Chapter Two: One Man

I wandered around the army base, inspecting each recruit that I passed. Since I was working with Howard and Dr. Erskine on choosing the prime candidate for Project Rebirth, it was expected of me to oversee the training rituals as well. Despite the fact that I was wearing a borrowed uniform, the men at the army base still weren't used to seeing a lady walking around, hence the constant staring. It would have bothered me if I weren't so used to men staring at me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not all that conceited, but Howard Stark generally didn't work with unattractive people, especially when said people were the second face of his entire company.

"Recruits, attention!" a female voice caught my attention, and I turned to see a woman I recognized as Peggy Carter intimidating the most recent batch of soldiers to come on base. I wandered over to watch with a small smirk, knowing that there would be at least one idiot that doubted a woman could do what Peggy did. "Gentlemen, I am Agent Carter. I supervise all operations for this division."

"What's with the accent, Queen Victoria?" Ah, and the idiot reveals themselves. "I thought I was signing up for the U.S. Army."

"What's your name, soldier?"

"Gilmore Hodge, Your Majesty." I didn't even feel bad for what I knew was about to happen to the sap.

"Step forward, Hodge!" Peggy commanded, and to his credit he did listen, albeit with an arrogance to rival Howard's. "Put your right foot forward."

"Hm? We gonna wrassle?" The other soldiers were being handed their assignments, I noticed, but kept my attention on the show. "Because I got a few moves I know you'll like."

Yep, that did it. Peggy socked that son of a bitch so hard I'm sure his mother felt it when he hit the ground.

"Well done, Peggy!" I laughed, and she acknowledged me with a nod and a small smile.

Another man who shared my enthusiasm for Peggy's violence joined the group, calling out, "Agent Carter!"

Her smile dropped as she offered a quick salute. "Colonel Phillips."

"I see you're breaking in the candidates. That's good!" He saw me standing with one hand on my hip and the other brushing my hair back into its poor excuse of a bun. "Joanne."

"Oh, please, Colonel. How many time must I tell you? My friends call me Jo. You may call me Dr. Moore."

He shook his head and ignored me, used to my sarcasm at this point, before turning back to face the man on the ground- Hodge. "Get your ass up out of that dirt and stand in that line at attention till somebody comes and tells you what to do, boy."

"Yes, sir!" came his quick response. Why couldn't he just respect Peggy that quickly? Men.

Phillips delved into the same speech he used on all the new recruits. Wars are fought with weapons, but won by men, blah blah. Boring. I took a small step forward to stand at Peggy's side. "I love when you hit them," I whispered, and a little grin tugged at the edge of her lips.

"Hello to you too, Dr. Moore."

"Why is the matter of my name such a difficult subject for everybody to grasp? Phillips calls me Dr. Moore, Stark employees call me Miss Moore, my friends call me Jo, and Howard calls me Susie. So, Peggy. Let's try again." I cleared my throat and repeated myself. "I love when you hit them."

The little grin had grown into a full blown smile. "Hello to you too, Jo."

"Much better, darling." I had met Peggy earlier on in the war, when Howard and I were first asked to help develop the Vita-Ray machine for the Super Soldier Program. As the only other woman involved (except the multiple nurses and showgirls, but I didn't count them as actually involved in the project), she was tasked with what was essentially being my babysitter. I knew she resented it at first, but we quickly grew close over our mutual respect/annoyance with Phillips, not to mention the fact that we both thought the way we were seen as less just because we had a uterus instead of a penis was absolute bullshit.

It was at this point that I realized Phillips was staring at Steve with a weird expression before turning to Erksine with an 'are-you-shitting-me' look. Abe didn't even flinch. Seriously, I love that guy.

"Every army starts with one man, and at the end of this week, we will choose that man," Phillips continued. "He will be the first in a new breed of super-soldier. And they will personally escort Adolf Hitler to the gates of hell."

Once he was finished, the recruits were sent off to begin their first day of training. "Come with me," Peggy whispered as she wandered off in the opposite direction of Phillips. With a quick pat on Erskine's shoulder, I was right behind her.

"Where are we off to, Peggy?"

"You'll see."

She took me to watch the soldiers training, and it made my blood boil to see that they were all ganging up on Steve. If I didn't know that it would only make matters worse, I would smack every single one of them upside the head and force them to apologize to him. Of course, I did know that would only make them resent him more, so I bit my tongue and watched.

At one point, the boys were going to run around an impossibly long track. Luckily, Peggy and I were offered a ride in the Jeep that would be leading them, so I wouldn't actually have to do any of the running. We had just barely passed a flag pole, and were waiting for the recruits to catch up.

"So, the little one," Peggy turned to me, a questioning look clear in her eyes. "Yours or Erskine's?"

She knew me so well. "Both, really. He's a lot more than meets the eye, I can promise you that."

"Oh?"

"He may not look like much, but he's got a better heart than the rest of the guys here combined. He's brave, and passionate. I couldn't think of a better choice for the project."

Peggy chuckled as the boys came into view behind us. "Well, hopefully the serum does what Erskine says it will. The boy can have all the heart, bravery and passion he wants, but it won't do him any favors if the wind carries him off before he gets the chance to take anyone down."

"Squad, halt!" Peggy and I turned to see the drill instructor yelling at his men.

"What's this?" I asked Peggy, but she just smiled and returned to the paperwork she had open in her lap.

"That flag means we're only at the halfway point," the instructor explained, and I rested my elbows against the metal of the car to watch what happened. "First man to bring it to me gets a ride back with Agent Carter and Dr. Moore! Move, move!"

They immediately sprung into action, scrambling over each other to try and climb the slick pole. None of them even made it halfway up. "Nobody's got that flag in seventeen years!" the instructor yelled at them. "C'mon, fall back into formation! Let's get moving!"

The smallest of the recruits lingered behind- Steve. I watched with rapt attention, one eyebrow raised with curiosity, as he ignored the shouts of his superior and walked straight up to the abandoned pole. "Rogers! I said, fall in!" Continuing to ignore the man, Steve reached down and pulled the small metal supports out from the bottom of the pole, causing it to collapse to the ground.

The sound made Peggy turn back to watch with me, and it took every fibre of my being to not burst into laughter at the look on the rest of the boys' faces as Steve casually snatched the flag off the ground, rolled it up, and handed it to his instructor, still managing to use his manners as he thanked the man before climbing into the backseat next to me in the Jeep.

"What did I say, Peggy?" I chuckled. "This one's the man for the job." I smacked the top of Steve's helmet as a small blush crept onto his cheeks and we pulled forward, leaving the dumbstruck soldiers behind us to finish the second half of their run.

It was the final day of training before we made our decision for Project Rebirth, and things were about to get much more interesting.

"Move it!" Peggy shouted as Erskine and I followed behind Phillips.

"You're not really thinking about picking Rogers, are you?" Phillips questioned- not for the first time, I might add.

"I wasn't just thinking about it," Erskine adjusted his glasses. "He is the clear choice."

"When you brought a ninety pound asthmatic onto my army base, I let it slide. I thought," he shrugged, "what the hell? Maybe he'd be useful to you, like a gerbil. I never thought you'd pick him."

"Like Dr. Abe here says, Colonel," I spoke up, crossing my arms across my chest. Lately I'd been feeling cold no matter how high the temperature rose. "Steve is the clear choice. How many times do we have to explain to you that this is about much, much more than a person's physicality?"

"Stick a needle in that kid's arm, it's gonna go right through him," he continued to complain as we arrived at the truck to watch Peggy boss the boys around some more. "Look at that." Erskine and I watched as Steve struggled to keep up with everyone else's jumping jacks. "He's making me cry."

Phillips was always a pain in my ass, but now he was just pissing me off. "We know what we're looking for, Colonel, and Steve Rogers is it. You may know how to train some of the best soldiers this counties every seen, but Dr. Erskine and I know how to make them even better. You," I pointed at his chest, "train the recruits. We," I motioned to Erskine and myself, "decide who the best candidate is. It's our choice, not yours, and I'm damn glad it is."

"Do you know how long it took to set up this project?"

"Considering we're the ones who set it up?" I scoffed and pulled my arms even tighter against my chest. "Yes. We do."

"What about all the groveling I had to do in front of Senator What's-His-Name's committee? You weren't around for that."

Erskine cut in, most likely sensing that I was about to blow my lid at this guy. "Brandt. Yes, we know. We are well aware of your efforts."

"Then throw me a bone, doctor. Hodge passed every test we gave him. He's big, he's fast. He obeys orders- he's a soldier."

"He's a bully," I recalled Steve's opinion on bullies and turned to watch as Hodge completed the tests thrown at him with a smug grin.

"You don't win wars with niceness, princess."

Oh, that was it. "You mother-"

Phillips ignored me as he stepped around me to grabbed a grenade before pulling the pin. "You win wars with guts." He's tossed the explosive towards the group of recruits. "Grenade!"

I watched as they scurried, some running for their lives while others ducked behind cover, all of them shouting incoherently.

All except one. "Get away!" Steve yelled as he curled into a ball over the dud. "Get back!"

With a smirk, I walked backwards towards Steve, still facing Phillips. "Guts indeed, Colonel."

Phillips looked defeated, while Erskine smiled as if he was about to jump for joy. "Is this a test?"

I turned back to see a very confused looking Steve, still sitting next to the grenade. "Yes, it was." I held my hand out to help him up, which he took gratefully. "And you passed with flying colors, darling."

"He's still skinny," I heard muttered behind me, and I pressed a fist to my mouth to keep myself from giggling like a child.