Hey everyone. Just wanted to thank everyone who's read the story so far. I've gotten a ton of positive feedback and am so grateful. You guys rock. Anyway here's the next chapter. Sorry about the delay but better late than never right? Don't forget to read and review. Enjoy :)
Turns out the 107th were captured thirty miles behind enemy lines. If I didn't regret my choice in shoes when I put them on in Geneva I definitely do now. My blisters have blisters. Throughout our entire walk back to camp Bucky was practically attached to my hip. The only time he left me was when he had to go do some business behind some bushes.
About an hour into our trek back to camp we had to stop. One of the soldiers had gotten injured in during the escape and hadn't told anyone. No one noticed until it was too late and he had collapsed.
I was in my own head trying to find a good way to prove that I wasn't insane and was actually from the future. The Nazi's believed me but most of them took mythology way to literally and were insane.
I was snapped out of my little bubble when someone shouted "We need a medic over here. Please someone help!"
I looked over to where the yelling was coming from. There was a man well more like a boy he looked to be around my age. There was someone on the ground next to him. Bucky had gone with Steve to look at a map and see how far away we were from camp. I got up from where I was sitting and walked over to them.
"Hey what's wrong?"
"My brother, we were walking and he was okay. I turned around for one second and then he was on the ground. Can you help us?"
"Yeah help me get him on his back." He did and then he asked. "Are you a nurse?"
"No I'm a medical student." I checked his vitals and noticed his heartbeat was erratic. His breathing was slowing down. "Was he hit on the chest sometime during the escape?"
He thought about it for a minute before he said, "No but a while before one of the guards did kick him a few times on the ribs."
I unbuttoned his top shirt and checked his ribs and yup there it is, a broken rib. Shit, judging by his uneven breathing and erratic heartbeat, the rib punctured a lung.
"What's your name?"
"Eugene Mills, Ma'am."
"Okay Eugene, I need you to get a knife or something that can help me make a small cut and a hollow tube, like a straw or something like that."
"yes, Ma'am." He responds. He gets up and runs to another group of soldiers to ask around. I focus on making sure he doesn't have any other injuries that may cause other problems.
Eugene comes back shortly and with Bucky. "Doll what are you doing?"
"Saving a man's life. Pass me the knife." I ask.
Eugene hands me a Swiss army knife. I press my fingers on his abdomen and find the gap in between two of his ribs. I take the knife and make an incision. Then I take the makeshift straw he managed to find and stick it in the cut. A bit of blood spurt out but then came the distinct sound of air blowing out. The unconscious man let out a deep breath.
"Okay he's stable. Be careful not to jostle him too much. The guards who beat him broke a rib, which punctured his lung. The pressure started building up making it hard for him to breathe. The straw allowed some of the air to flow out and relieve the pressure. He should be fine for now." Eugene and Bucky just stared at me with their mouths open wide.
"What? Do I have something on my face?"
Eugene is the first to snap out of it. He stands up and gives me a hug, "Thank you, Thank you so much you saved my brother's life." I just pat his back.
"It's no problem, if for whatever reason he starts to spurt blood from the straw let me know immediately." I say before standing up and walking back to where I was sitting. Bucky just follows me silently.
"You're amazing. How did you learn to do that?" He asks.
"Like I told you before I was in medical school. Besides that I interned at a community clinic. It didn't happen often but we did have a few emergency walk ins." I say with a shrug.
"You really know what you're doing." He says. I guess he finally got proof that something I told him wasn't a lie.
"I guess I am. How's everything? We getting any closer?" I ask
"Uh yeah we should get there in a couple of hours or so."
"That's good. How's Steve?" I ask. As soon as we had started walking Steve kept his distance. He hadn't said a word to me since he got Bucky and I out of the lab.
"He's over there, if you want to talk to him." He says.
"He's probably busy, I'll talk to him later." I say.
"Seriously? You too? That's it." He grabs my hands and leads me towards Steve.
"Bucky what are you…"
"We're going to clear the air. We've been through a crazy couple of days and through way too many things to have to deal with all of this awkwardness. The Punk is too worried you'll reject him and you're all pensive and stuck in your head. Something's bugging you and we're going to deal with it right now."
"It can wait, we can deal with…"
"Nora, we're doing this now." He gives me a look that tells me there's no way out of this.
"Okay." I relent. Sometimes you've got to pick your battles. And either way I'm going to have to deal with this sooner or later. Pretty sure he's going to think I'm insane.
When Steve sees Bucky he smiles but when he sees me his smile seems more tense and forced.
"Hey Buck…" Steve starts before Bucky interrupts.
"Shut it, both of you sit down and listen." We both just stay standing until he gives us a glare and we relent.
"You're avoiding each other. Why?" He asks.
"I don't know what you're getting at. We're not avoiding each other I've just been busy." Steve answers.
"Right, Nora you've hardly said a word since we escaped. What's going on in that head of yours?" He asks.
Do I tell him the truth or do I lie. Can't really lie to him. He can read me really well for someone who just met me. "Nothing. It's just been a pretty crazy couple of days. Just tired and starving but that's pretty much anyone here." Deflection.
"Tell him." He says.
"Tell him what?" I reply. He can't seriously be asking me to tell him. I doubt he believed me when I told him.
"Tell me what?" Steve just looks at both of us confused.
"You know. How you ended up captured by Hydra? Your Birth Date? All of that." Bucky says.
"He's going to think I'm insane." I reply.
"It's been a pretty crazy day Nora. At this point anything is possible." Bucky retorts.
"I guess I should start the same way I started with you." I say before turning to Steve. "Okay, so as you've probably guessed by now I'm not from around here. And when I say I'm not from around here I meant this time."
"You're not from this time?" He says giving me a confused look.
"My Birth date is November 8th 1992. I'm from the future."
Steve just stares at me trying to figure out if I'm telling the truth or if this is just a prank Bucky is trying to pull on him. I guess he could tell from the looks on our faces that we weren't lying because he then asks, "If you're from the future, how did you end up in a Hydra Prison in 1943?"
"I honestly have no idea. One minute I was in the middle of a presentation about antineutrinos in Geneva. Everything started to malfunction and then there was this bright light." That's when I start to think about how that bright light appeared again briefly when Zola injected me with the serum and how the stone on the bracelet had vanished after I saw that green light. "When the light finally disappeared I was in a hallway of the Hydra prison. They found me, knocked me out, and the rest you already know. They caught my mysterious appearance on camera. That's why Zola was so interested in using me as a lab rat. They were trying to figure out how I did it."
"That explains the file." Steve says.
"What file?" Bucky and I ask at the same time.
"One of the guys grabbed a bunch of files on their way out. They thought it could have some information on the location of other bases so an attack could be planned later on. There was a file on you. I read part of it but it didn't make sense until now." Steve says. "I have a question though, it's on a different subject. Your last name is Stark right?"
"Yeah," I ask confused on where he's going with this.
"Any relation to Howard Stark?" He says.
"Yes, He's my grandfather. Why do you ask?" I say.
"You reminded me of someone when I saw you. Didn't really put it together until I saw you make that face while you were thinking" He says.
"I make a face?"
"Yeah its cute." He says shyly.
"You think I'm cute?" I say giving him a flirty smile. I see Bucky out of the corner of just looking at our interaction.
Steve starts to blush. "UH not cute… Not that you aren't cute but you're a beautiful girl, I meant dame, no lady."
At this point I can't help but laugh and so does Bucky. Steve is completely flustered his face and ears are red. "Thanks Handsome you're not so bad yourself." I say giving him a smile. That makes him blush even more. He is so adorable. Bucky can't stop laughing.
"Doll if you had done that when he was smaller you probably would have caused him to have an asthma attack." Bucky says with a chuckle.
"Shut up Jerk." Steve tells Bucky.
We all laugh at that.
"I told you." Bucky said to Steve.
"Told him what?" I ask.
"The punk here thought you'd reject him."
"Why would you think that?" I gave him a look of confusion.
"Well you two seemed practically attached to the hip since I found you I thought you only wanted him."
"I thought you didn't want anything to do with me." I said.
"Of course I want to be with you too. We've been waiting for you since our marks first appeared."
"You should have said something. I was over there thinking how the hell I was going to tell you all this considering you seem to hate me and you probably would think I was insane and would have me committed the first chance you got." I said.
"That's what you were so nervous about?" Bucky says.
"Uh yeah."
"Damn it Nora." He walks towards me and pulls me into a hug. He kisses the top of my head before saying, "I told you before we're a package deal, and that includes you now. You're stuck with us. We're not going anywhere." Steve comes up and wraps his arms around both of us. "He's right. We spent way too much time waiting for you to let you go without a fight." We stay like that for about a minute before we finally let go of each other.
"We better start moving" Steve says. "I wish my transponder didn't get broken we could have called for someone to come and get us instead of having to walk. I'm sure Agent Carter is going to be mad."
"Agent Carter? As in Peggy Carter?"
"Yes. Do you know her?"
"Not for another sixty years give or take." I muttered. I had visited Peggy a few times over the years. I stopped by about a month ago to visit her. I wonder if she knew. Wait who am I kidding she's a spy. Keeping secrets is her job. Of course she knew.
"We should be back at camp in a few hours." Steve says.
"Then lets get moving." Bucky says.
We walked for about four hours before we finally made it. I still haven't figured out how I'm going to explain how I got there without anyone thinking I'm insane but if worse comes to worse there's the Hydra file and my cell phone which I managed to snag on the way out of the lab without Bucky or Steve noticing.
We walk into the camp and everyone is just staring at us, not believing that we were actually there. Everyone just stood there for a while. The medic approached Eugene and his brother almost immediately. Steve walked towards an older man who I'm going to assume was Colonel Chester Philips. He also worked with Peggy and Grandpa Howard.
"Some of these men need medical attention. Sir, I'd like to surrender myself for disciplinary action." He says.
The colonel responds, "That won't be necessary."
A woman who I assume to be a younger Peggy Carter then tells Steve, "You're late."
He shows her the broken transponder, "Couldn't call my ride."
"Doll?" Bucky says getting my attention. "Hmm" "You want to go get checked out?" He asks.
"I'll go when you go." I say giving him a small smile.
"Are you sure?" He asks looking me over to make sure there's nothing visibly wrong that I may not have told him.
"Yeah I'm good, just tired. Let them deal with the more serious cases first."
"Okay but you are going." He says.
"Of course and so are you." I say.
He gives me another hug and kisses my head. He keeps his arm around me. Steve turns around and gives us a smile. That's when Bucky shouts, "Hey, Let's hear it for Captain America." Everyone around us cheers loudly.
After Steve gave Peggy all the files and a recap of everything that happened the three of us got something to eat. To say Bucky and I almost ate an entire days rations in one sitting each would be an understatement.
"We're all going back to London the day after tomorrow. The majority of the 107th is getting an honorable discharge. They're heading home." Steve says.
"That's good, they deserve it after everything." I say.
"Did you two go get checked out already?" Steve asks.
Bucky and I try to avoid his gaze. We both knew we had to go but were waiting for the other to bring it up. What can I say after being stuck in a Nazi lab being poked and prodded for their sick experiments I really didn't feel like having to undergo more medical procedures.
"Really? Both of you get up and go now!" Steve demanded.
"We were going to go after…" I start to say.
"Now!" Steve tells us both.
Bucky stands up and helps me up, "Come on Doll, He's not going to drop this. Let's get this over with." I could feel how much he was shaking even though he was trying to be strong for me.
I gently squeeze his hand, "It's going to be okay" I tell him before I stand on my toes and kiss his cheek. He takes a deep breath and gives me a small smile when before we walked in to the medical tent.
We tell them we need to get checked over since we were rescued from a Hydra base and they separate us.
A nurse came in and took my vitals and checked my breathing. Just a routine physical. Then she had to take a blood sample, something about a new protocol. I flinch when she stuck the needle in and was shaking the entire time. After that she was done. She gave me a clean bill of health.
I left the tent and Bucky was waiting with Steve.
"Everything Okay?" Steve asked.
"Yeah, clean bill of health" I say. "You?" I ask Bucky.
"Same. I told the punk he had nothing to worry about." He said.
"I was just making sure. Better safe than sorry." Steve says.
"So what now?" I ask.
"How about a card game?" Bucky says pulling out a deck of cards from his pocket.
"Sure."
Third Person's POV- Two days later
Colonel Chester Philips thought that Doctor Abraham Erskine had made the wrong choice when he chose a ninety pound asthmatic to be the recipient of the serum that was supposed to turn the tide of the war but boy was he proven wrong. Steve Rogers had not only taken down an entire Hydra base outnumbered and "Outmatched" but he had also managed to save every prisoner taken in Azzano.
Everyone thought that the serum was the only contribution Erskine made to the Strategic Scientific Reserve, but that was not the case. In order to study the effects of the serum on DNA Erskine developed a method to analyze and compare certain genetic markers. With this technique not only could he see what changes needed to be made he could actually identify a person. It was for that reason that the SSR had recently implemented that every person that worked for them had to provide a sample. And it was also why soldiers who had blood taken also had a record with them. In the event they need to verify the identity of unknown bodies. Another thing that was done with these records was that they were compared with what was already on record to find other family members to be notified in the event of a death.
It was for this very reason he was now staring at a file his head medical examiner had just handed him and asking for every possible explanation. How could the army's number one weapon's contractor, who was not married, had no children and only be in his twenties, be a grandfather to an eighteen-year-old girl?
"There has to be some mistake." He told his subordinate.
"There isn't sir."
"Run it again." He ordered.
"Sir, we ran the test five times and got the exact same result. We checked the records and got three opinions. There is no mistake."
"How is this possible?"
"I don't know sir."
"Thank you doctor, you're dismissed. Oh and don't tell anyone about this."
"Yes sir." He said before walking out of his office.
"Private call Howard Stark and tell him to meet me in my office as soon as possible." The colonel told his secretary.
"Right away sir."