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.

19. Chapter 19

Bucky's P.O.V.

He was standing right back against the bed, looking back and forth. He was restless. He wanted to do something, but he couldn't figure out what to do. They were stuck until they deployed in a few hours on their next mission. Dugan and Jones were already gone and it left Bucky by himself, in his thoughts. He missed everything. He missed his late-night chats with Steve. He missed drinking way too much and slugging around the house the next morning. He missed having real food to eat. He missed his soft bed. He even missed having an actual alarm clock. But more than anything, he missed her.

It was almost like his prayers were answered. It was like she had materialized from thin air. Victoria leaned up against the edge of the tent, almost shimmering in the streaming sunlight. "Hey, Soldier," she quipped at him.

"Vika..." he whispered, moving towards her. He was moving so slowly, almost afraid that she would disappear if he got too close. "What are you doing here?" he asked her, standing just a few feet away from her.

Clearly he shouldn't have been afraid of her vanishing. She moved forward towards him, gently laying a hand on his chest. "Coming to visit you. I've missed you. Have you missed me?" she asked, a teasing tone in her voice.

A dream... It was just a dream, he realized. She wasn't here. She was back home, trying to deal with him being gone, just like he was still trying to deal with being gone. But he decided that he was going to take this moment. He had missed her terribly over the past two weeks. He hadn't seen her in two weeks. It felt like it had been years since he had last seen her. She stood there and ran her hand up over the material or his shirt and he smiled, wishing that she was really here.

He could touch her, but she felt cold, nothing compared to the way that she normally felt. Warm. Almost like fire was constantly running under her skin. "Of course. I miss you every single day. I wish that I could tell you everything," he told her.

"Tell me now," she whispered, her voice echoing in the dream.

He shook his head at her. As much as he loved seeing her, it was also painful, knowing that the moment that someone woke him up, she would be gone. "We don't have the time. But I'll tell you everything as soon as I can. The second that I come back home, okay?" he asked her, praying that somewhere back home she could hear him.

"Still coming back to me?" she teased him.

He would always come back to her. The only thing that had ever mattered the most to him was coming back to her and spending his life with her. Just as he'd always wanted to do. "Always. I will always come back to you. There's no one that I would rather have," he told her honestly. "And that's not to mention that I have some unfinished business with you."

The one thing that he wanted from her more than anything else was the truth. He wanted to know what had happened to her. He didn't care what had happened to her. He just wanted to know what had happened. He wanted to know that she really did trust him enough to tell him where she'd gone that afternoon, and where she'd stayed for the next eight years. More than anything else, he wanted to know why she didn't stay long enough to tell him where she'd gone. She always said that she was dangerous. But she couldn't have been... He was never scared of her. Not genuinely afraid.

Even in his dreams, she was always smart. "The truth. My truth," she told him.

"Not just that," he told her honestly. There was one other thing that he wanted to tell her. He wasn't ready yet, he knew that she wasn't ready yet, but the day would come that he would tell her. "There's something that I need to say to you. In time... But I intend to say it."

She moved into him and laid her arms over the back of his neck. "Say it," she goaded.

But this wasn't her. It was him. So he smiled and shook his head at her. "You already know it," he said.

It was like he'd just told her his darkest secret. Maybe it was... But it wasn't dark. He was proud of it. "Are you sure that you want me around for the rest of your life?" she asked him.

He nodded at her, letting his fingers run up and down her bare arms. "There's no one else that I could imagine being with. You're the only one that I want. You were always the only one that I wanted. Look at how gorgeous you are. I can't believe that I was the one that was lucky enough to be with you," he told her honestly.

He'd never understood how cruel the other kids could be to her. She was perfect. Strong and smart and beautiful. But they'd never seen it. He was always glad that he had. "You are a lucky man," she said.

"I am," he agreed.

She laughed softly and pressed herself up against him. It was how he knew that it was a dream. She was forward for a woman, but not this forward. "What do you miss most?" she said in his ear.

"Seeing you," he responded, tracing his fingers down her spine.

Even in his dream, he felt her shiver underneath his fingers. He knew that it was one of the things that would calm her down. "You're sure?" she asked him, her eyes twinkling in the sunlight.

He grinned sideways at her. Definitely a dream. And he definitely missed her. "Kissing you," he said.

She smiled. "That's better. Come here," she ordered.

In real life he wouldn't have argued with her either. He pressed a hand against the back of her neck and pulled her into him. She laughed as he held her tightly against him, pressing a harsh kiss to her lips, pushing her hair through his fingers. He loved every part of her. He always would. She was gorgeous. Her hands were wound into the bottom of his shirt, pulling up the edges of the shirt from their tucked-in place under his came loose quickly, and she straightened it out.

As he ran his hands around her small waist, her strong legs pushed them backwards and they collapsed on the laughed softly against his lips, pressing a small kiss against the underside of his jaw. He felt her fingers push against the buttons on the top of his shirt and he sighed at her, feeling her soft body press against his was all he wanted. But it was shattered when she stopped kissing him, dropping her arms from his buttons and shaking his arm gently, saying his name over and over.

The vision of Vika quickly vanished and it was replaced by Dum Dum Dugan. Bucky groaned and placed his head in his hands. He really missed her. "Barnes. Hey, Barnes, man, come on, they're serving breakfast soon," Dugan prodded.

Bucky nodded, trying to push himself up from the small cot. "Yeah, thanks man. I'll be out there in a minute," he said. Dugan nodded and moved from the small tent that they were sharing with Jones.

Once Dugan had left the tent, Bucky yanked himself off of the cot. It wasn't really much. It was slightly too small for him, barely wider than he was, and lumpy beyond belief. Even the cots back at Camp Lehigh were better than that. It was right against the hard ground, too. His, and the other two. The tent that they were in was barely big enough to share their things. Bucky knew that the farther out they moved, there was a chance that they would have to leave the tent behind. They couldn't bring things that were too heavy or would weigh them down. Bucky's clothes were all stuffed in a pack at the foot of his cot and he grabbed them.

There wasn't much else that was in the small tent. He had a few personal items. The Bible, simply for something to read when he got bored. He wasn't overly-religious, but it was the only book that he could find last-minute. He had a small comb and a few sets of clothing. Besides the locket that he constantly wore around his neck, those were the only thing that he had.

He'd never been the kind of person that kept sentimental things to him, but he always had some things that he liked. He missed his bed back home. He missed the few pictures that he had hanging around. And he definitely missed having more than three outfits - none of which were ever clean. He gathered his brown boots - caked in mud - and slid them on his feet, tucking his black and brown pants into them. They were spotted with some blood from a man named Oliver, who had cut himself one night during a mission, crawling accidentally over some barbed wire. He was fine, just surprised.

Unfortunately Bucky hadn't been able to wash out the pants yet. One of his other pairs had been worn far too much, and the other was torn from a broken tree that had snagged them during their first mission. He pulled on the gray shirt that hugged tightly to his form and pulled on his beige jacket over the top of it. For now he left off the hat and weapons that he normally carried. He was exhausted today and he wanted something that felt a little bit more like life back at Camp Lehigh that he missed so much.

Deployment was strange. In some ways, it was exactly what he had imagined, but in other ways it was nothing like he had imagined. They woke up early, were briefed for whatever mission that would be accomplishing that day, take some time to plan any attacks or recoveries, move base, and, if the day called for it, carry out the plan. At night they would take care of any injuries or casualties - thankfully of which they hadn't had to deal with any yet - and they would have dinner. Since they would sometimes be deep in enemy territory, they wouldn't be able to speak or be allowed to light fires. But that was only two nights so far, and now they were back at their base.

But there were definitely things that Bucky hadn't been expecting. Things that had become a harsh reality very quickly. There were the moments that they were showering with collected water - highly contaminated as they were warned to keep their eyes and mouths shut - and the alarms or sirens went off. Nothing was worse than having to streak out of the showers buck-ass naked to take cover. On the actual base, sleep was elusive. Bucky had learned that engine maintenance was performed at night. They could be as loud as a tornado. When they were actually able to shower, sometimes it came down to choosing either showering or drinking because they would be so low on bottled water.

Those weren't even the worst of the things that he had learned. Dinners were disgusting and it wasn't uncommon to find hair in their food. It would stamp-out starvation among the men pretty fast. One of the most horrifying things that he'd learned... When they ran out of toilet paper, it was replaced with a softer sandpaper. It was something that he didn't wish upon anyone. After thirteen hundred hours, the toilets didn't even work. The woods became their toilets.

It wasn't always a problem though, things could be worse. They hadn't gone straight into open fire more than the once, and Bucky had stayed at a distance for that. The worst part was being away from his friends. He really missed being away from Steve this long. It was the longest that Steve and Bucky had been away from each other. They were best friends, and more than that, they were brothers. It was tough being away from him. Especially because Bucky knew what a pain in the ass that Steve was. He was always managing to get himself into something, and it was always Bucky to the rescue. He could only pray that Vika was keeping a close eye on him.

And it was the thought of her that hurt the most. He missed her with every part of him. It was proof by the dreams that he had every night. She was always in them. Sometimes they were memories, sometimes they were dreams of the future, and sometimes they were dreams that almost didn't feel like dreams. Like this morning. Lately, more than ever, he'd been dreaming about their future together. Perhaps it was because he always had the threat of his life hanging in the balance, but he knew that he wanted to be with her. He'd always known.

Since the moment that he'd met her fourteen, almost fifteen, years ago, he'd known that she was going to be the woman that he'd marry. She was perfect. He'd always loved her. She was so much different from anyone that he'd ever known. And he liked different. There were some men that wanted a woman who would cook and clean and take care of them. Bucky thought that it was nice, but he really wanted someone like her. That wouldn't put up with his shit, could take care of herself, and would make a name for herself. Maybe they hadn't been together for that long, but he'd known her for most of his life. Once he got back home and had more time with her, he'd ask her to marry him.

He'd always known that he would. Steve had always known, and encouraged Bucky on it. And now... Bucky had a father that he could ask. Colonel Phillips wasn't her real father, but he knew that she looked at him like one. Trying to push off the intrusive thoughts that wouldn't matter unless he got back home, he walked out to their fire pit.

Breakfast was already going and Bucky slowly picked at the disgusting food. Six ounces of corned beef throughout the day. It made Bucky sick to think about. He always took an ounce at breakfast, but today he found that he could barely push it down. Sometimes they had meat stew and hard biscuits - which were more like stones. They occasionally had vegetables, but being on the front lines, they were usually rotten by the time that they got to them. So Bucky swallowed it all in one bite and leaned back on the grass and dirt, fingering the locket that held the pictures of her. All of the men had shared the pictures and stories of their significant others, with the exception of Bucky.

He wasn't really sure why. He just liked having some part of him to himself. He wasn't left in silence for very long. Jones took a seat next to him and saw him picking at the closed locket. He sighed. "Missing your girl?" Jones asked.

Bucky nodded, fiddling with the gold chain. "Yeah. But, I mean, barely any time has passed. Shouldn't be missing her yet," Bucky said.

A moment later Dugan took a seat at his other side. He'd grown close to the two men lately. "I guarantee you that she's back home missing you just as much," Jones insisted. Bucky smiled, she had much better things to think about than him. "I know my old lady didn't want me to leave. Where'd you meet her?"

He grinned at the dirt on his boots. She broke into my apartment. Skinny little eight-year-old, barely spoke and was covered in dirt and grime. "We grew up together. Met her when she was eight and I was eleven," he told them.

"What's her name?" Jones asked.

"Victoria." It felt strange saying her entire name. He was sure that he'd never called her by her full name before he'd told her that he loved her just two weeks ago.

Both Jones and Dugan smiled at each other. It helped the men, talking about their girls. Calmed them down and reminded them of what they were fighting for. "Pretty name. You two go to school together?" Jones asked.

Bucky very nearly laughed. "It's a weird story," he said honestly.

Dugan spoke for the first time since waking Bucky up that morning. "Barnes, we got more time than anyone else. Come on, everyone's talked about their girls except you. Tell us about her," he prodded gently.

Bucky sighed but spoke anyways. "A lot of her is a mystery. Her parents died in a house fire when she was eight." The two men sighed at the news. "She panicked and ran. Right into my childhood home. She was terrified, barely spoke to me and my best friend, but we were kids. We didn't need to know anything. So we just took her in. Our parents couldn't live with sending her off to an orphanage so she took my best friends last name, pretended to be his sister, and joined the family," he said.

Now that he was older, he saw just how much their families had done for her. At the time, all that had mattered was that she was a kid that needed help. "That's good of y'all to do that," Dugan said.

Bucky nodded at him. "I guess I never really thought of how good it was for my parents to take in some girl that randomly appeared in our apartment one night. But they did," he said with a little laugh.

"So you've been with her since then?" Jones asked.

I wish... There was a chance that they would have already been married if they'd been together since childhood. But she'd been gone for so long and they'd had to rebuild their relationship. "No. When she was fourteen and I was seventeen she just... vanished," he trailed off.

It was the mystery that he had been talking about. Dugan and Jones looked stupefied at his words. "What?" Jones finally managed to ask.

Bucky laughed and ran a hand over the back of his neck. "She's - uh - She's not exactly a normal girl. She's smarter than anyone else I've ever known. She took all of the hardest classes in the school and never got anything less than a one hundred on anything. We were kids and she could speak at least six languages." Jones grinned. He spoke a few languages as well. "People... They took it hard on her. She was different. She couldn't cook worth a damn, never learned how to sew, and had no desire for a family. She rarely showed any type of affection towards anyone outside of our families. The girls said awful things about her and the boys, they actually hit her."

All three of the men cringed. Bucky hated the thought that anyone had ever laid a hand on her. Maybe she was strong. But no man should ever lay a hand on a woman. He would rather die than ever lay a hand on her that she didn't want there. It was why he had nearly killed the boy that had shoved her to the ground and broken the bracelet that he had given her for her birthday. It was why he had always hated Johnathan as much as he had. Because they had always hurt the one person that he loved more than anyone else, outside of Steve.

"My God," Jones breathed.

"Assholes," Dugan growled.

Bucky nodded at them. She hadn't had an easy childhood. "But she never let it bother her. She was so strong. It didn't exactly seem normal. She could beat anyone in a race, hit so hard you'd be sure that she'd broken something... You know, she was crazy." Jones and Dugan laughed. "But we loved her. These boys that used to tease her took her books one day before class, made her late, got her detention, and said all of these terrible things. She stormed off from the school that afternoon and that was the last time that I saw her for eight years," Bucky remembered with a painful twinge.

He had been so heartbroken. He'd been terrified that she was dead. More than anything, he'd been scared that she's simply left them without a word. "What happened to her?" Jones asked curiously.

Bucky shook his head slowly. He really wasn't sure what he could say to them that would actually make sense. "It's a mystery, most of it. Most people thought that she'd been abducted or killed. Steve - my friend - and I were the only ones that knew that she was still alive out there," he told them. They had always known that she was not dead.

"Why didn't you think that she was dead?" Dugan asked.

Because she's too strong for that. "She'd broken this boy's knee the day before she disappeared. He was always awful to her. He was out of school the next day - the last day that I saw her. When she never came back home we called the police." They'd waited until three hours after dinner to call them. That was the most afraid he'd ever been. "But... She'd changed her name. There was no evidence of her, and not knowing much about her past, they couldn't look for her."

"She broke someone's knee?" Jones asked in shock.

Bucky let out a deep sigh. This was where the story started to get strange. Of course, everything that surrounded Vika was always strange. "Not just broke it. Turned out that she'd completely ripped it out of the socket and torn the tendons from the bone," Bucky said, remembering the reports that had circulated on the radio about the attacks on the boys.

Dugan and Jones exchanged a look with each other. "Holy shit," Dugan muttered.

"Like I said, she's not normal. The only thing that anyone ever could say was that this boy that she'd hurt had cornered her in an alley with three of his friends." He cringed at the thought of how scared she might have been. "They were probably planning on trying to beat her within an inch of her life. But it didn't work. She broke his nose. He kept claiming that she'd fought them like it wasn't even hard for her. One of them had three broken ribs and a ruptured spleen. The other had a broken nose and had an aneurysm from massive head trauma. The last one had a broken nose and ankle. All of the bones in his foot were crushed and the tendons were torn," he explained.

It was something that would have been nearly impossible for a fully-grown man to accomplish. It wasn't something that a fourteen-year-old girl could do. "No way that a kid - not even a woman - but a kid could do that," Jones said.

And that was the problem behind everything. The evidence was there, but there was no way. She had just been a kid. She couldn't do things like that. No one could. "People started to think that they were just making it up. They wanted to blame her because someone had jumped them. The theory was that it had scared her and she'd run off, thinking that they would blame her. But one of them kept claiming that it was her and that she had red eyes," Bucky said.

People had believed him for a little while. Bucky had always thought that if it was her, Johnathan must have just been terrified. The light must have tricked him into thinking that her yellow eyes were red. "He must have been terrified, probably imagining things," Dugan reasoned.

"The hell did the red eyes come from?" Jones asked.

Bucky cleared his throat. "People were always awful to her because she didn't look normal. Her hair is so light that it's almost white. And her eyes... They're yellow," he said, keeping his voice low.

They were silent for a long time. "Like a really light brown that looks yellow?" Dugan asked carefully.

Bucky shook his head. "No. Yellow like the sun," he explained.

Her eyes were the best thing about her. They made her so much different than any of the other girls that he'd ever known. He had always liked them. "She sounds like a pretty bird to me," Dugan said.

"She is," Bucky immediately put in.

"How'd you meet her again?" Jones asked after a beat of silence.

"It was when I got drafted and got to basic. I reported to my division and saw that she was there. Training the recruits." He could see her perfectly, nearly taking Jeremy's head off. He'd thought that he was dreaming. "She'd taken on a new name, Sergeant Victoria Phillips. There was no doubt. It was her. We just reconnected. It was like no time had passed. And we just got together one day. Felt right. She's a geneticist now working on some secret project. If it works she'll earn an honorary degree in Genetics from Harvard. Howard Stark offered her the Corporate Operations Officer position at Stark Industries."

Both Dugan and Jones laughed. He knew how they felt. She was so impressive... It was hard to live up to someone like Vika. She was like a superhero. He'd always thought so. "Hope you're not ever planning on living up to her," Dugan said, patting him roughly on the back.

Bucky laughed and shook his head. She'd always outshine him. And he was just fine with that. "No. We all knew that she was gonna do great things. I'm proud of her," he told them honestly.

"So what happened to her all of those years?" Jones asked.

And there was the question that seemed to always hand over her. What had happened to her? It was an answer that Bucky almost felt like he would never know. "I don't know. She never said. I could tell that it wasn't something that she wanted to talk about. But she promised me that when I come back, she'll tell me everything. Incentive to come back, she said," he told his friends.

"She sounds like a good girl," Dugan said.

"She is."

They were silent for a little while, the shouts echoing all throughout the small area. Everyone was getting ready to move out on their new mission reasonably soon. "Alright. Show us," Jones said, pointing to the locket.

With a sigh, Bucky nodded and opened the locket. It felt like giving away a part of himself, but he was proud of her. He was proud to show her off to the world. He was proud to say that she wasn't his... But they were equals. They were each other's. He gently pushed open the pictures of her. The two men looked at her and smiled almost immediately. Bucky sighed at the sight of her. She looked so happy. She was smiling and laughing, all because he'd been teasing her. There was a small surge in his stomach. Just a hug... That was all that he wanted.

"Pretty bird," Jones said.

"Nice looking dame," Dugan added.

"She is," Bucky agreed.

They had all said the same things when Dugan and Jones had shared the stories of their ladies. They were all happy for each other, and they all hoped that they would get back to them. "You'll get back to her," Jones said, patting Bucky on the back.

He nodded at his friend. He would never want to see what she would go through if he died. "I know. She told me that she'd break my nose if I didn't come back. And I believe her," he said, laughing.

To his surprise, both Dugan and Jones laughed as well. They were Army men. They tended to like the tougher women, not that there were many around. They were spread few and far. It was always amusing when someone found one. "Better be enough room for us at the wedding," Dugan told Bucky.

The three of them laughed together, standing as they were called into a meeting for their next mission. Even as they began talking about battle plans and infiltration strategies, Bucky felt the best that he had since deploying. Perhaps the timing wasn't the best. She'd just come back into his life and he'd been forced back out of it. But this time he knew that when he got back home, she'd be there waiting for him. They could pick things up and move on with their lives. When he went back, he had a family to go back to. Between Vika and Steve, he had everything that he'd ever wanted... And so much more.

Victoria's P.O.V.

It was the first day in months that Peggy hadn't set an alarm for us. We really didn't have a time that we had to get things started today. The only thing that we needed to do was alert the recruits at some point that a man had been chosen for Operation Rebirth. I woke up at just a little past ten in the morning and smiled at Peggy, who was already ready and clearly waiting for me. She tapped her wrist where a watch would normally be and I rolled my eyes.

Flipping headfirst out of the bed, landing softly on my feet, I zipped back and forth through the room at top speed, using my mutations to bring things to me that were across the room. Peggy watched in amusement as I pulled my hair up in a loop and nodded at her. The project was almost ready. In just over twenty-four hours Steve would be going into the Vita-Ray Chamber, and proving to everyone that a woman could really manage to do something more than raise a family and make a good meal. It seemed that Peggy felt the same way. I could tell that she was in high spirits about being so close to the end.

We both hung around and did our work for a few hours. Peggy had some paperwork to file and I had a few reports to work on. It didn't help that I also had to write letters to invite the men that would be at the demonstration tomorrow. Abraham had asked me to do them so that he could focus on the finishing touches. I wrote the duplicate letters quickly and gathered them in my hands, ready to send them out. I also took some time to ensure that I had all of my paperwork ready for the experiment tomorrow.

Briefly I left the room to deliver the letters and ensure that the women in the mail room knew where I wanted to send them. They didn't look fond of taking orders from me, but they agreed anyways. With the papers for the experiment tomorrow in hand, I walked out towards the offices and dropped them off with Abraham, who was muttering very rapidly in German to himself. I smiled and left the office without a word, sensing the stress in his office. I headed back to the barracks and smiled at Peggy, who was standing and reciting something to herself. Probably some type of speech.

Throwing an arm over her shoulder - which didn't work so well considering that she was half a foot taller than me and in heels - we walked towards the barracks that held the Operation Rebirth recruits. "We ready to get this thing started?" I asked her giddily. I had finished everything that I needed to do, and she looked like she needed a break.

She smiled down at me. "Getting excited?" she asked through a laugh.

Immediately I nodded at her. This would be one stressful thing off of my plate; something that I really needed. "Ready for it to be done with. Plus, the moment that we make this work, I get that degree from Harvard," I said proudly. Peggy smiled brightly. I knew that she was happy for me. "Things are finally starting to look up."

Peggy wrapped an arm over my shoulder and I groaned. One of the strongest mutants in the world, but I'm barely taller than a child. "It's amazing how much work that women have to do to actually make something of their lives. But, you and I, we're making the best out of things," she told me, pride seeping from her voice.

I nodded at her as we walked towards the barracks. We were on the other side of the camp from them, so it was somewhat of a walk. "So, shall we get things started?" I asked her.

"Are you going to kill Hodge?" she quipped back.

I should. I knew that if I did do anything to Hodge, there would be very few people that actually cared. "I will try my very hardest not to," I promised her, not at all sincere in my words.

Peggy shook her head at me. "I somehow don't think that you'll be trying very hard."

"You would think correctly," I told her, dragging her away from the mess hall, where she was grabbing an apple. "Come on. We should go." She whined at me, probably wanting something else. But I didn't care. We'd been waiting long enough. "I want to explain to Steve what we're going to be doing to him. At least make it seem like we know what we're doing."

We both laughed at my words and I took the apple from Peggy's hand. I knew that she wanted to split it. But we had no knife to cut it. Not that I needed one. I tore the apple in half and handed the bigger piece to her. She snorted in amusement and bit into the fruit. It took me a moment too long to realize that tearing an apple in half with bare hands was not something that a normal person could do. Either way, it didn't matter, no one other than Peggy had seen me do it.

As we walked over towards the barracks, I kept my gaze straight ahead at the currently abandoned obstacle courses. It was the Fit to Win Course, and, for today, no one was on it. Most recruits were doing their indoor training right now. Taking a deep breath, I found myself feeling much better today than I had in a long time. Perhaps because I was getting really confident that things were going right for me, for once in my life. It would have been perfect if Bucky was here. But he'd be back. About halfway towards the barracks I saw Abraham and Chester standing together, speaking in hushed tones.

The moment that we passed them, the two men fell into line with us. A few recruits that were passing saluted - only because Chester was with us - and we responded. We waited for them to pass before Chester leaned over to me. He was hungover - I could still smell the alcohol lingering on his breath and the cortisol that was releasing. He was in pain, but he would never let us know that. Still, I didn't say anything. I knew that he wouldn't appreciate my unwanted comments.

That didn't keep me from smirking at him. He glared at me for a moment but said nothing. "You're absolutely positive about this?" Chester asked me, referring to our choice to use Steve.

Glaring at him, I debated on shocking him, sending the headache from the hangover through his body. "Knock it off, old man," I snapped at him as Peggy walked beside Chester, both of them laughing at us." You're going to be eating your words in twenty-four hours. He'll prove you wrong. You just have to give him a chance."

"He's still skinny," Chester argued with me.

I rolled my eyes and scoffed, walking past him slightly. It was the same argument that he'd used to Abraham after Steve had thrown himself over the grenade. "He's not going to be skinny forever!" I barked at Chester, startling a few people standing near us. I lowered my voice and hissed, "Shut up and deal with it."

For once, I was the one that was in charge. He might have overseen the project, but I was the one that made the final decisions. With Abraham, of course. "Who gave you this job?" Chester snapped back at me.

"Who was the idiot that took me in?" I responded quickly.

Peggy walked forward and stepped in between the two of us. "I can't believe that you two haven't killed each other yet," she said as we walked closer towards the barracks.

"We've come close. But, whether or not he wants to admit it, Chester loves me," I teased.

"March," he barked at me.

The comment ticked everyone funny. Peggy and Abraham both laughed, and although Chester didn't laugh, I did see the corners of his lips twitch upwards. He would never want to admit it in front of anyone else, but I knew that he really did care for me. It was the same way that I cared for him. Even from a few meters away from the barracks, I could hear the men yelling back and forth with each other. The only voice that I couldn't hear was Steve's. I assumed that he was reading in silence, trying to ignore them. They were clearly very excited to see who had been chosen. I imagined that Steve was trying to hide his smirk.

Just outside of the barracks we met up with Sergeant Duffy. He would be reassigning the men that wouldn't be going through Operation Rebirth. They were still perfectly good soldiers, and the United States needed them elsewhere. We all walked into the barracks together and I rolled my eyes at the sight of the men. Some were shirtless, some wore ruffled clothes, but they were all acting fools. They were wrestling with each other, laughing and shoving themselves back and forth. Steve was the only one that was seated on the bed, reading quietly. None of them had spotted that we were inside the barracks yet.

The five of us exchanged a sigh as we watched them fight. Useless. Every single one of them. But not for long. "Recruits! Attention!" Duffy shouted, easily speaking over all of the commotion.

The men all jumped upright, coming to stand in a line. Steve was the only one that didn't panic. He moved forward and smiled at me. I smiled back at him. "Good morning, gentlemen. We thank you for your dedication over the past two weeks. We know that it hasn't been easy. For now, one of you will be put forward into Operation Rebirth. The rest of you will proceed to basic training for deployment. We have made our choice. We will be going forward with Mr. Steven Rogers," I said.

Chattering began throughout the crowd of men. It was one of the few times that no one actually yelled at the recruits for speaking to each other. I knew that it would be a shock. I knew that it would have been, no matter who was chosen. But they were clearly very shocked to hear that it would be Steve. They were asking each other if they were sure that I'd said Steve. I rolled my eyes. Not a single one of them actually moved to congratulate him. But it didn't matter. He had his own friends, and he was the one that was going into that chamber. Steve pushed out his chest - something that almost made me laugh - and stepped forward. I smiled at him.

The muttering went down, but many of the recruits were still glaring at him. I noticed Hodge send a particularly nasty glare his way. "You will report to Agent Carter and I tomorrow morning at eight in the front of Camp Lehigh. We will be taking you to the site," I told Steve. He nodded at me. "As for the rest of you, Sergeant Duffy will place you. Thank you for offering us your time. Proceed to make this country proud. Sergeant Duffy?" I offered the older man.

He nodded at me and motioned towards the remaining me. "This way, recruits!" Duffy shouted.

They began walking in lines. I could hear the men snapping back and forth about how Steve could have possibly been the one that was chosen. I rolled my eyes at them. He had already been chosen. There was nothing that they could do now. It was probably for the best that they weren't going through the procedure. I didn't trust them. As Duffy and the recruits left the barracks, Chester gave me a nod before leaving as well. Abraham gave Steve a bright smile before leaving as well. Peggy grinned at the two of us before following him, probably ensuring that our ride for tomorrow morning was set. It left only Steve and I.

I waited until the door had closed behind them to react. "Congratulations!" I yelped, running after Steve and jumping into a hug. He laughed and stumbled back slightly, hugging me tightly. "God, I was so scared that Chester was going to find a way to weasel out of this and bring someone else in."

Steve laughed as I let him go and ran his fingers through his hair. "No one else will ever be allowed to call themselves Captain America," he told me proudly.

Grinning brightly, I nodded at him. The name might have been a little silly, but I felt that it was very appropriate for the reason that we were even creating him in the first place. "I knew that the name would grow on you," I teased, nudging him gently.

"Only because you were the one that picked it out," Steve teased me.

The two of us smiled at each other. I grabbed his hand and led him over to the bed, taking a seat and crossing my legs and facing him. "There's something that I want to tell you. I just want you to know how proud I am of you. You've done so much and you're doing something that very few people would have the nerve to do. And it's not just me that's proud of you. Bucky doesn't know yet, but when he comes home he will know. He's going to be just as proud as I am, once he gets over the shock," I told him.

He grabbed my hand in his and brought it into his lap. It was moments like these that I really felt like I was Steve's little sister, proud of her big brother for doing something this amazing. "I'm proud of you, too, Vic. You're the one that did all of this. You helped with this project and you're half of the reason that this even worked out. You've done so much. All of this, it's incredible," he told me.

His hands were running over my knuckles. They should have been so scarred, but it looked like I'd never laid a hand on anything or anyone. Looks were deceiving. "I had a lot of help," I muttered, staring at the unblemished skin.

If I looked extremely close, closer than any normal person could see, I could see the slightly green tinge under my wrist from the Chronicle. "Doesn't matter, you still did it. You're the person that I always knew would do something great with your life. It never mattered that you were a woman, you were the smartest person that I ever knew," Steve told me.

Smiling softly, I nodded, pushing back my hair. "Thank you, Steve." We sat in silence for a moment before I kicked out at his knee playfully. "But I'm not the only one that's going to do something great with their life."

It wasn't like I wasn't already proud of him - I would always be proud of him - but this was something so much bigger than anything that I'd ever thought that he would do. I'd never been so proud of him. This was something huge. And this was something much bigger than himself. It was like he had said. There were men laying down their lives. He had no right to do any less than them. That was exactly the reason that I had faith that Steve was the perfect candidate. He was a perfect example of selflessness.

"You're sure that this is going to work?" Steve asked me after a long silence.

"Yes," I answered almost immediately. Steve gave a long nod, staring down at the bed. I sighed and tucked my legs underneath me. "You don't trust me?" I asked teasingly.

Steve glanced up at me and shook his head. "No. I trust you, I really do. I just don't want to get my hopes up and then have nothing happen to me. I couldn't imagine how embarrassing that would be," he muttered lowly.

There was no doubt in my mind that something was going to happen to him. "Trust me, something is going to happen when you're in there," I told him.

Steve stared at me sideways. "Well that doesn't sound appealing," he laughed.

The mistrust in his voice made me laugh, too. This whole project didn't sound very appealing when you actually thought about it. "Do you want to know what's going to be happening while you're in there?" I offered him. He looked curious at my offer. "I can't tell you the side-effects or what will happen to you physically, but I can tell you the science behind it."

We were silent for a while as Steve thought about it. It might make him more nervous, but he would at least know what to expect. "You know, I think that I'd like to know. It's not going to make me nervous, will it?" he asked me.

"Oh, it will. You'll probably want to run and hide," I told him honestly.

"Great," Steve groaned.

Smiling at him, I nudged his arm. "Still want to know?" I asked.

Steve let out a small sigh before nodding at me. "Sure. Why not?" he said with a laugh.

Standing up from the bed, I offered him my hand. He took it and I easily pulled him up from the bed. He weighed next to nothing. "Come on," I told him, motioning him to follow me.

He looked confused but didn't ask me what we were doing. I just didn't want to sit around and talk with him. I wanted to get up and do something, far away from everyone else. So we walked out to the Fit to Win Obstacle Course. There was no one around and I smiled to myself. I appreciated that today would be the day that we were allowed out here. They were all training indoors today. Steve and I walked over to an abandoned area of the course and, while he took a seat on the logs, I began slowly walking over the stumps that were raised in the air. Steve watched me with a smile as I easily kept my balance, jumping from one to another.

We were in silence for a few minutes and I grabbed Steve's hand, forcing him to walk over the stumps with me. We kept together with our hands, walking back and forth. I had the strength to be able to keep him upright. He seemed a little surprised that I was able to keep the both of us moving over the stumps. They were so narrow that it was hard for both of us to keep upright, but I felt like it was a good way to teach him to keep his balance. After a few minutes, I walked a few stumps ahead of him and motioned him to walk towards me. He laughed in disbelief as I walked backwards over the stumps, watching him as he moved towards me.

He clearly couldn't believe that I was able to walk so easily, without even looking back. "Well, there are three things that we are going to do to begin the transformation," I told him.

"Okay," Steve said, focusing very hard on keeping himself upright.

"Like I said, there are three components. One is oral. You'll be taking a pill the night before," I said. Steve nodded. Abraham had designed the pill. I'd read over the papers for it. "The other is intravenously. It's a shot. More than one. There's actually eight." Steve slipped off of the stump at that. I offered him a hand back up and sighed at the green tinge that had fallen over his face. "Sorry. But we've got a lot of work to do." He scoffed at me. "No offense. The other is a technique of my own design."

Now he looked curious. Steve paused on one of the stumps and looked curiously at me. "What is it?" he asked.

Pausing for a moment, I wasn't quite sure if I should tell him. It probably didn't sound very good. But I knew that I should tell him. He'd find out soon enough anyways. "Radiation," I answered quickly.

Once more, Steve slipped off of the stump. "R - Radiation? Isn't that dangerous?" he asked me. I snorted at Steve as he weakly pulled himself back up onto the stump.

Shaking my head at Steve, I jumped over two of the stumps and landed on the last one, turning back and starting over again. "Don't worry about it. Radiation is somewhat of a specialty of mine. You see, low levels of radiation actually advance the human genome when they're specifically targeted to large muscle groups or bone structure." The confusion was written plain and clear across his face. "Simply put, it will make you stronger. I developed a special type of radiation that will help rather than hinder your body."

Steve stared at me for a long while. Finally, he asked, "So it's not going to burn me or anything like that?"

I laughed loudly at him. That wasn't exactly what radiation did in the first place. But I supposed that burns did happen before the body was completely destroyed. "Relax, it's not going to kill you. We've already done tests. And the oral pill that you'll be taking will counteract any side effects of the radiation blast. I've ensured that," I told him confidently.

It wasn't going to hurt him... No... It wouldn't. "So is this, like, normal radiation?" Steve asked me.

"No," I immediately said. It's my kind of radiation. "It was created specifically for this project." Not really completely true. "Abraham agreed with me that radiation was key. We thought about using alpha level waves but they were too low. Gamma was way too high. So I created a new kind of radiation. We call them Vita-Rays. They target muscle groups and increase growth," I explained to him.

It was a long time that Steve wobbled back and forth over the stumps, trying to process everything that I had said. "That's impressive," he finally said, making both of us laugh. "And if it does something to me, I'll know who to blame."

As much as it was a joke, it made bile rise in my throat. I'd never let anything happen to him. "If anything happens to you, you'll be more than welcome to blame me all you want. I'll blame myself. Although, considering we've done some live tests, and we've had very few negative reactions, I'm inclined to think that you'll be just fine," I told him.

"What happened with the serum?" Steve asked me.

Sighing softly, I stumbled over one of the stumps. My mind wasn't completely in it with me. There were far too many things that I was trying to think about. "That's mostly Abraham's specialty. Let me put it as simply as I possibly can... If you shoot radiation light at dendrimers - which are repetitively branched molecules (the extra explanation clearly didn't help Steve) - they actually break up. So anything they're carrying gets released into the tissue they are currently embedded in.

"So if you imagine one of these nano carriers are carrying the serum, which is a genome editing tool essentially, it turns on the right genes for increase muscle mass. We'll be injecting it directly into your muscle mass and zap you with the Vita-Rays. That will specifically activate those molecules to release their full potential load and have a very specific function. How much of that did you gather?" I asked him.

He was silent for a long while. I knew that nothing that I had just told him made very much sense. I probably wouldn't have understood it either, if I was anyone else. It wasn't the simplest thing to understand. For a moment I wondered if he might understand science a little better after getting the serum, but I had a feeling that it wouldn't be that good. He would definitely be smarter, but these kind of things took years to really understand. Years, or a genetic mutation.

Obviously he was still trying to figure it out. But it seemed like he had finally given up. "Honestly, I didn't really understand any of it," he admitted. I laughed, having figured that much. "But I understand the basics behind it." At least he understood something. That was what really mattered, I supposed. "So what are the effects of the serum?" he asked after a little while.

And that was where the problems started. We weren't completely sure what it would do. We had theories, but I didn't want to tell him and have it not happen. "We're not exactly sure," I said. Steve seemed to very quickly lose faith it what I'd told him before. "But I could give you an educated guess if you'd like?"

Steve debated on it for a moment before nodding at me. "Go for it," he said.

"Your metabolism should start burning about four times the typical human rate." He glanced up at me and I smiled. My metabolism burned about ten times faster, so fast that it should have killed me. "You may age slower and have a heightened healing factor. A bullet wound will still hurt, so I suggest that you avoid them, but you'll heal better than someone else would. If we're correct, you should be exceeding peak human potential," I told him.

He had not looked convinced when I'd mentioned the bullet wound. In fact, he looked about ready to collapse to the ground. Of course, the idea of being shot was shocking to someone who never had been. "What does that mean?" Steve asked, referring to the peak human potential.

"Expect to be able to lift over eight hundred pounds. Perhaps upwards of one thousand pounds during heightened times of adrenaline release." This time he did slip off of the stump. "I did perform my own equation that suggests that you would be able to run nearly sixty miles per hour. You'll have the ability to counteract the acids in the muscle that cause fatigue, so this will allow you to maintain strenuous physical activity for hours on end before tiring. Reasonably interesting, you'll have immunity from nearly any poison known to man. That includes most drugs and alcohol. We anticipate you to be gaining about one hundred and fifty pounds," I told him.

This time he didn't bother getting back up onto the stump. He collapsed on the wooden beam and I took a seat next to him, smiling at him. He was going to be the perfect human. He would be able to run for hours and never tire. The sixty miles an hour would only be for brief intervals, but he would be able to maintain a speed of twenty miles an hour, much faster than average. He'd be much larger. He'd get taller and gain more muscle. I wouldn't be shocked to be able to see him lift a truck. He would be immune to all poisons, so that was the one area that we might actual be equal in something.

Steve took a long time to process all of this information. I knew that it sounded like a fairy-tale, but it wasn't. It was science at its finest. "Is that even possible?" Steve finally managed to ask me.

Smiling at him, I nodded. "There's a lot that's going to be possible. And it won't just end with the physical," I said. He clearly didn't understand what I meant. "There will be mental changes, too."

"So I'll be smarter than you?" Steve asked teasingly.

I narrowed my eyes at him and shook my head, shoving him roughly. As much as I loved Steve, he was not allowed to be smarter than me. "In your dreams," I snapped at him.

Steve laughed at me and wrapped his arm around me, pulling me into him. "Yeah, I didn't think so," he said. He knew that it would be hard to be as intelligent as I was. "What do you mean?"

Taking a deep breath, I thought as hard as I could to make my explanation make sense. "Hopefully you'll be able to retain and recall any information that you take in. That's my own theory. This is half of what will make you a perfect Soldier. Now you will be able to react and process data faster, which should improve your reflexes far beyond those of a normal human. So, yes, you will be smarter," I told him.

Steve grinned at the thought. His grades had always been average. But I knew that he would appreciate the chance to excel in something. "Buck's gonna love that," Steve said with a little laugh.

Grinning brightly, I nodded. Steve and I used to love ganging up on Bucky when we were kids. It would be nice to be able to do it again as adults. "I'm hoping you'll learn to speak Russian or something like that. Do you have any idea what we'd be able to say around him and he'd never know?" I asked. We both laughed at the thought.

Bucky had always hated when I'd gone on rants in Spanish or French when we were kids. Sometimes I would make up completely nonsensical sentences, just to laugh when he thought that I'd been teasing him. Steve chuckled softly at the memories of our childhood. "He'll lose his mind in between the two of us," he finally said.

I sighed softly and smiled. "Poor Bucky," I muttered.

The air suddenly became very thick. It was thick with a slight guilt, remembering that Bucky was in the middle of the war while we were here, laughing and smiling. "So, are there any side effects?" Steve asked awkwardly.

That was definitely the conversation that I'd been hoping to avoid. "We've seen a few," I muttered.

"Tell me," Steve said determinedly.

"Steve -" I attempted to steer the conversation away.

He spoke over me, and for once, I let him. "Please, Vic, tell me," he begged softly. I sighed, not wanting to admit to him that something could happen to him. He was my best friend. I didn't like even pretending that something might happen. "I want to be prepared. Just in case. I want to know what I might have happen to me," he said.

His hand wrapped around my own and I sighed, knowing that he wasn't going to leave me alone about this. He was going to want to know. And he had a right to know. "It might not happen. Steve you're the first human experiment that we've performed. This is all based on animal testing. We don't know exactly what side effects to anticipate," I told him.

"I just want to know what you've seen. I'm not scared, Vic," he told me softly.

Even if he was afraid, he would never say so. "I know you aren't. That's what scares me," I told him. He smiled at me guiltily. "Psychosis. That's the most common. Due to the rapid evolution of the human brain as a result of exposure to super-soldier serum, the super-soldier is far more susceptible to mental disorders, such as schizophrenia and paranoia than an average human. But that might not happen," I told him. I could only hope that it wouldn't. That would not be easy to explain to Bucky. "In the early testing we did see some reversal in powers and eventual loss of them. We haven't seen them since."

That had happened quite a bit during the early testing phases, but we hadn't seen anything like that lately. We would see some degeneration as time progressed, but it seemed more like the animals were becoming used to the new bodies. And we had to remember that the testing that we were doing was all a part of animal testing. This would be the first human testing that we would be doing. This would be the time that we would really be able to see what would happen to a human in the chamber.

Steve nodded at me, processing the information on his own. "Okay," he breathed out. I patted him on the knee, knowing that I had probably just made him very nervous. "Well, I'm prepared, Vic, no matter what happens."

Nothing was going to happen to him. He was going to go in that chamber as Steve Rogers and come out as Captain America. "You're going to be fine. You're going to make this work. If it's the last thing that I do, I'm going to make sure that you're just fine," I told him brightly.

"I trust you," Steve told me.

Swallowing a lump in my throat, I smiled at him. I knew that we both trusted each other with our lives. "Do me a favor and don't say that until we get you out of the Vita-Ray Chamber safely," I teased.

Steve laughed loudly at me. "Love you, Vic. I hope I make you proud," he said.

I smiled at him and pressed a kiss against his cheek. "You already have." He had made me proud the moment that I saw everything that he was going through to be a part of a war that most men were desperate to escape. "Love you too," I said, glancing down at my watch. We were pushing two o'clock and I sighed. The day had flown by. "Okay, as much as I love being around you, I need to leave."

We both stood from the stumps and I smiled at him. In just a matter of hours, there was a chance that he would tower over me. "Where are you going?" Steve asked curiously as we headed back towards the main camp.

I turned back to him and let him catch up to me. I forgot that he walked slower than I did. Perhaps he would walk faster after tomorrow. "Howard Stark is coming to get me to bring me to the Vita-Ray Chamber. We're taking one last look over it to ensure that everything will go properly tomorrow. Don't worry, you're in good hands," I told him.

"I trust you," Steve repeated as we stopped outside of the barracks.

Smiling at him, I laid a hand on his shoulder. He looked nervous. I knew that he was, and I didn't blame him. If it were me in his place, I'd be nervous too. "I'll drop by tonight to make sure that you're alright," I said.

Steve smiled at me and shook his head. He probably thought that I was treating him like a child and coddling him. But that wasn't the truth. I was merely a concerned friend that didn't want anything to happen that would be my fault. "I'll be fine, Vic," Steve said.

Nodding at him, I gently nudged him towards the dorms. "I know. But I'll be antsy," I teased. He laughed and I felt some of the tension fade from his body. I assumed that he needed something like that. "Get some rest today and be prepared for everything tomorrow. Have a good day!" I shouted as I backed away. He smiled and waved me off.

Walking through the camp, I pushed my hands down into my pockets. A few people were milling around that I waved at. Sergeant Duffy was underneath one of the tents, ordering the men to their new units. I overheard the conversation for Hodge being suggested for the 107th and I rolled my eyes. Please kill him, Bucky. Unfortunately, Hodge was a good soldier, and that was probably the reason that he would be chosen to be deployed with them. Chester was standing with Peggy, seemingly going over plans. I shouted my plans for the afternoon out to them and they both nodded, telling me to be cautious and to alert them if there were any concerns.

Near the gates of Camp Lehigh, I saw that Howard was standing outside of - yet another - car. He was grinning madly. I knew that he had brought this car here today just to prove to me that he could have fifty cars and use them all. This one was one of the nicer cars that I had seen of his. It was extremely rare. Only five had ever been made. It was a 1939 Delahaye Type 165 Cabriolet. It was a French-made car and bright red. It was no shock that a few men were standing around and whistling at it. I rolled my eyes Howard he kissed me on the cheek, allowing me to hop into the passenger seat of the car, closing the door gently behind me.

Once he had revved the engine and began roaring down the road, I glanced over at Howard. "Another car?" I asked him, trying to keep the dirt on my shoes off of the carpeted interior of the car. I didn't want to ruin the gorgeous car.

Howard smirked at me. "You weren't honestly expecting it to be the same one?" he quipped back at me.

After the last conversation that we had had about cars, I was sure that he would never let me see him in the same car more than once. "No, of course I wasn't," I told him honestly.

Howard grinned at me and pushed the car as fast as it could go. We weren't really that far away from the office that we were working behind, and the ride didn't take much more than twenty minutes or so. "You tell Rogers that he was the one going into the chamber?" Howard asked as we drove out of the gates of Camp Lehigh.

Nodding at him, I smiled off in the distance. We were all going to make this work. "I actually went in private and told him last night. We went and told all of the recruits officially this morning," I told him.

"How'd he take the news?" Howard asked curiously.

Much better than I would have originally thought that he would. I could tell that this was the thing that he wanted to do. He always had. "He seems happy. I know that he's excited to do something with his life. But it's dangerous. I wanted him to know that. So I did say what might happen to him," I told Howard, very obviously showing my concerns.

Howard took one of his hands off of the wheel and gently set it on my leg. He clearly didn't want me to worry. But I knew that Howard was good at what he did, and I knew that he would take care of Steve. "And he still wants to go through with it?" Howard asked.

Steve was no coward. He wouldn't back out of it even if I told him that there was a huge chance that he was going to die. "Yeah. There's no talking him out of it," I said.

"And how are you handling everything?" Howard asked carefully.

He didn't want to annoy me. So many people had asked me how I was handling everything. Trying to be a woman in a man's world, how I was handling Bucky being gone, and how I was managing putting my best friend in danger. It was a lot to put on one person. And I wasn't sure how I was going to keep going. But I was keeping my head mostly intact. It just bothered me that people though - strictly because I was a woman - that I couldn't handle some hard things in my life. And that wasn't true. I could handle things.

Sure, it got hard. But just because I was a woman didn't mean that I needed to be patronized. But I knew that Howard wasn't patronizing me, he was simply making sure that I was alright. "I'll manage. I have faith that this is going to work just fine. He'll be okay. Honestly, I'm more concerned with how the hell I'm going to explain this to Bucky. I promised him that I would keep Steve safe," I said, trying to lighten the mood.

The last thing that I wanted was to think about was the chances that Steve would be hurt. "This is... Not safe," Howard trailed off when he realized that there was nothing to say about this. I scoffed at him. "You're right. Good luck dealing with him."

Turning a glare on him, I shook my head. "You're so useless," I snapped.

Howard seemed to think about it for a few moments. "You could tell him that you've been training him," he suggested.

Immediately I shook my head. There was no way that I could explain to him how Steve would make such a drastic change. "And how am I going to explain the sudden gain in muscle, loss of all physical ailments, and that's not to mention the fact that he's going to be almost a foot taller than he is now?" I asked Howard.

We were silent for a long time as Howard debated on an explanation. I watched his face closely, seeing the little movements flit across it. He seemed to land on something eventually. "Stilts," Howard spit out.

The two of us sat in silence and stared at each other before I burst out laughing. Howard followed me a moment later. "I hate you," I said through gasps of air as I continued to laugh.

Howard chuckled and shook his head. "No, you don't," he said. I nodded at him. He was right about that. I couldn't ever hate him. We were silent for a while as we regained our composure. "Have you heard from Barnes lately?"

Giving a very small smile, I nodded. For now, he was safe. And hopefully in a few months he would be back home. "I got a letter from him last night," I told Howard. He smiled and glanced over at me for a moment. I could feel the happiness oozing out of him. "They went on their first mission. He was fine."

"Don't be worried about him," Howard told me.

"How couldn't I be worried about him?" I snapped at him, not meaning the words to come out so harsh.

Howard clearly knew that I hadn't meant it as his hand gently patted my knee. "Because he loves you. That's his reason to stay alive out there. He'll be back, Victoria. Just give him some time," he said.

Taking a deep breath, I nodded. Men were deployed for long periods of time. I knew that it would take time before he came back home. "I know. He's barely been gone for two weeks," I muttered, feeling a little silly for missing him already. "But I've gotten so used to seeing him every day, even if I don't talk to him. To have him so far away from me, somewhere so dangerous... It's tough."

Howard sighed and looked over at me. His loved ones were all safe. He knew how hard it was for me to have Bucky gone, but he didn't really know. "Trust me, I understand. I know how much he means to you. But he's going to come back. You trained him. He knows what to do. And he knows what you'll do to him if he gets himself hurt out there," Howard added.

I laughed softly and nodded at him. I'd kill Bucky if he got himself hurt. I wanted him to come back, and as much as the thought scared me, I wanted to have a life with him. "You like to make jokes about us getting married..." I trailed off awkwardly. Howard nodded at me. "Are you just being an ass or do you really mean it?"

He snorted at me calling him an ass but nodded. "I mean it. I really do. I can't read minds, but I do like to say that I can read people pretty well, and I know that if there's one thing that Barnes is sure of, it's that you're who he's meant to be with." I smiled softly and stared at the floorboards. "You thinking about the future?"

Shrugging at him, I tried to play off my thoughts. "Sort of. I try not to, but sometimes I do. I want to pretend to have a future, but I can't be sure. I don't know if I'm the type of person that can have a future," I mumbled.

Howard grinned at me. "I'll tell you what... I see your future." Curiously, I glanced over at him. I couldn't wait to see what he meant by that. He was staring dreamily off in the distance. "A huge farmhouse in the middle of a field, you and Barnes up on the porch swing, with two little kids running around," he said.

Smiling softly, I shook my head. I would never wish this upon another child. "Yellow eyes and all?" I asked him.

"Just as adorable as the two of you are," Howard said, grabbing my chin in his hand.

I sent a shock through my hands that were on his wrist and he shouted in pain, letting go of the steering wheel and glaring at me. Rolling my eyes at him, I laughed and glanced out the window. Could I see it? Could I see us in our own house, two little kids running around in the yard? I knew that he could. He wanted a family. He would be good with a family. But what about me? Was there I chance that I might actually have the capability to act like a real woman? Maybe. Maybe not.

There was no way that I would be sure unless I gave it a shot. "Maybe you're right..." I muttered, trailing off.

"I'm always right," Howard said haughtily.

Rolling my eyes at him, I nodded. "Sure thing."

We were in silence for a little while before Howard grinned and gave me a quick look. I knew that nothing good could come from that look. "If you have a boy, you should name them after me," he said.

Immediately I shook my head. Not if there was a chance that they would be anything like him. I could barely stand one Howard. I did not want two of them in my life. "Not a chance in hell. If you have a girl, you should name them after me," I cheekily said.

Howard smiled at me and nodded. "Now, see? I'm nice, I would name my child after you," he told me. I laughed and shook my head at him. "But what if I were to have a boy?"

"Victor," I said quickly.

Howard grimaced and shook his head at me. I didn't blame him. It was an ugly name. "That's terrible. He would sound like a Soviet wrestler." We both snorted at that. "How about a name that you like?" he offered.

Humming to myself, I thought about it for a while. There weren't that many names that I really liked. But there was one that I could think of that I really did like. "Anthony," I said after a few minutes.

Howard nodded along for a few minutes. "Anthony..." he repeated, testing the name on his tongue. "I like that," he finally agreed.

"Thank you," I said with a small smile. We were a few minutes away from the offices when I glanced back over at Howard. "How's the chamber been lately?"

He was the one that had been around it so frequently over the past two weeks. He was the one that knew the Vita-Ray Chamber backwards and forwards. "Things have been good with it. I haven't found any issues with it yet. I think that we're going to be ready to put him in the chamber tomorrow morning," he told me confidently.

"If we're ready, that's all that matters."

Howard nodded at me. "He's your friend, we're going to do everything in our power to keep him safe," he said.

Glancing over at him, I narrowed my eyes. If something happened to him, I knew exactly who to blame. "If anything happens to him in there, as much as I love you, I'm going to kill you," I told him in complete seriousness.

If Howard was concerned about what I was going to do to him, he didn't show it. "Yes, I'm well aware of that fact, and considering that I don't want to die yet, I'll be very careful with your beloved friend," he told me. I laughed softly. The last thing that I wanted was to really hurt Howard. I absolutely adored him, as angry as he made me.

"I'll hold you up to that," I told him.

"Relax," Howard told me. I glanced over at him and shot him a nasty look. "I have my own reputation to uphold when it comes to this experiment. You think that anyone will want to buy machines from me if I can't prove that I can make this work?"

Raising my eyebrows, I nodded. I supposed that I hadn't thought about it that way. "Of course not. But, to be fair, you only built the chamber to withstand the radiation blast. If it can do that, you've proven yourself," I told him. He shrugged his shoulders at me, nodding. "We're the ones that have something to prove. We took care of the actual science behind the experiment."

"We all know that it's going to work. Erskine has already proven that it can work," Howard said.

Perhaps that was true, but it definitely hadn't worked the way that it was intended to work. "With the Red Skull, who no one is willing to say was created by Abraham. As far as anyone is concerned, this is the first time that we're ever attempting this experiment," I reasoned.

No one wanted anyone to know that Abraham Erskine had created the Red Skull and given him the powers that he needed. "Fair enough," Howard told me. We weren't silent for very long. "Did you ever meet those men from Harvard?"

Snorting softly, I remembered the strange conversation with August. He certainly wasn't my favorite man that I'd ever met. "I did. Just one of them. August something or another. I wasn't listening," I said. Howard laughed at me. "He says that if the experiment works, the degree is mine."

"We'll hang it on the wall in your office at Stark Industries," Howard told me proudly.

I raised an eyebrow at him. I had thought that I'd be working in his office with him. I hadn't thought that he would make me one. "You already made me an office?" I asked him.

He nodded at me. "I'm working on it. It's directly adjoining mine so that we can leave the doors open and enjoy each other's company," he told me. I rolled my eyes at him. Great. Just what I wanted. Howard grinned, knowing that I wouldn't love that part. "I think that you'll like it."

"I didn't get a say in what this office looks like?" I teased.

Howard looked like I had just asked him to drink bleach. "God, no," he snapped. I glanced over at him, brows furrowed. What was wrong with me saying what I wanted the office to look like? "I've seen the way that you dress."

Well that was uncalled for. I glanced down at my clothes for the day and scowled. They weren't that bad, were they? I was wearing brown boots today that laced all the way up. They went to just below the knee. They had a slight heel in the back that I was debated throwing through Howard's fat head. I was wearing high-waisted black pants that were tucked into the boots and a white button-down was tucked into those pants. The shirt only had one button undone, leaving me extremely hot in the heat. There wasn't a touch of makeup on my face and my hair was tied up in a bun. I knew that pieces were falling out all over the place, leaving me looking very unkempt.

But my clothes weren't that bad. Were they? I didn't think that they were that bad. Of course, I knew that Peggy would probably have something to say to that. "Thank you, jackass," I snarled at Howard.

He looked over at me and grinned. I debated on burning off his eyebrows. "I'm only teasing you. Although I am serious. You have to let me design something for you. You dress like a man," he told me.

Shaking my head at him, a few more strands of hair fell loose, definitely not helping my case. "What the hell should I be wearing? A dress and heels while I'm trying to fight someone off?" I asked him.

Howard shook his head at me and waved me off. "No, of course not. I'll design you something to wear," he told me proudly. I shook my head. I did not want him designing something for me to wear. "Something that doesn't look like you're wearing your boyfriend's oversized clothes. Feminine, but tough."

Gulping awkwardly, I wrapped the jacket in my lap tighter around my fingers. It is my boyfriend's oversized clothes. "Can I trust you to actually design something that won't make me look like a harlot?" I asked him seriously.

"You think so little of me," Howard said.

Glancing over at him, I shook my head at him. "I think very highly of you," he smiled at my admission, "but I don't trust you to not get me laughed at."

"You'll love it," he insisted.

By his wording, I knew that he wasn't going to let it go. He was going to design something for me whether or not I wanted it. "I suppose that I'll have to trust you on this one," I muttered.

"Trust me, you're going to love it," Howard told me. Sighing deeply, I nodded at him. He would make something nice, I had to trust him. "I'll take your preferences into account. Tight or lose?" he asked.

Could I trust him by saying tight? I didn't need a costume that would be like a second skin. "Tight would make more sense. Easier to move around in," I explained.

"Color?"

"Black," I answered without hesitation.

He must have been remembering everything. Howard glanced over at me and rolled his eyes. "Of course," he muttered. I could tell that he had really been hoping that I would want to do something with more color.

"Easier to blend in," I argued.

Howard nodded. "We'll need to make it flame-retardant and find the strongest material that I can find," he said. I nodded. Flame retardant would keep it from melting and leaving me without clothes. Strong would be so that nothing would tear it. "Black... I can do that. Tight... I can do that too. But you'll have to let me put a flare on it," he told me with a smile.

Snapping my head over to him, I glared at him. He was going to put something on there that was going to make me look like a stupid little girl. "If you put a pink frill on it, I'll electrocute you," I snarled at him.

"Not pink. How do you feel about green?" he asked. I rolled my eyes at him. I actually really did like green, but I wasn't going to tell him that. "Yes, I like green, too," Howard chirped, taking my silence for acceptance. He glanced back up at the road and smiled. "Oh good, we're here."

He parked the car on the side of the road and the two of us climbed out, heading towards the small store that served as the facade. "Are you going to show it to me before you actually start creating it?" I asked him.

"No," he told me. I rolled my eyes. "Come on, let's go."

We walked inside the small store and gave the pass code to the woman that was standing behind the counter. She allowed us inside and I glanced around. It was the first time that I'd really looked around and observed the area. The chamber was up on a raised, circular, platform in the center of the room, bars around it to keep people from falling. Below it were the controls that the men and nurses would be observing for the procedure, watching the vitals and power levels. Up on the next level - that was just slightly higher than the control panels but lower than the actual chamber was raised - were all of the power controls that would show us how the chamber was affecting the power grid.

Nudging me gently, Howard pushed me into the center of the room to get to work. I nodded at him and took a look around the rest of the room. On the first level were blast proof doors that would hold the men that were observing Steve's vital levels, ensuring that he was reacting well to the procedure. In a lifted booth above the rest of the room was enough room for about twenty people that would watch the procedure. Speakers were aligned in the observation booth so that Abraham could explain what was happening.

Taking a deep breath, I walked over to the chamber and began observing it, checking it over to make sure that I didn't see anything wrong with it. The chamber was currently laying in the open position. It had three different parts. There was the black plastic bed that was laid out for Steve to place himself in. Pads that would lay over Steve's chest were currently pulled up into place. Syringes were all over the chamber, ready to distribute the serum into Steve. There was a foot hold on the bottom of the chamber that would keep Steve from falling out of the chamber. There were two sides of the chamber that would close over his body, and one hood that would fall over his face. There was a window in the headpiece of the chamber, but Steve would be too short to see out of it.

The Vita-Ray Chamber was nearly seven feet tall, just in case Steve got a little taller than we were expecting. It was also about three of him wide. The chamber was bright blue, standing out against the stark gray and green room. There were ten projection tubes for the Vita Rays and eight tubes that would inject the serum. The chamber was hooked directly into the power grid of New York City, so there was a good chance that we were going to cause a city-wide blackout. The biggest problem for the chamber was how much power that it drew.

As nervous as it made me, there was nothing that could be done to ensure that there was anything more with the chamber. It was ready for Steve to go into it tomorrow. So I walked over to the table that sat next to it and glanced down at the pill. It was the pill that Steve would be taking tonight. It was designed to counteract the degradation of bone and tissue that the chamber alone would cause. It was vital that he took it tonight so that he would be able to withstand the effects of the chamber tomorrow morning. I grabbed the pill and slipped it in my pocket.

For a long time I sat and read over the mechanics behind the pill. I had designed part of it, suggesting to Abraham what exactly it was going to have to counteract. He knew - because of my suggestions - how to design the pill. Finally, I moved to the one part that I wasn't exactly sure about. The serum was completely of Abraham's own design. Each one of us only had a very small part in helping out with the serum. He was the one that really understood it.

The serum itself was bright blue and looked a little bit like slime. I cringed as I touched the bag that it was in. It was very thick. Definitely didn't look like anything that I wanted in me. Could I really say anything though? My bones were plated with the strongest metal on the planet and my body was filled with the most toxic element on the planet that was also a healing agent. So it seemed that both Steve and I were going to be turned into the circus freak in a matter of time.

It made me curious to see how Abraham had ever managed to figure this out. The most that I really knew about it was that potassium was one of the key ingredients in it. The serum would cover and expand all of the key muscle groups. It would coat them, coaxing the Vita-Rays to come and interact with the muscles. It would definitely be the key component in the entire process. Perhaps one day soon I could have Abraham explain a little more about the process to me.

While I was goofing around with the serum and chamber, Howard had been looking over the mechanics. I glanced back at him as he poked around the controls. "All levels appropriate?" I asked him, calling across the room.

"We're ready to go," Howard told me, glancing back over to me.

Nodding at him, I placed the serum back down in its container and glanced at the clock. It was already pushing nine at night and I sighed. I needed to get moving. "Take me back, yeah?" I asked him.

Howard nodded at me and we called a goodbye to the few people that remained. "Come on. You could always stay at Stark Manor tonight if you'd like?" he offered me.

For a moment I thought about it. It would probably be easier, but I really wanted to be there for Steve when the morning came. It would be easier to have a friend around. "I would, but I want to be there for Steve in the morning. If he's ever going to need the comfort, it's going to be tomorrow morning," I told him.

Howard nodded and ran a hand through his hair. "Can't say I blame him for being nervous. Come on, let's get you back," he told me.

Thanking him, the two of us walked back out of the store and headed back out to his car. On the ride back, Howard continued to grill me about the kind of costume that I wanted. For whatever reason, he seemed to think that the world would react better to me once Steve was put in the public eye. That meant that Howard thought that I would be going on missions with him. The thought made me happy, but I couldn't imagine people actually reacting well to me. I supposed that I would find out what people thought about me soon enough.

We got back to Camp Lehigh a little after nine-thirty and I jumped out of the car, giving Howard a quick kiss on the cheek. He promised me that he would get the costume back to me as soon as possible. I rolled my eyes and laughed, telling him that I would see him in the morning. As I walked back through the camp I realized that it was mostly empty. It made sense. We were just past the lights-out order. As I came up on the barracks that Peggy and I shared, I spotted Abraham. He was walking away from me with a large bottle of Schnapps in his hands. I snorted and pushed myself forward, coming to stand next to him in under a second.

He glanced down at me and smiled. I motioned to the bottle hanging in his arms. "Having a good night? Planning a party that I'm not invited to?" I teased.

Abraham smiled at me and shook his head. "Never, Fraulein. I'm going to speak with Steven," he said. I nodded and fell into step. "I imagine that he'll still be awake. Would you care to join me?" he offered.

"Yes, I think I will, as long as you promise to share."

"I will, Fraulein," he laughed. We walked together and made our way into the barracks. The large barrack now only belonged to Steve. He looked so strange being the only one awake. Abraham knocked on the door and Steve turned back, looking up from his book. "May I?" Abraham asked as Steve looked up at him.

"Yeah." His smile grew as he I walked in behind Abraham. "Not gonna ask if you can?" he teased me.

"I'd do it anyways," I said honestly.

He laughed at me as I walked into the room. "I know you would," he said.

Abraham and I walked over, Abraham setting down two glasses. I dug through my pocket and handed Steve the pill. "Here. This is the pill for the experiment tomorrow. Take it. Dry swallow it. Don't eat or drink anything today or tomorrow morning. We can't have anything interfering," I told him.

He nodded at me and swallowed the pill, looking extremely sick as it stuck to his throat. I smiled guiltily. "Can't sleep?" Abraham asked.

"Got the jitters I guess," Steve said.

"Oh, me too," Abraham quipped back playfully as he moved the pillows off of the bed across from Steve and unfolded the cot. He took a seat on the bed and made a space for me to do the same.

Steve watched us as we sat down. "Can I ask you a question?" Steve asked Abraham.

"Just one?" Abraham added.

They didn't notice that I was fighting back a laugh. Abraham was much funnier than anyone thought that he was. Perhaps it was a German sense of humor that most people didn't understand. "Why me?" Steve asked.

Abraham held the bottle in his hand, and with his spare, began slowly unscrewing the cap. Out of the window I could see a few soldiers walking by. "I suppose that is the one question that matters. This is from Augsburg," Abraham told Steve, showing him the bottle. "My city. So many people forget that the first country the Nazi's invaded was their own. You know after the last war they... My people struggled, they... they... They felt weak, they felt... slow.

"Then Hitler comes along. With the marching and the big show, and the flags and all that... And he hears of me. My work, and he finds me. Then he says, 'You.' He says, 'You will make us strong.' Well. I am not interested," he said as he placed the bottle down on the floor. "So he sends the head of Hydra. East Research Division. A brilliant scientist by the name of Johann Schmidt," Abraham said, fixing his glasses.

To my surprise, Steve interrupted the story to glance over at me. "Weren't you talking about him?" Steve asked me.

I wasn't even sure that I'd mentioned Schmidt around Steve. But, perhaps I had. Or maybe I'd been talking in my sleep a few weeks ago. "Yes. He's an awful man, but also very important. To us, and to them," I said.

Steve nodded as Abraham continued speaking. "Now Schmidt is a member of the inner circle. And he's ambitious. Even Hitler shares his passion for, occult power and tatanic myth. Hitler uses his fantasies to inspire his followers. But for Schmidt it is not fantasy. For him, it is real. He has become convinced that there is a great power. Hidden in the earth. Left here by the gods. Waiting to be seized by superior men. Victoria is well-versed in this kind of power," Abraham said, pointing to me.

It was theorized that this type of power was the kind of thing that could create someone like me. Not mutants, but an enhanced. I wasn't sure what it was, I'd never seen it, but I knew that it was enough to make someone just like me. Perhaps even stronger. And if those myths were the truth... The world was about to get a lot more dangerous.

Steve looked shocked. "Is it real?" he asked me.

There was no clear-cut answer to that. "Not to the extent that he believes, he's more of a man of myth. But there are times that science and legend tell us the same thing. Not often, but it does happen," I said. This was one of the few times that they lapsed over each other. "The power that he seeks is real. It is no power that any man should control. He becomes powerful enough, he controls this power, and he'll believe that he's past Hitler."

If this... thing was real, it would cause a lot of damage. We could only hope that we would get to Schmidt before he could tap the power. "This is a bad thing," Steve said, more asking than anything else.

I nodded at him. "Very bad thing. But that's not what our focus is right now. The focus right now is about you. In time, we're going to figure out what to do about Schmidt and his desire for power. But we have time," I said, trying to convince myself that it was the truth.

Steve glanced over at Abraham, almost as if to ask if I was telling the truth. "She speaks the truth. This is much of why we needed you. Anyways, when he has found my formula and what it can do. He cannot resist. Schmidt wants to become that superior man," he explained.

"Did it make him stronger?" Steve asked.

"Ja," Abraham said, nodding quickly. He was silent for a moment before speaking again. "But, it has other effects. The serum wasn't ready. But more important. The man. The serum amplifies everything that is inside, so... Good becomes great. Bad becomes worse." Steve glanced at the ground. "This is why you were chosen." He glanced back up. "Because a strong man, who has known power all his life... They lose respect for that power. But a weak man, knows the value of strength, and loves compassion..."

Smiling at Abraham, I watched Steve as he stared at the ground. "Thanks," he said. He was staring at the ground until his eyebrows finally knitted. "I think," he added.

We both laughed softly. "It's a compliment," I told him, earning a smile from Steve.

"Get this," he said, motioning over to the two glasses that were on the table. Steve grabbed them and held them out as Abraham poured the drink. "Whatever happens tomorrow, you must promise me one thing." He corked the bottle and placed it back on the ground. He took a glass from Steve. "That you must stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier. But a good man," Abraham said, pointing to Steve's heart.

It was the happiest that I'd ever seen him. Abraham found another glass and poured me one as I looked over to Steve. "You are the best man I've ever met. And I mean that," I told him softly.

"Bucky?" Steve asked with a small smile.

For a moment I laughed. But I had meant exactly what I'd said. "He's a wonderful man, but there is no one with a better sense of self, and knowledge on what is right and what is wrong than you. You're the one that belongs in that chamber. You are the only choice," I told him, grabbing the glass as Abraham handed it to me.

"To the little guys," Steve said. I turned a heated glare on Steve and he paled. "Pardon. To the little people," he said. I nodded at the correction and clinked my glass with the other two.

Steve was about to drink when Abraham stood slightly from the bed and swatted Steve's hand away from his mouth. "No, wait, wait. What am I doing?" Abraham asked himself. He grabbed the glass back and I laughed at the put-out look on Steve's face. "No, you have procedure tomorrow. No fluids," he said, holding both drinks.

Abraham poured the liquid from Steve's glass into his own. "All right, we'll drink it after," Steve said.

"No, I don't have procedure tomorrow," Abraham said, motioning to himself. "I can't after, I can now," he said, drinking most of the fluid from the glass. Steve smiled at the German man.

Steve turned towards me. "Vic?" Steve asked me.

I snorted and shook my head at him, grasping my glass tightly. "No way. I don't have the procedure tomorrow either. I have to be of sound mind, but... I don't think a few drinks will hurt," I said, tipping back my drink and laughing. Both Steve and Abraham laughed too.

Between Abraham and I, there was no problem draining the glasses, and half of the bottle. I knew that it wouldn't affect me. But I was surprised to see that it didn't seem to affect Abraham either. I assumed that he had been drinking since he was a child. We all sat together and talked for a little while. It was nice to see the two of them bond. I knew that Steve liked Abraham a lot, and it was for far more than just letting him come to Camp Lehigh to train. Abraham left around ten to go to bed. We waved him off together, and I told him that I would see him in the testing room tomorrow.

It left Steve and I alone, but we weren't in silence for that long. "So... Is it going to hurt?" he asked me.

Not bothering to lie, I nodded. "Yes."

Steve laughed and ran a hand through his hair. "Not going to even try and sugar-coat it?" he asked me.

Shrugging slightly, I shook my head at him. "I don't like to lie if I can help it. It's going to hurt. Probably a lot." Steve cringed but nodded anyways. "But you'll manage. I know that if anyone can do it, it's you. You should get to bed. Try not to dwell on tomorrow," I said, standing from the bed and laying a hand on Steve's shoulder.

He sighed and nodded up at me. "I'll try. Goodnight, Vic," he said.

"Night, Steve."

Pulling my hair down from the hold that it was in, I shook my hair out and walked out into the fresh air. The air was slightly cool and I smiled. It was a nice night out. I liked to think that it was a good sign for what was going to happen tomorrow. Heading straight towards the barracks that I lived in, I walked into the open hallway, saying hello to two women that were chatting up front. I blushed at them but smiled; they were the two that had run into my door the night that Bucky and I had gotten trapped in my room. My face burned with the memory, but a burning desire to just be able to hug him shot through me.

Sighing softly, I walked into the room that Peggy and I shared. She was already in her nightgown and I smiled at her, heading into the bathroom to get changed for bed. "Is he ready?" she asked me.

"I think that he's nervous. But can you really blame him?" I called back to her, quickly changing my clothes.

Peggy laughed at shook her head. "Not at all," she said as I walked back into the main room and tossed my clothes into the hamper. "He's going to be fine, Victoria. You know that he is. We've all made sure that nothing bad will happen to him when he goes into that chamber," she told me as I plopped down onto my bed.

"I know," I told her as I tucked myself under the sheets, laying on my hand so I could talk to her. "I'm just trying to think of how to explain all of this to Bucky. I promised him that I'd keep Steve safe. This isn't exactly safe."

"Just kiss him. He'll forget all about it."

"Best advice I've heard in a long time," I told her. We both laughed loudly.

Knowing Bucky, he probably would forget about it. But he'd remember the next time that he saw Steve. "You miss kissing him, don't you?" she asked me. I nodded sadly. "I remember when I first called off my wedding to my ex-fiancé. That was the worst part for a long time. Having no one to kiss or even hug. Feeling like I wasn't close to anyone."

Sighing at her, I shook my head. I knew how she felt. To have someone with you all of the time and then one day to just have them leave. Now I supposed that I knew how Bucky and Steve had felt for all of those years. "Yeah. I think that's one of the worst things. I miss not being able to hug him, or kiss him, or even just tell him about my day."

Peggy smiled at me. "You'll have plenty of years for that in the future."

"Thanks, Peggy. And you'll find someone that makes you forget all about your ex-fiancé," I told her, thinking of Steve.

They would be good together. I had faith that they would work. I knew that she liked him and I knew that he thought that she was cute. "Thanks, Vic. We should get to bed," she said.

"See you tomorrow," I said, waving my hand and flicking off the light.

Even as we drifted off to bed, I heard her laughing. I'd figured out how to make small force fields that could hold an object and move it. In time, I was sure that it would get better. Lately it had been enough to turn off the lights, float over my clothes to me, and be able to slam the doors without touching them. It was something that Peggy liked to challenge me with.

The morning came far too fast. The alarm began to ring at just past eight in the morning and I groaned, forcing myself up. Peggy was moving with me. She took a long time perfectly curling her hair. I allowed mine to rest limply around my shoulders. With all of the work that we'd been doing, I assumed that I would be allowed a pass for today. I slipped on a pair of beige pants and a black t-shirt with boots on my feet. Just in case I had to move quickly when the time came. Peggy was dressed appropriately, in a green blazer and skirt, heels on her feet.

Once we had ourselves together I nodded at Peggy. We both left the room and I locked the door behind us. There was a chance that we wouldn't be back here for a while. Together we left the barracks and headed over to Steve's barracks. Everyone else would either already be downtown or they would be on their way right now. We walked into his room and I smiled at the sight of him. He was in uniform, the beige pants, button-down shirt, white undershirt, and beige cap. He was tightening the beige tie incorrectly.

Smiling at him, I walked over and fixed it for him, feeling very much like his mother. "Thanks," Steve said bashfully. Peggy was smiling at us in the background. "Is it time?" he asked me.

"It is. Are you ready?" I asked.

Steve took a deep breath and nodded. I could tell that he was nervous. "I think so. Too late to back out, right?" he teased.

It was way too late for anyone to start backing out. "I'll drag you there by your ear if I have to," I told him. Both Steve and Peggy laughed at that one. I held my hand out and motioned him along. "Come on. We're getting ready to leave now. You're going to make everyone proud. Number one, I want you to make yourself proud."

He was holding himself high. I could tell that he was already proud of himself. "I'm already proud. But I don't think that I can be any more proud of anyone than I am of you," he told me.

"Thank you," I said, blushing slightly.

"You've done a good job," Steve told me.

"So have you," I said, smiling at him.

We walked out to the car that was sitting at the gates of Camp Lehigh. I smiled and led Steve inside. The driver was up in the front seat, already well-aware of where we were going. It was unmarked for discretion. Peggy was on the far right side of the car, I'd somehow wound up in the middle, and Steve was on the left side of the backseat. We drove for a long time in silence, but we quickly arrived in the city. I glanced out the window and smiled as we drove past a few boys that were playing baseball in the street.

Steve leaned towards the window and sighed. "I know this neighborhood," he said. Both Peggy and I glanced over at him. I got beat up in that alley," he said as we drove past a very narrow alley with a few couples walking around. "And that parking lot. And behind that diner," Steve added, glancing down at the floor.

Peggy sighed and stared at the seat in front of her. "How about in that store?" I asked, pointing to a random clothing store that we were passing.

Steve smiled at me and shook his head. "No." I found myself almost disappointed. "But I did get beat up in that alley back there," he told me, pointing to a mostly abandoned alley.

"Of course you did," I muttered.

Finally Peggy glanced over at him. "Did you have something against running away?" she asked him.

She kept her gaze ahead of her. I knew that she was trying not to get attached. Steve shook his head, keeping his gaze fixed on the floor. "You start running they'll never let you stop. You stand up, push back. You can't say no forever, right?" he asked.

"I know a little of what that's like. To have every door shut in your face," she said.

Grinding my teeth together, I nodded along with her. Peggy and I exchanged a look as she met eyes with Steve. "I guess I just don't know why you would want to join the Army. You're a beautiful dame. Beautiful... Oh, a woman," he stuttered. Peggy and I looked straight ahead, surprise clear across our faces. "I mean... An agent, not a dame. You are beautiful."

Peggy was staring at Steve as I laughed, looking down at my lap. "Keep talking, you're doing great," I muttered to him.

He gave me a look that very clearly was asking me for help. Peggy merely smiled at Steve. "You have no idea how to talk to a woman, do you?" she asked him.

Laughing softly, he nodded. "I think this is the longest conversation I've had with a woman," he said.

My head snapped over to him. "What the hell am I?" I snarled.

His already pale face drained of color. "You don't count," he said. My hands clenched together and I had to fight very hard not to light his hat on fire. "I mean, you do count, but -"

I cut him off by speaking over him. "I'm going to wait until you get out of that chamber and then, super-soldier or not, I will kill you," I promised him.

Steve swallowed harshly and nodded at me. "And I'll deserve it," he said before looking past me and at Peggy. I decided to stay quiet and let them have their moment. "But, as for the women... They're not exactly lining up to dance with a guy they might step on," he said.

"You must have danced," Peggy put in.

I was brought back to the night of dancing with Bucky and Steve. Well, our attempt at dancing. Connie and Bonnie had completely ignored Steve. Was that why Steve hadn't wanted to come with us? Because he knew that no one would want to dance with him? I frowned. I would have danced with him. I was glad that Peggy could see past the physical with Steve. He was such a good man.

"Well, asking a woman to dance always seems so terrifying," Steve said, distracting me from my thoughts. I smiled at him. He was more confident to go into a chamber that could kill him than he was to ask a woman to dance. "And the past few years just... Didn't seem to matter that much. Figured I'd wait," he said.

"For what?" Peggy asked curiously, gazing at Steve.

"Right partner," he answered with.

She exchanged a small smile with me and I saw an even larger smile fall over her face when she turned to look out of the window. Of course, Steve never saw it. For a moment I wished that he had. He would have known the effect that he was having on her. We sat in silence as the car pulled up to an old antique store - the facade for the experimentation lab. The three of us hopped out of the car, thanked the driver, and moved into the entrance of the store. Steve looked confused as to why we were here.

"This way," Peggy said, forcing Steve to follow us.

He looked around. "What are we doing here?" Steve asked.

"Follow me," Peggy said, walking into the store. Steve placed the hat back on his head before following her. I brought up the rear, carefully closing the door behind me.

The older woman walked out as the door closed and smiled at us. "Wonderful weather this morning. Isn't it?" she asked.

"Yes, but I always carry an umbrella," Peggy responded.

The woman walked behind her desk and hit the buzzer to allow us in. Steve, Peggy, and I walked into the back room and stood at the entrance that was designed as a bookcase. The doors swung open and Steve jumped slightly. He followed Peggy and me in as we began walking down the hall that opened to the lab. Two soldiers opened the doors at the end of the hallway and we were led out onto the overhand. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look up and stare at Steve.

He looked like he might faint. We all exchanged a look and Peggy sighed, walking down the stairs. She was slightly ahead of us as I pulled Steve downstairs with me. "Whoa. This is it?" he whispered to me.

People were going back to what they had been doing before. "Yep. Come on, we're going to get you down there so we can get you ready for the project. Not long now. Another five minutes or something like that," I said, not really sure what Abraham's schedule was.

"This is... A lot of people here," Steve said nervously, loosening up his tie.

I smiled at him. There were a lot of people here. But they were all here to ensure that their money had gone to a project that was really going to work. "Well, considering you're about to be the world's first super-soldier, a lot of people are interested to see what's going to happen. Head up there, alright?" I said, pointing to where the chamber sat.

"You're going to stay?" he asked me, looking very nervous.

I smiled at him and nodded, grabbing his thin arm. Perhaps for the last time that it would ever be like that. "I'll be right down there by the control panels when the experiment starts. I'll be here with you beforehand. I just have to go talk to some of the other men before we get started. I'm not leaving, Steve, I promise. I'll always be here," I said.

Steve nodded at me. "Thanks, Vic," he said.

"Wish me luck," I groaned as I spotted August and Chester.

He whipped his head over to me and laughed disbelievingly. I smiled, knowing that I would get a reaction. "What am I wishing you luck for? I'm the one going in there," he told me.

Shrugging slightly, I nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Love you, don't panic!" I said as I walked off.

"Thanks for the pep talk," Steve said as I headed towards Chester and the other men.

Taking a deep breath and steeling myself, I threw my head back and shoulders out. This was what the past few months had all been for. This was the moment that I would earn that degree from Harvard. I was going to prove to the world that Steve was s much more than a little shrimp that got in fights that he couldn't win. I had to imagine that people were proud of me. Bucky too, even if he would hate that I was putting Steve in danger. Because this was for all of the times that Stryker had told me that I was nothing. It was for all of the bullies that had told Steve that he was weak and worthless. We were both so much more than those words, and we were about to prove it.

A/N: Oh, I know, I cut things off right when we get to the good part! Sorry about that. But I have a plan for the next chapter and I couldn't include it in this one without getting super long. But next chapter's going to get things rolling! Anyways, thanks so much for the follows and favorites! Please review! They've been great! Until next time -A

Moniquita2: You're right, I did already ask that question. But I wanted more responses. Hope you liked his P.O.V. and that it didn't take too long!

Miai: I'm probably not going to completely skip those chapters of Steve being a propaganda poster, but I won't do a ton of them. I'm thinking like four or so chapters that will actually be important. It's a long time that he serves that purpose, over a year, so I don't just want to cut it out. Thank you! I hope you liked this chapter!

xWintra: I loved the Coney Island chapter, it was one of my favorites to write! Thank you! I love writing the romance between them, I'm already too excited to have Bucky back. I don't want her to ever cry for attention, I feel like she's too strong for that. Thanks so much, I hope that you continue to enjoy!

Guest: Thank you! Hope this one was fast enough!