Chapter 11 To War

M's POV

It had been a blind mirical that the director didn't want to throw me off the stage after our first rehersal. Even with Steve backing me up saying I was his sister. It didn't help that I was uncoordinated on the stage. Back in highschool everyone in my small school was in the school musical, even if you weren't apart of the choir or band you helped. The music teacher thought since I had long legs that I would be a perfect dancer. She forgot that I had size eleven feet and the grace of a buffalo. In the end she got me to be back stage handling the props, and in a way I thought that would be the last time I would be in show business.

Boy was I wrong.

The director was annoyed at first. Steve was able to strut around on the stage looking all heroic. Me as his 'kid sister' I was to be relegated to the chorus and do a line of kicks. After the second rehearsal our director pulled me aside and we hashed out a new plan. I would come in at the second act of the show and sing a sappy song about saying goodbye to all the fellas who were off to war. Basically relegating me to be the long lost girlfriend, sisters, or daughters the guys had left. Not a bad gig, just one that left me feeling exposed. Steve would come in during the last part of my song and we would give each other a hug and I'd 'send him off to war'.

Back in highschool we covered a bit of what the propoganda department did to convince people what we were doing was right. Living it was different though. Sure in the future it looked like the U.S.O was just cheering people up. Inside of it made me see that we streached the truth about somethings and made sure to lay on thick the horrors we heard about. Germany did the same thing, only they had less horrors to use and were streaching their truth like stale taffy.

That particular day we had a show for a group of soldiers in Northern Itally. The trip there was unbarable. We first took a plane to England, which was hair raising enough. We were briefed that there was a chance of being shot by german poilets who were causing terror in the English country side. Then we took a boat to Itally, and that had been another long and nail bitting trip. Submariens were being used in this war liberally. Memories of watching old History Channel shows about the navel battles played over and over in my mind. When we finally got to the men we were going to proform for I was just getting my nerves back in order. Living in a paranormal society gives you a degree of safty, but traveling into the heart of the fighting during a war was something totally different. The only thing I could count on was my knowlage of german tactics and the fact that I could speak fluently and pretend to be a civilian.

Proforming for the soldiers was different that performing for the masses in America and England. The civilans want hope, to feel patriotic. These soldiers were on their last thread of hope. The horrors they had seen and would continue to see for the next year and a half was painful. Some of these men might be unfortunate enough to visit the death camps. Others will have to be in grissly battles with children soldiers. The few that make it to Berlin when the Russians have already won the majority of the battle will see horrors form their own side. Unspeakable acts done to men, women, and children. There's a reason why many of these men will end up with PTSD, but it will take their own children to discover the name and ways to cope with it.

Sitting back stage in a dress that mimicked the chorus girls, only instead of the blue and red I was dressed solidly in white. My hair was pulled up in thick curles that I was slowly learning to do on my own. Behind me the other girls were giggling and talking to themselves. A few of them have spoken to me, but I tried to stay as close to Steve as possible.

Everything was damp. I don't think it had stopped raining the last few weeks, this left everything feeling soggy and uncomfortable.

From the stage I heard a loud ruckus. A voice clear but unknown to me shouted. "Bring back the girls!"

"I'll see what I can do, they only know the one song." I heard Steve stammer.

"Nice boots twinkle toes"

"Hey Captain, Sign this." Part of me was glad I was off stage and unable to see what the man wanted Steve to sign.

Slowly I got up turning to look at the stage. Steve was getting pelted with food… was that… a tomato? That really happened? I made my way over as Steve reassured them that he would get some of the girls back out on stage.

Turning and exiting he met my eyes. The poor guy really wanted to help. "Could you-"

He didn't need to finish the sentence. Instead I patted him on the shoulder. "I've got you Steve, get some rest."

Walking out on the stage the men started to cheer. Okay, it's a small ego boost to be cheered on by a bunch of guys. Walking up to the microphone I gave a large smile. "Now who here wants to see the cute one in the family." I said putting my hands up comically.

Again the men let out a big cheer. Hey, if it makes them feel better I wouldn't mind strutting around like an idiot for a short time.

After the show I went to look for Steve. I ended up finding him near his tent. Picking him up something to eat we sat down not speaking for a long moment. We were both tired and had hoped for a better audience. It was like actually being in Europe reminded us that we had failed at getting Steve out in the fight. I was still blaming myself for messing everything up. There was such a fine line that I had destroyed. Now I needed to do something to get Steve back in the fight. Part of me hoped he would get called by someone higher up, but it never happened. Instead we were sent to northern Itally to cheer up some battle worn troops.

"This sucks." I said, after saying it I noticed how unpoinant I sounded. Here I was in the middle of a war and I just say 'this sucks'.

Steve same me a small smile. "At least you covered me today."

"You shouldn't need covering." I muttered putting my half eaten food down. "You should be out there, kicking ass, taking names, beating up Nazi's. Instead you're relegated to dressing up as a red, white, and blue Peter Pan."

"It's the boots." Steve said giving me a smile.

"Hell yeah it's the boots."

We both laughed and I noticed that my favorite English Agent was in the same camp as we were. I hadn't seen Agent Carter since Steve was shipped off to be the poster child for war bonds. She seemed to notice us and marched over to us.

"Hey brother." I said elbowing Steve. "I'm seeing a feisty English woman walking your way."

Picking myself up I decided it was best to let him fend for himself. "Don't say anything too stupied. I'm going to put these plates away."

It took me a while to get back to Steve and when I did I saw him digging through the show props. Peggy was near by with a stoic expression. I leave them for five minutes and the two fo them start to plan something.

"What are you doing?" I said trudging up to them.

Peggy turned and gave me a sure smile. "Hello M. Steven is going on a mission."

Mission? I looked between the two of them. There aren't any missions I know about. She read my look and shrugged. Steve on the other hand turned holding his lead shield.

"It's Bucky M. He's been captured behind enemy lines." He said picking up one of the helmets. "I have to go after him… You… you understand?"

Holy hell. Somewhere I felt like this was important in the history lesions Broom gave me. Steve never fought the germans. He was fighting Hydra. The propoganda had said he fought against the germans, but if I had seen anything about the propoganda the allies were selling out it was best to look at it with a grain of salt.

This didn't stop me in supporting Steve. "Yeah, but one condition."

Peggy and Steve looked at me waiting.

"I'm coming too. Let me put some pants on."

It had been months since I wore my modern clothing. Foam molded cup bra with underwire. A t-shirt made of polyester and cotton. Jeans tucked into my army boots. I had taken a green military jacket and had that hung around my shoulders. Around my neck was my assortment of jewelry including the necklace with blessed symbols. Steve sat beside me in a mix of costume and military cloths. Comiclly he had brought that stupied shield of his.

We sat inside a plane that was being pioleted by Howard Stark. Peggy seemed to have the guy on call and he was willing to sign up for our crazy mission.

Steve had explained the sudo plan he had. We were going to parachute into the area the base was near and from there do anything we could to break in and save our people. It wasn't the most complete plan, but it was better than anything I could come up with.

At the front of the plane Howard Stark and Peggy were talking. Well Howard was shamlessly flirting with Peggy as she ignored him. I mean the guy was talking about just hopping opever to get fondu with her after all of this, like it's nothing. Maybe I'm not the type of girl who isn't impressed by money. And it seemed Peggy wasn't either.

"M, Where did you get those cloths?" She said changing the subject.

"Came to the past in them. Welcome to the cloths of 2008." I said with a smile.

Peggy looked from Howard and back to Steve. "I don't remember them giving you parachute training at basic."

Steve looked up after putting the pack on his back. "It can't be that hard right? Pull the string try to aim for a clearing and don't lock your legs."

I'll give him this, he knew the basics. Then again I wasn't that much better. "I had a camp I went to that taught me that. I have a few jumps under me."

What I didn't tell them that after my third dive the instructor was finally given my information and once he discovered I was tweleve he sent me packing. I didn't blame the guy for feeling wronged. He thought I was well over eighteen. The reason most people thought I was older was because of my height. No one is going to believe a twelve year old was almost breaking into the six feet range. It also helped that I already hit puberty. My height and yearly maturing got the BPRD into a mess of trouble when they were trying to find stuff for me to do.

"See. M's got this." Steve said handing me my pack. I checked it and slipped it onto my shoulders. This was not like the packs we had at the camp, but I quickly got the basics of it down. No emergencey shoot incase the main one didn't deploy. Deep down I felt a sting of panic rush through me. There was only once chance with a mission like this. Was I really up for it?

The plane started to shake and Howard grabbed onto the contoles. "Looks like we found the enemy."

Steve's face became hard. He might be weighing the options of jumping now to save the plane. We couldn't be that far off from the base. With our stamina we could make up the difference by foot.

"M, get prepaired to jump."

Here's another thing I didn't tell Steve about my 'training'. I have never jumped out of a plane at night. Does that change anything? Not really. We were both unexperenced and about to do something batshit insaine. Walking up to the door I watched as Steve yanked it open. The pressure in the cabin became foobared making anything not nailed down blow around. Thankfuly Stark didn't have anything just laying around so it was mainly any stray hair or clothing that was whipped around.

"Steve I'll go first." I said. Now I didn't do this because I thought I was going to be a badass. Honestly I as about to shit myself. There was gunfire all around us and I couldn't see anything but pitch black night. If I went first I could get it over with and pray to any of the gods that listen to look out for me.

"You sure?" He asked checking my pack one last time.

There wasn't enough courage left in me to do anything but nod. Steve nodded as well and I got ready for my jump. Knowing you're putting yourself in a deadly situation like that can cause one of two things. Panic, or adrenaline. I got the second option as I pushed myself out of the ship. It was time I took my life into my own hands.

N/A: Oh man, I've had these next few scenes in my head forever! M and Kroenen are finally going to be meeting up. Question is how is M going to take 1940's Kroenen? I've been setting the new house up so my time writing has been pushed back a bit. I'll still be publishing ever month, but I need to do a little work on the outline so everything runs smoothly from here on out.

As always, I love hearing from you guys!