avacadoatlaw:

there is a note, buried deep in the winter soldier’s files, that warns his handlers against leaving slack in his leash on the fourth of july. if the asset must be taken out of cryofreeze on that date, it says, it should be done away from the states and any calendars should be kept out of sight

years after this note is written, anyone who comes upon it assumes something about the holiday wakes up some latent patriotism or perhaps that the fireworks cause an adverse reaction, but really the asset goes on the fritz a bit because he knows he’s missing something important, even if he doesn’t realize that something is steve’s birthday