Kate sits next to Coulson at the Hellicarrier, watching as he calls the cell phone of some dude who's got Nat. Kate isn't worried; it's all part of the plan, and, anyway, it's Nat. Coulson puts it on speaker for Kate's benefit. The dude says hello in Russian.

"Hello," Coulson says. "I need to speak with the woman." The phone changes hands, and another Russian guy begins speaking, but Coulson cuts him off, reading from the nearby computer screen. "You're at 114 Solenski Plaza, third floor. We have an F-22 exactly eight miles out. Put the woman on the phone or I will blow up the block before you can make the lobby." Kate glances at the radio in his other hand, and Coulson's mouth quirks in amusement before he says to Nat, "We need you to come in."

"Are you kidding? I'm working," Nat replies.

"This takes precedence."

"I'm in the middle of an interrogation, and this moron is giving me everything." They hear a distant, Russian objection before Nat continues. "Look, you can't pull me out of this right now."

Kate glances at Coulson, then leans forward and says, "Nat... Clint's been compromised."

She pauses. "Let me put you on hold." They hear punches, groans, kicks, something breaking, a chain. Nat picks up the phone again. "Where's Clint now?"

"We don't know."

"But he's alive?"

"We think so," Coulson answers. "I'll brief you on everything when you get back. But first, we need you to talk to the big guy."

"Coulson, you know that Stark only trusts me about as far as he can throw me."

"No, I've got Stark. You get the big guy."

Nat sighs. "Banner?"

"Yep."

"Well, this is gonna be fun."

They talk logistics before hanging up, and Kate turns to Coulson. "And who am I getting?"

Coulson shrugs. "Ask Fury. The only one left is Cap." He smiles, and Kate's smile grows to match his. She gets up, going to find Fury, hoping against all hope. Coulson calls after her, "If you get him, can you tell him I want to meet him, too?! Like, for real?!"

"Of course!" Kate calls back. She bursts through the door, passing other agents, hurrying to the control room. Fury is walking out of another door when she spots him, and she jogs over. "Fury!"

"Director," he corrects half-heartedly. "What is it, Kate?"

"Dr. Carson," she fires back, but she doesn't wait for his response, far too excited. "So, I heard Nat is getting Banner and Coulson is getting Stark — which means someone needs to get Cap-"

"No."

She resists the urge to stamp her foot like a child, instead crossing her arms. "Why not?"

"Because I am getting Rogers." He turns, walking off and forcing her to follow.

"But aren't you busy?" she demands.

"Not enough."

"Oh, come on! I'm gonna meet him anyway." The thought makes her heart practically jump in excitement.

"You're gonna overwhelm him. When Coulson's done with Stark, he's meeting Rogers on a jet to get back here. He can only take one super fan at a time."

Kate could gasp. "Coulson didn't tell me that!"

"He doesn't know yet."

"It's been a year, and you haven't let me meet him," she argues. "I was the perfect person to go help thaw him out, you know."

"I wanted you here."

"For what?!"

"Research. And you'd just gotten back from New Mexico."

"So did Coulson," Kate retorts.

"He has more experience and a higher clearance level than you, and you needed rest."

"I slept the whole way back. Ask-" she stops herself, about to say Clint.

Fury ignores her slip up. "That's not what I meant."

Kate stops in her tracks, her sadness fading with his comment. He turns back to her with a raised brow, and she uncrosses her arms, balling her fists in determination. "Rest or no rest, I'd do anything for Captain America."

He sighs. "This is gonna be fun, isn't it?"

He walks out, and Kate huffs. Hill laughs, and Kate glares at her, causing her to shake her head. "He's right, Kate. You and Coulson might freak him out — especially you. You ramble."

"He's Captain America; nothing freaks him out," Kate argues, walking off, too, heading to the lab. She waits about an hour for Nat to arrive, but Banner isn't with her when she walks in.

"Heard anything from Clint?" she asks.

Kate shakes her head. "No. I don't know if we will without actually getting to him. I saw what happened. Loki... It was strange."

"Yeah, Fury and Hill gave me the run down. Where's Coulson?"

Kate frowns. "With Cap, probably."

Nat looks sympathetic. "Hey, you're still gonna get to meet him, okay? Don't worry. Banner is here, too, waiting outside."

"The lab?" Kate perks up, looking to the glass door.

"No, like, outside," Nat replies. "Come on. Coulson'll probably be back any second with Cap, and maybe you can meet him first and get your excitement out. Best not risk overwhelming Banner."

Kate grimaces as they leave. "Yeah, that wouldn't be good."

When they make it outside, they see a Quinjet landing, and then the back opens and Coulson and Cap walk out. An involuntary, sort of strangled noise emits from Kate's throat, and Nat laughs. "Just wait here and compose yourself, okay?"

Kate nods, not taking her eyes off Captain America. "Ye-Yeah okay."

This is a legend come back to life. This is one of the coolest things science ever developed. This is her childhood standing right there in front of her. This is young Kate's dream. This is right now Kate's dream.

She tries to control her breathing, watching him talk with Coulson as Nat walks over to them.

"Agent Romanoff, Captain Rogers," Coulson says, smiling wide.

Captain America nods at Nat. "Ma'am." He's wearing a brown leather jacket over his plaid, button-up shirt, hitting Kate with subtle 40s vibes even from this distance. His blonde hair turns gold in the sunlight, which he squints in. She can't believe he's real.

All those years of watching him through a TV screen with her dad, the footage grainy...

~_~_~_~_~

"One of the things I'm glad I won't see go is my memory," her dad said once, when Kate and Ryan were over.

"What do you mean?" Ryan asked.

"I think I'll be out of here before that starts to fade," her dad answered. "I don't think I could stand it, not being able to remember the exact day the first V-12 was completed."

Ryan chuckled. "Why am I not surprised that you know that?"

"He knows everything," Kate said, though not as humorously as she could have; she hated when her dad talked about dying.

He wheeled his oxygen tank around the couch so he could sit in his worn chair. "Oh, not everything. Only God knows everything."

"Everything about history, then," Kate amended. "And then some."

"Hmm. Maybe."

"And Kate knows everything about science," Ryan added.

Kate shook her head. "Not everything — and that's the whole point. Discovery."

"And setting things on fire," her dad added. Try as he and Ryan might, they couldn't get Kate's fire incidents down to zero. But they did try, hammering fire safety into her head whenever the topic arose.

Ryan decided to take the opportunity. "Speaking of fire, why don't we-"

Kate jumped up from the couch and went to the shelf of DVDs. "No. Nope. Absolutely not. Not today. I'm putting in a documentary."

"Is it about fire safety?"

"Captain America and the Howling Commandos: Heroes of the War," Kate read, the disc already in hand. It wasn't hard for her to choose; that was their favorite.

Her dad grinned. "Oh, Ryan, get the popcorn. This is a good one."

Ryan chuckled and rose from the couch. "Don't you two know this one by heart?"

"Of course. Doesn't mean we aren't gonna watch it again, though. You need to learn it, too," Kate replied, looking up from putting the DVD in.

He headed towards the kitchen, but he stopped near the doorway and looked at the picture hanging there for a moment. It was an old picture of Kate's mother, taken when she was around Kate's age. They looked nearly identical.

Her dad turned, following Kate's gaze. He smiled fondly. "That's one of my favorite pictures of her."

"You met during college, didn't you?" Ryan asked as he continued into the kitchen.

"Yep. I started going to the same church as her after I got saved. She sang in the choir, and the first time I talked to her, I told her she had the voice of an angel-" her dad chuckled "-and she said, 'Well, how could you hear me from the pews when everyone else was singing at the same time? Weren't you singing, too?' And I thought then and there that I'd screwed that one up for good."

"But then you took her on that date and your car broke down, and you thought you'd screwed up for real that time," Kate added, sitting back down with the remote in her hand. In the kitchen, the microwave beeped.

"I screwed up so many times," Kate's dad said with another chuckle as Ryan reentered the room. "Some big things, mostly little things. And she screwed up, too, you know. But no matter what, we always forgave each other. You can't have a relationship without forgiveness. It just won't work." He looked pointedly at Kate and Ryan at that.

Kate ignored it, pressing play on the documentary, ready to review all the information, see how it would connect to other things she'd read recently.

"So," Ryan said, putting his arm around her as he set the popcorn on the coffee table, "remind me who this Captain America guy is again?"

Kate rolled her eyes, chuckling. "The documentary will in a minute, so hush." He just laughed.

~_~_~_~_~

Nat's voice getting closer pulls Kate out of her thoughts. "It was quite the buzz around here, finding you in the ice. I thought Coulson was gonna swoon. Did he ask you to sign his Captain America trading cards yet?"

Cap stops. "Trading cards?"

Nat nods. "They're vintage, he's very proud. Kate, on the other hand, might have an essay or DVD lying around."

"Kate?"

She inhales sharply, trying to keep herself from losing it. He said her name!

"Dr. Kate Carson, our top scientist," Nat replies. "She and Coulson are the leaders of your fan club."

Kate takes a deep breath, finally walking over, clasping her hands behind her back to keep them from shaking. "I- I'm actually not. Never took it... that far."

Captain America turns to her, his brow slightly raised. "Dr. Carson?"

Her face breaks into a smile, and she's unable to stop her voice from sounding giddy. "Yeah, that's me."

"Pleasure to meet you, ma'am," he says, smiling back.

Somehow, her smile grows. "I-I don't normally like ma'am, but, well, since it's, you know, you, I'll let it slide this, um... one time..."

He nods. "My apologies, Dr. Carson."

"It's fine," she squeaks. She can hardly get any more words out, staring up at him amazement. He looks at her, waiting for her speak again, and she knows she should, but she can't. That's Captain America. She's forgetting every word she ever knew. She's forgetting how to breathe.

Nat laughs. "This is strangest thing I've ever seen. Closed off, yes; irritable and sarcastic, yes; rambling and disregarding all social convention and reason to learn something, yes... But speechless? Never."

Kate finally breathes out, dislodging the blockage of awe in her throat. "I have so many things to ask you."

"There it is." Nat pats Cap on the shoulder before stepping back to observe. "Good luck with that, Captain."

He looks at her, then turns to Kate. "Uh- Questions?"

The dam has been broken. "My dad and I have always loved your story — we've seen all the documentaries, read all the biographies, everything, but they only tell so much. I've never been able to ask somebody my questions before-" She cuts herself off, so excited she could cry. Her mind is going a hundred miles a minute, her mouth even faster. "So what was your childhood like? Do you have any cool stories about Peggy Carter I haven't heard yet? What was it like when they injected you with the serum? Do you know it how worked? Did you ever like the whole Star Spangled Man with a Plan thing or did you always hate it? What was it like when you saved the 107th? Do you have any Howling Commandos stories? What about Bucky Barnes stories?" Her expression practically glows at the thought. "He's always been my favorite Howling Commando — no offense. What was his family like?"

She has to pause for breath again, and Cap cuts in. "Dr. Carson, I..." He seems to grimace a bit. "That's a lot at once. And there are some stories I'd love to tell you, but... this whole waking up in a brand new time, when everybody I know is either old or gone... And Bucky's still a fresh wound to me, so..."

It hits Kate, what she's done — and to one of her heroes. She gasps, horrified. "I'm so sorry. I-I didn't mean to- I'm so sorry. I'm just so excited and I- I'm so sorry."

Nat looks at them in surprise. "Does anybody see pigs flying on the horizon?" She shields her eyes with her hand, looking out. "Because I think I just heard a genuine, earnest apology from Dr. Kate Carson."

"I'm sorry," she repeats.

Cap looks back at her. "It's fine, really."

It is absolutely not. "But I-"

"Promise," he assures with a smile.

Kate hesitantly smiles back, but she's sure he's genuine. She doesn't know what she would've done if he didn't forgive her. "Okay..."

"After all this is over, I'm sure I can find some stories to tell you."

The idea makes her heart swell, and her smile grows. "Thanks."

Suddenly, he looks behind her. "Dr. Banner."

Kate turns, seeing Bruce Banner standing near a plane, looking lost. He walks over and shakes Cap's hand. "Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you'd be coming, Captain."

"Word is you can find the Cube," Cap says while Kate takes deep breaths to calm herself down.

"Is that the only word on me?" Bruce asks.

"Only word I care about."

"I care about more than that," Kate pipes up, causing both men to turn to her. Her hand only shaking a little bit now, she holds it out to Bruce. "Dr. Kate Carson. I'm a big fan of your work."

He takes her hand, shakes it. "Thanks. Yours is... really, it's extraordinary. You were quite young when you started, too, right?"

She nods. "Took the fast track through high school and college. All I ever wanted to do was research."

"I can understand; I was much the same way." He sighs. "Though I'm not doing too much of it, as of late."

"Fury's been trying to get me into more combat situations since I've joined, but I've still been able to do a lot of research working here. More than I ever expected. I just had a whole crash course on theoretical astrophysics last year, and it's incredibly interesting — and useful nowadays."

Bruce looks at Cap, and Kate follows his gaze, noting the slight look of confusion on his face. "It must be strange for you, all of this," Bruce says.

"The, uh, astrophysics, yes." Cap gestures to a group of agents running past them, training. "But that is actually kind of familiar."

Nat rejoins the group officially, interrupting. "You all might want to step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breathe. And I suspect Kate already needs an oxygen tank after all that rambling."

The ship begins preparing to rise, a sound Kate is familiar with. Cap looks at her. "Is this a submarine?" Kate just smiles, wanting him to be surprised.

"Really?" Bruce says. "They want me in a submerged, pressurized metal container?" The turbines emerge from the water, then begin spinning, taking them up. "No, no, this is much worse."

"We're prepared," Kate assures him.

"You better hope so."