Extract of testimony given by SSR Agent Lucia S. Rogers in SSR, November 5th, 1943, SSR London HQ, taken by SSR Agent Margaret E. Carter. Regarding time spent as Prisoner of War, on H.Y.D.R.A factory HS375. Day after arriving at camp in northern Italy, 5 miles from front.
(…)
LR: I gave detailed information of mostly Nazi activity to Jaques Dubois. Or, who I believed to be him. I don't know. I guess he fed you wrong information. By the time I got there, H.Y.D.R.A. was already independent (…). The last thing I got was the location of several bases.
MC: Can you place them on this map?
LR: Sure. There were three big ones, one marked a different color, here (…), and then there were five smaller ones (…). This one was another color too. I don't know what that means, though.
MC: Can you tell me what happened when you got captured?
LR: They came at night. I was foolish enough to trust the apartment, it had no means of escaping (…). They called me a 'gift for Schmidt', took me to the base where I was rescued from by Captain Rogers. Probably because of my connection to Dr. Erskine.
MC: And once you were there?
LR: First they put me where they had the other men working labor at the factory. Then they took me to Dr…I don't remember his name. Solo? Armin, maybe?
MC: Dr. Arnim Zola. He's rumored to be trying to recreate the super soldier serum.
LR: Sounds right, but I don't think that's what he gave me. It burned like hell, he injected me four times, but I'm not stronger nor faster than I was before. He stuck me in this tank. At first, it just…got really, really cold. I don't know how long I was there, but he seemed disappointed I wasn't losing consciousness. Then it got cold faster, and faster, and I started to lose consciousness faster, too. I tried to count, but I always forgot by the time I woke up. I stopped waking up in the tank, too. Woke up already strapped to the table, wet more often than not. I…I think they froze me.
MC: You can take a break if you want.
LR: No, I want it over soon. So, at first, I thought they wanted to test how the body reacted to the cold, mess around with hypothermia and such. But then I started to see changes. Not on me. I mean, it wasn't noticeable, but it all pointed to me missing days. There was…dust, on the table, and once there was a bad apple. I don't know if those were to mess up with me, but one time I managed to bruise a guard and the next time I woke up, the bruises were almost gone.
MC: Did they do other things to you? Questioning?
LR: I would appreciate if Captain Rogers did not read this. I…they wanted to know about the research. I couldn't answer. I never went to college, didn't even finish high school, so even when Dr. Erskine let me see his notes and journals, I never understood much of it, and most was coded. I …don't … know the code, so I can't make sense of it. They…They didn't like that. Didn't believe it.
MC: Did they abuse you?
LR: Not sexually if that's what you're asking. But if I didn't want to eat, they forced me. If I took too long showering, they hosed me down naked. They had great water pressure. I think I still have some bruising on my back. They… didn't give me anything for my period. Two bathroom trips a day.
MC: Did you tell them anything concerning Dr. Erskine's research?
LR: Only that I didn't know anything. Some days it was the only thing I said. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know—gave me plenty busted lips. This zygomatic is still a little tender, I think it's a little yellow still. Maybe they cracked it, I don't know.
MC: What happened the day they found you?
LR: They got me out of the tank, I suppose. I don't know. I came into just a little before Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes found me. Time was funny in there for me. I wasn't—I couldn't move for hours the last times they got me out, and I was still in that state when they found me. It's—I was stiff. Couldn't move right, could barely speak. Captain Rogers had to carry me out. Put me in the back of a truck and I started to regain mobility in the ride. Could walk mostly okay and talk normally by the time we arrived.
MC: Thank you, Agent Rogers. You will be contacted for further questioning in the following days.
"You are brave, doing this. I hope you know that," Margaret says as she turns off the recorder and takes the map to fold it.
"I wish I felt brave. I'm just…tired." Lucy sighs, letting her elbows rest on the table in front of her. She plays with her wedding ring, having gotten if from Steve the morning before.
"The information you got will be cross referenced with the map Captain Rogers saw on the facility, but I'm sure what you got is important." Margaret gives her half a smile and Lucy shakes her head.
"Is it? All that time was wasted if the information didn't get to you in time. What I saw from Nazi movements is months old now, it's useless, and with H.Y.D.R.A. independent, nothing can assure you it's accurate. Trust Captain Rogers' information."
"These are the weapons factories we know about, but Agent Rogers' have yet to be placed. Sergeant Barnes said that H.Y.D.R.A. ships all the parts to another facility that is not on this map."
"I suspect it could be around here," Lucy says as she takes a stick from the side and taps the place she saw on the General's map. "It was big, another color and it seems to be one of three factories you're missing."
"Agent Carter, coordinate with MI6. I want everyone looking for that H.Y.D.R.A. base. Base the information on Agent Rogers'."
"What about us?" Agent Carter asked as she followed Colonel Phillips, Captain and Agent Rogers a few feet behind.
"We are going to set a fire under Johann Schmidt ass. What do you say, Rogers? It's your map, you think you can wipe H.Y.D.R.A. out of it?" Phillips gestures with the papers a Private passed him, and when he looks up, he looks both at Steve and Lucy.
"Yes, sir," Steve says, looking at Lucy for just a second, but that's all it takes for him to know what she thinks. "We'll need a team."
"We're already putting together the best men." He barely spares a glance at them while he reads.
"With all due respect, sir, so am I," Steve says.
They're dismissed after that, with threats of needing approval of the men anyway, but Lucy stays back for a second, nodding to Steve to leave her.
"Colonel? I have a question for you."
"If it's why you, it's because you're an Agent." Phillips turns a page, skimming it for a few seconds before turning another.
"Who just failed a mission, sir. Quite spectacularly."
"A mission where we put the informant who turned to be a doble agent." Phillips lowers the papers, looking at the blonde woman beside him and dismissing her with a wave of his hand. "You didn't fail because you're a bad agent, Rogers," he keeps going when the woman is gone. "You got information, a lot, by the looks of it." He raises the papers, and she realizes with a start that he's reading her mission report. "You are capable, Agent Rogers. And Dr. Erskine saw that. He wasn't wrong about your husband; I don't think he was wrong about you."
"Thank you, sir."
Steve is waiting for her, sitting on their bed. She smiles when she sees him, getting close enough to drop kisses to his forehead and his lips before stepping back and showing him the paper Howard had handed her on the way.
"A medal of valor? You went back to the States while I was giving a report in the morning or what?" She lets out a laugh when he grabs her by her hips and brings her closer to put a proper kiss on her lips.
"I'm done with the press. I just want to nap with my wife before going to the bar to convince five men to fight Nazis with us." Steve lets himself fall back, setting against the pillows, and Lucy kicks off her shoes before climbing after him and straddling his lap.
"I'm so tired. We travelled all night on the third, then yesterday it was all doctors and travelling here, and now today it's all reports and shit." She burrows herself on Steve's chest, ear to heart, and lets herself relax when he brings his arms around her.
"And you didn't sleep a wink last night. And barely got any sleep on the plane here." Steve starts to rub his hands on her back, making her relax all the way, melting against him.
"Tired."
"Sleep. I'll wake you if I feel you too restless."
"Howard has equipment for you tomorrow. 8 AM," she manages to say before she's too far gone. "Also, I love you," she mumbles, hand resting on his chest and cushioning her cheek and mouth.
"I love you, too." Steve answers with a kiss to her head.
"Hey there, doll," James says when she sits beside him, alone, waving to the bartender and pointing to his drink to get her one.
"Sarge."
"Looking to pick up a fella?" he asks as he takes a swing, emptying his glass and letting it be refiled.
"I'd rather pick up a drink," she says as she does exactly that, drowning it in one go. "How did you sleep last night?"
"I didn't," James says, blowing air from his nose in what could pass for a scoff if it wasn't so defeated.
Lucy raises her glass and taps it against his in a show of solidarity.
"It's been months and last night was the second time I went to sleep beside Steve after the procedure," she tells him, because he's her best friend and she can't exactly tell Steve it's a little odd to sleep beside him now that he has a different body.
"He kept you up all night?" James leers, but she can tell it's all mocking. The bags under her eyes match his.
She scoffs. "I kept him up all night with my tossing and turning. I don't want to think about the nightmares after the interrogation from this morning, if my nap was any indication."
"Hear, hear," James says, throwing his head back and drinking all his drink again. "Before I forget," he says, searching for something in the inner pocket of his jacket. "I found these, but I figured you would have lost them if I gave them to you when you couldn't even close your hand." He hands her glasses to her, and she laughs when she picks them up.
"Asshole. I've been squinting to everything five feet away from me all day." She puts them on, blinking and looking to the far wall to get used to them.
"Found this too." James places her engagement ring in the bar, sliding it towards her.
"I thought I had lost it forever," she whispers, picking it up and holding it close to her eyes. "They didn't even keep it close like my glasses, a guard pocketed it."
"'t was on the floor. Barely caught it by the shine." He gets another glass, and only sips it.
"James. That's your third one since I came in five minutes ago."
"Luce," he says, and she can hear the way he's scared, voice trembling just enough she can hear it over the sounds of laughter somewhere else in the bar. "It's my sixth. I'm not feeling them." James looks at her then, and his eyes are filled with tears.
He's terrified, she realizes.
"Not feeling them like you want to keep drinking so you won't feel anything at all, or…?" She takes his hand, and his grip is bruising.
"I'm as sober as if I had drunk two. They're not affecting me like they should."
She nods at his words and bits her lip, mind going miles per hour as she thinks thinks thinks and can only come up with—
"We'll talk later," she says when she sees Steve approaching, letting go of his hand and grabbing her drink again.
It's not right. It's actually beyond wrong, to keep things like that from Steve, but James and she have an understanding, a little arrangement that has been going on for years. It's what made them keep quiet about the draft, quiet about the possible miscarriage, quiet about the time James had to physically pry a man off her on a dance hall when she was seventeen and the time they had made promises, the winter Steve had been anointed. It's not a forever silence, just until they can make sense of the thing. There's also the shared experience, this time around.
"I told you, they're all idiots," James says when he sees Steve. Steve takes the seat beside Lucy's, passing his arm around her shoulders and talking to James over her head.
"What about you? Ready to follow Captain America into the jaws of death? And Luce, too. We need a name for you." Steve drops a kiss to her temple, and Lucy can't help but think not only he's using his height for his benefit, he's also making up for all the months they've been separated.
"Like hell I'm following Captain America. That little guy from Brooklyn, too dumb not to run away from a fight? I'm following him." James smiles to himself before he looks at them. "And Luce, I guess. She's alright."
"You're an idiot and I love you." She pushes his shoulder, but she's fighting a smile and it loses effect.
"But you'll fight to keep the outfit, right? Gonna stare at his—" James jokes, and she laughs and shoves her hand on his face to keep him from finishing that sentence.
"James!"
"You know, it's kind of growing on me." Steve comments, and James and she chuckle.
Lucy finishes her drink and smiles at her boys. "So, who's taking me dancin', fellas?"
They flip a coin for it and she laughs and thinks they'll be okay. Thinks they'll have to be okay.
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