The Blood Phoenix 6: A Captain America: The Winter Soldier Fanfiction

Chapter 5: The Attractive Military Man Who Can't Beat Captain America

'I think it's getting worse. A cop pulled me over last week. He thought I was drunk. Swerved to miss a plastic bag. Thought it was an IED,' the blonde female spoke. I saw Sam Wilson, whom I had officially dubbed as 'the-attractive-military-man-who-can't-beat-Captain-America-in-a running-race' talking to the military veterans in the VA. There were some tough stories. Apparently, there were a lot of people just as damaged as Steve and I.

'Some stuff you leave there,' Sam said, 'other stuff you bring back. It's our job to figure out how to carry it. Is it going to be in a big suitcase, or in a little man-purse? It's up to you.'

'See you next week,' Sam said to the female attendee who had spoken earlier.

'Definitely,' she replied. Then he turned to see us.

'Look who it is, the running man and his ridiculously attractive Avenger girlfriend.'

'Very funny, Wilson,' I spoke. Leaning forward, I shook his hand. 'Sorry if I didn't introduce myself properly. It's Adelaide. Adelaide Lehnsherr.' Then Steve spoke.

'Caught the last few minutes. It was pretty intense.'

'Yeah, brother. We all got the same problems. Guilt. Regret.'

'I know what that feels like,' I interjected.

'You do?'

'Yeah. Did some nasty things back in the day. You lost someone?'

'My wing-man. Riley. Flying a night mission. Standard PJ rescue op. Nothing we hadn't done 1,000 times before. Until an RPG knocked Riley's dumb ass out of the sky. Nothing I could do. It was like I was up there to watch.'

'I'm sorry, Sam,' Steve said softly.

'After that, I had a really hard time finding a reason to be over there, you know?'

'But you're happy now. Back in the world, huh?' I asked.

'The number of people giving me orders is down to about, zero? So, hell yeah. Are you and her thinking about getting out?'

'No. We don't know,' Steve replied. 'I don't know. To be honest, I don't know what I would do with myself if I did?'

'Ultimate fighting? Cage fighting? A little bit of both? Just a great idea off the top of my head. Seriously, you could do whatever you want to do. What makes you happy?'

'I don't know.'

'You, Lehnsherr?'

'I'm not really sure, Sam. I haven't known a life outside of working as an Avenger or for SHIELD.'

'Okay. Just think about it.'