As Time Goes By

1: 11

After Steve and Katherine had been missing for some time, they awoke in a 1940's hospital and heard a baseball game on an old radio. A woman walked into the room.

The Dodgers announcer said over the radio, "Curve ball, high and outside for ball one. So the Dodgers are tied, 4-4. And the crowd well knows that with one swing of his bat, this fellow's capable of making it a brand-new game again. Just an absolutely gorgeous day here at Ebbets Field. The Phillies have managed to tie up at 4-4. But the Dodgers have three men on. Pearson beaned Reiser in Philadelphia last month. Wouldn't the youngster like a hit here to return the favor? Pete leans in. Here's the pitch. Swung on. A line to the right. And it gets past Rizzo. Three runs will score. Reiser heads to third. Durocher's going to wave him in. Here comes the relay, but they won't get him." The door opened and an agent walked in.

"Good morning," the agent greeted as she checked her watch. "Or should I say, afternoon?"

"Where am I?" Steve and Katherine asked.

"You're both in a recovery room in New York City."

"The Dodgers take the lead, 8-4. Oh, Dodgers! Everyone is on their feet. What a game we have here today, folks. What a game indeed."

Steve looked at her suspiciously. "Where are we really?"

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

"This game, it's from May, 1941," Steve said. "I know because I was there." He got up from the bed. "Now, I'm gonna ask again. Where are we?"

"Captain Rogers..." She secretly pushed an alarm.

"Who are you?" Steve and Katherine demanded as two soldiers in black uniforms entered the room and he knocked them through the wall. They realized they were in a made-up set and ran out.

"Captain Rogers, Private Nelson, wait!" the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent said before speaking into a comm. "All agents, code 13! I repeat. All agents, code 13!"

---

Steve an Katherine found themselves in 2011's Time Square. They looked around in shock. Numerous SUVs encircled them and Fury stepped out of one of the vehicles.

"At ease, soldiers!" Fury said. "Look, I'm sorry about that little show back there, but... we thought it best to break it to you two slowly."

"Break what?" Steve and Katherine asked.

"You've both been asleep. For almost seventy years." Steve and Katherine looked around him in shock. "You two gonna be okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah. I just... I had a date." The memories of his last conversations with Peggy and Katherine played in his head. He figured both were gone and that he'd never see them again. In a matter of months, for him, he'd lost his best friends and the woman he'd fallen in love with.

Katherine glanced at the ground, then back up. "He would've loved to see the future. I'm done saving the world. We won the war. Great. But now I want to live in it."

Without another word, Katherine waved to Steve and walked away.

---

Steve was pummeling a punching bag in the gym and in anger, he knocked his punching bag off its chain, sending it flying across the room when Fury entered.

"Trouble sleeping?" Fury asked.

"You're here with a mission, sir?" Steve questioned.

"I am."

"Trying to get me back in the world?"

"Trying to save it."