Epilogue
ARCTIC OCEAN
U.S.S. BROOKLYN
WEDNESDAY MAY 10TH 1945
0855 (8:55AM)
“Bring us to the next grid point, after that is on board” Howard Stark ordered Captain Williams of the U.S.S. Brooklyn as he watched the Tesseract being recovered on the screen. Part of him wanted to leave the damn thing on the bottom of the ocean floor or drop it in the nearest volcano but he knew he couldn’t. Recovering the Tesseract, the secret weapon of the Red Skull was the main reason why Colonel Phillips had been able to get so many allied naval vessels in on the search for Captain America because no one believed that Steve could have survived the crash and the elements this long.
Stupid powers to be had moved faster to recover a weapon than they moved at first to search for the missing Captain America. Steve Rogers was worth ten times the damn blue glowing cube that probably ended his life. Howard and Peggy were barely holding onto hope as the days added up after Steve’s plane went down in the Arctic and no word from the searchers or the man himself. It also didn’t help that they had learned that Bucky’s body hadn’t been recovered like they wished. The Russian unit in the area said that there was evidence that scavengers had dragged away the body but they were still searching.
After that last bit of news Howard watched as another part of the woman that Steve and himself loved so much died. Steve and Bucky had been friends since they were kids in Brooklyn and though they had some hope Steve was alive because of the serum after months of searching they were having to fight for every vessel and plane they had in the search.
Howard, Peggy and Steve had been three blanks in the middle of hell and somehow found solace in each other. Their relationship was not conventional but it was what the three of them needed to get past some of the horrors they had been forced to face from the Nazis and Hydra.
Athena had been another casualty of the war, she had been burned horribly during the mission Steve went missing on. She had been moved back to SWORD Headquarters in Glastonbury being watched over by her Mother who said it could take months if not years for Athena’s body to fully heal, super healing or not it was a miracle she was alive. Athena should be dead with 3rd degree burns over thirty percent of her body and 2nd degree burns over another forty percent of her body.
With everything going on Peggy and himself, if either of them were being honest, neither of them were taking it well. A few hours after hearing of the lack of recovery of Bucky’s body Peggy had left SWORD headquarters with the surviving Howlies moving to clear out the remnants of Hydra and he had left as well heading to take over the search for Steve in the Arctic. He remembered their last stolen moment together...
“Find him Howard,” Peggy had said after they had shared a brief kiss behind a closed door. A few stolen moments before they’d have to separate to go to their own missions. “For us, all of us.”
“I’ll find him, you watch your six and give those squid bastards hell for me” Howard had whispered into her ear as he hugged her tight.
“But sir, we've recovered the cube” Captain Williams said, interrupting his thoughts and the memory.
“Yes but we are still searching for the Captain. Bring us to the next grid point and notify me if anything else is found” Howard said thankful that Colonel Phillips named Howard as the Agent in charge of the search and not some random damn suit or uniform before heading out of the bridge. Howard walked off the bridge and went in search of some coffee.