Avengers A Long Time Coming

Scarlet sat comfortably in her saddle as she watched her horses graze. The stallion she rode stood quietly as the morning sun slowly rose in the sky. It was calm, and peaceful. A gentle breeze that made the morning heat bearable tousled her wild ginger curls and her gold eyes didn't miss anything. A deep bark from her golden retriever alerted her to an approaching car that was making a huge dust cloud. It was a black SUV. She whistled for her dog and turned her horse towards the SUV that was so brazenly tearing ruts into her field. A smile spread across her face as she watched the ill equipped vehicle struggle through the soft, fertile dirt. She knew it was a S.H.I.E.L.D visit. No one else ever came to her little ranch uninvited. Not that she invited many people. With a sigh she nudged her horse, Lou, forward and he began to take slow comfortable steps toward the intruder. Despite the fact that it was morning the sun was already blazing, and the humidity could already be seen drifting off of the grass in a haze. When the car stopped and a prim looking S.H.I.E.L.D agent stepped out she frowned.

"Where's agent Johnson?" She asked. "He's the poor cuss they usually force to come visit with me." She said with just a touch of a southern drawl and a heap of humor. She had been born and raised in Brooklyn, but South Carolina had grown on her.

"I'm afraid he has retired now, Mrs. Trent." He said in an all business tone. She frowned, honestly saddened by the thought.

"Damn shame, I'd almost learned how to beat him at chess." She sat for a moment remembering the silver haired man whose eyes had always been behind a pair of aviator sunglasses. She had grown pretty fond of the stubborn son of a gun. Scarlet returned her focus to the agent before her and held out her hand for him to shake. "What can I do for you, son?" She asked with a kind smile. She didn't look a day over twenty but she had seen ninety-three years come and go, and seeing such a young agent in front of her made her feel it. He probably hadn't even known a time when Tin-foil was really tin and candy cost a penny.

"I've been sent to take you to headquarters Ma'am." He had such a serious ,no funny business air about him the Scarlet's look hardened and she shook her head.

"I am not going through anymore testing. Do you have any idea how much blood you people have taken out of me? "She snapped, completely ready to dig her heels in like a mule. Ever since she had managed to mutate herself into a living torch S.H.I.E.L.D had been poking needles into her, trying to figure out the secret to her flammable temper.

"It's not that Ma'am." He reassured. "There's an Agent who needs your help." Scarlet looked at him confused for a long moment. The only living agent I know is Agent Johnson. She thought. And that man eats criminals for breakfast with a side of rusty nails... I doubt he would need any help from me.

"And who might that be?" She asked, feeling very suspicious.

"Captain America." The agent's face was completely straight. He didn't blink, or shift his weight, or even twitch his fingers.

"Either you're one stupid cuss or you are one hell of a liar." Scarlet snapped after a very unamused laugh. "Captain America has been dead for seventy years."

Seven long, frustrating hours later Scarlet was on a jet, flying towards headquarters. She sat arms crossed and head tilted back against the wall. A faded picture of a little girl with missing teeth and curly red hair was clutched in her hands. The story of the Captain she had known so long ago had dredged up memories of her deceased little girl.

"Is that your daughter?" The agent, whom she now knew to be agent Coulson, asked. She opened her eyes and smiled softly. Scarlet looked at the picture lovingly for a moment and then handed it to the Agent for him to examine. She didn't care that he had intruded on her thoughts, she was too reminiscent to bother with being angry.

"Her name was Lilly." She said with a heartfelt grin. She hadn't mentioned her daughter to anyone since her mother in law had passed away.

"What happened to her?" He asked gently. He probably already knows, but bless him for asking. She thought.

"She fell through the ice one winter when she was ice skating… She got pneumonia and just couldn't shake it." Scarlet could feel the familiar ball of agony building up at the back of her throat but she didn't show it. "I had been so glad when she was born normal… not like.. me. Now, I wish she had been. She could have been in that lake for seventy years and still survived it." She whispered ruefully.

"I'm truly sorry." He sounded very sincere; rare for a S.H.I.E.L.D agent. Despite the fact that his condolences were about 42 years too late she appreciated them. A long silence stretched between them until Scarlet broke it.

"So you found him frozen in a Polar ice cap huh?" She asked, trying to start up some conversation.

"Yes." Coulson was back to being all business, but Scarlet had seen his humanity and liked him slightly better for it.

"Jesus. I wouldn't wish that on anyone." She breathed. "It's going to be strange. Like seeing a ghost I suppose." She said with a slight shiver as she pulled out her wallet and slipped the photo of her daughter into it's place.

"How so?" He asked, giving away his curiosity.

"It's different for you young people, you never knew him. To have a legend come popping out of the snow is a far cry from having someone you knew as a living breathing person coming back from the dead." Scarlet ran a hand through the fiery curls that escaped her ponytail and sighed. I wonder if he is still the sweet guy he used to be. Peggy is going to be so excited when she hears about it. She had been eerily calm about the idea of seeing him again but she was sure it wouldn't last. It had been so long since she had worked under Dr. Erskine. It was the whole reason she was still alive today but it had somehow left her mind, as though she had blocked it all out or her brain had simply begun to throw out old files to make way for new ones. "Then again I never really knew him either. I just checked his pulse and drew blood samples." Scarlet ran a shaky hand through her russet hair.

"He is very…. good." Coulson seemed to be searching for a word to use but came up remarkably short.

"Yeah that about sums him up. He was always a gentleman. Even after he turned into a superhuman. He had been such a scrawny little man before, shorter than me even; the sort of guy girls just stepped on. I felt bad for him until he popped out of that case and turned into…"

"An exhibition of human excellence?" Coulson chuckled like a little boy. The sounds surprised scarlet but she didn't think pointing out that it was a bit interesting for him to call the Captain that would be a grand idea by any account.

"We're about to land, so hang on." The Pilot called back to them. Scarlet leaned back and latched onto the seat belt that was holding her into the seat and groaned. She hadn't gotten used to these high-tech jet things. They went too fast for her liking. How in the name of St. Mary is he going to land this death trap?

When they had landed on the flight deck of the flying fortress Coulson rushed her off of the jet and hurried her inside. She was terribly grateful to be out of the jet but finding herself on a floating city had not exactly been a relief. Coulson had then led her through a maze of hallways, that were bland and full of metal, to some nondescript conference room where she was told to wait. By that point she couldn't stand to sit any longer. Her nerves about seeing the Captain again had her strung tighter than a bow. She was very different from when he had last seen her. She looked very different from the meek, gangly blonde she had been. The serum had more than just changed her hair color it had changed her whole shape. She had never known the Captain very well, and had hardly interacted with him beyond taking his vitals and drawing blood to be tested, but there she was, his last connection to a life that had been taken from him. She wrung her hands and worried her bottom lip between her teeth. What am I going to say to him? She panicked. What is he going to ask me? Just when it had dawned upon her that she felt completely inadequate for the job she had accepted the conference room door opened and she froze.

"Dr. Baker?" She heard a low, masculine voice ask. She looked up from the floor and smiled sheepishly into a pair of blue eyes she had thought she would never have to face again. They were just as dazzling as the last time she had seen them. somehow her memory of how blue they had been hadn't done any justice to them. Jesus Scarlet! Say something! You're not a spindly little nobody anymore! Speak up!

"Hello, Captain Rogers. It's been a long time."

Steve hadn't slept in days and his good nature was understandably running a bit dry.

"What do you mean an old friend?" He asked director Fury feeling very confused. He had asked Bruce to do a search for all of his old friends (He had only asked Bruce because he couldn't do it himself and he couldn't stand stark long enough to ask for something so personal.) and they were all dead or on their way out.

"We've recruited someone from your former life to help you acclimate to the modern age, Captain. It's come to our attention that your inability to cope has been affecting your ability to perform your duty." The words were harsh and to the point. Steve grit his teeth and pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. He didn't like feeling angry. He wasn't an angry person, but having his past spoken about so indelicately made him feel touchy. "We can't send you on anymore more missions until we're sure you won't have anymore relapses." Steve grimaced at the mention of his little… episode and looked at the door Fury had led him to.

"So I talk to this person, they make me better, and I'm back on the job?" He asked, sounding impatient. He didn't like being off duty. It gave him too much time to think about things. Too much time to think about what I lost.

"You've got it." Fury said with a nod. Steve looked at the door in front of him intensely. He didn't know who was behind it and he could feel his palms begin to sweat as he imagined a wrinkled old conrad from the forties in a Vet cap from a V.F.W and an oxygen mask strapped to their face.

"It's not who you're expecting." Fury said before opening the door and motioning for Steve to enter the room beyond. For a long moment Steve thought he wouldn't be able to make his feet move. He felt frozen to the spot, but a familiar smell triggered something in the back of his mind, and he stepped forward into the room. Lavender. It only took him a moment to Identify the woman who stood in front of him. He probably wouldn't have recognised her if it hadn't been for the smell and her shy stance. The image of a thin young blonde who reminded him of himself flashed in his mind, but the woman before him was not her, could not be her. Still her name came off his lips before he could stop himself.

"Dr. Baker?" She looked up at him with a pair of shockingly golden eyes that nearly made him gasp in shock. She had changed. Everything about her had changed but it was her. He had never paid much attention to the slip of a woman who had acted as a nurse for him during operation rebirth, and they had only exchanged greetings and had small conversations but quite suddenly he found himself wishing he had spoken to her more.

"Hello, Captain Rogers. It's been a long time." He had to sit down. He felt dizzy and shocked.

"Y-you're alive… and young!" He stammered as he knelt to the floor. All of his sleepless nights seemed to catch up with him in that instant, along with some very old pains and regrets. He felt closer to crying than he had ever been. Dr. Baker's eyes looked panicked and she knelt in front of him.

"Oh god, are you alright? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to surprise you like this." She apologized, her little hands floating above him like startled little birds. He looked at her astonished.

"Sur-surprise me?" He felt like his asthma had somehow come back. He didn't know what to say or do. Why is she apologizing!? "You're alive!" He burst out, sounding like a mad man. He wanted to laugh and cry all at once. He never thought he would be so happy to see anyone, even if she had only ever been an acquaintance. He watched a smile spread across her face and he felt even happier.

"It's okay, Captain, I understand." She reassured. He couldn't help himself. He pulled her against him and began to cry. He hadn't cried since Bucky's death.

"Shh, it's ok." She cooed, petting his hair gently. It reminded him of how his mother had soothed him when he was sick. It only made him cry harder. He felt like a little girl but he also felt so relieved. "You're not alone anymore." Those four words were like an anchor, as though they were all he had needed to hear from anyone.

"How?" He croaked, looking up at her. She had tears dripping down her own face.

"That's a long story Captain." She said with a sigh. "One best told over coffee."

Once they had both stopped crying and Scarlet had settled Steve in one of the armchairs that were scattered around the conference table she set about making coffee from the machine that was set up on a desk along the wall.

"Jesus, where do I begin." She murmured and she filled the coffee maker's pot with bottled water and then poured it into the machine.

"Well, after Dr. Erskine was murdered, and you left the show circuit I was out of a job for a few months…" She paused as though remembering it was extremely hard. "Then, after you disappeared, the government came to me again, and asked me if I thought I might be able to fill in the missing pieces of Dr. Erskine's work and create another super soldier for them." She paused and turned to look at him. Her face was covered in guilt. "I was down on my luck at the time so I agreed to try. I had to support three younger brothers you see." She pressed the button on the coffee machine and took the seat next to him as it gurgled to life. The way she sank her little body into the chair made Steve think of a cat. He couldn't imagine the old Dr. Baker doing that. She had always been so prim and nervous.

"I'm sorry." He said, in a way that showed the instinctual manners he had always used.

"What for? It's not your fault." Scarlet said, batting away his apology. "Anyway. After a couple more months I thought I had the serum perfected, but I didn't want to try it on anyone until I was sure… Dr. Erskine had told me about the Red Skull. I didn't want to be responsible for creating another monster like him." She said with a shiver. Steve grimaced at the name of the villain who had caused his best friend's death and looked at the floor, nodding in agreement and understanding.

"So you tested it on yourself." He said, filling in the blanks. "And it worked." Scarlet shook her head and sighed.

"Not the way it was supposed to. See." She said as she lifted one hand and a blue flame jumped to life at the end of her finger tips. Steve was startled for a moment but then looked at her in wonder.

"Jeeze." Scarlet almost laughed at the innocent forties slang.

"After the pain stopped, all of my work had been destroyed by the fire I had caused." She shrugged. "And I was forever changed." She said with a sigh. The coffee machine dinged and Scarlet rose to serve it. She poured the hot brown liquid into two styrofoam cups. "How do you like your coffee?" She asked with a curious smile.

"Black." Scarlet made a face at him and he smiled. "I learned to like it that way." was his only defence in the face of her obvious distaste.

"I swear, the army ruins men." She said with a sad smile as she handed him his cup of coffee. She then proceeded to dump a sickening amount of sugar into her cup and Steve winced.

"You must have one hell of a sweet tooth Doc." Scarlet looked at him startled and then she giggled.

"My, didn't think I'd ever hear you curse." She chuckled when his face reddened and he rubbed the back of his neck bashfully. "Then again I hadn't thought I'd ever hear you speak again until this morning."

"Sorry Ma'am."He rushed to make up for his poor manners but she only giggled at him and batted his arm to silence him. It was an oddly familiar thing to do.

"Don't worry about it. I've heard worse than that in ninety-three years." She said with a laugh. Steve blinked for a long moment and then turned to look at her.

"You're twenty?" He asked "In our years?" It sounded weird to hear it put that way but Scarlet supposed it made sense. Almost like dog years.

"Yes, why?" Steve looked away and rubbed the back of his neck again.

"I always thought you were younger. A fifteen year old genius or something like that."

Scarlet laughed and shook her head.

"I wasn't exactly very filled out. Nothing like Peggy. She was always such a beauty."

"Yeah." His sad agreement quieted her and she frowned, realizing that she had stepped on a sore spot. Nice job. She thought mentally kicking herself. She looked over at the captain, who was somberly staring at his standard issue boots and built up her gumption.

"Have you talked to Peggy?" She knew it wasn't her business. She knew it was far more complicated than she could imagine and other people's love life shouldn't concern her, but for his sake she hoped he had.

"No… I keep meaning to. I'm just… I'm too scared of what I'll find." His large, muscular body loosened, whether due to shame or relief, Scarlet couldn't tell.


End file.

Avengers, Angst, Romance