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.

28. Chapter 28

Pulling the blankets a little tighter around me, I yawned and glanced upwards. I'd been expecting to see the wall or maybe Peggy, fast asleep in the other bed. But I was met with a different sight. I'd almost forgotten that I hadn't slept in my room last night. I'd fallen asleep with Bucky last night. He was still fast asleep. I smiled awkwardly at him. He seemed completely at peace. There was no light in the room, as the sun was still down and the lights were off, but I could still see him. His face was settled in a peaceful line and there was a hint of a shadow creeping across his face. I smiled at it. He would look good with a beard.

But beards were not in style. Clean shaven was look right now; evidently it showed class. His arm was still looped around me, and I was still lying on his chest. We hadn't moved at all in our sleep. I was typically very restless in my sleep. It felt a little strange to be lying here, considering that I had never spent the night with a man before, even though nothing had happened between the two of us. I yawned once more and went into a deep stretch, feeling more relaxed than I had in months. My movement obviously woke Bucky up. His eyes slowly peeled open, a little hazy from sleep. He glanced down at me and smiled.

The two of us simply stared at each other for a while. Bucky tucked a piece of hair behind my ear and laid his hand behind my neck. He pulled me into him, my hand against his chest, as we shared a long kiss. "Good morning," he said once he had pulled away, his voice deeper and huskier than it normally was.

It made my toes curl slightly. And I wasn't sure if I liked that. "Remember when we were kids and you would wake me up by shouting in my ear?" I asked him. Bucky smiled and nodded. They were funny memories. "I should have woken you up by kicking you off of the bed," I teased.

Bucky laughed. "Thanks for not doing that." I nodded at him as his fingers started to curl into my hair. "You know why I used to do that?" he asked me.

"To annoy me?" I suggested.

Once more, he laughed at me. He shook his head. "To get you to pay attention to me," he said.

A little blush fell over my face. For so long I had thought that he had just thought of me like a baby sister. Evidently not. "Ever imagine that ten years from then you'd be waking up in bed next to me?" I asked teasingly.

"Yes," he said without hesitation. My eyes bulged as I gave him a shocked stare. That definitely wasn't the answer that I had been expecting. Bucky obviously understood that he'd surprised me because he started laughing, brushing the hair back off of his head. "You know when I lie, so I figured that I might as well tell the truth."

That was a good reason to tell the truth. But I wouldn't have read his mind if he'd said no. I would have thought that he'd been telling the truth. "You really used to think about that when we were kids?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"No!" Bucky cried, laughing again. I smiled up at him. "No, I used to think about it because I imagined that we were together."

"And did you imagine me being like this?" I asked curiously.

His eyebrows knitted together. I knew that he didn't like talking about what I was, but I wanted him to know what he was getting into. "Like what? Perfect?" he asked. I rolled my eyes at him. "Because that's what you are to me."

Smiling at him again, I grabbed his chin and shook his head teasingly. "Sweet-talker," I teased.

He nodded at me with a little laugh. I felt the muscles in his legs tense as he used his knee to gently nudge me onto my back. I fell back onto the sheets as Bucky laid himself gently on top of me, pinning me to the sheets. Of course, I could have easily gotten out. I tried not to think about that as Bucky's hands went through my tangled hair, pushing it back. His lips met mine as my heart gave a little flutter. One of his knees was in between my legs as the other was on the side of me. I raised my legs slightly, running them over his.

His entire body tensed at the movement. I could feel the blood pounding through his veins and his heart hammering in his chest. My fingers tightened around his shirt as his hands tightened in my hair slightly. It was rather funny that I could tell that he was trying to restrain himself. It made me feel a little better to know that I wasn't the only one that wanted to lay here and never move. My arms wound back over neck, keeping him pressed against me. Not that I thought that he was going to leave.

One of my arms dropped back down to his chest and down towards the hemline of his shirt. My hand gently ran underneath the shirt, my nails gently running against his skin. Every muscle in his body tensed as my hand worked its way up to his chest. We finally managed to peel ourselves away from each other, Bucky leaned back down to place another kiss against my lips. I found myself very disappointed that he had pulled away. Despite trying very hard not to hear his thoughts, it was almost impossible. I knew why he had pulled away. He had wanted something more to happen, but knew that it was the wrong time. And it was. We weren't married. Just being here, together, was bad enough.

Bucky rolled off to the side of me. He fell back onto his back as I rolled towards him, my leg laying over his. "Think that we can just stay here all day?" he asked, placing his hand on the side of my face.

"I wish," I said honestly. Maybe the day would come that we could lay in bed together all day. But that day wasn't today. I yawned again, stretching slightly. "What time is it?"

Bucky leaned over to look at the clock. "Almost six," he said.

"Damn it!" I hissed, scrambling to get out of the bed.

"What?" Bucky asked, allowing me to jump over him.

My robe was on the floor from tossing it off before going to bed last night. I leaned down to pick it up and slip it back over my shoulders. "People are going to start waking up soon," I told him.

"So?" Bucky asked.

Turning to him, I narrowed my eyes. He couldn't be that stupid. "So... People are going to start heading to work. And me walking out of your barracks in my pajamas, an unwed woman, might not look so good to anyone," I told him.

"Would you honestly care?" Bucky asked me, sitting upright in the bed.

For a moment, I hesitated. I didn't really care. People knew that Bucky and I were together. But there was one person that I never wanted to know about last night. "No. But do you want that getting back to Chester?" I asked.

A little bit of color drained from Bucky's face. "You should head back," Bucky said.

Laughing softly, I nodded. "Yeah. I'll see you when it's time to head to the base."

He stood from the bed and walked over to me. His arms wound around my waist as my arms wound around his neck. We shared a quick kiss, and Bucky pressed another kiss to the top of my head, as we released each other. I tightened the knot on my robe before turning to leave. Just before I slipped out of the room, I saw Bucky pull off his shirt. I blushed and turned away as he winked at me, slipping out of the room. I dashed down the two doors to my own room before slipping inside. No one spotted me as the door closed and I relaxed back against the wall. That wasn't the luckiest I'd gotten in quite some time.

"Where were you this morning?" Peggy's voice called from my other side.

Jumping slightly, I turned to look at her. She was already dressed and had her arms folded over her chest, glaring at me as she leaned up against the wall. "Don't do that. I could electrocute you," I warned her.

Peggy ignored my warning and walked over to give me a good once-over. She already knew. Of course she knew. "Still wearing your pajamas. That means that you haven't been out anywhere. I woke up half an hour ago and you were gone. Bed was barely slept in. That means that you didn't spend the night here," she reasoned.

Unwrapping the robe from my waist, I started to get changed for the day. "Nice work, detective," I said.

It would have been really nice to drop the conversation there, but she didn't. "Sneaking back first thing in the morning with a burning desire for no one else to see you," she continued.

She stopped speaking as I turned back to her, pulling a blue silk shirt over my shoulders. "You're doing very well. Don't stop now," I urged, changing into a pair of white slacks.

"I can only assume that you spent the night with Barnes?" she asked.

Snapping my head over to her, I narrowed my eyes. "Gonna start judging me now?" I asked her sharply.

She looked very offended that I had said something like that. "Of course not!" Peggy barked. She grabbed my arm and tugged me with her. "I want details! Sit. Now."

Chuckling softly, I collapsed onto my bed next to her. "It's not as much fun as it sounds like." She narrowed her eyes at me. "I was trying to get to bed last night. I'm used to hearing noises and dreams sometimes. It's something that I've always had to deal with. But I started hearing someone's nightmare. It was so loud. I slipped into their mind and realized that it was Bucky. He was dreaming of a memory of his time at the Hydra base," I told her. She sighed softly at me, looking bothered. "I went over to try and wake him up. We were just talking and I started to doze off. I was going to leave when he asked me to stay. So I did."

She smiled, reaching over to grab my hand. "That's very sweet, Victoria. And I didn't think that anything happened," she told me. I raised my brow at her. "You might not be the most traditional people in the world, but you still uphold values."

That was one of the values that I tried very hard to uphold. But it did get a little difficult at moments. "Did you ever spend the night with your ex-fiancé?" I asked curiously, hoping that she didn't mind me asking.

Peggy thought about it for a moment before shaking her head. I wasn't surprised that she hadn't. "No. We fell asleep planning the wedding one night but that was on the couch in our day clothes. That was the closest that we ever came," she said. I nodded at her. They'd never even slept in the same bed and they had been engaged. Peggy seemed to notice my sudden discomfort. "But I know how much you and Barnes love each other. Spending the night together... It's sweet."

"Believe it or not, that was the best night's sleep that I've gotten in a long time," I admitted.

Peggy smiled softly at me. We were silent for a few moments before Peggy spoke again. "Did he have another nightmare?" she asked.

"No."

The smile on her face only got a little wider. "Because he feels safe when he's with you. He's happy." I smiled at her and nodded. He was definitely safe with me around. "Oh, get married already!" she cried suddenly.

Turning over to her, I glared at her. "You've been talking to Howard too much!" I barked, whacking her on the arm. "Stop it. I will get married when I'm good and ready."

Peggy was silent for a while, smiling at me, knowing that she had gotten to me. I blushed, trying to ignore the thought of getting married to him. "What's on the agenda for the day?" Peggy asked after a few minutes.

Letting out a deep breath, I began to lace up my boots. Peggy looked irritable that I wasn't wearing heels, but she wasn't going to bother me about it, considering that I let her dress me up last night. "Checking out the new weapons that Howard has designed for Steve, looking over those papers that I swiped from Schmidt in the Hydra facility with Chester, and I'll be training the men tonight," I told her.

"That should be fun," Peggy said.

Laughing at her, I nodded. We both knew that I'd have a field day training the recruits later. They wouldn't be able to walk straight for days. "You know that you want to watch," I said teasingly.

Peggy shook her head at me. "No. Because if something happens, that means that I'll be held responsible. Enjoy beating the stuffing out of them," she said.

"Trust me. I will." A beat passed before I looked over at her. "Do me a favor and don't repeat this to anyone. Particularly the nightmare part. I imagine that Bucky doesn't want people to know about that. I didn't even tell him that I saw it," I told her.

Her brows furrowed but she nodded. "My lips are sealed," she promised.

"Come on. We should head to the base."

The two of us crawled out of the bed and headed out of the room. We walked into the lobby and I spotted Steve and Bucky out there, waiting for us. Steve walked just ahead of us with Peggy at his side. They didn't really speak to each other, but they did give a respectful incline of the head. As we walked, I noticed that Peggy would glance back from time to time to give Bucky and I - as we were walking hand-in-hand - a very pointed look. As per usual, Steve was clueless to what was going on. I blushed and looked away from her. Bucky did notice our quick exchange as he leaned over to me.

"Does she know?" he whispered in my ear.

I nodded at him, feeling him suck in a breath. "She was awake and waiting for me when I got back. Don't worry, she won't repeat it to Chester," I reassured him.

Bucky let out a breath. "That's a relief," he muttered.

Grinning at him, we walked over to the base. It wasn't that far from the barracks so it didn't take that long to actually get to the base. We all separated almost immediately, going about our business. Peggy went off to speak with Chester about the Hydra bases. I knew that they were already starting to plan the attacks. Steve and Bucky headed off together, getting ready for their meeting with Howard. They were going to have to wait for a little while. In the meantime, I went hunting for Howard.

He would be around here somewhere. He was usually in one of the labs. I wanted to talk to him about the weapons that he was preparing for Steve. He needed to know that Steve would want something that wasn't something typical like a gun. He'd become rather attached to the shield, and I had a feeling that it meant that he would want something similar to the shield. It took me a long time to find Howard. Nearly twenty minutes passed before I finally found him towards the back of the base, in one of the labs. He was standing over some type of containment unit and looking at what I assumed was the Tesseract.

"What are you doing?" I asked, walking up behind him.

Howard jumped and placed down the handles that he was using to touch it. I could hear his heart thumping in his chest. "Don't startle me while I'm touching this thing," he told me.

I raised my brow at the hazard suit that he was wearing. "I thought you said that it was harmless?" I asked him.

"Just in case," Howard said.

Walking up onto the platform with him, I glared at the other scientist with Howard, warning him to step away. He did so, letting the two of us talk. "And I could have sworn that I told you not to mess with that thing unless I was with you," I snapped.

"What do you think that it's going to do?" Howard asked me, not looking away from it.

Shrugging my shoulders, I leaned against the glass. "I'm not sure what it's going to do. But I'm not overly fond of risking your life to mess with it," I said.

Howard grinned at me. "Look at you, actually caring about me," he teased.

Had he not been messing with a potentially very deadly explosive device, I would have hit him. "Of course I do. You're one of my best friends, you nitwit," I barked.

"What are you doing this Friday night?" Howard asked after a beat of silence.

"Pay attention to what you're doing," I snapped.

"I'm multi-tasking," Howard said, manipulating one piece of the Tesseract that he had managed to extract from one of the weapons into one of the claws. "Answer me. What are you doing Friday night?"

Glaring at him out of the corner of my eyes, I decided to play along with him. He was asking me for a reason. "I don't know. Probably training the men." Howard glanced up at me in surprise. "They're determined that I'm going to train them before we start going on missions to destroy the Hydra bases. Why?" I asked sharply.

Howard smiled at me, still looking at the Tesseract. "I found this cute little restaurant downtown and I made a reservation for two," he said.

"We're not going out, you moron," I snapped.

Howard rolled his eyes, swatting at me. "It's for you and Barnes," he said.

My heart gave a little flutter. "You don't have to do that," I muttered.

Howard smiled at me and glanced up from the Tesseract. "You two never do anything together. You've been dancing at a bar once, because you were trying to wrangle together your team. You were together at basic training. And now you're together again, fighting back against Hydra. Do something nice together," he said. I smiled at him. "Get yourself some fondue."

We both laughed as I nudged against Howard's shoulder. "Thank you, Howard. I'll bring you something back," I promised.

"I'll hold you to that," Howard said. Smiling at him, I leaned back against the glass, watching the Tesseract glow. "Besides, you and Barnes need to spend more time alone together. Not in his room, of course."

My head snapped over to him. "What?" I snarled at him.

"You didn't think that Agent Carter would really keep that to herself, did you?" he teased.

I should have seen that one coming. Of course she would have told Howard, knowing that he would get on my case about it. "The worst person to tell, too," I muttered under my breath.

"I believe that would be Colonel Phillips," Howard said. I shrugged my shoulders at him. He was right about that. "So... How was it?"

Rolling my eyes at him, I shoved Howard off to the side. "Oh my God, if you talked to her, you know that that didn't happen," I hissed.

"Of course I know that. We would have had a much louder conversation had it happened," he said.

A soft blush fell over my face as I kicked him gently. "Do your damn job."

Howard nodded at me and glanced back at the Tesseract. "Yes, ma'am. Initial signature is unusual. Alpha beta remain neutral," Howard said, picking up the Tesseract with the mechanical arms. The other scientist walked back over and glanced at Howard. "Although I doubt Rogers picked up on that," he added, smirking.

Rolling my eyes at him, I stepped back and watched him. "It's Gamma, twit," I snapped. Howard ignored me as he raised the Tesseract up. "Stop poking at it, would you? You don't know what it's going to do."

I could see that he was about to touch the Tesseract with the other handle. "It's not like it has reacted to me yet. There's nothing wrong with this thing. Schmidt just found a new energy source," he told me, turning back to the Tesseract. "Seems harmless enough. Hard to see what all the fuss is about."

The other handle was just about on the Tesseract when I felt the energy surge. "Howard!" I warned loudly.

But it was too late. The Tesseract had already reacted. The other handle had just touched the Tesseract when it let off a little blast, similar to the one that I made when I let off the radiation blast. The one scientist was thrown off to the side as the glass shattered from the impact. All of the scientists were yelling and ducking as Howard was thrown backwards, sliding across the floor. Smoke was floating throughout the room as I dashed over to Howard. Being steady on my feet, I hadn't been thrown backwards at the impact. But I had felt it.

Howard very weakly leaned up. "Write that down," he said weakly.

The other scientist began running over to help him up as I grabbed his arm, yanking him back to his feet. "Idiot! I told you not to touch that thing!" I shouted. I looked over him, brushing the dirt off. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. You hurt a lot worse," Howard muttered.

His face was slightly charred and his hair was standing on end. "I think that it's got a protective barrier around itself. You go poking at it, and it sets off something similar to a bomb," I told him.

Howard glared at me. "You couldn't have told me that five minutes ago?" he asked.

Fed up with him, I whacked him over the back of the head. Howard grunted and leaned down slightly. "Listen to me next time." I turned back to the other scientists and called out to them. "Leave that thing alone until we know a little bit more about it." I then turned back to Howard. "And you... Go take a shower. You smell like burnt toast," I said.

He was trying to brush himself off. He gave me a small smile and I rolled my eyes, storming away from him. The last thing that I wanted was to be near him right now. He was such an idiot. I couldn't believe how stupid he was for someone so smart. I had told him not to touch that thing, and what did he do? He touched it. They should have all listened to me and not gone messing with the Tesseract. We didn't understand what it was. And we shouldn't be touching it until we knew what it was. Sighing to myself, I made my way into the lobby. Bucky was standing in there, looking over a map.

He glanced up at me and smiled. "How are things?" he asked as I joined him.

"That blue thing that you were working with?" I asked Bucky. He nodded at me for me to continue. "How much do you know about it?"

Bucky looked at me for a moment before shaking his head. "Not much. I know that the Dr. Zola guy used to carry around paperwork about the way that it worked. Why?" he asked me.

Perhaps that was one of the pages that I'd taken. I hadn't looked through them yet. Chester was the one that was currently in possession of them. "Howard was just poking at it and it set off something like a miniature bomb," I told him. He looked a little concerned at the news. "I'm trying to figure out just what it is."

"Aren't we supposed to be figuring out why they're using it?" Bucky asked me.

Shrugging my shoulders at him, I shook my head. "I know why they're using it. They're using it to make weapons. Just looking at that thing, I can tell you that it's the most powerful explosive device on the planet. And it's not from the earth," I answered.

Bucky stared at me for a moment before shaking his head. "Sounds confusing to me," he said.

Smiling softly at him, I nodded. "It is. Like I've said before, there aren't many things that I don't understand. But this thing... this Tesseract. It's one of them," I said irritably.

Bucky leaned over to me and grabbed my hand, pressing a kiss against my temple. I sighed, wringing my hands together. It was so frustrating with the Tesseract. "You'll figure this out, Vika. I know that you will," he told me.

"Thanks. Glad to hear that someone has faith in me," I said.

Bucky brushed my hair back off of my face, letting it fall back behind my shoulders. "I'll always have faith in you," he told me. I smiled at him, nodding. "What's the plan now, Sergeant?"

Grabbing his hand, I gently tugged him with me. "We go find Steve and bring him to Howard. We're finding the new weapon for him. And once we're done with that, we'll get uniforms for the rest of you," I told him.

Bucky looked surprised at that. "We're all getting uniforms?" he asked.

"We're not letting you walk out there naked," I said.

"You might like that," he teased.

Laughing softly, I shoved him off to the side. Yes, I would. "Shut up." We were both smiling at each other as I tried to hide the blush. I didn't want to acknowledge the fact that I knew that we would both like that. "It'll be good to get you in some type of suit with thicker material. Makes you a little less susceptible to bullet wounds. But do me a favor?" I asked.

He nodded at me. "Anything," he promised.

"Don't get shot. I'll kill you myself if you do," I told him.

Bucky smiled at me and nodded as we walked back towards the registration area. That was probably where Chester was, and I was reasonably sure that Howard would be with him. "I think that I'd rather be shot than deal with you, angry at me," Bucky told me.

Smiling at him, I nodded. Getting shot would probably hurt less than anything that I could do to him. As we walked, I remembered my conversation with Howard. "Oh. By the way, we're going out on Friday," I said.

"Mission already?" he asked, surprised.

Glancing over at him, I shook my head. "No. You and me," I said, motioning between us. "Bucky looked very confused. Howard was making fun of me for not acting like we're actually in a relationship. He seems to think that we actually need to go out on dates."

Bucky smiled and poked at me. "That is what normal people do," he said.

Narrowing my eyes, I pointed to myself. "I'm not exactly normal," I pointed out. Bucky shrugged his shoulders at me. "Anyways, he made a reservation for us on Friday night."

"I won't be late," he promised.

Smiling at him, I made my way towards Chester's office. If nothing else, he should know where everyone was. Bucky followed behind me and I almost laughed. When we were kids, I was always the one that was following him. But now, he was the one that followed Steve and I. We were the ones that were in charge. I made my way to the doorway before spotting Steve walking over. I stopped Bucky dead in his tracks and turned back to let him know that Howard would be with him shortly.

He turned the corner before I could catch up to him. "Excuse me. I'm looking for a Mr. Stark," Steve said, knitting his hands behind his back. He was speaking to Lorraine - who had recently become Chester's personal secretary. She had her legs crossed and didn't even bother looking up at him.

"He's in with Colonel Phillips," she said, nodding backwards towards the office. Steve nodded at her and turned away.

Bucky moved to go stand with Steve, but I grabbed his arm, yanking him back towards me, out of Steve's sight. "What are you doing?" Bucky asked me, obviously not understand that I wanted to see where this was going.

"Be quiet," I hissed.

Lorraine turned back to Steve before turning back to her paper. But a moment later, she realized who he was and turned back towards him. "Oh, of course you're welcome to wait," she told him. Steve stared at her before motioning towards the desk. He walked over and leaned on it as Lorraine folded up the paper. "I - Uh - Read about what you did." She showed him the paper as she swiveled her chair to face him. She plopped it down on the table carelessly, never looking away from him.

"Oh, that... yeah," Steve said, motioning to the paper. "Well that's - you know... Just doing what needed to be done," he said awkwardly.

Bucky and I exchanged a look and smiled. Steve would never like the fame. He just did it because it was the right thing to do. Lorraine had her legs crossed as she leaned back onto the table. "Sounded like more than that. You saved nearly four hundred men," she said.

My eyes narrowed at her. "Are you planning something?" Bucky whispered in my ear.

"Shut up."

This was the wrong time for us to be chatting. "I did have help. My best friend, Victoria, she was there, too. A lot more people would have died if she wasn't around," Steve said.

Bucky's arm tightened over my waist. Lorraine shook her head. "But people don't want to hear about her. They don't care about some girl with birth defects," she said. My hands immediately burst into flames. Bucky jumped backwards as I realized that I'd very nearly burned him. I was going to burn her. "They care about Captain America. The man that saved four hundred soldiers."

Bucky's hand went over my hip, tugging me back to him. "You're better than her. Relax," he said into my ear, his fingertips stroking over the hipbone.

I could see Steve's jaw clench at her comment. The two of them were silent for a long while. Steve didn't believe in hurting women, otherwise I was sure that he would have attacked her. "Really, it's not a big deal," Steve finally said.

Lorraine got to her feet, slowly advancing on Steve. My fists tightened. "Tell that to their wives," she said.

Steve awkwardly folded his arms over his chest. He seemed to have finally realized where this conversation was going. "Uh, I don't think they were all married," he said, trying to look away from her.

"You're a hero," Lorraine said, coming to stand in front of him.

"Well, that... you know," Steve stuttered, grabbing his forehead. He was obviously very uncomfortable with this entire conversation. "Th - That depends on the definition of -"

Lorraine reached for his tie, pretending to fix it. Steve looked very nervous as he thought of a way to pull away from her. "And the women of America... They owe you their thanks," she said. I growled in my throat. What about me? Lorraine pulled upwards on Steve's tie and yanked him backwards, checking to make sure that no one was watching. I yanked Bucky backwards so that she didn't see us. "And um, seeing as they're not here." She yanked Steve towards her and sprang a kiss on him.

My stomach jolted in my chest. He belonged with Peggy, not that harlot. Bucky straightened up, looking very shocked at the turn of events. "What the hell?" he asked.

Just as I was about to walk over and separate them myself, Peggy walked by. "Good morning, Victoria, Sergeant Barnes," she greeted.

I ran after her, knowing that she was about to spot them. "Oh, wait! I need to talk to you," I said quickly.

"We'll talk on the way," she said.

"Hang on -"

Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to come up with an excuse. Peggy rounded the corner and spotted them. I could feel the hope in her chest deflate. She looked infuriated as she placed her hands on her hips. I tried to figure out what to do to make things a little better. "Captain!" Peggy yelled. Steve and Lorraine sprang apart, looking at her. Steve wiped his mouth. "We're ready for you. If you're not otherwise occupied."

Without saying another word, she turned and stalked off. Steve immediately chased after her as Bucky and I followed at a distance. I gave Steve a sharp glare as he passed me. "Agent Carter, wait," Steve said.

She still had her hands on her hips as she walked off, not looking at Steve. "Looks like finding a partner wasn't that hard after all," she told him sharply.

Bucky and I exchanged a look with each other. "Peggy, that's not what you thought it was," Steve said as he fixed his ruffled tie.

Peggy still didn't bother to look at him. "I don't think anything, Captain. Not one thing. Always wanted to be a soldier, and now you are. Just like all the rest," she sneered.

"Ouch," I muttered.

Steve had his hands in his pocket as he chased after her. "Well what about you and Stark?" he asked her, stopping in his place. "How do I know you two haven't been... fondueing?"

"Idiot," I hissed, driving my head into Bucky's shoulder.

"Wrong answer," Bucky added.

Peggy stopped dead in her tracks. I felt the fury radiating through her. She turned back to him and rolled her eyes. She turned back, stalking off. "You still don't know a bloody thing about women," she sneered as she walked off. A soldier stepped to the side so that she could walk through one of the restricted access doors. Steve was watching her confusedly.

Once I was sure that she was gone, I stormed up to Steve. He was still standing there, staring after Peggy. Bucky followed me as I walked over to Steve. "You're an idiot!" I shouted, whacking Steve on the shoulder.

"What was I supposed to do? Shove her off of me?" Steve asked.

"Yes!" Bucky and I shouted at him.

Steve shook his head at me. "I'm not going to hit a woman," he told me.

Grinding my teeth together, I turned back. "Luckily for you, I will," I snarled.

It was women like Lorraine that made the rest of us look so terrible. Without giving the boys a moment to question what I was doing, I turned back and headed straight towards the little desk that Lorraine worked at. Bucky and Steve quickly realized what I was doing. They both started and panicked, following my closely. Obviously they thought that I was going to do something stupid. Maybe it was stupid. But I didn't care. I was so sick of the way that she looked at all of the men on the base like pieces of men. And it didn't help that she put her hands on someone that obviously didn't want them there. Plus, I missed scaring people.

Turning around the corner, I spotted Lorraine watching me. Fear began to seep into her. "Lorraine," I greeted. She opened her mouth to say something to me, but I didn't give her a chance. I grabbed her by the edges of her suit and yanked her out of her chair, shoving her back against the shelf. "Let's chat." I reared my spare hand back, bringing up the bolts of electricity that crackled loudly in the room.

People had stopped to watch. "Get away from me!" Lorraine shouted in fear, trying to get out of my grasp.

But it was like iron. I wasn't going to let her go. "Um, no, I don't think that I'll do that. You listen to me, because I'm only warning you once. They say that men need to be careful and only touch a woman when she wants it. That should go both ways. Don't touch a man unless he wants you to. Are we understood?" I asked her. She nodded hastily. And just in case she didn't understand, I added, "I assume that you're fond of your eyes?"

"Y - Yes," she stuttered.

"Touch him again, and I'll blind you. One blast and you'll never see anything again," I warned her, bringing my sparking hand in front of her face. "Men are very fond of you right now. How fond would they be if they thought that you were deficient?"

"Please... Leave me alone," she begged.

Smiling at her, I nodded. "Don't worry, you'll never see me again. As long as you stay away from him. Right?" I asked.

"Right," she agreed quickly.

"Good." I dropped my grip on her. She had been raised slightly off of the ground. When I dropped her, she collapsed back to the ground, breathing heavily. "Back to work, Private," I sneered at her.

Once more I stalked off angrily, not saying anything to anyone else. Everyone that had been watching the exchanged stumbled back away from me, not wanting to irritate me. The boys once more followed me. They looked extremely panicked at everything that had happened. They looked like they might have wanted to help Lorraine back up but they weren't going to risk me being angry with them. It was a good choice. I needed more of those pills that Howard had designed, soon. I could feel myself getting antsier lately. I allowed the sparks to drop off of my arms as we walked back into the main area.

Steve came up to my side and I glanced over at him. "You didn't have to -"

"No!" I shouted, interrupting him. I pinched the bridge of my nose and took a deep breath before looking back at Steve. "Go find Howard and get yourself a new weapon. And then go and apologize to Peggy for being an idiot." Steve nodded bashfully at me. I turned over towards Bucky. "Would you please go and get the men together? Tell them that I'll be training you all after dinner tonight?"

Bucky nodded at me. "Sure. You two going to be okay?" he asked us.

"We'll be fine. Right, Steve?" I asked him.

Steve nodded at me. "Right."

I was about to turn off towards the door that Peggy had walked through before when I realized that Steve had no idea where Howard was. "Howard was working with the Tesseract earlier. He might be there. I'm not sure where he is. Go find him. And you two can have a nice discussion about what fondue is," I teased.

Steve's face fell slightly as Bucky turned back to Steve. "What?" he asked.

"Nothing," Steve said quickly.

But the damage had already been done. Bucky was very confused at the comment. "What the hell is fondue? Is that what people are calling...?" he asked, trailing off.

"That's what I thought!" Steve yelled, giving me a look that said that he wasn't insane.

Rolling my eyes at them, I turned to walk off. They were completely useless. "You two are absolutely hopeless. Go do what I told you both to do!" I shouted, startling the boys. "Steve, I'll meet you and Howard in a few minutes."

Turning to walk off once more, Steve spoke, interrupting me. "Where are you going?" he asked.

Whipping back around, I noticed both Steve and Bucky jump. "To try and calm Peggy down. I wouldn't be surprised if she came back in here and shot you herself. You would deserve it," I said.

"She surprised me!" Steve yelled, trying to defend himself.

"Women don't care," Bucky said.

"What was that?" I asked him.

Bucky's face drained of color as he shook his head and smiled at me. "Nothing. I'll go talk to the guys about training tonight. I'll see you later," Bucky said, walking up to me and pressing a kiss against my cheek. I was glad that he did nothing more. He knew that I was in a bitter mood. "Good luck, punk." Bucky patted Steve on the back.

Steve glanced after him and nodded, letting out a deep breath. "I'll need it," he said.

Calming down, I smiled at Steve and motioned him towards the side hallways. That was where Howard's experiments usually were. "Go find Howard. I'll be with you two in a bit," I said.

As I had been expecting, Steve didn't leave immediately. He and Bucky struck up a conversation with each other. I was sure that they were talking about Peggy, Lorraine, fondue, and probably me. Whatever. As long as Steve eventually got over to Howard. They needed to find a weapon for Steve to use. He couldn't just rely on his movements and strength. I walked away from the boys and through the hallway that led to all of the offices. I needed to speak to Peggy. She probably shouldn't be alone right now. It was very easy to find Peggy. She was sitting in Chester's office, tapping her nails on the table.

She glanced up at me as I closed the door behind me. Chester was not in the office right now, so it was just the two of us. "That's why you were trying to stop me?" she asked.

It looked like she was on the verge of tears. "Yes," I said, shifting awkwardly. "If it makes you feel any better, she sprung the kiss on him. He was very uncomfortable, trying to get away from him. He's too nice to shove her off of him."

Peggy nodded. We had both overreacted slightly, but I knew why. Peggy was in love with him, and Steve was my best friend. Peggy was also one of my closest friends. They both meant so much to me, and I loved the idea of the two of them together. It bothered me more than anything else that something that wasn't even his fault could drive them apart. They had been getting close lately, too. Plus, it would be rather funny to have Peggy and Steve together, while Bucky and I were together. It would make for an interesting story, having the four of us together all of the time.

"You see why I hated her before?" Peggy asked me, distracting my thoughts.

Nodding at her, I moved into the chair next to her and grabbed her hand. "Of course I do," I said.

Peggy sighed and blew a fallen strand of hair out of her face. "I would have rather him shoved her to the ground. I know that we're not together or anything, but still, I thought that he liked me," she said, speaking less confidently than I'd ever heard her.

"He does," I told her. She glanced over at me and gave a weak smile. "Trust me when I say that he feels like an idiot."

"As he very well should," Peggy said.

We were silent for a moment when I glanced back at her. "Trust me when I say that I understand why you're so upset. I'd be absolutely beside myself if someone had done that with Bucky," I said.

If she had gone after Bucky, she would no longer have a head. Neither would he. "I just thought that he was different from the other men," Peggy muttered, looking at her hands.

"He is," I told her. He really was so different from pretty much anyone else that I had ever met. "Don't hate him just because some broad got the jump on him."

Peggy glanced up at me and smiled. "She is a broad, isn't she?"

The two of us stared at each other before bursting into laughter. We were leaning on each other as we laughed loudly, the noise echoing off of the office walls. We weren't the most traditional women in the world, and we were definitely looked at as different from the rest of the crowd, but that was why we got along so well. The boys were nice and we had a lot of fun hanging out with each other. They were some of the people that meant the most in the world to me. They always were. But from time to time, the only thing that we really wanted - and needed - was to hang out with a female friend.

Once we had finally calmed down, I turned back and smiled at Peggy. I knew exactly what to say to get her to smile. "Well if it makes you feel any better, I don't think that you're ever going to see her again," I told her.

Peggy glanced over at me. "Why's that?" she asked me.

"I gave her a nice little talking to," I said.

Peggy didn't need any other information about what had happened. She just knew that I had taken care of it. She reached over and brought me into a hug. "Thank you, Vicky," she said.

Smiling at her, I nodded. "Anytime. You know that I'm always looking for a reason to get into a fight," I teased. But it was the truth. I did enjoy getting myself into fights. It let off some steam, something that I really needed to do. "Don't take it too hard on Steve, alright? He already feels like a jackass."

"I'll be over it in a few days," Peggy said.

And I knew that she would. That was how women were. We were angry and took it out on them, but in a matter of time, they would relax. "In the meantime, steam away," I told her. She laughed at me and nodded. We sat together for a moment before I jumped back to my feet. As much as I would like to sit and chat with her, I knew that there were other things that I had to do. "Alright, I'm going to go check and make sure that Howard and Steve haven't blown themselves up. I'll see you in a few minutes."

It was obvious that Peggy wasn't ready to go back outside yet. I assumed that she needed a few minutes to calm herself down. So I gave her a quick hug before getting up and leaving the office. Walking back through the halls, I asked one of the men where Howard and Steve were. As expected, they were getting ready to go and find the weapons. They were on the back table near the very edge of the base and I walked towards them. Just as I managed to come up to the table, I saw Howard and Steve walking towards the table. Smiling at the sight of them chatting amicably, I walked towards them.

"Fondue's just cheese and bread, my friend," Howard said.

"Really?" Steve asked.

Easily catching up to the two men, I popped in between them. "Maybe if you'd asked me before making an ass out of yourself, things wouldn't have gotten so mucked up," I told Steve.

Things wouldn't have been quite so bad if he hadn't made the fondue comment. "I didn't think -" Steve started.

"That much is obvious," I interrupted him.

Steve gave me a guilty look but otherwise remained silent. "Nor should you, pal," Howard said, referring to the comment about Steve not thinking about what Peggy would have thought. "The moment you think you know what's going on in a woman's head is the moment your goose is well and truly cooked."

Turning my gaze on him, I narrowed my eyes. "This is why you're all single," I told the two of them.

Howard smiled at me and looped an arm over my shoulders. "I'll take you out for fondue. How's that?" he offered.

Trying very hard to keep from smiling, I shoved Howard's arm off of me. "Shut your mouth. You seriously can't understand what's going on in a woman's head?" I asked the boys.

They looked at each other. "No," they answered together.

Rolling my eyes, I stepped past them. "Of course you can't, being as simple creatures as you are," I said.

"Simple?" Howard repeated.

"Sure. You eat, sleep, and find comfort in women. That's about it," I said.

Howard shrugged his shoulders. "Just about."

Steve didn't like that, though. "Now that's not fair. We've got a little bit more to us," he argued.

"No, you don't," I said.

Howard nodded at me. "No. She's right. Me, I concentrate on work," he said as we walked past the table that had everything laid out on it. "Which at the moment, is about making sure you and your men do not get killed. Carbon polymer." He held up the frame of the new suit that Steve would be wearing. It was silver and unpainted.

"Is this what my suit is made of?" I asked, fingering the suit.

It felt a lot tougher than mine was. Mine felt more like a thin leather. Howard shook his head at me. "No. Yours is made of more of a nomex thread and Kevlar fiber. Lighter weight. Not so worried about yours having to withstand knives or bullets. Just gotta make it so that you can move easily in it, without worrying about it snagging on anything," he told me.

Like he had said, he had a bulletproof soldier. There was no need to make a suit that could withstand anything like that. "Thanks for that," I told him.

"Not a problem. Should withstand your average German bayonet. Although, Hydra's not going to attack you with a pocket knife," Howard said, referring to Steve's new costume. We continued walking, stopping in front of Steve's damaged shield. "I hear you're uh, kinda attached," he said as he banged on the shield, walking past it to a new table.

"It's handier than you might think," Steve argued as we walked to the next table.

We crossed over to the next table where the new shields were laid out. I looked at them and grimaced. Nothing was really Steve's style. Simple. That was what he needed. "I took the liberty of coming up with some options. This one's fun. She's being fitted with electrical relays," Howard said, picking up a shield that looked like a refrigerator door. "That will allow you to -"

"That looks ridiculous," I interrupted Howard.

He turned and glared at me. "Thanks," he snapped.

"They just look too fancy. How about a simpler one?" I asked him.

"We have -"

But Steve had already found the shield that he wanted. "What about this one?" he asked, leaning under the table. He picked up the circular Vibranium shield. I smiled, remembering Peggy's comment last night.

Howard waved his arm at Steve. "No, no that's just a prototype," Howard said.

"What's it made of?" Steve asked as he held it in his hands, looking at it.

"Vibranium." Steve turned it around to look at the back of the shield, where the two arm straps were. "It's stronger than steel, and a third of the weight." He slipped the shield over his arm, staring down at it. I knew that Steve was already in love with the shield. "It's completely vibration absorbent," Howard told him.

"How come it's not standard issue?" Steve asked, running his hand over it.

"That's the rarest metal on Earth. What you're holding there. That's all we got," Howard said.

It didn't seem to click with Steve about why we didn't have more of the shield. "Wakanda is an extremely reclusive country. That's where Vibranium is from. The only place on earth that it's found. People that walk in... They don't usually walk out. It's not safe to just go and find more of it. We buy what they're willing to sell and that's it," I told Steve. He nodded at me, looking a little concerned. "Plus, shields are a little old fashioned. But it looks good. Maybe just some paint."

"Paint?" Howard asked.

Turning towards him, I smiled. "Yeah. Looks a little boring like that. If you've got a guy named Captain America coming after you, a silver shield is boring. Might as well go all-out," I suggested.

Howard nodded at me. "I'll keep that in mind," he said.

As he spoke, Peggy walked around the corner. She still looked extremely peeved. "Are you quite finished, Mr. Stark? I'm sure the Captain has some unfinished business," she said.

Grinning at the floor, I watched as Steve turned to her. He held the shield up in front of his torso towards her. "What do you think?" he asked her, a bright smile on his face.

I noticed that she had stopped near the guns. Realizing what she was going to do, I slipped into Steve's mind and spoke. "You might want to hold that up in front of you," I suggested.

His brows furrowed. "Why?" his voice echoed.

Peggy looked at Steve for a moment. She glanced down at the shield for a moment before turning away. She had a very even look on her face. She turned back towards the weapons table and picked up one of the guns off of the table. Everyone was watching closely. Peggy picked up the gun and aimed straight at Steve. He was smart enough to dive behind the shield, covering his torso and head. Peggy let off four shots before dropping the gun back to the table. Steve slowly lowered the gun, looking shocked. Howard was ducking behind a table, with his arms over his head. I was the only person that was laughing.

Peggy smiled at Steve. "Yes, I think it works," she told him.

"Good aim," I said into Peggy's mind.

She scoffed. "Men."

She walked off, giving Steve a little glare, as Howard walked back over to us. Steve was watching her walk away, looking very offended. They were both watching her leave as Steve's hand dropped down to his pocket, pulling out a folded up piece of paper. "I had some ideas about the uniform," he told Howard.

"Whatever you want, pal," Howard said, grabbing the paper.

They never even looked away from the place that she had left from. I rolled my eyes at the men. They would never understand that women could be just as strong as they were, if not stronger. And we had a tenancy to hold grudges. Howard tucked the piece of paper into his pocket as I rolled my eyes and hopped up on the table.

"And you thought that I had anger management problems?" I asked them.

Howard finally broke his stare from where Peggy had walked off. He glanced at me and looked over my arms. "To be fair, you don't even need a gun to be scary," he told me.

Shrugging my shoulders at him, I nodded. I was a little scary. Actually, I was probably very scary. "I'm not overly fond of guns. They're a lot less fun. Although they are effective in moments of panic," I told him.

Both Steve and Howard were staring at me like I'd lost my mind. "You don't need any weapons," Howard told me.

Smiling at him, I turned to leave. But I remembered something before I could leave. "Before we go, I needed you to do something else for me," I said. Howard nodded. "Six men. We need suits for all of them. Something similar to Steve's." I dug out a piece of paper that I had written suggestions for their uniforms on. "These are their suggestions for what they wear."

Handing Howard the paper over, he placed it with the one that Steve had given him. "I suppose I'll be the fashion designer. I'm on it," he told me, making me laugh.

We all turned to leave until I heard Chester's voice ring out. "Victoria. Rogers. With me," he called.

"See you later," I told Howard.

He nodded at me. "I'll get you when the suits are done," Howard said.

Smiling at him, I grabbed his arm as we passed. "Thank you." Steve and I walked over to where Chester was waiting, looking irritated, as usual. "What's up, old man?" I asked him.

"The paperwork that you managed to get from Schmidt. We wanted to look over it. You haven't looked over it yet, have you?" Chester asked me. Steve and I exchanged a look as I shook my head. Chester glanced back towards Howard. "Stark, that means you, too. Everyone that we have is good."

Our small team walked into one of the planning rooms. The map of the Hydra bases was printed out on the table but the papers that I had swiped from Schmidt was laid out over them. Howard and Steve took their places at my side. Chester was across from me with Peggy, who was avoiding Steve's gaze. To my surprise, Bucky was also in the room. He was standing on Steve's other side, watching me. I stood over the papers and began to read over them. I would have to relay everything that was on the papers. Everything was written in German, so I was the only person in our group that could read it.

It took me almost ten minutes to read over the papers. Much of it would take me some time to figure out. But there were things that I could understand. Everyone was watching me patiently. "It's all about mutants," I said, pointing to the first page. "And this page is about the Tesseract," I added, pointing to the second.

"What does it say?" Chester asked.

Reading through the page, I said what I could see. "Most of this is theory. At least for the mutant page. This says that we're part of a new race. That's true. Homo superior, an advanced form of the species Homo sapiens. We all have the X-Gene. It's what gives us the powers. It says that we were created by an ancient race called the Celestials. This is back in the times of Egypt. Maybe even before that. The Celestials are powerful extraterrestrial cosmic beings. They influenced key events in human history for unclear reasons. They were responsible for key human evolutionary events. They have no known origin. They are essentially designed to be builders," I explained to them.

Everyone exchanged looks with each other. No one really understood why Schmidt would have cared about anything like this. "So what does it mean?" Chester finally asked me.

"It means that they're trying to relate the idea of mutants to the Tesseract..." I said, moving to the second page. My eyes scanned over it for a few minutes before my head snapped up. It caught the attention of everyone else as they all tended, looking at me. "I know why they wanted me. I know why William Stryker wanted me," I muttered.

"Why?" Bucky asked.

They would have to give me time to explain it. "Hear me out." The five others nodded. "This thing, this Tesseract, it is extremely powerful. As we already knew. Once you can control it, you can control it on an extreme level of reality warping. Wish-granting, if you will. Hence why Schmidt wants it." They exchanged confused looks but nodded for me to continue. This was like a thing out of a movie. Not reality. "It'll eventually develop its own intelligence. Remember when it zapped you earlier?" I asked Howard. He nodded blankly at me. "It was defending itself. It's something called an Infinity Stone. That's what this says. There are six. This is called Yggdrasil," I said, showing them a picture. "In Norse mythology, it's one of the nine realms. I can only assume that Schmidt found this in an old Viking ruin."

They continued to nod at me. I could tell that it still wasn't occurring to them just why I was mentioning all of this. "You said that you knew why they want you. Why?" Bucky asked me.

"No one can touch this thing. No mortal man. It'll burn your skin if you touch it through - say - a leather glove. Touch it with bare hands... You'll be transported to another realm. Potentially killed. It contains a Stone, and that is one of the six Infinity Stones. This is listed as an Omega Class Weapon," I explained to them, reading towards the bottom of the page.

"What does that mean?" Chester asked.

Staring blankly at the page, I felt my heart rate increase. "It means that it causes catastrophic damage to anyone that comes into contact with it. Only beings of immense power can hold these Infinity Stones." That was easy enough for the others to understand. "Omega Class Weapon... It means that I can hold it," I muttered.

The others were silent for a long time. It was not something easy to understand. These Infinity Stones were evidently quite powerful. They weren't things that normal people would be able to possess. Even someone strong - a super-soldier - wouldn't be able to hold. These were only things that a being of immense power - like an extraordinarily strong mutant - would be able to hold it. I knew just by reading the file that I could hold it. Perhaps not easily or for an extended period of time, but I would be able to touch it. That meant that I was going to touch it. I needed to know what this thing was. I wanted to know what it was that this thing meant to Schmidt.

They were leaning over the papers, not that it mattered. No one here could speak or read German. The clock ticked loudly in the corner before Howard finally spoke. "Are you sure?" he asked me.

Shrugging my shoulders at him, I nodded slowly. "Reasonably. I want to get a good look at it." No one seemed to like the thought of me getting close to it. "No one goes near that thing," I ordered. The others nodded at me. I turned towards Chester. "I'll take a look at it in a few days. Can you get me a copy of these reports? I want to look them over."

"Sure," Chester said.

Tomorrow I would have to take a look at the Tesseract. I needed to know what it was. I needed to know why Schmidt wanted it. "You shouldn't touch that thing. You saw what it did to me," Howard said, placing a hand on my shoulder.

Glancing at Howard, I shook my head. I knew that they didn't like the idea of me touching something that powerful, but I had already made up my mind. I was looking at that thing. "You heard what I said. Being of immense power can hold them," I said, motioning to myself. It didn't seem to have convinced Bucky, Steve, or Peggy. Looking at the others, I shrugged my shoulders. "Maybe not for a long time, but long enough to figure out what this thing is."

That still didn't convince Bucky. He walked over to me and grabbed my arm. "Wait a second. You can't touch that thing," he argued.

His hand was tight around my wrist and I smiled, disentangling ourselves. "Everyone will be around. They'll be watching. I can't die," I argued. He still didn't care. "If this thing is as powerful as they say that it is... I'll know what Hydra is up to. I'll know how to deprogram those weapons that they're making. We can change the tide of the war."

My hand had wound its way so that it was enclosed in his. The others had the respect to look away, looking at each other instead. I could see the worry in Bucky's eyes. "Stark, you'll watch over her when she does it," Chester ordered.

"Of course," Howard said quickly.

Chester moved over to me. Bucky took a step backwards from me, moving to stand next to Steve. "Someone will be standing by to get that thing out of your hand if things go badly," he told me.

I nodded at him. The sooner that we did it, the better. "I can have it ready tomorrow," Howard informed us.

Before anyone could say anything against the idea, I spoke up. "Then we do this tomorrow," I said, not allowing room for argument. "I'm going to go and get ready for training. Grab yourselves a quick dinner. Steve, Bucky, get yourselves ready. And please get the men, too. We're going to be down in the ballroom."

They both nodded at me. As everyone turned to leave the room Bucky caught my arm, holding me back for a moment. "Hey. Come over tonight. After training," he said. I raised a brow curiously. "If you want, of course," he added bashfully.

Smiling softly at him, I nodded. "I think you just like having me in your bed," I teased. Both of us smiled at each other as we walked out of the room, following the others. "I'll get changed after training and come over." He nodded at me. "Meet you in the ballroom soon. Wear something that you can move in."

"You gonna beat me up?" Bucky asked.

"You'll see," I teased, winking as I walked off.

Bucky's P.O.V.

Bucky watched Vika walk off with a little smile on his face. It was moments like this that he was grateful for. The simple things like this. Just the moments where he saw her acting like a normal woman. She walked off and looped her arm over Peggy's shoulder. Bucky smiled at her as the girls walked off, laughing at each other. He watched her walk off and he strode off towards the mess hall with Steve at his side. Bucky knew that they were both nervous to have her touching the Tesseract. If this thing was as dangerous as everyone made it out to bed, Bucky wanted her as far away from it as she could get. But she was determined.

And Bucky knew that once Vika found herself determined to do something, there was no stopping her. She would do it, no matter what anyone else said. "Come on," Steve said, tugging Bucky with him. "She'll kill us if we're late."

The two men both laughed. It was rather funny. If they were even a minute late, Vika would make them pay for it. "Can you believe that she's touching that thing?" Bucky asked as they headed into the mess hall.

Steve shrugged his shoulders at Bucky, letting out a soft sigh. They both knew what was going to happen. "I don't like that she's going to do it, but it's like she said, she can't die. She's going to be okay touching the Tesseract," Steve said. Bucky could tell that he was saying it for the both of them. "And we do need to know what it is."

That was the truth. They did need to know what the Tesseract was. He just wished that they were risking someone else to do it. "I just wish that she wasn't risking herself to do it," Bucky said.

Steve laid an arm over Bucky's shoulders. It was rather strange to see Steve so much taller than he was. "That's what she does. Stupid things that make everyone else panic," Steve said.

"She has a knack of doing that, doesn't she?" Bucky asked.

"She does," Steve agreed. They sat at a table together and dug into their food. They didn't have much time before they were supposed to meet her with the rest of the men. "You ready to fight her?" Steve asked after a minute.

Bucky wasn't really sure whether or not he was ready to fight her. She could definitely be a little on the scary side. Actually, she was terrifying. He really didn't want to get into a fight with her. Bucky was a reasonably proud man. He liked to make a point that he was a good fighter. He could hold his own in a fight. He knew that he was able to beat most opponents that were thrown his way, but he was no fool. While he knew that not all women were good fighters - very few were - he knew that Vika was one of them. She was better than any woman and she was better than the men, too. She was definitely better than him.

It made him a little nervous to actually fight against her. He had a feeling that she would make him look like an idiot. Not that it was very hard to make him look like an idiot. "Was it really that bad when the two of you fought together during the tour?" Bucky asked curiously.

He's seen her fight against the Hydra soldiers, but they were just men. Steve was a super-soldier now. And if she could beat him without issue... He didn't want to see what she could do to him. "I'd like to tell you that we're just exaggerating what she can do. But I'm really not. She was taking it easy on me when the two of us trained together and I still only got in one hit. And I paid for it dearly. Like I said, she kicked me through a stone wall for it," Steve said, laughing softly.

Even Bucky started laughing at him. He could just imagine Vika, shell-shocked that Steve had hit her, before kicking him through a wall for it, proving to him that she was still stronger. "I think that we made a mistake, asking her to train us," Bucky said, laughing softly.

Steve nodded at him. "I do, too." They both laughed, hoping that she would take it easy on them. "Don't worry, maybe if we all gang up on her she won't be able to take us," Steve offered.

Bucky shook his head at Steve. He'd seen the way that she'd taken down those five Hydra soldiers without hesitation. "Are you kidding? She'd kill us all without a problem," Bucky said.

They were silent for a moment before Steve nodded. "Yeah. I was just trying to be hopeful," Steve said.

"Can you imagine when the day comes that she starts teaching us to use weapons?" Bucky asked.

He wasn't sure that he wanted to see the day that Vika started giving them knives and guns. He knew that she'd still be able to beat them. "We could have all of the weapons in the world and she'd still be able to kill us," Steve said. Bucky nodded at him. They would never win a fight against her. "I don't think that Vic is the type of person that particularly likes losing fights."

A strange flash of hurt shot through Bucky. He could just imagine the man cutting off her hand for missing the target by mere inches. He could see her getting shot for losing the fights. She had been through so much in those seven years. It was no surprise that she had become a fighting machine. There was no shock that she didn't like losing fights. She had been trained to have such terrible things happen to her if she ever lost a fight. It had carried over into her even years after she'd left that place. Bucky could just wish that one day she would calm down and realize that something like that would never happen to her again. Not with Bucky around.

Glancing back up to Steve, Bucky shook his head. "Can you blame her?" he asked. Steve shook his head. "You saw what she went through in Stryker's lab. She was trained to never lose. And she knew what would happen to her if she did lose."

His voice had dropped off near the end of his comment. "Turned out that they made a mistake training her," Steve said softly.

Neither one of them liked talking about the things that had happened to Vika when she had been in Stryker's lab. She had been going through so much horror when they had been going about their lives. "You should have let her kill that guy," Bucky said darkly.

He didn't like killing anyone, but that man... After everything that he had done to her, he deserved to die. Steve sighed and laid a hand on Bucky's shoulder. "She's better than that. Trust me, Buck. I thought about just letting her do it. I really did. But when I saw the look in her eyes... When I saw how broken she was, just looking at him, I knew that she had to prove to herself that she was stronger. He has to live with everything that he did to her. He has to live without his wife and daughter," Steve said.

And Bucky understood that. She was strong enough to walk away and let him live. He had nothing to live for with his family gone, and that would be better than death. Because he couldn't leave his misery. But he knew just how much it had hurt her to walk away from him, letting him live, after everything that he had done to her. He knew that she would have been happy to do it. As much as he thought that she should have done it, he was glad that she hadn't. He was proud that she had the strength to walk away.

"Do you ever feel bad for her?" Bucky asked after a long silence.

Steve glanced up at him, surprised. "About?" he asked.

Bucky took a deep breath and looked at Steve. She had been through so much to protect them. "Everything that she went through? She stopped fighting back because they started threatening us," Bucky said sadly.

Steve almost immediately nodded. "Of course I feel bad. She went through all of that to keep us safe. I guess that it just shows everything that she's willing to do to protect us," Steve said softly.

"At least she can't be hurt," Bucky muttered.

"She can be. Just not physically."

His head shot up to meet Steve's eyes. The two of them got up from their seats as they headed to the dorms to get changed so that Vika could train them. "Why do I get the feeling that this is going somewhere?" Bucky asked, once he was sure that no one else could hear their conversation.

And he knew that this conversation was going somewhere. The look on Steve's face was the same one that he got whenever something was bothering him. "You know that I'm in the room next to Vic and Peggy?" Steve asked.

Bucky had known that. Steve was next to them and Bucky was another room down. "I know," Bucky said.

They popped into Steve's room and grabbed a change of clothes before heading to Bucky's. "Heard Vic slip back into the room this morning," Steve said. Bucky let out a breath. He'd been hoping to tell Steve in his own time. "I didn't hear much of the conversation, but I did hear Peggy say that Vic was coming back after not sleeping in her own bed."

Automatically Bucky knew that he had to tell Steve that it wasn't what he thought. He knew that Steve was fiercely protective of Vika, even when it came to Bucky. "She stayed with me. Nothing happened," Bucky said.

Steve nodded. "I believe you," Steve said, surprising Bucky. "I think their conversation would have been a lot louder if something had." Both men smiled. They were silent as they pulled their training clothes on. "When are you going to propose to her?"

Bucky's head snapped around to look at Steve. He knew that he was going to propose to her, but he wasn't sure when. And he didn't want her to laugh in his face. He only wanted to propose to someone once. "You're a punk," he barked at Steve, who laughed. "I don't know, Steve. Would she even say yes?"

Obviously that question had thrown Steve. He must have thought that she was going to say yes. "Trust me when I say that she would say yes," Steve said, making Bucky smile. "She doesn't love the idea of getting married and settling down. That's never going to be her. But I don't think that you want her any differently."

Now that Bucky knew what Vika was, he knew that he wouldn't want her any other way. "I love her just the way that she is. I wouldn't want her to change. I don't care what a life with her would be like. I just know that I want one with her," he said.

Steve smiled at Bucky, patting him on the shoulder. "You always have. I'm glad that you're going to get it."

"You should ask Agent Carter to go dancing," Bucky said after a beat.

He was getting his own happy ending. He wanted to see his best friend get his, too. He saw that way that Agent Carter looked at Steve. It was the same way that Vika looked at him. Steve shook his head. "I don't think she wants to see me right now. Or ever," he said.

"That's the way that women are. They get angry and need some time to get over it. I'm sure that Vika already talked to her about it. Agent Carter will calm down. Just talk to her. I can tell by the way that she looks at you. She likes you," Bucky pointed out.

Steve started to chuckle and Bucky raised a brow, wondering what it was that was so funny. "We've managed to get ourselves into it with these girls, haven't we?" Steve asked him.

They were both going to have quite the life with these girls, but neither one of them would ever want it any other way. "We never did have the most normal taste in women," Bucky said.

"We both thought that we wanted normal, but now that we've gotten to see different, I think we've fallen in love with different," Steve added.

There was something nice about different. "It's more interesting," Bucky said.

They both laughed as a short silence passed. Bucky knew that something was coming. And when Steve turned to look at him, Bucky knew that he was going to get the big brother speech. "You're my best friend, Buck. I know that you'd never hurt her." Bucky smiled and nodded. He would never do anything to hurt her. "But just because I feel like I have to do this... If something does happen and you hurt her, I'll come after you," Steve said.

Of course, there was still the fact that Vika would kill him before Steve could do anything. "Works a little better now that you're not a little punk. You're a larger punk," Bucky said, making Steve laugh. "I'm not going to hurt her. I love her more than anything. I'd rather die than hurt her."

"I know," Steve said. He glanced over at the clock and saw that it was pushing seven. They had to meet her down in the ballroom soon. He laid a hand behind Bucky's shoulder and tugged him along. "We should get going. If we're late, we're going to die." Once more, Bucky laughed. If there was ever anyone to never piss off, it was Vika.

Victoria's P.O.V.

Slipping back into the uniform that Howard had designed, I took a few minutes to yank it into place. As much as I did like the new uniform, it was a little tough to get into. Peggy had been doing some paperwork but she'd stopped long enough to help me into the uniform. As she'd said before, she did like it. We chatted back and forth about what was going to happen tomorrow as we ate dinner. I could tell that Peggy wasn't thrilled that I was going to be touching the Tesseract, but she knew that I wasn't going to let up on doing it. We needed to know exactly what it was. Peggy had agreed that she would be there with me.

Tugging my boots back onto my feet, Peggy smiled at me, making a quick comment that she was sure that Barnes would like it. I didn't even bother to counteract what she had said. I knew that he liked it. I was absolutely positive that Howard had designed the suit with it in mind that Bucky would like the skin that was showing and the tightness. Howard had given me the four spare uniforms as he fixed the bullet holes in the fifth. Once I had everything together, I said a quick goodbye to Peggy and headed downstairs. The men had actually managed to be on time. They were all standing together and chatting away with each other.

"Gentlemen!" I called out. They all turned to face me. Bucky's eyes immediately traveled over me and I looked away, knowing that it was the wrong time to be thinking about that. "Glad to see that everyone's ready. Let's get right into it, shall we?"

"What do we do, boss lady?" Dum Dum asked.

Smiling at him, I motioned the men towards the middle of the ballroom. "Tonight I'll be showing you all some of my favorite takedowns. Moves that are meant to throw you onto your ass. So don't be embarrassed if you fall. When you fall," I corrected. The men began laughing, not realizing that I was telling the truth. "We'll go one at a time. Who goes first?"

They all exchanged looks with each other. "How about Steve?" Bucky offered.

I knew that he'd do something like that. Steve turned back to Bucky with a very affronted look. I shook my head. "No. I'm saving Steve," I said, earning a little groan from Steve. "How about you, Bucky?"

"Sure," he said slowly.

Motioning for Bucky to get down into a fighting stance, he did so. The others stood back slightly to allow us to use most of the floor. Steve was smirking. Ducking around Bucky, I moved towards his back and grabbed his shoulders. Shoving him downwards, I used his shoulders to throw myself around to his front, wrapping my thighs around his throat. He straightened up, attempting to remove me from himself, but it was too late. I swung around him twice before grabbing his back, yanking him downwards. Bucky fell onto his back as I rolled him forward, pinning he knees up against his chest.

He was attempting to get out of my grip, but it was useless as I moved forward and laid a knee on his throat. "You might want to tap out," I teased. He eventually gave up and tapped against my thigh. I bounced back up and gave Bucky my arm. "Very effective during a knife fight," I told the other men. I then turned back to Bucky. "Wanna do another one?"

He looked a little unsteady, but I knew that he wanted to impress me. So he nodded anyways. "Sure," he said.

Everyone was watching us, laughing at Bucky's misfortune. Once more, Bucky and I stood across from each other. He looked a little nervous as I grinned at him. He was facing me as I ran towards him. I jumped forward onto him and wrapped my thighs around his neck, sitting upright. The other men began howling with laughter. I leaned backwards, keeping my legs around his throat, as I ripped him off of his feet. He went flying over himself as I released his neck, landing back on my feet. Bucky was on his back, trying to suck air into his lungs.

As Bucky tried to get back to his feet, the other men were laughing very loudly. "You've gotta teach me that one," Dum Dum said, walking up to me and placing a hand on my shoulder.

Smiling at him, I shook my head. "I'll teach you boys anything and everything that you want to know." They all nodded happily at the promise. "How about another?" I asked Bucky.

He had just managed to get back to his feet. "I'm going to... take a break," he said, stumbling away from the center of the room, Steve's arm around him to keep him upright.

"Good idea." I turned back to the other men and watched as they all took a step backwards. Gabe was the only one that hadn't, and I grinned as he sighed, knowing that he had missed his opportunity. "Gabe. Would you like to help?" I asked.

"Not really," he said, stepping forward anyways.

At least he had a good spirit about himself. I did appreciate that. And this was more just to show them what I could do. Chances were that they would never learn to do this. I'd teach them hand-to-hand and they'd learn to counteract these movements. I sprinted towards Gabe and ducked underneath his arm. As I turned back towards him, I used his shoulders to pull myself up onto them. I flipped underneath his arm, using his shoulder as a rest before turning back around and spinning to the other shoulder. One arm was holding his arm away from me as the other went around the back of his neck, caught around his throat. My thighs were wrapped around Gabe's waist, keeping him from pulling me off.

He stumbled back and forth as I increased my grip on his neck. Finally he couldn't handle it anymore as he tapped on my back. I released my arms and jumped off of him. Gabe dropped onto his hands and knees, sucking air back into his lungs. "Yanking upwards at the end would break an opponent's neck. Just for future reference," I explained.

It took him a few moments to get back to his feet. "Dum Dum... You do one," Gabe breathed out.

Dum Dum smiled at me and moved forward. He was the only one that had moved forward with a smile. That smile wouldn't be there that much longer. "I'm ready," he said.

Nodding at him, I watched as he moved into a fighting stance. He dug his heels back into the floor so that he wouldn't be thrown off balance. But he would. I ran towards him and Dum Dum raised up his arm so that he could stop me. But it didn't matter. I grabbed his arm and moved behind his back. I used his arm as leverage as I jumped upright and wrapped my legs around his other arm. It kept them both in place as I shoved backwards. Dum Dum began to fall as I released my legs and slipped in between them as he hit his back. I jumped forward, keeping his thighs on either side of my hips. I placed my foot down on his throat as my knee pressed down against his chest.

He tried to move away from me, but it was impossible. He finally tapped against my thigh and I nodded, hopping off of him. I offered him a hand back up. "You good?" I asked.

Dum Dum laughed and nodded at me. "Embarrassed that I just got my ass handed to me, but I'm good. I'll do another one," he said.

Smiling at him, I nodded. I was proud that he'd do another one. But he would only be able to do one more before he'd give up. Sprinting towards Dum Dum once more, I wrapped my arms over the back of his shoulder and used it as leverage. Pushing off of the ground, I flung myself backwards against Dum Dum's torso. My legs wrapped backwards around his hips as I rolled forward. Dum Dum was thrown forward through the roll as I rolled up on top of him and quickly turned over. My legs were once more pressed down over his chest.

There were stars in his eyes as I got off of him and smiled, offering him a hand up. "Alright... That one hurt," he moaned.

"Take a break." Dum Dum walked back into the line as the other men began laughing. "Bucky!" I called out. His head whipped towards me and he groaned. "Why don't you come help me again?"

He took a step forward as I smiled at him. "I don't like that look in your eyes," he said slowly.

As he very well shouldn't. I'd done it to Steve enough times that he already knew what I was doing. Steve was laughing before I even made the first move, earning strange looks from everyone else. Ducking underneath his arm, I turned backwards, facing his back. He turned back to stop me, but it was too late. I grabbed onto his shoulder and flipped myself underneath him. My legs went around his neck as I faced towards the ground, swinging around his body, disorienting him. I swung once before releasing one of my legs, using the remaining foot to hook behind his neck. I swung another half turn before releasing, ripping him off of his feet. Bucky went flying over himself as I dropped into a tuck and roll.

Mere seconds later, the men that had been standing and watching in shock began to laugh louder than they had before. Bucky was lying on his back, staring up at the ceiling. "What the hell is that?" he asked me.

"A favorite of mine," I said brightly.

Steve moved forward and helped Bucky back to his feet. "I know how you feel. Trust me. I do," Steve said, rubbing at the back of his neck, probably remembering just what it felt like.

Turning towards Steve, I smiled. There were better ones that I had, but I really didn't want to accidentally hurt the men. I didn't want to go after them until they were a little better trained. But Steve, he could take the hits and tumbles. "Why don't you help me out for the rest of my demonstrations?" I asked him.

Steve groaned but moved forwards anyways. "How did I know that was going to happen?" he asked me.

But he had to have known that I was going to ask him to help me with most of the fighting. As Steve and I fought, I explained to the other men what we were doing and all of the ways to counteract them or at least move into them so that they didn't hurt as much. Moving after Steve, I grabbed the back of his shoulders and flipped underneath, resting on his shoulder for a moment before rolling around his torso and grabbing his other arm. I yanked him backwards as he hit the ground. We both went into rolls in the opposite directions and I smiled at Steve. He was learning. The other men were laughing and cheering for Steve.

We both got back to our feet and I glared at Steve. There was no way that I was letting him show me up. So I chose to go another route with a move that I knew that he couldn't get out of. I ran after Steve and grabbed behind his neck. He tried to get out of my grip as I ran the both of us towards the wall. The men stepped out of the way quickly as I got within feet of the wall. Still holding onto his neck, I ran three steps up the wall. I flung myself over the top of him, keeping a hold on his neck. He was thrown backwards onto the floor as I landed on my feet, facing him with my arms crossed over my chest.

The men were all laughing and clapping me on the back as Steve managed to stumble back to his feet. He walked with me back towards the center of the room. Without giving Steve a chance to get himself ready, I ran after him. I used his shoulder as leverage so that I could pull myself upwards. I jumped up onto his back and wrapped my legs around his throat, facing the ground. I swung around to the front of his body, keeping one leg behind his neck as the other released and hooked around the back of the knee, keeping him bent over. He stumbled back and forth, trying to peel me off, but eventually he had to tap against my thigh. I released the constricting grip and smiled at Steve.

He was weakly getting back to his feet. "Come on slow poke, hit me," I teased.

The men cheered me on as Steve and I stood opposite each other. We both knew that I was just kidding. He made a move to punch me but I grabbed his wrist before it could make contact. He had been trying to hit me as hard as he could. I could feel his muscles straining. He'd pay for that. I wrenched his arm off to the side, crunching the bones in his arm, before using my arm to carry me up and over in a one-handed cartwheel. My legs went up around his throat as I pulled him up and over himself, landing splayed out on his back. Shoving his arm down onto the ground, I kept my legs over his throat and torso so that he couldn't get back upright. He finally tapped my leg to get me to release him.

I was certain that Bucky's laugh was the loudest. As long as it wasn't them that I was hitting, the men enjoyed watching me fight. "You did that on purpose," Steve said, gently tugging his shirt back into place.

"Duh," I teased. "Gonna let a girl beat you?"

He moved backwards to try and attack me again, but I was still faster. I hooked one arm underneath his shoulder as the other shoved his head down so that he couldn't move without getting disoriented. I used his body as leverage as I swung myself around and underneath his arm. My legs went around his neck and I felt Steve grab my thigh to try and detach me, so I readjusted. I swung back underneath his arms and hit the ground, my arm still around his neck. I yanked forward and Steve went flying over himself sideways, landing splayed out on his back as I stood back upright. He shook his head clear and I smiled.

It was a moment later that he went into a jump upwards, landing on his feet. The men let out impressed noises as I folded my arms over my chest. "Not bad," I said.

He smiled at me. "I learned from the best," Steve said.

Giving him a small smile, I nodded. We stood next to each other for a minute before Steve whirled around to try and throw a surprise hit at me. But I'd seen his muscles tensing beforehand. I'd known that he was going to try and hit me. I backed away from him for a moment before jumping up and raising my knees to send a kangaroo-like kick, shoving both soles of my feet into his chest. He went flying backwards, unable to stop the attack, as I landed with my arms bent backwards over my shoulders. I easily kicked myself back upwards, never actually resting my entire body on the ground. Steve was recovering from the kick as I ran forward and jumped up onto his front, wrapping my legs around his throat and falling backwards, ripping him off of his feet. He went flying over himself as I landed on both feet, upright, smiling at him.

As per usual, the men were howling with laughter. Steve was getting back to his feet, stumbling around. "And you still have a lot to learn, my friend," I teased, much to the amusement of the others. "Up and at 'em, soldier. Come on."

The men were hooting and howling in the background, cheering me on. Steve and I faced each other once more as he threw punch after punch. Some were very close to hitting me, but I knew where he was going to hit before he did it. He sent an uppercut to my jaw that I caught in time to avoid the hit, but it did force me to stumble backwards. He was hitting harder now. He didn't want to lose. I threw a punch that he missed and watched as it hit him in the nose. He stumbled backwards as I ran after him. My legs wrapped around his neck as I faced him, pulling the both of us downward. I fell onto my back and rolled Steve over, compressing my grip around his throat.

His hands were grasping at my legs to get me off of him. I only tightened them further, watching as his face began to turn red from strain. He finally tapped against my leg and I let him up. He sucked air back into his lungs for a moment before hopping back up. Steve launched after me again and I blocked the punch, swinging my leg up and kicking Steve in the head. I dropped down and swept my leg out to his. He managed to jump back and avoid it. As I came back around, I used my hand to push my legs upwards, kicking him in the head again. He stumbled backwards as I straightened up again.

Running after Steve, I aimed a kick towards his ribs that he managed to block, before aiming another at his other side. He blocked that hit as well before swinging out towards me. I dropped down slightly, avoid the blow, before straightening up again. Taking a step backwards, I ran back up to him, aiming a hit directly into his stomach. He gasped and stepped backwards. Running towards him again, I sent a roundhouse kick to his jaw. Steve stumbled backwards as I turned and raised the other leg, hooking it over his shoulder. I jumped forward, sending the both of us into a sprawl. Steve got back to his feet as I rolled forward, dragging my fingertips across the ground.

We did an about-face to stare at each other for a moment. I ran after Steve once more and ducked between his legs, yanking one of them out. He stumbled slightly as I got back to my feet. He had lost sight of me for a moment, and that was all that I needed. I grabbed his shoulders from behind and flipped myself around, my back against his torso as my legs crossed behind his neck, keeping myself in place. I leaned upwards so that I was sitting in front of Steve. His hands were on my waist, attempting to disentangle me as I jammed my elbow down into Steve's nose. He grunted as he finally managed to grab my waist, throwing me off of him, I went tumbling backwards, dropping to all fours with my hand against the ground as I slid backwards, coming back to a stand.

Steve straightened up slightly and I realized that his nose was bleeding. I stepped backwards from him, not wanting to make things worse. The men were no longer laughing. They were watching in surprise. "Let's stop. I don't want to hurt you," I said softly.

He shook his head, wiping the blood away. "Getting tired? I thought that we were just starting," Steve told me. The men began to laugh once more, momentarily coming to pat Steve on the back.

"You might regret that," I told him.

We waited a moment for Steve to get some water before nodding at each other to go again. Steve came after me and threw a punch. I caught his arm and jammed my fist into his sternum. He coughed as I grabbed the edges of his neck and pulled myself up onto him. They went around his neck as I leaned backwards. My arms were free and I used them to grab his, keeping him from hitting me. Steve leaned downwards at my weight, trying to figure out a way to get me off. I could hear him thinking to drop on top of me, so I acted before he could.

Releasing my constricting grip around his throat, I dropped so that my shoulders were on the ground, disentangling my legs from his neck. One of my hands went up to grab the material of his shirt as I yanked him into me, placing my feet at his hips. I shoved my legs upwards against his hips, sending him flying over me, as I rolled with his body, keeping my thighs tight around his arms. I rolled upwards, keeping my hand gripping against his shirt, pulling his torso up with me and wrapping a hand around his throat. I let him drop almost immediately, not wanting to seriously hurt him. I hopped off of him and watched as he managed to pull himself back to his feet.

A few minutes passed before Steve was able to come after me again. He threw out a punch to my head as I grabbed his wrist, kicking out his knee. He stumbled slightly as I grabbed his shoulder and used it to jump upwards. One of my legs went behind his back as the other stayed in front of his arm that I was still holding. Placing that foot over his neck, I rolled backwards onto my back, throwing him over me. His arm was still in my grasp as my leg laid over his throat, keeping him from moving. We stayed for a moment before Steve nodded for me to let him up.

The two of us faced each other for a moment before Steve nodded, letting me know that he was ready again. I sprinted towards him, ducking out of the way of a punch. He aimed another one almost immediately at me and I grabbed his arm, hitting him across the jaw. I used his arm as leverage to jump upwards. Steve saw what I was doing and tried to wrap an arm under my thigh. Little did he know, that only helped me. I threw a leg over his shoulder and head, sitting over his shoulder, facing away from him. I grabbed his arm and twisted, flinging myself down and around so that I was parallel with the ground. Steve was thrown off of his feet as he was tossed sideways over himself. He was thrown off of me as I hit the ground, the momentum flinging me upwards into a stand.

It was pretty clear that Steve was very woozy as he got back to his feet. Deciding that it was time to end our fight, I ran after him, not letting him get his bearings back. I hopped up into his arms so that he was almost carrying me bridal style as I turned into him, wrapping one leg around the back of his neck and twisting to face the ground. I twisted back so that my torso was behind his back, forcing him to bend over. I released my legs from his neck and dropped back to the ground, jumping forward and shoving him to the ground, landing on his back.

Standing back up, I grabbed Steve's arm and brought him back to a stand. Other than looking very tired, he looked otherwise okay. "You alright, Steve?" I asked him.

Once more, the men were laughing. Steve wiped some sweat off of his forehead. "Yeah. I'm good, Vic. I've spent a year and a half getting thrown around by you. I can handle another hour or so," he teased.

"We'll have to train you with that shield once you get it," I said.

It would definitely get harder to beat him once he had the shield. That would make it harder to actually hit him. The men walked up to me. "You're pretty damn good one-on-one. I imagine that no one can beat you," Jim told me. I smiled proudly and nodded. "But could you handle all of us?" He motioned to the seven of them and I smiled.

Seven against one wasn't typically very good odds. It still wasn't. For them. "You might wish that you hadn't asked," I said, smiling at them. "Let's fight, gentlemen."

No one looked particularly thrilled as they lined up against one end of the room, leaving me standing by myself at the other. "It's not proper to hit a woman. I really don't want to hurt you," Jacques said through his thick accent.

Smirking at him, I got down into a fighting position. "I wouldn't worry about that," I said brightly.

The men all followed me by getting down into their own fighting positions. I had a feeling that it wouldn't take much to bring them down. Jacques was the first person to run towards me and I smiled. He was running straight at me and I slid past him on my knees. He turned back to me as I jumped upright, sending an uppercut into his jaw. I noticed Jim running up to me as well, so I wrapped my arm around Jacques's neck, running him after me. I hit the wall and used it to run across. Jim was right behind us as I used the wall as leverage, kicking him across the jaw. Jacques was being yanked around by me as I ducked back to the ground, throwing him over myself.

With those two down on the ground, I noticed that James, Dum Dum, and Gabe all made a move to run towards me. Gabe was faster than the others. I smirked as he ran up to me. Two birds with one stone. Jim had just managed to get back to his feet and I turned back to him, shoving my foot into his knee. He hit the ground as I turned back to him and ran back towards him. I used his back as leverage as I sprang off of his back, jumping into the air towards Gabe. He stopped short but it was too late. I grabbed him around the shoulders, throwing him back towards the ground. We hit together and I rolled off of him, holding his arm as I flipped over myself, yanking him back upright with me. He was unsteady as I jammed my elbow into his ribs before turning back around and sending a roundhouse kick into his jaw.

That was all that it took for Gabe to drop to the ground. Jacques was stumbling back to his feet as Dum Dum and James advanced on me. They ran in a line, Dum Dum first, and I smiled. Grabbing Dum Dum's shoulder, I yanked myself up onto his shoulders. He grunted as I swung around on top of his shoulders, kicking James in the head in the meantime. He stumbled backwards as I stayed over Dum Dum's shoulder, reaching down and grabbing James under the shoulder. Giving them a rough tug, I ripped them both off of their feet so that they went flying over themselves, hitting the ground. I rolled backwards off of them and up into a stand.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jacques advancing on me once more. Running towards him, I slid down onto my knees and swept out his legs. He toppled to the ground as I flew back over him, grabbing his arm as I did. He was yanked upwards with me and I turned so that my back was to his front. I jammed my elbow into his nose before turning back once more. I turned in a circle on one foot before swinging my leg backwards and hooking it over Jacques neck, slamming him down into the ground. And then there were two...

Turning back, I saw that Bucky and Steve were on opposite ends of the room, watching me. We all stared at each other for a moment before I made my move. I sprinted towards Steve, knowing that I had to take him down first. There was a table in the back corner of the room, near where Steve was standing, and I used it. I jumped up onto the table before leaping off of it. Steve and I caught onto each other as I threw to the ground, throwing Steve over me. We both got to our feet as Steve attempted to punch me. I caught his arm and shoved my elbow into his nose, pushing his arm upwards and sending another hit to his ribs. Behind me, Bucky was running up to me and I turned backwards, releasing Steve. As Bucky threw a punch towards me, I dropped onto my knees, sweeping his legs out from underneath him. I jumped back upwards and turned towards Steve.

He was kneeling down as I ran after him and used his knee for a step. I swung myself back over him and around, crushing his bicep in between my thighs as I leaned backwards and ripped him off of his feet. At the same time, Bucky had gotten back over to us. As I sent Steve to the ground and swung around, I reached back and grabbed Bucky's shoulders. Steve hit the ground as I threw Bucky off of me, back to the ground. I kept a hold of Bucky's arm as Steve got back to his feet. He came after me as I flipped over Bucky's body, sending my booted foot into Steve's head. He fell backwards as I straightened, pulling Bucky back to a stand with me. I turned backwards and punched him in the stomach before reaching down and yanking out his knee, sending him down to the ground. I rolled off of him into a somersault. He tried to lean back upwards but another hit to the chest sent him back down. I dove forward over him, rolling up back to my feet.

Steve had managed to get back to his feet as he ran after me. I turned backwards as he threw a punch, placing my back against his front. One of my hands wound around the back of his neck as I jumped up, threw my legs out, and sent them back to the floor. I turned halfway through the fall to send Steve toppling over himself to the ground, and myself into a squat. Pushing myself back to a full stand, I looked over at the men. Each one of the seven of them were laying on their backs, groaning as they attempted to get back to their feet. I had warned them that they would wish that they hadn't asked.

"Should we try that again?" I offered.

"No!" they all shouted.

"How can you keep going?" Bucky asked, breathing heavily.

Shrugging my shoulders, I moved after the men to help them back to their feet. "Metabolism that burns ten times faster than the average human. Plus this is a good way for me to see the way that you all fight. And it's a good way to see just how untrained you are. You might be Army men, but you've had no formal combat training," I said.

Jim was rubbing his back. "Holy shit," he groaned.

"Ça fait mal," Jacques sighed. I imagined that it probably did hurt.

Steve was rubbing his neck. "I think that you hit harder every time that we fight," he told me.

I smiled at him, patting him on the back. Bucky was walking with somewhat of a limp. Other than Steve, he seemed to have recovered the fastest. "Well I did say that I wanted a woman that could handle herself," he said.

"How about one that could kill you without breaking a sweat?" Dum Dum asked.

Out of our little group of eight, I was the only one that wasn't sweating. "Well, Victoria, you really are quite the skilled fighter," James said.

"Thank you."

"Got any suggestions for pain?" Gabe asked.

"Ice. Lots of ice," I said. "And a cold bourbon might help."

They all laughed softly. "Woman after my own heart," Dum Dum said.

At least they weren't freaked out by the fight. "In time I'm going to teach you all how to fight with everything. Hand to hand. Without these kind of moves. Knife fights. Gun fights. Fists and legs. This is just the beginning. But it helps to know how I fight. You'll be back tomorrow night. Get some rest," I said. They groaned but nodded anyways. Each man departed from me until only Steve and Bucky remained. "I'll meet you two out here in the morning so that we can head to the base to take care of the Tesseract. Get to bed, boys."

Steve was the first one to leave. "Goodnight, Vic," he said, pressing a kiss to my cheek.

I'd been half expecting him to try and attack me, but I assumed that he was tired. "Goodnight, Steve." As he walked off, I turned back to Bucky. "Let me take a quick shower and get changed and I'll meet you in your room," I said.

"Okay. Don't worry about knocking. Just come in," Bucky said.

The two of us smiled at each other as I headed back into my room. I tried to be quiet as I walked into the room but it turned out that I didn't need to be quiet. Peggy was still awake. She was reading as I walked into the room and gathered my pajamas. She looked very tired. I assumed that she had been getting ready to go to bed.

"How'd they do?" she asked me.

Snorting under my breath, I shook my head at her. "Horribly. But I have faith that they'll get better. It was the first day. It's going to take them a while to get into the swing of things," I said.

Peggy smiled at my wording and nodded, placing her book on the side table. "That's true. I'm going to bed. I'll see you in the morning." She settled into the bed before speaking again. "You staying here tonight?" she asked.

"Goodnight, Peggy," I snapped, ending the conversation.

Her laugh echoed throughout the room. "Goodnight, Victoria."

Shutting off the light, I walked into the bathroom and quickly rinsed myself off. The boys were right. I hadn't sweat at all. I wasn't even sure if I could sweat. Once I walked out of the shower, I burst into flames for a moment, drying myself off. Grabbing my new clothes, I got changed into my pajama pants. It was too hot to wear the long sleeved button down, so I settled on a black t-shirt. I gathered my hair back into a ponytail before padding out of the bathroom and into the hallway, forgoing the robe. I slipped into Bucky's room quietly and smiled at him. He was awake on the bed. His hair was wet from his own shower.

"Hey, stranger," I greeted.

He slid over to make room for me. Bucky was stretching his neck back and forth. It was a good idea. "You know, I actually don't feel half-bad after everything," he told me.

Shaking my head at him, I prepared to gently let him down. "That's probably considering when I fought you boys, I would help you up and over into the moves. It keeps a lot of the strain off of your bodies and keeps me from accidentally breaking your neck or spine," I told him, seeing the surprised look in his eyes.

Finally he managed to laugh. "I definitely appreciate that. You're one hell of a fighter," he told me.

Smiling at him, I nodded. Stryker had ensured that I was the best fighter that there was. "Thank you. Don't take offense when I tell you that I really do enjoy beating you up," I teased.

Bucky laughed and laid a hand over mine. "You can beat me up for the rest of my life," he told me. I smiled at him and pressed a small kiss against his cheek. We sat in silence for a moment before he spoke again. "Are you sure that you know what you're doing with the blue thing?"

"The Tesseract?" I asked. He nodded at me. "Yes. I know what I'm doing. I have to see what Schmidt is planning. I have to see what that thing is. Don't worry about me."

"I'm always going to worry about you. You tend to act before you think," Bucky said.

That wasn't true. I just managed to think even faster than I acted, and that was extremely fast. "Trust me, I don't," I told him.

Bucky sighed and shook his head. "Just be careful. Please," he said softly.

"Always."

But I was never really careful. I didn't need to be careful. But if it made him feel better, I would tell him that I was careful. "How's Agent Carter after everything?" Bucky asked me after a few minutes.

Glancing over at him, I remembered that he hadn't seen what she'd done earlier. "That's right, you missed it earlier. Steve is getting a new shield. It's made out of Vibranium. Strongest metal on Earth, only comparable with Adamantium. He's obviously excited to have it. He showed it to Peggy, asking if she liked it. She responded with four bullets straight to the shield," I told him.

Bucky starred at me for a moment before nodding. "At least they weren't to him," he finally said.

Laughing softly, I nodded at him. "That's what I was thinking. She'll get over it. She just needs time," I pointed out.

We were silent for a little while before Bucky finally looked over at me. I could tell that something was on his mind. "Think that you could have been a little harsher to Lorraine?" he asked me.

"Are you defending her?" I snapped.

His face drained of color. "No," he said quickly. "But I thought that you were going to kill her."

Shrugging my shoulders, I leaned back against the wall. "I thought about it. Come on, Bucky. The way that she speaks to all of the men on the base. The way that she flirts with all of them, just to move onto the next. She just likes Steve because he's Captain America," I told him irritably, hoping that he could see why I had done it.

"You're right. But I think you've officially scared her out of talking to anyone else ever again," Bucky said.

"Good."

The comment that would have normally bothered a man only made Bucky laugh. "That charming attitude is just part of the reason that I love you," he told me, wrapping an arm over my shoulders.

"You'd be so bored if you were with a normal woman."

"Exactly." Bucky gently rolled the two of us back into the bed and I laughed as he leaned over me. "I like having a woman that knows what she wants in life. I like having a woman that can beat me up without thinking about it. I like having a woman smarter than anyone else that I know. And I like having a woman that's willing to do anything to get what she wants," he told me.

"How about a woman that can light herself on fire?" I added.

His hand went up to my hair to twirl it around his fingers. "Just makes her hot." We both laughed as his head went into my shoulder. He leaned back up after a moment and looked at me. "Are you - Uh - Are - Are you going to... You know?" he asked awkwardly.

My eyebrows rose and I smiled at him. "Good thing that I can read your mind," I teased. He laughed awkwardly, running a hand through his hair. "Do you want me to stay?"

"Only if you want."

"Did you have any nightmares last night?" I asked.

I didn't think that he had, but I wasn't sure. Bucky shook his head at me. "No. First time since I've been back from the Hydra facility," he told me. My stomach curled at the thought of him having to deal with those dreams.

Dropping my voice to a whisper, I said, "I'll stay."

That seemed to please him, just as I'd been expecting. We moved into the same spots that we had been in last night as we both settled into the bed. I was pressed against the wall as Bucky slept on the outside. His arm went around my waist as he tugged me into him. I laid a hand on his chest as he leaned forward and pressed a long kiss against my mouth. I pressed my hand against cheek, keeping his mouth against mine. We stayed together for a long time as my legs wound their way in between his, keeping us tangled together. His hands went into my hair as he traced a kiss along my jaw. I leaned forward and kissed him once more before grabbing the blankets and throwing them over us.

"You're such a blanket hog," Bucky groaned. Grabbing them and bunching them around my hands, I easily ripped them all off of Bucky, who jumped in surprise. "Vika! Vika, come on, give them back!"

"I don't think so. I'm a blanket hog," I said.

We both laughed as Bucky flung himself onto me. I groaned at the sudden weight and shoved him back off of me. We rolled together as Bucky fell back onto the bed, bringing me with him. Our lips met in another kiss as he took the blankets back, spreading them over us. We stayed locked together in the kiss for a few minutes before finally backing away. I made a move to shift slightly, but Bucky's arms were tight around my waist. So I settled for falling asleep on his chest, listening to his heartbeat, strong and steady.

A/N: I do enjoy writing Victoria beating up the boys. As for the idea with the Infinity Stone, obviously I have big plans for Victoria leading into Avengers: Infinity War, and I haven't even seen the movie yet! Either way, that's a long time off. I hope that you guys liked this one! I'm having a lot of fun with Bucky back into the picture. Again, let me know how many chapters you'd like to see with the Howling Commando's missions! Thanks so much for the follows and favorites! Please review! Until next time -A

racefunhorse: I appreciate you reading through the chapters so much! Thank you so much! I hope that you liked this one too. I take a lot of pride in developing my own plots, so I really do appreciate that!

rebelforcauses: I'm glad that you love it so much! I hope that you like this one too!

kuppcake: Thank you! I like getting Vika all dressed up too, considering that she hates it so much. Bear in mind that she doesn't actually know how it got out that she's a mutant. She's only theorizing right now. She knows that it's already out and she's actually relieved to have it out in the public, so she doesn't really care how it got out.

.2017: Thank you for reading! I hope that you liked this one!