er... hello again

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

There are doors and then there are Doors.

Steve was not looking for a Door. It wasn't even on his mind. But once he steps through it, his breath catches a little and his eyes well up.

He's been gone a long time.


"Bar," he says as he gets onto a stool, "a chocolate egg cream, please."

Coming right up.

[ooc: A quick explainer.]

Comments

[zerocharliexray]

"Now there's an order I ain't heard in a while," laughs the long-legged blonde sitting nearby.

Zinda's out of uniform today, but she's got a black leather jacket emblazoned with a yellow and black logo hanging over the back of her stool. "Even longer since I found a place that could make it."

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

Steve smiles at her. "This is the best place to get them, nowadays. They're out of fashion now.

"Steve Rogers. Nice to meet you."

[zerocharliexray]

He's a strapping fella and no mistake. "Zinda Blake," she says, and offers out her hand to shake. Her grip's as firm as her smile.

"You look kinda familiar. Ever been to Gotham when you aren't hanging around the end of the universe?"

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

Shaking hands wasn't a thing men and women did in his day, but -- changing times.

He shakes her hand, also firmly.

"I've never been, no. I spent most of my time in DC or New York until recently. Home is Europe now. "

[zerocharliexray]

It's funny how living on an island with seven men shift a gal's idea of propriety, that's for sure.

"No kiddin'?"

She's got a cold bottle of beer; she lifts it in a brief toast. "I spent some time in Europe, myself, but, well – "

She laughs again. "It was a while ago. I hope you're there under better circumstances than I was."

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

"That depends on the circumstances," Steve observes, his smile turning wry. "The first time was war. This time it's ... more covert."

[zerocharliexray]

Her smile mirrors his, turning crooked and rueful. "You too, huh? Hey – "

She looks intently at him for a long second, then slaps her knee in cheery recognition. "Well, butter my butt 'n call me a biscuit. I knew I knew that face! I saw it in a couple pictures. You're Bucky's Steve, right? From the Howlin' Commandos?"

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

"You know Bucky?" That melts what little reserve he has. "Yeah, I'm his Steve."

[zerocharliexray]

"Sure do," she says, grinning to beat the band.

"He's a peach, that Bucky Barnes. Well, heck, Steve Rogers, I feel like I know you already, he talks about you so much."

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

That makes Steve beam.

He says, "On the other hand, I don't know you at all. You fought in the war, too?"

[zerocharliexray]

"Sure did."

She tosses him a crisp salute, her smile white and flashing. "Flew with the Blackhawks; independent resistance squadron. Lady Blackhawk, they called me."

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

"I love that. That's really swell. Resistance out of where, France?"

[zerocharliexray]

"A little bit of everywhere. Bart – Blackhawk, that is – he and the boys were chompin' at the bit to fly, but the RAF was all long lines 'n red tape. So they pooled their funds, got some planes, and struck out on their own."

She waves her beer bottle in a lazy gesture. "By the time I joined up, they were headquartered on a lil' island in the Pacific, but we saw action all over the European theater."

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

"That's a long flight, the Pacific to Europe. I'm surprised they didn't use something like the Azores instead."

[zerocharliexray]

"You're tellin' me," she laughs, "especially in a Skyrocket. But that was just headquarters; we had spots all over, spent a lot of time flyin' with the US boys. We weren't at the island more than a little of the time 'til after the war."

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

"That makes a lot more sense.

"Were you a combat pilot? Most of the female pilots I knew were only allowed to do transport."

[zerocharliexray]

"That woulda been me, too, if I'd gone in with the military," she tells him. "But with the Blackhawks, I flew combat and escort missions. Did a few spells as a dustoff pilot, too."

Her grin flashes again, irrepressible and cheery as Christmas morning. "Once I convinced 'em to let me join, anyhow. Bart gave me a flat 'no' the first time I showed up and said I wanted to be a Blackhawk."

She sips at her beer and gives him a considering kind of look: he's a little shaggier than he was in the photos she saw, but he's still got the straight shoulders and easy confidence that's so familiar to her. "How 'bout you, sugar? I know some – Captain, right? – but there's nothin' like hearin' it from the horse's mouth."

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

"My war experience, you mean?"

He scrubs his hand through his hair.

"I don't know what you already know... I started out in the USO, selling war bonds and trying to raise morale.

"Then Bucky's unit was captured by HYDRA, you know HYDRA? and I went to find him."

He pauses. After all these years, it still gets him in the gut.

"Found him."

[zerocharliexray]

We've all got sad stories, she'd told Bucky, and her gaze is warm and sympathetic and steady as Steve takes a breath, seems to settle himself.

"Sounds sorta familiar," she says, "but to be honest I think we've both been puttin' a pin in our sad stories. Or the hard ones."

She tips her head and smiles at him, kind as a sunny spring day. "But it sounds to me like findin' each other is somethin' you're both pretty damn good at. Even all these years later! Hell, if one of the Blackhawks swanned up to Gotham, lookin' as young as they did back then, it'd make livin' in the future a whole lot easier to handle."

She pauses for a swallow of her beer, then grins, mischievous. "I sure did hear about the USO. You've got my sympathies, brother; from one show pony to another."

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

Steve chuckles and murmurs, "Thanks.

"How'd you get to the future? Please tell me it was a time machine. Anything else is kind of terrible."

[zerocharliexray]

"Sorry, Captain," she laughs. "I know better than to lie to a superior officer."

Or what amounts to one, anyhow. Bucky's right; she really ought to hold out for a rank of her own even if it's only honorary. She takes a swallow of her beer and thinks back.

"Got caught up in a scuffle between a few powered folk that turned into a kinda... time war, I guess y'could say. One second I was flying in my own place and time, the next I was in the middle of a battle surrounded by dinosaurs and aliens and who knows what."

She shrugs a little. "After that, I spent some time at a place kinda like this, somewhere out in the galaxy, before I wound up where 'n when I am in Gotham."

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

"Wow," Steve says softly. "I've never fought a dinosaur.

"Where is Gotham, again?"

[zerocharliexray]

"Me neither," she says, grinning. "And I'd kinda like to keep it that way."

She takes a sip from her drink. "Jersey, on the waterfront. Though it's more of a stopover for me these days; I got a new charter that send me all over creation."

[thekidfrombrooklyn]

"A charter plane? Or is that something else?"

[zerocharliexray]

"Well, I have the plane," Zinda tells him. "A brand spankin' new Citation X, with a whole extra helping of after-market enhancements. She's a peach, the Aerie One."

She gestures with her bottle. "The Skipper – the gal who hired me – she chartered us both. It's fine as anything to be back in the air, I gotta tell you."