Dandelion in the Flame | Steve Rogers

Chapter Thirteen

Steve laid wide awake in bed, just as he did most nights. He glanced at the clock -- 3:15 AM. He could always count on one hand the amount of hours of sleep he received each night. This particular night he didn't even need to count as he had yet to fall asleep.

He was tired. Not only tired from lack of sleep, but he was tired of the nightmares, the memories, and haunting images that plagued him night after night. Some of them were real, others were figments of his imagination created by his brain to torture him.

Steve knew if he tried he could probably fall asleep, but a part of him didn't want to. Because the previous night was the first time his nightmares had ever included Evelyn. And the image was so terrifying for him that he never wished to close his eyes and ever see it again. It was always rough to see images of Bucky falling from the train, or see his fellow Howling Commandos get taken out by the enemy. But something about seeing Evelyn's body crushed and bloodied had left a chill inside of him that he wasn't sure he would ever shake.

Evelyn was special to him, that was obvious to anyone that knew him. Her friendship was the one thing in his life he cherished above everything else. She was calm and attentive and playful when he needed it, and she did it all while suffering from trauma of her own. She was his rock, and he would do everything in his power to make sure she never endured the pain she knew ever again.

Typically after a nightmare he would call Evelyn, and she would rush over and calm him down. But he had done it so much lately he didn't want to burden her that night. So he decided to deal with it in other ways -- by running around Central Park until the sun came up.

~

That same afternoon Steve hadn't pushed his body quite enough, and the images from his nightmare kept popping into his mind without his control. So he took to releasing his frustration at the boxing gym.

With every punch, his anger at his own inability to control his thoughts shined through. They got harder, angrier, more chaotic, until the punching bag was left lying across the room. He breathed heavily yet he hadn't had enough. He hung up another bag before continuing on with his attack.

"Rough night?" he heard, he glanced over to see Director Fury standing across the room. In his aggression he hadn't heard him enter the gym.

"What are you doing here?" asked Steve between punches. He could sense Fury wanted him to stop his attack on the bags full of sand before continuing on, but Steve kept on punching anyway.

"We need to have a little chat," Fury told him.

After knocking the second punching bag across the room, Steve walked over to his gym bag to remove the white tape that protected his knuckles from the rough leather. He tossed the tape in his bag before giving Fury his full attention.

"Are you here with a mission?" asked Steve.

"I am." Fury began, "Two, actually."

Fury handed Steve the file that contained confidential information on the tesseract. He knew all about it, both from his own interactions and from of course Evelyn. Last he knew, S.H.I.E.L.D had possession of it and it was safely in New Mexico.

"I'm confused." Steve said, shutting the file and handing it back to Fury.

"It's been taken, by a man named Loki. He's not from around here. If you're in, we'll debrief you on more later. We could really use you on this one, Cap."

"And the second?" Steve asked.

Fury sighed before pulling out a second folder. Steve could sense a change in the air as Fury handed him the second file. And when he opened the file to see Evelyn's face staring back at him, he felt like his heart stopped.