New Chances

Intro

People always say that life is strange. And I agree. Life is strange, it's full of pain and loss at one time, and full of joy the next. Life is even stranger after you have died. Yes, you read that right. Some "lucky" people get to experience this crazy phenomenon called: resurrection. And I'll be honest with you, it sucks. Or at least it does after you literally threw yourself off cliff to save half of the universe. And not because it undoes your sacrifice... I mean, all of that still happened, no, because whoever resurrects you decides to only heal your major injuries, like a broken neck, broken spine and some internal injuries. Apart from that he still leaves you broken and bruised and in a shitload of pain.

That's the first thing I remember after coming back to life. Pain. Pain that made my eyes water, pain that made it hard to breathe even though I was only laying on the ground. Pain that made the strange world I was on seem less colourful, almost completely grey. Then a face. A familiar face. It made no sense to me for that face to be there. He had not been there when I died. How did he suddenly get here? He said something to me... I couldn't exactly hear what, the pain dulled my senses, but I saw his mouth moving as he picked me up carefully. Then I blacked out.

Next thing I knew I woke up in a hospital bed, unable to move or I might accidentally unplug something or tear my bandages. However, something seemed off. All the doctors were men, all the nurses were women, their clothes looked very old fashioned and next to my bed stood a radio that, in my time, would have been called retro. The face I had seen on that strange planet was there again, but this time he wasn't faded and blurry. "Where are we," I asked him, my voice sounding raspy. "A hospital." Yeah, no shit Rogers. I rolled my eyes and whispered, just loud enough for him to here, "When are we?" "The fifty's," he replied just as softly. "Used my last two Pym particles to get us here." "How long have we been here?" He smiled, "You wanna know how long you've been out?" Oh, that sounded bad. I nodded, which wasn't as painful as I thought it would have been. "You've been out for two months... but... that's kind of a good thing. Gave your body the energy to heal." "How much longer do I have to stay here?" Steve chuckled, "You only just woke up and you're already done with the whole hospital setting, huh?" "Yep." "They said you'd have to stay two more weeks after you woke up." I groaned, "Oh God, that's torture." "Oh please, it'll be over before you know it."

"So... how did you get me back?" "Huh?" "Are you really that stupid, Rogers?" I lowered my voice to a whisper. "I was dead." "I... managed to convince my old friend Johann that... a soul for a soul works two ways." "How?" "Well... I might have said I wouldn't leave till he gave me you." "He must have found that a horrible idea." Steve smiled slightly, "Yeah, I got a feeling he doesn't really like me." "Must have been a shock for you to see him there... or... did Clint tell you? Wait, I haven't even asked... were we... were we successful?" Steve nodded. Good, at least that way I didn't die for nothing. "So... did Clint tell you, or no?" Steve shook his head, "I think he was too distraught to fill me in on that detail." "I see... damn..." "Uh... there is... something else you need to know..." "Uh oh, that sounds bad, what is it?" "You aren't the only avenger we lost in the process." Shit. "Who else died," I asked him softly. "We lost Tony."

*

The two weeks were NOT over before I knew it, in fact, they might just have been the longest two weeks of my life. And that says something. And to make it worse, I needed several months of rehab. So there I was, stuck in the fifties, filled with racism, sexism and the aftermath of World War 2. But at least I had one friend there with me, who always made sure I was doing okay. At some points I even had to tell him off for being just a little bit too caring and helpful. Honestly, the only thing that was good about the 50's was that the fashion was pretty nice. "It could have been worse," I told Steve one day as we were watching TV. Ugh, black and white Tv. "Oh really found something positive about the 50's. Hear this people, Romanoff's finally got something good to say about the 50's," he said, clearly a terrible attempt to make me smile. "Well, enlighten us." "It's not the 60's." Steve looked confused. "60's were full of hippies," I told him. "You mean, peace... flower power... doesn't sound too bad." "Oh please, you couldn't have handled it. People swam naked in park lakes." "That... is public nudity and that is illegal." "Well in that case you don't want to know how many times I have been illegal," I said with a wink. He just rolled his eyes.

"So, I have been thinking," Steve said after about two minutes of silence. "Hmm?" "We have been here or a year now... Uh... you seem like you're healed well enough to go on a mission." "Oh, finally. What's the mission?" "Going home." "Thank God." "Hey, the fifties aren't that bad." "Excuse me? But when we were at the hospital, even when it was just for check ups, the doctors only spoke to you, as if I was too stupid to understand them. They grabbed at the nurses, who acted as if it was normal, I swear to God though, some of them looked at the men as if they wanted to kill them. This time is sexist, racist and homophobic and I really don't like it." Steve nodded, "I'll agree, the fifties are a little problematic." "A little.... Right. Anyway, what's your plan?" "Well, we're obviously going to have to steal Pym particles." "we're going to have to break into a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, aren't we?" "We are." "Well, that's gonna be fun."

Newsflash, it wasn't fun. Not in the slightest. We almost got caught five times. We had to hide in a broom closet for three hours, in which I almost got squished because Steve is huge. But hey, eventually did get the Pym particles, and we got to hear Director Peggy Carter, yell at one of her male employees who messed up, which honestly made it worth the trouble. Nothing is better than a woman in charge yelling at a man in times where those roles would normally be turned around. Steve seemed to find it quite hilarious as well. We also bumped into Tony's dad... who seemed a little confused and talked about a man named Howard Potts, which made Steve chuckle. Howard was a more decent man than I expected, he even offered us a ride home, not knowing that we had just robbed the facility he worked at. His driver/butler, Edwin Jarvis, was also a really nice guy, with whom I managed to trade a few recipes.

"So, Stark had a butler named Edwin Jarvis," Steve said when they rode away after dropping us off at the apartment Steve and I had been living in for the past year. "Explains the name of our old A.I. friend, huh?" I said. "Yeah... Tony named his robot butler after his father's old butler," Steve said with a chuckle. "Just A Rather Very Intelligent System my ass," I said. "I bet you he came up with it after he named his A.I. Jarvis." Steve nodded, "Because God forbid he actually shows that he cares about people by naming something after them... no, it has to stand for something." I yawned, "Oh well... let's go inside and rest." Steve nodded, "Yeah, good idea. And then we'll finally go back home tomorrow."