Chapter Text
When Steve wakes up from the defrosting, after running through the city barefoot and confused, Director Fury kept him under house arrest in SHIELD headquarters. He's treated exceptionally well, but the nurses and agents are wary around him. They don't reveal any information then what he already learned from the weekly checkups from Fury.
Stark's son, Tony, visits him on the third day and there's hostility laced with his introduction. His smirk doesn't quite reach his eyes and his erratic movements are just a bit forced and calculated. Steve doesn't understand how Tony can be so narcissistic and egoistic and so different from Howard. He makes the mistake of mentioning Howard, and Tony visibly flinches and shuts up. He leaves after a few more minutes of awkwardness and doesn't visit until Steve's recruited by Fury for the Avengers Initiative. Steve doesn't know how he feels about that.
The Avengers Initiative is the somewhat nonconsensual recruitment of a handful of dangerous people Steve's never heard of, plus Tony. Fury doesn't give them much of a choice other than join us or watch the world get conquered by aliens. The team meets Thor halfway through the mess, and after the whole ordeal Steve gains a little group of reluctant friends and a broken and mismatched team that makes him ache for the Howling Commandos. And Bucky. Bucky, who's dead and gone, and will never see the future with Steve.
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The media goes crazy over them; interviews and talk show requests clog Ms. Pepper Potts' inbox, and tabloids and gossips are all that's on the front pages of magazines and newspapers. There are pictures and videos of their fight on the Internet, guesses and bets about the secret identities of the superheroes.
Steve didn't take off his mask, but the iconic costume was enough to make historians and the government freak out about the return of Captain America. Speculations and in depth analyzes of his jawline and nose surface around the web, and crazy rumors spread like wildfire. Fury wants him to reveal himself and help gain some good publicity for SHIELD. Steve politely declines.
Bruce moves in with Tony in the tower to have 24/7 access to his labs and equipment, Thor goes back to Asgard with his brother in tow, Clint and Natasha stay with SHIELD for further missions from Fury. No one talks about Agent Coulson. Steve buys a simple wooden box from an antique store with the savings in his account and puts the bloodied trading cards inside.
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After two weeks of pestering from Tony and Ms. Potts and feeling claustrophobic and lonely in the new apartment that SHIELD got him on the edge of the city, Steve moves into the Tower.
He's got his own floor and unlimited access to the gym. He talks to Jarvis, orders random things online with the credit card Tony set up for him, and sometimes when he gets restless, he watches Bruce and Tony tinker in the lab, listening to them bickering and rambling.
Tony was pleasantly surprised when Steve asks him about the suit and the coding behind Jarvis. "I piloted a German plane on my own without any help," Steve tells him dryly. "I maybe old, but I'm not an idiot."
And with that, Bruce and Tony teach him about computers and modern technology every other day in the privacy of the lab. Steve's memory's always been exceptionally good, he WAS an artist after all, and the serum enhanced it to the point where Tony calls it 'eidetic'.
With the help of two geniuses, Steve learns about computers and coding at an alarming rate. In a few short months, he can take apart and build from scratch a computer, hook up tracking devices with a few office supplies and wires, he can hack into a ton of major security systems and disable any firewalls and decrypt the codes. Even Tony was impressed.
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On a Tuesday morning, Fury calls them all in for another 'defend the world' mission. This time, it was a bunch of terrorists attacking the city, and once again the five of them and Thor came together and eliminated the threat. Then they were paraded in front of cameras and microphones and screaming reporters who swarm around them with questions here and there. Not for the first time, Steve feels like a show monkey; dressed in red, white and blue tights, face hidden under the mask, looking like the poster boy for American patriotism.
He pulls Fury aside after yet another debriefing with the team on how to avoid giving away classified details and dodging tricky questions from stubborn reporters.
"I can't keep doing this forever," Steve tells him. "Steven Rogers was declared KIA more than seventy years ago, his life is over."
"What are you talking about, Captain." It wasn't a question.
"I quit, I'm done," Steve says after a few seconds. "I can't keep doing this."
Fury closes his eyes and sighs, fingers digging at his temple.
"No one can confirm that you're the original Captain America," Fury says. "People are saying it's an imposter. We'll diffuse that rumor, pull some strings, but you must run anything you want to do by me."
Steve nods sincerely. "Thank you." He turns to leave, but turns back and gives the Director a salute. "You have my gratitude."
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Within a month, he gets a new identity, the reluctant approval of his teammates, and a new life. He leaves his shield and uniform with Tony, and gives his permission to use them when the team sees fit.
Steve cuts his hair to a buzz cut, gels the top with Clint and Natasha's help, and packs a bunch of T-shirts given to him by Tony and Clint as gag gifts. Bruce gives him one of his old pair of glasses with the prescription lenses knocked out and replaced with glass. Pepper takes care of the legal procedures and runs him through his new identity.
Jacob Jensen is a 21 year old with no family other than an older sister, Virginia Jensen who lives in New York, and a high school diploma with a GED of 4.3. Steve agreed to list Pepper as his sister on the grounds that she won't alert the team of his whereabouts unless he tells her to. He knows Tony would be keeping tabs on him with Jarvis, but he trusts him not to interfere.
With that, he leaves the Tower in a bright yellow sweater, dark jeans, a pair of well-worn converses and squinting into the sun with his new glasses.
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