I quickly sit up in bed with beads of cold sweat trickling down my forehead. The covers and sheets on the bed have a thin layer of frost over them and I throw them back, then look at the clock on the bedside table.
2:13 AM
I climb out of bed and walk over to the closet, roll out a portable heater and point it at the bed. I turn it on then walk to the kitchen, quietly, careful not to wake the other person living in the apartment. When I reach the kitchen I flick on the light and start towards the fridge when a piece of paper on the counter catches my eye.
Couldn't sleep. I'm downstairs at the gym, I should be back sometime in the morning, help yourself to the cinnamon rolls on the counter that I bought last night for breakfast.
-Steve.
I sigh, walk to the spare room, and see that the bed is empty. I nod and walk back to my room, turn off the heater and change into a t-shirt, hoodie and sweat pants. Before I leave, I grab a cinnamon roll from the box on the counter and head for the apartment gym.
While standing in the elevator I enjoy the sweet and chew roll, waiting for the elevator to reach the first floor. I walk to the gym door, take out my key card and swipe it into the door scanner.
As I walk in, Steve is facing away from me at a punching bag, four more bags are lined up on the ground next to him. I walk around and sit on the bench across from Steve, he glances up at me while throwing punches at the bag.
"You're supposed to be sleeping," He says.
"So are you," I say back.
"I have," Steve replies. "For 70 years. I'm sure you had trouble sleeping after getting out of Cryo."
"I did, but you've been back almost a month, it took me two weeks before I got a good 7 hours of sleep," I stand up and walk over to a treadmill. I stop for a moment looking at the machine, my legs feel like jelly, so I changed my mind and sat back down. "I'm starting to think that you don't sleep at all."
Steve went back to punching his bag. I stand up and begin to stretch, reaching down to touch my toes slowly, my legs were still shaking. It's too early for this. I should have stayed in bed.
"Was it a dream?" Steve asked.
"Huh?" I look up from the floor.
"Did you have another dream that woke you up?" Steve asked again.
"What do you mean another?" I stand up straight.
"You wake up a lot and go to the kitchen to eat a cup of yogurt, and then take one of those.. Mel- mela-"
"Melatonin," I said the sleep drug's name.
"Melatonin, then go back to bed. I notice you do that when you wake up from a nightmare," Steve explains. "But since I left a note you came down here. Was it the same one you have told me about?"
"About Wes?" I asked.
"Yeah," Steve nodded.
"No," I reply and Steve stops punching his bag. "It was kind of more than that."
"Tell me," Steve said.
"At first it was Erskine getting shot at the lab, that scene replayed maybe three times before it moved onto the failed mission with Wes," I explain. "The bullets shooting through the door at Wes and I, Wes getting shot, again and again."
"He got shot three times, right?" Steve asked, recounting what I had told him when it was still the 1940s.
"Yeah, but in my dream, it seemed he was shot ten times," I replied. I pause for a minute and swallow. "Then I watched Bucky fall again."
Steve looks down, then back at me. He lightly punches the bag and breathes out. Hearing the name of his best friend who had left us during the war was hard on him, and I understood. "Then what happened?"
"I was back in 2001," I said. "Standing in the streets of New York, watching the planes crash into the World Trade Towers. To watch it happen on screen is one thing, but being there in person, it's so much different. I could feel the ground shake, the hot air as the plane exploded, crashing into the tower. Screams of people echoed in my ears, the cloud of ash and dust that rolled out from the falling tower. I couldn't breathe, then I woke up."
Steve stood at his punching bag, looking at me. He didn't seem sure of what to say, he was silent.
"So why are you up?" I asked.
"You read the note, I couldn't sleep." Steve answered and went back to punching the bag.
I went back to stretching, then I walked over to the treadmill and began walking.
After every minute Steve seemed to be punching the bag harder, his brow was furrowed and he grit his teeth, he almost looked angry. I chose not to say anything and to let him be, then the bag flew across the room and hit the wall opposite to Steve, sand split out onto the floor.
I hop and spread my legs so that my feet were at the sides of the treadmill and I turned off the machine. Steve went to another punching bag and hung it up to continue punching when a voice echoed through the room.
"Trouble sleeping, soldiers?"
I look over to see Nick Fury standing in the doorway. I look at the clock on the wall, 3:15 AM. He's here early. Steve stopped punching and looked at Fury as well.
"Slept for 70 years, sir," he said. "Think I've had my fill."
"Then you should be out, celebrating," Fury replied. "Seeing the world. Flint, what are you doing up?"
"I couldn't sleep either," I said, getting off the treadmill. Steve left the punching bag and began unwrapping the bandages from his hands and putting them in his duffle bag.
"When I went under, the world was at war." Steve said. "I wake up, they say we won. They didn't say what we lost."
"We've made some mistakes along the way," Fury explained, I snorted. "Some very recently." He held a folder in his hands. Steve looked at the folder and continued to unwrap the bandages.
"I take it you have a mission for us, sir?" I asked.
"Correct," Fury nodded and handed me the folder. I opened it and inside was a paper that had the SHIELD emblem at the top and below that it said Level 7. In big words a picture of a blue, translucent cubed was labeled: TESSERACT.
I have seen this cube before.
"Trying to get me back in the world?" Steve asked.
"Trying to save it," Fury said.
I stood next to Steve and showed him the picture. He recognized the cube as well, and sat down with the folder.
"HYDRA's secret weapon," he said.
"Howard and I got that out of the ocean while looking for you," I explained.
"He thought that the Tesseract would be the key to unlimited sustainable energy." Fury said. Steve looked up at Fury, he almost looked disappointed. "That is what the world sorely needs." Fury finished and Steve closed the folder and handed it back to him.
"I'm guessing it was taken?" I asked.
"By Loki," Fury replied. "He's not from around here."
"Clearly not, isn't he a Nordic God?" I said. "I don't understand, why is he wanting the Tesseract?"
"There is a lot we need to bring up to speed with the two of you," Fury answered. "If you're in." He looked down, and took a breath before speaking again. "The world has gotten a lot stranger than you already know."
"At this point I doubt anything would surprise me." Steve stood up to grab his bag.
"Oh, you're speaking too quickly, Steve." I warned.
"Ten bucks says you're wrong." Fury was one to give bets. He once bet me that people had landed on the Moon, ten bucks. I should have known better, he proved me wrong. Steve walked over to the punching bags and picked one off the ground.
"There's a quick briefing packet left in your apartment that should get you caught up." Fury said, I followed Steve towards the door. "Is there anything you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?"
I looked at Steve, and he kept walking before saying back: "You should have left it in the ocean."
~~~
Back at the apartment, Steve and I sat at the table in the kitchen reading over the briefing packet that Fury left. It told us of who Loki was, where the Tesseract was taken from, and what his plan may be.
"People have been put under his control," Steve said. He was ahead of me in the packet, I looked over to his page.
"Who?" I asked.
"Multiple SHIELD agents, a scientist named Erik Selvig, uhm, Clint Barton-" Steve read.
"Clint!" I slid the packet over to me and my eyes darted over the page.
"Isn't he the one who helped you settle into your apartment?" Steve asked, sliding the packet back in between us on the table.
"Yes," I replied. "Did a lot more than just that, he's my S.O."
"S.O?" Steve repeated.
"Supervising Officer," I explained. "Trained me in the field and everything. We're like family."
"I hope he's okay," Steve replied.
"Well, he's definitely alive, it takes a lot to even land a punch on him," I kept my eyes on the packet.
"How long was the search for me last, that you and Howard did." Steve asked.
"I was there when he found the Tesseract, then I went home," I answered. "I'm not sure how long after that he searched for. When I came back he had passed already. But, I think you'd be interested to know that he has a son."
"Really?" Steve looked at me.
"Yeah, his name is Tony. Extremely rich, like his father. Has his own weapons industry, this man is a billionaire." I said. "I met him at a memorial for his father in 2008, he was charismatic and up on his high-horse. The fame had really gotten to him. But he was polite, we talked a bit about his father, he said that Howard would always talk about me, and that he continued making equipment for me and my suits. When he died, Tony was given responsibility for the equipment so I was given all those suits that day. That year, Tony went missing in Afghanistan, when he returned he had this new change to him, his heart was replaced with this metal thing called an Arc Reactor and began making these metal suits, and he was called Iron Man." I looked at Steve and saw that he had furrowed his brow. "Yeah, it's crazy and confusing. I have a feeling he'll be recruited as well for this mission."
Steve stood up and walked over to the fridge. He opened it and grabbed a bottle of beer.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Do you want one?" He asked back.
"Sure, but why?" I replied.
Steve walked back over and sat down, opened the bottles on the side of the table and handed me one. "Because we are going to save the world from a Nordic God and I'm trying to understand how the entire world works all over again. Cheers." We tapped our bottles together before taking a drink.
"Don't forget the ten dollars tomorrow." I said.
Steve smiled and we continued reading the packet.