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.

12. Chapter 12

My pencil was scribbling furiously across the page as I finished the bitter liquid in the cup in my hands, tossing it to the side, letting it join the pile of the rest of the empty cups. There has to be something that I was missing. It didn't make a lick of sense. None of the genomes were crossing appropriately and nothing was actually working. Each time I tried to rewrite one of the codes, it only ended up depleting the white blood cell count - something that a person couldn't afford.

Damn it. I rolled my eyes and tossed the crumpled up paper to the side. None of this made any sense. I reached over for one of my other cups of coffee but it was no longer there. I must have drank that one already. My knee was bouncing rapidly as I tugged at the hem of my blue collared shirt. My beige pants were dragging slightly at the feet - since apparently none of the women on the base wanted to hem my pants. One of the many things that I could thank my parents for. My lack of height.

Muttering under my breath as I began to scribble on a new page, I saw Peggy look up from fixing her hair in the mirror. "How many cups of coffee have you had?" she asked me.

Peggy was always the one person that cared about my well-being. She grabbed me away from Howard any time that he wanted me to go drinking, she watched what I was eating, and made sure that I wasn't getting too mad. She'd become more of a mother to me since finding out what I was. I appreciated it, but she was becoming somewhat of a fun-sucker. She didn't seem to grasp the whole I-can't-die scenario. Maybe she just wanted to make sure that I wasn't going insane.

Although it was probably too late for that. "Not enough," I answered her as I continued to scribble away. My handwriting was hard to read considering that I was so jittery.

Peggy stood from her spot at her vanity and walked over to me. "Victoria. You've only been awake for an hour." She was right about that. It was nearing on seven, close to when we would have to start training the recruits. "How many have you had?" Peggy asked, meaning the coffee.

I really hadn't been keeping count. The cups were scattered throughout the room but I knew that some of them were from the past few days. I'd been extremely busy with Operation Rebirth. "Four. Or five. I don't know, I haven't been keeping count," I told her. She's insane. I smirked at Peggy's thoughts. "Will you get me another one?" I asked after a beat.

She looked like I had just asked her to tear off her arm and give it to me. "No, you fool!" she barked at me. I rolled my eyes. Those coffee cups were the only things that were keeping me awake. "You're going to give yourself a heart attack."

I opened my mouth to tell her that it wouldn't do anything to me when someone beat me to the punch. "Good thing that a heart attack won't do a damn thing to her other than irritate her," Howard said from the doorway. We really needed to stop leaving that door open. "Ladies," he greeted as we both glanced over. "Victoria. What time should I bring you to Stark Industries today?" he asked me.

For a moment I almost asked him what he meant. Then I remembered that we were going to be testing the radiation that I let off at some point today. "Does three work? I should be done training the recruits by then. Peggy, could you take over training once I leave? Chester will still be there with you," I told the both of them.

"Three works," Howard confirmed.

By that time we should be done with the majority of their training. "I can take care of the recruits," Peggy told me. "What are you going to Stark Industries for?" she asked.

Despite the fact that I had told her about my mutations and what it meant for Operation Rebirth, she still didn't understand most of the science behind it. So we kept it at a minimum. Like Chester. "The radiation that we were talking about with Operation Rebirth. We're thinking that my mutation might be the key to unlocking it. If we're right, we're one step closer to making everything work. Anyways, I can't try and replicate it in the open. Howard has a radiation chamber in Stark Industries. I'm going to try it today," I told her.

She nodded at me. I had made it simple enough that I was sure she understood me. "Best of luck," Peggy told me and I smiled at her. "Let us know how things go."

I had a feeling that no one would let me avoid it anyways. "I will. We're going to leave later. Anyways, I'll see you at training later. Goodbye," I said, waving the two of them off. I knew that they both had other things to do than hang around in my room.

The two of them backed away towards the door but didn't actually leave. They both hung around the door. "Not going to come to breakfast with your date?" Howard asked me teasingly.

I rolled my eyes and shook my head at him. I was too busy to actually have breakfast with Bucky today. And we didn't have breakfast today anyways. It would start to look suspicious if we were hanging around each other all of the time. "Oh, Victoria, you should tell Howard what you told me last week," Peggy told me.

My jaws snapped closed as I debated on flinging a bit of fire at her. She was the one person here that really knew how to embarrass me. Besides Howard, but I normally tried to ignore him. Especially since he was always trying to say something in front of Chester or Bucky. "Mind reader and I still didn't see that coming. Thank you, Peggy, I really do appreciate that," I growled at her.

Howard's eyes had brightened drastically. I still hadn't told him about the kiss. There hadn't really been a good chance to do so. "What happened last week?" he asked me happily.

"Nothing happened, you moron. It's not a date, get out, I'm doing work," I snapped at them both.

Once more they walked over to the doorway before stopping. I debated on blowing a gust of wind and shoving the two of them out of the door. "Are you not doing your breakfast date this morning?" Howard asked me.

Was it really that obvious that we were on a date? And it wasn't even really a date. It couldn't be a date. We couldn't be seen together. "It's not a date, you idiot! We go there so that we can speak to each other," I weakly argued. It definitely wasn't completely true. "Pain in the ass that you are. And I'm too busy for breakfast this morning. I'll see him later today," I said, scribbling at the paper.

"Ah, for a different date," Howard said. I rolled my eyes as Peggy laughed under her breath. Howard walked over to me and leaned over the paper. I could feel the electricity buzzing underneath my skin. Or maybe that was because I'd had way too much coffee. "What are you doing?" he asked.

Peggy went wide-eyed. I had a feeling that she didn't have a clue what we were talking about. But Howard did. "I'm rewriting traditional DNA codes in the human genome. I'm not quite sure. I'm trying to figure things out. This is the DNA that determines muscle mass, stamina, you know, those sorts of things. If I can figure out how to warp these DNA sequences, we might be able to make another discovery," I told him.

He nodded at me, his eyes scanning over the paper. He didn't have time to sit and actually read through it right now. He could do it later at Stark Industries. "You really are dedicated," he told me and I nodded. I would do anything to get that degree. And help win the war. "Take the day to figure out things like that out. I'll come get you at three," Howard said as he walked off.

Ah, so the berating about my relationship with Bucky won't be nearly as bad today as it normally is. "Sounds good. I'll see you later," I called out to him.

Peggy turned to follow Howard out. "I'll see you at training later, Vic," she called out.

Her hand was on the door handle. "Bye, Pegs. Do me a favor and keep the door open. No one is ever around and I like to think that I'm allowed to have somewhat of a social life while I'm here," I told her with a small laugh.

She smiled at me and I noticed that Howard was now looking at us curiously. "I think that you have plenty of a social life," Peggy told me as she backed out of the room, knowing that she was in trouble.

My eyes narrowed at her as Howard peeked his head back into the doorway. "What was that?" he called out.

"Nothing! Get out!" I shouted at them. "Thanks for that, Peggy."

"Anytime!" she called back.

Howard was still grinning at me. "We will talk about this later," he told me.

Of course we will. "Get out, both of you," I snapped at them. The two of them laughed as I brought up a gust of wind and shoved them backwards. They both stumbled out of the room and I laughed softly. They were such fools. I thought about shoving the door closed behind them but some part of me was actually enjoying the streaming sunlight coming from the halls.

Once I knew that they were both out of earshot I began to scribble back at the project for a little while. The floor was covered in papers and I nearly laughed. Even though I had been working for less than an hour I kept getting the equation wrong. If I was managing to correct one of the sequences - like reactivating muscle stimulation - bone degradation would begin. I was using my own DNA to actually work on the formula, but there were some extreme differences. Like the fact that I had the X-Gene. The gene that made me a mutant.

Since being at Camp Lehigh, Howard and I had done some digging into what it really was to be a mutant. We had begun with learning about the X-Gene. It was what changed our species. We weren't part of Homo sapiens. We were a new species. Homo superior. The theory was that we had been created by the Celestials, a race of aliens. Not much else was known about them. The problem with mutants was the fact that the X-Gene was not on the twenty-third chromosome, but rather the thirteenth.

This X-Gene leads to an exotic protein. This protein produces chemical signals inducing mutations on other genes, ending up with mutant organisms, variously empowered. It was what caused my mutations in the various parts of my body. The activated mutants, once went through a mutation are told to be 'mutated', which causes the other mutations that may not have presented themselves at birth. This is also told of mutants who suffer further mutations through experimentation. That was what had happened to me in Stryker's lab.

The problem was that I could be dangerously on the wrong track with the DNA mutation on the thirteenth chromosome. I could end up killing our recruit. It would probably end up being extremely dangerous no matter what. I sighed at myself and dug my head into my hands. For a moment I needed to stop. I was going to drive myself up the damn wall if I kept thinking about the project. There was only so long that I could. It was why I was glad that I got to work with the recruits as well.

So for a moment I thought about my budding relationship with Bucky. Since the kiss last week we hadn't found ourselves romantically tangled. But that was probably for the best. We really couldn't risk getting caught together. Especially not by Chester or one of the other higher-ups. It wasn't to say that we hadn't exchanged glances or little one-liners to each other. If someone looked close enough they would be able to tell that something had changed in between us. They would probably be able to tell that more than anything, I really wanted to kiss him again. But I couldn't. Not until he came back to me, once the war was over, for good.

Trying to push the thoughts of Bucky - and my irritating desire for him - I instead thought about the training that the recruits would be going through today. At the end of the week they would be firing for a completion certificate to ensure that they would be able to carry a firearm with them. Every other day this week, they would be going through the process of what was in the course. I wasn't concerned about Bucky. I knew that he would do just fine. He was pretty good with firearms. In the meantime they would be doing the Fit to Win Obstacle Course. It was similar to the one that they did two weeks ago.

As I began to scribble on the paper once more, a soft knock came from the doorjamb. I glanced up and smiled at the person standing there. "Sergeant Phillips," Bucky greeted formally. I knew that he was looking around to see if anyone else was in here. "I had a few questions about training. I was just wondering if I might come in and speak to you?" he asked me.

A small grin passed over my face. No one was here as of right now. Everyone was either out in the labs, on the training grounds, or simply enjoying themselves before the day really began. No one was in the building and no one was going to be here anytime soon. Bucky could come in here and we could leave the door open and no one would ever even realize. Thankfully Peggy and Howard were far away by now. And Chester was busy taking care of the Fit to Win course before the recruits had to actually perform on them.

Playing into his game, I nodded and placed my papers off to the side of me, scooting to the end of the bed. "And it's about training?" I asked with a small smile.

Bucky nodded back at me. "Of course. Just a few questions," he said.

Slowly grinning at him, I motioned him into the room. "Well if it's about training, I'll simply have to answer them. Come on in," I called. He nodded and walked in, his hand hesitating at the door. I knew that he wasn't sure what to do about it. I almost laughed. "You can leave the door open. No one's around right now anyways. They're all at work."

Bucky smiled and walked into the room, taking a seat at the desk. The chair seemed so much closer to me than it normally was. "Ah, so someone other than Stark is allowed in here?" he asked me.

My head snapped up to look at him and I let a little smile cross my face. "Shut up," I snapped at him. If he knew the truth about me I would have electrocuted him.

But he didn't, and I didn't want to tell him the truth. So the two of us laughed softly, nudging against each other. Bucky glanced over at the papers that were sitting on my desk and widened his eyes. I knew that they must have looked incredible to someone that didn't understand the work that I was doing. So I smiled and waited for him to say something. He spent almost five minutes staring at them, probably trying to figure out what the hell he was looking at. Sometimes I didn't know what I was looking at.

He seemed to have finally decided to say something. "That's quite... impressive," he trailed off, obviously not knowing what the papers meant. "What are you doing?" he asked me.

"Those aren't the questions that I thought that you were going to be asking," I teased softly. Bucky laughed at me and placed my papers back gently where they were supposed to be. He could have crumpled them up and disposed of them. I couldn't care less about the papers. Everything on them was wrong. "This is actually a DNA sequencing code for the human genome," I told him simply.

Of course it wasn't nearly as simple as I could have made it. And judging by the look on Bucky's face, he didn't seem to think that it was simple either. "There wasn't one word in that sentence that I understood," Bucky told me.

"I could take the entire time to explain it to you but we'd be here for the next ten years," I teased.

But it was the truth. If I could explain everything to him that happened to me and the way that it worked, we would be here until we were old and gray. Or, at least, until he was old and gray. "I have time," Bucky said.

I rolled my eyes at him and shook my head. "I think that in ten years you'll be sick of me," I said. The two of us laughed softly. It was the truth. I was already well past sick of myself.

Bucky sighed and leaned forward to grab my hands. I smiled softly and looked away from him. I wasn't sure that I really wanted to see the way that he was looking at me. Each time I looked at him, I could only remember that I was still lying to him. "I don't think that I'll ever get sick of you. I don't want a day to pass that I'm not around you," he told me.

A soft blush colored my face and I blinked back the pink tinge of my eyes. I hate that mutation. "Well then I think you're in the wrong business, kid," I teased, trying to lighten the mood.

Bucky gave a soft smile before shaking his head at me. I knew that he wanted to be serious with me. "Maybe. But, Vika, when this is over, I intend to spend every waking moment with you. I lost eight years, I'm not going to lose even more with you," he told me.

My heart gave a painful twinge. The only reason that he had lost those eight years was because I had made a stupid mistake. A mistake that would follow me for the rest of my life. I was never going to have children, grow old, or anything else. I would always be the twenty-one year old mutant. A freak. "One day I'll make up those eight years to you," I told him softly.

My fingers went running gently over the back of his hand. "There's nothing to make up for. Whatever happened to you, that's your business. You can tell me or you can't, it doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that you're here right now," he told me, threading our fingers together.

Gently, I placed my hand on his arm and tugged him into me. "I'm not going anywhere. Not anytime soon," I told him softly. He smiled at me and placed his hands on the side of my head. I could tell that he was going to kiss me so I moved my head to the side. There was no way that I could kiss him. Not yet. Not until he came back from the war. Not until I knew that he was going to be safe. "What - What training questions did you have?" I asked awkwardly, trying to ignore the stirring of butterflies in my stomach.

The last thing that I needed was to get too involved with him right now. No matter how much I wanted to. "Right. Training questions," Bucky said, looking extremely flustered. I assumed that he had forgotten his excuse. "I wanted to - uh - I wanted to know - I am a terrible liar," he finally admitted. I smiled softly at him. "I was walking through the halls to see if you were still in your room. I just wanted to come and see you."

"You were going to see me in half an hour, when training actually starts," I told him with a small giggle.

Bucky shook his head at me and pulled my hair from the hold that it had been in. It fell around my shoulders and he pushed it back over my face. "Well that's no fun. I can't do this," he said before leaning in towards me. He was about two inches from my lips when I turned my head away from him.

He looked somewhat hurt that I had pulled away from him and I suddenly wanted to pull him into me. But I had to remember the plan. "I think that you forgot our deal. We can't be seen together. We could both get in trouble. And when you get out there, I need you to focus. Please. I can't lose you out there because you were thinking about something else," I said weakly.

It was the weakest that I had heard my voice since before I had left Stryker's lab. "Vika, it's exactly that that's going to keep me safe out there. Knowing that I have someone to fight for. Someone to come back to," he said. I smiled at him and grabbed his hands tightly. "You still want me to come back to you, right? Stark's not going to take my place when I'm gone?" he asked.

A loud and unattractive laugh came out of my mouth and Bucky matched it with another laugh. "Shut up. No one could ever take your place," I told him honestly. "Howard... He's the same way. No one can ever take his place. As much as I'd really love for that to happen." We both laughed. Bucky knew that I cared for Howard, I just wanted to kill him from time to time. "I don't just want you to come back. I need you to come back," I said, changing the air in the room.

The two of us sighed as Bucky leaned forward and pulled me into the crook of his arms. I was glad that no one was out in the halls. "And I'm going to. I will always come back to you," Bucky told me.

I just wished that I knew that it was the truth. I wished that I could look into the future and see that he was still with me. I wanted to see that he was going to be with me for the rest of our lives. His life. Not mine. I would live forever. "Can I ask you something?" I asked after a few beats. Bucky nodded at me. "Why me? Why be with Yellow Eyes? You can have anyone that you want."

Bucky looked horrified that I dared to say something like that to him. It had probably been a long time since he had heard someone call me Yellow Eyes. "Don't call yourself that," Bucky snapped at me.

He had always hated when people called me that. "Old habits die hard," I said softly.

I really did want to know why Bucky wanted to be with me. I was so strange. Even considering that he didn't know the whole truth about me, I was still strange. I always would be. "Why would I not want to be with you?" Bucky asked me.

"Because you could have anyone," I said softly. "Bucky, I used to hear the girls in school talking. They all loved you. They hated that you used to speak to me. They always wanted you to speak to them. It's the same way here. You should have spoken to them. They didn't have yellow eyes and white hair. I want you to have a normal life. That's not something that you get to have with me," I told him.

And it was the truth. As long as he was with me, there was no normal life. There would never be a normal life with me. It was the heartbreaking truth that I had to remember. "Good. Normal is boring," Bucky told me.

"It's stable," I said softly.

Bucky shook his head at me. "And boring. I don't care about any of those things. Vika, you're beautiful," he told me, brushing the hair back off of my face. "You're the prettiest dish I've ever met. You're smart, strong as hell, and everything that I've ever wanted." I had to look away from him, knowing that my eyes were turning pink. "From the moment that I met you, I knew that one day I wanted to be with you."

Part of me couldn't really believe that he'd always wanted to be with me. I knew that I always wanted to be with him. It felt good to know that the feelings were reciprocated. "And now?" I asked, unsure if I wanted to know the answer.

But in the back of my mind I knew that he would always want to be with me. "I still want to be with you. What happened last week - that's not something that I want to end." Good to know that I wasn't the only person that felt that way. "I understand that we have to keep this a secret. But when graduation comes in four weeks, that's it. I'm going to be with you. I'm not going out there, doing God knows what, without being with you," he told me.

And that was it. I knew that I didn't have a choice. One way or another Bucky was going to want to be with me. And for once I didn't want to fight him on it. I wanted it to work out just that way. "I don't suppose that I'm actually going to get a say in what you're going to do at the graduation ceremony?" I asked him.

Bucky gave me a bright grin. "Of course not."

"You're just going to embarrass me," I said, knowing that I was right.

"Of course."

The two of us both laughed and shook our heads. "As much as I do love sitting here with you I have things to do, and even with the door open, it won't look good if someone finds you in here," I told him honestly. I had made a big enough mistake with Howard last week. I didn't need to make things even worse. "You should go. Training starts in a few minutes anyways," I told him.

Bucky grinned at me and I knew that I had said something wrong. Bucky didn't want to leave. I knew that he didn't. "Good. Then I have a few minutes to spare..." he trailed off.

"Bucky..." I said, trying to force myself to push him away.

What are you doing, you fool? Let him kiss you! He's right there and no one else is in the building! "I'm sorry, did you want me to leave?" Bucky asked, clearly believing me as much as I believed myself that I wanted him to go.

"Would you even believe me if I said no?" I asked him.

Bucky shook his head at me. "Not at all." And you would be right.

So I decided to just run with it. He came to sit next to me and push the hair off of my forehead. I smiled softly as he leaned into me and grabbed my hands tightly. Our lips met a moment later and I was thrilled to see that the fireworks were no less than they had been the first time that we had kissed. I was so happy with him. I was sure that I always would be. Despite the fact that we were on the bed, I knew that it was reasonably innocent. The kiss was more romantic than anything else. His lips were soft as he tilted my head back.

The kiss was deepened and I felt myself leaning back. Stop it! You're going to make this completely not innocent. Not that I could really bring myself to care. His hands wound through my hair as he tugged me gently into him. My hands were resting on his chest and I found myself fiddling with the tips of his hair when a small pip came from the door. Bucky and I shot apart as my gaze went straight to the door. I couldn't believe that I couldn't hear someone coming. Bucky always made me so distracted. But on the bright side, it wasn't the worst person that could have been there. It was Peggy, leaning against the doorjamb. She was in between blushing and smirking.

Smiling softly and glancing down at my lap, I bit my lip before glancing back up. "What are the chances that you don't repeat this to my father? And definitely not to Howard Stark. Or anyone for that matter," I said awkwardly.

Peggy smiled back at me. I knew that she wouldn't tell anyone. Because I'd do the same thing for her. And she already had the chance to tell the others what had happened. "Those chances are very good. Sorry about interrupting, I just needed to grab another bobby pin. Mine broke," she said as she walked over to the dresser.

"Interesting timing," I teased.

Bucky was as bright as a tomato and I smiled at him. It was one of the few times that I'd seen him blush. He stood and stumbled over his feet slightly. Where'd that swagger go? "I should definitely go," Bucky said.

Peggy was nodding in the back of the room and I nodded too. Not that I wanted him to go, but this was a bad time to be hanging around. "Yeah, you should. I'll see you at training in a little bit," I called to him.

He walked over to the door and waved softly. "Yes, you will. Thank you for answering my questions, Sergeant Phillips," he said and I nearly snorted. But I nodded at him anyways. It was far too late to pretend like this had been for anything professional. "Agent Carter," Bucky awkwardly greeted Peggy as he brushed by her.

She nodded at him, not doing well at trying to hide her smile. "Private Barnes," she greeted. He walked past her and I watched as she closed the door behind him. She stared for a moment before letting out a loud laugh. "You two looked like you were enjoying yourselves. I take it that he got the answer that he was looking for?" she asked me.

"I hate you," I snapped as I stood from the bed.

Of course that had been an utter lie, and Peggy knew it. She walked over and plopped down on the bed, inviting herself to sit down. "No you don't," she chirped brightly as she began to re-pin her hair. "So... You and Barnes seemed to be looking much happier together than normal. I thought that you had agreed to put things on hold," she said.

And she was right. We stayed up late plenty of nights talking about what was going on between Bucky and I. "We had. I mean, we decided that it was going to better that we waited until after he came back from deployment. But, I don't know. I mean, I thought that it might have been better that way," I told her stupidly.

Why should you get a degree in Genetics and Mutation from Harvard? You're an idiot! "And?" Peggy goaded.

"And... What did you just see happening?" I asked her.

She wasn't blind. She knew what was going on. She knew that we were both having way too hard of a time fighting our feelings for each other. "Trust me, it's probably better this way. Victoria, he loves you so much," Peggy said. I rolled my eyes. He liked me, he wasn't in love with me. Yes he is. "A few kisses aren't going to do the two of you any harm."

"So you don't think that I'm crazy for doing this?" I asked her.

Peggy smiled at me and shook her head. "Love, I'd think that you were crazy if you didn't. It's pretty obvious to everyone that Barnes loves you," she said. He doesn't love me. "Yes he does!" Peggy snapped. Oh crap, I said that one out loud.

"No he doesn't," I argued. Maybe one day I'd learn how to actually speak in my head. Sometimes being a telepath was a little confusing. "It is not that obvious," I snapped at her when I realized that I couldn't fight her on the whole him not loving me thing.

Peggy snarled under her breath at me. "You're a mind-reader and you can't tell that everyone knows?" I groaned and shoved my head into a pillow. "Chester takes it harder on Barnes just because you like him. Howard is constantly trying to embarrass you about him because he knows that you feel the same way. The women here hate you because they know that Barnes likes you. And the men are teasing Barnes all the time because they think that something is going on," she explained.

Absolutely none of that reasoning was incorrect. "Tell me something. Do you think that it's a smart idea that I'm going to be with Bucky once he goes into the front lines? I can't decide whether or not it's the smart thing to do," I said.

It was the one thing that was driving me nuts. Whether or not we should start something before he left. "Tell me something, Victoria. Put things into perspective for just a moment. Say something does happen out there - which it won't," she said when my face went white. "Don't you want Barnes to know how you feel? Don't you want to have been able to spend at least a little bit of time like this?" she asked.

"Yes," I answered without hesitation.

It was pretty obvious that Peggy had been expecting that answer. "And when he comes back, you get to pick up right where things left off," she added.

That would be nice. And the two of us could come and hunt down Steve and tell him everything that was going on between us. We could be the same trio that we had been when we were kids. But maybe with a few changes. "Do you like Bucky?" I asked Peggy suddenly.

She knew what I meant. She knew that I wanted to know if she thought that he was a good man. I valued her opinion. "Of course I do. I don't know him very well, but I know that he loves you. And I know that he's willing to do anything for you. He makes you happy, Victoria. Doesn't he?" she asked.

Yes. He was the one person that could even manage to make me happy in Stryker's lab, even after not seeing him for years. "More than anything else," I answered her truthfully.

"Then be happy with him, Victoria. Love him," she told me. I smiled at her and nodded. I really did want to love him. I just hoped that when the day came that I was completely honest with him about who I was, he would still love me. "When the time comes, say goodbye to him and know that he's going to come back to you," she added.

Smiling at her, I brought Peggy into a hug. "Thank you," I told her.

After a moment the two of us released each other and Peggy smiled at me. "You're welcome. Don't worry about it, Victoria. I don't think that anything is going to happen to Barnes as long as he knows that he has you to come back to," she told me.

I laughed softly and nodded at her. She had answered all of my questions. But there was still one thing that was itching in the back of my mind. I wanted to know what to do about admitting the entire truth about me to Bucky. I wanted to know when the right time was. "Do you think that I should tell him the truth about me?" I asked her softly.

Peggy let out a soft sigh. We had talked about it before and had never managed to come to a conclusive answer. It really wasn't an easy one to think about. "I think that that's only a question that you can answer. One day I think that you should tell him. It's only fair that he knows everything about you. But tell him in your own time. And only you're going to know when that time comes," she told me.

And once again that threw the ball back into my court. And that meant that I was going to push it off for just a little while longer. "Thanks, Peggy. I really don't know what I'd do without you," I told her.

"Presumably kill all of the recruits," Peggy said nonchalantly.

A loud snort escaped my mouth as I laughed at her. Now I wouldn't kill them all. They were our Army. I needed them to help us end the war. "Now that's not fair. I'd maim them, not kill them," I said.

We were silent for a moment before Peggy spoke up once more. "Well speaking of the recruits, shall we go? They should be getting ready to start the Fit to Win Obstacle Course any second now," she said. I nodded and stood with her. The two of us left the room, locking the door behind us, and headed out towards the course that was set back from the camp slightly. "Are you going to kiss Barnes again while we're out there?" Peggy asked.

My head snapped over to her and I saw that she was attempting to not laugh. "I will electrocute you if you mention anything about the kiss to either Howard or Chester," I bit out.

Peggy's eyebrows knitted. "Why Chester?" she asked me.

I let out a soft sigh. "Because he really is like my father. And he wants to protect me like my father would. He doesn't want him to end up hurting me. Just in case," I told her honestly.

Chester was a great man. And he really was like a father to me. I would always love him just the way that a daughter would love her father. "I think that the last thing that you have to worry about is Barnes hurting you. I think he'd rather jump off of a cliff than ever hurt you. Plus, if he ever does hurt you, I'd hate to see the way that you could retaliate," she told me.

I laughed under my breath as the two of us walked up to the recruits and Chester. The recruits were talking back and forth and Chester was watching them as the Drill Sergeants walked around. Bucky glanced away from his friends long enough to send me a little wink. I smiled and looked away from him, ignoring the scathing smile that Peggy was sending my way.

"His incentive to never hurt me," I told her. The two of us both laughed as we came to stand next to Chester. I folded my arms behind my back and gave him a bright smile. "Good morning, old man," I chirped at Chester.

He glanced up and gave me a little snarl. I merely smiled brightly. He loved the way that I teased him. I knew that he did. "Victoria. Agent Carter," Chester greeted. "Who'd like to speak first?" he asked after a beat of silence.

"No thanks," Peggy immediately barked.

By the look on Chester's face I could tell that he didn't want to have to speak to them either. Probably for the better. I knew that the recruits weren't overly fond of him. They thought that he was too old fashioned. Which he somewhat was. "I suppose that's going to be me then," I said before walking towards the front of the pack. "Recruits!" I barked.

They all immediately sprang to attention. "Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" they called in unison.

Much better than Yellow Eyes or some type of cruel name. "Thank you. Welcome to Week Five. I told you all in the beginning that time would pass quicker than you would expect. You're getting very close to the end. This week will be a direct follow-up from Week Four. We want to see how well you were all paying attention last week. At the end of the week you'll be firing for a completion certificate in all the firearms we've already taught you.

"Throughout the rest of the week you'll be performing on the Fit to Win Obstacle Course designed to test your strength and balance. This is very similar to what you all did two weeks ago during Week Three. Take your time but perform to your best ability. We will be watching. You will do this for the next five days. For the sixth and seventh you'll be performing for your firing certificate. This is your course. Is everyone ready?" I asked.

"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" they all called out.

They had been much better from a few weeks ago when they'd barely let me stand in front of them without saying something cruel to me. "Separate into your teams," I called out. The men all grouped together and stood at the entrance to the obstacle course. I looked forward to seeing them on it. "Drill Sergeants will be around to assist. On my mark." The men got into running positions. "Three... two... one!" I shouted.

The entire course was laid out towards the back of the camp. It went well into the woods and I smiled at the sight of the men running straight into it. It began with a half-mile trek out to the course. Peggy and I rode in the trucks out to the sight, not that it would have taken me more than a minute to actually run out there myself. But Chester had already told me that I couldn't do that. So we rode out to the site alongside the recruits and jumped out once we'd arrived. The recruits immediately began to separate over the course.

It was slightly different from the one that they'd done two weeks ago. Instead of being laid out all over the place, this one was in a U-shape. It made it easier to time and keep track of the recruits. It was seven hundred feet long and we'd be watching the recruits work on it three times over the next week. It sat right next to some of the obstacles that were attempted in Week Three. I saw some of the new recruits training on that.

It was about every two weeks that we were bringing in new recruits. The problem with the war was that it was deadlier than any other war that we had been in before. In some ways, that was a good thing. It meant that the Central Powers were losing their fighters at a quick rate. But it also meant that the Allies were losing fighters as well. And that was something that we couldn't afford. So, as often as possible, new recruits were brought in and trained at every Army training base in the United States. We must have been producing a few hundred fighters each month.

The recruits all bolted for the course and I shook my head away from the dangerous thoughts about the war. It only upset me every time that I thought about it. Despite the fact that the war hadn't been going on for a long time, it felt like it had been a lifetime. And it felt like every day things only got worse. I glanced over at the recruits and began to watch over Bucky. Peggy saw where I was watching and laughed softly at me, shaking her head and walking off. I smiled as I watched him. He had almost no problems, just as I had been expecting.

The first of the obstacles was an easy one that I had seen all of the recruits do without problem. It was simply a three foot wall hop. The recruits could use their hands to help them over, but some could do it without even that. I particularly enjoyed watching Howard attempt it one night after far too much gin from frustration over making no progress on the serum. He had fallen straight onto his face in the dirt. I'd laughed for nearly an hour. Bucky did it without a problem.

After that the recruits went into the lane guide. It was about twenty feet long and I enjoyed watching the recruits attempt it. I knew that it was one of the more annoying obstacles. But since they were all wearing long pants and shirts, it wasn't that bad. It was a guided crawl that the recruits went through. It was kind of something like a trench. It was just barely a foot deep, just enough to know where to go. Gravel was thrown up on either side of them so that they could crawl through it somewhat easily. Once more, Bucky had no issue with it.

Although he was now covered in dirt. Not that I wasn't expecting that. It didn't take long for the recruits to end up needing a nice, long, shower. The next obstacle that they went to was one of the few where people had problems. It was a fifteen foot ladder made of wooden logs that went straight up into the air. The recruits had to climb up it, change over to the other side, and crawl back down it. Bucky was the fastest that I had seen of the recruits, but he had made one misstep at the end and twisted his ankle. Thankfully he'd been able to walk it off.

I could only imagine how upset he would be if something like an injury got him discharged from the Army before he'd even managed to really do anything. Once he had managed to get his ankle back to functional condition, he'd gone to the cement culvert. It was a rather large tube that was slightly too short for the recruits to walk through. I'd done it once and barely had to duck. The benefit of being just over five feet tall, I supposed. Bucky had to duck through and walk awkwardly. The culvert was about ten feet long.

The next obstacle that they went over was one of the cargo nets. It was one of the obstacles that tended to take the recruits a little longer to go over. I understood. Their feet kept getting caught in the holds. They had to crawl up twenty feet to the top of the cargo net before crawling across. Once they were all the way across they had to drop off at the other side. I watched as Bucky dropped the entire way down and went into somewhat of a sprawl. It made my heart flutter, watching the way that he managed it. Peggy giggled softly next to me.

I knew that she was enjoying watching me watch him. She probably thought that my faces as I watched him were funny to watch. They probably were. They went over to the low wire crawl afterwards and I smiled. This was always disgusting. The mud was spread all over them by the end of the crawl and some of them would come out of it all cut up. It was about twenty feet long and I enjoyed watching Bucky crawl on his hands and knees. He was covered in the dirt and I laughed. He looked good, even in dirt.

The next obstacle was always a fun one to watch. There were three boxes that were each set three feet apart. They were only about the length of someone's foot. Well, someone with a rather large foot. I watched as the men jumped over one after another. Some of them fell, and when that happened they had to go back and do it again. Most of the men fell at least once. Bucky was one of the one that didn't fall. Although one of the Drill Sergeants did shout at him and startle him to the point that he almost fell.

The eighth obstacle that the recruits went to was the balancing logs. The beams were about thirty inches in the air and I laughed as a few of the recruits fell off. I didn't blame them. The beams were barely the width of their feet. I had pretty lousy balance as well. Of course, I could use the wind gusts to keep myself off. Most of the recruits fell at least once. Bucky came pretty close to falling once but he managed to catch himself. It took me nearly ten minutes to convince Chester that I hadn't sent a gust of wind to help him right himself.

Of course that wasn't to say that I hadn't blasted another recruit with a strong gust of wind to purposely knock him off. Harlan was one of my least favorite people here, and I frequently enjoyed watching him fall. The ninth object that they went through was another culvert. This one was much longer than the first. Almost three times as long. It was a little smaller too. The pipe was only about four feet tall. All of the recruits - most of them tall - seemed to be having a hard time getting through.

The tenth obstacle was always a rather amusing one to watch the recruits do. It was one of the more annoying ones. That was probably because most of them were too tall to get over and under. It was an over and under obstacle. The recruits had to jump over a three foot wall before dropping and rolling under a bar that was two feet off of the ground. I'd seen a few people smack their heads on the bar. I was extremely happy to see that Bucky had no problem getting over and under the obstacle.

Of course the longer that I watched him on the course, the more nervous that I got. The better that he was doing in training, the more likely that it was that they were going to send him to one of the more dangerous places. And that meant that something could happen to him. Which I would never be label to tolerate. The next obstacle that they went through was a forty inch deep trench. They had to drop into the trench before climbing back out of it. It seemed to be one of the obstacles that the recruits were having a tough time with. I didn't blame them. By this part in the course, they were getting tired. Plus, the dirt that they placed their hands in was almost impossible to get a grip on.

The clocks that were all around the camp began to ring out, signaling that it was now noon. It was rather amusing to watch the recruits pick up the pace. Some were already finished, but most were still going through their second and third sets of the course. Bucky had finally made it to the monkey bars. At least, that's what they looked like. They were almost twenty feet long. It was the time that we saw which recruits had the upper body strength. It seemed like most of them were getting through without problem.

The thirteenth obstacle was another over and under situation. A few of the men were starting to get their feet caught into the holds. I could tell that they were exhausted. Even watching them, I was tired. Of course, I didn't really get winded anymore. Not since Stryker had done whatever he had done to me. The recruits made their way out of the over and under and I watched as they dashed to the next one.

It was the one obstacle that most of the recruits failed on. Or, at least, they had to take their time. It was a series of eight, three feet tall, hurdles. The recruits didn't have to run over them. All that mattered was that they got over them without getting their feet caught, falling, or knocking one of the hurdles over. Most of them walked over the hurdles, being careful not to knock them over. Bucky seemed to get through them all without problem. Although he did get pretty close to knocking over the last hurdle. A shout from a Drill Sergeant to run faster had startled him and his foot had come down a second too early.

The fifteenth of the obstacles was where the recruits began to speed up. I could tell that they all wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. The air was hot and the sun was beating down on them. Plus, the clothes that they were wearing weren't exactly comfortable. They went into the night trench high crawl after that. It was one of the more important obstacles. Recruits dove into the trench and crawled through, keeping themselves out of view. It was to ensure that they would be able to hide from enemies. Usually it was done in the midst of the night, but the timing was wrong. They would do it all again at night, later on this week.

Most of the Drill Sergeants were stationed around that area. They kept shouting at the recruits that they could see them. I could hear them even well across the obstacle course. The next one of the obstacles was the window. Training for if recruits ever needed to get in and out of a building where the door wasn't an option. It was about a three foot high opening that was shaped like a window that recruits had to jump through. I got a rather good laugh when Justin - one of the nastier recruits - whacked his head, coming through the opening.

And now they were nearing the end of the course. Chester, Peggy, and I all walked over to the other end of the course to watch the recruits get through the rest of the course. There were only three obstacles left. There was a forty inch wall that the recruits had to jump over. Like the others, they were allowed to place their hands on the wall to help them up and over. Almost no one fell going over it but a few people did make little stumbles. It was rather amusing to watch. I knew that their legs were turning into mush as they continued to run.

The eighteenth of the obstacles was always a funny one, considering that when the men fell it was hysterical. Crushing their nether regions was probably not something they particularly enjoyed, but it was something that I enjoyed. It was called the high stepper. The recruits had to jump a few feet into the air to something that looked like a low version of the monkey bars. They had to walk across the bars that were positioned on the top. But it was tough, considering that it had rained the night before. Almost everyone fell. There were only four people that didn't actually fall. Bucky was one of them, although he had almost slipped off of the side a few times.

The five foot wall jump was the last thing that the recruits needed to do. They started with a fifty foot long crawl on their hands and knees. It was clearly tough as they were all heaving and puffing through the trench. They were also screwing up the lines that they had been assigned to crawl through. After they got out of the crawl they had to jump up onto a five foot tall platform where they would wait for the rest of their team. Once everyone was up, they were allowed to jump off of the back and finish the course off.

It took them until just before three o'clock before all of the recruits were finally finished. They all practically dropped onto their hands and knees, looking like they were ready to throw up a lung. Not that I blamed them. I knew that for someone without any enhancements, this was tough. But they were all things that we needed people to be able to do before sending them off to war. Bucky was down on the ground, taking in deep breaths and letting them out. We waited for the last of the recruits to come back in before shifting forward and speaking out to them.

"Well done, gentlemen," I called out. The men all straightened up. "We know that this isn't easy, but we thank you for your participation. Go and get yourselves lunch. Take some free time for the rest of the day. We'll see you all again tomorrow. If you need anything, please consult either Colonel Phillips or Agent Carter. I will see you all again tomorrow," I called out.

The men all saluted me before moving off. It was pretty obvious that they were all exhausted. I could tell that they wanted to take a nap. I did too. But there was still work to be done. Bucky walked past me and I smiled softly at him. "How about a hug?" he asked me.

Gross. It was disgusting. He was drenched in sweat and mud. There was no way that I was hugging him like that. I had already hugged him the other week when he'd grabbed me without warning. "Go take a shower, you twit," I snapped at him.

It was playful of course, but I really didn't want him to touch me when he was as dirty as he was. Especially because there were still things that I needed to do and I couldn't shower yet. "See you later, Vika. Good luck with your project today," Bucky told me.

"Thank you. Have fun with the rest of your day off. I wish that I got the same luxury," I joked. Bucky laughed at me and grabbed my hand, tightening his grip slightly before walking past me. I smiled and walked away, turning to leave. On the other side of the yard I could see that Howard was waiting in his car to take me to Stark Industries.

Not that it really mattered. I had only been walking for about half a minute before another person stepped out in front of me. "Are you heading out?" Chester asked me.

I nodded at him as we headed over to the gates at the edge of the camp. "I am. Hopefully we can figure something with the radiation out today," I told Chester under my breath. I didn't want anyone else to hear what we were talking about. "Howard and I will let you know what comes of the project," I added.

Chester was staring sideways at me. I had a feeling that he wasn't convinced that the radiation was a good idea. "Be careful out there," he warned.

"Always am, old man," I called out before brushing by him and heading out.

About ten feet away from the gate, with Howard standing by the car, opening the door for me, Abraham walked in front of me. I smiled at the older man. I didn't see him that often, considering that we were always doing something four our projects. "Victoria, I hear that you're going to Stark Industries today," Abraham said to me.

"I am. Howard has a radiation chamber that should be able to contain me," I said, keeping my voice low. That wouldn't be an easy one to explain. "We're going to see if those radiation waves that I can produce will work for the serum. We haven't had an advance in weeks. We need something. We'll be back in a few hours," I said, walking backwards towards Howard's car.

He had walked over to meet me halfway through. Abraham was walking with me. "Liebe, I am very proud of you," he told me.

I smiled softly and grabbed his hand before releasing it. The men here were quickly becoming my family. Bucky, Abraham, Chester, and Howard. Of course, Peggy too. "Thank you, Abraham. I hope that I can make you proud by finishing this project," I told him.

Abraham smiled. "You will."

The two of us hugged each other gently before I separated from him and moved away. As I walked past Chester I sent him a little wink. "See you later, old man." He grumbled under his breath as I walked past. One day he would admit how much he really did love me, despite how much I annoyed him. I quickly made my way over to Howard. "Howard, are you ready?" I asked.

Howard held open the door of his car to let me in. "I've been ready. You're the one that's taking forever," Howard complained at me. I rolled my eyes and scooted into the convertible. "I'm sorry, did you want to go and have another chat with Barnes before we go? If it's really talking that the two of you do," Howard told me.

My heart jumped into my throat as Chester whipped around. I knew that Howard didn't know the truth, but I didn't need him making things even worse for me. Everyone already thought that Bucky and I had something going. I wanted to keep it - at least for a little while longer - as Peggy being the only one that knew the truth.

"What was that?" Chester snapped at me.

Great. Not one of them can ever be useful. "He said that we shouldn't stand around here talking!" I chirped before dragging Howard into the car. "We need to go. I'll see you in a few hours," I told Chester. Howard hopped into the car and tore out of the drive. "I hate you. I actually hate you. Would you stop doing things like that?" I hissed at him.

Howard chuckled under his breath as he steered us back onto the main road. He stopped at a stop sign just around the bend of the road and grinned at me. "You just make it so easy," he teased.

I'm going to bash his head in against the steering wheel. "Can we just go? Before you make things even worse for me," I snapped at him.

Howard turned to me and grinned before stepping down on the gas. We roared around the corner and I dropped back into the chair, trying to block out Howard's annoying personality. "I'm only trying to help you," Howard argued.

He was one of the least helpful people that I'd ever met. He always wanted to make me look like a fool. He thought that it was funny when he could see me getting all flustered. "No you're not!" I barked at him. He raised his eyebrows at me. "You're trying to make me look like a fool out there," I told him angrily.

And he was. He liked to watch me say something that got Chester all fired up. "And you're the only reason that I'm successful. Just because of the reactions that you have," Howard told me. I rolled my eyes at him and curled my feet up underneath myself in the seat. We were silent for a moment before Howard spoke once more. "In the meantime, Peggy said that I should talk to you about Barnes," he said.

Peggy! I hissed in my mind, trying to reach her.

Almost immediately I could tell that I had reached her. I felt the spike in her blood pressure. Probably because I'd startled her. That is terrifying the way that you do that. Can you understand me? Peggy asked.

Yes. Anyways, I should kill you for telling Howard!

Oh! I - uh - I didn't... I'm sorry! Look I'm very busy, can we have this discussion at a later time?

I was really going to kill her. I had been trying to keep the relationship between Bucky and myself a secret until the graduation ceremony came in a few weeks. Alright, but I'm going to kill you when I get back!

Howard was watching me closely. I assumed that it was because my eyes were now white with the little swirl of a galaxy rolling through them. "Oh, remind me to thank her for that later," I told Howard darkly.

Howard shook his head at me as we turned onto the main road. "Don't be angry with her, I was badgering her the entire time to tell me what happened," he told me.

How the hell had he even known that something had happened? I wanted to ask, but at the same time I wasn't sure that I wanted to press anything. I didn't even want to tell him the truth about what happened, but I knew that he would never let me ignore it. "It was last week. We were just talking at breakfast and he was... it doesn't matter," I said, not wanting to discuss the fact that it had really only happened because of Bucky's thoughts that Howard and I had something going on. "But anyways, we were just talking and it happened. I admitted my feelings for him. And he kissed me. And I kissed him back," I admitted.

"I knew it!" Howard shouted loudly. At his excitement, the car went swerving slightly on the road at his jerky movements.

My heart leaped into my throat as I conjured a force field and pushed the tire back in a straight alignment, ceasing the swerving movements. "If you crash this car I'll kill you!" I barked as I released the wheel, letting Howard gain control once more.

Howard cleared his throat and fixed his tie. I knew that he was slightly unnerved by what had happened. If I hadn't been here, he very well might have crashed. But if I hadn't been here, he never would have swerved in the first place. "I'm calm. What happened that made you admit your feelings for him?" Howard asked me.

Nope. Not talking about that. "Nothing," I snapped.

Howard clearly didn't believe me. "Victoria," he goaded softly.

"Howard," I replied.

"Tell me the truth," Howard told me. My stomach churned as I realized that as much as I wanted to keep it a secret, I would end up telling him anyways. So it might as well be now.

"He thought that something was going on in between the two of us," I said. Howard's eyes went wide as he grinned at me. "Some of the recruits saw you come into my room that morning. And when Bucky confronted me about it, I thought that he meant the kiss at Stark Industries. So I said something about it and had to awkwardly explain what was going on. And when I did, my feelings for him just kind of slipped out," I said.

Howard was grinning brightly at me. I supposed that thinking about it actually made the accident somewhat funny. It was one of those moments that was hysterical when you looked back on it. "Well it was a good accident," Howard told me.

Well this wasn't going nearly the way that I had thought that it would. "I agree," I said softly.

I had thought that he would sit there and make jokes about everything that had happened between the two of us. "So the two of you are together now?" Howard asked me.

Slowly, I shrugged my shoulders at him. "Yes and no," I said. He raised his eyebrows at me. "We are going to do something once training is over. But we have to wait. Having a relationship with one of the recruits is frowned upon. And it will make it look even worse considering who my 'father' is. So for the next few weeks it has to be kept discreet," I told him.

Howard gave me a deep grin. I wanted nothing more than to whack him over the back of the head. "Well as long as you invite me to the wedding, your secret will be safe with me," he said.

I rolled my eyes at him, delivering a small hit to the side of the arm. He cringed in pain and I grinned. I hadn't thought that I had really hit him that hard. But that was what he got for insinuating that we were going to be getting married one day. "Shut up. We are not getting married. We just barely got together," I told him softly.

But he seemed to think that my words were a lie. Maybe they were. "And in a few years when the two of you are getting married, I had better be invited. Front row seat, too," Howard told me. I rolled my eyes blinked out the pink tinge in my eyes. We were not going to get married. I wasn't the marrying type. "I'm happy for you, Victoria. I really am."

A small smile crossed over my face. Howard was a pain in the ass and a cow, but he was always a good person to speak to when you needed it. "Thank you. I'm happy too." We sat in silence for a moment until I dug my face into my knees. "God, I'm so worried for him already and he hasn't even left. I want him to go just so that he can get back already," I said weakly.

It broke my heart to know that he was going to leave and he might never come back. And there would be nothing that I could do about it. Howard took one hand off of the wheel and grabbed my knee. "He'll always come back to you. There aren't that many people that I've seen that are as in love with someone else as he is with you. Trust me, he's going to fight as hard as possible to get back to you," he said.

"I think I'm going to need a stiff drink every night while he's gone," I said with a little laugh. And it was the truth. No part of me wanted to be sober until Bucky came back, safe and sound.

Howard laughed at me and I watched as we turned down the road that led to Stark Industries. "Well I can definitely help you there. You know that I'm available any time that you need," Howard told me. I smiled and nodded at him. I definitely would take him up on that. "Now, I need to know, do you know how to conjure the radiation?" he asked me after a beat of silence.

I dug through the far corners of my brain but I couldn't come up with anything. Stress, which might have been the only thing that would work. "I don't have a clue. We might be there for a long time," I said. Howard was staring sideways at me. "Howard, I really don't know what to do. But I'll try. I want this project to work more than anything else. I'll do whatever it takes," I told him.

Howard shook his head at me. I knew that he didn't want me to have to remember the torture that I went through with Stryker. "Just don't push it. Your health and your safety is more important than anything else. Definitely more important than this project," Howard told me.

Letting my head fall back against the seat and the wind blow through my hair, I laughed softly. Howard would always be there for me, even if he tried to deny it. "What do you know? Howard Stark has a heart," I teased.

Howard looked over at me and nudged me on my shoulder gently. "Only for you, doll."

The rest of the ride was made in somewhat of a comfortable rhythm. We were having fun laughing and enjoying the time that we had together. It wasn't very often that we got to just sit and chat. It seemed like we were always talking about something or another. Most of the time we were having discussions about what the next step was for the super soldier serum. Other times we were too busy training the recruits to really have time to actually speak freely. And since the incident last week I'd had to be careful with the way that I interacted with Howard. We had to be almost strictly professional around the camp. Not that it really ever worked.

It was about half an hour before we finally arrived at Stark Industries. It looked the same way that it had when I'd been here a few weeks ago. Although there was one rather large difference. There were people around today. Probably because it wasn't the middle of the night. We did drive around to a service entrance though, and there was almost no one back there. When people spotted that Howard was driving back here, they almost immediately cleared out. As we hopped out the car - well I let Howard open my door, since he always insisted - I immediately felt the ice seep into my veins. It was early March and still freezing out.

So as we walked I let the flames lick at the skin of my arms, immediately feeling the warmth slip into my veins. It felt much better. Although I was careful about ensuing that no one saw me. "What are you doing?" Howard asked me.

"It's the beginning of March and it's still cold," I argued.

When we were working with the recruits we were standing in the sun and running around. Short sleeves and pants were acceptable. Right now, in the shade, the wind was biting. "Please don't light any of my experiments on fire," Howard told me.

I laughed under my breath and nodded at him. "I'll try my hardest," I promised.

And I would try my hardest. Actually, the moment that we walked into the lab, I would let the flames die down. I wasn't going to let one of the workers see me. As we walked into the opening of the labs, I let the flames die. "Come on in. Step into my lair," Howard said deeply, opening the doors and letting me walk in first.

"You're a twit," I called back to him.

Howard let the door closed and smiled as he walked to my side. As we walked in I felt Howard's hands at my hip. I wasn't overly fond of the thoughts of the people standing around us. Some were thinking that we were together, others were jealous, and some were just calling me rude names for fun. "But I'm your favorite twit," Howard said, drawing my attention back to him. I scoffed and continued to walk. "The radiation chamber is in the back of Stark Industries. We keep it out of the way of everyone else. No one wants to see it. They'd start asking questions."

The two of us walked down the back of the hallway and I smiled as we lost the rest of the workers. No one seemed to be allowed back here. Of course, that would make sense, given that there was a Restricted sign across the back of the doors. The room that we walked into was pretty much exactly what I was expecting. I just hoped that it could contain me. It was large and silver, metallic fastenings over all of the walls, holding them together. The only thing other than the heavy metal door was a large window set on the far right side of the room.

Other than those, the room was bare. "I'll be up there, watching you through the blast proof windows," Howard told me, pointing to the window. "Don't worry. I'll be able to talk to you through the entire process," he said.

Before Howard could actually leave, I turned over to him. "Why do you have this room?" I asked him.

Howard grinned at me and shook his head. That doesn't bode well. "That's an entirely different conversation that we really don't have time for right now. I'll explain it later," he told me. Uh-huh, sure you will. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a small vial. "This is a few strands of human DNA. Now the object is to see how it reacts to the radioactive power that you have," he told me.

"Alright."

Howard placed it on the ground in the middle of the floor. "Here's what I'm thinking. If you shoot UV light at dendrimers -"

"You mean the branched molecules?" I interrupted. I remembered Abraham talking about them the other night. He was thinking that they might have something to do with the mutation process that we needed for the super soldier serum.

"Yes. Anyways, they actually break up. So anything they're carrying gets released into the tissue they are currently embedded in. So if you imagine one of these nano carriers carrying everything our solider needs, let's say his genome editing tools to turn on the right genes for increase muscle mass... You put it in the muscle and zap him with the radioactive waves. You specifically activate these molecules to release their load with a very specific function," he explained.

That actually made sense. I couldn't even believe that I hadn't thought about that yet. It was the only thing that made sense. This was a good chance for us to make a breakthrough in the serum. It actually all made sense. "You mean the increased muscle mass, speed, strength, flexibility, eyesight, stamina, and everything else?" I asked, ensuring that I was thinking correctly.

Howard nodded at me with a bright smile. "Precisely. The problem is that UV radiation isn't strong enough. We've already tried," he told me.

We'd used almost everything. Except for gamma, but that was far too strong and unpredictable. "So you think that the radiation that I have might be strong enough without completely degrading the tissue. We aim the radiation at the dendrimers and hope that it speeds up all processes," I said.

Howard nodded at me. "That's the general theory."

"I mean, we know what we're doing. We can 'switch off' certain genes, turn others on, and change the ways in which others are expressed. But I think you're right. The dendrimers are the key," I said.

We couldn't just blast the entire body with the radiation though. It wasn't controlled enough. We would completely deteriorate the tissue and muscle mass of the body. There had to be a way to strike at only the places we wanted. "The problem is how we manage it," Howard said.

I had an idea. But I wasn't exactly sure how it would work. Maybe we could bring Abraham on board. He seemed to understand the new theory that we had discussed the other day. I was still a little on the fence about it. "What about that new theory that Abraham was talking about the other day?" I asked Howard, wondering if he knew what I was talking about.

Howard raised his brow. "Which one?" he asked me.

"C.R.I.S.P.R. Clustered Regularly-Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats," I said.

Howard looked the exact same way that Bucky did whenever I tried to explain to him something that I was doing with the project. "Clearly I must have been dozing off when we were talking about that," Howard said.

I laughed softly under my breath. He hadn't been there. He's heard the beginning of the discussion and then left. "The good thing is that we know what genes are associated with muscle growth and athletic performances. C.R.I.S.P.R. helps us suppress certain genes and hyper-activate others. And that's where the radiation comes in. I was talking to Abraham about it. The idea is, first some nano-scale material would contain the actual serum, then when hit with the radioactive waves, the muscle will open up some way and deliver the serum," I explained.

Clearly this wasn't really getting through to him. Not that I blamed him. Of I was anyone else, I would have had a hard time understanding it too. "I must have really been asleep," he told me.

"You weren't around. Probably flirting with one of the nurses," I said honestly.

Whenever Howard wasn't around, he was normally somewhere to be found in the medical bay. He liked flirting with the nurses. Most of them enjoyed getting some company from him. "Presumably," Howard said and I laughed. We stood in silence for a moment and I wrung my hands together. "So, shall we begin?" he asked me.

I was nervous. I had never actually seen it happen to myself. Not since leaving Stryker's lab. And I hadn't been able to see my reflection. I could see it in the metal panels. "I suppose," I muttered softly.

"Alright." Howard leaned over and began rifling through the vial. He popped the cork off of the top and laid it back down on the ground. "I'll leave this open. We can run it under the microscope once you're done in here. I'll be out there. Call out to me in if you need anything," he said.

"I'm not sure that this is going to work, Howard," I said nervously.

The last thing that I wanted was to waste his time if I couldn't even manage to make the mutation present itself. "Don't worry about it. Just take your time and figure it out," he told me.

Howard gave me a quick squeeze of the shoulder before turning and walking out of the room. I could hear the door bolt behind him. A moment later the lights on the other side of the room lit up and I watched Howard through the glass. He hit a few buttons before glancing over to me and nodding. Underneath my skin I could feel the electricity buzzing excitedly. But that wasn't what I had come for. I had only come here for the radiation. And there was only one way that I knew how to engage it. That would be thinking back to my time with Stryker. No matter what Howard didn't want me to do, this was the one way to manage it. So I thought back.

There I was, laying on the cold metal floor that I had always known. It had been so long since I'd had a bed, I couldn't even remember what it felt like. All I could remember was the dirt and sweat that was constantly clinging to me, the starvation that I faced every day, the humiliation from the guards and trainers, and the pain that I was in every day of my life. The pain that made me wish that I knew how to die. The pain that I wanted to end more than anything else. Even if it meant that I died. It was worth it.

The ice cold water was thrown onto my unclothed form. "Rise and shine, Victoria!" Stryker shouted. The icy water locked up my entire body and I shot awake. The flames licked over my skin as I dried off, but I still didn't feel any better. The only thing that would make me feel better would be to stop breathing.

He always seemed to know what to say that was going to break me. He always seemed to know what was going to force my hand to do what he wanted me to do. But I wanted to kill him. I wanted to rip his heart out. I wanted to watch his ugly head separate from the rest of his body. This wasn't my life. This was the last thing that I wanted. But it wasn't something that I could get. Not while he knew exactly what to do to keep me in line. He knew exactly what to hang over my head to keep me from living out my greatest fantasies.

Stryker stood over me, smiling. "What about your friends, James Barnes and Steven Rogers? We'd hate for something to happen to them," he said. Just as he had so many times before that.

He starved me. He never wanted to see me eat. It was one of his favorite games. To see just how far he could push the weak little mutant before watching her come back to life. He liked seeing the bones sticking out of me. He enjoyed watching me barely be able to stand because I was starving to death. He liked all of it. He would always think that it was funny. I just wished that the day would come that I would get to watch him take his last breath. I wanted the day to come that I could starve him to death.

But there he stood, with the bar handed out to me. Not that it meant anything. "Go on. Take it. I want us to be friends." A lie. And he would prove me right when my dinner would be food that even a dog would deny.

My heart hurt. My everything hurt. Even my mind hurt. I'd seen people die before. I'd even felt myself die more than once, just to be brought back. I'd seen trainers die from small accidents. I'd seen everything happen that I could ever imagine. But I'd just witnessed one of my own people die. I'd just watched a mutant die. And in my name. Maybe I hadn't killed them. Maybe it wasn't me that had drowned them and maybe it wasn't me that had shot them in the forehead, but it had still been me that had killed the kid. And I would see his face forever.

"You killed that mutant."

But I always tried to convince myself that I didn't kill them. I had to pretend that I wasn't the person that everyone had made me out to be. I had to pretend that I wasn't the person that everyone thought that I was. All of me knew that I had to pretend that I wasn't just a mutant. I was a real human being. I was more than just someone with powers that made me a freak. One day I wanted them to look at me as more than just Yellow Eyes. I wanted them to see Victoria. I wanted to just be Victoria. But I wasn't. And because of that, I'd never have anything that I wanted. Not a normal life, not a normal death, and certainly not him.

He would never let me think that way. "You're a monster. Just like the rest of them. Don't be a fool. They'll never accept you. You can't possibly think that they would. They'll fear you the moment that they realize what you are."

And the horrific part was that it was the truth. I would always be a freak. I would always be the mutant that everyone had to stay away from. But I would make them fear it. If they wanted to treat me like a monster, I would act like a monster. And they would regret ever even knowing my name. So I let all of the fear and the anger that had been stashed away for seven years to bubble to the surface while I was on the edge of my escape. For the first time, I let myself become a monster.

Mother of God, she's an Omega.

"Kill her!" William screamed, desperate that I would be able to escape.

That was what it took. My entire body was buzzing with energy and I found myself shaking, desperate to let it out. The only thing that I wanted to do was kill everyone in sight of me. My mouth opened in a piercing scream as I dropped down to my knees. From the center of my chest it felt like someone had punched a hole through me. The energy burst in heavy waves, nearly knocking me back on my feet. The entire room rattled as the floor underneath my feet began to melt. My mouth closed and I watched as the radioactive waves began to ripple through the room.

My chest was heaving up and down heavily as I turned to look over at my reflection in the glass. Howard was being blocked out from the sudden brightness of the room. The only thing that I could see was my golden reflection. My eyes were completely gold, making it almost impossible to see any other color in them. Not even the pupils or sclera. The veins in my arms - that had once been burned black - were glowing softly underneath my skin. The waves in the room began to fade and as the minutes passed my eyes returned to their normal yellow color.

As the energy began to die down I noticed that the walls were charred and some of them were a little on the distorted side. When the windows finally cleared I glanced in and saw that Howard was watching me with wide eyes. He looked absolutely stunned to see what something like that had just happened. And I couldn't blame him. It was not something pretty to watch. On the floor I could see that the DNA strand - that no one else would have been able to see - was twitching slightly and glowing softly.

A few minutes later I heard a mechanical voice call out through the room. "Radiation levels at ninety-two percent," it called.

We would have to wait a while before either one of us could either move from the room or come in. "I'd recommend that you stay out of here for a little while," I called out to Howard. He nodded, taking off the goggles that he was wearing and leaning on the board. "And I'm sorry that you had to see that," I said softly, digging my feet at the metal floors.

I hadn't intended for anyone to ever see that mutation. Howard merely laughed. "That was incredible, Victoria."

He wasn't lying. But he was wrong. It was as far from incredible as someone could get. "It's not incredible. It's horrendous. I could kill someone being able to do something like that. I have killed someone by doing something like that before," I said, remembering the guards with the masks melting into their scarred flesh as I escaped. "And as much as I can, I'll try to avoid it."

Howard was silent for a moment before moving from his work station. I raised my brows, curious as to what he was doing. "I'm coming in there," I heard Howard called out.

No way. It wasn't safe yet. "Wait!" I shouted.

Clearly my comment didn't bother Howard. He continued walking over to the door. "The radiation levels are back down to normal. Nothing is going to happen to me," he told me.

"But... Just in case," I said softly.

I couldn't bear if something was going to happen to Howard because of me. Most of the people that I had hurt were people that I didn't know. I couldn't bear hurting someone that I did know. "It's going to be fine, Victoria," Howard called before walking into the radiation chamber. Thankfully, as he'd said, nothing happened to him. "See? Nothing has happened to me. I'll even give you a hug," Howard teased.

He might be alright to be near me, but I didn't want to see what would happen if he actually touched me. That could end up being extremely dangerous for the both of us. "Howard -" I groaned.

But I never got the chance to finish. He grabbed me around the back and pulled me into a tight hug. He wasn't shouting in pain so he seemed to be doing alright. "Look at that, darling. Nothing happened to me," Howard said as he let go of me. "My eyeballs didn't explode, my skin didn't melt off, and nothing crazy happened. I'm still standing here and not a corpse."

No part of me wanted to talk about anything like that. The last thing that I wanted was to pretend that something dangerous had happened to him. "Let's just see what happened with the sample," I said, walking over to it.

I grabbed it in my hands, not wanting to let Howard grab it. "Come with me," Howard said.

The two of us walked out of the hall and headed into another laboratory. It was just barely past the radiation chamber. Howard walked us back to one of the more intricate looking microscopes. We placed the sample underneath of the microscope and began to look over it. We stared at it for a little over ten minutes before finally coming to the obvious conclusion. We turned to each other with bright smiles, knowing exactly what was going on. The DNA was mutation the correct way. It was targeting muscle groups and enhancing them. The only problem that I could see was that the bone and organic tissue was degrading. But we had a way to fix that with the rest of the serum.

"Howard... Do you see this? It's working. The muscle mass, stamina, all levels are steadily rising. We do still have muscle and tissue degradation but with the serum and oral application, I think that this is going to work," I told him happily.

For the first time in a long time, Howard laughed with me and grabbed my hands. "Victoria, I think that we need to bring this to Erskine," Howard told me. I nodded at him. "I think that we've finally figured something out."

There was no doubt that we had figured something out. We had clearly just made a big advancement. The two of us laughed before wrapping each other in a tight hug once more. "I can't believe that we really figured this out!" I cheered softly.

Howard grabbed onto my hand, bottling the sample once more, and dragging me out of the lab. "Come on, we need to get back, now," he told me.

On the ride back to Camp Lehigh we chatted back and forth excitedly about what was going to happen with the serum. There was still the issue that we had to figure out the rest of the serum. The bone and organic tissue degradation would cause a big problem unless we could do something about it. And we would, in time. But in the meantime we could just be excited that Operation Rebirth was finally gaining some traction. There was finally a chance that we might actually be able to solve this. As we arrived back at Camp Lehigh, Howard and I both leaped out of the car, heading straight for the labs to bring our findings to Abraham.

We were only walking for a moment when I nearly ran straight into Chester. He was glaring at us, probably perturbed with the fact that we both looked so happy. "There you two are. Did you figure anything out while -"

"Can't talk!" I barked back at him as Howard and I continued to work through the camp at a fast pace. Chester was staring after us confusedly. "We have to get to Abraham!" Chester nodded and continued walking as I turned to Howard. "Head over there, I'll be with you in a few minutes. Prep Abraham and tell him that we found something."

We had to get the files that I had in my room before heading over to the lab. "Not a problem," Howard said before turning and walking away.

My feet were moving slightly faster than my brain was - which was certainly saying something. I just kept thinking about how I needed to get moving and finish this project. I dashed into my room and grabbed the file before turning back out and heading straight for the labs. I was running so fast that I smacked into someone, nearly knocking them to the ground. "Oh! Sorry!" I chirped.

My gaze turned straight upwards and I smiled. "Vika, you look like you're in a hurry," Bucky told me with a small laugh. I couldn't help it, I was so happy to see him that I jumped forward and wrapped him in a tight hug. "And you're awfully happy. Are you really that happy to see me?" he asked with a small laugh as I released him.

"I'm just so happy." Bucky looked thrilled to hear me say something like that. "I think that we just made a huge advance in the project that I'm working on. And with this... I don't know. We might just be a few months away from getting it to work," I vaguely explained.

It didn't seem to bother Bucky that I wasn't really telling him anything that would really make sense. "Oh, congratulations, Vika. I knew that if anyone could do it, you could," Bucky told me. Forget showing no affection towards him in public, I wanted my friend. So I pulled him in for a tight hug, wishing that I could do more. "I wish that you'd make huge advances more often," he teased.

The two of us both laughed as I gave him a gentle nudge. I wished that I could bring him into a kiss, but that still had to be a secret. "One step closer to that Harvard degree. And one step closer to winning the war," I said brightly.

"Still can't tell me what it is?" Bucky asked me.

He probably wouldn't even understand what I was talking about, even if I told him the truth about what we were doing. Sometimes I didn't even understand what we were doing. "Nope. It's a secret," I told him with a little wink. "But I'll tell you one day. Once we're all actually allowed to talk about it. Until then, I think that it's back to the lab for me."

Just as I was about to turn and leave, Bucky placed his hand gently on my shoulder. "You have enough time to come and see me for breakfast tomorrow?" he asked me.

A smile fell across my face and I nodded at him. No matter what, I would always be there to do the little things like breakfast. "I'll always have enough time for you. I'll see you tomorrow, Bucky," I said, grabbing him for one last hug. He smiled and laughed, his breath fanning gently across my ear. If I could have stayed like that, I would have. Forever.

But just as was said, all good things must come to an end. "Bye, Vika," Bucky called to me.

So I gave him a soft wave and turned in the other direction. Maybe the day would come one day that I didn't have to turn away from him. Maybe the day would come that I could actually stay and enjoy his company for more than just a few minutes or hours at a time. As I walked over to the labs I saw that Howard was waiting on me. I knitted my brows together, knowing that he had a comment waiting on the tip of his tongue.

"God you two are so cute," Howard said.

I knew it. "Shut your mouth," I snapped at him, unable to keep the smile off of my face. We were pretty cute. "Come on, we have work to do," I told Howard, dragging him to the labs by the arm. For the first time in a long time, things were looking up for everyone.

A/N: And here's another one! Sorry that this one took me a little while. I kind of got stuck in the beginning. But I managed to figure it out and piece by piece we're getting closer to the beginning of the events of The First Avenger. About four chapters from now will start that storyline and Steve will reenter the picture. So something to look forward to! Anyways, thanks for all of the follows and favorites! Please review! Until next time -A

German Translations:

Liebe: Dear

LadyDV011: Hope you liked this one!

kuppcake: Glad you liked the way that the kiss happened! I hope you're continuing to enjoy the story :)

swanqueen4: I wanted Peggy to know before we got into the events of The First Avenger so I'm glad that you like that she knows now. I love the Howard/Victoria friendship, they're both so much fun to write. Glad you liked the miscommunication that led to the reveal of the feelings :)

Anonymous: Thank you! I agree, Peggy knowing is a great thing, and I really loved writing the scene where Victoria finally tells Bucky her feelings for him. Hope you're still liking it!

xWintra: Glad to see that you're back to reading! I'm really happy to hear that you think that Victoria is so well written. I really try to write her relationships with all of the characters as to be not too OOC, and many of her relationships will develop more over time, just so that they don't feel forced right now. She's definitely on the arrogant side, but I write her that way intentionally. Being someone like her - essentially the perfect person - it would be hard not to be arrogant. But that doesn't mean that from time to time we don't see some real weaknesses from her. Those will come in more down the road though. Hope you like this chapter!