"Stevie, no." Lizzy pouted, begrudgingly following his quick steps regardless of this obvious annoyance. She had been perfectly happy this morning, wrapped in her comforter, enjoying a well-deserved lie in. And then, Steve had barged into her morning and insisted she joined him on his morning jog. Lizzy had barked her annoyance at him immediately but had somehow found herself eventually relenting and agreeing to the proposal. Steve's incessant zest for life made him almost impossible to say no to.

A chuckle sounded before her. Shaking off the tiredness still clinging to her, she pulled her weary attention to the present. Steve's stride was full of purpose and 'American spirit' as he led her to his usual spot. "Running's good for you, Lizzy." The chirpiness of his tone served only to aggravate her.

Rolling her eyes with a groan, she mumbled a poor response. "Yeah, but..." any witty come-back entirely failed her, "Running doesn't even affect your fitness anyway, why bother?"

Another chuckle met her whined question. "Yeah," he assented, "but that's me, not you." And, without another word, he took off running.

Still grumbling to herself, she set herself at a light jog as she moved after his rapidly retreating figure. Wistfully, she recalled a time when Steve could barely take three large paces without needing to catch his breath. "Slow down!" There was certainly no point in yelling after him, she could hardly make out his silhouette on the horizon anymore.

As she squinted after him, she glimpsed another running man. Quickening her pace to reach this new figure, she set a steady pace beside him. An aggravated glance slipped from the man towards Steve's general direction and Lizzy smirked. "Hey," the man stumbled over several steps at the suddenness of her introduction and his head swerved towards her with a likely painful jerk. He attempted a response but was still spluttering on his surprise. "Sorry," she told him, trying not to outwardly laugh at this man she had just met.

After another moment of spluttering, he was able to form a coherent response. "Nah, it's fine." Now recovered from his stumbling, he continued his run and held out a hand. "Name's Sam."

Grasping his hand for an awkward shake, she replied. "Lizzy."

"Well," he began, looking ahead, "nice to meet you." Then, gesturing ahead of them, he asked; "he with you?"

Letting out a scoffing laugh, she nodded. Her wry smile bled into her tone as sarcasm. "Unfortunately, yeah."

"So," he began - uncertain.

"Yeah?" She pushed, able to predict the avenue this conversation were about to take.

Gesturing forwards once more, he finished his thought. "I'm guessing; Steve Rogers?"

"What gave him away?" Was her dry reply.

"What didn't?" Sharing a laugh with Sam, she quickly decided she liked him. He seemed normal, at least more so than some of Captain America's other, more interesting, fans. "That makes you Lizzy Barnes, right?"

Teeth locking together in a grimace, she shook her head and tried to catch her suddenly stolen breath. "Boscoe," she corrected, "not Barnes." Lizzy hated the unfamiliar fragility in her tone.

Sam ducked his head with a brief nod and didn't push the subject further, "yeah, of course."

They fell into silence after that, Lizzy suddenly lacking the required energy for light-hearted conversation.

Thankfully, Steve quickly interrupted their silent jogging as he re-joined them. Opposing his usual routine of running straight past with some snippy comment, he slowed his pace entirely. Looking towards him, surprise and sudden trepidation filling her, she raised an eyebrow. "Winded?"

"Why don't we give it a try?" His voice remained full of exuberance but his words inspired greater tiredness in her.

"I don't know..." she told him, eyes meandering to her feet as she scratched at her wrist.

The trio had come to a natural stop as she worried over his request. "There's no one around, Lizzy. It's now or never."

"Well, Sam's here," she pointed out quickly.

Sam threw defensive hands before him, "my lips are sealed." Curiosity was sparkling brightly in his eyes. The prospect of seeing her power up close often held this strange effect over those who met her. For a long while it could be avoided, her a existence a secret she had helped to keep, but the rise of the Avengers had quickly snuffed out this cherished anonymity.

Huffing, she grumbled a reply. "Fine."

Closing her eyes briefly, breathing deeply to settle her new nerves, she concentrated hard on her legs. Lizzy reopened her eyes a moment later. Distantly, she heard Sam utter his surprise but the mere effort of this attempt left a buzzing in her brain that made it impossible to decipher any spoken words. Lizzy began to run.


The sight of Lizzy's power was always hard to grasp. Back before the war, when it was mere flourish of what it was now, it had still held an indescribable power and intrigue. Even as he watched the shadows encircle her, push her to run faster, he could feel the power of them emanating like heat-waves in the air.

Her appearance in this strange future had been a relief unlike any other - the warmth of a familiar face easing the sting of where he had found himself. She was, however, different. The core of her had remained, but it had become wrapped in a new harshness. Some un-stemmed rage always seemed boiling beneath the surface.

This power she wielded had undergone a transformation of its own. The once small flourishes of darkness she could produced had doubled in both size and depth of usefulness. There was little doubt in his mind these new applications had been moulded, however forcefully, by wherever she had been in the past decades.

There was little she allowed him be privy to regarding her decades without him. He had asked her, breaching the subject as softly as could be managed, on more than one occasion. Agitation and refusal met him each time. All she had allowed him to know was her recruitment into SHIELD in 1986 but even that explanation held gaps that she refused to fill.

"Wow." The man beside him was following her run with a widened gaze. Her golden hair floated on the air behind her - as though rushing to catch up with her.

Smirking, pride swelling at this achievement he had helped her produce, he glanced to the man beside him. Clapping a hand on his back Steve ran to catch up with his old friend. "C'mon man!" The man's noisy complaint behind him caused a chuckle to escape him.


Lizzy was decidedly surprised with herself. The empowered run, however tiring, had been a success. A nosebleed, headache, and immediate dizziness had been the anticipated outcome. The non-appearance of any of these familiar symptoms placed a small pride fluttering in her chest. She had come much farther than she had realised.

There was more this power of hers could do, she knew, but she had turned her back on her power for so long these forgotten skills seemed hard to fathom.

After their run they had found Sam once more. Steve wished to learn a little more about the guy and Lizzy had no complaints. They chatted for a while, learning a bit more about who Sam was. As had become clear, he already knew who the two of them were but seemed more understanding and reserved than most. His almost casual attitude to them was a welcome change.

Tuning back into the conversation, annoyance flared within her. "Food's a lot better, we used to boil everything."

"Hey!" She complained, slapping at his arm. "I cooked for you all the time! You said you liked my food." She raised her eyebrows at him expectantly, awaiting a complimentary response.

"Okay," he conceded quickly, rolling his eyes. "Other than Lizzy's food, it's all a lot better."

The tinge of sarcasm in this response left a well-humoured annoyance in her. The numerous times she had corralled him to her house for dinner, desperate to fatten him up a little, all now seemed underappreciated.

"Internet, so helpful. Been reading that a lot, trying to catch up." Lizzy tried to hide a smile. Steve had been so entirely clueless when he had first woken; the process of explaining the concept of the internet to him had felt as though it had taken years off her life.

"Marvin Gaye, 1972, Trouble Man soundtrack." Sam explained, prompting Steve to pull out his little notebook of things missed. "Everything you missed, jammed into one album."

"I'll put it on the list." As Steve scrawled the scruffy words, Lizzy looked across to read a few items from the list. Moon Landing, Thai Food, Nirvana... he was still very much a man out of time. Lizzy herself, had been overcome with confusion upon re-entering the real world.

Simultaneously, hers and Steve's phones chirped. Quickly checking the message, she felt a strange relief and looked back to Sam with an almost genuine smile. Steve shook his hand firmly, continuing his earlier teasing, before Lizzy grasped his hand more delicately. "See you around, Sam."

His, much larger, warm hand shook hers slightly. "I hope so."

Lizzy nodded before moving quickly towards the car now pulled up behind them.


Hi! Thank you for reading the first chapter of this story! I know it's a little short but I didn't want to overload in the first chapter. Please let me know what you think and I should upload a second chapter at some point this week! :) x


Having gone through and edited this now I've written 36 chapters, it seems crazy to me how short this chapter is!