Nearly One Year Earlier...

Warm.

That was the first thing Steve had felt when he woke up for the first time after crashing the Valkyrie, nearly 70 years after he'd done it - but he didn't know that at the time he awoke.

He remembered feeling warm because of how cold it was when he crashed into the ice. It was brutally cold, windy, and... numb. Then, it was warm here. Wherever here was.

The Captain slowly began to open his eyes, taking in the warm sunlight, the warm breeze, the warmth of the mattress beneath him. It was all so warm.

Steve slowly sat up on the bed, turning so his legs dangled off the side as he tried to figure out how he ended up here in this... well, it looked like a regular bedroom. There were a few dressers, some lamps, a plant in the corner, a fan dangling from the ceiling, and an open window with flowing white curtains that looked out into the city.

A burning question kept popping up in the Captain's mind: how did he get here?

There was suddenly the familiar sound of applause coming from behind him. Steve spun around to see the radio sitting on one of the dressers in the far corners of the room. He narrowed his eyes slightly as he strained to listen. "...Three runs will score. Reiser heads to third. Durocher's going to wave him in..." It was a baseball game. "Here comes the relay, but they won't get him–"

Steve suddenly tensed, not paying attention to the broadcast anymore, when the door at the end of the room opened and a young, brunette woman stepped in. She looked... different. Not a comforting type of different Steve usually admired in most new people he met, but the unsettling different that made him nervous.

There were a few things different about her... Maybe it was the fact that her curls were smaller and more all over the place than he'd seen any dame's before. Her face was pale and her lipstick was much too dark than what he was used to. And those were just the physical features besides her uniform.

"Good morning," she greeted him, shutting the door behind her as she walked in and checked her watch. "Or should I say 'afternoon'?" She offered him a friendly smile as she crossed her wrists and stood at attention a few feet from the edge of the bed he was sitting on.

Steve had so many questions. But out of all of them, he decided on: "Where am I?"

"You're in a recovery room in New York City," she answered.

There was a long pause between the pair as Steve listened in to the radio broadcasting of the game again. "The Dodgers take the lead, 8 to 4," the announcer cried out, catching Steve's attention. "Oh, Dodgers! Everyone is on their feet. What a game we have here today, folks. What a game indeed." Dodgers... He had heard Phillies in the broadcast earlier and he recognized those words from a previous broadcast. Could it have been? The game from 1941 that he had gone to with Bucky and his twin, Rori?

It was. But that prompted a new question... Why was a live broadcast playing a game that was four years old?

Steve slowly turned back to face the woman as he repeated, "where am I really?"

The woman chuckled and shook her head, "I'm afraid I don't understand."

"The game," Steve clarified. "It's from May, 1941. I know 'cause I was there." Steve watched as the woman's face turned to that of complete control into panic. Something was wrong, she was wrong, the game was wrong, this was all wrong. Where was Peggy? Where was his sister? Where was Colonel Phillips? Where were his commandos? What was going on?

Steve kept his cool and slowly rose from the bed, taking large steps towards the woman. "Now I'm gonna ask you again," he said in a gruff, thick voice he knew Rori always called his 'Captain voice'. "Where am I?"

He didn't notice when the woman dropped both hands to her side to press a small panic button. But when the small 'click' went off, Steve's super soldier hearing caught onto it. The woman seemed to realize he had heard it nd immediately attempted to defuse the situation. "Captain Rogers–"

"Who are you?!" He cut her off in demanding. He never did get an answer to his question as two large uniformed men walked in through the door as well.

Steve staggered back slightly... So this was how it was going to be?

With two easy throws, both armored men were launched through the walls revealing a new type of room... a bigger room. Steve stepped through and looked around. What was this place?

He didn't have time to figure it out, he needed to get out, he needed to find his sister. She would now what to do, she always did.

Steve began to run out of the large room, ignoring the woman calling out his name as he dashed through open hallways. Once he got out into a main cooridor, he heard the woman's voice shout from the rooftops echoing through the walls, "all agents, Code 13! I repeat, all agents, Code 13!"

Steve spun around and spotted a group of men dressed in all blacks turning to face him, shouting and pointing. Steve quickly spun on his heel and dashed in the opposite direction, pushing any man who tried to get in his way.

Soon, the Captain found an open door that led out onto the street. But once he was there... it was a whole new game. Everything felt... off. He didn't recognize these streets, yet he did at the same time. He ran through street sign to street sign reading off of the, as they passed. He was in Manhattan, he knew that much, and with his super speed he was sure he could reach Brooklyn in minutes if he just...

Steve's train of thought faltered however when he caught sight of the most insane thing he'd ever seen before. Bright lights, crowded streets, large screens, towering buildings. The screens above were the size of houses and displayed products and images in color with products he didn't recognize. And then the people. They were wearing different clothing. The women were wearing pants and some men were wearing shorts.

Suddenly, a large black cars surrounded the Captain in the middle of the street. He looked around for an opening but stopped in his tracks at the sound of an authoritive voice, "at ease, soldier!"

Steve spun around to see a dark-skinned man with a bald head, goatee, and an eyepatch over his left eye. He was wearing a large, black overcoat and all-black attire as he approached the Captain. "Look, I'm sorry about that little show back there, but... We thought it best to break it to you slowly," the man explained, obviously referencing to the way Steve had woken up with the woman in the 'recovery room'. Was this man apart of the organization that hired her and all those men who attacked him?

But the one phrase Steve zeroed in on in the man's apology was his last phrase. "Break what?" What had happened (other than all the crazy flashing lights and stuff)?

There was a long pause before the man finally answered, "You've been asleep, Cap... For almost seventy years."

Seventy years...

The two words rang in his head multiple times before it finally processed in Steve's head what it meant. An old memory Steve had with his sister immediately popped into his mind. They had been watching The Wizard of Oz – Rori had begged him to take her and Steve used up all his train money for their two tickets. She had laughed through most of the movie and claimed she loved her twin brother more than anything in the world for a week... until she discovered pearl necklaces.

But while his twin was giggling, Steve actually watched and enjoyed the movie. Breaking it down, analyzing it, seeing the deeper meaning in each line – like he did most of the pictures he watched or books he read or people he met. Dorothy had to be one of his favorite female characters in any movie, and not just because it was the first woman he saw on screen in color or because of her beautiful voice, but because of the way she kept true to who she was despite being thrown into a whole other world.

Steve was starting to feel a lot like Dorothy right about now.

We're not in Kansas anymore...

Geez, seventy years. Almost seven decades that he was asleep. Seven decades of things that had been discovered, created, and invented. Seven decades of time that people went by living their lives...

"You gonna be okay?" The eye-patch man asked as Steve had a miniature existential crisis a few feet away.

The soldier had spun away, looking at everything around him. All the lights, all the screens, people, cars... new inventions. It was all so overwhelming.

But he could handle it. He was a soldier, he was a Captain. He fought against an entire empire and led brave men into the frontline of one of the deadliest wars. He was Captain America, he was Steve Rogers. He could get through this.

"Yeah, yeah. It's just..." Steve trailed off, still glancing around at all he had missed. That's when something hit him right in the gut, right in his soul, in the core of his existence: he had missed almost seventy years of his twin's life. Was Rori still around? Was she still alive? If so, where was she? Where was anyone that he knew?

Steve began to remember the last memory he could recall from when he was crashing the Valkyrie into the ocean, when he thought he was surrendering his life for the greater good. Peggy was on the radio and so was Rori. He was scared, he was beyond scared, but his twin was there, like she always was. She talked to him... they talked like they always did, and in that normal conversation just as he was about to meet his Maker, Steve promised her she'd see him again. He didn't say those exact words, but instead made it seem like he had by promising not to be late to a showing of their favorite movie; the Wizard of Oz.

Oh, Rori...

"I had a date," the Captain revealed with a heavy sigh.

A/N: This is going to be a two-part flashback chapter, so here is Part One. Part Two is going to be a little bit shorter, but will have a bit more Fury, lots more of Steve, and of course, Olive's very first (but not really) introduction. Told you she was gonna be important. :P

Reviews:

PistolsHatersButtercup: Aw, sorry to hear that. :(

otherworlder81: We all just can't wait for the reunion, though I guess it'll be a little different than what most would expect.