"the Howling commandos have been formed."

Beatrice rubbed her temple, creasing the wrinkles further, "I know."

"They're leaving tomorrow."

"I know."

"If you wish to join them, you best ask. Unless these maps are proving helpful?"

"I don't know how…"

"I suggest you figure something out if you want to get your hands on the tesseract any time soon. I only suggest it since you don't seem to be having much luck here and you told me that the only time you know the tesseract comes up in history is because Captain Rogers came across it." Peggy reminded her sharply.

"I know, Peggy."

It wasn't as if she wasn't trying, but she had no idea what she was supposed to be looking for. She'd missed her one opportunity to find Red Skull, and it seemed even the SSR had no idea where he was based.

She puffed out a loud sigh. "Think I just need some air."

Beatrice quickly abandoned the maps after that and re-joined the world beyond the tinned square she'd been holed up in for the last week. Her eyes felt hollowed out as she walked amongst regular people again, they were blurring against one another and she kept bumping into Peggy's shoulder, trying to walk in a straight line.

"Is everything okay, Beatrice?"

"Yeah. I just spent way too long in that room."

"We'll take a short cut to the top-" Peggy cut her sentence abruptly short, coming face to face with Steve Rogers.

He was standing beside Howard Stark, gripping onto his shield. The paint wasn't there and it was no more than a round piece of tin. But his eyes were shining as he held it up with pride to show Peggy, "What do you think?" He beamed.

Bea had to blink twice when she realised Peggy reached over to pick up a gun from the table. Her hands barely reached out to stop her when she fired off three rounds straight at Steve. The bullets rebounded off, clattering onto the floor at his feet. The Shield was left with no scratches.

"Yes…" Peggy sighed, satisfied as she lowered the gun, "I think it'll do quite nicely."

Forgetting all about Beatrice, Peggy strutted away, leaving Bea gawping at her. Her hips swaying as she gave Steve a final glare.

Gobsmacked, Beatrice was fully awake now. She couldn't believe she had just witnessed Agent Peggy Carter firing a gun at Steve. Weren't they meant to be a timeless love story? Or had Bea accidently changed something to make them hate one another.

"What did you do?" Bea marched up to Steve in a huff.

"I-I-I… nothing…" Steve raised his hand in defence, the shield didn't look to be protecting him anymore.

"Peggy Carter just fired a gun at you. It can't have been nothing?"

The answer came in the form of a smirking Howard stark, who was trying to conceal a giggle. "He kissed another woman."

"You what?"

The next twenty minutes of Bea's time heist was spent lecturing Steve on how Peggy was worth so much more than how he treated her. She may have wacked him a few times, just to try and get some sense into him but when she was finished, Steve looked a lot more terrified.

When she got back to modern days, Steve was going to get one hell of a telling off.

"Lesson learnt?" She slammed her foot down.

Steve nodded gingerly, "Lesson learnt."

With that, Bea followed the same path Peggy had just left and found the open air with only a few wrong turns. The light headedness swiftly disappeared as the soft wind flapped around her. A whistle of men trained, doing star jumps and general fitness procedures that looked physically painful.

"Did you ask him?" Peggy asked, coming out of nowhere, her cheeks tinged red as if she was embarrassed.

"Ask him? Ask who?"

"Steve," She rolled her eyed, "I had hoped that by literally firing shots at him, he'd be bamboozled enough to agree to let you into the Howling commandos."

Bea blinked, dumbly, "How was I supposed to know that's what you were trying to do? No… I didn't ask him."

"Then why on earth were you down there for so long?"

"I was telling him off for daring to kiss another woman."

"Never mind that," Peggy shook her head and huffed.

"Next time you want to cause a distraction, shooting Steve probably isn't the answer."

Peggy shrugged, "I felt like it."

Peggy stormed off – or it looked like it from where Bea was standing – her back arched upwards as if she was suddenly on a mission and a flare of anger still residing on her face. She had a feeling Peggy wasn't one to really express her emotions so left her to it, turning back to the scene before her.

She also had a strong feeling that even if Bea hadn't transported herself back into the path, Peggy would have still shot at Steve. There was no clever ruse or distraction planned in Peggy's shot.

Maybe she would go on a swift walk first. Prep herself up to talk to Steve and then go back inside.

Already walking through the military camp. Her legs screamed in delight at finally being able to walk around. Her eyes hadn't intended to scan the camp to find him, but she heard his voice before she saw him. Like a man lost in the desert, seeing water for the first time, her legs moved on impulse.

Surrounded by a group of men, Bucky's voice carried across all of them. She stopped shortly behind and watched but not too close as Bucky commanded a drill practise to commence and a skirt of mud was dusted into the air. A group of six men began to sprint up the obstacle course whilst Bucky stayed behind to watch on. His eyes turned to thin slits as he watched the men, concentrating, every now and then he would look down at his stopwatch.

He must have sensed someone else's eyes trained on him, as he looked around to find the source, finding her.

"You alright?" He mouthed.

She nodded sharply. Nevertheless, he turned to the assistant standing beside him and slammed the stopwatch into his stomach. Distantly, she heard him say, "Carry on without me."

Not wasting any time, he jumped over the obstacle course to get to her, "Please get me out of here. I hate leading these things" He begged, "just pretend Agent Carter needs me or something."

"uh… sure," She nodded before raising her voice so everyone could hear, "Agent Carter needs to speak to you Sergeant Barnes."

He smiled brightly and took her hand. She almost jumped away from the unexpected touch "Brilliant."

Now linked together, he spun them around and fast walked away from the scene.

"Why are you leading the practise?"

"Captain's ill. I said I'd help for today – anyway I've got something to show you, more important than practise… come with me."

Willingly she allowed him to drag her along. She tucked a strand behind her hair when he linked their arms together like a true gentleman – he'd never done that before, maybe that was just because that's how things were done these days. Stares ensued. She had a feeling romance wasn't a common thing to witness around here. It felt as if nothing had changed. Could he feel the same way? – no, how could he? He didn't even know her yet.

"I'm leaving tomorrow."

"I heard," She nodded definitely. She had every plan of joining him unless she could think of another way to find the tesseract without involving the Howling Commandos within the next day.

She hadn't seen the part of the base where he was leading her. Enclosed around the edge of the base, she had no idea how she missed this as it seemed to be where the majority of soldier resided. A man in a rush, dashed past them, tucking in his trousers as her went. He sent Bucky a nervous laugh as he flew passed them.

"Late again?" Bucky chuckled.

"I'm going to get killed!" The man cried.

Bea looked back at the boy dashing around the corner, "Is he going to be in trouble?"

"Usually he wouldn't be," Bucky raised an eyebrow, "but it's my training he's late for."

Bucky stepped aside to let her into the building first. Makeshift beds were lined up against the wall but thankfully no one sat in there. She felt as if she was treading on lava just being in here. Bucky headed towards what she assumed was his bed.

"Am I allowed in here?" She considered, following nervously. She was pretty sure it was against the rules to have women in the men's bedrooms. She expected one of the major officers to jump out of one of the corners.

"Probably not," Bucky said smoothly, "But I'm outta here tomorrow so what can they do to me."

"What about me getting in trouble?"

Bucky sent her a look that she couldn't quite read but turned back around to his bed and pulled out a bag. He reached in, feeling around for something. She couldn't see what, wondering what on earth he could have wanted to show her.

"Here," He said, finally pulling out what he was looking for, "Take this."

Firmly, he pressed into her hands a piece of paper and on it was the address of a street she recognised. It was only a few streets away from where she actually lived in Brooklyn.

"What's this?"

"A friends business address. When you're back in Brooklyn go find him. He's a private detective and he'll help find that stalker of yours. Just mention my name and he'll help free of charge. He owes me anyway."

"Bucky, I really-"

"Don't complain. I want you and your daughter to be safe."

He hadn't even met her yet and he wanted to protect her daughter. Even though the address was useless as her 'stalker' didn't exist in this period of time (nor did her daughter for that matter), she pocketed the slip of paper. She noticed how he still looped his 'e's' the same slatted way as she remembered.

"You really don't have to do this."

"Course I do," he smiled, "Can't let my angel have some creepy stalker after her and – I owe you. You saved my life. It's the least I can do."

"I don't see saving your life means you have some sort of debt to me. That's not how that works."

Their eyes met for a stolen moment, "Even still. Take the damn address and quit complaining and – and do me a favour…"

She tilted closer to him, "Yeah. Anything?"

"Go home," He said, "Go home to that cute kid of yours. She needs her mom. You shouldn't be out here when you don't need to be – don't worry about that tesseract thing – if it's that important I'll get it for you. I'll die trying if I have to. Just get home to your family."

But he was a part of her family.

"There's nothing in the world I want more, but-"

"but you can't leave when a missions half complete. I get it," he concluded for her, his face softening. She almost melted on the spot, "I had a feeling you'd say that… so…"

He turned around again and stuffed a hand in his bag. Something clinked like the sound of a necklace dropping to the floor and Bea tried to reach over to see what he had. Nerves tickling her stomach.

"Here you are," he turned and in his hands was a very familiar looking dog tag. Every soldier had one. She seen them dangling off the neck of every man doing star jumps and saw a man getting screamed at because he lost his. For a moment she thought he was giving her his again, she missed the familiar feel of the cold steel rubbing against her neck since she'd given Bucky's dog tags to Brooke. But on closer inspection noticed it wasn't his name stamped onto the metal tag. It was hers.

"What's this?" He passed them to her and she tucked them into her hands.

Beatrice Richardson

Howling commandos

There was a long number written underneath which Beatrice couldn't be bothered to scan. Instead her eyes transfixed on the two words; Howling Commandos.

"You're gonna need one when you join us."

"What?"

"I've got a feeling you've got triple the talent of any man on our team already. You've already fought by our side. Fought through a hydra blockade single handily-"

"Steve did most of the work."

"Not in a mini skirt he didn't."

"Shut up."

"Just come with us," he pleaded, "I've already spoken to Steve. He thinks it's a good idea too."

"He did?" She wasn't sure why that filled her with pride. Getting Steve's approval seemed to be something she was eternally after.

"You saved my life. He wants a way to thank you too."

She answered his suggestion by putting the dog tags over her neck. She'd wanted to join the Howling commandos anyway; she just had no idea Bucky wanted her to join too. Her heart thumped just an extra bit quicker.

"As I said, saving your life isn't a debt that should have to be repaid."

*~It started with Pizza~*

What little possessions she had, she carried to the jeep where the rest of the howling commandos were. Not everyone seemed to have been told that a woman would be joining them as she slammed her bags onto the back with everyone else's and Steve gave her a wave.

"Excuse me, darling, I wouldn't put your bags there. We're about to be off," said one of the men with a thin moustache and posh English accent.

"I know. That's why I'm putting them there."

The confidence that rolled off her lips was only due to the smile Bucky was giving her, seeping pride into her very being.

"Beatrice here is going to be joining us."

A rally of 'what's' and outrage was met from the men. The only man who didn't seem to have a problem was the one Bea recognised as Dum Dum Dogan, who clapped his hands together happily.

"Welcome to the team," He greeted her with an enthusiastic shake of the wrist.

"Cheers for letting me come on board."

The rest of the men scowled. One of them pointed at the gun strapped around her neck and commented, "You even know how to shoot that thing."

"Course she does," Bucky fired back, "She might just practise on you if you carry on."

"She's one of us now. Treat her with respect like you would any other soldier."

"If the Captain says she's alright to come, then who are we to disagree," Jim Morita added, jumping onto the back of the pick up truck. She took a moment to look at them all for a moment. These men she had grown up learning about in history class. The amount of times she'd walked past their pictures in the Smithsonian and now they were here in front of her. Actual living people. She'd even stood over a few of their graves.

"Let's get going."

With a helping hand up from Dum Dum Dogan she propped herself up in a seat, feeling more accomplished than she had the whole time she'd been here. At least now she knew she was well on her way to getting the tesseract. She just had to keep Steve in her sight. He was the one who fought Red Skull. He was the one that came into contact with the tesseract. She just had to make sure she got to it first and then got the hell out of this time.