Chapter 1: Out of the Hydra Lab

Peggy Carter stuttered as the bundle was dropped into her arms. "What am I supposed to do with it?"

Dugan shrugged, lifting his gun back into his grip as another explosion went off in the hall and the baby wailed. "Hell if I know."

Peggy shifted, letting the blanket settle into her arms, the whimpering baby's reddened eyes peeking out at her. "I don't…"

"We don't have time to discuss." Dugan put himself between her and the sound of gunfire as he pushed her out of the Hydra lab. "I have the bigger gun, you're less likely to drop… it." He gestured toward the crying baby as he turned, pushing her down the hall. "We get out, then we can talk about how sexist I am, ok?"

An explosion from below rocked the foundation and Peggy curled around her ward, stopping to catch her balance. "Believe me, you'll be hearing an earful." She started moving quicker, following Dugan's bowler back and forth through the corridors as the building began to shake harder. "How far to extraction?"

Dugan stopped short at a doorway and tipped his head, but the voice she heard was Steve's. "Right here. Hurry, they set the self destruct."

She turned into the room and was met by the sight of Steve's red, white, and blue form straddling a hole in the wall, waiting to escort her into the darkened forest beyond and to safety. He held out a hand, waiting for her to take it. She gripped her bundle tighter instead and took small steps around the rubble as Dugan fired more shots from the door behind her. "You'll have to steady me," she nearly had to yell, "I'm afraid I have my hands full."

Steve started to ask what she'd found, but didn't need to when a loud wail came from the rough brown blanket in her arms. He steadied her hips as she stepped over the rubble and waited until Morita was able to reach out and steady her before he let go and turned his attention to pulling Dugan through the wall and out into the night.

Their ability to move stealthily was always their greatest asset as a team: it had saved them more times than they liked to count. Peggy shushed the baby in her arms, trying to keep whimpering from turning into full blown cries. The men had formed a circle around her, and their eyes were set tight on the darkened woods around them. The noises the baby made turned them vulnerable, no matter how quietly the rest of them could sneak under the cover of the trees.

"How far out are we?" Peggy whispered, knowing someone would hear her. "The little one's hungry, and needs a new nappy."

Steve let his steps slow until he fell back next to her, the men closing ranks around them without a word having to be said. He kept his eyes on the trees as he locked step with her. "About 3 miles. Close enough we should be safe, but far enough that we're not taking any chances."

Peggy swore under her breath then turned down to the child who squirmed in her arms. "No, not you. I wasn't cursing at you." She shifted the baby then held her hand out to Steve. "Rinse my hand with your canteen?"

Steve snuck a look at her as he did as asked, watched as she tried to clean her fingers best she could with only the one hand. As he put the canteen back she reached her clean fingers to the baby's mouth, smiling in delight when the baby latched on to her pinky, suckling away. His eyes returned to the trees as he gripped his shield tighter. "Where did you find him?" He paused, thought again, "Her?"

"Don't know yet," Peggy whispered, happy to let the baby suck at her pinky as long as it was quiet. "It was in one of the laboratories, laying out on a metal exam table just in its nappy, screaming to high heaven. Dugan and I just grabbed it and ran."

Steve was going to ask another question when the baby pushed Peggy's finger away, whimpering as she tried to get it to latch on again. "Perhaps we better double up, it's not going to stay quiet for long."

Steve took longer strides and slid back to his spot at the front of the group, his pace quickening as everyone matched him. "You heard her, guys."

Peggy was just finishing with the nurse when Steve joined them in the back of the tented infirmary. "She'll probably fuss tonight," Nurse Stephens, a mother herself many times over, said as she handed the baby back to Peggy. "You keep feeding her like this and I'll see if we can find something better." The nurse passed Steve on her way out of the tent, nodding to him.

"So it's a her?" Steve fidgeted a bit, sitting on the cot next to Peggy as she dipped her finger back in the cup of milk before bringing it to the newborns mouth.

"Yes," Peggy mumbled back, her concentration on the baby, "No more than a month old according to Nurse Stephens. Come on, little one. I know this isn't ideal."

"Almost like hand feeding a kitten," he watched, mesmerized as she dipped her finger then brought it up to the squirming girl's eager mouth, the baby's eyes closed tight somewhere between concentration and crying.

"Not like the Army routinely packs bottles," she dipped her finger and brought it up to the baby again. "Though a pipette wouldn't be much better."

"I'm sure she'll find something." Steve reached for the blanket on the cot and slid it around Peggy's shoulders. "It's getting colder out."

"It's late. Not that it matters much at the moment." She finally looked up and locked eyes with Steve, noting that the strange look in his matched the odd longing deep in the pit of her stomach. The feel of his hands on her shoulders didn't help. It felt strange, and domestic, and so wrong that somehow it felt right. He felt it too, because he dropped his hands like she'd burned him. "What did Phillips say?"

He didn't quite meet her eyes as she picked up the rhythm with the milk again. "Just like you thought, baby's yours until morning."

"I'd swear but she might pick up on my bad habits." Peg smiled as the baby opened her eyes at her. "Yes, yes you might my darling. And one foul mouthed woman around here is quite enough."

Steve's eyes shot to her as her tone changed from frustrated to light. "I can't imagine there is anyone better to take care of her."

Peggy laughed, letting the baby grab at her finger. "No? There are at least four women on this base that I know of that actually have children. Including Nurse Stephens."

Steve leaned over, looking into the blinking blue eyes of the baby. "Maybe, but he made a good point. If Hydra comes after her in the middle of the night-"

"Protect her, blah blah blah." Peggy finished with a sigh. "I know. I understand."

"They're setting up a special tent," Steve stood as Nurse Stephens came back in, her hands filled with rubber tubing and droppers. "He wants me to stay with you both tonight. I'll, uh, wait just outside for you."

The "new" tent wasn't much more than a reinforced storage tent that was hastily outfitted with a fairly clean cot and a mish-mash of furniture. "Who was in charge of decorating?" She asked, gently bouncing the nearly sleeping baby in her arms.

Steve laughed, looking at the open armory case that has been filled with blankets and strung from the ceiling so it could swing side to side. "Who do you think?"

Peggy gently swung the case then gave the ropes a good tug, trying to imagine the Howling Commandos stringing this contraption up. "I think none of those men know anything more than I do about babies." She turned, handing Steve the duffel Nurse Stephens had filled for her. "Sort that on the desk if you don't mind."

Steve unzipped it and started laying out surgical draping, cloths, and pins into a makeshift diaper changing station. "It's only oh-two-hundred. Do you think either of you will get any sleep?"

Peggy was already standing over the crude cradle, slowly inching the child toward it while trying to avoid waking her. "She's gotten a record two minutes so far." Peggy held her breath as Steve stepped over and steadied the case beneath her, letting her set the girl down in stillness before he let go and it began to swing gently. "I plan on taking as much as she'll give me."

Peggy shuffled over to the cot, sitting and starting to unlace her muddy boots. "What's his plan?"

Steve turned a crate on its side and sat across form her, the baby swinging quietly between them. "A medical team will be here tomorrow to pick her up and check her out. Then…" His voice drifted off.

The implications of why a month old baby was in the clutches of Hydra were horrific enough, but trying to think out what they might have done, or were going to do and how they might need to protect her? That was a dark place indeed.

"Then we go back to picking off Hydra bases," Peggy filled in, her voice as thick with emotion as Steve felt. She changed the topic as quickly as she could. "They at least give you a chair to sit on out front this time?"

Steve laughed, looking away from her. "Not quite. I think there might be a log." He stood and walked over to the improvised cradle, looking at the baby.

Peggy shook her head as she looked up at him, her hands settling her boots at the foot of the cot. "You must be tired, too."

"Not much." He softened… his eyes, his voice…he could feel it and Peggy could see it. They'd stolen moments here and there. Managed walks around the camp perimeter when they could pretend she needed to brief him on one thing or another. He'd held her hand hidden by the bulk of his shield on the way back from missions gone wrong and kissed her behind the medical tent when the USO had everyone else occupied. He'd waxed poetic about what would happen when they would get home when she struggled to see anything but war and death in their future. But the baby swinging between them suddenly made things seem more possible; made her more hopeful. She wasn't sure she could trust how much she liked it. It felt like years passed between them in the few seconds he caught her eyes. "I've got a few more hours in me." He circled around carefully, crouching next to Peggy's cot. "You get some sleep. Because I don't know how to feed or change her, so I'm sure she'll be waking you up soon enough."

Peggy rolled her eyes, the softness broken with his humor for the moment, and slid further back onto the cot and slipped her legs up, leaning up on her elbow so she was nose to nose with Steve. "Just another job for the woman, right?"

Steve gently kissed her cheek, her eyes fluttering closed at the gesture he'd only made a few times. "I'd change diapers for you any day."

Peggy returned the favor, her lips lingering just a second too long on his rough cheek. Words about babies of their own and him changing them longed to leave her lips, but she held herself back. "I'm going to hold you to that." She leaned back away from him, pulling the rough blanket up over her. "First time that baby cries I'm showing you exactly how it's done, and you're up after that."

Steve laughed as she shut her eyes, lingering by her bedside for a second before standing. He stepped toward the makeshift crib and gave it a gentle push, setting it swaying before he grabbed the crate he'd been sitting on and took up his sentry just outside the tent.

It was barely an hour before the baby's cries broke the night. He heard the creak of the cot and Peggy's soft shushing for a moment before the cries were punctuated by Peggy's startled noises of surprise. Just as he was about charge in, Peggy's head popped out of the flaps, her eyes wide.

"Be a dear and grab some more blankets?" She looked back in and grit her teeth, "And some cleaning cloths…and another canteen of water. Oh, and some bleach."

Steve's eyes went wide. "Bleach?"

"There was an… explosion." Peggy stuttered, looking back into the tent as the girl's cries grew louder. "Apparently the nappy Nurse Stephens made was not a proper containment vessel."

Steve nodded and turned on his heel, repeating the list to himself as Peggy went back into the tent.

Two hours later, they hadn't been able to get the girl to sleep. They'd changed her, cleaned her and the improvised cradle, walked her, and fed her with Nurse Stephen's makeshift dropper and tubing, and yet she was still awake, mewling and squirming and supremely unhappy.

Steve was pacing the tent with the baby in his arms, awkwardly trying to rock her without bouncing too much. Peggy was sitting on the cot, massaging her arms after finally giving the girl up to Steve. "I wish I knew what she wanted," Peggy nearly whined, exhausted and upset. "She needs sleep just as much as we do."

"No idea." Steve turned on his heel and walked the length of the room again, "Bouncing only works so long, and patting her back only works so long… you could try singing again?"

"I only know the three lullabies and by her reaction to them she thinks I'm a horrid singer. And she's not wrong." She dropped her head in her hands, rubbing her eyes. "They were right to set us up all the way out here- half the base would be awake otherwise."

She stood and met Steve, his pacing stopping as she reached into the small bundle. Peggy swept her fingers across the girl's forehead and cheek, "Why are you so unhappy, little lady?" The baby turned into Peggy's fingers, her lips rooting. Peggy sighed, pushing out her pinky and letting the baby latch on again. "Hungry again, I guess."

"She's probably famished, she can't get much from that contraption." Steve's head tipped to the tubing that had been rinsed and hung to dry.

"No," Peggy muttered, reaching out to take the girl again so Steve could set up the gadget in question while the baby suckled hard on Peggy's finger. "I hope they bring a bottle with them, and some clothes. Poor thing."

Steve listened as the soft shushes Peggy made as she spoke to the baby filled the tent as he set up her feeding. He didn't look at Peggy as he let the words slip out of his mouth. "We should name her."

He didn't see the look of surprise on her face as she turned because he didn't take his gaze off of carefully getting the milk into the tied off medical tubing while he pinched tight where Nurse Stephens had put the pinholes for the baby to suckle through.

Her voice was soft, surprised. "Name her?"

"She needs a name. So we can talk to her." He knotted the end of the tubing and turned to Peggy. "She deserves a name in case…"

He didn't have to finish it. Peggy just nodded her head. "In case." They didn't need to speak the scary part out loud. In case she died tonight. In case Hydra had done something horrible to her. In case they never knew what happened to her after tonight. In case she ended up in a laboratory again. In case no one ever cared for her the way they were ever again.

In case.

Peggy sat on the cot and reached out a hand, the baby squealing as she carefully took the end with the pinholes from Steve and slipped it into her mouth along with her pinky to keep the tube from collapsing shut as she suckled. Steve sat next to her, holding the tubing high so gravity helped them along. He looked down at her. "What do you think?"

Peggy took a deep breath, "I don't know. I never thought about baby names before."

Steve pushed the blanket away from the baby's face. Even though they were trying to keep her warm her cheeks were still cool in the chilly night. "What was your mother's name?"

"Amanda." Peggy tipped her head back and forth, her nose scrunching up as she couldn't quite see what the baby's name should be. "I've heard other women say that I'd just know when it came time to name a baby."

"Well, she's not yours." Steve flinched as soon as the words came out of his mouth. That skinny kid who put his foot in his mouth was still who he was, and he showed himself often around Peggy.

Peggy looked at him the same way she'd looked at him in that car all those months ago, back when he was skinny and she was half interested and half humoring him. "True, but as of right now I'd say she's ours." The baby pushed her finger out with her tongue, milk spilling over her small lips. Peggy shifted the girl to her shoulder, patting her back. "God knows how they were taking care of her at that base."

Peggy struggled for a moment trying to get situated as the baby fussed. Steve reached over and shifted her hips, turning her a bit and settling her back into his chest so she could relax and lean into him. "This ok?" he whispered, unsure. Somehow this seemed more intimate than walks in the woods with wandering hands.

"Yes," she whispered, melting into him more, letting her head fall back as she continued to pat the baby on her back. "What was your mother's name?" She asked after a moment.

"Sarah," he reached up and pulled a curl away from Peggy's eyes and readjusted the blanket away from the baby's face. He looked at the babe as she stared back at him, bright blue eyes fluttering open and closed as she fought sleep. "You're right, though. I can't tell who she is." Steve dropped his voice. "Don't stop, she's falling asleep."

"Oh, thank the lord," Peggy whispered, not changing her tempo. Within moments Peggy could feel her shift to dead weight, her regular breathing loud in her ear and the baby's milky drool soaking through shirt. "Please tell me she's sleeping."

"Dead to the world," Steve whispered.

Peggy slowly let her rhythm slow, and eventually moved from pats to gentle rubs on the baby's back. "I'm afraid to move," Peggy spoke softly.

"Then don't," Steve said. "Just hold yourself up for one second," he mumbled as he gently pushed her away. Steve swung around scooting back on the cot so he could lean on the support beam behind them and splayed his legs out on each side of her. "Ok, come here," He reached forward and helped her slide into him, spooning her back into his chest, her head cradled just under his chin. "Comfortable?"

"Far too comfortable," she said, adjusting herself and checking that the movement hadn't disturbed the still unnamed baby. "Will you be ok against that cold post?"

"Just fine." He brought his arm up under hers, supporting her and the baby on her chest. "Try to sleep."

"Steve-"

"Sleep."

She simply nodded, and moments later she was breathing slowly and softly as well.

Steve was fighting sleep himself when he heard the crunch of footsteps outside. Ten, fifteen feet away maybe, and not hiding their approach. He gave Peggy a shove, "Peg," he bit out, sitting her up to slide out from behind her as her eyes flew open and she grabbed the baby reflexively.

He was on his feet with his shield in his hand by the time Dugan shoved his head in the tent, all business. "We gotta go, now!" Dugan's voice was quiet but forceful.

Steve reached down and helped Peggy up by the elbow. "Grab her things!" She whispered at him, eyes wearily on the baby that was still sleeping as she readjusted her in her arms and slipped out of the tent next to Dugan. Steve grabbed the tubing by the cot and the duffel on the table, shoving as many of the blankets and diapering supplies in as he could without falling too far behind.

He jogged to catch up, tossing his shield on his back. "What happened?"

"Two Hydra strike teams were caught by patrols in the last half hour." Dugan said, leading them at a quick pace to Phillips' tent. "We got one young one to spill they were here for the baby. Then he clammed up."

Phillips met them but pointed toward the motor pool and fell into step, taking over the briefing. "You're going to rendezvous with an extraction team that will take you by air to Heathrow. From there you'll get further instructions."

"Further instructions?" Peggy snapped, the baby squirming in her arms as they reached a covered Jeep.

"That's it?" Steve asked, stopping and watching as Phillips handed a paper with their route to the driver.

Phillips snapped his fingers at Dugan, who began to drop the tailgate of the Jeep and climbed up, slinging his gun over his shoulder. Phillips leaned forward so only Steve and Peggy could hear him. "Hydra's known we're here for months, then all of a sudden they send two strike teams in one night? They want that baby, and the fewer people who know where that baby is, the better." Phillips straightened up, but didn't increase the volume of his voice. "You two are to protect that baby by any means necessary, do you understand?"

They both clipped out a quick, "Yes, sir."

"Good." Phillips pointed. "Now get in that truck and get gone."

Peggy turned and looked for the best way to get in with the baby in her arms, but before she could take a step Steve swept her up and passed her to Dugan, helping her set her feet on the bed of the truck. Steve hopped in behind her and slammed the tailgate closed as Dugan pulled Peggy to the back to settle her as the truck roared to life, the baby's wails full blown and barely drowned out by the engine.