Chapter Text
Hawkeye did return with a chair, but he didn’t let John stay immediately. He let John put down his stuff, then called in a separate agent. They needed to verify Bob’s statement, he said, so now John was being put through an interrogation.
Again.
All of John’s life just felt like a series of mistakes, mission reports, and interrogations.
He was sitting in a blank room, across from two Avengers- the most agreeable ones, Walker assumed. Probably in an attempt to earn Walker’s trust.
Unfortunately, the ones deemed ‘the most agreeable’ were Banner (not problematic) and Rogers (extremely problematic).
He was staring more at Banner than Rogers. It was probably extremely obvious that he was avoiding Captain America. Banner seemed put off by this, but Rogers didn’t.
“So. Time travel.” Banner was wringing his hands. “That’s real.”
“Apparently.” Walker spread his hands. “This was a surprise to me as well.” He blinked, thinking back to the government reports about how the Avengers stopped Thanos. “Kind of.”
“Kind of?” Rogers asked.
“Scientific time travel has already been discovered, by my year.” He nods at Banner. “You and Tony Stark invented it, actually. But this particular case wasn’t scientific, from what I could tell. It was… magic?”
“Magic’s not real.” Banner replied. It sounded like an automated response.
Walker snorted. “Tell that to the future. There’s a very prevalent cult of wizards.”
“A cult ?”
“I don’t think they’re actually a cult.” Walker frowned. “Pretty sure.”
“We’re getting off track.” Rogers shook his head. “Time travel. Can you prove it’s real? Corroborate Bob’s story?”
“Probably.” Walker said. “What did he tell you?”
“That sort of defeats the purpose of corroboration.”
John knew that. But damn if he didn’t want to avoid this conversation. “I can fill you in on what happened to me.” He offered. “You can check that against Bob’s story. But I don’t want to go revealing anyone else’s secrets.”
The two Avengers exchanged a silent conversation before they gave the smallest of nods.
So John told the story again.
It wasn’t like when he had told Olivia. He skimmed over a lot more of the details. His military history, his achievements. The rising fame of the Avengers, their split over the Sokovia Accords (although he skipped over Bucky’s return. That wasn’t something he was going to throw at Captain America if he hadn’t been told yet.), Thanos, the blip, the time travel solution, the return.
He hesitated after that. Steve Rogers was considered one of the lost from the Infinity War, even though he was still alive- albeit very old. And he wasn’t sure how to touch on the passing of the shield without going into Bucky’s story. So he settled, awkwardly, with “You retired, and I became Captain America for a bit.”
“Really?” Rogers did look surprised at that. “No offense, soldier, but you don’t exactly seem like the type I’d pass the mantle onto.”
John laughed self-deprecatingly. “You didn’t. The shield was surrendered to the government as a historical artifact. They appointed me as Captain America. If it makes you feel better, sir, I didn’t last long with the title.”
“Why not?”
Crunch. Clang. Click.
“Not a good fit.” He managed to choke out behind flashes of blood behind his eyes- splattered against a column, splattered against a shield, dripping and covering his hands- “I made mistakes. Too many, too big, too quick. The thing about Captain America, in the future, is that he’s a pillar of the community. He’s good at heart, not just good at what he does.” He loosely shrugged, trying to feign nonchalance. “I didn’t fit the qualifications. Don’t worry though, the next guy- the real next guy, not including my two week stint with the title- he’s good. Hand-picked by you, I heard.”
“You don’t seem that bad.” Rogers offers, although it’s halfhearted at best.
“With due respect, sir, you don’t know what I did.” He replied quietly. “And how I reacted to it. I lost just as much as I deserved to, for my actions. But I’m here, and I’m working at it. Best any of us can do, right?”
“That’s surprisingly deep and poignant of you.” Banner said. He was looking at John differently, now. He probably had some familiarity with coming to terms with a darker side of himself.
“Has Bob told you about the others on our team?” John deflected.
Banner shook his head.
“It’s a complicated group of morally off, fucked up misfits.” He said. “And that’s something I say affectionately. Besides us two- the failed Captain America and the overpowered mental illness, our other members are a washed-up supercommunist, a man previously brainwashed into being a weapon, a black ops theft specialist, and an assassin with more red in her ledger than she’d like.” Rogers crossed his arms and Banner’s brow furrowed at the phrase ‘red in her ledger’ especially. He’d borrowed the phrase from articles and reports written about Natasha Romanoff. He wondered if they’d known her long enough by this point to recognize it. “We all got lucky enough for a clean slate, in the future. A fresh start. And by God, we’re trying to do our best with it.”
He folded his hands neatly in front of him, forcing himself to stare down the two Avengers. “We might not be a beacon of hope for the future like you guys were, but we’re doing our damned best- and we’ll continue doing so when we get back. But right now, the most I can do is go try to keep Bob stable so we don’t have a repeat of a catastrophic event that happened in our time. So were my answers satisfactory? Can I go back and do my job now?”
Rogers put his hands behind his back, falling into a more casual version of parade rest that John had often found himself doing instinctively. “Of course. We’re sorry for the inconvenience, First Lieutenant Walker. We’ll look in to what you and Bob have told us, but for now, feel free to return to his room. I trust you remember the way.” For a moment, Walker was shocked at the amount of trust he was being shown, before Rogers tilted his head towards the camera in the corner. “And if you don’t, I’m sure JARVIS can remind you the route.”
John stood, pushing his chair in out of habit even as he asked “JARVIS? Tony Stark’s AI, he’s in this building? I thought SHIELD owned this building.”
“I think JARVIS is inherently in any building Stark has ever set foot in.” Banner muttered.
“A bit of an overexaggeration, sir.” A crisp British voice echoed from the speakers. “I am only in any building Stark has set foot in that has an internet connection.”
“Right.” Rogers chuckled to himself. “Be on your way, then. We’ll check in tomorrow?”
“Sure.” John nodded stiffly, looking warily at the cameras before turning to the door. “Good luck with HYDRA.”
The door closed behind him, but not before he could make out Banner’s bitter “I’m sure we’ll need it.”