the realization that Steve was living in a time before his own father was even born. He had had to walk away and think about something else before he got a headache.

That was when he met Dr. Erskine. He was a good man and a good friend. Erskine gave Steve his chance even if he did have to go through boot camp, which would have been bad enough even if he hadn't been turned into such a wimp. The only highlight was Peggy. She really was beautiful, but Steve knew he couldn't get close to her. History didn't exactly have a happy ending for them.

Then he had to jump on that grenade, which surprisingly enough he actually didn't do because he knew it was a dummy. He knew the story, but when it actually happened, he forgot it was a test until it was already over. Before it happened, Steve wasn't sure he had it in him to make a sacrifice like that but, apparently, when it came down to it, he did. Knowing that history said he was brave and self-sacrificing, and actually knowing that himself, were two different things.

Next came the serum, which was easily the most physically painful experience of his life and was followed closely by one of the most emotionally painful experiences of his life. He had never seen someone die before, and aside from 'losing' his father (which was the most emotionally painful experience in his life), Erskine was probably the hardest loss he had ever endured (his mother's death closely followed it but Steve had been so young when she had died that it hadn't hit him as hard as Erskine's death).

That was also the first time Steve discovered he couldn't change anything. Even knowing that the spy was going to kill Erskine, Steve couldn't prevent it. But he could bring down the man who killed him.

It felt amazing to Steve to be able to run, really run, again. He took off flying up the street, and it didn't even feel like he was putting forth any effort. The exhilaration was tempered, however, by the task he sought to complete. And even after he stopped the man, it didn't make him feel better. Erskine was still dead and Steve couldn't even make his death mean something because of that stupid senator who decided to make Steve a puppet for earning money. Once again, Steve knew what was coming but couldn't stop it. The only consolation was that he knew he would one day get his shot, even if he had to go through some humiliation to get there.

When his shot did come, Steve didn't hesitate to take advantage of it. He didn't even need history to tell him what to do. Saving Bucky was a no-brainer. He was Steve's friend and the super soldier owed him his life. So Steve got help from Peggy and Howard and went behind enemy lines. Reading about war and seeing movies about war was nothing compared to the reality of war. It was dirty, and messy, and a nightmare and Steve faced it head on to saved his friend, and along the way, he made some more. After that, he finally got to start helping people. He and the Howling Commandos started taking down Hydra one factory at a time.

Then Bucky died.

Steve tried to save him and, just like with Erskine, he was powerless to do so. The pain of losing Bucky, the first friend Steve had had in that time, was overwhelming. By itself, it would have been bad enough but it just seemed to compound his earlier losses and brought those to the forefront of his mind. First Steve lost his father. Yes, he was still alive in the future but Steve had resigned himself to the fact that he would never see him again. Then he lost his friend Dr. Erskine, and finally Bucky was gone. The worst, Steve had to admit, was losing his father, but the guilt that came with having the knowledge of Erskine's and Bucky's deaths and not being able to save them was a very close second.

All three of those hit Steve at the same time and, as it turned out, he couldn't even get drunk to forget for a little while. Karma could be such a jerk sometimes.

It wasn't long after that, that the day of the plane crash arrived. Once again, Steve knew what was coming, but this time he knew he probably wouldn't be able to change it. It wouldn't stop him from trying but, at the same time, he was under no illusions.

That was why he wrote the letter. Just in case. And there was only one person who he trusted to make sure it would be delivered, and the only person he knew of who could get it delivered.

"Peggy." She turned around at Steve's voice. "I need you to do something for me," he told her.

"What?"

"This letter. I need you to take it and see that it's delivered if anything should happen to me," he said.

"Steve, you musn't think that way. Nothing is going to happen to you," she told him.

Oh, if only she knew.

"I know. It's just in case," he told her with a small, casual smile.

That seemed to do the trick as she relaxed slightly.

"Now, I know this is going to sound crazy, but if something goes wrong I need this letter delivered to this address," Steve said, pointing at the name and address on the front of the envelope. "but not until after this date," he turned the envelope over and pointed to the date on the back.

"Steve, this can't be right. This date is almost seventy years from now," she said, looking at the date in confusion.

"I know, and I know it sounds strange but it has to be after that date. Please, just trust me and don't ask any more questions. Just know this means more to me than you can know," he said.

"Okay, Steve. I trust you, no matter how odd this may be. But it's not going to matter anyway because nothing is going to happen to you," she said again.

"Of course not." Steve hoped his tone and expression didn't come across as fake as they felt. "Just don't forget," he said, handing her the letter and moving away before she could see through his facade.

Next, he ran into Howard. Oh, well, he figured he might as well get all the goodbyes out of the way at the same time.

Even after nearly two years of knowing the man, it was still hard for Steve to reconcile the young version of Howard with the version his father had told him about. Although Howard had never been physically abusive or anything toward Tony, he had also never really been there. He had always been too occupied with his work, and when he was around, Tony never could seem to impress him or make him proud. He described Howard as indifferent, apathetic, and even, on some occasions, slightly cold.

Tony had once admitted to Steve that he didn't know if his father had ever really loved him or not. It was something that seemed so foreign to Steve, who had never doubted that his own father loved him. Steve's whole life, Tony had always made sure Steve knew how much Tony loved him, and Steve couldn't imagine growing up unsure whether his father loved him.

The Howard that Steve knew didn't seem like the indifferent type, though. Yes, he was a spoiled, rich playboy, but he did seem to care about people and he seemed like a good guy.

Steve knew his father hadn't lied or exaggerated. He knew if Tony said Howard was apathetic and unfeeling toward him, then that's the way it was, but, at the same time, that wasn't the person Steve had met in the nineteen forties. Steve didn't know what had happened to cause Howard to change from the friend he knew, into the father Tony had known, but he knew something must have changed the man because the two images Steve had of him just didn't match up.

"Hey, Steve," Howard said, breaking Steve out of his thoughts.

"Hey, Howard."

"You writing letters to Peggy?" Howard asked with an amused smile.

"No. It wasn't for her," Steve said, hoping to prevent the teasing.

"You got some kind of condition keeping you from mailing letters yourself?" Howard asked jokingly.

Steve heaved a resigned sigh. There didn't seem to be a way around explaining it to him.

"It's to someone I care about in the event something happens to me."

"You expecting something to go wrong?" Howard asked, his smile fading.

"No, but you never know do you?" Steve said, trying to act nonchalant.

If anyone could spot a lie it was Howard Stark.

"I suppose so," he said, sounding a bit suspicious. "Just don't go looking for trouble, Steve."

"When have I ever done that?" Steve asked, causing both of them to laugh. It felt good to laugh, one last time.

"But hey, in all seriousness, just in case something did happen," Howard said hesitantly and a bit uncomfortably. "I want you to know, you're my friend, and someday when I have a son I'm going to name him after you."

Irony was truly a funny thing.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Steve said.

"You don't?" Howard asked, his expression falling a bit.

"Yeah, Steve is too plain, especially for your kid," Steve said with a smirk. "I think Anthony is a better name for a boy."

"Anthony," Howard mumbled, trying the name out.

"It's my middle name," Steve said.

"Anthony is a good name," Howard agreed thoughtfully. "Maybe Anthony Steven?"

"How about Anthony Edward? My father's name was Edward and he's the greatest man I've ever known," Steve said truthfully. Technically it was his father's middle name, but it was still his name so it wasn't really a lie.

"You know, that's not bad. I like it. Thanks, Steve," the inventor said.

It was all Steve could do to keep from laughing. He had just basically named his own father. Life didn't get much crazier than that.

"Hey, no problem. Just do one thing for me?" he said.

"Anything," Howard agreed.

Steve was seconds away from asking Howard to take good care of his son and love him, but then Steve remembered that no matter what he said or did, he wouldn't be able to change history. Steve wouldn't be able to change his father's childhood and he couldn't prevent Howard from dying when Tony was just in his teens. Howard would still be a far from perfect parent and he would still die in a car accident years before Steve was ever born.

"When you have that son, make sure you tell him about me, okay?" Steve requested instead.

"You can do that yourself," Howard replied.

Steve just smiled at Howard as he patted the super soldier on the shoulder and walked away. Steve highly doubted he would ever get the chance to do that.


Like I said, the first few chapters are to kind of set up this AU reality before we jump into the events of The Avengers and the plot actually picks up a bit more. So if the first couple of chapters are a bit on the boring side (which I hope they're not because I'm trying to make them interesting), just bare with me, they're kind of needed to explain the changes I've made to the canon world.