Rattled Bones

Steve wasn’t sure how the manila folder ended up on his doorstep but judging by the big red font sprawled across the front of it, the information it held was important. Looking around him, he searched for the mysterious person that was kind enough to leave it out in the open. Someone had to have been watching him to know that he would be coming up to his apartment door at the exact moment he did. A file this important wasn’t something someone just left behind for just anyone to look at. Bending to pick it up, he raised a brow at the broken seal of the tampered tape that was placed along the edges. Whatever was in the tan colored folder was an old file; everything was stored online nowadays. The last time he had seen a folder with this kind of stamp and tamper tape was back in his time. Letting himself into his apartment, he set down his keys and made his way towards the dining room table.

Placing it in front of him, he sat down; contemplating if he should read into it. Clearly it was a sealed for a reason for it to be deemed top secret. Deciding that his curiosity would get the better of him anyway, he opened the top flap of the folder and pulled out the files. Sitting in a small baggy attached to the papers was a CD disk that had a current date scribbled across it. His brows knitted together at first glance, what was this and why did it involve him? Judging it from what he knew, it was an old file that was kept classified and off of the government database. Tearing the baggy from the papers, his eyes fell upon a face that was paper clipped onto the top left hand page. A female face that had jolted a feeling of confusion.

It was a little grainy and it appeared that someone had taken the picture without her knowledge. She was looking over her shoulder and told by her expression, there was no evidence that suggested that she knew. He pulled the black and white picture closer to his eyes, the muscles in his cheek twitching as he tried to focus. He frowned at the angle the picture was taken, not being able to really see the entirety of her face really made his memories void. However, Steve could see her smile in his thoughts but everything around her was blurred, like he was trying to place her in a memory that didn’t exist. Shaking his head, he moved onto the next page. His eyes widening as he read about her,



Steve sat back in his seat, the paper slowly falling from his hand. He rubbed his jaw as he said her name out loud, “Rose. Rose Everett.” It was slowly becoming clearer as the thoughts of her and her surroundings became unclouded. “Rosie.” Picking the paper back up, his reread her birthdate, February 14th, 1919. 1919, a year after he was born. Brooklyn, New York, the same city he was born in. He shook his head in disbelief; this couldn’t be the same Rose. A lot of his memories from before were still vague; it took a lot of coaxing to have himself remember the details. His life up until he dove himself into ice was mainly about being Captain America for the troops and taking down HYDRA bases with Bucky. He hardly ever recalled moments before that when he was just Steve Rogers, the boy who got bullied.

He continued to read,



Alive? Steve’s mouth became dry. How was this even possible? How could someone he hardly remembered still be alive? And to be on the same side as HYDRA? As his mind rambled through the various questions that spilled outwards, he started to remember. “Bucky.” He closed his eyes, his jaw tightening as the memories poured into his brain.

James Buchanan Barnes; some would have said that he was quite the ladies’ man and Steve couldn’t deny that fact. Bucky was a ladies’ man. Steve had never seen him with the same girl more than a couple times; he often got bored of them. However, there was one girl that Bucky had it for and it was Rose. That was one topic that Bucky wouldn’t share with Steve, the only thing he ever kept to himself was his feelings for her. Steve knew deep down inside that Bucky really liked her, he didn’t need his words to make that inference. He could see it in Bucky’s eyes whenever she’d come around and how much his smile came to life. It was a little confusing to Steve because he felt that if someone should feel so strongly about someone, they should be together. But, Bucky would still have a different girl on his arm and Rose would rarely cling to a man that wasn’t Buck.

He would try to coax it out of him, asking why he doesn’t just pursue Rose and just Rose but Bucky would always say the same thing. “Outta my league, Rogers.” And then he would drop it but bringing up a different topic. Steve often wondered if she had turned him down initially. If any girl was smart enough to, it was Rose Everett.

Glancing back down at the files, he almost didn’t want to continue reading. He would feel obligated to relay this information to Bucky. He didn’t want that kind of burden; Bucky had been doing quite well since his stay in Wakanda. They were slowly piecing together the old Bucky and separating him from the monster HYDRA created.



Phase three, what did that mean? Steve inhaled deeply, his mind trying to comprehend the very little details. He leaned back in his seat, wondering how he had missed her when he went to rescue his team from being locked up by Thaddeus Ross. Granted, he had a task to do and was more focused on that than anything. He wondered where exactly in the prison she was located, he had hacked into the database to find Clint, Sam, and Wanda but nowhere did he find the name Rose Everett. Even though he had to dig through his thoughts to find her, the name would have made him stop for a moment to wonder why her name triggered a feeling of recognition. Deciding that if he was going to take action on this new found information, he better know all the information he could get his hands on.