Ok hear me out about this:
I don't know the exact story but Steve basically adopts a boy (Ian) when he becomes Nomad.
And i just thought: what if steve came back some time before 2012 and basically adopts John? How would that turn out? And how much canon divergence has to be there to make Sam and Bucky the coolest uncles ever for john?
Steve was, for lack of better words a fish out of water in this new world.
He feels lost in the insurmountable depths of new knowledge and ways of living- yes some of them are wonderful but he’s learning a new term and a new right every single second of his waking moments.
sometimes he wants to just throw himself into water again to find the peace that was in the deep sea.
SHIELD has put him to work; he’s got a nice little home in New York, and is training to pickup the shield again which part of him is thankful for. If one thing hasn’t changed it’s his need to fight for the little people- wait that’s an offensive term nowadays…. He’s not sure why.
what he hadn’t expected was to find a true purpose in the middle of a grocery store on a Saturday morning.
Steve needed the basics, somehow he’s managed to go through everything without noticing and now he’s trying to figure out the layout of this store, eggs in one hand and a jug of milk in the other as he tries to decided what the hell 2% is, and why is it added to his milk? That looks like more than 2% of milk in the container as well.
“I said sorry!” “Well that didn’t fix shit you stupid brat!” His head snapped up instantly at the harsh words, his heart pounding hard as anger flooded his veins. There in the store was a woman and some young children, a little boy who she was holding roughly by the arm and a little girl about his age sat in the shopping cart with a handheld computer- phone whatever. The boy was crying, but he didn’t dare speak again as she yelled at him for stepping on the back of her shoe for the forth time,
“Why can’t you just behave like a normal child. You’re always causing some pain.” “Ma’am I hope you’re not blaming a five year old for stepping on your shoe when you are the one who had your back to him.” The woman stopped dead in her tracks, staring at Steve like he’d grown a second head. For a second he thought that he may get slapped, but instead the mother simply pulled the boy harder, walking away fast to get away from him. Before he left his view entirely though, the little boy spun around to look at Steve, a glimmer of something in his big blue eyes as he smiled at him.
he hated that he couldn’t step in more- that poor kid more or less would get hit harder at home… hopefully he’s ok. He talked to Phil about it when he got to base later that day for training. Phil listened with a frown before confirming that regardless of their positions she hadn’t don’t anything to warrant cps, but that Steve more or less gave him hope.
Steve didn’t expect to see him again- he especially didn’t expect to hear his house had burned down and his family had left him in there to burn with it, he’d been rescued by his older brother who found out almost too late.
he didn’t expect to see him again, sure. But now he’s in the hospital waiting room for a boy he doesn’t even know the name of, and he feels like his life is about to change forever