"I guess they're not as stupid as they look," Dum Dum said as he held up one of the trap doors leading down into an underground bunker.

Even the trapdoors had been camouflaged with leaves, dirt, ferns, and even whole shrubs for crying out loud. No wonder they'd walked right passed their goddamn trap without a clue and Steve would call himself impressed if he didn't hate the fuckers so much. They could have lost everything here if they weren't so used to working together. Steve was furious with himself. Here he'd thought Hydra were underestimating them, when really, he had been the one underestimating them. The whole thing would be a good reminder not to let their victories go to his head. The underground bunker, at least six of them that they had found, were nothing more than small hidden places hastily dug into the hard earth of the forest. Rocks and long, gnarly tree roots poking out of the uneven walls.

"Sure went to a lot of trouble to surprise us," Bucky said when he climbed back out of one.

"Know how to make a lady feel special, right?" Morita quipped.

"Not sure if you're serious or just making a terrible pun," Hermione replied. "But if you really like my clothes that much, you're welcome to them."

"I don't!"

"You're still wearing them is all I'm saying."

"Lady has a point, Jimmy," Dum Dum waggled his eyebrows at him. "But if you want to feel real special…"

"Oh, go fuck yourself, Dummy. Can someone please switch tents with me? I'm not going to get any shut eye tonight with that horny bastard breathing down my neck."

Steve rolled his eyes at all the drama. He got that they needed to blow off steam after the battle, but they weren't out of the woods yet, neither literally nor figuratively.

"If we're lucky, we'll find a place to stay. See if you guys can scavenge grenades for Jacques before we leave."

No doubt in good spirit because of his bulging bag of exploding devices, Jacques found them an in with a mixed group of local Belgian and French resistants close to the frontier a couple of days later. It was a welcome reprieve from the barren lands they'd just come through. However, it seemed their reputation had preceded them because they were welcomed with open arms and sometimes by name. There were even a couple of small kids there who apparently wanted to piggyback ride him as if he was the living embodiment of the Cyclone ride on Coney Island. Steve could hardly refuse when he learned they were orphaned by the war, and he made extra sure they had as much fun as possible. He loved hearing them giggle and snort like little piggies, but he had to pretend they had tired him out when the smaller one, Claude, got the hiccups from laughing too much. Hermione who had been lounging against Bucky, both laughing at his predicament, came to his rescue by making the little girl's doll float in the air instead, which kept them distracted enough as they tried to catch it. Meanwhile the resistance shared their information on German troop movements in the area. One of them in particular knew both the SS and Wehrmacht upcoming missions in suspicious detail.

"Complicated," Jacques said when Steve asked him about how they got their intel. "No angry, okay? Marcel here was one of them a few days ago."

Several of his men shot up to their feet, reaching for their weapons. Steve urged Jacques on, but pressuring him like that always made him go full French.

"Ce n'est pas sa faute. Il est Alsacien et a été forcé de rejoindre l'armée Allemande…"

"It's not his fault," Hermione began translating while Jacques gesticulated angrily as he spoke in rapid fire French. "He's Alsatian, forced to incorporate the German Army so they wouldn't deport his family, but he just learned they were sent to a working camp anyway, so he defected to find and liberate them. Wait up, Jacques. You're speaking too fast," she huffed. "Marcel gathered all the information he could before joining the resistance, at great personal risk. Many people around here will shoot a… Oh."

"What?" Steve urged.

"A Malgrés-nous. It means against our will." She lowered her voice, turning her back on Jacques so only he could hear. "He's legit, I read about them in history books. It doesn't end well for most of them, even after the war."

"So we can trust him?"

Hermione hesitated, glancing at the man in question. Steve had to admit he did look miserable to a point that would be hard to fake, but nazis were sneaky bastards who would stoop to any low.

"Well, a minority of men from Alsace-Lorraine did volunteer of their own free will, but unless we find this man's family in a forced-labour camp, it's going to be difficult to prove which category Marcel belongs to and if his intel can be trusted."

Of course nothing could ever be simple or clear cut, but the resistance had taken the man in and they were a suspicious lot if he ever met one. They even let him near the kids, so they had to be trusting him for some reason.

"Can anyone here vouch for him?" he turned to ask Jacques.

He in turn asked one of the French resistants who nodded and ran off, returning a few minutes later with a woman he'd seen on look-out duties on their way in, her rifle still stung over her back. She scowled at him, but looked at the defector with such loathing, Steve thought for sure she couldn't possibly be here to vouch for him. She began speaking, but Hermione wasn't translating, just stared at the other woman with wide eyes, so he gently nudged her.

"Sorry." She blushed, a rare feat in itself. "I don't think I can translate that. It's… uhm… insults, mostly."

Jacques chuckled.

"Very graphic."

"Sum of it: Marcel married her sister and she blames him for getting her and her kids deported, but she very reluctantly vouches for him because he's too much of a… erm… coward and… idiot… to be a spy."

Steve nodded. That was good enough for him. They would pass on most of that intel to the Colonel since it wasn't strictly Hydra-related, but the movement of large crates in big numbers, on the other hand, might be what they had been looking for. With Marcel's help, they were able to find the point of origin and the direction the convoy was taking, giving them a much better idea of where Schmidt's secret base must be located.

They were not in the right region however and it was going to take days, maybe weeks to get to the general area, unless they parachuted. He could double up with Hermione, and someone might have to double with Morita too. But if they chose that method, they would have minimal gear and be cut off from supply… Running a hand through his hair, Steve put off making a decision. He would have to run it by Phillips anyway.

Dinner was good given it was made with so little, and Steve felt bad about taking their food, especially with the two skinny kids devouring their own bowl in record time. He didn't want to be rude either so he said nothing and decided they would conveniently leave one of their own boxes of cans behind when they left. They had been very useful after all, it was the least they could do.

Not a fan of their sleeping quarters though: a large room with bunk beds stuffed against each wall.

"Feels like boot camp all over again," Morita muttered and claimed a bottom bed for himself. "Anyone tries to sleep on top will get himself a brand new arsehole. Except you, Lady. You're okay."

"I think I'll pass, thanks." Unsurprisingly, she took the bottom bed next to his. "Jim? Turn around. I'd much rather smell your morning breath than your feet."

While they got settled, Steve dismissed her top bunk since he doubted it would hold his weight, leaving it to Bucky and choosing the next bottom one over. The last bottom bunk going to Dum Dum for the same reason.

"Well, this is cosy," Falsworth said with his usual deadpan sarcasm. "No wonder your General de Gaulle is staying with us in good old England."

A pillow flew through the air, hitting its mark judging by the posh grunt of surprise.

"Yes, but your beer iz hot piss and your food iz merdique."

"Translation?"

"Shite," Hermione and Gabe said in unison. "He's not wrong," the latter continued. "But nothing beats a burger. I'd kill for a burger."

"I'd kill for an apple pie."

"And fresh coffee."

The list got more and more bizarre, especially when Falsworth mentioned something called "crumpets", but Steve couldn't help but notice he, Bucky and Hermione were the only ones silent in the matter. He didn't really need anything, Hermione probably just wanted her wand more than anything else in the world, and Bucky… well, that was a mystery. He got these quiet moments when he looked so serious and brooding no one dared interrupt him. Hermione still hadn't managed to get through to him, even though she was the only one who knew what it was to be in the hands of that demented doctor.

The next morning, everyone woke up to Morita's shrill scream.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Bucky growled in his face.

"Me? What about you? I expected to wake up seeing a beautiful lady, not your ugly mug."

Sure enough, Buck had made his way into Hermione's bed sometime during the night, which explained the lack of nightmares he'd been expecting from them, even if it made the situation a bit awkward this morning.

"I was cold," Hermione said flatly, despite it being well into spring now and them having slept through much cooler temperatures before.

Bucky was stone faced and the others shrugged before getting their things together, ready to start on another day of Hydra hurting. But Steve's gaze lingered, noting Bucky's relief and the way he hugged Hermione in gratitude. Nightmares it was, then. With a sigh, he sat up and walked over to them.

"You should have woken me up."

"You were sleeping like a baby," Bucky muttered.

"An adorable baby. You were drooling too," Hermione added before hugging his middle. Steve hastily wiped his face with one hand, but was pretty sure they were having him on. Bucky brushed off his concern, as usual, which still stung a little but he'd give it time if that was all he could do.

And they had time aplenty while they headed East on the Colonel's orders. No matter how hard they stomped down on Hydra, the cockroach that it was always popped out somewhere else, as if there was some truth to their stupid motto of cutting one head off for two more to take its place. It was a game of cat and mouse where he wasn't always sure who was chasing who, or who was even winning, if any. He wasn't the only one to feel the tedium of it, which made them careless and eventually wounded.

"According to your last reports, half your team is down," Phillips shouted over their com. It wasn't as bad as he made it sound, it was only a few grazes and the sniffles from the very rainy spring. They'd known worse. "You're no closer to finding Schmidt's base of operations and you have no more leads. We're pulling you guys out. You'll take a damn break even if it kills you."

The news was received with mixed feelings. The sentiment of failure battling with overall exhaustion, but orders were orders, so they all boarded a cargo plane, belted in against the vibrating fuselage with the roar of the engines in there ears, and yet, they all slept like logs all the way back to London.

"Wakey, wakey." The clapping of hands is what really woke them up though, but it was worth it to see Peggy standing there with a welcoming smile. "Aren't you a sorry lot. Come on, I want all of you in the infirmary for check up!"

A chorus of groggy protests rose over the din of the heavy rain whipping the plane and tarmac.

"So it's true, it's always raining in England," Dum Dum said while Gabe sneezed loudly.

"Bless you," Peggy said and handed him her umbrella. "The sooner you do it, the sooner you'll be out. Building 2A, straight ahead. Don't worry about the rain, you'll hit the showers as soon as you enter. Hermione, you're with me."

Steve nodded at Peggy gratefully and walked out with Bucky while Hermione was cursing the buckles she had somehow managed to get her curls tangled into. Knowing Peggy, she was probably going to cut right through the belts to set her free. Steve trusted her to take care of his girl while he kept an eye on Bucky. He'd seemed happy to go to London, but completely shut down at the mention of the infirmary, so he thought it might be because of what the Hydra doctor had done to him. In any case, he wasn't letting him out of his sight.

As he'd feared, communal showers. He wasn't surprised, there was no such thing as privacy in the army, but he still hated them, even looking like he did now. Very useful to keep an eye on Buck though, even if it was difficult not to get an eyeful. Bucky himself wasn't being so coy and was staring, but he supposed he would too in his stead after how much he'd changed. Steve knew he was blushing, but he raised his eyebrows in challenge and Bucky smirked. He knew full well what he was doing, the little punk. Fortunately, everyone filed out to the next room, so it didn't look like he was fleeing. That was not the impression he wanted to give at all.

"Here," Bucky said, handing him one of the towels. "You're making all of us feel inadequate."

"Speak for yourself, Barns. I've never had any complaints," Dum Dum said.

"Why do we have to go through this?" Morita whined. "It's fucking freezing. I just wanted a nice, warm bed getting here. Was that too much to ask?"

"We've been crawling through Hydra's secret bases for months," Falsworth replied placidly. "You really think they're just going to release us amongst civilian population without checking we haven't been contaminated by one of their bizarre lab experiments."

"I think I'd know if I had smallpox or something." Morita looked at the others and Gabe sneezed again. "Right?"

"Thanks, Falsworth," Bucky snarled. "We're all feeling a whole lot better now."

Steve slung an arm over his shoulder because tense as he was right now, he wouldn't have been surprised if Bucky resorted to fists to settle the matter

"Don't listen to him, Buck. It's just procedure, and it's a good thing too, because we've been patching each other up these last months and Gabe obviously needs some medication for his cold."

"Do nob," Gabe muttered, his nose dripping.

"Gotta admit I'm not feeling so hot," Morita said and he did look kind of pale, but Steve thought that had just been from having a good scrub with actual soap and hot water. Morita glared at Gabe. "I blame you."

"Be? Jacques wab coubhing well bebore be."

"What? I can't hear you through all the snot."

"Wait," Steve said. "Is there anyone here who isn't feeling sick?"

Only Dum Dum and Bucky raised a hand. They all looked at Falsworth in surprise.

"I thought you were a robot," Morita told him, earning himself an eye-roll from the British man.

"Just because I don't whine about it…"

A nurse walked in and beckoned them to follow while Steve wondered if they would actually be able to enjoy the city. How had he not noticed all of them getting sick? Had he been so obsessed chasing after Schmidt that he hadn't paid enough attention to his men? Had he pushed them too hard? And what about Hermione?

He caught a passing nurse to ask her, but she very pointedly told him she couldn't disclose personal information outside of family.

"She has no family," he snapped. "She only has us."

The nurse shrugged.

"Just following protocol. The doctor will see you now."

In the end, only he and Buck were cleared to go. Dum Dum, as it turned out, was running a fever, even if he said he felt fine, but he said the same when he got grazed by a bullet so he should have known better.

Hermione was out for the count as well and was already asleep in one of the infirmary's beds by the time they were allowed to visit.

"Did I ask too much of you guys? Should I have asked for leave sooner?" Steve asked Bucky.

"Hey, no pal. It's not like that. If we'd wanted a break, don't you think we would have asked for one? We all wanted to keep going before winter set in."

Bucky stepped closer, put a hand on his arm.

"She'll be fine. The others too. You heard the doc, it's just a bad cold and they're only keeping them so it doesn't get worse. You remember what it's like."

Steve did. It was so easy to get a chill and end up near death with a bad case of pneumonia. He didn't want that to happen to any of his friends. Just because he couldn't get sick anymore… Jeez, he was a terrible leader.

"Come on, Stevie. Cheer up. The others will give us flack if they learn we just moped about their sick beds instead of enjoying the city."

"I know, I know. I just don't really feel like it."

Bucky leaned closer, his head resting against his bicep.

"I think I have an idea that'll cheer everyone up," he said and pulled him away by the arm from Hermione's bed.

Steve had no idea what he was on about, but he had his old smile back, the one that always melted his heart and made him promise anything, even not to fight bullies in back alleys, not that he could always help it, but he tried at least. So he followed Buck around London, a bit confused at first, until he realized he was buying every single item the guys had been talking about missing that night in the resistance hidey hole, even the crumpets, which, it turned out, was some sort of small pancake full of holes.

"What should we get Hermione? She never asks for anything."

"Tea," Steve said instantly, not even having to give it a second thought.

She never asked and had stopped looking for any a long time ago, but she did bemoan the fact with Falsworth on many a cold night. When they left the shop, they probably brought enough that she'd be able to bath in it if she wanted to, but it was nice to splurge for once, both on their girl and their friends. God knew they all deserved it.

When they returned to Hermione's room, his heart skipped a beat at finding her bed empty, because in his experience, that was never good news. He stopped a nurse strolling by who told them with a sour look that she was slumming it in the men's room, implying she was some sort of harlot or something. For a moment there, Steve thought Bucky was going to slug the woman, but he seemed content to see her flinch back when he snarled at her. Steve gave her his most disappointed look and ran after Bucky who had stalked down the hall towards the men's ward, the packages stacked high in his arms wobbling dangerously. He kicked the doors open since his hands were busy and everyone froze.

"Whab be-"

"Fucking hell?"

"Cap? Buck? That you hiding behind those packages?"

"Ho, ho, ho. No, you dimwits. It's Santa fucking Claus," Bucky muttered.

"Sorry to break it to ya, Barns, but it's not even close to Christmas."

"Yeah and we missed the fat man last time around, so merry fucking Christmas to you all."

Steve chuckled at Bucky's grumpy Father Christmas impression and dropped everything on the closest bed. Leave it to Bucky to sound like he had been dragged into this when he'd been the one to organize it all. He'd always been too generous by half. Everyone seemed to cheer up instantly, and Hermione jumped in Bucky's arms when he handed her the tea.

"Catnip," Morita laughed.

In this case, it probably applied to Bucky as much as the tea.

It took three days for most everyone to be cleared, except for Gabe and Hermione who had it worse than the others. Steve and Bucky stayed with them during all that time, running errands, distracting them or just wiping their foreheads when the fever hit too hard. Bucky tried to hide how worried he got when Hermione slept too long, face flushed and sweating like she'd been running, but Steve knew that expression too well from the times he'd taken care of him. Guy was a real mother hen when be wanted to be and all his newfound grumpiness could not convince the team otherwise now. Steve was glad everyone saw past it. Even after everything, even after Bucky had lost his easy smile and outgoing personality, people still gravitated around him like moths to a flame. It made him hope everything would be alright for him in the future, that whatever Hydra had done to him, they hadn't managed to destroy the core of him.