• • •

THE BRAND-NEW BROOKLYN BROWNSTONE TOWERED OVER DIANE. She reexamined the slip of paper, carefully rereading each word to make sure she was definitely in the right place. Or perhaps she was just stalling out of fear. What in the world could be in a brownstone apartment that would convince me to join Fury's Avengers Initiative? she thought to herself, puzzled. Part of her wanted to just turn back and forget about the past eight hours. But that was easier said than done. After witnessing what Loki had done to all of those people and knowing the power he had in his possession, there was no way she could turn her back on the situation.

"I need you, Sergeant. We're going to need to trust each other." Fury's words rang in her head.

She sighed and trudged up the short flight of stairs, a pang of sadness hitting her as she punched the door code in. The gentle breeze wrapped around her and she closed her eyes, allowing it to carry the faintest whisper of a memory through her mind. It tasted like a birthday. Felt like a new coat. Sounded like a park. Everything so vivid and yet nebulous at the same time. It felt like none of it truly belonged to her.

She couldn't count how many times she had that feeling. It was like looking at an image then shutting your eyes so hard that you still see the imprint on the inside of your eyelids, but it's fuzzy and shifts and warps itself until it's completely indiscernible. Her entire morning in Brooklyn felt this way. Like walking through an empty museum. Blank frames on the walls. Vandalized plaques to tell her nothing except remind her of how her mind had been marred by evil.

She held the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo-emblazoned windbreaker tightly around herself as she shivered in the East Coast morning chill before hurrying inside the heated brownstone.

Pushing her emotions to the back of her mind, Diane began to scan the doors of the downstairs hallway. A110... A111... A112... A113. She stopped at the end of the hall, in front of the unit number that was scribbled on the paper. Her fist simply hovered over the door, nerves finally getting the best of her. What if this is some elaborate trap? she pondered irrationally. She shook the intrusive thoughts from her head. Taking a tentative breath, she lightly rapped her knuckles on the door twice. The sound felt like gunshots in her head. She waited for a couple of moments. Nothing. Sighing, she raised her hand to knock once more but paused. This is stupid. It's not going to be him anyway because he's dead. They're all dead—

"Ma'am?" called a man's voice from behind her. Diane froze. It had to be her imagination. She sensed the man with the chillingly familiar voice move closer to her. "You're here from S.H.I.E.L.D., right?" She did not respond. She didn't move a muscle. "Ma'am, are you alright?"

Slowly and carefully, Diane lowered her hand and turned around to face him. As her eyes landed on his face, she felt her heart leap into her throat and fall into her stomach at the same time. She didn't say anything as she looked the man up and down until her eyes rested on a painfully familiar face. The body may not have been his, but she knew the soft, blue eyes that stared back at her.

His face flashed from gentlemanly concern to pure bewilderment. "D-Diane?"

He took a step toward her, but she quickly backed away from him. "Who are you?" she finally managed to get out, her voice quiet with something darker lurking beneath her mellifluous tone. Her hand twitched at her side, minuscule wisps discreetly flickering in and out around her skin.

His eyebrows turned up sharply at the question as if he expected her to know him. "Diane..." he begged sadly. "I-It's me." He took a hesitant step forward. "It's Steve—"

"No!" Her hand flew out in front of her, glowing dangerously with roseate tendrils. "Stay back! Get away from me," she said fearfully. The world stayed still, but the space between them grew. "You're– He's dead!"

"Diane..." he pleaded, his eyes filling with tears.

"What are you? Some sort of android? An LMD?" she interrogated, clenching her fist. "Is this some kind of sick psychological test?" A violent flurry of emotions was swirling through her mind.

The pain in his face was visible. "I-I'm not... I'm not dead. Look, it's me," he held out his hand. "I'm right here."

She shook her head. "You're lying," she mumbled, backing away until she hit the wall behind her.

"Diane, please... you have to believe me."

"They said they... they killed him," Diane said quietly, staring at her hands. She rubbed furiously at the tears tickling her face. "Steve is dead. That's what they told me," she muttered in a trancelike state. "That's what they said." Pressing herself as far into the corner of the hallway as she physically could, Diane slid down onto the floor with her hands held tightly over her ears. "HYDRA said they killed you..."

Steve kneeled in front of her. "Whatever it was they told you, Diane, it was a lie. HYDRA never killed me. Schmidt was sending a bomber straight for the States so I... I crashed it in the Arctic. I went under... I was frozen in the ice all this time. But then S.H.I.E.L.D. found me..."

She shook her head wildly, refusing to look his way. "It's been four years..." she said in a hushed tone, sniffling into her pants.

"You gotta believe me, Di. R-Remember when Buck and I took you to Coney Island for the first time? Or the time I made that drawing of you and Geri and gave it to you for your 15th birthday?" Geri. This caused her to raise her head slightly. She realized that he was giving her some of the thousands of puzzle pieces she had been looking for for years. And she hung onto every word he said. "You kept it in your notebook until graduation... Remember that?"

She tensed. "I don't remember much of anything... just some names, I think." she whispered. "It's mostly a blur."

"Oh," he said sadly, glancing at the ground. "Well, it was a special day. Buck... Buck and I had saved up almost all year to get you your favorite coat from Macy's. We spent the day at the pier. It was hot, but you didn't care. You wore it anyway despite..." Steve's voice cracked, "despite Bucky fussing over it."

She squeezed her eyes shut, forcing a stream of tears down her cheeks. She shuddered as she sucked in a breathy gasp.

"I've missed you, Diane. You were gone so fast. We looked for you... The whole team. Not one of us gave up searching for you even when it seemed like you were gone forever." He sniffled and held his hand out to her. "I'm sorry you were alone for so long, but you're not alone now," he said sympathetically. His eyes were red much like hers. "I wish I could have been there. I wish none of this ever happened. But there's no point now in wishing for what could've been. What matters is that we've got each other again. Please, Diane," Steve begged.

She finally raised her head from between her knees and watched Steve with tearful eyes. She looked from his hand back to his somber eyes. Without another thought, Diane flung herself forward and threw her arms around his neck, eliciting a groan from him and nearly knocking him over. Her body trembled with sobs as she buried her face into the crook of his neck. It took Steve a moment to realize what was happening before he returned her embrace and held her as tight as he could.

     "I missed you so much, Diane," he cried.

The gentle warmth of his hug was reminiscent of a home that was long gone and this moment was like the first light of many being switched on for the first time in a lifetime. The fog in her mind slowly began to clear, even if it was just a minuscule amount. It felt too good to be true. She shuddered at the thought that she might wake up and find out it was all a tormentous nightmare.

He hugged her tighter. They sat there for a while, both of them not wanting to let the other go.

After they had both relaxed and what seemed like hours, Steve broke the comfortable silence. "Do you wanna continue this inside?" he asked gently, loosening his hold. Diane could hear a glint of amusement creeping into his voice. Smiling, she nodded her head, her face still pressed into his shoulder. "Okay," he said with a quiet laugh.

• • •

Steve held the front door open, allowing Diane to step inside the modest apartment. "It's not much, but..."

"Oh, I think it's darling, Steve. It's so cozy," she said sincerely as more faint memories tickled at the back of her mind. She turned around just as he was shutting the door and beamed up at him. "I still can't believe you're... here. Standing right in front of me..."

He grinned back. "You can't believe it? Diane, I can't believe it."

Diane flung herself forward and wrapped him in another hug, laughing joyously. Steve let out a mirthful chuckle as he hugged her back. "I've missed you, Stevie."

"I missed you too. I really thought that I'd never see you again, Diane."

She pulled back and placed her delicate hands on either side of his face. Her watery eyes scanned his face, as though she were looking for something that she forgot. "You look... different," she said softly, wiping his tears with her thumbs. "But somehow, you still seem exactly the same."

"Yeah," he huffed in amusement. "It's surreal to think about how much has changed. Imagine if someone told us when we were in junior high where we'd be now."

"ewe... Just imagine if someone told me you'd be so tall! I mean, Bast, Steve..." she stood on the tips of her toes, using Steve's shoulders to try and push herself up further. "Weren't you shorter than me?"

"Well... we were about the same height," he said with a knowing smile. He chuckled as she tried with all her might to extend herself to his 6'2" stature.

"Sounds like revisionist history," she joked. Diane then directed her attention to his muscles. As she squeezed his biceps, she marveled, "And you have muscles! Look at this, I can't even fit my hand around your wrist!" She held his hand in both of hers. Her smile faltered when she noticed the slight wisps of light that flitted around her fingers.

He chuckled. "Yeah, it's still a shock even to me sometimes. I mean, it was just a couple years ago that I was sick all the time."

"Yeah..." She shifted uncomfortably.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked, noticing her averting her gaze as her expression suddenly dropped.

She rubbed her arm before glancing back up at him. "Are you... Are you alright, Steve? I'm really sorry. I didn't know you were... and I almost attacked you. I just... I thought you—"

"Diane," he said gently, taking hold of her shoulders. "It's okay. I understand. Trust me. I can only imagine how confused and scared you were."

"Yeah..." she muttered, unsure of herself and what she was thinking or feeling. "Um, anyway... yeah..." She began rummaging through the bag Coulson had lended her that contained all of three items. "Has anyone... um, here. I... Fury gave me the debriefing packet. To give to you," she stammered, handing him a Manila folder with the large S.H.I.E.L.D. insignia emblazoned across the front.

"Thanks," he said with a sad smile. "Why don't I make us something to eat?" She nodded silently, avoiding his gaze.

• • •

While Steve was in the kitchen, Diane habitually sat down on the floor in front of the couch. She pulled out the holo-tablet Agent Coulson had given her and propped it up on the small coffee table. As she activated it with a press of her thumb, a slew of information — faces, images, video feeds, text — fanned out across the holographic screen.

Dr. Robert Bruce Banner. Agent Natasha Romanoff. Agent Clint Barton. Captain Steven Rogers. Sergeant Diane Freeman. Tony Stark.

"I have to say, this is a... motley crew Fury is trying to assemble."

Steve came over with a plate of toast with jam and bacon and sat it on the table along with a bottle of apple juice. Diane could feel his eyes on her as he looked on at her operating the holographic display with an almost childlike wonder. She couldn't help the grin that was slowly forming on her face. "You–You know how to work that... thing?"

"It's a pretty basic miniaturized holographic projection, just compressed down into a tablet."

"I'm starting to think I'm gonna lose that bet..." he muttered.

"Hm?" she hummed, staying concentrated.

"Nothing." He sat down beside her and flipped open his analog Manila folder. "So, how did Fury find you anyway?"

     She flicked through multiple video files of Iron Man showboating around Los Angeles air space. "He didn't exactly find me." 'I am Iron Man.' Press conferences, Stark Expos, company events. "More like, their little science experiment found me. I think the doctor... er, student? I'm not sure, she seemed quite young. I think she said something about matching energy levels with the Tesseract and irradiated molecular structure—"

     He looked up from the page he was looking at on Loki. "You were there? When he... Loki... attacked?"

     "Unfortunately, yes. I was in bed asleep. Next thing I knew, he," she gestured toward the paper in his hand, "had a spear at my neck. So that was fun—"

     "Wait, what? Diane, are you okay? Did he hurt you?" She closed the folder on Stark and moved on to the one labeled 'BANNER, B. — Hulk.'

     "Aside from him choking me out and blasting me across the room?" she deadpanned, unzipping the jacket just enough to show the slight bruising on her neck. "Just peachy."

     "Criminy, Diane..."

     "I'm fine, Steve. Trust me, it could've been a lot worse. It's that scepter of his, it's extremely dangerous. Don't let him get anywhere near you with it, Steve. I'm not even sure how I managed to get away." Images of the 'Hulk' destroying a university hung in the air before them.

     "What does it do?" he asked.

     "I don't know exactly. But, however it works, he can use it to... brainwash people. He just took S.H.I.E.L.D. agents like they were his..."

      "Flying monkeys?"

     "Exactly. 'Wicked' is what I would call him, that's for sure."

     Steve leaned back against the couch, exhaling through his nose as he sat Loki's file down and scanned over the candidate files. "So, what do you think?"

"About this Avengers Initiative? I'm not so sure. It's operated by S.H.I.E.L.D. and this mess was caused by them in the first place. Look, here's what I know: Loki needs to be stopped before he does some colossally stupid shit on our planet, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been tampering with the Tesseract and they'll want it back... and neither of them should have it once the dust settles. So we stop Loki and get that Cube, then we... figure out a way to keep that thing far away from all of them... or anyone else who would abuse it."

"How are we gonna do that?"

They sat there staring at a loop of the Hulk fighting 'Abomination' through Harlem. "I haven't the foggiest idea, Steve. I'm being a little ambitious here, aren't I?"

"No," he said unconvincingly with a shake of his head. She glanced at him. "Well... maybe a little. But we can figure it out when the time comes."

"Hopefully." Her gaze drifted to her hands in her lap. "Life is strange, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is. But we're getting through it." He looked down at her. "Hey." She glanced back up at him, meeting his eyes. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah," she said weakly. "I'm okay." She rested her head against his arm. "We have a lot to catch up on, huh?"

"Yeah," Steve said with a small smile. "Yeah, we do." She curled into his chest. "You sure you're up for this?"

"No," she said with a laugh. "I haven't... done anything like this in a long time... But who else is up for the job? I could've stopped him. Could've gotten the Tesseract back, and I... he got away. Any blood he sheds... It doesn't matter what I feel, I have an obligation to stop him, don't I?

"None of this is on you, Di. You tried, that counts for something," Steve said seriously.

She sighed. "Yeah, well 'try' doesn't mean shit if I fail, does it?" she said quietly. He didn't say anything.

Diane couldn't see the look of regret on Steve's face as they sat there in silence. The faint sounds of the city streets below mixed with the myriad of video files playing from the tablet lulled them both to a light sleep. For the first time since she could remember, Diane felt at peace.

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