Savage

by awalkerlifeforme

She was everything people feared. She wanted to defend the world but also wanted revenge on those who wrecked hers. The ones who forced her to leave Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. Now she's back and while Steve attempts to get back the woman he's always considered his sister, Bucky hopes to thaw the ice that has formed around her heart. A heart that he had always believed was his.

9. Chapter 9

In the background of the small room I could hear Peggy getting ready for the day. One of the best things about her was that she was rather quiet in the mornings. She knew that I always liked to sleep in as long as possible. And she knew that between Operation Rebirth and training the new recruits, I was exhausted. That meant that I slept as much as possible when I could.

At this point we were a few days into week two. It was one of the least entertaining weeks in training but it did mean that I was a little less stressed. Most of my stress came from my time in Abraham's lab. The rest of my time was spent back and forth between training the new recruits and helping Howard figure out how to keep the Super Soldier Serum accurate while being non-lethal. In the meantime it was teaching first aid and map-reading to the recruits. It was incredible how many of them were bad about it.

My knee began to shake as Peggy pushed me around in the bed. I groaned and stuffed my face into the pillow. "Vicky," Peggy called to me, exasperation in her voice, "come on, you wanted me to wake you up at six to get breakfast with Private Barnes."

There was no way that it was already six. I had come in at two in the morning last night. I could have sworn that I had only been in bed for about an hour. "And what time is it?" I asked her groggily.

She paused for a moment before laying her hand on my shoulder. "It is now six-oh-three," Peggy told me.

She had to be joking. I was just praying that she was kidding. I was supposed to be meeting Bucky at six. My head shot up and I saw the curious look Peggy was giving me. "What? Damn it!" I howled before shooting up.

On the far side of the room I heard Peggy laughing. She always did enjoy watching me panic. Which was easy considering that I was almost always late. And today was just going to be another day that I was going to be late. It didn't change the fact that I felt terrible. I rarely cared whether I showed up to training or the lab on time. The one thing that I hated being late for was Bucky. He was always five minutes early - something that he had already learned - and I was always five minutes late.

As I dashed around the room I fell over nearly every ten seconds. Peggy was sitting on her bed, brushing through her hair as she laughed. I yanked on a pair of trousers and nearly ripped the seams before buttoning my shirt as fast as I could. I missed the middle button twice before succeeding. As I was pulling my hair up into a messy ponytail at the same time as I was attempting to brush my teeth I heard Peggy speak once more.

"You know, I've never seen someone so excited to get ready when they think that they'll be late for something that wasn't a date," Peggy called out to me.

My hair fell as I glanced over at her and I rolled my eyes at myself. Every moment that I took to redo a process of getting ready was only another moment that I was late to meet Bucky. "It's not a date!" I snapped at her.

Over the past two weeks or so it had been both her and Howard's motivation in life to get me to admit that I was in love with Bucky or if nothing else, just to get me to admit that our little meetings were dates. "It is a date, Victoria," Peggy insisted.

I turned to her with a little snarl on my lips. "No it isn't!" I howled at her, realizing that I was being slightly too loud. "I don't like him, he's just my friend," I said, much softer this time.

"Then why don't you accept Howard's offer of a date?" She asked me.

I groaned softly under my breath. She wasn't exactly wrong. Since dinner about a week and a half ago Howard had been continuously asking me to go out with him. The first time had been the night after the dinner. He had wanted me to go with him into town. I'd told him no. All because we were business partners. All through the last week or so Howard had tried to get me to go on a date with him. From everything to just taking a walk around the base, to going into town, to going to having a drink with him in his room.

With all of my being I had denied the last part. The whole time I had told him that it was because we were professional partners or because I was too drowned in work to go out with him. He kept telling me that it was because I really wanted to go out on a date with Bucky. Each time he told me that I shouted at him louder than the first. Of course that only earned me another question on why I really wouldn't go out with him.

"Because Howard is a cow!" I shouted, continuing trying to defend that I wasn't really interested in going out with Bucky.

Peggy smiled at me and shook her head. She was getting ready as well, just not as frantically as I was. "Or perhaps it's because you have feelings for someone else?" She asked softly this time. She didn't seem to want to push me too far or too hard.

Under my breath I let out a few curses that were directed at her before turning over to where Peggy was sitting at her vanity. "I think that you and Howard need to go out on a date. You're both determined to get me to go out on a date with a guy that I feel nothing more towards than platonic friendship," I told her.

Once more she smiled at me. I knew that I was driving both her and Howard nuts by not admitting my - nonexistent - feelings for Bucky. "You're in an awful bit of a hurry for a breakfast with someone that you feel nothing towards more than platonic friendship," Peggy pointed out.

As I slipped my shoes onto my feet, attempting not to fall over in the process, I turned a glare on her. She was so useless. They are were. "Because it's rude to be late to something that you made plans for," I insisted.

The two of us stood and stared at each other for a moment before there was a soft knock on the door. I could tell that it wasn't Chester. He always gave one sharp knock. This was a short and goofy sounding knock. "I'll get it," Peggy told me as I did up my laces. "Good morning, Howard," she said as she stepped backwards.

I groaned softly. He always seemed to have the worst timing of anyone I knew. "Good morning, Peggy. Is Victoria -" he asked before cutting him off when he spotted me. "Ah! There you are," he chirped.

"I'm late," I called out before he could say anything or annoy me. Besides, he was only going to make me even later. "I'll see you in the lab later!" I called out as I rushed to the door.

Before I could get too far though, Howard held out a hand to stop me. "Wait a moment, Victoria," Howard called out. I still continued to dash around the room, grabbing the few files and papers that I needed. "I wanted to see if you would care to come by Stark Industries later today? There are a few things that I would like to show you," Howard offered.

Suddenly I stopped in my tracks. "Really?" I asked him weakly. Stark Industries was huge. And Howard Stark never offered anyone personal tours there.

Howard gave me a small grin. "Absolutely. I could use a second opinion on a few things," he told me.

A bright smile filled my face. That certainly would be incredible. It would just be another step towards being something more than a woman who really belonged in the kitchen. "You know what, I would love that. I should be ready to go after dinner. Just give me a few minutes so that I can get changed before we go," I told him.

Howard gave me a sleazy grin and for a moment I regretted saying anything at all. "You're going to wear something nice for me?" He asked me.

"You wish," I snapped.

The two of us had a deep stare-down for a few moments. Neither one of us seemed to be willing to break the stare-off that we had started. "Victoria, weren't you late to be somewhere?" Peggy asked, finally breaking the awkward silence in the room.

"Oh!" I chirped stupidly before turning and heading out of the door. "See you guys later!" I yelled loudly as I ran out of the door. Everyone that had been standing in the hallway backed against the walls as I dashed out of the bunker and over towards the dining hall.

A few of the women that worked in records were all glaring at me. I could hear their thoughts in my head. What is she doing? She looks like a fool. My teeth grit together as her thoughts only got worse and worse. I rolled my eyes and continued to dash through the camp. As I found myself about twenty feet from the entrance I picked up speed and burst through the doors. At the table that we normally sat at was Bucky. He looked slightly tired, leaning over a cup of coffee and reading through notes.

The notes were from the map-reading class that I had been assisting in teaching. I walked up to the table - not before taking a few deep breaths and brushing back my hair - and tapped Bucky on the shoulder. He glanced up at me and a small smile slipped over his face.

He dropped the coffee that he was holding back onto the table and stood as I took a seat next to him. "Well there you are. I almost thought that you were going to bail on me this morning," he told me with a slightly teasing note to his voice.

Some part of me figured that he probably had thought that I'd abandoned him. I attempted to read Bucky's mind as little as possible. I had stopped trying to do it when I'd once tapped into his thoughts and heard a few thoughts about me that had turned my irises pink for hours. I hadn't been able to look at a person for hours and the one person that had seen them - of course, Howard - had easily figured out why. It only led to questioning me for hours on who had done it and how they had done it.

"Oh you think so little of me," I finally teased Bucky. He grinned and handed me a second cup of coffee. "Sorry about everything. Peggy was trying to wake me up but I wanted to sleep. I guess I thought that it wasn't as late as it was," I told him softly.

Despite being a professional, time management was not one of my better skills. "You always were bad about getting up when the alarm went off," Bucky told me.

"I was not that bad," I argued.

Bucky snorted and shook his head at me. "Vika you must have come to class late at least a hundred times because you have overslept," he said.

And that was the truth. There were so many tardy marks on my old report cards that it wasn't even funny. One time Mrs. Rogers had shouted at me for nearly an hour because I'd missed more than sixty percent of roll calls. One more tardy mark and I would have had a truancy officer called on me. Thankfully I hadn't been late again that year. Of course that was only thanks to Steve and Bucky.

We had gone through a few close calls though. Even all A's wasn't enough to keep me out of trouble with the teachers. "And whose job was it to make sure that I didn't oversleep?" I asked Bucky.

He glanced up at me from his eggs and shook his head at me. "I don't like trying to wake you up. You're mean when I try to wake you up," he told me.

"I am not!" I shouted.

"Yes you are!" He shouted back at me. That wasn't the truth. I knew that I wasn't that bad. Maybe I got a little violent when people woke me up but I really wasn't that bad. "One time you kicked me clear across the room," Bucky told me. Oops.

My face burned slightly and I looked down. I remembered that day. It wasn't the first time that I had done that. I had kicked him across the room a few times. Steve too. Once I had nearly broken Steve's ribs. After that it had only been Bucky to wake me up. Or it would have been Steve, but he would shout at me from across the room. Bucky was always the only one that would be willing to walk up to me and actually touch me to try and wake me up.

Bucky didn't seem offended in the slightest. He was grinning at me like he was slightly proud. "And that was the day that I knew that I would never want to mess with you," he said.

A small grin fell over my face too. Next week he was going to know just how much he really shouldn't mess with me. "You know that next week I get to teach you guys how to do the hands-on portion of training. We're going to be teaching you to defend yourselves and the country," I told Bucky and he nodded, a determined look on his face. This was always the week that the recruits looked forward to the most. "And maybe, just maybe, you'll have to fight me," I teased him gently.

But it was the truth. I was the one person that no one was going to be able to beat. I would also help teach them that appearances don't matter. That they could end up fighting anyone. Chester had made me promise that I either wouldn't fight or take it easy on them. Peggy agreed with me that we were going to be teaching them without holding back. But we wouldn't kill them either. Howard told me to fight them all out. I told him that we wouldn't be left with any soldiers if I did that.

Breaking my thoughts, Bucky shook his head at me. "I'm not going to lay a hand on you," he told me. I rolled my eyes. Gentlemanly as always.

My eyes brightened slightly. "Too chicken?" I teased gently.

Bucky leaned forward to the point where I thought that it might have been considered inappropriate if someone were watching. Not that I cared. They all just thought that I was the yellow-eyed freak anyways. "Wouldn't want to damage that beautiful face," he told me.

His hands wrapped around a loose strand of my hair and gave it a little tug - just the way that he had when we were kids. It gave me a different feeling now. One that I wasn't so sure that I liked. It felt strange. "I'm not so sure that it would be my face that you'd need to be worried about," I told him, trying to shove away my thoughts.

Once more Bucky leaned into me. He placed a hand on my shoulder that I knew was supposed to be challenging. "Is that a challenge?" He asked me.

"That, my friend, is a promise."

If we were going to fight I definitely wasn't going to take it easy on him. We were going to fight for real and I was going to win. But he had damn well better not take it easy on me. I had always hated that. "I always liked a girl that could take care of herself," Bucky said.

A strange pang went through my chest. I tried to convince myself that it wasn't because I cared for him. "Oh? You find any girls that can take care of themselves?" I asked him.

Don't be obvious. Don't be obvious. "I've got my eye on one," he told me with a slightly sly look in his face.

Despite trying desperately not to blush, I glanced down at the table for a moment and blinked away the pink tinge that had come in my eyes. It wasn't me. He didn't mean me. Why would he? After a few minutes I glanced back up with an even look. "She's lucky."

Something akin to a shadow fell over Bucky's face as he shook his head at me. "I'm not so sure that she knows," he told me softly.

My voice dropped as well. All of the other conversations that were going on in the hall dropped off and it felt like we were the only two people in here. "Perhaps you should tell her," I whispered.

Bucky nodded slowly at me. "Perhaps. But what if it changes things between us?" He asked me.

Was there a chance that he could be talking about me? I refused to go into his mind and see. There were certain things that I didn't want to do. And that was one of them. If I wanted to know the answer I was going to have to go out there and find it myself. My mind began to wander. Would things change between us? Could they? I wasn't sure. And what if it really wasn't me that he was talking about? But what if it is? Did I want it to be? Yes.

Awkwardly I nodded at him. This wasn't the conversation that I had meant to have. "I suppose you'll never know unless you say something to her. What if I make you a promise?" I asked slowly. One way or another I was going to get the answer out of him.

"What kind of promise?" He asked me.

"When training is over and you get your orders, you tell her how you feel." Bucky's eyes widened slightly and I had to press myself not to slip into his mind. "Don't the men bring a picture with them of their girls?" I asked him. After a moment Bucky nodded. "You ask her for one of herself."

In the back of my mind I wondered if one day Bucky was going to ask me for a picture of myself. Neither you idiot! He doesn't like you. "Do you think that she'd say yes?" He asked me after a moment.

I turned to him with a soft blush coloring my face. I would say yes. But it wasn't about me. It was about him. "I think that she'd be insane not to," I told him honestly.

And like that, the air had become far too awkward for either one of us to be able to handle anymore. When Bucky spoke once more, I was glad that it wasn't about Howard, or either one of our love life, or a continuation of the conversation that we had been having before. "So uh... What are you up to for the day?" He asked me.

I was desperate to talk about something other than our strange relationship. "Spending a little bit of time in the morning in the labs. Trying to get some more work done. Helping you and the other recruits in the afternoon. Tonight I'm heading with Howard to Stark Industries," I told him my plans for the day.

Bucky's eyes narrowed and I raised my brows at him. "You call him Howard?" He asked me.

My eyebrows knitted. "Yes."

"Why?"

"Why?" I repeated dumbly.

Bucky nodded at me. "Yeah. Why?" He asked.

What the hell kind of question was asking me why I called Howard by his name? Was there a chance that he was jealous? "Because he's my friend," I told Bucky.

Once more his eyebrows narrowed. "You went to dinner with him last week," Bucky said. After a moment I nodded at him. He knew that we'd been out to dinner. I had told him about that. "I see the two of you together all the time. And now you're going to Stark Industries with him this week? Are the two of you...?" He trailed off.

Was he asking me if the two of us were together? That was stupid. I was never going to be in a relationship with Howard. He was a good man but he was not the type of guy that I wanted. "Together?" I finally risked asking him.

"You are?" Bucky asked me. I saw a strange flash of hurt flit across his face.

Damn it. Not what I meant to do. "No! No," I said softer, when I realized that I had drawn some attention to the two of us. Relief filled Bucky's face. "Howard is a good man - better than he lets on - but he's not really my type. We're just friends. And he's funding the project that I'm working on. I need to play nice with him. Plus if I can weasel my way into a job in Stark Industries when I'm done with my work here... I mean, Bucky, can you imagine that?" I asked him slowly.

What I really wanted was to be completely normal. I didn't want to be a mutant. But the other thing that I wanted was to become a real person in this world. Someone worth something. More than someone that had accidentally killed their parents. Someone more than a woman that belonged in the kitchen or as a baby-maker. There were so many things that I wanted. Getting a degree in Genetics from Harvard and starting to work with Howard Stark at Stark Enterprises was the start to my life.

"It would be everything that you've ever wanted," Bucky said, breaking me from my thoughts. I let out a little sigh and nodded. Not everything.

"Do you remember everything that I've ever wanted?" I asked him.

After a beat of silence, Bucky nodded at me. "I remember lots of things about you. Probably some things that you don't even remember. You used to purposely pull at the ends of your hair all day to try and get the curls out that my mother would do for you," he told me.

A small smile formed on my lips. He was right. I would tug at them all day until they were pin straight. It wasn't a popular style but it was the way that I liked it. "I can't believe you remember that," I said softly.

He had no idea what it meant to me that he remembered the little things like that. "Of course. You always looked so desperate to get them out," he told me. I chuckled softly. I was always desperate to get them out. "I remember that we took a trip to Coney Island and you and I forced Steve to go on The Cyclone," he said.

A barking laugh that was extremely embarrassing escaped my mouth. "Do you remember what the two of us were doing while Steve kept throwing up?" I asked him with a sly smile.

Poor Steve had been bent over the trash can as the two of us had laughed for hours and hours. The two of us had made a stupid bet while Steve had been out for the count. "We made a bet to see who could go on it the longest before throwing up," Bucky told me with another smirk.

It was so true. The two of us had gone on The Cyclone over and over again until one of us had thrown up. It was probably a bad idea but it was one of the best days that I could remember. "And who won that bet?" I asked Bucky with a little sing-song note to my voice.

Bucky snarled at me. He had always hated losing to me when we were kids. But somewhere in the back of my mind I had a feeling that he actually liked seeing me win. "You did. But I let you win," Bucky defended himself.

My jaw dropped open and I shook my head at him. "You did not!" I snapped. "I won that bet fair and square. The Thunderbolt and Tornado too!" I added. They were two more roller coasters that we had dragged Steve on. The entire time that we had dragged him from ride to ride I was sure that he was getting closer and closer to collapsing. "I thought Steve was going to lose his mind when we kept dragging him on those rides," I said with a small laugh.

Bucky laughed too. "I could never believe that you were the one that wanted to ride them over and over again." He was right. It was me that had kept dragging him on all of the rides. "I remember that you were the only girl in line," he added.

And he was completely right. I had always been the only girl in the lines. All of the boys had been staring at me like I was insane. "We had a good time together when we were kids, didn't we?" I asked him after a moment.

"Yeah, we did," Bucky said with a small nod. He then leaned forward into me. "That doesn't mean that we can't have a good time together as adults too," he told me with a soft smile.

I knew that it meant that he wanted the two of us to be the same friends that we were when we were kids. But things were changing. They always would change. "No, it doesn't. But things are going to change, Bucky. Things always change. You're going to go off to war. Steve... I still haven't spoken to Steve in years. And I'm going to be stuck here. We're all going to go different ways and you... You're - We..."

The last thing that I wanted to tell Bucky was that I was afraid that he was going to lose his life. He was strong. He had to be okay. I wasn't sure that I'd be able to live if he wasn't okay. "You're afraid of what's going to happen to me," Bucky finally pieced together.

Of course, you doofus. "Why shouldn't I be?" I snapped at him, slightly meaner than I meant to. "People are dying every day, Bucky. More and more. Hundreds of American soldiers die every day. What if you're deployed to Germany?" I asked, panic settling in.

I would go in with him but I knew that we couldn't. I was a woman. I barely belonged here at Camp Lehigh, I certainly didn't belong on the front lines. "I'll go out there and fight. That's the reason that I'm here, Vika," he told me. Bucky leaned forward and grabbed my hands. I sighed softly. "And I've got something worth living for," he told me as a little wink.

Once more I let out a little laugh. We all had something worth living for. I had Bucky and Steve worth living for. And Stryker. One day I would exact my revenge on him. For everything that he had done to me. "You deserve to get to grow old and have a family," I told Bucky softly.

"That's not to say that you don't."

Everyone deserved to get old and have a family but I wasn't one of those people. I never would be. Not because of what I am. "Of course not but -" I said before being cut off by Bucky.

"But what?" He interrupted me.

Nothing that I could tell him. No way. He would run from me, he would hate me, he would be afraid of me. "Nothing. I don't know. Sometimes it just feels like we live so much in the now that we forget that one day we are going to grow old and grow apart," I said sadly.

I had just gotten Bucky back and perhaps one day I would get Steve back as well. But that wasn't to say that I would keep them forever. One day they were going to move on from me. "No," Bucky snapped.

My eyebrows raised. "No?" I asked.

Bucky nodded at me with a proud look on his face. "No," he repeated. Once more I raised my eyebrows. What the hell did he mean, no? "You and I are going to live with Steve with twenty cats," he told me.

The two of us stared at each other for a moment before letting out barking laughs. That would be a disaster. Steve swelled up like a balloon when he was near them. And Bucky had nearly killed Old Ms. Cotter's cat when it had shredded his shoes that had been left outside. "Steve is allergic to cats. And you hate them," I pointed out.

The smile that was on Bucky's face still didn't wear off. "So you'll have the house to yourself for the most part," Bucky said. A small laugh escaped my mouth and I shook my head.

There was no way that I was ever going to have a good life. Steve and Bucky, they would. But not me. "Come on. We all know that you're going to be the first one to find some pretty girl to marry. You'll have a nice little family and white picket fence," I told him with a little nudge to the shoulder.

Bucky shook his head at me, a sudden darkness falling over his face. "I don't know. I'm not the one with some billionaire pining after them," he said grouchily.

A sudden smile broke over my face. I knew that look. It was the same look that I had gotten when Lorraine had been flirting with Bucky the other week. "Are you jealous?" I asked him with a teasing note to my voice.

His face fell into a bored stare. "You really think that he wants anything innocent from you?" Bucky snapped at me. I smiled to myself and shook my head. The two of us were working on a project together. Despite his frequent attempts to flirt with me, I knew that he wasn't really serious. "Vika he doesn't want anything from you that you should want," Bucky told me once more.

And speak of the Devil, and he shall appear. Once more I laughed as Howard came to stand behind me, laying a hand on my shoulder. Bucky tensed as he sent a deep glare to the man. "Victoria. I'll pick you up from the lab this afternoon?" He asked me.

I could see that he was giving a look to Bucky out of the corner of his eyes. "Um no, actually. The classrooms. I'll be helping the privates this afternoon," I said awkwardly, knowing that the longer that Howard stood here and the longer that he held his hand on my shoulder, the angrier Bucky was getting.

Howard nodded at me. "That's fine. I'll see you this afternoon, Victoria." Howard then turned over to Bucky. He grinned at my friend. "Private..." he trailed off.

He knew Bucky's name. He knew that this was the guy that he was continuously trying to get me to ask on a date. He was just doing this to push my buttons. "Barnes. Bucky," he introduced himself.

Howard's deep brown eyes began to twinkle and I rolled my eyes. Nothing good was going to come of this. "Ah... Victoria speaks very highly of you," he told Bucky.

Bucky's eyes lit up slightly. He turned to look at me with a devious little smile and I groaned under my breath. There was never going to be a happy medium with these two. They were either going to hate each other and pull me back and forth or they were going to both love me and constantly tease me. "Does she?" Bucky asked Howard, even though he was facing me.

Howard nodded, not that Bucky was looking at him. "She does. In fact it's very rarely that I see someone speak so highly of someone else that they aren't romantically linked with," Howard said.

And that's enough of that. "Howard!" I barked. Bucky was wearing a small grin on his face and Howard was looking at me with a teasing grin. "There's work to be done in the lab. Come on," I said, standing from the table. My hand wrapped around Howard's arm and I yanked him away, feeling his shoulder briefly pop out of place at the force. "Bye, Bucky!" I called back over my shoulder.

I had to get the two of us out of here before Howard made things any more awkward. "Breakfast tomorrow?" Bucky called out to me before I could get away.

"Of course."

"Be on time tomorrow?"

A smirk formed on my lips. "Of course not."

From behind me I could feel Howard vibrating with laughter. "Have a good day of training Private Barnes," Howard called back as we walked away. Even without looking away I could feel Bucky's eyes burning a hole in the back of my head. As the two of us walked towards the lab Howard hooked an arm around my shoulder.

Glancing up at Howard with a raised eyebrow I folded my arms across my chest. This was nothing good. He was planning something. "What are you doing?" I asked him.

Howard was grinning at the walkway in front of us. "Don't turn back now but your friend is staring daggers through my back," he told me.

Idiot. Was that really why he had hooked his arm around me? Because he wanted to make Bucky jealous? If he was even jealous. It was just because he didn't like Howard or the way that he acted. "I think that I miss the point of how this is a good thing," I told him.

"He thinks that there's something going on here and I promise you that he'll go on and make his first move," Howard told me.

They were deaf. They all must have been deaf. How many times did I have to tell them that I wasn't interested in Bucky or vice versa? "I don't need him to make the first move! There's nothing going on between the two of us so there's no moves to make," I snapped quickly.

Howard merely gave me a little grin. He didn't seem the least bit bothered with my little snap. Mostly because he knew that I wasn't going to do anything out here. "Tell that to someone that can't see right through you," Howard told me as we walked out of the mess hall. "The way that he looks at you is the same way that my father used to look at my mother," he added, softer this time.

Once we were clear of Bucky's line of sight I noticed that Howard's arm dropped from around my shoulder. "We're friends. We've been friends since we were kids. I met him when I was eight and his and Steve's families took me in when I had nowhere else to go. We're practically family," I argued weakly.

"Maybe. But not family like brother and sister," he told me and I raised my brows. I was like Steve's sister. I always had been. And I was like Bucky's sister. I had to be. "More like husband and wife. How do you think that Victoria Barnes sounds?" Howard asked with a little grin.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw that Chester was near us. And he had clearly overheard Howard's comment. He turned back to us with a stern glare. "How old are you? Shut your mouth!" I shouted at him.

Of course, things never seemed to work out for me. Chester walked up beside us with his arms folded over his chest. "What did you just say?" He asked Howard.

Before Howard could open his mouth and say anything to make things worse, I grabbed Howard by the arm and began to pull him away. "Nothing, old man. Howard spewing steam. I'll be going to Stark Industries later today. Don't wait up," I told him.

Chester narrowed his eyes at the two of us. "And what time will you be back by?" He asked me.

I groaned under my breath. It was really like my father was asking me what time I would be back from a date with a boy that he didn't trust. "It's not a date!" I snapped loudly.

Probably too loud seeing as some men turned back to look at me. I could hear their thoughts. Most of them were wondering how I had managed to snag Howard Stark. "That's right. If there's someone that you should be talking to about a date it's -" Howard began before I cut him off.

"Shut your mouth!"

Why was it that none of my so-called 'friends' would let the whole Bucky situation go? "Who?" Chester asked, a deep frown marring his face.

"No one!" I shouted before Howard could make things any worse. "Dad, go and... do whatever it is that your job is," I said weakly, already frazzled from everything else. "You! Come on! We have work that we need to get done," I snapped at Howard, dragging him away from the scene. "Why don't you try to be useful for once in your life?" I asked, once we were out of earshot of anyone else.

Howard shrugged his shoulders as we walked towards the lab. "I'm being plenty useful," he told me.

"You're one of the most useless people that I've met in my entire life," I replied.

Thankfully Howard decided that silence would be his best bet for a while. The two of us walked over towards the lab and I smiled at a few of the men that were from my division. Slowly they were opening up to me. A few of them still hated me and most didn't like the fact that I knew more about - well, everything - then them. Most of them were acclimating to me and I'd noticed that a few of them even started speaking to me without prompt. Although I did still hear their thoughts from time to time and they were rarely savory.

As we walked into the laboratory we took a seat at the table that we normally worked at. Like usual there were things spread everywhere. Some were tests that had been run over the last few days, others were blood samples, and there was still a stack of newspapers that hadn't been opened. I had burned the newspaper that Howard had left about the fire that I had caused years ago. No one needed to see that.

The team was already there. Very few even bothered to look up from their paperwork to say something to me. Not that it bothered me. This time I knew that it wasn't because they were being rude. This time I knew that it was because they were busy and they didn't want to distract themselves. I didn't blame them. Plus, they were in their zone. I got to travel back and forth from the labs pretty frequently seeing as I also worked with the recruits. They were in the labs from sun-up to sun-down.

In the back of my mind I knew that the men didn't like me walking around and seeing what they were doing. But that didn't matter. I had to make sure that we were making something at least akin to progress. John growled as I stood over him and I rolled my eyes. He seemed to be writing out the code for the DNA that we were attempting to replicate. It didn't look quite right but I didn't want to say anything. John already hated me and I knew that saying something to him would only earn me a shouting match for the next hour or so.

And there was work to be done. So instead I moved to the next person. William moved to the side of his work and began to explain it to me. He seemed to be working with coding, attempting to ensure that nothing would mutate the DNA dangerously. As for now, it looked extremely dangerous to me. We were going to turn the poor test subject green, or give him three extra arms, or an eye on the end of their nose.

Still though, I didn't bother to say anything to him. We all knew that nothing good was going to happen unless we made some major progress. I went to Robert next. The two of us were actually the only ones on the team that could chat like we were friends. He was breaking down the elements in the super soldier serum, trying to determine if anything should be changed. It looked like a lot of it was too dangerous. We needed something to stabilize the effects of the serum.

And that was the problem. What the hell were we supposed to do to stabilize the effects of the serum? So far we had no ideas that were plausible. The radiation was still too dangerous. At Joseph's table I saw that he was looking for new elements to put into the serum. He also seemed to be looking back and forth through radiation types. Nothing that we wanted to do would work. Some were too weak and others were too strong. There was nothing that was in the middle and I didn't know how to make a new form of radiation.

Maybe that was something that either Abraham or Howard would be able to figure out. This was nothing that I would be able to figure out for myself. Or the others. It wasn't what we were trained in. George was currently scribbling down a bunch of formulas. None of them made any sense to me. Numbers were in the wrong place and most of the formulas were written backwards. I rolled my eyes and strutted away from him. That didn't exactly seem like a conversation that I wanted to get involved with.

Howard was still at my desk working on a piece of drafting paper as I walked over and took a seat next to him. I began to flip through the blood samples but I didn't get very far. A moment after I had been seated I saw Abraham peek his head around the corner. "Howard. Victoria. Might I speak with you for a moment?" He asked.

Glancing up at Howard, the two of us nodded and stood from our spots at the table. "Certainly," I told him before turning back to the other men. "Continue working. Everything looks good," I half-lied.

The three of us headed out towards Abraham's office. "Anyone making any progress?" Abraham asked me as we walked.

I sighed softly and shook my head. "Like a snail, you know. Every once in a while we do something that makes sense. But it seems like each time we take one step forward we take another two steps backwards. We'll get there eventually. We just need time," I explained slowly.

The truth was, what we were doing took time. We were trying to completely change someone's DNA. It wasn't going to happen overnight. "She's right. But this is the way that we knew that this was going to work. We're starting essentially from scratch. It's like my inventions. They take time, but eventually they do work," Howard added on as we walked.

The three of us walked into Abraham's office and I moved into the chair as he closed the door. Abraham walked back around us and took a seat at the desk. Howard and I followed a moment later. Abraham had his hands folded together with a small sigh. He definitely looked like he was waiting to tell us something. I forced myself not to slip into his mind. He was going to tell us. He just needed to get himself up to it.

A full two minutes passed before Abraham finally spoke. "I must tell you both something. The serum was a success once before," he finally said.

Well that definitely wasn't what I was expecting. But that didn't make any sense. Why were we trying to figure out something that had been completed? I glanced over at Howard but he seemed as lost as I was. "So why are we experimenting with it if it's already been a success?" I finally asked.

The topic clearly made Abraham uncomfortable. "Because... it changes the person that has been affected. It amplifies a person's key traits. It is dangerous to replicate the serum as is."

"It amplifies traits of their personality?" I asked him.

Abraham nodded at me. "Yes. That appeared to be what it was. Johann Schmidt believed that he was ready for the serum." He was the head of the HYDRA Science Division with the Nazi's. Peggy had mentioned to me that she had rescued Abraham from him. "I thought that it might have been ready too. But there were physical effects. There is a reason that he is called the Red Skull," Abraham said softly.

Did he really have a red skull? Maybe one day I would find out. And if so, that made him like me. "He sounds like a mutant," I said softly.

Abraham glanced over at me and nodded. We could talk about mutation with only the three of us around. "In many ways he is. But he was given his powers. He wasn't born with them. We simply call men like him 'enhanced'. It's what makes him different to you," he explained to me.

Once more I nodded. Were there other people like him? Why would anyone want to be like him? I understood wanting to be strong or smart. But to really become a mutant? That was pointless. Mutants were terrifying. The world didn't know about them and even if the world did know about them, they would hate them. We weren't really even real people. A red skull would petrify people. My yellow eyes were bad enough.

"Oh I certainly hope that's not the only thing that makes us different," I said softly. Howard smiled at me and laid a hand on my shoulder. "So we need something that counteracts the physical changes made to the soldier who undergoes the transformation. I mean, muscles and whatnot are no big deal, but a red face might not go over well," I explained, mostly to myself.

It wouldn't be that bad to appear as a super soldier. But red faces and yellow eyes were not something that anyone wanted. "And that's the problem. We need something to counteract the effects. The radiation level that we used with Schmidt was too high. But anything lower would be too low. We would never get the desired effect."

There was a chance that we could try and use gamma rays. But would they be too high? They might give the same kind of effect that Schmidt had gotten. "Would gamma radiation work?" I asked.

"No," Howard immediately answered. "Gamma radiation is extremely unstable. We couldn't risk it. Chances are we'd get another Red Skull. Or something even worse. What about something in the middle?" He asked.

Was there even something in the middle? "By all means, if you can figure out something in the middle, be my guest. It might just help," Abraham said.

"Are you using strictly the radiation waves?" I asked him.

Perhaps the issue here was that we were acting on the radiation too heavily. Maybe if we could break the process up into components it would be less harsh on the body. But was it possible? "The serum as well," Abraham told me.

"What if we break it up into pieces?" I asked. Both men turned to me with raised eyebrows. "It sounds like the serum itself is simply too much for the human body to handle without mutating dangerously - in some form. So let's break it up. Allow the mutations to spread more evenly over the body. We could give part of the compound intravenously and another part orally. Then hit the body with the radiation," I said.

Both men were staring at each other, clearly trying to determine whether or not it was a plausible solution. After a moment, Howard began to nod. "That actually might work. It definitely sounds plausible," he finally said.

"There's still one problem," I said softly. I hated to be the buzzkill but it was the truth. "The radiation levels that are too high are still going to damage to the body. We have to find a way to use the waves without damaging the person. And we need to find a way to contain it. We can't have radiation waves blasting out all over the place. We have people here. Real Army recruits," I said softly.

Pushing an image of a dead Bucky out of my mind I sighed. He wanted to be here. He was a good man. I just had to remind myself that he was capable. "Leave the containment part to me. You brought me here to do what I do best. And building is what I do best. I can design a type of chamber," Howard offered.

"Let me bring the radiation idea over to my team. See if we can figure something out," I added.

Howard stood from his chair and motioned for me to stand with him. "I'll go with you and see what I can contribute. In the meantime, you have some drafting paper that I can use?" He asked me. I nodded at him. More was in the trash than anything else but I did have some. "Better get started on that chamber. It will take a while to actually design and build it," Howard informed Abraham.

Abraham nodded with a pleased smile. "Well done to both of you. Get started on the work. I'll come check back with you later," he said.

The three of us all turned to go our separate ways before Howard stopped us. "Wait. There are actually still two problems. You said that a person's key traits are amplified," Howard said to Abraham, who nodded. "We can't use someone like Schmidt. We have to find someone pure of heart," he continued.

"Which is why you're here," I pointed out to Abraham. "You and Chester are working to find someone that is pure of heart. Someone that only wants what's best for the country."

Abraham turned to me and smiled. "Precisely, Fraulein. Someone here - maybe not yet - but someone will make the perfect super soldier," he said. I nodded softly. One day we would find the right person. But we had to be careful. We couldn't afford another Red Skull. "Until then we continue working. Until we can find someone worthy of stepping into that chamber."

Once more we all turned to leave. But before we could I turned back once more. "Abraham? Before we leave, what's the level of risk we need before allowing ourselves to begin testing?" I asked curiously.

Whether or not I knew the person that would be stepping into that chamber I was going to have to make sure that they wouldn't die. "Eighty-five percent."

"That's too low," I muttered softly. That left a fifteen percent chance that whoever went into the chamber wouldn't make it out. "We should have it up to ninety percent. At the lowest," I suggested.

"Well I was looking through those files last night. Right now the risk is below ten percent. We've got a lot of work to do before this starts making sense," Howard said and I nodded. He was right. It was still probably going to be about a year before we got this thing working. "Come on."

The two of us said goodbye to Abraham and walked back into my little studio. The men were still working away. Some of them looked like they were about to fall asleep. I knew that they worked all through the night and I figured that they were exhausted. Thankfully Howard was around when I pitched the radiation idea to the team. They rarely took my ideas seriously without either Howard or Abraham there to back me up. Despite the fact that I was the leader of our team.

But so went being a woman in the forties. No men ever wanted to take me seriously. Although it seemed like today it wasn't just the fact that I was a woman. None of the five of my teammates seemed to think that the radiation was a good idea. I understood. It didn't sound right. Radiation sounded dangerous. It typically was dangerous. People were warned to stay away from it. Although the men did agree that it was time to try something. We couldn't stay in the design phase forever. And so went the plan to create a new form of radiation. Something that Howard was assisting with.

My legs were tucked under myself as I scribbled down the coding for the human genome, attempting to manipulate it. "Victoria," Howard called out and I hummed, "what time did you need to go to the classrooms?"

"One," I answered immediately, still not looking up from my paperwork. "Why?" I asked.

Howard snorted as he continued scribbling down his design for the radiation chamber. "It's twelve fifty-six," he told me nonchalantly.

My pen dropped against the table as I rolled my eyes at myself. "Damn it!" I snarled before untangling my legs and jumping off of the chair. "See you later, Howard. Bye guys, keep up the good work! I'll see you all in here again tomorrow," I called out to my team.

"Bye, Victoria," the men all muttered, not bothering to look up from their papers.

Not that it bothered me. Howard was still chuckling and I whacked him over the head with one of his rolled up newspapers before darting from the room. Abraham was standing near the doors and I chirped a greeting in German to him before running off. Chester was there as well, speaking with Peggy, and the two laughed at my obvious haste to get to the classrooms. Peggy had just left the classrooms for the day. She was heading to the recruiting offices for the day to look for new recruits for the next training season.

As I dashed through the camp I finally ran into the classrooms, twenty seconds before I needed to be there. I smiled to myself and walked over to where Bucky was reading a map. "This doesn't make any sense. The map says that Berlin is east of Anhalt but it looks to me like it's actually west," he muttered to me as I walked up.

I stared sideways at the map and grinned. Three days of training with maps and he still couldn't read them properly. "Perhaps it would make a little more sense if you were holding the map correctly," I said. Bucky's head shot up. "See that little N down there? That's to show which direction is north. In the years that I've been reading maps, north is typically pointing upwards," I teased.

Bucky glanced up at me with a blank stare. He glanced down at the map once more before flipping the map and letting out an embarrassed laugh. "Aren't you clever?" He asked me.

I gave him a small smile. "At least I can read a map," I teased.

Bucky laughed and gave me a little nudge. I giggled as I leaned over and yanked the map from Bucky. "And isn't that why I'm in this class?" He asked me.

"Which you clearly need to be in if you're holding the map upside down."

He gave me a sharp glare that I knew was just meant to tease me. "Okay so the map was upside down for one minute. That isn't the worst thing that I could have done," he told me.

"Of course not. But it might really screw you over if you're trying to head to Berlin and wind up in Anhalt," I told him with a little grin.

Once more Bucky laughed and gave me another shove. This time I wasn't prepared for it as I was leaning over a map of Italy. When Bucky shoved into me I tripped and fell against the table. Thankfully he caught me and righted the two of us against the table that all of the maps were laid on. He had me pressed back against the counter and our hips were gently grazing each other. My eyes began to fade into a soft pink and I looked away, stuttering softly.

Bucky's hands were on my hips and he gently let me go, brushing my hair that had fallen out of my bun back and tucking it behind my ears. We were standing right up against each other and when I glanced back up at Bucky - after making sure to push the pink tinge out of my eyes - I realized that our lips were just a few inches away from each other. For a moment I wanted to lean in. And for a fleeting moment I heard Bucky's thoughts. It was the first time in a long time that I had heard his thoughts so loud.

Just do it.

Did he really just say that? Did he want to kiss me? We never got the chance. At another table a recruit named Harry dropped a few rulers, startling everyone. Bucky and I jumped back from each other, coughing and mumbling apologies. Neither one of us could manage to look each other in the eye. Not after what had just almost happened. Not after I had nearly made myself a laughing stock.

The two of us gave each other an awkward little smile before I departed. "I - I - uh - I gotta go. Teach the others. Keep reading the maps. You're doing well," I muttered stupidly before dashing off.

For the first time in a long time I saw a blush colored over Bucky's face. I was sure that I had never seen him blush before. I smiled into my lap as I took a seat near Jeremy and began to explain the compass rose. Even as I explained everything I could hear Bucky's thoughts. Not that I meant to hear them. Why the hell didn't you just do it, dingus? I let out a little giggle as I went back to work with Jeremy, doing everything in my power to not think of the almost kiss.

What would have even happened? Nothing. I would have embarrassed myself. First of all, everyone else was watching me. Bucky would be removed from my division and I would be forced to leave the camp. Or at least I would no longer be allowed to associate with Bucky. The other terrible thing would have been that I knew that Bucky had some experience. He had kissed people before. Just a few. But me? Nothing. Not with being in Stryker's lab for seven years. I hadn't had time to kiss anyone.

But now that I was getting older - hell, I was twenty-one - I realized that maybe it was time for me to have my first kiss. Maybe it was something that I would have to discuss with Peggy. She had obviously already had hers. She was engaged at one point. Of course she had already had her first kiss. I wanted to get it over with. But I wasn't sure that I would want it to be with Bucky. What if he laughed at me for having no experience? What if I looked like a fool? Like things weren't awkward enough between us.

Distracting me from my thoughts - thankfully - one of the drill sergeants began to shout for the recruits to begin quizzing themselves on the medical advice that they had learned over the past few days. Every day they were quizzed on a little more. At the end of the week they would be putting it to practical use. I knew that it wasn't the most amusing time of training but it was something vital for them to know. It would be the difference between someone dying and someone living.

Jeremy stood and walked over to another drill sergeant. Instead it was Bucky that took a seat with me. He seemed perfectly fine after the near kiss. It was something that bothered me to the core. Why the hell was he okay after we had nearly kissed? How could he not be thinking about it? Because he's used to kissing people and not making a big deal over it. Perhaps I was just being a big baby.

Attempting to push the intrusive thoughts out of my mind, I took a seat at a table with Bucky and sat across from him, crossing my legs and bringing out a writing pad. "Okay. What are some things that you could use to make a splint with when you have no medical equipment with you?" I asked.

"You could use a bayonet, rifle, entrenching tool, tent poles and stakes, or a web belt," he told me.

I smiled. Every morning at breakfast I saw him reading over the notes that he had. He was determined to do well in the Army. I was just glad that Abraham hadn't bothered looking over Bucky for the super soldier serum. Probably because he knew what he meant to me and he knew that I would never let him into that chamber. Not without knowing whether or not he would survive.

"Well done," I finally told Bucky. "What's the quickest way to splint a broken leg?" I asked.

"Tie the broken leg securely to the unbroken leg."

All of his responses came almost automatically. I was so proud of him. He had come a long way from the boy that could barely motivate himself to get up and go to high school in the mornings. "Good. How many pressure points, which can be used to control bleeding with fingers, thumbs or hands are there on the human body?" I asked.

This one took him a little longer. "Eleven."

"Yes," I told him with a little smile. I wondered what he would think if he realized that the pressure points would never work on me. "How high should an injured limb be elevated above the heart to control bleeding?" I asked.

"Two to four inches."

I scribbled down a few notes about him and his answers. "Mm-hmm. If a casualty were suspected of having a neck/spinal injury or severe head trauma, which method would you use for opening an airway?"

"The jaw thrust technique."

"Nice. What are two basic types of fractures?"

I certainly hoped that he knew this one. This was definitely one of the easier ones. "Open - compound - and closed - simple," he told me.

I gave him a little nod. "Not bad," I said. He gave me a bright smile. I knew that he was proud of himself. I was proud of him too. "What are the three types of bleeding?" I asked after a beat.

"Arterial- Blood is bright red and will spurt with each heartbeat. Venous- Blood is dark red and flows in a steady stream. Capillary- Blood oozes from the wound."

Another right answer. "Alright. Name four common points for checking pulse."

"Carotid- The side of the neck. Femoral- The groin. Radial- The wrist. Posterial Tibial- Ankle."

"Okay. What is the first indication of frostbite?" I asked.

It was another one of the easier questions that I could give him. He would get this one right too. "Skin becomes numb and white particles/patches form on it."

"Well done. You'll get more questions with the other Drill Sergeants as time goes on," I told him. And it was the truth. Over the next few days I needed to be in the labs more. I had to be there more often. We needed to try and get some traction for the Operation Rebirth project. "You'll be fine though. It seems like someone's been studying," I teased Bucky.

He laughed under his breath and nudged me. "I knew that you were going to be here watching us. The last thing that I wanted was to look stupid in front of you," he said.

I grabbed his hand and nudged him roughly. "You'll always look stupid in front of me," I told him.

The two of us laughed softly as I began to close my notes on Bucky's performance. He was watching me with a bright smile. "You always did know how to make me feel better." And that one made me laugh too. "What exactly are you getting out of being here?" Bucky asked me after a moment.

I knew what he meant. He was asking me why I had come here in the first place. It was pretty obvious that I wasn't being paid to be here. "This project that we're working on. If we can complete it successfully Dr. Erskine will petition for me to earn a degree in Genetics from Harvard University," I said with a small smile.

It was the one thing that I wanted in this world. I really wanted to be a woman that could actually manage to do something good with my life. "Harvard?" Bucky asked, sounding impressed. I nodded at him. "Geez, Vika."

"Yeah. Isn't that pretty great?" I asked him with a small smile.

He nodded back at me. He was wearing a small smile that I knew told me that he was as proud of me as I was of him. "It's incredible. I hope that it works out for you," he said.

"I do too," I said softly. It didn't change the fact that I was nervous that the project might never work. "As long as this project is a success it should work. But we're still a long way from getting it to work."

Bucky leaned forward and laid a hand on my shoulder. It warmed me slightly. I had never been overly affectionate but Bucky knew how to get it out of me. "If anyone can do it I know that it's you," he told me. I smiled and giggled softly. His smile dropped off of his face and was replaced with a little snarl. I knitted my brows together. "There's your friend."

I turned back for a moment to see that Howard was walking through the hallway. "Jealousy is not a good look on you, my friend," I said with a teasing note as I turned back to him.

His face dropped and he scowled at me. "I'm not jealous. You're my best friend, Vika. And I don't like the way that guy looks at you," he told me.

The only way that Howard looked at me was like a friend that wanted to get his other friend in trouble. "Okay, how about you take a walk around on the base and I can tell you about all the girls that are looking at you with looks that are a little less than savory?" I snapped.

Whoops. That definitely wasn't the way that I wanted that to come out. "And who has the green-eyed monster now?" Bucky asked me with a little smile.

"I am not jealous," I snarled under my breath. Yes you are. I wasn't quite sure if it was my thoughts or his that I was hearing. "I just think that you deserve someone that cares about you and loves you because they know what an amazing person you are. Not just because you have a cute face," I told him.

Damn me! She thinks that I have a cute face? "You think that I have a cute face?" Bucky asked me with a little grin.

How was I always the smartest person that I knew until I got around Bucky? "I think that you're a pain in the ass," I told him with a little roll of my eyes.

Finally Howard walked up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder. I noticed Bucky's stance immediately tense up. "Victoria, are you ready to leave?" Howard asked me.

I nodded. Bucky glanced back at the table with dark eyes. I knew that he was pissed. He hated that I hung out with Howard. Just the way that I would hate it if he hung around Peggy. "Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow morning. Keep studying Bucky, I'm not going to take it easy on you," I teased him with a little wink.

Bucky definitely looked happy that I had at least given him a little tease. "I wouldn't have it any other way," he teased me before glancing over to Howard and giving him a curt nod. "Mr. Stark."

Howard gave him a nod back. But this time I realized that he was wearing a little smile on his face. He knew that being around me was making Bucky jealous. I wanted to smack him. "Private Barnes," Howard greeted before taking me by the hand and leading me away from Howard. I had never been so happy that Bucky didn't have Pyrokinesis. Howard would have definitely been on fire by now. Perhaps me too. "Now, might I take you on that tour of Stark Industries?" Howard asked as we walked off.

"Nothing would make me happier except, of course, if you people would stop insisting that I have feelings for Bucky!" I shouted softly enough to make sure that Bucky couldn't hear me. That was the last thing that I needed.

Howard merely grinned at me. "You know, we might stop trying to get the two of you together if you'd actually admit your feelings for each other," he told me. I couldn't help the little eye-roll that came out.

The two of them were really never going to come up. I was going to have to get them to give this up somehow but I had no clue how to go about that. "What feelings? We've been best friends since childhood. That's it," I snapped at him.

"I don't have to be a mind reader to know that that is a complete lie," Howard told me as we walked out of the gate to his car - another one. I had seen at least four cars that he owned since meeting him.

"The technical term is telepath."

Howard turned a bored and irritated look on me. "The technical term is you can win any fight that you've ever gotten into yet you're too afraid to go and tell that boy that you care for him," he argued with me.

Perhaps that was the truth but I did not want to have to tell him that. "Do you have an off button?" I snapped at him, not wanting to listen to this conversation all the way to Stark Industries.

Howard grinned at me and nodded. "Sure." Well that didn't bode well for me. "You're more than welcome to try and find it," he told me with a sleazy grin.

Part of me knew that it was just a joke but that didn't mean that I wasn't debating electrocuting him. "You're a cow," I growled. He chuckled softly as I placed my hand around his arm and sent a little spark of electricity over his arm. He jumped at the slight pain and I snorted as we walked over to his car.

It was one of the nicer ones of his that I had seen. He had a Delahaye 135 convertible. Chester had one before he sold it in the months leading up to leaving for Camp Lehigh. Howard opened the door and allowed me to slide across the bench seat. A moment later he took the driver's seat and whisked the two of us off. He certainly did enjoy that the car could press almost ninety miles per hour. It was faster than his other cars. We drove down the road and I turned back to wave off Chester.

Our conversation as we drove through the country - and eventually the city - was an easy one. As much as Howard and I liked to mess with each other and laugh, the two of us really were good friends. My time here would have been a lot different without him. I loved Peggy too. I had never had a real girl friend before so I genuinely enjoyed having her around. And it was nice to have another woman on the base that was something more than a secretary. I knew that she - like me - was excited for the physical part of training. It would give us the chance to show off that we were stronger even than we let on.

Nearly half an hour after we had left Camp Lehigh, Howard and I drove up the high-security road that led to Stark Industries. Howard cut himself off from a conversation about why he began Stark Industries to let me take in the building. I smiled softly. It was pretty impressive that a building of this size had been constructed in such a short period of time.

The front of the warehouse was rather long. It was about three of the bunkers long and had Stark Industries written across the front right side of the building in large, black, letters. On the left side of the warehouse was a large white hangar. It must have been where he kept planes or larger machines. Behind the front building was a large walkway with a helicopter landing pad on the back of the building. It was all enclosed. A large fountain stood at the front of the building and I smiled as it began to shift colors.

While the building was impressive it still had the Stark flair. Howard stopped the car and allowed me to walk through the front hall of the building. It opened up into a large hallway that was full of what appeared to be projects that Howard was working on. There were simple things like learning refrigerators and vacuum cleaners that could operate by themselves. There were the more impressive like robotic arms and automatic inflating tires.

Up on the ceiling were some of the planes that I recognized from the reports. They were the planes that Howard had designed to attack the Japanese after the bombing at Pearl Harbor. "This place is incredible," I said to Howard under my breath as the machines in the room continued to move on their own account.

A moment later Howard placed a gentle hand on my back and began to nudge me out of the center of the room. Instead he gently pushed me over onto the far edge of the room where a strange substance was sitting in a glass case. It seemed to be a metallic substance and I grinned softly. The blue tinge in the cylindrical tube was what gave the element away almost automatically. It also screamed that Howard had to be rich. It was one of the most expensive substances in the world.

I turned to Howard with a curious gaze. "That's Vibranium, isn't it?" I asked.

He looked more than a little impressed that I knew what it was. Stryker was the reason that I knew what it was. Before he had settled on using Adamantium - which was cheaper and easier to find, along with being just as strong - he had debated on using Vibranium.

"Yes it is," Howard finally said. I glanced over at him with a little smile as I took another step towards the metal. He didn't seem bothered by me. "You know what it is?" He asked me.

I nodded at him. "Sure. It's one of the strongest metals on Earth. It almost is. The only thing that can compete against it is Adamantium. That's what's plating my bones." Howard raised an eyebrow at me. "Stryker thought that Vibranium might work too but even he has his limits. It was hard for him to find any. After all, they've only ever found it in Wakanda," I recited like it was from a textbook.

It was one of the good things that Stryker had done for me. He had made sure that I knew everything about everything. "Good girl. You'll make a good worker here for me. After only three years Stark Industries is one of the largest companies in the country. Having a mutant might help me even more," he said.

My eyes narrowed at him. No one ever had called me a mutant other than Stryker. It sounded a little weird. I still attempted a joke, not wanting to let Howard know that it had bothered me. "And you just automatically think that I'm going to work for you?" I asked him.

He grinned at me softly. "I think that you're going to work with me," Howard told me. I laughed softly and shook my head. That didn't have a half-bad ring to it. "We're two of the brightest minds that I know of. Together we can do a lot of good in the world."

"And what do you think that you're doing with a large supply of Vibranium?" I asked.

It was the most that I had ever seen in one place. This had to be upward of ten million dollars. "Making a weapon," he told me. I raised my eyebrows at him and crossed my arms over my chest. "Something that will help the military. The Army. I know that somehow it's going to help. It's nearly indestructible and lightweight. It could stop an attack from the Nazi's," he told me.

Lightweight and indestructible were two of the main things that Vibranium was known for. "It's expensive too," I commented.

"And that's where it helps to have a billionaire on our side," Howard told me with a small smirk.

The two of us walked forward until we were standing underneath the planes. I glanced up at them. Howard was still looking at me. "These are the planes that you helped design after the Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor," I said more than asked.

He nodded at me. "Yes they are. They are some of the things that earned me a spot on the Operation Rebirth team. Now I work, trying to develop special weapons."

After a moment I turned over to him and smirked. "No one would ever know that you really aren't a self-centered, arrogant, pompous, jerk," I told him.

He let out a guffawing laugh. "I think that might be the nicest thing that you've ever said to me," he told me. It probably was one of the nicest things that I had ever said to him. I giggled softly and nudged against Howard's chest. He grabbed my lower back and began nudging me over into the next room. If I had thought that the other room was impressive, I knew nothing. "These are some of the things that I'll be showcasing at the next Modern Marvels of Tomorrow exhibition," Howard said.

His voice echoed off of the walls. I smiled and walked to the far corner where a car was sitting on the platform. It didn't look like any car that I had ever seen before. It was similar to a Porsche 904. The car was a deep red and I smiled at it as I took a step towards it. It was called the Mark V and I laughed softly. As I walked up towards it I realized exactly what the car was - and why it was missing any tires. It was a flying car.

Although as I walked forward I realized that it wasn't a flying car. It was actually a hovering car. Or at least, that's what it said on the plaque. "A hovering car? Does it work?" I asked Howard.

Howard grinned at me. "Well, it hovers." That was a major no. "It's just a prototype. It crashes all the time and most of the time I'm sure that it's never going to work. But it's a start in the right direction," he told me.

That was the best way to think about it. One day the car would work. But this was just the beginning. The same way the super soldier serum was working right now. "May I see it?" I asked him.

"Absolutely," Howard said, looking pleased.

Howard walked over to a stand next to the car. Buttons popped up and I watched as he began to key in programs for the car. The lights on the car began to turn on and it let out a loud creak. Tires began to unfold from underneath the car and I smiled. They were metallic. Not tires. The car began to hover a few inches off of the ground, emanating a gold light. It got about a foot off of the ground before it began to groan and the lights began to flicker around it.

Without much warning the car dropped out of the air. Before it could hit the ground - the last thing that I wanted to do was damage his invention - I caught it with a gust of wind. The car began to hover once more, not completely stable, and I glanced over at Howard to see that he was watching it with wide eyes. The mutation was clearly incredible to him. I laughed softly and floated the car around every corner of the room. Up into the corners of the room and sweeping across the floor.

I let it fly for about two minutes before letting it hover softly to the ground. It gave a small groan and I watched as sparks began to shoot up. I jumped back and snorted at Howard. He was staring at me with wide eyes. "That's incredible," he said softly.

I shrugged my shoulders at him. "That's nothing, really. There are so many more things that I can do," I said as I reached over and began to float the car gently across the room once more.

Howard walked over to me and stood behind me. He was watching me curiously. "So now you're going to keep it a secret," he teased me.

Once more I smiled. "I'll tell you and show you anything that you want to see. Just name it," I said.

"Drop the car, will you?" Howard asked me. I nodded at him and floated the car back over to his platform that it had been resting on. I dropped the car gently onto the platform and turned back to him. He leaned into me and motioned his hand towards me. "May I?" He asked.

I raised my eyebrows at him. What was that supposed to mean? "May you, what?" I asked him.

Suddenly the conversation seemed to shift to another topic. It seemed that Howard no longer wanted to speak about my mutation. He was giving me a more serious look than I had ever seen before. "I've met a lot of girls that always insisted that there was some guy that they didn't care for. Most of them were right. It was just a friendship that was never destined to go anywhere."

"But?" I asked, sensing that he had more to say.

"But I think that this is different. I know that this is different. Barnes, you think that he'll be terrified if he ever sees you as you really are. I disagree. I think that you use it as an excuse not to care for him. He cares for you. But I think that you need to know too," he told me.

It really was the most serious that I had ever seen Howard. I wasn't sure how I liked it. "And just how do you propose that I do that?" I asked him, hands on my hips.

"You kiss me," Howard suggested, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"No!"

Howard rolled his eyes at me. "Oh one little kiss isn't going to kill you. You do it and you find out whether or not he means anything to you. If you feel something then you know that maybe Private Barnes isn't as important as we all think that he is. But if the kiss means nothing, you know that there's something holding you back," he told me.

Perhaps kissing people really wasn't as big of a deal now as it was ten years ago. "Howard, I am not going to kiss you," I told him stubbornly.

Howard stared at me for a moment before a rather large grin spread over his face. "Because you've never kissed someone before," he told me with an amused tone to his voice.

Damn him. Why was it that everyone liked to laugh when they realized that I never kissed anyone? The closest that I had come to kissing someone was the kiss on the cheek that I had given Logan before departing. "Well... No. I've had more important things to do with my time. I haven't really had the opportunity to worry about kissing someone," I told him with a little snarl.

He seemed to know that he had hit a soft spot. "What's the worst thing that could happen? You kiss me and you like it and you end up America's richest woman," he teased. I rolled my eyes and shook my head at him. "Or you feel nothing and you at least get some experience," he told me.

"Asshole."

Howard grinned brightly. "Ladies do not speak like that," he told me.

Brat. "Can your fragile little ego handle a rejection?" I asked him. Howard made a pained face that I laughed at. "Because I'm going to turn you down and it's not going to be because I have feelings for someone. That I don't have!" I shouted when he gave me a bright smile.

I really needed to stop and think before saying something. "So?" Howard asked.

He really did want me to kiss him. I wasn't sure if it was because of something completely innocent or if it was because he wanted a good laugh. But maybe he was right. Maybe this was something good. He was right. And at least now I could get it over with, with someone that wasn't going to laugh at me. "If I say yes will you drop it? No matter what?" I asked.

"Absolutely."

After a moment I let out a deep breath. "Alright. Let's get this over with," I said with a sigh, walking over to where Howard was standing.

He shook his head at me and grabbed my hand. "Now that's not the way that you should feel about your first kiss," he teased me.

"Shut up and just kiss me," I snapped at him.

Once more Howard laughed at me. At least I was getting it over with. And some part of me was glad that it wasn't Bucky. I would be too afraid to do it with Bucky. He made me nervous. And I was glad that it wasn't some random guy. That wouldn't be worth a damn thing. But the rest of me was glad that it was going to be with Howard. He really was my best friend. I was comfortable with him. He wasn't going to laugh at me if I did something wrong. And he wasn't going to continue messing with me once I did it.

As much as he liked to tease me, he really did want me to be happy with Bucky. Howard leaned into me and I found myself completely at ease. Nothing like the shaking and chattering mess that I was around Bucky. Our lips met and I jumped slightly. The kiss was soft and gentle. It felt like something that two friends would be doing rather than something that lovers would be doing.

After a moment Howard raised his hand to the back of my neck, brushing the hair away from there. His fingers wrapped against my skull and twisted gently around a few strands of hair. As the kiss continued I knew that it was the type of kiss that any woman would be thrilled to have. It was Howard Stark, in the middle of a private tour of Stark Industries, with a kiss that should have been making fireworks explode everywhere. But I still felt nothing during the kiss. Because somewhere in the back of my mind I knew that I would rather it be Bucky.

That didn't mean that I had any regrets though. I was glad that my first kiss was with Howard. It took the pressure off. As Howard finally released me he gave me a curious look. "Well?" He asked.

I gave him a soft smile. "I wish that I could say that I felt something," I said. Howard didn't look offended. He was actually smiling brightly. "I know that that's the type of first kiss that every girl would want. I'm glad that my first kiss was with you. You're a good man, Howard. In my own way, I love you."

He placed a hand on my back and gave me a small hug. "You know, that might be the nicest thing that anyone has ever said to me. I love you too, Victoria. I'm glad that you didn't feel anything. You deserve someone better than me," he told me.

A sad smile reached over my face. "I think that feeling goes both ways," I told him softly.

He was a good man. I knew that he was. And somewhere deep down I knew that I was good too. But those people who knew what I was had always made me feel like a horrible person. "If you ever want any more practice - with anything - I'll be more than willing to help you out," he told me with a little waggle of the eyebrows.

Snorting under my breath I shook my head at him, shoving against his chest. He took a few steps backwards at the heavy shove. "I'm sure that you will. My answer is still no," I told him.

We both knew that he was only kidding. "Your loss," Howard told me and I rolled my eyes. "So what happens now?" He asked after a beat of silence.

I took a deep breath. Once I said this, there was no going back. "When I manage to get up the guts, I'll tell him how I feel. Alright?" I asked. A bright smile fell over his face. This was what he had been praying for. "But you knock it off until then! All of you!" I shouted.

My voice echoed off of the wall. Both he and Peggy had to stop making me look like a fool. "I think that I can manage that," Howard told me.

"Thank you."

The two of us turned and began walking towards the exit of Stark Industries. We had to get back to Camp Lehigh. It was getting late. "So, can I tell everyone that Victoria Davies, or perhaps Victoria Phillips, had her first kiss with Howard Stark to decide whether or not she had feelings for another guy?" Howard asked me as we walked.

"No!" I shouted. "You're a cow."

Howard grinned at me and shoved me back against the edge of his car. The two of us were laughing as he nudged up against me. "Moo!" He howled in my ear. Our laughter was echoing all around the building when I suddenly silenced myself. Howard stared at me curiously.

What did I do?

Thinking about Logan had reminded me about something important. The one mutation that I had only seen once in my life. The one mutation that made me an Omega mutant. I couldn't believe that I hadn't thought about it until now. I could transform myself into a pure form of radiation. I glanced over at Howard with a bright smile, realizing that I may have just cracked the code on the level of radiation needed to make the super solider serum work. If nothing else, it was a definite start.

Howard was still staring at me. A slightly concerned glance had fallen over his features. "Howard, I have an idea. We have to get back to the labs. Come on!" I yelled, grabbing onto his hand and dragging him away from the building. Operation Rebirth just might work after all.

A/N: Hi everyone! Hope you guys didn't mind the wait for this chapter. I enjoyed writing it. Victoria has finally had her first kiss, with Howard Stark nonetheless. No worries though, they both know that she belongs with Bucky! And we're getting there, I promise! I just want to show that they do have a previously existing relationship. As always, thanks for all of the follows and favorites! And a huge thank you to my reviewers! So please review, guys! Until next time -A

Moniquita2: I always thought that Howard was kind of hot, but I've always liked Bucky more! Hope you're enjoying the story!

AnanasPower: Thank you! Yeah, that's probably better than Google Translate lol. Thanks for the suggestion! Hope you like this!

Anonymous: Glad that this was the best gift you could have gotten! Thank you! Yes, she will see Steve again once we get to the beginning of the events of Captain America: The First Avenger. Another few chapters to go! Hope you keep enjoying!

GetLegsBish-Aiya: Glad that you think it's sweet! I really wanted them to have a past together. I don't like the fics where they just kind of meet each other, and especially not the ones that start in modern day. Hope you continue to enjoy!

Guest: Unfortunately no one can always be safe but I promise that things are looking up for Victoria!