Steve held the small envelope in his hands, turning it round and round. He couldn't understand why it was made out to him, much less why the handwriting looked so familiar.

"Well Rogers," came the dulcet voice of Natasha, "Wanda said we should all be here when you play it." She looked around the room noticing everyone moving to take a seat to be able to see the big screen TV more easily. "No time like the present," she said, motioning for him to open the envelope.

After taking a deep breath, Steve gently opened the package. Inside he found a mini SD card. He moved the few steps needed to hand it to Tony who quickly inserted it into the player attached to the TV.

Everyone waited with bated breath as it loaded. What they saw next, no one could have anticipated or been ready for.

"What the hell!" Clint exclaimed, sitting forward from his seat on the sofa. "That's the kitchen here."

But that wasn't the icing on the cake; what came next was.

"Are you sure this will survive the journey?" A very familiar voice could be heard asking.

"Do I look like I don't know what I'm doing here, Rogers?" came another exasperated voice, "now get your ass in front of the camera and start explaining."

A chair scraped on the floor and coming into view as he sat down across from the screen was none other than Steve Rogers himself.

Everyone turned to look at present Steve as though to ask the same question, 'what the hell?' But Steve was too focused on the TV screen to worry about everyone else. How could he be staring face-to-face with himself?

"Hey everyone," second Steve waved to the screen giving a slight laugh, "I know that seeing me right now it probably coming as a huge shock to you all and for that I'm really sorry. I'm not sure there would have been an easier way for me to have dropped all of this on you, so I hope you can forgive me for doing it in this manner. By the end of this recording, all I can hope is that you'll find it in you to believe what I've told you as truth."

Whispers started circulating around the room person-to-person, each one with a new question or speculation.

Tony turned the volume up as a signal for everyone to pipe down.

"First off let me go about this the right way and introduce myself. I am Steve Rogers, or as a lot of people still call me, Captain America. The date is August 13th, 2023 and if you are watching this, then my daughter has safely made it across multiple universes and time and somehow found you."

"Daughter," Natasha gasped, looking directly at current Steve, quickly putting the puzzle pieces together. "We have a kid together?"

TV Steve resumed speaking, "I don't know who is present in your timeline Steve. Each universe can be slightly different depending on circumstances."

"No shit!" exclaimed Clint whose eyes were bouncing back and forth between Nat and Steve who were now both glued to the recording.

"I know you've probably got a million questions, and I'll do the best I can to answer them. But I have to be careful with how much I tell you." TV Steve took a deep breath as he collected his thoughts.

"Madison is my and Natasha Romanoff's daughter from this universe. She and I married twenty-two years ago after a mission nearly took her life." He looked down, smiling and chuckling to himself remembering the incident. "I can laugh about it now," TV Steve said looking back into the camera, "because it was the final push I needed to get me off my ass and finally propose."

Nat couldn't help but to smile to herself. Was every Steve Rogers as adorably clueless with women?

He paused, deep in thought. "I could have easily lost her and I guess you could say I just woke up and realized I didn't want to spend another day without her."

Nat chanced a glance at Steve who blushed slightly before bringing his attention back to the recording.

"We were a family. All of us. Believe it or not we all lived in the compound quite happily together." You could hear Tony's laugh come from behind the camera to which you could see Steve look off camera to give a smile and a head shake to.

"Natasha. We were always very honest with one another about our pasts," Steve said into the camera as though knowing he was looking straight at current day Nat. "You knew that I always wanted to be a father and yet you were very straightforward and honest that you couldn't have children because of your experiences with the Red Room." Nat fidgeted in her seat slightly, glancing around her at the others as they heard this information before Clint gently gripped her hand in his.

"It's a very long story, one that I'll leave to Madison to tell you when you and she are ready to have that conversation. But she is our daughter, Natasha. Flesh and blood. Yours and mine. You carried her for nine months, and loved every moment of being pregnant." TV Steve leaned forward as if to drive the point home that Madison was Nat's daughter.

Slumping back in his chair, Steve continued, "I sent our daughter to you both because I couldn't allow her to die, not when I could stop it."

He stopped speaking and looked down at his folded hands that rested on the table. "I can't tell you all of the details, but a tragic event happens in our universe. Something that alters billions of lives. We were warned that if we didn't find a way to adjust that a repeat of this event would happen in five years' time."

Both of Steve's hands combed through his hair as he measured his next words. "If Madison is there with you now then that event occurred but I was able to get her out in time."

You could hear in his voice that he was becoming emotional, choking up on his next words that were hard to hear to all that were listening, "I couldn't lose her too."

A single tear trailed down Nat's face as she listened to TV Steve speak about the love they had for their daughter. A daughter that she couldn't imagine and yet desperately wanted to know how it was accomplished.

After a few moments, Steve continued, "Steve, I beg of you, please find it in your heart to accept her. You may not be able to find it in you to love her as a daughter, but if you are anything like me, anything at all, you won't be able to let an innocent struggle alone. You will be compelled to try to help her and that's all I'm asking. Help her to adjust to your world, and to find happiness and peace with what I had to do."

With that, TV Steve lowered his head and the recording ended.

Everyone sat there, staring at the blank TV screen in stony silence not knowing what to say.

"Boss!" Came the hurried voice of F.R.I.D.A.Y, "Wanda needs help!"

Tony, Bruce, Peter, Sam, Bucky and Clint all rushed out of the living room and down the hall to the room that had been assigned to Madison, while Steve and Natasha seemed planted in their seats too stunned to move. Fury, who had been seated at the back of the room watched in silence as two of his strongest warriors struggled to come to terms with what they had just heard.

Natasha broke first looking around her and realizing that everyone had left the room, she too took off down the hall towards Madison's room.

Steve just sat there, staring at his folded hands, thinking through all that he had just heard. When he finally did speak, his question wasn't what Nick had in mind he would ask, "You know what major event he was talking about don't you?"

Thinking it through Fury answered strategically, "I know some of what he's referring to, yes." He had made a living at compartmentalizing information. Piecing out information that was need to know only to those that, well, needed to know. In this case, he was burdened with details that he wanted to share but like Madison, had been warned he couldn't do much with.

Steve and Fury stared long and hard at one another, both trying to read the next move of the other. The tension was broken by F.R.I.D.A.Y, "Captain Rogers, Doctor Banner needs you in Madison's room. It appears she's very sick sir."

Steve quickly rose to his feet and hurried down the hall towards Madison's room leaving Fury alone to think.