Out Of Time

forty-three

He heard the faint sound of a baseball game on the radio before he could even open his eyes. When he finally got his eyes to open, he blinked a few, slow times before his eyes could adjust. His brows scrunched up in confusion as he got to focus in on the radio a bit more. The game playing sounded familiar to him. Slowly moving to sit up, he studied the room. There was something off. Something wasn't right. And it was more than just the game playing on the radio. The sounds of cars honking outside the window caused him to look around the room more and focus in on the radio. Before he could do anything, the door creaked open and his attention was on the woman walking in.

"Good morning," she greeted kindly as she entered the room, closing the door behind her. She looked down at her watch. "Or should I say afternoon?"

"Where am I?" Steve asked.

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

Steve took some time to study the room more and the woman before saying anything else. Something was wrong. This wasn't real. First, because he should have died crashing that plane. Second, he was pretty sure he was at the baseball game playing on the radio.

"Where am I really?" Steve looked once again at the woman.

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

"The game. It's from May, 1941. I know cause I was there." The woman's eyes went wide as Steve slowly stood up from the bed, moving to stand in front of the stranger. "Now, I'm gonna ask you again. Where am I?"

"Captain Rogers-"

"Who are you?!"

Suddenly men in black tactical suits entered the room. Steve backed up before taking the men out and throwing them through the fake wall.

"Captain Rogers, wait!" The woman called.

Steve didn't care what she had to say. He just knew he needed to get out of there. He ran out of the larger room the model had been in as the woman announced a warning over the intercom. The people in the hallway suddenly were after Steve too. He pushed them out of the way. He made he way out of the window, a little scared once he was out in the middle of the street. His surroundings looked like New York, but didn't at the same time. He ran down the street until he slowed down in what he thought was Times Square. Black cars raced up, surrounding him from all sides.

"At ease, soldier," a man called.

Steve turned to see a man in a black trench coat and eye patch. Men exited the vehicles, keeping civilians out of the way, as the man walked up to Steve.

"Who are you?" Steve asked.

"Colonel Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD," the man answered. "You would have known us as the Strategic Scientific Reserve."

"Where am I?"

"46th and Broadway. I'm sorry about that little show back there, but we didn't know what your mental state might be, so we thought it best to break it to you slowly."

"Break what?" Steve questioned.

"You've been asleep, Cap. For almost 70 years."

He was taken back, immediately shocked. 70 years? How was that possible? He took some deep breaths as he looked around the Square.

"How am I alive?" Steve asked.

"Well, to be honest with you, we don't really know." Fury sighed. "My docs say it was suspended animation. Could be Dr. Erskine's formula, the extreme cold. I don't know. We've only had one case similar to yours, and even how she survived is still unknown."

"What about the war? Did we win?"

"Hell, yes. Unconditional surrender. Taking down HYDRA was a big part of that. But the world hasn't changed all that much. There's still a lot of work to be done. A soldier's work. The world can still use a man like you, Cap." Fury reached out his hand, Steve shaking it. "There's a place here for you."

Steve looked around again, still trying to wrap his head around everything.

"Are you going to be okay?" Fury asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, I just... I had a date."

"I'm sorry about that. Let's get you back to the building so that we can talk some more."

Steve turned to Fury and followed him into one of the many black cars surrounding them. They drove in silence until something that Fury had said brought up some questions for Steve.

"You said that you've dealt with a similar case to mine," Steve began. "You said that even how she survived is still unknown. How long was his in the ice?"

"You weren't in the ice much longer than her," Fury answered. "Only by a few years."

"Who is she?"

Fury sighed. "I guess this is as good a time as any." Fury looked Steve dead on. "It was your twin sister, Cap. Y/N survived too."