For The Love Of A Captain Book 1

The Captain

"He's normally there late in the evening or early morning. We assume he has trouble sleeping," dad said walking me to my my car. I loved my car. It was a 1967 black chevy impala. This car was almost as old as my dad and it ran even better but I would never tell him that. 

"Well I wouldn't be surprised. For as long as he slept I'm sure he wouldn't ever want to sleep again," I said sympathetically. "I take it I will probably have to wait and watch for him then?"

"No he's normally there around the same time. I'd get there a little early to make sure that he is there but you shouldn't have to wait to long. You going to be ok kiddo?" dad asked looking down at me as I opened the driver side door to my car.

"Yeah, I'll give him the info and I will text you when I'm done. Love you dad," I said doing our secret handshake with him. We came up with it when I was like six and it kind of stuck. He hugged me and shut my door after I had sat down and gotten settled. 

I pulled out of the parking lot and headed to the address that my dad gave me. It ended up being an old gym in Brooklyn, something that I was not expecting. It looked like it was abandoned to me but there were lights on inside and there was a car out front. I looked at the clock on my phone. It was 11:45 at night. Dad said that normally he was there late so I hoped I wouldn't have to wait long. Sure enough right around midnight, I heard a motorcycle headed towards the gym. It pulled up a few spaces away from me and shut off. The man that climbed off of it was shrouded in shadows but I had a feeling that it was him, as I had seen in his file that he was especially fond of motorcycles. They wouldn't be my first choice of transportation but they were ok enough. I decided to give him a few minutes so he didn't feel ambushed as soon as he walked into the gym. 

I waited about 20 minutes and got out of my car. I grabbed the file and shut my door. I made sure that my doors were locked and then walked towards the gym. I was afraid that the door would squeak but it made no noise as I opened it. I heard the unmistakable sounds of fists hitting a punching bag and walked down a small hallway until I walked into a huge room filled with boxing rings and other workout equipment. I saw him across the room by himself, attacking the punching bag. I could tell he was upset about something and I just stood and watched him for a moment as he punched away. I wondered what could be going through his mind as he hammered away and as I watched, he slammed his fist into the bag, punching it off the chain and across the room. He stood panting for a moment before walking over to a row of bags laying on the floor and hung up a new bag. He only got a few punches in before I spoke.

"Trouble sleeping?" I called softly.

He turned quickly hearing my voice.

"Who are you?"

"Agent Aliana Fraser of SHIELD," I replied calmly.

"Nice to meet you. And to answer your question, I slept for 70 years, ma'am. I think I've had my fill," he said going back to punching the bag again. 

I walked in slowly not wanting him to feel cornered or intimidated in any way.

"Then you should be out, celebrating, seeing the world. I can imagine things are very different now then they were," I said gently.

He walked over to a bench where his bag was sitting and he started to unwrap his hands. "I went under, the world was at war, I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost." He threw the tape in his bag and sat down sadly.

"We've made some mistakes along the way. Some very recently," I said sadly.

"You here with a mission ma'am?" Captain Rogers asked.

"Yes I am Captain Rogers," I replied.

"Steve, please," he replied.

"And you can call me Aliana," I replied. "None of that ma'am stuff. Besides I'm only 21 so really no need for ma'am." I laughed a little.

He smiled slightly. "Alright, Aliana it is. That's really pretty by the way."

"My mom was very into different names," I smiled sadly. He looked at me with a strange look but didn't say anything. 

"You trying to get me back into the world Aliana?" he said with a smile.

"I'm trying to save it Steve, and I could really use your help," I replied handing him the file. It had all the information about Loki and the tesseract.

"HYDRA's secret weapon," he mumbled. I stiffened slightly at the mention of HYDRA, but regained my composure. I was on a mission here. No time to get jumpy.

"Howard Stark fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think, that the tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That is something the world really needs," I said looking at him as he looked through the file. He looked slightly irritated at the mention of the tesseract and amazingly at the mention of Howard Stark.

"Who took it from you?" he asked closing the file and handing it back to me. 

"He's called Loki. He's...not from around here," I said hesitating slightly. I wasn't sure how much to tell him. I didn't want to overwhelm him and lose him from the team. He raised an eyebrow at the hesitation in my voice but didn't comment. He stood gathering his stuff.

"There's a lot to bring you up to speed on if you're in. The world has gotten even stranger than you know," I said tucking the file under my arm and folding them.

"At this point, I doubt there is much that could surprise me anymore," he said with a slight chuckle.

"Ten bucks says you're wrong," I said with a snort. There's a debriefing packet waiting for you back at your apartment. Is there anything you can tell me about the tesseract that we should know?"

He picked up one of the punching bags and picked up his bag and started toward the door. As he reached the hallway, I heard him say, "You should have left it in the ocean."

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As I left the gym I noticed that his motorcycle was already gone. As I walked towards my car, I pulled out my phone and sent a quick text to my dad.

"I think he's in. I gave him the info and he left. We will see if he comes." A few minutes later he responded with, "Good job kiddo. Meet me on the quinjet tomorrow 0800."

I got in my car and headed home. Nat's car was in front and the lights were on so I knew she would be home. I was excited to see her. I jumped out of my car and rushed inside.

"Nat?" I called as I opened the door. I sighed in relief as she came around the corner from the kitchen. "Oh thank god you are here."

"You ok kiddo?" she asked pulling me into a hug.

"I'm fine for now. Are you ok?" I asked pulling back and looking at her. She looked tired.

"I'm ok. I need to get to the helicarrier by 0600 though. So I just stopped by to get something to eat and to get a little sleep," she replied barely hiding a yawn behind her hand.

"Well I'm meeting dad at the jet at 0800 tomorrow so we should be there by 0900 or 0930. Depending on whether or not our newest acquisition shows up," I said yawning myself.

"The captain?" she asked sitting down on the couch.

"Yeah. He seems so sad. Dad sent me to go talk to him and that's where I just was. I met him at some old rundown gym in Brooklyn. I can't even imagine what he is going through and what he is about to be going through is even worse. Imagine essentially dying and waking up 70 years later. I can't even imagine it," I said sadly shaking my head.

"I hear you. Well get some rest and hope that he shows. We are definitely going to need him," she said, giving me a hug and going into her room. 

I turned off all the lights and headed to bed. The last thought I had before I fell asleep were of how beautiful his blue eyes were.