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.

10. Chapter 10

Another yawn escaped my mouth as I traipsed around the room that Peggy and I shared. Under my breath I was humming Jingle Jangle Jingle. It was one of the few songs that I actually knew. Chester used to play it every day. He knew that I was having a hard time trusting him so he would play it and I would hum along once I learned the tune. It had become a favorite of mine. Sometimes I would find myself humming it while I worked. It drove the men that I worked with insane. Probably because of the overly upbeat tune.

As I walked around the room I found myself tripping over a pair of Peggy's heels. A little off escaped my throat as I tripped over them and hit the floor. Mutant or not, clumsiness is still something that I can never get over. I groaned and pulled myself off of the ground, kicking Peggy's shoes slightly. Damn things were always getting in my way. I was wearing a long, green, button-down shirt with brown slacks. It wasn't the nicest outfit that I could have been wearing, but it would work for the day that was ahead of me.

Coming to stand in front of the mirror, I pulled my hair up and twisted it into a bun. A few pieces were already falling out at the messy hairdo but I didn't bother redoing it. I'd do it again when I actually needed to go running around with the recruits. It was endurance this week. We had finally managed to enter Week Three and I was extremely excited. They were going to start learning the physical tactics that they needed for the Army. It would consist of obstacle courses, physical training, and combat scenarios.

When the recruits first arrived at Camp Lehigh, one of the first things that they'd been asked to do was work with the initial Strength Test. It was something that all recruits had to do. It consisted of a two-mile run, pull-ups, and sit-ups. Typical things. There was a required amount that the recruits had to be able to do upon arrival. It was still at those numbers. By the end of training they would need to have improved. We'd be seeing that in a few weeks. Today was also the first time that the recruits would be given an attempt on the Confidence Course, a personal favorite of mine.

It would be wonderful to watch the men attempt that. They all thought that they were so strong. It could be fun to watch them get knocked down a peg or two. The door opened behind me and I continued to hum. If it was opening with no knock, it was Peggy. She had left about a half an hour ago, when I'd still been sleeping. I had woken up not long after that. All I really wanted to do was go back to bed but I knew that it wasn't in the cards for today. I had to keep working.

"Victoria, come on. It's time to -" Peggy drawled until she locked onto me. She looked slightly surprised that I was actually awake and walking around. "Oh. You're up," she commented.

"You're really that surprised?" I asked her with a small smile.

Peggy stared at me for a moment before nodding. "Well, yes, actually. I usually have to pry your half-dead body from the bed," she told me. I dropped onto the corner of the bed and smiled at her.

"That's so not true!" I barked at her.

She merely narrowed her eyes into little slits and shook her head at me. "Yes it is," she told me. Maybe I really was that bad. We both laughed and shook our heads. Peggy walked over to the bed and took a seat next to me. She handed me the spare mug of coffee in her hands and I thanked her. "There you are, I figured that you'd need it if we were going to start physical training today," she said.

Taking a small sip of the scalding beverage - not that it really hurt - I nodded at her. Peggy looked surprised that I was already drinking. "Oh, of course. And you know that the comments are only going to get worse from here on in. They don't want to be taught by women that are stronger than they are," I told her with a scoff.

She nodded at me. She looked about as thrilled with training the irritating recruits as I did. "Not at all. But I have a feeling that we'll be able to take them," I told her with a little nudge. She laughed softly at me. We sat in silence for a moment before she looked over at me. "You aren't meeting with Private Barnes this morning?" She asked.

Of course I was. We met almost every morning for breakfast now. Most nights for dinner too. "I am. Just a little later. I think that he had something to do this morning," I told her. He hadn't told me why he couldn't be at breakfast at six. He just asked if we could push it back until six fifteen.

Peggy gave me a soft smile. She wasn't teasing me quite as much about Bucky, but she still threw the occasional comment at me. "Ah, that's nice. Are you alright?" She asked me after a beat of silence.

"What?" I asked her.

Was I putting off a vibe that said that there was something wrong with me? "You've seemed a little off since you got back from your visit to Stark Industries last week," Peggy said. I nodded mutely at her. "Just wanted to make sure that you're doing alright."

Peggy and I had really only known each other for a few weeks but she was already one of the best friends that I had ever had. Howard too, and I'd known him for even less time. The thing about Peggy was that she was a spy. She was good about reading people. And she knew that something was wrong. Probably because ever since I'd had my first kiss with Howard, things had been strange around Bucky. I'd found myself jumpier than usual, wondering when would be the right time to do something. He teased me about drinking too much caffeine because of the project. Peggy knew better.

Knowing that I was taking too long to answer, I smiled at her. "Thanks, Peggy. I'm alright." A beat of silence went by before I turned to her once more. It was killing me, not telling anyone. I had to tell someone, and Peggy seemed like my best bet. "If I tell you something will you swear to never repeat it? To anyone?" I asked her.

Of course I could always force her not to tell anyone. But I decided to keep that part to myself. Peggy nodded. "Of course."

"Alright. When we went to Stark Industries it was fine. But we got to talking. And Howard found out that I had never kissed anyone," I told her. Her eyebrows rose and she nodded. "He was insisting that I needed to kiss someone before I kissed Bucky. Because he still thinks that I have feelings for him and we'll be together one day. And he was right." Her eyes began to twinkle and I rolled my own. "I mean, I've never kissed someone before. And I hate that it's such a big deal. So I kissed Howard."

If she had looked surprised before, it was nothing compared to right now. Her mouth was practically hanging open. "You kissed Howard Stark?" Peggy asked dumbly.

A soft blush filled my face and I pushed it back. "I did. But we did it more as friends," I insisted, not wanting her to get the idea that there was now something in between Howard and I. "I mean, it was nice. It really was. But I didn't feel anything for him. Not something that I'm supposed to feel, I think," I said awkwardly.

Having never been kissed before, I wasn't really sure what I should have felt. The only thing that I knew was that I really didn't feel anything that I'd heard others talk about. There were no fireworks. There were no sparks. I didn't feel like the end of the world could have come and I wouldn't have noticed. Despite the fact that I did like Howard, and I really did care for him, I knew that there were no feelings there. Other than friendship. And I was sure that we were both okay with that.

"Trust me, if you'd had feelings for Howard, you would have known after you'd kissed him," Peggy told me. I nodded with her and finished my cup of coffee. "It's a good thing though, getting it out of the way. It gets too built up. And most of the time the person you have your first kiss will not be who you end up with. Having it with a friend for the first time is nice," she told me, grabbing my hand.

A little breath escaped me. For a while there I had thought that she was going to call me crazy for doing that. "I'm glad that you agree. I thought that maybe it was too weird for a while there," I told her honestly.

Peggy smiled at me and shook her head. "No. I think it's nice." A little grin fell over my face as I yawned and leaned back against the bed. I was exhausted. "So how are things with you and Private Barnes?" Peggy finally asked.

Groaning softly, I fell against the edge of her shoulder. She laughed and laid a hand over me. "I'm pathetic," I moaned weakly. Howard was right, I liked him and didn't know what to say about it. "I like him, Peggy. I know that now. I really do like him. I think that I always have, I've just been trying to deny it," I explained to her.

"And what part of that is a bad thing?" Peggy asked me.

Everything. It was all a bad thing. I had a crush on a guy that was going to war, I had no clue how to admit to him that I had feelings for him, and I was harboring a number of secrets from him. "What do I say to him?" I asked her.

She had been engaged once upon a time. She knew how to handle things like crushes. "Tell him the truth, Victoria," Peggy told me. It sent a sick feeling through my stomach. I couldn't tell him the truth. I was a gigantic coward. "You care for him. I can see it in his eyes. He cares for you, too." Not really, he just cared for me as a best friend. "So what's stopping you?"

"Look at where we are, Peggy. We're in the Army. He's in the Army. He's going to be deployed at the end of his training. And God knows what's going to happen when he does," I told her weakly.

What was going to happen if he was deployed to Germany? It was one of the most dangerous places that he could have been sent. Really, anywhere other than the States was dangerous and Bucky was good enough to be ensuring that he would be deployed. Somewhere dangerous too. The harsh reality was that I could be sent - and I would never die - but they would never send me. I was a woman. We didn't belong on the front lines. And Bucky - who was a normal human - had every chance to die. But yet he was going to be the man that would be sent out there. Possibly to die. It sent painful waves through my stomach.

"I don't know Private Barnes that well, Victoria," Peggy said, startling me from my thoughts, "but I do know that he's a strong man. He's going to go out there and make this country proud. And no matter what were the happen to him, don't you want him to know how you feel?" She asked me.

It was obvious that she was trying to hint at me that I needed to tell him the truth. She wanted me to. And some part of me wanted to tell him the truth. The question was whether or not I ever would. "Well... yes. I do. But I don't know what to say. What if he doesn't feel the same way?" I asked her.

By now I was just grasping at straws for a reason to not tell Bucky the truth. "Don't be daft!" Peggy snapped at me. I jumped weakly. "Of course he feels the same way. Sweetheart, take your time, I don't want to rush you into saying something to him that you aren't ready to. But tell him something. Eventually. Before he leaves. You have a few weeks to figure it out," she told me.

Leaning over to her, I wrapped my arms around her and leaned my head into the crook of her shoulder. Sometimes she was like a sister, other time she was like a mother. "Thanks, Peggy," I told her softly.

"You're welcome, darling," she said as I leaned away from her and back against the bed. "Now go," she said, shooing me away from her. "Don't be late to breakfast. Maybe you'll figure out something to say to him this morning."

"Doubtful," I told her automatically. If I was going to say something to him, it was going to take me weeks to figure it out. Hopefully before he left, as Peggy had suggested. "But I appreciate it. I'll see you at training later," I told her.

Today I wouldn't be spending much time in the laboratory. While we went into physical training I went out and trained the new recruits. Chester knew that I was going to be one of the best people to do it. If they could manage to hold their own against me, they would have no problem with a Nazi. Of course I would have to take it easier on them. I couldn't go full-out. If I did there was a chance that we would be looking for a lot of new recruits. And something told me that my spot in Operation Rebirth and at Camp Lehigh would suddenly be open. There were still men looking for a reason to remove me from the premises at every corner.

Although that wasn't to say that there weren't some people now that didn't care for me. My appearance here had gotten somewhat more accepted. Now when I walked a number of men and women would smile and wave at me. Some of them would even say hello to me. Of course some of the thoughts that went through their minds weren't always as nice as their outward appearances. As I walked through the halls I ducked into the mess hall and smiled at Bucky. He was sitting with his back facing me at one of the tables. He was in the middle of the room and running his fingers through his hair. He looked exhausted.

Not that I could blame him. They were all exhausted. Of course, waking up early every morning and darting around all day was not something that they were used to. "Good morning, private," I said as I walked up to Bucky on the other side of the table.

Bucky glanced up at me and a wide smile broke over his face. "Look at you!" He hooted. I laughed softly and took my seat. "Managing to be on time today. I'm so proud, Vika," he teased gently.

I rolled my eyes and kicked him underneath the table - being careful not to accidentally break his shin. "Oh, you really have always thought so little of me," I said as I grabbed the spare mug of coffee from him. Coffee was one of my few vices. "You know, I always do take our little breakfasts seriously."

"Do you, now?"

"Of course," I said softly. Come on, you idiot, say something. "You're my best friend. I don't want you here thinking that I don't care. I might care more than you think," I told him. Okay, not quite what I wanted to say, but better than nothing.

"I know that you do," he told me as he leaned forward.

His hands slid across the table and I smiled as he locked our fingers together. For a brief moment I wanted desperately to slip into his head - just so that I could know. But I stopped myself. I was better than that. After a moment I stood and walked over to Bucky's side of the table, breaking apart our hands for a moment. I seated myself next to Bucky and leaned my head against his shoulder. Bucky smiled softly and I felt him wrap his arm over my shoulders. Thankfully no one else in the mess hall was paying attention to us.

He leaned his head down and I felt his mouth press against the top of my head. I desperately tried to keep the pink tinge out of my eyes. "What's this about?" Bucky asked me.

"Nothing." Everything.

Bucky was never one to believe my lies. "Come on, Vika. You can tell me," he said. He grabbed my hands once more and I smiled as he locked our fingers together once more.

His thumb ran over the back of my knuckles and I desperately resisted letting the electricity in my veins from coming up and shocking him. "Just... I don't know,' I said softly, keeping my voice low. "I guess it's being here that makes me nervous. You're my best friend. I spent so much of my life away from you. It was a mistake being away. And now... you're about to go away. And this time -" I rambled before being cut off by Bucky.

"I might not come back?"

"Don't say that. Please don't say that," I told him quickly. The last thing that I wanted was for him to say that he wasn't coming back. He had to. It wasn't a choice.

"Vika, I'm going to come back. You want to know why?" He asked me. I nodded, my head still facing down in my lap. He grabbed my chin and forced my head gently upward so that I was looking at him. "Because you're here. I have something to come back for. And you still owe me that explanation of where you went all those years," he said.

There was a little twinkle in his eyes and I smiled at him. "I'll tell you one day," I said. And it was the truth. My promise to him was that I would one day tell him the truth. He deserved to know. "I just... don't want you to think any differently of me when I do."

The truth was that it wasn't an easy thing to come to terms with. Your best friend having abilities that were unheard of. And being able to kill someone without a second thought... That was dangerous. It made me dangerous. "I never could. Anyone that looks at you as anything less than what you are - they don't deserve you," he told me.

A small blush faded over my face and I fought to keep it out of my eyes. "And what am I?" I asked him.

"Perfect," he told me softly. I scoffed gently and looked down at the ground. The air suddenly turned thick as he grabbed my hand tightly. "To me."

It was the most romantic thing that someone had ever said to me. Not that anyone had really ever said anything romantic to me before. Just small things from friendship. Bucky's hands were gently under my chin and I stared with flaming cheeks as he brought up one hand to brush my loose strands of hair away from my face. We stared at each other and I felt my heart pumping quickly. Far too fast. One hundred and two beats per minute. But that was when I remembered. This was what I had kissed Howard for the other night. So I took matters into my own hands. This is what you wanted. Now act on it. So I moved in slowly. We moved together, Bucky's hand over the back of my neck.

His hands were shaking and when we were just about an inch away from meeting each other's lips, a call startled us. "Victoria!" I heard Chester call out.

The both of us jumped slightly as our eyes fluttered closed. I had a feeling that neither one of us had it in ourselves to move away from the other. My eyes slowly opened but I didn't look up at him. Instead I kept my eyes aimed into my lap. I wasn't sure that I could bring myself to look at him. Bucky looked up and brushed his lips over the side of my cheek before pressing a small kiss against my temple. Even then, it sent my heart soaring. Those are the feelings that you're supposed to get. I leaned back slightly - well aware of Chester's thoughts that were getting angrier and angrier by the second - and stared into the distance.

I leaned into him as our chests pressed together. Bucky's mouth was at my ear, gently grazing it. "I think that your father wants to speak with you," he told me in a low whisper.

"I think that I'll kill him," I scowled as my jaws began to grind together. Bucky laughed softly as the two of us leaned away from each other. Nothing ever seemed so hard as to move away from him.

Before I could stand from the table, Bucky leaned over and gave me one last, small kiss, on the cheek. I smiled and looked across the room. Thankfully no one else was watching us. They were busy getting ready for the day of training. "You should go. I'll see you in training later," Bucky told me.

"Yeah. See you later, Bucky," I told him. As I walked away - and over to where Chester was sitting with his arms crossed - I couldn't help but to hear Bucky's thoughts. They were practically screaming. Why the hell didn't you kiss her? She was right there! A small smile broke over my face as I walked up to Chester. The moment that I got up to him, a scowl broke over my face. "You hate me. You actually hate me. I didn't think that we really had that many problems," I told him, folding my arms over my chest.

He looked about the happiest that I had ever seen him. "What did you think that you were doing?" Chester asked me in his normal, flat, voice that told me that he was not happy with me.

"Oh I don't know, I think that I was having breakfast with my friend," I said, throwing my hand back to the table that we had been sitting back. Bucky was gone by now. Probably preparing for the day. "But you know, I could be wrong about that," I told him dryly.

Chester merely snarled at me once more. His jaws were locked together and I could feel the anger coming off of him in waves. "I wasn't aware that you ate breakfast with your mouth attached to someone else's," he said.

Well that's embarrassing. "I wasn't!" I barked.

"You almost were," he commented.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I leaned back against the pole that we were standing at. "You are a pain in the ass. I've finally admitted that I have feelings for him and now the moment that I was about to do something about them, you come and ruin it!" I ranted angrily.

Just as I should have expected, another figure came to stand next to us. For a moment I thought that it might have been Peggy. But judging by the gloating air around me, I knew that it wasn't. "Do something about what?" Howard asked. There was a sing-song air in his voice that made me cringe.

Please, please, please, let him not have seen what just almost happened. Instead of making things any better, Chester turned back to Howard with no less of a pleased face towards him. "Was this your doing?" Chester asked him.

Howard looked genuinely confused. So he hadn't seen what had gone down only moments before. "Was what my doing?" Howard asked.

"Oh my -" I groaned before stopping myself. "Nothing! Don't worry about it. Get out of here, Howard," I snapped quickly at him. He was watching with a little smile. "And you and I -" I said, motioning over to Chester, "we're going to have a conversation later about how you have the worst timing of anyone I know."

A little hint of understanding flashed through Howard's eyes. Oh great. "Oh! You were about to do something with Barnes," he said, clasping his hands together.

Chester turned a dark glare on Howard. I should have known that he would blame Howard for the whole thing. Of course, Chester had never really known me to be the type of person that would kiss someone else in such a public place. "So this was your idea," Chester finally snapped at Howard.

"No!" I howled back. It drew some attention to us and I grabbed the two men by the arms, physically dragging them over to the doors of the mess hall. They were both stumbling to keep up. "It was my idea. Or at least, it would have been if you hadn't stepped in and interrupted me," I snapped.

Howard ran his hands over his face. "Oh, Chester, you didn't," he said.

"I did," Chester immediately defended himself. Howard rolled his eyes in a very childish way. "We did not allow you to come here to fraternize with the other privates. Not even that one. Especially not that one," Chester emphasized.

My breath came in a few short gasps. After a moment I let out a deep breath and turned over to where Howard was standing. If I was going to say something to Chester, I needed it to just be the two of us. So I sighed and looked over at the younger man. "Howard, would you mind giving us a moment?" I asked as calmly as I could.

He nodded at me and briefly laid a hand on my shoulder. "Sure. I'll wait outside," Howard told us.

"Thank you," I said. I watched for a moment as Howard stepped out of the mess hall and the door closed behind him. With my hands folded over my chest I turned to Chester, attempting to calm myself down. "Now, tell me what this is really about. Remember that if you lie to me, I'll know," I warned.

My eyes gave a little white flash at my words and Chester gave a tiny smile. "I never had a kid, Victoria. But I always liked them. And then you walked right into my life. You were my friend first." I remembered the day that we had first gone shopping together. He had treated me more like a friend than anything else. "A partner later." The days that we had worked on science research and reports. "You became like a daughter to me recently." The multiple nights that we had stayed up late into the night laughing and listening to the radio, playing board games that neither one of us understood, and showing off my mutations as a joke.

Perhaps once upon a time I'd had a birth father. But he was never a real father. Not after the way that he'd acted with me. Keeping me constantly hidden, putting me through medical trials that no eight-year-old ever should have gone through. Then he completely had isolated me. Kept me away from all of the people in the world. He'd pretended like he didn't even have a child. He'd stopped talking to me. Acted as if I was nothing more than an experiment. And then the day had come that he'd frightened me to the point that I'd had to use my mutation. The flames had gone up all over, burning our house to the ground, and burning away every memory of that life.

It was nothing like the life - albeit only one year - which I'd had with Chester. In that one year he'd become the father that I'd never had. The one that I'd always desperately wanted. "And you know that you're like a father to me," I told Chester, walking forward and grabbing his hand.

"I know," he said with a little smile. "But you should know that parents never want to see their children get hurt. I don't want to see something happen to Private Barnes out there that you can't move past. I don't want him to hurt you," he told me. He'll never hurt me. That's not in him. "You've already been through so much hurt. You don't need any more."

And it was the complete truth. I'd already been through too much. I wasn't sure how much more I could take. But at Chester's words, I smiled and pulled him into a hug. It was one of the few times that we'd been physical with each other. "Thank you. But you need to know that sometimes parents have to let go of their kids. They have to watch them make choices. And sometimes they have to let them get hurt. They just have to be there when the time comes to pick up the pieces," I told him softly.

Hopefully there never would be pieces, but I knew that if there were, Chester would be there to help me. "You really love this boy." Chester said. It was not a question.

But I nodded anyways. "I do."

Chester smiled at me and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. "Then let's go out there so you can kick his ass. Just to show him that if he ever hurts you, you'll hurt him back," Chester told me.

A loud - and very unladylike - snort came out of my nose. Chester laughed as we walked out of the doors to the mess hall. Howard was still standing there and he began walking with us. "Mutant or not, I somehow don't think that it's me that Bucky would have to worry about if he hurt me," I told Chester.

He gave something akin to a smile and nodded at me. "You're damn right."

A bitter grin crawled across my mouth as Chester sped up slightly, leaving me to walk side-by-side with Howard. I noticed that even he was grinning at the interaction between the two of us. I also couldn't help but to roll my eyes. We were going to be working in the sweltering heat and he was still in a perfectly tailored suit. "So you almost kissed Barnes?" Howard asked after a beat of silence.

My eyes narrowed into little slits as I looked over at him. There had to be a way to keep him quiet. "I'm going to sew your mouth shut," I snapped at him. Not that I can sew.

"There are other ways to keep me quiet," Howard said with a little waggle of his eyebrows.

Instead of making any indication that I was embarrassed, I grabbed Howard's tie and yanked him towards me. "If you mention anything about that kiss, I'll end your life," I hissed.

And that was the truth. I'd electrocute him until he looked like my pathetic attempt at fried chicken one night. Chester turned back and glared at the two of us. "What?"

Damn it. Old man or not, he's still got good hearing. "Nothing!" I shouted before dashing forward.

Thankfully Peggy and the recruits were already lined up and ready for the day. The recruits were standing as the drill sergeants walked back and forth down the line. I noticed Bucky in the middle. He was standing with his head held high. He gave a quick look over at me and when I thought that he might blush or look away from me, he managed to surprise me once more. He gave me a little wink before looking back straight forward as a drill sergeant came by and began shouting at him for his posture.

I came to a halt next to Peggy. She was holding files in her hands and flipping through them. "Hey, Pegs. Ready to start?" I asked her as I pulled my hair out of the loop and tied it up tighter.

She nodded at me and fixed her irritatingly perfect hair. It was always in a perfect hold and never slipping out. Mine was always hanging limply in front of my face. It was why I hated curls and preferred to leave it down. But that 'wasn't appropriate' attire for us to be wearing while we were out here on the physical training courses.

Peggy finally looked up from her files. "Sure. You want to speak to them, or should I?" She asked me.

Definitely her. The recruits were never very fun to speak to in big groups. They liked to make crude comments towards us, hoping that if they all spoke at once we wouldn't be able to tell which one it was. Not that it made a difference. "Flip a coin?" I asked her teasingly.

Howard and Chester both positioned themselves off to the side with the drill sergeants at intermittent points. Peggy nudged me forward and I groaned. "Get out there," she said. I laughed and took a step forward to the men. Staring at them for a moment, I finally cleared my throat. Immediately the men stopped moving and speaking. They wouldn't act out with Chester here.

"Welcome to Week Three," I greeted. A few scattered smiles were passed through the crowd. "Things will be getting more difficult, more physically intense from here on out. Today you will begin by demonstrating the physical fitness test. This is something that we expect each of you to be able to do with ease by the end of training. For today, we'll be expecting thirty-five push-ups. Forty-seven sit-ups. You will also be attempting a two mile run. That means run. Don't walk, don't crawl. Run. You need to be back in sixteen minutes and thirty-six seconds."

Before continuing with the directions, I silenced myself. I knew that someone was going to have something to say to me. And I was right. It was Justin. He leaned over to Harlan and said, "You think that she could even do one push-up?"

They both snickered as I turned a heated glare on them. Even Bucky stiffened slightly. "Why don't we find out, recruit? You versus me," I told him loudly. He turned over to me with his jaws nearly on the ground. He seemed shocked that I had even heard him. I grinned. I hear everything. Even things that aren't said out loud.

Justin smirked and stepped forward. "What happens when you lose, darling? You gonna give me a little kiss?" He teased as he walked forward. I immediately noticed both Bucky and Howard stiffen. Chester looked like he was debating on pulling out his pistol and dropping down one recruit. Peggy bundled her fists.

"Down," I told Justin. He smirked and dropped to the ground, in a push-up position. I followed a moment later. "Agent Carter, call when you're ready," I told Peggy. She nodded at me and stepped forward. "Mr. Stark, please keep count," I asked.

He nodded at me with a little smile. "That would be my absolute pleasure," Howard said. He walked over to the two of us and stood over us with hands in his pockets.

Peggy stood over us for a moment. "Begin."

Immediately I dropped downward into the first push-up. Next to me I could feel the confidence leaking out of Justin. I smirked towards the ground. He wouldn't understand that I didn't get tired. If I'd really wanted to, I could have done this all night and never been bothered. By the time we got to our fifth rep I found myself bored. It was easy to know that I would beat him. As we continued to move Howard counted out the numbers. By the time that we got to the twentieth rep, Justin was profusely sweating and his limbs were shaking. I didn't feel a damn thing. My pace had slowed so that I could stay in alignment with him. We passed thirty, and then forty, without incident.

We had just passed forty-three when Justin finally dropped. He was lying face down in the dirt and his breaths were coming out in ragged gasps. The other men in the division were all watching on, some stunned, others amused. I jumped up with ease and walked over to where Justin was laying on his knees, barely able to keep himself up. I grinned wickedly at him and shoved the heel of my boot into his arm. He fell heavily and looked up at me with eyes that were clearly cursing me to the heavens.

He was attempting to stand and gather his breath once more. "That was utterly unimpressive, private. Back in line," I told him in a bored tone. Justin limped back into line and was shouted at by a drill sergeant to stand back upright. "Would anyone else care to say anything?" I asked loudly. No one said anything. "If a woman can beat you, what do you think a Nazi will be able to do?" I asked.

It was a rhetorical question and they all knew it. No one said anything as Chester took a step forward. "We'll begin with the fitness test." It was something that they had done when they first arrived here. We would do it a few times to see how they improved. "You'll begin with the push-ups. Thirty-five for each of you. We will be counting you out. Get into positions. You will move at the same time," Chester announced.

The recruits all dropped as the drill sergeants began to walk back and forth. Justin barely looked like he could move. "Begin!" I shouted.

At the first count the men dropped down and pushed themselves back up. Peggy and I walked back and forth. It wasn't like we were shouting at them like the drill sergeants were, but we were correcting them. And we got into the occasional shouting match with one of the men that weren't moving fast enough. The object was to keep time. Chester was observing the men as well but he wasn't really saying anything. He was more reading through the files Peggy had been holding before. Peggy herself chirped something about her dead grandmother moving faster than the recruits and I snorted under my breath. Howard turned to go back to the laboratory and I waved him off. He'd probably be back later.

He had been busy over the past week or so trying to figure out how my ability to transform into a form of pure radiation might help. I hadn't been able to tell him the entire truth about how it worked yet - since people were always around us - but I was intending to soon. We were still hoping that my radiation would help us find a happy-medium to use for Operation Rebirth. So far we hadn't figured anything out. But that was mostly because I hadn't been in the labs. And otherwise, I had no clue how to enable that mutation again. In the meantime he would be working on a chamber to put the recruit in, since I would be spending so much time with the recruits this week. Although I would be spending the occasional nights in the labs, helping Howard.

The recruits finally hit the thirty-five mark and I watched as they stood once more. "Well done, you've all managed thirty-five. I know that you could have kept going. In the future you will. Not today," I told them loudly. "We want to ensure that you can all meet the minimum requirements. Sit ups now. Forty-seven." The men all dropped to the ground. "On my mark... Now!"

They began raising up and down as I watched them. Some seemed to want to move faster and others seemed like they needed to move slower. Bucky was one of the ones that was clearly slowing down. I sighed and smiled at him as he looked over at me and winked once more. He was shouted at a moment later by one of the drill sergeants to get back into the movements. He went back to work and I smiled at him. He really was in his element out here.

Gathering myself, I took a breath and walked over to Chester. He was watching them curiously. I noticed that each time his eyes flitted over Bucky, they would harden for a moment. "They're not half-bad," Chester said.

"They're slow," I commented.

Not that it was the nicest thing that I could have said. But it was the truth. They really were going too slow. By the end of basic training I was hoping that they would manage to speed themselves up. "We all can't be mutants," Chester told me, without looking away from them.

"Then you're all lucky," I said harshly.

Again, it was something that I really shouldn't have said. It wasn't his fault that I had been born this way. But what I said hadn't been a lie. They were lucky that they hadn't been born a mutant. Being one was an absolute nightmare. You had to constantly hide everything about yourself. It was something that I hated. I had to hide who I was from my friends. My parents had hated me because I was something that they couldn't understand. And I had been held captive by a psychopath for seven years because his family had accidentally been killed by one of us. We were hated, and we were feared. It was something that would never change. Even in the next millennia - when I would still appear twenty-one - things wouldn't change. We would still be the monsters.

"Did you say something about mutants?" Peggy asked. She had walked up from behind us and I smiled at her with a somewhat awkward smile. Chester hesitantly nodded. One day we would tell her about the mutation, but not yet. "Weren't you talking about mutation a few weeks ago, Vicky?" She asked me.

I nodded stupidly at her as we began to walk through the aisles. We had just passed the twenty mark. "Yeah, yeah, I was. It was one of the things that we were discussing with the Operation Rebirth project. Nothing serious. Just something that would help the super soldier serum work," I told her as thinly as possible.

She glanced over at me as we walked past Michael. He was a younger man that was halfway decent with the physical aspect of training. "It's really possible?" Peggy asked.

I knew that she believed in Operation Rebirth - we all did - but sometimes it seemed almost impossible. "We think so," I told her. We went back to walking through the aisles and I glanced over at Bucky. He wasn't sitting up all of the way after each of his sit-ups. We were nearing the end and he was clearly tired. "Private Barnes, higher," I ordered.

"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" He shouted back at me. His next sit-up went all the way.

We continued walking down the aisles of recruits and I watched over them. For the most part it was the drill sergeants yelling at the men, but from time to time Peggy or I would say something. "I think that you just like watching him work," Peggy told me.

Glancing over at her, I gave a little smile. "And is that such a bad thing?" I asked her. We both smiled and laughed softly as we began to head up to the front of the line. They had just finished and were all sitting in the upright position. "Stand," I ordered. They all did so a moment later. "If you think that this is hard, know that it only gets harder from here. Two mile run. Hurry up. Get in line," I shouted at them. They all did and I watched as they took their spots in line. "Sixteen minutes and thirty-six seconds. That's the time that you have to return to this spot."

"On my mark. Three... two... one!" Peggy shouted. The two of us watched as the recruits all started in a dead sprint. Morons. Although I did notice that one man wasn't running at a dead sprint. Bucky was in a fast run, but not at a sprint. That's my boy. "He's smart to not use all of his energy in the beginning of the run," Peggy told me.

She was watching him as well. He really was a smart man. Talented, fast, and quick as a whip. I was grateful to have him in my life. "He's a smart man," I told her as we stood under the tent overhang.

A hand laid itself on my arm and I jumped. For once my thoughts had been distracted and I hadn't even noticed that Howard was making his way over to me. He wasn't holding any files but he did look irritated. I assumed that meant that whatever he was doing hadn't worked out. "Not too smart, or he would have acted faster this morning," Howard said.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him with a little groan. Something told me that he was only here to mess with me once more. "Shouldn't you be in the laboratory actually doing your job?" I asked.

Howard grinned and threw an arm over my shoulder. "I missed you," he told me.

Rolling my shoulders, I laughed under my breath as his arm slipped off of me. He pressed a hand over his heart, almost like I had hurt him. "Sure you did. What do you want?" I asked.

"You always think that I want something," Howard told me. He was still acting like I had offended him.

So I decided for a moment that I would play into his game for the time being. "I'm sorry, did you not want something?" I asked him with my hands on my hips.

Howard stared at me for a moment with a serious face before cracking a smile. "No. Of course I wanted something," he told me and I rolled my eyes. "Needed your advice on something. Can we talk?" He asked me.

Knowing that it was something about Operation Rebirth and mutation, I nodded. "Yeah. Just give me a minute. Hey Peggy! Dad!" I shouted. They both turned to look at me. "Do me a favor and keep an eye out for the recruits. We'll be back in a few minutes. They should be getting back by then," I said.

That was being hopeful though. I had a feeling that they wouldn't be back for at least another ten or fifteen minutes. Maybe we'd get to watch them attempt the pole climb. "Sure thing," Peggy called out to me.

Howard and I walked a little bit away and we nodded at each other once we were out of earshot of everyone else. "Alright, what do you need?" I asked him.

"So you kissed Private Barnes? Is that what I'm hearing?" He asked me.

Well there went my thoughts that maybe he wanted to talk to me about something with the project. "Are you kidding?" I asked him with a near-blank face. "I thought that we were done with talk like that. Oh, and if that's what you wanted to talk about, I'm going back to the recruits," I said, turning on my heel.

Howard dashed after me and grabbed me around the arm. "No, no, no! Wait a minute. That really isn't what I want to talk about," he told me and I nodded. As long as that wasn't really what he wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about anything but that. "Oh, but next time, make sure that you go through with it," Howard told me.

"What do you want, Howard?" I asked him.

He let out a little sigh and ran his hands over his face. I realized with a little start that he had bags under his eyes. He had probably been sleeping just as much as I had. "That mutation that you were telling me about the other night. You never really said what it was," he told me.

I nodded at him. Sooner or later we had to have this discussion. It was the only way to keep Operation Rebirth moving at a steady pace. "It's - I'm not really sure what it is," I said when I realized that I had no clue how to explain it. "It just happens. It's only happened to me once and I don't really know how to make it happen again. Maybe run some tests or something like that. I was angry and afraid the last time that it happened. It was almost like it was something more out of desperation," I told him honestly.

Up until the one time that it had happened I hadn't even been aware that I could do that. It was a complete accident. I was just lucky that it had worked in the first place. "Victoria," Howard said, interrupting me. I raised a brow at him. "Not that I don't love listening to you blather on, but please tell me what exactly it is," he said.

Glaring at him slightly, I nodded. "Mutants are classified into groups. Levels. Stryker originally thought that I was a Delta level. Maybe even Alpha. They're in the middle of the spectrum," I said. He nodded mutely at me. "But he found out that I wasn't. He discovered that I am an Omega." Now he looked confused. "They are extremely rare. They must be able to physically change their body into another state. Many are telepathic. Which I am. Somehow I can transform my body into a state of pure radiation," I told him.

It was the simplest way that I could explain it and I still knew that he couldn't figure it out. "Pure radiation?" Howard asked me. He sounded like he was trying to convince himself that it was possible.

"Yeah. When I was escaping Stryker's lab I was caught. I panicked. I didn't know what else to do. It was an accident. My entire body started to glow this golden color. And then the suits that the guards were wearing started to melt. Their skin afterwards. They died. They couldn't stand to be close to me," I explained.

The memory of their skin bubbling and falling off in droves disgusted me. I couldn't believe that I had really done something like that. Without even meaning to. "I'll be damned. You can really do that?" Howard asked.

Slowly I nodded at him. "I can. Anyways, it got me thinking the other night. What if I could try to replicate that radiation? And what if we could figure out a way to contain it?" I asked him.

There was a chance that something like that could work. It was too powerful uncontrolled. But what if I could manage to control it? "Come by the lab later this week. We're going to figure it out. We have to figure it out. Radiation is probably the key. And if you could survive it, maybe the recruit could too," Howard offered me.

I nodded at him. At the end of the week I would probably spend the day attempting to figure out how to contain the radiation. "But I also have the Chronicle in my veins. And it could very well poison the recruit and kill him," I told him.

Once more Howard groaned and ran his hands over his face, mussing up his hair. There was a chance that the radiation wouldn't work without the Chronicle. Maybe they worked hand-in-hand. Or maybe they had nothing to do with each other at all. Every day it got more and more complicated. "This is a lot more complicated than I thought that it would be," Howard said.

"We knew that it wasn't going to be easy when we started. This is never going to be easy," I tried to reason with him. It was going to be hard, but we weren't going to give up. "We're literally trying to completely change a person's genetic material. That's not exactly something that we were designed to be able to do," I said.

"There has got to be a way to make this easier," Howard said.

Gently, I laid a hand on Howard's shoulder and pushed him backwards. Maybe he needed a stiff drink or something like that. "Relax, Howard. You know what, just do what I do. Take out your frustrations on the new recruits. Trust me, it's a good way to blow off some steam,' I told him with a teasing grin.

Howard grinned at me and gave me a gentle shove. "You know, most people either go to a bar or they find someone to keep them company to blow some steam off," he told me. I shook my head. There was no way that I was stooping to doing that. "You're the only person that I know that would intentionally go and try to hurt someone."

"Not someone. Just one person," I said with a little grin. I wouldn't seriously hurt Bucky, just minor maiming.

Clearly Howard didn't think that it was a good way to blow off some steam. "Normal people want to kiss the person that they have a crush on. You want to beat him into the ground," he told me.

"Go do your damn job," I snapped.

Howard merely grinned at me, knowing that he had managed to get on my nerves. He wrapped an arm around me in a small hug and I laughed into his shoulder. He really was the most useless person that I'd ever known. "Have a good day, Victoria. We'll talk about the radiation later," he told me as he turned towards the lab.

"Sounds like a plan," I said. He turned back towards the labs as I turned to head back to where Peggy and Chester were sitting together. They were chatting amicably back and forth. I walked up to the pair and gave a small smile. None of the recruits had returned. "Is no one back yet?" I asked.

They shook their heads at me. I glanced over at the stopwatch that Chester was holding and looked at the time. It was only just over eight minutes. They were maybe at the halfway point. "Not yet. They're at the halfway point," Peggy said, confirming my thoughts.

"Oh good. Who wants to see them at the flag?" I asked with a bright smile. We all knew what the flag was.

It was on a large pole in the middle of the running track and every year the recruits would attempt to grab it. They never did though. Not even the strongest of them could do it. No one seemed to know that the way to conquer it was simple. It wasn't won by brute strength or attempting to climb up the flag pole. Nothing like that would ever work. It was too slippery for that to work. There were two pins on the bottom of the flag pole. If someone pulled them out the pole would collapse and someone could simply snatch it from the end. Of course no one ever thought to do something like that.

Together the three of us walked over to one of the open-air trucks that usually rambled back and forth over and through Camp Lehigh. Normally it was only the agents, sergeants, colonels, and generals that were allowed to ride in them. Chester sat in the driver's seat and I watched as Peggy climbed into the middle. Once they were situated, I jumped into the far side and closed the door. With that, Chester cranked the engine and we drove off towards the flag pole.

The flag was whipping in the wind as Chester parked the car. Peggy was flipping through files and Chester was also looking over them. The moment that I heard voices calling out I turned back to see the men all running up. Bucky was running just behind the drill sergeant. He seemed to be one of the few that hadn't passed the exhaustion mark yet. I understood. It was hot and they were wearing long clothing with the packs. It was miserable for them out here. But I knew that they would all get over themselves once the drill sergeant told them that a successful grab of the flag would earn them a trip back in the car.

"Pick up the pace, sweeties. Let's go, let's go. Double time. Come on, faster, faster. Move. Move," the drill sergeant was shouting at them. The three of us in the car laughed as we turned back to watch. "Squad halt," he added. The squad came to a grinding stop and I glanced over to see the men all leaning over, already exhausted.

The drill sergeant motioned up towards the flag pole. "That flag means you're only at the half way point. First man to bring it to me, gets to ride back with Agent Carter and Sergeant Phillips," he said.

The two of us glanced back and smiled at the men. Despite most of them insisting that they didn't care about us and didn't like us, I knew that they would love to have an afternoon to themselves with us. Plus the idea of getting to ride back in a car rather than running all the way back was an appealing idea. Bucky glanced back at me and gave me a small smile. I returned it with a wink. If anyone actually managed to get the flag, I was hoping that it would be him. He was the only one of the men that I could really stomach for a ride back to the tent and training grounds.

The men only needed that one warning before going and dashing over to the pole. One by one they all jumped and fell back down. Some took hard falls that looked like they seriously hurt. Others simply slid down until they nearly collapsed. No one had gotten even close. The flag was almost thirty feet in the air. There was no way that they were going to be able to climb it. I was almost tempted to slip into Bucky's mind and tell him what to do, but I decided that I might have some explaining to do about that later. So I left him be.

"Move, move! Come on, get up there. That's what you got? This army is in trouble," the drill sergeant continued to yell. "Get up there, Gaines." Jeremy was about six feet in the air when he too collapsed. "Come on, get up there. Nobody's got that flag in seventeen years." Bucky tried next. He made it higher than anyone else - almost ten feet - before he fell. I cringed as he hit the ground. Peggy laid a hand on my shoulder and I smiled weakly at her. As Bucky stood, I let out a little breath. He's fine. "Come on, come on, fall in. Let's go, get back in formation," the drill sergeant once more yelled.

With that, the men all let out little groans before breaking back into a run. While they all sweated it out on the course, Chester drove Peggy and I back to the training field. "Think someone will ever get that?" I asked the other two.

"Not a chance," Peggy said.

"Never," Chester added.

The car drove for another minute or so before we arrived at the same spot that the recruits would be arriving in a few minutes from now. It was the actual training course. And it was tough. I knew that plenty of the men would have trouble with it. I wouldn't blame them. Especially after what we had already put them through. The course would take them over an hour to complete and they would be doing it every day this week. Fail a section and they would have to repeat it. The men would all also have to learn to work together. I knew that was the part that would be a challenge for them.

After a few minutes had passed I jumped out of the truck and stood at the two mile finish line. Peggy and Chester followed. "What's the timing?" I asked.

Chester glanced down at the stopwatch before looking back at me. "It's been fourteen minutes and forty-two seconds," he told me.

I nodded slowly at him. They should be arriving any minute now. The drill sergeants would not let them go over their allotted time. And they were closing in on it. Just as I thought that I saw the soldiers running over the finish line. As usual, the drill sergeants were yelling at them to speed up. The men did so and I gave Bucky a proud smile as he crossed the finish line first. He dropped onto his knees and glanced up at me with a smile. Sweat was trailing down his back, front, and face. His button down had been opened slightly in the front and I blushed at the sight before turning to look away. We gave the men thirty seconds to recover before I motioned for them to stand. They all groaned but did so anyways. Hey, can't stop to take a breather in war.

"Okay. Well done," I told the men. They all groaned at me. "We're going to try the Confidence Course. It's an obstacle course designed to test the seven core values of the Army. Loyalty. Duty. Respect. Selfless Service. Honor. Integrity. And Personal Courage. You'll need all of these to make it through. There is no time limit, but we do expect you to improve as the weeks pass," I told them while motioning backwards towards the wooden course.

They looked back before their eyes widened. It was quite intimidating looking. I certainly wouldn't want to have done it if I was anything less than a mutant. "You'll begin with one run through today. Afterwards, we'll be moving onto combat training. That's how this week will be following," Peggy further explained.

Before the men could run off, I stepped forward. There were a few things that I had to tell them. "A few last minute tips. You can't get through this without the help of your platoon members. Help each other. Pretend like you're really out there. What will you do to help your fellow men? Agent Carter, Colonel Phillips, and I will be watching. We'll assist if needed. Any questions?" I called out.

The men were all standing at attention as I spoke. It was the most respectful that I'd ever seen them. "Ma'am, no, ma'am!" They shouted as a cohesive unit.

"Good. Line up at the start. You'll run when we call. Good luck, use teamwork and determination. You can get through this. You start with basic calisthenics. Follow Sergeant Bale," I instructed. He waved his hand to the platoon. He was an older gentleman that had fought in World War I. He was a sweet man that was strong and brave. "Begin!" I called.

One of the drill sergeants was up on a raised platform and I watched as he gave orders to the other members of the platoon. He was demonstrating which calisthenics they would be doing. They were all moving together. The drill sergeants were walking around and barking orders each time that someone either slowed down or did something wrong. They did the torso twist - something that was reasonably easy for them - backward lunges - which got rather difficult the longer that you did them - leg pulls - which definitely could be a pain in the ass - and more push-ups, where they had to hold the position. By the end of it they all seemed to be about ready to collapse to the ground.

Once they were done with that, the drill sergeants moved them onto the course itself. This was where they would begin to really hate themselves. These obstacles were hard and long. I would be surprised if they could move by the time that they got to the combat training. The tower was the first one that they would be doing. It started with a rope climb up about twenty feet. They could only use their arms and legs to carry themselves upward. They then jumped onto a platform. From there they had to climb a ladder that was made up of logs that got progressively narrower. They then had to climb over the top of the ladder and propel themselves down to the ground from about forty feet. The men all took a while on that one. Bucky managed it in one of the shortest times. He did take a nasty fall in the beginning though.

From there, there was a ladder that was made out of the same wooden logs that the tower was made up of. It was a straight ladder that shot up into the air. It stood at about thirty feet. There were no ropes to catch anyone if they fell. The logs were about four feet apart - almost too tall for me to make a transition. They would have to figure out how to scale the logs on one side, climb over the top, and make the descent back down to the ground. It was another obstacle that had to be done alone. The men were pretty good at it and thankfully there were no bad falls. Bucky got a little caught up at the top, but thankfully he managed to get over and back down without incident. He looked tired already.

Then there was one of my least favorite obstacles on the course. I had managed to do it properly before, but it was tough. The object was one of the simplest ones that we had. It was just the rope climb. They had to make their way onto a platform that was fifty feet in the air with two ropes that lead down to the ground. The ropes were about a hundred feet long. Two recruits would slide down the ropes to get to the ground without harnesses. There was a net just in case they fell. About half of them did. I laughed loudly when Bucky was the first recruit to make it through. I couldn't help it, I cheered him on. Of course, that led to me getting chewed out by Chester about picking favorites.

One of the simpler ones that we had was the carry. It was where the recruits took a partner and performed a fireman's carry while they carried their partner a half-mile to the finish line. They would then turn around and do it the other way, with the other person carrying. There were only a few rules. They couldn't drop their partner, fall, or stop. It was supposed to be done at a slow run. I felt terrible that Bucky had to carry a recruit named Benjamin. He was one of the heaviest people here. Bucky was clearly having a hard time running with him on his shoulders. He looked beyond relieved once he got to let Benjamin carry him.

The next section that Bucky and his group members ran to was another rope section. The recruits had to grab a rope and hoist themselves up about ten feet. There were two logs at intermittent points on the climb up. The second log was about eight feet up in the air. Once they got to the second log they must use one rope to walk on while using another that was over their head for balance. It was an extremely unbalanced twenty foot walk across the rope. At the end they got to grab onto a rope and drop down. Bucky managed to walk across the rope but I couldn't resist sending a rough column of air at him. He managed to keep himself upright. Even Chester - who knew that I had done something to the wind - had laughed with me.

There was a section not far from there that the recruits used a old rifle to practice with. They worked in teams of two and I watched as the men all fought each other. It was like they were pretending to fight back against an attacker. They were fighting with the butt of the gun. Most of them were fighting without techniques. I got a rather magnificent kick out of seeing Bucky swing the gun out to whack Harlan across the face. His nose was turned to the side slightly as his nose began to bleed. Bucky apologized and I smirked. For one moment I let myself slip into his mid, just to know what he was thinking about. For Vika.

Oh Bucky, you didn't have to do that. The section that he was moved off to next was, yet again, another rope course with logs spread around. Recruits had to climb to the top of a rope course that was about fifteen feet in the air. Once they were up at the top of the rope, they used a log to slide underneath and get to the logs at the top. It was almost like monkey bars. They climbed on top of the bars that were spaced about a foot and a half apart and walked across them. At the end they would repel back down. Nothing gave me greater pleasure than watching Carl fall with his legs on either side of the bar - crushing his nether regions. Even Bucky had laughed at that. He'd made it across unscathed.

There were two smaller obstacles after that. One was a rope net climb over both sides. The squares were small but enough to place their feet in to help them up and over. They climbed up the first side - which was about twenty feet - before flipping over the side and scaling back down it. The recruits seemed to be having a reasonably easy time with that. The mud slide under the barb wire mesh was next. They all made it through unscathed, but the mud that they were now coated in made them look and smell disgusting. I got a kick out of watching Bucky practically swallow some of the mud.

The last ones were some of the least amusing ones. By the time the recruits got to them, most of them looked like they were about to keel over and die. First they had a wall climb using a rope. They would then flip over and scale back down. Only a few people had trouble with the rope. There was another obstacle where they stood on a log before jumping up onto a log that was raised about eight feet. They had to climb up and over that one. After that, they had to climb up a wall to catch a silver pole and shimmy their way across it. They used a rope at the end to drop down. There was a simple log walk where recruits had to walk back and forth over small logs that were raised at varying angles. It was rather funny watching how many of them fell. It was one of the easiest obstacles yet it was also one of the obstacles that the recruits were failing on the most. Even Bucky fell two or three times.

The next obstacle that recruits had to go over was somewhat of a backwards and upside down monkey bar section. The small wooden beams raised as the recruits climbed up them, hanging from upside down. They used their arms and legs to help them to the top, where they climbed over and then slid down it. The last one that they had to do was another simple one. Small stumps were jutting out from the ground and recruits had to jump from one to the next, until they were at the end. Practically everyone fell at least once. There was one rolled ankle, but that was the worst of the injuries.

And that was the end of them. The recruits were finally allowed off of the course. I grabbed Chester's wrist and checked his watch. It was four in the afternoon, just the time that it should have been. The recruits were called back in - the drill sergeants seemed to be on the verge of losing their voices after yelling so much - as they stood in front of us. Many looked like they wanted to drop, and some did for a moment, but overall they were still standing tall. Bucky was drenched in sweat and had dried mud stuck to him, but he still looked every bit the proud military man that I knew he was. He'll look good in a uniform. Shut up!

"Well done to all of you. You've conquered - some of you with help - the course. This will get easier the more that you practice. At the end of training this will be like nothing. Now, you've learned all of the skills that will make you good infantrymen. Except two. Firearms. Those we'll get to next week." The men looked thrilled that they would get to at least be working with firearms next week. "And combat. Hand-to-hand," I said. Small smiles broke out over Peggy and I's faces.

This was what the two of us had been waiting for. "That's what you'll be learning in the afternoons. We'll be demonstrating with two of you first," Peggy said, motioning to the two of us.

"You'll each be paired with a Sergeant while you learn the basics of fighting. But first we'd like you to see up close just how good you need to be," I added.

"There is one stipulation today, that can excuse someone from fighting for the rest of the week," Peggy said. We both smirked at the looks that were being exchanged through the crowd of recruits. They have no clue how much they'll regret this one. "If you can prove to us that you have nothing to learn, we'll let you go," Peggy added.

We both stepped forward and I motioned to the men. "Choose your best recruit," I told them.

The choice was theirs. They just had no clue that they were dooming someone. The men all spoke among themselves before they finally seemed to decide. "Collin," they all finally said.

He was certainly one of the best recruits. I had a feeling that only Bucky was the one that could challenge him. He was a large man that was certainly smarter than most of the recruits. He had cropped blonde hair and icy blue eyes. He was a younger man as well. I was pretty sure that he was either twenty-two or twenty-three. He stood tall, well over six feet. He was very startling. I knew that they were going to put him on the front lines. He was one of the toughest people that I knew. I wondered whether or not he had a woman back home that was waiting for him, panicking every day that she didn't hear from him.

Peggy was staring at me and I realized that I was taking too long to answer. "Step forward, please, Collin," I said awkwardly. He did so and I turned back to the recruits. "Now, choose your strongest recruit," I said.

This one didn't take as long. "Bucky," the men all said together, patting him on the back. Since the incident with Harlan and the others during Zero Week, the men seemed to have accepted Bucky into their folds. My grin widened. That's what I was banking on.

"Step forward, please, James," I said. There was no way that I could call him Bucky in front of the men. It wasn't professional. Both of our eyes twinkled when I called him that. They stepped forward and stood next to each other. "Well done to the both of you. You've become leaders. Now, this is your chance to prove to the men in your division that you're strong. That you have nothing else to learn. Face your opponent," I told them.

They did the expected thing. Both Peggy and I chuckled softly under our breath. We had been banking on this happening. Chester had just barely agreed to let us do this. The two men turned to face each other and stuck out their hands to shake. "Good luck, man," Bucky said.

"You too, bud," Collin followed up with.

Peggy and I both smiled for a moment before stepping in between the two of them. "I appreciate the spirit. But you are not each other's opponent. You're ours," I told them. The men laughed behind us heartily. Chester was the only one that wasn't smiling. Bucky and Collin both looked stunned. "Collin, you'll be fighting Agent Carter. James, you'll be fighting me. Either of you beat us, you're excused for the week," I told them.

Peggy and I had already worked this out. We knew that Bucky would be one of the recruits that would end up being picked. Bucky stepped forward and shook his head. "I am not fighting you," Bucky told me.

A wicked grin fell over my face. Do not patronize me, Bucky. "Scared I'll damage your pretty face?" I asked him.

Bucky gave me the first grin that didn't scream that he thought that I had lost my mind. "Scared that I'll damage yours," he told me with a little grin.

Off to the side, Peggy and Collin were having a very similar discussion. "You could always let someone else take your place. But you'd look so weak. Are you going to do that?" I asked him teasingly.

He didn't want to fight me. But the last thing that he wanted was to back out and look weak for not being able to fight a little girl. He would look like a coward. "No," Bucky told me. "You're really sure that you want me fighting you?" He asked, sounding a little unsure of himself.

"It won't be much of a fight," I said with a shrug. There were a few laughs exchanged through the remaining men.

Bucky gave me a soft smile. "Cocky."

"I had to learn it from somewhere," I teased before turning back to the men. "The rules are very simple. You have ninety seconds for a fight against us. If you can get us to the ground for more than five seconds, you win. If, at the end of ninety seconds, we are still on our feet, we win and you continue training. Do you understand?" I asked the two men.

They could get dropped to the ground as much as possible. That didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was that they didn't get us to the ground. Bucky and Collin were both listening attentively. Finally they nodded as Peggy and I turned back to them. "Yes," they both said.

"There are no rules. Just make it a clean fight, and no seriously injuring each other," I told the two men. They both nodded. Neither one was cruel. They wouldn't have really tried to injure us anyways. "Best of luck. Are you ready?" I asked as I turned to Bucky, blocking the rest of the world out.

Bucky backed a few steps off of me. "Yes."

"Take a fighting stance," I ordered him. We were standing about five feet away from each other when Bucky dropped slightly. His knees were buckled slightly as he turned to look at myself. His hands were shaking slightly. I smirked. He had no clue how to fight me. "Colonel Phillips, please start the timer on my mark," I told him.

He nodded at me. I could just barely see out of the corner of my eyes. I hadn't looked away from Bucky yet. The area went silent as I looked over at Peggy and Collin. They both nodded. I looked back at Bucky and he nodded. Finally I gave a little nod to Chester. "Three... two... one," he called out slowly.

The timer started immediately. Both Bucky and Collin were smart enough to know that they had a very limited amount of time to solve this problem. Peggy and I were the ones without something to lose. Bucky rushed at me and grabbed me by the arms, probably hoping to trip me and drop me to the ground. I snorted under my breath. Perhaps that would take someone - a girl - that was untrained down, but not me. I slipped underneath his arms that were caged around me and slid down, kicking out with my legs. His feet went out from underneath him and he tumbled to the ground.

When he finally looked back up at me, he looked shocked that I had managed to do something like that. He stood from the ground and rushed at me once more. I knew that he wasn't fighting me nearly as hard as he could. He didn't want to hurt me. Not that he would. This time he ran over to me and grabbed me around the stomach, pushing me backwards with him. I managed to wiggle out of his grasp and jump over him. My legs wrapped around his neck and I twisted to the ground. He went falling onto his back and I rolled off of him, jumping back up to a stand. He looked exhausted already.

Giving him a small grin, I watched as he got to his feet once more. When he ran at me for another time I reached out and slid underneath his legs that were slightly open. As I ducked underneath them, I yanked out one of his shins and he went toppling over once more. He jumped back up quickly and extended an arm out to push me back with. It worked, but when he did I wrapped a leg around his neck. He began to turn red in the face and I smirked. I used my other foot to shove against Bucky's chest and knock him away from me. He fell back to the ground and I rushed over to him, locking him in an arm-bar. I pulled backwards on him and he groaned loudly at the pain.

It was pretty obvious that he was desperate to get out of this. I knew that it was hurting him. I wasn't going to break his arm or anything of the sort, but I was enjoying watching him squirm. "You have thirty seconds left. Better think fast," I teased.

As much as I knew that he didn't want to hurt me, he also didn't want to lose to me. He reached a hand up and used his spare leg to kick me in the ribs. It didn't hurt, but I had to pretend. So I let out a little groan and loosened my grip on Bucky. He slid away from me and threw out a punch. It would have been barely hard enough to leave a bruise. I caught his hand easily and wrenched it away from me. He stumbled back as I aimed a punch for his eye. He dodged, but not quickly enough. The hit connected and sent him stumbling backwards.

He looked back at me and for a moment I thought that he might have been freaked out. Suddenly I realized that this might not have been such a good idea. But Bucky didn't scream at me or attack me. He smiled. He ran after me once more and did something rather unexpected. He grabbed my arm and wrenched it around. He pulled me so that my back was flush against his front and his arm was over my throat. He dropped the two of us to the ground before rolling so that I was pinned underneath him.

I was stunned. I hadn't expected him to actually be able to do anything to me. The men began to count from five. Sorry Bucky, but I'm not losing this one. No more Ms. Nice Mutant. Unexpectedly, I placed my hands on Bucky's chest and delivered a hard punch that knocked the wind out of him. He stumbled back off of me as I hopped to my feet. He rushed at me once more as the timer continued to tick down. We ran up to each other and were standing right up against each other - where I was about to use his weight to send him to the ground once more - when Chester called out.

"Time," he called.

The two of us stood against each other, both of us breathing heavily. I assumed that he was breathing heavily because of the fight. I was doing so because of how close together we were standing. And how we hadn't bothered moving away from each other yet. Peggy coughed softly and I broke my stare from Bucky, dropping my hand from behind his neck. I took a step back and realized that Peggy and Collin were also covered in sweat. By the looks of it, their fight had been closer matched than mine had been. But it seemed that Collin too, had failed to take down his opponent.

I turned to the boys and shook both of their hands. "Well fought, both of you. This is what you will be learning to do over the next week or so. The best of luck to all of you in the days to come. Return to your barracks, grab dinner in the meantime. Get a good rest tonight, and stretch, you'll thank me for it in the morning," I warned the men.

The men all began to walk away and I smiled at them as they walked. We smiled at them and departed with little laughs with Collin. He had congratulated both Peggy and I for being better fighters than most of the men that were here. Most of the men headed off into the mess hall. Some of the men that had taken falls on the obstacle course earlier limped off to bed. Collin was being treated for a bloody nose that Peggy had given him. Chester had been so amused with the fight that he'd gone off to tell Abraham and Howard all about it. Peggy and I were the only ones that still remained.

Beside Bucky, that is. He walked over to me and Peggy gave a little nod to me as she walked away to let us have our privacy. I gave her a thankful nod. "Well, I hope you know that I let you win that," Bucky said.

I laughed under my breath and shook my head at him. "You so did not let me win that. You just can't admit that you're weaker than me," I teased him.

"I am not! Come here!"

Bucky ran after me and caught me around the waist. "Oh gross!" I shouted as Bucky's sweat began to coat my clothing. "Bucky, you're drenched in sweat!" I howled at him.

"And you've earned it!" He yelled back at me with a laugh.

Of course he was going to do something like that for teasing me. He chased me around the course for a while before wrapping an arm around my waist. I giggled loudly as he lifted me over his shoulders and began to spin me. For a moment I was sure that I was going to be sick. But I continued to laugh. Mostly because I hadn't gotten a chance to laugh and do things like this in a long time. He finally let me down and held me around the waist as I began to stumble slightly. He held me tightly as the two of us were pressed together gently. For the third time, I found myself far too close to him and debating on whether or not it was the right time to kiss him.

No. It's not. Not until you tell him the truth. So I cleared my throat and took a step back, gently disentangling myself from Bucky. "Alright, private. I think that you need to go back to the barracks. You get to do this all over again tomorrow. Aren't you excited for that?" I asked him with a teasing grin, trying to get the awkward air away from us.

Bucky gave me a soft smile. We were incredibly good about having a strange moment like that and then going back to normal. "Ah, you get to beat me up again?" He asked me with a little smile.

I gave him a soft nudge. "Only if you want me to," I teased.

He leaned over to me and gave me a small hug. The two of us laughed softly. "I'll always want you to beat me up," Bucky told me. I'll always be there to beat you up.

"Goodnight, Bucky," I told him softly.

Bucky smiled back at me. "Goodnight, Vika. See you tomorrow." I couldn't help but to hear his thoughts as he walked away. Doofus! You keep getting a chance and you keep blowing it.

The moment that he was far away enough not to hear us, Peggy came to stand next to me. She wrapped an arm around my shoulder and I sighed as I watched Bucky head to the mess hall. "Promise me one thing," Peggy said. I hummed and nodded at her. "When the two of you get married, make sure that I'm there and the Maid of Honor," she told me. I laughed and rolled my eyes at her. We nudged each other as we walked towards the mess hall and laughed softly together. Sure, boys were fun sometimes, but at the end of the day it was having a close girl friend that really mattered.

A/N: Okay, so I know that this is a mix of Marine Corps and Army basic training from today, so give me a break! I don't know much about it. Also, the situation at the end was just something that I thought might have been funny. I know that this isn't what really happens in training. So I hope you guys liked this one! Let me know what you thought. As always, thanks for all of the follows and favorites! Please review! Until next time -A

Moniquita2: You're welcome! Best of luck in finding a Howard fanfiction. I hope that you're still enjoying :)

kuppcake: Glad you liked the post-almost kiss thoughts! Trust me, we'll be hearing them for a while longer. Project Rebirth will come back into play more in the next chapter. I think that Bucky will eventually find out that they kissed, but not for a while.

Anonymous: Oh, thank you! I'm so glad to hear that you get butterflies when you read the scenes between her and Bucky, I absolutely adore writing them! Yeah, I didn't want her first kiss to get all tangled up in her feelings for Bucky and I felt that having her have it with Howard was so much nicer than a total stranger. Hope you're continuing to enjoy!