Thanks for reading this far :) Leave comments if you have constructive criticism or general criticism, either works. I just like to know someone read my work and had an opinion.

I ran down the steps to meet Rose at the bus doors, more than excited to tell her about my weekend.

"You won't believe what happened at the convention! Mr. Stark invited me and you to his lab tomorrow-"

She held out a white envelope for me, making my excitement come screeching to a halt. The expression on her face was apologetic and somber.

"Steve wanted to give this to you." She explained quietly, still holding it out for me. "I saw him at the camp where they keep new recruits-"

"No, he can't." My heart raced in my chest while I stared at the white envelope, doing everything in my power not to slap it out of her hands and stomp on it. "Steve's…No, he's not able to. He's got bad lungs and he's- They told him no!"

Rose had tears in her eyes too. "I told him you'd be mad. He just said he had to do it-"

"Why didn't you stop him?"

Logically, I knew that was ridiculous. Once you sign up, it's final unless you want to be marked a coward for the rest of your life. I wanted to be angry at him, but Rose was right here in front of me. I wasn't mad at her for not stopping him. I was mad at her for being able to say goodbye to him while I was off doing the most important thing I've ever done in my entire life. Rose got to see him and Rose got the letter.

"I couldn't." She whimpered at my response to it, her hand shaking with the letter. "Just take it. I couldn't stop him even if I wanted to."

"I don't want his stupid letter!" I shouted, turning around in tears and racing back into the home.

As soon as I made it back to the room, I already knew I wouldn't be able to stay there so long as I was angry. Rose lived there too, so she'd be up eventually. I took my journal and backpack and ducked out through the back door in a hurry. Losing what felt like the last of my family in the same weekend was a bit too much to handle right now. On top of that, I yelled at my best friend, so I was in a bit of an irredeemable position right now while I ran all the way to the junkyard.

I sat back tucked behind my electric car with my knees drawn up to my chest to hide from the world. It felt like everything I had left was falling apart and leaving me all on my lonesome again. I'd never been so hurt or betrayed by my family before in my life.

"Mary?"

The voice of my best friend only made me want to cry more as she rounded the corner with tears still in her eyes.

"Go away." I hid my face, trying to fight back the crying from before.

"I'm sorry." She sniffled, wiping away tears and sitting down on the opposite end of the car. "I didn't try to stop him."

"You couldn't." I shook my head, unable to look at her. "He probably already signed the papers. It's all he's ever talked about doing."

"When my dad left, you didn't leave me alone, so I won't leave you alone." She stated, looking on at me carefully while still visibly upset.

"What if they never come back?"

I couldn't help but break into sobs again, making Rose get up and move over to sit beside me. She slipped her hand into mine, holding it tight beside me.

"They will." She whispered, "They'll all come back together. And if not, my dad will take you too. You can be my twin sister out in the countryside."

Upset as I was, I wasn't about to look this girl in the eyes and tell her the truth right now. We were both missing people, but she was ultimately right, we still had each other.

"Mr. Stark wants to meet you too." I wiped my face with my hands, smearing tears further on my wet face. "He's talking about this big project he's working on that could win us the war."

Rose looked at me funny. "Mr. Stark?"

I laughed then when I saw her face, sniffling back the last of my tears. "I have so much to tell you."

She sat around for the whole story, listening to how Mr. Stark had been interested in my work all weekend now. I think I managed to bring up both our excitement levels when I talked about it again. She was more than willing to be ready by tomorrow morning to meet up with Mr. Stark too.

Steve and Bucky leaving hurt, but I really couldn't bring myself to read the letter and instead just tucked it away in my suitcase. I tried to ignore it all while we did each other's hair that night before bed, talking about what the big project might be. Jarvis came to pick us up the next morning and seemed pretty pleased to see Rose get in with me too.

The project Mr. Stark had us looking at was a bit of a daunting task, especially because of how we had to walk through several secret doors just to get there. I think Rose and I both picked up on the change of atmosphere as soon as we passed that first door because we both went pretty quiet. Jarvis had to wait outside, but Mr. Stark was there to bring us in.

The lab was mostly empty that Monday morning, but as soon as Rose and I joined the scene, it was like it jumped to life. Mr. Stark had me helping him organize and hook up the computer with Rose doing some of the more delicate work. Mr. Stark oversaw it all, of course. While I did some heavy lifting for cables, Rose got to focus more on 'how the computer talked'. I knew how to do that part, but Mr. Stark specifically asked that I help him with the majority of the other work as the month led on.

"See, our genius together, Mary," Mr. Stark clasped his hands together like he was connecting puzzle pieces. "It's like a well oiled machine."

"I'd rather think of it like a pocket watch." I smirked back, knowing I was pushing his buttons already today. "You know? Like all the different little gears-"

"No, my analogy is better," He waved me off with a shake of his head. "We are a well oiled machine and seeing how well you work alongside me already…Well, let's just say if you can keep up, we might see a proper lab in your future, yeah?"

The top door of the lab opened up, letting in another person that I trusted belonged here with us. She seemed taken aback while I was only flooded with wonderment upon her arrival.

"Howard Stark." The woman came up with a scoff, her red lipstick and hair molded to perfection already casting a shadow of intimidation over me. "Why are there girls working on classified material?"

"These are my help." He boasted proudly, patting my shoulder. "Mary, Rose, this is Ms. Peggy Carter. She's very close to this project too."

"Hello, Miss Carter." I smiled bright at her appearance, already in awe to have seen another woman down here at all. "Are you one of the WAAC? I read all about them recently in the news."

"I am not." She replied in an admonishing tone as if she were scolding me. "You should not be working on such material-"

"Ah, I got them cleared, Peg." Howard waved her off easily, "Mary here is a bit of a prodigy, you see?"

"And Rose," I motioned to point back at her, only to get the faint polite smile back from her. "She's smart too."

Rose's embarrassed smile certainly caught my attention as I looked all the way back at where she was hunched over some paper. I had definitely noticed the change in her attitude from the start of the project to now, but I'd never expected her enthusiasm to vanish entirely. She wasn't even happy talking to Dr. Erskine at the end of the day before we got driven back to the Orphanage.

By then I was ready to burst with questions about her silence. I was only able to hold off until the following morning when we climbed back into Jarvis's car.

"You don't seem excited to go to work." I mentioned quietly, noticing how I only barely caught Jarvis's attention in the mirror.

"I am." Rose looked at me briefly, "I just wanted to do fun stuff this summer. I didn't want to spend all my time on war stuff and work. We were gonna build stuff together."

I frowned at that. How could she be so blind to the importance of our mission? Did she not understand how necessary this work was to help us win the war? We were doing this for her dad just as much as we were doing it for Bucky and Steve. Well…in a sense we were doing it for her dad. Whether he would see the effects of this or not was still up for fate to decide.

Rose got in an argument that Friday with Dr. Erskine and promptly asked to be taken home. Mr. Stark insisted that I stay and work overtime this weekend, but I ended up leaving with her as the month of July started.

"Mr. Jarvis, may we stop at the post office on the way?" Rose asked, ever so politely with a smile.

I was not against this idea either and we did get to pull over right nearby and run in. Two letters had reached me, one from each brother, and, as expected, Rose received another letter from her dad. She was ecstatic when we got to go back out to the car with Jarvis waiting for us inside. I smiled as she wiggled in her seat, vowing to wait until she was back at her desk to read the letter, but still chattering about all that could be written on it.

She teased me a little at the desk when I had to write two letters back and she only had to write one. That night she was gone with the other girl scouts on the bus, and I left the next morning to keep myself busy all day. After all, July 8th was the set date for the project finish, and that was going to be next Wednesday. I needed to get my mind straight and relax after the long week, so I went to three window ballet classes over the course of the weekend and sat in the junkyard working on an invention of mine that might let me breathe underwater like a fish.

Bernard came and found me for a game of baseball since the field was only a block away from me.

I can't say I hated it. For a little bit longer, I felt carefree.

"Our subject comes in tomorrow," Mr. Stark handed me and Rose each an envelope that Tuesday afternoon. "I'll need you both to help me out and not only witness history, but also my superior intellect-"

"Mr. Stark." Rose took the envelope gently like she was worried it might grow a mouth and bite her. "I think I'm…"

I gave her a confused look while she bit her lip nervously. "What?"

"I won't come." She stated then, standing her ground hard like we were around to throw a hurricane at her for speaking. "I don't think I can."

"But…" I opened and shut my mouth in shock.

We worked so hard on this! She didn't want to even see it work? We're going to be in history books for making the first ever super soldier, and she wanted to sit out?

"My mother wouldn't." She looked between us. "I don't want to be like you, Mr. Stark, or Dr. Erskine. I want to be like my mother and help people. Not hurt them. This isn't where I belong and Dr. Erskine made that clear."

"What did he say?" I demanded, "I'm sure it wasn't true."

"Mary," Mr. Stark shut me up with just my name before laughing a little and scratching his head, "Well, it's a very mature decision, but you know we are…saving lives, right?"

She shook her head, taking a step back. "I won't experiment on people. My mother wouldn't."

"You're not your mother." I scoffed at her, appalled that she'd consider backing out now, but not totally shocked by her decision. "The subject volunteers! It's not like we're experimenting on innocent people!"

"We're no better than them." She gave me an equally appalled look back. "I won't do it. I won't be like the enemy just to win a war."

"It's not like that."

"It is to me." She held her envelope back out for Mr. Stark. "I don't need whatever this is."

"It's payment." He pushed her hand back with a small smile. "Sorry to see you go, Rose. I'm sure your mother would be proud of you."

"Oh," Rose took the envelope back and straightened her shoulders. "Well, thank you. If it goes well, maybe it'll be like I helped a little. But I don't want to be here if it doesn't."

I understood a little- She was scared. Hell, I was a bit scared to see how our work went down on an actual person, but that didn't make me a quitter. I tried my best not to judge Rose on the way back for her different opinion, but it was difficult after so many years of us agreeing on everything. It was like she was someone completely different than the girl I first met.

She was gone that evening to go to camp for the weekend and I was left alone for two days to try and keep myself busy. I took ballet both days with a few other girls and then begrudgingly agreed to a game of baseball with some of the boys and two other girls. They just needed more bodies, but I like to think I showed them up a little. Either way, I missed having Rose there. She had left on a bad note and I wasn't sure how I felt about it, knowing that I'd go into the big day alone.

That Sunday night when she came home, she did have something to say to me too.

"It's a human being."

I looked over at her from where I was already tucked under my covers. "What?"

She looked at me from her bed too, staring back worriedly. "You're going to watch them experiment on a human being. With a family and sisters to come home to."

I hesitated in the silence for a moment, looking between her eyes and wondering if maybe there was a way I could justify that in my mind. "At least he won't be going off to die for nothing. We're making a change and I want to do everything I can to help Bucky and Steve. If I make a super soldier, maybe he can fight the battles for them."

"But what if it doesn't work?" Rose shook her head, looking back toward the ceiling. "You'd kill a good man for nothing."

"Then we'd find a new volunteer." I rolled over. "It's not like the army has any shortage of men right now who'd want the chance to be the strongest man in the world."

Rose was quiet for a bit, the silence of the night consuming our room and making a chill run up my spine even in the warm comfort of a summer night.

"I just don't see how you can look at a person like that." She whispered finally, "Like they're test subjects."

I didn't say anything else to her for the rest of the night. It wasn't like I'd be personally invested in the man who chose to put himself in the test tube. Unfortunately, her words hit hard and before I knew it I was back up again, long past she fell asleep. Okay, maybe Rose had a point about the man having little sisters or family back home waiting for him. That just gave me more reason to double check my work to make this man into a hero.

There was no sleep to be had that night as I begrudgingly double checked every equation, every piece of information I brought back, and made sure nothing slipped through the cracks. Whoever had volunteered for this mission was going to be coming out of this as a hero. He'd be put on the battlefield and then Bucky and Steve wouldn't have to see combat at all. This was my way of helping and now, more than ever, I was determined to get it right.

And by god was I glad I stayed up to double check that night.

"Our subject is on his way," Howard nudged me, "Go prep the needles."

"But I already did." I whined lightly, "Why do I have to?"

"Uh, because I said so." He snipped, making me want to roll my eyes at him. "Who's the boss here? That's right, Vertigo. Get to the needles."

"Vertigo?"

"A headache and a half." He explained the nickname with a smirk, pleased that I needed an explanation at all.

Howard Stark was nothing if not sarcastic at the worst times. It was an odd and egotistical character trait of his that I wasn't super fond of, but unfortunately used to.

I brought the clipboard back over to check the needles for the hundredth time this morning, checking with my small magnifying glass that none were damaged or bent since five minutes ago. There were lots, so it did take a hot minute to get through all of them again. My inspection had moved to the Vita-Ray bulbs when the volunteer stepped into the room. With my head tucked underneath the cover of the outside shell of our capsule, I only heard them come in. I was busy following Rose's lead to care to look at the guy right away, and besides, the bulbs needed more attention than him right now.

"Mary," Dr. Erskine called me up. "Come meet our brave soldier."

I sighed and looked over the last bulb before exiting the tight space and writing down that all looked well again. "Mr. Stark, I finished the last check."

"Mary?"

The voice had me shooting out of my head right then and there as I snapped my gaze up to look at Steve standing beside one Peggy Carter.

He smiled at me.

"Are you-" I looked between him and the test capsule. "No…"

"Mary, I chose this." He continued evenly, "Don't overreact."

I was dumbfounded, staring hard at him still when a hand came down on my shoulder.

"Hey, I got more work for you."

I looked up at Mr. Stark briefly while I could feel the walls closing in on me. He was supposed to be a stranger. All I could do was take a breath at the situation and try to refocus in front of my mentor. I did everything in my power to not start crying again, not to turn around and hit Steve for being so monumentally stupid as to put my career at risk. It was one thing after another this summer and I was a bit too emotionally exhausted to feel this fear again.

He's not Steve.

He's a random soldier I don't know.

"Just give me a minute." Steve asked behind me, "Please. I have to talk to her."

"You have one minute." Ms. Carter replied impatiently, "We're on a schedule."

She was lucky here. In fact, everyone in this room was lucky to not know the man they were experimenting on. They wouldn't be so cold to him if he wasn't just another soldier to them. He was one of many they could use.

"Mary," Steve's hand came down on my shoulder while I stared at the gauges in front of me. "I know you're mad."

"I can't talk to you." I shook my head, "Please don't."

"Hey," He made me turn around, but I wouldn't look up at him, "I know this is dangerous. Trust me, I'm aware of the risks. But those don't matter a thing to me now knowing that you're the genius behind at least half of it."

"Hey," Mr. Stark scowled a little, getting a kick in the leg from the woman. "Ow!"

"You'll see." Steve squeezed my shoulders, "Don't worry about me. You know I'm tough."

I nodded, wiping away the start to tears and hoping that the spectators couldn't see. "A bunch of Yucks. You and Bucky both. You're lucky I stayed up all last night."

"We are." He wrapped me up tight in a hug that I reciprocated. "See you on the other side?"

Just as soon as the hug had started, I had to tear myself away again and Steve was ushered up to the stand. If I couldn't stop those two from making the worst decisions in the world, I was at least going to make sure they were safe while they were doing it. Today, I was in control. I held Steve in my hands and there was no way I was dropping the ball on this one. Today was not the day for mistakes.

"Mary?" Mr. Stark nodded me towards the far switch on my control panel. "Get ready."

I took a deep breath, settling my nerves as best I could while the closest thing I had to a brother climbed up into the test chair that I'd helped design. If there was a time to put trust in my work, it was now. Together, Mr. Stark and I's combined genius needed to rise up to the occasion and prove to us how much history it really could make.

"Like a pocket watch." I whispered to myself, closing my eyes and catching the attention of Mr. Stark while Steve was injected with the serum. "Everything is moving perfectly. We won't hurt Steve."

"Like a pocket watch."

I looked over at where my mentor had spoken up and caught the small smile he had playing on his lips.

"Glasses on." He nodded at me, sliding his welder's glasses over his eyes and making me do the same.

Dr. Erskine gave us the nod and I hesitated for only a second before pressing the button to close the second chamber around Steve. Mr. Stark started up the power on his end with the switch and I watched our meters with the control panel, preparing to regulate and divert power as needed to keep everything exactly balanced.

It was when the screams started from the chamber that my blood ran cold- cold enough to distract me from my job and make the air leave the room too.

"Mary, no!" Mr. Stark snapped at me while Dr. Erskine rushed to the side of the tube, getting ready to get him out. "Focus! He's not your job!"

As much as I wanted to argue with my mentor and shut down the device, even over Steve's insistence that he could take it, I turned my head quickly to look back at my board.

"Good." Mr. Stark seemed to release a breath of air when I obeyed, "Just focus."

Few sections needed regulation while Stark dialed it up. The sound of Steve screaming tore past my tough skin and shook the very bones keeping me up, and yet while my legs could have collapsed like jello, my eyes stayed locked on my job. We were this far in. I wouldn't be the reason Steve gets hurt from a half-completed experiment. Then, the green button at the top finally flashed, making me react faster than I ever had before in my life to depress it.

The room whirred to a stop and Mr. Stark took several deep breaths with me from the control station while Dr. Erskine popped open the chamber in which we'd confined Steve. It all happened so fast that I was grateful they didn't give me time to be afraid for my brother. If I'd been given that time, I might've walked out like Rose and refused to participate.

"It worked." Mr. Stark breathed in awe, looking on at what I was only now able to face. "I'm a genius."

I wanted to quip at him for that, but my mind was on much more relieving and equally terrifying topics right now. Steve stepped down with the help of a few lab coats while I could only stare. The serum had worked far better than I could've ever imagined. The Steve in front of me was not the one I remembered going in. Where he used to only beat my height by a measly four inches, he now towered over almost all the people around him, dwarfing them with not only his height but also his size.

No longer was Steve Rogers that skinny kid with asthma from Brooklyn. Now…he was to be the turning point in this war. He was a handcrafted super soldier capable of taking down…well, maybe that was yet to be determined. All I knew was that I needed a nap after all this stress. And I had a lot to tell Rose when I got back.

The excitement didn't end there with so many people crowding from the viewing room to get a look at him.

A man on the far end of the room, looking less likely to run up and fawn over Steve right now flipped out a lighter. Now, this shouldn't have alerted me to anything considering how many men might consider smoking a cigar to celebrate our success, but the way he held it out to his side with no intent to light tobacco worried me. I almost wanted to scold him for considering lighting that thing in a room with such delicate equipment though.

He pushed down on the switch with a tiny upturn to his lips when he saw me staring at him and I had less than a second to realize that something was seriously wrong.

I heard the boom before I could react though and I had to cover my head with glass and a wave of head rained down on me from above. I'll admit the sound was quite jarring and even knocked the feet out from under me, same as a few others in the room. Before I could get a grip on myself again with a pounding behind my eyes, I heard the gunshots.

"Steve?!" I called out for him, getting him to look my way from where he was knelt over Dr. Erskine.

The man with the lighter was running now, up the stairs with a blue vial in hand. From that, all I could feel was anger.

A nazi. I jumped into a run, tearing up the stairs after Ms. Carter while being grateful I'd chosen today to wear slacks.

I didn't know what I'd do if I caught him, but I did know that he couldn't get anywhere with that vial. Halfway down that hallway was about as far as I made it though before I was grabbed by the collar of my blouse and yanked down onto the floor. Steve sprinted by me.

"You stay there!" He pointed over his shoulder, making me get up in a small bout of rage.

How dare he? I glared at the door he disappeared through. I would've had him.

Rose waited patiently outside the Orphanage door on the front steps, staring hard at where she knew Jarvis would be coming from with Mary. While she was not privy anymore to being on the project, she still knew when it would happen. That put their end time about an hour ago. She'd be home any minute now with loads of details on how it went. While Rose was terrified by the possibility that it had gone wrong, she was also deeply curious. And that curiosity only grew as the minutes ticked by.

She felt a disconnect from her friend recently. It certainly proved to be more difficult than she expected to have a different set of ideals than her best friend. She couldn't blame Mary for thinking differently and wanting to save the majority of people over a few individuals, but for Rose, she just couldn't participate. And she wanted nothing more than for Mary to understand that too. After last night with the late night studying on Mary's end though, Rose was pretty sure that she might've reached an understanding with her friend about this. She just hoped that it would stick long enough for them to still get to have the 'best summer ever'.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Rose stood up upon the sight of an arriving black 1939 Ford Prefect.

Mary stepped out after Jarvis opened the door for her and she looked to have nothing short of bupkis for energy.

"Are you alright?" Rose reached out her hand to take Mary's. "What happened?"

"Long day, I'm afraid." Jarvis replied for her. "She best get some sleep. Perhaps save the talking for tomorrow morning?"

"Mary?" Rose tried to get her attention instead, just getting a tired nod in return.

"Yeah, I hear you." She whispered, "I'm just tired."

"Well don't stay up so late next time." Rose snipped back, ushering her towards the door like she was a worried mother. "Get proper rest before making history."

"Yeah- Hey!" Mary gave her a playful shove with just a hint of a smile on her face. "You're the one who made me stay up with all those nerves of yours!"

Rose shrugged it off with a small smile of her own. "So? Did it work?"

Mary just released a sigh at that, her lips pursing together. "Yeah. But there's so much more to tell you first."