I'M BA-AAAAAAAAAAACK! Hehehe... :) My laptop charger finally came, ending my days of boredom!

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of this chapter. I wrote several different versions of this chapter, where Anna meets-Er...Where the following events occur, but I hated all of them. I still kinda strongly-dislike this one, but way less than the other ones. It just seems so forced to me, you know?

*sigh* Well, enough of my writing pity party, here's the chapter! And don't forget to leave a review!

~Christianne

PS~ I'm not sure I reached out to all of you Supernatural fans yet...So...If there are any Supernatural fans out there, check out my fanfic Reincarnated!


Anna POV

"…I hate maps." I muttered, biting my bottom lip as I tried turning the map around.

I was already five minutes late, and if I was more than ten, I doubt he'd wait much longer.

The serum was so close to being perfect. Dr. Erskine was quite frustrated with himself; he had the serum much more perfected in Germany, but when he, for lack of a better word, escaped from under Johann Schmidt's thumb, not all of his research made it to America with him.

I wanted to stay in the lab, finish the work, but the doctor insisted that I be the one to go to the lab in Brooklyn the actual procedure would take place in, and meet Howard Stark to compare notes, get updates and, as he put it, 'Sehen Sie die Welt Sie leben, Anina!' (See the world you live in, Anna!)

"This is…Lordy—what street is this?" I asked myself, one hand in my hair, keeping some disheveled curls out of my eyes as I struggled to keep my bag on my shoulder and see the map properly.

I could map out chemical equations and combine them without consulting textbooks or my notes—Hell, without writing it down— but I couldn't find my way to a lab in Brooklyn.

I was squinting at my map, my head bent forward. "Oh! I'm so sorry!" I yelped as I crashed into someone. I quickly shoved my hair back and looked at who I'd ran into. "I-I wasn't watching where I was going—"

"It's fine." The man said. He was my height (if that) blond, and currently had his jacket sleeve pressed to his bleeding nose. "Not your fault. No harm done." He added with a small, wry smile. It was my fault, though; he was standing close to a building, out of the way from the people walking.

"Not sure I could'a done any more harm." I muttered, my gaze going from his bleeding nose, to the bruise forming on his jaw, to the dirt smears on his shirt and knees, and the way he was favoring his right leg. "Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yeah." He said, nodding a little too eagerly. "Yeah, I'm fine." It was almost funny (in a very sad way) how hard he was trying to convince me, a stranger, he was in perfect condition.

I frowned. "Are you sure? I think you may have broken your nose." I said, eyeing the swollen, red part of his face.

"I don't think I did, just bruised." The guy assured me. Something made him sneeze, and he winced painfully as he tried to mop up the blood that had spurted out.

Unable to hold my hand back, I reached forward and lightly pinched the bridge of his nose. The pressure I used couldn't even rip the crust of a piece of fresh bread. "Ahh!" the guy yelped, wincing as he jerked his head away. His blue eyes clearly asking me why I would do something like that.

"Broken." I said. His blond eyebrows were furrowed in pain as he looked at me with sharp blue eyes.

"Sorry it took so long; Bobby's pretty busy today. Today's one'a the hottest to far this sum-…Anna?"

I spun around when I heard Bucky of all people say my name. He looked completely shocked as he stood there, a few feet from both me and the beat-to-Hell blond. He had an ice pack his hand.

"Thanks," the blond said to Bucky, greedily taking the icepack and holding it to his nose and jaw.

"Hi." I said, looking at Bucky with a small smile on my face.

"Uh, hi." He repeated, then laughed once before shaking his head a little. "Steve, this is Anna." He said, gesturing to me. "Anna, this little punk is Steve." He said, giving the small (compared to him) blond a light shove.

I'd read about Steve in Bucky's letter, and when he was still on base Bucky talked about him a lot. Now that I had a name to put with the face, I wondered why I didn't recognize him right away. Short, blond, 100 pounds soaking wet, and more often than not sporting a fresh bruise or two.

"Anna, nice to meet you," Steve said with a bit more of a smile. "I, uh, I'd shake your hand, but…" he trailed off, holding one of his blood smeared hands up sheepishly.

"Its fine," I assured him. "It's great to meet you."

"What are you doin' in Brooklyn?" Bucky asked, taking his worried gaze off Steve and looked at me.

"I have an appointment." I said simply. "Don't know where it is and I'm already ten minutes late."

"What's the address?" Bucky asked me. I handed him my map. He chuckled once.

"What?" I asked. "Did I have it upside down again?" I asked sarcastically.

"Nope." Steve said, who was also looking at the map, and looking a little confused as he missed the inside joke that was making Bucky's eyes sparkle when he gave that half-smirk.

"This place is just down there." Bucky pointed down the block. "C'mon, we'll walk you, right Steve?" He gave his friend a grin.

"Yeah. Yeah sure." Steve said, his voice muffled from under his ice pack, but he seemed genuinely happy to walk me to the address.

"There. It's settled. C'mon." Bucky said again as he got off the building he was leaning on and started down the block.

"You know, Steve broke his nose." I said, glancing at Bucky.

"Yeah, I know." Bucky said casually.

"Hey! I'm right here!" Steve protested. "And I'm sure it's not broken, just bruised." He mumbled.

"My brothers used to come home beat up all the time. They'd always pick fights with the Richardson boys on the next block. I know what a broken nose looks like." I told Steve. He just looked away and mumbled something.

"There it is, across the street there." Bucky said a minute or two later. We'd walked about three blocks down from where I'd bumped into them. I decided not to tell them that I walked right past the building—twice—when I tried to find it myself.

"Thank you." I said, looking at both Steve and Bucky. "Thank you so much."

"No problem." Bucky said with that smug, charming little half–smirk. "Hey, maybe when you're done we could meet up. Go get lunch or something." Bucky added as I took a second to tuck my hair back in a bun and fix my blouse.

I turned towards him, then glanced at Steve. "Uh…O-Ok." I said, thinking momentarily. "I have to catch the train back to New Jersey at 3 o'clock." I told them.

"Great." Bucky said, looking at his worse-for-wear wrist watch. "How long do you think you'll be?"

"An hour? Maybe an hour and a half." I shrugged.

"We'll be here." Steve said from under his ice pack.

"Great." I said, smiling. I didn't look directly at Bucky as I smiled; I'd end up blushing. "See you then!" I said quickly before jaywalking across the street and going into the old antique shop.

I stuffed the map into my bag as I walked to the back counter.

"Wonderful weather this morning." The elderly woman behind the counter said.

"Yes, but I always carry an umbrella." I said, repeating what Peggy and Phillips had drilled into me the last two days. Phillips more than Peggy; she had faith in me and the Colonel didn't; I don't think he trusted me not to cut myself with a butter knife. The woman just nodded and reached under the counter.

"I believe it's in the back room." She said, glancing towards the back of the store when she saw my confused look.

I nodded, clutching the leather strap of my bag as I walked to the back of the store. I followed the directions I had scribbled on a scrap of paper and walked to the very back of the store. I stared at the bookcase, wondering if I was the victim of a joke. I jumped and let out a little squeak when the book case opened.

"Well, you must be Anna Brightman." A voice said as I stepped into the plain gray hallway. I looked to my left and saw a man with slick black hair and a thin mustache looking up from blueprints on a table.

"Yeah-yes I mean yes," I said, shaking my head a little as I held my hand out. "I'm Anna." I said stupidly as I held my hand out.

"The doctor talks a lot about you." The man said, shaking my hand. "Howard Stark." He introduced himself, a confident grin on his face.

"Oh." I said dumbly. I should have recognized him. I guess I was more used to the three piece suits and flashy ties he wore in public than a plain white button up rolled up to the elbows.

"So, shall we?" he asked, holding his arm out towards the doors at the back of the hallway. I nodded, loosening my grip on the strap of my bag as I walked with Howard. He took a wide stride ahead of me at the door, dramatically pulling them open.

"Well, what'd'ya think Brightman? Good enough to make a super soldier?" He asked, grinning.

I was looking around, wide eyed at the equipment being assembled around me. "Yeah…yeah I think it'll work." I said eventually.