-Camp Lehigh-

-November 1942-

Eddie's time at the army only got worse, but it still wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Surprisingly, he was doing better than he thought he would. Every day he was able to do one more push up or run a minute longer.

Much to his dismay was the learning; he wasn't great with learning all the codes, correct procedures and worse of all how to follow orders. One way or another he ended up doing the wrong action.

If he wasn't being yelled at for not responding correctly, he was being yelled at for being a horrible shot. For all that was good in the world, Eddie couldn't shoot a peashooter to save his life. Something Colonel Phillips had repeated viciously and in many and altered ways when there was target practice.

One day even colonel Philipss brought a peashooter to see if Eddie could do better. He didn't.

"Are you allergic to living!" the sergeant yelled while, the colonel just walked away in disappointment. Even agent Carter seemed disappointed. For some reason their disappointment brought out a vicious pettiness that he purposely got in trouble but Hodge and his buddies and their socks full of soap stop that idea.

If it weren't for Steve, Eddie would have quit a long ago.

Steve excelled in target practice and military strategy. It was a running joke in their group that Eddie and Steve were one soldier in two bodies.

Eddie was breathing hard, he looked back to see Steve just a meter or two away. It was the middle of the day, the sun was beating down on everyone outside, so the drill instructor had thought it would be an excellent time for a 4-mile run in full gear.

"Pick up the pace ladies! Let's GO. Double time!" He could hear the thud from their synchronized steps, while his and Steve's were disorganized.

Eddie risked a glance at Steve but almost hit the back of Ezekiel when the sergeant yelled out, "Squad Halt!"

Eddie stood up on one foot and started to unlace his boot, he wanted to get the pebble that had been in his boot out, it was driving him insane. Eddie looked up and noticed a jeep that was parked off to the side, Agent Carter was sitting in the passenger's side her brown curly hair was pulled back into a ponytail.

Eddie's heart started to pound like crazy, almost every recruit in the group had a crush of the British agent.

The drill sergeant pointed at a nearby metal flagpole, it proudly flew the official Camp Lehigh flag. "That flag means we're only at the halfway point! First man to bring it to me gets a ride back with Agent Carter. MOVE! MOVE!"

Eddie watched from a slight distance as the pack of soldiers charged the pole, wrestling each other to get a shot at climbing. Eddie thought about joining them, he'd loved to be in a car with agent Carter, maybe even have a conversation that wasn't one sided, or orders. Eddie flipped his boot upside down and smiled as a pebble hit the dirt road with a small smack.

Eddie started to daydream. He could imagine it now using his new muscles to scale up the pole and easily getting the flag. He could practically see the soldier's stares of disbelief, as he handed the flag to the drill sergeant and jumped into the jeep with a very impressed and amorous Agent Carter.

Eddie made no move to the pole knowing without trying that he wouldn't succeed.

Steve was slowly making his way to the flagpole.

Finally, the drill instructor yelled out, "Now fall back in line!" The soldiers stopped fighting, they kept looking at the flag with hope, "Come on fall in!"

Eddie sighed as the other recruits fell in line around him.

"Rogers! I said FALL IN!" shouted the drill sergeant. Eddie looked up from the ground to see Steve continuing his way to the flagpole.

Eddie scoffed and bit his lip; Steve must have realized the pointlessness of getting the flag, and if anyone could get it, it couldn't be Steve.

Steve suddenly kneeled in front of the pole. Eddie raised his eyebrows when Steve took the pin out of the flags base. The flagpole fell forward.

Eddie frowned disappointed that he hadn't thought to do something so…simple.

Steve simply walked over and took it right off the pole. Eddie couldn't stop the small chuckle born from the same shocked expression on the drill sergeant's face as Steve presented it to the Drill Instructor. "Thank you, Sir." Steve said.

Eddie heard the jeep start as Steve got in.

Eddie noticed that Agent Carter turned her head and briefly smiled at Steve. As soon as the jeep took off, the Drill Instructor snapped out of his disbelief, "What are you all looking at? Keep going!"

After finishing an obstacle course, Agent Carter felt it was necessary to have the recruits do push-ups. Eddie didn't complain at all, despite doing exercises, he could at least sneak a glance at agent Carter.

Agent Carter yelled out, "Faster Ladies! Come on. My Grandmother has more life in her, god rest her soul."

Eddie looked over to Steve, who was having trouble doing his eleventh push up. Agent Carter yelled "Up!"

All the recruits got off the ground and stood up, she followed up her order, "Jumping Jacks."

All the recruits obeyed. Eddie noticed that Colonel Philipss was talking to the "man of science." Eddie had found out from Steve, that he was Dr. Abraham Erskine, he was supposed to be the lead of the super soldier experiment.

Eddie turned his attention back to Agent Carter. Agent Carter noticed Eddie's staring, she smirked, "Come on Girls." Eddie quickly looked down.

After a few jumping jacks, Eddie risked another look at Agent Carter, she meet his gaze, he could see the slight upturn on her lips. She was about to say something, but colonel Phillip's yelled out, "Grenade!"

Suddenly a dark-greenish object fell right in front of Eddie and landed at his feet. Eddie looked down, not understanding what the object was. Almost all the recruits scrambled away from the grenade in terror, shouting at people to move. Eddie's heart jumped out of his chest, and his feet were glued down.

Steve roughly shoved his friend away from the grenade. Eddie fell to the ground and let out a small gasp, Steve kicked up the dirt as he landed on the grenade. Agent Carter stopped short, planning on retrieving the grenade as well.

Steve yelled out, "Get away!"

Steve yelled out again, flailing his arm briefly, "Get back!"

Eddie moved into a sitting position.

"It's a dummy grenade." He heard an officer nearby say. Everyone began to get back up. Eddie noticed Colonel Phillip look disappointed, say something to Dr, Erskine and then walk away though Dr. Erskine looked rather pleased.

Steve sat up, "Was this a test?"

Eddie pushed himself off the ground. 'Of course it was a test, and I failed horribly' he thought to himself.

Carter spoke up, "We're done for the day, head back to the barracks."

A few days later the barracks was mostly empty except for Steve and Eddie.

"Get away! Get Back!" Eddie shouted mockingly at Steve; he couldn't stop laughing. Steve scoffed and looked at the bed where he was sitting.

"Hey, I thought I was about to die. I'm sorry if the first thing I was worried about wasn't looking good."

Eddie scoffed and shook his head, "Hey don't get defensive. That's probably what got you picked for the experiment." Steve smirked lightly. It was official Steve was picked and tomorrow afternoon he would be going through the operation.

Suddenly there was a knock on the barrack's door. Eddie turned his head, as Dr. Erskine came into the room in his brown suit, he smiled lightly, "Gentlemen, may I come in?"

Steve was the first to reply, "Sure," Erskine nodded and entered, Eddie noticed he had a bottle and two glasses in his hand. Erskine stopped in front of Eddie, "Mr. Kent, may I please speak to Mr. Rogers alone?"

Eddie looked at Erskine then Steve, he slowly got off his bed, "Uhh...yeah, sure...I guess I'll head back to the 'reject' barracks." Eddie tried to say teasingly.

As Eddie started to walk to the door, Erskine grabbed his shoulder lightly, Eddie turned to look at the man. The Doctor spoke with sincerity "I would like you to know, even though you weren't picked for the procedure. You are still needed for the war effort."

Eddie smiled at the Doctor's kind words, "Thank you sir, I appreciate that." Eddie walked out of the barracks; his heart beating in reverse.

He wanted to be happy for his friend, after all the crap Steve had taken, he deserved it. Eddie started to walk away from the barracks, as he put distance between himself and Steve, he couldn't help but feel jealous.

Steve was the one who got to be the special new super soldier, while he was just...regular old Eddie. Then again Eddie didn't want to be a soldier and being a super soldier was in the end still a soldier.

Eddie wasn't paying attention to where he was walking, he just stared at his brown boots, with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He tried, really, he did, but maybe he should've taken Steve up on his offer to study instead of going on leave with the recruits. Maybe he could've done something different, but what good would it have been, it was always going to be Steve.

The only thing special about him was the pair of eyes in his skull. But who gave a shit about eye color beside Hitler. He had lost count of how many times he had been beaten up or made fun of it. It still brought tears to his eyes, and he hated it. Eddie dragged his sleeve across his eyes, the rough fabric absorbed the liquid in his eyes.

Eddie sighed, faking a positive, he could one day tell his kids, and grandkids that he knew the first super soldier Steve Rogers. He could imagine him and Agent Carter growing old together, that made him smile.

Eddie lifted his head, there was a soft wind that blew his short black hair around. There was a small green light off in the distance. Eddie took another look, but the green light was gone, he shook his head, and headed to his barracks.