Steve Rogers ☆ Captain America (brooklynproject) wrote in newalliance, @ 2012-05-15 02:22:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | captain america, lady blackhawk |
Who: Captain America and Lady Blackhawk
Where: SHIELD HQ; Pizza parlor in Brooklyn.
When: May 15, 2011 [backdated]
What: SHIELD brings in a special consultant to help a recently defrosted Captain America adjust to living in the future. It's Lady Blackhawk.
Rating: PG-13?
Steve wasn’t sure what they meant when they said they were bringing in an outside specialist to help him adjust to his situation.
S.H.I.E.L.D. had handled it poorly when they’d thawed the ice block he was encased in to find him still alive, still breathing. They’d set him up in mock set-up of a private hospital room, how it would have it been in his time on a sound-stage. Everything just like it had been in 1945. The ruse had been for his benefit, to help break things to him more gently. Steve believed their intentions were well-meant; he had to. Like it or not, he was in their care. They’d gotten the baseball game wrong, though. In their scenario that was supposed to be 1945, they’d played an anachronistic radio broadcast-- a baseball game that Steve had been to -- and he’d fled the facility, knocking out and evading several agents before he was finally ‘apprehended’ in middle of Times Square.
That was when he’d met Nick Fury, the one man he’d given his trust and loyalty to so far. Nick was the S.H.I.E.L.D.’s director; his father, Jack Fury, had served with Steve as a Howling Commando. Steve trusted Nick. But still, he wondered, who could possibly help a man from the 1940s, who’d just been revived to find himself in the future, 70 years later? Who could possibly know what that was like? Who could possibly know what it felt like?
But he wasn’t just any man. He was Steve Rogers. He was Captain America.
This was insane. Zinda remembered when Captain America died. She could remember it like it was yesterday. It had thrown people into a tailspin. So getting a call saying that her help was needed felt a bit like getting kicked in the gut. What were the chances of this happening twice anyway?
She hadn’t spent much time really with Steve Rogers. After all, they really were fighting the war in two drastically different ways, but they had both been big propaganda tools so she’d met him a few times. As far as she could tell they’d only had two things in common. One. They both loved their country and would fight injustice. Two. They’d both been told they couldn’t do it for reasons that weren’t their fault, and in response, they’d said, ‘To hell with that.’ and did it anyway. That was more than enough for Zinda to respect the hell out of a person. Well, and if it was really him, she supposed they had this in common as well.
She got through security and was led down a hall by a guard before they stopped at a door. She shooed the man away and knocked on the door. “Ya decent, Cap?” Once she got the affirmative she walked in. Taking stock in the old school surroundings her brow furrowed in thought. “They were tryin’ to hand hold you, weren’t they?” She said sounding unimpressed. She herself had just showed up, and she remembered how confusing it was (and still could be at times), but he was a big boy.
“Wanna go for a drive?” She asked. “You can stay here, but I reckon this is sort of like learnin’ French. You can’t do it stayin’ in your room.”
Steve blinked at the sound of a female voice. Not because he hadn’t interacted with female agents since he’d awoken, but because this woman’s voice was very distinctive. And... kind of familiar, which threw him for a loop. He didn’t let that show in his demeanor, however. He was a soldier, trained to keep his cool and stay calm in situations that had other people terrified. He hadn’t forgotten that.
“Yes,” he replied loudly enough to be heard when asked to be he was decent. The idea of a woman walking in on him when he wasn’t dressed made him feel uncomfortable. Especially now. He didn’t know how things worked in this century, and all this female empowerment that he saw around him was new to him. Of course Zinda Blake had always been like that. Seeing her, though, he couldn’t help but think of Peggy and... that hurt more than a little.
When Zinda walked in, Cap stepped forward and offered her his hand to shake. “Lady Blackhawk,” he said; it took him a moment of searching to find the right words. What were you supposed to say in a situation like this? He finally settled on, “it’s nice to see you again.”
Steve said nothing when she spoke about how S.H.I.E.L.D. had treated him, but when she suggested going for a drive, he nodded. “Yes ma’am,” he said.
Well it was definitely him. He was all tall and squarejawed and he spoke to her in that unphased professional manner he had. Looking at him was like a blast from the past. Everything about him screamed the 40’s from his hair cut right down to the way his shirt was tucked in. She wondered how strange she must look to him in modern clothing. Recognizable obviously, but probably far different.
“Zinda,” she corrected. Yes, that was her call sign, and it was also the name she still went by in uniform, but it did seem a bit to formal for this meeting. “Call me Zinda.”
She did smile though when he agreed to the car ride. After all it reminded her a bit of how she’d grown up. Military manners and all. Plus it’d be good for him. “Good answer. You wouldn’t believe the trouble I had convincin’ them this was a good idea.” She started as she pulled the door open so they could exit. “I think they’re worried about culture shock. I told ‘em you were an adult who wore big boy pants.” She finished up fishing her keys out of her pocket as they walked down the corridor.
“Thank you,” said Cap. He meant it. He appreciated that she didn’t think he needed her to hold his hand. He didn’t like being tiptoed around. He would rather people just be straight with him, as Fury had been. As Zinda was being.
“Call me Steve,” he said, trying to manage something akin to a smile but failing because people kept glancing at them as they walked as down the corridor together side-by-side. He thought they were mostly staring at him, but he couldn’t be sure. It could have been both of them (even S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were allowed to get a little awe/starstruck in the presence of Captain America and Lady Blackhawk, especially when one of them had just been recovered from suspended animation in a block of ice). It must have been weird for her to see him in modern clothing, even if they were as close to the 1940s style as S.H.I.E.L.D. could get.
Cap wondered what it must have been like for her to get that call. More selfishly, he wondered why she only looked a few years older than she had when he’d known her. But he couldn’t think of a way to ask her.
“How...” Cap began, then trailed off. He felt himself reverting back to shy, unassuming Steve Rogers, at a loss for words. He’d been asleep for 70 years, and he still hadn’t learned a bloody thing about talking to women.
Zinda almost rolled her eyes at the stares. She remembered them only too well. She supposed that the rubbernecking was to be expected and even normal human behavior, but these people were supposed to be professionals.
She wasn’t surprised when he started his question. She knew from the moment she’d gotten the call that she’d have to share her own story. She waited a moment before they were in the elevator before she began. “Well after the war, a number of SS higher ups and official government Nazis fled to South America. So a ton of ‘em still had to be tracked down. Anyway in ‘47 some Nazi scientist started makin’ some big waves with a lot of advanced tech he was developing and makin’ a fortune on.”
It was weird. It all happened so long ago, but it felt like yesterday. She swore that sometimes she could still smell the smell of her cockpit. “So we had a clue on where to look so the fellas and I flew in. The assignment was to bring him in alive. They wanted him to go to trial.” Zinda sometimes thought about how her life would have been different if the mission hadn’t been to bring him in alive. They probably could have taken care of it before things had gotten crazy. “We go in, and it’s all going accordin’ to plan we’ve got him and we’re leavin’. On the way out the facility explodes. I wake up and it’s 2009.” And she’d thought for sure she was dying and everything had to be some messed up dream. “Apparently he’d been trying to work out time travel. I guess he did.”
When she finished up they were on the ground floor of the facility. Her car was parked right outside the front of the building.