oh captain, my captain |STEVE ROGERS 1|

13

"So where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" I question, looking over at him from the passenger seat.

He just smiled, looking at the road. "Nazi, Germany."

I just hummed and looked back at Natasha. "Thanks for saving our asses back there, Nat. We owe you our lives."

"Your love lives, more like," She scoffed, leaning from the backseat. "Steve, I have a question for you. Which you do not have to answer. I feel like if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know?"

"What?"

"Was that your first kiss since 1945?" She asked and I burst out laughing, doubling over in my seat.

"That bad, huh, Mae?" He blushed, eyes on the road.

"What? No!" I exclaimed. "You kiss better than most guys do, and you're 95 years old!" I placed a hand on his bicep and squeezed it lovingly. "You didn't do bad at all, you by far exceeded all expectations."

"You weren't too bad yourself," He said, giving me that heart-melting smile of his.

"You guys are gonna make me throw up," Natasha groaned, falling down on her back into the seats.

✪ ✪ ✪ 

It was nearly nightfall when we reached the coordinates. We stepped out of the truck and walked to what looked like an old military base. 

"The file came from these coordinates," Nat said, looking up from her phone.

"So did Steve." I joked, grinning at Steve. "This is where you were trained, right? Where they recruited you for the serum?"

He just grinned at me as we went inside. "You know your Captain America facts, huh?"

"Kinda had a crush on the guy when I was little. You know, the whole family of soldiers, you raved about a lot." I replied, looking at all the buildings, trying to imagine what pre-serum Steve looked like as he ran through these fields.

"How cute," Nat scoffed as she walked past us both."This is a dead-end. Zero heat signature, zero waves, not even radio. Whoever wrote the file must have used a router to throw people off."

I saw Steve's face change as his eyes set on a building. "What's up, Rogers?"

"Army regulations forbid storing ammunition within five hundred yards of the barracks," Steve walked to the entrance and Nat and I followed. "This building is in the wrong place."Steve broke the lock on the heavy metal doors. The lights turned on as we walked and all of us saw the familiar SHIELD logo.

"Is this SHIELD?" I asked, running my finger over the empty bookshelves.

"Maybe where it started," Steve replied. We walked into a dust-filled room that had portraits of four people hanging on the wall.

"There's Stark's father." Nat pointed at one of the photos.

"Wait, like, Tony Stark?" I asked and Steve nodded, his gaze fixed on a woman's picture.

"Howard." He said simply.

"Who's the girl?" Nat questioned. Steve doesn't reply and turns away to walk further down the room and stops by a massive bookshelf. A knot forms in my stomach when he doesn't say a word.

"If you're already working in a secret office, then why do you need to hide the elevator?" Steve pushed aside the bookshelf, grunting as he did so. I waved my hand and the shelf flew away. "Show off." He muttered and I just smirked.

We step inside and it goes downward. "Well, logically, if this can only take us down, we're in pretty big trouble here," I commented, leaning back and forth on my heels.

"Just try not to think about it too much," Nat bumped her shoulder with mine. The doors opened to reveal a very old group of computers.

"This can't be the data-point, this technology is ancient," Natasha said in awe as she looked around the room.

"There's a port drive here, Nat," I pointed out and she handed me the drive. I plugged it in and the computer hummed to life.

"Initiate system?" The computer asked. Natasha types using the keyboard.

 "Y-E-S spells yes," Natasha smiles as the old computer starts to cranks up. "Shall we play a game?"

I laughed and turned to Steve. "It's a movie--"

"Yeah, I saw it," He said, cutting me off. I frown at his coldness and turned away.

A heavy accent filled the room, seeming to come from the computers. "Rogers, Steven. Born, 1918. Romanoff, Natalia Alianovna. Born, 1984. Stirling, Maeve Emma. Born, 1989."

"I'm sorry, what that fuck?" I questioned and Steve threw me a look. "Are you not freaked out by this?"

"It's some kind of a recording," Natasha stated, looking at the screens of the old computers.

"I am not a recording, Fräulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945, but I am." The "recording" showed a picture of Arnim Zola and I ran both of my hands through my hair.

"Do you know this thing?" Natasha asked and I sighed heavily

"Arnim Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years," I answered. "This is just the pinnacle of my day. This is great. I love this."

"The first correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972 I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body, my mind, however, that was worth saving on two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain."

"Well, your brain is outdated, you evil bastard," I replied flippantly while shrugging.

"How did you get here?" Steve questioned, pacing the room.

"Invited." He replied.

"It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value," Natasha explained as we all looked at the computer cautiously.

"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own."

"HYDRA died with the Red Skull," Steve hissed and I touched his shoulder. He was getting worked up and I couldn't figure out why.

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place," Dr. Zola replied, menacingly.

"Prove it," Steve hissed.

"You need to calm down," I said softly, squeezing his arm. "You're letting this thing get the best of you."

"Easy for you to say, you haven't fought in the wars I have to keep Hydra dead like I have," He snapped and I shrunk back slightly. I felt my eyes harden and I stepped away from him. "Mae, I didn't--"

Dr. Zola didn't seem to care about our little dispute as he kept droning out along speech of evil. I wasn't really focusing as I leaned against one of the desks.

I wasn't really paying attention until I heard Natasha's voice have a slight tinge of panic.

"Steve, we got a bogey. Short range ballistic. 30 seconds tops."
"Who fired it?" I asked.
"S.H.I.E.L.D." I felt my heart stop and kept my eyes glued to the phone in Natasha's hands. "I am afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. We're both of us...out of time," The doctor's eerie voice flooded through the room.