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Béatrice and Alexander quickly made their way to a building on the edge of Camp McCoy. As they walked, the short conversation with Private Barnes stayed with her. Americans had always fascinated her for some reason. Their customs, their culture, and the way they spoke always were a curious its. They were so different than her own native country and no two Americans she met were exactly the same. Private Barnes fell under this observation. He was different. Confident, cocky, but in a strange way open and kind.

Alexander on the other hand still seemed to be fuming about him causing her to smile somewhat. She was convinced that he was still debating over whether or not to go back and punch Private Barnes. He had no reason to, but he just wanted to because he was worried. He didn't want anyone to take advantage of her. He was very protective of her. He always had been. It made her happy and pleased to know that someone was looking out for her despite who she was.

The two of them eventually reached their destination. A cabin towards the end of camp. It was heavily guarded by a number of officers. As she walked up the steps, she felt uneasy at the sight of their guns. She knew they were only doing their job, but being German, it made her nervous. Alexander held open the door for her and followed her inside as she entered the building. Inside was a very large desk and sitting at it was Colonel Matthews.

"Faust. Captain" he acknowledged the two of them standing up. "Miss Faust, if you will." He motioned for her to sit down. She had done this so many times, she could do it in her sleep. She sat down in front of the desk and pulled out the letter from her father. The one that was marked was the one her hand went for. Opening it up, she read it and grabbed a pen.

Colonel Matthews looked down at her and attempted to see the letter. He was curious like everyone about the German girl who was helping them. He wasn't thrilled that she was a woman or German or the fact that he was basically babysitting her, but his superior officers were insistent and there was no stopping it. He moved closer to see what the girl was frantically writing on a nearby sheet of paper.

"Don't hover over here, sir" McPherson suddenly spoke. "She doesn't like when people do that. She'll read it out loud once she's done."

Matthews looked up at the captain and rolled his eyes slightly. He began to tap his foot impatiently as the girl continued to frantically write. Occasionally, the room would hear the muttering of a German word or two, but since all but two people in the room spoke German, no one knew what was being said.

What seemed like forever, Alexander watched as Béatrice sat down the pen. She picked up the piece of paper, she had been frantically writing on and took a deep breath.

"First, my father says that Hitler is planning to move more troops to Italy to assist their Army" she began. "There's no set number yet, but he should know in due time. The rumor is around 5,000. Secondly, there is talk of an experiment that HYDRA is frantically working on. He doesn't know details, only that it's failing and all the men they have tested it on have died. Lastly, there is another air attack on Britain planned for next Tuesday in London."

The entire room went silent at the new found information. Matthews eye's rose. He was officially impressed and he didn't think he would be. Agent Faust looked at him, handing him the piece of paper.

"Colonel Phillips will be pleased with this information" he only said as he took the piece of paper.

Alexander smirked at the colonel. Once again, his friend had made believers out of doubters. She was good at what she did and no one would ever be able to deny it. He saw as she turned to him and he winked at her. Another successful message decoded and another step toward winning the war had been taken.

Bucky was awoken bright and early the next morning. Sleep still did not come easy to him. There were too many things running through his mind. He was worried about Steve. He hoped he was okay and staying out of trouble. He still wished his best friend could have joined him. He already was finding himself missing Brooklyn. The next thing that plagued his mind was Agent Faust. There was a growing sense of fascination when it came to her.

During his morning jog, many of the other recruits were still fighting over why she was there and who she was. He made it a point not to comment on it or even explain that he had spoken to her. She didn't seem to like the unwanted attention that came with being a German, so he figured he'd keep their conversation between the two of them. He enjoyed talking to her. She was a breath of fresh air. Not like the other girls he had ever spoken with. She was different. He was very curious.

There were times throughout the morning that he would see Captain McPherson. Bucky found himself looking for Agent Faust, however, she was not with him at all during the morning. He felt slightly disappointed over the fact, but then kicked himself wondering why he felt such disappointment. He didn't know her. He didn't know her at all. He didn't even know her first name. How could he feel disappointment with someone he had barely any information about?

It wasn't until lunch time that he actually saw her again. She was in the mess hall sitting at a table with Captain McPherson. Bucky wondered how close the two of them were. Were they just friends or more? He seemed extremely protective over her the night before and he could have sworn he had asked Agent Faust if she wanted him to punch him. Perhaps he was her boyfriend and he didn't want anyone coming in on his territory. Still, if they were together, they didn't act like it. She didn't look at him the way he was used to girls looking at him. Either there was a new look he was unaware of or they were an incredibly boring couple who lacked passion.

"You keep frowning like that and you're going to get a lot of wrinkles" he heard a voice suddenly speak, snapping him out of his thoughts. He turned to see another recruit sitting down next to him. Joe Harrington was from Virginia, a farmer and married. The two of them were bunk buddies and while Joe was nice, he could read people a little too easily. "You're staring at her again. She's not going anywhere. I heard a rumor she's here for around the same time we are."

"Doesn't matter to me" Bucky shrugged in response.

"Obviously" Joe rolled his eyes, picking up a knife to peal an apple. "Clearly that's why you keep staring at her or looking for her."

"I'm just interested" he looked at him. "Like everyone else."

Joe shook his head. "No, you have a very different interest my friend."

Bucky took a deep breath and took a bite of food on his plate. "I'm just curious about her that's all."

"Bucky I'm going to give you some advice" Joe began taking a bite of his apple. "That's always how it starts. Meet a girl who barely tells you anything about herself. You get curious about said girl and make it your mission to get to know her. In the process you fall madly in love with said girl and maybe she does too or doesn't. You have two outcomes: happiness or your ass gets dumped."

"I don't see how that's advice" Bucky frowned in response, almost smirking.

"Oh, the advice is in there. You just have to look" Joe replied as a few more men sat down around them.

"What are we talking about" one them, a man named Edgar Samson asked.

"Oh, just Barnes over here's got a little growing crush on our German visitor" Joe shrugged looking between Samson and Bucky.

Bucky rolled his eyes in response. "Don't you think you're getting ahead of yourself there?"

"Don't you think you're a little out of your league?" Samson interjected. "She's technically a superior officer. I don't know how, but she is and I bet you somewhere in that one-hundred plus page handbook, there's a rule about not dating superior officers."

"Is there something in there about dating Germans?" Johnson glared slightly sitting down. "Don't do it Barnes. Out of all the girls I'm sure you could get at home, don't go for the enemy here."

Bucky began to ignore their comments. He didn't want to hear it anymore. If he heard Johnson make one more comment about how she was a German, he'd probably punch him. He looked back over to where Agent Faust and Captain McPherson were sitting. The two of them were eating in silence, but looked as though they were in deep thought.

Alexander tapped his fingers on the mess hall table and looked outside the window. Béatrice sat silently as she ate her lunch. His mind was going over the previous night's message. There was one part of it that made him curious. HYDRA's experiments. It had been the first that they had heard of any new experiments to his knowledge that was. It was possible that the SSR knew something that neither of them didn't, but still he would think they would have more than this.

"It just doesn't make any sense to me" he suddenly spoke looking at the German. "What could they be testing?"

"Your guess is as good as mine" Béatrice answered looking up at him. "Maybe Peggy or Phillips will know what it means."

Alexander nodded in agreement and sighed. "But why would he be using his own German soldiers? Why not use Jews? At this rate, Hitler's going to lose the bloody war because HYDRA's killing all of them for some science experiment. Can you explain his logic?"

The brunette took a deep breath. "Jew blood is dirty blood to the Third Reich. Hitler wouldn't want to have a successful experiment because of a Jew, now would he? Besides, extermination is now the priority. They are too busy trying to build those camps. They want to kill them all and on their terms."

The blonde saw the look of sadness on his friend's face. He knew fully that she had Jewish friends that she was close to. She had been worried about them for months. Receiving the knowledge of the extermination plan, plagued her thoughts. He knew she was feeling useless. She wanted to be in Europe saving as many as possible.

"It'll be okay" Alexander told her softly. "We'll end this one way or another."

She only nodded her head in response and looked back down at her food. He looked up and frowned slightly. Private Barnes, the one he wanted to punch from the night before for just talking to Béatrice was staring at the pair. Mostly staring at her. He looked at the soldier closely. He had yet to notice that he knew he was being watched. The look on his face was familiar. He knew that look alright. It was the second time today that he had seen him looking in his direction. He had seen it this morning while looking over the recruits. He was interested in a certain dark-haired German sitting in front of him.

Béatrice noticed the intense stare in her friend's eyes. "What?" she spoke up

"He's staring at you again" the blonde smirked slightly at her. Béatrice frowned and turned her head around. Behind her she saw Private Barnes looking directly at him. Others were as well, but he was the one who had yet to give up looking at her. The private's eyes suddenly realized he was being looked at as well, but he didn't give up staring at her. He gave her a small smile, which caused her to feel her cheeks go warm.

"You know this morning I was watching him train with the other recruits. Every time I was around, I think he was looking for you to show up" she heard Alexander speak.

"They're all staring at me actually" she said as she turned her head back towards him, shaking whatever she was feeling. "He's not that special."

Alexander shrugged slightly. "Yeah, but he's the only one who's not looking at you like you're a piece of meat or some traitor. Obviously, you made quite the impression on him last night. What did you all talk about?"

The brunette shrugged in response, looking down at her plate. "Nothing worth mentioning or that was significant." She looked up at her friend and stared at him curiously, wondering about his change of attitude. "Why do you care? Last night you wanted to punch him. Is that still not an offer?"

Alexander's eyes narrowed and he smirked at her. "I don't know, it's kind of entertaining. Seeing you this way. You're on edge." Béatrice shot him a glare in response. "Well more so than usual that is" the blonde smiled slightly. "All this unwanted attention on you from one man in particular. I'm excited to see where this goes."

Béatrice stared at him silently and frowned in confusion at him. "I'm not understanding where you're going with this."

Her friend groaned in frustration. "Oh, come on Béatrice" he huffed shaking his head. "You can't be that naive. He's curious about you obviously. I'd say someone was developing a little crush."

Béatrice's face of confusion soon turned into a face of an angry glare. The look only caused Alexander to burst out laughing and shook his head at her. She clearly was not amused by his joke at all. "Come on, someone having a crush on you isn't a bad thing. Besides at least you'll have something nice to look at when you're here. Well besides me that is. I'd offer myself, but Evelyn of course."

Béatrice continued to glare at him and crossed her arms. "You're ridiculous" she muttered.

"You know what's horrible? How you're handling this. That's horrible. Most women would be losing their minds over a man like that giving them attention" the blonde shot back to him.

"Give me strength " she sighed in response. "I'm not like most women though."

"Probably why he likes you" he smirked at her again. Before she could respond however, a young solider approached the two of them at the table.

"Agent Faust" he greeted nodding his head gently at her before turning his attention to Alexander. "Captain McPherson, I apologize for interrupting your lunch, but Colonel Matthews has requested to see you."

Alexander frowned slightly and looked over at Béatrice. She nodded her head and motioned for him to go. "I'll catch up with you later" she told him. He nodded his head at her and got up, following the soldier out of the mess hall. However, her eyes once again stopped as they made their way back towards her own table. Private Barnes's eyes were still fixed on her. She turned her head quickly and stood up, making her way through the mess hall. However, the moment she began to leave, almost immediately Private Barnes stood up to follow her.

As Bucky watched Béatrice look over at him and quickly get up, involuntarily he did the same. He didn't know what overcame of him.

"Oh, look boys there he goes" Joe laughed at Bucky's quick movements. "Shall we start taking bets on how this will end?"

He ignored the comments as he made his way to the doors. He probably looked crazy following the German girl, but he couldn't help it. His curiosity was getting the best of him in this moment. Once he made it out of the mess hall, he could see her from a distance. He took a deep breath and walked quickly to catch up to her. He saw her turn a corner at a building.

Slowing down, he made his way around the corner and frowned. She was gone. It was impossible. He had just seen her turn here. He let out a slight laugh and shook his head. Turning around, he suddenly jumped at the presence behind him. It was Agent Faust with a cigarette in hand.

"You're following me" she eyed him closely.

"No, I'm not" he quickly replied which only caused her to look at him in disbelief. "Well...yes, but I just wanted to say hello."

"Hello then" Agent Faust took another puff of her cigarette before turning a heel to walk off.

"You know for someone who was supposed to be observing operations, you're not really do a good job of it" he blurted out.

His comment caused her to stop, sigh, and roll her eyes. In her head, she was silently cursing Alexander. Perhaps he was right. Actually, he was right. Barnes was curious about her and at this rate didn't seem as though he was going to leave her alone anytime soon. "I had some other work to attend to" she said as she turned back to face him.

Bucky raised his eyebrows at her and smirked. "What kind of work?"

"It's classified. It's above your pay grade currently Private Barnes" she looked at him.

He smiled and walked closer to her. "Private Barnes is a little formal. Call me James."

She frowned and pushed her lips together. "It's not really proper" she protested shaking her head.

"Well it's not really proper for a German to be working for the Americans" he responded. His eyes suddenly went wide as to what he said. That's not what he wanted to say at all. What was wrong with him?" I'm sorry that did not come out the way I wanted it to. I didn't mean to offend you" he continued quickly.

"No, I'm not offended" she gave him a small smile. "You're quite right actually. I quite agree how strange it is for me to be involved in all this. I, myself, find it very strange. However, that doesn't mean I can just go around breaking protocol."

He felt himself breathe a sigh of relief. He hadn't scared her off just yet. However, he mentally was yelling at himself for being so nervous and babbling. He was better than this. He didn't fall at the feet of women; it was them who would. "I understand" he quietly replied.

She looked to the right of her, taking a puff of cigarette in her hand and blowing out smoke before looking back over at him. "Did you get some sleep last night?"

"Not really" he shook his head. "Couldn't get comfortable and just kept tossing and turning. Couldn't get my mind to relax."

"You have something on your mind?" she asked tilting her head.

He nodded his head. "Yeah I got a buddy of mine back home in Brooklyn. He wasn't eligible to serve. I'm just worried about him being on his own for a few weeks."

Agent Faust looked at him and smiled once more. It was clear he missed whoever his friend was. He was loyal. "You're a good friend. He's lucky to have you" she nodded at him slightly.

Bucky put his hands in his pocket and suddenly something came to his mind. He hadn't planned on particularly asking what had popped into his head, but now seemed as good as any. "Can I ask you to be honest with me about something?"

Agent Faust frowned at him slightly. "I guess" she nodded.

He took a deep breath. "How bad is it over there? Hitler. What's it like?"

"It's hell" she blurted out almost instantly. Her face fell and she took a deep breath. She wasn't surprised by his question. She should have, but she wasn't. "Hitler's turned Germany into a place I no longer recognize. It's not the Germany I grew up with and love. He's twisted and manipulated so many people. How he is able to is..."

"How many people have you lost?" he interjected.

She felt herself freeze over the question. How many people had she lost? There was a number, but it was possible it was more. The more she thought about it, the more her heart began to ache. It should have never had come to this. Lives should have never been lost. She looked directly at Private Barnes. "Too many" she finally managed to get out.

Bucky noticed the change in her demeanor. He clearly struck a nerve with her. Part of him wanted her to elaborate on who she had lost and how. Hell, he just wanted to know everything. How did a young German woman like her end up in Wisconsin of all places? How did she end up working for the Americans? There was more to her than met the eye. Last night was evident of that. The mysterious weather report she was pulled away to go take care of. What was that about?

However, another part of him wondered why he cared so much. She was just another dame. He had plenty of more attainable women who would be open and honest with him in Brooklyn. Was it because she was so unattainable, so secretive that he felt the need to be looking out for her or following her?

He looked at her and took a moment to take her in. He had been looking at her countless times, but this time, he really wanted to see all of her. Her petite frame was held up by a sense of confidence that anyone could clearly see. She wasn't afraid to hold her own. She had spirit and he liked that a lot. Her dark, curly hair framed her face almost perfectly. Her skin was almost the color of porcelain. When she smiled, a dimple of the side of her cheek appeared. If she had been another dame in Brooklyn, she probably would have been someone who would have caught his eye. Her eyes. Her eyes were probably what drew him in the most. The dark brown made them pop heavily. However, there was something so different about them. Her eyes were sad. Almost as she had seen a lot and wanted nothing more than to forget everything.

Béatrice noticed him eyeing curiously. She began to feel uncomfortable almost. It was like he was sizing her up or trying to grasp every secret she ever had. She began to open her mouth to ask if he was alright, but as she did the sound of a very loud bugle stopped her. It was the signal for all the recruits to return to their respective areas to continue training. "That's your cue. Might want to go. Some of the sergeants enjoy making recruits do push-ups for no reason" she smirked at him.

He groaned after hearing that. He had already done more than enough push-ups to last a life time, but he knew he still would have more to do "I suppose I'll see you around?"

"Perhaps" Agent Faust shrugged at him crossing her arms and moving the cigarette to her mouth. Bucky smirked at her before turning to leave. He didn't say anything else to her and just walked away. He didn't want to be punished for being late, but he knew he wouldn't push when he would see Agent Faust again. He knew good and well that her "perhaps" was a yes. He couldn't prove it, but something told him that this wouldn't be his last time speaking with her. Besides, he still hadn't gotten her first name. It was now his mission to do so.

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