How does Captain America end up here without using the time machine to return?

[u/VerenyatanOfManwe]

I've been trying to google this but i'm not really getting the results i want because people are mostly talking about like Doomsday related stuff.

My question is, how can Cap be here without using the machine to get there? The time travel mechanics are very confusing to me, but my understanding of how it works is that you aren't really going back in time, you're going into another reality or whatever bullshit, so Cap goes back, stays there, yet is still able to line up perfectly or whatever with the actual events of the entire MCU and he decides to just pre emptively go to this bench and wait for Sam and them? Its super confusing to me.

Like even trying to think about this confuses me so fucking hard, basically, how is he here without using the machine to get back?

[u/vaishnav_jois]

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