"Miss Keane," she heard a voice call from the doorway. She looked up briefly from her papers.

"Howard," she responded coldly, moving to the opposite side of the lab where various chemicals were strewn about the table in tubes of far-ranging sizes.

"Cecile," he spoke again, shutting the door and going over to the papers she was looking at. "How are the tests coming along?"

"Splendidly," she responded, her French accent growing thicker as sarcasm drenched her words while she placed some goggles over her eyes and adjusted her thick gloves. "If those men you call scientists come in here again, criticize my work because I am a woman, then, have the gall to burn all my formulas calling them 'obsolete', I will personally give them a royal kick in their scrawny asses."

Howard smirked at her words. She was one of the brilliant minds helping with Project Rebirth that Erskine was working on. However, it was completely off the record and she was listed as Howard's personal assistant.

He watched her as she placed a small amount of orange powder into a beaker. "Howard, could you pass me the pipets with the um…" She squinted towards the table he was near. "The yellow and purple fluid in them."

"Sure thing, doll," he responded, putting on his own gloves and goggles. He walked over with them carefully and placed them in her empty hands.

"Thank you," She said, squatting down so she was eye level with the powder. "Empty the remains of yellow, and one drop of purple."

Howard noticed she had a habit of saying when she mixed chemicals in the lab. Whether it was to remember or just to let others know, he would never know. He watched as she slowly dripped the yellow fluid into the beaker, examining it with intense focus. Once the pipet was drained, she took the purple one and steadily dropped a single drop into the beaker.

She watched as it started bubbling, "That is not good," She muttered backing up and putting a metal bucket over the top along with a large rock over that. "I would stand back." She warned, shooting a nervous smile towards Howard, who did as she said. And not a moment too soon. A loud bang erupted through the lab and the bucket flew up and clattered to the floor, along with the rock, which just cracked the tile.

Cecile readjusted her goggles and gloves before scurrying over to the bucket, which now had a purple gelatinous substance inside. She picked up the bucket and placed it back on the table. She scribbled out a few notes in Latin before pinning them to a corkboard with a pushpin.

Howard watched as she went and tried to pick up the substance, but retracted her hand quickly and hissed in pain."Okay, very hot then," She said, taking the bucket over to a tub full of ice and placing it inside.

"Hey, Cecile, since you have some free time, how 'bout you and I go get a bite at this new res-" Howard didn't get the chance to finish as she scoffed.

"And be mistaken for one of those... promiscuous women you always have on your hip? No thank you, Howard, I would rather die," She said, taking the goggles off her face and placing them on a hook on the wall as well as her lab coat and gloves.

"Ah, come on, Cecile," He said, doing the same as her. "Everyone knows you're just my personal assistant, it won't be that bad."

She sighed, knowing she wasn't going to ever win with this man. She looked towards him with a look of defeat. "Fine, just this once."

A grin spread across his face as she grabbed her pocketbook. "And only because I owe you so much."

"You don't owe me anything, doll. I'd do anything for a dame in distress," He said, his grin growing.

"The whole world knows that one, Howard," She smirked, and he faltered slightly before following her retreating figure out the door.

"That may be true," He held out a finger as if he was announcing a brilliant idea. "But does anyone know that I love you?"

She just scoffed and walked faster towards the exit.

-o-o-

"Steven, is that you?" Cecile questioned, going up to the scrawny man as he walked down the stairs towards the serum injector in the center of the room.

"Cara, you know it's just Steve," He smiled shyly, greeting her with a hug which she returned graciously.

"My apologies, Steve," She said, correcting her mistake. "It is so wonderful to see you again, how is James, er, Bucky, i mean, excuse the slip."

"He went and joined the 107th," He responded, looking slightly downtrodden.

"I am sure he will be fine," Cecile assured, patting his back, he wasn't as fragile as he looked. She knew he could handle anything if he put his mind to it. "Now off you go, up to the table."

"Cara huh?" Howard smirked as you joined him by the control panel.

"It is my middle name, you know that and it is a little easier to say than Cecile," She responded while checking to make sure everything was in order on the panel. She then dug around in her lab coat pockets to pull out some bits of cotton.

"Noise bother you?" Howard asked, looking towards Cecile as she rolled up the cotton, just the slightest of concern flashing through his eyes. She only nodded in response before placing the cotton in her ears as well as equipped her eyes with her goggles. He tapped her shoulder as she wrote down the settings of the dials. She lowered her clipboard and looked towards him, he motioned for her to get behind the panel so, just in case anything short-circuited, she wouldn't get shocked. She obliged and observed her surroundings in silence.

Cecile looked towards Howard as he gave a thumbs up that they were going to begin the procedure soon. She watched Erskine talk to Steve as he undressed, Peggy was there beside him. Cecile debated on going over to the woman to reassure her, but decided against it when Howard went over to say a few things before returning to the panel.

She watched as Steve lied down on the table and got strapped in while Erskine said something to Peggy and she went up to the observation area, albeit, hesitantly. She watched Steve get injected with the serum, and brought up into a standing position in the Vita-chamber, thanks to Howard's mechanical engineering. She cleared her throat and held the clipboard to her chest as the chamber closed around Steve. Cecile watched as the nurses stepped away to a safe distance as well as Erskine who seemed to motion to Howard to start with the Vita rays.

It seemed to be working, from what Cecile could see, until she heard a yell that was muffled by the cotton, but it sure sounded painful. Erskine went towards the chamber like he wanted it open, and Cecile even saw Peggy come out of the room in a panic. But everyone seemed to back away as the light grew brighter and everything started to short circuit in a mess of sparks. Cecile looked away for a moment because the light got too bright, and looked back right as the chamber was opening up.

Cecile removed the cotton from her ears and pushed the goggles up to rest on her head. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, it was Steve, but much taller, stronger, and, dare she admit, more handsome. She knew that a small dose of the Vita rays could increase abilities, but this was on a whole different scale.

She quickly looked towards Howard as he helped Steve out of the chamber, a smile plastered on her face as she went to him after he was sure Steve was fine. He picked her up and spun her around, laughing. He then quickly put her down and placed his hands on her shoulders. "We did it, Cecile," He said, smiling proudly.

"Yes we did, Howard," She smiled back. Just as she was about to ask if he wanted to join her for drinks after, an explosion erupted from the observation area, causing Howard to pull her down with him to get cover. Cecile watched as a man took the serum and booked it, shooting Erskine on his way out.

Peggy recovered the fastest and started shooting the man, successfully clipping him in the arm. Cecile heard more gunshots as Peggy ran towards the stairs and hurried up them to go after the man. Steve soon joined her after checking Erskine.

It took a moment for Cecile to register what was going on before she stood next to Howard, who seemed a little shocked himself. She stumbled over to the now dead Erskine, her ears ringing from the sound of the gunshot, and knelt next to him, getting her knees and lab coat bloody. "Auf Wiedersehen Mein Lieber Freund*," She muttered, grabbing his hand and giving it a pat before standing and stumbling quickly up the stairs to go check on Peggy.

* "Goodbye my dear friend."