He felt oxygen pound into his lungs, and memories flood into his mind. Once he had finished screaming, finished feeling the guilt of Bucky. The men who surrounded him, fishermen by the looks of them, gave each other worried looks.
"Are you okay?" asked one of the men, with a thick beard and greasy hair that resembled a mane. He nodded his head, as a bottle of water was lowered to his lips. He gulped down the liquid thankfully, and raised his upper body using his elbows.
"Where...where am I?" he asked, more of a croak than a fully-powered exclamation.
"The Arctic ocean. We fished you out, took a break from fishing. What's your name?"
"Steve."
"Hello Steve, I'm Martin. This is Arthur, Clancy, Ern and Tim."
He gave them a nod each.
"We..we going to the US anytime soon?"
"Well, yes. Right now. No catch equals no reason to stay."
"Why no catch? Fish on...holiday or something?"
"Well, that's the thing. We dunno. Radar and sonar pickin' up nothin'. Still, we got no cell phone signal either so what should we expect?"
"Cell phone? What the...hell is a cell phone?"
"How long you been down there?"
"What year is it?"
"2013, why?"
2013?! It...it couldn't be. 69 years ago...the plane crash. The cube had vanished, the voice...oh that voice. Guiding him. The watcher who had guided him to safety under the ice, the one who had helped keep him going.
He would have to come to terms with it. What had Churchill called it? Stiff upper lip?
lllllllllllllllllllllllllll
Five Months Later
Steve Rogers found a man with an eyepatch waiting for him at the docks.
"Sorry, my mom told me not to talk to strangers."
"Yes, but the government is the mother of Captain America. And technically I'm the government. Or at least part of it."
Steve looked down at the mention of 'captain america'.
"Well, mom, I'm grounded."
"Rogers, I don't care whether you want to help or not. We need Captain America."
"Well, I don't."
He tried to walk away.
"What if I told you that Zemo was back?"
He stopped.
"You still got the shield?"
"No, but I can get you one."
Steve sighed.
"Fine."
They walked towards a black jeep.
"By the way, they weren't fishermen."
He looked back to see the people who had rescued him, laughing with agents in black suits.