Hope everyone has a great holidays! Thanks to everyone who has favorite or or followed this story.

Nights Out

Chapter 2

The bags forming underneath Catherine's eyes were prominent, and despite her desperate attempts, the very small amount of makeup she was allowed to wear barely covered that. Her sleep seemed like the least important thing at the moment. Especially, with wounded soldiers being transported in. However, she had to admit it wasn't anything like working closely to the front lines. Yet, her bones still constantly ached, her feet were always swollen, her hands always full and all the while, it seemed that she earned a nickname among the other nurses, 'Goldie Locks'.

The funny thing was, her hair was brown, no mistaking it. Nothing gold about it, whatsoever. Instead, she had inquired the nickname for making sure everything was 'just right' as the others put it. She was meticulous with her work, but in Catherine's mind, these men put down their lives to fight. The least she could do was offer the best care possible, even if that meant staying hours past her shift to see to it. It wasn't like she was the only nurse who did so either.

She took a puff of the cigarette settled between her fingers and exhaled it.

In her other hand: a letter, from her family back home. Her younger brother wrote the lot of the letter, telling her about his schooling and his new interests. He boasted about his newest comic book, Captain America's adventures' and asked if she met the masked hero himself. She smiled contently down at the letter. Her younger brother was so full of wonder, ignorance. She somewhat envied him, especially now. The last few lines were written in her mother's familiar fancy penmanship. It said the usual about making sure to be careful, don't do anything unmoral. If only her mother could see her. Standing in front of the medical building, having a puff. Man, would she let Catherine have it.

Catherine scoffed to herself and mushed the cigarette against her finger.. She then tucked it back into the cigarette box, folded the letter up, and stuffed it into her pocket. She would have to write back later.

"And what do you plan to do with your time off?" Patty asked coming up beside Catherine to give her hip a playful jut.

Catherine laughed lightly and shook her head at the nurse. Patty was a nice girl and pretty too. She had soft blonde hair, that always seemed to fall just right, the nurses uniform, although very plain, fit her figure in just the right places and her confidence was enough to draw any guy in. If she wasn't so nice, Catherine may even dislike the woman a tiny bit or a lot.

"Sleep," Catherine answered earnestly as she turned to go back inside.

Patty huffed loudly and followed Catherine's suit. "Wrong answer," she replied playfully. "We, my friend, are going dancing."

Catherine looked over at the woman in bewilderment. Like she just grew two more heads. There was no way. "We have a free night, and all you want to do is sleep? Cathy, have some fun."

Catherine rolled her eyes at the woman and sighed. "Well, I guess, dancing does sound kinda fun."

The blonde's face lit up.

"Stop messing with your hair, you will frizz it up." Patty said swatting Catherine's hand as she tried to fiddle with the curls. Catherine's hair wasn't the shiniest, her figure was kind of curvy in some ways, it didn't really fit into dresses all that right, but Patty had cast a magic spell on her or something. The woman staring back at her in the mirror wasn't the Catherine she grew up knowing or ever being.

Her lips were painted with a bright red lipstick, and that same color coated her fingernails. Although, they were required to wear an off duty uniform, Catherine looked like she could dance the night away, with loose curls in her hair, and more makeup on than usual. Patty smiled brightly into the reflection from behind Catherine proudly.

"Who knows," she said giving Catherine a hopeful look. "Maybe, that soldier your always drooling over will be there."

Catherine's heart retreated into the pit of her stomach. Patty laughed as her face slowly began to turn red.

"I-" she said lost for words. "I didn't-"

"Falsworth, I think his name is." Patty sent Catherine a sly wink. "He never comes around that often, but do not think I haven't noticed." Patty left the reflection. "We should better hop to it," she said gathering her purse.

Catherine nodded silently and followed the woman out. They hurried to catch the last transporting vehicle leaving the base for the night. Patty was more excited than ever, and Catherine a little pale. If Patty noticed, who else did? She swallowed down that upsetting thought and focused on leaving base, and mingling with the outside world for the first time in a very long time.

The music coming from the band was very loud, almost deafening. She had never been to an actual dance club and judging by the people on the dance floor, never really danced either. She was mesmerized by the way they swung around, skipped, twirled, and all to a common rhythm. Catherine was starting to figure out she was very inexperienced in a lot of things, despite being twenty-four. Her mother guarded her from the outside world. Only permitting, as she put it, moral activities. The last man she danced with was her father. She swallowed thickly and allowed herself to be pulled towards the bar. A drink would surely do the trick and calm her nerves.

"Look who's here," Patty said leaning in and whispering in Catherine's ear. Catherine followed Patty's eyes, which were about ready to fall out, from all the ogling she was doing. There on the other side of the bar, stood a very tall, blonde man, who was buff in all the right places. Catherine looked back down at the drink in her hands. She knew who he was of course. Everyone, and she meant everyone, was very aware of the going ons of the SSR building that stood only a few feet from the hospital. Of course, everyone who worked at camp or at least the nurses, were made to sign a privacy waver. Meaning as much as her brother asked, she could never tell him, yes. She did in fact know Captain America or at least see him pretty often.

She was going to need a few more.

She gulped down the rest of her drink and waved down the bartender for another one. "Easy there," Patty said swatting Catherine's shoulder. "I don't think Mr. America will like a drunk Cathy. Even though, I have a hunch you are a pretty cool after having a few."

Cathy had never been drunk before. "Got it," she said nodding grabbing the new drink from the bartender's hand. "Oh," she said noticing it was a different color than the one before. "I don't think-".

"It's from the man over there," the bartender said pointing past them. Patty and Catherine turned around simultaneously. A man, donning an air force uniform raised his glass towards their way. He had sandy brown hair, a decent smile and was tall.

"I guess the whole gang is here tonight," Patty said whispering over to Catherine. "Take a sip of the drink."

"I'm sorry?" Catherine said looking over at Patty bewildered.

"Show him you are interested."

Catherine hesitantly took a sip from the glass in her hands. They watched as he set his drink down and began to make his way towards them. Patty quickly spun back around to face the bar. "What-"

"Flirt a little, bat your eyes and don't mess with your uniform. You want him to know you are confident." Patty whispered before grabbing her drink off the bar and hurrying off.

Catherine didn't feel the least bit confident at the moment.

"Hi," the man greeted her he leaned against the bar and waved down the bartender.

"Hey," she squeaked out. Get a hold of yourself. The man turned and surveyed the dance floor, and slid one hand into his pant's pocket.

"It's pretty full in here," he said turning and grabbing the drink the bartender offered.

"It is," she agreed slightly nodding her head. The man turned and looked at her, his eyes scanning her face. A slow smile spread across his face.

"Do you want to dance," he held out his hand to her and set down the drink.

"Oh," she said wildly blushing, "Sure."

Catherine took his hand and let him lead her out to the dance floor.

"I have to warn you, " he said as they made their way through the other dancers. "I haven't done this in such a long time."

"Don't worry," Catherine said grabbing his other hand as they began to swing. "I'm not very good myself."

The man's smile widened and they began to dance to the music.

"I've had a lot of fun with you, tonight." John, which he introduced himself as, said as the music began to slow and they fell into a sway.

Catherine's feet ached from all the dancing, her heart was beating out of her chest and her forehead was covered in sweat. She jumped when the man placed his hand on her waist.

"Me too," she was unsure on how she felt about this. "You are a pretty good dancer."

"So are you," he said stepping a bit closer.

"Sorry to interrupt," Patty said grabbing her arm and pulling them apart. "But we have to go. We are way past curfew."

"Wait," Catherine said as Patty began to whisk her away. She pulled her arm back and hurried back over to John. "Thank you for the dance," she said hesitating for a moment. He was much taller than her. She quickly jumped up and pressed her lips against his. He jumped at the sudden contact, but melted into her, pulling her closer and deepening the kiss. She pulled apart from him after a few seconds and smiled. "Be careful out there."

Catherine let Patty grab her hand and pull her out of the club. The blonde woman had a sly smirk on her face as she waved down the last leaving truck and they hurriedly climbed into the back.

"That was close," Catherine remarked pushing her back against side of the truck. The vehicle shook and rumbled as it drove. She squeezed her eyes shut and sighed lightly as she reminisced about the night. She felt like she was being stared out, no doubt by Patty, who probably had the smuggest look on her face. "Stop looking at me like that," she muttered opening her eyes and meeting the blondes eyes.

"Like what?" she said her eyes averting to behind Catherine and then back at her. The brunette creased her eyebrows together when her friend did it once more, winked and then sat back. "You've had a night, 'Goldie'." she added Catherine's nicknames teasingly. "It's always nice to have a break isn't it?" she threw to the back of the truck.

Catherine slowly turned her head to see the group of men sitting in the very back quietly. It would've been humorous if it hadn't been her in the situation.

"I can't imagine what it's like for all of you," she continued. "but, it was sure nice for us to have some time out of the hospital."

Come on. She thought to herself and offered a shy smile to the men as she tore her eyes away.

"Nurses?" Captain America asked looking between the two.

Catherine resigned to picking her thumb as Patty spoke. When she finally tuned in again, the man sitting beside Cap, the one who had caught her staring a while back, cut in.

"You'll have to excuse Steve," he said. She looked up and he gave her a charming smile. "He tends to be an airhead sometimes. Especially, around dames as beautiful as yourselves."

She didn't mean to blush at his words, but it just happened.

"I'm Bucky," he said and she swore he might've winked.

"You'll have to excuse him. He doesn't know how to act around women either, I'm Gabe." Gabe reached across and offered her and Catherine a hand shake.

"Nice to meet you," she said kindly.

"This is," he continued pointing to each man. "Dugan, Morita," he motioned to the man on the other side of him. "Jacque-"

"Jacques," the man interrupted, his accent French.

"And Falsworth," Gabe finished motioning over to the man Catherine's eyes were purposely avoiding .

"Hello," he said politely.

There wasn't much conversation after that from Catherine, but Patty's words never stopped coming. Finally, the truck stopped abruptly. She nearly launched out of her seat. After quickly gathering herself, she stood.

"Well, it was nice to meet you all," she grabbed Patty by the arm and practically tripped over herself to get out of the truck. "We better go before we're late."

"A few more minutes wouldn't of hurt," Patty complained as Catherine dragged her along.

"A few more minutes and I would've had caught on fire," she said motioning to her beet red face. Patty let out a bubble of laughter and looked back to wave.

"Don't look know," she whispered coyly. "But, he's watching you."

"He's probably staring at you," Catherine shot back. She didn't need a name to know who Patty was referring to.

"I have a feeling I'm not his 'cup of tea'." she said putting on a posh accent.

"He doesn't talk like that."

"Yeah, you would know. You my friend have had one night," Patty pulling out of Catherine's grasp smiling widely.

What a night indeed. She huffed to herself.