Summary: Annette escaped the camp, but where to go. Hurt, tired and being followed by the Hydra forces that imprisoned her, she's forced to make a literal leap of faith in the rapids to evade further imprisonment, torture and experimentation. What happens when she is pulled from the banks of the latest SSR camp and nursed back to health by none other than The Howling Commandos,and peeks the interest of two friends?

Chapter 2: Up a Creek

Steve's POV

"Well gentlemen! After a job well done, I think we'll stop here for tonight before making our way back to base camp." Steve Rodgers announced to his loyal team. They'd just successfully raided another Hydra facility. Despite the poor weather early that day it had made for great cover with the explosions being masked by the sounds of thunder. The enemy never saw, or heard the attack coming. The tall blonde would have rather they carried on through the night, but every body deserves a little down time between missions. Even Captain America.

"You good sir are becoming one of my best friends." Falsworth remarked looking up at his commanding officer with a smirk as he sat in the grass near the river bend. The others hooted with laughter as they threw themselves into the water to cool off and unwind whilst Bucky, Steve's long time best friend outfitted himself with a fishing rod out of his boot laces and a branch. Steve couldn't repress the laughter growing in his chest as looked over at his pal's antics.

"You know that never worked when we were kids right Buck?" Bucky looked at his friend with a dead panned look as he rose to his feet.

"Shut up Punk! If I get any fish it'll beat eating those K-rations any day." Smirking, Bucky turned to walk further up the river makeshift fishing rod in tow. Chuckling at the dark haired man's stubbornness, the captain jogged to keep up.

"Why so far down river Jerk?"

"Cause those idiots are stirring up the water, quieter down here." Came the reply.

Sitting at the waters edge, the two soldiers took it in turns holding the rod as they talked about home and their plans once they arrived back in London. Steve leaned back on his elbows and closed his eyes as he basked in the warm glow of the sun. 'With how beautiful it is here and how quiet, You'd never know that there was a war still going on.'

"-is that?!"

Interrupted from his musings Steve looked over at his friend who was staring curiously down the river. "Sorry Buck, what did you say?"

"I said what the hell is that?!" Bucky pointed to a large floating object making it's way towards them. The captain stared hard at the large tree branch, covered in pondweed looked like it had been battered by the currents and the storm. "Must've been blown off by the storm earlier." Steve guessed shrugging, yet they both still eyed it closely. That is of course, until an eddy turned the branch round and revealed a lifeless body hanging from it by one arm.

"SWEET JESUS!" Bucky cried as they both shot off the ground and ran alongside side it shouting to get the person's attention. As they got to the banks of the river they're faces froze with horror as the body came loose from the floating raft and sank in the water. Without hesitation the two friends dived into the water and powered through the current to reach the unknown person. Each grabbing an underarm, they dragged themselves back up to the surface and back onto dry land. They began to remove the weeds and hair out of the way when they both gasped in both surprise and shock.

"Oh my god! It's a woman!" Steve gawked.

"Is she okay? Is she breathing?" Bucky looked on panicked. Fearing the worse, they checked the unconscious woman's airways and listened for a heart beat. She was alive, and now that she was out of the water, began to bleed heavily from almost every where it seemed.

"We gotta get her out of here!" Steve barked, picking the woman up and running back to the rest of his team.

"Morita! Get on the radio right now! We need immediate medical evac at our co-ordinates. Jones! Denier! Prep the med kit, this woman needs emergency medical attention. Dugan! Falsworth! Perimeter patrol with Barnes. I'll join you once we've stabilised this civilian's condition."

Everyone jumped to their positions, following his orders to the letter. Once Steve had placed the woman down for Jacques and Gabe to perform first aid, he rushed to find anything dry from the rain to light a fire to get her warm. He kept casting glances at her as his team treated her wounds and wrapped gauze and bandages around her head, forearms and legs when he heard Denier cursed loudly.

"Merde! Capitaine, cette femme a des blessures par balles!" Steve spun at the Frenchman's statement, shocked at the news.

"Where and how many?" The blonde demanded. Jones looked over to his friend and commander with a stony expression. It clearly didn't look good for the petite female under their care.

"Two sir. One exit wound to the shoulder and one lodged in her thigh. I can't remove the bullet, there's no telling how close it is to the artery. She's gonna need a doctor Steve! All we can do is stop the bleeding and keep her warm before Hypothermia sets in." Denier threw his blanket across the ground close to the fire that Steve had got going and between the three of them, carried her and placed her carefully onto the covered ground and proceeded to cover her in another blanket from Dum-Dum's knapsack as it was the closest to them. With one last check of their handy work, they rose from the ground and collected their rifles to join the patrol patting the captain on the shoulder as they passed.

Steve closed his eyes taking a deep breath as he did so. 'Good God! What if we hadn't have stopped and kept going?' He brooded feeling sick to his stomach. 'She really would have died.' Brushing his bangs out of his face, he turned to go talk with Jim Morita who was manning the radio trying to get through to base camp. "Where are we at Jim? Any word?"

The Japanese-American looked up at Steve frustrated and nodded. "It's looking like we're up a creek without a paddle Sir." Jim muttered as he powered down the radio, removing his headset. "The good news is that Phillips sent out convoy to pick us up, the bad news is that they can only be with us by as early as tomorrow morning."

"Dammit!" Steve cursed under his breath as he ran his hands over his face and looked over to the prone figure lying by the fire with concern etched into his face. "Let's pray she makes it through the night."

Jim looked over to their impromptu ward showing equal concern nodding sombrely. "Amen to that!" Another thought occurred to the radio man as he looked up toward the heavens. "There'll be no rain tonight thankfully, but the temperature is gonna drop tenfold by nightfall, and we can't keep the fire going through the night in case we give away our position to hostiles. They say that body heat is the best for surviving that kinda cold ya know?" They continued to watch over her whilst waiting for the others to return from their patrol.

Despite all the bruising and scrapes littering her face, Steve could tell that she was a pretty little soul. Though he couldn't understand where she had come from, or even how she came to be in the river in the first place and how long she was in there for. 'What the hell happened to you doll?' His were broken by the sound of the rest of the Howling Commandos returning down river. Judging from each of their expressions, they found nothing but looked on at the woman in concerned awe. The American captain rushed to meet them hoping that they would have some answers to this mystery.

Translations: "Merde! Capitaine, cette femme a des blessures par balles!" = "Shit! Captain, this woman has gun shot wounds!"