Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize. Only my OC, Agent Clarissa Melanie Connors and her story line belongs to me. Big thanks to soulsistersinaslan for reviewing!
~0~ = little break
Recap from last chapter:
I drove to the field where the recruits were waiting for me. With an army man in tow, he handed out clipboards to the recruits. Just by looking down the line I can easily spot Steve who was a head shorter than everyone else. Catching his eye, I sent a warm smile to him which he returned politely.
"Recruits, attention!"
~0~
I looked at all the men in line stand straighter and face forward, all talking stopped.
"Gentlemen, I am Agent Connors. I am the one supervising all operations for this division." I explained to them.
I was going to continue talking when a familiar, arrogant voice interrupted me.
"I thought you were joking when you said you were part of the army, baby doll."
I walked over to the man that spoke, my face emotionless, although inside I was itching to punch this man.
"What's your name again, soldier?" My mind drawing a blank when I look at his face.
"Forgot already sweet cheeks? The name's Hodge, Gilmore Hodge." I wanted to wipe off that smug look on his face.
Now remembering where I've heard his voice before, (he was the guy that tried to hit on me when were recruiting him) I put a sickeningly sweet smile on my face.
"Ah yes Hodge, I remember you now. Alright will you please step out of line and put your right foot forward?" I asked nicely through gritted teeth.
He looked at the faces of the other soldiers before doing what I asked.
"You finally taking up my offer of going dancing? 'Cause I got a few moves I know you'll like." He smirked and his eyes raked my body.
I rolled my eyes, pulled back my arm and punched him straight on the nose. I heard and felt a satisfying crunch when he fell on the dirt, knowing I probably (hopefully) broke his nose or at least bruised it. I heard the recognizable rumble of a military car drive near and saw that it was Abe and Chester.
"Agent Connors!" Chester greeted.
"Colonel Philips." I gave him a salute and nod before stepping out of the way to let him talk to the recruits.
"I can see that you are breaking in the candidates. That's good!" He complimented, looking at Hodge who was still on the ground grunting and moaning while tending to his broken and bloody nose.
I smiled pleased with the pain he deserved. I stood by Abe, letting Chester be the center of attention for his inspirational speech, as one might call it.
"Get your ass up out of that dirt and stand on that line at attention 'till somebody comes and tells you what to do." Chester ordered Hodge.
"Yes, sir!" Hodge called out, scrambling to get up and stand to attention for the Colonel.
"General Patton has said that wars are fought with weapons, but they are won by men." Chester spoke, repeating what he said to me earlier this week while letting his eyes wander through the line.
"We are going to win this war because we have the best men."
His speech faltered when his gaze landed on Steve. He paused his speech to look back to the both of us. Abe was trying to hide his smile and not catch Chester's gaze, whereas I was full on smiling or smirking for the better word.
"-And because they are gonna get better... much better. Agent, would you like to continue?" He gestured for me to step up and speak to the recruits once again. I nodded and stepped forward, talking while walking down the line of men.
"The Strategic Scientific Reserve is an Allied effort made up of the best minds in the free world. Our goal is to create the best army in history. But every army starts with one man." While saying my last sentence, my eyes happened to find the bright, baby blue of Steve's. Getting distracted, Chester took over once more.
"At the end of this week, we will choose that man. He will be the first, in a new breed of super-soldier. And they will personally escort Adolf Hitler to the gates of hell."
All the men stood straighter and looked more confident after the Colonel's inspiring speech.
"I'll let you get started on your training, Agent. I wish you all the luck soldiers, you've got a tough week ahead of you with this one." Colonel Philips winked at me before taking off.
"Alright gentlemen, let's start things off with something easy, two laps around the field/track! Let's go!" I yelled.
The men, at first, stumbled and got tangled up with each other, not knowing that they were to start training at that instant but after a while they fell into a rhythm. By the end of the run a few of the men were panting like dogs. Steve on the other hand looks like he's about to cough out a lung by how much he's coughing. That's when I remembered that he was asthmatic but that didn't stop him from running, which made me smile at his determination.
The Sergeant that was helping me ordered them to go climb the rope wall. Everyone was climbing it at ease except for one gentleman. Steve. When his foot was caught on the rope I could see Hodge smirking down at him for his failure which angered me. They then proceeded to crawl in the mud underneath barbed wires with rifles.
"Let's go! C'mon!" The drill sergeant yelled, encouraging the men to crawl faster.
I looked up to see the men doing their best to crawl in mud but my eyes narrowed when I saw Hodge kick one of the posts that was holding the wires up so it would fall on Steve. I'll show him a piece of my mind later.
"Rogers! Get that rifle out of the mud!" The Sergeant yelled angrily at him.
I walked over to the recruits after their drill.
"Alright, we'll call that a day. Everyone get cleaned and go back to their bunkers, except for Hodge. You sir are going to run an extra two laps." I ordered him.
Some of the men stopped walking and turned around to listen in to me punishing Hodge.
"W-what? Why do I need-" He started.
"You do not get to question me, soldier. I am your superior and I say you need to run two laps!" I yelled.
Before he got a chance to leave I pulled his short and leaned close to his ear saying "I've been watching you and I know what you did earlier during the wire drill, consider this punishment for unfair treatment." I smirked when I let go of him, catching the gaze of Steve who stayed back.
"Now move, move! You won't get to leave until you finish those two laps! Sergeant, I can trust you to watch him yes?" I questioned said Sergeant.
"Yes ma'am!" He said, saluting me.
"Good, I'll leave you to it then."
With that, I turned to make my exit.
It was already dark when I walked out of my own bunker. I decided that it was a good night for me to take an evening stroll. Dressed only in my nightgown, I walked around the camp seeing a few soldiers out as well, declining when they asked if I needed help or something and bid them goodnight. Muttering a few profanities under my breath when a cold breeze hit me, regretting not bringing a sweater or jacket of some sort when I noticed a small man sitting out on the steps of a bunker with a notepad in hand.
"Steve." I heard myself call out before I could stop myself.
I obviously startled him because he dropped his notepad and pencil before looking up at the sound of my voice. Seeing that it was me, he immediately stood up at attention.
"A-Agent Connors."
I smiled at him.
"At ease soldier. And what have I told you, it's Clara." I reminded him.
His shoulders relaxed but tensed again when I told him to call me by my first name.
"But ma'am, we're on the base and like you said to Hodge, you're our superior. Shouldn't we be professional?" He explained to me politely.
"I did say you were my favourite before you even got here, still are actually so I think I can make an exception, just this once." I joked.
We sat in a comfortable silence, just admiring the clear sky, only the moon as a light source.
"Thank you." Steve said softly, breaking the silence.
"Hmm? What for?" I asked.
"The whole Hodge thing." He explained.
"Oh that. Well, it was mostly about how he treated you but it was also a bit of punishing him for how he talked to me during the beginning of the day." I scowled at the thought of his face and voice talking to me that moment.
"It wasn't right how he talked to you, he was way out of line for saying the things he did, agent or not." Steve proclaimed, a bit angry.
"I think I handled him well don't you think? That was the second time he did that. I question myself why I didn't punch him the first time around." I laughed softly, shaking my head.
"Second time?" Steve questioned.
"Remember when I said a recruit tried to hit on me? Yeah, that was him. The nerve he had thinking I would actually agree to go dancing with him."
"Like you said, you did handle it well. You got a mean swing there." Steve teased, finally getting comfortable with talking to me.
"So I've heard." I laughed.
Another comfortable silence fell on us and another breeze hit, making me shiver and run my hands up and down my arms to create heat. Steve must have noticed because he was about to take off the jacket he smartly wore.
"Oh no! I'm fine Steve really." I protested as he was about to offer his jacket to me. "I should be heading back to my room anyways, it's getting pretty late." I said, standing up.
"Oh, right. I could walk you back if you'd like." Steve offered.
I grinned at his gentlemanly offer.
"No, that's alright, I think I can make it back myself. I'm a big girl Steve, I can do this." I joked. "But thank you for the offer. You should sleep, we have a long week ahead of us. Goodnight Steve." I bid with a warm smile and turned to leave.
"Goodnight... Clara." He called back, though softly.
I looked back again to smile at him once more before going my way.
~0~
It was the last day of training and all the recruits have been passing all the tests they've been given frustratingly perfect except for one; Steve. They were on another run with the drill sergeant but this time I was at the half-way point waiting for them.
"Pick up the pace, ladies! Let's go, let's go! Double time! Come on! Faster! Faster! Move! Move!" I looked back, hearing the familiar voice of the sergeant yelling at the recruits.
I saw that Steve was once again at the back of the line.
"Squad, halt! That flag means we're only at the halfway point! Now, since it's the last day the first man to bring it to me gets a ride back with Agent Connors! Now move, move!"
The recruits all jumped at the chance at getting the flag so they won't have to run anymore but none of them were succeeding.
"If that's all you got then this army's in trouble!" The sergeant insulted "Get up there Hodge! Come on, get up there!" He encouraged.
I almost groaned when Hodge almost made it up the pole but then smirked when he slipped down.
"Nobody's got that flag in 17 years!" The drill sergeant informed them. "Now fall back into line! Come on, fall in! Let's go! Get back into formation! Rogers! I said, fall in!"
I turned back just in time to see Steve stand at the base of the pole and pulling out the necessary parts that held the pole up. Discarding the parts, Steve and the rest of us watched as the pole fell. Gathering the flag from the top, he walked over to the Sergeant and handed it to him, the others watching in awe.
"Thank you sir." Steve told him before getting in and sitting in the back of the car.
I could only smile at him proudly.
~0~
"Faster, ladies! Come on. My grandmother has more life in her, God rest her soul." I humored them, urging the men to movie faster.
"Move it!" I ordered.
"You're not really thinking about picking Rogers, are you?"
I looked over to see Abe and Chester walk towards the group. Once I heard Steve's name in their conversation, my ears perked up and listened in.
"Clara and I agreed on this and we weren't just thinking about it. He is the clear choice." Abe said.
I smiled when I heard Abe finally call me Clara.
"Alright, now jumping jacks." I ordered them before walking over to Abe and Chester.
They acknowledged me with a nod before carrying the conversation.
"When you two brought a 90 pound asthmatic to my army base, I let it slide. I thought, what the hell? Maybe he'd be useful to you, like a gerbil. I never thought you would actually pick him." Chester said, annoyance clear in his voice.
The three of us looked over to the soldiers doing the exercise I picked, seeing Steve struggle at a simple exercise.
"Stick a needle in that kid's arm, it's gonna go through him. Look at that. He's making me cry." Chester mocked.
I sighed. "Chester, you know we're looking for qualities beyond the physical, and yes we know how long it took you to set this project up and all the groveling you had to do for Senator Brandt's committee."
"We are well aware of your efforts." Abe put in.
"Then throw me a bone. Hodge passed every test we gave him. He's big, he's fast. He obeys orders. He's a soldier."
I looked to see Hodge with a smug look on his face. We accidentally made eye contact and he winked at me making me scoff and roll my eyes.
"Not only is he a pig, but he's also a bully." I told Chester with my arms crossed and with that I walked back to the men.
"C'mon girls! You can do better than that!"
My heart stopped when I heard the familiar sound of a grenade being pulled.
"Grenade!" Someone shouted.
The men all shouted and cowered away and hid behind the nearby trucks. I was about to cover the grenade, knowing the blast won't harm me when a small man beat me to it.
"Get away! Get back Clara!" He shouted at me, flailing his arms and curled himself around the grenade, planning to soften the blow.
My heart fell to my stomach when Steve said my name. I almost cried but then I noticed that it took too long to the grenade to blow.
"It's a dummy grenade. All clear. Get back in formation." I vaguely heard someone yell, only hearing the blood rushing in my ear.
"What the hell was that?!" I yelled to Chester, connecting the dots that he was the one to throw the fake grenade.
He just ignored me and said with a straight face to Abe "He's still skinny." then left.
~0~
At the end of the day, a lot of the recruits were sent back and put into different infantries. I was supposed to talk to Steve when I saw Abe walk out of Steve's bunker.
"Did you talk to him?" I asked, falling to step with the German Scientist.
"Yes, he's nervous for tomorrow, as am I." Abe confessed.
"That makes two of us." I said with a small laugh.
"What if something goes wrong tomorrow, during the procedure... What if I'm just sending a good man to his death." Abe said worryingly.
"Abe, if you're not confident in this then what the hell are the rest of the people supposed to do. We worked on this for the longest time. Be confident. Everything's going to be fine... it has to be." I reassured him, saying the last part to myself to make me feel a bit better about this entire thing.
"I told him it would be you who would accompany him on his way there. I think that made him feel a bit better." He told me, a smirk upon his face.
I smiled and rolled my eyes fondly at him.
"I think it would reassure me more if I were the one to bring him there." I told him honestly.
We walked in silence, my thoughts swirling around in my head at the thought of tomorrow.
Steve better be alive by the end of tomorrow.
AN: Thank you for reading and I hope to see you next week! -E
As for reviews...
-Thank you for reviewing! I'm sorry for the short chapters, I am fairly new to this so I hope as time goes they'll be much longer. I am trying to spread this story out so that's my only reason for short chapters!
-I love writing the small moments between Clarissa and Howard! It will definitely stir up some jealousy in Steve considering his abilities with women. I will try to update weekly so I hope you follow/favorite this story!