Disclaimer: I do not own any character (excluding my OC), setting or plot from Captain America or any other Marvel film/comic. All rights reserved to Marvel Comics, Marvel Studio, and any others whom it may concern. Any line/scene/character that you recognise from the films or comics do not belong to me in any way.

Again, thank you to my amazing Beta—NeahZoldyck13—for being such a huge help!


Chapter Four

June 16th, 1943

"I swear to God I'm going to strangle that son of a bitch," I growled under my breath to Peggy, who was standing beside me as we watched the recruits scramble to climb over the large rope wall. I was barely paying attention to the other recruits, however, as my menacing gaze was firmly locked onto Hodge as he briefly paused at the top of the apparatus to look down and laugh at Steve, who had lost his grip half-way up and was now hanging upside down with his foot tangled in the rope as he desperately tried to catch his breath.

"Phillips wouldn't be impressed if you killed his favorite recruit," Peggy chuckled, shooting me an amused look and shaking her head slightly. She returned her gaze to the candidates, quickly jotting down notes on her clipboard about each recruit's performance in the activity.

"I'm sure he'd let it slide just this once," I muttered darkly, sighing quietly in relief when I saw Steve somehow manage to right himself on the rope and slowly continue to heave himself up the rest of the apparatus. I sent another glare in Hodge's direction as his feet landed loudly on the ground on the other side of the rope wall, smiling smugly at his fellow recruits as he sauntered off to the side to wait for the others to finish the exercise before they all had to do it again.

I took a small sip of my coffee whilst Peggy continued to take notes, the rest of the recruits slowly finishing one by one and lining up beside Hodge, until it was only Steve left on the rope wall. He dropped to the ground seconds later, signaling the end of the exercise as Peggy jotted down the final time next to his name. The drill sergeant was just about to open his mouth to no doubt order the recruits to complete the exercise one last time before they were finished for today, but I cut him off before he had a chance to speak, my eyes landing on Steve's bent over form as he unsuccessfully tried to regain his breath.

"Recruits! Well done, you've successfully made it through day two of training! Go get some rest, and we'll see if you can make it through another day tomorrow! You are dismissed!" I yelled, dismissing them five minutes earlier than I was meant to—something that, fortunately, only the drill sergeant and Peggy knew. I waited until all the recruits and the drill sergeant—who paused and shot me a questioning look before he left, sighing when I merely shrugged in response—had filtered off of the training grounds, before I handed my clipboard over to Peggy and started to make my way over to Steve. He was now the only recruit remaining on the training field, clearly not having heard what I said earlier. He stayed hunched over, his eyes scrunched shut as he struggled to breathe.

I ignored the knowing smirk Peggy shot me as I left her side, faintly hearing her let out a low chuckle before she turned and left as I reached Steve. I felt my stomach clench slightly and I frowned in worry when I heard him wheezing loudly as he panted in short bursts, still bent over and clearly not able to get enough air into his lungs. My mind whirled as I thought of the little I knew about asthma, quickly placing my coffee on the ground so I could gently grab a hold of his arm and slowly guide him to sit down against one of the wooden poles holding up the rope wall. My stomach clenched tightly again in concern when he didn't acknowledge, or even flinch at, my sudden presence.

"You need to sit up straight, Steve. Can you do that for me?" I softly asked him, knowing that the way he was bent over right now was only going to constrict his breathing even more. I made sure to keep my voice low and soothing despite the worry that was twisting deep in my gut, ensuring I kept up a calm front as I knew the last thing he needed right now was me panicking over him. He nodded slightly, forcing himself to sit upright so he wasn't hunched over anymore. His eyes closed tightly as he panted shallowly, his face extremely pale and starting to shine slightly with sweat.

"Focus on me, Steve. Just focus on me," I murmured in a low voice, hooking my thumb and forefinger underneath his chin and gently tilting his head back further so I could see his face properly. I gave him a soft smile when he opened his eyes at my voice, my heart clenching slightly as his panicked gaze met mine whilst he continued to wheeze harshly. I gently cupped the side of his face with one hand, the other moving to stroke his hair back soothingly as I started to take slow, exaggerated breaths, all the while keeping my eyes locked with his. "It's alright. Just copy me, Steve. Breathe in..." I inhaled deeply through my nose before exhaling slowly out of my mouth. "And out."

I repeated this a few times before his breathing ever so slowly began to steady, his chest heaving up and down with every labored breath he took. The sight of my slightly steaming coffee out of the corner of my eye brought an idea to my mind, and I muttered to him to keep doing the breathing exercises before I quickly retrieved the hot beverage and returned to his side. I crouched back down in front of him and held it out in front of me in offering. "Drink some of this. It will help."

I watched him closely as he managed to take a few small sips of coffee over the next few minutes, letting out a silent sigh of relief when I noticed his previously tense body start to relax and his breathing gradually return to normal as the hot caffeinated drink worked its way around his system. I gently rested my hand on his shoulder after a long moment had passed, causing his gaze to return to mine as I quietly spoke. "Are you okay now?"

"Yeah..." he breathed, his voice low as he dragged in a slightly shaky breath. He gave me a grateful nod and a small smile. "Thank you, Anna."

I couldn't help but smile at how I didn't have to remind him to call me by my first name this time, and I let out a relieved chuckle at his words, the tension easing inside of me as I finally allowed myself to relax.

"You'll tell me if you can feel an asthma attack coming on, huh?" I repeated the promise he had made me last night, cocking an eyebrow at him in a mixture of exasperation and fond amusement at his stubbornness. He gave me a guilty look and opened his mouth to no doubt start apologizing, but I cut him off with a shake of my head before he could.

"You don't have to apologize, Steve... Just give me a heads up next time so we can prevent this from happening again, yeah? Actually, that's an order, soldier," I lightly teased, winking at him with a low chuckle when he smiled sheepishly at me and nodded his head in reply. I looked at him for a moment, my voice turning serious as I continued. "You know, I used to know an asthmatic a long time ago, and he always swore that warming up slowly before exercise helped prevent his attacks. I don't know how effective it is, but maybe you could give it a try?"

A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips as I spoke, a grateful look entering his eye once again as he nodded his head slightly. "I will."

I nodded back to him in return, pushing myself back to my feet and brushing myself off slightly. "Are you okay to stand?"

I scrutinized him closely when he nodded his head in reply, double checking that he was telling me the truth, and only offered my hand out to help him up when I was satisfied that his breathing seemed stable enough for him to move. He immediately took my offered hand and, slightly shakily, clambered to his feet in slow movements. I squeezed his hand gently once he was fully standing again before slowly loosening my grip and reluctantly letting go.

"You should get some rest," I murmured quietly, giving him a warm smile as I tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. "Are you going to be alright getting back to the barracks by yourself? I can walk back with you if—"

"I'll... I'll be fine, don't worry." Steve chuckled slightly with a bashful smile, lowering his eyes to the floor briefly before he returned his gaze to mine. "Goodnight, Anna... And thank you, again. For everything."

I nodded in response with a soft smile, giving him a small wave in farewell before I slowly turned and walked away, all the while fighting the urge to go back and triple check he was okay. I mentally slapped myself slightly, telling myself Steve didn't need me fussing over him. I determinedly continued to walk forwards, my feet automatically heading in the direction of the lab where Howard and Abe would undoubtedly still be working.

XxXxXx

June 17th, 1943

I yawned tiredly as I stepped out of the small barracks that Peggy and I shared—being the only females that permanently stayed on site—and slowly stretched as the brisk air of dawn bit at my face, chasing away any previous remnants of sleep. My combat boots trudged softly against the concrete as I made my way towards the training grounds, intent on going for my usual morning jog around the track before the rest of camp stirred to life. I paused when I reached the edge of the field, however, realizing someone had actually beat me to it this morning as I caught sight of another figure through the dim light of dawn. I cocked my head to the side and slowly approached, wondering who had gotten up before me to train—an achievement that was a sure rarity in this camp.

As I got closer, I could make out more of the small figure—the familiar blonde hair and skinny frame coming into focus—and I smiled slightly as I noticed that he was doing a variety of warm up exercises, realizing with a bloom of warmth in my chest that he had listened to what I had said last night.

"You know, when I suggested that you warm up slowly before training, I didn't quite mean that you had to get up at the crack of dawn," I commented lightly, hiding a smile when he jumped and twirled around to face me, obviously not having noticed my approach. I shook my head slightly in amusement, wondering if me creeping up on him and scaring the crap out of him every time we talked was going to become a thing now. This was the second time I had accidentally done it in the last three days alone.

"Agent—" he started in shock, before quickly correcting himself at my look, "Anna. I... I didn't expect you to be out so early."

"I could say the same." I smirked, cocking an eyebrow at him pointedly, to which he blushed slightly and looked down. "How long have you been out here?"

Steve briefly glanced up at me before returning his gaze to the floor in front of him, his expression slightly sheepish as he replied. "Er... I'm not certain... An hour, maybe?"

"Steve." I sighed in exasperation, shaking my head with a fond smile. "It's just before five in the morning, and training doesn't start until six. I think you can afford to sleep in an extra hour or so in the future and start warming up at five, no?"

"I know... I just... I really want this to work," Steve quietly admitted with a small sigh, his gaze still on the ground by his feet as he shuffled slightly in embarrassment. I felt my heart melt slightly at the soft admission, the yearning and quiet hope in his voice tugging at something deep within me.

"I know—and I hope it does—but passing out from exhaustion because you're not sleeping enough isn't going to help you much either," I pointed out gently. I waited until his eyes raised to meet mine before I nodded my head in the direction of the mess hall where the recruits would soon be headed for breakfast. "You should go get some food with the others before training begins."

Steve nodded his head slightly and pulled on his jacket that was folded neatly on a nearby bench, turning to leave after sending me a small smile. I called out to him after he had taken a few steps, a grin playing on the edges of my lips as I spoke. "Head back here fifteen minutes before training and I'll walk you through some good warm up stretches."

He stopped, turning to look at me in surprise with his mouth opening and closing for a long moment before he seemed to give up and merely nodded in reply with a grateful smile. I chuckled quietly under my breath as I watched him walk away, slowly shaking my head with a fond smile before I turned and took off at an easy jog around the track.

XxXxXx

"Here."

I paused in my light cool down stretches at the sudden voice behind me, wiping the slight dampness off of my forehead as I turned and saw Steve standing there, a steaming coffee in his hand as he held it out to me with a hesitant smile.

He shifted slightly in embarrassment when I cocked an eyebrow in question, a light blush gracing his cheeks as he tried to explain. "I... I figured I owed you one... You know, after yesterday..."

"Thank you, Steve. You didn't need to do that though." I shook my head lightly, gratefully taking the offered coffee from him with a soft smile, slightly touched that he had bothered to even think of that. I instantly took a small sip of the steaming liquid, letting out a small sigh of contentment as the familiar taste of caffeine filled my mouth and relieved me of the slight headache that had been forming.

I sent him another grateful smile as I clutched the hot drink to my chest before spending the next ten minutes guiding him through the different effective warm up stretches that he could go through before training. Even though I made sure to keep them all fairly simple, I was still slightly impressed with how quickly he picked it all up and memorized each one. When I caught sight of Peggy approaching out of the corner of my eye, I quickly gave Steve another encouraging smile and a small nod, before I turned and walked over to her as she came to a halt a short distance away.

"You didn't pick one up for me?" Peggy asked with a raised eyebrow when I reached her side, eyeing the coffee in my hands with a small smile playing around the edges of her lips.

"I must have forgot, sorry." I shrugged slightly, giving her an overly innocent smile when she shot me a disbelieving look.

"In all the years I've known you, you've never forgotten once," Peggy pointed out casually, her lips twitching as she glanced down at her clipboard and tried to hide a smile.

"Must be a bad day..." I stated with a mischievous grin, giving her a wink when she snorted lightly in amusement.

"You didn't get it, did you?" Peggy stated more than asked, a bright gleam entering her eyes as her gaze flickered pointedly to Steve, who was thankfully out of earshot and still stretching a few yards away, before landing back on me with a knowing look.

"How..." I started to ask, before I trailed off and shook my head. "You know what, I don't even want to know."

"You have that smile on your face," she answered anyway, a smirk growing on her face as she spoke and her eyes practically glowing with her amusement.

"What smile?" The question was out of my mouth before I could stop it, confusion rising in me as I cocked my head to one side and examined her face warily, knowing I was probably going to regret asking her that any second now.

"The smile you get whenever someone mentions him." She nodded in Steve's direction as she spoke and I shot her an incredulous look, desperately fighting back the slight blush that was trying to light up my cheeks at her words. And there was the regret I had been waiting for...

"I think the lack of caffeine is getting to you, Evie. You're clearly becoming delusional," I muttered lowly. I shook my head as she let out a laugh and opened her mouth to respond, only for her to close it again seconds later as we both caught sight of the recruits starting to slowly filter out onto the training field, gradually forming a line before us. Peggy huffed quietly in annoyance at their timing and shot me one last look, before we both straightened and fully turned our attention to the group of candidates.

I barely paid attention over the next couple of hours, letting Peggy and the drill sergeant lead the day's training session whilst I just jotted down notes about each candidate—marking the different times it took them to complete an activity, commenting on what I thought each of their strengths and weaknesses were, making small annotations on their psychological strength and how they seemed to cope under pressure in different situations. I glanced up after finishing writing another side note for Abe to review—about how Paxton was clearly intelligent, but his sweet disposition seemed ill-suited for the front lines of war, just as I had suspected when we had interviewed him—and briefly watched the candidates crawl through the mud with their rifles under a low barbed wire obstacle course.

My gaze unconsciously found Steve's small form as he slowly crawled through the mud with his rifle, and even from here, I could see how his jaw was clenched with determination as he pushed himself forward, ignoring the others moving faster on either side of him. I couldn't help but smile slightly when I noticed that, although Steve was still struggling, his asthma seemed to be a little better today—something which caused relief to flood through me, glad that the warm up session this morning had clearly helped in some way.

I was just about to look back down at my clipboard and make a few more notes on the other candidates when a strange movement caught my attention from the corner of my eye. I turned my head to get a clearer look, a small frown marring my face in confusion. The muscles in my body immediately tensed when my gaze landed on Hodge, who had stopped near the end of the obstacle course to turn onto his back and start forcefully kicking one of the wooden posts holding the barbed wire up. A quiet snarl left my lips as the wooden post gave way and the barbed wire came crashing down onto Steve, who was only half-way through the obstacle course. I instantly started to stalk towards Hodge, fury practically radiating from me as I locked my gaze onto his form, ready to pummel every last shred of arrogance out of the cocky recruit.

"Gracie, no," Peggy's quiet voice suddenly hissed behind me as she grabbed my arm and tugged me back a step so I was standing by her side. I growled lowly in frustration, but forced myself to stay put next to her when she shot me a warning look, knowing that she was right and I couldn't just attack Hodge in the middle of a training session, no matter how much I wanted to.

"That son of a bitch," I snarled in a low voice, glaring viciously at his back as he walked smugly off to the side to join the other recruits who had finished the exercise and were waiting for their next orders. I briefly glanced over to check that Steve was alright and to see if he needed me to go and help him out of there, but relaxed slightly in relief when I saw that he had already managed to climb his way out and finish the course, slowly going to stand next to the others who were lined up.

I forced myself to remain still until the drill sergeant dismissed the recruits for the day, quickly jumping in and telling Hodge to stay behind before he could disappear off alongside the other candidates.

"Ma'am?" Hodge asked with a confused frown as he looked at me. I didn't bother to reply, instead choosing to just shoot him a menacing glare whilst I waited for the other recruits to finish leaving the training grounds. I had to fight to hide a smirk, however, when I noticed his hand twitch instinctively to shield his crotch in response to my furious glower, obviously remembering what had happened the last time I had been pissed off with him on the first day of training.

"Drop and give me fifty, Hodge."

"Wha—" he started to ask, but my vicious glare abruptly cut him off. I took a step forwards, noticing Peggy and the drill sergeant shifting slightly out of the corner of my eye as they watched from a few paces away.

"I said drop and give me fifty, soldier," I snapped, my tone low and dangerous, silently daring him to defy me as I stared him down. He gulped slightly, looking away from me and briefly glancing at Peggy and the drill sergeant, as if wondering whether they were going to help him or not. His face paled slightly as he realized that, no, they weren't going to do a damn thing, and he quickly dropped to the floor soon after, tiredly grunting from the long day of training as he started to do the fifty extra push-ups I had just commanded.

"Next time you decide to do something stupid, like kick a post down, you sure as hell better pray to God that I don't see you," I snarled to him in a low voice, causing him to momentarily freeze and look up with a small wince, obviously realizing that I had caught him earlier. He lowered his head and quickly started to continue his push-ups when I shot him another fierce glare, causing me to smirk in satisfaction as I watched him. No one would know if I accidentally lost my count to fifty and made him start again...


Author's Note:

Okay, I don't have asthma and I'm not close to anyone who suffers from it either, so I'm not sure if any of what I wrote is particularly plausible. I did research into asthma attacks and ways to calm them naturally without an inhaler—as the treatment for asthma back then was almost non-existent—and this was basically what I picked up.

Just to clarify, he obviously wasn't having a severe asthma attack as I know otherwise Anna wouldn't have been able to help him without medication and it probably would have been fatal. It was only a mild attack, which I know can be resolved without medication sometimes.

Random Trivia

Hot caffeinated drinks can allegedly help in a small way for mild asthma attacks as they open up the airways in the lungs slightly, therefore helping to momentarily relieve the symptoms of asthma.

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