The non-smoked air outside offered Bea little relief from the pounding beat in her chest as if her heart was working overtime to pump blood through her. Her lungs collapsed inwards and she was sure it wasn't just from the smoke inhalation.

The Hydra base exploded in the distance as she tried to keep up with Steve and Bucky. They were just figures in the distance trying to catch up to the other Hydra prisoners who had escaped. She kept thinking back to when they escaped a Hydra base the last time, and how they had all escaped together side by side no matter how slow Beatrice ran. This time, they knew she was behind them but didn't know her well enough or care to run together to freedom.

Finally, they found the crowd of escaped prisoners, by following the mud tracks and a hundred footprints. Hydra weapons and tanks were lined up with them as they already made their move to go back to the 107th military headquarters. Or at least that's where Bea assumed they were going, she just made sure to follow Bucky's bobbing head in the crowd, not wanting to lose him now.

Stepping in line with the crowd, she made sure to walk beside him.

With each step she took, the guilt doubled her down making it harder to even walk. The tesseract was still with Red Skull, she had the perfect opportunity to steal it back and be back home with everyone else but she'd failed.

For all she knew Fifteen had given her life to get her here and she had failed simply because she'd heard Bucky's voice.

It didn't help he was standing across from her.

She wasn't quite sure how she was still breathing.

One of her closest friends could be dead and the man she loved – who had died – was standing across from her truly alive. There was so many things she wanted to say. She wanted to pull the photo of Brooke from her pocket and present it proudly to him. She wanted to ask him what he thought of the name Brooke. She wanted to tell him about all the drama happening with Alex and find out what he thinks she should do. She wanted reassurance from him that she'd done the right thing sending Brooke away. She wanted him to tell her he loved her and that everything would be alright.

It didn't matter what she wanted. She couldn't have any of that.

She hugged herself. The wind was picking up and it was an issue trying to keep down her short skirt. She was more than aware she was the only girl there as soldiers passed wolf whistling at her and staring her up and down.

There were the few that asked her why she was in costume, but she had no answer for them.

"You look freezing?" Bucky turned, seeing her shaking form, "your lips are blue."

"Well, it'll go with my costume at least," She attempted a joke but her lips jittered up and down as she moved her lips, "Maybe I am a little cold."

"Here." From his shoulder he pulled off his coat.

She tried stopping him, "no, you really don't have too. You're healing. You should keep your warmth."

"I feel fine. You're the one in a short skirt for whatever reason."

She glared down at it, "Don't mention it again."

"I won't," he chuckled.

Together they walked, bumping shoulders as the crowd forced them together. The stares from the other men didn't bother her so much when she was standing beside him. He was a calming pill, that she'd just overdosed on.

Everything was so surreal. She felt any moment now she'd wake from this blissful dream, back in her bed in New York alone. No talk of time travel or saving the universe and she'd have all made it all up.

Her lips still jittered up and down but not from the cold, "how much further until we get there?"

"A few more hours."

"Right." Her knees were knocking together. To be fair to her, she'd done an awful dance, jumped out of a plane, climbed hundreds of steps, balanced across a falling beam and now was told she would have to walk the rest of the way back.

"Go sit down by one of the trucks over there."

"They're full up with men," She'd already considered it but half an hour earlier fights had broken out to try and get a seat on the Hydra trucks and tanks. She didn't fancy getting involved.

"Kick one of them off, they're hardly going to refuse you."

She hugged herself tighter, "I don't really feel like sitting with a bunch of strange men whilst I'm wearing this."

"I was wondering why you were sticking so close to us. Are me and Steve not strange men then?" He teased her with a glint in his eye, not knowing how much his joke pulled at her heartstrings. They were the furthest thing from strangers.

Gulping back tears, she tried to steady her voice, "Well, I saved your life today. I feel like it'd be rather rude if you attacked me straight afterwards. Therefore, I have come to the logical conclusion I am safe with you. For now."

Without warning, Bucky was grabbing her hand and pulling her through the crowd backwards. She could be led along, tightening her grip and missing the perfect fit of his hand in hers.

"Seeing as you feel safe with me, I guess it's my honour as a gentleman to stay with you whilst you sit down."

There was something so young and charming about him. She'd always loved him, but the gleeful youthfulness that radiated from his face drew her forward, and she giggled like a school girl getting a crush for the first time.

This was bad… this was very bad, the voice in her head told her. She tried to imagine Steve's scolding shake of his head knowing that she was willingly getting led astray from her mission. Nothing good would come from staring at Bucky's smile.

Even though she knew this, she chose to ignore the voice. If only for a while longer.

Who could blame her, it had been five years. She couldn't express how much she had missed him.

Bucky addressed the crowd surrounding the slow-moving truck, "Oi one of you off. Doll-face here needs a seat."

Some men groaned and dismissed her but three soldiers willingly gave up their seats. Bucky guided her to the closest one.

"You didn't have to do that." Nevertheless, she sat down. Her knees would thank her for it.

He walked alongside the trunk beside her, "I was worried you'd collapse. You look like you've seen a ghost."

Yes. A walking talking one under the name; Bucky Barnes. "Something like that."

She stared at him for the longest time. It was strange. To miss someone so badly and have that person in front of you all the same. Now she saw him, she could see the resemblance of Brooke in him. Their eyes were the same steel blue eyes she saw peering up at her every morning.

"Have I got something interesting on my face?"

"No!" She turned away quickly, "Sorry… I didn't mean to stare, I was just checking you were okay. You did say you had needles jabbed into your arm constantly. I can't see how you're as okay as you are."

"I'm a little sore," He admitted, "but I'm standing up there next to literal Captain America, whose apparently some American icon, so I can't seem too weak."

Steve was ahead of them. Men walked beside him, with pride in their eyes as if they'd just won the greatest reward standing next to him. This was Captain America just as the idea was being born, she'd seen Steve deal with people ogling and harassing him everywhere he went in her time and he dealt with it amazingly. Here, he was new to being a celebrity and was beyond uncomfortable with it.

"He doesn't seem to be enjoying being Captain America very much," She assessed as Steve politely smiled away a soldier tapping his arm constantly to ask him questions.

"I don't think he does," Bucky said, "not that I've got any clue when this happened. Last I knew he was a small skinny kid from Brooklyn. Not this."

Despite his words, he was staring at Steve with a shine in his eyes.

"But you're proud of him, right?"

"Course I am."

She didn't belong here. That much was clear. If it wasn't for her presence, Bucky would be walking along by Steve's side, where he should be. Who knew what changes she could make to the future by being here. Even though Bruce assured her that anything she changes in the past won't make a difference to her future, she still could fuck everything up in this specific timeline. Just like the butterfly effect. One small difference could make a huge impact.

"You should go stand with him," She said definitely, "he probably needs a familiar face to stand by him with all the attention he's getting."

"You sure?" Bucky questioned with a tilt of his head at the boys on the truck behind her, "I thought you didn't want to stay alone."

She shrugged, "I'll survive. Go be with your friend."

Bucky left with only slight hesitation and went to stand by Steve. There was a time when Bucky would have never left her side even when she begged him to leave her. She followed his head as he went to stand back by Steve who smiled in relief that his friend had come back to save him from the adoring fans.

The truck she sat on wobbled on the cobbled stone beneath them and she clutched on tighter to stop herself falling off. Now alone, she was more than aware of all the men around her. Crossing her legs, she placed

. Not that any of them paid her much attention, all probably just grateful they were still alive and free from Hydra's clutches.

She had royally screwed up this mission. Of course, she had. What else did anyone expect of her.

She could only wait and hope that Fifteen had zapped herself back to present times and wasn't dead. Oh god… please… please don't be dead. The silent prayer to whispered up to the crowd barely made her feel better.

The tesseract was still in the hands of red skull.

And goodness knows what she'd changed already in this timeline by just being there.

All because she'd seen Bucky.

She saw him and the mission disappeared. Nothing else mattered. She wasn't a mother of a five-year-old, she wasn't an Avenger, she wasn't saving the world. She was just a girl who loved a boy and missed him.

Somewhere within the crowd, he turned back to check she was still safe. And in that moment, she couldn't bring herself to regret anything.

*~It started with Pizza~*

She'd heard about this moment in history class and read about it in museums. This was the greatest victory of Captain America. Where he had saved the lives of thousands of men single handily and walked them all back to their camp. When it was over, everyone cheered and Steve was proclaimed a hero from then on out.

It wasn't quite as romantic as the legend made it seem as she sludged through mud up a steep hill, trying to keep her skirt down from the wind. She'd finally jumped down off the truck when men rushed over with a boy who was missing half his leg off, needing a place to sit. The gruesome cries of the boy still haunted her as she walked squished between two thick men, wishing she could be beside Bucky without it seeming too weird.

The military camp came into view, and her legs gave a cry of joy that she might finally be able to sit down.

Men swarmed around and they were suddenly engulfed in a big crowd. Relieved to see actual women again, as nurses came running out of their tents and she saw Peggy Carter with her hair done up in perfect rolls. She almost dropped to the floor fangirling. She'd been to this woman's funeral for crying out loud!

"You're late," She heard Peggy say as she met up with Steve in the centre of the crowd. All eyes were on him.

But he only had eyes for her.

"I couldn't call my ride."

With all the crowd's cheering and an atmosphere of chaos, it was like a bubble wrapped around the two, as a look of pure adoration passed between them, and they were perfectly still in a moment of time.

She'd never seen Steve give this look to anyone else. All his attempts at dating had massively failed in the modern times.

"Let's hear it for Captain America!" came Bucky's voice somehow over the noise, pulling Steve away from Peggy.

A volume of cheering followed. Creating chaos in a once silenced military camp. The drums of claps made it impossible for Bea to drown out the noise. Some random soldier grabbed her hand and began to bounce up and down in excitement and Bea couldn't help but join in. She wasn't sure what she was even excited about. Steve had always been a hero to her. This was nothing new.

The pounding cheers didn't stop for another half an hour. So much so her hears were beginning to bleed. Even when people began to disperse, Steve wasn't left alone as everyone wanted to thank him for what he'd done.

Bea couldn't help but think that if they really wanted to thank him. They'd leave the poor man alone.

Awkwardly standing at the back, a tap on the shoulder made her jump. Spinning around, she found three men standing in front of her with Peggy Carter tapping her feet to the side. These men weren't celebrating like anyone else but kept the hostile rigid tone of a classic soldier.

"Can I help you?" queried Beatrice.

"Can you come with us please."

She didn't want to be parted from Steve or Bucky, but one of the men had already clamped a hand on her shoulder and was guiding her away. With little choice, she didn't resist.

Their stern cold hands walked her to a nearby large tin shelter. Timidly stroking her own hands for comfort, she didn't know what to think. As the doors opened and closed behind them with a loud bang, and creak ofthe bolts slamming shut behind her. Suddenly, she was sealed in and the air swallowed itself in thickness.

"I really don't know why-"

"This way please," Peggy took lead, swaggering authority with each charged step, "We simply want to talk to you."

"You can't just drag me in here and-"

"Yes we really can." With sharp finality to her tone, double doors swung open revealing a empty room with nothing but a chair and table. She was instructed to sit on said wooden chair, "We'll be back in shortly."

Perhaps the word shortly meant differently in this time, as she stayed waiting there for another hour. With nothing to do, she could only sit and wait. Her legs were more than happy to stretch out but she had a fear the longer she sat there, the harder it would be to stand again and eventually she began to pace. Sitting down only when her legs twinged a bit too much.

Slowly, insanity reaching its peak as she'd reached the last bit of grime on the wall to look at.

Finally, the door creaked open and Peggy Carter came in with a file in hand. Bea sat up straighter, intimidated beyond belief as Peggy sat down opposite her with a piercing strong glare. On instinct, Bea looked around the room for any cameras or sound equipment recording them, but remembered with a mental slap, that this was the 1940's and she doubted that sort of technology existed.

"Sorry – I really don't know…"

"What's your name?" Peggy sharply interrupted her, "because somehow you've completely skipped all our security checks and waltzed right into our camp. Somehow joined Captain Rogers on his mission to the Hydra base. Somehow saved Sergeant Barnes and assisted with helping all the other men. And yet no one knows your name." Peggy leant forward with a piercing stare, "Can you explain that?"

Hadn't she told Steve or Bucky her name? – no, perhaps she hadn't.

The answer to her question, of course, was that she couldn't explain it. How was she supposed to explain time travel and the infinity stones and Thanos to her. To Peggy – Oh. But wait.

suddenly , like a bright candle suddenly lit, she remembered she wasn't sitting in front of just anyone. This was Peggy Carter.

"Are you in league with Hydra?" Peggy narrowed her eyes, unaware of the turning cogs malfunctioning in Bea's head. "Perhaps this is all undercover work for them all-"

"What?" Bea spat at the accusation, "I wouldn't have tried to save Bucky if I'd been working with Hydra, would I?"

"How do you even know about Hydra?" Pressed Peggy, "It's a secret organisation… and Captain Rogers explained to me your knowledge of the tesseract, which even we didn't even know about until recently?"

Could she trust Peggy? If she told her, she'd think she was mad but the questions were beginning to make her sweat and her eyes constantly travelled to the door, wondering if she bolted now, would she make it? Another option was to simply zap out of there and go back to her current time. The time GPS on her wrist burned and tightened around her thin wrist, as if was reminding her that it was a solution. She'd already failed at getting the tesseract back – but then, Fifteen could have died to get her here. She couldn't quit now.

She slammed her hand on the table in a leap of frustration. "Okay – I'm going to tell you because I'm completely out of options!" She spoke so fast and loud, like a burst of energy sparked within her, that Peggy blinked back in surprise and retreated in her chair from the noise. "…and the likelihood of you believing anything I say is so low that I might as well just hand you the keys to the mental asylum. But I'm not crazy! I can promise you that. I'm just so clueless what to do right now and I'll take as much help as I can get. I'm an Avenger – or sort off. But… well… yes. Not that you know what an Avenger is. Bloody hell. What am I doing?-

But I'm from the actual future. 2023 specifically – I know, mental right? But something happened five years ago in my time which meant half the population got erased. All across the universe and a team of us, called the Avengers has to stop it-" she had to be careful not to mention Steve and bit her lip when his name landed at the end of her tongue. She couldn't tell Peggy what was going to happen to Steve. There was no real need too, "- I'm looking for the infinity stones. They're the stones that created the universe – or something like that, I don't know I wasn't really listening to Bruce. The tesseract is one of them. It's my mission to get it-

Now you're probably going to actually send me to a mental asylum – but please don't – not only because mental asylum's these days are absolutely barbaric but because I need help and I don't know who else to turn too. I shouldn't have told you any of that, but I'm an idiot to think I could do this alone. Please. I need your help."

When she was done, Peggy looked from her face to her files. Bea noticed how small the document was – probably because they knew nothing about her – but after everything she just told her, the file was practically useless.

The silence swelled up in the room, infecting the air. Bea wondered if Peggy noticed it too. She could hear Peggy's perfect red nails tapping across the metal table, each beat drilling into her skull waiting for her to open her mouth and say she thought she was crazy-

"You never told me your name."

-Wait? What?

"My name?" Bea frowned and Peggy nodded, "I-I… Bea… Beatrice… Richardson."

"Well, Beatrice… that's a lot of information to process in a few seconds."

"But do you believe me?"

"Time travel? Infinity stones? The Avengers?" Peggy raised her eyebrow doubtfully but dropped back to the file once again and let it flop in front of her, "it's certainly not an explanation I've ever heard before. Nor expected."

"Peggy, please… You've got to…"

"Agent Carter if you please," She cut across abruptly, "and how do you know my name?"

"I knew you! I attended your funeral – god, I shouldn't even be telling you this. I'm so bloody stupid… but I'm out of options. My friend who I travelled here with – I don't know – she could be dead for all I know… her plane was shot out of the sky and she was the one who was in control but I've only got one trip out of this-" she held up her wrist and showed the device on her arm, "and I need to do it right. God please- please help me."

"You do understand that I have to report what you say to my superiors?"

Was she not listening to a god damn word she was saying? "I don't care, Peggy! I need you to believe me. You think I'm that crazy to come in here and spew this much bullshit. How would someone even make something like this up?"

Momentarily Peggy scanned what Beatrice was wearing. The Captain America attire certainly didn't help her case at all.

Wishing to rip the clothes right off, she jumped up and down in her chair aware the was looking like a spoilt toddler not getting her way but her blood was boiling over the top. "Okay – as soon as I'm out of here, please get this bloody outfit off!"

"May I ask why you're wearing it at all?"

"The time machine landed us in the military camp. That's why no ones heard of me or no one knows my name. Someone assumed that just because I was a girl I was part of the stupid dancing Captain America act. I had to play along."

"…and with this tesseract?" Peggy continued to pressure questions on to her, to which Bea was more than happy to oblige. What else was she supposed to do? "What do you intend to do with it once you have it in your possession?"

She shifted, trying to calm herself down. The thumping of her chest was making it hard to think clearly. Breathing deeply, she clarified, "Take it back to my time. There's a thing called an infinity gauntlet and we're hoping if you snap your fingers it'll reverse what happened and everyone will come back."

The doubt settled in Peggy's eyes. Who could blame her? Her story sounded absolutely absurd and the problem was she had no way to prove to her that her story was true. Desperately, she reached across the table and grabbed Peggy's hands. She was warm despite the cold icy air radiating around the room.

"I've got to do this," Beatrice pressed, holding onto Peggy tightly as she felt her pull away, "My fiancé. He disappeared. Right before my eyes… I couldn't do anything and I was pregnant when he disappeared. He had no idea… He has no idea we've got a beautiful daughter who wants to get to know him so much… I- I need this to work. You have to believe me."

"I don't know," her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. In an instance Peggy was up on her feet, rushing to the door, "I should talk to my superiors about this and-"

"They'll think I'm crazy!" Bea uttered, her words coming out in chokes, "You- you're the only one who'll actually believe me. No one else can know. The fate of the actual universe rests on this…"

Peggy's hand hovered over the handle and Bea could tell the cogs were spinning in her head, deciding what she should do. Bea had always known Peggy to follow her heart, and always do the right thing but this was before she started Shield and did all those amazing and wonderful things. Perhaps she was different-

Trying one last attempt, Beatrice closed her eyes and began reciting the words that had stuck with her for the past seven years since Peggy had died. "When the whole world is telling you to move, it is your duty to plant yourself like a seed, look them in the eye and say no; you move."

When she didn't hear the door open and slam shut behind her, she inched her eyes open and found Peggy staring at her wide eyed.

"My mother used to say that to me," She breathed, her hand slowly releasing from the handle and she tentatively sat down opposite her again. The room stilled. "How do you know those words?"

"They were read at your funeral," Bea said. The very idea of telling someone that they had been to their funeral was awful. Beatrice knew she wouldn't want to know when she was going to die or hear the details about the event but it was the only way to convince her. "I'm not lying."

Peggy peered closer. Every movement of hers, Bea traced with her eyes, like a prayer hanging in the air. She expected her to leap up and demand that Beatrice was not mentally fit and needed to be taken to the mental asylum for evaluation immediately.

"How should I know what is possible and what is not," Peggy sighed, seeming to give up. The folder left forgotten on the able." I want to know more." Peggy decided with a firm nod. "Tell me everything."

She told her everything she could. From the Avengers starting up, to where it was now. Leaving out events involving Bucky and Steve. Which was harder than she expected as all of her encounters with the Avengers somehow involved them.

She showed her, her dying phone which now only had five percent battery charge, and tried to prove the ever-growing technology in her time. Then, she showed her a picture of Brooke that had been tucked away in the bottom of her purse that she'd brought with her, and Peggy stroked her fingers across the photo, marvelling at the crisp quality of it. She told her how she was originally from England and that she had lived half of it in America. How it was Natasha Romanoff that trained her. How she was introduced into this life due to the fall of Shield – then she had to speak for half an hour about Shield and Peggy's involvement in it.

To Peggy's credit she barely spoke and asked few questions throughout. Her eyes remained firmly on Bea's.

Finally, Bea collapsed back in her chair, all her energy drained. "I've told you as much as I can without telling you too much about your future. I've probably told you too much in fact."

Peggy leaned forward, a challenging blaze in her eyes, "Tell me something that'll happen in the next few days or weeks that you couldn't possibly have predicted. I'll let you free for now with personal supervision from myself and when what you say comes true, I'll have my answer to whether or not I can believe you."

"Really?" Bea spluttered in disbelief. She could have screamed in happiness. Now all she had to think of was something that was definitely going to come true and she'd spent enough time at the Smithsonian to know what to say, "The Howling commandos. Steve Rogers is going to form it soon – I'm not sure on the exact date but it'll be in the next few days. It'll consist of Captain Rogers, Sergeant Barnes, Dum Dum Dugan, Sam Sawyer and um… Gabe Jones… Jim Mortia. Someone named Falsworth" She was struggling to remember all their names but remembered conversations she'd had with Bucky about them like it was yesterday.

"And the Howling commandos? What will they do?"

This was an easy question. "Take down Hydra."

A/N Gosh darn, I miss writing these two and I bet you're all glad he's back.

QUESTION... I feel like I already know that I'm going to leave Beatrice 'normal' but if there's enough of a want for her to get powers I can be persuaded. How do you guys feel about Beatrice getting powers? because there's a point in the story that I've got to where I can go either way, but I kinda like her being normal. Idk.

Guest: Honestly I'm so sorry for making you wait twenty Chapters for Bucky. I really can't believe people are still sticking with this fic

NeoMulder: The show looks so good! And the shot with Bucky and Zemo was so intense. Haha to be fair, Thanos properly destroyed the Avengers base... it's honestly a wonder poor old Clint survived. I really want to tell you everything I have planned but I'll leave you hanging. Thank you so much for sticking with this story and reviewing every chapter. It really means the world to me :D

LunaEvanna Longbottom: As you can see from this chapter, she decided to rely on someone a lot more reliable than Steve. Peggy Carter ;) Thank you so much for reviewing! Love each and every one of them