The Journey Begins

-Camp Lehigh-

-October 1942-

Eddie wiggled his toes in his boots, they were stiff and felt brand new. He hated them with everything in him, he hated everything about his green uniform, especially the helmet, he hated the army above all else. Eddie looked around, there were groups of soldiers everywhere, exercising, marching, it made his stomach squirm, he did not belong here.

All the recruits including him were waiting for someone to come and give them an introduction. Some of the recruits were laughing, some talked about serious matters, some of them were just looking around. Eddie was one of the only people standing there quietly. He sighed as he looked around the open field, he was so out of his element.

Eddie was used to streets not grass, buildings not trees, gangs not soldiers, well...he preferred soldiers over gangs but that wasn't the point.

Eddie decided to try to get thrown out. He wasn't like the other guys here; he wasn't one to just blindly follow orders; despite what Vincent teased. Eddie was also smaller than a lot of the guys here, in terms of muscle.

He was easily the second scrawniest guy here. That was evident by the smaller man standing next to him. Eddie risked a quick glance to his side, he looked at the man or more likely kid. He had to smile, even though he was supposed to be pretending to be a serious soldier, but after looking at the other man he just couldn't. The man next to him was all skin and bones, and even when he stood at his full height, he made it up to Eddie's chest.

The army had to be desperate if they were taking in this guy. The thought disturbed him if they were taking the bag of bones here there'd be no way they kick him out.

A voice spoke up. "Recruits Attention!" All the recruits snapped to attention immediately. Eddie moved his bright blue eyes and looked at their instructor. Eddie expected a stern old man with veins popping over his forehead, but he didn't expect the instructor to be so... attractive.

Eddie moved his eyes to follow the woman, she looked at them all briefly. She had shoulder length brown hair that was styled slightly, it reminded him of how his mother used to wear her hair when he was in elementary. The woman's make up was applied well and in a professional manner, her uniform was professionally decorated, it was obvious she took herself seriously.

When the woman spoke next, Eddie jumped slightly, "Gentlemen, I'm Agent Carter, I supervise all operations in this division."

As Agent Carter continued walking down the line of recruits, she looked at Eddie, right in his eyes. He could see the slight crack in her demeanor the second she saw the irregularity. Eddie felt himself straighten up; he usually hated when people took notice of his eyes, which was why he took to wearing sunglasses most of the time, which would piss off his teachers but after a…lengthy discussion it was finally allowed due to "medical reasons".

Agent Carter, quickly composed herself, but asked, "What's wrong with your eyes?"

The bluntness of her question immediately alerted Eddie, this was not a woman who should be crossed.

He answered back, as respectfully as he could, "To be honest, I don't know. They were like this since I was born."

Agent Carter quickly scanned Eddie's face, with her light brown eyes. She looked for any sign that he was joking, but she obviously didn't see anything. Eddie looked back at the woman, she responded back with her snappy British accent, "What's your name soldier?"

Eddie didn't hesitate, "Eddie Kent, ma'am."

The only response he received was a soft and short "hmm."

Agent Carter, showed interest in him, she looked as if she wanted to ask the man another question, but someone interrupted, "What's with the accent Queen Victoria?"

The woman in front of Eddie turned away, she looked at the man who had said that. Eddie glanced towards the voice that spoke with a Boston accent.

The man kept speaking, "Thought I was signing up for the U.S. army."

Eddie leaned his head forward; wondering what would happen next.

Agent Carter walked over to the jerk; Eddie couldn't read the expression on her face, which only reminded him when his history teacher grew agitated when Vincent and Eddie were messing around in class.

Her voice was dead serious, "Tell me your name as well soldier?".

The man responded, "Gilmore Hodge, your majesty."

"Step forward Hodge." Hodge looked at the other soldiers as if this were a joke, "Put your right foot forward," Hodge still obviously thought this was funny, evident by the large smirk on his face. He comically moved his foot.

The small guy next to Eddie nudged him. Eddie finally noticed there was a man standing in front of him holding out a clipboard, Eddie quickly grabbed it, then turned his attention to the far more interesting scene in front of him.

"Are we gonna wrestle? Cause I got a few moves I know you'll like." Almost all the soldiers in the line looked at Hodge.

Carter's expression didn't change.

Agent Carter socked Hodge in the face. Everyone in line jumped a bit in surprise.

Agent Carter looked the other soldiers in line.

An older voice spoke up, "Agent Carter!" Eddie noticed that she tensed up at the use of her name, the other soldiers in line straightened up. Eddie looked ahead; a jeep had just pulled up two elderly men were getting out.

Carter quickly turned around, "Colonel Phillips."

Eddie noticed that the Colonel's very presence seemed to demand respect from everyone around him. He was dressed in a brown jacket, with a well decorated light brown shirt, and a hard stare. As the Colonel walked past Agent Carter, he spoke in a rough voice, "I can see that you are breaking in the candidates that's good!"

The Colonel shifted his attention to Hodge who was still laying on the ground confused, "Get your ass up out of that dirt and stand in that line at attention until somebody comes and tells you what to do."

Hodge quickly scrambled up out of the dirt, and snapped to attention, his demeanor quickly changed, he licked his lips and let out a "Yes Sir!"

Eddie wasn't sure what type of military camp he was on but was surer now that he most definitely didn't belong here. Colonel Phillips glanced briefly at the other man who was standing next to Agent Carter. The other man looked like he was more of a man of science then war, he wore a white coat over a suit instead of a uniform.

The Colonel cleared his throat before he began his speech with short pauses in between, to add effect, "General Patton has said that 'wars are fought with weapon, but they are won by men.' We are going to win this war because we have the best men…

The Colonel paused to look at the smaller man beside Eddie, he let out a small sigh and looked at the man of science as if to assure something between the two.

The Colonel continued, "And because they're gonna get better...much better."

As the Colonel walked away from the man, Eddie looked at him instantly feeling bad for him because of how thin the man was.

"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, at the end of this month we will choose that man and he will be the first...in a new breed of super soldiers."

The Colonel paused to let that sink in, Eddie adjusted himself in anticipation clutching the clipboard tightly in his hand. Super-soldier, it made him think back to a few years ago when the younger kids were huddled around a comic book with a man lifting a car. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to join the army, 'Thanks Dad'.

"And they... will personally escort Adolf Hitler to the gates of Hell.".

Eddie groaned and laid down on the cot. It let off a small squeak in return. All the other soldiers followed his actions all of them exhausted. They all slowly nursed their sore muscles.

Eddie looked around the room, his legs and arms weren't sore, but it didn't change the fact he was glad for the chance to lay in bed, cot, so long as he didn't have to be horizontal. He had barely exercised all his life, but he didn't feel as terrible as some of the other soldiers, who were vomiting, one or two soldiers were crying.

Eddie chose not to think too deeply about it, he was still a little tired. He was about to lay down and fall asleep, but then he heard a loud groan from the entrance to the barracks. Eddie sat up on his cot, and looked at the source of the noise, it was the little guy. He had fallen so far behind; Eddie had forgotten about him. He looked worse than all the other recruits put together. His face was red and wet with sweat, his chest was rising and falling rapidly. His eyes were wild, Eddie could immediately tell the man had over done it.

The other man crashed down face first on his bed, completely ignoring everybody else. The other recruits looked at him with pity but went back to what they were doing. Eddie glanced at the man, he slowly started to unbutton his own green long-sleeved shirt. "You alright?"

The man groaned in return, Eddie laughed out loud, he stood up, and folded his green over-shirt. He tossed the shirt on top of his bed, he was in his white, sleeveless, undershirt now. Eddie patted the man softly on the back, "You did it though."

The man slowly turned over, so he was laying on his back, he moved his blue eyes to look at Eddie. Instantly, he locked onto his bright blue eyes, but Eddie didn't notice any change in the man's expression.

Eddie smirked and held out his hand, "I'm Eddie." The other man looked at Eddie's hand for a while, as if he were shocked that someone was being kind to him.

After a while, the man reached up and grabbed Eddie's hand. Eddie could feel the bones in the man's hand, he slowly pulled him up, so he was in a sitting position. The man looked at Eddie and slowly breathed, "Steve...Rogers," Steve spoke with a lot of difficulty...

Eddie contemplated calling a doctor for him but decided against it. He already seemed to be getting better, "How'd you get roped into the army?".

Steve smirked at the question, he was slowly catching his breath now, "I wanted to, I couldn't stand by while other men were laying down their life's.".

Eddie looked at his boots, he leaned down and slowly started to unlace his left one, "That's heroic of you." But what he wanted to say was stupid of Steve. Just because you saw other people die didn't mean you had to jump in to die as well. Eddie felt a deep shame when he remembered the faces of the Jews being forced into those horror camps and the 250,000 Chinese villagers who were killed after helping U.S. soldiers escape Japan after bombing Tokyo. OK so there was some evil pieces of shit out there but one more body on the pile didn't make it better, right?

Shame gripped him for even thinking it like that.

Steve shrugged continuing his answer, "Some kids dream of being a cowboy. Some dream of being a knight. I dreamed of being a soldier."

Eddie took his first boot off, he started working on the other, Steve notice Eddie's troubled face. "Why are you here?".

Eddie kept his head down "Well..."

Thankfully, they were interrupted by Hodge loud remark, "You should leave now. Leave the fighting to the real men." Steve clenched his fist, he was ready to stand up and say something, but someone beat him to it.

"I don't think you're allowed to say who is and who isn't a man, private." Interrupted a drill sergeant.

"Sir yes, sir." Saluted Hodge, everyone else stood straight ignoring the pain and saluted.

"You think today's drills were hard, that was only half day, tomorrow we're taking off running." The sergeant made a point to look everyone in the eye, even Eddie's which he did last. The sergeant narrowed his eyes which had a negative effect on Eddie's stomach.

"Lights out!" he finally yelled. Suddenly, the lights were cut off, leaving all the recruits in the dark, the only sources of light came from the moon, all the recruits went diving for their beds. Eddie stumbled into his.

Eddie pulled the small green blanket over his chest. This would be his life now, people yelling, exercising all day, Agent Carter, and a tiny chance to become a super soldier; and he only had that chance because there was someone like Steve Rogers around.

"Psst."

Eddie opened his eyes to see Steve, "you never said why you joined."

Eddie rolled his eyes, "One day I'll tell you the incredible tale that got me into this cot, but right now I need sleep."

Steve licked his lips, "You're right but I'm not sure I can sleep."

Eddie yawned feeling the pull of darkness, "Try Steve, just try." Eddie dreamt of Agent Carter smiling.