1945

I tried not to look down at the frozen tundra beneath me. Ice and whatever else the wind carried slapped against my face making my cheeks raw and causing me to lose feeling in my ears. The snow reflected the little sunlight that was able to break through the thick grey clouds, making the landscape shockingly bright, and my eyes stung from the light.

I was starting to slip from the side of the train car. My legs were dangling in the frigid wind, and while I was trying to stay still, clinging for your life hundreds of feet in the air going who the hell knows how fast does not make it any easier. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. This was really not how I thought this day to go.

I considered letting go with one of my hands, wiping off the sweat, and then latching on again and I'd maybe have a better grip to pull myself back in the car. Only one problem- the metal bar I was attached to started to goan and bend downwards. I was running out of time and needed to move fast. Too risky to take a hand off now. I swung my legs to the left, one, two, three times and launched my legs to the other side of the pole, tying my ankles around it. I made a mental note to thank my mother for forcing me to take gymnastics, if I ever saw her again. No, I can't think like that, when I see her again. From this position I could try to walk myself down the pole, and maybe I could move back into the train car, or someone would quickly see me and pull me in. As I started shiming across the bar to the right where the door was, that I originally had been knocked out of, the bar broke off the side of the train on the left side, by where my feet were crossed. Fuck.

"I need a hand over here!" I bellowed out hoping someone from my team would hear me, even though I didn't move my head towards the location of the floor, for fear that any movement would drop me to my doom. I heard a voice above me but I couldn't hear them. The roar of the wheels on the tracks next to me would surely cause hearing damage. I dared to look up, seeing the face of my sergeant. Thank god.

He was saying something, trying to give my directions to safety, I'd assume, but I just shook my head and made a face of confusion, trying to tell him I hadn't the slightest clue of what he was saying. He laid on his stomach trying to reach me, but I was around four or so feet below the platform of the train, so he couldn't reach me without leaning too far over to where we would both be stuck.

"Go get Rogers! Or anyone else!" He nodded in response, and jumped back up to go get help. I was starting to slip at a faster rate now, my pants not giving any leverage for a grip, and I was curled together so my weight was concentrated on my sweaty hands. Damn it if he doesn't come back soon I'm screwed. I hated letting myself get into positions where I needed help like this, I wasn't some damsel in distress from a RKO Fay Wray picture, and a situation like this could be career ruining. I tried to climb up the pole some more to try and get a better grip with my boots, but I ended up sliding down further. My legs were dangling once again and there was only about a foot and a half of the pole left for me to hold onto, before I'd be reaching for a cloud to hold onto. My sergeant came back just then with Captain Rogers, getting back onto his chest and reaching out towards me, while Rogers held his legs, keeping him tethered. Barnes grabbed my forearms, yelled at Steve to pull us up, and I let go of the pole. Just as I started to move upwards, an explosion hit near Rogers, rocked the train again, and caused him to lose his grip. I remember screaming out, seeing Steve's face, how it's shock and fear would haunt me the rest of my fall, and feeling Barnes pull me in front of him, holding my back flat against his chest. I closed my eyes, the bright snowy terrain not just hurting my eyes now, but also sending me into a frenzy. I screamed incomprehensible words to Barnes, he was screaming as well, a harrowing horrible scream of a person about to die, and my thoughts were jumbled as we tumbled and flipped through the air in a matter of seconds. It was over as soon as it began.

1936

THUMP. The force of the blow on the side of my face knocked me to the ground. I spit out a mouthful of blood and just sat there staring up at my father.

"I'll have no whores living under my roof."

"I didn't even do anything with him Pop, you know that, he's like a brother to me-" I got rocked with another punch, this time to my eye.

"How many times do I have to tell you, they'll be no back talking to me, especially by a girl of mine."

I sat there on the kitchen floor until I heard the door to his bedroom close. The distance meant I was safe, for now, so I went to my room as quickly as I could- so not to endure another beating.

"He busted you up real good this time."

"Shut up Carl." I spat at my brother, dribbling blood down my chin. My sister, Eleanor, came into out room with a wet cloth and began to clean up my face. Carl was three years older than me, he had just gotten a lucky job with the police force, and Eleanor was two years younger than me, a freshman in high school.

"You ain't gonna be a pretty sight tomorrow but it'll heal all right." She threw me a bag of ice to hold to my eye.

"Yeah well good thing I don't care much about looking pretty for anybody." I chuckled.

"Well I'm sure your fella friend might care," Carl said with a sly look. I threw the nearest pillow at him.

"He just caught me walking home from school with Rogers and Barnes, it was no big deal."

"How's Steve doing? It's only been what a month since his mom…"

"He's fine Elle don't worry he's living with Barnes and the two of us look out for him you know that. He'll be fine in the end. I mean we have jack for a mother and we turned out alright." My mother was still alive, but she was messed in the head. I think one day she was just so sick of putting up with her drunkard of a husband that she cracked. My mother was very young when she married, and my father went straight over to the States from Ireland after Elle was born in order to get a job and savings and build a new life for us. He was still normal when he left us, but once we reunited in 1923 he was different- harsh, abusive, and always drinking. Not long after, Mom went schitzo. Our apartment lease is in his name and he still had his job at the manufacturing plant, so the money was alright and we kept him around.

Steve Rogers had lived in the apartment next door with his mother and father, until he was orphaned not long ago. He was a sickly kid, not much taller than Elle and looked like he weighed 80 pounds wet. Asthmatic, scoliosis, I think he even had heart conditions too. But either way he was a nice kid, helped old ladies carry their groceries and stuck up for the bullied kids, that sort of thing. My mother made it a point to help out every neighbor from the minute we moved in, to make sure they all thought only the best of us; looking back I wonder if she fully grasped that we were not wealthy and of influence so nobody paid much attention to us, or if her mental deterioration had been there since before she fully cracked. She made me and my siblings play with the other children in the building, always telling us to step in if needed for Steve, and to keep an eye on his best friend, James Barnes.

Elle had gotten upset when I said that about Mom, so she withdrew from our conversation and went to bed. Carl pulled a face at me, but not my fault, she needs to grow up. She's only so innocent because she never became a punching bag like Carl and I, Elle was the perfect gem of the family. I went to bed not long after, making sure I was ready for school tomorrow and seeing if we would have enough food for lunch and dinner.

That night I laid awake for a while, listening to the sound of the cars and people on the street below until some ungodly hour. I heard the new neighbors next door who moved into the Roger's old spot- the Dvorniks, an Eastern European couple with a newborn- arguing over something, and saw one of the Salvatori twins sneaking up the fire escape to their room. I would never admit it to Carl, but some part of me was always afraid that if I closed my eyes and went to sleep after a fight with my father, I would never wake up, as silly as it sounds. I knew he would never actually kill one of us, but still, I was a kid no matter how hardened my heart was, and I was entitled to an irrational fear.

At half past six I was woken by Carl, I had only slept for maybe an hour, and got dressed for school. I went out to the kitchen to make lunches, while Carl was sitting with my om at the table, trying to coerce her into eating some toast. My father is gone for work before we wake up, so mornings are usually our time to decompress. I brushed my teeth, checking my bruising in the bathroom mirror. Shiner on my right eye, cut scabbing on my upper lip. Most of the swelling had gone down at least. Eleanor had hiddensome makeup she swiped from some store from my dad under her mattress, and she offered to help cover the bruises, but I couldn't care any less about how it looked. Me showing up to school like this was nothing new and we had no uppity name that would be tarnished by my appearance.

We dropped my mom off downstairs at the McHelen's apartment- Mrs. McHelen was a dotting old woman who lived most of her life in Ireland and moved here with her son and daughter-in-law around the same time we did. She watched over mom during the day and took her around on little errands, maybe if there was some part of my mother still left in there she'd be happy being able to do things throughout the day.

Carl didn't have a car at the station yet so Elle and I had to walk to school. I didn't mind much though- it was good exercise and I enjoyed the sights and sounds of the city, even if I saw the same things every day. Once we got into the building Elle and I split up, and I found Rogers and Barnes.

"Wooosh," Barnes let out a breath of air, "Nice shiner kid. You piss off Ennette Simon again?"

"Oh please like she'd be able to get a hit in on me. You're just jealous that it's not you with the black eye so you could get all the sympathy and cooing from the girls."

James just shrugged his shoulders and cracked a smirk. "Maybe so, but thats just because I actually know how to win in a fight." He paused for a second, surveying me, "Actually, maybe I should give you a lesson or two, you got the power and stamina, you just need some… direction." Barnes and I liked to tease each other, but it was all in good fun, even if he was constantly getting under my skin. An offer like this from him wouldn't come twice and even though I hated to admit it, a lesson from him would guarantee me a win in a fight with anyone. "Maybe after school today you can come by my place. We can use Steve for practice." He ruffled his much shorter friend's hair.

"Are you ok though Flor?" He hesitated, "It looks pretty bad. Was it your dad again?" I nodded and he winced. "I cant keep letting this happen to you." A look of dark determination grew on his face.

"Yeah cause I just ate and now I feel like I'm gonna be sick if I keep looking at you," teased Barnes.

"Bucky c'mon this is serious. She's a punching bag for a grown man with a killer left hook, this is wrong."

"Steve I appreciate the concern, I do, but there's nothing you can do about it."

"Was it because of us again?" Bucky's face looked slightly reminiscent of Steve's, with that same darkness, but shallow too, like he was sick.

"Nah, you know him it was probably a bad day at work or they didn't have the gin he liked at the bar." They both just stared, not buying my answer. "Fine. He thinks I'm a hooker now cause he saw you two walk me home last night. I don't know why I mean he knows who you two-"

BAM! "Damn it Florence! You can't keep taking the fall for being friends with us." Steve banged his fist on the locker he was leaning against. The bell rang that meant we were late to first period. "We aren't done talking about this. You're going to Bucky's tonight. We're teaching you to fight."

I was antsy the whole morning in school, I couldn't wait for this afternoon. I had been in my fair share of fights, made it ok mostly fine if not battered, but it would be nice to know how to defend myself properly. Especially now that I was older and Elle and I walked to school alone without Carl- I could see the older men eyeing me off, trailing behind me at dusk. Even if not to get out of a possible rape, muggings were increasingly common, with so many people still out of work, and we couldnt spare to lose any money.

When I got to lunch, I headed to an empty table. I didn't have many other friends besides Steve and James, so I usually sat alone. Sometimes other people would join me, but not often, in general people avoided me like the plague. I guess I had a reputation for being stubborn (hard to deal with), tough (scary), and too intelligent for my peers (an annoyingly sarcastic know-it-all). Not Elle though, people were drawn to her. It made me more nervous for her, with the football boys trying to get to know her, but I didn't think any of them would try anything too stupid with her "always down for a fight" sister and sister's friends.

As I was eating, I could see a few girls snickering my way, with sly points and secretive smiles. I glared back at them. I didn't think too much about why they were laughing, a pummeled face and all, until one of them made her way over to me- uh oh.

"Hey Flor! I'm dying to know, how long have you and Bucky been together? I didn't think he was with anyone." The girl, I think her name was Doris, gave me a smile of fake interest. Funny joke, Doris.

"Oh it's been months," I drawled. "He's even better in bed than you'd think."

Her face was of pure shock, I thought I saw her jaw hit the floor. "You're joking. He'd never go from someone like you."

Now I was confused. Did these girls really think I was sleeping with Barnes? I expected this to be a joke at my expense, but no this girl really thought we were together. Who started this rumor? "Can you explain to me why he wouldn't like 'someone like me'? Is it because I'm not an idiot?"

Her face grew into a snarl, "No it's because you're a no-good whore. I know you work as a waitress, you probably pick up men there too. You may think he's yours, but someone like him could never be with someone like you. For Christ's sake his family even owns a car!"

I don't entirely know why I hit her. I don't think it was because of Barnes, but either way I couldn't listen to her insulting me anymore. After she processed what I did, she lunged at me. I pushed her off, rolling til I was sitting on her stomach. I was going wild- fists colliding with her face, her hands pulling at my hair. A few of the boys came over to pull me off her, and suddenly I felt someone pick me up. I was still thrashing about while everyone was dotting around Doris.

When I calmed down, I remembered absentmindedly walking to the dean's office.

"Why did you attack Doris, she was only trying to be friendly."

"She called me a whore. Insulted my family."

"That sounds about right. Regardless, we're going to have to send you home."

"Ok."

"...And call your father."

"No."

"Florence…"

"Please, he did this to me," I pointed to my face," you can't tell him."

The dean sighed. "Florence, just this once. I can't keep letting you get away with this stuff."

"Thank you so much, you won't regret this!" The dean put his hands up to his face and muttered something about kids these days.

I wandered around the school for a while, waiting for my sister. God I hoped she didn't hear about it, shed tell Carl and I'd be screwed. I still was confused though. What had those girls heard to send Doris over? God, god, god…

Hello friends! Tthatbbasicffangirl here, with my first long/planned out story! I hope you guys are excited for this as I am! Just a few things

1:I'm writing this currently. While I have everything outlined/planned, I do not have this fully written. Bear with me on update frequency (I'ms still in school until the end of May so update times could change then).

2:I'd really appreciate reviews (also pms are open)! As this is my first big story like this it'll help me so much. Also, if everyone hates this idea I'd like to know so I don't waste my time writing lol. But please any help and comments is greatly appreciated.

3:DISCLAIMER- All characters except for original ones belong to Marvel and Disney. Please don't sue me.

Thank you all! Sending love!