Red heeled shoes clicked their way down the sidewalk of a side street in Brooklyn, New York. The signature shoes had been scuffed by the rough pavement and the years of wear and tear and yet the owner loved them as if they were just purchased from the store just moments before they were placed on her feet.
The sky was dreary and dark yet the foreboding clouds had yet to release the rain that was imminent as citizens scurried around trying to get home before the downpour washed down upon them. Outside vendors quickly packed up their shops hoping to get their livelihoods inside before they could be ruined by the weather as dogs howled in the distance at the booming thunder that rattled the windows in the high buildings. However, the owner of the red heels walked slowly through the neighborhood towards her destination without a care that she might get caught in the rain, in fact, that was the preference.
Florence Beaumont had always held a certain fondness for the rain, in a way that no one else understood.
Her brothers hated it, given that through the rain they couldn't go outside and roughhouse during their childhood as their mother would scold them for getting sick. Her mother wasn't a particular fan of the rain either, given that the heavy pours would more often than not wash out her small garden in the back of the house, uprooting the already lousy soil where she tried to plant tomatoes. Her father hated the rain, specifically the thunder as the loud sounding booms oftentimes sent him into a flashback of the loud booms of the first world war that he had never fully recovered from.
Florence however, preferred the days where the sun was deeply hidden behind a blanket of grey. She loved how fresh it made the air smell, and how children would hop around in the puddles and while everyone ran about like chickens with their heads cut off trying to escape the inevitable soak, she just planted her self like a tree in the middle of the way and looked up reveling in it.
Coming around the corner her eyes set in on the old antique store that was far more than what the regular eyes could see. As her heels clicked into the store the bell rang signaling her entry into the shop. An older woman who sat behind the desk stood up at her entrance.
"Wonderful weather this morning, isn't it?" The short silver-haired woman asked with a slight squint of her eyes as she looked at Florence.
Florence groaned, "Ahh yes, uhm yes it is..." she trailed as she attempted to remember the answer code that she had been told what seemed like a thousand times by now. For some reason she could never hold on to it, "But I forgot my umbrella," she tried to state confidently but her words came out in more of a questioning manner The woman looked at Florence with a shake of her head, "Oh c'mon Susan!" Florence tried to get the older agent to budge but was having no luck until the doorbell rang as someone else walked through the doorway.
"Did you forget it again Flora?" Margaret Carter, better known as Peggy asked with a smirk as she looked at her best friend who had the memory of a goldfish. The two girls had met one another at the very founding of the SSR, Peggy being an agent while Florence was a nurse, one that was working side by side the doctor who created the super soldier serum that would soon be used for the first time, correctly that is. If asked, neither Peggy nor Florence could tell when it was that the two really hit it off with one another, but they had and the two had been close ever since.
Florence pouted her pink lips, "I tried to remember but you wouldn't let me write it down!"
Peggy stared at the exceptionally shorter girl, "Because writing down a secret passwords kind of destroys the very definition of having a secret password." The auburn-haired nurse huffed as her arms crossed over one another in defeat knowing how right her best friend was just not willing to admit it. "I always carry my umbrella," Peggy told Susan who scoffed as she walked around to the other side of the desk to press the button underneath that opened the back door. Peggy grabbed onto Florence's arm as she passed her making sure to pull the pouting girl in along with her as they made their way through the bookcase doorway and down into the lab.
"Oh!" An eccentric voice yelled as they made their way to the actual testing room where the 'chosen one' would get the serum injections, "Z'ere you are Maus, we have been 'vaiting for you," Doctor Abraham Erskine announced his accent thick as he looked up and saw the girl he had taken under his wing upon his arrival to the states. When the SSR had come to him to use his abilities to use the super soldier serum for the United States army, doctor Erskine was on board, given they wanted peace while the Germans, his own people, did not. But when he started to continue his work on the nearly finished serum he realized he needed some help, and went in search of someone. That search lead him to the Brooklyn Hospital where a young dutiful nurse of the name, Florence Beaumont caught his eye.
Abraham wouldn't completely say he was a genius, granted he had a brilliant mind and those with such are easily able to point out others with similar abilities and from the first time he saw and spoke to Florence he knew her mind and heart were unlike anyone else he'd ever met. There was a certain quality about Florence, that everyone picked up upon meeting the girl one that just sucks people in like bees to honey, something difficult to explain but easy to understand and Abraham saw exactly that.
"Sorry, sorry, sorry, I got help up," Florence held her hands up in defense as she walked down the steps to meet the doctor as she pulled off her overcoat to show off her nurse's uniform that she wore loyally to a fault, everything was in place that is beside her shoes. The red heels were far out of uniform yet Florence would never give them up, and no one was brave enough to tell the doe-eyed girl to change.
"Let me guess," Abraham mused amusedly as he looked through the microscope as Florence made his way to his side, Peggy stepping aside to talk to another agent, "You forgot 'ze password," Florence looked down embarrassed at how everyone knew how terrible she was at remembering the simple worded code. She was a nurse for crying out loud, she could remembering hundred of different medicines and healing techniques and procedures, and could recite every page of her nursing books but this simple thing she couldn't think of for the life of her.
"Don't worry Maus, we all know how brilliant you are," Abraham reassured the girl catching onto her thoughts as she thought them. She assumed that was something that happened when you spent so much time with a person, you start knowing what they're thinking and what they're going to say before they speak.
Florence smiled softly at his nickname that he had used for her from the moment they met, 'Maus' a German word for 'mouse' supposedly due to her stature and manner. Before Florence had the chance to be offended by the nickname Abraham had reassured her that not only was it a term of endearment but also there was a fable told in Germany where a mouse saved a lion from the clutches of man. Before Florence had the chance to answer her friend a boisterous man walked through the doorway, a skinny mustache above his lip as his eyes that sparkled with mischief narrowed on Florence.
"Flo! Peggy! My darlings," Howard Stark tossed his hands up as he walked down the stairs his eyes narrowing in on his two favorite girls in the SSR. Peggy stared at the man unaffected and unbothered by him before looking back down at her paperwork while Florence smiled politely.
"Oh Howard, you do know how I loathe being called 'Flo'," Florence shivered at the shortening of her name that had never been used on her by anyone besides Howard Stark who only used it due to the girls' aversion to it. She regretted every telling him not to call her as such, she should have known that a man like Howard would surely do the exact opposite of what he was told. He was granted a rich playboy, admittedly incredibly smart, but a playboy flirt nonetheless who was used to getting exactly what he wanted and when he wanted it.
"Yes, my dear but it suits you beautifully," Howard smirked coyly as he leaned on the desk beside Florence, "Speaking of beauty I could use a date tonight for the Modern Marvels of Tomorrow exhibit tonight. I have to do a quick speech, just about my flying car invention—nothing too big but then the rest of the night is ours and trust me it'll be something."
"She does not wish to go with you Stark," Abraham took the initiative to answer for the girl who was far to kind to reject someone in fear of hurting their feelings. In the last year that Abraham and Florence and worked with one another a certain friendship had been bonded between the pair one that could almost be comparable to a father and daughter relationship something that Florence never truly got from her own father.
It wasn't his fault, and Florence knew that as did her brothers but she was far more forgiving than the boys. Charles Beaumont had been ruined by World War One his mind plagued by the things he lived through the things he saw and over the years it had deteriorated his mind to the point where he didn't know what was in the past and what was present. While Minnie stayed a dutiful wife to her husband and the father of his children, said children didn't get much of a dad growing up only every interacting with the man at dinner on his good days or getting yelled at on his bad ones.
So where the relationship has fallen short with Florence and Charles, Abraham happily picked it up. Scaring away unsuitable suitors was just in the job description.
"Oh C'mon sweetheart!" Howard exclaimed in dramatics, "You're beautiful and I'm obviously handsome it's only natural for us to be attracted to one another so a single date couldn't hurt right?"
"No thank you Howard," Florence told him kindly before smirking slightly, "But you should ask Peg, I think she has a thing for you," she joked lightly nodding her head across the room where Peggy had disappeared too.
Howard bobbed his head, "That's an excellent idea, I'll do that thanks Flo." He started walking off ignoring Florence's yells not to call her that.
"Z'at boy, I swear," Abraham shook his head looking through his journal, "He won't take no for an answer 'vill he?"
Florence shrugged as she organized the files for the different tests and procedures that Abraham had already tried, "He means well."
"He does," Abraham agreed, "But 'zat doesn't mean 'zat he is well enough for you Maus." He told her truthfully as he thought about the eligible young nurse who would settle down sooner or later. Despite the year they were in where you were looked down upon if you were an unmarried woman, Abraham had no doubt that should Florence not want to marry she would be unaffected by the gossip and drama of it all.
But Florence was a hopeless romantic one who wanted the full nine yards and Abraham knew the right guy would come along for her he could just only hope to live long enough to see them together. Because despite living in the harsh time of war and depression Florence Beaumont was a light in the darkness and if anyone dimmed that light even just a fraction there would be hell to pay.