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.

17. Chapter 17

The room was full of advanced experiments. Everywhere sat new experiments. Things that the rest of the world was years behind in. It took me a moment, but I knew where I was. A Hydra facility. How did I get here? Men and workers were walking back and forth, none of them paying a bit of attention to me. A dream... It's a dream. But it didn't change the fact that this place was very real. I walked through the halls and into a large room that had a window that opened to snowy mountains. Two men stood inside of the room. There was a small man that was just a few inches taller than me, and a taller, stern-looking man.

My jaw tightened when I realized who he was. Johann Schmidt. The Red Skull... He didn't look at all like I was expecting. He was wearing a tight-fitting, dark suit that was made up of a type of leather. The red Hydra emblem was blazing on the side of his arm. This was the man that was responsible for so many deaths. This was the man that was half of the reason that I was about to watch Bucky leave. But there was nothing that I could do. I couldn't hurt him. I could only watch. He brushed back his black hair as he walked around a strange gun.

It was emitting some type of low-level Gamma radiation. But I couldn't think for the life of me what it was. It wasn't of Earth... That was my only explanation. "The experiment. Is it ready?" Schmidt asked the small man.

"Not yet, sir." Swiss heritage. High-pitched voice. Scientist that specializes in weapons systems and occult sciences.

Of all people, I was the one person that would understand that science and magic were so often the same thing. But that wasn't where Schmidt drew the line. He didn't seem to understand that we lived in the real world. There were some cases in which magic really was just science that was too complicated for the human mind to comprehend. But he was the type of man that took science to the next level. He believed in things that were straight out of the legends.

Schmidt glared at the small man. "We need it to be ready. We need to draw her in," Schmidt demanded.

Her? Who was she? "How?" the small man asked.

"Find her weakness," Schmidt ordered.

They wanted a woman. But why did they want this woman? And what had she done to appear on their radar? "Does she have one?" the small man asked. She was strong. They feared her.

Schmidt turned a small smile on the man as he walked over to a closed briefcase. "Everyone has a weakness, Dr. Zola." Dr. Zola. Nazi scientist. He'd been working for Hydra for the last ten years or so. "Perhaps hers is not physical. Perhaps it is mental."

"Mental, sir?" Dr. Zola asked.

"Her family, they're all dead, correct?" Schmidt asked Zola.

A sudden knot formed in my stomach. A woman with a dead family that people feared... That sounded familiar. "As far as record goes. But it also states that she died in the house fire," Dr. Zola said.

Me. They really were talking about me. What were they talking about me for? How did they even know who I was? "Of course it does!" Schmidt shouted, startling all of the men in the room. "They couldn't just let a little girl run away. Especially not one like her. Find who she fights for. Bring her here," he ordered, his voice softening slightly.

"You think that she fights for someone?" Dr. Zola asked, looking nervous.

"She is a mutant, but a woman above all." So they knew about mutants. We weren't as big of a secret as I thought that we were. "Someone cares very much for her. Find the one who loves her and do anything it takes to bring her to me. We have things to discuss," he said.

Dr. Zola nodded respectfully. "Yes, sir." He turned to leave the room, the other men turning to leave with him. Schmidt stood over a large map of the world, looking back and forth over it.

"Where are you, Miss Davies? Where is the great Savage hiding?" he asked himself. He even knew what Logan had called me... He glanced straight up at me and our eyes locked.

"Vika. Vika."

Before I got the chance to kill Schmidt, I was shaken awake. Panicking, I jumped upright and nearly collided heads with Bucky. He was giving me a very concerned stare. Steve was curled up on the other end of the couch, still fast asleep. It was just after five in the morning. I was breathing heavily, trying to slow down my heart rate. It was just a dream. It was just a dream. Heart rate at eighty-seven beats... Heart rate at sixty-three beats. Better... Bucky was still staring at me.

Taking a few deep breaths, I brushed my hair back over my shoulders. "You alright?" he asked me softly.

Shaking him off slightly, I nodded. "Bad dream. I'm fine," I said.

Bucky nodded at me sadly. He looked heartbroken for me. But he still gave me his hand and helped pull me off of the couch. "Come on. It's time to go," he said.

My heart nearly stopped. For just the briefest of moments, I'd almost forgotten that he was leaving. But he was. And I'd be damned if Schmidt thought that he would ever lay a hand on Bucky. "Oh. Okay. Give me a minute to get changed," I told him softly.

"No problem. I'm gonna write Steve a note," he whispered to me, walking over to the kitchen. I nodded at him. Before I could walk down the hall, Bucky spoke to me once more. "Are you coming back here or are you going straight back to Camp Lehigh?"

I couldn't tell him that I had to come back to take Steve with me to Camp Lehigh, so I made up a little excuse. "I'm gonna come back here and make sure that he's okay before I head back to Camp Lehigh. Can you mention to him in the note to wait for me?" I asked.

"Sure."

"I'll be right back."

Heading straight back into the bathroom, I closed the door behind me and locked it. Blushing softly, I slipped out of Bucky's robe that I'd borrowed. I wasn't sure whether not he'd known that I wasn't wearing anything underneath but he was no fool. He probably knew. I had left all of my clothes in the bathroom overnight and I began to change back into them. I did my hair after washing off a comb - I couldn't tell which of theirs it was - and washed it off once more before placing it back. I decided to leave my hair down and flowing over my shoulder. If I cried I would be able to hide behind it.

As I straightened out my clothes I thought back to my dream. It had been so real. Maybe it was real. I couldn't tell. It bothered me that I didn't know. A sharp shiver shot down my spine. I was not clueless. I knew who it was that had been in my dream. The Red Skull. And if it was real, somehow the Red Skull knew about me, and wanted to speak to me. Why was I dreaming about him? What connection did I have to him? Nothing. There was no connection that the two of us had, outside of Abraham Erskine. But he had known Abraham before Abraham had known me. Maybe Schmidt knew about mutants, but why me in particular?

It wasn't that we were both mutants. I was a mutant, he was enhanced. His powers had been given to him through the serum. It was the same thing that would happen to Steve if he went through the serum. He, too, would be enhanced. It still didn't make sense to me. It wasn't just that he knew who I was, Schmidt seemed to know me personally. It had almost seemed like he had tapped into my dreams. He seemed to know that Bucky meant the world to me. It only made me even more nervous for Bucky - who would be so close to Schmidt. Maybe this was all a dream. That's what I wanted to think. After all, there was really no reason for him to know who I was, or care.

But I didn't want to think about Schmidt or the Red Skull or anything like that today. It was my last day with Bucky for a while, so I went to thinking about him. Over the past few days I had been trying to convince myself that he would be fine. And he would be fine. I'd kill him myself if something went wrong and he was hurt out there. Bile rose in my stomach as I hung up Bucky's robe and checked myself over one more time. Perhaps I thought that if I stayed here long enough, Bucky would miss his train. But that would be worse for him than leaving. So, taking a deep breath, I nodded to myself and left the bathroom.

Walking out into the kitchen, I smiled at Bucky. He looked handsome back in his uniform. Steve was still fast asleep on the couch, snoring softly. "Are you ready?" Bucky asked me quietly, leading me over to the door.

Grabbing his hand, I walked with him slowly from the kitchen. He had two bags in hand. It was barely anything. "I think the better question is are you ready?" I asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be," he said.

It didn't sound confident, but I appreciated the honesty. "You left him the note?" I asked.

"Yeah. He'll be waiting here for you to get back," Bucky told me.

I nodded and waited quietly as we left the apartment and Bucky locked the door behind us. I took his light backpack and walked down to the borrowed car with him. I had offered to take the luggage, too, but Bucky was still a man. No matter how tough I was, and it was far tougher than him, he wouldn't let me do anything that was the 'man's job.' I almost snorted at the thought that I would have made a much better man. Quickly making our way out to the car, we tossed his bags in the back and climbed back into the car. Bucky immediately sped off down the road and I sighed. We weren't that far away from the train station.

More than anything, I wanted to say something, but I couldn't. I didn't know what to say without letting the tears - which I was trying so hard to keep in - fall. "Do you want to talk about your dream?" Bucky finally asked me.

"Not particularly. I don't really remember much from it," I lied.

The last thing that I needed to do was worry him about my mental state. He had enough to be worried about. We were silent for a while before Bucky spoke again. "You know you're gonna get so many letters from me that you'll get sick of me before I even get back," he said with a small smile.

I shook my head at him. I could get ten letters a day and never be sick of getting them. "I don't think that's the case. You can write to me every day, Bucky. I want to know what's going on with you. I want to hear about what's happening on the war front. I want to know that you're okay," I said seriously.

"I'm always going to be okay, Vika."

"What if you aren't?" I asked before I could stop myself.

A strange look fell over his face. "Vi -" Bucky started before I cut him off.

"Humor me," I snapped. What would even happen if he wasn't okay? I couldn't picture a life that didn't have Bucky in it. "You aren't indestructible. What happens if you're out there and something happens to you? Millions have died already. Millions more will die before it ends."

I knew that everything that I was saying was dark and upsetting, but I couldn't stop myself. It was the harsh reality of this world. It was the harsh reality of where he was going. "Stop," Bucky said forcefully, the most that I'd ever heard him towards me. "Don't do that to yourself. Until you hear otherwise, you wait for me to come home, you hear me?"

Smiling softly, I gave his arm a little nudge. "You don't get to order me around."

Bucky smiled back at me and nodded. We were both Sergeants, but he was no fool. He knew that I was the type of person that would never take orders from him. He was smart enough to know to never give them to me. "I know. You're the boss. You always were and you always will be," he said.

"You got that right."

The two of us relaxed back into the seats as the car rambled down the road. "You asked me to humor you about what if something happens to me," Bucky said, pulling me to look back at him. A painful knot formed in my stomach. "You can mourn me. But you move on. Stay with Steve and make sure that he's alright. Take care of each other. He's like your brother and he thinks of you as his sister. I want you to go and find someone to love and make a life with them."

There was only one person that I ever wanted to try and make a life with. And he was sitting right next to me. There would never be anyone else. "That won't happen," I muttered under my breath.

He still heard me. "Why's that?"

"You know damn well why that is," I snapped.

Bucky let out a little breath and I immediately knew that I shouldn't have jumped down his throat for wanting me to be happy. "I want you to find someone to love, Vika. It's the one thing that you've always deserved," he said carefully.

"You," I whispered, laying my hand on his thigh. I knew that it wasn't the most appropriate thing in the world, but I didn't care. Bucky laid one hand on top of mine, running his fingers over my knuckles. "You are the one thing that I deserved. And I have you. I won't lose you."

Bucky kept his voice just as quiet as mine was. "You won't have to. I'm right here, Vika. I always will be right here. I'm not that easy to get rid of," he told me. Despite myself, I laughed.

The hair on the back of my neck rose as he continued to stroke my knuckles. "You always did want this. To go out there and fight for your country. You always wanted to be something more than a factory worker or a businessman. This is what you always wanted. As much as I don't like it, I'm proud of you," I said honestly.

It didn't matter what he did, I would always be proud of him. "Thank you, Vika. I like to think that Mom and Dad would have been proud of me too," he said quietly.

My head jumped up to meet his eyes. They were sad. He really hadn't said much about his parents to me. I had assumed that maybe he'd gotten over their deaths, but the truth was that he just hadn't really accepted it. He'd never been that close to his family - Steve and I were always his family - but I knew that he loved them. And to lose his mother and father not long after I'd left... I supposed that I'd never really taken into account that losing all three of us in a close period of time might have hurt.

"They are," I told him. And that was the truth. I knew that they would have been proud.

Bucky let out a deep breath as the wave of sadness rolled off of him. It was easy to feel it. "Yeah, this was something that I always wanted. But there was always one thing that I wanted more than anything else," he said.

"What's that?"

His head turned over to me for the briefest of moments and I almost blushed. "You. I wanted you to completely open up to me. Since the day that I met you I just wanted to know everything about you. You always were the most mysterious person that I knew," he said.

Coughing awkwardly, I nodded. "Part of my charm, I suppose," I teased.

Bucky smiled at me. "You are very charming." I rolled my eyes, I was about as charming as a cactus. "But I'm serious," he said, letting the grin fade from his voice.

Taking a deep breath, I prepared to say the one thing that scared me the most. "I'll tell you what. You come back home to me and I'll tell you everything. I'll tell you about my childhood, I'll tell you how I showed up in your apartment that night, I'll tell you where I went for all of those years, and I'll tell you why I don't trust myself around anyone." Bucky's head snapped over to me and I barked at him to watch the road. "Incentive for you to come back," I added softly.

"Yes. That's a good incentive," Bucky whispered, making me giggle softly. We sat in silence for a few seconds. "I only want you to tell me if you're ready," he added.

Was I ready to tell him? Yes. I needed to tell him. Someone deserved to know the truth, and if I was going to tell someone everything, I wanted it to be him. "I am ready. I'd tell you now but trust me when I say that we don't have time and I need you focused out there," I said.

Bucky nodded at me. He didn't need to know me that well to know that for me to tell the entire truth - something that I'd hid from everyone for all of my life - was a big deal. "You ever told anyone the whole story?" he asked me softly.

"No."

"Not even Colonel Phillips?"

He knew some of the most important parts but I really hadn't gone into detail with him. I'd never really told him about my family, although he did know a lot about Stryker's lab. "Not even him," I said.

"Stark?"

He was the only person that had managed to put together who I was without any assistance from myself. He probably knew the most out of anyone. "He knows a lot, but even he doesn't know everything," I said.

Like Chester, he didn't know much about my early childhood. "Agent Carter?" Bucky asked.

She knew a little bit about everything, but I tried not to go into detail with her about the harshness of my life. She was no softie, but she didn't need to know the horrible circumstances that I'd gone through. "I've spared her more of the gruesome details."

"Gruesome?" Bucky asked.

Smiling at him, I nodded. As long as everything went according to plan, he would know everything. Just like he had always deserved to know. "Come back and I'll tell you all about them," I promised.

"Not even Steve?"

Right in front of me was the opportunity to make a joke, and I took it. Things were too serious right now. "He's as clueless as you are," I told him with a bright smile.

Bucky laughed and gave me an affronted look. "Hey, I resent that. I like to think that he's a little more clueless than I am," he said.

In the end both Bucky and Steve were clueless. But I wouldn't want them any other way. "Doesn't matter. You're both clueless considering that every time one of you had a terrible idea in school I'd somehow manage to get dragged into it! I can't even count the detentions that the two of you got me," I told him with a small laugh.

Bucky smiled at me. "Tell you what, when I come back, I'll make it up to you," he promised.

"How are you going to do that?" I asked.

The grin that he gave me told me everything. And it didn't help that the carnal part of me came to the surface, begging to slam on the brakes and pull Bucky into the trees. "I'll leave that to your imagination," he said lowly.

Act like a proper girl. "That's so inappropriate!" I cried out, still unable to keep from laughing.

Bucky gave me a sly grin. "You were the one that thought about it," he said with a small shrug. He was right about that. I'd never actually read his mind and he never told me that that was what he was planning on. But you would like that. "And when were you ever appropriate?" Bucky asked, distracting me from my thoughts. I was extremely grateful in that moment.

I've never been appropriate. We both laughed as Bucky pulled into the parking lot for the station. "We're here," I said softly. Bucky parked the car in a space not far from the entrance. We hopped out of the car, grabbed the bags, and walked into the crowded station. Bucky and I dropped his bags at the baggage claim and moved into the throng of people. "Which train is yours?" I asked as I looked around the platform.

He wasn't holding a ticket, I assumed that it was in his bag. "Platform One, I think. They said that it was the first train that you see when you enter," he told me.

We were standing close to Platform One. "Okay." I grabbed his hand and we walked over together, standing next to one of the doors to the black steam-engine. "I guess this is it," I muttered awkwardly.

The intercom that went through the station squeaked loudly. "Boarding call for the six o'clock connecting train to England. The train will depart in five minutes' time," a man behind the speaker called.

It wasn't just me, everyone in the station tensed. Most of the women burst into tears as the men tried to console them. I didn't cry. But I did give Bucky a good once-over. I wanted to remember every part of him. Bucky grabbed me and pulled me into a tight hug. His hands were tighter around me than they normally were. And when he finally pulled back, he didn't release me.

He teasingly flicked the bottom of my chin to get me to look up to him. "Come on. Smile. We're having a good time. I want to see you smile until I can't anymore," he said.

Smiling at him, I nudged his chest and pulled back his shirt, glancing underneath on his tiptoes. He was watching me with a little laugh, surprised at my actions. He was wearing a shirt underneath his uniform so I couldn't see the muscles of his stomach - I wasn't really sure if I wanted to see them or not. You do. But that wasn't what I was looking for. I spotted the golden locket and grinned. He did have it. I grabbed the chain and pulled it free of the shirt, Bucky smiling down at me.

I didn't open it but I did glare at him, letting him know that he had to show me. "Actually, that reminds me. You still haven't shown me the pictures. If you have them, you'll get to see me smiling whenever you want," I teased.

Bucky nodded at me. "That's true, but I can't do this," he said.

I raised a brow as he leaned down to me and pressed a small kiss against my lips. For once, I wasn't nervous about doing it in front of so many people. Everyone else was doing it, too. His hands were on my waist and on the back of my neck, keeping me pressed against him. I tried not to hear his thoughts, but they were so loud. Tell her... Come on, you idiot. Tell her! I managed not to hear what he wanted to tell me. I smiled into the kiss, trying to repress a sigh when he finally let me back away.

Grinning at him, I grabbed onto the chain and gave it a gentle yank. "Don't you try and distract me. I want to see the pictures. Come on, cough them up. Show me the pictures," I ordered softly.

"You wanna see 'em now? Don't wanna wait until I'm back?" Bucky asked me.

What if you don't come back? But I wouldn't dare tell him that. Not right before he was about to deploy. "When have you ever known me to be patient enough to wait?" I teased.

He grinned at me but said nothing else. Holding the locket out to me, he clicked the lock and handed it over to me once it had opened. I glanced over both of the pictures with a smile. On the left side of the locket was the first picture that he'd taken of me. My legs were pulled up onto the log that I was sitting on, and the recruit files were in my arms. The light from the fire was gently illuminating my face. My yellow eyes were gently glowing in the picture. But the pictures were black-and-white. On my right side I was smiling into the camera. I could see the ghost of a laugh on my face. I looked so happy.

All because he was there. "Reminds me of what I have to come back to," Bucky said softly.

And suddenly it felt like we were the only people that were on the platform. I was still looking down at the locket with misty eyes. "Beautiful," I muttered under my breath.

"Yes. You are," Bucky said softly.

My gaze turned up to him and I smiled softly. And suddenly the sweet bubble that we had formed around ourselves came crashing down. The train that would take Bucky to his fate blew loudly, startling many of the people on the platform. Myself and Bucky included. Tears rose to my eyes and I blinked them back. I hadn't cried in a long time. Today was not the first time that I wanted to cry after so many years of managing not to. Because he would be fine. He would come back to me. He had to...

Keeping my voice low, I threw my head towards the train doors. "I think they're calling for you. You should go before you're late. Won't look good if you're late on your first day," I teased gently.

Bucky nodded at me but remained rooted to his place. I smiled at him, knowing that I might have to give him a gentle shove towards the train, as much as I didn't want to. "Vika. There's something I need to tell you before I leave," Bucky said.

"Okay." My voice was wavering weakly.

Bucky grabbed my hands and held them against his chest. I could feel his heart beating quickly. Whatever he was going to say, he was nervous to say. "For the longest time I thought that I wasn't ever gonna see you again, and then when I did I realized what I knew about you all of this time. Vika, there's a reason that I want to come back. Way beyond the fact that I don't want to die." He was not going to die. "I love you, Victoria Phillips. I always have and I always will."

A large lump formed in my throat. In reality I knew that he was going to say that. I'd known pretty much since the beginning that those were his feelings for me. We hadn't been together for that long, but we'd known each other for years. We had a lot of history together. And I knew that he'd loved me since the beginning. The feelings had always been reciprocated. In some way or another I'd always loved him too. He'd been my best friend first, my protector afterwards, and now... Now he was something different.

Before I could repeat the words back to him, a wave of sadness washed over me. It broke my heart that was about to leave and that he'd said it right before he was going to leave. Was this going to be the only time that I'd hear him say it? It wouldn't be. It couldn't be. It wasn't just that. It was the fact that no one had ever told me that before. No one that meant anything close to the person that was standing in front of me. Steve had, his parents had, Bucky's parents had, Howard had, Peggy had, Chester had... The list didn't end there. But they were friends. No one had ever said something like that to me that meant it the way that he did. I opened my mouth to force out the words, but before I could, my parents' words came back to me.

I'd been hiding in the hallway that led to my room. My prison chamber, more appropriately. Mom and Dad were standing in the hallway, shouting back and forth about me. I'd asked to go to school. Mom had immediately said no, Dad thought that it might be a good idea to get me out of the house for a while. I could hear them arguing that it might look like they'd come to care for me - maybe even love - if they sent me to a real school. Dad had argued that it might not be the worst thing in the world that I imagined that they might care.

But it was Mom's words that were a harsh slap to the face. "No one can ever love a creature like that," she hissed at Dad.

My legs quavered slightly. Did they really think that no one would ever love me? Did they really mean that they didn't love me? I wanted to think about the wedding that I'd always wanted. A dress that everyone would admire. A groom that loved me more than life itself. My friends would have been there. Mom would have come wedding dress shopping with me. She would tell me that I looked even more beautiful than she did on her wedding day. Dad would walk me down the aisle and cry as he handed me over to the only man that would ever mean anything more to me than he did. But that would never happen. Not for me.

"She's still a young woman. Perhaps a man will come to love her one day," Dad argued.

A slight balloon of happiness formed in my chest. Maybe Dad and I could go off. He thought that someone would love me. "It would be a lie! What kind of man could love something like that? Do you love it?" Mom asked him.

They treated me the same that they treated their experiments. "No," Dad muttered.

And that was the worst part. My legs caved and I stumbled backwards. They were my parents. They were supposed to love me. Maybe they were just angry... Parents fought sometimes, and sometimes they took it out on their kids. "Exactly! If its own father couldn't love it, how could anyone else?" Mom asked.

Not wanting to hear any more of the conversation, I hardened myself, pretended that I'd never heard the conversation, and turned to head back to my room.I could pretend that I'd never heard any of the conversation. They clearly hadn't meant for me to hear it. So I would pretend that I didn't. It meant nothing to me. But their words would always ring true in my head. They were right. No one would ever come to love me. But I didn't need love. It wasn't necessary to survive. So I picked up my books, began to memorize them word-for-word, and found myself determined that if no one would love me, that was fine. The only thing that mattered was that I was perfect. For myself.

The memory was jarring. It almost felt unreal. But I knew that it was. No one would ever love me. I'd been raised that way. Stryker had told me that enough times. But here I was. Somehow, someone, had fallen in love with me. The one thing that I'd been told could never happen to me. It wasn't even from someone who knew what I was... And that was the most painful part. He loved a lie. How could he ever love me if he knew what I really was? My parents hadn't. Could he?

I didn't have time to think this through. Bucky was staring at me and I knew that I had to say something. "Oh," I said dumbly. Not that, you twit. "I - I - I mean... Bucky..." I trailed off, unsure where I wanted to go with this.

Bucky laughed awkwardly and briefly took his hat from his head. His hair was combed back immaculately and I immediately felt horrible. How could I have left him there with no response? He ran his fingers through his hair, messing it up, but still smiled. He's too good for you. "Well that wasn't really the answer that I was hoping for," he teased.

Even after all of that, he still didn't yell at me or make me feel bad. "No, no, I just..." I trailed off. Bucky's smile had faded as he waited for to explain myself. "I never thought that I'd ever hear that. From anyone."

He looked pained at my admission. Bucky moved forward confidently. It amazed me how everything that he did exuded confidence. "You listen to me." He placed a hand underneath my chin and lifted my head up so that we could stare at each other. "You will hear that from me every day for the rest of our lives. I'll tell you that I love you until I can't speak anymore. Because I do. Vika, I love you. So much. More than I ever thought was possible. You mean the world to me. I'm sorry that it took me so long to say it," he said.

And I knew that he wasn't lying. I couldn't control the tears that rose to my eyes, as much as I tried to. I wanted to say it back to him, but I needed something first. "Promise me something," I begged.

"Anything."

I grabbed onto the lapels of his military jacket, messing it up slightly - however messed up uniforms were given some tolerances today considering the emotional goodbyes most men would be going through - and pulled him into me. Our bodies were pressed together. "Come back to me," I whispered to him, the weakest that I'd heard my voice in a long time.

I hated it. I hated how weak he made me. But if there was ever one person that I had to be weak for, it would always be him. "Always. No matter how long it takes, Vika, I'll always come back to you," Bucky promised.

Taking a few deep breaths, I spit out the words that meant the most in the world to me. "I love you too." And I meant every word. Until the day that the Earth ceased to exist - the day that I would finally die - I would mean it.

Bucky wrapped his arms around me and pulled me into a tight hug. For how easily I could rip him in half, tear out his heart, or break every bone in his body, I'd never felt as tiny as I did right now. And I almost liked it. Because for just a brief moment, I felt like every other woman on this platform. No different. As we stood together, I found myself listening to his heart hammering in his chest. I never wanted to leave him, because, right now, I knew that he was alive. I had proof.

Finally, far too soon, we pulled away from each other. I took a step back and jammed my pointer finger into his sternum. "You come back me, you hear me?" I ordered him, my voice breaking.

"Yes ma'am."

The tears that were forming cupped over my lower eyelid. I was unable to stop the first tear from falling as it splashed over my lashes. He was faster than I gave him credit for. Still holding me close, Bucky wiped away the tear, keeping his thumb gently on my cheek. His thumb traced its way down my cheek and gently ran over my lips, barely parting them. I could see it in his eyes. They were misty. As much as this goodbye hurt me, it hurt him just as much.

Another tear fell before I was able to stop myself. He brushed away that tear, too. "Don't cry, alright? I'll be back. I promise," he told me.

"You break that promise, I'll break your nose," I said softly.

Bucky laughed in the way that only he could. Other men would have cringed or told me that it wasn't funny. But because it was Bucky, and he knew that I meant it, he laughed. "I know. Before I go, I made this for you," he said.

Letting his arms drop from around me, I stepped back and watched him dig through his pockets. "You made something?" I asked him.

For his many talents, Bucky was not an artist. He seemed to know that, too, as he gave me a bashful smile. "I'm not much of an artist, but most of my money went to Steve to help him pay the bills when I came out here. So I really didn't have any money to get you anything," he said.

"I don't need anything, Bucky."

It was the truth. I didn't need anything. I didn't want anything. The only thing that I wanted was him to come back home. "I know. But I wanted you to have something," he told me.

He took a moment longer to dig through his pocket and I smiled, waiting for him. Finally he pulled it out. Like he'd said, he was no artist. It wasn't overly pretty, but I automatically loved it. And I knew where it was from. Bucky had given it to me on my twelfth birthday. A bully at the middle school that I'd gone to had broken it when they'd shoved me to the ground near an alley. I'd picked up the pieces and given them back to Bucky, crying. Somehow he'd figured out who the boy was that had hit me and gone after him. He'd beaten the boy within an inch of his life and had gotten a week-long suspension for it.

It was one of the few times that he didn't get in trouble for getting into a fight. His parents had taken us all out for dinner and had told him that it was good of him to protect me, but next time, to do it away from an audience. I knew that I'd given him the pieces back, but I'd never thought that he'd done anything with them. I'd lost the string. I thought that he'd just thrown it away. But here they were, all of the little silver and yellow beads twirled together. The yellow beads were the same color as my eyes. It was one of the reason that I'd always loved it. He must have gotten a piece of twine to hold the bracelet together.

"I love it," I told him happily. It must have cost barely fifty cents, but it didn't matter. It was mine and it had come from him. "Put it on, yeah?" I asked.

He nodded at me and tied the bracelet around my wrist. As he let my hand go, his fingertips very briefly traveled down my wrist, tickling it slightly. "Back where it belongs," Bucky finally said.

"You held onto it for all of these years?"

"Of course. It was yours."

I smiled at him and shook my head. "Actually it was yours. You bought it," I said.

He shook his head at me. "Everything that's mine is yours. Always was, always will be," he said so softly that I almost didn't hear him. He grabbed the hand with his bracelet, and placed it directly over his heart. I could feel it beating steadily under my hand. His heart rate had slowed down. It was almost like a solemn march.

"Final boarding call for the six o'clock connecting train to England," the man called over the intercom.

Instantly his heart rate sped up. "Go. Don't you embarrass me by being late," I teased, gently pushing Bucky away from me. The longer that he stood here, the more that I would want to keep him here. He grinned at me and gave me a messy salute before turning to leave. He didn't make it very far. "Bucky, wait!" I called. He turned back to me and I ran after him, jumping into his outstretched arms. He caught me tightly around my waist and lifted me up slightly. He was quivering a little bit. "Be careful out there," I whispered.

We weren't the only ones like this on the platform. Everywhere else, women were crying and holding onto their men as long as they possibly could. The train would probably be late, but the conductor would not push. Not today. Not for this... Bucky pulled my head up to meet his and I gave him a long kiss. Our mouths tangled together in a sloppy kiss, mostly driven out of grief and desire. Desire to be with each other one more time, just in case. It felt like hours had passed when he finally let me go. I placed another soft kiss on hips lips before gently pushing him into the train. He walked into a cabin and hung out of the window, towering over me.

He leaned down slightly so that I could grab his hand. "Take care of yourself, Vika. Take care of Steve. And neither one of you do anything stupid while I'm gone," he told me.

"How can we? You're taking all of the stupid with you," I said, repeating the words that Steve had told him last night.

He grinned wickedly at me. The train whistle blew loudly and I jumped. Bucky placed a kiss gently on the back of my hand as the wheels began to turn. "Gotta go save the world," he called.

"Save yourself first."

Bucky nodded at me as another man took a seat in his cabin, respectfully looking away from us. "I'll write when I get settled," he told me.

He had damn well better. I nodded and stepped back as the train began to move, cringing as our final link to each other was broken, my hand falling from his. I wanted to walk with the train, but the platform was too crowded. So I wrapped my arms around myself and waved him off. Like most of the other men, he was still hanging out of the train windows. He gave me a sweet wink as the train picked up speed.

"I'll see you soon! I love you!" Bucky called to me.

He was so far away that I was sure that a normal woman wouldn't be able to hear him. But I could. I knew that he wouldn't be able to hear me if I called back to him, but his eyesight was good. I was sure that he would be able to read my lips. "I love you too," I said softly.

That was it. The train continued to pick up speed and I kept my gaze on Bucky until I no longer could. I let my hand fall back down to my side and I let out a shaky breath. Goodbye. Tears were still building in my eyes and I blinked them away. I couldn't cry. There was no good that tears would do. They wouldn't bring him back and they wouldn't save him. So I steeled myself, attempted to push Bucky from my mind, and turned my sights towards Operation Rebirth. He would be back soon enough. In the meantime, I had a job to do. And I had to leave here. I couldn't stand the crying women that surrounded me, praying for men that might as well already be dead.

Do not think that. As fate would have it, I didn't get to push Bucky from my thoughts for long. When I turned away to head back into the parking lot, I ran straight into an older woman. She was about forty and had a kind smile. "He's a nice looking man," she told me.

"Oh. Pardon me," I said to her, knowing that I nearly bowled her over in my haste to leave the station. "Yes. I suppose he is," I said awkwardly.

"It's nice to see young couples like yourself together. I hope he comes back to you," she told me.

I gave her a polite incline of the head. "Thank you ma'am." Remembering my manners, I asked her, "Is your husband deploying?"

Her answer made me wish that I hadn't asked her. "No. My husband deployed a few years ago. He died during an air raid." I was very glad that I hadn't eaten anything. It would have gone onto the floor. "I just come here to see the men off. Offer the women here my well-wishes. Let them know that the first few weeks are the worst," she continued.

Swallowing my scathing remark that the only thing that she'd done was ruin the slight hope that I'd had that Bucky would be fine, I gave her a gentle smile. "My deepest condolences for your husband."

The woman didn't seem to realize that anything she'd done was unnerving. "Thank you, dear. Don't worry, he'll come back to you," she said.

And all of the cruel remarks that I had prepared died on my tongue. Instead, I realized that she was trying to help, and I gave her a weak smile. "Thank you. Have a nice day," I told her, moving off.

"You as well."

Turning from the woman, I headed back to the parking lot. She didn't mean anything malicious by telling me about her husband. I knew that. I knew that the woman meant well by telling me the story that she had, but it didn't work. I now felt sick to my stomach. He'd died during a routine air raid. They happened all of the time. Particularly over in England. If her husband had died during an air raid, what would happen to Bucky? He was going to the front lines, one of the most dangerous places that he could be at. And I'd had a hand in sending him there.

But I couldn't think of that. It was going to drive me insane. I would be able to attempt to read his mind, but in a way that made it even worse. To know that if I tried to search for him and I couldn't find him... I wouldn't be able to handle that. It was too much. So I would wait for his letters, I would act like a normal woman. I would manage myself without an issue. As much as it hurt to know that Bucky was gone for now, I knew that he would come back. He always kept his promises to me. He'd never broken one. And this would not be the first. If he broke any promise to me... I begged that this wouldn't be it.

Trying to push off the thoughts that something was going to happen to him, I thought about something else that I didn't really want to think about. So I went to the next thing. Johann Schmidt. The Red Skull. What could he possibly want with me? Whatever it was, it wasn't good. He was known for his cruelty and strange experiments. I supposed that it could be that exact reason that he wanted me. I was probably the very definition of strange. But it didn't just end with him knowing that I was a mutant. He seemed to really know me. So it left a few questions. How did he know who I was? How did he even know what the mutants were? It wasn't like we went out into the public eye and talked about ourselves. We had to stay hidden. We'd done so well. Of course, Stryker had known. So why not Schmidt?

After thinking about Schmidt for a few minutes, I realized that I didn't want to think about him either. Everything that I was able to think about was something that I didn't want to think about. It wasn't helping that I was still hurting over the fact that I'd just gotten Bucky back into my life three months ago. It felt like such a short period of time. It was. But we'd gone back to normal - and even more - in that short time. And how he was gone from my life again. But it wasn't for good. He was going to come back to me, just like I'd come back to him. He promised.

In the end, the only good thing that I could really think of was that Steve was back in my life, too. Just like with Bucky, the moment that we'd met again after all of these years had seemed like nothing had changed. Expect, instead of drinking soda together last night, we'd been drinking beer. Some part of me wanted him to be okay with the super-soldier serum. He was such a good man. He deserved to be a Soldier, the one that everyone would look up to. This would be good for him if he was chosen. But there were also drawbacks. If he was chosen and went into the chamber, there was a chance that he might not survive.

It wasn't that far of a drive back to Bucky and Steve's apartment, but I had taken my time. Partially because I wanted to be left in peace and quiet for a little while, and partially because I wanted to be able to think about Bucky as long as possible. I didn't want the guilt of moving on from him so quickly. But finally there was nothing more that I could do. I drove up to the driveway of Steve and Bucky's apartment and parked the car. I hadn't brought anything with me, so I pulled myself out of the car and simply walked inside. Maybe I should have knocked, but it was a force of habit. I'd never knocked to come into their homes or their rooms.

Steve was already awake and walking back and forth through the living room, packing up his things. I gave him a weak smile as I closed the door behind me. "You okay?" Steve asked, pausing his packing.

"He's on the train. He'll be in England by tonight. He said that he'd write when he gets settled," I told Steve.

For the many things that Steve was never very good with, there were some things that he was very good with. And he was always good with knowing when I wasn't okay. He walked over to me and wrapped me in a tight hug. I pressed my forehead into his shoulder. It wasn't nearly as crushing or heart-breaking as the one that I'd just shared with Bucky, but it was just as good. They meant so much to me, the both of them. Not the same... But just as intensely as I loved Bucky, I loved Steve. We stood together for a few minutes before Steve finally released me.

He gave me a long look. "I know that he's okay. I asked if you were okay," he told me.

There were few times that he was forceful, but when it came to Bucky or my well-being, he was. "I'm fine, Steve. He hasn't even been gone for thirty minutes and I already miss him. I think I'll miss him until he comes back. I'll be paranoid over whether or not he's okay. But I can't do anything about that. So I'm going to keep busy with other things," I told him.

"Me?" he asked.

A smile fell over my face as I nodded. "You."

I appreciated that he was trying to keep my mind off of Bucky. I needed things to keep me busy, and Operation Rebirth was just the thing. "What exactly is it that we're doing?" Steve asked me.

"Come on. I'll tell you on the way there. Get your things. If everything goes right, you won't be back here for a while," I said.

That seemed to be enough to get him to move. He started packing up his things once more, and this time I helped him. While we moved we talked about all sorts of things. He told me about his graduation, how he'd lost his parents, a few girls that he'd been out with, and the last few times that he tried to enlist. We woke up his neighbors laughing about all of the places that he'd been beaten up and how many times that Bucky had managed to save him. It took us nearly thirty minutes to get all of his things together, and I waited as he changed into his uniform.

We needed to get moving as soon as possible. Camp Lehigh was almost an hour's drive and I didn't want to make him late on the first day. Once I'd closed his bag, I turned back to him. "You ready to go?" I asked.

He was fixing a few pieces of his uniform. "Ready," Steve called back to me.

He walked back over to me and I smiled brightly. He was wearing the same thing that Bucky had been when I'd first seen him at Camp Lehigh. It was almost funny that Steve was following in his footsteps. "You look the part," I told him.

"Good," he said nervously. I walked over to him and straightened out his tie, smiling when he gave me a bashful grin. "I guess I'm just afraid that they're going to tell me no the second that I get there."

"Would it make me a bad person if I said that I hope that they say no?" I asked him.

Steve turned to me and laughed. "No. It would make you a good friend." He clearly knew that I was still upset. "Hey, come here."

Even though I was normally as strong as could be, this was a rare moment where I allowed myself to be weak. Maybe it was because it was Steve. I'd always wanted to be so strong for Bucky - who was always strong. But Steve, he'd always been willing to show us his weaknesses. Maybe that was the reason that I didn't feel so weird being weak around him. It was almost nice to have someone that I was able to show just a hint of humanity around. Not the perfect specimen that I'd always told myself that I needed to be.

It was a big relief when Steve's actions cut off my thoughts. He grabbed me once more and pulled me into another tight hug. It still felt strange to know that he was taller than me now. He used to always be so short. But if he went into the Vita-Ray Chamber, he'd be much taller. And stronger. That would be odd to get over. And hard to explain to Bucky. I leaned into Steve's shoulder with a small sigh, wrapping my arms around his small waist. I knew that he was as worried for Bucky as I was. For this one moment, I wasn't concerned. Because I was right in between the two boys that meant the most in the world to me.

It was a long time before he finally let me go. I pushed him back gently and handed him my bag, motioning to the door. "Come on. We should head out to Camp Lehigh," I called back to him.

The two of us made our way into the driveway and tossed his bag into the back seat. Once it was secure, Steve hopped into the passenger seat and I jumped into the driver's seat, revving the engine and beginning the trip back to Camp Lehigh. We listened to the radio and reminisced on old times for a little while, laughing and enjoying the fact that we were back together after so long. I could tell that the entire time, Steve was trying to see if I was okay. But I was. And I would continue to be fine until something happened that would make me otherwise.

I was humming along to a song that Peggy had taught me when Steve spoke once more, forcing me to turn off the radio. "Can you tell me anything about training?" he asked me.

Grimacing slightly, I shook my head. As much as I wanted to see Steve succeed, I wasn't allowed to show favoritism. The same way that I'd had to act with Bucky. "Not really. But I can be honest with you, if you'd like that?" I offered.

"Of course."

Taking a deep breath, I searched for the best explanation of the recruitment phase of Operation Rebirth that I could possibly find. "You're being placed in a shortened version of basic training for consideration on the government-funded project, Operation Rebirth. To put it simply, we're making the world's first super-soldier," I explained.

Steve stared at the road for a long while as he contemplated my words. Finally he managed to gather his thoughts. "Have you seen me lately, Vic?" Steve asked.

Even though he was completely serious, I laughed. "Stop," I said, whacking him gently on the arm. "Abraham wouldn't have brought you for consideration unless he thought that you were capable." I knew what Abraham was thinking. Steve was the perfect choice, mentally. And I still had my theory that the serum would have a more dramatic effect on someone smaller, less physically able. "One of you will be chosen. The others will be sent through basic training and deployed," I told him.

Steve mulled over my words for a while. "So I'll still be eligible even if I'm not picked?" he asked.

And here we go... I would have to tell him the truth. This was his one shot to get to do something good with his life, at least having to do something in the Army. I really wanted it to work out for him. "I have to be honest, Steve, if you're not picked you'll be sent back home and discharged from the Army," I admitted.

"I'm going to be sent back," Steve said, already defeated.

Shaking my head at him, I grabbed his hand tightly as I drove through the winding roads. "Now that's not true," I told him.

I honestly believed that. He was my number one candidate - as much as I didn't want him to go into the chamber - and he was clearly Abraham's, too. "It is, Vic. If I'm gonna be compared to all of the other men out there, there's no way that I'll be picked," Steve said.

"It's not, now be quiet," I snapped at him. Any response that Steve might have had to my instance that he wouldn't be chosen died on his lips. "Listen to me. We've been looking at potential candidates for a few weeks now. There are about ten men that are in the running. Abraham Erskine is the leader of the project. You are the only person that he's picked himself," I said truthfully.

Steve looked absolutely shocked by this new revelation. "I am?" he asked me.

Giving him a small smile, I nodded. I had a feeling that whoever Abraham wanted would be going into that chamber. No matter what anyone else said. After all, he was the mind behind it. "You are. He meant what he said. There are so many big men fighting the war, maybe what we need is a little guy. There will be others that will help decide who goes into the chamber - myself included - but Abraham is the reason that we're even ready for this. It'll be you. I have faith," I told him.

Steve smiled at me gratefully, starting a sneezing fit. I sighed and rolled up the windows. His allergies had always been bad. "Thanks, Vic." I knew that he meant both for the window and for my comment that I had faith in him. "What's gonna happen to make me - whoever - the soldier?" he asked after a few seconds.

He already was starting to have faith that it would be him. It was nice to see. "A lot of science that I don't have the time or energy to explain," I said. I could tell that Steve didn't mind that I was leaving out the science. "Overall, you'll be stronger, faster, and smarter. Every bit the perfect soldier. You've got the attitude for it, we just need to give you skills."

"Attitude?" he asked.

"Yeah," I told him with a small smile. "I've never met a better person than you." And it was the truth. As much as I loved Bucky, there would never be someone with a better heart than Steve. "You've got all of the right ideals, this country, it needs someone like you."

As always, he wouldn't be the center of attention for long. "Needs someone like you, too," he told me.

Hopefully that was the truth. But that was a long ways off. Maybe Steve and Bucky would be watching from the next life when people finally realized that I was useful, not a monster. "Maybe one day they'll realize that," I teased.

We both laughed as we roared down the road. We were slowly getting closer to Camp Lehigh and I was excited to see how Steve enjoyed being there. "I really am happy to see you again, Vic," Steve said, looking over at me. I smiled at the road. "It's been so long. But you came back and it felt like nothing's changed. You're still the same."

"I suppose that I am," I said softly. So much had changed about me, but in the end, I was the same old Victoria. "But, I don't know, on one hand it feels like everything is so different. Look at you!" I cried out, motioning over to him. "You're in the running to become the world's first super-soldier."

I almost wanted him to be chosen just so I could see what he would look like. "I think you'll still manage to beat me up," Steve joked.

"Damn straight," I said proudly.

Again, we lapsed into a comfortable silence. It was one of the ways that we were. We could sit in silence for hours and be perfectly content. "How did Bucky seem when you left him this morning?" Steve asked me.

I knew that partly he was asking for my own sake, to see if I was really not as steady as I let on. But on the other hand, I was sure that he actually wanted to know how Bucky was. After all, they were brothers. "He seemed okay. Ready to go. I think that he's thinking that the sooner he leaves, the sooner he'll be back," I said.

"He will be back," Steve said. I knew that he was trying to convince both of us.

"I know," I told him. I had to tell someone the entire truth about me. I wanted someone to know. If someone was going to know, I wanted it to be him. "He said that he'd write the minute that he got settled. I told him that I'd keep you updated on everything that I could."

"Did he tell you? Before he left?" Steve asked me after a few beats.

My head snapped over to him. I knew what he meant. He was asking me whether or not Bucky had told me that he loved me. I narrowed my eyes at Steve. And they say that girls are the gossipers... "That he loved me?" I asked for clarification. Steve nodded at me. "Yeah. He did."

"Please tell me that you said it back."

Laughing loudly, I shoved Steve gently. He knocked himself over to the side and I took a moment to steady the car back on the road. "Of course I did." A small smile fell over Steve's face. "I do love him. I think I always have. But I also told him that he damn well better come back, or I'll kill him myself."

We both laughed at that. Of course, it wasn't a joke. If he died out there I'd find his body, shock his heart to bring him back to life, and kill him myself. "He'll come back. He's got unfinished business," Steve told me.

Forcing myself not to read his mind to see what he meant, I turned over towards Steve. He was giving me a bright smile. Something that told me that I was very clearly being left out of something. "What?" I asked dumbly.

Steve smiled at me once more. "You'll see," he said simply.

Knowing that he wasn't going to change his mind about telling me what he meant, I decided to change directions. "Well, since mine is gone for now, we'll simply have to work on your love life," I teased.

"At an Army base?" Steve asked me.

"Yep!"

"That can't be good."

Since I had no one to keep me out of trouble at Camp Lehigh - and to pay Peggy back for all of the times that she'd mortified me about Bucky - I was going to get her with Steve. "Of course it's not. Come on, Steve, we're like brother and sister. You know that I'm going to find you someone to be with." He smiled at me. I knew that he was lonely. He was the kind of guy that would make a wonderful husband and father. I knew that he wanted that. "And, of course, I'll have to like her," I teased.

Good for him that I already had a girl in mind, and I was quite fond of her already. "Wouldn't dream of being with someone that you or Bucky didn't approve of," Steve told me.

We both laughed as we chatted back and forth for the rest of the ride. He was no fool, he knew that I had someone in mind for him. He kept trying to get me to admit it to him but I was keeping my mouth shut. I did promise that the woman that I had in mind was not like Connie or Bonnie - something that had made the both of us laugh. I knew that he hadn't been fond of either of them and I knew that Steve and Bucky had both thought that it was funny that my charming personality had driven them off.

It really was good that I'd managed to walk into Bucky's apartment all of those years ago. They were the only two people in the world that thought that it was funny that I had always been like this. They always thought that it was funny that I was not the woman that wanted a family and a house, to take care of the kids, to never get a job. No, I was the woman that wanted to make a difference in the world, I was the woman that could care less about a family or hosting nice dinner parties. I didn't own a single nice thing, I didn't know how to cook, and I was about as friendly as Chester on a bad day.

But somehow they had both decided that I was the girl that they wanted to keep in their lives. Bucky and Steve had both had other women and other people in their lives before. They'd had more friends, but most of them had fallen out of touch with after high school. Bucky had dated a few other girls, but they'd all come and gone fast enough. But I was the one that had always stayed. Even after everything that had happened between the three of us, they had always wanted me in their lives. It made a small smile fall over my face as we drove up the road to Camp Lehigh. I watched Steve's face with a smile as we unpacked his bags and walked him up to the front gate.

Motioning him over to the S.S.R. check-in desk, I handed Steve back his bags and took a step back. I didn't want to already be looking like I was favoring someone. "Check in, alright? I gotta go see a few people and let them know that I'm back. I'll see you tomorrow morning for training. Try not to get into any fights in the meantime," I teased.

He smiled at me and walked up to the desk, dropping his bags at his side. "I've got you to save me if I do," Steve called back to me. I smiled as I walked away. He had saved me all of those years ago, I would always be there to save him.

All around me, people were going back and forth, tripping over each other and trying to find where they were supposed to check in. As it was almost three months ago, most of the recruits stopped to give me a long look. I rolled my eyes at the thoughts that were directed towards me. Although there were a few that stopped me to ask for directions - all of which I happily gave. I tried to ignore the fact that they were only speaking to me because they wanted a chance with me. I searched all over the place for Chester or Peggy, but they were nowhere to be found. I assumed that they were busy getting ready for fall-in tomorrow.

Finally a familiar face crossed my path. Howard was walking straight towards me, giving me a bright smile. We met in the middle of the path that we were walking on, giving each other a brief smile. "There you are, pretty lady," Howard greeted.

"Sorry for leaving without notice yesterday. I had things to take care of," I told him.

Howard nodded at me, walking with me towards the recruitment tents. "I know, Victoria. You had to say goodbye," I nodded solemnly. He was being relatively polite, but I knew Howard, it wouldn't last for long. "I noticed that you didn't come back to camp last night. Did you have a better goodbye than he was hoping for?" he teased.

There it is... "Shut up!" I barked, accidentally drawing some attention from the recruits that sent us strange looks. Howard was grinning at me, probably glad that he had bothered me. "No. Steve and Bucky live together. We stayed in their living room and spent the night like we used to when we were kids." Howard nodded. "I took him to the train station this morning and just got back to camp with Steve a few minutes ago," I said, motioning back to the recruitment desk where he was standing.

Howard's eyes scanned over the recruits for a moment before he spotted the man that I was looking at. His eyebrows immediately knitted together. "Scrawny guy over there?" he finally asked me.

Sending a little shock towards his ass - making him howl in pain and glare at me - he immediately stepped back when he saw the sparks that still lingered on the edge of my fingers. Steve was my best friend, I would always protect him. I knew that Howard hadn't meant it to be offensive, he'd merely been surprised. He stepped off when he realized just how protective I was of Steve.

"Watch your mouth," I hissed.

Howard cleared his throat and brushed back his hair, straightening himself out. Even though he'd just bothered me, we were friends. He wrapped my arm over his as we walked through the camp. "He's a part of Operation Rebirth?" he asked lowly.

We didn't need anyone knowing what we were talking about. "He's a candidate," I explained.

"How?" Howard immediately asked. Upon my glare, he paled and held up his free hand to me. "No offense to your friend but he doesn't exactly look like super-soldier material."

Letting out a deep sigh, I nodded. He didn't look like a Soldier right now, but with the serum, he would. "I know. But it's like Abraham said. We have so many big men fighting the war. Maybe we need a little guy." Howard smiled and nodded. "He's got the best heart that you'll ever see in someone."

"Well we need that." We walked over towards the recruitment tent that Chester would be in, but before we could make it that far, Howard stopped me. He wore an extremely devilish smile. "He single?" he asked me.

"You interested?" I teased. I knew that he was thinking the same thing that I was. Peggy.

Howard rubbed his hands together and nodded playfully at me. "Definitely. Scrawny. Pale. Sickly. Just my type." We both laughed loudly, drawing more attention from the recruits. I rolled my eyes. We would be back to the rumors that something was going on between Howard and I in no time. "Agent Carter; she's still single, isn't she?" Howard asked once we'd settled down.

I hummed and nodded happily. "Oh good. Just what I was thinking. You two were so terrible with Bucky and I when he was here. Time to repay the favor." Howard knew that I would do something like this. Now I just needed to find a girl for him. He was not going to be a single womanizer forever. "I've got your help, huh?" I asked.

"It would be my genuine pleasure," Howard said with a bright smile.

It was one that I returned. "Good," I told him with a bright smile. We headed back over to the tent, but I stopped Howard before we got too close. "You gonna be here this week?"

Howard shook his head at me and I sighed. I had been hoping that he would be around. "No, I'll be in town. We're moving the Vita-Ray Chamber over there to set it up and get ready for the experiment next week." I nodded at him. "Can you come by at the end of next week? After they decide who's going to be our first subject," he added.

"Sure. Why?" I asked curiously.

"I'll miss you," he told me.

Laughing softly, I gave him a gentle shove and nodded. I'd probably need a little distraction as the reality of Bucky being gone sunk in. "I'll be there. I'm going to go let Chester and Peggy know that I'm back. I'll see you next week. Good luck on the final fine-tuning for the chamber," I told him, waving him off.

He nodded back at me before heading off. I would miss him being around, but I'd manage. We both had jobs to do, and Howard's was ensuring that the Vita-Ray Chamber would be ready in two weeks. It would be a little awkward if we had the Soldier but no way to put him through the process. Taking a deep breath, I walked into the tents to search for Chester. An older man, Holden, told me that he was by the offices and I groaned. Of course he was.

Thanking Holden for telling me where he was, I turned back and headed the other way. I gave Howard another wave as he got into one of his many cars, and I headed back through camp. Once more I passed through the recruits that were all waiting around, waiting for their directions on where to go and what to do. I walked back through the S.S.R. tent and smiled at Steve. He was speaking to a few of the Drill Sergeants that looked shocked to see someone like him. I almost felt terrible for him. No one would take him seriously until he went through the serum. Maybe not even then.

I walked past their tent and towards the offices that were set up near the front of camp. Just as Holden had promised, Chester was sitting and reading the recruit files. "Hey, old man," I greeted.

Chester waved off the other men that were standing around him and they all left. We were left with it just the two of us as I took the files and began to flip through them myself. "Where'd you get off to last night?" he asked, by way of greeting.

"Relax," I told him, knowing what he meant even though I didn't read his mind. I walked over and hopped up onto his desk that he attempted to shoo me away from. I merely ignored him. "Steve and Bucky live together. They offered to let me stay there last night so that I didn't have to drive back and forth. I fell asleep on the couch. Nothing happened," I said honestly.

He did not seem to believe me. "That so?" Chester asked me.

Glaring at him, I nodded. "I am many things, old man, a liar is not one of them," I snarled.

He nodded at me and took a seat in his large chair. He was one of the few people that would never be afraid of me. Chester flipped through his papers for a while before saying, "I still don't like him."

"I know," I said, a small smile falling over my face.

He would never like Bucky. But that was just because he didn't like the fact that he held the power to hurt me. The only person that did... Chester was glancing off into the distance. He glanced down at the files for a moment before glancing back up. "That scrawny kid over there," he said, pointing over to Steve. "That's Steven Rogers?"

"Yeah. That's him."

"Erskine wants him?"

"He does."

Chester stared at him for a moment and I looked up with him. Steve had been handed a bundle of sheets and things that he would need, almost immediately dropping them. I cringed as I watched the other recruits laugh and Steve panic, trying to gather all of his things back in his arms. Bad timing, Steve.

Shaking his head at Steve, he looked back over to the file. "No," he told me.

Taking his pen and placing it at the edge of the paper, probably to write a nasty note about Steve, I brought forward a gust of wind and pushed his hand away from the paper. He glared at me for interrupting his work. "He'll do well," I argued.

Chester through his arm back to where Steve was trying to gather his papers that had all flown everywhere. "He'll break like a twig," Chester snapped at me.

Hoping that Chester wouldn't notice, I held the breeze steady, allowing Steve to gather his papers, before letting the gentle breeze return. "The whole point of the super-soldier serum is to ensure that he doesn't break like a twig. He'll be fine. He's Abraham's favorite, and mine, too. You're only one voice," I told Chester.

We were silent for a long while, myself taking notes and Chester watching me. I knew that he wanted to ask me how I was, so I turned to him and sighed, letting him know that he might as well ask. "How are you doing?" he said.

"I'm fine, I wish everyone would stop asking," I snapped.

To my surprise, Chester gave me a very sad stare and grabbed my hand. "We're concerned," he told me.

"Don't be," I told him, placing a soft kiss on his cheek. He smiled at me and gave me a small hug, one of the few times that he had really shown me open affection. "I'll manage. He's fine, he'll be back home in a few months. In the meantime, I've got things to keep me busy." He nodded at me as I hopped off of the desk. "I'm gonna go see Peggy. I'll see you tomorrow. Where is she?"

Chester glanced up and motioned back to the barracks. "Your room, I think."

"Thanks! See you tomorrow," I called out.

He waved me off and went back to his work. As I walked out of the tent I motioned for the other men to walk back in. They knew that they were allowed now that I was gone. They went back in and immediately went back to work. I walked back through the halls and yawned, heading straight back to the dorms. I was exhausted. My previous night hadn't been good for sleep, and I'd been awake for weeks beforehand, paranoid over what would happen to Bucky. I headed through the halls, saying hello to a few of the women that lived in the same barracks, and walked into my room.

Nothing had moved. "Peggy!" I called into the bathroom. The door was closed. "You in here?"

"Vic! I'm in the bathroom, give me a moment," Peggy called back. The bathroom door unlocked and I watched as Peggy walked out, smiling at me. "Welcome back, love."

She moved over to me and we wrapped each other in a tight hug. We stood together for a moment before releasing each other. Peggy grabbed my hand and walked me over to her bed. We took a seat on the edge of the bed and settled into our spots. "Good to be back," I told her with a small smile, laying one of her pillows over my lap.

Peggy leaned back and laid a quilt that her grandmother had made her over the two of us. "Where were you last night? Saying goodbye to Barnes?" she asked, waggling her eyebrows.

Why did everyone think that something like that had happened? "You and Howard are far too alike. No!" I barked at her, whacking her over the head with a pillow. She laughed loudly. "We went back to his apartment afterwards. He lives with our friend Steve. The three of us grew up together. We just spent the night like we did all of those years ago and fell asleep on the couch," I told her.

She was smiling at me with a bright grin. I knew that she liked hearing me talk about my life as a normal person. She wanted me to be happy just like everyone else. "That sounds nice," she said.

"It was."

We were silent for a few moments until Peggy spoke once more. I narrowed my eyes at her, knowing what she was going to say well before she actually said it. "So -"

"If you ask me how I'm doing, I'm going to kill you," I spoke over her.

Peggy held up her hands in defeat and sighed at me. "Okay, okay. I just want to make sure that you know that he's going to come back to you," she told me softly.

"I know that he is. He promised."

Peggy laid a hand on my knee and I scooted into her, laying back on the bed together. For a moment I wondered if this was the way that it would have been like if I'd been normal. If I'd grown up with a sister. "He will. I imagine that after just getting you back, he has no intention to let you go again," she told me with a smile.

We stayed silent for a while as Peggy began to braid pieces of my hair. I allowed her to, knowing that she was waiting to grow out her hair so that she could do it herself. "How were things around here yesterday?" I asked her.

"Wonderfully boring once all of the Soldiers shipped out." I grinned at her. We'd been so busy over the past few weeks that I imagined that a lazy day was probably nice. "Did you see that tiny recruit out there?" she asked after a beat.

It was not hard to tell that she was talking about Steve. I leaned up slightly and glanced over at my shelf. "Have you ever looked at that picture?" I asked her, knowing that she had, pointing at the picture of Steve, Bucky, and I at Coney Island when we were kids.

She followed my finger and stared at the picture for a long while before the recognition finally clicked in her mind. She gave me a bashful smile and I rolled my eyes. "That's... Steven, right?" she asked.

I was mildly impressed that she remembered his name. "Steve. Yeah."

Peggy stared at the picture for a long while before turning back to me curiously. I raised an eyebrow, wondering what she wanted to ask me. "I thought that you said that he had ailments that would never allow him to be accepted into the Army?" she asked.

"Exactly," I said with a small smile.

For a while it seemed that she had absolutely no clue what I was talking about. She stared at me for a long time. But finally the realization seeped into her eyes and I nearly laughed. "Oh... Oh my..." she said dumbly. "He's in the running for Operation Rebirth?"

"Yes, he is. And he's Abraham's favorite right now," I told her.

Peggy still didn't seem convinced. I sighed, it was going to be hard to get everyone to get behind Steve for being the world's first super-soldier. "Will it even work on him?" she finally asked me.

"I think that it'll work better on him."

"I do hope that you're right."

We sat in silence for a while longer and I allowed her to do my in some fancy twist. It was nothing that I would have ever been able to do. Once she'd pinned it together, I shot upright, startling her slightly. "Oh! And in the meantime, I found someone for you," I told her.

Peggy groaned. "Not a recruit?" she asked.

Grinning at her, I shrugged. "Sort of. But better than a recruit. I saw him again yesterday," I informed her.

I was more than a little curious to see if she would catch on to what I meant. "You weren't even gone for a day. How did this possibly happen?" Peggy asked me. I grinned at her brightly, trying to goad her into realizing what I was talking about. She glared at me for a moment before it began to fade. "Oh... You mean Steve."

Sighing at her, I went to argue my case about what a good person Steve really was. Any girl would be lucky to have him. "Don't let the facade trick you. Steve is a wonderful guy," I told her.

"I'm not that shallow!" Peggy cried, clearly affronted that I'd assumed that she didn't want to be with him just because of the way that he looked. I blushed and nodded at her. "I don't care what he looks like. Even so, if he goes through that procedure, he'll come out stronger. As for now, he's adorable, Vic. He really is." I grinned at her. He was. "But I don't even know him."

"Exactly," I chirped brightly. "You're going to get to know him."

She groaned at me as I stood and changed, putting on my normal training clothes. "Why is this happening?" Peggy asked me as she handed me the things that I needed.

"Payback for everything about Bucky," I barked at her.

"But you liked him!" she argued.

She might not know it yet, but I did, she was going to end up liking Steve. I would make it my goal while Bucky was deployed. "And you're going to like Steve, I promise," I told her. She rolled her eyes at me as I gathered my boots, pulling them back onto my feet. "In the meantime, come on. I'm starving," I told her, yanking her along with me.

Peggy laughed and walked with me, wrapping an arm over my shoulder. "I can't believe that I missed you, even for a moment," she told me. Of course, we both knew that it was only a joke.

For both of us, we'd always gotten along with the boys better than we'd gotten along with the girls. That was why it was so nice for us to be around each other. For once, we weren't the odd people out. We didn't like cooking, or cleaning, or the thought that we were less than the men. We deemed each other equal, and when a man disputed that, we worked together to show them their rightful place.

Together we headed into the dining hall to get an early dinner. We laughed loudly the entire time, getting to know some of the recruits. Each time that one of them would leave I would tell Peggy what they'd really been thinking. It was a fun game for us. I really did enjoy myself, knowing that as hard as it was for Bucky to be gone, this was at least a chance for me to get closer to Peggy. I'd never really had a good friend like her before, not a woman, at least, so it was nice for the two of us to be together.

Once we had finished with our dinner we went back to the barracks. It was nice for once to just be girls. We laughed about everything that I could possibly think of. Mostly the recruits that thought that they were so tough. That was always amusing. For most of the night we simply sat together and enjoyed ourselves. More than once we had one of our neighbors yelling at us to be quiet. It didn't matter. It was one of the few times that I didn't want to get up and tear apart the camp. I merely wanted to lay in bed and enjoy being a girl with my best friend. At the end of the night, far later than we should have gone to bed, I laid down and curled up with Snowball.

Unfortunately, when the morning came, it felt like I'd barely been asleep for ten minutes. I groaned and flipped out of the bed, ducking into a roll and springing back up in front of my dresser. Peggy was watching me with wide eyes and I gave her a little wink, grabbing my clothes. She laughed at me and snorted, grabbing her own clothes. We needed to get ready to train the recruits. It was different this time. We were looking for someone to take the mantle as the first person to go through Operation Rebirth.

Peggy was dressed very much appropriately for a military professional. Particularly a woman. She was wearing a form-fitting green suit. Her skirt fit her perfectly and fell appropriately at her knees. The jacket was perfectly fitted with a white collared-shirt underneath. Her hair was perfectly curled, too, even with a few pins holding it back. She stared at my outfit and snorted. I was wearing a blue-knit shirt that had sleeves a quarter of the way from the bottom of my arms. On my legs were a pair of white pants that flowed slightly. My black military boots were underneath it, scuffed from running around. My hair was pulled into a very messy bun.

All in all, I looked nowhere near as put together as she did. I was in the bathroom, trying to fix myself and look a little more presentable. It was not working. "Victoria! Come on!" Peggy shouted at me.

I walked out into the main room and groaned. "Can't we just not and say we did?" I asked her.

Peggy smiled at me and shook her head. "That would be nice. Now, move it," she ordered.

We both walked over together, groaning as we walked out of the hallway and out to the line of men for Operation Rebirth. They were separated slightly from the rest of the camp due to the classified nature of the recruitment process. I smiled at Peggy as we looked them over. Steve was standing in the middle of the men, completely dwarfed by the others. There were eight men in consideration for Operation Rebirth and I nearly laughed. They all looked like normal recruits, save Steve. That was exactly why I liked him. We walked up together and I stood next to Abraham, who was here to watch the recruits.

"Shall we?" Peggy asked.

The men were looking over the three of us. I noticed that their eyes lingered on Peggy and myself far longer than average. As usual, their thoughts were not appropriate. "Do we have to?" I groaned to her.

Both Abraham and Peggy laughed at my reluctance. "Unfortunately. Arm wrestle for who has to speak to them?" she teasingly offered.

Snorting at her, I shook my head. That would be an absolutely terrible idea. "I'd win, and I'd break your arm in the process. Since I like you, we'll just go ahead and say that you have to speak," I told her.

"Damn mutant," Peggy said, low enough that no one else would have heard. I nudged her roughly forward and she sent me a playful glare. The recruits were all chatting back and forth. "Recruits, attention!" The moment that Peggy spoke, the men jumped to attention. A man behind us was carrying the files. "Gentlemen, I'm Agent Carter. I supervise all operations for this division. This is Sergeant Phillips, she also supervises operations for this division and heads the genetics division," she introduced me.

I gave the men a polite nod. To my pleasure, I noticed Steve was looking at her with a small smile. "What's with the accent, Queen Victoria? Thought I was signing up for the U.S. Army," a stupid-looking man in the middle on the lineup called to Peggy.

There was scattered laughter as Peggy halted in front of him. "Every time," I heard her thoughts call out to me.

"Go get 'em girl," I thought back to her.

"What's your name, soldier?" Peggy asked.

"Gilmore Hodge, your majesty."

"Step forward, Hodge," Peggy ordered. He gave his friends a little smile before walking forward towards her. As they spoke, files were handed out to the other men. "Put your right foot forward."

Hodge leaned into her slightly and I felt the sparks fly on my fingertips. "We gonna wrestle? 'Cause I gotta a few moves I know you'll like," he told her. He gave her a quick move and that was it. She reared back and punched him directly in the face, causing him to fall backwards into the dirt. I snorted loudly and spotted Steve grinning.

"Agent Carter," Chester called.

Peggy turned back and saluted him. "Colonel Phillips."

As he walked up, he glanced over at me and I scoffed. I wasn't saluting him. He didn't seem to mind. His attention was quickly drawn back to Hodge. "I can see that you are breaking in the candidates, that's good. Get your ass up out of that dirt, and stand up in that lineup at attention until somebody comes and tells you what to do," Chester ordered.

Hodge was quick to get on his feet and hold his head high. Blood was already beginning to drip from his nose. "Yes, Sir."

Chester sighed as he walked up and down the line. "General Patton has said, 'Wars are fought with weapons but they are won by men.' We are going to win this war, because..." his voice trailed off when he spotted Steve, "...we have the best men. And because they're gonna get better. Much, better. The Strategic Scientific Reserve is an allied effort. Made up with the best minds of the free world. Our goal is to create the best army in history. But every army starts with one man. At the end of this week, we will chose that man. He'll be the first of a new breed of super soldiers. And they, will personally escort Adolph Hitler through the gates of hell. Victoria," Chester called me forward.

I gave the men another nod as I walked forward and down the line. "As Agent Carter said, I'm Sergeant Phillips. Today you'll be with me in the labs. We'll be doing some blood work and basic examinations. We need to know everything about your physicality before considering you to participate in Operation Rebirth. Next week we'll begin sending you out onto the field for training," I said.

Even though I was on the other end of the lineup, I heard Hodge loud and clear. "I could show her all of my physicality," he whispered to his friend.

Not bothering to turn back to Hodge, I called out. "Speak a little louder Hodges, I don't think the whole class could hear you," I said.

His face paled when he realized that I'd heard him. "Do it," Chester's thoughts called out.

"Do you have something to say to me?" I asked, coming to stand in front of Hodge.

He looked back and forth down the line, but no one made his eye contact. They were the smart ones. Hodge scoffed at me and nodded. "Yeah, actually, I do. No wonder the Army is still the weakest link of the military when we got ladies like you training us. No offense, you're pretty birds, but how much can you really teach us?" he asked me.

There's always one. "Step forward. I'll show you," I told him, motioning him back further away from the line than Peggy had.

"I'll be ready for the hit this time," Hodge said.

It was a good thing that I wasn't thinking about punching him. I had a much more effective plan. Peggy's demonstration had been to startle the recruits, this was going to ensure that they didn't act out of line. I reared back to pretend to throw a punch, and as expected, Hodge went to grab my arm. Before I would have hit his arm, I dropped down to the ground and swept out his legs from underneath him. He hit the ground and groaned in surprise. But I was not done.

Leaving my hands on either side of his right arm, I went into a front flip over his body, tightened my hands around his arm as I came upright, and wrenched him upwards with me. He staggered backwards away from me, clearly unnerved by the sudden movement. I allowed him a moment to throw a blind hit at me - that I easily ducked away from - before raising my leg and kicking him in the chest. It was nowhere near as hard as I could have. He was thrown back and hit the ground again, this time completely knocking the wind from him. I knew that he was seeing stars. In the background I could see Steve - and the other recruits - smiling.

"Off of your ass this instant, recruit," I ordered.

It left no room for argument. I'd break his arm if he disagreed. "Yes, ma'am," Hodge muttered, awkwardly coming to a stand, swaying back and forth dizzily.

"As you can see, Agent Carter and my daughter are what you'll be hoping to live up to while you're here," Chester called out.

"Line up for the labs. You'll be called in when I need you," I barked at the recruits.

They needed no more incentive to leave the area. In a sudden panic, all of the recruits went flying from the area and towards the lab. Abraham laughed at me before heading off towards his office. Peggy and Chester both walked up to me before I went to work. "Did you break his ribs?" Peggy asked me. It sounded like she'd wanted me to.

I did, too. But I hadn't figured that Chester would have liked me injuring one of the candidates too much. "I thought about it," I told her honestly.

"Well done," Chester told me.

"Thank you."

"Don't see why we need a super-soldier when we've got you," Peggy said.

Chester and I both laughed at that. "See? That's what I've been saying this entire time," I teased. Once more, everyone laughed. I took in a deep breath and waved them off. I had things to do in the meantime. "Alright, gotta get this done, I'll see you tonight," I called back to Peggy.

It took me most of the afternoon to do all of the blood work. Steve was the last person into the labs. I had ensured to plan it that way so at least I could have someone to amuse me before the day was over. Considering Steve was going to be so busy with training and Howard was no longer around camp, things were much more boring. Peggy was usually at work and Chester was way too busy. It made me miss the days when Bucky was around and I could find ways to sneak off with him.

While I worked in the labs I did get the chance to speak with a few of the recruits. Some of them weren't half-bad. I didn't bother to learn their names. Chances were that they would be gone in no time, normal recruits once more. There was a man with glasses that wasn't too bad. Other than that, I wasn't a fan. Steve finally walked into the lab and I smiled at him. He looked exhausted. I knew that the endless paperwork was no fun. I waved him over to the table and motioned him to hop up onto it. He automatically rolled up his left sleeve to let me get to work.

I was preparing the syringe when Steve spoke to me. "Where did you learn to do that?" he asked.

I knew that he was asking me where I'd learn to do what I'd done to Hodge earlier. Grinning at him, I shook my head. "If I told you that, I'd have to kill you," I teased. He laughed too. "There's all sorts of things that you don't know about me, my friend."

A lump formed in my throat that I swallowed. Maybe when I told Bucky I'd tell Steve too. Didn't they both deserve to know? Thankfully Steve's voice called me from my thoughts. "I don't doubt that. It was impressive. Hodge deserved it," he told me.

He had deserved so much more than that. "I know. I thought about breaking his ribs, but I didn't think that Chester would be too fond of me doing that," I said.

"I would have cheered you on."

Smiling at him, I nodded. "I know." Cleaning the area around Steve's arm, I gently pushed the syringe into his arm and began to draw the blood. He cringed and I immediately felt terrible. "Sorry, but we have to do this."

"No. It's okay. It doesn't hurt," Steve told me.

"Liar."

He smiled at me and nodded. "Yeah." He let me take two vials of blood, watching as the liquid drained from his body. "Are you gonna be around this week?" he asked me.

"I'll be in and out," I told him. And it was the truth. For a while I would be back and forth. There was a lot to do in these next two weeks before we gave the first test of Operation Rebirth. "You'll see me more next week for actual physical training. I'll be watching over you all to help make the decision on who becomes our test subject."

Steve nodded at me as I pulled the last vial of blood away, immediately handing him over a bottle of water. "Who else makes the decision?" he asked me as I began to clean the small wound.

I made sure to be completely thorough with him. The last thing that I needed was him to get an infection. "A few of us. Howard Stark, Colonel Phillips, Agent Carter, Dr. Erskine, and myself. There are a couple others. The Drill Sergeants that watch you guys. But Abraham will have the most sway," I told him.

"Essentially it will be whoever he picks?"

Grinning at him, I nodded. That was exactly why it was going to be Abraham. "Pretty much." Helping him roll down the sleeve, I motioned him over towards the door. Okay, Soldier, you are done. Head out. There are other things that you need to take care of today. Paperwork and whatnot. Here," I said, handing him over a cookie and pouch of juice. "Take some food and a drink. Stay out of the heat for today."

"Yes, Doc," Steve teased.

Smiling at him, I offered him a hand down and nudged him towards the door. "You'll thank me when you're not passing out from heat exhaustion," I said.

He smiled at me and nodded. He was almost to the door when he turned back to me. "Vic?" Steve called. I hummed back to him. "Do you really think that I have a chance?"

Turning back to him, I walked over and wrapped him in a hug before pulling back and holding onto his forearms. "I do. I'm rooting for you. This - This is both of our chance to do something," I said, motioning around us.

Steve smiled at me and nodded, brushing back a few stray hairs. "Thanks, Vic. We're gonna do something good in this world," he said.

"That we are. Get out of here. I don't want to get shouted at for taking too long with you," I told him.

Unfortunately, somehow, Steve had still managed to be shouted at. As a matter of fact, he'd gotten yelled at nearly every day since he'd arrived. Not that it bothered him. He took it like a champ. It had been a week since we'd gotten back to Camp Lehigh and things were progressing nicely. The blood work and overall physical assessments of the recruits had already been performed. As expected, Steve was at the bottom of the totem pole. But I was determined that he would work his way up. It was very obvious that no one liked him and that they were all rooting for him to fail, but it didn't matter, he had Abraham on his side.

Over the phone with Howard yesterday, he'd informed Abraham and I that the lab downtown was ready for someone to undergo Operation Rebirth next week. I was excited and nervous all at the same time. Things were going to change, but we were still nervous for whoever went into that chamber. It wasn't foolproof. We were essentially rewriting the human genome. What we were doing was extremely dangerous. But all of the men already knew what they were signing up for. They knew what they were risking.

Today would mark the first day of official training for the men. It was extremely shortened, only one week. But it was simply because we didn't have the time. And if the project worked properly, they wouldn't need training. They'd be the perfect soldier without having to ever be trained. Physical training for the men would begin tomorrow. Today most of the team members would sit and discuss the candidates at full. It was extremely early, just past five in the morning. Peggy had been out all night working on her files. I'd woken up around four, unable to sleep due to stress, both from everything at home and the fear for Bucky.

Wrapping my robe around me, I began to dry off my hair. After setting off the fire alarm last month accidentally, I'd learned to do it the mundane way. "Vic?" I heard Peggy call as she walked into the room.

"I'm over here. I'll be right there." I walked out of the bathroom, still towel-drying my hair. "What's up?" I asked her.

She was holding paperwork and a bundle of letters in her arms. "I was just over at the mailboxes. You had a letter," she told me.

My heart soared. I hadn't heard a peep from Bucky since he'd deployed just over a week ago. "I did?" I asked her.

She smiled at me. She knew that having him away, in one of the most dangerous places to be right now, was taking its toll on me. "You certainly did. Looks like your Soldier misses you already. Here you are," she said, handing the letter over.

"Thanks." I cut open the letter and took a seat on the bed, reading it over. The first line already made me smile.

Vika,

Has my handwriting gotten better? When we were kids you used to tell me that it was atrocious. You told me that you could barely read it. But you used to read my essays anyways and then almost completely rewrite them for me. I would have failed most of my English classes without you. In fact, I would have failed most of my classes without you.

The journey here really wasn't that bad. We rode the train out to the Port of New York and got on the ship that night. We took a freighter to the coast and from there we took the military trucks to Leominster. That's where the base is. We got here not that long ago. It wasn't even twenty-four hours after we said goodbye. I'm not sure how long we're staying here, but it's not that bad. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere. Although we aren't that far from the city. A lot of kids play out here. Sometimes its nice. Makes us forget about things.

We mostly live out of the tents. We don't have much. There's a cot that's a little too small for me. Did you know that I'm apparently one of the taller people in the infantry? I didn't. It's alright though. Makes you realize what's really important. The weather here is freezing! You'd hate it here. My things mostly stay in my bag the entire time. The food is terrible, just in case you were wondering. That's one of the things that I miss. I think that you're a better cook than some of the people here. And that's saying something.

I made some friends here in the 107th. There's Dum Dum Dugan and Gabe Jones. I share a tent with them. You'd love them both. Dugan's got a great sense of humor. He's good for making you laugh even when you can't find anything to laugh about. Gabe speaks both French and German. I keep thinking that you two should never meet. You'd probably say terrible things about me all day long. Gabe's got a good thing going. The men here use him as a translator. I found out that Steve's Dad served in the 107th yesterday. Did you know that?

Now for what I know you're really wondering about. Things aren't that bad here, Vika. We've had a few air raids - which were weird at first - but they've gotten to be normal. Even after only a few days. Yesterday we had two. Today we only had one. There haven't been any bombings to the base yet. We're getting prepared for our first mission. I don't think that I can write what it is, but I'll write to you when it's over. I'll be okay, I promise. They've mostly assigned me as a sniper. I'm a good shot, no matter what you say.

I'm not sure how much I'll be able to write. They keep telling us that we're going to start moving around more over the next few weeks. We might end up in some places where there aren't post offices. But I'll keep writing the letters. I'll send them whenever I can.

How are you? How's Steve?

How is everyone else? Please stay out of trouble - I know how much you're drawn to it. Promise you won't do anything stupid. I know, I know, I took the stupid with me. Also, please write me a long letter. The nights are terribly boring when we have nothing to do. I've found myself writing songs to myself. I thought about sending you a song that I wrote, but it's really terrible. Really, honestly, absolutely, terrible. You don't deserve that kind of torture. Not even a Nazi does.

It's getting close to time for us to leave. Don't worry about me, when we're back I'll send you another letter. It'll be fine. I love you, Vika. Keep smiling back home. Give everyone hope. I see it over here. There's hope. We're gonna win this and when I get back home, we'll do whatever you want. Anything. Think about it.

I'll see you soon,
Bucky.

All I could remember was the woman at the train station. Her husband had died in a routine air raid. The reality had finally sunk in that he was gone and there was a very good chance that he was never coming back. It should have been me. I could have survived out there. Nothing could kill me. I could go out there and destroy all of the enemy forces, but I never could, so I did what I could and trained men to fight and die for our country. Bucky was one of them. He was out there right now - to a place that I'd sent him - already fighting for his life.

In the coming days I might be getting another letter telling me that he was okay. But at the same time, I might not. He had promised me, but even I didn't know what would happen to him out there. It wasn't until Peggy crossed the room and came to sit at my side, wrapping an arm around me and burying my head in her shoulder, that I even realized that I'd begun to cry.

A/N: I will miss Bucky. This is the last chapter that we'll really see a fair bit of him for a while. In a few of the upcoming chapters we might see the occasional P.O.V. or something like that. But we've now turned the focus to Steve becoming Captain America and their friendship. Thanks for the follows and favorites! Please review! Until next time -A

Tumblr-0-Trash: Thank you! And thanks for reading! :)

rebelforcauses: Thank you!

kuppcake: Thank you! I enjoyed writing them back together, too.

Moniquita2: Definitely going to have some Bucky P.O.V.'s during deployment!