August 2009
Steve had been living in the Stark Tower for over a month and still no memories since 1945 had comeback. Shield had issued him back pay on his salary, a new ID and this new currency called a Visa card. It was a Saturday, Peter and Harley were on the couch eating cereal and Tony was in his lab.
Steve had a crazy idea; one Tony would no doubt disapprove. “Hey, I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
Somehow that got both boys attention. “Tomorrow? its 9 am where are you going?”
Cap pulled on a jacket. “I’m taking a train to DC to see the exhibit on me.”
Peter looked scared. “You can’t do that. Dad wouldn’t approve.”
“Peter, the thing about being an adult is you don’t need someone else’s approval to do things and can spend your money and time how you like.” And walked into the elevator.
It was about two hours into the train ride when Steve heard the voices coming about four rows up from him. “Quiet.”
“You be quiet.”
“Will you sit down? He’ll see you.”
“I have to pee.”
Steve stood up he recognized the voices; Tony was gonna kill him.
“Well hold it! you should have gone at the station.”
“I did. I just have to go again.”
“You wouldn’t if you hadn’t drank a soda.”
“You’re such a-” Harley stopped talking when he saw Steve looming over them.
“What’s happen’ Captain?” Peter piped.
“Does Tony know you two are here?”
The boys shared a look. “What? Psh of course he does. How else do you think we bought the tickets.” Peter tried to explain.
Steve raised an eyebrow. “Really, then why do I get the feeling you stole his card and snuck out.”
“Uh. No. Dad let us borough it. He didn’t want you to be alone in case it upsets you.” Harley said. Peter nodding in agreement.
Steve shrugged and pulled out his phone. “Okay so if I call him on this device he gave me and ask him-“
“No!!” “Don’t” Both boys said in unison.
Steve crossed his arms. “That’s what I thought.”
Peter stuck his chin out definitely. “Didn’t you sneak off to rescue Sergeant Barnes, despite it being directly against orders.”
Steve just stared at him and Peter stared right back. “That was different.”
“Really, how?”
Yep, Peter was definitely Tony’s son. “Fine. You all can come but if Tony finds out. I didn’t know you two followed me until we were at the museum. Got it.”
The boys grinned.
They caught a cab outside of Union Station to the Air and Space Museum.
They waited in line and Harley told Steve about his latest video game.
The lady at the counter gave Steve a once over. “Taking your younger siblings on a day at the museums.”
Peter rolled his eyes. “Future Step-kids actually.” Peter interrupted laying the black credit card and his school id on the counter.
The Lady looked at Peter’s I.d. and the card. “Sorry about your Dads’. You get in free of course Mr. Stark, so I’ll ring you up for two tickets.”
Harley snatched the tickets.
“Future-Step kids?” Steve asked as they walked inside. “Well, how else would you explain why you’re escorting around Tony Stark’s kids.”
“I could say I’m your bodyguard.” Steve said.
“Steve no one is going to believe that dad isn’t sleeping with an Alpha as attractive as you.”
Steve felt his jaw drop. Okay, so Tony was… easy. They were still obviously close. He just couldn’t remember. “So Mr. Stark, how come you get in free?”
Steve could see Peter ‘s posture go ridged. “Uh. I um… See it’s just policy with a school ID?”
Steve didn’t believe him for a second, but he let it slide the kid clearly didn’t want to answer.
They wandered through the other exhibits. It was hard to get Harley to focus as he had a fascination with everything in the Air and Space Museum.
It took both Steve and Peter to herd him away from different exhibits until finally, they spotted the Captain America exhibit.
The entrance was guarded by the uniforms of Steve and the Howling Commandos, the images of their faces were projected above each uniform. The projections alternated between black and white photos from the war to the last photos of them, along with birthdates and for many death dates. Jacques had apparently gone MIA in 1945 not long after Steve. Gabe Jones had been alive until 1982. Dum Dum had lived until 1993. Damn Steve wished he could remember if he visited him before he died.
Then there was Steve. MIA Nov, 7, 1996. Apparently, he’d had a full beard in his last photo. Huh. It looked good. Next to him was Bucky MIA on January 3, 1945. Falsworth had been the last one alive in 2001. Morita had died in 1989. Steve said a small prayer that they had happy lives.
Peter tugged on his arm towards the entrance.
The first case and artifacts were about Steve’s life before the serum growing up in Brooklyn. Some of Steve’s early sketches were up and even some of the War commission prints he worked on.
There was a place for kids to compare how tall they were to Little Steve Rogers. Even Harley was taller. It made Steve smile to see Harley act his age.
The next section was Project Rebirth the museum even had the equipment At that point Steve started noticing the signs that said Loan from S.I. or S.H.I.E.L.D. Honestly the equipment made Steve a bit nervous just remembering the painful experience and losing Dr. Eskines right after.
He glossed over sections on his Wartime battles, he didn’t need to be reminded of the fighting he remembered every detail of that. They had a touching memorial to Bucky and when Steve lost him. Brief details about his and Peggy’s relationship. Next, there were the details of his crashing the plane.
It was the next section that caught his eye, titled Captain America Returns: MIA for 46 years!
There were pictures of him in Army uniform standing in front of a press conference with Howard. Steve could just make out Tony standing next to his mother in the background. He looked different, not just younger, he had on round glasses for one thing. A sign pointed him out, Tony Stark in the background.
The next few sections were mostly about Steve working as a soldier once again. This time for SHIELD
Then the next section caught his attention. It was the work Tony had mentioned about anti-bullying. Videos and commercials and a few pictures of the fundraisers. One picture from one of these events caught his eye. Steve was in full military uniform slow dancing with Tony and an article from a newspaper. Captain America and Tony Stark: Couple???. The article was projected in larger print up on the wall. “At Friday’s fundraiser for the Captain America Anti-bullying league Commander Roger aka Capt. America brought the eighteen-year-old S.I. heir, Tony Stark as his plus one. The pair was seen slow dancing for most of the evening to the songs of Etta James and Frank Sinatra. Is it too early to question if they are dating or was this their big announcement to NY society?”
There was a button right below the words so Steve pressed it. The museum was rigged so the previous article changed in a flash of news headlines and flashing cameras followed by photos and headlines. “Captain America elopes with Stark Heir”.
There was news footage of Steve holding Tony bridal style kissing him on the steps of the NYC courthouse. He watched himself say something but he wasn’t listening to the interview.
Something clicked in Steve’s head. He was married to Tony. That was why SHIELD had called Tony, why Tony had his stuff. Why there hadn’t been another man in Peter’s birth pictures. Oh God, Peter was his son.
Peter was leaned up against a wall looking rather nervous a few steps away while Harley was drink and eating an ungodly amount of soda and cotton candy. Steve turned and grabbed Peter by the arm into a hug. “Pete, I’m so sorry I don’t remember any of this.”
He could feel Peter crying into his shirt. “Does this mean I don’t have to call you Steve or Mr. Captain anymore?”
Steve smiled into his son’s hair. “You can call me whatever you want.”
“I used to call you Pop when I was little.”
“Pop it is.”
Steve noticed Harley standing there looking a bit jealous. Of course, he was, Peter had gotten his father back and Harley had lost his. Steve pulled Harley into the hug as well. “I’m not your kid.”
Steve ruffled his hair. “I think technical, you’re my step-son, but if something hadn’t gone wrong on a mission, you’d be mine.”
Peter mumbled into his chest. “So like multiple universe theory or time travel, where something didn’t go wrong with the mission and Harley’s your son too in another universe.”
Steve grinned. “Yeah. Harley can be my kid from another universe. Sound good Harley?”
Harley grinned before pulling from the hug. “I think that would make me the first kid with three biological dads. Come on, the Iron Man exhibit is next.”
“The Iron what?”
Peter blanched. “Harley I don’t know that we should see that. Dad will tell us when he’s ready.”
Steve followed the boys to the next exhibit. He didn’t what to know how he went missing a second time. He knew the date and that was bad enough. Peter was a toddler. He’d rather not remember the stupid reason he’d left his family behind. If he didn’t know he could pretend it was a good reason.
The first section of the iron man exhibit was news footage of a news anchor asking Tony “Do you think Captain would be angry that you remarried a month after his MIA? Is it true you were cheating on him? Some claim his plane was sabotaged to allow you to marry your lover.” That was when Tony punched out a reporter. Brutally too, there were articles of lawsuits and counter lawsuits.
Headlines of Tony’s marriage to Obadiah Stane and the transfer of his power as CEO to his new husband followed. Basically the story of how Tony took a back burner in the company and then Harley’s birth. August 6, 1997.
No wonder the reporter asked if Tony was cheating, he would have had to been with Obadiah less than a week after Steve went missing for Harley to be born. Even though Steve couldn’t remember it, it still kinda hurt. Maybe this was why Tony didn’t want him to come here.
The next bits were about Stark Industries and a war in Afghanistan. There was a battle map with armored vehicles labeled the Stark Kidnapping. Steve was wondering if this was what Fury had talked about.
He looked up to see Peter and Harley staring wide-eyed at a video of Terrorists holding a gun to their father’s head. Tony was bloody and beaten.
Steve put his hand over his boys’ eyes. “Come on, I don’t need to see this and neither do you. Let’s go get something to eat.”
They left the museum and grabbed hotdogs before walking to the Capital Pool. Steve was honestly surprised at how much both of them could eat. Harley ordered four and Peter ordered six the same as Steve.
“I only eat five but give it thirty minutes and Harley will be able to eat another.” He told Cap prepping the last uneaten hot dog how Harley liked. Harley was assembling a remote-controlled plane Peter bought him-with Tony’s card- at the gift shop
Steve smiled. “You’re a good brother, Pete.”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t always… Wasn’t the first time I’d seen that footage either. Obadiah was on a plane when that footage came through so I had to ID my dad in it.”
“I’m sorry you shouldn’t have had to do that. And I’m sorry about Harley’s dad.” Steve said.
“I’m not.” The teenager’s response surprised him. “The only person he was nice to in our family was Harley because Harley was his son. When dad got kidnapped Harley was all I had. Stane wasn’t there for me, Uncle Rhodey would've been but he was busy trying to get dad back.
Harley’s had a hard time with it. But honestly, dad’s been happier than I ever remember, Harley’s just to young to know what an asshole his father really was.”
Steve put his arm around Peter. “Someone at school asked me if the rumors were true, that dad was a black widow and killed Obi too. And I told him I hoped he did. It would be Karma after how he treated him.” Peter started crying.
“I’m sorry Pete, I’m sorry I disappeared.”
“Dad says to look at the bright side without Captain America being gone we’d have no arch reactor or Iron Man.”
Steve rubbed Peter’s back and looked up just in time to dodge Harley’s remote control plane diving towards his head. It mad both Peter and Harley laugh. Steve had to admit it was pretty funny.
“Alright come on we need to get back before Tony finds out.” Steve said standing up.
“Before Tony finds out what?” A slightly electronic voice said.
Harley’s eyes were wide. Steve and Peter both turned around to see Iron Man hovering over the water. “You mean before Tony finds out that his sons' stole his credit card and followed a man with almost full amnesia to a city two hundred miles away.”
Steve rolled his eyes. “Look, Iron Man, the boys are fine, I just wanted to see if anything jogged my memory and nope it didn’t so Tony doesn’t need to know about this.”
“Oh, Tony doesn’t need to know.”
Peter tugged on Steve’s sleeve as Iron Man sassed back. But unfortunately, Steve ignored him. “You know how irrational and hot-tempered Tony can be, especially over his boys, besides they’re good kids just trying to help.”
Then the Iron Man cracked apart and out walked Tony onto the ledge of the pool.
Alright, Steve had a new thing at the top of his surprising things about the modern world list.
“Oh, I know exactly how Tony gets about his kids. He gets worried. He gets scared. And that the only thing- the only thing that matters is that his babies are okay!”
“Dad, it's not-” Peter tried to cut in.
“Nope. Zip it, Pete, the adults are talking. You’ve been responsible enough today.”
Steve pushed on Tony’s shoulder. “Don’t talk to him like that.”
“Screw you, Rogers he’s my kid.”
“Our kid.”
Tony did a double-take. “What did you say?”
“I said our kid…He is, isn’t he? The fact that I was married to you was what you were hiding from me in the museum.”
“Peter is adopted and you were gone for too long to get to claim him anymore.”
“Adopted is that what you told the press so they wouldn’t come for our son. Cause I’ve seen him do flips off the second story of buildings and be fine. Almost like I don’t know Tony, he’s got some kinda serum jacking up his blood.”
Tony’s face was as red as his suit. “Look I get it, I know people would have been after him. Just stop lying to me Tony, maybe all your lies are the reason I haven’t gotten my memories back.”
Tony and Steve were clearly ignoring the crowd around them with camera phones. “You think I’m responsible for your amnesia!”
“Yes! You’re so damn scared about how I’d react when I realized you slept with Stane before I was official MIA, that you would rather I just bumble around like an idiot and not know I had a family. You won’t face your past so we can have a future. You’re a coward!”
Really Steve should have seen the punch coming, but he didn’t. Tony turned and put the suit back on, before grabbing Harley and Peter with each arm and blasting off.
Steve stared in the mirror. He had a nice fat split lip. It would be well in the morning but he was more concerned with the fact that he and Tony had fought in front of Peter and Harley. Fury, who was watching the newscast of the fight, was far more concerned about Steve and Tony announcing to the world the Captain had returned.
“You and Stark really stepped in it this time. Now not only does everyone know you’re back but they know that Peter has the serum in his blood. Trust me, Stark is far more pissed at you for that than you calling him out.” Fury said before taking a sip of coffee.
“I didn’t realize the portable phones had cameras in them.” Steve hung his head over the sink.
“Don’t tell me, Rogers, tell your husband.”
Aggressively, Steve threw a towel at the sink. “I have or I’ve tried too I left messages on the voicemail thing. Tony doesn’t want to talk to me. I tried talking to Peter; Tony answered and said “He’s grounded.”"
“So that the real reason you called me?”
Steve stood straight. “No. living with Tony isn’t getting my memories back. I’m hoping maybe if I work my old job as a SHIELD Agent or just looking at my old mission reports things might start coming back.”
Fury nodded. “Alright, we’ll give Stark a couple of days to come around.”
Later that night Steve was in his bunk just laying there unable to sleep when he heard his phone buzz. The caller Id read ‘Tony’ and Steve quickly hit accept.
“Tony, Hey I-”
“Meet me in two hours in front of Chu’s,” Tony said before hanging up.
Steve bolted out of bed he’s in DC; Chu’s is four hours away he doesn’t know how he can make it there. But he had to.
Steve burst into Fury’s quarters, thankful he was still up and Steve only had a gun pointed at him. “Tony wants to meet in two hours, got anything that can get me there.
Fury mumbled about lucky he didn’t get shot. Before leading him to a hanger. Walking through SHIELD with a man as serious as Fury wearing PJs was kinda funny. But Steve wasn’t going to say anything.
Fury punched a code into a lockbox and pulled out a set of keys. He gestured to the hoverbike. “You break it. That’s one more thing Stark will be pissed at you about.”
Steve managed to get to Chu’s fifteen minutes before he was supposed to be. He leaned against the bike and waited. It wasn’t long before he heard Tony. “Damn. I was hoping you’d be late and I wouldn’t have to talk to you.”
Tony was eating a donut, wearing a t-shirt and jeans and walking towards Steve. But stopped when he saw the bike. “That’s one of my bikes. Fury let you take one of my hoover bikes?”
“He did.” Steve reached for a donut.
“I get donuts, you don’t.” Tony slapped away the Captain’s hand. “You used to bring me donuts every time we fought. You said it was the only way you could get me to not talk back while you explained yourself.”
Steve smiled. “I have a feeling that I’ve forgotten how to handle you better than anyone ever has.”
“Obi used to just yell at me until I gave in. You always had a way of pulling me to you without manipulating me.” Tony motioned for the Captain to follow him.
“Peter told me you seemed happier now that he was gone, Peter also told me he was glad he was dead. Did he- did he ever hurt either of you?”
“Physically? No.” Tony reached in and pulled out another Jelly filled donut. “Emotionally, yes. Well, that’s a lie he paid someone to have me killed. Planned to marry Peter off to a man my age, so let's say yes to both. But if you’re asking if he ever struck or touched Peter. No.”
Tony waved the donut in the arm as he talked with his hands.
Steve was relieved. “I’m sorry about the news. I didn’t know phones have camera’s too.”
Tony swallowed. “It’s not just your fault. I was showboating. I used to do that all the time and you would call me on my bullshit every time, and bring me back to earth.”
Steve smiled. “Tony Stark admitting something is his fault someone should record this.”
“Well, you’re about to get two in one day. You were right.” Steve gripped his chest like he was having a heart attack. Tony wiped jelly on Steve's shoulder. “I didn’t want to face your reaction about Stane. I spent years telling myself if you came back you’d know what he was like and be understanding.”
“But I don’t remember.”
“But you don’t remember.” Tony sighed. “I wanted to keep my boys safe. I knew people would find out about Peter eventually. But I just wanted to keep Harley safe.”
Tony shoved another donut into his mouth to keep from crying. “The mission you went missing on, you put it off to be with me during my heat. We didn’t… we were trying for another baby.”
Steve was fairly certain is eyebrows were touching his hairline. “I knew I was pregnant and you were gone. I knew if you were missing for years again or really dead, Obi would take my company from me. I thought you’d be able to forgive me when you came back… So I slept with the bastard. Thought that if he thought he put his bastard in me he’d just guilt trip me for control of the company and my baby would be safe.”
Steve took Tony’s hand. “It worked. It kept Har safe from that man. But Harley’s got just as much serum if not more in his blood than Peter. I was going to tell him after a few years and Obi’s death wasn’t so fresh. But then you with your amnesia happened. Me and Pete dancing around so many secrets.”
“Dancing like monkeys in a circus?”
Tony smiled and rested his head on Steve’s shoulder. “Yeah. Exactly like that. God. He’s so much like you Steve.”
“Harley's more like you, Tony.”
“Not Harley, Peter.” The omega shook his head. “Honestly, Steve, Peter’s like you in my teenage body.”
Steve grinned. “From what I can piece together that makes sense since he’s the result of me being in your teenage body.”
Tony laughed and looked up at Steve “I have no idea why Harley is like me in your body then,” Tony smirked and poked Steve in the chest. “Cause you never bottomed for me.”
Now Steve was laughing. Steve looked down at Tony. The omega looked like he was a second away from stealing a kiss. “I’ve missed you, Steven.” Tony whispered closing his eyes and pressing closer to Steve. The alpha rested his forehead against his omega’s. “I wish I had my memories, back we seemed happy in all the pictures.”
“God. We were.” Tony whispered back. “I just wanted you to know. Harley’s yours.”
“It's okay. It’s okay.” Steve whispered.
“But I’m still mad at you for taking our sons to another city without so much as a note.” Tony pulled back and shoved another donut in his mouth.
Somehow Tony managed to pout while eating.
“I just wanted to go look for some things I can’t find. Mainly my mother’s wedding ring, but I guess you have that.”
Tony shook his head. “I… I destroyed it.”
Steve moved back. “What?”
Tony seemed to get smaller. “When I was kidnapped. I escaped by making the first version of this.” He tapped his chest where the blue light glowed. “I needed pure palladium to make it work. I had very little in the supplies they gave me. My ring… it was the best source I had. All I cared about was getting out of there alive to see my sons. I’m sorry.”
Steve cupped Tony’s face. “Hey, it's okay. Sure it hurts me that its gonna, but I think I’d hurt a lot more if you hadn’t had that ring.”
Tony grinned. “You know when I melted it down I said even dead you're still pulling my ass out of the fire.”
Steve grinned. “I’m gonna get my memories back, Tony, I promise. Fury’s going to let me look over all my old missions and see if anything helps.”
“When you do you tell me why I named our son Harley.” With that, he leaned up and kissed Steve on the lips before walking away.
"Hey, Tony." The omega stopped and turned around. "I was wrong you're not a coward."
The next day, Fury took Steve to a secret holding facility in upstate New York. “On Nov, 7th 1996, your team was sent into the Arctic circle to follow up strange readings and leads that Hydra had a research facility there. We lost contact after this device was loaded onto the plane.” Fury punched in a code and the elevator doors opened. “We aren’t sure what happened, you and your team of six men went in and cleared the facility no casualties. You all were loading anything deemed to hold data onto the cargo plane. When we lost contact we sent in my units.”
Fury escorted him out of the elevator and down a hallway to another room. “When we arrived on scene there was no one. No gunshots, no life forms of any kind, the plane was whipped of even bacteria. The only thing on the plane was this.”
Fury opened the door to a room devoid of everything except a large diamond shape prism that looked like it was made of obsidian sitting atop a pedestal of the same material. “We’ve run test after test. We’ve never been able to get any reading with it other than it is a chunk of rock with abnormally high gravity readings.”
Steve walked around it. “Why didn’t it whipped out the plane if it took everything else?”
Fury placed his hands on his hip. “That’s the Commander Rogers I remember. We found bacteria outside of a 15m circle around the stone. We assume it didn’t have enough juice to do whatever it did to the rest of the plane.”
Steve glanced around the room. “Hence the dimensions of the room?”
“Correct.”
Steve continued to walk around the room looking at the object. Still, no traces of memory came up. No déjà vu nothing. “Sorry Fury, I got nothing so far.”
“It will all come back in time. We’ll try some of the stuff from earlier missions and see if it-”
The ringing of Fury’s phone interrupted him. “Excuse me, this should be highly classified intelligence coming in.”
Fury stepped out of the room leaving the captain to himself.
Steve moved closer trying to read the markings on the stone. It seemed like a familiar script but he didn’t know where from. Steve bent closer to look. He sighed. Still no memories.
However, the room had turned cold and Steve could see his breath. He breathed out again to confirm his observation. When his breath it the stone for the second time it began to glow blue like the Tesseract.
Shit, he needed to clear the zone, he needed to get out of the room.
Steve rushed for the door as a blue light enveloped him. In a flash, Steve was standing in a frozen dark waste. In a flannel shirt and jeans, great, he was going to freeze to death.
Steve started looking up at the stars trying to figure out where he was. On the horizon, he noticed some stars growing bigger. Then Steve realized it was a plane. He began waving his arms furiously trying to flag them down.
Hydra or SHIELD or civilian either way was better than freezing to death. The plane was coming in fast, but low enough they might see him. They had strobe lights going almost like they were looking for something. Finally one of the lights found him and they began to slow down.
Steve was really hoping they weren’t hydra, because he couldn’t see shit with the lights in his eyes.
The craft touched down and snow swirled in a mess around him. There was the mechanical sound of metal groaning. Followed by a slightly familiar voice. “Captain America? Commander Rogers that you? The voice called out.”
“Howard? Is that you?” Steve yelled. Back and then the engine was cut.
A much-older-than-Steve-remembered Howard came running up. “Steve it’s you it's really you. I can’t believe your alive… and so young.”
Steve laughed. “No offense, but you got old, and this might be a stupid question but what is the date?”
“August 18, 1990- you’ve been MIA for a long time, my friend.”